Cure

Finding Cures For Tropical Diseases: Is Open Source An Answer?

There's aparadigm in life science and drug development : only "lucrative""markets" get exploited by R&D companies. In many occasions I'veseen very promising drugs candidates or related research get cannedbecause no money was to be made with it, even if millions would havebeen saved worldwide. The usual strategy to avoid this fate is to finda drug candid...

Potential Cure for Lymphoma in HIV patients

Stem cell transplants have become thestandard of care for patients with relapsed lymphoma, but not forpatients who suffer from both this disease and HIV. A new study showingthat this treatment is a viable option for select patients withHIV-associated lymphoma will be published in the January 15, 2005,issue of Blood, the official journal of the American Society ofHematology.Because of the i...

Gene Therapy Cures Inherited Liver Disease In Rats

A single dose of gene-virus combination cured rats of a inherited liver disease in which lack of a gene causes the accumulation of bilirubin –which, untreated, results in jaundice and brain damage, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in a report in the Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences. "This is the first time this disease (Crigler-Najjar syndrome) has been complete...

Promising new West Nile therapy cures disease in mice

West Nile virus alarmed Americans when it made its first U.S. appearance in New York City in 1999. It has since spread from coast to coast, sickened more than 16,000 Americans and killed more than 600. As the virus spread, medical investigators hastened research to develop an effective vaccine or therapy. None currently exist, but a newly published paper by researchers at Washington University in...

Secret of smallpox's success may lead to bioterror cure

In disease, as in war, offensive strategies can become weaknesses, if the defenders see the enemy coming and compensate for its weapons. By manipulating what is perhaps the most devastating trick in cellular weaponry of pox viruses like smallpox, Arizona State University virologist and Biodesign Institute researcher Bertram Jacobs believes that he can turn the biochemical machinery of the...

Gene therapy cures inherited liver disease in rats

A single dose of gene-virus combination cured rats of a inherited liver disease in which lack of a gene causes the accumulation of bilirubin –which, untreated, results in jaundice and brain damage, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in a report in the Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences. "This is the first time this disease (Crigler-Najjar syndrome) has been complet...

Precise Timing Enabled Pig-to-rat Transplants To Cure Diabetes

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have learned that a temporal "window of opportunity" was critical to their earlier successes in treating diabetic rats with embryonic pig tissues. In those experiments, published in 2004, researchers were surprised to find that they didn't have to give anti-rejection drugs to diabetic rats treated with embryonic pig cell...

Searching the depths of the straits of Florida for disease cures

On Monday, the Harbor Branch drug discovery group will begin a 2-week expedition to explore the Straits of Florida in search of organisms that produce chemicals with the potential to cure diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's. The work will include the first submersible exploration of the remote Cay Sal Bank, which encompasses a number of small, uninhabited islands 30 miles north of Cuba. Cay S...

Bad aftertaste? New sensory on/off switch may 'cure' bane of artificial sweetener search

Chemistry and biology researchers at Virginia Tech have enhanced the abilities of the molecules they are creating to deliver killing blows to cancer cells. The man-made molecular complexes enter cancer cells and, when signaled, deliver killing medicine or cause the cell to change. The new supermolecules have more units that will absorb light - providing more control over the range of light freque...

Can two killers make a cure?

Regulators in the US could soon be asked to approve a human trial of gene therapy for cystic fibrosis that uses a hybrid of the HIV and Ebola viruses. Tests on monkeys show the hybrid virus delivers genes to the lungs far more efficiently than any other method developed so far. And while the idea of combining two killer viruses sounds horrifying, the risks should be low. Despite much effor...

Huntington's cure in flies lays groundwork for broader treatment approaches

Boosting levels of two critical proteins that normally shut down during Huntington's disease, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have cured fruit flies of the genetic, neurodegenerative condition. The study results,...

'Cookbook recipes' would cure disease with nontoxic DNA delivery systems

Scientists studying the structure and interaction of negatively charged lipids and DNA molecules have created a "cookbook" for a class of nontoxic DNA delivery systems that will assist doctors and clinicians in the safe and effective delivery of genetic medicine. As reported in the Aug. 9 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers have now performed a careful...

New antibody shows promise as cure for anthrax

A new anthrax antibody engineered by scientists at The University of Texas at Austin protects and defends against inhalation anthrax without the use of antibiotics and other more expensive antibodies. The high-affinity antibody, an anthrax antitoxin, successfully eliminated both anthrax bacteria and its deadly toxins in animal tests. If future tests concur, this could be the first successf...

From one cell, many possible cures

A single cell with the potential to repair damaged heart muscle tissue . . . regenerate injured bone . . . create new cartilage or skin . . . even reverse nerve damage. Human stem cells offer tremendous hope for the development of revolutionary medical treatments for these and a variety of other human health problems. Up until now, however, stem cell research has been slowed by ethical con...

Cure for cancer worth $50 trillion

A new study, to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Political Economy, calculates the prospective gains that could be obtained from further progress against major diseases. Kevin M. Murphy and Robert H. Topel, two University of Chicago researchers, estimate that even modest advancements against major diseases would have a significant impact ?a 1 percent reduction in mortality fr...

World first research to speed up cure for ear infections

Fast tracking the healing process for common ear infections will be the focus of ground-breaking research by WA's Lions Ear and Hearing Institute (LEHI). According to the Wo...

St. Jude projects 90 percent cure rate for ALL

The cure rate for the once almost universally fatal childhood cancer acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) could reach 90 percent in the near future, thanks to improvements in diagnosis and treatment over the past four decades, according to investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Almost 4,000 cases of ALL are diagnosed in the United States each year, about two-thirds of which are in...

Pennsylvania researchers find liver transplants provide metabolic cure for rare genetic disease

Liver transplants cured the metabolic symptoms of 11 patients with a rare but devastating genetic condition known as Maple Syrup Urine Disease (MSUD), according to a study by researchers from Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and the Clinic for Special Children. All patients from the study (ranging in age from 1-20) are alive and well with normal liver function, according to the researcher...

New stem-cell findings can help the body to cure itself

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have identified an important mechanism that regulates how many new cells are produced by each intestinal stem cell. The study is published in the latest issue of the prestigious scientific journal, Cell. "This might eventually help us develop new drugs for things like neurological disorders and anaemia," says Professor Jonas Frisén. In most organs of th...

Quantum dots reviewed -- Could these nanoparticles hold the cure to cancer?

The worlds of medical and biological research are abuzz with the promises offered by nanoparticles known as semiconductor quantum dots. These Quantum Dots (QDs) have unique optical and electronic properties that make them suitable for breakthrough treatments such as the detection and destruction of cancer cells. Just released on the nanotechnology website AZoNano, is a comprehensive r...

Sea urchin genome suprisingly similar to man and may hold key to cures

Sea urchins are small and spiny, they have no eyes and they eat kelp and algae. Still, the sea creature’s genome is remarkably similar to humans?and may hold the key to preventing and curing several human diseases, according to a University of Central Florida researcher and several colleagues. UCF Professor Cristina Calestani was part of the Sea Urchin Genome Sequencing Group, which recent...

QUT scientists on the way to sifting out a cure for HIV

HIV may one day be able to be filtered from human blood saving the lives of millions of people, thanks to a world-first innovation by Queensland University of Technology scientists. Associate Professor Hu...

Surgeons develop simpler way to cure atrial fibrillation

Physicians have an effective new option for treating atrial fibrillation, a common irregular heart rhythm that can cause stroke. Heart surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed and tested a device that radically shortens and simplifies a complex surgical procedure that has had the best long-term cure rate for persistent atrial fibrillation. The simpli...

Radiation therapy combo cures prostate cancer long-term

Seventy-four percent of men treated with a combination of radiation seed implants and external beam radiation therapy for prostate cancer are cured of their disease 15 years following their treatment, according to a study released today in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, the official journal of ASTRO. This study was conducted by the physicians at the Seattl...

Cure for cancer one step closer

The cure for cancer is one step closer this week with the first collections of cancer tissue taking place at the new Wesley Research Institute Tissue Bank. The Tissue Bank is the first of its kind in Queensland to provide a widely available and diversified collection of ethically consented and clinically annotated tissue, helping to unravel the cause, progression and potential treatment fo...