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Popular Articles

Drugs Can Eliminate River Blindness, Study Finds
The disease onchocerciasis, also known as river blindness, can be eliminated using drugs, according to a WHO study, BBC reports. The disease, which infects about 37 million people worldwide, is caused by a "nematode worm that can live inside the human body for years" and is transmitted to people through the bite of a black fly, the news service writes. The worms spread through the body and when they eventually die, the human immune system "reacts fiercely," which "destroys living tissue - especially the eye," according to BBC (7/21).

Sen. Hatch Leaves Bipartisan Negotiations, August Deadline Unlikely
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, removes himself from Sen. Max Baucus"s bipartisan health reform talks in the Senate Finance Committee, leaving six centrist senators in what used to be called "the coalition of the willing." And, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., says President Barack Obama"s August deadline is unworkable.
News of the day
Abortion Issue Could Derail Health Reform
Nineteen Democrats have written House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promising not to vote for a health bill that includes funding for abortion, igniting a debate that has the potential to derail a health care overhaul, NPR reports.
Oncology

Shedding Light On Esophageal Disease

Canadian Light (CLS) staff scientist Luca Quaroni and Dr. Alan Casson, Head of the Department of Surgery at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) used the synchrotron"s infrared microscope to identify tissue afflicted with a condition known as Barrett"s Esophagus from chemical fingerprints associated with the disease, which can lead to esophageal cancer. The finding is published in the June, 2009 issue of the Royal Society of Chemistry journal, The Analyst. "The advantage to using microscopes with synchrotron light is that it allows us to identify chemical biomarkers inside specific cells," says Dr. Quaroni, who conducted the synchrotron analysis. "Often the differences between healthy and malignant tissue can be quite small, but the differences seen here were quite striking. This is a good proof of concept for developing a traceable technique that matches what can be seen at the macroscopic scale using microscopic samples." The team analyzed preserved samples of healthy and diseased tissue that Dr. Casson had collected during esophageal biopsies. Using a technique known as Fourier Transform Infrared Microscopy, Quaroni and Casson identified specific chemicals - known as biomarkers - within the individual cells that make up the tissue. It was found that increased concentrations of particular biomarkers such as glycoproteins were associated with the Barrett"s tissue. Barrett"s Esophagus (BE) occurs when the cells that normally line the esophagus - the tube that connects our throat to our stomach - are replaced by cells that resemble those that line the intestine. While BE only affects approximately one percent of Americans, the number of people diagnosed with the condition is on the rise, with the increasing incidence of chronic heartburn (gastro-esophageal reflux disease or GERD) considered a risk factor for developing BE. The disease in turn can lead to an aggressive form of cancer known as esophageal adenocarcinoma. Currently, diagnosing BE depends on the skill and experience of individual pathologists examining biopsy samples from patients, often relying on subjective criteria. Identifying biomarkers that can be associated with a particular condition provides an additional tool for diagnosis. Matthew Dalzell Canadian Light , Inc.


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