Category Health/Medical

Rats were exposed to room light and fitted with contact lenses, one shown here, that allowed the green spectrum wavelength to pass through the lenses. (Photo: Bob Demers/UANews)

Chronic pain afflicts over 100 million people across the US. But now researchers at the University of Arizona have found promise in a novel, non-pharmacological approach to managing chronic pain – treating it with green light-emitting diodes (LED). In the study, rats with neuropathic pain that were bathed in green LED showed more tolerance for thermal and tactile stimulus than rats that were not bathed in green LED. In both cases no side effects from the therapy were observed, nor was motor or visual performance impaired. The beneficial effects lasted for 4 days after the rats’ last exposure to the green LED...

Conceptual diagram showing a nanofiber mesh incorporating vitamin B12 and its application to treat a peripheral nerve injury. Credit: Image courtesy of National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS)

A NIMS-Osaka University joint team developed a mesh which can be wrapped around injured peripheral nerves to facilitate their regeneration and restore their functions. This mesh incorporates vitamin B12 – vital to the normal functioning of nervous systems – which is very soft and degrades in the body. When the mesh was applied to injured sciatic nerves in rats, it promoted nerve regeneration and recovery of motor and sensory functions. The team is currently considering clinical application of the mesh to treat peripheral nerve disorders such as carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS).

Artificial nerve co...

dsx genomic structure and RNAi phenotypes.

1st-of-its-kind study helps answer major question about development and evolution in males versus females. New details about the behavior of the gene called “doublesex,” or dsx have been found. ” How do animals with similar genomes – such as males and females of the same species – produce different versions of the same trait? And why do some traits, like ornamental features that attract mates, vary so widely, while others, like legs, don’t?” said Cris Ledón-Rettig, a postdoctoral researcher in the IU Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Biology, who led the study.

The study is significant because it’s the first to look at the effect of dsx across the whole genome...

Bromodomain-protein inhibition significantly extends survival of DIPG xenograft model.

Northwestern Medicine scientists have found a molecule that stops the growth of an aggressive pediatric brain tumor. Every year, about 300 children < 10 years old in the U.S. develop a diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). “This tumor kills every single kid who gets DIPG within 1 year. No one survives,” said Andrea Piunti, a postdoctoral fellow in Shilatifard’s lab in biochemistry and molecular genetics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Radiation therapy only prolongs patients’ survival by a few months, he noted.

Shilatifard’s lab previously identified the pathway via which a mutation causes cancer in studies with fruit flies, which was published in Science a few years ago...