Category Health/Medical

An artist’s rendition of the DOTS qPCR device. Credit: Dustin Harshman

Dr’s ability to act quickly and correctly not only makes a difference to the patient’s outcome, it determines whether the infection spreads to other patients in the clinic, and can even contribute to the development of drug-resistant bacteria.

The device’s novel approach to molecular diagnostics, called DOTS qPCR, is faster, more efficient and less expensive than alternatives currently being used in clinics.

Pathogens and infectious diseases are typically detected using a technique called polymerase chain reaction,ie PCR. The method involves rapidly heating and cooling DNA molecules from a biological sample in a process called thermal cycling...

Sertraline. Credit: http://www.neurosoup.com/sertraline-zoloft/

The study – conducted in nonhuman primates with brain structures and functions similar to those of humans – found that the antidepressant sertraline, a SSRI, Zoloft, significantly increased the volume of one brain region in depressed subjects but decreased the volume of two brain areas in non-depressed subjects.

“These observations are important for human health because Zoloft is widely prescribed for a number of disorders other than depression,” said Carol A. Shively, Ph.D., professor of pathology-comparative medicine at Wake Forest Baptist.

METHOD: 41 middle-aged female monkeys were fed a diet formulated to replicate that consumed by many Americans for 18 months, during which time depressive behavior in the animals was recor...

Buildup in brain cells of the protein alpha-synuclein (dark spots) occurs in the neurodegenerative disorder Multiple System Atrophy (MSA). Jensflorian/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Prions are misfolded proteins that make copies of themselves by inducing others to misfold. By so doing, they multiply and cause disease. The resulting illness in this case is multiple system atrophy (MSA), a neurodegenerative disease similar to Parkinson’s. The study, published August 31 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, adds weight to the idea that many neurodegenerative diseases are caused by prions.

In the 1960s researchers led by Carleton Gajdusek at the National Institutes of Health transmitted kuru, a rare neurodegenerative disease found in Papua New Guinea, and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disea...