Quick identification of avian influenza infection in poultry is critical to controlling outbreaks, but current detection methods can require several days to produce results. A new biosensor can detect avian influenza in just minutes. In addition to being a rapid test, the biosensor is economical, field-deployable, sensitive to different viral strains and requires no labels or reagents.

Mechanism Behind Nicotine Dependency Revealed
Many more people try to quit smoking than succeed in giving up this nicotine-delivering habit. Now, a group of scientists has identified one neurobiological mechanism that contributes to nicotine dependence, and to the anxiety and craving experienced upon withdrawal. The findings also suggest a new approach to developing drugs that could help smokers quit.
(health.yahoo.com)

Labels: biosensor, drugs, influenza, nicotine-delivering, smoking

(www.americanheart.org)Researchers have found that more than 50 percent of the current asthma cases in the country can be attributed to allergies, with approximately 30 percent of those cases attributed to cat allergy. Other common allergens were the fungus Alternaria and white oak, which accounted for approximately 21 percent each.

MicroRNAs May Be Key To HIV's Ability To Hide, Evade Drugs
Tiny pieces of genetic material called microRNA could be key to HIV's ability to evade detection in the immune system. Researchers have shown that when an HIV-infected individual receives a powerful cocktail of antiviral agents called HAART, the virus uses miRNAs to help it hide and remain practically undetectable, temporarily shutting down its ability to replicate. Learning to manipulate miRNA's inhibitory effects might have implications for new strategies against the virus.

'Jumping Genes' Could Make For Safer Gene Delivery System
To move a gene from point A to point B, scientists and gene therapists have two proven options: a virus, which can effectively ferry genes of interest into cells, and a plasmid, an engineered loop of DNA that can do the same thing, albeit usually only on a short-term basis.

Labels: allergies, asthma, drugs, HIV's, plasmid, virus

An experimental drug that attacks cancer in an entirely new way has shown promise in treating advanced melanoma, delaying progression of the disease and prolonging the lives of patients. Giving the new drug in addition to chemotherapy more than doubled the amount of time patients survived without progression of their cancer.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine discovered a novel mechanism that works over an extensive genomic distance and controls the expression of human growth hormone (hGH) in the pituitary gland. This mechanism involves a newly discovered set of "non-coding RNAs" expressed in the vicinity of the hGH gene.
By examining the relationship between these non-coding RNAs and the hGH gene, researchers hope to understand how these remote regions impact hGH gene expression and dysfunction. Such insight may aid researchers in the development of therapeutics for growth hormone defects and lead to a greater understanding of the causes of other genetic disorders.
With every step forward in understanding how genes are expressed, we increase our awareness of how naturally occurring and acquired mutations interfere with this process. Research sets the groundwork for advances in diagnosis and eventual treatment of genetic diseases
(National Institutes of Health.)

Labels: cancer, dysfunction, experimental drug, genetic, hgh, mutations