ESU

Gene vaccine for Alzheimer's disease shows promising results

UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallasresearchers have found a way of stimulating the immune systems of miceto fight against amyloid proteins that cause the devastating plaquesthat are characteristic of Alzheimer's disease.For years scientists have examined the possibility of using aprotein-based vaccine to slow the progression of the disease in itsearly stages. UT Southwestern researcher...

Roche clinical trial registry and results database launched

Within only three months after deciding to create an electronic database, Roche is launching a public clinical trial registry and results database using an independent host, CenterWatch. On www.roche-trials.com information on Roche’s clinical trials can be accessed by anyone, anywhere, with no password restrictions. This site is designed to give patients and healthcare providers ready access to i...

Rhesus monkeys can assess the visual perspective of others when competing for food

Researchers Jonathan Flombaum and Dr. Laurie Santos, both from Yale University, have found that rhesus monkeys consider whether a competitor can or cannot see them when trying to steal food. Working with semi-free-ranging rhesus monkeys on the island of Cayo Santiago in Puerto Rico, Flombaum and Santos set up a food competition game: Lone monkeys were approached by two human "competitors....

Diabetic nerve therapy shows 'striking' results

Research into a new treatment for nerve damage caused by diabetes could bring relief to millions of diabetic patients, say experts. The treatment might also reduce the number of amputations of toes and feet if early effects on nerve protection and regeneration are borne out long-term. Nerve disease in diabetes is the major cause of non-traumatic lower limb amputations in Europe and North...

Newly recognized gene mutation may reduce seeds, resurrect plants

A mutated plant that seems to return from the dead may hold the secret to how some flora protect their progeny during yield-limiting drought and other stresses, according to Purdue University scientists whose study of the plant led to discovery of a gene. The gene, called RESURRECTION1 (RST1), has revealed a previously unknown genetic connection between lipid development and embryo develop...

Neurologix announces positive results of gene therapy clinical trial in Parkinson's disease

Investigators report safety findings and statistically significant improvements in clinical measures of movement, PET Scans at 19th Annual Symposia on the Etiology, Pathogenesis and Treatment of Parkinson's Disease and Other Movement DisordersNeurologix's Phase I trial showed positive interim results in patients with Parkinson's disease. One year following treatment, patients exhibited a statist...

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...

New results validating Pall prion reduction filter disclosed at ISBT Congress

Safety in transfusion medicine is an ongoing challenge to blood services worldwide as new threats, such as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), emerge. An update on the latest measures to protect the public from the human form of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), commonly called Mad Cow Disease, and minimize risk of transmission through blood transfusion was presented here at the Inter...

Most embryos produced during IVF do not result in live births

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have found that 85 percent of embryos transferred during in vitro fertilization fail to become live births, highlighting the need for improving diagnostic techniques to identify viable embryos. Published in the August issue of Fertility and Sterility, the study reviewed seven years of U.S. statistics from all the fertility clinics that report data on...

New amphibian species result from exploration, not from rule changes

Researchers have discovered amphibian species at an accelerating rate in recent decades, with over 1,000 new ones recognized between 1992 and 2003. At the same time, amphibians are, for reasons not entirely clear, declining more rapidly than either mammals or birds, underscoring the importance of an accurate evaluation. An analysis published in the August 2005 issue of BioScience, the mont...

Genetic and environmental influences on alcohol consumption among rhesus monkeys

There is little doubt that alcohol-related disorders in humans are genetically based. The influence of environmental factors, however, remains unclear. Given that studies of humans are complicated by a multitude of cultural and day-to-day-living factors, researchers in the March issue of use rhesus monkeys to examine genetic and environmen...

Tramiprosate (Alzhemed? preclinical results published in Neurobiology of Aging

Neurochem Inc. (NASDAQ: NRMX; TSX: NRM) is pleased to announce that Neurobiology of Aging, one of the world's leading peer-reviewed medical journals in the fields of gerontology and neuroscience, has published an online version of a publication on the preclinical development of tramiprosate (3-amino-1-propanesulfonic acid; Alzhemed?, including efficacy results in a mouse model of brain amyloidosi...

Combating anthrax: Results of study published this month as researchers look for a better vaccine

A new study published this month by a Saint Louis University vaccine researcher scrutinizes what in the future could be an alternative to the presently available anthrax vaccine. In its first human testing, the vaccine was given to...

Results with newer bladeless LASIK equivalent to standard microkeratome LASIK

A Mayo Clinic study comparing femtosecond (bladeless) and mechanical microkeratome LASIK surgeries has found equal results from both types six months post-surgery, using a variety of vision and eye health measurements. The study's findings will be presented next week in three abstracts at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. LASIK (Lase...

Combination therapy shows promising results in patients with advanced lung cancer

An early phase study pairing an experimental targeted therapy with a common anti-inflammatory produced promising results in patients with advanced lung cancer, researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center reported. Pairing the targeted therapy Tarceva with the anti-inflammatory drug Celebrex increased response rates in lung cancer patients by about three-fold, said Dr. Karen Reckamp, an as...

Scientists resuscitate a 5 million-year-old retrovirus

A team of scientists has reconstructed the DNA sequence of a 5-million-year-old retrovirus and shown that it is able to produce infectious particles. The retrovirus--named Phoenix--is the ancestor of a large family of mobile DNA elements, some of which may play a role in cancer. The study, which is the first to generate an infectious retrovirus from a mobile element in the human genome, is cons...

Rhesus monkeys in Nepal may provide new alternative for HIV/AIDS research

Scientists investigating the genetic makeup of rhesus macaque monkeys, a key species used in biomedical research, have found the rhesus in Nepal may provide a suitable alternative to alleviate a critical shortage of laboratory animals used in work to develop vaccines against diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Writing in the cover story of the current issue of the American Journal of Primatology,...

Highly concentrated botulinum preparation for cosmetic injections can result in severe illness

An examination of 4 cases of botulism following cosmetic injections to the face indicates that the adults received a highly concentrated, unlicensed preparation that resulted in toxin levels up to 40 times the estimated human lethal dose, according to a report in the November 22/29 issue of JAMA. Botulism is a rare paralytic illness caused by the toxins of the spore-forming bacterium Clos...

Vaccine for brain tumors shows promising results

A vaccine for treating a recurrent cancer of the central nervous system that occurs primarily in the brain, known as glioma, has shown promising results in preliminary data from a clinical trial at UCSF Medical Center. Findings from the first group of six patients in the study, being conducted at the UCSF Brain Tumor Research Center, showed that vitespen (trademarked as Oncophage), a vacci...

Artificial cornea offers better results for infants, some blind patients

Infants and adults who are blind due to a cloudy or damaged cornea are seeing some remarkable results thanks to a new version of an artificial implant that takes the place of the cornea, the clear covering of the eye that serves as our window on the world. The results of operations involving the first infants and children in the world to receive the device, performed by physicians at the U...

Encouraging results in pancreatic cancer research

Researchers at SUNY Downstate Medical Center and the Brooklyn VA Hospital have found that when a human protein, PNC-28, is administered to pancreatic tumor cells in animals, the tumors are destroyed. The research was reported in the October 1st edition of the International Journal of Cancer. Matthew R. Pincus, MD, PhD, professor of pathology at SUNY Downstate and chairman of pathology and...

'The eyes have it' -- Autism research yields surprising results

Autistic children are able to interpret the mental state of others by looking at their eyes, contrary to previous research, a new University of Nottingham study has found. In findings that contradict previous studies, psychologists found that autistic children can ‘read?a stranger’s mental state based on that person’s eyes. Autistic children have long been thought to be poor at interpretin...

Procedure predicts embryos most likely to result in pregnancy

To address the high rate of multiple births resulting from in-vitro-fertilization (IVF), researchers at Yale School of Medicine and McGill University have developed a procedure that estimates the reproductive potential of individual embryos, possibly leading to a decrease in multiple-infant births and a higher success rate in women undergoing IVF. Over 100,000 in-vitro fertilization proced...

UCSF brain tumor vaccine trial shows promising results

A vaccine for treating a recurrent cancer of the central nervous system that occurs primarily in the brain has shown promise in preliminary data from a clinical trial at the University of California, San Francisco. Known as a glioma, this cancerous tumor is always fatal. Findings from a group of 12 study patients showed that vitespen vaccination (trademarked as Oncophage) was effective...

Analysis of rhesus monkey genome uncovers genetic differences with humans, chimps

An international consortium of researchers has published the genome sequence of the rhesus macaque monkey and aligned it with the chimpanzee and human genomes. Published April 13 in a special section of the journal Science, the analysis reveals that the three primate species share about 93 percent of their DNA, yet have some significant differences among their genes. In its paper, the Rhes...

How fish species suffer as a result of warmer waters

Ongoing global climate change causes changes in the species composition of marine ecosystems, especially in shallow coastal oceans. This applies also to fish populations. Previous studies demonstrating a link between global warming and declining fish stocks were based entirely on statistical data. However, in order to estimate future changes, it is essential to develop a deeper understanding of t...