Welcome to today's edition of Morning Headlines, keeping you updated with the latest emerging stories this morning in key science and technology sectors worldwide.

This morning, we have picked the following trending stories:

New Findings in Ovarian Cancer Biology and Treatment

Researchers at The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, have discovered that the presence and integrity of the opioid growth factor receptor (OGFr), which mediates the inhibitory action of opioid growth factor (OGF) on cell proliferation, is a key to understanding the progression and treatment of human ovarian cancer. Transplantation of human ovarian cancer cells that were molecularly engineered to have a reduced expression of OGFr, into immunocompromised mice resulted in ovarian tumours that grew rapidly. This discovery, reported in the February 2012 issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine, provides fresh new insights into the pathogenesis and therapy of a lethal cancer that is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among women in the USA, and has a death rate that is unchanged for over 75 years, the researchers said.

The OGF (also-termed [Met5]-enkephalin)-OGFr axis plays a fundamental role in cancer, development, and cellular renewal by regulating cell proliferation. An important question addressed in this study relates to the requirement of this peptide-receptor system for the progression of carcinogenesis. Human ovarian cancer cell lines that were genetically modified to underexpress OGFr grew far more rapidly in tissue culture than control (empty vector/wildtype) cell lines. Moreover, the addition of OGF to cultures of these genetically modified cells did not respond to the inhibitory peptide and change cell number, indicating that the loss of OGFr interfered with the function of the OGF-OGFr axis with respect to regulating cell proliferation. Immunocompromised mice injected with ovarian cancer cells that had a reduction in OGFr displayed tumors much earlier than controls, and these tumors grew faster than controls. Putting this information together with knowledge that the pathway for OGF-OGFr regulation of cell proliferation in ovarian cancer is by way of increasing the cyclin-dependent inhibitory kinase proteins p16 and p21, we now can understand that minimizing the quantity of OGFr results in an increase in the number of cells entering the G1/S phase of the cell cycle. This has the net effect of increasing the progression of tumourigenic events. These results reveal the critical nature of OGFr in human ovarian cancer, and that the receptor along with its ligand, OGF, is essential for determining the course of these neoplasias.

Specially-bred Mice Help Target Flu Outbreaks

As part of a national collaboration, Oregon Health & Science University researchers are studying specially bred mice that are more like humans than ever before when it comes to genetic variation. Through these mice, the researchers hope to better understand and treat an infectious disease that plagues us year in and year out: the flu. The scientists aim to determine why some people suffer serious illness and even death when infected with influenza while others suffer only mild to moderate symptoms. The research is published in a special joint issue of the journals Genetics and G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics. The research was conducted within the Pacific Northwest Regional Center for Excellence (PNWRCE) for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, a consortium of investigators with extensive expertise, and basic and translational research capacity directed at a broad range of pathogens. The cooperative effort has the goal of combating emerging or re-emerging infectious diseases that pose a serious threat to human health. The director of the PNWRCE is Jay Nelson, Ph.D., the founder and director of the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute at OHSU.

The researchers are studying mice from the Collaborative Cross Program. Because these mice more closely reflect the genetic variation of humans, they may be the key to understanding some of today's most common, and most complex, diseases. In this case, the specially bred mice were used to study the varying immune response to the annual influenza outbreak. In this research project, the scientists studied 44 groups of flu-infected mice that varied genetically. Due to this variation, the mouse reaction to influenza varied greatly, just as it does in the human population. The researchers then noted genetic differences that may have caused the variety of disease responses. Their ongoing work is to more clearly identify which genes cause these differences.

Smartphones Used for Preventing and Treating Drug Use

Clinical researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) are combining an innovative constellation of technologies such as artificial intelligence, smartphone programming, biosensors and wireless connectivity to develop a device designed to detect physiological stressors associated with drug cravings and respond with user-tailored behavioral interventions that prevent substance use. Preliminary data about the multi-media device, called iHeal, was published online first in the Journal of Medical Toxicology. According to the study's authors, many behavioral interventions used to treat patients are ineffective outside of the controlled clinical settings where they are taught. This failure can be attributed to several factors, including a patient's inability to recognize biological changes that indicate increased risk of relapse and an inability to change their behaviors to reduce health risk.

Individuals with a history of substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder were asked to wear an iHeal sensor band around their wrist that measures the electrical activity of the skin, body motion, skin temperature and heart rate – all indicators of stress. The band wirelessly transmitted information to a smartphone, where software applications monitor and process the user's physiological data. When the software detects an increased stress level, it asks the user to annotate events by inputting information about their perceived level of stress, drug cravings, and current activities. This information is then used to identify, in real-time, drug cravings and deliver personalized, multimedia drug prevention interventions precisely at the moment of greatest physiological need.