Tobacco has been associated with and much maligned for causing cancers. Researchers have now found that the tobacco plant's defence mechanism could well work in humans to destroy invading cancer cells.

A molecule called NaD1 is found in the flower of the tobacco plant that fights off fungi and bacteria.

This compound also has the ability to identify and destroy cancer, the team discovered.

"This is a welcome discovery whatever the origin," Mark Hulett from La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science in Melbourne was quoted as saying.

The molecule, found in nicotiana sylvestris (flowering tobacco) plant, forms a pincer-like structure that grips onto lipids present in the membrane of cancer cells.

It then effectively rips them open, causing the cell to expel its contents and explode.

According to researchers, this universal defence process could also potentially be harnessed for the development of antibiotic treatment for microbial infections.

The pre-clinical work is being conducted by the Melbourne biotechnology company Hexima.

"The preliminary trials have looked promising," said Hulett.

The study was published in the journal eLife.

The deadly Ebola virus has claimed two more lives in Liberia, Minister of Health and Social Welfare Walter Gwenigale said Thursday, taking the death toll to seven in the West African nation.

Gwenigale told a regular press conference in Morovia, the country's capital city, that the two people included a woman who got infected as a result of taking care of her sister who contracted the virus in Lofa county. The woman died Wednesday night, Xinhua reported.

The minister told reporters that after contracting the virus, the woman travelled from Lofa to Chicken-soup Factory in Gardnersville and was later taken to Firestone by the taxi driver where she later died and that her child who is currently sick is being quarantined.

Gwenigale said the other one of the two newly deceased is a 25-year-old man who died at the Tapita Hospital in Nimba county few minutes after he was taken there for treatment.

He said though his death is not proven to be Ebola from standard laboratory test, the ministry concluded that he died of the deadly virus having considered the different signs and symptoms that go along with the virus and observed that they were exactly the same that affected him before he died.

He said Ebola is real and is present in Liberia and that no one Liberian should take it as a joking matter.

Ebola virus is considered one of the most aggressive virus known to date in part because of its rapidity to kill, which can be within one week from exposure or three to four days from the first symptoms become apparent. This leaves very little time for any treatment to act and save a sick individual.

In a new study, researchers have shown that the benefits of infant male circumcision exceed the risks by over 100 to 1.

Brian Morris, Professor Emeritus in the School of Medical Sciences at the University of Sydney and his colleagues in Florida and Minnesota found that over their lifetime half of uncircumcised males will contract an adverse medical condition caused by their foreskin.

The findings add considerable weight to the latest American Academy of Pediatrics policy that supports education and access for infant male circumcision.

Whereas circumcision rates have risen in white men to 91 percent, in black men to 76 percent, and in Hispanic men to 44 percent, the study authors found an alarming decrease in infants. To get the true figures they had to correct hospital discharge data for underreporting. This showed that circumcision had declined from a high of 83 percent in the 1960s to 77 percent today.

There seemed to be two major reasons for the fall - one is a result of demographic changes, with the rise in the Hispanic population. Hispanic families tend to be less familiar with the custom, making them less likely to circumcise their baby boys, while the other is the current absence of Medicaid coverage for the poor in 18 US states. In those states circumcision is 24 percent lower.

"The new findings now show that infant circumcision should be regarded as equivalent to childhood vaccination and that as such it would be unethical not to routinely offer parents circumcision for their baby boy. Delay puts the child's health at risk and will usually mean it will never happen," Professor Morris said.

In infancy the strongest immediate benefit is protection against urinary tract infections (UTIs) that can damage the kidney in half of babies who get a UTI. Morris and co-investigator Tom Wiswell, MD, Center for Neonatal Care, Orlando, showed last year that over the lifetime UTIs affect 1 in 3 uncircumcised males.

In a landmark systematic review, Morris, with John Krieger, MD, Department of Urology, University of Washington, Seattle, showed that there is no adverse effect of circumcision on sexual function, sensitivity, or pleasure. This helped dispel one myth perpetuated by opponents of the procedure.

The study has been published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

A researcher has found that a simple blood test can predict a person's risk for sudden cardiac death.

Samuel C. Dudley , M.D., Ph.D, chief of cardiology at the CVI, said that the primary prevention model for at-risk patients in the U.S. is to implant an ICD before a cardiac event happens. While it's better to be safe, this has led to widespread overuse of ICDs throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Samuel C. Dudley , M.D., Ph.D, chief of cardiology at the CVI, said that the primary prevention model for at-risk patients in the U.S. is to implant an ICD before a cardiac event happens. While it's better to be safe, this has led to widespread overuse of ICDs throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Dudley asserted that with this blood test, they can refine the need for such a device, and instead implant the cardiac defibrillators only in the most severe cases of sudden cardiac death risk.

The new blood test is in a pilot phase and will be validated in a large, multi-site trial led by Dudley and other researchers at Lifespan's CVI anticipated to start this fall.

The study has been published online in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Here's a good news for Earl Grey tea lovers! Scientists say drinking Earl Grey tea daily could keep heart disease at bay.

According to researchers, Earl Grey or black tea contains an extract of a Mediterranean citrus fruit called bergamot, which was found to lower cholesterol as well as guard against a disease that causes more than a quarter of all deaths in the UK.

Bergamot also gives Earl Grey the distinct taste and smell that has traditionally made this tea quite popular.

The study, published in the Journal of Functional Foods, revealed that the fragrant bergamot extract contains enzymes known as HMGF (hydroxy methyl glutaryl flavonones), which can attack proteins in the body known to contribute to cardiovascular disease.

The scientists added that a dietary supplement of HMGF could be just as effective as statins in combating low-density proteins (LDL) or "bad" cholesterol.

While statins are wonder drugs used to control cholesterol, it may have side effects on patients.