Novel approach may help detect invasive aspergillosis

Novel approach may help detect invasive aspergillosis

RBX2660 drug candidate highly effective against recurrent Clostridium difficile infection

RBX2660 drug candidate highly effective against recurrent Clostridium difficile infection

Grapefruit juice stems weight gain in mice fed a high-fat diet, study finds

Mice fed a high-fat diet gained 18 percent less weight when they drank clarified, no-pulp grapefruit juice compared with a control group of mice that drank water, a new study demonstrated. Juice-drinking mice also showed improved levels of glucose, insulin and a type of fat called triacylglycerol compared with their water-drinking counterparts.

Ref : http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0108408

Grapefruit juice stems weight gain in mice fed a high-fat diet, study finds 

FDA Approves Revised Indication for Ozurdex for the Treatment of Diabetic Macular Edema

FDA Approves Revised Indication for Ozurdex for the Treatment of Diabetic Macular Edema

High-speed drug screen developed

High-speed drug screen developed

Australian researchers use hookworms to reduce symptoms of celiac disease

Australian researchers have achieved groundbreaking results in a clinical trial using hookworms to reduce the symptoms of celiac disease.

The results are also good news for sufferers of other inflammatory conditions such as asthma and Crohn's disease.

In the small trial run over a year, 12 participants were each experimentally infected with 20 Necator americanus (hookworm) larvae.

They were then given gradually increasing doses of gluten - beginning with just one-tenth of a gram per day (the equivalent of less than a one-inch segment of spaghetti) and increasing in two further stages to a final daily dose of three grams (75 spaghetti straws).

"By the end of the trial, with worms onboard, the trial subjects were eating the equivalent of a medium-sized bowl of spaghetti, with no ill effects," James Cook University (JCU) immunologist Paul Giacomin said.

"That's a meal that would usually trigger a debilitating inflammatory response, leaving a celiac patient suffering symptoms like diarrhea, cramps and vomiting."

Australian researchers use hookworms to reduce symptoms of celiac disease

Scientists discover new clues about drug used in treating blood cancer

Keck Medicine of USC scientists have discovered new clues about a drug instrumental in treating a certain blood cancer that may provide important targets for researchers searching for cures.

The team investigated whether demethylation of gene bodies induced by the drug 5-Aza-CdR (decitabine), which is used to treat pre-leukemia, could alter gene expression and possibly be a therapeutic target in cancer.

"When we put the drug in cancer cells, we found it not only reactivated some tumor suppressor genes, but it down-regulated the overexpressed oncogene (cancer gene)," said Gangning Liang, Ph.D., associate professor of research, Keck School of Medicine of USC Department of Urology, who is corresponding author on the research. "Overexpression is what turns cancer 'on.' The mechanism by which the drug accomplishes this dual action is by removing DNA methylation in the gene body, which we didn't expect."

Scientists discover new clues about drug used in treating blood cancer

MIT researchers use disarmed version of anthrax toxin to deliver cancer drugs

Bacillus anthracis bacteria have very efficient machinery for injecting toxic proteins into cells, leading to the potentially deadly infection known as anthrax. A team of MIT researchers has now hijacked that delivery system for a different purpose: administering cancer drugs.

"Anthrax toxin is a professional at delivering large enzymes into cells," says Bradley Pentelute, the Pfizer-Laubauch Career Development Assistant Professor of Chemistry at MIT. "We wondered if we could render anthrax toxin nontoxic, and use it as a platform to deliver antibody drugs into cells."

In a paper appearing in the journal ChemBioChem, Pentelute and colleagues showed that they could use this disarmed version of the anthrax toxin to deliver two proteins known as antibody mimics, which can kill cancer cells by disrupting specific proteins inside the cells. This is the first demonstration of effective delivery of antibody mimics into cells, which could allow researchers to develop new drugs for cancer and many other diseases, says Pentelute, the senior author of the paper.

MIT researchers use disarmed version of anthrax toxin to deliver cancer drugs