Cystic Fibrosis News and Research RSS Feed - Cystic Fibrosis News and Research

Approximately 30,000 people in the United States are living with Cystic Fibrosis (CF), according to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. CF occurs at increased frequency in Caucasians and individuals of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, but can occur in any ethnic group. It is a disorder of mucus production, primarily affecting the pulmonary, gastrointestinal and reproductive systems. Although there is some variability of clinical expression, most individuals with CF require lifelong medical care and experience reduced life expectancy. Couples who are planning a pregnancy or who are already pregnant may decide to have testing to find out if they are carriers and at risk of having a baby with CF. It is standard of care to offer carrier screening for CF to Caucasian and Ashkenazi Jewish individuals and to inform couples of other ethnic backgrounds of CF testing. If both parents are found to be carriers, prenatal diagnosis by CVS or amniocentesis is available.
Viewpoints: 'Tyranny' over insurers; Obama's promises; Rep. Franks's abortion claim

Viewpoints: 'Tyranny' over insurers; Obama's promises; Rep. Franks's abortion claim

Many of us wish that Obamacare were a simpler system, one that directly provided health insurance. Political reality, unfortunately, ensured that many people will receive coverage from private insurers, selling policies -; often with subsidies -; on the "exchanges". And naturally enough, the Obama administration is teaming up with the insurers and other parts of the health industry to help inform Americans of the benefits to which they will be legally entitled, starting Jan. 1 (Paul Krugman, 6/12). [More]
Johns Hopkins researchers develop experimental vaccine for TB meningitis

Johns Hopkins researchers develop experimental vaccine for TB meningitis

A team of Johns Hopkins researchers working with animals has developed a vaccine that prevents the virulent TB bacterium from invading the brain and causing the highly lethal condition TB meningitis, a disease that disproportionately occurs in TB-infected children and in adults with compromised immune system. [More]
Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota honored as 2013-2014 Best Children's Hospital

Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota honored as 2013-2014 Best Children's Hospital

Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota has been honored by U.S. News & World Report as a 2013-2014 Best Children's Hospital. Children's has been ranked on the list every year since the program's inception in 2007. [More]

Debate over a dying child and a lack of transplant organs

Several columnists explore the difficult questions raised by the case of Sarah Murnaghan, a 10-year-old with cystic fibrosis who needs a lung transplant to survive. [More]

Judge's second ruling on child transplants prompts ethical, political questions

A federal judge issued a second ruling in as many days allowing another dying child onto an adult transplant list -- a move that could have ramifications for thousands of adults waiting for donated organs. [More]

Judge orders Sebelius to put girl who needs lung on transplant list

A federal judge intervened in the case of a 10-year-old girl with cystic fibrosis who needs a lung transplant, ordering HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to provide an exception and place the girl on the adult lung transplant list. [More]

Lawmakers 'beg' Sebelius for child's lung transplant

A 10-year-old girl in urgent need of a transplant was brought up by some GOP lawmakers during Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' appearance at a House hearing. [More]
Activ8rlives 2.0 goes live with new self monitoring capabilities for health and wellness

Activ8rlives 2.0 goes live with new self monitoring capabilities for health and wellness

Activ8rlives’ website version 2.0 has now gone live after several months of preparation and testing. Activ8rlives focuses its online self monitoring solutions for health and wellness, which is utilized by families, groups and companies. [More]
CREON Delayed-Release Capsules now available in US for patients with EPI

CREON Delayed-Release Capsules now available in US for patients with EPI

AbbVie today announced that a new, higher-dose capsule of CREON (pancrelipase) Delayed-Release Capsules is commercially available in the United States. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved CREON in a 36,000 lipase-unit dose to treat patients with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency due to cystic fibrosis, swelling of the pancreas that lasts a long time (chronic pancreatitis), removal of some or all of the pancreas (pancreatectomy), or other conditions. [More]
Researchers develop new gene therapy to thwart potential influenza pandemic

Researchers develop new gene therapy to thwart potential influenza pandemic

Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania have developed a new gene therapy to thwart a potential influenza pandemic. Specifically, investigators in the Gene Therapy Program, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, directed by James M. Wilson, MD, PhD, demonstrated that a single dose of an adeno-associated virus expressing a broadly neutralizing flu antibody into the nasal passages of mice and ferrets gives them complete protection and substantial reductions in flu replication when exposed to lethal strains of H5N1 and H1N1 flu virus. [More]
Scientists discover new function of an enzyme that disposes of superfluous proteins

Scientists discover new function of an enzyme that disposes of superfluous proteins

Cells have a sophisticated system to control and dispose of defective, superfluous proteins and thus to prevent damage to the body. Dr. Katrin Bagola and Professor Thomas Sommer of the Max Delbr-ck Center for Molecular Medicine Berlin-Buch as well as Professor Michael Glickman and Professor Aaron Ciechanover of Technion, the Technical University of Israel in Haifa, have now discovered a new function of an enzyme that is involved in this vital process. [More]

Innovative nebulizer to treat cystic fibrosis developed by Cambridge Consultants

Observing surfers with cystic fibrosis (CF) led scientists to discover that the inhaled mist of seawater has a therapeutic effect on the lung problems associated with the disease. Now the findings have been used by pharmaceutical company Parion Sciences and product development firm Cambridge Consultants in a revolutionary new aerosol delivery system. It enables CF sufferers to get the benefits of saltwater treatment in their own homes overnight while they sleep. [More]
Grifols signs worldwide licensing agreement for Aradigm's Pulmaquin

Grifols signs worldwide licensing agreement for Aradigm's Pulmaquin

Grifols, S.A. and Aradigm Corporation today announced the signing of an exclusive, worldwide license for Aradigm's proprietary formulations of inhaled ciprofloxacin (Pulmaquin and Lipoquin) for the treatment of severe respiratory diseases, including non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis. [More]

Great Strides: Walk for cystic fibrosis

Walks in nearly every state this weekend will raise funds to fight cystic fibrosis as part of Great Strides, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's largest national fundraising event. [More]
Galapagos, AbbVie announce extension of GLPG0634 clinical development collaboration

Galapagos, AbbVie announce extension of GLPG0634 clinical development collaboration

Galapagos NV and AbbVie announced today an extension of their GLPG0634 clinical development collaboration to include Crohn's disease. Galapagos will fund and complete a Phase 2 program in Crohn's disease, which is designed to facilitate rapid progression into Phase 3. [More]
American Association for Respiratory Care names Jefferson a Quality Respiratory Care Institution

American Association for Respiratory Care names Jefferson a Quality Respiratory Care Institution

Thomas Jefferson University Hospital was recently bestowed the title of "Quality Respiratory Care Institution" for 2013 by the American Association for Respiratory Care. [More]
Magic bullet nanomedicine offers potential treatment option for Acute Lung Injury

Magic bullet nanomedicine offers potential treatment option for Acute Lung Injury

Researchers at Queen's University Belfast have devised a 'magic bullet' nanomedicine which could become the first effective treatment for Acute Lung Injury or ALI, a condition affecting 20 per cent of all patients in intensive care. [More]
Research could help battle stubborn bacterial infections that do not respond to antibiotics

Research could help battle stubborn bacterial infections that do not respond to antibiotics

Bacteria on a surface wander around and often organize into highly resilient communities known as biofilms. It turns out that they organize in a rich-get-richer pattern similar to many economies, according to a new study by researchers at UCLA, Northwestern University and the University of Washington. [More]
Researchers discover potential treatment for deadly, drug-resistant bacterial infections

Researchers discover potential treatment for deadly, drug-resistant bacterial infections

Through the serendipity of science, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have discovered a potential treatment for deadly, drug-resistant bacterial infections that uses the same approach that HIV uses to infect cells. [More]
Scientists uncover unknown virulence factor in respiratory pathogen

Scientists uncover unknown virulence factor in respiratory pathogen

To infect its host, the respiratory pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa takes an ordinary protein usually involved in making other proteins and adds three small molecules to turn it into a key for gaining access to human cells. [More]