Sunday, March 28, 2010

GBP Health/Biotech 03-27-2010

GBP Health / Biotech News 03-27-2010:

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EurekAlert - Biology:

Public Release: 26-Mar-2010
7th European Breast Cancer Conference
Discovery that PARP protein exists in all breast tumors will help target chemo and predict response
The presence of a protein called PARP in tumors can help predict their response to chemotherapy, German researchers will tell the European Breast Cancer Conference on Friday, March 26. They have found that PARP expression exists across all breast cancer subtypes, and that these tumors are highly sensitive to chemotherapy. PARP positive tumors could become a new entity in breast cancer, and the researchers believe that they may be on the verge of a major change in the way breast cancer is treated.

Contact: Mary Rice
mary@mrcommunication.org
ECCO-the European CanCer Organisation

Public Release: 25-Mar-2010
PLoS ONE
Slowing down immune system's 'brakes' may improve HIV vaccines
Like a skittish driver slamming the brakes, a special class of T cells may be limiting the effectiveness of therapeutic vaccines for HIV by slowing the immune system response too soon, report University of Pittsburgh health science researchers in the current issue of PLoS ONE. Their study may help researchers improve the efficacy of such vaccines by devising methods to circumvent the braking mechanism of these cells.
NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Contact: Clare Collins
CollCX@upmc.edu
412-648-9725
University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences

Public Release: 25-Mar-2010
7th European Breast Cancer Conference
Pregnant women can receive breast cancer chemotherapy without endangering health of their babies
German researchers have found that women who discover they have breast cancer while they are pregnant can be treated with chemotherapy without endangering the health of their unborn baby.

Contact: Emma Mason
wordmason@mac.com
ECCO-the European CanCer Organisation

Public Release: 25-Mar-2010
Science
Tumors hide out from the immune system by mimicking lymph nodes
A new mechanism explaining how tumors escape the body's natural immune surveillance has recently been discovered at EPFL in Switzerland. The study shows how tumors can create a tolerant microenviroment and avoid attack by the immune system by mimicking key features of lymph nodes. The discovery, published in Science and in Science Express, online March 25, 2010, underscores the role of the lymphatic system in cancer and may open up new possibilities for cancer treatment.

Contact: Michael Mitchell
michael.mitchell@epfl.ch
41-216-937-022
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Public Release: 25-Mar-2010
FASEB Journal
New test takes guesswork out of diagnosing early stage Alzheimer's disease
A new test developed by Japanese scientists may revolutionize how and when physicians diagnose Alzheimer's disease. According to a research report published online in the FASEB Journal, the new test measures proteins in the spinal fluid known to be one of the main causes of brain degeneration and memory impairment in Alzheimer's patients: high molecular weight A-Beta oligomers.

Contact: Cody Mooneyhan
cmooneyhan@faseb.org
301-634-7104
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

Source - Science Daily:

Please note : Due to the format restrictions of Science Daily articles, you must click on the URL (web address) below the article summary , rather than the article title.

Novel Parkinson's Treatment Strategy Involves Cell Transplantation

March 26, 2010 — Scientists have used a novel cell-based strategy to treat motor symptoms in rats with a disease designed to mimic Parkinson's disease. The strategy suggests a promising approach, the scientists say, ...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100325143233.htm

Virtual Biopsy Probe System Is 'Almost Perfect' in Detecting Precancerous Polyps During Colonoscopy

March 26, 2010 — The newest generation of "virtual biopsy" colonoscopy probes being tested demonstrate that it might soon be possible to use such a device to determine whether a colon polyp is benign and not remove ...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100323111601.htm

New Cancer Biomarker May Herald Personalized Medicine

March 26, 2010 — Scientists have shown how simple diagnostic tests to identify which patients will respond to which cancer drugs can be developed, potentially ushering in a new era of personalized cancer ...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100324230239.htm

Survival in Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients Is Improving: Targeted Therapies Have Contributed

March 26, 2010 — Survival is improving in patients with metastatic breast cancer, especially in those patients whose tumors are described as being HER2 positive, according to new research. Median survival times for ...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100326101108.htm

Surgeons Transplant New Trachea Into Child Using His Own Stem Cells to Rebuild Airway

March 25, 2010 — Scientists and surgeons have led a revolutionary operation to transplant a new trachea into a child, using the child's own stem cells to rebuild the airway in the ...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100325114400.htm

Targeting Cell Pathway May Prevent Relapse of Leukemia

March 25, 2010 — About 40 percent of children and up to 70 percent of adults in remission from acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) will have a relapse. In recent years, doctors have come to believe that this is due to ...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100325151342.htm

New Period of Brain 'Plasticity' Created With Transplanted Embryonic Cells

March 25, 2010 — Scientists report that they were able to prompt a new period of "plasticity," or capacity for change, in the neural circuitry of the visual cortex of juvenile mice. The approach, they say, might some ...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100325143101.htm

New Test Takes Guesswork out of Diagnosing Early-Stage Alzheimer's Disease

March 25, 2010 — A new test developed by Japanese scientists may revolutionize how and when physicians diagnose Alzheimer's disease. According to new research, the new test measures proteins in the spinal fluid known ...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100325143057.htm

Newly Discovered Gene Explains Mouse Embryonic Stem Cell Immortality

March 24, 2010 — Researchers have discovered a key to embryonic stem cell rejuvenation in a gene -- Zscan4. This breakthrough finding could have major implications for aging research, stem cell biology, regenerative ...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100324142117.htm

New Form of Insulin Can Be Inhaled Rather Than Injected

March 24, 2010 — A new inhalable powder carrying insulin not only eliminates the pain of injections, but actually delivers the medication faster than a needle, ...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100323133041.htm

Coronary Artery Development Mystery Solved, May Lead to Better Bypasses

March 24, 2010 — Scientists studying cardiac development in mouse embryos have identified the source of cells that become the coronary arteries -- the vessels that deliver blood to nourish the continuously pumping ...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100324142008.htm

High Dietary Phosphate Intake May Promote Skin Cancer Formation

March 23, 2010 — A high dietary intake of phosphate promotes tumor formation in an animal model of skin cancer. The results suggest a high intake of phosphates may promote tumor development and contribute to tumor ...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100323111557.htm

Source - Health Day:

Health Highlights: March 26, 2010

  • Don't Drink Raw Milk: FDA
  • Congress Approves Reworked Health Reform Bill
  • Fake Weight-Loss Drugs Lead to Charges
  • Pfizer Faces $142 Million Penalty

Pregnancy May Protect Breast Cancer Survivors
Finding important because more women are delaying motherhood, researchers say

Clinical Trials Update: March 26, 2010

  • Chronic Low Back Pain
  • Rheumatoid Arthritis
  • Nodular Acne

Chemo Plus Synthetic Drug Shrunk Pancreatic Tumors
Research with mice might one day yield new therapies, study says

Source - Yahoo Biotech News:

Lilly CEO Calls for Shift in Thinking on Health Reform- PR Newswire - Thu 6:00 am ET
In an address to the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany today, John C. Lechleiter, Ph.D., chairman, president and chief executive officer of Eli Lilly and Company, said that innovation holds the key to solving one of healthcare's thorniest dilemmas: how to improve quality and access while controlling costs.

Source - Google Health News:

Tiny robots deliver gene therapy through blood
Orillia Packet & Times
Is this the beginning of the end of cancer? A California Institute of Technology-led team of researchers has published the first proof that a targeted ...

Malaria may have come from chimps
Montreal Gazette
It's my hope that our discovery will bring us closer to making a vaccine. ... Swine flu, H5N1 avian influenza and in fact all influenza viruses are believed ...

Swine flu vaccinations set to begin amid global warnings
Phnom Penh Post
About 300000 H1N1 vaccine doses, intended to cover at-risk populations in four provinces ... It followed the comparatively more lethal H5N1 influenza virus, ...

Source - Medical News Today :

Nanoparticles Switch Off Cancer Genes In Human Tumors

US scientists have successfully completed a study where they showed targeted nanoparticles injected directly into a patient's bloodstream navigated into tumors, delivered double-stranded small interfering RNAs and turned off a gene that drives cancer growth. You can read about the study, by researchers from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena (Caltech), the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and others, in the 21 March advance online issue of Nature.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/183633.php

Taking The Guesswork Out Of Diagnosing Early-Stage Alzheimer's Disease

A new test developed by Japanese scientists may revolutionize how and when physicians diagnose Alzheimer's disease . According to a research report published online in The FASEB Journal, the new test measures proteins in the spinal fluid known to be one of the main causes of brain degeneration and memory impairment in Alzheimer's patients: high molecular weight A-Beta oligomers. This tool, once fully implemented, would allow physicians to diagnose and treat Alzheimer's disease in its early stages, a time when diagnosing the disease is very difficult. "Alzheimer's disease is a growing problem, due to aging of the population in all developed countries," said Takahiko Tokuda, M.D., Ph.D., a researcher from the Department of Neurology at the Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine Graduate School of Medical Science in Japan who was involved in the work. "We hope that our new diagnostic test will, in the future, significantly improve the lives of people with Alzheimer's disease, and lead to much better ways of treating this devastating disorder."

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/183706.php

Diabetes Major Problem In China

New research suggests there are 92 million Chinese living with diabetes , that is nearly ten per cent of China's 1.3 billion people, indicating that the disease is now a major health problem in the world's most populated country. You can read about the study by lead and corresponding author, Dr Wenying Yang from the Department of Endocrinology at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing, and 19 colleagues, in the 25 March online issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, NEJM.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/183587.php

Source - MIT's Technology Review:

Outwitting Influenza

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/24864/?a=f

The Slow Rise of the Robot Surgeon

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/24850/