Category Health/Medical

Mantle cell lymphoma in the bone marrow may appear similar to other lymphoproliferative disorders. Immunohistochemical staining for cyclin D1 is helpful in diagnosing this entity.

With a median survival rate of 5-7 yrs, Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL) is considered the most aggressive known blood cancer – and available therapies are scarce. 3000 Americans are diagnosed with MCL every year. Tel Aviv University researchers offer tangible hope of curing the currently incurable blood cancer – and others like it. The revolutionary system was found to successfully halt the proliferation of a cancer-related protein in WBCs in both animal models and samples taken from MCL patients.

“MCL has a genetic hallmark,” said Dr. Peer...

Brain composition and bipolar disorder. MRI studies . Credit: Bipolar Lives.

Naturally occurring changes in brain wiring can help patients at high genetic risk of developing bipolar disorder avert the onset of the illness, according to a new study led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The study’s findings open up new avenues for researchers to explore ways the brain can prevent disease expression, also known as resilience, with the hope of developing better treatments.

Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes fluctuations in patients’ mood, energy, activity levels and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks. Bipolar disorder is highly heritable.

Researchers used MRI to map the connectivity patterns in the brain...

In this composite image, a human nerve cell derived from a patient with Rett syndrome shows significantly decreased levels of KCC2 compared to a control cell.
Image: Gong Chen lab, Penn State University

“The most exciting part of this research is that it directly uses human neurons that originated from Rett Syndrome patients as a clinically-relevant disease model to investigate the underlying mechanism,” said Dr. Chen...

Even a cell phone camera is sufficient to examine tissue samples for tumor cells. Credit: © Fraunhofer IAP

Antibodies combat viruses and bacteria. They also attach themselves to cancer cells – in a typical, characteristic way. Fraunhofer scientists are using this property to detect cancer cells in tissue samples. Such rapid tests can already be applied by surgeons during operations – within a few minutes and without expensive equipment.

The tumor glows brightly on the bluish fluorescent MRI image. The ulcer is localized. With this information, the surgeon relies on his eyes. “Locating tumors accurately in tissue sections is not easy...