Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1989

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a leading cause of death and disability in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the majority of people who have heart failure or experience their first stroke or heart attack have hypertension. Even a slight increase in your blood pressure can increase your risk for a stroke or heart attack, if it is persistent. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin, ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil), indomethacin (Indocin) and piroxicam (Feldene), can increase your blood pressure whether or not you already have hypertension.

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“There are a number of critical technologies that have to be assessed and tested before we go to Mars,” he told Quirks & Quarks host Bob McDonald.

His short-list includes reusable landers, new space suits, mining gear, water and fuel production plants and safe nuclear power sources that could be used to power habitats and equipment on the red planet.

Thirsk himself is currently working with the Canadian Space Agency to investigate the unique biomedical and health care issues involved in long term deep space missions.

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A Maltese scientist working with a group of researchers have found a way to re-activate the human immune system to fight cancer cells that can develop.

Dr. David Saliba is optimistic that their research will pave the way for the development of new therapies to fight cancer.

Together with a group of researchers from the University of Malta and the University of Oxford, Dr. David Saliba has for the last four years researched about how immune system cells communicate with each other, especially when it comes to combating cancer.

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Every time you inhale through your nose, olfactory receptors in your nasal passages enable your sense of smell to function. These receptors consist of protein complexes that help you detect chemicals floating in the air.

But research now shows that those types of receptors aren’t only found along your breathing passages. They’re all over the body in a wide variety of organs, and they influence what organs like your liver and intestines are doing.

Added to that, cancer cells possess their own collection of olfactory receptors that affect how they function. And those receptors, some researchers believe, might represent one of cancer’s vulnerabilities – and a key to destroying cancers with scents.

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Very interesting.

Numerous vaccines, from flu shots to those those that help thwart chickenpox and measles, are widely used to guard against contagion, but researchers in France are proposing a breakthrough role for rotavirus vaccines: deploying them in cancer treatment.

Scientists from throughout France—Paris, Lyon, Villejuif and beyond—are part of a large research team that has asked a tantalizing question: Can rotavirus vaccines be repurposed to overcome resistance in cancer immunotherapy? The team is focusing on resistance that emerges to the form of known as checkpoint blockade immunotherapy.

So far, their investigation suggests the question about repurposing can be answered with a resounding “yes.”

Continue reading “Rotavirus vaccine: A potential new role as an anticancer agent” | >

Researchers at the University of Dundee have made a discovery they believe has the potential to put the brakes on the ‘runaway train’ that is Parkinson’s disease.

The team, based at the Medical Research Council Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (MRC-PPU) in the School of Life Sciences, have discovered a new enzyme that inhibits the LRRK2 . Mutations of the LRRK2 gene are the most common cause of genetic Parkinson’s.

Enzymes are molecular machines that regulate the required to maintain healthy functioning life. They can also be targeted by drugs to increase or decrease the level of certain activity –in this instance the LRRK2 pathway.

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