Washington, March 18 : Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine say that a potential cure for Alzheimer''s disease may require a combination therapy, which will target the malformations of the proteins that characterise this condition.

Alzheimer''s disease is characterized by two distinctive protein malformations: amyloid plaques, which are sticky deposits made up of a short protein called amyloid beta, and tau tangles, which are made of short filaments of the tau protein.

Washington, Mar 17 : Researchers have developed a new technique in which DNA patches are used to treat dogs with the canine version of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a paralysing and often fatal disease of muscles.

Called "exon skipping", the technique uses tailor-made snippets of DNA-like molecules as molecular "patches", which cover up mutant DNA sequences that code for making an important muscle protein.

Washington, Mar 17 (ANI): Risk factors including age, gender, diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, smoking and risk of gastrointestinal bleeding, should be taken into account before patients go for aspirin to prevent heart attacks or strokes, according to new recommendations from the U. S. Preventive Services Task Force.

The organisation has updated its 2002 recommendation about using aspirin to prevent heart attacks or strokes.

Washington, Mar 17 : Poor self-esteem, embarrassment and unwanted weight loss advice from doctors are steering obese women away from regular breast cancer screening, thereby putting themselves at an increased risk of developing the disease.

The research team led by Nisa Maruthur from The John Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, USA has shown that obese women are 20 percent less likely to have had a recent mammography than normal weight women, especially among the white population.

The authors highlight a number of reasons why obese women may not be undergoing breast cancer screening.

Washington, March 17 : Yale researchers say that they have identified previously undescribed syndrome associated with seizures, a lack of coordination, developmental delay and hearing loss.

The researchers have revealed that they made this advance while investigating the genetic causes of blood pressure variation.

Washington, March 17 : Scientists in America have identified the triggering mechanism by which breast and prostate cancer cells begin.

Dr. Ercole Cavalieri and Dr. Eleanor Rogen made this achievement with their colleagues at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer in Omaha, Nebraska.

"We have found the first step that starts a cell down the road to becoming a cancer cell. By blocking this first step from happening, we feel we can stop the development of breast and prostate cancer," say the researchers.