UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News

Study: Gay men tied to population growth

PADOVA, Italy, June 24 (UPI) -- Italian scientists say they've found the same genetic factors leading to male homosexuality also lead to increased fertility in the homosexuals' mothers.

The researchers said male homosexuality is associated with a phenomenon called sexually antagonistic selection, in which a genetic factor confers a reproductive advantage.

University of Padova Professors Andrea Camperio Ciani and Giovanni Zanzotto, along with Paolo Cermelli of the University of Torino, said the persistence of gay men in a population isn't easily explained by Darwin's theory of evolution, because men who possess genes predisposing them to homosexual behavior are much less likely to reproduce.

Gay men's lower rate of reproduction would be expected to lead to their eventual disappearance from a population, the researchers said. Empirical studies, however, have revealed steady rates of gay men in populations.

The researchers screened a large set of explanatory models and eliminated those inconsistent with observed data. They concluded that male homosexuality benefits populations by promoting female fecundity. Gay men, therefore, give rise to an increase of the fecundity of the whole population, they said.

The study is reported in the online journal PLoS One.

Grid computing' may help fight cancer

AUSTIN, Texas, June 24 (UPI) -- A U.S. biomedical engineering professor is using the concept called "grid computing" to allow people to donate their idle computer time to fight cancer.

University of Texas at Austin Assistant Professor Muhammad Zaman has introduced a grid program called Cellular Environment in Living Systems at home -- or CELS@Home. It allows Internet users worldwide to contribute their idle computer time, creating a "virtual" supercomputer to solve a difficult problem. Zaman's "grid computing" program is helping scientists understand the principles of cell migration and cancer cell metastasis.

He said the program has already yielded enough information in just two months for two scientific journal articles.

He said only a screensaver needs to be downloaded -- at no cost to the user -- to contribute to the CELS@Home effort. A computational program then runs whenever the screensaver is activated, requiring no effort on the part of the user to run the program or report the computations.

People interested in participating in the program can obtain more information at http://cels-at-home-dev.dyndns.org/cels/.

Genetic cause of dog variations sought

LEICESTER, England, June 24 (UPI) -- British and U.S. scientists say they've developed a method to identify the genetic basis for physical and behavioral differences among canine breeds.

Geneticist Paul Jones of Britain's Waltham Center for Pet Nutrition says dogs vary in size, shape, color, coat length and behavior more than any other animal and that variance has largely been unexplained.

But in the new study, he said scientists developed a method of identifying the genetic basis for the diversity that might have far-reaching benefits for dogs and their owners.

The study identified locations in a dog's DNA that contain genes that are believed to contribute to differences in body and skull shape, weight, fur color and length -- and possibly even behavior, trainability and longevity.

"By applying this research approach, we may be able to decipher how genes contribute to physical or behavioral traits that affect many breeds," said Jones, a study co-author. He noted the research might also have implications for human health, since dogs and people suffer many of the same diseases.

The study that included researchers from the U.S. National Human Genome Research Institute, the University of Utah and Sundowners Kennels in Gilroy, Calif., appears in the journal Genetics.

Some cancer drugs bad for heart patients

ST. LOUIS, June 24 (UPI) -- U.S. medical scientists say a set of promising new anti-cancer agents called hedgehog antagonists might present a risk for people with heart disease.

Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis said the hedgehog antagonists interfere with a biochemical process called hedgehog signaling that promotes growth in some cancer cells. But the study showed interfering with that biochemical process in mice with heart disease led to further deterioration of cardiac function and ultimately death.

"This finding should serve as a warning that these drugs might have adverse effects on the heart and that it could be very important to monitor patients' cardiovascular health when using this type of anti-cancer drug," said senior study author Dr. David Ornitz.

He said the study is the first demonstration that hedgehog signaling is essential to maintain a healthy supply of blood vessels in adult heart muscle.

The research that included Dr. Kory Lavine appears in the advance online issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.