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T2M cells play a crucial role in treatment-resistant asthma

For most people with asthma, a couple of puffs from an inhaler filled with steroids makes breathing easy. But if their lungs become resistant to the calming effect of that medicine, they live in fear of severe asthma attacks that could send them to the hospital - or worse. Now, new research from the University of Michigan Health System may help explain what's going on in the lungs of these steroid-resistant individuals. The findings could aid the development of new treatment options, and of better ways to identify people at risk of becoming steroid-resistant.

8 May 2012

Declining biodiversity may contribute to rise in asthma, allergies

Declining biodiversity may be contributing to the rise of asthma, allergies, and other chronic inflammatory diseases among people living in cities worldwide, a Finnish study suggests. Emerging evidence indicates that commensal microbes inhabiting the skin, airway, and gut protect against inflammatory disorders. However, little is known about the environmental determinants of the microbiome.

8 May 2012

Health Canada announces labelling update for Cipralex

Health Canada is informing Canadians of a labelling update for the prescription drug Cipralex (the brand name of the drug escitalopram) regarding a dose-related risk of abnormal heart rhythms. Cipralex is used to treat depression and belongs to a family of drugs known as Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs).

7 May 2012

Various combinations of biomarkers are required to unequivocally diagnose specific disease

With a range of diseases, doctors need unique features which they can use to unequivocally identify a patient's illness for an appropriate diagnosis. Scientists therefore search for the biomarkers for an illness or a combination of biomarkers, known as biosignatures, which are as easy as possible to measure.

7 May 2012

Healthy newborns should not be over-protected against natural exposure of gut flora

Infants whose gut is colonised by E. coli bacteria early in life have a higher number of memory B cells in their blood, reveals a study of infants carried out at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

7 May 2012

Satellite-guided plan to effectively control tsetse fly

For the first time, scientists have created a satellite-guided plan to effectively control the tsetse fly - an African killer that spreads "sleeping sickness" disease among humans and animals and wipes out $4.5 billion in livestock every year.

7 May 2012

Children's vaccine for pneumococcal disease does not offer full protection

The vaccine given to children to immunise against serious pneumococcal disease does not offer full protection, reveals research from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, finding that the number of cases diagnosed has tripled over the past 50 years.

7 May 2012

Positive long-term outcome data for chronic ITP patients treated with rituxamab

A new analysis concludes that rituximab, a drug commonly used to treat blood cancers, leads to treatment responses lasting at least five years in approximately one quarter of patients with low platelet counts and a risk of bleeding due to chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP).

7 May 2012

CNV in prostate cancer tumors may accurately predict relapse

While active monitoring of serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels in men over 50 has greatly improved early detection of prostate cancer, prediction of clinical outcomes after diagnosis remains a major challenge.

7 May 2012

Screening for diabetic retinopathy once every two years maybe safe, cost-effective

Research carried out at the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry (PCMD), University of Exeter, has concluded that it would be a safe and cost-effective strategy to screen people with type 2 diabetes who have not yet developed diabetic retinopathy, for the disease once every two years instead of annually.

7 May 2012

Researchers discover how diabetes affects specific brain area leading to memory loss

Badly controlled diabetes are known to affect the brain causing memory and learning problems and even an increased incidence of dementia, although how this occurs is not clear.

7 May 2012

Brain networks may avoid traffic jams by communicating on different frequencies

Brain networks may avoid traffic jams at their busiest intersections by communicating on different frequencies, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the University Medical Center at Hamburg-Eppendorf and the University of T-bingen have learned.

7 May 2012

Cordoning off of lipids of the liver helps manage insulin resistance in the body

A Penn research team, led by Mitchell Lazar, MD, PhD, director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, reports in Nature Medicine that mice in which an enzyme called histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3) was deleted had massively fatty livers, but lower blood sugar, and were thus protected from glucose intolerance and insulin resistance, the hallmark of diabetes.

7 May 2012

Oral nutriceutical restores vision to otherwise hopeless patients facing permanent loss

There may be new found hope for patients whose vision is threatened when medicine injected directly into the eyes fails to cause abnormal blood vessels to recede. While injectable drugs called angiogenesis (an-gee-oh-jen-esis) inhibitors are considered a modern miracle and have become the standard of care for patients with the fast-progressive form of macular degeneration, they are not foolproof.

7 May 2012

Seattle Children's Hospital performs 100th heart transplant on 5-month-old baby

On Saturday, April 28, a 5-month-old baby received the 100th heart transplant performed at Seattle Children's Hospital, a significant milestone for him as well as the hospital's Heart Center and Heart Transplant Program teams.

7 May 2012

Accentia, Johns Hopkins co-host meeting with prospective clinical trial investigators at AAN meeting

Accentia Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that the Company and leading physicians from Johns Hopkins University co-hosted a meeting with prospective clinical trial investigators at the recent American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

7 May 2012

UAB experts suggest meal guidelines for summer

It's already May. The heat is rising in the South, and the rest of the country soon will follow. Of course this means swimsuit season, and a plan to arrive at a healthy weight will help you look good at the pool and make you healthier overall, say University of Alabama at Birmingham experts.

5 May 2012

Human stem cells effective in treating muscular dystrophy

Researchers from the University of Minnesota's Lillehei Heart Institute have effectively treated muscular dystrophy in mice using human stem cells derived from a new process that - for the first time - makes the production of human muscle cells from stem cells efficient and effective.

5 May 2012

Researchers identify new mechanism that causes choroidal neovascularization

Sloppy shipping of a donated human retina to an Indiana University researcher studying a leading cause of vision loss has inadvertently helped uncover a previously undetected mechanism causing the disease. The discovery has led researchers to urge review of how millions of dollars are spent investigating the cause of a type of age-related macular degeneration called choroidal neovascularization.

5 May 2012

PDE4 enzyme regulates division of tumour cells and blood vessel growth in cancer tissue

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death throughout the world. Standard treatment methods do not usually result in long-term recovery. In addition to the proliferation of the tumour cells, the growth of blood vessels controls tumors development. The blood vessel growth is controlled by several signalling molecules. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim and Justus Liebig University Giessen have discovered a molecule that plays a key role in this process. They succeeded in reducing tumour growth in their experiments by blocking the phosphodiesterase PDE4.

5 May 2012

Blood News and Research

T2M cells play a crucial role in treatment-resistant asthma

Declining biodiversity may contribute to rise in asthma, allergies

Health Canada announces labelling update for Cipralex

Various combinations of biomarkers are required to unequivocally diagnose specific disease

Healthy newborns should not be over-protected against natural exposure of gut flora

Satellite-guided plan to effectively control tsetse fly

Children's vaccine for pneumococcal disease does not offer full protection

Positive long-term outcome data for chronic ITP patients treated with rituxamab

CNV in prostate cancer tumors may accurately predict relapse

Screening for diabetic retinopathy once every two years maybe safe, cost-effective

Researchers discover how diabetes affects specific brain area leading to memory loss

Brain networks may avoid traffic jams by communicating on different frequencies

Cordoning off of lipids of the liver helps manage insulin resistance in the body

Oral nutriceutical restores vision to otherwise hopeless patients facing permanent loss

Seattle Children's Hospital performs 100th heart transplant on 5-month-old baby

Accentia, Johns Hopkins co-host meeting with prospective clinical trial investigators at AAN meeting

UAB experts suggest meal guidelines for summer

Human stem cells effective in treating muscular dystrophy

Researchers identify new mechanism that causes choroidal neovascularization

PDE4 enzyme regulates division of tumour cells and blood vessel growth in cancer tissue

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