One in five asthmatic patients are sensitive to aspirin, yet many are unaware that they are at risk of a potentially life threatening reaction known as aspirin induced asthma, warn researchers in this week’s BMJ.
Aspirin induced asthma is a severe reaction to aspirin and other commonly used painkillers, but controversy exists over its prevalence.
Researchers analysed 21 studies of asthmatic patients and found the prevalence of aspirin induced asthma to be 21% in adults and 5% in chi
A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows, for the first time, an association between coronary heart disease and oral health in women. Recent results have also shown that serological factors, might provide insight into the reported epidemiological association between periodontitis and cardiovascular disease.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the Western industrialized world. Classic risk factors such as smoking, obesity and high blood lipids do not ex
Scientists have developed a new system that uses basic information about the ecology of “vector” borne diseases – malaria, Lyme disease or some of the new emerging diseases such as Avian flu – to mathematically predict how they might change, spread and pose new risks to human health.
The approach, developed by researchers from Oregon State University and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, could become enormously valuable to agencies that are trying to understand what a disease might d
Findings in science advance understanding of intestinal cholesterol pathway and action of Zetia, a cholesterol absorption inhibitor complementary to statin therapy
In a major advance in understanding the intestinal pathway for cholesterol absorption and the mechanism of action for ZETIATM (ezetimibe), scientists at Schering-Plough Research Institute (SPRI) have identified and characterized a long sought protein critical to intestinal cholesterol absorption. In an article published in
Malaria, which infects 600 million people in the world and leads annually to 2 million deaths, is the most widespread of infectious diseases. The pathological agent is a microscopic parasite of the Plasmodium genus which develops inside the host’s erythrocytes.
Plasmodia go through a series of asexual reproduction cycles before a transition takes place from asexual stages to production of sexual cells, the gametocytes or pre-gametes, in the host blood. The females of Anopheles, the mosquito
Every winter inevitably brings with it the flu season, but kids don’t inevitably have to contract the flu, according to an article in the March 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online. The report, which reviews the results of multiple studies on the effects of influenza vaccine on children, indicates that “killed” influenza vaccine is a safe and effective method to reduce the rate of influenza in children as young as 6 months old.
Killed or split-virus influenza v
MGH studies add to understanding of tumor physiology, suggest treatment strategies
A growing tumor needs an increased blood supply for its proliferating cells. But the implications of tumor-related angiogenesis – the growth of new blood vessels – are much more complex than many investigators have realized. Although these new vessels are required to nourish the tumor itself, they are disorganized and abnormal and can actually block therapeutic agents from reaching malignant cells.
A compound currently used to treat patients with severe sepsis also protects brain cells in an unexpected way, say researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center in the Feb. 19 issue of the journal Neuron.
Doctors currently use a modified version of activated protein C or APC to reduce inflammation or increase blood flow in patients with severe sepsis, and last year neuroscientist Berislav Zlokovic, M.D., Ph.D., led a team that showed that the compound also protects the cells tha
Discovery suggests that a ’live virus’ vaccine may offer best defense against avian flu
Researchers at the University of Rochester have identified a protein in the immune system that appears to play a crucial role in protecting against deadly forms of influenza, and may be particularly important in protecting against emerging flu viruses like the avian flu. The researchers believe that a vaccine made with a live but weakened strain of flu virus – such as the inhaled flu vaccine intro
It used to be considered dogma that a nerve, once injured, could never be repaired. Now, researchers have learned that some nerves, even nerves in parts of the brain, can regenerate or be replaced. By studying the chemical signals that encourage or impede the repair of nerves, researchers at the University of Washington, the Salk Institute, and other institutions may contribute to eventual treatments for injured spines and diseased retinas, according to a presentation at the annual meeting of the Ame
For the first time, scientists have identified fresh produce as the source of an outbreak of human Yersinia pseudotuberculosis infections, according to an article published in the March 1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online. The outbreak was identified in Finland and traced epidemiologically to farms producing lettuce.
Y. pseudotuberculosis, first identified in 1883, causes infections characterized by fever and abdominal pain that are often confused with acute
A genetic factor that protects you against heart disease during middle age could reduce the odds that you’ll celebrate your hundredth birthday. Research published in BMC Medical Genetics shows that a genetic trait, which is rarely found in centenarians, is associated with lower cholesterol levels. The risk of suffering from heart disease is increased by a number of factors, including having high levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in your blood. The main component of low-densi
A rapid blood test to help distinguish between bacterial and other (predominantly viral) infections could substantially reduce the inappropriate use of antibiotics for common infections, conclude authors of a study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET.
Lower respiratory tract infections are often treated with antibiotics-even though there is often no evidence of bacterial infection. Such inappropriate use of antibiotics is contributing to the increase of antibiotic-resistant bacteria with seri
In this month’s essay, Tim Hubbard and Jamie Love argue that we need a better way to research and develop new drugs. They contend that the existing system for drug development–rooted within the pharmaceutical industry–is inefficient and unsustainable. Drugs are too expensive and are beyond the reach of many people in the developed as well as the developing world.
The inadequacies in the current system, suggest Hubbard and Love, are a consequence of a business model that uses a single
Cancer often begins with mutations in tumor suppressor pathways. Tumor suppressor genes–such as p53–arrest cell growth and induce apoptosis (programmed cell death) in response to cellular stress, such as chromosomal damage. Cells with p53 mutations can escape these constraints, leading to the uncontrolled growth characteristic of “immortal” cancer cells. Nearly all types of tumors have mutations in the p53 pathway, many of them in the p53 gene itself. Treatments focused on restoring p53 function–w
Like most persistent viruses, HIV uses a variety of strategies to counteract its host’s response to infection. HIV infects the very cells that coordinate the immune response, which compromises the immune system and leaves the body susceptible to normally harmless microorganisms. It is these opportunistic infections, rather than the virus itself, that make HIV so deadly. Victor Appay and colleagues now show that an important effect of persistent HIV infection is generally elevated immune activati
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