A team of University of South Carolina researchers led by Mitzi Nagarkatti, Prakash Nagarkatti and Xiaoming Yang have discovered a novel pathway through which marijuana can suppress the body’s immune functions. Their research has been published online in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Marijuana is the most frequently used illicit drug in the United States, but as more states legalize the drug for medical and even recreational purposes, research studies like this one are discovering new and innovative potential health applications for the federal Schedule I drug.

Marijuana is now regularly and successfully used to alleviate the nausea and vomiting many cancer patients experience as side effects to chemotherapy, combat the wasting syndrome that causes some AIDS patients to lose significant amounts of weight and muscle mass and ease chronic pain that is unresponsive to opioids, among other applications.

The university study has uncovered yet another potential application for 

Levels of a small molecule found only in humans and in other primates are lower in the brains of depressed individuals, according to researchers at McGill University and the Douglas Institute. This discovery may hold a key to improving treatment options for those who suffer from depression.

Depression is a common cause of disability, and while viable medications exist to treat it, finding the right medication for individual patients often amounts to trial and error for the physician. In a new study published in the journal Nature Medicine, Dr. Gustavo Turecki, a psychiatrist at the Douglas and professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry at McGill, together with his team, discovered that the levels of a tiny molecule, miR-1202, may provide a marker for depression and help detect individuals who are likely to respond to antidepressant treatment.

“Using samples from the Douglas Bell-Canada Brain Bank…

As everyone knows, in life often the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Sometimes, by bringing already available technologies together, a brand new capability presents itself. In cancer research, drugs, X-rays, lasers, and gold nanoparticles have all been used in different ways, often complementing each other to improve the effectiveness of a treatment. Now researchers at Rice University have developed a new approach that combines all four technologies to effectively kill aggressive cancer cells by literally exploding them. They dubbed the technology quadrapeutics, which significantly amplifies the killing effect of anti-cancer drugs and chemo, but only in cancer cells.

The technique harnesses plasmonic nanobubbles, tiny droplets of vapor that form around plasmonic gold nanoparticles, which can then pop and try to destroy the cell from within. If it doesn’t, the explosion causes the delivered drug to be spread through the cells and the effect of the chemotherapy also…

Capsule endoscopes with built-in cameras for imaging the GI tract are not new anymore, providing the ability to scan areas otherwise difficult to access and potentially replacing traditional upper and lower endoscopies with a less invasive, more dignified approach. Yet, they still require bowel prep cleansing and are limited to the visual spectrum. A new electronic pill from Check-Cap(Isfiya, Israel) has an X-ray source that can provide 3D visualization of GI tract. It’s currently an investigational device, but a study, recently presented at theDigestive Disease Week annual meeting in Chicago, showed safety and feasibility of colon imaging using the pill without bowel cleansing.

It’s 30 mm in length and 11 mm in diameter and delivers a radiation dose similar to a dental X-ray. Moreover, unlike virtual CT colonoscopy, the radiation from the pill doesn’t have to penetrate the rest of the body to get to the colon, and…

There are a number of reasons to avoid taking aspirin or ibuprofen often. You may be seeking alternatives because you experience pain but like to stay away from conventional medicines. Alternatively, you could be someone who just learned about the potential dangers that come with taking aspirin and ibuprofen regularly and are ready for something different. Ibuprofen and Aspirin have been linked to anemia, DNA damage, heart disease, hearing loss, hypertension, miscarriage and even influenza mortality (these are just 7 of the over 24 adverse health effects its been connected with.)

“Long-term high-dose use of painkillers such as ibuprofen or diclofenac is ‘equally hazardous’ in terms of heart attack risk as use of the drug Vioxx, which was withdrawn due to its potential dangers.” – Reuters

Although there are a number of adverse health effects that go along with Ibuprofen, we continue to take it in vast amounts because we…

Toll-like receptor 2 is normally localized to the cell membrane (green outlines, left panel). However, a KSHV protein affects the normal distribution (diffuse green, right panel). Endoplasmic reticulum is shown in red.

Pathogens entering our body only remain unnoticed for a short period. Within minutes our immune cells detect the invader and trigger an immune response. However, some viruses have developed strategies to avoid detection and elimination by our immune system. Researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig have now been able to show how the herpesviruses achieve this.

The Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), a gammaherpesvirus that can cause multiple forms of cancer, establishes lifelong infections within the body. To do so the virus has to find a way to modulate the immune system of its host.

“Intruders are usually fought off immediately by an antiviral immune response that is triggered by sensors including the toll-like…

A team of University of South Carolina researchers led by Mitzi Nagarkatti, Prakash Nagarkatti and Xiaoming Yang have discovered a novel pathway through which marijuana can suppress the body’s immune functions. Their research has been published online in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Marijuana is the most frequently used illicit drug in the United States, but as more states legalize the drug for medical and even recreational purposes, research studies like this one are discovering new and innovative potential health applications for the federal Schedule I drug.

Marijuana is now regularly and successfully used to alleviate the nausea and vomiting many cancer patients experience as side effects to chemotherapy, combat the wasting syndrome that causes some AIDS patients to lose significant amounts of weight and muscle mass and ease chronic pain that is unresponsive to opioids, among other applications.

The university study has uncovered yet another potential application for 

In this artist’s representation of the adult subependymal neurogenic niche (viewed from underneath the ependyma), electrical signals generated by the ChAT+ neuron give rise to newborn migrating neuroblasts, seen moving over the underside of ependymal cells. Credit: O’Reilly Science Art

Duke researchers have found a new type of neuron in the adult brain that is capable of telling stem cells to make more new neurons. Though the experiments are in their early stages, the finding opens the tantalizing possibility that the brain may be able to repair itself from within.

Neuroscientists have suspected for some time that the brain has some capacity to direct the manufacturing of new neurons, but it was difficult to determine where these instructions are coming from, explains Chay Kuo, M.D. Ph.D., an assistant professor of cell biology, neurobiology and pediatrics.

In a study with mice, his team found a previously unknown population of neurons within…

Obesity is a worldwide epidemic that is causing alarming rates of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, but currently there is a lack of effective drug treatments. Two unrelated studies published by Cell Press June 5th in the journal Cell reveal an important role for immune pathways in activating good types body fat, called brown and beige fat, which burn stored calories, reduce weight, and improve metabolic health. The findings could pave the way for much-needed treatments for obesity and related metabolic diseases.

“The idea that metabolic health can be improved by activation of immune cells in fat is pretty amazing,” says senior study author Bruce Spiegelman of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. “This research reveals an exciting new class of potential treatments that could one day be used for obesity-related disorders.”

Human infants have large amounts of heat-generating brown fat to protect them from extreme cold, and…

A chemical bond discovered by Vanderbilt University scientists that is essential for animal life and which hastened the “dawn of the animal kingdom” could lead to new therapies for cancer and other diseases.

The report, published online today by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(PNAS), was co-authored by 83 participants in the “Aspirnaut” K-20 STEM pipeline program for diversity. Six were middle school students when the study was conducted, 42 were high school students, 30 were college undergraduates and five were graduate students.

Because many of the high school students grew up in poverty in rural communities, “they’re invisible. They’re an untapped talent pool,” said Billy Hudson, Ph.D., who founded the Aspirnaut program with his wife and co-senior author Julie Hudson, M.D. “Aspirnaut connects the ‘Forgotten Student’ to STEM opportunities.”

The study demonstrates that the sulfilimine bond, which Hudson’s group discovered in 2009, is part…