News • Mindfulness
Meditation - a cheaper alternative to traditional pain medication?
Just ten minutes of mindfulness meditation could be used as an alternative to painkillers, according to research by Leeds Beckett University.
Medication
How does the body process pain? Study sheds new light
Currently available pain medications have limited efficacy and numerous side effects. New research, however, provides deeper insights into how our bodies process pain, paving the way for an innovative, more effective way of targeting chronic pain.
News • Drug development
New research could help address heart problems in diabetics
Research published in Experimental Physiology shows that diabetes-induced changes in heartbeat are primarily regulated by the β1-adrenoceptor. This discovery, once confirmed in humans, may lead to better treatment of heart problems in diabetics by enabling more targeted drugs to be produced.
News • ECCMID 2017
The cost of Clostridium difficile infections
Repeated infection with the bacterium Clostridium difficile (C. difficile), which causes stomach upsets and diarrhoea, is linked to higher death rates, as well as having a significant impact on health services in terms of cost and hospital beds occupied. This issue will be adressed in two presentations at the 27th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID),…
Article • Medication testing
The birth of the amazing organoids
Professor Hans Clevers, researcher and group leader at the Hubrecht Institute in Utrecht, the Netherlands, invented the organoids, a ground-breaking new technique to grow new ‘organs’ and to test medication.
News • Oncology
Treating cancer with drugs for diabetes and hypertension
A combination of a diabetes medication and an antihypertensive drug can effectively combat cancer cells. The team of researchers led by Prof. Michael Hall at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel has also reported that specific cancer cells respond to this combination of drugs.
Article • Oncology
Cost cutting cancer drugs
How to cut the high cost of cancer drugs engendered high interest at the recent Forum on Hospital Management held in Vienna.
News • tumor-fighting
Swarms of magnetic bacteria could deliver drugs to tumors
Researchers funded in part by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) have recently shown that magnetic bacteria are a promising vehicle for more efficiently delivering tumor-fighting drugs.
News • Infections
‘Open Science’ paves pathway to develop Malaria drugs
Malaria remains one of the world’s leading causes of mortality in developing countries. Last year alone, it killed more than 400,000 people, mostly young children. An international consortium of researchers unveiled the mechanics and findings of a unique “open science” project for malaria drug discovery that has been five years in the making.
News • Investigation
NHS is impeding access to high priced drugs
Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the University of Bath, and The BMJ, show how NHS England, unable to budget for broad access to these drugs, tried to alter the outcome of the NICE process, and when it failed, defied NICE’s authority by rationing access to them.
Article • Drug delivery
Biotherapeutics strike cancer cell growth
Many drug treatments do not work due to their poor ability to reach their intended targets inside patients’ cells. To address this, researchers at Cardiff University’s Schools of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Biosciences have designed a highly efficient method to improve the delivery of therapeutic molecules into diseased cells such as those in stomach cancer, breast cancer and…
News • Catheter
Device for irregular heartbeat more cost-effective than medication
A new study by a Yale researcher may support the use of a device for patients suffering from irregular heart rhythms.
News • Mutation
Prevention of genetic breast cancer within reach
An international team led by researchers at the Austrian Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) in Vienna and the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore discovered that genetically determined breast cancer can be largely prevented by blocking a bone gene. An already approved drug could be quickly available and would then be the first breast cancer prevention drug.
News • Politics
Liquid biopsy test from Roche gets FDA approval
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the cobas EGFR Mutation Test v2, a blood-based companion diagnostic for the cancer drug Tarceva (erlotinib). This is the first FDA-approved, blood-based genetic test that can detect epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutations in non-small cell lung cancer patients. Such mutations are present in approximately 10-20 percent of non-small cell…
News • Antimalarial drugs
Kill a Malaria parasite with Cholesterol
Drexel University scientists have discovered an unusual mechanism for how two new antimalarial drugs operate: They give the parasite’s skin a boost in cholesterol, making it unable to traverse the narrow labyrinths of the human bloodstream. The drugs also seem to trick the parasite into reproducing prematurely.
News • Study
First digitally enhanced Randomised Controlled Trial
North West EHealth announced that its unique Linked Database System technology was used to deliver the world’s first digitally enhanced Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) in the ground-breaking Salford Lung Study* (SLS). The study relied on bespoke software, developed by NorthWest EHealth and securely hosted within the NHS network, that integrated the electronic medical records of consented…
News • Fraud
Fighting against counterfeit medicine
Around the world, especially in developing nations, counterfeit medicines are a real problem. Until now, in many countries there hasn't been a standard protocol to conduct investigations and pursue prosecution. New research, led by Michigan State University, is providing the foundation to apply criminology theory to preventing the production and sale of fake and substandard medicines.
New technology breakthrough in fighting viral diseases
As one of medicine’s largest challenges, viral infections often escape vaccines due to their natural ability to mutate rapidly and develop drug resistance easily. Many viruses, such as Zika, Ebola and dengue fever, have grown into major global health epidemics with great human and economic toll. IBM Research and Singapore’s Institute of Bioengineering, Nanotechnology (IBN) announced they have…
News • Chemotherapy
Novel compounds could be less toxic
A novel class of compounds developed by a University of Saskatchewan (U of S)-led research team could yield more effective and less toxic chemotherapy drugs to treat cancer. Team leader Jonathan Dimmock, a medicinal chemistry researcher in the U of S College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, explained their compounds work by interacting with thiols, naturally occurring chemicals that perform several…
News • Alternative therapy
Potent nanodrug combast antibiotic-resistant infections
A research team led by University of Arkansas chemist Jingyi Chen and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences microbiologist Mark Smeltzer has developed an alternative therapeutic approach to fighting antibiotic-resistant infections.
News • PET study
Functional interplay between two transporters at blood-brain barrier
A team of researchers at the MedUni Vienna has, in collaboration with the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, developed two new PET tracers that allow the activity of drug transporters at the blood-brain barrier to be measured. The studywas able to demonstrate that people with a genetic polymorphism in a transporter gene have lower transporter activity at the blood-brain barrier, which can lead…
News • Nanoscale devices
Revealing the fluctuations of flexible DNA in 3-D
An international team working at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has captured the first high-resolution 3-D images from individual double-helix DNA segments attached at either end to gold nanoparticles. The images detail the flexible structure of the DNA segments, which appear as nanoscale jump ropes.
News • Medication
Molecules most capable of fighting prostate cancer
Scientists from MIPT (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology), MSU (Moscow State University), and National University of Science and Technology "MISIS" provided an overview of the most promising compounds which can be used as medications for prostate cancer. The article was published in the Journal of Drug Targeting.
News • Calibration Verification
Randox Announces New Linearity Sets
Randox Quality Control are pleased to announce, as part of our ongoing growth and development, the launch of our new Acusera Calibration Verification range for Beckman and Roche Cobas instruments.
News • Drug delivery vehicles
Soap bubbles for treating stenosed blood vessels
Liposomes are currently used as drug delivery vehicles but recognized by the immune system. Scientists from the universities of Basel and Fribourg have shown that special artificial liposomes do not elicit any reaction in human and porcine sera as well as pigs. The study was published in the Journal Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology, and Medicine.
