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Researchers stimulate the body to repair tissue damaged by peripheral arterial obstructive disease

Duke University Medical Center researchers have shown that they can stimulate the body to produce its own naturally occurring growth factors to promote blood vessel growth into tissue damaged by peripheral arterial obstructive disease (PAOD).

13 Oct 2004

$10 million to establish a multidisciplinary research program in cancer nanotechnology

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded scientists from Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology two new collaborative research grants, totaling nearly $10 million, to establish a multidisciplinary research program in cancer nanotechnology and to develop a new class of nanoparticles for molecular and cellular imaging.

6 Oct 2004

Researchers show gossypol – a drug refined from cottonseed oil is a cancer treatment booster

New research has opened up the prospect that gossypol – a drug refined from cottonseed oil and previously tried and abandoned as a male contraceptive – could boost the effectiveness of treatment for prostate tumours and possibly other common cancers as well.

30 Sep 2004

Phase II trials of the first second-generation antisense cancer drug to be used in patients soon to be underway

Phase II trials of the first second-generation antisense cancer drug to be used in patients are soon to be underway in the wake of a successful Phase I study, which has demonstrated that the new drug blocks its target gene in exactly the way it is designed to do.

28 Sep 2004

Arsenic trioxide - invented as a treatment for a rare type of leukaemia

Arsenic trioxide – a highly poisonous substance best known as an effective weed killer or pesticide and notorious for being a favourite ‘weapon’ of choice in murder mystery novels, is being re-invented as a treatment for a rare type of leukaemia.

28 Sep 2004

Four or more glasses of red wine per week may reduce risk of prostate cancer by 50 percent

Drinking a glass of red wine a day may cut a man's risk of prostate cancer in half, and the protective effect appears to be strongest against the most aggressive forms of the disease

23 Sep 2004

Scientists have corrected a flaw in cancer cells that lets them evade the normal cell-death process

Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have corrected a flaw in cancer cells that lets them evade the normal cell-death process, and as a result they eliminated leukemia cells from mice.

21 Sep 2004

Potential stem cells treatment for retinitis pigmentosa and other retinal degenerations

A team of researchers from The Scripps Research Institute was able to preserve visual function in mice that were genetically predisposed to developing a profound degenerative disease that destroys their retinas.

16 Sep 2004

Protein that causes juvenile Batten disease also plays a key role in normal cell function

The aberrant protein that causes juvenile Batten disease, a fatal neurodegenerative disorder of childhood, also plays a key role in normal cell function, Duke University Medical Center researchers have found.

16 Sep 2004

Researchers uncover how HIV causes abnormalities in antibody-producing cells

HIV wreaks much of its damage by targeting the “orchestra conductor” of the immune system, a key class of T cells—CD4+ T cells—whose destructive relationship with HIV has been well-studied by AIDS researchers.

8 Sep 2004

Common enzyme acts as a natural brake to prevent potentially deadly runaway inflammation

An enzyme found in nearly all animal and human cells acts as a natural brake to prevent potentially deadly runaway inflammation, UCSF scientists have discovered.

30 Aug 2004

Phase 1 clinical trial of new anticancer drug from Human Genome Sciences

Human Genome Sciences has begun dosing patients in a Phase 1 clinical trial of HGS-TR2J, a novel agonistic human monoclonal antibody to TRAIL Receptor 2, in patients with advanced solid malignancies.

25 Aug 2004

A drug derived from an ocean-growing sponge helps prevent the growth of cancer cells

A drug derived from an ocean-growing sponge teams up to enhance the performance of the yew tree derivative Taxol® (paclitaxel) in preventing the growth of cancer cells, according to research published in the July 15 issue of the journal Cancer Research.

15 Jul 2004

Latest findings on HIV pathogenesis at AIDS Conference in Bangkok

At the XVth International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Thailand, Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief of the NIAID Laboratory of Immunoregulation (LIR), will present his laboratory’s latest findings on how aberrant immune activation underlies HIV pathogenesis.

15 Jul 2004

Evidence that new anti-inflammatory drug may sensitize leukemia, and breast and lung cancers to conventional chemotherapy

Ohio researchers have used a recently developed anti-inflammatory drug as a starting point to construct a possible new, targeted anti-cancer agent.

10 Jul 2004

First successful gene therapy that mimics the action of calcium channel blockers

Their findings - published in the latest edition of Circulation Research, online July 8 - may lead to a gene therapy alternative to calcium channel blockers and their sometimes severe side effects, but also further interest in the development of gene therapies unique - as in this case - to one particular organ.

10 Jul 2004

Anal cancer is on the rise in both sexes

Anal cancer is on the rise in both sexes, particularly among American men, and changing trends in sexual behavior — combined with current tobacco use and infection by a specific strain of the human papillomavirus — may help explain the increase.

9 Jul 2004

Mitochondria in spinal cords is Lou Gehrig’s disease target according researchers

The selective killing of spinal cord neurons in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, occurs when tiny cellular components called mitochondria actively recruit a mutant disease-causing protein into specific neuron cells, according to new research by University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine investigators.

9 Jul 2004

Paclitaxel analog kills more cancer cells than natural product

Paclitaxel, a natural compound from yew trees, is the world's best-selling anticancer drug. Several analogs are in clinical trial, with others in preclinical development. One problem that paclitaxel and all its analogs share, however, is that they are all highly complex compounds, and cannot be prepared synthetically in a commercially viable way.

21 Jun 2004

Non-aspirin pain drugs may help men with recurrent prostate cancer

Early results from a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine study may determine if drugs called Cox-2 inhibitors, a newer type of non-aspirin pain medicine now widely prescribed for arthritis symptoms, may benefit men with recurrent prostate cancer.

10 Jun 2004