Health Highlights: April 24, 2009

April 24 -- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Trio of Researchers Shares $500,000 Medical Prize

The richest medical prize in the United States was awarded Friday to three immune system scientists whose work has led to new diabetes and arthritis therapies, the Associated Press reported.

The $500,000 Albany Medical Center Prize is being shared by Dr. Ralph Steinman of Rockefeller University in New York City, Dr. Charles Dinarello of the University of Colorado, and Dr. Bruce Beutler of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif.

The medical award established in 2000 is among the world's largest, second only to the $1.4 million Nobel Prize, the wire service said.

Here's a brief look at what each of the researchers was cited for:

• Steinman, in 1973, discovered the dendritic cell, a white blood cell that mobilizes other disease-fighting cells in the body to ward off infectious germs.
• Dinarello identified a molecule later labeled Interluekin-1, which produces inflammation and fever. His discovery led to treatments for immune disorders including diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.
• Beutler isolated a protein called tumor necrosis factor (TNF), which plays a role in conditions such as inflammation, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriasis.

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Team IDs Bacteria That Use Toxins to Cause Infections

More than three dozen bacterial pathogens that use toxins to manipulate human host cells and cause infections have been identified by scientists. The findings may lead to improved treatments for bacterial infections.

The German researchers found that the 39 bacterial pathogens produce toxins that bind relatively weakly to human proteins, but can influence several different proteins simultaneously, United Press International reported.

"A single bacterial toxin seems to function like a master key that can access different host cell proteins in parallel," explained Matthias Selbach of the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine. "Perhaps it is due to this strategy that bacteria are able to attack very different cells and, thus, to increase their survival chances in the host."