Mental Health
Biophysicists long for an ideal material - something more structured and less sticky than a standard glass surface - to anchor and position individual biomolecules. Gold is an alluring possibility, with its simple chemistry and the ease with which it can be patterned. Unfortunately, gold also tends to be sticky and can be melted by lasers. Now, biophysicists at JILA have made gold more precious than ever - at least as a research tool - by creating nonstick gold surfaces and laser-safe gold nanoposts, a potential boon to laser trapping of biomolecules.
Living in an area with more fast food outlets and convenience stores than supermarkets and grocers has been associated with obesity in a Canadian study. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Public Health have shown that your local food environment can affect your weight.
A polyomavirus known as MCPyV is associated with clinical outcomes, including fewer metastases and better survival, in patients with a rare form of skin cancer called Merkel cell carcinoma, according to a new study published online June 17 in the JNCI.
Oxoid, a world leading microbiology brand, is pleased to announce that the ProSpecT™ range of qualitative enzyme immunoassays has recently been extended to include test kits for Adenovirus, Astrovirus, Clostridium difficile, Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, Entamoeba histolytica, Giardia, Giardia/Cryptosporidium, Rotavirus, Shiga Toxin Escherichia coli.
In research that could lead to new approaches for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, a Yale School of Medicine team has found that suppressing a liver enzyme that induces glucose production helped diminish the symptoms of the disease in a rat model - reducing blood glucose concentrations, decreasing rates of glucose production in the liver, and improving insulin sensitivity. Decreasing expression of the gene, Sirtuin 1, also lowered total cholesterol levels.
At a meeting sponsored by the National Council on Aging (NCOA) and the Medicare Diabetes Screening Project (MDSP), former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, experts in diabetes research and education, and representatives of senior-serving organizations from a four-state area gathered in Washington, DC to draw attention to the need for increased screening for diabetes among older adults ages 65 and older insured by Medicare.
AlphaRx (OTC BB:ALRX) is pleased to report a significant breakthrough in the development of Zysolin(TM), an inhaled Tobramycin nanoparticle formulation utilizing the company"s proprietary drug delivery platform, and intended for the adjunctive treatment of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Pneumonia in intubated and mechanically-ventilated patients (VAP).
Forty-six percent of patients over age 60 currently on the waiting list for a kidney transplant will die before they receive an organ from a deceased donor, reports an upcoming study in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). "Our results emphasize the particular need to consider living donation as an alternative for some older patients or alternatively, the critical importance of navigating the steps to receive a deceased donor transplant as rapidly as possible," comments Jesse D. Schold, PhD (University of Florida, Gainesville).
It"s common knowledge that a protective navy of bacteria normally floats in our intestinal tracts. Antibiotics at least temporarily disturb the normal balance. But it"s unclear which antibiotics are the most disruptive, and if the full array of "good bacteria" return promptly or remain altered for some time.
According to a new report by HHS" Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that genetic testing for two gene mutations in adults with a history of blood clots helps to prevent a condition known as deep-vein thrombosis or to improve other clinical outcomes.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have successfully edited the genome of human- induced pluripotent stem cells, making possible the future development of patient-specific stem cell therapies. Reporting this week in Cell Stem Cell, the team altered a gene responsible for causing the rare blood disease paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, or PNH, establishing for the first time a useful system to learn more about the disease.
The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) applauds the recommendations regarding chronic disease in the report by the Bipartisan Policy Center"s (BPC) Leaders" Project, entitled "Crossing Our Lines: Working Together to Reform the U.S. Health System." The report outlines key health care reform policy recommendations from a bipartisan perspective to ensure that all Americans have quality, affordable health care.
Being a father is an important factor in a man"s decision to seek
The World Health Organization and UNICEF today called on governments to strengthen risk reduction measures in four key areas so that health and education systems are able to cope with disasters, including the risks from climate change. These are:
Thousands of unregistered Rohingya refugees living in the Kutupalong makeshift camp, Bangladesh, are being forcibly displaced from their homes, in an act of intimidation and abuse by the local authorities. The international medical organization Doctors Without Border/Mçİdecins Sans Frontiç¨res (MSF) has treated numerous people for injuries, of which the majority were women and children. Furthermore, MSF has witnessed countless destroyed homes and heard many reports of people being warned to remove their own shelters or face the consequences.
The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, and Dr. Chen Zhu, Minister of Health for the People"s Republic of China, today signed a Plan of Action for continued cooperation between the two countries on health priorities of mutual concern. The signing ceremony followed discussions among senior Canadian and Chinese health officials and experts on a range of health issues, including strengthening and reform of health-care systems, primary health care and food safety.
"It was particularly devastating on Wednesday when [Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah]" - a longtime friend of Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., - "warned Democrats on the panel that they have already made some grave errors in their effort to write legislation overhauling the health care system," reports the New York Times in The Caucus Blog. "Now unfortunately we are beginning a partisan exercise on perhaps the most important legislation of our lives," Hatch said during a meeting of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee yesterday (Herszenhorn, 6/17).
"Employers who offer health insurance coverage could see a 9 percent cost increase next year, and their workers may face an even bigger hit, according to a report Thursday from consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers," the Associated Press reports. Workers concerned about losing their jobs" and their insurance, while it lasts - are using more health care than usual, contributing to rising costs, the report says. As the costs increase, employers are also likely to shift more of the burden to employees. "A total of 42% of employers surveyed said they would increase employees" share of costs," the AP reports.
The GOP Can Stop ObamaCare Wall Street Journal
Eye disease and sight loss cost the UK nearly ÷£6.5bn in 2008, according to new research** which informs, "Cost Oversight", a report due later this summer from the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB). In addition, research found that the impact on quality of life (including loss of healthy life and premature death) associated with partial sight and blindness also has a cost to society, estimated at a further ÷£15.5bn in 2008.
"California will not be saving money," in its proposal to cut funding from HIV/AIDS programs, including the state AIDS Drug Assistance Program, Ken Owens, member of the Inland Empire HIV Planning Council and former member of the Desert AIDS Client Committee, writes in a Desert Sun opinion piece. He adds, "Instead, it will have more people looking for places to live and needing more state services because they are sick, need welfare funds and state healthcare." Owens continues, "Their plan of balancing the budget will surely cost lives if HIV/AIDS funding is cut" (Owens, Desert Sun, 6/18).
The European Congress on Anti-Aging & Aesthetic Medicine (ECAAAM) is proud to welcome the support of the University of Mainz for its 2nd annual event (15th - 17th October, Mainz, Mainz Congress Centre). ECAAAM is a cutting edge congress that provides medical professionals, scientists and industry personnel with the training and education they need to treat age-related dysfunctions, disorders and diseases.
Panasonic Toyota Racing Formula 1 drivers will team up with the
Southampton researchers studying the treatment of severe asthma have won a share of a 23m euro grant. Experts at the city"s Respiratory Biomedical Research Unit (BRU), based at Southampton General Hospital, are among a consortium of 14 European academic centres of excellence to receive a slice of the funding.
Pomegranate juice may be beneficial in men who have undergone standard treatment for localized prostate cancer, according to a long-term study presented at the 104th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association.
New evidence underscores the theory of human origin that suggests humans most likely share a common ancestor with orangutans, according to research from the University of Pittsburgh and the Buffalo Museum of Science. Reporting in the June 18 edition of the Journal of Biogeography, the researchers reject as "problematic" the popular suggestion, based on DNA analysis, that humans are most closely related to chimpanzees, which they maintain is not supported by fossil evidence.
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation said recently that for the fourth time in 18 months, one of its biotech partners has signed a collaboration agreement with a large pharmaceutical company to move research on type 1 diabetes into the final phases of trials.
Helix BioPharma Corp. (TSX, FSE: HBP) announced that Dr. Heman Chao, chief scientific officer at Helix BioPharma Corp., will be presenting a scientific poster describing L-DOS47 analytical method development findings at the 2009 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists ("AAPS") National Biotechnology Conference, which runs from June 21st to 24th at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington.
Like a mechanic popping the hood of a car to get at a faulty engine, a tumor-suppressing protein allows cellular repair mechanisms to pounce on damaged DNA by overcoming a barrier to DNA access.
Electrical spinal cord stimulation (SCS) provides an option for military personnel with back pain and other chronic pain conditions in appropriate cases, allowing soldiers to return to combat and other strenuous duties, according to a study in the July issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS).
Researchers have identified a genetic glitch that could lead to development of neuroblastoma, a deadly form of cancer that typically strikes children under 2.
The Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium (MMRC), an innovative research model comprised of a network of 15 academic Member Institutions across North America and leadership in Norwalk, Connecticut, announced preliminary data from an analysis showing that clinical trials opened through its clinical trials network were activated 30 to 40 percent faster than comparable clinical trials in oncology. Based on the implementation of specific business solutions, particularly scientific leadership, standardized clinical contracts and on-site project management res, the MMRC has been able to decrease by an average of 100 days the time from the development and finalization of the trial"s protocol to actual patient enrollment.
UroToday.com - Gluttony is becoming an ever-increasing problem in our pediatric patients, and this is directly correlated to an increase risk of stone disease.
UroToday.com - Men undergoing surgical interventions for BPH are still at risk for subsequent development of prostate cancer (CaP) due to residual tissue. It is suggested that PSA decreases approximately 0.1-0.3ng/ml for every 1g of prostate tissue removed. In the online edition of Urology, Dr. Brian Helfand and associates determined the PSA values and PSAV in patients who had undergone TURP, holmium laser resection of the prostate (HoLRP), or open prostatectomy (OP) for treatment of BPH and compare these values in patients with histologic BPH only with the values in those with incidentally found CaP.
UroToday.com - My laboratory established a series of urothelial cancer cell lines at the University of Michigan. Having worked with them for more than 2 decades, I became aware of some inconsistencies in results. This led to defining the genomic signature of the cell lines to assure that contamination was not the of these errors. We did find evidence for contamination both in our lab and in the laboratories of our collaborators. Cell line verification has recently been identified by the NIH as a component of high quality research. This manuscript describes unique signatures that can be used to identify my cell lines.
BERKELEY, CA (UroToday.com) - I was trained and board certified as a urologist (University of Virginia) and pathologist (Cornell and UVA) and arrived at Johns Hopkins in 1991 to do a research fellowship with Dr. William B. Isaacs, funded by the American Foundation for Urologic Disease (now the AUA Foundation).
School Nutrition Association president Dr. Katie Wilson, SNS announced new data today on the widespread availability of vegetarian school lunch options. Almost two thirds of school nutrition programs now offer a vegetarian school lunch on a consistent basis, up from 22% in 2003, according to the Association"s soon to be released 2009 School Nutrition Operations Report. The availability of vegetarian school lunches in a majority of districts is consistent with the overall trend in the past five years towards more nutritious school lunches emphasizing whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and low-fat dairy. The vegetarian choices also come in spite of federal school lunch reimbursements that have not kept pace with increased food and labor costs. Dr. Wilson presented the research findings at the National Conference on Childhood Obesity in Washington, DC today.
Several news organizations had explainers detailing the ongoing the health reform debate.
News outlets are searching out interesting quotes from players in the health reform debate.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) commented on figures released by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) on healthcare associated infections between January and March 2009. The figures show that while infection rates are significantly lower than they were in the same quarter of last year, they are slightly higher than those of the previous quarter.
CNN examines race disparities in health care during a 4-minute segment that is part of the station"s week-long focus on health care issues.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) on Thursday called on Los Angeles County health officials to require that condoms be used in the adult film industry or shut down production in light of a recent report that a number of people at the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation (AIMHF) clinic have tested positive for HIV since 2004, the Los Angeles Times reports. The group also criticized the county"s response to cases of HIV in the adult industry. Michael Weinstein, president of AHF, said, "L.A. County public health officials have been asleep at the switch with regard to monitoring HIV and STD prevention and testing in the region"s porn industry." Other questions have been raised regarding the county"s role in the notification of partners of those who test positive for HIV, according to the Times (Los Angeles Times, 6/19).
US researchers found that men with prostate cancer who consumed a mix of polyphenols found in green tea experienced a significant reduction in
Senate Passes Bill Including Flu Funds
After years of declining teenage pregnancy rates and improved teen contraception use during the 1990s and early 2000s, the trends appeared to have flattened or even reversed among some groups of teens in recent years, according to a study from Columbia University"s Mailman School of Public Health and the Guttmacher Institute, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Researchers found that from 2003 to 2007, teens" contraceptive use declined by 10%, while their level of sexual activity did not change. The decrease in contraceptive use was particularly prevalent among black teens. The figures take into account the rate of contraception use as well as the types of contraceptives used, as methods vary in effectiveness. Teen condom use leveled off and in some cases declined, according to the study. The study also reported that the teen birth rate increased by 5% from 2005 to 2007. According to the study"s authors, the findings suggest a link between declining teen contraception use and the rise in abstinence-only education during former President George W. Bush"s administration. President Obama"s fiscal year 2010 budget proposal calls for redirecting some abstinence-only funds toward increased comprehensive sex education, the Monitor reports. In addition to the effects of abstinence-only sex education, the decline in condom use also could be tied to lessening concern about sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. A shift in the teen population to include a higher number of Hispanics -- who have the highest rates of teen pregnancy and birth -- also could contribute to the findings. Laura Lindberg, one of the study"s authors and a senior research associate at Guttmacher, said, "In the end, this story is really about the loss of momentum." She added that although the statistical changes are small, "they raise concern about what the next few years will bring in this country." Sarah Brown, director of the National Campaign To Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, noted that the proportion of births to unmarried women, particularly among women ages 20 to 24, also is on the upswing (Feldmann, Christian Science Monitor, 6/18).
Eli Lilly and Company presented data on the short- and long-term efficacy and safety of olanzapine long-acting injection (LAI) in the treatment of adults with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Olanzapine LAI is an investigational formulation that combines the atypical antipsychotic Zyprexa(R) (olanzapine) with pamoic acid, allowing for the sustained delivery of olanzapine for up to four weeks.
Rapamycin, a drug given to transplant recipients to suppress their immune systems, has a paradoxical effect on cells responsible for immune memory, scientists at the Emory Vaccine Center have discovered.
Patients with an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) have an ongoing risk of sudden incapacitation that might cause harm to others while driving a car. Driving restrictions are imposed making these recommendations an important guideline for patients.
Immobilized microbes can break down potentially harmful phthalates, according to researchers in China, writing in the International Journal of Environment and Pollution. The microbes might be used to treat industrial waste water and so prevent these materials from entering the environment.
Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II alpha (CaMKII alpha) is an enzyme that adds phosphates to a variety of protein substrates to modify their functions. CaMKII alpha is enriched in the hippocampus, the memory center of the brain, and is believed to be an essential mediator of activity-dependent synaptic plasticity and memory functions. However, the causative role of the enzymatic activity of CaMKII alpha in such processes has not been demonstrated yet, because this enzyme has multiple protein functions other than the kinase activity. A Japanese research group, led by Dr Yoko Yamagata of the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Japan, has successfully generated a novel kinase-dead mutant mouse of the CaMKII alpha gene that completely and exclusively lacks its kinase activity. They examined hippocampal synaptic plasticity and behavioral learning of the mouse, and found a severe deficit in both processes. They reported their findings in the Journal of Neuroscience, published on June 10, 2009.
Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC (19th June 2009) - Prison should be abolished in its current form, according to Joe Sim, Professor of Criminology at Liverpool John Moores University.
PharmaVentures Ltd, announced that it has been engaged by InDex Pharmaceuticals AB to advise and assist in out-licensing its first in class therapeutic, Kappaproct (DIMS 0150), for the treatment of steroid resistant / dependent Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). The engagement will utilise PharmaVentures" transactions experience in the healthcare and investment business sectors.
The rapid development of modern neuroimaging has made a decisive improvement in the diagnosis of neurological illnesses. As Professor Filippi notes: "Neuroimaging makes new diagnostic tools available with the potential to quantify the extent of CNS injury, to define the nature of the different pathological substrates of the various CNS affections and to assess the functional changes following tissue damage with the ability to limit the clinical consequences of injury."
Biomodels LLC, a preclinical research organization specializing in cancer support care, announced that its customized research program allowed ActoGeniX NV, a development stage biopharmaceutical company, to rapidly attain Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for Phase 1b clinical trials of AGO13 in cancer patients with oral mucositis.
A significant study was released today demonstrating the efficacy of Interactive Patient Care technology on improving outcomes in heart failure care.
Biopure Corporation (Nasdaq: BPUR) announced that the Food and Drug Administration has advised the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) by letter that it may not initiate a clinical trial of Biopure"s oxygen therapeutic Hemopure(R) [hemoglobin glutamer -- 250 (bovine)] under a proposed protocol submitted to the FDA in March 2009. As previously announced, the study, "Restore Effective Survival in Shock" (RESUS) was first proposed and submitted to the FDA in 2005. The proposed trial was placed on clinical hold at that time. It has been resubmitted repeatedly in response to FDA comments and to address comments made by the FDA Blood Products Advisory Committee at an open meeting held in December 2006. Each subsequent submission, including the most recent, was placed on clinical hold.
Providence Tarzana Medical Center on Friday became the first. hospital in the nation to use the latest generation in imaging - the Ziehm Vision RFD - in this case to aid a surgeon in opening the clogged carotid artery of a patient who had suffered a small stroke.
Loss of muscle strength, speed and dexterity is a common consequence of aging and a well-established risk factor for death, disability and dementia. Yet little is known about how and why motor decline occurs when it is not a symptom of disease.
A new study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) reports that the rates of death and hospital admissions for cardiovascular disease declined thirty percent over a ten year period in Canada. The findings draw attention to successful efforts to prevent heart disease, the leading cause of death globally. But, for the first time, there is indication that more women than men are dying of cardiovascular causes.
There is also increasing knowledge about higher frequency of compulsive behavior in patients with PD compared to the general population. "These impulse control disorders such as pathological gambling, hyper-sexuality, compulsive shopping, compulsive eating or compulsive overuse of dopaminergic drugs can lead to monetary losses or worsen social handicap of PD patients," Professor Bassetti explains.
Merck Serono, a division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, announced the initiation of its global Phase III clinical study of the therapeutic cancer vaccine Stimuvax® (BLP25 liposome vaccine, L-BLP25) in patients with advanced, inoperable breast cancer. The STRIDEa study will determine if Stimuvax can extend progression-free survival in patients treated with hormonal therapy who have hormone receptor-positive, locally advanced, recurrent or metastatic breast cancer. Overall survival, quality of life, tumor response and safety will also be assessed in this study. The STRIDE study will be supervised by an expert Steering Committee and is sponsored by Merck Serono, which is leading the development of Stimuvax.
A research team may have broken the stubborn impasse that has frustrated the invention of an effective HIV vaccine, by using an approach that bypasses the usual path followed by vaccine developers. By using gene transfer technology that produces molecules that block infection, the scientists protected monkeys from infection by a virus closely related to HIV -- the simian immunodeficiency virus, or SIV -- that causes AIDS in rhesus monkeys.
House Democrats" health care bill draft released Friday is likely to survive relatively intact, "including a robust new Medicare-like public health plan that would compete with private companies in a national health insurance exchange," Roll Call reports.
The Houston Department of Health and Human Services, along with several community health agencies, over the next three weeks is seeking to test 15,000 young adults for HIV as part of an effort to commemorate National HIV Testing Day on June 27, the Houston Chronicle reports. To encourage people to participate, those who take the test and receive their results and one hour of HIV education will get free tickets to a local hip-hop concert. A similar effort last year tested 2,700 young adults in two weeks, and roughly 7,500 were screened over seven weeks in 2007. Combined, the 2007 and 2008 efforts identified about 50 people with the virus, according to the Chronicle (George, Houston Chronicle, 6/21).
Instead of responding to natural disasters after they happen, aid should be dedicated to helping countries prepare for future disasters, John Holmes, the U.N."s emergency relief coordinator, said Friday, Reuters reports. "You can"t stop the disasters happening but you can make an enormous difference to whether they kill people and, to some extent at least, have their livelihoods destroyed," Holmes said during a press conference in Geneva that came at the end of a week-long meeting that tackled ideas on how to best prepare poorer countries for natural disasters.
Chronic asthma sufferers may find new relief in a simple, minimally invasive outpatient procedure known as bronchial thermoplasty, which uses controlled radiofrequency-generated heat to treat the muscles of the airways, preventing them from constricting and narrowing. The study, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), marks the most recent phase of investigational trials of the Alair System, the device used in the bronchial thermoplasty procedure. If approved, it would become the first non-pharmaceutical therapy to effectively treat severe asthma.
After the murder last month of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller, "there is a very real danger" that the availability of abortion later in pregnancy "will end in this country -- not after public deliberation, legislative debate and majority vote, but because antiabortion absolutists on the fringe have intimidated and blacklisted doctors and successfully threatened violence against them," Jim Buie, author of the blog The Buie Knife, writes in a Newsweek.com opinion piece. Buie writes that his parents in the early 1950s chose to institutionalize his three-year-old-brother, who was born with severe Down syndrome, after their attempts to care for him left them with "severe emotional distress" and unable "to meet the needs of their healthy children."Buie continues that he "cannot say that the option of a late-term abortion would have been the right one for my parents." However, "some of the arguments advanced by pro-life forces disturb me," he says, especially a "tendency to romanticize, sentimentalize and idealize life with a cute, forever-young Down-syndrome "angel child."" Buie adds, "It"s an argument I find off-putting, especially when it"s espoused by people who have never been through the wringer trying to care for a child whose disability level is on the most severe end of the scale." He continues, "At the same time, it is very disturbing that until recently, the majority of Down-syndrome fetuses were aborted without expectant mothers receiving proper information or support."Because of Tiller"s murder, it is "possible there won"t be any doctors in the country willing to perform" abortion later in pregnancy, "even if prenatal tests indicate severe retardation," according to Buie, who adds that this would mean that "domestic terrorism could win." He concludes, "It would mean that parents like my own would no longer have a choice, and would instead be forced to endure the same harsh realities that were present in the 1950s" (Buie, Newsweek.com, 6/17).
Drosophila larvae avoid light during the foraging stage of their development. Research published in the open access journal BMC Neuroscience shows that both 5-HT (serotonergic) and corazonergic neurons have a role in regulating this behavior.
Why the immune system of a pregnant woman does not attack her developing fetus is one of most remarkable features of pregnancy, and several underlying mechanisms have been described. However, Adrian Erlebacher and colleagues, at the New York University School of Medicine, New York, have now identified a new mechanism to explain why the mouse maternal immune system does not attack the fetuses.
A University of Pennsylvania-collaboration of bioengineers studying the physical forces generated by individual cells has created a tiny micron-sized device that allows researchers to measure and manipulate cellular forces as assemblies of living cells reorganize themselves into tissues.
A study published in the July issue of Anesthesiology offers perhaps the first estimation of how genomic copy number variation (CNV) can influence anesthetic sensitivity and the magnitude of this influence.
Yesterday morning, AARP CEO A. Barry Rand delivered the following remarks at the White House announcement of a new agreement to substantially fill the Medicare Part D coverage gap:
Provectus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTC BB: PVCT), a development-stage oncology and dermatology biopharmaceutical company, has begun a compassionate use program for PV-10 and has made the agent, which is in development as a therapeutic agent for a broad spectrum of cancers, available for select cancer patients.
Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) announced enrollment of the first patient in a Phase III, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of PEGylated interferon beta-1a (BIIB017) in patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis (RMS). The trial, called ADVANCE, will determine the efficacy of PEGylated interferon beta-1a in reducing relapse rates in patients with RMS.
High cholesterol levels are considered to be a risk factor not only for cardiovascular disease including stroke, but also for the development of Alzheimer"s disease. Therefore, many cholesterol lowering drugs, including statins, have been developed in recent years. In addition to the cholesterol reducing effect of statins Amalia Dolga, PhD, of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, and her co-investigators have demonstrated that statins can protect nerve cells against damage which we know to occur in the brain of Alzheimer"s disease patients. The results are published in the June issue of the Journal of Alzheimer"s Disease.
Statement attributable to: J. James Rohack, M.D.
The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law welcomes President Obama"s announcement today of his commitment to the promise of the landmark Supreme Court case, Olmstead v. L.C., on its 10th anniversary. In a statement released by the White House today the President launched a "Year of Community Living" and tasked the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to identify initiatives that will develop and improve services and supports to assist people with disabilities who wish to live in the most integrated settings possible.
When infected, the body has two types of immune defence to deploy innate immunity and acquired immunity. In her dissertation, Shanie Saghafian Hedengren studies monocytes, a type of white blood corpuscles that are part of the innate immune system.
What are the costs of caring? A new project in the School of Psychology explores nurses" experience of distress and aims to determine if empathy with patients is associated with traumatic experience in nurses.
The American Cancer Society and the National Palliative Care Research Center (NPCRC) are awarding $1.5 million in research grants to researchers at eleven institutions for studies aimed at reducing suffering for seriously ill patients and their family caregivers. The studies will be conducted over the next two years. The NPCRC, in collaboration with the American Cancer Society, has directed over $5 million towards supporting 38 palliative care research projects since starting this initiative three years ago.
BMA Scotland has warned that children who smoke face years of tobacco addiction that can lead to life-threatening diseases and premature death. The association also called on MSPs to support the proposals contained in the Tobacco and Primary Medical services (Scotland) Bill in order to reduce children"s exposure to tobacco products.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) is reminding Kansans to protect themselves in hot summer temperatures.
An elderly Baltimore metro area resident with serious underlying medical conditions and a novel H1N1 influenza virus infection has died, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH). Among other complications, H1N1 flu was a contributing factor, making this Maryland"s first death confirmed to be associated with the novel flu strain. Personal details about the case, including specific underlying health conditions, will not be released to protect the privacy of the resident and the resident"s family.
The New Mexico Department of Health announced today that a 65-year-old man from San Miguel County is hospitalized in critical condition at University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque with the state"s second case of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome this year. The Department of Health confirmed the case of Hantavirus on Wednesday and is conducting an environmental investigation to look for places where the man may have been exposed to the virus.
What do a college of veterinary medicine and a cancer treatment and research center have in common? The answer may be as plain as the nose on your dog"s face. Researchers from North Carolina State University"s College of Veterinary Medicine and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center are combining their expertise to pinpoint the cause of -- and improve treatments for -- non-Hodgkin lymphoma in human and canine patients.
"Some governors are pushing to scale back or kill proposals to expand Medicaid to provide health-care coverage to the uninsured, raising a new challenge to President Barack Obama"s effort to overhaul the system," The Wall Street Journal reports. Health care proposals in the House and Senate "would expand the program to cover at least a third of the nation"s 46 million uninsured, but states are worried they would get stuck with a big part of the tab." Medicaid is "expected to be a primary topic" when a group of governors -- "including Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire of Washington and Republican Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi" -- head to Washington, D.C., this week "to discuss health care with White House and congressional officials."
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) will offer free mammograms through a televised phone bank on FOX 9 KMSP-TV in Minneapolis on Thursday, June 25, 2009. The phone bank will air during the 5 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts. The mammograms are offered through the Sage Screening Program, a state and federally funded program that provides free breast and cervical cancer screenings to uninsured and underinsured women age 40 and older. Newly enrolled women in the program will also receive $20 for being screened, which has been shown to increase screening rates.
Refinements of the definitions, classifications, and interpretations of fetal heart rate (FHR) monitoring methods were issued today in new guidelines released by The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). The objective of the guidelines is to reduce the inconsistent use of common terminology and the wide variability that sometimes occurs in FHR interpretations. ACOG"s Practice Bulletin, published in the July 2009 issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology, supports the recommendations of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child and Health Development workshop* on electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) held in April 2008.
Male and female perpetrators of domestic violence exhibit similar levels of controlling behaviour. This is one of the findings of a study presented at the British Psychological Society Division of Forensic Psychology annual conference yesterday, 23 June 2009 at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston.
Leaders of the major faith groups have put their support behind the Wall of Life, an interactive campaign launched today by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT). The campaign - at http://www.walloflife.org.uk - aims to promote awareness of and support for organ donation to boost the number of people joining the NHS Organ Donor Register (ODR).
The AOAC Research Institute, the approval body for all U.S. food safety tests, has certified Vacci-Test"s FoodChekTM-E.Coli as a Performance Tested(SM) method for detecting E.coli O157 in raw ground beef. This extremely rapid and accurate new test is seen as a technological breakthrough for meat-processors. This approval clears the way for FoodChekTM-E.Coli to be sold as a certified food safety test in the United States and internationally.
Iron-deficiency anaemia (IDA) is commonly seen in women aged under 50 years. The diagnostic workflow in young women affected by IDA is not clearly established. The British Society of Gastroenterology recommends gastroscopy only in IDA women younger than 45 years presenting with gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. However, symptoms are often mild and aspecific in IDA women and the gastroscopy is an invasive procedure associated with a high number of refusals. In a previous work on IDA premenopausal women, gastroscopy was performed in all patients, later deemed unnecessary in almost 30% of the studied women because these were affected only by menorrhagia.
UQ neuroscientists have, for the first time, been able to demonstrate that moderate exercise significantly increases the number of neural stem cells in the ageing brain.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis four grants totaling $19 million to explore the trillions of microbes that inhabit the human body and determine how they contribute to good health and disease.
FIRMAGON® (degarelix) a new fast-acting hormone treatment for advanced prostate cancer is being offically launched in the UK yesterday at the British Association of Urological Surgeons Annual Meeting in Glasgow.
A group led by Columbia University Medical Center"s Timothy Wang, M.D., has studied the role of Helicobacter infection in the development of stomach cancer and found that the hormone gastrin, which stimulates secretion of gastric acid, plays a key role in the development of Helicobacter-induced stomach cancer, and may have distinct effects on carcinogenesis in different parts of the stomach.
Iraqi health authorities confirmed yesterday that six people recently returned from the US have tested positive for H1N1 epidemic or swine flu,
Scientists in the US have discovered that cancer tumors that don"t spread to other parts of the body secrete a protein called prosaposin and that
Namibia"s recently released second MDG Report 2008 finds that the country is making progress toward achieving some of the U.N. Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets. However, the Prime Minister says the global economic situation could reverse progress and notes that the country is behind on some health-related targets, New Era reports.
There was more than a 50 percent drop in the total number of malaria cases reported by public facilities in Cambodia between 2003 and 2008, according to the National Centre for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control"s annual report, which was released on Tuesday, the Phnom Penh Post reports. Officials are attributing the decrease to village-based treatment and education programs.
IRIN examines a recent comment piece in the journal Lancet that argues PEPFAR can do more to prevent the spread of HIV among injecting drug users (IDUs) in Africa (IRIN, 6/24). Although PEPFAR has helped to provide "antiretroviral therapy to 2.1 million people with HIV, almost all of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa, and has spent more than $18 billion on the continent," it has failed to reach "thousands of injecting drug users in PEPFAR countries in Africa, many of whom have HIV," according to the authors of the Lancet article (Kaiser Global Health Policy Report, 6/19).
Effective drugs for treating a chemotherapy-resistant form of lymphoma might already be on the market according to a study that has pieced together a chemical pathway involved in the disease.
A new study suggests that a drop in colorectal cancer incidence seen nationwide has not occurred among people living in poorer communities, and suggests that barriers to health care may be to blame. The study appears online in the journal Cancer Causes and Control.
In his weekly radio and Internet address, President Obama discussed efforts by congressional leaders and health care industry groups on health care reform legislation, The Hill reports. He said that "while there remains a great deal of difficult work ahead, I am heartened by what we have seen these past few days: a willingness of those with different points of view and disparate interests to come together around common goals -- to embrace a shared sense of responsibility and make historic progress" (Youngman, The Hill, 5/16). He said, "I have always believed that it is better to talk than not to talk, that it is far more productive to reach over a divide than to shake your fist across it," which has "been an alien notion in Washington for far too long, but we are seeing that the ways of Washington are beginning to change."In the Republican radio and Internet address. Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.), a cardiovascular surgeon, said that a "government takeover of health care will put bureaucrats in charge of health care decisions that should be made by families and doctors." He added, "It will limit treatment options and lead to rationed care," and "to pay for government health care, your taxes will be raised." Boustany, a member of the House Republican Health Care Solutions Group, said, "That is something we cannot support, and frankly, it would clearly violate some of the principles the president himself has endorsed" (Superville, AP/Washington Post, 5/16). In related news, Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag on Sunday said on CNN"s "State of the Union" that the administration might support taxing health care benefits to health pay for health care reform (Barr, Politico, 5/17). Timeline
This year"s results from the Myocardial Ischaemia National Audit Project (MINAP) show that nearly half of heart attack patients are receiving primary angioplasty rather than thrombolytic (clot-busting) drugs. Primary angioplasty is a medical procedure to re-open the blocked coronary artery causing the heart attack, and has better outcomes than thrombolytic drugs.
Several thousand test fields are tightly packed together on the tiny surface of a biochip. They permit the rapid analysis of substances, e.g. for diagnosing allergens in the blood. These biochips are already in widespread use for DNA testing. When it comes to proteins, such chips are difficult to produce. This is because the proteins have a defined three-dimensional structure by which they can interact specifically with other molecules and control biological processes. If they bind to a surface, such as on a biochip, the structure can be destroyed and the protein cannot perform its function.
Global warming will likely mean more unpredictable weather, scientists say, and a new study by researchers at the University of Georgia pins down, possibly for the first time, how drought conditions in an area"s fall and winter may effect tornado activity the following spring.
High serum ferritin, being a hallmark of hereditary hemochromatosis , is frequently found in chronic hepatitis C, alcoholic or non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease patients . A study in Italy has investigated the link between ferritin and steatosis in a non-obese cohort of non-alcoholic patients. In southern European populations, high ferritin levels, after exclusion of diagnosis of HH, represent a risk factor for steatosis and clinical relevance, being associated with low platelet count.
A variation in a gene that is active in the central nervous system is associated with increased risk for obesity, according to an international study in which Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University played a major role. The research adds to evidence that genes influence appetite and that the brain plays a key role in obesity.
The American Thoracic Society and the European Respiratory Society have released official standards for clinical trials and practice with respect to the assessment of asthma. The statement appears in the July 1 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.