Can chocolate, tea, coffee and zinc help make you more healthy?
Ageing and a low life expectancy are caused, at least partly, by oxidative stress. A team of researchers led by Prof. Dr. Ivana Ivanovi-Burmazovi from the Chair of Bioinorganic Chemistry at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), together with researchers from the USA, have discovered that zinc can activate an organic molecule, helping to protect against oxidative stress.
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Breakthrough neurotechnology for treating paralysis
Three paraplegics who sustained cervical spinal cord injuries many years ago are now able to walk with the aid of crutches or a walker thanks to new rehabilitation protocols that combine targeted electrical stimulation of the lumbar spinal cord and weight-assisted therapy. This latest study, called STIMO (STImulation Movement Overground), establishes a new therapeutic framework to improve recovery from spinal cord injury.
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Largest census of cancer genes to help understand drug targets
Researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute have created the first comprehensive summary of all genes known to be involved in human cancer, the "Cancer Gene Census". Describing all genes strongly implicated in causing cancer, the Census also describes how they function across all forms of this disease. Reported in Nature Reviews Cancer, the resource catalogues over 700 genes, to help scientists understand the causes of cancers, find drug targets and design treatments.
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Immunotherapy may become new first line treatment in some metastatic colorectal cancers
Immunotherapy with nivolumab and low-dose ipilimumab could become a new first line treatment in patients with some metastatic colorectal cancers following late-breaking results from the CheckMate-142 trial reported at the ESMO 2018 Congress in Munich. (1) The drug combination shrank tumours and had beneficial effects on survival in patients with microsatellite instabiliy (MSI)-high metastatic colorectal cancer.
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Targeted drugs for advanced cancer move from specialist units to community setting
Nearly 1 in 4 patients with advanced cancer, treated at Comprehensive Cancer Care Network (NCCN) centres in the US, are receiving innovative drugs matched to DNA mutations in their tumours. This achievement, to be reported at the ESMO 2018 Congress in Munich,(1) shows that cutting-edge precision medicine is spreading from highly specialist cancer units to other healthcare facilities so more patients can benefit, wherever they are treated.
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Seed oils are best for LDL cholesterol
If you want to lower your low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, called LDL or, colloquially, "bad cholesterol," the research is clear about one thing: You should exchange saturated fats with unsaturated fat. If you want to know what you should use to sauté your dinner, that's a harder question to answer. Many of the studies establishing that mono- and polyunsaturated fats are better for blood lipids than
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Pre-clinical success for a universal flu vaccine offers hope for third generation approach
Researchers from the University of Oxford's Department of Zoology have demonstrated pre-clinical success for a universal flu vaccine in a new paper published in Nature Communications. Influenza is thought to be a highly variable virus, able to mutate and escape immunity built up in the population due to its circulation in previous seasons. However, influenza seasons tend to be dominated by a limited number of antigenically and genetically distinct influenza viruses.
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