Arthritis & Rheumatology News and Research

Latest Arthritis & Rheumatology News and Research

BP variability link to stroke risk reinforced

Analysis of data from the Women’s Health Initiative supports the contention that variability in a person’s blood pressure affects their risk for stroke.

10 Jul 2012

Salt content in UK takeaway meals ‘alarmingly high’

The level of salt in hot takeaway meals from small independent outlets in the UK should be reduced to minimize adverse health consequences, say researchers who found that levels were disturbingly high.

10 Jul 2012

RA patients do not receive fewer cancer screening tests than general population: Study

New research reveals that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients do not receive fewer cancer screening tests than the general population. Results of the study, funded in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), found that RA and non-RA patients receive routine screening for breast, cervical, and colon cancer at similar rates.

10 Jul 2012

Study clarifies anti-inflammatory impact of boswellic acids

It was one of the gifts of the Magi - in addition to myrrh and gold they offered frankincense to the newly born baby Jesus. Since the ancient world the aromatic fragrance of burning Boswellia resin has been part of many religious ceremonies and is still used as a means to indicate special festive atmosphere in the church today. But frankincense can do much more: "The resin from the trunk of Boswellia trees contains anti-inflammatory substances," Professor Dr. Oliver Werz of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany) says.

10 Jul 2012

Questionnaire may aid rheumatoid arthritis flare diagnosis

French researchers have created a 13-item patient-administered questionnaire for identifying a recent or present rheumatoid arthritis flare.

9 Jul 2012

A little exercise per day keeps hypertension away

Researchers have found evidence that shows exercise intensity mediates the progression from prehypertension to hypertension.

9 Jul 2012

Positive data from Tonix's sublingual TNX-102 PK study for fibromyalgia

Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp., a specialty pharmaceutical company developing non-addictive treatments for chronic pain syndromes, including fibromyalgia, reported positive data from an animal pharmacokinetic study of its novel sublingual formulation of TNX-102, the Company's very low dose cyclobenzaprine.

9 Jul 2012

Human immune response: TCD scientists make breakthrough which could lead to new drug therapies

A team of researchers at Trinity College Dublin’s School of Medicine has gained new insights into a protein in the human immune system that plays a key role in the protective response to infection and inflammation. The research findings have just been published in the internationally renowned peer-reviewed Journal of Biological Chemistry.

9 Jul 2012

Researchers describe inflammatory mechanism of sunburn

The biological mechanism of sunburn - the reddish, painful, protective immune response from ultraviolet (UV) radiation - is a consequence of RNA damage to skin cells, report researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and elsewhere in the July 8, 2012 Advance Online Publication of Nature Medicine.

9 Jul 2012

Targeting double-stranded RNA dependent protein kinase could treat inflammation

Researchers at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research have discovered that inflammation could be treated by targeting a molecule called the double-stranded RNA dependent protein kinase (PKR). These findings are published in the July issue of Nature.

9 Jul 2012

Effect of spaceflight on C. elegans could help it to live longer

The effect of spaceflight on a microscopic worm - Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) - could help it to live longer.

8 Jul 2012

New epigenetic path toward a cure for osteoarthritis

In what could be a breakthrough in the practical application of epigenetic science, U.K. scientists used human tissue samples to discover that those with osteoarthritis have a signature epigenetic change (DNA methylation) responsible for switching on and off a gene that produces a destructive enzyme called MMP13.

7 Jul 2012

New Gateway-funded phase II ADAPT study for metastatic colorectal cancer

The Gateway for Cancer Research announces an exciting new Gateway-funded phase II study using ADAPT therapy for treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer based on a 2010 AACR presentation by Dr. Lin and his collaborators.

7 Jul 2012

NYU Langone completes first year of robotic mitral valve repair program

The Cardiothoracic Surgery Department at NYU Langone Medical Center completed its first year of offering patients endoscopic robotic mitral valve repair surgery. This procedure was introduced at the medical center in the spring of 2011 by Dr. Didier F. Loulmet, a renowned cardiothoracic surgeon who helped develop the procedure.

6 Jul 2012

Study sheds light on the assembly of ribosome

Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have identified a series of intricate biochemical steps that lead to the successful production of proteins, the basic working units of any cell.

6 Jul 2012

Scientists discover constant cloud of potent inflammatory molecules surrounding the monocytes

Scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have discovered a 'constant cloud' of potent inflammatory molecules surrounding the cells responsible for diseases such as thickening of the arteries and rheumatoid arthritis.

5 Jul 2012

Live zoster vaccine associated with reduced risk of HZ in patients with immune-mediated diseases

Although some have suggested that patients receiving medication for immune-mediated diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or psoriasis may be at increased risk of herpes zoster (HZ; shingles) shortly after receipt of the vaccine, an analysis that included nearly 20,000 vaccinated Medicare beneficiaries finds that the live zoster vaccine is not associated with an increased risk of HZ shortly after vaccination in patients currently treated with biologics, and that it is associated with a significantly reduced longer-term risk of HZ in patients with an immune-mediated disease, according to a study in the July 4 issue of JAMA.

4 Jul 2012

Shingles vaccine may not increase risk of varicella in people with auto-immune diseases

New research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham casts doubt on the long-standing belief that the vaccine for shingles should not be given to patients taking biologics for auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.

4 Jul 2012

Epigenetic changes due to methylation play a key role in altering genes in RA

It's not just our DNA that makes us susceptible to disease and influences its impact and outcome. Scientists are beginning to realize more and more that important changes in genes that are unrelated to changes in the DNA sequence itself - a field of study known as epigenetics - are equally influential.

4 Jul 2012

Osteoarthritis susceptibility: eight potential genes discovered

The largest genome-wide association study (GWAS) of osteoarthritis to date, published Online First in The Lancet, has uncovered eight new genetic variants or loci that appear to increase susceptibility to the most common form of arthritis, which affects about 40% of the world population older than 70 years. These findings bring the total number of osteoarthritis susceptibility genes isolated in European populations to 11.

3 Jul 2012