Science News of the Year: 1998
Back to Science News of 1998
Biomedicine
- Cerebral palsy may often be caused by an inflammatory infection in
the fetus rather than lack of oxygen to a baby's brain during birth (Oct. 17, vol. 154: p. 244*).
- Compared to other babies, infants with an unusual heartbeat have 41
times the risk of dying from sudden infant death syndrome in the first year of life (June 13, vol. 153: p. 372*).
- With cancer vaccines made of cells from a patient's own body,
scientists revved up the immune system to destroy tumor cells (June 13, vol. 153: p. 380*).
- When they were treated with a genetically engineered protein, damaged
hearts grow new arteries (Feb. 28, vol. 153: p. 132*).
- Gene therapy in animals successfully halted aging-related muscle
loss, pointing the way to therapy for humans (Dec. 19 &
26, vol. 154: p. 388*).
- Miscarriages and birth defects resulting from diabetic pregnancies
may be due to uncontrolled cell death in the embryo, a mouse study showed (Dec. 5, vol.
154: p. 356).
- Women at high risk halve their chances of getting breast cancer by
taking the synthetic hormone tamoxifen, a U.S. study reported. European researchers,
however, found no significant difference between breast cancer rates in women taking
tamoxifen or an inert substance (April 11, vol. 153: p. 228; July 18, vol. 154: p. 37).
- A vaccine against Lyme disease imparts strong protection after an
initial dose and a booster one year later (July 25, vol. 154: p. 52).
- Mutations in the gene that encodes tau protein, a compound already
implicated in Alzheimer's disease, trigger some other common forms of dementia (June 20,
vol. 153: p. 389).
- The experimental drug T-20 stops HIV from invading immune cells,
offering a potential treatment for AIDS (Nov. 7, vol. 154:
p. 292*).
- A bacterial toxin being tested as a cancer drug also helped heal
injured spinal cords in mice and enabled the paralyzed animals to walk again (Oct. 31, vol. 154: p. 276*).
- Babies of mothers who smoked during pregnancy and of those who merely
were exposed to second-hand smoke harbor cancer- and mutation-causing chemicals from
tobacco, indicating that the substances pass through the placenta to a developing fetus (Aug. 29, vol. 154: p. 133*; Oct. 3, vol. 154: p. 213).
- Yanomami Indians in the Amazon proved especially vulnerable to
tuberculosis, providing a rare modern case of a new disease outbreak (Jan. 31, vol. 153:
p. 73).
- Known weak links in DNA chains are often broken in tumor cells,
suggesting that such fragile sites on chromosomes may foster a variety of cancers (Nov.
14, vol. 154: p. 317).
- Analysis of a blood sample taken from an African man in 1959
established the earliest known infection with HIV-1, the cause of most AIDS cases (Feb. 7,
vol. 153: p. 85).
- A vaccine developed to protect against deadly Ebola virus works in
guinea pigs (Jan. 10, vol. 153: p. 22).
- Most pregnant women infected with HIV can prevent virus transmission
to their newborns by taking the drug AZT and giving birth by cesarean section (June 27, vol. 153: p. 405*).
- Some age-old remedies for menopause symptoms work by mimicking
estrogen, the female sex hormone (June 20, vol. 153: p. 392*).
- Women who develop a pregnancy complication called preeclampsia also
have high testosterone levels, perhaps explaining their risk of later heart problems (Feb.
21, vol. 153: p. 117).
- A study of monkeys showed that beta amyloid, the waxy protein
implicated in Alzheimer's disease, damages brain cells—predominantly in older brains
(July 4, vol. 154: p. 4*).
- A huge dose of immature blood cells gleaned from a donor reverses the
ravages of leukemia in some patients, even when donor and patient cells are slightly
mismatched (Oct. 24, vol. 154: p. 261).
- Men carrying an unusual version of the gene for
angiotensin-converting enzyme face a heightened risk of developing high blood pressure
(May 16, vol. 153: p. 310).
- Doctors conducted novel surgery to reverse brain damage from strokes
by injecting laboratory-grown nerve cells into patients' brains (Aug. 22, vol. 154: p. 120*).
- Vaccines composed of DNA that encodes compounds that alert the immune
system to disease show promise against rabies and rotavirus (Aug.
8, vol. 154: p. 85*).
- Microbiologists argued that unusually tiny bacteria may lead to
kidney stones and other diseases not normally associated with infection (Aug. 1, vol. 154: p. 75*).
- The presence of a pneumonia-causing bacterium in the brains of people
with Alzheimer's disease hints that the illness may have an infectious origin (Nov. 21, vol. 154: p. 325*).
- Smoking may curb breast cancer by limiting the effect of estrogen
(May 23, vol. 153: p. 325).
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