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Precisely targeted radiation therapy can control limited cancer spread

Precisely targeted radiation therapy can eradicate all evidence of disease in selected patients with cancer that has spread to only a few sites, suggests the first published report from an ongoing clinical trial.

12 Aug 2008

Rare case explains why some infected with HIV remain symptom free without antiretroviral drugs

AIDS experts at Johns Hopkins say they have compelling evidence that some people with HIV who for years and even decades show extremely low levels of the virus in their blood never progress to full-blown AIDS and remain symptom free even without treatment, probably do so because of the strength of their immune systems, not any defects in the strain of HIV that infected them in the first place.

12 Aug 2008

Researchers examine safety of internet prescriber service providing erectile dysfunction medications

Online Internet shopping today offers many benefits. You can research a product in the privacy of your own home and purchase most anything by clicking a mouse. But should we be allowed to buy prescription drugs via the Internet, bypassing a traditional office visit or conversation with a physician?

12 Aug 2008

Ruthenium used to sucker punch cancer

Chemists are pulling cancer onto a sucker punch by getting infected cells to drop their guard - according to research published today. They are using the metal ruthenium as a catalyst to a cancer-busting reaction which calls up an old cellular enemy - oxidants - as an ally.

12 Aug 2008

New drug targets main culprit in common colds

The Melbourne drug company Biota has announced trials of a drug to treat the human rhinovirus (HRV) which is the main culprit in the common cold.

12 Aug 2008

Brits told by the NHS their lives will not be saved if the cost is too much

An announcement by government authorities in the UK that drugs which are too expensive should not be prescribed even if they prolong life, because the money could be better spent elsewhere, has caused an uproar.

11 Aug 2008

PET scans spot signs of early Alzheimer's

Scientists in Finland say a type of imaging technique known as positron emission tomography (PET) scanning may be a useful and non-invasive way of diagnosing the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

11 Aug 2008

Australian researchers reveal how cancers become more aggressive

A team of Australian scientists have discovered how some cancers are able to mutate into more aggressive and potentially fatal cancers in the human body.

11 Aug 2008

Researchers identify molecular mechanism underlying a genetic brain malformation called holoprosencephaly

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have identified one of the molecular mechanisms underlying the genetic brain malformation called holoprosencephaly (HPE).

11 Aug 2008

Cancer survival secrets discovered by Australian researchers

A team of Monash University researchers has uncovered the role of a family of enzymes in the mutation of benign or less aggressive tumours into more aggressive, potentially fatal, cancers in the human body.

11 Aug 2008

Designer RNA fights high cholesterol, medical researchers find

Small, specially designed bits of ribonucleic acid (RNA) can interfere with cholesterol metabolism, reducing harmful cholesterol by two-thirds in pre-clinical tests, according to a new study by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center in collaboration with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

11 Aug 2008

Aspirin, acid-blocker a-day keeps GI bleeding at bay

For patients with clogged heart arteries who take long-term, low-dose aspirin to prevent a cardiac event, adding a stomach acid-blocking drug to their daily routine has been shown to reduce their risk for upper gastrointestinal bleeding - an infrequent, but serious side-effect of regular aspirin use.

11 Aug 2008

NanoViricides reports HIVCide-I significantly superior to current anti-HIV three drug cocktail standard

NanoViricides, Inc. said that additional biological tests and data analysis have shown that animals treated with its lead anti-HIV drug candidate, HIVCide-I, demonstrated a substantially greater reduction in viral load -- number of infectious virus particles per milliliter of blood -- when compared to the animals given the anti-HIV "combo cocktail" in a preliminary animal study. An important objective of anti-HIV treatment is to minimize the viral load.

11 Aug 2008

Children with HIV in poor countries more adherent to treatment than children in rich countries

Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine, the Regenstrief Institute and Moi University School of Medicine are the first to report that adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) to fight human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in children who live in low income countries is as high as or higher than adherence by children living in high income countries.

11 Aug 2008

Researchers solve structure of enzyme vital for DNA repair

When dividing cells copy their DNA, mistakes can - and do - occur. To compensate, cells have a built-in system to correct these errors. That correction process isn't thoroughly understood, but researchers are piecing it together bit by bit.

11 Aug 2008

Boxed warnings now on popuar sleeping pill Stilnox

The popular sleeping pill Stilnox now carries a warning about the potentially dangerous sleep-related behaviours linked to the drug.

11 Aug 2008

New research finds way to switch off breast cancer and leukaemia

Australian scientists have identified a way of switching off a molecule, which plays a key role in the process that triggers breast cancer and certain forms of leukaemia.

11 Aug 2008

Technological crystal ball boosts AIDS survival

A cure for the virus that causes AIDS may still be beyond our grasp, but European researchers have developed a predictive software system for HIV that could help extend the lives of victims of the killer disease.

11 Aug 2008

New treatment in the pipeline for leukaemia and rheumatoid arthritis

Australian scientists believe they are well on the way to developing a new treatment for leukaemia and inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and asthma.

10 Aug 2008

Dopamine and Parkinson's

Parkinson's disease and drug addiction are polar opposite diseases, but both depend upon dopamine in the brain. Parkinson's patients don't have enough of it; drug addicts get too much of it. Although the importance of dopamine in these disorders has been well known, the way it works has been a mystery.

10 Aug 2008