As the cause of 17.5 million deaths in 2012, cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of mortality worldwide.[1] In France they are the second leading cause of mortality in men, and the leading cause in women.
In spring 2016, a new phase in the Elfe Child Cohort Study will take place in French nursery schools, with participation by middle-year teaching staff. Its objective: to collect information on early learning by children of approximately 5 years of age. It will hence be possible to analyse the manner in which children enter the various areas of learning provided by nursery schools, taking living conditions, family structures, and...
Researchers at Unit 1018 “Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health” (Inserm/Paris-Sud University) at Gustave Roussy have focused on the proportion of breast cancers attributable to various risk factors. The analysis, conducted among 67,634 women in the French E3N cohort, shows that postmenopausal breast cancers are more often attributable to “behavioural” factors, such as an unhealthy diet, excess weight and alcohol consumption than “non-behavioural” factors. These data suggest...
A study conducted on mice by researchers at Inserm and UPMC (Pierre and Marie Curie University) offers a new type of immunotherapy approach for treating Alzheimer's disease. This involves amplifying a specific population of T lymphocytes that regulate immune and neuroinflammatory mechanisms that develop during the disease. These results are published in the journal Brain.
Researchers from the Institut Pasteur, Inserm, CNRS and Paris Descartes – Sorbonne Paris Cité University recently published a large-scale study in Nature Genetics based on almost 7,000 strains of Listeria monocytogenes — the bacterium responsible for human listeriosis, a severe foodborne infection. Through the integrative analysis of epidemiological, clinical and microbiological data, the researchers have revealed the highly diverse pathogenicity of isolates belonging to this bacterial species. Comparative genomics led...
12 patients suffering from severe erectile dysfunction following prostate cancer received a transplant of stem cells into the penis. After six months, significant improvements in the quality of sexual intercourse, erection, penile rigidity and quality of orgasm were reported by the patients, according to a study by Inserm. This clinical trial was conducted under the direction of Professor René Yiou at the Department of Urology, Henri Mondor University Hospital,...
The European Commission has granted over 22 million Euros to the European HIV Vaccine Alliance (EHVA) to develop a multidisciplinary platform to evaluate novel preventive and therapeutic vaccines.
Researchers at Inserm Unit 1194, “Montpellier Cancer Research Institute” (Inserm/University of Montpellier/Montpellier Regional Cancer Institute) have confirmed the value of a new test to identify cancer patients who will be free of sequelae following radiotherapy. This test, conducted on a blood sample taken from 500 breast cancer patients, treated in 10 centres in France, and monitored for 3 years, showed that women with a high rate of radiation-induced lymphocyte...
Initiated by ECCA (European Cervical Cancer Association), this campaign, which will run from 24 to 30 January next, is aimed at raising awareness among the general public and health professionals about cervical cancer prevention and screening.
Faecalibacterium prausnitzii is an intestinal bacterium that is abundant in healthy adults but scarce in those suffering from inflammatory bowel disease. Using a mouse model, a team of scientists from INRA, INSERM, and the University of Auvergne has discovered that the bacterium possesses analgesic properties, a finding just published in Scientific Reports (January 18, 2016).Given that F. prausnitzii also exhibits anti-inflammatory effects, the bacterium shows great promise as a...