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.
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.
A University of Virginia Health System researcher and colleagues have just published findings showing that just a few targeted counseling sessions had a notably positive impact on women at high risk for binge drinking, unplanned pregnancy and exposure to alcohol during pregnancy. The counseling technique, called motivational interviewing (MI), has proven effective after just four counseling sessions.
In 2005, the overall cost of patients’ time spent on cancer care was $2.3 billion in the first year after diagnosis, according to a new study in the Jan. 3 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The time costs for the 11 cancers studied and for different phases of cancer care varied widely, they write.
Drugs known as beta blockers help reduce the heart’s workload during heart failure via their action on beta-adrenergic receptors in cardiac cells. However, doctors remain puzzled by the variable responses to beta blockers among patients. Researchers now show that the key to this variation lies in a single amino acid change in the beta1-adrenergic receptor, that may differ from person to person, which alters the receptor’s conformation and the receptor’s response to certain beta blockers.
Researchers report in the January issue of the journal Cell Metabolism, published by Cell Press, the discovery of a genetic “switch” that drives the formation of a poorly understood type of muscle. Moreover, they found, animals whose muscles were full of the so-called IIX fibers were able to run farther and at higher work loads than normal mice could.
A protein called HIPK2 is essential for the survival of dopamine neurons, the cells lost in Parkinson’s disease, according to a study in mice. The results suggest that the molecular pathway in which the protein functions could be a possible new target for therapy, the study authors say.
GlaxoSmithKline’s new drug Tykerb dramatically slows the spread of aggressive late-stage breast cancer. Data from a Phase III study reporting that Tykerb? (lapatinib) plus Xeloda? (capecitabine) is superior to capecitabine alone in women with HER2 (ErbB2) positive advanced breast cancer who had progressed following prior therapy, including Herceptin? (trastuzumab), was published today in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
In hemophilia, a mutated gene prevents the production of a blood-clotting protein. Treatments for hemophilia and other genetic diseases may consist of risky blood transfusions or expensive enzyme replacement therapy. But what if the body could be induced to begin producing these proteins by transplanting healthy tissue with the abilities that are lacking? The Weizmann Institute’s Immunology Department showed how such a transplant might be made feasible.
Solving a 100-year-old genetic puzzle, researchers at the UCSD School of Medicine have determined that the same genetic mechanism that drives tumor growth can also act as a tumor suppressor. Their findings could lead to new drug targets for cancer therapies.