Health News

Better Modeling And Manipulation Of Immune Response By Following The Fates Of Individual T Cells

Date: Mar-22-2013
By charting the differing fates of individual T cells, researchers have shown that previously unpredictable aspects of the adaptive immune response can be effectively modeled. The crucial question: What determines which of the immune system's millions of cells will mobilize to fight an acute infection and which will be held back to survive long-term, forming the basis of the immunological memory? The scientists' findings, published in the journal Science, could have implications for improved immunotherapy and vaccination strategies...

Patients With Blocked Bile Ducts May Benefit From Metal Stents

Date: Mar-22-2013
A multi-center analysis, led by Weill Cornell Medical College and published in the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, shows the use of temporary "fully covered self-expanding metal stents" (FCSEMS) can effectively fix a painful and potentially life-threatening benign biliary stricture -- a severely blocked or narrowed bile duct. "Benign biliary strictures can be managed and resolved with these new fully covered metal stents with flared ends. Our study findings are similar to the recent European study results in patients overseas who received the metal stents," says Dr...

Dermatologists Offer Hope To Patients With Chronic Urticaria

Date: Mar-22-2013
An international study involving dermatologists from the Hospital del Mar and Spanish subjects has concluded that a drug normally used to treat severe bronchial asthma caused by allergies (Omalizumab) rapidly eliminates the symptoms of spontaneous chronic urticaria, a development that it is expected will significantly improve the quality of life of chronic urticaria sufferers...

First Motor Discovered With Revolution Motion In A Virus-Killing Bacteria

Date: Mar-22-2013
Scientists have cracked a 35-year-old mystery about the workings of the natural motors that are serving as models for development of a futuristic genre of synthetic nanomotors that pump therapeutic DNA, RNA or drugs into individual diseased cells. Their report revealing the innermost mechanisms of these nanomotors in a bacteria-killing virus - and a new way to move DNA through cells - is published online in the journal ACS Nano. Peixuan Guo and colleagues explain that two motors have been found in nature: A linear motor and a rotating motor...

Most UK Doctors Have At Some Point Used Placebos to Treat Patients

Date: Mar-22-2013
A survey of UK doctors found that 97% have prescribed placebo treatments to patients at least once in their career. Researchers at the Universities of Oxford and Southampton in the UK discovered that 97% of doctors have used 'impure' placebo treatments, while 12% have used 'pure' placebos. 'Impure' placebos are treatments that are unproven, such as antibiotics for suspected viral infections, or more commonly non-essential physical examinations and blood tests performed to reassure patients...

Molecule Discovered Which Could Lead To Powerful New Anti-Malaria Drugs

Date: Mar-22-2013
"The 4(1H)-quinolone-3- diarylethers are selective potent inhibitors of the parasite mitochondrial cytochrome bc1 complex," Professor Avery said. "These compounds are highly active against the types of malaria parasites which infect humans, Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax," she said. "What is really exciting about this study is that a new class of drugs based on the 4(1H)-quinolone-3- diarylethers would target the malaria parasite at different stages of its lifecycle...

Efficacy Of Malaria Vaccine Candidate Declines Over 4 Years

Date: Mar-22-2013
Long-term follow-up of a phase II study from KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme and Oxford University researchers in Kenya shows that the efficacy of a malaria vaccine candidate, RTS,S, wanes over time and varies with exposure to the malaria parasite. The findings will help to inform which populations are likely to benefit most from the vaccine candidate. They also have important implications for the design of future clinical trials of this and other vaccine candidates and highlight the importance of long-term follow-up studies for assessing vaccine efficacy...

Clinical Use Of Regenerative Human Cells Could Be Expanded By IUPUI Stem Cell Research

Date: Mar-22-2013
Research led by a biology professor in the School of Science at IUPUI has uncovered a method to produce retinal cells from regenerative human stem cells without the use of animal products, proteins or other foreign substances, which historically have limited the application of stem cells to treat disease and other human developmental disorders. The study of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) has been pursued vigorously since they were first discovered in 2007 due to their ability to be manipulated into specific cell types...

Nanomedicines Prevent Tissue Damage In Inflammatory Conditions Such As Cardiovascular And Metabolic Diseases

Date: Mar-22-2013
Doses of medicine 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair prevent the tissue damage associated with atherosclerosis and other chronic diseases in mice. As part of a National Institutes of Health-sponsored project led by Zahi Fayad, PhD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, researchers found that these nanomedicines are able to home specifically to damaged tissue to repair it. This study was published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...

Difficulty In Shifting Gaze And Attention Could Identify Infants At Risk For Autism

Date: Mar-22-2013
Infants at 7 months of age who go on to develop autism are slower to reorient their gaze and attention from one object to another when compared to 7-month-olds who do not develop autism, and this behavioral pattern is in part explained by atypical brain circuits. Those are the findings of a new study led by University of North Carolina School of Medicine researchers and published online by the American Journal of Psychiatry. "These findings suggest that 7-month-olds who go on to develop autism show subtle, yet overt, behavioral differences prior to the emergence of the disorder...