Blood News and Research

RSS

Scientists identify blood component that turns anthrax bacteria virulent

Scientists from the Scripps Research Institute have discovered the key chemical that signals Bacillus anthracis , the bacterium that causes anthrax, to become lethal.

21 Nov 2008

Nplate receives positive opinion for marketing authorisation in Europe

Amgen has announced that the European Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has issued a positive opinion recommending marketing authorisation for Nplate (romiplostim) in the European Union (EU).

21 Nov 2008

Mechanisms of cardiovascular disease and cancer give clues to new therapies

Cardiovascular conditions leading to heart attacks and strokes are treated quite separately from common cancers of the prostate, breast or lung, but now turn out to involve some of the same critical mechanisms at the molecular level.

21 Nov 2008

Long-term use of a macrolide antibiotic reduce COPD exacerbations, raise questions

Long-term use of a macrolide antibiotic may reduce the frequency of exacerbations in patients with moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by as much as 35 percent, according to a London-based study.

21 Nov 2008

Reminder, signs of a heart attack can be subtle

You know the drill: join the family for feasting on a high-fat, carbohydrate-filled meal followed by a generous slice of pumpkin pie

21 Nov 2008

Heart patients are often not treated in accordance with guidelines

Many patients with cardiovascular disease are not given adequate drug therapy.

21 Nov 2008

FDA accepts filing and grants priority review for DX-88 for hereditary angioedema

Dyax Corp. has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for filing the Company's Biologics License Application (BLA) for DX-88 (ecallantide) for the treatment of acute attacks of hereditary angioedema (HAE) and has designated the application for Priority Review.

21 Nov 2008

Bipolar disorder genes, pathways identified

Neuroscientists at the Indiana University School of Medicine have created the first comprehensive map of genes likely to be involved in bipolar disorder, according to research published online Nov. 21 in the American Journal of Medical Genetics.

21 Nov 2008

New approach to stopping germs

Keeping germs from cooperating can delay the evolution of drug resistance more effectively than killing germs one by one with traditional drugs such as antibiotics, according to new research from The University of Arizona in Tucson.

20 Nov 2008

Helping diabetics through the holiday season

November ushers in American Diabetes Month - not only a time to be thankful for bustling basic and clinical research underway on the disease, but also the unofficial start of the holiday season.

20 Nov 2008

Scientists develop unlimited pure insulin-producing cells from mouse embryonic stem cells

These pure insulin-producing cells, which according to electron microscopy studies, have the same sub-cellular structures as the insulin-producing cells naturally found in the pancreas, were highly effective in treating diabetes in the mouse model.

20 Nov 2008

Scientists trick immune system of mice into believing transplanted islets are its own cells

The body's immune system hates strangers. When its security patrol spots a foreign cell, it annihilates it.

20 Nov 2008

Effective anti-tobacco public service announcements should either scare or disgust viewers

Now's the perfect time to increase anti-smoking campaigns - Nov. 20 is the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout.

20 Nov 2008

Lactic acid found to be important energy source for tumor cells

Many tumors have cells that burn fuel for activities in different ways. Tumor cells near blood vessels have adequate oxygen sources and can either burn glucose like normal cells, or lactic acid (lactate). Tumor cells further from vessels are hypoxic and inefficiently burn a lot of glucose to keep going. In turn, they produce lactate as a waste product.

20 Nov 2008

Gefitinib just as effective as chemotherapy for lung cancer

Gefitinib, also known as Iressa, the once-promising targeted therapy for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, has proven as effective as chemotherapy as a second-line therapy for the disease with far fewer side effects, according to an international Phase III clinical trial, led by researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

20 Nov 2008

FDA approves GSK's Promacta (Eltrombopag)

GlaxoSmithKline has announced that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval for PROMACTA (eltrombopag) for the treatment of thrombocytopenia in patients with chronic immune (idiopathic) thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) who have had an insufficient response to corticosteroids, immunoglobulins or splenectomy.

20 Nov 2008

First study to look at health of centenarian offspring

A recent study appearing in the November issue of Journal of American Geriatrics Society revealed that centenarian offspring (children of parents who lived to be at least 97 years old) retain important cardiovascular advantages from their parents compared to a similarly-aged cohort.

20 Nov 2008

LDL cholesterol inhibits the breakdown of peripheral fat

The so called bad cholesterol (LDL) inhibits the breakdown of fat in cells of peripheral deposits, according to a study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet.

20 Nov 2008

Carbon nanotubes improve protein array detection limits

To detect cancer as early as possible, dozens of research groups are developing methods to detect trace levels of cancer-related proteins and genes in blood or other biological samples.

20 Nov 2008

Nanoparticle reports on drug delivery to breast tumors, predicts response to therapy

One of the hallmarks of many nanoparticle-based anticancer therapeutics and imaging agents is that they accumulate in tumors thanks to the fact that they are small enough to escape from the bloodstream through the leaky blood vessels that surround tumors.

20 Nov 2008