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Scientists identify molecular player critical to proper working of important health proteins

Half the drugs used today target a single class of proteins - and now scientists have identified an important molecular player critical to the proper workings of those proteins critical to our health.

28 Dec 2011

Obesity associated with hypothalamic injury

The number of people who suffer from one or more of the adverse complications of obesity, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease is rapidly increasing. Thus far, drugs designed to treat obesity have shown limited efficacy and have been associated with serious side effects.

28 Dec 2011

DNA stays too tightly wound in brain cells of patients with schizophrenia

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have discovered that DNA stays too tightly wound in certain brain cells of schizophrenic subjects. The findings suggest that drugs already in development for other diseases might eventually offer hope as a treatment for schizophrenia and related conditions in the elderly.

28 Dec 2011

Early Alzheimer’s detection - cost effective and easy

Boston researchers have reported a new method for detecting subtle brain changes in people who have no memory problems but who may already be in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

27 Dec 2011

Synthetic drugs treat Crohn's disease in mice

A team of Weizmann Institute scientists has turned the tables on an autoimmune disease. In such diseases, including Crohn's and rheumatoid arthritis, the immune system mistakenly attacks the body's tissues. But the scientists managed to trick the immune systems of mice into targeting one of the body's players in autoimmune processes, an enzyme known as MMP9.

26 Dec 2011

Glycol chitosan-coated MRI agent safer, more effective in detecting breast cancer

Many imaging technologies and their contrast agents - chemicals used during scans to help detect tumors and other problems - involve exposure to radiation or heavy metals, which present potential health risks to patients and limit the ways they can be applied.

26 Dec 2011

Neuroscientists discover gene responsible for HDLS

A global team of neuroscientists, led by researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida, have found the gene responsible for a brain disorder that may be much more common than once believed. In the Dec. 25 online issue of Nature Genetics, the researchers say they identified 14 different mutations in the gene CSF1R that lead to development of hereditary diffuse leukoencephalopathy with spheroids.

26 Dec 2011

Researchers report how sildenafil can alleviate heart problems

How sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, can alleviate heart problems is reported by Bochum's researchers in cooperation with colleagues from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester (Minnesota) in the journal Circulation.

26 Dec 2011

FDA EMDAC schedules to review VIVUS' Qnexa NDA for treatment of obesity

VIVUS, Inc. today announced that the Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is scheduled to review the Company's New Drug Application (NDA) for Qnexa for the treatment of obesity on February 22, 2012.

26 Dec 2011

Researchers report how sildenafil can alleviate heart problems

23 Dec 2011

Science names HIV prevention trial as '2011 Breakthrough of the Year'

"The journal Science has chosen the HPTN 052 clinical trial, an international HIV prevention trial sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)," which found that early treatment with antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) reduced the risk of transmission among sero-discordant partners by 96 percent, as the "2011 Breakthrough of the Year," an NIH press release states (12/22).

23 Dec 2011

Tyrosine kinases play greater role in mitochondria than previously recognized

Cancer cells tend to take up more glucose than healthy cells, and researchers are increasingly interested in exploiting this tendency with drugs that target cancer cells' altered metabolism.

From Cell Signaling Technology 23 Dec 2011

ARV drugs can prevent transmission of HIV

The finding of a team of researchers - including several members from Johns Hopkins - that HIV treatment with antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) can actually prevent transmission of the virus from an infected person to his or her uninfected partner has been named "Breakthrough of the Year" for 2011 by the journal Science.

23 Dec 2011

N.Y. Times review finds misuse of psychotropic drugs in disabled patients

Tens of thousands of powerful pills created to treat serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia are given to developmentally disabled people in the care of New York State every day.

23 Dec 2011

Anti-cancer drugs may also fight antibiotic resistance

Drugs used to overcome cancer may also combat antibiotic resistance, finds a new study led by Gerry Wright, scientific director of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster University.

23 Dec 2011

Viewpoints: Republicans' 'gift' to Obama; Essential benefits rule a 'lump of coal'

One photo snapped Wednesday on Capitol Hill captured the essence of Congress in 2011. It showed a group of senior House Republicans sitting on one side of a long table, waiting for their Senate counterparts to show up for a negotiating session the House had demanded. ... What viewers should really have seen in the photo was the Republican leadership team whose miscalculations may soon cause payroll taxes to go up - and unemployment benefits to be truncated, and payment rates to Medicare doctors slashed. That's on the verge of happening.

23 Dec 2011

Researchers reveal what cells respond to anesthesia in C. elegans

Physicians use inhalation anesthetics in a way that is incredibly safe for patients, but very little is known about the intricacies of how these drugs actually work in children and adults. Now, researchers have uncovered what cells respond to anesthesia in an organism known as the C. elegans, according to a new study from the Seattle Children's Research Institute. C. elegans is a transparent roundworm used often in research.

23 Dec 2011

Walgreen expecting sharp drop in prescription business

A contract dispute with pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts is likely to cut the number of drugs Walgreen will sell.

23 Dec 2011

Researchers present results from 31 major studies of blood-related cancers at ASH 2011 meeting

Researchers from the John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center, one of the nation's top 50 best hospitals for cancer, presented results from 31 major studies of blood-related cancers - leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma -- during the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, December 10-13, 2011 in San Diego.

23 Dec 2011

Faulty lipid metabolism may cause MS, says forensic anthropologist

An article to be published in the December 2011 issue of The Quarterly Review of Biology argues that multiple sclerosis, long viewed as primarily an autoimmune disease, is not actually a disease of the immune system.

23 Dec 2011