Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have found an association between lower weight and more extensive deposits of the Alzheimer's-associated protein beta-amyloid in the brains of cognitively normal older individuals.

Eating more protein from plant sources was associated with a lower risk of death and eating more protein from animals was associated with a higher risk of death, especially among adults with at least one unhealthy behavior such as smoking, drinking and being overweight or sedentary, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.

Researchers have identified 788 biomarkers in blood that could be used to develop an early stage cancer screening test for the general population. The study, led by the University of Sheffield, is the first to create a comprehensive list of relevant cancer blood biomarkers that have been researched in the last five years.

In what is being called the first-ever test of open-source drug-discovery, researchers from around the world have successfully identified compounds to pursue in treating and preventing parasite-borne illnesses such as malaria as well as cancer. Starting in late 2011, the Medicines for Malaria Venture, based in Geneva, Switzerland, distributed 400 diverse compounds with antimalarial activity free of charge to 200 labs in 30 countries.

In addition to its more obvious ills, type 2 diabetes is a condition closely associated with bone fractures, increasing the risk of fractures twofold. To make matters worse, certain anti-diabetic drugs further increase this risk, particularly in postmenopausal women, severely limiting their treatment options.

Telomerase, an enzyme naturally found in the human organism, is the closest of all known substances to a "cellular elixir of youth." In a recent study, Brazilian and US researchers show that sex hormones can stimulate production of this enzyme. The strategy was tested in patients with genetic diseases associated with mutations in the gene that codes for telomerase, such as aplastic anemia and pulmonary fibrosis.

Adding a novel monoclonal antibody therapy to traditional chemotherapy increased median survival by nearly a year in patients with advanced sarcoma, a lethal soft-tissue cancer. Findings from a multicenter clinical trial of the combination therapy, led by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian, represent the first appreciable improvement in sarcoma outcomes in decades.