Drugs News and Research

RSS

New guidelines for antiepileptic drugs

The International League Against Epilepsy has set new treatment guidelines for antiepileptic drugs, as published in the journal Epilepsia.

19 Jul 2006

Researchers find protein associated with brain cell death

Neuroscientists at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have found evidence of which protein in the brain's immune cells triggers a cascade of reactions that produces unregulated free radical production that eventually leads to the neural cell death found in Alzheimer's disease.

19 Jul 2006

Highly active antiretroviral therapies associated with reduced infections in HIV-infected children

Since the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapies, there has been a substantial reduction of opportunistic infections and other infections in HIV-infected children, such as pneumonia and tuberculosis.

19 Jul 2006

FDA gives the green light for Gemzar to treat recurrent ovarian cancer

Drug company Eli Lilly has been given approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its drug Gemzar to be used by women living with recurrent ovarian cancer.

18 Jul 2006

Clinton Foundation seals deal in Nigerian AIDS fight

The Clinton Foundation, an AIDS charity set up by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, has signed a deal with Nigeria to make cheap AIDS drugs available to fight the disease in Africa's most populous nation.

18 Jul 2006

Donepezil slows brain shrinkage in some patients with mild cognitive impairment

According to a new study, the drug donepezil measurably slows the rate of brain shrinkage in some patients with mild cognitive impairment, a pre-Alzheimer's disease condition. The shrinkage was measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

18 Jul 2006

Researchers isolate rare cancer stem cells that cause leukemia

Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital Boston and their colleagues have isolated rare cancer stem cells that cause leukemia in a mouse model of the human disease.

18 Jul 2006

New hope for women with Alzheimer's disease

Leuprolide acetate helps women with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease maintain functional capabilities for a longer period of time, according to data presented Monday by Voyager Pharmaceutical Corporation.

18 Jul 2006

New hope for patients with aggressive multiple sclerosis

A new combination treatment regime, for patients with aggressive forms of multiple sclerosis (MS), is offering new hope to a group of patients who would otherwise be at high risk of early disability.

18 Jul 2006

Eicosanoids and inflammatory response

Revolutionary new results concerning substances that play major roles in the inflammatory response have been published in the American scientific journal PNAS in two articles from Karolinska Institutet.

18 Jul 2006

Alzheimer's disease linked to raised blood sugar levels

Researchers at an Alzheimer's Conference in Spain have come up with more information on the disease and just who amongst the population is most likely to get it.

17 Jul 2006

Pioglitazone shows promise in treating Alzheimer's

Treatment of high blood sugar may have a scientific connection to memory loss that could, one day, benefit millions of people with Alzheimer's Disease, which affects up to 4.5 million older Americans, bringing with it impaired thinking and memory.

17 Jul 2006

Herceptin-linked nanoparticles for targeted cancer therapy

Albumin nanoparticles have recently proven their mettle as anticancer agents with the 2005 approval of Abraxane to treat metastatic breast cancer.

17 Jul 2006

Diblock copolymer micellar nanoparticles decorated with annexin-A5 proteins

One of the banes of modern cancer therapy is that clinicians and patients must often wait months before they can tell if a given treatment is working.

17 Jul 2006

The facts on dieting

Only 'circumstantial' evidence supporting poor diet and lack of exercise as the main causes of obesity.

17 Jul 2006

Apathy and depression, separate issues in Parkinson's disease

According to researchers in the U.S. people suffering from Parkinson's disease can be apathetic without being depressed, and apathy may be a core feature of the disease.

17 Jul 2006

New hope for ways to overcome drug resistance in lung cancer

Scientists have suggested it may be possible to reverse drug resistance in lung cancer patients, thereby improving the effectiveness of chemotherapy, according to research published in the EMBO Journal.

13 Jul 2006

FDA approves Atripla for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in adults

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and Gilead Sciences have announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval of Atripla (efavirenz 600 mg/ emtricitabine 200 mg/ tenofovir disoproxil fumarate 300 mg) for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in adults.

13 Jul 2006

Researchers discover two-way communication and stimulation between blood stem cells and T cells

When a transplant patient suffers complications such as graft rejection or graft-versus-host disease, physicians attempt to stop the body's immune response by targeting a patient's T cells.

13 Jul 2006

Mechanics of atherosclerosis

Atherosclerotic narrowing and hardening of coronary arteries typically appear first at vessel branches, and a study in the October issue of Cellular Signalling reports that the type of mechanical stretching found at those branches activates a cellular protein known to damage cells.

12 Jul 2006