(Medical Xpress)—An enduring neurobiological mystery is why do vertebrate rods and cones shut down their transmitter release in response to a light stimulus. If that particular question is too broad, then consider a slight refinement: why do we use two kinds of hyperpolarizing detectors in our retina while invertebrates like flies use a single depolarizing photoreceptor instead? That might be something we could answer, if only our understanding of invertebrate phototransduction was as complete as that of our own. Fortunately, a theory which ties together some of the absent details has been conveniently supplied in a recent review article in Current Opinion in Neurobiology.

Neurons in the brain are wired like a social network, report researchers from Biozentrum, University of Basel. Each nerve cell has links with many others, but the strongest bonds form between the few cells most similar to each other. The results are published in the journal Nature.

A team of researchers, led by Samuel K. Sia, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia Engineering, has developed a low-cost smartphone accessory that can perform a point-of-care test that simultaneously detects three infectious disease markers from a finger prick of blood in just 15 minutes. The device replicates, for the first time, all mechanical, optical, and electronic functions of a lab-based blood test. Specifically, it performs an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) without requiring any stored energy: all necessary power is drawn from the smartphone. It performs a triplexed immunoassay not currently available in a single test format: HIV antibody, treponemal-specific antibody for syphilis, and non-treponemal antibody for active syphilis infection.

A research team led by the University of Colorado Boulder has discovered a mechanism in the brain that is key to making cocaine seem pleasurable, a finding that could lead to a drug treatment for fighting addiction.

Whether you're taking a test or walking your dog across a busy street, your ability to tune out irrelevant sights and sounds in the environment—or your openness to detecting potential dangers—is crucial for success and survival.

A car accident, the loss of a loved one and financial trouble are just a few of the myriad stressors we may encounter in our lifetimes. Some of us take it in stride, while others go on to develop anxiety or depression. How well will we deal with the inevitable lows of life?

For at least 40 years, scientists who study how the body metabolizes sugar have accepted one point: there are four enzymes that kick-start the body's process of getting energy from food.

More than 100 researchers from around the world have collaborated to craft a request that could fundamentally alter how the antibodies used in research are identified, a project potentially on the scale of the now-completed Human Genome Project.

Some studies on the genetic roots of aging will need a second look after the discovery that a common lab chemical can extend the life span of female fruit flies by 68 percent.

A protein newly found in the naked mole rat may help explain its unique ability to ward off cancer.

Pancreatic cancer cells are notorious for being protected by a fortress of tissue, making it difficult to deliver drugs to either shrink the tumor or stop its growth. Now researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have developed a device that could change all that: By using electric fields, the device can drive chemotherapy drugs directly into tumor tissue, preventing their growth and in some cases, shrinking them.

A compound found in common foods such as red grapes and peanuts may help prevent age-related decline in memory, according to new research published by a faculty member in the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine.

Eating a diet rich in whole grains, polyunsaturated fats and nuts—and low in red and processed meat, refined grains and sugary drinks—is associated with a lower risk of chronic lung disease (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD), finds a study published in The BMJ this week.

One in two people will develop cancer at some point in their lives, according to the most accurate forecast to date from Cancer Research UK, and published in the British Journal of Cancer today.

Muscles necessary for breathing need a greater amount of oxygen in women than in men, according to a study published today in The Journal of Physiology.

A newfound link between chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and early menopause was reported online today in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS). This link, as well as links with other gynecologic problems and with pelvic pain, may help explain why CFS is two to four times more common in women than in men and is most prevalent in women in their 40s. Staying alert to these problems may also help healthcare providers take better care of women who may be at risk for CFS, say the authors of this population-based, case-control study.

US President Barack Obama and American health authorities appealed to the public to vaccinate their children as the country faces an outbreak of measles due to some parents believing vaccines against deadly diseases are dangerous.

Japanese health authorities said Wednesday that they will soon make a decision on a possible penalty against the local unit of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis for failing to report drug side effects.

Delays by international donors in providing money promised to fight Ebola may have allowed the disease to spread, driving up the amount of the final bill, a study said Wednesday.

You don't need a crystal ball to make this projection about the future: Ditching the cigarettes is - and will likely continue to be - the single most important thing you can do for your health.

Department of Health and Human Services officials said Tuesday that the safety benefits of electronic health records far outweigh any potential problems, but critics say regulators are pushing health care providers to use them while downplaying the risks to patients.

(HealthDay)—In an article published Dec. 18 in Medical Economics, information is provided on transitional care management (TCM) codes and how to implement a process to use these codes.

(HealthDay)—Hormonal therapy is recommended for treatment of acne in patients who do not respond to standard therapies, according to a review published online Jan. 27 in the British Journal of Dermatology.

(HealthDay)—Although fewer Americans are smoking and more communities have smoke-free laws, 58 million nonsmokers are still being exposed to secondhand smoke, U.S. health officials said Tuesday.

New studies by Swedish researchers at institutions including the University of Gothenburg and Karolinska Institute are questioning the notion that infertility can be treated with stem cells.

Veterinary researchers at the University of California, Davis, are teaming up with their colleagues in human medicine to investigate a troubling disorder in newborn horses and are exploring possible connections to childhood autism. The common link, the researchers suggest, may be abnormal levels of naturally occurring neurosteroids.

Brigham Young University biologist Jonathan Alder has a startling secret he doesn't freely share: he knows when most of us are going to die.

The release of the film, "Still Alice," in September 2014 shone a much-needed light on Alzheimer's disease, a debilitating neurological disease that affects a growing number of Americans each year.

Researchers from the University of Melbourne have found that screening for bowel cancer in genetically high-risk populations should begin early.

Penn Medicine researchers have begun a new immunotherapy trial with the "checkpoint inhibitor" known as pembrolizumab in patients with oligometastatic lung cancer—a state characterized by a few metastases in a confined area—who have completed conventional treatments and are considered free of active disease but remain at a high risk for recurrence.

Ten years ago, when the team of Marianne Fyhn and Torkel Hafting Fyhn cooperated with the Nobel Prize winning team of May-Britt and Edvard Moser at NTNU, they discovered the sense of orientation in the brain.

University of Tsukuba researchers discover an exciting new link between nutrition and development in fruit flies that involves a direct association between the brain and parts of the insect organ secreting the important hormone. It helps to explain when and how caterpillars turn into butterflies and may help us to understand how and when children develop into adults.

Dendritic cells and macrophages are immune cells that orchestrate diverse immune functions within many body tissues, including the skin. New work by A*STAR researchers and colleagues shows that CD14+ cells in the skin—long classified as dendritic cells—are actually macrophages derived from blood monocytes which means they operate differently within the human immune system.

In a breakthrough in the understanding of how cancer spreads, researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have identified a substance secreted by lung cancer cells that enables them to metastasize, beginning their deadly march to other sites in the body. By blocking that process in lab studies, the researchers were able to confine cancer cells to a single tumor site, offering hope that drugs could one day block the spread of cancers in people.

Two molecular pathways—one that causes cancer and one that protects against it—compete to control cellular levels of one protein, according to a new study by A*STAR researchers and colleagues.The finding highlights a central role for the protein in cancer, and could lead to new therapies.

Virginia was one of the first states in the union to pass legislation mandating the human papillomavirus vaccine for sixth-grade girls in an effort to prevent cervical cancer and other types of sexually transmitted cancers. But in the years since the measure's 2008 passage, opt-outs have been more the rule than the exception.

Cancer patients who have had lymph nodes removed or damaged due to surgery or treatments have an increased risk of developing secondary lymphoedema—a debilitating swelling of the limbs.

An information sheet for women being treated for severe acne improves understanding of contraceptive effectiveness and ways to avoid pregnancy and medication-induced birth defects, a study published today in JAMA Dermatology has found.

The bariatric surgical procedure biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch resulted in more weight loss and better improvement in blood lipids and glucose five years after surgery compared with usual gastric bypass surgery but duodenal switch was associated with more long-term surgical and nutritional complications and more adverse gastrointestinal effects, according to a report published online by JAMA Surgery.

In a study analyzing whole-brain images from nearly 16,000 people, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine identified a common pattern across a spectrum of psychiatric disorders that are widely perceived to be quite distinct.

People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), some studies suggest, are more creative and more willing to take risks. Those traits are exactly what the field of engineering needs, say a team of researchers, but the traditional model of teaching is driving away potential pioneers in the field.

A study conducted by researchers at Kansas State University is the first to demonstrate increases in both self-control and timing precision as a result of a time-based intervention. This new research may be an important clue for developing behavioral approaches to treat disorders like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, substance abuse and obesity.

The elderly often complain about hearing difficulties, especially when several people are talking all at once. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig have discovered that the reason for this does not just concern the ear but also changes in the attention processes in the brain of older people. Particular importance is attached to the alpha waves whose adaption to altered hearing situations improves speech comprehension in everyday situations.

More than 180 million people in the world have hepatitis C, compared with the 34 million with HIV/AIDS and the roughly 30,000 who have had Ebola. Yet very little is heard about the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the way of awareness campaigns, research funding or celebrity fundraisers.

Human beings are born with a visual system already predisposed to see (and mentally representing) objects as discrete perceptual units. Movement is an important visual feature, but how early in a child's development is it represented independently from the object itself? And what function does this skill serve in the development of cognitive abilities? Research conducted with the collaboration of SISSA, and published in Cognition, shows that this skill develops very early in infancy. Not only: its presence in mice suggests a genetic basis for it.

A new study led by José Javier Bravo-Cordero, Spanish researcher at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, details how cells with low levels of the profilin 1 protein in breast tumours increase their capacity to metastasise and invade other tissues.

Humans are highly social creatures. Our brains have evolved to allow us to survive and thrive in complex social environments. Accordingly, the behaviors and emotions that help us navigate our social sphere are entrenched in networks of neurons within our brains.

After more than a decade of development and data-gathering—including breast scans on nearly 700 women and 79 patents issued—the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a breast-cancer imaging system invented by a University of Rochester Medical Center professor.

Inserting a specific strain of bacteria into the microenvironment of aggressive ovarian cancer transforms the behavior of tumor cells from suppression to immunostimulation, researchers at Norris Cotton Cancer Center and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth have found. The findings, published in OncoImmunology, demonstrate a new approach in immunotherapy that can be applied in a variety of cancer types.

As high doses of green tea extract supplements for weight loss become more popular, potential liver toxicity becomes a concern. In the last decade, dozens of people have been diagnosed with the condition. However, drinking green tea in the weeks before taking supplements likely reduces risk, according to researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

For the first time, lung cancer has passed breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer deaths for women in rich countries.

Researchers have identified a peptide and hormone that when administered to a specific area of the brain may reduce the desire for food. The study, which appears in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, may one day lead to medications that treat obesity and binge eating disorders.

UNC School of Medicine researchers have shown that brain scans can predict which patients with clinical depression are most likely to benefit from a specific kind of talk therapy.

A new study found 45 percent of patients with respiratory tract infections (RTIs) were inappropriately prescribed antibiotics in an outpatient practice of general internal medicine and family medicine. The study was published in the February issue of Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA).

A woman successfully treated for a recurrent Clostridium difficile infection with stool from an overweight donor rapidly gained weight herself afterwards, becoming obese, according to a case report published in the new journal Open Forum Infectious Diseases.

Striking images reveal new insights into how the kidney develops from a group of cells into a complex organ.

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found diverse genomic changes in single neurons from the brains of Alzheimer's patients, pointing to an unexpected factor that may underpin the most common form of the disease.

According to researchers at Brandeis University, the University of North Florida and Johns Hopkins University, policymakers must look beyond painkiller abuse, also called non-medical use, in their efforts to reduce opioid overdose deaths. In a comprehensive investigation, the scientists show that since 2002, new cases of non-medical abuse have declined, yet painkiller overdose deaths have soared; evidence, they say, that recreational use of painkillers is not a key driver of the opioid crisis. The authors suggest that policymakers should instead focus on preventing new cases of opioid addiction caused by both medical and non-medical use and expanding access to opioid addiction treatment.

Does the blood of Ebola virus disease survivors contain antibodies and immune cells that could help doctors fight Ebola infections in other people?

New research suggests that an already-approved drug could dramatically reduce the debilitating impact of strokes, which affect nearly a million Americans every year.

Large-scale Danish study from the University of Copenhagen shows that premature babies grow out of the asthma which they are likely to develop in early life.

The delivery of tiny biodegradable microstructures to heart tissue damaged by heart attack may help repair the tissue and prevent future heart failure. A team led by cardiovascular researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) bioengineered the microstructures to be the same size, shape and stiffness as adult heart muscle cells, or cardiomyocytes, with the goal of releasing biologically active peptides that act as cardioprotective agents.

In a study with mice, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers have found that e-cigarettes compromise the immune system in the lungs and generate some of the same potentially dangerous chemicals found in traditional nicotine cigarettes.

The largest U.S. measles outbreak in recent history isn't the one that started in December at Disneyland. It happened months earlier in Ohio's Amish country, where 383 people fell ill after unvaccinated Amish missionaries traveled to the Philippines and returned with the virus.

A doctor at Scripps Green Hospital this week became the first in California to use a new drug-coated balloon to treat peripheral artery disease in a patient since regulatory approval of the IN.PACT Admiral device in January by the Food and Drug Administration.

In the first study of its kind, a consortium led by UCLA physicians found that paramedics can start medications for patients in the first minutes after onset of a stroke. While the specific drug tested, magnesium sulfate, did not improve patient outcomes, the research has resulted in a new method to get promising treatments to stroke patients quickly.

(HealthDay)—Fewer than half of Americans are aware that some major lifestyle factors can affect their cancer risk, a new survey suggests.

(HealthDay)—Patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) who face amputation of a foot or leg can have their limb saved by minimally invasive surgery to improve blood flow, a new study suggests.

(HealthDay)—Money continues to be the leading cause of stress for Americans, a new survey finds.

(HealthDay)—Monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) may reduce inflammation and improve insulin sensitivity in adipose tissue, according to research published online Jan. 27 in Diabetes.

A team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators has identified a set of characteristics - including differences in gene expression - that may indicate which patients recovering from severe burns are at greatest risk for repeat infections. The ability to predict the risk of infection before it occurs would indicate which patients should receive preventive treatment and should reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics in those at low risk.

Researchers who conducted VOICE, a major HIV prevention trial involving more than 5,000 women in Africa, describe the study's primary results in this week's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), outlining in detail how the three products tested were safe but overall not effective in preventing HIV.

Recent gut and urinary tract infections may curb the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, suggests research published online in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Fifteen million out of 16.7 million unwanted pregnancies a year could be avoided in 35 low- and middle-income countries if women had the opportunity to use modern methods of contraception, according to a study that applies to about one-third of the world's population.

Researchers from The University of Manchester's National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness investigated whether suicides were related to the way mental health services were organised based on staff and patient surveys, national databases and other records. Their report "Healthy Services and Safer Patients" is based on 13,960 patient suicides from 2004-12.

US House Republicans took the increasingly routine step Tuesday of voting to repeal "Obamacare," a seemingly doomed effort that President Barack Obama ridiculed as making "absolutely no sense."

Nearly five years after President Barack Obama signed his health care overhaul into law, its fate is yet again in the hands of the Supreme Court.

Only about a third of the $2.89 billion (2.52 billion euros) in aid money pledged to fight Ebola was actually delivered as of December 31, according to an analysis in the British Medical Journal.

As 64 percent of Americans entering addiction treatment are repeat patients, many health care professionals have questioned the significance of addiction graduation ceremonies. In a new article published in Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, addiction clinician and researcher Izaak L. Williams explores this disconnect and its origins in the treatment context.

New figures from the Productivity Commission show a huge spike in the number of Indigenous children being removed from their families by child protection agencies across Australia.

A team of specialists from the Institute of Biomedical Research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) is developing a vaccine against HIV / AIDS and cancer. An experimental trial has demonstrated success by inducing serum in mice and has been highly neutralizing towards those ailments.

Access to treatment and care is a fundamental right of any patient. Yet despite the fast rate of new agent development, there are still astounding inequalities in the availability of and accessibility to cancer medications across Europe. On World Cancer Day 2015, ESMO confirms its commitment to acknowledging this patient right and highlights our collaborative efforts towards improving access for all.

Sierra Leone said on Wednesday it would reopen the country's schools on March 30, after a seven-month shutdown to limit the spread of the Ebola virus.

Drugmaker Merck & Co.'s fourth-quarter profit skyrocketed to $7.32 billion, skewed by an $11.2 billion gain from selling its consumer health business to Germany's Bayer AG.

Although it is possible to detect diseases by studying a person's breath, this is by no means an easy task. However, scientists in the New Technology Field for Chemical and Optical Systems at Siemens Corporate Technology have become specialists in professionally capturing people's breath and analyzing the molecules it contains. Their goal is to detect diseases such as lung cancer merely on the basis of the breath's composition, and to do so when the illness is still at an early stage and therefore easier to treat.

Samsung Electronics America today introduced the Samsung WS80A with Elite performance package, its flagship ultrasound product for women's healthcare designed to streamline exam workflows and deliver exceptional image clarity. This high resolution premium system offers enhanced diagnostic capabilities and expanded 5D features – including a new 5D Heart application – building on Samsung's WS80A platform.

The Affordable Care Act has enabled millions of previously uninsured people to obtain health insurance at reasonably low rates and has fixed some of the most vexing – and unfair – peculiarities in the US commercial insurance market. It has eliminated lifetime coverage caps and denials for coverage because of pre-existing conditions, to mention just two of the most popular reforms.

Doctors Without Borders says that human testing on a potential Ebola drug is being stopped because there aren't enough patients because of a decline in Ebola cases.

A team at the Institute of Neurosciences, joint centre of the Miguel Hernández University (UMH) in Elche and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), has published a paper titled "Heteromers of amyloid precursor protein in cerebrospinal fluid" in the online edition of the journal Molecular Neurodegeneration. This project studies the validation of new biomarkers for the clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. The head researcher is Javier Sáez Valero, Professor of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the UMH.

GlaxoSmithKline's net profits almost halved last year, hit partly by a large Chinese fine following a bribery probe, the British drugmaker said Wednesday.

Bariatric surgery improves life expectancy for many obese diabetic patients, but it may cut life expectancy for patients who are super obese with very high body mass indexes, according to a University of Cincinnati researcher.

A bill to further restrict abortion in Oklahoma and another to make embryonic stem cell research illegal both cleared a House committee on Wednesday, despite concerns from a doctor on the panel.

As the number of Americans age 80 and older continues to rise, so does the percentage of patients with acute spinal conditions. A new study appearing in the February 4th issue of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery (JBJS) found significant benefit from surgical treatment for lumbar spinal stenosis with and without degenerative spondylolisthesis—debilitating spinal conditions causing leg and back pain, numbness and weakness—and no higher overall complication rate and no higher mortality for patients age 80 and older when compared to patients younger than age 80.

The weekly number of new Ebola cases registered across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone rose in the last week of January, marking the first hike in 2015, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

The Supreme Court is taking another look at President Barack Obama's health care law, and this time it's not just the White House that should be worried.

(HealthDay)—The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first tissue adhesive for internal use.

California lawmakers proposed legislation Wednesday that would require parents to vaccinate all school children unless a child's health is in danger, joining only two other states with such stringent restrictions.