Scientists at the University of Washington and other institutions have identified 25 genes regulating lifespan in two organisms separated by about 1.5 billion years in evolutionary change. At least 15 of those genes have very similar versions in humans, suggesting that scientists may be able to target those genes to help slow down the aging process and treat age-related conditions. The study will be published online by the journal Genome Research on March 13.

The unwanted activation of an important cell-signaling pathway may play a role in two kidney problems that are major causes of end-stage renal disease, scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found. Their research, which opens up a novel approach for treating kidney failure, is described in the March issue of Nature Medicine. The study was led by Dr. Katalin Susztak, an assistant professor of medicine (nephrology) at Einstein.

Clinicians have been perplexed by the fact that some patients given the drug cetuximab—an immune-based therapy commonly used to treat persons diagnosed with head and neck cancer, or colon cancer—have a severe and rapid adverse reaction to the drug. Sometimes the reaction includes anaphylaxis, a life-threatening condition characterized by a drop in blood pressure, fainting, difficulty breathing, and wheezing. Now researchers funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have discovered that specific pre-existing antibodies cause the severe reaction to the drug. This discovery in turn has enabled them to explain the unusual geographic pattern of this reaction seen among individuals in the United States. The unusual findings of this investigation appear in a report published in the March 13 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Stroke patients who use ibuprofen for arthritis pain or other conditions while taking aspirin to reduce the risk of a second stroke undermine aspirin’s ability to act as an anti-platelet agent, researchers at the University at Buffalo have shown.