Health News

Metastatic Breast Cancer May Be Slowed By HIV Drug

Date: Jun-08-2012
The HIV drugs known as CCR5 antagonists may also help prevent aggressive breast cancers from metastasizing, researchers from the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson suggest in a preclinical study published in a recent issue of Cancer Research. Such drugs target the HIV receptor CCR5, which the virus uses to enter and infect host cells, and has historically only been associated with expression in inflammatory cells in the immune system. Researchers have now shown, however, that CCR5 is also expressed in breast cancer cells, and regulates the spread to other tissue...

Evolution Of Brain Tumor Cells Under Treatment Reveal That It Is The Peripheral Tumor Cells That Need To Be Targeted

Date: Jun-08-2012
An Israeli physicist has developed a theoretical model to simulate the evolution of highly proliferating brain tumour core cells subjected to treatment by alternating radio frequency electric field. The research, by Alexander Iomin from the Israel Institute of Technology Technion in Haifa, is about to be published in EPJ E¹. In another model, the author examines the possibility of enhancing the level of treatment by targeting the outer area of the tumour...

Fewer Side Effects From Nanomedicines For Cancer Treatment

Date: Jun-08-2012
A new generation of cancer treatments based on nanotechnology is making its way out of the laboratory and into the clinic with the promise of targeting cancer cells while steering clear of healthy tissue, according to the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN). C&EN is the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society. In the cover story, C&EN Senior Editor Bethany Halford explains that today's anti-cancer medications impact healthy tissue in the process of killing cancer cells...

Contamination By Mold Detected Using New Technique

Date: Jun-08-2012
With mold contamination of homes an ongoing concern - and a special threat to the 2.5 million foreclosed houses in the U.S., shuttered with little ventilation - scientists are reporting a new method to detect and identify low levels of airborne mold. The report, which describes a simple, fast method that could provide an early indication of potential contamination, appears in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology. Sutapa Ghosal and colleagues indicate that mold contamination of homes, especially after water damage from storms and floods, is an ongoing concern...

US Army Adds Behavioral Health Screening To Primary Care To Improve Outcomes For PTSD

Date: Jun-08-2012
American Soldiers are reaping the rewards of an innovative Army program designed to identify and treat Soldiers at risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression earlier by conducting behavioral health screening at all primary care visits. During the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting last month, Col. Charles Engel, M.D., M.P.H., described the RESPECT-Mil program and its results to date in his presentation, "Effective Integrated Mental Health & Primary Care Services in the U.S. Military." Col...

Brain Wired At Birth But Experience Selects Which Connections To Keep

Date: Jun-08-2012
Ask the average person the street how the brain develops, and they'll likely tell you that the brain's wiring is built as newborns first begin to experience the world. With more experience, those connections are strengthened, and new branches are built as they learn and grow. A new study conducted in a Harvard lab, however, suggests that just the opposite is true. As reported in the journal Neuron, a team of researchers led by Jeff Lichtman, the Jeremy R...

Researcher Tracks Brain's Connections Using Rabies Virus

Date: Jun-08-2012
A genetically-modified version of the rabies virus is helping scientists at Harvard to trace neural pathways in the brain, a research effort that could one day lead to treatments for Parkinson's disease and addiction...

Insomnia/Hypertension Link

Date: Jun-08-2012
People with insomnia may now have one more thing to keep them up at night: an increased likelihood of developing hypertension, according to a study from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. Researchers at the Henry Ford Center for Sleep Disorders found that the prevalence of hypertension was greater in insomniacs compared to normal sleepers...

Access To Biologics For Arthritis Not Provided By Almost One-Quarter Of European Countries

Date: Jun-08-2012
Data from a study presented at EULAR 2012, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism, demonstrates the vast inequalities in access to biologics for the treatments of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) across 46 European countries, with 22% (n=10) of countries having no biologic reimbursed at all. In the 36 countries with reimbursed biologics, only 27 had more than five biologics reimbursed. The number of reimbursed drugs showed a moderate to very strong correlation with economic welfare and an inverse correlation with RA health status...

Stem Cell Disease May Be Responsible For Hardened Arteries

Date: Jun-08-2012
One of the top suspects behind killer vascular diseases is the victim of mistaken identity, according to researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, who used genetic tracing to help hunt down the real culprit. The guilty party is not the smooth muscle cells within blood vessel walls, which for decades was thought to combine with cholesterol and fat that can clog arteries. Blocked vessels can eventually lead to heart attacks and strokes, which account for one in three deaths in the United States...