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North Carolina should not ignore 'legal, moral' responsibility to provide HIV testing, treatment to inmates

Although some civil rights groups that are "pressing" the North Carolina Legislature to pass a bill that would mandate HIV testing for prison inmates might be overstating HIV prevalence in prisons, their "point shouldn't be missed" because the "fact is, consensual and forced sex behind bars ... helps spread the disease," a Raleigh News & Observer editorial says.

18 Apr 2008

HIV/AIDS prevention strategies for Ukraine discussed at Canadian forum

HIV/AIDS experts from Ukraine and Canada attended a forum in Winnipeg, Canada, on Thursday to discuss the epidemic in the former Soviet state, the Winnipeg Free Press reports.

18 Apr 2008

Papua New Guinea's National Research Institute to monitor, study behavior of people living with HIV/AIDS

Papua New Guinea's Department of Health recently gave the country's National Research Institute the authority to begin a three-year program that will monitor and study the behavior of people living with HIV/AIDS, Papua New Guinea's The National reports.

18 Apr 2008

Guardian examines detention of 11 HIV-positive people in China

London's Guardian on Friday examined the detention of 11 HIV-positive people in China and the country's response to HIV/AIDS (Branigan, Guardian, 4/18).

18 Apr 2008

New technique for improving medical diagnosis for cancer patients

Researchers from the UPM's School of Computing and another researcher from Holland’s Radboud University Nijmegen have published an article in the Decision Support Systems journal proposing a technique for improving decision making in medical environments.

18 Apr 2008

Urgent action needed against global food crisis

Life scientists from the developing world told their European colleagues at the EAGLES Food Symposium, held this week at the New Library of Alexandria (Egypt), that they are dismayed and even horrified at the persistent failure of Europe to deploy its life sciences effectively in the fight against hunger. Our Asian, African and Latin American colleagues have said that they simply cannot understand why that on the continent of Darwin and Pasteur, the voices of science and reason have been devalued.

18 Apr 2008

Less educated, older men more likely to view depression negatively

Less educated, older men are more likely to view depression negatively, while almost one in five Australians say they wouldn't work with someone suffering depression, according to researchers from The Australian National University.

18 Apr 2008

Discovery of method for clamping down on a cancer-promoting enzyme

There are many pathways that allow an errant gene to turn a cell cancerous, and a number of these pathways go through a single enzyme called the p21-activated kinase 1, or PAK1.

18 Apr 2008

Experimental study on most common form of heart valve disease in Western countries may lead to new treatments

A team of scientists from the University of Montreal and the Montreal Heart Institute Research Centre, led by Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif, has completed an important study that show how a new type of medication can lead to an improvement in the aortic valve narrowing

18 Apr 2008

Vitamin D and the risk of developing breast cancer

A connection between vitamin D level and the risk of developing breast cancer has been implicated for a long time, but its clinical relevance had not yet been proven.

18 Apr 2008

Non-surgical heart valve replacement procedure permits swift recovery and discharge from hospital

Interventional cardiologists at Rush University Medical Center now offer a minimally-invasive transcatheter valve replacement procedure for patients with congenital heart disease that doesn’t involve open heart surgery.

18 Apr 2008

VNUS Medical Technologies receives 'notice of allowability' for endovenous laser products patents

VNUS Medical Technologies, Inc. has announced that the company has received a Notice of Allowability by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for a patent application that is a continuation of one of the three patents in the VNUS patent infringement lawsuit against suppliers of endovenous laser products.

18 Apr 2008

Aida Pharmaceuticals announces development of new anti-cancer drug

Aida Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced that it is developing a potential cancer drug that seeks to trigger cell death in certain types of cancer.

18 Apr 2008

Fluorine-based nanoparticles on track to improve cancer detection and therapy

Perfluorocarbons, a class of inert, oily polymers, have a proven track record in a variety of clinical uses, including in contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging and in eye surgery to correct a detached retina.

18 Apr 2008

Nanoparticles provide detailed view inside living animals

Using nanoparticles designed specifically to produce a bright Raman spectroscopic signal, a team of investigators at the Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence Focused on Therapy Response (Stanford CCNE) has shown that it can produce whole-body images in small animals that can reveal the location of tumors and track how these nanoparticles traffic through the body.

18 Apr 2008

Quantum rods light up pancreatic cancer cells

Quantum dots have shown promise as ultrabright contrast agents for use in a variety of cancer imaging studies. Now, a team of investigators at the Multifunctional Nanoparticles in Diagnosis and Therapy of Pancreatic Cancer Platform Partnership, headed by Paras Prasad, Ph.D., of the State University of New York at Buffalo, has shown that quantum rods may perform even better than their spherical cousins.

18 Apr 2008

Iron nanoparticles spot tumor spread in patients with kidney cancer

Iron nanoparticles designed to collect in lymph nodes containing metastatic cancer cells have proven that they can help physicians detect metastatic spread of prostate cancer.

18 Apr 2008

Novel polymers inhibit nonspecific protein absorption

One problem that confounds researchers who are developing nanoparticles for use as cancer imaging and therapeutic agents is that many nanoparticles accumulate blood proteins on their surfaces as they circulate through the body.

18 Apr 2008

Gentle yoga enhances quality of life for breast cancer patients

Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have shown that restorative yoga (RY), a very gentle form of yoga that can be practiced even when ill or fatigued, can improve the quality of life and emotional status of women with breast cancer

18 Apr 2008

Mature B cells reprogrammed to stem-cell-like state

Fully mature, differentiated B cells can be reprogrammed to an embryonic-stem-cell-like state, without the use of an egg, according to a study published in the April 18 issue of Cell.

18 Apr 2008