The anti-inflammatory drug Celebrex, or celecoxib, reduces tumor mass by encouraging cell death and discouraging both cell proliferation and the sprouting of new blood vessels that feed growing tumors, according to a study reported in the November issue of Molecular Cancer Research.

The study, conducted by researchers at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Scottsdale, Ariz., suggests this drug one day might be used to prevent and even treat breast tumors. Celebrex, marketed b

Editorial: Betting your life on it BMJ Volume 329 pp 1055-6

Problem gambling is a health issue that needs to be taken seriously by all within the medical profession, argues a researcher in this week’s BMJ. The United Kingdom is just about to undergo one of the most radical changes of gambling legislation in its history. The new gambling bill will provide the British public with increased opportunities and access to gambling like they have never seen before.

The health an

In relieving overactive bladder as standard treatment alone

Combination therapy with Pfizer Inc’s DETROL® LA (tolterodine tartrate extended release capsules) and an alpha blocker, a standard treatment for enlarged prostate, was twice as effective in relieving overactive bladder (OAB) symptoms as the alpha blocker alone in men with both bladder obstruction and OAB, according to a study published in the October issue of the British Journal of Urology. Six million American men su

The University of Rochester Medical Center has a new tool to assess whether a medication might be harmful to the heart. The technology addresses a major health issue – drug toxicity – illustrated most recently by Merck’s voluntary withdrawal of Vioxx from the market after concerns that it may cause heart attacks and strokes.

Jean-Philippe Couderc, a biomedical engineer, developed a software program that provides a simpler, more accurate way to analyze the electrocardiograms (EK

The discovery by a Leeds University scientist of a new blindness gene could help to save the sight of thousands of sufferers of retinal disease which affects premature babies as well as people over 60.

By improving our understanding of vascular development, the breakthrough could also shed light on other diseases including tumour formation and arthritis. Carmel Toomes, member of the Leeds vision research group, said the work could lead to early diagnosis of diseases affecting the

The first test in humans of a bioartificial kidney offers hope of the device’s potential to save the lives of people with acute renal failure, researchers at the University of Michigan Health System report.

While the phase I/II study was designed primarily to look at the safety of using this device on humans, the results also suggest improvement in kidney function. The patients enrolled in the trial faced an average 86 percent likelihood of dying at the hospital. Six of those 10

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine have identified the growth factors essential to allow spermatogonial stem cells — the continually self-renewing cells that produce sperm — to exist in culture indefinitely. Their findings will be presented this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science online Early Edition.

After being kept in culture for three months, the stem cells restored sperm production, and therefore fertil

Cornell University researchers, who are trying to understand how proteins evolve and function by looking at their structural features, have uncovered the crystal structure of a protein involved in making the building blocks of DNA correctly.

The protein is AIRs kinase, and to the researchers’ surprise, its shape is similar to other members of the riboside kinase family, proteins that are important in making DNA and RNA, the molecules that make up genes. As a result, the rese

DNA breaks from radiation, toxic chemicals, or other environmental causes occur routinely in cells and, unless promptly and properly repaired, can lead to cancer-causing mutations. When the breaks cannot be repaired, and the cell is vulnerable to becoming cancerous, critical backup protection governed by the p53 protein kicks in. This protein is the end of the line in a vital signaling cascade that triggers cells with fatally damaged DNA to self-destruct so that they cannot cause cancer.

Findings may lead to genetic tests

Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids) and Mount Sinai Hospital (MSH) have discovered a possible genetic mechanism behind congenital heart defects. This finding has implications for understanding how congenital heart defects occur, and may lead to genetic tests for certain defects, such as proteins that determine how genes are expressed. This also opens new insights into how general chromosome properties can relate to specific

Scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have identified a protein that serves as a master regulator of skin cancer – a finding that could lead to new ways to prevent skin cancer before it starts.

The protein, called STAT3, had been known to be involved in cancer, but John DiGiovanni Ph.D., and his colleagues showed that activated STAT3 is necessary for skin cancer to begin and that without it, skin cancer can’t develop. The study, which appear

Advance could lead to new infertility treatments, source of adult stem cells

A team of researchers working with cells from mice has overcome a technical barrier and succeeded in growing sperm progenitor cells in laboratory culture. The researchers transplanted the cells into infertile mice, which were then able to produce sperm and father offspring that were genetically related to the donor mice. “This advance opens up an exciting range of possibilities for future research, from d

University of Pittsburgh researchers have identified biomarkers that could result in earlier and more accurate diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a devastating disease that affects as many as 1.5 million Americans, and occurs 10 to 15 times more frequently in women. The results are published in the November 2004 issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism.

“This is the first report of abnormal levels of the protein erythrocyte-C4d in human disease,” said lead author Susan Ma

Cosmetic face cream used by fashionable Roman women has been analysed by scientists at Bristol University, UK, and then reproduced. The results of this unique opportunity to analyse the ingredients of the ’foundation’ cream are reported in Nature this week (4 November).

The cream was found to be composed of refined animal fat, starch and tin. The researchers then created their own version, made to the same recipe. When they rubbed the whitish cream into their skin, it p

Our ancestors had two nostrils, one front and one back, but no opening on the palate or in the throat. They could smell, but not breathe with their nose. How did our nose evolve? Per Ahlberg, Uppsala university, and Zhu Min, department of Vertebrate Paleontology in Beijing, China, has now found a fossil that explains the history of the nose.

Have you ever wondered, taking a deep breath of fresh autumn air and sensing how the smell of wet leaves tickles your nose, just how it ca

“Bacteria that fix nitrogen only do so when they sense that there is very little nitrogen available in their environment,” says Professor Ray Dixon (Project Leader at the JIC. “Normally the genes for nitrogen fixation are locked off and only unlocked and used when nitrogen levels in the environment fall. We have discovered a key piece of biochemistry that allows us to better understand how the lock operates and so may allow us to alter how it works”.

The bacterium Azotobacter vinel