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FDA Approves Human Hookworm Vaccine for Phase I Safety Trials

As any dedicated video game player knows, the first requireme...

Biologists discover why 10% of Europeans are safe from HIV

Biologists at the University of Liverpool have discovered how the plagues of the Middle Ages have made around 10% of Europeans resistant to HIV. Scientists have known for some time that these individuals carry a genetic mutation (known as CCR5-delta32) that prevents the virus from entering the cells of the immune system but have been unable to account for the high levels of the gene in Scandinavi...

Study Finds Moderate Hypothermia A Safe Treatment For Traumatic Brain Injury In Kids

A first-of-its-kind multi-center trial has shown that cooling the body can have positive affects on children who suffered traumatic brain injury. The study's lead investigator, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh neurosurgeon P. David Adelson, MD, and fellow researchers determined that induced moderate hypothermia initiated after severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a safe therapeutic inte...

Novel compounds show promise as safer, more potent insecticides

Research teams at Nihon Nohyaku Co., Ltd., Bayer CropScience and DuPont have developed two new classes of broad-spectrum insecticides that show promise as a safer and more effective way to fight pest insects that damage food crops. The insecticides, which represent the first synthetic compounds designed to activate a novel insecticide target called the ryanodine receptor, may also help tackle the...

Fragment of yellow fever virus may hold key to safer vaccine

In one of the first molecular studies of the human antibody response to yellow fever, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers and their colleagues have found the crucial bit of virus that people's immune systems need to spot and quash this often-fatal re-emerging disease. The findings may help scientists improve the existing vaccine, which has rare but severe side effects, said...

High-dose flu vaccines appear to safely boost immunity in elderly

High-dose influenza vaccines may increase elderly patients' immune response without significant adverse effects, offering this vulnerable population additional protection against the flu, according to an article in the May 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Vaccines containing inactivated influenza virus have been available for 50 years to prevent...

New Lab Research May Help Those Deafened By Immune System Attack

Our immune system protects us from disease, destroying invading microbes with a swarm of attacking cells. But it can also go haywire for no apparent reason, ganging up on normal tissues in our body and wreaking havoc. In thousands of people each year, the immune system attacks the inner ear, home to the tiny, delicate structures that allow us to hear. Without warning, in days or weeks, pat...

Aloe vera coating may prolong freshness, safety of fruits and vegetables

gel is best known for its therapeutic effect on burned or irritated skin, but in the future you could be eating the gel as a healthful additive to your fruits and veggies. Researchers in Spain say they have developed a gel from the tropical plant that can be used as an edible coating to prolong the quality and safety of fresh produce. The gel, which does not appear to affect fo...

Results of world's first gene therapy trial for arthritis show approach safe, feasible

Gene therapy for arthritis and other non-terminal, debilitating conditions and diseases is both feasible and safe, report researchers who conducted the world's first such test on the approach in patients with advanced rheumatoid arthritis. The results, published in this week's online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), indicate that introducing a new gene has th...

Researchers find Amchitka seafood safe for now

An independent consortium of university-based environmental scientists announced today the results from three 2004 expeditions to Amchitka Island in the western Aleutians to assess radionuclides in that marine environment. Three nuclear test shots were set off under Amchitka by the U.S. Government during a six-year period beginning in 1965. The study can be found at www.cresp.org Seafood S...

Zinc supplements safe for HIV-infected children

Zinc-deficient children living in communities where they do not receive adequate amounts of zinc from their diet should be given supplements, even if they are HIV-infected, according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and other institutions. Previously, it was not known if zinc would speed up HIV disease progression in children by increasing their viral...

Stem cells' electric abilities might help their safe clinical use

Researchers from Johns Hopkins have discovered the presence of functional ion channels in human embryonic stem cells (ESCs). These ion channels act like electrical wires and permit ESCs, versatile cells that possess the unique ability to become all cell types of the body, to conduct and pass along electric currents. If researchers could selectively block some of these channels in implanted...

Effective, safe anthrax vaccine can be grown in tobacco plants

Enough anthrax vaccine to inoculate everyone in the United States could be grown inexpensively and safely with only one acre of tobacco plants, a University of Central Florida molecular biologist has found. Mice immunized with a vaccine produced in UCF professor Henry Daniell's laboratory through the genetic engineering of tobacco plants survived lethal doses of anthrax administered later...

Feds give researchers ok for safety test of adult stem cells in patients with heart disease

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals of Cleveland announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved plans to begin a study to evaluate the safety of using adult stem cells from bone marrow to treat chronic ischemia, a serious form of heart disease. The FDA has approved a Phase I study designed to test the safety of the...

Study shows combination of immune substances to be safe

New research has shown that the immune-stimulating hormone known as interleukin-12 (IL-12) can safely be administered with interferon, another immune-system protein, as an experimental therapy for some cancers. Normally, interferon is used alone to stimulate the immune system to attack certain cancers. This strategy, a form of immunotherapy, is sometimes used to treat melanoma, advanced k...

MicroRNA may have fail-safe role in limb development

A tiny strand of molecules plays a role in how our arms and legs develop and grow - a finding that sheds light on perplexing bits of material once dismissed as genetic "junk," say scientists at the University of Florida and Harvard University. The research, available today in the online edition of Nature, may help scientists understand whether bits of RNA called microRNAs act as protective...

Human trial proves ricin vaccine safe, induces neutralizing antibodies; further tests planned

Scientists have completed the first human clinical trial of a recombinant vaccine for the deadly toxin ricin ?a potential bioterror threat ?and the results indicate the vaccine is safe and effective in eliciting ricin-neutralizing antibodies, the UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report. The nearly year-long pilot study involved three groups of five volunteers each. Individuals in...

Flesh-eating bacteria escape body's safety net

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have discovered that so-called flesh-eating "Strep" bacteria use a specific enzyme to break free of the body's immune system, a finding which could potentially lead to new treatments for serious infections in human patients. The research, reported in the February 21, 2006 issue of the journal Current Biology,...

Plant-derived vaccines safeguard against deadly plague

Through an innovative feat of plant biotechnology and vaccine design, researchers in the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University have successfully turned tobacco plants into vaccine production factories to combat the deadliest form of plague. The vaccine elicits a protective immune response in guinea pigs. The results are considered to be a milestone in the future development of a new vac...

Magnetism and mimicry of nature hold hope for better medicine, environmental safety

Critical advances in medicine and environmental protection promise to emerge from a new method for biochemical analysis of fluids developed by an international science team led in part by Arizona State University researchers. Called "digital magnetofluidics," it promises more rapid, more accurate and less costly analyses of water and biological fluids ?blood, urine, saliva ?that require o...

Experimental RNA-based drug kills prostate cancer cells effectively and safely

Acting as a genetic Trojan horse, an experimental RNA-based drug -- the first of its kind -- tricks its way into prostate cancer cells and then springs into action to destroy them, while leaving normal cells unarmed. The drug, developed at Duke University Medical Center, uses one type of genetic material, called targeting RNA, to enter cancer cells, and another type, called silencing RNA,...

Ultra low-dose estrogen shown safe for post-menopausal women

A study led by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center has shown that extremely low doses of estrogen had no ill effects on the cognitive abilities or general health of older women over the course of two years. "This is exciting. It shows that women can take estrogen safely," observes lead author Kristine Yaffe, MD, chief of geriatric psychiatry at SFVAMC and associate professo...

Plants tell caterpillars when it's safe to forage

The world is filled with cues that could influence the daily feeding patterns of an organism. Many plants, for example, respond to foraging damage by releasing specialized chemical signals - volatile organic compounds that evaporate in the air - that attract the forager's natural enemies. This strategy is obviously no use against a cow, but proves effective when the offender is a caterpillar and...

Microbes transform 'safest' PBDEs into more harmful compounds

Bacteria in the soil can transform the most commonly used flame retardant compound in the United States into more toxic forms that could be harmful to humans, according to a new laboratory study published today on the Web site of the American Chemical Society journal, <...

How the US drug safety system should be changed

As Strom writes, "the net effect of [the current system] is that the public misunderstands drug safety, believing that a drug is safe at the time of marketing, while [adverse] events occurring as frequently as 1 in 1000 are predictably undetected." In the May 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, Brian L. Strom, MD, MPH, Professor of Public Health and Preventive Medic...

Fake pesticides threaten food safety

More than one in 20 pesticides sold in the EU could be fake, potentially endangering food safety and human health, writes Cath O'Driscoll in Chemistry & Industry, the magazine of the SCI. These counterfeits range from sophisticated copies of patented products to low-quality fakes with little or no resemblance to the original. And it is a problem that is getting worse every year, accord...

Performing surgery on a beating heart may be safer

According to a review of the latest clinical trials, coronary artery bypass surgery performed on a beating heart, without the aid of a heart-lung machine, is a safe option that leads to fewer negative side effects for bypass patients. This review is featured in Journal of Cardiac Surgery. “Previously, it was more common for doctors to perform artery bypass surgery on the heart by stopping...

New fMRI technology making brain tumor surgery safer

Brain specialists at The Neuroscience Institute at University Hospital and the University of Cincinnati have taken a significant step forward in their quest to treat difficult tumors while preserving areas of the brain that are responsible for speech and movement. The Cincinnati specialists are among the first in the country to use new technology that integrates functional MRI (fMRI) data into h...

Leukemic cells find safe haven in bone marrow

The cancer drug asparaginase fails to help cure some children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) because molecules released by certain cells in the bone marrow counteract the effect of that drug, according to investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The researchers showed that mesenchymal cells in the bone marrow create a protective niche for leukemic cells by releasin...

Natural polyester makes new sutures stronger, safer

With the help of a new type of suture based on MIT research, patients who get stitches may never need to have them removed. A biopolymer suture cleared last month by the FDA is made of materials that the human body produces naturally, so they can be safely absorbed once the wound is healed. They are also 30 percent stronger than sutures now used and very flexible, making them easier for su...

Study finds surfing safer than soccer

While public perception may frame surfing as a dangerous sport, new research begs to differ. In the first study of its kind, researchers have computed the rate of injury among competitive surfers and found they are less prone to harm than collegiate soccer or basketball players. Led by researchers at Rhode Island Hospital and Brown Medical School, the findings of the study are published in the Ja...

Percutaneous aortic valve replacement safe, successful in high-risk patients

Catheter techniques are expanding into new territory, successfully aiding in the replacement of narrowed, calcified aortic valves in patients too sick to withstand open-chest surgery. According to a study reported at the 30th Annual Scientific Sessions of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), May 9?2, 2007, in Orlando, FL, patients who were treated with the CoreValv...

Gene therapy study shows safety and statistically significant improvement in Parkinson's disease

The open label Phase 1 study, conducted in 12 patients with adv...