dose

Gene variations explain drug dose required to control seizures

Determining which variants of particular genes patients with epilepsy carry might enable doctors to better predict the dose of drugs necessary to control their seizures, suggest basic findings by researchers at the Duke University Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP) and the University College London. Patients often undergo a lengthy process of trial and error to find the dose of ant...

Second messenger NAADP shows fast, dose-related impact on satiety cycle

One traditional approach to pharmaceutical design uses so-called "first messengers" ?hormones, other natural facilitators or synthetic products ?to initiate various cellular cascades for the desired physiological effect. To date, despite concerted efforts at all levels of research, this approach has failed to develop a truly successful obesity drug to address this major global health problem....

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...

Sensors, a smart dose of medicine for cancer treatment

The INVORAD project developed systems for real-time radiation monitoring for patient dosimetry in Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT). IMRT is a radiation therapy for cancers that improves clinical outcomes by more accurately targeting tumours and minimising the amount of radiation absorbed by healthy tissue. The result is that patients only receive a high radiation dose where they nee...

Hyena mothers give their cubs a helpful dose of hormones

Scientists have discovered that a dominant hyena puts her cubs on the road to success before they are born by passing on high levels of certain hormones that make her budding young leaders more aggressive and sexually advanced. The report, published in the April 27 issue of Nature, is the first study in mammals to demonstrate a relationship between a female's social rank and her ability to...

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...

One therapeutic dose of radiation causes 30 percent spongy bone loss in mice

Mice receiving just one therapeutic dose of radiation lost up to 39% of the spongy portion of their inner bone, reducing the inner bone's weight bearing connections by up to 64%, researchers reported. The study, which appears in the online edition of the Journal of Applied Physiology, has implications for patients receiving radiation therapy and astronauts traveling on long space flights. <p...

H9N2 avian flu vaccine paired with adjuvant provokes strong human immune response at low doses

When combined with an immune-boosting substance called an adjuvant, low doses of an experimental vaccine against a strain of avian influenza (H9N2) provoked a strong antibody response in human volunteers, report scientists supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. The clinical trial of 96 adults was conducted...

Adolescent but not adult hamsters are more aggressive on low dose of fluoxetine

New research offers tantalizing clues as to why some teenagers taking common anti-depressants may become more aggressive or kill themselves. The research is published in the October Behavioral Neuroscience, which is published by the American Psychological Association (APA). Neuroscientists at the University of Texas at Austin found that juvenile hamsters given low doses of fluoxetine hydr...

High-dose anticlotting drug cuts heart attack, death risk in half

Pretreatment with double-dose anticlotting medication just before percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) cuts the combined risk of heart attack and cardiac death by half, 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. Researchers found that giving patients at leas...

Common treatment for methamphetamine overdose may damage brain cells

The findings, derived from experiments with rats, indicate that only the combination of the medication, haloperidol, and methamphetamine causes the destructive effects, not either one alone. Senior author Bryan Y...