Associations between early infections and childhood cognition in the Newcastle Thousand Families Study birth cohort.

Childhood infections have been shown to stunt growth, contribute to malnutrition and reduce cognition in early adulthood. This study aimed to assess relationships between early life infections and childhood cognition at age 11 years in the Newcastle Thousand Families Study (NTFS). The analysis included 741 members from the NTFS who had complete data for infections between birth and 5 years, and the 11-plus examinations.

Evidence that a RecQ helicase slows senescence by resolving recombining telomeres.

RecQ helicases, including Saccharomyces cerevisiae Sgs1p and the human Werner syndrome protein, are important for telomere maintenance in cells lacking telomerase activity. How maintenance is accomplished is only partly understood, although there is evidence that RecQ helicases function in telomere replication and recombination. Here we use two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DGE) and telomere sequence analysis to explore why cells lacking telomerase and Sgs1p (tlc1 sgs1 mutants) senesce more rapidly than tlc1 mutants with functional Sgs1p.