Toxin News and Research

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Discount injectables bought offshore not worth the price

The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) has announced that patients need to be wary of “bargain” injectables or other treatments that are not approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Unregulated injectables or treatments can compromise patient health and put patient lives at risk.

19 Jul 2005

It's fright time again! - how to poison the country's milk

Despite fierce opposition, the National Academy of Sciences has published a report which says the U.S. milk supply is vulnerable to being poisoned with botulinum toxin.

29 Jun 2005

Guidelines for treatment of essential tremor

Imagine not being able to hold a glass, tie your shoelaces or write a check. For people with the common movement disorder known as essential tremor, simple tasks requiring fine motor coordination become increasingly difficult, sometimes even impossible.

27 Jun 2005

Scientists identify inhibitors of the anthrax toxin

A collaborative team of scientists led by The Burnham Institute's Maurizio Pellecchia, Ph.D., has identified inhibitors of the anthrax toxin, termed lethal factor ("LF") that could be developed into an emergency treatment for exposure to inhalation anthrax.

21 Jun 2005

Tetanus toxin may help fight depression, anxiety, anorexia and Parkinson's

A team of researchers from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Institute of Neuroscience at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona has discovered that tetanus toxin, which causes tetanus, could be extremely useful as a therapy against psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety and anorexia, and to slow the progress of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease.

14 Jun 2005

Venom of marine cone snails may provide an improved treatment for neuropathic pain associated with diabetes

A cone snail toxin discovered by Melbourne researchers has proven to have great potential for easing pain and could provide an improved treatment for neuropathic pain associated with diabetes.

12 Jun 2005

Superbug possibly the same as US killer strain

Microbiologists at the Health Protection Agency suspect that the superbug which has already caused 12 deaths at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, in Buckinghamshire, may be the same strain that has spread in many American hospitals since 2001, and killed more than 100 patients in Quebec, Canada, last year.

8 Jun 2005

Exposure to aflatoxins that contaminate crops in developing countries can be reduced by a simple, cost-effective intervention

Exposure to a cancer-causing toxin that contaminates crops in developing countries can be reduced by a simple, cost-effective intervention on post-harvest storage, concludes a study in this week’s issue of The Lancet.

3 Jun 2005

Role of toxins in inherited disease

A disease you are suffering today could be a result of your great-grandmother being exposed to an environmental toxin during pregnancy.

3 Jun 2005

New vaccine against whooping cough is effective in teens and adults

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has announced that a study to be published in the June 22/29 issue found that a new vaccine against whooping cough is effective in teens and adults, carriers of the contagious respiratory disease so dangerous to infants.

3 Jun 2005

A protein found naturally in the brain may protect against Parkinson's disease

The findings also may lead to an improved understanding of a disorder called early-onset torsion dystonia.

2 Jun 2005

Anti-inflammatory protein annexin 1 may protect patients from the detrimental effects of severe inflammatory response syndrome

Severe inflammatory response syndrome, or SIRS, occurs when the body's response to an overwhelming infection becomes uncontrolled. The very immune response meant to clear the pathogen and its toxins actually causes damage to the host's own tissues when it goes into overdrive, releasing too many immune signals.

23 May 2005

New insight into the machinery cells use to internalize cell surface receptors

Using state of the art imaging technology a team from Yale School of Medicine has glimpsed one of the cell's most important 'nano-machines' in action. The work, performed in collaboration with English and French scientists, provides new insight into the machinery cells use to internalize cell surface receptors.

22 May 2005

Broader range of treatments for excessive sweating disorder, Mayo Clinic Proceedings says

The often embarrassing, excessive sweating disorder, hyperhidrosis, and its treatment options are gaining greater attention from physicians. This is improving the efficacy of treatment and minimizing its adverse effects, Mayo Clinic authors write in the May issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

11 May 2005

NIAID has awarded 10 grants and 2 contracts totaling approximately $27 million to fund development of new therapeutics and vaccines against bioterrorism

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has awarded 10 grants and 2 contracts totaling approximately $27 million to fund development of new therapeutics and vaccines against some of the most deadly agents of bioterrorism including anthrax, botulinum toxin, Ebola virus, pneumonic plague, smallpox and tularemia.

11 May 2005

Tollbooth ventilation system effective in protecting workers from traffic air pollution

Although there is the potential for tollbooth workers at the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel to be exposed to high levels of cancer-causing air toxins emitted from the thousands of vehicles that pass under their nose, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that the tollbooth ventilation system was effective in keeping air toxins out of the tollbooth and away from the workers.

5 May 2005

Brain-injury rehabilitation depends on acetylcholine circuitry

The ability of the brain to recover from such injury as stroke or trauma depends on a particular circuitry of neurons that "talk" to one another using the brain chemical acetylcholine, researchers led by James Conner and Mark Tuszynski in the Neural repair Group at UCSD have discovered.

20 Apr 2005

Blue-green algae linked to Alzheimer's disease

An international team of researchers, including scientists from the University of Dundee have announced that cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) found throughout the world may produce a toxin linked to certain types of neurological disease.

5 Apr 2005

How E.Coli became deadly to humans

Twenty-three years ago a harmless gut bacterium called E. coli developed the ability to kill people through food poisoning, bloody diarrhoea and kidney failure. Normally E. coli bacteria live in the intestine and don’t pose any danger, but some varieties can cause fatal food poisoning.

4 Apr 2005

Community MRSA is re-emergence of 1950's pandemic

This "re-equipping and re-emergence" of a clone that caused a pandemic 40-50 years ago could mean that community acquired MRSA will spread faster and be more widespread than previously expected, warns an international team of researchers who have been studying the bacteria.

3 Apr 2005