Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Orc1 mutations may explain pathology in manifestations of Meier-Gorlin syndrome

Research published Aug. 1 by scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) links gene mutations found in some patients with Meier-Gorlin syndrome (MGS) with specific cellular dysfunctions that are thought to give rise to a particularly extreme version of dwarfism, small brain size, and other manifestations of abnormal growth which generally characterize that rare condition.

1 Aug 2012

Tips on how to keep children safe during extreme hot weather

Several US states and cities have seen record breaking temperatures this summer. Doctors at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center want to give tips to parents and guardians on how they can keep their kids safe during the hot weather.

31 Jul 2012

Australia's top medical researchers for 2012 announced

Finalists for one of Australia’s longest running and most prestigious awards for medical research were announced today. This year’s winner will join a list of alumni winners that includes many of the country’s most respected scientists.

31 Jul 2012

Opioid receptors can control metabolic response to diets high in fat and sugar

Imagine eating all of the sugar and fat that you want without gaining a pound. Thanks to new research published in The FASEB Journal, the day may come when this is not too far from reality.

31 Jul 2012

Study identifies Olympic athletes with asthma and airway hyper-responsiveness

Based on data from the last five Olympic games, a study by the University of Western Australia has identified those athletes with asthma and airway hyper-responsiveness. With a prevalence of around 8% they are the most common chronic conditions among Olympic athletes, and could be related to intense training.

31 Jul 2012

Viewpoints: Health law no threat to innovation; Failure to expand Medicaid would 'doom' thousands; Don't stigmatize mentally ill

For better or worse, the Democrats incorporated a good deal of mainstream Republican thinking about health care reform from the past decade, including mandated coverage and health insurance exchanges, into the Affordable Care Act. This leaves the GOP, embarrassingly, with little to say about what is wrong with the act.

31 Jul 2012

Infant whooping cough concern

The ongoing increase in whooping cough cases has extended to very young babies, reports the Health Protection Agency, prompting further efforts to step up the immunisation programme.

30 Jul 2012

Healthcare-associated pneumonia management could be improved

Although healthcare-associated pneumonia is common among patients treated in internal medicine departments and linked to poor outcomes, rates of testing and adherence to therapeutic guidelines are low, say Spanish investigators.

30 Jul 2012

Progress with GSK in advancing VaxiRNA technology earns Alnylam $3.2M milestone payment

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leading RNAi therapeutics company, announced today that it has earned a development milestone payment from GlaxoSmithKline, totaling $3.2 million. The milestone payment is related to progress in the companies' collaboration on the use of VaxiRNA technology for the production of GSK influenza vaccine.

30 Jul 2012

Promising implications for improving cellular immunotherapy for treatment of cancer

New research from the Trudeau Institute laboratory of Dr. Edward L. Pearce (Washington University) has promising implications for improving a treatment for cancer known as cellular immunotherapy. The findings were just published in the The Journal of Immunology.

30 Jul 2012

UTMB researchers receives NIH grant to develop engineered lung tissue for biomedical studies

University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston researchers have been awarded a two-year, $1.25 million National Institutes of Health grant to develop a method of custom-growing human lung tissue to make a three-dimensional model for biomedical studies.

30 Jul 2012

EC approves Vertex's KALYDECO for treatment of cystic fibrosis

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated announced today that the European Commission has approved KALYDECOTM (ivacaftor) for people with cystic fibrosis (CF) ages 6 and older who have at least one copy of the G551D mutation in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene.

28 Jul 2012

Researchers develop piglet model to study infant brain development

Events that take place early in life almost certainly have consequences for later cognitive development. Establishing the connections is difficult, however, because human infants cannot be used as laboratory subjects. Rodney Johnson and his collaborators have developed an alternative model for studying infant brain development. "Assistant professor Ryan Dilger and I became interested in establishing the neonatal piglet as a model of human brain and cognitive development 3 or 4 years ago," he said.

26 Jul 2012

Obama skipping AIDS conference; Black community still bearing high burden of the disease

For all the dignitaries on the schedule at the International AIDS Conference this week in Washington, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and former President Bill Clinton, it's the absence of one that has activists talking. With the conference being held in the U.S. for the first time in 22 years, President Barack Obama is out of town campaigning and raising money for his re-election. His only presence is a 50-second cameo in a three-minute video welcoming delegates.

26 Jul 2012

Tips to prevent illness in crowds

Massive crowds from around the globe will mingle in London during the Olympics, and that means a world-class array of germs will mix with them. Mayo Clinic infectious diseases expert Gregory Poland, M.D., offers several tips for avoiding illness when you are around lots of people, whether at the Olympics, a professional football game, convention, arena concert or other major event.

26 Jul 2012

Rutgers cell biologist to receive Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers

Fewer than 100 researchers nationwide are chosen each year to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), and this year Dr. Nihal Altan-Bonnet is one of the 96 to receive this honor.

25 Jul 2012

Researchers discover bats as reservoir of infections

Measles, mumps, pneumonia, influenza and encephalitis in man, Carré's disease in dogs, Ovine Rinderpest (PPR)… all of these diseases are caused by viruses from the same family: Paramyxoviridae. A vast international study, carried out in collaboration with IRD researchers and published in Nature communications has led to the discovery of more than 60 new species of these dangerous infectious agents, almost double the number previously recorded. This family of highly diverse pathogens affects all animals, from canines to fowl, cattle and humans.

25 Jul 2012

Scientists discover structure and operating procedures of anti-bacterial killing machine

Scientists have discovered the structure and operating procedures of a powerful anti-bacterial killing machine that could become an alternative to antibiotics.

25 Jul 2012

Favorable results from BioCryst’s ulodesine plus allopurinol Phase 2b trial on gout

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced favorable 52-week safety results and sustained efficacy from the extension phase of its randomized Phase 2b trial of ulodesine (BCX4208) added to allopurinol in patients with gout who had failed to reach the serum uric acid (sUA) therapeutic goal of <6 mg/dL on allopurinol alone, as well as positive Phase 2 safety results in patients with mild to moderate renal impairment.

25 Jul 2012

Latest polypill trial yields largest improvements yet

The results of the first trial to administer the polypill on the basis of age alone has shown the largest reductions in blood pressure and cholesterol level of any polypill trial to date, researchers report.

24 Jul 2012