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New Mechanism Fundamental To The Spread Of Invasive Yeast Infections Identified
A group of researchers led by Carnegie Mellon University Biological Sciences Professor Aaron Mitchell has identified a novel regulatory gene network that plays an important role in the spread of common, and sometimes deadly, yeast infections. The findings, which establish the role of Zap1 protein in the activation of genes that regulate the synthesis of biofilm matrix, will be published in the June 16, 2009, issue of PLoS Biology, a peer-reviewed open-access journal from the Public Library of Science.

Explaining A Dog's 'Guilty Look'
What dog owner has not come home to a broken vase or other valuable items and a guilty-looking dog slouching around the house? By ingeniously setting up conditions where the owner was misinformed as to whether their dog had really committed an offense, Alexandra Horowitz, Assistant Professor from Barnard College in New York, uncovered the origins of the "guilty look" in dogs in the recently published "Canine Behaviour and Cognition" Special Issue of Elsevier"s Behavioural Processes.
News of the day
Merck Partners With Non-Profit For Neglected Diseases Initiative
The pharmaceutical company, Merck, announced Monday it was partnering with the non-profit Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) in an effort to improve treatments for neglected tropical diseases (NTD), the AP/CNBC reports. "The agreement covers drug candidates for illnesses like visceral leishmaniasis and Chagas disease, potentially lethal parasitic illnesses spread by insects. Current treatment for those illnesses may be toxic, or very expensive, or difficult to administer, Merck said," AP/CNBC writes (AP/CNBC, 6/22).
Oncology

After Myocardial Infarction Fatigue Is Common

Half of all patients who undergo myocardial infarction are experiencing onerous fatigue four months after the infarction. The patients who are most fatigued are those who perceive the infarction as a sign of chronic illness, those who experience the illness as difficult to control, and those who believe that the illness has a large impact on their life. These are the conclusions of a thesis presented at the Sahlgrenska Academy. Just over 200 persons completed a questionnaire one week after they had experienced an infarction and again four months later. Many of the patients were also interviewed. Around half of the patients stated that they felt onerous fatigue four months after the infarction. One third of the patients exhibited expressed fatigue, while one fifth also exhibited symptoms of depression. "Many people experienced the fatigue as new, and different. It was not related to physical effort or a lack of rest; it occurred unpredictably and could not be attributed to any definite cause", says nurse Pia Alsç©n, author of the thesis. Improvements in treatment during the acute phase of a myocardial infarction have lead to significantly more patients surviving, and to shorter periods of hospitalisation. However, medical treatment is not sufficient on its own to ensure a good long-term prognosis. Patients must also change their lifestyle, and many of them do not manage to carry out the changes that are needed. Further, some patients do not participate in the rehabilitation programmes that are available. "The patients" perception of their illness can be crucial in determining whether they benefit from this part of the treatment or not. A better understanding of the patients" perceptions of their illness can enable us to adapt the information individually for each patient, and encourage more patients to enter the follow-up programmes", says Pia Alsç©n. More patients perceived their illness to be chronic four months after the infarction. "The perception that the condition was a chronic one depended on the extent to which the patients reflected over what had happened. Those who were unwilling to examine causes and correlations perceived the infarction as an isolated event", says Pia Alsç©n. A further factor that influenced the patients" perceptions of their illness was whether they felt that they could influence the illness themselves, or whether they placed their trust in medication and other external factors. The patients" belief that they could take control of their situation through such measures as changes in lifestyle decreased after four months. Myocardial Infarction: Approximately 30,000 persons each year receive hospital treatment for myocardial infarction in Sweden. It is the single most common cause of death in the country. Myocardial infarction is nearly always a result of hardening of the coronary arteries, and is often triggered by a blood clot in such an artery. Elin Lindstrç¶m Claessen University of Gothenburg


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