Contrary to previous thinking, the inefficient movement of cell’s “power plants” — the mitochondria — within a cell, rather than their low energy production, may be a contributing factor in the development of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT), new research shows.
Two antiviral drugs, oseltamivir and zanamivir, are highly effective when given as a preventive measure to reduce the spread of the influenza virus.
Northwestern University researchers have uncovered how malaria parasites break into red blood cells and how to block the invading parasites with a commonly prescribed high-blood pressure medication. This opens the door for important new drugs to which the parasites are much less likely to become resistant. Malaria is surging worldwide because of drug resistance and the lack of an effective vaccine. Jamaica, which had eradicated the disease for 50 years, recently reported an outbreak.
Northwestern University researchers have discovered a genetic cause of a mysterious neurological disease in which people have trouble recalling and using words. The illness, Primary Progressive Aphasia, differs from Alzheimer’s Disease in which a person’s memory becomes impaired. In PPA, which can begin in the 40’s and 50’s, people eventually lose the ability to express themselves and understand speech. Although people lose the ability to communicate, they are still able to perform complicated tasks.
Using plants to produce useful proteins could be an inexpensive alternative to current medicine production methods. Researchers from VIB at Ghent University have succeeded in producing in plant seeds proteins that have a very strong resemblance to antibodies. They have also demonstrated that these antibody variants are just as active as the whole antibodies that occur naturally in humans. By virtue of their particular action, antibodies are very useful for therapeutic and diagnostic applications.
Researchers at the University of Alberta have shown that a nontoxic molecule shrinks cancers tumors, including lung, breast and brain. The results of the research will be published in the journal Cancer Cell.
Nearly 10 percent of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) victims have mutations or variations in genes associated with potentially lethal heart rhythms (arrhythmias), according to two newly published studies involving Vanderbilt researchers.
A novel antibacterial medicine that kills the superbug MRSA is being developed under a new scheme launched by the Wellcome Trust. The Seeding Drug Discovery initiative is aimed at catalysing the development of new drugs in areas of unmet need.
Surveyors of anti-aging elixirs tout human growth hormone as a remedy for all things sagging-from skin to libidos — and claim it can even prevent or reverse aging. But researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine say there’s no evidence to suggest that this purported fountain of youth has any more effect than a trickle of tap water when it comes to fending off Father Time.
Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) found consistent evidence that smoking is associated with an increased risk of TB. They also found that passive smoking (secondhand smoke) and the burning of biomass fuels was associated with an increased TB risk.