Testing of smart drug expands at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
It is a drug suffused in promise, a next-generation therapy that has shown glimmers of powerful potential. Iressa® is the kind of treatment that oncologists dream of – a pill that can be swallowed once a day, a non-toxic therapy that causes few side effects. For 10 percent of patients who have tried it, people who have no other options left for them, Iressa seems to make the difference between life and death. Another 30 per
Discovery of protein chain may lead to new drugs and treatments
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have identified a complex series of proteins that enable HIV to bypass the natural defenses of human cells and replicate. The discovery of these proteins is the key for understanding how HIV overcomes host defenses and could potentially be new targets for HIV medications. A study detailing the finding is published in the October 16, 2003, online version of
A novel treatment developed by UCSF vascular surgeons has been used in a first-of-its-kind operation to repair a life-threatening aneurysm in the patient’s aortic arch, which carries blood from the heart.
In an aortic aneurysm the walls of the aorta, the primary blood vessels leading away from the heart, bulge out like a filling water balloon. Eventually it bursts, usually causing a fatal bleeding episode.
Using a wire-thin catheter, the UCSF team inserted a specially designe
A mutation in one of the genes that might be responsible for the inflammation that characterizes Crohn’s disease has been identified by researchers at Temple University’s School of Medicine (TUSM).
Their study, “The mutation Ser511Asn leads to N-glycosulation and increases the cleavage of high molecular weight kininogen in rats genetically susceptible to inflammation,” appears in the October 15 issue of Blood (www.bloodjournal.org).
Although the exact cause of Crohn
Although cases of adult-onset diabetes have skyrocketed in the United States, researchers still don’t know much about the biological processes that predispose so many people to the disease. But in research that will be published in the Oct. 16 issue of the journal Nature, scientists say they’ve found a protein that plays an essential role in regulating a cell’s ability to absorb glucose, an important step toward gaining a better understanding of the underlying causes of diabetes.
Implants are artificial roots which are used to insert teeth and which nowadays give very good results. Nevertheless, the Inasmet Foundation together with the dental specialist Mikel Maeztu is developing a new treatment for the Donostia company, Lifenova Biomedical. This treatment will help to strengthen the union between implant and bone. It involves implants inserted through ionic implantation.
The aim of the research is to develop new implants for human patients, and so before carrying o
According to estimates, 10 % of women suffer from urinary incontinence, which can occur at all ages. Stress urinary incontinence is the most prevalent form of the condition and can result from intensive physical exercise, childbirth, weakened pelvic floor muscles, a decrease in blood oestrogen levels, a gynaecological operation or tissue ageing. Most stress urinary incontinence cases can be treated or cured. Several treatments, including surgery, have long helped patients with this psychologically u
A molecule expressed in the earliest stages of pregnancy that vanishes when the baby is born seems to keep some cells responsible for directing the immune system in an immature and accepting stage, Medical College of Georgia researchers says.
Their finding that the molecule HLA-G helps make dendritic cells – which work like air-traffic controllers for the immune system – tolerant helps explain how a fetus, with genes from both parents, can avoid rejection by the mother’s immune system.
Some men may be more prone to prostate cancer because a variation in a specific gene makes them more susceptible to the harmful effects of cancer-causing agents, a new study shows. The results of the study led by Wake Forest University School of Medicine researcher Jianfeng Xu, Ph.D. will be published today in the British Journal of Cancer.
Xu and his team, in collaboration with researchers at Johns Hopkins University, looked at variations in a gene that controls the body’s response to
Two new studies now show that aprepitant – the first in a new class of drugs that interfere with the vomiting reflex – can substantially reduce chemotherapy-associated nausea and vomiting in cancer patients treated with cisplatin, a common type of chemotherapy. Results of both Journal of Clinical Oncology studies, early release articles published online October 14, formed the basis of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of aprepitant in March 2003.
Aprepitant Combined with
New research led by scientists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and The Rockefeller University shows that pediatric brain tumors and Fanconi anemia can develop among children in the rare instance that both parents carry mutations of the BRCA2 gene. The work will be published in the October 15 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
The report describes four families in which both parents carried BRCA2 mutations. The families were part of The International Fanconi Ane
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms include inattention, motor hyperactivity and impulsiveness.
Researchers have found a distinct phenotype or “profile” of adults with co-existing ADHD and alcoholism.
ADHD is five to 10 times more frequent among adult alcoholics than among the normal population. Investigation of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTT) and the 5-HT2c receptor Cys23Ser polymorphism does not support a genetic commonality of ADHD and al
Blood from families at risk contributed to discovery
A team of researchers from University Hospitals of Cleveland (UHC) and Case Western Reserve University have identified a specific location on a human chromosome that can be linked to familial cases of colon cancer–the type of colon cancer that tends to run in families.
Research published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS article #2286) identifies a specific stretch of DNA on chromosome 9 t
A new study by Johns Hopkins Children’s Center scientists confirms the lasting benefits of hemispherectomy, a dramatic operation in which half the brain is removed to relieve frequent severe seizures that medications cannot control.
Results of the study, published in the Oct. 14 issue of Neurology, show that 86 percent of the 111 children who underwent hemispherectomy at the Children’s Center between 1975 and 2001 are either seizure-free or have non-disabling seizures that do not
Men who smoke marijuana frequently have significantly less seminal fluid, a lower total sperm count and their sperm behave abnormally, all of which may affect fertility adversely, a new study in reproductive physiology at the University at Buffalo has shown.
This study is the first to assess marijuana’s effects on specific swimming behavior of sperm from marijuana smokers and to compare the results with sperm from men with confirmed fertility. Marijuana contains the cannabinoid drug TH
But moderate consumption of wine may be protective
Stony Brook University (Stony Brook, NY) researchers report that people who drink at least 9 glasses of alcoholic beverages made with distilled spirits per week for more than 10 years are much more likely than nondrinkers to develop colorectal cancer or premalignant polyps. They also note a protective effect for those who drink wine. The results, which will be presented at the 68th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of
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