proteins

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For These 5, Alzheimer's Was Medically Acquired
Medical Miscue May Have
Given Patients Alzheimer's
NEW STUDY
Jan 30, 2024 11:49 AM CST

Medical Miscue May Have Given Patients Alzheimer's

Study suggests disease was triggered by human growth hormone shots derived from cadavers

(Newser) - Doctors once sought to make very short children taller by injecting them with growth hormone taken from the brains of dead people. The procedure was banned 40 years ago—and cadaver-derived pituitary growth hormone (c-hGH) replaced with a synthetic version—when scientists discovered patients had also received bits of protein...

Blood Test Could Get Rid of 'Coin-Tossing' on Alzheimer's

Researchers excited about test that detects beta-amyloid protein, an indicator of disease

(Newser) - It's not easy to diagnose Alzheimer's: With doctors able to make that pronouncement based only on limited information such as patient and family interviews and mental acuity tests, the accuracy rate of such a conclusion hovers between 50% and 60%—"about the same as tossing a coin,...

Appendix Removal Tied to Lower Parkinson's Risk
Where Parkinson's May
Start: the Appendix
NEW STUDY
Nov 1, 2018 1:05 PM CDT

Where Parkinson's May Start: the Appendix

But scientists say don't run out and get an appendectomy just yet

(Newser) - Scientists have found a new clue that Parkinson's disease may get its start not in the brain but in the gut—maybe in the appendix. People who had their appendix removed early in life had a lower risk of getting the tremor-inducing brain disease decades later, researchers report. Why?...

Couple Quit Jobs, Became Scientists to Save Her Life

'You're healthy, and then you're falling off a cliff'

(Newser) - When Sonia Vallabh watched her mother die a horrible death in 2010, caught in limbo between sleep and wakefulness that led to severe dementia, she and her husband, Eric Minikel, wanted answers. The autopsy revealed a harrowing diagnosis: a prion disease called fatal familial insomnia, or FFI, reports the Boston ...

Seeds of Alzheimer's Could Pass From Person to Person

Alzheimer's protein may have been passed to patients via growth hormone

(Newser) - Alzheimer's isn't exactly contagious, but a protein that goes on to form the disease was perhaps passed to patients during surgery, meaning there could be an acquired form of the disease, a new study finds. UK researchers, who describe their finding in Nature , studied the brains of eight...

Boil an Egg by Mistake? That Can Be Reversed

Researchers "unboil" a 20-minute egg

(Newser) - Want to unboil an egg? Probably not, but researchers in the US and Australia have found a way to do so with a primary ingredient from pee, Popular Science reports. "Yes, we have invented a way to unboil a hen egg," biochemist Gregory Weiss says in a statement...

Discovered: Sperm's Docking Station

Protein allows sperm to link with egg

(Newser) - Scientists are announcing a breakthrough in the study of fertility. They've learned more about how a sperm cell links to an egg cell, offering hope for future treatments—for both fertility and contraception, Nature reports. Scientists already knew of a protein on the surface of a sperm cell that...

Worldwide Mega-Organism Spawned All Life

Ocean-wide network of cells survived by sharing proteins

(Newser) - Here's a subject for a monster movie—only there would be no victims, because it happened about 3 billion years ago. According to a new theory, the first life form on Earth was a mega-organism that once filled the world's oceans, then split up into parts that later...

RNA: Secret Weapon Against Disease

Once seen as weak partner of DNA, gene helps control cells' activity

(Newser) - RNA has long been seen as DNA’s little brother, a messenger between the human genome and cells’ protein factories. But studies point to a bigger role—ribonucleic acid can “turn off” certain genes, for example, fighting a range of health problems, the New York Times reports. “This...

Blood Test Predicts Alzheimer's
Blood Test Predicts Alzheimer's
Oct 15, 2007 3:24 AM CDT

Blood Test Predicts Alzheimer's

Breakthrough diagnosis could aid treatment

(Newser) - A new blood test not only diagnoses Alzheimer's, but it can predict with 91% accuracy who will suffer from the disease in the future, reports the San Jose Mercury News. The test, developed by San Francisco company Satoris, identifies the disease by detecting unusual activity in 18 proteins associated with...

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