Studies and Analyses

A multi-center research team has discovered how to deliver antimicrobial medications directly to the infectious parasites that cause diseases such as toxoplasmosis, even when the parasites lay hidden and inactive within cysts, where they have been untreatable by any available medicines.

The study, to be published online Nov. 17 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrates the first effective, non-toxic method of transporting drugs across multiple membrane barriers an

By screening the genomes of mice with heart failure, Duke University Medical Center researchers have discovered multiple stretches of DNA containing genes that modify the heart’s pumping ability and survival with the disease. The findings could point researchers to genes that determine the severity of heart failure in patients, according to the Duke team.

“Our goal is to find novel genes that modify human heart failure by letting the mouse point us in the right direction,” said Duke ca

Researchers have found subtle damage in the brains of HIV-positive patients whose viral load is effectively suppressed by anti-retroviral therapy. In one of the first studies of its kind, researchers from the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center (SFVAMC) used a combination of MRI brain imaging, recording of electrical brain activity, and behavioral tests to compare the size and function of brains of HIV-positive patients on antiretroviral therapy with those of healthy subjects.

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New study in rats suggests that nicotine at concentrations found in the blood of smokers may increase atrial vulnerability to inducible atrial tachycardia and atrial fibrillation in normal adult atria with no atrial disease.

Large numbers of Americans still smoke cigarettes or use over-the-counter nicotine products such as patches and gums to satisfy their craving for nicotine. However, serious and sometime fatal cases of atrial fibrillation (AF) have been reported in patients who use

A new study in rats has found that after severe spinal cord injury, molecules intended to help nerves communicate can attack the tissue surrounding the initial injury and cause further damage.

Interestingly, this latent, or secondary, injury develops over days and even weeks after the initial injury. It also appears to cause larger, more debilitating lesions in the spinal cord, said Randy Christensen, the study’s lead author and a postdoctoral researcher in neuroscience at Ohio State Univers

Contrary to previous assumptions, recent findings indicate that experience-dependent mechanisms have a fundamental role for the proper development and function of the pain system.

Tactile, or touch, information now appears to play a fundamental role in guiding the functional maturation of the pain sensitivity system during normal development. This explains how the pain system can be functionally adapted despite the rare occurrence of noxious stimuli during development. Maintained input ove