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Study may help design better DAA drug cocktails to treat HCV

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection affects about 4 million in the United States and is the primary cause of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. Current therapy against HCV is suboptimal. Daclatasvir, a direct acting antiviral (DAA) agent in development for the treatment of HCV, targets one of the HCV proteins (i.e., NS5A) and causes the fastest viral decline (within 12 hours of treatment) ever seen with anti-HCV drugs.

20 Feb 2013

Cholesterol metabolism regulated by bacteria in the small intestine

Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, show that cholesterol metabolism is regulated by bacteria in the small intestine. These findings may be important for the development of new drugs for cardiovascular disease.

19 Feb 2013

Researchers design molecules that can stop colon cancer progression

A Basque research consortium has managed to halt the progress of colon cancer and its metastasis in the liver in an experimental model with mice. This advance, that may open a new path for the future treatment of such pathologies, has been achieved by creating molecules which interfere with the adhesion of tumour cells to other cells of the organism. In this way, the molecules halt both the growth of the tumour and the dissemination of the tumour to and its proliferation in other organs.

19 Feb 2013

Early PBC prognosis advocated

Biochemical response to ursodeoxycholic acid at 6 months is a better predictor for primary biliary cirrhosis prognosis than the current standard of 1 year, study results suggest.

18 Feb 2013

Study describes pharmacological action of TZDs directly on pancreas

A scientific study published on the journal Diabetes, edited by the American Diabetes Association, describes for the first time the pharmacological action of thiazolidinediones (TZDs) —anti-diabetic drugs— directly on pancreas, the organ which produces insulin.

18 Feb 2013

FDA approves Novartis’ Zortress to prevent organ rejection after liver transplantation in adults

Novartis announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Zortress (everolimus) for the prophylaxis of organ rejection in adult patients receiving a liver transplant.

16 Feb 2013

Positive new data from Genzyme’s eliglustat tartrate Phase 3 studies on Gaucher disease type 1

Genzyme, a Sanofi company, today announced positive new data from the Phase 3 ENGAGE and ENCORE studies of eliglustat tartrate, its investigational oral therapy for Gaucher disease type 1.

15 Feb 2013

Castle Biosciences launches MyUvealMelanoma website

Castle Biosciences Inc., a leading developer of prognostic tests for rare cancers, announced today the launch of MyUvealMelanoma.com, a website created to educate newly diagnosed patients, their families and healthcare providers about the most common form of eye cancer. MyUvealMelanoma tells the story of this disease, its treatment and the importance of prognostic testing, through the experience of patients who recently faced this devastating diagnosis first-hand.

15 Feb 2013

Defensive medicine under attack

Around one-eighth of all requests for tests and procedures by gastroenterologists are attributable to the practice of defensive medicine, Italian research shows.

14 Feb 2013

Study finds strong preference among families and older pediatric patients for IV feeding

About 60 percent of pediatric cancer patients experience malnourishment during treatment. At that point, patients and families have a choice: tube feeding or IV nutrition supplement. Which would you choose? A study published this week in the Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing shows that families' perceptions, especially of the discomfort of tube feeding, leads to choosing IV over tube - despite the fact that tube feeding is usually the better choice, associated with better gut function and lower rates of infection.

14 Feb 2013

Probiotics shows promise in reducing both incidence and severity of necrotizing enterocolitis

"Good" bacteria that live in our intestines have been linked with a variety of health benefits, from fighting disease to preventing obesity. In a new study, Kriston Ganguli of Massachusetts General Hospital for Children and Harvard Medical School and her colleagues have discovered another advantage to these friendly microscopic tenants: Chemicals secreted by good bacteria that typically live in the intestines of babies could reduce the frequency and severity of a common and often-lethal disease of premature infants.

14 Feb 2013

IQGAP1 molecule can suppress growth of tumors in the liver

A molecule already implicated in a number of diverse cellular functions can suppress the growth of tumors in the liver, a Mayo Clinic Cancer Center study has found. Its name is IQGAP1, and when the molecule is active in the cells that surround a tumor cell, this "tumor microenvironment" becomes less hospitable to cancer growth. When the molecule is deficient, cancer thrives.

14 Feb 2013

FOXC2 vital to epithelial-mesenchymal transition in breast cancer

Researchers have identified a pivotal protein in a cellular transformation that makes a cancer cell more resistant to treatment and more capable of growing and spreading, making it an inviting new target for drug development.

14 Feb 2013

IAP antagonists may actually increase risk of bone tumors

Cancer drugs should kill tumors, not encourage their spread. But new evidence suggests that an otherwise promising class of drugs may actually increase the risk of tumors spreading to bone, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

14 Feb 2013

RNAi effective in treating cancer patients

The new study published in Cancer Discovery, the flagship journal of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), involving three Spanish and six American research centres, presents significant results in treating cancer patients with nanoparticles containing ribonucleic acid interference (RNAi) molecules.

13 Feb 2013

LASAG trial for severe influenza initiated

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12 Feb 2013

Burkitt lymphoma risk after transplantation highlighted

Solid organ transplant recipients have a significant risk for developing Burkitt lymphoma (BL), US researchers have found.

12 Feb 2013

MRI promising for noninvasive hepatic steatosis assessment

Magnetic resonance imaging allows accurate measurement of the extent and severity of hepatic steatosis in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, demonstrate the results of two studies published in Radiology.

11 Feb 2013

Biomarkers could be antidote to overdose overtreatment

Researchers have identified several biomarkers that can accurately predict acute liver injury after acetaminophen overdose.

11 Feb 2013

Researchers discover miR-27b that regulates lipid levels in the blood

Researchers have identified a microRNA liver gene, miR-27b, which regulates lipid (cholesterol or fat) levels in the blood. This regulator gene controls multiple genes involved in dyslipidemia-abnormal blood cholesterol levels that can contribute to heart disease.

11 Feb 2013