Health News

A lens into the molecular dance in autoimmune diseases

Date: Jan-10-2014
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have zoomed in on what is going on at the molecular level when the body recognizes and defends against an attack of pathogens, and the findings, they say, could influence how drugs are developed to treat autoimmune diseases.The focus of the research is a pathogen "sensor" known as human IFN inducible protein-16 or IFI16, one of the body's key responders to viruses and bacteria, including herpes, HIV, listeria and salmonella.

African American men at increased risk of prostate cancer

Date: Jan-10-2014
African American men have an increased risk of prostate cancer and are two times more likely than Caucasian American men to die from the disease. Despite recent questions about the overall usefulness of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing to detect prostate cancer, should PSA screening be used to detect early-stage disease to help save lives in this at-risk population? The controversy is explored in a Review article in Journal of Men's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the Journal of Men's Health website.

Dabrafenib in melanoma: added benefit not proven

Date: Jan-10-2014
No differences could be shown for mortality, symptoms and quality of life / concerning side effects, data too uncertainDabrafenib (trade name: Tafinlar) has been approved in Germany since August 2013 for the treatment of advanced melanoma.In an early benefit assessment pursuant to the Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products (AMNOG), the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined whether this new drug offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy.

Aflibercept in macular oedema: added benefit not proven

Date: Jan-10-2014
Neither the new drug nor the comparator therapy was used in accordance with their approvals in the studiesFor the third time in one year, the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) dealt with the drug aflibercept. In an early benefit assessment pursuant to the Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products (AMNOG), the Institute now examined whether aflibercept (trade name: Eylea) offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy in visual impairment due to macular oedema following occlusion of the central retinal vein.

Teriflunomide in multiple sclerosis: added benefit not proven

Date: Jan-10-2014
Regarding side effects, there are both positive and negative effects in comparison with beta interferon 1aTeriflunomide (trade name: Aubagio) has been approved in Germany since August 2013 for adults with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis. In an early benefit assessment pursuant to the Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products (AMNOG), the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined whether this new drug offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy specified by the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA).

Engineered nanoparticles could lead to on-demand vaccines

Date: Jan-10-2014
Vaccines combat diseases and protect populations from outbreaks, but the life-saving technology leaves room for improvement. Vaccines usually are made en masse in centralized locations far removed from where they will be used. They are expensive to ship and keep refrigerated and they tend to have short shelf lives.University of Washington engineers hope a new type of vaccine they have shown to work in mice will one day make it cheaper and easy to manufacture on-demand vaccines for humans. Immunizations could be administered within minutes where and when a disease is breaking out.

Tracking genomic divergence in humans, chimpanzees and their lice

Date: Jan-10-2014
A new study compares the relative rate of molecular evolution between humans and chimps with that of their lice. The researchers wanted to know whether evolution marches on at a steady pace in all creatures or if subtle changes in genes - substitutions of individual letters of the genetic code - occur more rapidly in some groups than in others.A report of the study appears in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Improved understanding of fat control and the body clock

Date: Jan-10-2014
Australian researchers have shed more light on an underexplored aspect of the important brain-signaling system that controls appetite, body composition and energy use. Their findings suggest that a specific gene regulating our body clock may play a central role in determining how fat we become.Evolution has preserved the 'neuropeptide Y (NPY) system', as it is known, in most species - indicating its importance - and much of our understanding comes from studying it in mice. There is one important difference, however, between the NPY system in mouse and man.

Inherited gene copies 'randomly activated,' study suggests

Date: Jan-10-2014
It is common knowledge that with many illnesses, such as cancer, risk of development is partly determined by family history of the disease. But new research suggests that "random chance" decides if a certain gene copy that is inherited from our mother or father is actually used.Researchers from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in the UK say that their findings, published in the journal Science, may explain why some people become ill even if they have the same gene copy as healthy relatives.

New test can distinguish heroin use from seed ingestion

Date: Jan-10-2014
Heroin is one of the most widely used illegal drugs in the world, but drug testing has long been challenged by the difficulty in separating results of illicit heroin users from those who have innocently eaten poppy seeds containing a natural opiate. Research in Drug Testing and Analysis explores a new test which may present a solution to this so-called 'poppy seed defense.'The team sought to identify an acetylated derivative which is known to be present in street heroin, but would not be found in either poppy seeds or medicines containing opiates.