Daily non-political popular news in brief.

Soft contacts designed for cone-shaped cornea

05-17-2007 · EurekAlert!

Custom-designed contacts improved vision for subjects with keratoconic eyes and offer hope of nonsurgical treatment instead of corneal transplants. University of Rochester researchers describe the custom design techniques and results of visual acuity tests in a paper published in April in Optics Letters.

Keywords: soft, contacts, designed, cone-shaped, cornea, contact, cone, shaped

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Eye Doctor Says Laser Surgery Safer Than Contacts
10-12-2006 · ScienceDaily
Traditional assumptions have held that contact lenses are safer than laser surgery to correct vision problems. Now, an Oregon Health & Science University Casey Eye Institute physician, comparing data from several recent studies, has found that belief may not be true. William Mathers, M.D., reviewed several large, peer-reviewed studies and found a greater chance of suffering vision loss from contact lenses than from laser vision correction surgery, also known as "refractive" surgery.
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A new method of adult stem cell growth efficacious in treatment of disorders of the cornea
07-19-2007 · EurekAlert!
A new method of adult stem cell growth, designed in the Area of Cellular Therapy of the University Clinic (University of Navarra), has demonstrated its efficacy for its capacity to grow cornea stem cells.
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New study finds resistant organisms at core of soft contact lens corneal infections
01-28-2008 · EurekAlert!
New research shows that corneal infections associated with soft contact lenses are fueled and made resistant to treatment by the formation of a highly resistant structure of microbial cells held together with a glue-like matrix material. Scientists call this conglomeration of cells biofilms.
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Advance in understanding of blood pressure gene could lead to new treatments
02-04-2007 · EurekAlert!
Research by scientists at UCL (University College London) has clearly demonstrated for the first time the structure and function of a gene crucial to the regulation of blood pressure. The discovery could be important in the search for new treatments for illnesses such as heart disease, the UK's biggest killer. In a paper published online today in Nature Medicine, the team, led by Professor Patrick Vallance and Dr James Leiper, UCL Department of Medicine, reveal the role of the human gene dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH), showing that loss of DDAH activity disrupts nitric oxide (NO) production. NO is critical in the regulation of blood pressure, nervous system functions and the immune system. The role of DDAH is to break down modified amino acids (Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and monomethyl arginine (L-NMMA)) that are produced by the body and have been shown to inhibit NO synthase. These molecules accumulate in various disease states including diabetes, renal failure and pulmonary and systemic hypertension, and their concentration in plasma (the fluid component of blood) is strongly predicative of cardiovascular disease and death. In a healthy human body, the majority of ADMA is eliminated through active metabolism by DDAH. Scientists have hypothesised that if DDAH function is impaired, NO production is reduced, and that this could be an important feature of increased cardiovascular risk. To examine this pathway in more detail, the researchers deleted the DDAH gene in mice. These mice went on to develop hypertension, or high blood pressure. They also designed specific inhibitors (small molecules) which bind to the active site of human DDAH. These small molecule inhibitors also induced hypertension in mice, confirming the importance of DDAH in the regulation of blood pressure. Dr Leiper, UCL Medicine, said: “These genetic and chemical approaches to disrupt DDAH showed remarkably consistent results, and provide compelling evidence that loss of DDAH function increases the concentration of ADMA and thereby disrupts vascular NO signalling. “There has been considerable scientific interest in this pathway and the role of ADMA as a novel risk factor, but so far there's been little evidence to support the idea that it's a cause of disease, rather than just a marker. Genes and their pathways are crucial to our understanding of cardiovascular disease and a better understanding of DDAH-1 could lead to important new treatments. “It could help us to establish if genetic variation predisposes certain people to these diseases, or whether environmental factors exert some of their effects through modulation of DDAH activity. “Our research also shows that this pathway could be harnessed therapeutically to limit production of NO in certain situations where too much nitric oxide is a bad thing; for example, hypotension and septic shock. These are some of the biggest problems in intensive care medicine and there is a huge unmet need for drug treatments.” The study, which was carried out at UCL's Rayne Institute, was funded by grants from the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation, said: "The unexpected finding in the 1980s that a simple gas, nitric oxide (NO), is made by cells in the blood vessel wall and is a powerful control of blood vessel relaxation led to the award of the Nobel Prize in 1998 to its discoverers. "More recently, there has been increasing evidence that impairment of NO production is likely to be an important factor in the development of heart and circulatory disease, but the mechanisms responsible are not fully understood. "This study suggests for the first time that the loss of the activity of the enzyme DDAH-1 leads to reduced NO production and may cause heart and circulatory disease. These findings are likely to be important in the search for new ways to optimise the health of our blood vessels." ### Notes for Editors 1. For more information, please contact Ruth Metcalfe in the UCL Media Relations Office on tel: +44 (0)20 7679 9739, mobile: +44 (0)7990 675 947, out of hours: +44 (0)7917 271 364, e-mail: r.metcalfe@ucl.ac.uk2. 'Disruption of methylarginine metabolism impairs vascular homeostasis' is published in the February issue of the journal Nature Medicine. Advance online publication is embargoed to 18.00 GMT (13.00 US Eastern) Sunday 4 February 2007. Journalists can obtain copies of the paper by contacting the UCL Media Relations Office.3. The study was funded by the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. About UCL Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. In the government's most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 59 UCL departments achieved top ratings of 5* and 5, indicating research quality of international excellence. UCL is the fourth-ranked UK university in the 2006 league table of the top 500 world universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. UCL alumni include Mahatma Gandhi (Laws 1889, Indian political and spiritual leader); Jonathan Dimbleby (Philosophy 1969, writer and television presenter); Junichiro Koizumi (Economics 1969, Prime Minister of Japan); Lord Woolf (Laws 1954, Lord Chief Justice of England & Wales); Alexander Graham Bell (Phonetics 1860s, inventor of the telephone), and members of the band Coldplay.
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A new target for painkillers
11-13-2006 · EurekAlert!
A brand new approach to treating severe nerve pain -- by aiming drugs at a previously unrecognized molecular target -- has been discovered by University of Utah scientists who study the venoms of deadly, sea-dwelling cone snails.
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Contact lenses a good choice for children 12 and younger
12-08-2006 · EurekAlert!
Children eight to 12 years old are just as adept as teenagers at handling and wearing contact lenses. "Optometrists traditionally don't prescribe contact lenses to children until they are at least 12 years old," said Jeffrey Walline, an assistant professor of optometry at Ohio State University. "But we found that younger children are just as responsible with their lenses."
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JCI table of contents -- March 8, 2006
03-08-2007 · EurekAlert!
This release contains summaries, links to PDFs and contact information for the following newsworthy papers to be published online, March 8, 2006, in the JCI, including: Therapeutic peptide frees the protein p73 to kill tumor cells; CDX2: a protein that promotes leukemia; Mesenchymal stem cells are long-term tissue residents; SPDEF makes the lungs more “asthma-like”; and SHIP1 in platelets practices first aid.
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JCI table of contents: May 10, 2007
05-10-2007 · EurekAlert!
This release contains summaries, links to PDFs and contact information for the following newsworthy papers to be published online, May 10, 2007, in the JCI, including: Loss of gene involved in clot formation may explain bleeding disorder, LAD-III; Protecting the heart against mechanical stress; GILZ mediates the antiinflammatory effects of glucocorticoids; and Mutation in the protein TACI underlies common variable immunodeficiency.
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Detecting transmissibility of avian influenza virus in human households
07-24-2007 · EurekAlert!
Authors from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have used data from a small but well-defined study of H7N7 avian influenza virus transmission in human households to estimate transmissibility in humans living in close contact.
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JCI table of contents: Oct. 1, 2007
10-01-2007 · EurekAlert!
This release contains summaries, links to PDFs, and contact information for the following newsworthy papers to be published Oct. 1, 2007, in the JCI, including: "Humans MIFfed by West Nile Virus"; "Driving force behind common cause of blindness illuminated"; "It's in your genes: genetic link to susceptibility to infectious mononucleosis"; "Unravelling why obese individuals become diabetic"; "FGF2 and PDGF-BB work together to promote tumor growth"; and others.
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