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Grifols launches Flebogamma 10% DIF intravenous immune globulin in the U.S.

Grifols today announced availability of its recently approved Flebogamma® 10% DIF intravenous immune globulin. Grifols is a global healthcare company specializing in bioscience medicines derived from human plasma. Approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Flebogamma® 10% DIF was obtained in July 2010 and final approval in Europe is expected before the end of the year. Today's announcement signals widespread product availability to the US market.

22 Nov 2010

First Edition: November 22, 2010

Today's headlines offer a range of health policy stories, including more reports on deficit reduction issues, the continuing politics swirling around the health law repeal effort and employers' soaring health care costs.

22 Nov 2010

Variation at gene locus associated with greater reproductive success

Since 1871, when Charles Darwin wrote The Descent of Man, it has been widely accepted that "Variability is the necessary basis for the action of selection." Variability is associated with the ability to adapt, which is clearly beneficial at a species level. But there is increasing evidence that genetic variability may also give rise to advantages at the level of the individual.

22 Nov 2010

ImmunGene awarded $244,479 therapeutic discovery project grant under PPACA 2010

ImmunGene, Inc., a privately held drug development company focused on targeted antibody therapeutics with numerous anti-cancer functions built into a single therapy, announced today that it has received a $244,479 grant under The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA). The grant was related to the development of ImmunGene's technology which is based on antibody-cytokine fusions that have demonstrated targeted toxicity and added tumor benefits.

22 Nov 2010

Researchers develop three-dimensional cancer cell from normal human tissue in culture dish

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have successfully transformed normal human tissue into three-dimensional cancers in a tissue culture dish for the first time. Watching how the cells behave as they divide and invade surrounding tissue will help physicians better understand how human cancers act in the body. The new technique also provides a way to quickly and cheaply test anti-cancer drugs without requiring laboratory animals.

22 Nov 2010

National Marrow Donor Program adopts IBM's WebSphere Lombardi Business Process Management software

IBM announced today that the National Marrow Donor Program® (NMDP) has adopted IBM's WebSphere Lombardi Business Process Management (BPM) software to help automate its donor and patient management process. Both processes are critical to facilitate the matching of donors to patients needing cellular transplants.

20 Nov 2010

Russian-trained microbiologist recommends tips for consumers to achieve effective results from probiotics

With the European Union poised to regulate probiotics, and with probiotic supplement sales increasing dramatically in the United States, Americans need to know what they're buying, and how these products can affect their health.

20 Nov 2010

Harvard researcher to receive 2010 Naomi Berrie Award from Columbia University Medical Center

Columbia University Medical Center will present the 2010 Naomi Berrie Award to a Harvard researcher who has made important advances in understanding the molecular basis for links between obesity, diabetes and heart disease. A promising young investigator at Columbia will also be recognized for her novel investigations regarding the basis for disordered lipid metabolism in diabetes.

20 Nov 2010

Genetic differences impact winter vitamin D status

Vitamin D is somewhat of an unusual "vitamin," because it can be made in the body from sunlight and most foods do not contain vitamin D unless added by fortification. Synthesis of vitamin D in the body requires exposure to ultraviolet light and can be influenced by genetics, skin color, and sun exposure.

20 Nov 2010

Study sheds light on poorly understood aspect of interaction of HIV with natural killer cells

Natural killer cells are major weapons in the body's immune system. They keep the body healthy by knocking off tumors and cells infected with viruses, bombarding them with tiny lethal pellets. But natural killer cells are powerless against HIV, a fact that has bedeviled science for over 20 years.

20 Nov 2010

Study refocuses on rare group of neutralizing antibodies against HIV

Although people infected with HIV produce many antibodies against the protein encapsulating the virus, most of these antibodies are strangely ineffective at fighting the disease. A new study suggests why some of the most common of these antibodies don't work: they target the protein in a form it takes after the virus has already invaded the cell, when it's too late, report researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and their colleagues.

20 Nov 2010

Abnormal levels of circulating auto-antibodies found in blood of COPD patients

Moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may be an auto-immunity problem, according to researchers in Spain, who studied the presence of auto-antibodies in patients with COPD and compared them to levels of control subjects. They found that a significant number of patients with COPD had significant levels of auto-antibodies circulating in their blood, about 5 to 10 times the level in controls.

20 Nov 2010

High CRP and low protein albumin levels associated with increased risk of death after PEG-operations

The combination of high CRP and low levels of the protein albumin in the blood, is associated with an increased risk of death after a PEG-operation; implantation of a nutritional catheter into the stomach through the abdominal wall. This was shown in a new study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet, published in the scientific journal Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. Of the PEG patients in the study that showed both current indicators, 20 percent died within 30 days.

20 Nov 2010

Discovery could provide new approaches to treat metabolic disorders

Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have identified a novel synthetic activator of a pair of proteins that belong to a protein family playing key roles in human metabolism and immune function. The discovery could provide new and potentially more effective therapeutic approaches to diseases ranging from diabetes to osteoporosis.

20 Nov 2010

Research suggests new therapeutic approach to prevent transplant rejection

UCLA researchers have pinpointed the culprit behind chronic rejection of heart, lung and kidney transplants. Published in the Nov. 23 edition of Science Signaling, their findings suggest new therapeutic approaches for preventing transplant rejection and sabotaging cancer growth.

19 Nov 2010

Improving immune system to defend against HIV infection

Researchers have been stymied for years over the fact that people infected with the AIDS virus do indeed produce antibodies in response to the pathogen - antibodies that turn out to be ineffective in blocking infection.

19 Nov 2010

Medicare committee recommends expensive drug for some prostate-cancer patients

A new treatment for prostate cancer called Provenge won a vote of confidence from a Medicare coverage advisory committee Wednesday, suggesting the federal program is likely to pay for the $93,000-per-patient medicine.

19 Nov 2010

Transplantation of gene-modified hematopoietic stem cells eliminates cancer: Research

A potent anti-tumor gene introduced into mice with metastatic melanoma has resulted in permanent immune reconfiguration and produced a complete remission of their cancer, according to an article to be published in the December 2010 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

19 Nov 2010

Crescent Healthcare to open infusion pharmacy in New Jersey

Crescent Healthcare today announced a planned expansion of their east coast operations in 2011. They signed a lease to open an infusion pharmacy in Totowa, New Jersey, central to providing immune globulin therapies and services to current patients in Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, and Rhode Island.

19 Nov 2010

Scientists solve receptor structure that responds to neurotransmitter dopamine

A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has solved the structure of one of the receptors that responds to the neurotransmitter dopamine. Although dopamine transmission is essential to normal brain functioning, the biological assembly of the molecules involved in this crucial neuronal interplay had not been known until now.

19 Nov 2010

Immune System News and Research

Grifols launches Flebogamma 10% DIF intravenous immune globulin in the U.S.

First Edition: November 22, 2010

Variation at gene locus associated with greater reproductive success

ImmunGene awarded $244,479 therapeutic discovery project grant under PPACA 2010

Researchers develop three-dimensional cancer cell from normal human tissue in culture dish

National Marrow Donor Program adopts IBM's WebSphere Lombardi Business Process Management software

Russian-trained microbiologist recommends tips for consumers to achieve effective results from probiotics

Harvard researcher to receive 2010 Naomi Berrie Award from Columbia University Medical Center

Genetic differences impact winter vitamin D status

Study sheds light on poorly understood aspect of interaction of HIV with natural killer cells

Study refocuses on rare group of neutralizing antibodies against HIV

Abnormal levels of circulating auto-antibodies found in blood of COPD patients

High CRP and low protein albumin levels associated with increased risk of death after PEG-operations

Discovery could provide new approaches to treat metabolic disorders

Research suggests new therapeutic approach to prevent transplant rejection

Improving immune system to defend against HIV infection

Medicare committee recommends expensive drug for some prostate-cancer patients

Transplantation of gene-modified hematopoietic stem cells eliminates cancer: Research

Crescent Healthcare to open infusion pharmacy in New Jersey

Scientists solve receptor structure that responds to neurotransmitter dopamine

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