Cancer :: Hybrid molecule causes cancer cells to self-destruct
By joining a sugar to a short-chain fatty acid compound, Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a two-pronged molecular weapon that kills cancer cells in lab tests.
Body
Bird Flu :: NIAID DNA vaccine for H5N1 avian influenza enters human trial
The first human trial of a DNA vaccine designed to prevent H5N1 avian influenza infection began on December 21, 2006, when the vaccine was administered to the first volunteer at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center in Bethesda, MD. Scientists from the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the NIH Institutes, designed the vaccine. The vaccine does not contain any infectious material from the influenza virus.
Bulimia :: Bulimia may result from hormonal imbalance
Bulimia is normally regarded as a mental illness that should be treated with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). A newly published doctoral thesis from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, however, shows that the condition depends in certain cases on a hormonal imbalance that can be corrected with common oral contraceptives.
Hepatitis :: Racial differences seen in steatosis in patients with hepatitis C
Caucasian patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) are more likely to have hepatic steatosis, or fat in the liver, compared to African-American patients. However, steatosis is not associated with HCV treatment response.
Prostate Cancer :: Prostate cancer – speeding development of novel tracer
The collaborative work being performed by professionals across medical disciplines in the promising area of molecular imaging — from research scientists to nuclear medicine physicians, urologists, radiochemists and even veterinarians — provides encouraging news in fighting prostate cancer. This type of progressive — or translational — research can be seen in two papers published in the January issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
Cervical Cancer :: Cervical cancer – synthetic peptide targets latent papilloma virus infections
Infection with the human papilloma virus, the major cause of cervical cancer, is forever. The virus remains latent in skin cells, ready to flare up at any time to create warts on the skin or the genitals. A new finding by UC Berkeley’s Michael Botchan and colleagues offers hope that a drug can halt spread of the virus into new cells, and perhaps even eliminate the virus from the body.
Chemotherapy :: Study examines drug delivery with liposomes
Several chemotherapy drugs can only be given at certain doses because they’re highly toxic to healthy cells, and at those doses, the concentration of the drug that reaches cells in the tumor may be quite low. Scientists have been investigating the use of liposomes, hollow spheres of fat molecules, to deliver chemotherapy drugs directly to tumors. These liposomes melt and release their contents when exposed to heat.
Heart Failure :: Limitations in publicly reported quality-of-care indicators for heart-failure patients
Researchers reported that all five standard hospital-based performance measures used to gauge quality-of-care for hospitalized heart-failure patients may not be the best benchmarks since none were significant predictors of patient mortality during the critical first 60 to 90 days immediately following hospital discharge.
Cholesterol :: Sugars in liver found to clear fats from the bloodstream
In work with mice, researchers at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine discovered a factor that could be responsible for many unexplained cases of elevated triglyceride levels.
Diabetes :: Glucose levels trigger compensation for type 2 diabetics
Many individuals with type 2 diabetes are diabetic because the cells of their body no longer respond to the hormone insulin, which is crucial for lowering blood sugar levels (blood glucose levels). However, before individuals become clinically diabetic their body tries to compensate for the increasing resistance to the effects of insulin by increasing both the amount of insulin secreted and the mass of insulin-secreting cells (beta cells) in the pancreas.