News

Michigan State University researchers have identified a potential genetic target for treating an especially painful and invasive form of endometriosis.

A new study has shown pregnant women with obesity could reduce the health risks for their infants through improved diet and more physical activity.

National Institutes of Health researchers have discovered a gene in mice that controls the craving for fatty and sugary foods and the desire to exercise. The gene, Prkar2a, is highly expressed in the habenula, a tiny brain region involved in responses to pain, stress, anxiety, sleep and reward. The findings could inform future research to prevent obesity and its accompanying risks for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The study was conducted by Edra London, Ph.D., a staff scientist in the section on endocrinology and genetics at NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and colleagues. It appears in JCI Insight.

Germline genetic testing to assess inherited risk for cancer is typically offered to a subset of patients meeting certain personal and family cancer history criteria. But through its Interrogating Cancer Etiology Using Proactive Genetic Testing (INTERCEPT) study, the Mayo Clinic sequenced nearly 3,000 cancer patients for around 80 cancer susceptibility genes and found that more than 1 in 8 patients harbored germline pathogenic variants associated with increased cancer risk. The researchers reported on Friday in JAMA Oncology that they wouldn't have identified half of these patients with pathogenic variants if they had tested patients according to current guidelines.

An international team of researchers who identified genetic variants associated with reproductive success say their findings could highlight mechanisms underlying fertility and infertility. In addition, their analyses detected genetic alleles under present-day selection, providing an insight into the nature of ongoing natural selection in humans. Iain Mathieson, Ph.D., a population geneticist at the University of Pennsylvania, presented the results of the study at the American Society of Human Genetics 2020 Virtual Meeting.

The plant compound apigenin improved the cognitive and memory deficits usually seen in a mouse model of Down syndrome, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions. Apigenin is found in chamomile flowers, parsley, celery, peppermint and citrus fruits. The researchers fed the compound to pregnant mice carrying fetuses with Down syndrome characteristics and then to the animals after they were born and as they matured.