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NIH might use stimulus funds for comparative effectiveness research that includes cost comparisons, acting director says

NIH Acting Director Raynard Kington on Thursday during a House Appropriations Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee hearing said that the agency might use some of the $10.4 billion it received from the economic stimulus package to fund comparative effectiveness research that includes comparisons on the cost of treatments, CQ HealthBeat reports.

30 Mar 2009

Gene scan shows body's sleep cycle influences numerous physical functions

The pineal gland - integral to setting the body's sleep and wake cycles - may be involved in a broad range of bodily functions, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.

30 Mar 2009

Researchers find direct link between oxidative stress and inflammatory signals in the blood

The finding could lead to improved strategies for preventing several diseases by including antioxidants in the diet and for reducing the impact of inflammation in critically ill patients by adding cysteine to intravenous or tube feeding.

30 Mar 2009

Targeted drug therapy prevents exercise-induced arrhythmias

A 12-year-old Dutch boy - bedridden for three years because of an inherited cardiac arrhythmia syndrome - can now join his friends on the soccer field thanks to a discovery made by Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers.

30 Mar 2009

Discovery of new tumor suppressor gene

National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers have identified a gene that suppresses tumor growth in melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.

30 Mar 2009

Possible new way to stop cancer from spreading

Based on research that reveals new insight into mechanisms that allow invasive tumor cells to move, researchers at the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida have a new understanding about how to stop cancer from spreading.

30 Mar 2009

Drug-coated stents lower risk of heart attack and death

Heart disease patients 65 and older who receive stents coated with medicine to prevent blockages are more likely to survive and less likely to suffer a heart attack than people fitted with stents not coated with medication, according to a new study supported by HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the American College of Cardiology's National Cardiovascular Data Registry.

30 Mar 2009

Angiogenesis inhibitor improves glioblastoma survival by reducing edema

The beneficial effects of anti-angiogenesis drugs in the treatment of the deadly brain tumors called glioblastomas appear to result primarily from reduction of edema - the swelling of brain tissue - and not from any direct anti-tumor effect, according to a study from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers.

30 Mar 2009

Gene linked to lupus might explain why females are 10 times more susceptible to the disease

In an international human genetic study, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified a gene linked to the autoimmune disease lupus, and its location on the X chromosome might help explain why females are 10 times more susceptible to the disease than males

30 Mar 2009

New tool in the radiography approach will assist in earlier detection of asbestos-related diseases

Michael Harbut, M.D., MPH, co-director of the National Center for Vermiculite and Asbestos-Related Cancers (NCVAC) at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, MI, and chief of the Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine Wayne State University, announced the use of a new technology to aid in the diagnosis of asbestos-related lung disease.

30 Mar 2009

New marker for breast cancer metastasis

Researchers at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center have identified a new marker for breast cancer metastasis called TMEM, for Tumor Microenvironment of Metastasis.

30 Mar 2009

New high-throughput screening technique makes probing puzzling proteins possible

Understanding the tens of thousands of proteins that compose the human proteome has emerged as a key challenge of this century, and research efforts to date have already enabled major advances in drug discovery and understanding basic biology.

29 Mar 2009

Researchers discover and manipulate molecular interplay that moves cancer cells

29 Mar 2009

Improved predictive value of biomarkers in HF makes earlier diagnosis and better management possible

With an ever ageing population and more people surviving a heart attack, heart failure is now the world's most prevalent chronic cardiovascular disease.

29 Mar 2009

Improved predictive value of biomarkers in heart failure now makes earlier diagnosis and better management possible

With an ever ageing population and more people surviving a heart attack, heart failure is now the world's most prevalent chronic cardiovascular disease.

29 Mar 2009

High dosage brachytherapy obtains excellent results in head and neck tumors

High-dosage perioperative brachytherapy (applied within the surgical process) obtains excellent results in the treatment of head and neck tumours, at the same time as reducing the period of radiation.

29 Mar 2009

Discovery of new cancer gene

Researchers have identified a new cancer gene - one that is common to many cancers and affects the most basic regulation of our genes.

29 Mar 2009

Enzyme and vitamin define the yin and yang of asthma

The allergen breathed in by a person with asthma triggers a proteinase or enzyme called MMP7 that activates a cascade of events to prompt an allergic reaction, said a consortium of researchers led by Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in a report that appears online in the journal Nature Immunology.

29 Mar 2009

Discovery of tuberculosis bacterium enzyme paves way for new TB drugs

A team of University of Maryland scientists has paved the way for the development of new drug therapies to combat active and asymptomatic (latent) tuberculosis infections by characterizing the unique structure and mechanism of an enzyme in M. tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes the disease.

29 Mar 2009

How fat is stored may explain lower rate of liver disease in African-Americans

Where different ethnic groups store fat in their bodies may account for differences in the likelihood they'll develop insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

29 Mar 2009