Endocrinology News and Research

Latest Endocrinology News and Research

Who was who during the Supreme Court arguments?

News outlets take a look at key personalities on the bench, in front of the justices, in the gallery and in the creation of the health law itself -- including examinations of the closing arguments by both the plantiffs' attorney and the federal government's lawyer.

30 Mar 2012

New synthetic small molecules could treat obesity, diabetes and sleep disorders

Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have synthesized a pair of small molecules that dramatically alter the core biological clock in animal models, highlighting the compounds' potential effectiveness in treating a remarkable range of disorders-including obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, and serious sleep disorders.

30 Mar 2012

Research supports link between alcohol consumption and type II diabetes

Subjects in a cohort in Sweden, some of whom had been exposed to a community intervention program to prevent diabetes, were evaluated 8-10 years after baseline for the presence of diabetes mellitus or impaired glucose metabolism in relation to a baseline report of alcohol consumption.

30 Mar 2012

Researchers discover MicroRNAs as new switch of adipose cell development

Hunger has always threatened mankind. This makes it unsurprising that human bodies attempt to store all surplus nourishment in adipose tissue. In developed countries, this life-saving craving is turning into a problem and obesity—adiposity—is turning into a danger. Why, though, does excess fat the body ill? How does fat trigger diabetes? And can these superfluous fat reserves be turned into warmth and just as well burnt?

30 Mar 2012

Thyroidectomy may increase risk of postoperative complications in the elderly

Elderly patients who undergo thyroid surgery are at a much higher risk than their younger counterparts for serious cardiac, pulmonary and infectious complications, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

30 Mar 2012

Study explains how rapamycin also causes insulin resistance

A Penn- and MIT-led team explained how rapamycin, a drug that extends mouse lifespan, also causes insulin resistance. The researchers showed in an animal model that they could, in principle, separate the effects, which depend on inhibiting two protein complexes, mTORC1 and mTORC2, respectively.

30 Mar 2012

Consumer should be centre of care when offering alternative medicine brands

NPS is reminding pharmacists to place patient care first and avoid multiple switching of medicine brands for patients who may be at higher risk of confusion from switching, as price disclosure arrangements come into effect this weekend.

29 Mar 2012

Sitting more than four hours a day could raise risk of dying early: Study

According to Australian researchers spending less time sitting could boost longevity. Their study of more than 220,000 NSW residents found the longer you spend sitting down the greater your risk of dying early, even if you otherwise do regular exercise.

29 Mar 2012

Cancer death rates declining but obesity still needs to be tackled

According to a new report from four major national cancer tracking groups there has been a steady decline in cancer death rates for men, women and children from 2004 to 2008. The declines in death and new cases of cancer reflect progress against the disease in terms of prevention, diagnosis and treatment, but experts say rising obesity may present a new challenge in the fight against cancer.

29 Mar 2012

Papillary renal cell carcinoma patients face low tumour re-occurrence and cancer-related death rates

Patients with papillary renal cell carcinoma, the second most common kidney cancer subtype, face a low risk of tumour recurrence and cancer-related death after surgery. Those are the key findings of a multi-centre study of nearly 600 patients published in the April issue of the urology journal BJUI.

29 Mar 2012

Ember adds Joslin's BMP7 technology to brown fat intellectual property portfolio

Ember Therapeutics, Inc., a company harnessing breakthroughs in brown fat biology and insulin sensitization to revolutionize the treatment of metabolic disease, today announced the completion of an agreement with the Joslin Diabetes Center to exclusively license intellectual property covering bone morphogenetic protein 7 (BMP7), which has been shown to play a role in the regulation of brown fat development.

29 Mar 2012

Daiichi Sankyo, NGM to discover and develop new treatments for diabetes

Daiichi Sankyo Company, Ltd. and NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that they have entered into a research collaboration and license agreement to discover and develop novel therapeutics that modulate beta-cell regeneration for the treatment of diabetes.

29 Mar 2012

New McMaster centre to track health differences by ethnicity

Tracking health differences by ethnicity is the cornerstone of the new Chanchlani Research Centre at McMaster University.

29 Mar 2012

Biochemists determine atomic structure of new ABC transporter

Proteins belonging to the large and important family of ABC transporters have been associated with metabolic diseases and can cause resistance to antibiotics. Biochemists from the University of Zurich and the NCCR Structural Biology have succeeded in determining the atomic structure of a new ABC transporter. The insights gained could give rise to new therapies to treat multi-resistant bacteria, cystic fibrosis or gout, for instance.

29 Mar 2012

JDRF, iCo Therapeutics partner for iCo-007 Phase II trial in DME

iCo Therapeutics, a Vancouver-based drug reprofiling company and JDRF, the largest charitable funder of type 1 Diabetes (T1D) research have joined forces to investigate a potential new treatment for one of the most common complications of diabetes, diabetic macular edema.

29 Mar 2012

Ember, Joslin aims to utilize brown fat for treatment of obesity and diabetes

Joslin Diabetes Center and Ember Therapeutics, Inc. today announced an agreement aimed at utilizing "brown fat," a type of fat that helps increase energy expenditure within the body, as a novel technique for managing obesity and diabetes. Joslin's Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Ronald Kahn and other Joslin faculty, Drs. Yu-Hua Tseng and Aaron Cypess, have performed pioneering work in this field over the past several years, and were the first to show that a natural protein called BMP7 can help modulate the levels of brown fat.

29 Mar 2012

Bariatric surgery may eliminate need for diabetes medication

Diabetes has become an epidemic in the United States, with the number of cases tripling over the last three decades. Most of those cases are Type 2 diabetes, which is linked to obesity and can lead to serious medical issues that range from heart disease to renal failure, blindness, and more.

29 Mar 2012

Researchers describe unexpected role of p75NTR in type 2 diabetes

Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have discovered a key protein that regulates insulin resistance-the diminished ability of cells to respond to the action of insulin and which sets the stage for the development of the most common form of diabetes. This breakthrough points to a new way to potentially treat or forestall type 2 diabetes, a rapidly growing global health problem.

29 Mar 2012

Gene therapy improves chylomicron metabolism in LPLD patients

Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics, a leader in the field of human gene therapy, announced today data demonstrating that one-time administration of the gene therapy Glybera (alipogene tiparvovec) is able to markedly improve chylomicron (fat particles in the blood) metabolism following consumption of a low fat meal.

29 Mar 2012

MiR-375 regulates IL-13-induced changes in allergic diseases

Researchers have taken a critical step in understanding how allergic reactions occur after identifying a genetic signature for regulation of a key immune hormone, interleukin (IL-13).

29 Mar 2012