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An early study suggests that vitamin B3 or niacin, a common water-soluble vitamin, may help improve neurological function after stroke, according to Henry Ford Hospital researchers. When rats with ischemic stroke were given niacin, their brains showed growth of new blood vessels, and sprouting of nerve cells which greatly improved neurological outcome.

Human telomeres function as a protective structure capping both ends of the chromosome. They are composed of long, repetitive sequences of TTAGGG, associated with a variety of telomere-binding proteins. Telomeres protect the chromosomes from end-to-end fusion, recombination, and degradation, all events that can lead to cell death. At cell replication, telomeres cannot be completely replicated. They are gradually shortened, and when the telomeres reach a critical threshold, cell replication is arrested in what is called “replicative senescence.” Thus, telomeres act as an intrinsic “counting” mechanism of the cell’s aging process. Telomerase is an enzymatic ribonucleoprotein complex that acts as a reverse transcriptase in the elongation of telomeres. Telomerase activity is almost absent in somatic cells, but it is detected in embryonic stem cells and in the vast majority of tumor cells. Tumor cells, in fact, may contain short and stable telomeres that confer immortality to the cancer cells, which are thus able to replicate indefinitely. The deregulation of telomeres thus plays an important role in the relationship between premature aging syndrome and cancer. This review describes the recent advances in the molecular characterization of telomeres, the regulation of telomerase activity in cancer pathogenesis, and the potential of targeting telomerase for cancer therapy.

In April 2009, Mexican outbreak flu, first we called the swine flu, which is a spread of a new strain of influenza virus. But until now, There is no evidence that finding influenza virus in pigs, World Health Organization (WHO) no longer use the “swine flu” refers to the current flu , they started using A(H1N1). I think this is a correct decision.

Swine influenza is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza viruses. Sometimes it may spread to Humans and cause flu-like symptoms. The virus is influenza A virus, carrying the designation H1N1. It is a hybrid reassorted virus and contains DNA typical to avian, swine and human viruses, including elements from European and Asian swine viruses. It clasically causes outbreaks from Mid March to mid May and commonly causes fever, headache, fatigue and cough. As yet, none of the Eight Swine flu cases diagnosed in US has proved fatal, though sources report about 80 fatal cases in Mexico in the past few weeks.

Pollen allergy is called hay fever. Generally cause allergies are those of anemophilous plants, their pollen is dispersed by air currents. Such plants produce large quantities of lightweight pollen, which can be carried for great distances and are easily inhaled, bringing it into contact with the sensitive nasal passages. Around world, about 5 %~10 % people fall in hay fever. Persons may suffer from an itching congested and running nose, a sore nasal-throat cavity, sneezing, caughing, watery and sometimes bloodshot eyes and also perhaps a light thightness of the chest. Other symptoms include: headache, fatigue, inflammation of sinuses and throat.

There is a relationship between leaf-cutting ants and fungus in the word for 50 million years. The relationship is a mutually beneficial symbiosis. The new research shows that microbes could help speed the quest to develop better antibiotics and biofuels in this relationship.

A small, pilot study in 50 people in Japan suggests that eating two and a half ounces of broccoli sprouts daily for two months may confer some protection against a rampant stomach bug that causes gastritis, ulcers and even stomach cancer.

Citing their new “demonstration of principle” study, a Johns Hopkins researcher and an international team of scientists caution that eating sprouts containing sulforaphane did not cure infection by the bacterium Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori). They do not suggest that eating this or any amount of broccoli sprouts will protect anyone from stomach cancer or cure GI diseases.

It is a early publishment in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A bacterium responsible for the vast majority of stomach cancers, a leading cause of cancer death worldwide, and ulcers may have met its match, scientists from Johns Hopkins and the French National Scientific Research Center.

Tobacco isn’t famous for its health benefits. But now scientists have succeeded in using genetically modified tobacco plants to produce medicines for several autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, including diabetes. The research is published in the open access journal BMC Biotechnology.

Researchers at the University of Illinois have identified a novel pathway that controls the activity of a key protein involved in inflammation. Their  findings could have important implications for the treatment of diseases or conditions linked to chronic inflammation.

At the heart of the cell’s inflammatory response is a protein complex called NF-kappa B. In the new study, biochemistry professor Lin-Feng Chen and his colleagues deciphered a molecular code that controls its function. Their results appear in the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Journal.