Category Health/Medical

With Oral Cancer, Early Detection Is Key

A new Cancer Research UK analysis reveals that rates of mouth (oral) cancer have jumped by 68% in the UK over the last 20 years. The figures – released during Mouth Cancer Action Month – reveal the cancer is on the rise for men and women, young and old, climbing from 8 to 13 cases per 100,000 people over the last two decades. For men under 50, the rate has jumped by 67% in the last 20 years – going up from around 340 cases to around 640 cases each year.

For men 50+ years, rates have increased by 59% climbing from around 2,100 cases to around 4,400 cases annually. Oral cancer is more common in men, but there have been similar increases women...

Highlights • Gut microbes show a dichotomy in ecological strategy for access to nitrogen • Beneficial microbes are overrepresented in the endogenous N source guild • Diets that reduce availability of dietary N to microbes promote healthy aging • Diet impact on host-microbiome interaction can be simplified for modeling

Scientists are one step closer to understanding the link between different diet strategies and gut health, with new research presenting the first general principles for how diet impacts the microbiota. Researchers from the University of Sydney have found that the availability of intestinal nitrogen to microbes in the gut plays a key role in regulating interactions between gut microbes and their host animal.

“This research really lays the groundwork for future modellin...

Reparative Effects of Interleukin-1 Receptor Antagonist in Young And Aged/Co-Morbid Rodents After Cerebral Ischemia. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 2016; DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2016.11.013

A potential new drug reduces the number of brain cells destroyed by stroke and then helps to repair the damage. A reduction in blood flow to the brain caused by stroke is a major cause of death and disability, and there are few effective treatments. A team of scientists at The University of Manchester has now found that a potential new stroke drug not only works in rodents by limiting the death of existing brain cells but also by promoting neurogenesis.

This finding provides further support for the development of this anti-inflammatory drug, interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra in short), as a new treat...

Highlights SIP is a new protein phosphatase 2A-containing protein complex SIP is essential for the asymmetric localization of SIN components to the SPB SIP is required for the SPB localization of the SIN inhibitor Byr4p SIP promotes dephosphorylation of the SIN scaffold protein Cdc11p

A naturally occurring predatory bacterium is able to work with the immune system to clear multi-drug resistant Shigella infections in zebrafish. It is the first time the predatory bacterium Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus has been successfully used as an injected anti-bacterial therapy and represents an important step in the fight against drug-resistant infections, or ‘superbugs’.

Shigella infection is responsible for over 160 million illnesses and over 1 million deaths every year – and is a common cause of ‘trave...