Health News

GSK gains accelerated FDA approval for combination use of Mekinist® (trametinib) and Tafinlar® (dabrafenib)

Date: Jan-13-2014
GlaxoSmithKline plc has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Mekinist® (trametinib) for use in combination with Tafinlar® (dabrafenib) for the treatment of patients with unresectable melanoma (melanoma that cannot be removed by surgery) or metastatic melanoma (melanoma which has spread to other parts of the body) with BRAF V600E or V600K mutations. These mutations must be detected by an FDA-approved test.1 Tafinlar is not indicated for treatment of patients with wild-type BRAF melanoma.

Doctor warns 'common assumption' denying babies with heart disease feeding support

Date: Jan-13-2014
A top children's doctor has warned "common assumption" was denying some babies with heart disease and feeding problems the tailored care they needed when in hospital. Dr Nadeem Afzal, based at Southampton Children's Hospital, said a long-held belief babies born with the most severe forms of heart disease were more likely to have feeding and growth difficulties meant others were often overlooked.

UNMC part of international hepatitis C registry to improve treatment

Date: Jan-13-2014
The University of Nebraska Medical Center is involved in an international registry that's evaluating new treatments for hepatitis C, a disease that threatens many baby boomers. Many of the estimated 3 million people in the U.S. who have the virus - an overwhelming majority are baby boomers - don't know they are infected. Hepatitis C is responsible for 12,000 deaths annually in the U.S, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. UNMC, a regional referral center for hepatitis C, is part of the Hepatitis C Therapeutic Registry and Research Network, or HCV-TARGET.

Brief mental training sessions have long-lasting benefits for seniors' cognition and everyday function

Date: Jan-13-2014
Older adults who received as few as 10 sessions of mental (cognitive) training showed improvements in reasoning ability and speed-of-processing when compared with untrained controls participants as long as 10 years after the intervention. These gains were even greater for those who got additional "booster" sessions over the next three years. Older adults who received brief cognitive training also reported that they had less difficulty in performing important everyday tasks. The findings are published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

BerGenBio presents data at AACR-ISLAC conference on the molecular origins of lung cancer

Date: Jan-13-2014
BerGenBio AS, an oncology biopharmaceutical company, announces that preclinical data demonstrating that its lead compound, BGB324 has potential application as a novel treatment for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was presented in a poster at the American Association of Cancer Research and The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer's (AACR-ISLAC) joint conference on the Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer, which took place on January 6-9, 2014.

Evidence of harmful effect of bisphenol A-based plastics

Date: Jan-13-2014
Bisphenol A impairs the function of proteins that are vital for growth processes in cells. This finding has been reported by researchers from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the University of Wuppertal. The substance, short BPA, is contained in many plastic products and is suspected of being hazardous to health. To date, it had been assumed that bisphenol A produces a harmful effect by binding to hormone receptors. The chemist and biochemist team has discovered that the substance also affects the so-called small GTPases. They published their findings in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

UL/UCD research challenges global car crash extrication protocols

Date: Jan-13-2014
An award winning study aimed at examining the techniques used by emergency services the world over to extricate a trapped car crash victim, while minimising the potential for spinal injury, is underway in a collaborative research project involving the University of Limerick, University College Dublin and Emergency Services in the Mid-West. It is estimated that up to 20, 000 cases of spinal cord injuries occur annually in Northern Europe and the USA with road traffic collisions (RTCs) the main cause of cervical spine injuries in most countries.

Pilot study for the first implantable, permanent intraocular pressure sensor for glaucoma patients successfully completed

Date: Jan-13-2014
Implandata Ophthalmic Products GmbH (Implandata) has successfully completed its ARGOS-01 pilot study for the first implantable, permanent intraocular pressure sensor. Implant safety and functionality has been demonstrated in this study. In addition important information was gained, which will result in new and additional product versions and alternate implantation procedures.In this first-in-human study important clinical and technical aspects of the new-to-the-world intraocular pressure sensor for glaucoma patients have been tested and assessed.

Epigenetics: A new link between nutrition and cancer

Date: Jan-13-2014
In "Epigenetics: A New Link Between Nutrition and Cancer", a recent article from Nutrition and Cancer: An International Journal, a publication of Routledge, researchers explore the possible effects that diet can have on gene expression through epigenetic mechanisms. Explaining the impact of nutrition on epigenetic mechanisms may help to predict an individual's susceptibility to cancer, provide dietary recommendations, or provide therapeutic applications of natural compounds to fight against cancer.

Non-coding DNA implicated in type 2 diabetes

Date: Jan-13-2014
Variations in non-coding sections of the genome might be important contributors to type 2 diabetes risk, according to a new study.DNA sequences that don't encode proteins were once dismissed as "junk DNA", but scientists are increasingly discovering that some regions are important for controlling which genes are switched on.The new study, published in Nature Genetics, is one of the first to show how such regions, called regulatory elements, can influence people's risk of disease.Type 2 diabetes affects over 300 million people worldwide.