Trial

FDA Approves Human Hookworm Vaccine for Phase I Safety Trials

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

NIAID Initiates Trial of Experimental Avian Flu Vaccine

Fast-track recruitment has begun for a trial to investigate the safety of a vaccine against H5N1 avian influenza, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced today. Sites in Rochester, NY, Baltimore and Los Angeles will enroll a total of 450 healthy adults. The clinical sites are part of the NIAID-sponsored V...

International trial of two microbicides begins

A large, multisite trial designed to examine the safety and preliminary effectiveness of two candidate topical microbicides to prevent HIV infection has opened to volunteer enrollment. The trial, sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, represents a partnership among various research institutions in Africa and the U...

Bird Brains Show How Trial and Error May Contribute to Learning

The adult male zebra finch knows only one scratchy tune learned in its youth, which it performs repeatedly and intensely when females are listening. But occasionally, the finch might improvise, experimenting with a slower, more sultry variation or emphasizing different notes. Neurobiologists studying the finch now say the improvisation arises from a component of a crucial learning circuit...

Use of PET can reduce, may eliminate more strenuous drug development trials with animals

A number of articles explore the use of positron emission tomography (PET) and small animal imaging--nonsurgical techniques that open the door to understanding and treating human diseases--in the April issue of the Society of Nuclear Medicine's Journal of Nuclear Medicine. A major benefit of small animal imaging "is the ability to carry out many studies at various time points with the same...

HIV vaccine trial breaks ground for future research

The results of the world's first phase 3 HIV vaccine efficacy trial are reported in the March 1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online. Although the vaccine was ineffective in preventing HIV infection, the trial represents a landmark in the fight against HIV and offers the scientific community a foundation on which to build future trials. The multi-centered tria...

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...

NIAID begins clinical trial of West Nile virus vaccine

A small trial testing the safety of an experimental vaccine targeting West Nile virus (WNV) opened today at the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Clinical Center in Bethesda, MD. The vaccine, which will be tested first in 15 healthy adult volunteers, was developed for human clinical studies by researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' (NIAID) Vaccine Research C...

'EuroVacc 02' HIV Vaccine Trial Begins

Lausanne, Switzerland and London, United Kingdom, February 16, 2005 -- The European Vaccine Effort against HIV/AIDS today announced that a phase I clinical trial of novel investigational vaccines...

Moffitt-USF head toward first human trials of anti-cancer drug that targets protein AKT

H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, working in partnership with the University of South Florida (USF), has discovered a new use for an old, previously discredited anti-cancer drug that could add another weapon in the arsenal against several cancers, including tumors of the breast, ovary, colon, skin and prostate. The compound, tricirbine, was tested at various cancer cen...

Compound might defeat African sleeping sickness, clinical trial beginning this month

One of the most devastating diseases in sub-Saharan Africa almost disappeared in the late 1950s. That disease, African sleeping sickness, or trypanosomiasis, largely succumbed to heroic public health efforts -- including relocating entire villages. But in the past several decades, because of post-colonial turmoil, the catastrophic illness has come back to ravage parts of Angola, the Democratic Re...

Why were the HIV prevention trials in commercial sex workers abandoned?

One promising approach to help stem the global HIV epidemic is to give commercial sex workers an HIV medication (such as the drug tenofovir) before they have high risk sex in the hope of reducing their chances of becoming infected, an approach called "pre-exposure prophylaxis" (PREP). But activist groups, including Act Up-Paris have "halted the progress of at least two important clinical trials o...

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...

Industrial contaminants spread by seabirds in High Arctic, new Canadian study shows

Seabirds are the surprising culprits in delivering pollutants ?through their guano ?to seemingly pristine northern ecosystems, a new Canadian study shows. The most common form of wildlife in the Arctic, seabirds are responsible for transporting most of the human-made contaminants to some coastal ecosystems, the researchers found. "The effect is to elevate concentrations of pollutants such...

Visceral Leishmaniasis: Successful Vaccine Trial In Dogs

Visceral leishmaniasis, which is the most severe form of that group of diseases, affects 500 000 people in the world each year. It is caused by a protozoan, Leishmania infantum, transmitted by sand fly bites. There is no vaccine for this disease, which can rapidly lead to death if no treatment is given. In the most heavily affected areas, the dog population is hit heavily by infection. It acts as...

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...

PLoS Medicine publishes first trial of effect of male circumcision on HIV infection

The peer-reviewed results of the first trial of the effect of male circumcision on HIV infection, which some experts call "a landmark trial," will be published in Because HIV infection rates are generally lower among African groups...

Kenya halts first field trials of GM maize

Kenyan authorities began destroying the country's first genetically modified (GM) maize growing in open field trials. Wilson Songa, Kenya's agriculture secretary and chair of the Natio...

Stroke treatment a step closer after trial

A potential new treatment for stroke has taken a major step forward following promising results from the first clinical trial. The team, led by Professor Nancy Rothwell and Dr Pippa Tyrrell, have now reported the r...

Clinical trial to test stem cell approach for children with brain injury

A unique clinical trial will gauge the safety and potential of treating children suffering traumatic brain injury with stem cells derived from their own bone marrow starting early next year at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston and Memorial Hermann Children's Hospital. The clinical trial is the first to apply stem cells to treat traumatic brain injury. It does not involve...

New malaria vaccine shows promise in early clinical trial

A malaria vaccine remains the most desired tool to combat the worsening malaria epidemic in many developing countries. Pierre Druilhe and colleagues (from the Institut Pasteur in Paris) have completed the first human trial of a vaccine based on MSP3, a protein present on the surface of the malaria parasite, with very encouraging results. As the researchers report in the international ope...

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...

Ebola DNA vaccine produces immune responses in all fully vaccinated volunteers in Phase 1 trial

Vical Incorporated announced today that an Ebola vaccine candidate administered using Vical's proprietary DNA delivery technology was safe and well tolerated, and produced both antibody and T-cell Ebola-specific responses in all healthy volunteers who received the full 3 doses of vaccine. The Phase 1, randomized, placebo-controlled, dose-escalation study, the first human trial for any Ebol...

International HIV/AIDS trial finds continuous antiretroviral therapy superior to episodic therapy

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today announced that enrollment into a large international HIV/AIDS trial comparing continuous antiretroviral therapy with episodic drug treatment guided by levels of CD4+ cells has been stopped. Enrollment was stopped because those patients receiving episodic therapy had twice the...

Trial success for diabetic nerve therapy

A potentially ground-breaking treatment for nerve damage caused by diabetes has shown promising results in preclinical and early patient trials. The positive preclinical re...

First human trial of antibacterial contact lens

Biotechnology company Biosignal Ltd and the Institute for Eye Research have received ethics approval for the first human clinical trial of an antibacterial extended-wear contact lens. The trial beginning on June 29 will...

Fatty spheres loaded with siRNA shrink ovarian cancer tumors in preclinical trial

A molecular "off" switch packaged in a tiny sphere penetrates deeply into ovarian cancer tumor cells, stifling a troublesome protein and drastically reducing the size of tumors, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the Aug. 15 edition of Clinical Cancer Research. The mouse model experiment, featured on the cover of the journal, demonstrates a poten...

Trials for new drug to overcome HIV

A new drug that could help overcome HIV�fs growing resistance to existing antiviral drugs is about to be tested in combination with standard antivirals. Called PA-457, it is the first of a new class of anti-HIV compounds called maturation inhibitors. The drug is still in its early stages, and will not be generally available for at least three years. Up to 80 per cent of HIV positive people...

A silent pandemic: Industrial chemicals are impairing the brain development of children worldwide

Fetal and early childhood exposures to industrial chemicals in the environment can damage the developing brain and can lead to neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs)--autism, attention deficit disorder (ADHD), and mental retardation. Still, there has been insufficient research done to identify the individual chemicals that can cause injury to the developing brains of children. In a new revie...

NIH announces phase III clinical trial of creatine for Parkinson's disease

The NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) today is launching a large-scale clinical trial to learn if the nutritional supplement creatine can slow the progression of Parkinson's disease (PD). While creatine is not an approved therapy for PD or any other condition, it is widely thought to improve exercise performance. The potential benefit of creatine for PD was ide...

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...

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...

NIAID DNA vaccine for H5N1 avian influenza enters human trial

The first human trial of a DNA vaccine designed to prevent H5N1 avian influenza infection began on December 21, 2006, when the vaccine was administered to the first volunteer at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center in Bethesda, MD. Scientists from the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the NIH Institutes, d...

30+ AIDS vaccine clinical trials in 24 countries, research occurring on every continent

The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative's (IAVI) January 2007 Annual Issue of VAX, an editorially independent bulletin on AIDS vaccine research published by IAVI, reports that 13 new preventive AIDS vaccine trials were initiated in eight countries around the world in 2006. There are now more than 30 trials ongoing in 24 countries, across every continent. This annual publication provides...

First clinical trial of gene therapy for childhood blindness

The first clinical trial to test a revolutionary treatment for blindness in children has been announced by researchers at UCL (University College London). The trial, funded by the Department of Health, is the first of its kind and could have a significant impact on future treatments for eye disease. The trial involves adults and children who have a condition called Leber’s congenital ama...