MADISON-Mutations that allow AIDS viruses to escape detection by the immune system may also hinder the viruses’ ability to grow after transmission to new hosts, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced this week in the journal Nature Medicine.
The discovery may help researchers design vaccines that exploit the notorious mutability of HIV by training the immune system to attack the virus where it’s most vulnerable. The work appears alongside a study of HIV-infected people
Molecular Probes technology powers breakthrough in drug discovery
Panama’s International Cooperative Biodiversity Group (ICBG) announces the development of a new test for identification of antimalarial compounds with wide applicability in the developing world. The assay for plant-derived compounds also can be used to detect anti-plasmodial compounds from synthetic or natural sources. Initial results of the research are published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hy
For some time, researchers have known that people with diabetes have a greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia than those without diabetes, but the exact cause of this link has not been known. Now, a new study by researchers in Cologne, Germany, and at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, to be published this week online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that insulin resistance in brain cells can affect how they function, causing som
Ninety percent cut in death risk from aspirin, beta blocker, ACE inhibitor and statin
An inexpensive cocktail of four tiny pills can make a big difference in heart patients’ death risk, a new University of Michigan study finds. And the life-saving effect of the four-drug regimen is bigger than the sum of its parts.
In the new paper, U-M Cardiovascular Center researchers report that heart attack and unstable angina patients who were prescribed all four types of proven medica
Amylin, a hormone secreted by the same cells that produce insulin in the pancreas, prevents bone loss, said Baylor College of Medicine researchers and an international group of collaborators in a report in today’s issue of the Journal of Cell Biology.
The finding may point the way toward treatments for osteoporosis, a disease of low bone mass that usually affects post-menopausal women but that is also observed in Type 1 diabetes patients, said Dr. Gèrard Karsenty, professor of molecular
A new tablet could hold the key for men who suffer premature ejaculation, reports Marina Murphy in Chemistry & Industry Magazine. Trials by a US company have shown the pill, compound LI 301, to have an effect on everyone tested. Trials suggest the drug starts working within two hours, so it could be taken on an as-needed basis.
Currently, there are no approved treatments for premature ejaculation. There is no definite date set for the release of LI 301 although some estimates suggest it coul
No matter how funny the joke, many women try not to laugh. They worry about coughing or sneezing unexpectedly, afraid the pressure on the bladder will cause a loss of control. Regardless of how recently they’ve been to the ladies’ room, many women feel the need to go again, victims of an “overactive” bladder that tends to contract even when it isn’t full. Unfortunately, many of these women – and those with other types of urinary incontinence – live in fear, frustratio
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today launched the first public database of results from clinical blood and marrow stem cell transplants involving unrelated donors. Accessible at http://www.ncbi.nih.gov/mhc, this centralized resource provides genetic as well as age, gender and ethnicity data on more than 1,300 tr
Researchers have identified an astounding 4,000 distinctive proteins in human blood plasma, a critical step toward cataloging biological markers for early diagnosis of cancer and other diseases.
“This is 10 times the number of proteins identified” and previously reported, said Richard D. Smith, a senior scientist and Battelle Fellow at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The proteomics advance was announced Saturday at the American Association for the Advan
Diarrhoea, a worldwide killer, could be diagnosed more rapidly thanks to a new diagnostic test devised by researchers at the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England. It is anticipated that this will lead to the development of a device capable of diagnosis at the bedside, saving both lives and money.
The new test produces a chemical fingerprint for different strains of viral and bacterial infection and allows them to be differentiated from ‘normal’ controls, according
Bone marrow stromal cells release a blood vessel-dilating hormone found in the brain — a finding that suggests the hormone may be tapped to help with recovery from stroke or other neurological injuries disrupting blood flow to the central nervous system, researchers at the University of South Florida and James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital report for the first time. The hormone is known as brain natriuretic peptide.
The laboratory study was published in the January 2004 issue of the jou
Killing the disease without killing the patient is an old dilemma for doctors fighting cancer and some of the tougher microorganisms such as fungal infections in individuals with suppressed immune systems. Drugs have little effect when a patient’s own immune system isn’t available to help, and these fungi can resist external radiation that would kill even a perfectly healthy human. But they can be easily killed by a very small dose of radiation inside their cells.
Monoclonal antib
For the first time, scientists at the University of Virginia Health System have engineered cells that produce the pathological hallmark found in the brain cells of all patients with Parkinson’s disease – Lewy bodies, tiny balls of damaged protein, found only in the brain and discovered more than ninety years ago.
The U.Va. research on Lewy bodies means that scientists now have a model of the pathological changes found in Parkinson’s disease “in a dish” and can use this cellular model for ex
A team of researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, lead by Professor Jordi Alberola, has demonstrated the efficacy and safety of a new type of antibiotic, belonging to the family called antimicrobial peptides, for treating canine leishmaniasis, which is a disease that also affects humans. It is the first time that these antibiotics have been demonstrated to be useful against parasitic diseases in real clinical situations. The antibiotic can also improve treatment of other infections, p
In the largest study of its kind, researchers have shown that diabetes can cause chronic liver disease and cancer of the liver. Researchers from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the National Institutes of Health report their findings in the February issue of Gastroenterology, the journal of the American Gastroenterological Association.
The prospective cohort study was comprised of 173,643 patients with diabetes and 650,620 patients without diabetes who were discharged from VA hos
Losing weight and exercising regularly slows progression of chronic liver disease in those who are overweight, indicates a study in Gut.
Being overweight is bad for the liver. And non-alcoholic fatty liver is increasingly being diagnosed in those who are overweight, diabetic, or who have insulin resistance syndrome, a precursor to diabetes. Overweight and obesity are also recognised risk factors for the progression of other chronic liver diseases, such as hepatitis C.
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