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Study: Thyroid hormone deficiency can affect cone opsins and colour vision

Thyroid hormone controls the eye's visual pigments throughout life. What part does the thyroid gland have in vision? Thyroid hormone is crucially involved in controlling which visual pigment is produced in the cones. Previously, it was assumed that the colour sensitivity of the cones is fixed in the adult retina.

30 Mar 2011

Concert initiates CTP-499 Phase 1 study in patients with diabetic nephropathy

Concert Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced it has made significant progress advancing CTP-499, its novel anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and anti-fibrotic agent for diabetic nephropathy and other forms of chronic kidney disease, into clinical development.

29 Mar 2011

Scientists to discover new estrogen receptor-signaling networks for breast cancer treatment

The quandary of breast cancer in women is deep: the female hormone, estrogen, is considered to be a quasi-fuel for developing breast cancer.

29 Mar 2011

Drugs can prevent risk of breast cancer in women, experts say

Drugs could be used to prevent breast cancer in women at high risk of the disease in the same way that statins are used for heart disease if trials looking at ways of predicting risk are successful, according to an international panel of cancer experts.

28 Mar 2011

FDA approves ipilimumab for metastatic melanoma treatment

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced today its approval of a new treatment for advanced melanoma, the deadliest and most difficult-to-treat form of skin cancer.

28 Mar 2011

Study demonstrates bisphenol A effect on animal embryonic development

Bisphenol A, whose impact on reproduction and development is the subject of numerous studies, induces anomalies in the inner ear of embryos of certain vertebrates.

25 Mar 2011

Positive top-line results from Targacept's TC-5619 Phase 2 trial in adults with ADHD

Targacept, Inc today announced top-line results from a Phase 2 proof of concept trial of TC-5619 as a treatment for adults with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

25 Mar 2011

Scientists discover hormone pathway that can lead to new diabetes treatment

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered a hormone pathway that potentially could lead to new ways of treating type 1 diabetes independent of insulin, long thought to be the sole regulator of carbohydrates in the liver.

25 Mar 2011

ASAM issues white paper to halt medical marijuana use

Citing the dangers of marijuana, the lack of clinical research on a controlled substance with a high potential for abuse, and the physician's oath to "first, do no harm," the American Society of Addiction Medicine today issued a white paper recommending a halt to using the weed as a medicine in states where it has been declared legal.

24 Mar 2011

High sugar, high fat diets during pregnancy may cause infants to become junk food junkies

A new research report published online in The FASEB Journal suggests that pregnant mothers who eat high sugar and high fat diets have babies who are likely to become junk food junkies themselves. According to the report, which used rats, this happens because the high fat and high sugar diet leads to changes in the fetal brain's reward pathway, altering food preferences.

24 Mar 2011

Cell receptor recycling mechanism discovery opens up new class of therapeutic targets

Prof. Manojkumar Puthenveedu of Carnegie Mellon University studies the mechanisms by which membrane trafficking controls and co-ordinates the complex signalling pathways in the brain. Despite the fact that almost all diseases can be traced to a defect in how cells respond to signals, little is known about how signalling pathways are maintained in normal cells and the changes that occur in abnormal conditions.

23 Mar 2011

WHO concerned about radiation levels in food near damaged Japanese nuclear plant

A WHO spokesperson "said on Monday that the detection of radiation in food after an earthquake damaged a Japanese nuclear plant was a more serious problem than had first expected," Reuters reports.

22 Mar 2011

Ventirx VTX-1463 positive clinical data against allergic rhinitis presented at AAAAI meeting

VentiRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel Toll-Like Receptor 8 agonists and antagonists for the treatment of cancer, respiratory and autoimmune diseases, announced today the presentation of positive clinical results from its randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial evaluating VTX-1463 for the treatment of allergic rhinitis.

22 Mar 2011

ACE, ARB combination therapy may increase risk of kidney failure, death

Elderly patients prescribed combination angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers had a higher risk of kidney failure and death, according to a study published in CMAJ.

22 Mar 2011

ADDF awards ADispell 170,750 grant to develop drugs against Alzheimer's Disease

The Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) announced that it has awarded a grant of $170,750 to ADispell Inc. to develop small molecule drugs designed to halt the progression of cognition loss that occurs with Alzheimer's Disease.

21 Mar 2011

United Therapeutics completes enrollment in FREEDOM-C(2) UT-15C study in pulmonary arterial hypertension

United Therapeutics Corporation announced today that enrollment in its FREEDOM-C(2) registration trial was completed on March 18, 2011.

21 Mar 2011

Smoking during pregnancy increases risk of children becoming smokers too

New research has revealed that prenatal exposure to nicotine increases the vulnerability to nicotine self-administration in adolescent mice. The results support the hypothesis that adolescents with prenatal nicotine exposure are more likely to start smoking earlier than their peers and that they are also more susceptible to the addictive effects of nicotine, especially as a result of stress and peer pressure.

21 Mar 2011

Researchers discover 'broad spectrum' cancer suppressor gene

Portuguese researchers have discovered a "broad spectrum" cancer suppressor gene - called LRP1B - which acts by removing proteins crucial for cancer development from the tumour environment. The fact that LRP1B does not act on the tumour itself (in this study thyroid tumours) but, instead, on molecules which are known to be important to many different cancers is what makes it so interesting.

21 Mar 2011

Tocopherol derivatives as new dioxin receptor antagonists

When reactive oxygen species (ROS) hit the body, vitamin E helps to prevent damage to tissues and cells by acting as an antioxidant. The health benefits of vitamin E are numerous, and in fact, studies have found that people with higher levels of vitamin E in their system have a lower risk of heart disease and certain forms of cancer. A team led by Thomas Rosenau from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna (Austria) now describe their synthesis of a series of modified vitamin E derivatives that show promise as dioxin receptor antagonists in the European Journal of Organic Chemistry.

18 Mar 2011

Cortex reports net loss of $0.01 per share for quarter ended December 31, 2010

Cortex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. reported a net loss applicable to common stock of $984,000, or $0.01 per share for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 compared with a net loss of $1,599,000, or $0.02 per share for the corresponding prior year period.

18 Mar 2011