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
Authors of a French study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET highlight the link between a specific strain of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus and a severe form of pneumonia in children.
Between 1986 and 1998, eight cases of community-acquired pneumonia due to S aureus strains carrying the gene for the Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) were recorded in France, six of which were fatal. Jerome Etienne from the Centre Hospitalo-Universitaire of Lyon, France, aimed to assess the clinical feat
Alcoholics, especially those who relapse after frequent attempts to “dry out”, are damaging areas of their brain that recognise emotions, a University of Sussex study suggests.
Research on people’s responses to photographs of different emotional facial expressions shows that heavy drinkers who had previously tried to kick the bottle are more likely than either non-alcoholics, or alcoholics who had not previously experienced withdrawal symptoms, to read fear and sadness in all emotional expre
A team of researchers at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, co-ordinated by Professors Josep Egozcue and Cristina Templado, has shown for the first time that the older a man is, the more probable it is that his spermatozoa will present chromosome anomalies. This is the first time that a lineal relationship has been established with precision between these two factors. The conclusions of this study, published in the European Journal of Human Genetics, increase the importance of the father’s age in
Women are seven times more likely than men to admit to a partner that they have a sexually acquired infection, reveals research in Sexually Transmitted Infections. The findings were irrespective of age or type of infection.
The findings are based on three population surveys of sexual behaviour carried out in France in the early to mid 1990s. Two of the surveys comprised a total of around 7000 adults; the third dealt with just over 6000 adolescents from 15 upwards. All those surveyed were ask
The issue of insulin-dependent diabetes has long been discussed. No wonder, as the problem concerns more than 5% of the world population. However, despite the enormous efforts and funds spent on its solution, the scientists so far have failed to replace the injections with pills. The difficulty is that insulin (like any other polypeptide) gets easily destroyed under the influence of proteolytic enzymes in the stomach and small intestines. The scientists have tried a variety of means: insulin plasters
A team of researchers at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) has discovered a new mechanism that accelerates the shortening of telomeres (structures that protect the ends of chromosomes) involved in genetic instability and a predisposition to cancer. The research has been published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics.
DNA in higher organisms is organised into individual chromosomes, the ends of which are protected by structures called telomeres. Telomeres are very important in ma
Testicular cancer – cure rates now so high patients may be more at risk from the treatment than the cancer returning say researchers
The treatment of testicular cancer has become so successful and relapse rates are now so low that doctors face a problem unheard of 20 years ago – patients are living long enough to suffer long term side effects that are potentially life-threatening and decrease the survivors’ quality of life.
With cure rates over 90% in many cases and nearly 50
More effective vaccines will be developed as a result of research at the University of Dundee which is harnessing the skills of special cells in the body`s immune response process.
The Medical Research Council has awarded Professor Colin Watts and his colleagues £1.2 million to fund work on key cells in our immune system called dendritic cells. Colin is Professor of Immunology in the School of Life Sciences.
Although immunologists have known about dendritic cells for many years thei
It is possible to measure levels of the stress hormone cortisol not only in blood but also in saliva. Linköping physician Elisabeth Aardal-Eriksson has further developed a saliva test to make it reliable and easy to use, not only in hospitals but also in the field. The findings are presented in a dissertation at Linköping University, Sweden. The researcher has also found that the corisol content of saliva is related to the occurrence of so-called posttraumatic symptoms of stress.
In the fir
The widely held parental belief that asthma inhalers cause hyperactivity in children is not confirmed by research published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
The researchers studied 19 asthmatic children between the ages of 2 and 5, all of whom were treated with fast acting reliever inhalers/nebulisers containing salbutamol. The children were being seen at the children’s respiratory clinic at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, London.
Before being tested, the children’s hyperacti
In the edition of Nature dated Thursday 21 February 2002, an international team of scientists report their analysis of the genome of fission yeast (Schizosaccharomyces pombe). The project, largely funded through a €6.9 million from the European Commission, is likely to have major implications for the future of cancer and other bio-medical research. Fifty of the yeast genes were found to have significant similarity with genes involved in human diseases, including cystic fibrosis, hereditary deafness a
Scientists at the Netherlands Institute for Brain Research have developed an experimental therapy which enables rats with a spinal cord lesion to partially recover from their paralysis. Up until now not even the slightest degree of recovery was possible. PhD student Bas Blits was part of this team.
The method uses a combination of transplantation and gene therapy. For the transplantation, the researchers implanted nerve cells cultured in vitro. The cells originated from the nerves between th
A global mass killer could be tamed with the aid of satellite technology. Scientists are using data from Meteosat to help model and predict outbreaks of malaria. “Satellite sensor data hold out hope for the development of early-warning systems for diseases such as malaria, which kills between 1 and 2 million people each year,” says David Rogers, of Oxford University’s Department of Zoology.
Rogers is part of a team based in Oxford, Nairobi and at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Marylan
Obesity epidemic sweeps into developing world
Obesity is spreading to all corners of the globe, researchers warned the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston. Sedentary lifestyles and fast food are causing previously unaffected populations to fall foul of fat.
“Obesity is no longer confined to Western, industrialized societies,” said anthropologist Marquisa LaVelle of the University of Rhode Island, Providence. Guatemalans in the United S
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