Head lice are a major irritant to children and their parents around the world. The number of head lice cases is increasing because lice are developing a resistance to current treatments such as chemical shampoos, specialized louse combs and various home remedies.
Ask About Medicines Week (November 6-10) is designed to raise awareness of the importance of taking medicines as prescribed and knowing where to get the information you might want. Pharmacists are ideally placed to advise ? they are right on the high street and you don’t need an appointment.
Gene-base therapy may be effective against HIV, U.S. researchers report. An investigational gene-based immunotherapy called VRX496 suggests it can fight the virus, according to a phase I, open-label, non-randomized clinical trial conducted at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
Northwestern University researchers have found an enzyme, called “ACE2,” may hold the potential to treat diabetic kidney disease, the most common form of kidney disease.The researchers have found low levels of the ACE2 enzyme in kidneys of diabetic mice. When ACE2 was further decreased with an inhibitor drug, kidney disease worsened. Studies are now needed using compounds that increase the level of ACE2 in the kidneys of diabetic mice to see if it reverses or prevents kidney disease.
A special research program at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center is providing a safe and vital research component to scientists in hopes of finding new treatments and cures for a variety of disorders.
Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have developed a unique anti-sickling agent that may one day be effective in treating sickle cell disease, a painful and debilitating genetic blood disorder that affects approximately 80,000 Americans.
Antioxidant-based pain killers may one day become a viable alternative to addictive medications such as morphine. Researchers found that synthetic antioxidants practically eradicated pain-like behavior in nearly three-quarters of mice with inflamed hind paws.
A gene variant associated with mental illness goes hand-in-hand with enlargement of a brain region that handles negative emotions, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center and the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System have found.
The American Thoracic Society (ATS) has published a new statement on the pathogenesis, prevention and treatment of liver damage caused by anti-tuberculosis (TB) medications. The statement, which appeared in the October 15 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, gives a review of current national and international literature on drug-induced liver injury (DILI) or hepatotoxicity, a potential side effect of more than 700 drugs approved for use in the United States.
Researchers have announced a breakthrough on a non-hormonal compound known as Adjudin. When injected as an attachment to a modified hormone that seeks out the testes, a low dose is a safe and effective contraceptive in rats. However, another promising drug, miglustat, has failed to make the leap from mice to men.