Traditional efficacy trials have limited relevance to everyday clinical practice and should be changed, according the authors of a new study into chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) treatments. The report in the New England Journal of Medicine details a new method of testing effectiveness of drugs which puts the patients' clinical experience at the heart of the process.

Human longevity has been previously linked by researchers to genetic factors, calorie restriction, and certain life-style factors such as physical activity or the Mediterranean diet. Now, Italian researchers from La Sapienza University in Rome have identified an additional factor, which significantly contributes to a longer life. In a pilot study on some of the oldest people of the world, they discovered that the perfusion of organs and muscles of the centenarians was as efficient as that in people who were 30 years younger. Results of the CIAO (Cilento Intitiative on Aging Outcome) pilot study, presented today in the Italian town of Pollica, suggest that low blood levels of the peptide hormone Adrenomedullin (bio-ADM) are an indicator for such a good microcirculation.

A peptide and its receptors work to regulate auxin response and control leaf tooth growth in plants.

The plant hormone auxin has been known to take part in the development of leaf teeth, but the exact mechanism of their formation has been a mystery up till now. In this study, the research group has found that a peptide called EPIDERMAL PATTERNING FACTOR-LIKE 2 (EPFL2) and its receptor protein, ERECTA family receptor kinases, control the amount of auxin during leaf tooth growth. In plant leaves where the EPFL2 peptide is inactive, the leaf becomes round without teeth.

COLUMBIA, SC - Antibiotic treatment within the first year of life may wipe out more than an unwanted infection: exposure to the drugs is associated with an increase in food allergy diagnosis, new research from the University of South Carolina suggests.

With nearly sixty percent of American adults now taking prescription medications--from antidepressants to cholesterol treatments--there is growing concern about how many drugs are flowing through wastewater treatment facilities and into rivers and lakes. Research confirms that pharmaceutical pollution can cause damage to fish and other ecological problems--and may pose risks to human health too.

Scientists have assumed that people flushing their unused medications down the drain or toilet was a major source of these drugs in the water.

But a new first-of-its-kind study tells a different story.

Scientists have revealed molecular differences between how the African and Asian strains of Zika virus infect neural progenitor cells.

The results could provide insights into the Zika virus' recent emergence as a global health emergency, and also point to inhibitors of the protein p53 as potential leads for drugs that could protect brain cells from cell death.

The findings, from the Emory/Johns Hopkins/Florida State team that showed this spring that neural progenitor cells are particularly vulnerable to Zika infection, were published in Nucleic Acid Research. The paper was also posted on BioRxiv before publication.