London, April 23 : Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have identified potential therapeutic targets to fight dengue fever.

By painstakingly silencing genes one at a time, they have identified dozens of proteins the dengue fever virus depends upon to grow and spread among mosquitoes and humans.

Washington, Apr 23 : Vitamin D deficiency can exacerbate asthmatic symptoms in children, says a new study.

They study led by Dr Juan Celedon, Dr. P. H. and Dr Augusto Litonjua, of Harvard Medical School has shown that children with lower vitamin D levels were significantly more likely to have been hospitalized for asthma, tended to have airways with increased hyperreactivity and were likely to have used more inhaled corticosteroids, all signifying higher asthma severity.

Washington, Apr 23 : Type 2 diabetes, obesity and hypertension are associated with overall and liver related mortality in hepatitis C (HCV) infected patients, a new research has claimed.

The specific impact of metabolic syndrome on mortality in hepatitis C patients has been revealed by new research to be presented on Sunday April 26 at EASL 2009, the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver in Copenhagen, Denmark.

London, April 23 : Children under the age of 16 should not be given mouth ulcer and teething treatments containing salicylate salts, British experts have warned.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MRSA) says that there is a theoretical risk that these products could cause a serious condition called Reye''s syndrome, a rare but potentially fatal disease that causes damage to many of the body''s organs.

Salicylate salts have the same effect on the body as aspirin, which experts have already warned should not be used by kids.

Washington, Apr 23 : Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as the pain relievers ibuprofen and naproxen, do not prevent Alzheimer''s disease or other forms of dementia, a new study has shown.

In fact, researchers found that the risk of developing dementia in the study''s very elderly population was 66 percent higher among heavy NSAID users than among people who used little or no NSAIDs.

Washington, April 23 : A team of researchers led by Mayo Clinic scientists has found that hormone therapy use is linked to a significantly lower colorectal cancer risk.

However, the mechanisms for the apparent protective association are still unclear.

The study was designed to look at possible links between estrogen exposure and colon cancer molecular subtypes, to determine how these hormones might function as anti-cancer agents.