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Diabetes epidemic grips the world

Experts are horrified with the rise of numbers of diabetics worldwide. A staggering 366 million people around the world have either Type 1 or 2 diabetes, says the International Diabetes Federation. The disease has taken a deadly toll, causing 4.6 million deaths each year, or one death every seven seconds. The number of sufferers was pegged at 285 million worldwide in 2009. Since then, China reported 92.4 million people with the condition, more than double the federation’s estimate. The diabetes epidemic is also heavy on healthcare spending, to the tune of $465 billion a year to fight the disease.

14 Sep 2011

Thyroid-stimulating hormone can promote bone growth

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), a hormone produced in the anterior pituitary gland that regulates endocrine function in the thyroid gland, can promote bone growth independent of its usual thyroid functions.

14 Sep 2011

University of Antioquia and IBM partner for Leishmaniasis research

IBM and University of Antioquia's Tropical Disease Study and Control Program (PECET) today announced a joint research project, Drug Search for Leishmaniasis, using computer power from IBM's World Community Grid.

14 Sep 2011

Computer models that predict response to treatment

Details of computer models that can predict the chances of a patient responding to their HIV drugs with 80% accuracy are published today in the journal AIDS. The models were developed by the HIV Resistance Response Database Initiative (RDI) using almost half a million pieces of data from approximately 6,000 clinical cases from hundreds of clinics around the world. The models are now available online as part of an experimental treatment support tool, HIV-TRePS.

14 Sep 2011

Roundup: N.J. Governor opts not to cut Medicaid rolls; Seattle council mandates sick leave

Thousands of New Jersey's working poor will keep their health insurance under a new administration proposal to restructure Medicaid, abandoning a controversial plan that would have drastically reduced the number of eligible recipients.

14 Sep 2011

Efficient, economical molecule could speed evaluation of some anti-cancer treatments

Researchers from Boston College have developed a new class of small molecule receptors capable of detecting a lipid molecule that reveals the telltale signs of cellular death, particularly cancer cells targeted by anti-cancer drugs, the team reports in the current electronic edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

14 Sep 2011

Consumer concern about food safety declines

Consumer concern about food safety has declined over the past year even as the number of people experiencing serious food-borne illnesses nearly doubled, according to the Thomson Reuters-NPR Health Poll.

14 Sep 2011

ViroPharma initiates Cinryze Phase 2 subcutaneous trial in patients with HAE

ViroPharma Incorporated and Halozyme Therapeutics announced today that ViroPharma has initiated an open-label, multi-dose Phase 2 study to evaluate the safety, and pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of subcutaneous administration of Cinryze in combination with Halozyme's Enhanze technology, a proprietary drug delivery platform using Halozyme's recombinant human hyaluronidase enzyme, in subjects with hereditary angioedema.

14 Sep 2011

Older drugs may be better than newly approved ones

It is a common belief that drugs given the okay by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are safer and more effective than they have to be to win approval, according to a new study. Especially in the first few years after a drug becomes available, researchers note, there are still questions about how well it will work and whether it will have any serious side effects warn experts. For example FDA-approved painkiller Vioxx was pulled off the market in 2004 after longer-term evidence showed that it may increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.

13 Sep 2011

New drug combination may treat two aggressive cancers

Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have identified a new combination of targeted therapies that, together, may treat two aggressive tumor types that until now have not had effective treatments. These findings are published in Cancer Cell on September 13, 2011.

13 Sep 2011

ADI releases World Alzheimer Report 2011

The World Alzheimer Report 2011, released today by Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI), shows that there are interventions that are effective in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, some of which may be more effective when started earlier, and that there is a strong economic argument in favor of earlier diagnosis and timely intervention.

13 Sep 2011

Researchers use MRI and PET/CT to assess safety, efficacy of heart drug dalcetrapib

Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have for the first time used several imaging techniques to prove the efficacy of a promising new treatment for atherosclerosis—the build-up of plaque in artery walls that can lead to a heart attack.

13 Sep 2011

UC Berkeley scientists offer treatment hope for patients with tinnitus

Neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley, are offering hope to the 10 percent of the population who suffer from tinnitus - a constant, often high-pitched ringing or buzzing in the ears that can be annoying and even maddening, and has no cure.

13 Sep 2011

Researchers identify new type of potential anticancer drug

Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have identified a new type of potential anticancer drug. The compound, named FOBISIN, targets 14-3-3 proteins, important for the runaway growth of cancer cells.

13 Sep 2011

AHF rolls out new national television ad campaign to address national AIDS drug crisis

As part of its ongoing advocacy effort to spur President Obama and his administration to address the growing national AIDS drug crisis, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is rolling out a new national television ad campaign headlined 'President Obama: Whose Side Are You On?'

13 Sep 2011

People with high cholesterol more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease

People with high cholesterol may have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in the September 13, 2011, issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

13 Sep 2011

Government funding crisis in Swaziland disrupts supply of HIV/AIDS supplies

"An acute government funding crisis in Swaziland, Africa's last absolute monarchy, is disrupting supplies of HIV/AIDS drugs and hampering the fight against the virus in the country with the world's highest infection rate, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said Friday," Reuters reports.

12 Sep 2011

UB transgenic mouse model of Timothy Syndrome improves understanding of autism

The first transgenic mouse model of a rare and severe type of autism called Timothy Syndrome is improving the scientific understanding of autism spectrum disorder in general and may help researchers design more targeted interventions and treatments.

12 Sep 2011

Transcendental Meditation practice reduces health care costs

According to a study published this week in the September/October 2011 issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion, people with consistently high health care costs experienced a 28 percent cumulative decrease in physician fees after an average of five years practicing the stress-reducing Transcendental Meditation technique compared with their baseline.

12 Sep 2011

Alchemia initiates HA-Irinotecan Phase II clinical study in SCLC

Alchemia Limited, today announced the initiation of recruitment for a Phase II clinical study of its lead cancer drug HA-Irinotecan in Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC). Two patients have received their first doses of therapy. This investigator sponsored trial is being conducted at Monash Cancer Centre, Southern Health and Peninsula Oncology Centre in Melbourne, Victoria.

12 Sep 2011