A new study has found that watermelon juice can help post-exercise muscle soreness.

Encarna Aguayo and colleagues cite past research on watermelon juice`s antioxidant properties and its potential to increase muscle protein and enhance athletic performance.

But scientists had yet to explore the effectiveness of watermelon juice drinks enriched in L-citrulline.

They tested natural watermelon juice, watermelon juice enriched in L-citrulline and a control drink containing no L-citrulline on volunteers an hour before exercise.

Both the natural juice and the enriched juice relieved muscle soreness in the volunteers. L-citrulline in the natural juice (unpasteurized), however, seemed to be more bioavailable - in a form the body could better use, the study found.

The findings have been published in ACS` Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

A new strategy has been developed that cripples the ability of the dengue virus to escape the host immune system.

A*STAR`s Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN) made the breakthrough, which has opened the door of hope to what may become the world`s first universal dengue vaccine candidate that can give full protection from all four serotypes of the dreadful virus.

This research done in collaboration with Singapore`s Novartis Institute of Tropical Diseases (NITD) and Beijing Institute of Microbiology and is also supported by Singapore STOP Dengue Translational and Clinical Research (TCR) Programme grant.

Early studies have shown that a sufficiently weakened virus that is still strong enough to generate protective immune response offers the best hope for an effective vaccine.

However, over the years of vaccine development, scientists have learnt that the path to finding a virus of appropriate strength is fraught with challenges. This hurdle is compounded by the complexity of the dengue virus.

Even though there are only four different serotypes, the fairly high rates of mutation means the virus evolve constantly, and this contributes to the great diversity of the dengue viruses circulating globally.

Furthermore, in some cases, the immune response developed following infection by one of the four dengue viruses appears to increase the risk of severe dengue when the same individual is infected with any of the remaining three viruses.

The new strategy uncovered in this study overcomes the prevailing challenges of vaccine development by tackling the virus` ability to `hide` from the host immune system. Dengue virus requires the enzyme called MTase (also known as 2`-O-methyltransferase) to chemically modify its genetic material to escape detection.

In this study, the researchers discovered that by introducing a genetic mutation to deactivate the MTase enzyme of the virus, initial cells infected by the weakened MTase mutant virus is immediately recognised as foreign.

As a result, the desired outcome of a strong protective immune response is triggered yet at the same time the mutant virus hardly has a chance to spread in the host.

Animal models immunised with the weakened MTase mutant virus were fully protected from a challenge with the normal dengue virus. The researchers went on to demonstrate that the MTase mutant dengue virus cannot infect Aedes mosquitoes.

This means that the mutated virus is unable to replicate in the mosquito, and will not be able to spread through mosquitoes into our natural environment. Taken together, the results confirmed that MTase mutant dengue virus is potentially a safe vaccine approach for developing a universal dengue vaccine that protects from all four serotypes.

The team leader, Dr Katja Fink from SIgN said that there is still no clinically approved vaccine or specific treatment available for dengue, so we are very encouraged by the positive results with this novel vaccine strategy.

The findings have been published in the PlosPathogens journal.

Scientists have identified the five psychiatric disorders, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, autism and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), share a common genetic link.

They showed substantial overlap of genetic risk factors shared between bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia and less overlap between those conditions and autism and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder ( ADHD).

They are now moving toward understanding the molecular underpinnings of psychiatric illness.

The findings provide insight into the biological pathways that may predispose an individual to disease and could ultimately lead to the development of new therapeutic avenues to treat the five major psychiatric illnesses.

Study co-senior author Kenneth S. Kendler, M.D., professor of psychiatry, and human and molecular genetics in the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, and an internationally recognized psychiatric geneticist, said that this is a very large scale study using a new, innovative statistical method.

Kendler asserted that prior to this model, we have not been able to address these questions and their results have given them by far the clearest picture available to date of the degree of genetic similarity between these key psychiatric disorders.

He said that the team is hoping that this will help them both in developing a more scientifically based diagnostic system and understanding the degree of sharing of the biological foundation these illnesses.

The study builds on findings published earlier this year in The Lancet, which reported that specific single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, are associated with a range of psychiatric disorders that can occur during childhood or adulthood.

The study has been published in Nature Genetics` Advance Online publication.

Clamping the umbilical cord too soon after birth could reduce the amount of blood that passes from mother to baby via the placenta, which could affect the baby`s iron stores and birth weight, a new study has found.

The findings of the international review led by La Trobe University are in conflict with the standard practice in many Western countries of clamping and cutting the umbilical cord within a minute of birth.

Published by the Cochrane Collaboration, the new analysis found that newborns that experienced clamping more than a minute after birth had higher haemoglobin levels one to two days later and were also less likely to be iron-deficient three to six months after birth.

Birth weight was also about 90 grams greater with delayed cord clamping, which could provide newborns with an extra 50 to 100 millilitres of blood.

Lead author Susan McDonald from La Trobe University and the Mercy Hospital for Women said that there is much stronger evidence to suggest that delayed cord clamping following a normal-term birth is beneficial.

A study has blamed the junk food for the diabetes epidemic.

Harmful compounds present in processed red meats like burgers, bacon and sausages could be the cause behind the 132,000 new patients coming up every year, the Daily Express reported.

A review of research by Plymouth University implicated iron in red meat that helped form compounds that attack the immune system and people`s ability to control inflammation that triggers many diseases.

The study has been published in the journal Advances in Nutrition.