Following up last week’s story on Metformin’s effect on memory cells, Rapamycin, also known as Sirolimus, has recently been shown to stimulate the formation of memory CD8 T cells. Rapamycin is an immunosuppressant drug used to prevent rejection in organ transplantation; particularly kidney transplants. The discovery by scientists at the Emory Vaccine Center is reported online ahead of print June 21 in Nature¹.

Frequent snoring during pregnancy increases the likelihood of developing gestational diabetes, according to a recent study from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. The study also found pregnancy raises the chances that a woman will snore. This is the first study to report a link between snoring and gestational diabetes, which is a condition that may cause health problems for both mother and baby.

"Sleep disturbances during pregnancy may negatively affect your cardiovascular system or metabolism," said lead investigator Francesca Facco, M.D, of Northwestern Memorial Hospital. "If snoring is bothering a woman who is pregnant, she should seek a consultation with a sleep specialist," Facco said.

The widely used anti-diabetic drug Metformin is able to boost the immune system and increase the potency of vaccines and cancer treatments, says a new study¹ published in the June 3 2009 issue of Nature. Researchers at McGill University and the University of Pennsylvania made the discovery that metformin increases the efficiency of the immune system's T-cells.

Young female professional dancers and other young female athletes both face the same health risks when they don't eat enough to replace the calories they expend, and stop menstruating as a consequence, according to new research from The Medical College of Wisconsin.

"These two components of the female athlete tetrad put them at higher risk for the other two; the cardiovascular and bone density deficits of much older, postmenopausal women," says lead researcher Dr. Anne Hoch, associate professor of orthopaedic surgery.

Two blood proteins blood that could become important markers for long-term breast cancer survival have been identified by research out of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC)¹. The proteins, C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum amyloid A (SAA), are linked with chronic inflammation, known to contribute to cancer development and progression, according to the study in the May 18 2009 edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.