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Drug testing for exam students could be on the cards

Experts are warning that schools and universities may soon need to test students sitting exams for drugs, in much the same way that athletes are currently tested.

22 May 2008

Merck agrees to pay $58 million to aettle multistate lawsuit that claimed advertisements for Vioxx played down health risks

Merck on Tuesday agreed to a $58 million settlement with 29 states and the District of Columbia to end investigations over allegations that it downplayed cardiovascular risks caused by the COX-2 inhibitor Vioxx in direct-to-consumer advertisements dating back to 1999, the AP/Philadelphia Inquirer reports (Raffaele, AP/Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/21).

21 May 2008

Ugandan group launches no-cost HIV testing campaign aimed at children, urges parents to test children

The Joint Clinical Research Centre in Kampala, Uganda, recently launched a no-cost HIV testing campaign aimed at children born to parents living with HIV/AIDS and those orphaned by the disease, the New Vision/AllAfrica.com reports. The campaign has tested at least 1,500 children in the Ugandan divisions of Central, Kawempe, Makindye, Nakawa and Rubaga, according to the New Vision/AllAfrica.com.

21 May 2008

New clinical research and imaging centre for Bristol

The University and United Bristol Healthcare Trust (UBHT) are joining forces to establish a new state-of-the-art Clinical Research and Imaging Centre (CRIC) at St Michael's Hospital on St Michael's Hill

21 May 2008

Researchers map iron transport protein - may help people suffering from blood iron disorders

Montana State University scientists in the Department of Chemistry and Bio-chemistry published new research this week that could one day affect the lives of millions around the world who suffer from blood iron disorders.

21 May 2008

Scripps Research Institute awarded patent for revolutionary technology

The Scripps Research Institute has been awarded U.S. Patent No. US 7,375,234 B2, which covers a broad class of chemical reactions that mimic biological efficiency and opens the door to a new world of chemistry.

20 May 2008

Report cites 15 New York State HMOs for setting consumer restrictions on prescription drugs to boost profits

Some HMOs in New York state are restricting patients' access to so-called single-source drugs, brand-name medications for specific ailments that do not have lower-cost generic versions, according to a report released on Sunday, the New York Daily News reports.

20 May 2008

Seniors face 'soaring costs' for health care, Chicago Tribune reports

The Chicago Tribune on Sunday examined how, "with soaring costs of prescription drugs, housing, gasoline and groceries, it is easy for seniors on fixed incomes to go over budget."

20 May 2008

Scientists paint-viruses with proteins to track and treat viral disease and evolution

Biologists from Austria and Singapore developed a technique that adds a new twist on the relationship between biology and art. In an article recently published online in The FASEB Journal and scheduled for the August 2008 print issue, these researchers describe how they were able to coat-or paint-viruses with proteins.

20 May 2008

Targeted therapy can improve outcomes for lung tumors

The first U.S. clinical trial using genetic screening to identify lung tumors likely to respond to targeted therapies supports the use of those drugs as first-line treatment rather than after standard chemotherapy has failed.

20 May 2008

Tuberculosis not the only risk from new immunological drugs

A new survey cautions physicians that drugs commonly prescribed for patients suffering from immunological disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease may carry risks of serious infections other than the known risk of tuberculosis. The survey published is in the June 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, currently available online.

20 May 2008

Nanoworms target tumors

By linking strings of spherical iron oxide nanoparticles and coating the resulting construct with a biocompatible polymer, a multi-institutional research team has created "nanoworms" that can better target tumors and produce stronger magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) signals than their component nanoparticles. The nanoworms also appear to be a promising vehicle for carrying anticancer drugs into tumors. The researchers published their work in the journal Advanced Materials.

20 May 2008

Multifunctional nanoparticles image, target, and treat tumors

Encapsulating magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles within a silica shell has yielded a new multifunctional nanoparticle that has the potential to image, target, and treat tumors with water-insoluble anticancer drugs. A report of this work appears in the journal ACS Nano.

20 May 2008

Chip-based device measures drug resistance in tumor cells

Multiple drug resistance is a major cause of anticancer therapy failure. Most drug-resistance cancer cells develop this unfortunate characteristic due to a drug-pumping protein known as P-glycoprotein.

20 May 2008

New lifesaving options come to Rochester for stroke

While Superbowl Sunday started out like any other Sunday for Webster resident Christine Skolnick, by kick-off time, things clearly went from bad to worse for the 42-year-old mother of two. An apparent stomach virus and mild headache at midday had, by 6 p.m., become deadly, as Skolnick's face drooped on her right side, and she had difficulty moving her right legs and arms.

20 May 2008

Ideal treatment for potentially fatal heart condition changes with age

Doctors now make more informed decisions on how to treat an electrical disorder of the heart - be it with drugs, an implanted device or nothing - thanks to a series of decades-long, Rochester-based studies.

20 May 2008

Gene mutations in mice mimic human-like sleep disorder

Mutations in two genes that control electrical excitability in a portion of the brain involved in sleep create a human-like insomnia disorder in mice, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found. The findings may help scientists better understand the disorder and provide an animal model for developing treatments.

20 May 2008

Stiff competition for Viagra in the pipeline

Scientists in Scotland are in the process of developing a drug which could offer stiff competition to the drug Viagra.

20 May 2008

Monitoring whether patients take medicines can help anticipate HIV treatment failure in Africa

Information on how reliably people take their anti-HIV medicines can help identify those whose treatment will succeed or fail. Monitoring this information, which can be obtained directly from pharmacy records, works at least as well as performing blood tests that track the medicine's effect on the immune system, according to research published in PLoS Medicine by Gregory Bisson, Jean Nachega and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the University of Cape Town.

20 May 2008

CQ's Carey looks at Bush Administration SCHIP directive, privacy protections in health IT bill, request for increased FDA funding

Mary Agnes Carey, associate editor of CQ HealthBeat, discusses testimony by Government Accountability Office officials about SCHIP expansion guidelines, compromise on a Senate health information technology bill and a request for increased funding from FDA's top official in this week's "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork.org and CQ."

19 May 2008