Health and Medicine

Spondyloarthropathies are rheumatic infectious diseases affecting the spinal column and peripheral joints and tendons. These diseases either occur as such (Bechterew`s disease or ankylosing spondylitis), or are combined with skin psoriasis, inflammatory intestinal diseases (Crohn`s disease and ulcerating colitis), and eye infection (uveitis).

These diseases effect about 1% of total world population and often develop into seriously debilitating conditions with complete stiffening of the spin

A team including scientists at UCMP (Umeå Center for Molecular Pathogenesis), a research unit at Umeå University, shows in last week’s issue of the journal Science that the protein PGRP-LC plays a crucial role in so-called innate immunity.

Professor Dan Hultmark, post-doctoral fellow Svenja Stöven, and doctoral candidate Thomas Werner at UCMP are focusing their attention on the mechanisms behind natural, or innate, immunity, and they are using the fruit-fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as a mod

New candidate cancer drug does damage only in tumours.

A new drug turns lethal only when it reaches cancer cells. In healthy cells it is harmless. Though not yet shown to work in humans, it is a step towards a magic bullet to knock out tumour cells selectively, with minimal side effects.

The drug works in mice implanted with human tumours, say chemists Lutz Tietze and colleagues at the University of Gottingen in Germany. Before being treated with the drug, the mice are giv

South Asian patients are less likely to receive treatment for coronary artery disease than white patients, finds a study in this week’s BMJ.

Researchers in London compared rates of coronary revascularisation (a procedure to restore adequate blood supply to the heart) in 502 south Asian and 2,974 white patients with heart disease.

Although the same proportion of south Asian and white patients were deemed appropriate to undergo revascularisation, south Asian patients were less likely

Homoeopathic remedies are no better than placebo for the treatment of asthmatic patients who are allergic to house dust mite, but there is a difference in response between homoeopathy and placebo, concludes a study in this week’s BMJ.

The research team identified 242 asthmatic people allergic to house dust mite. Participants received either homoeopathic therapy or placebo and were assessed over 16 weeks.

They found no improvement in lung function or quality of life between those tre

HIV patients at risk of a potentially fatal hypersensitive reaction to the antiretroviral drug abacavir could be identified by genetic testing before drug therapy has started, suggest authors of a fast-track study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET.

The use of the HIV antiretroviral drug abacavir, a potent HIV-1 nucleoside-analogue reverse-transcriptase inhibitor, is complicated by a potentially life-threatening hypersensitivity syndrome in about 5% of cases. Genetic factors influencing the