New, highly curative hepatitis C therapy is both safe and effective as a treatment option for people who inject drugs receiving opioid substitution therapy according to the results of a world-first clinical trial led by Professor Gregory Dore at the Kirby Institute at UNSW Australia and published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Body
SAN FRANCISCO, CA--With a trick of engineering, scientists at the Gladstone Institutes improved a potential weapon against inflammation and autoimmune disorders. Their work could one day benefit patients who suffer from inflammatory bowel disease or organ transplant rejection.
The Body's Natural Defense
Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) reside in bone marrow and have been found to secrete anti-inflammatory proteins that help regulate the immune system. More than 500 clinical trials are trying to use these cells to fight diseases, but so far, many have failed.
Malignant cancers strike certain organs, such as the colon or breast, more often than others. In an Opinion publishing August 9 in Trends in Cancer, researchers propose that this vulnerability in some organs may be due to natural selection. Humans can tolerate tumors in large or paired organs more easily than in small, critical organs, such as the heart, and so the larger organs may have evolved fewer mechanisms to defend against cancerous cells.
Clinical research often excludes females from their trials under the assumption that "one size fits all," that a painkiller or antidepressant will be equally effective in subjects of either sex, but a growing number of scientists are criticizing this approach. In an Essay published August 9 in Cell Metabolism, one group argues that hormones and other variables make a difference in how potential therapeutics behave, and both males and females must be accounted for in trials to move medical advances forward.
PHILADELPHIA - Maintaining proper levels of an essential helper molecule is crucial for optimal muscle function, according to a study led by Joseph Baur, PhD, an assistant professor of Physiology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Some athletes are already taking supplements to increase synthesis of this compound, called NAD, with the hopes of reversing the natural decay associated with aging of the mitochondria, the cell's powerhouses. However, this is the first study to directly investigate the consequences of NAD deficiency on muscle function.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has concluded that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening for lipid disorders in children and adolescents 20 years or younger. The report appears in the August 9 issue of JAMA.
This is an I statement, indicating that the evidence is lacking, of poor quality, or conflicting, and the balance of benefits and harms cannot be determined.
Among U.S. adults with diabetes from 1988 to 2014, the overall prevalence of diabetic kidney disease did not change significantly, while the prevalence of albuminuria declined and the prevalence of reduced estimated glomerular filtration rate increased, according to a study appearing in the August 9 issue of JAMA.
Boston, MA - Levels of a widely used class of industrial chemicals linked with cancer and other health problems--polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs)--exceed federally recommended safety levels in public drinking water supplies for six million people in the U.S., according to a new study led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).
The study will be published August 9, 2016 in Environmental Science & Technology Letters.
The overall prevalence of diabetic kidney disease has not changed significantly in the United States for 30 years, but the characteristics of kidney disease have changed markedly, according to a study in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association.
"What we found was a little surprising and a little complex," said lead author Ian de Boer, a UW Medicine nephrologist and University of Washington associate professor of medicine. He is with the Kidney Research Institute, a collaboration between the Northwest Kidney Centers and UW Medicine.
Washington, DC - August 9, 2016 - For years, researchers have known that the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) can trigger severe, sometimes deadly secondary bacterial pneumonia, in some people who are subsequently infected with influenza A virus, but scientists have not known exactly how this happens. Now, scientists have developed a new model for studying this phenomenon, which could lead to new treatments designed to prevent secondary bacterial infections.
PHILADELPHIA --Researchers have uncovered how genes identified from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) affect high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), a biomarker of cardiovascular disease, after comparing several animal models with human patient data. A large team from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Copenhagen, Bristol-Myers Squibb and several others institutions detail their findings in a paper published today in Cell Metabolism.
TAMPA, Fla. (Aug. 9, 2016) - Research conducted by a team from the University of South Florida College of Marine Science and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission suggests conditions are such that no major red tide outbreaks should be expected along Florida's west coast this year. Their conclusions are based on elevated nutrient levels in the Gulf of Mexico that favor the emergence of organisms other than those related to red tide.
HOUSTON, Aug. 8, 2016 - Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the U.S. With one in every four deaths occurring each year, the five-year survival rate after a heart attack is worse than most cancers. A big part of the problem is the inability of the human heart to effectively repair itself after injury. A team of University of Houston researchers is trying to change that.
Biomedical scientists have revealed the inner workings of a group of proteins that help to switch critical genes on and off during blood-cell production, in a finding that could lead to the development of new and improved cancer drugs.
One of the proteins involved is linked to breast cancer, which is the most common cancer for women and kills more than half a million women around the world each year. Existing breast cancer treatments do not target this protein specifically.
In today's turtles the shell has a key protective function. The animals can withdraw into it and protect themselves against predators. No other group of vertebrates has modified its physique to such an extent to develop an impenetrable protective structure.