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Drug giant donates bird flu vaccine to WHO stockpile

Europe's largest drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has promised to donate 50 million doses of its "pre-pandemic" bird flu vaccine for humans to a global stockpile for distribution in the world's poorest countries.

14 Jun 2007

Myelin and Huntington's disease

Last month, Dr. George Bartzokis, director of the UCLA Memory Disorders and Alzheimer's Disease Clinic, suggested in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia that the breakdown of a type of myelin that develops late in life promotes the buildup of toxic amyloid plaques long associated with Alzheimer's disease.

14 Jun 2007

Thirteenth gene linked to Leber's congenital amaurosis

An international research team has discovered a gene that, when mutated, causes one of the most common forms of inherited blindness in babies.

14 Jun 2007

Primary ciliary dyskinesia linked to heterotaxy

The same genetic defect that causes a rare respiratory disease may also lead to some types of congenital heart disease, according to a study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

14 Jun 2007

BRCA2 carriers more likely to develop aggressive and lethal prostate cancer

Carriers of a BRCA2 variation specific to Iceland are more likely to develop aggressive and lethal prostate cancer than noncarriers, according to a study published online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

14 Jun 2007

Gamma-secretase acts as a tumor suppressor

Researchers at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have provided the first evidence that gamma-secretase, an enzyme key to the progression of Alzheimer's, acts as a tumor suppressor by altering the pathway of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a potential treatment target for cancer.

14 Jun 2007

Too much sun in childhood leads to deadly skin cancer later on

New rules about to be introduced by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States regarding sunscreens will come at an opportune time.

12 Jun 2007

More deaths from bird flu in Egypt

A spokesperson for Egypt's health ministry has confirmed that a 10 year-old girl has become the youngest victim in Egypt of bird flu since the first human case was recorded in the country in March 2006 and is the country's 15th fatality from the deadly virus.

11 Jun 2007

New contributor to aggressive cancers

Mutations in the cell adhesion molecule known as integrin alpha 7 (integrin 7) lead to unchecked tumor cell proliferation and a significantly higher incidence in cancer spread, or metastasis, in several cancer cell lines, report researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

8 Jun 2007

Researchers shed light on congenital diaphragmatic hernia

The diaphragm, a shelf of muscle that separates the chest cavity from the abdominal cavity, is critical to sustaining life.

8 Jun 2007

Deleting gene important in embryo development leads to premature aging in mice

Researchers at the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute of the University of Pennsylvania have found that deleting a gene important in embryo development leads to premature aging and loss of stem cell reservoirs in adult mice.

8 Jun 2007

New understanding of anti-malarial drug resistance

Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center say they are moving closer to understanding why the most lethal form of human malaria has become resistant to drug treatment in the past three decades.

8 Jun 2007

In mice, drug protects against diabetes and atherosclerosis

Blocking a single protein with an experimental drug prevented and treated both type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis in laboratory mice that had been fed unhealthy diets and were genetically predisposed to these common killers, according to an article published online in Nature.

8 Jun 2007

New target for the Fragile X mental retardation protein

Researchers in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine have identified a new regulatory target for the Fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP), laying the groundwork for possible new treatments for Fragile X syndrome(FXS), the leading inherited form of mental retardation.

8 Jun 2007