Smoking during pregnancy significantly increases the risk of having a child with behavioural problems, according to UK and US researchers.

Writing in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, they say the problems can be evident in children as young as three years old.

They believe smoking in pregnancy may damage the developing structure of the baby's brain.

One expert said it was another strong reason for mothers to give up smoking.


The researchers from the universities of York, Hull and Illinois looked at more than 14,000 mother and child pairs who were taking part in the Millennium Cohort Study.

The mothers were categorised as light or heavy smokers depending on how many cigarettes they smoked every day during pregnancy.

They were asked to score their three-year-old children's behaviour using a questionnaire called Strengths and Difficulties, which focuses on behaviour problems and hyperactivity, or attention deficit disorders.

They took into account factors likely to influence the results, including the mother's age at the child's birth, her level of education and socioeconomic status, family stability and problematic parenting.


Mothers who were light smokers were 44% more likely to have boys who had problems with their conduct.

Heavy smokers were 80% more likely to have boys with these problems.

Both heavy and light smokers were also significantly more likely to have boys who were hyperactive or had attention deficit disorders.
 

Scientists have found a way to disarm a protein thought to play a key role in leukemia and other cancers.The breakthrough raises hopes of a new type of therapy that could treat cancer and other diseases.

Previous attempts to neutralize the protein had failed, leading experts to conclude it was effectively "undruggable".

The study, carried out by the US Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, features in the journal Nature.

The transcription factor targeted in the latest study is a protein called Notch.

The gene responsible for manufacturing the protein is often damaged or mutated in patients with a form of blood cancer known as T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

As a result the gene is switched on all the time, driving the uncontrolled cell growth characteristic of cancer.

Similar abnormalities in Notch also underlie other cancers, including lung, ovarian, pancreatic and gastrointestinal tumors.

Examining the structure of Notch closely, the researchers isolated a potential weak spot in its structure.

They employed a state-of-the-art technique using chemical braces to mould protein snippets called peptides into specific three dimensional shapes.

These "stapled" peptides are readily absorbed by cells, and are so tiny they can be deployed to alter gene regulation at specific sites.

After designing and testing several synthetic stapled peptides, the researchers identified one that was able to disrupt Notch's function.
 

The "chocolate cure" for emotional stress is getting new support from a clinical trial published online in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research.

It found that eating about an ounce and a half of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in the bodies of people feeling highly stressed.

Everyone's favorite treat also partially corrected other stress-related biochemical imbalances.

Sunil Kochhar and colleagues note growing scientific evidence that antioxidants and other beneficial substances in dark chocolate may reduce risk factors for heart disease and other physical conditions.

Studies also suggest that chocolate may ease emotional stress.

Until now, however, there was little evidence from research in humans on exactly how chocolate might have those stress-busting effects.

In the study, scientists identified reductions in stress hormones and other stress-related biochemical changes in volunteers who rated themselves as highly stressed and ate dark chocolate for two weeks.
 

Heart disease patients who practise Transcendental Meditation have reduced death rates, US researchers have said.

At a meeting of the American Heart Association they said they had randomly assigned 201 African Americans to meditate or to make lifestyle changes.

After nine years, the meditation group had a 47% reduction in deaths, heart attacks and strokes.

The research was carried out by the Medical College in Wisconsin with the Maharishi University in Iowa.

It was funded by a £2.3m grant from the National Institute of Health and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

The African American men and women had an average age of 59 years and a narrowing of the arteries in their hearts.

The meditation group practised for 20 minutes twice a day.

The lifestyle change group received education classes in traditional risk factors, including dietary modification and exercise.

As well as the reductions in death, heart attacks and strokes in the meditating group, there was a clinically significant drop (5mm Hg) in blood pressure, and a significant reduction in psychological stress in some participants.

Robert Schneider, lead author and director of the Centre for Natural Medicine and Prevention at the Maharishi University in Iowa, said other studies had shown the benefits of Transcendental Meditation on blood pressure and stress, irrespective of ethnicity.

"This is the first controlled clinical trial to show that long-term practise of this particular stress reduction programme reduces the incidence of clinical cardiovascular events, that is heart attacks, strokes and mortality," he said.
 

Green tea extract has shown promise as cancer prevention agent for oral cancer in patients with a pre-malignant condition known as oral leukoplakia, according to researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

The study, published online in Cancer Prevention Research, is the first to examine green tea as a chemopreventative agent in this high-risk patient population.

The researchers found that more than half of the oral leukoplakia patients who took the extract had a clinical response.

Long investigated in laboratory, epidemiological and clinical settings for several cancer types, green tea is rich in polyphenols, which have been known to inhibit carcinogenesis in preclinical models. Still, clinical results have been mixed.

While still very early, and not definitive proof that green tea is an effective preventive agent, these results certainly encourage more study for patients at highest risk for oral cancer," said Vassiliki Papadimitrakopoulou, M.D., professor in M. D. Anderson's Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, and the study's senior author.

"The extract's lack of toxicity is attractive -- in prevention trials, it's very important to remember that these are otherwise healthy individuals and we need to ensure that agents studied produce no harm."

"Collecting oral tissue biopsies was essential in that it allowed us to learn that not only did the green tea extract appear to have benefit for some patients, but we pointed to anti-angiogenic effects as a potential mechanism of action," said Anne Tsao, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, and the study's first author.

"While preliminary because our patient population was so small, this gives us direction for further study."

Although not statistically significant, the green tea extract also improved histology and trended towards an improvement in a number of biomarkers that may play a vital role in predicting cancer development.

Another important finding, say the researchers, was that that the extract was well tolerated. Side effects, including insomnia and nervousness, were mostly seen in the high-dose group but produced no significant toxicity.