Health News

New Evidence On Easing Inflammation Of Brain Cells For Alzheimer's Disease

Date: Oct-05-2012
New research proves the validity of one of the most promising approaches for combating Alzheimer's disease (AD) with medicines that treat not just some of the symptoms, but actually stop or prevent the disease itself, scientists are reporting. The study, in the journal ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters, also identifies a potential new oral drug that the scientists say could lead the way...

A Complete Solution For Oil-Spill Cleanup

Date: Oct-05-2012
Scientists are describing what may be a "complete solution" to cleaning up oil spills - a superabsorbent material that sops up 40 times its own weight in oil and then can be shipped to an oil refinery and processed to recover the oil. Their article on the material appears in ACS' journal Energy & Fuels. T. C. Mike Chung and Xuepei Yuan point out that current methods for coping with oil spills like the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster are low-tech, decades-old and have many disadvantages...

Excellent Interim Results Reported From Phase I/II Study With Anti-IL-6R Nanobody, ALX-0061, In Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Date: Oct-05-2012
Ablynx [Euronext Brussels: ABLX] has announced that its anti-IL-6R Nanobody, ALX-0061, met the efficacy endpoint of a significant improvement in key indicators of disease activity at the 12 week interim analysis of the Phase I/II study in patients with moderate to severe active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) on a stable background of methotrexate. Final 24 week results are expected in the first quarter of 2013. In this Phase I/II study, 37 RA patients were recruited to the multiple dose Phase II part...

Circassia Initiates Pivotal Phase 3 ToleroMune® Trial In Cat Allergen-Induced Rhinoconjunctivitis

Date: Oct-05-2012
Circassia Ltd, a specialty biopharmaceutical company focused on allergy, has announced the start of a pivotal phase 3 trial of its investigational ToleroMune(R) cat allergy treatment for cat allergen-induced rhinoconjunctivitis...

Phase IIb Data Show Investigational Once-Weekly DPP-4 Inhibitor MK-3102 Significantly Lowers Blood Sugar In Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

Date: Oct-05-2012
New data announced at the 48th European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) annual meeting show Merck Sharp & Dohme's (MSD) investigational once-weekly DPP-4 inhibitor significantly lowers blood sugar compared with placebo in patients with type 2 diabetes. The 12 week study also shows that treatment with MK-3102 is associated with an incidence of symptomatic hypoglycaemia similar to placebo, in patients with type 2 diabetes...

NICE Recommends Lucentis® (Ranibizumab) For Some Patients With Visual Impairment Due To Diabetic Macular Oedema (VI-DMO) In Draft Guidance

Date: Oct-05-2012
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has today issued positive draft guidance on the use of ranibizumab for the treatment of VI-DMO, an eye condition which can occur in people with diabetes that causes blurred vision, severe vision loss and sometimes blindness[1],[2],[3]. This means that some patients (those with a retinal thickness of 400 micrometres or more), could soon benefit from a treatment which can potentially restore vision, prevent vision loss and sustain visual improvement[4]...

Study Sheds Light On Bone Marrow Stem Cell Therapy For Pancreatic Recovery

Date: Oct-05-2012
Researchers at Cedars-Sinai's Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute have found that a blood vessel-building gene boosts the ability of human bone marrow stem cells to sustain pancreatic recovery in a laboratory mouse model of insulin-dependent diabetes. The findings, published in a PLOS ONE article of the Public Library of Science, offer new insights on mechanisms involved in regeneration of insulin-producing cells and provide new evidence that a diabetic's own bone marrow one day may be a source of treatment...

Elderly Patients With Colorectal, Bladder Cancers May Benefit From Advanced Surgical Approaches

Date: Oct-05-2012
Advanced surgical techniques such as robotic-assisted operations and minimally invasive surgical procedures may extend survival and improve recovery in octogenarians with bladder and colorectal cancers when compared with patients who undergo conventional open operations according to two new studies presented at the 2012 Annual Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons...

Microbial Exposure Is Crucial To Regulating The Immune System But It Must Be The 'Right Kind Of Dirt'

Date: Oct-05-2012
A new scientific report from the International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene (IFH) dismantles the myth that the epidemic rise in allergies in recent years has happened because we're living in sterile homes and overdoing hygiene. But far from saying microbial exposure is not important, the report concludes that losing touch with microbial 'old friends' may be a fundamental factor underlying rises in an even wider array of serious diseases...

Mouse Model Of Debilitating Lung Disease Suggests Potential Treatment Regimen

Date: Oct-05-2012
LAM, short for pulmonary lymphangioleiomyomatosis, affects about 1 in 10,000 women of childbearing age and is characterized by proliferation of smooth muscle-like cells in the lung, destruction of lung tissue, and growth of lymphatic vessels. The disease manifests itself in a wide variety of ways, so it is sometimes difficult to diagnose and there is no cure. The disease is caused by inactivation of either of two genes, TSC1 or TSC2, but to date no animal model has been able to replicate the pathologic features those mutations produce in humans...