News • SHARPIN
Groundwork for new therapies against sepsis
Sepsis represents a serious complication of infection and is one of the leading causes of death and critical illness worldwide due in part to the lack of effective therapies.
Therapy
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 • Nasopharyngeal cancer
Potential treatment options for rare cancer
Researchers have found that a combination of chemotherapy and modern radiotherapy can benefit patients with advanced nasopharyngeal cancer – a cancer that starts at the back of the nose. These cancers are very rare in the UK and so modern treatments had not been previously studied in patients with advanced disease.
News • Europe
Medics call for urgent improvements in the quality of endoscopy
Every year, tens of millions of individuals across Europe undergo endoscopic procedures to assist with the diagnosis and management of gastrointestinal diseases. However, significant variation in current endoscopy provision across Europe has been reported, with back-to-back colonoscopy studies demonstrating that a concerning 22 percent of all adenomas are missed and that a three-to-six fold…
News • Skin Cancer
The Netherlands' first user of Elekta's Esteya Electronic Brachytherapy
On March 3, Radiotherapy Group clinicians at Ziekenhuis Gelderse Vallei (Ede, the Netherlands) used their Esteya electronic brachytherapy system for the first time to treat a 73-year-old male patient with a nodular basal cell carcinoma on his nose. Esteya is a form of high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy that applies high-precision radiotherapy directly to the cancer site, minimizing radiation to…
First injectable nanoparticle generator to fight breast cancer
A team of investigators from Houston Methodist Research Institute may have transformed the treatment of metastatic triple negative breast cancer by creating the first drug to successfully eliminate lung metastases in mice.
News • Prevention
Next step in preventing diabetes
A team of scientists at Helmholtz Zentrum München, in collaboration with Technische Universität München and the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), have shown in a preclinical model that specifically modified insulin mimetopes may lead to an immune tolerance. The results, published in ‘Nature Communications’, may be a step to improved prevention of type 1 diabetes.
News • Peripheral artery disease
Treating poor blood circulation with injectable gel
Bioengineers and physicians at the University of California, San Diego have developed a potential new therapy for critical limb ischemia, a condition that causes extremely poor circulation in the limbs and leads to an estimated 230,000 amputations every year in North America and Europe alone to prevent the spread of infection and tissue death. The new therapy could prevent or limit amputations…
News • Protective and human-derived
Successful isolation of a antibody against Ebola
Humabs BioMed SA and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) affiliated to the Università della Svizzera italiana announced the identification, isolation and characterization of two Ebola virus neutralizing monoclonal antibodies from the blood of a survivor of an Ebola infection.
News • Diabetes
No more Insulin injections?
In patients suffering from Type 1 diabetes, the immune system attacks the pancreas, eventually leaving patients without the ability to naturally control blood sugar. These patients must carefully monitor the amount of sugar in their blood, measuring it several times a day and then injecting themselves with insulin to keep their blood sugar levels within a healthy range. However, precise control…
News • Fighting cancer
Stopping tumour cells killing surrounding tissue
Tumours kill off surrounding cells to make room to grow, according to new research from the University of Cambridge. Although the study was carried out using fruit flies, its findings suggest that drugs to prevent, rather than encourage, cell death might be effective at fighting cancer – contrary to how many of the current chemotherapy drugs work.
News • Body dysmorphic disorder
Online therapy can help
Internet based cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can help people affected by body dysmorphic disorder, finds a study published by The BMJ today. This is the largest clinical trial of body dysmorphic disorder ever conducted, and the first to evaluate the effect of an internet based programme for the condition.
Sponsored • In Emergency
Automated H-FABP assay improves the efficiency of Troponin
Automated latex enhanced immunoturbidimetric H-FABP assay helps emergency departments to detect MI within 30 minutes of chest pain onset, and improve the diagnostic efficiency of Troponin.
Article • High rating
Immunotherapy brings striking successes
Checkpoint inhibitors can achieve a lasting treatment response in around 20% of some kinds of advanced cancer cases. ‘Immunotherapies are given the highest possible rating on the Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), which assesses the actual clinical benefit of tumour treatments,’ emphasises Professor Christoph Zielinski MD, Head of the…
Article • Infection control
Topical antibiotic therapy is an indispensable add-on
Locally applied antibiotics are a component of effective infection management in orthopaedics and trauma surgery. Successful concepts are based on patient-specific surgical and antimicrobial treatment. At the symposium “Infections and high-risk patients: solutions for joint replacements and traumatology” at this year’s Congress on Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery (DKOU) in Berlin last…
News • Cell therapy
Using skin to save the heart
Following a heart attack or other heart trauma, the heart is unable to replace its dead cells. Patients are often left with little option other than heart transplants, which are rarely available, or more recently cell therapies that transplant heart cells into the patient's heart.
Treating colon cancer with vitamin A
A leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, colon cancer is famously resistant to treatment. There are many reasons for this, but one has to do with a group of persisting cancer cells in the colon that cause relapses. Conventional therapies against them are mostly ineffective. EPFL scientists have now identified a biological mechanism that can be exploited to counteract colon cancer relapses.
Multiple sclerosis can be triggered by brain cell death
Multiple sclerosis (MS) may be triggered by the death of brain cells that make the insulation around nerve fibers, a surprising new view of the disease reported in a study from Northwestern Medicine and The University of Chicago.
Testosterone replacement makes Type 2 diabetic men more sensitive to insulin
Findings demonstrate that testosterone is a metabolic hormone as well as a sex hormone, University at Buffalo researchers say.
News • In dying cells
Potential way to control cholesterol levels
A discovery about how the body deals with the cholesterol contained within its dying cells has suggested an exciting new approach to control people’s cholesterol levels – and thus their risk of developing heart disease.
Interview • Evolution
On the cusp of Medicine 4.0
In the world of technology, the term Industry 4.0 is already well known. Univ-Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Bernhard Wolf has reveals a comparable development in medicine. Smart systems and personalisation have enormous potential, the Professor for Medical Electronics at the Technical University of Munich is convinced.
Article • Telecardiology
Home monitoring in fast action
Every year, worldwide, over a million patients have a pacemaker or defibrillator implanted. Home monitoring systems can significantly improve the safety and quality of life for these patients, says Professor Gerhard Hindricks, head physician in the rhythmology department at Leipzig’s Heart Centre. Report: Sascha Keutel
Helping kids hear better
First-of-its-kind study by the University of Iowa shows kids with hearing loss benefit from early intervention.
News • Monitoring
'Smart bandage' detects bed sores
Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, are developing a new type of bandage. Thanks to advances in flexible electronics, the researchers have created a new "smart bandage" that uses electrical currents to detect early tissue damage from pressure ulcers, or bedsores, before they can be seen by human eyes - and while recovery is still possible.
News • Dermatology
How to treat common warts?
Warts aren’t just for witches and goblins. According to member dermatologists from the American Academy of Dermatology, children and teens, people who frequently bite their nails, and people with a weakened immune system are more prone to getting warts than others.
