In an Early Edition issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) published online on October 20, 2008, the scientists describe how they used multiple tactics to rev up both innate and adaptive immunity to enhance the body's ability to fight cancer.
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Edmonton—Contrary to popular belief, polar dinosaurs may not have traveled nearly as far as originally thought when making their bi-annual migration.
University of Alberta researchers Phil Bell and Eric Snively have suggested that while some dinosaurs may have migrated during the winter season, their range was significantly less than previously thought, which means their treks were shorter. Bell and Snively's findings were recently published in Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Paleontology.
CINCINNATI—A new study by researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) shows that using modern immunosuppressive drugs eliminates the need for steroid therapy as early as seven days following a transplant surgery while still maintaining kidney function.
Steve Woodle, MD, chief of UC's transplant surgery division, principal investigator and designer of the study, says the elimination of a daily dose of steroids following transplantation minimizes chronic health conditions common to kidney transplant recipients.
Geneva, Switzerland: Researchers have developed a method of assessing the quality of phase I clinical trial abstracts submitted to two different oncology conferences: EORTC-NCI-AACR (ENA) [1] and American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). The results, presented on Thursday (23 October) at the 20th ENA Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Geneva, show there is room for improvement and the researchers suggest authors of conference abstracts should adopt guidelines for reporting phase I clinical trials.
Bethesda, MD (Oct. 21, 2008) – Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is one of the most common gastrointestinal conditions seen in GI and primary care clinics, however physicians who treat the disease primarily rely on empirical trials of medications and their own observations and experience to manage their patients. Therefore, the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute has published evidence-based guidelines for the management and treatment of suspected GERD.
BERKELEY, CA -- The first-ever glimpse of nanoscale catalysts in action could lead to improved pollution control and fuel cell technologies. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory observed catalysts restructuring themselves in response to various gases swirling around them, like a chameleon changing its color to match its surroundings.
A new University of Colorado at Boulder study showing that American toads who pal around with gray tree frogs reduce their chances of parasitic infections known to cause limb malformations has strong implications for the benefits of biodiversity on emerging wildlife diseases.
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– Doctors have always hoped that scientists might one day create a vaccination that would treat a broad spectrum of maladies. They could only imagine that there might be one vaccine that would protect against, say, 2,500 strains of Salmonella. And what if that same vaccine could help protect the elderly?
BOSTON, Mass. (Oct. 20, 2008) -- Two teams of scientists from Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology (HST) at Brigham and Women's Hospital have developed a new self-assembling hydrogel drug delivery system that is biocompatible, efficient at drug release, and easy to tailor. Importantly, these structures can deliver clinically approved drugs in high concentrations without requiring carriers for the drug or generating toxic components, a problem with hydrogel systems until now.
Episodic treatment of HIV/AIDS with antiretroviral drugs increases the overall risk of death when compared with continuous antiretroviral treatment (ART), but the reasons why have been unknown. Now, researchers have found that higher levels of certain markers of inflammation and blood-clotting are strongly associated with intermittent ART and with a higher risk of death from non-AIDS diseases.
RICHMOND, Va. (Oct. 21, 2008) – Virginia Commonwealth University Institute of Molecular Medicine researchers have traced the evolutionary origin of two genes that serve as primary cellular sensors of infection with RNA viruses, such as influenza, poliovirus, West Nile virus, and HIV, which may ultimately provide researchers with insight into a possible new pathway for the development of innate immunity.
Depression symptoms are associated with significantly higher use of healthcare services following a heart attack, according to a new study released today by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). With approximately 70,000 Canadians experiencing a heart attack each year, this new data may help thousands of people get the care they need and reduce hospital visits.
Lack of sleep, excessive television/computer screen time, stress, gambling, alcohol and tobacco use and other health-related issues are taking a toll on college students' academic performance, according to a study released by the University of Minnesota Boynton Health Service.
Approximately one in four biological medicinal products (such as antibodies, enzymes and insulin) approved since 1995 in the U.S. and Europe have had at least one safety-related regulatory action issued for them 10 years after their approval, including about 11 percent receiving a "black box" warning, according to a study in the October 22/29 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on the Health of the Nation.