Pharma
Heart Repair Breakthroughs Replace Surgeon’s Knife
March 24, 2013 11:36 am | by MARILYNN MARCHIONE - AP Chief Medical Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsHave a heart problem? If it’s fixable, there’s a good chance it can be done without surgery, using tiny tools and devices that are pushed through tubes into blood vessels.
High-Res Structure of Serotonin Receptors Explain Drug Effects
March 22, 2013 10:03 am | News | CommentsA team of scientists has determined and analyzed the high-resolution atomic structures of two kinds of human serotonin receptor.
Technique Brings Clinical Use of Stem Cells One Step Closer
March 20, 2013 11:07 am | News | CommentsResearch has uncovered a method to produce retinal cells from regenerative human stem cells without the use of animal products, proteins or other foreign substances.
Panel: No Anthrax Vaccine Testing in Kids
March 19, 2013 12:10 am | by LAURAN NEERGAARD - AP Medical Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsDon't look for testing of the anthrax vaccine to begin in children any time soon. Controversy arose last year as experts debated whether such studies should be done to learn how to treat children in case of a bioterror attack.
Study Pinpoints a Possible Migraine-tracking Biomarker
March 18, 2013 11:25 am | News | CommentsIn a small, preliminary study of regular migraine sufferers, scientists have found that measuring a fat-derived protein called adiponectin (ADP) before and after migraine treatment can accurately reveal which headache victims felt pain relief.
White Blood Cells Can Control Red Blood Cell Levels
March 17, 2013 3:05 pm | by Einstein | News | CommentsResearchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have found that macrophages – white blood cells that play a key role in the immune response– also help to both produce and eliminate the body’s red blood cells (RBCs). The findings could lead to novel therapies for diseases or conditions in which the red blood cell production is thrown out of balance. The study, conducted in mice, is published today in the online edition of the journal Nature Medicine.
Vitamin E Can Help Prevent Cancer
March 15, 2013 10:31 am | News | CommentsResearchers have identified an elusive anti-cancer property of vitamin E that has long been presumed to exist, but difficult to find.
Dual Approach May Bring Universal Flu Shot
March 15, 2013 9:44 am | News | CommentsResearchers report that influenza virus-specific CD8+ T cells or virus-specific non-neutralizing antibodies are each relatively ineffective at conferring protective immunity alone. But, when combined, the virus-specific CD8 T cells and non-neutralizing antibodies cooperatively elicit robust protective immunity.
Old Drug Treatment Corrects Autism Symptoms
March 15, 2013 9:30 am | News | CommentsAutism results from abnormal cell communication. Testing a new theory, researchers have used a newly discovered function of an old drug to restore cell communications in a mouse model of autism, reversing symptoms of the devastating disorder.
Stent Can Replace Shunt in Pseudotumor Brain Treatment
March 14, 2013 12:42 pm | News | CommentsA team of neuroradiologists and neurosurgeons reported wide success with a new procedure to treat pseudotumor cerebri, a rare but potentially blinding condition marked by excessive pressure inside the skull, caused by a dangerous narrowing of a vein located at the base of the brain.
Protein “Mousetrap” Stops Cancer-driving Enzyme
March 14, 2013 11:26 am | News | CommentsA seemingly obscure gene in the female fruit fly that is only active in cells that will become eggs has led researchers to the discovery of an atypical protein that lures, traps and inactivates the powerful Polo kinase, widely considered the master regulator of cell division.
New, Thin Endoscope Leads Way to Micro-endoscopy
March 14, 2013 10:29 am | News | CommentsEngineers have developed a prototype single-fiber endoscope that improves the resolution of these much-sought-after instruments fourfold over existing designs.
Imaging Drug Finds Cancerous Lymph Nodes
March 13, 2013 1:45 pm | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsThe Food and Drug Administration has approved a new imaging drug, Lymphoseek, from Navidea Biopharmaceuticals Inc., to help doctors locate lymph nodes in patients with breast cancer and skin cancer.
FDA Adds Heart Risk Warning to Zithromax
March 12, 2013 5:27 pm | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsThe Food and Drug Administration is warning doctors and patients that a widely used antibiotic from Pfizer can cause rare but deadly heart rhythms in some patients. The agency said Tuesday that it is adding new warnings to the label of Zithromax, which is commonly used to treat bronchitis, pneumonia and other infections.
Practicing Medicine at the Nanoscale
March 11, 2013 11:09 am | News | CommentsModern medicine is largely based on treating patients with “small-molecule” drugs, which include pain relievers like aspirin and antibiotics such as penicillin. Those drugs have prolonged the human lifespan and made many life-threatening ailments treatable, but scientists believe the new approach of nanoscale drug delivery can offer even more progress.
Antibiotics Are Unique Assassins
March 11, 2013 10:51 am | News | CommentsIn recent work, biology professor Kim Lewis and senior scientist Iris Keren demonstrate that all antibiotics are not created equal.
HIV Destroyed by Toxic Bee Venom
March 8, 2013 10:39 am | News | CommentsNanoparticles carrying a toxin found in bee venom can destroy human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) while leaving surrounding cells unharmed, researchers have shown.
Re-Engineering Photosynthesis to Make Drugs
March 6, 2013 12:17 pm | News | CommentsScientists are reporting an advance in re-engineering photosynthesis to transform plants into bio-factories that manufacture high-value ingredients for medicines, fabrics, fuels and other products.
Biomaterial Enhances Critical Immune Responses
March 6, 2013 11:09 am | News | CommentsBiomedical engineering researchers have encapsulated two types of protein antigens in chitosan and demonstrated that the combined material enables or improves three important immune responses.
Long-Used Osteoporosis Drug Carries Cancer Risk
March 5, 2013 4:44 pm | by MATTHEW PERRONE - AP Health Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsA panel of federal health experts says a long-established bone strengthening drug should no longer be used by women because there is little evidence it works and it may actually increase the risk of cancer.
Protein Discovery Opens Door to New Drugs
March 5, 2013 11:23 am | News | CommentsResearchers have discovered how oxidative stress can turn to the dark side a cellular protein that’s usually benign, and make it become a powerful, unwanted accomplice in neuronal death. This finding could ultimately lead to new therapeutic approaches to many of the world’s debilitating or fatal diseases.
Brain Patterns Produced by General Anethesia Revealed
March 5, 2013 10:53 am | News | CommentsIn a new study that tracked brain activity in human volunteers over a two-hour period as they lost and regained consciousness, researchers have identified distinctive brain patterns associated with different stages of general anesthesia.
Celluar ‘Patch Kit’ Discovered in Breast Tissue
March 5, 2013 10:33 am | News | CommentsResearchers have found that certain rare cells extracted from adult breast tissue can be instructed to become different types of cells– a discovery that could have important potential for regenerative medicine.
3-Billion-Year-Old Antibiotic-Resistant Proteins Resurrected
February 28, 2013 10:54 am | News | CommentsScientists are reporting ‘laboratory resurrections’ of several 2-3-billion-year-old proteins that are ancient ancestors of the enzymes that enable today’s antibiotic-resistant bacteria to shrug off huge doses of penicillins, cephalosporins and other modern drugs.
Using Fungi to Fight Cancer
February 28, 2013 10:39 am | News | CommentsInspired by a chemical that fungi secrete to defend their territory, chemists have synthesized and tested several dozen compounds that may hold promise as potential cancer drugs.
