Health News

Relief for children newly diagnosed with crohn's disease offered by biologic agents

Date: Feb-05-2014
Children newly diagnosed with Crohn's disease may benefit from early treatment with the biologic drugs known as anti-TNF-α agents, according to a new study in Gastroenterology1, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association."While the use of biologic drugs, such as infliximab or adalimumab, is generally reserved for patients who have failed previous therapy for Crohn's disease, little is known about outcomes following the earlier use," said study author Jeffrey S. Hyams, MD, from Connecticut Children's Medical Center, Hartford.

IDH1 mutation determines best treatment for malignant astrocytomas

Date: Feb-05-2014
Astrocytomas are the most common malignant brain tumors. While most patients' tumors prove to be quite aggressive, outcomes overall can vary widely, with some patients surviving for many years. Now a new study has found that malignant astrocytoma patients whose tumors carry a specific genetic mutation benefit greatly from surgical removal of the largest possible amount of tumor. Preliminary results of the study were reported at the 2012 American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, and the team's full report appears in the January issue of the journal Neuro-Oncology.

Genetic function discovered that could offer new avenue to cancer therapies

Date: Feb-05-2014
Researchers at Oregon State University have discovered a genetic function that helps one of the most important "tumor suppressor" genes to do its job and prevent cancer.Finding ways to maintain or increase the effectiveness of this gene - called Grp1-associated scaffold protein, or Grasp - could offer an important new avenue for human cancer therapies, scientists said.The findings were just published in Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences, a journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, by researchers from OSU and Oregon Health & Science University.

Inherited liver disease may be treated with mood-stabilizing drug fluphenazine

Date: Feb-05-2014
Opening up a can of worms is a good way to start hunting for new drugs, recommend researchers from Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. In a study published in the Public Library of Science One, they used a primitive worm model to show that a drug typically used to treat agitation in schizophrenia and dementia has potential as a treatment for α-1 antitrypsin (AT) deficiency, an inherited disease that causes severe liver scarring.

Researchers characterize a biomarker for lysosomal storage disorders

Date: Feb-05-2014
Lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs) are a common cause of neurodegenerative disease in young children.These diseases are difficult to diagnosis in the early stages; therefore, it is difficult to develop therapeutic strategies that prevent symptom onset. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Frances M. Platt and colleagues at the University of Oxford devised a method for evaluating the relative volume of acidic compartments as an indicator of LSDs.

How the seven-days-a-week human cycle affects weight

Date: Feb-05-2014
There are sleep cycles and there are also weight loss cycles. Almost everyone loses weight on weekdays and gains weight on weekends. What separates the slim from the heavy isn't how much more they gain on weekends. It's how much they lose during the weekdays. In this study, Dr. Brian Wansink from Cornell University, in collaboration with researchers from the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Tampere University of Technology, looks into the impact that the seven-days-a-week human cycle has on weight.Eighty adults participated in the study, ranging in age from 25 to 62 years old.

Researchers enhance immune response and attack beta-amyloid plaque in Alzheimer's by targeting an enzyme that regulates high blood pressure

Date: Feb-05-2014
Many people with high blood pressure are familiar with ACE inhibitors, drugs that widen blood vessels by limiting activity of ACE - angiotensin-converting enzyme - a naturally occurring protein found in tissues throughout the body.But high activity of the enzyme - in the right context, place and time - may be a good thing.

No advantage found for single-sex education over coed schools

Date: Feb-05-2014
Single-sex education does not educate girls and boys any better than coed schools, according to research published by the American Psychological Association analyzing 184 studies of more than 1.6 million students from around the world. The findings are published online in the APA journal Psychological Bulletin."Proponents of single-sex schools argue that separating boys and girls increases students' achievement and academic interest," said author Janet Shibley Hyde, PhD, of University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Two-thirds of women aged 50 to 64 may be missed by osteoporosis screening recommendations

Date: Feb-05-2014
Women who are 65 and older routinely undergo bone-density testing to screen for osteoporosis. But for those between the ages of 50 and 64, it has been unclear who should be screened.Researchers sought to determine how well the current screening strategy recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force - the independent expert panel appointed by the federal government to review and recommend various screenings - would perform in identifying candidates in this age range for screening.

Treatment response for acute myeloid leukemia predicted by chemical stem cell signature

Date: Feb-05-2014
Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Medical Center have found a chemical "signature" in blood-forming stem cells that predicts whether patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) will respond to chemotherapy.The findings are based on data from nearly 700 AML patients. If validated in clinical trials, the signature would help physicians better identify which AML patients would benefit from chemotherapy and which patients have a prognosis so grave that they may be candidates for more aggressive treatments such as bone-marrow transplantation.