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This 'caregiver burden' may also lead to increased veterinarian stress, say the authors. Research on human caregiving describes ' caregiver burden ' as a response to problems and challenges encountered while providing informal care for a sick family member. But little is known about the impact of caregiver burden on owners of animals with chronic or terminal diseases -- and the veterinarians who care for them. So a team of researchers, led by Mary Beth Spitznagel at Kent State University in Ohio, set out to assess caregiver burden and psychosocial function in 238 owners of a dog or cat. They compared 119 owners of an animal diagnosed with a chronic or terminal disease with 119 healthy controls blindly matched for owner age and sex and animal species. Symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression were measured using recognised scales, and quality of life was assessed by questionnaire. Owners' demographic information was also recorded. Results showed greater ...

UCLA most cancers researcher Dr. Roger Lo. Credit score: UCLA's Jonsson Complete Most cancers Heart A UCLA examine has uncovered the mechanisms by which treatment-resistant melanoma turn out to be weak to a drug vacation of a category of medication referred to as MAP kinase (MAPK)-targeted inhibitors. By figuring out these mechanisms, the scientists found that therapeutic advantages for sufferers may derive from a one-two punch of cessation of MAPK inhibitors adopted by a category of medication referred to as DNA restore inhibitors. The findings, which had been demonstrated in a number of main subtypes of melanoma tumors (together with BRAF and NRAS melanoma), may result in drug improvement methods that suppress the event of drug resistance. Background ...

The research was published in the  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . Researchers identified a cytokine, called macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), along with its related protein, D-dopachrome tautomerase (D-DT), which are associated with progressive MS. These cytokines worsen the disease by increasing inflammation within the central nervous system. The researchers also linked enhanced expression of MIF with a gene variant that occurred more frequently in MS patients with progressive disease -- particularly in men. These findings suggest that a simple genetic test could be used to identify MS patients at risk of developing the more severe form of the disease. As medications to halt the disease are under development, the researchers say that such a therapy could be used as part of a precision medicine approach that would be most effective in patients who have the MIF genetic susceptibility. "The value of this discovery to patients is that there are...