NewsPublicHealth.com : Public Health News

Setting out to determine the survival of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), researchers have discovered that an equation used for more than 20 years to predict survival is outdated. Accordingly, they developed a new survival prediction equation that will impact clinical practice and the drug development process.

Preliminary studies show that a vaccine made with leukemia cells may be able to reduce or eliminate the last remaining cancer cells in some chronic myeloid leukemia patients taking the drug Imatinib mesylate (Gleevec).

About 1 billion people worldwide carry a genetic mutation that produces an inactive form of ALDH2, an important alcohol metabolism enzyme. When individuals with the ALDH2 mutation drink alcohol, the toxic compound acetaldehyde accumulates in the body. The inactive form of ALDH2 is linked to increased risk for cancer. Researchers found that an experimental compound restores the structure and function of the inactive enzyme, which suggests the possibility of a treatment for the enzyme defect.

Studying a rare disorder that also causes autism in 25-50 percent of affected patients, new research supports the emerging idea that autism results from disrupted brain “connectivity” causing improper information flow. These abnormalities might be reversible with rapamycin or rapamycin-like drugs, which the studies researchers will be bringing to clinical trial later this year.

Medical researchers have determined how a “chemical chaperone” does its job in the body, which could lead to a new class of drugs to help reduce the muscle damage caused by heart attacks.

A new study has shown that metformin, a drug often used in the treatment of diabetes mellitus, is safe for use in treating patients who have both diabetes and advanced heart failure.

Researchers have discovered the rules that dictate the 3-D shapes of RNA molecules, rules that are based not on complex chemical interactions but simply on geometry.

Researchers have found in animal experiments that an antidepressant developed over 40 years ago can blunt and even reverse the muscle enlargement and weakened pumping function associated with heart failure.

Researchers have taken an early step toward identifying a new approach to drug discovery that may eventually yield drugs with fewer side effects.

Scientists have long eyed mutations in a gene known as DISC1 as a possible contributor to schizophrenia and mood disorders, including depression and bipolar disorder. Now, new research suggests that perturbing this gene during prenatal periods, postnatal periods or both may have different effects in mice, leading to separate types of brain alterations and behaviors with resemblance to schizophrenia or mood disorders.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients are partially protected by the influenza vaccine 6-10 months after treatment with rituximab. Researchers determined that while the flu vaccine is safe, it is ineffective for RA patients in the first six months following rituximab treatment.

Researchers have identified a key epigenetic mechanism in the brain that helps explain cocaine’s addictiveness.

Researchers have discovered that light from an ultraviolet diode (UV LED) reduced “seizure-like” activity in a rat epilepsy model. Results of this study have considerable potential in treating focal epilepsy in humans.

Researchers have found a way to cleverly override signals that tell breast cancer cells to keep surviving in the face of anticancer treatment. The investigational agent they used renews the sensitivity of these breast cancer cells to treatment by fulvestrant which had stopped working.

Neisseria meningitidis, the meningococcus, is a bacterium that can cause diseases with high fatality rates, and there has therefore been considerable concern that, like other bacteria, it might become resistant to antibiotics. But now a study shows that there has not been any increase in resistant meningococci in Sweden over the last 15 years. The reason for this may be that it is not especially advantageous for bacteria to develop resistance.

An analysis of randomized trials indicates that compared with placebo, the magnitude of benefit of antidepressant medications varies with the severity of depressive symptoms, and may provide little benefit for patients with mild or moderate depression, but appear to provide substantial benefit for patients with very severe depression, according to a new study.

Contrary to the widely-held belief, there is no proof that non-insulin-dependent patients with type 2 diabetes benefit from glucose self-monitoring. Due to a lack of suitable trials, it remains unclear whether an additional benefit is displayed by the blood test compared to the urine test or vice versa, according to a new report.

Since people who are trying to reduce their weight are encouraged to choose meals labeled as “lower in calories” or “reduced energy” in restaurants and supermarkets, it is essential that the listed data are accurate. In a new study, researchers found that some commercially prepared foods contained more calories than indicated in nutritional labeling.

Researchers have developed a way to view the effects of a proposed drug treatment in real time using a mild electrical field to stimulate C. elegans nematodes. The discovery opens up significant possibilities for developing high-throughput micro-screening devices for drug discovery and other applications for treating diseases such as Huntington’s, Parkinson’s and muscular dystrophy.

Researchers have created biodegradable nanosized particles that can easily slip through the body’s sticky and viscous mucus secretions to deliver a sustained-release medication cargo.

People with the heritable disorder of the skin called Gorlin syndrome who are genetically predisposed to develop basal cell carcinoma of the skin may have a new chemoprevention therapy on the horizon.

Researchers have identified two cellular proteins that are important factors in hepatitis C virus infection, a finding that may result in the approval of new and less toxic treatments for the disease, which can lead to liver cancer and cirrhosis.

Results of a new study reveal that a seven-day course of LOAD therapy is superior to LAC at eliminating the H. pylori bacterium in patients with gastritis and peptic ulcers.