Category Health/Medical

A novel test shows a difference in the Raman spectra of the blood plasma of people without colon cancer compared to those with precancerous or cancerous polyps. Credit: Haishan Zeng, BC Cancer Agency

It shows the simple fingerprint for cancerous growth and precancerous polyps. It may yield a cheaper and less invasive initial screening test for colon cancer that could complement colonoscopy, though further clinical trials will need to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of the blood test before it is routinely used.

“This is a screening technology you can use on anybody,” said Haishan Zeng, BC Cancer Agency, who led the study...

Scientists who analyzed the genes involved in 10 autoimmune diseases that begin in childhood have discovered 22 genome-wide signals shared by 2 or more diseases. These shared gene sites may reveal potential new targets for treating many of these diseases, in some cases with existing drugs already available for non-autoimmune disorders. Autoimmune diseases, eg Type 1 diabetes, Crohn’s disease, and juvenile idiopathic arthritis, collectively affect 7 to 10% of the Western Hemisphere.

Meta-analysis was performed, incl a case-control study of 6,035 subjects with automimmune disease and 10,700 controls, all of European ancestry. Yun (Rose) Li, M.D./Ph.D...

Red-spotted Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens)

A York team has adapted the astonishing capacity of animals such as newts to regenerate lost tissues and organs caused when they have a limb severed. Dr Paul Genever’s team developed a technique to rejuvenate cells from older people with osteoarthritis to repair worn or damaged cartilage thus reducing pain.

There is currently no treatment to prevent the progression of osteoarthritis, and people with severe disease often need total joint replacement surgery. A patient’s own bone marrow stem cells are can generate joint tissue the body will not reject when re-implanted. But, as people grow older the number of stem cells decreases and those that remain are less able to grow and repair tissue.

Cells in newts can change in response to injury ie dedif...

Here’s what the brain of an extremely selfish person looks like

They deceive people for their own benefit, they see others as weak and untrustworthy, and they ignore moral codes.

Psychologists have dubbed these people Machiavellians after the Italian political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli, whose book “The Prince” includes many examples of this sort of unsavory character. Now, a recent study published in the journal Brain and Cognition reveals what goes on in the brains of these social deviants when they’re around others who are acting fairly.

Machiavellianism — which is part of the “dark triad” of personality traits, along with narcissm and psychopathy — falls on a spectrum, from low Machs (aka normal people) to high Machs (aka jerks).

Tamas Bereczkei and his colleagues at the U...