Health | WPN World People News

According to a new National Institutes of Health-funded study, it is not destiny that brings two fruit flies together, but an evolutionary matchmaker of sorts that made tiny adjustments to their brains’ mating circuits, so they would be attracted to one another while rejecting advances from other, even closely-related, species. The results, may help explain how a specific female scent triggers completely different responses in different male flies.

Colorized scanning electron micrograph of a single filamentous Ebola virus particle.

The largest coordinated research effort to study biological and non-biological factors associated with aggressive prostate cancer in African-American men has begun.

Findings from an animal study suggest that a non-invasive imaging technique could, with further development, become a useful tool to assess immune system recovery in people receiving treatment for HIV infection.

Virus-like particles (VLPs) are protein-based structures that mimic viruses and bind to antibodies. Because VLPs are not infectious, they show considerable promise as vaccine platforms for many viral diseases, including influenza.

The vacuole, a compartment inside human red blood cells in which malaria parasites reproduce and develop, takes on a distinct spherical shape just minutes before its membrane ruptures, leading to the release of parasites into the blood stream, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions. Their study appears in Cellular Microbiology.

Family planning was affirmed to be a human right 50 years ago, leading to what would become the annual observation of World Population Day, which focuses attention on the impact the number of children born, has on the world.

Injecting senescent cells into young mice results in a loss of health and function but treating the mice with a combination of two existing drugs cleared the senescent cells from tissues and restored physical function. The drugs also extended both life span and health span in naturally aging mice, according to a new study in Nature Medicine. The research was supported primarily by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health.

The World Bank, on July 9, announced new support for Djibouti’s goal of reversing and ultimately eliminating childhood stunting with a US$15 million credit from IDA, the World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries.

National Institutes of Health researchers have identified a naturally occurring lipid—a waxy, fatty acid—used by a disease-causing bacterium to impair the host immune response and increase the chance of infection. Inadvertently, they also may have found a potent inflammation therapy against bacterial and viral diseases.