Latest PLoS ONE Stories

Study finds chronic inflammation, suppression of cell regeneration, and neuronal cell loss contribute to wide range of motor and cognitive deficits Researchers from the University of South Florida and colleagues at the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital studying the long-term consequences of traumatic brain injury (TBI) using rat models, have found that, overtime, TBI results in progressive brain deterioration characterized by elevated inflammation and suppressed cell regeneration. However,...

Researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida have identified a new target to improve treatment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cancer, which accounts for more than 95 percent of pancreatic cancer cases. This fast-growing, often lethal cancer is resistant to conventional chemotherapy. The findings are published in the Jan. 3 online issue of PLOS ONE. The researchers decoded a molecular pathway that is switched "on" at all times, promoting accelerated growth of pancreatic tumors, and that...

Johns Hopkins researchers find way to accurately measure blood-brain barrier damage Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a new way of looking at standard MRI scans that more accurately measures damage to the blood-brain barrier in stroke victims, a process they hope will lead to safer, more individualized treatment of blood clots in the brain and better outcomes. The blood-brain barrier is a unique shielding of blood vessels that limits the passage of molecules from the blood stream...

Resistance has cut the useful life of nearly every malaria therapy tried so far Malaria brings misery and death to millions in the developing world each year, and fighting it keeps medical researchers up at night because the mosquito-borne parasite Plasmodium falciparum, which causes the deadliest form of the disease, has developed resistance to every drug thrown at it. Resistance has cut short the useful life of nearly every therapy tried so far, experts say. But now molecular...

Leishmaniasis is the second most mortal tropical parasitic disease A research coordinated by the UAB has succeeded in testing a vaccine against leishmaniasis. The vaccine was tested with the best animal model existing, the golden hamster, and can be produced at low costs by using insect larvae. The research, published in the latest edition of PLoS ONE, is an important step towards the fight against a disease which causes the death of 70,000 people each year in developing countries and of...

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) among children in China are a growing public health concern. Two new studies by researchers of the International Program at the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the Wuhan Children’s Hospital in China examined pediatric TBIs that were treated at Wuhan Children’s Hospital from 2002 to 2011. The first study, appearing in the December 2012 print issue of PLOS ONE, investigated the causes,...

Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a set of proteins circulating in blood whose levels accurately flag the presence of lymphedema. The findings, to be reported Dec. 18 in PLoS ONE, spur optimism that this common but relatively neglected condition, which affects an estimated 10 million people in the United States, finally will be amenable to detection (and, eventually, treatment) with 21st-century techniques. Lymphedema is an often-painful inflammatory...

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report that tumor cells use stress signals to subvert responding immune cells, exploiting them to actually boost conditions beneficial to cancer growth. The findings are published in the December 18 online issue of the journal PLOS ONE. Lead author Navin R. Mahadevan, a graduate student in the Laboratory of Immunology at the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, and colleagues found that tumor cells manipulate a...

Fecal samples from archeological sites reveal evolution of human gut microbes Extinct microbes in fecal samples from archaeological sites across the world resemble those found in present-day rural African communities more than they resemble the microbes found in the gut of cosmopolitan US adults, according to research published December 12 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Cecil Lewis and colleagues from the University of Oklahoma. The researchers analyzed 1400-8000-year-old fecal...

Perceptions of leadership capacity based on voice pitch are independent of social context Male and female leaders with masculine voices are preferred by both men and women. However, even in leadership roles that are typically held by women, both sexes prefer women leaders with low-pitched voices, according to research published December 12 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Rindy Anderson from Duke University and Casey Klofstad from the University of Miami. Though earlier studies...