Justin Worland

Some Latina women have a gene that significantly lowers the risk of getting breast cancer, according to a new study.

The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, suggests that the gene is most effective at protecting against the variations of the disease that lead to the worst prognosis.

Researchers at the University of California San Francisco reported that 20% of self-identified Latinas had one copy of the gene, which led to 40% reduced risk of breast cancer. The 1% of Latinas who had two copies of the gene were about 80% less likely to have breast cancer, the study found.

Other medical research has shown that Latina women have lower a incidence of breast cancer than women with other backgrounds, but it wasn’t clear from what caused the disparity.

“After our earliest studies, we thought there might be a genetic variant that led to increased risk in European populations,” said UCSF professor and study author Elad Ziv in a press release. “But what this latest work shows is that instead there is a protective variant in Native American and Latina populations.”

Mammograms conducted for the study showed that women with the genetic variation had less dense breast tissue, which is thought to correlate with reduced breast cancer risk.

“We have detected something that is definitely relevant to the health of Latinas,” said Laura Fejerman, UCSF assistant professor and an author of the study, in a press release. “As a Latina myself, I am gratified that there are representatives of that population directly involved in research that concerns them.”

WHO hopes for clinical trials to begin in January

An Ebola vaccine could begin testing in the next few weeks and be ready for clinical trials in West Africa by January, the World Health Organization announced Tuesday.

Still, questions remain about when the drug may be available for the public at large and how many doses will be available, according to CNN.

“It will be deployed in the form of trials,” said WHO official Marie Paule Kieny, noting the number of available trials would be in the tens of thousands, not millions.

Initial tests will be available in countries like the United States and England before moving to West Africa, CNN reported.

Currently, there is no vaccine for Ebola, which has killed more than 4,500 people, almost entirely in West Africa, in the latest outbreak. Health officials have been working on a vaccine for years, and now have expedited their efforts in the face of the current crisis.

[CNN]

"We believe that we have found the dial the brain turns when it has to adjust serotonin to the changing seasons"

Difficulty regulating a chemical in the brain may explain why some people suffer from season affective disorder (SAD), according to new research.

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen, who studied brain scans from more than 30 subjects, found that SAD patients had different levels of a neurotransmitter that regulates serotonin in their brains during winter and summer months, the BBC reports. Serotonin is thought to signal happiness in the brain, and, during the winter, the neurotransmitter that removes serotonin was present at higher levels.

“We believe that we have found the dial the brain turns when it has to adjust serotonin to the changing seasons,” lead researcher Brenda McMahon told the BBC.

The research confirms what other studies have suggested. “SERT fluctuations associated with SAD have been seen in previous studies,” European College of Neuropsychophar­macology professor Siegfried Kasper said. “But this is the first study to follow patients through summer and winter comparisons.”

[BBC]

JetBlue initiated the $4 fare increase

The five biggest U.S. airlines all increased their base fare on domestic flights in the past week, despite declining fuel prices and apprehension over the potential spread of Ebola.

JetBlue initiated a $4 fare increase last Thursday, and United, Delta, American and Southwest followed suit, the Associated Press reports.

Though the airlines are trying to boost revenue with an across-the-board price increase, the effect it will have on the average consumer is less clear. Even with a base fare increase, airlines change prices frequently to adjust for evolving demand.

The move comes despite a slip in fuel prices (one of an airline’s largest expenses) and worldwide fear over Ebola. Both factors might seem to give airlines reasons to cut fares.

Wall Street seemed to reward the price increase with shares in the major airlines all gaining by at least 3%.

[AP]

He previously nailed his scrotum to the stones in Red Square

Less than a year after nailing his scrotum to the cobblestones of Red Square, a Russian artist cut off his earlobe Sunday in protest of the Russian government’s treatment of dissidents.

The artist, Pyotr Pavlensky, was hospitalized following the incident and will be released from the hospital soon, The Guardian reported.

In a Facebook post, Pavlensky said that he was protesting the government’s alleged detention of dissidents under the false pretense of insanity.

“Armed with psychiatric diagnoses, the bureaucrat in a white lab coat cuts off from society those pieces that prevent him from establishing a monolithic dictate of a single, mandatory norm for everyone,” he wrote, according to the Guardian.

[Guardian]

Video shows her leading protest chants

A Missouri state senator was arrested during a protest in Ferguson Monday night following the continued outrage over a white officer’s shooting of an unarmed black teen in August.

State Senator Jamilah Nasheed, who represents sections of St. Louis, can be seen leading a protest chant in footage aired on local news channel KSDK, Reuters reports. “No Justice,” she yells in the video. The crowd replies, “No peace.”

On Aug. 9, police officer Darren Wilson shot multiple times and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown. The town has been on edge with near-daily protests since news first broke, but tensions have run especially high in recent days as a grand jury weighs whether to indict Wilson.

[Reuters]