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Study suggests new treatment strategy for heart attacks and strokes

A heart attack doesn't just damage heart muscle tissue by cutting off its blood supply, it also sets off an inflammatory cascade that worsens underlying atherosclerosis, actively increasing the risk for a future heart attack. These findings from a study receiving advance online publication in Nature suggest an important new therapeutic strategy for preventing heart attacks and strokes, both of which are caused when atherosclerotic plaques rupture and block important blood vessels.

28 Jun 2012

Acute pancreatitis may be staved off by diet rich in vegetables

A diet rich in vegetables could help stave off the development of the serious condition acute pancreatitis, suggests a large study published online in the journal Gut.

28 Jun 2012

Data from Infinity’s IPI-145 pre-clinical study on inflammatory diseases

Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today reported preclinical data for IPI-145, the company's oral inhibitor of phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K)-delta and PI3K-gamma. The data demonstrate potent PI3K-delta and -gamma inhibition in biochemical, cellular and whole blood assays and activity in multiple preclinical models of inflammatory disease, including rheumatoid arthritis and asthma.

28 Jun 2012

FDA approves test for dengue virus infection

The first test that can detect the presence of the dengue virus itself rather than antibodies to the virus has been approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration.

27 Jun 2012

Protein kinase A activated in the nucleus as well as the cytoplasm

Using a new tool allowing proteins in a living cell to be manipulated in real time, researchers at Johns Hopkins have stumbled across the answer to a longstanding debate about where and how a certain protein is turned on in the cell. Reporting in the February 2012 issue of Nature Chemical Biology, scientists show that protein kinase A is also activated in the nucleus rather than inside the cell’s body, a challenge to traditional beliefs.

27 Jun 2012

Scientists identify novel mechanism behind bacterial pathogenesis

Scientists have identified a new mechanism of bacterial pathogenesis. The results of the research project, partly funded by the Academy of Finland, have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).

27 Jun 2012

First clinical trial to test cardiac drug regimen for DMD

The first landmark randomized clinical trial for a cardiac drug regimen in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is testing whether earlier treatment can stop or slow down heart damage that usually kills people with the disease.

27 Jun 2012

Maternal factors associated with fetal growth restriction

A Japanese study has found that maternal rather than fetal factors are associated with fetal growth restriction. A comparison of maternal and fetal angiotensin-converting enzyme genotypes with the size of babies at birth found evidence of this connection.

27 Jun 2012

Biological filter to remove estrogens from waste water and drinking water

A biological filter to remove estrogens from waste water and drinking water. The 15 Bielefeld students submitting this project to the 'international Genetically Engineered Machine competition' (iGEM) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, USA are setting their sights high.

26 Jun 2012

Metformin reduces overall cancer risk in patients with Type 2 diabetes

A commonly prescribed diabetes drug, metformin, reduces the overall cancer risk in people with Type 2 diabetes, a large systematic review study finds. The results will be presented Monday at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston.

26 Jun 2012

Targeted delivery of therapeutic gene can effectively treat Pompe disease

Gene therapy to replace the protein missing in Pompe disease can be effective if the patient's immune system does not react against the therapy. Targeted delivery of the gene to the liver, instead of throughout the body,suppresses the immune response, improving the therapeutic effect, according to an article published in Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

26 Jun 2012

Sunflower peptides can treat itchy skin problems

Sunflowers may hold the solution to a problem which gets under the skin of millions of Australians every year. Skin conditions such as eczema, dermatitis, rosacea and the lesser-known Netherton Syndrome pose an itchy problem for many sufferers world-wide, but a group of researchers from Queensland University of Technology (QUT), in Brisbane Australia, are looking at ways to soothe the problem - with tiny proteins called peptides, found in sunflowers.

26 Jun 2012

Flavocoxid liver damage reported

A prescription medical food used to treat osteoarthritis may induce reversible liver damage in some users, suggests research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

25 Jun 2012

Stanford Woods Institute awards five new EVP grants for interdisciplinary research

The Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment has awarded five new Environmental Venture Projects (EVP) grants for interdisciplinary research aimed at finding practical solutions to major environmental and sustainability challenges.

23 Jun 2012

Surprising link between dietary fat and cholesterol absorption

Buttery shrimp. Fried eggs. Burgers and fries. New research suggests there may be a biological reason why fatty and cholesterol-rich foods are so appealing together.

23 Jun 2012

WCMC researchers devise innovative boxer-like strategy to fight multiple myeloma

Weill Cornell Medical College researchers have devised an innovative boxer-like strategy, based on the serial use of two anti-cancer drugs, to deliver a one-two punch to first weaken the defenses of multiple myeloma and then deliver the final knock-out punch to win the fight.

23 Jun 2012

First study to link risk of cognitive decline to severity of diabetes

Preventing diabetes or delaying its onset has been thought to stave off cognitive decline -- a connection strongly supported by the results of a 9-year study led by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the San Francisco VA Medical Center.

23 Jun 2012

Researchers uncover why ointment and photodynamic therapy cause pain in skin cancer patients

Apply the ointment, light on, light off - that's how easy it is to cure various forms of non-melanoma skin cancer. However, the majority of patients suffer severe pain during the so-termed photodynamic therapy.

23 Jun 2012

Risk of cognitive decline linked to severity of diabetes

22 Jun 2012

Longer looks: Alzheimer's researcher turns to drug she helped invent

Given her relatively young age, Dr. Rae Lyn Burke didn't think much about her family history of Alzheimer's disease -- a grandmother and an aunt had suffered from it, but they were much older. Ironically, Burke was just in her late 50s when she started having her own symptoms of early onset Alzheimer's. Even more ironic is that Burke had been one of the key developers of the Alzheimer's drug bapineuzumab, which she now takes herself to reduce the progression of the disease in her own brain.

22 Jun 2012