Thursday, January 15, 2015

1/15/15 Health News:One punch to knock out flu ♦ Contracting human muscle grown in lab ♦ Head & neck cancer screening ♦ Space station worms help battle muscle & bone loss

One punch to knock out flu
When comparing the potency of an isolated strain-specific flu antibody (the type that current vaccines generate) with an isolated broadly-neutralizing flu antibody (the type generated by universal vaccines) in a lab setting, the latter have much weaker neutralization activity than the strain-specific antibodies, researchers report. Continue Reading
First contracting human muscle grown in laboratory
Researchers have grown human skeletal muscle in the laboratory that, for the first time, contracts and responds just like native tissue to external stimuli such as electrical pulses, biochemical signals and pharmaceuticals. The development should soon allow researchers to test new drugs and study diseases in functioning human muscle outside of the human body. Continue Reading
Coupling head and neck cancer screening, lung cancer scans could improve survival
Adding head and neck cancer screenings to newly recommended lung cancer screenings would likely improve early detection and survival, according to a multidisciplinary team led by scientists. Head and neck cancer is the world's sixth-most common type of cancer. Worldwide every year, 600,000 people are diagnosed with it and about 350,000 die. Tobacco use and alcohol consumption are the major risk factors for developing the cancer. Continue Reading
Nothing to squirm about: Space station worms help battle muscle, bone loss

Two investigations on the space station help researchers seek clues to physiological problems found in astronauts by studying C. elegans -- a millimeter-long roundworm that is widely used as a model organism. This simple, tiny roundworm could lead to a cure for symptoms affecting millions of the aging and infirm population of Earth, and the astronauts orbiting it, potentially offering a solution to a major problem in an extremely small package, scientists say. Continue reading

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