Category Health/Medical

Previous research looked at high doses of purified resveratrol to study its potential to prevent cancer. This is the first study to look at the effects of a lower daily dose – equivalent to the amount of resveratrol found in one large (approx. 250ml) glass of red wine vs dose 200X higher. Results from bowel cancer-prone mice given the smaller dose showed a 50% reduction in tumour size while the high dose showed a 25% reduction. Lower doses of resveratrol were twice as effective as the higher dose in stopping tumours growing, although this effect was only seen in animals fed a high-fat diet.

Samples of tumours from bowel cancer patients given different doses of resveratrol showed that even lower doses can get into cancer cells and potentially affect processes involved in tumour growth...

It draws its strength from hexagon-shaped scales and connections between them, University of California, SD engineers, have found. Lactoria cornuta “boxfish is small and yet it survives in the ocean where it is surrounded by bigger, aggressive fish, at a depth of 50 to 100 meters,” said Wen Yang,Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. “After I touched it, I realized why it can survive — it is so strong but at the same time so flexible.”

The hexagon-shaped scales are called scutes. They are connected by sutures, similar to the connections in a baby’s skull, which grow and fuse together as the baby grows. Most fish have overlapping scales = no weak points, should a bite from a predator land exactly in between scales...

Research on a novel fingerprick test that can perform all common clinical diagnostics could help to expand access to basic medical testing in the developing world, and will be featured at the 2015 AACC Annual Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo.

Approximately 1/3 of the world’s population does not have adequate access to quality healthcare due to a range of barriers, from limited geographic accessibility to a lack of affordable services. Clinical laboratories in particular are poorly outfitted and sparsely distributed in low-income countries, and few primary healthcare centers in these regions are located within reach of a well-equipped and staffed lab. Point-of-care testing devices that are portable and do not require lab support could improve access to testing in underserved areas.

At AACC’s 201...

It could lead to the development of new drugs to treat the disease. The study found that the protein fragment, sAPPα, inhibits the proteolytic enzyme BACE1. Increased BACE1 activity contributes to production of the amyloid beta aggregates and plaques that are the hallmark of Alzheimer’s.

“Because sAPPα inhibits the BACE1 enzyme, it may be possible that it can be used to help prevent potentially dangerous increases in BACE1 activity, and thus prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease,” A/Prof Varghese John.

The protein fragment sAPPa is normally produced by neurons and is involved in maintenance of memory...