Short-term improved vascular function after consuming red raspberries
A recent randomized controlled trial, published in the Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, provides insights on the promising outcomes of short-term improvements in blood vessel function among healthy males who consumed dietary achievable amounts of red raspberries. The subjects - ten healthy males aged 18 to 35 - consumed drinks prepared with 200g and 400g of frozen raspberries containing 201 or 403 mg of total polyphenols, or a matched control drink in terms of macro and micronutrient content, color, and taste.
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Researchers develop a new method for turning skin cells into pluripotent stem cells
Our bodies consist of many different kinds of cells, each with their own role. The Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka had made earlier the discovery, earning the Nobel Prize in 2012, that cells from adult skin can be converted to cells typical of early embryos, so-called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). This process is called reprogramming.
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Data-sharing website may speed the response to new illegal drugs
The drug overdose epidemic currently gripping the nation is so tenacious in part because it's being driven by fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that comes in many forms. Each form has a slightly different chemical structure, and clandestine chemists are constantly cooking up new ones. From a law-enforcement perspective, this makes fentanyl a moving target and very difficult to control.
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New small molecules pave the way for treating autoinflammatory disease
The innate immune system is the first line of defense, with cells that quickly identify "foreign" motifs from viruses and bacteria and mount up a counterattack to eliminate them. As a key strategy to sense the presence of pathogens, the cells of the innate immune system use receptors that can identify microbial DNA and in turn activate a protein called STING (STimulator of Interferon Genes). Once activated, STING turns on genes that help cells fight off the infecting pathogen.
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Poliovirus therapy for recurrent glioblastoma has three year survival rate of 21 percent
A genetically modified poliovirus therapy developed at Duke Cancer Institute shows significantly improved long-term survival for patients with recurrent glioblastoma, with a three-year survival rate of 21 percent in a phase 1 clinical trial. Comparatively, just 4 percent of patients at Duke with the same type of recurring brain tumors were alive at three years when undergoing the previously available standard treatment.
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Probiotics can protect the skeletons of older women
For the first time in the world, researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have demonstrated that probiotics, dietary supplements with health-promoting bacteria, can be used to affect the human skeleton. Among older women who received probiotics, bone loss was halved compared to women who received only a placebo. The research opens the door to a new way to prevent fractures among the elderly.
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In mice, stem cells seem to work in fighting obesity! What about stem cells in humans?
Obesity is an increasing global health problem associated with several comorbidities and a high risk of mortality. A wide spectrum of interventions has been proposed for weight management in clinical settings, but most are effective only in the short term, since it is common for patients with obesity to gradually regain the weight lost. This unfavourable outcome continues to stimulate researchers to search for an effective long-lasting treatment for obesity.
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