Scientists in Hong Kong have identified a protein that can help suppress the growth of prostate cancer cells, the third most common cancer in men worldwide, and the finding might pave the way for the making of a new drug but not so soon.
Shire plc (LSE: SHP, NASDAQ: SHPGY, TSX: SHQ) announced that its Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) patch, DAYTRANA tm (methylphenidate transdermal system), has significant efficacy in reducing the symptoms of ADHD in children aged 6 to 12 years, even when the ADHD patch is taken off earlier than the recommended nine hours. The ability to remove the patch earlier than the recommended nine-hour wear time allows physicians the opportunity to manage the potential for late-day side effects, such as lack of appetite or difficulty sleeping. These phase IIIb clinical trial results were reported today at a major scientific and educational meeting of child and adolescent psychiatrists in San Diego, Calif.
Women undergoing radiation treatment for breast cancer benefit from moderate intensity, regular aerobic activity, according to a new study. A peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study found that exercise improved the oxygen capacity of patients and maintained levels of red blood cells during radiation treatment. In contrast, women who did not exercise experienced significant declines in their oxygen capacity. This is the first study to investigate the effect of exercise during treatment.
On 5 October 2006, the Ministry of Health reported 2 cases of yellow fever in the towns of Korhogo and Ouaragahio in C?te d’Ivoire. The cases, a 30-year-old man in Korhogo and a 16 year-old girl in Ouaragahio, are laboratory confirmed (IgM Elisa assay) by the Institut Pasteur, Abidjan, C?te d’Ivoire and by the regional reference laboratory, Institut Pasteur, Dakar, Senegal. To date, no fatalities have been reported.
A significant and largely untapped global market exists for more effective and affordable tests to diagnose tuberculosis in low and middle income countries, where most TB cases today occur.
A new Australian clinical trial hopes to answer the question about which diets work and why. Healthy volunteers will be kept in controlled laboratory conditions for a week and fed diets with different levels of protein.
Researchers have successfully sequenced the DNA of 15 mouse strains most commonly used in biomedical research. More than 8.3 million genetic variations, or single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), were discovered among the genomes of the 15 mouse strains. These new data on laboratory mice will help researchers better understand what makes some individuals more susceptible than others to certain diseases, and will serve as a valuable resource as researchers determine the role that various environmental substances may play in the development of disease.
Preventing cavities could one day involve the dental equivalent of a military surgical strike. A team of researchers supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research report they have created a new smart anti-microbial treatment that can be chemically programmed in the laboratory to seek out and kill a specific cavity-causing species of bacteria, leaving the good bacteria untouched.
Leptospirosis has been diagnosed clinically in two men recently returned from a fishing holiday at a resort in the Picardie region of north-east France. One case has since been serologically confirmed. Both patients were at the same resort at the same time (mid-September), and became unwell about one week after their return to the United Kingdom.
A new test could now be able to improve doctors’ ability to recommend the right type of cancer treatment for their patients. According to the researchers, the test, which has been developed by Anil Potti at the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy in Durham, North Carolina, is 80% accurate in predicting the right chemotherapy to cure each person’s cancer.