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Patients with primary biliary cirrhosis who are treated with methotrexate have an increased risk of death

In five randomized controlled trials involving 457 people, the authors report that for patients treated with methotrexate, as a single therapy or in combination with other drug treatment, pooled data showed a tendency toward an increased risk of death or liver transplantation. The brand names for methotrexate are Rheumatrex and Trexall.

23 Aug 2005

Rotenone study may lead to novel therapies for Parkinson's disease

Neuroscientists from the University at Buffalo have described for the first time how rotenone, an environmental toxin linked specifically to Parkinson's disease, selectively destroys the neurons that produce dopamine, the neurotransmitter critical to body movement and muscle control.

23 Aug 2005

Dietary supplement chitosan shows some promise in treating obesity

The dietary supplement chitosan shows some promise in treating overweight and obesity but has not been shown conclusively to be an effective weight loss aid, according to a new systematic review of current evidence.

23 Aug 2005

Sentinel node biopsy, when performed before chemotherapy to shrink the tumor, is very reliable

New breast cancer research shows for the first time that even women with large breast tumors can benefit from a less invasive biopsy method that has been reserved until now for women with small breast cancers.

23 Aug 2005

Fear of superbugs bans nurses from wearing their uniform when not on duty

District nurses in the UK, working in the community, have been banned from wearing their uniforms when they are not on duty, amid growing concerns about superbugs.

23 Aug 2005

Appropriate tests need to be done earlier for ovarian cancer

A new study to be published in the journal CANCER in October has found that many women diagnosed with ovarian cancer actually complained of symptoms of the disease at least four months before they were diagnosed.

23 Aug 2005

Drug company disputes claim of new study on antidepressant Paxil

Drug company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is disputing claims that its antidepressant Paxil was linked to an increased suicide risk in adults.

23 Aug 2005

Wild ducks may be key to development of flu vaccine

According to Dutch and Swedish researchers wild ducks carry more than a half-dozen different types of avian flu virus.

23 Aug 2005

California in conflict with FDA over warnings on canned tuna

The state of California has had it's knuckles rapped by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over warnings on canned tuna.

23 Aug 2005

State-of-the-art portable biosensing device based on micro and nanotechnologies

A state-of-the-art portable biosensing device based on micro- and nanotechnologies will empower doctors to rapidly and accurately forewarn patients of their genetic risk of developing diseases such as cancer.

23 Aug 2005

Newly discovered virus linked to childhood respiratory infections

A team of Swedish researchers say they have identified a previously unknown virus that may cause many cases of serious respiratory infections in children.

23 Aug 2005

Elderly woman latest victim of swine flu in Hong Kong

The Hong Kong government has reported that an elderly woman has contracted the pig-borne bacterial disease that has killed nearly 40 people in mainland China.

22 Aug 2005

Food scares put Hong Kong's reputation on the line

With Hong Kong's reputation in many respects on the line, lawmakers there have castigated the government for failing to alert the public immediately after it found a suspected cancer-causing chemical malachite green in some fish from China.

22 Aug 2005

Birth order not a factor in multiple sclerosis risk

A new Canadian study suggests that the youngest children in a family are not less likely than older siblings to develop multiple sclerosis (MS).

22 Aug 2005

Epidemiological study links heart protection with non-aspirin, non-steroidal drugs

It is well known that aspirin, a non-selective, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that inhibits cyclooxygenase (COX), reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke.

22 Aug 2005

Study shows potential treatment for brain cancer

A compound that kills cancer can sneak past the blood brain barrier, which protects the brain from foreign substances, to do its work in fighting a particularly invasive brain cancer, according to a new Saint Louis University animal study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition the week of Aug. 22.

22 Aug 2005

MRI helps map smallest deformations inside hearts

Using magnetic resonance imaging technology, or MRI, to tag the work of millions of individual strands of heart muscle fibers, researchers at Johns Hopkins have successfully mapped the smallest deformations inside the beating hearts of 441 middle-aged and elderly men and women who have either silently developed heart disease or remained healthy.

22 Aug 2005

Novel mechanism, called recursive splicing reveals how cells process large genes

Important messages require accurate transmission. Big genes are especially challenging because they combine many coding segments (exons) that lie between long stretches of non-coding elements (introns).

22 Aug 2005

New technique for creating human embryonic stem cells

Researchers have developed a new technique for creating human embryonic stem cells by fusing adult somatic cells with embryonic stem cells. The fusion causes the adult cells to undergo genetic reprogramming, which results in cells that have the developmental characteristics of human embryonic stem cells.

22 Aug 2005

Global data exchange policy brings 100,000,000,000 letters of the genetic code

The world's three leading public repositories for DNA and RNA sequence information have reached 100 gigabases (100,000,000,000 bases; the 'letters' of the genetic code) of sequence.

22 Aug 2005