Category Health/Medical

A. This image shows methyl phosphate. B. Methyl phosphonate. Phosphonate compounds are characterized by a direct link between carbon (C) and phosphorus (P), marked with red. C. The molecular structure of the C-P lyase complex. Credit: Ditlev E. Brodersen, Aarhus University

Bacteria exhibit extreme adaptability, which makes them capable of surviving in the most inhospitable conditions. New research results produced by Danish and British researchers now reveal the molecular details behind one of the secret weapons used by bacteria in their battle to survive under very nutrient-poor and even toxic conditions.

All living things need phosphate to grow, which is why several hundred million tons of phosphate fertilisers are used every year in agriculture throughout the world...

Colon cancer patients who were heavy coffee drinkers had a far lower risk of dying or having their cancer return than those who did not drink coffee, with significant benefits starting at two to three cups a day. Patients who drank four cups of caffeinated coffee or more a day had half the rate of recurrence or death than noncoffee drinkers.

But, the researchers caution, cancer patients should not start ordering extra tall coffees. The study, the first to report such findings, does not prove a cause-and-effect relationship between coffee drinking and a lower risk of colon cancer recurrence. As other experts note, there may be differences between heavy coffee drinkers and abstainers that the research was not able to account for.

In recent years, many studies have pointed to coffee’s health...

Migrating tumor cells produce a protein that aids them to set up home in bones, researchers show. If a tumor develops metastases, the chances of the patient’s survival will be severely diminished. Cancer cells that leave the primary tumor, travel through the body, and set up home in distal organs such as lungs and bones start to express cathepsin K ~ primarily found only in the bone and is secreted by osteoclasts.

Shastri and Christensen found in cell cultures, cathepsin K activated matrixmetalloprotease-9 (MMP-9), one of the key regulators of tumour development. MMP-9 can digest the bone matrix thereby allowing the arriving cancer cells to adapt and survive in their new environment...

University of Illinois Beckman Institute postdoctoral researcher Agnieszka Burzynska and her colleagues analyzed the brain and cognition of Olga Kotelko, a 93-year-old track-and-field athlete. Burzynska is now a professor at Colorado State University. Credit: L. Brian Stauffer

1st glimpse of potential effects of Exercise on the brains and cognitive abilities of the ‘oldest old.’ In the summer of 2012, Olga Kotelko, a 93-year-old Canadian track-and-field athlete with more than 30 world records in her age group, submitted to an in-depth analysis of her brain.

A retired teacher and mother of two, Kotelko started her athletic career late in life: slow-pitch softball at age 65, and at 77 switched to track-and-field events...