A newly designed system of identifying molecules for treating hepatitis C should enable scientists to discover novel and effective therapies for the dangerous and difficult-to-cure disease of the liver, says Zhilei Chen, a Texas A&M University assistant professor of chemical engineering who helped develop the screening system. The system, Chen explains, enables researchers to study… Continue reading
Category: Health News
HPV Vaccine for the boys
The FDA has approved the vaccine Gardasil to help prevent genital warts in boys and young men. Gardasil is now approved for males ages 9 to 26 for the prevention of genital warts caused by two human papillomavirus (HPV) strains: HPV 6 and HPV 11.Those are two of the four HPV strains that Gardasil targets.… Continue reading
Access in Canadian public hospitals to private drugs
Governments are under increasing pressure to provide access to expensive new drugs. Canadian patients who want access to drugs that are not publicly insured are seeking to pay for these drugs within public hospitals, states an article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) This analysis by Colleen M. Flood, Canada Research Chair in Health Law… Continue reading
First image with help of cryo-electron tomography of pathogens, causing borreliosis
Tiny details in three dimensions They are borne by ticks and can cause acute and chronic symptoms in joints, muscles and the nervous system – the bacteria that cause Lyme borreliosis, which 80,000 people in Germany contract every year. Heidelberg researchers have now succeeded in identifying their structure more accurately. Using a cryo-tomography microscope, the… Continue reading
Scientists find new way to find how enzymes repair DNA damage
Researchers at Ohio State University have found a new way to study how enzymes move as they repair DNA sun damage — and that discovery could one day lead to new therapies for healing sunburned skin. Ultraviolet (UV) light damages skin by causing chemical bonds to form in the wrong places along the DNA molecules… Continue reading
New in childhood vaccines
H1N1 swine flu shots, a meningitis booster, and a genital warts vaccine for boys are the big changes to the 2010 childhood vaccination schedule. The changes were recommended by a CDC advisory panel last October. Now approval of the changes by the American Academy of Pediatrics makes the new guidelines official. The biggest change is the… Continue reading
Alcohol dependence are causing from stress hormone
A team of scientists from The Scripps Research Institute has found that a specific stress hormone, the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), is key to the development and maintenance of alcohol dependence in animal models. Chemically blocking the stress factor also blocked the signs and symptoms of addiction, suggesting a potentially promising area for future drug development.… Continue reading
Weak bones can be inherit from grandparents
The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, shows that hip fractures in grandfathers are linked to low bone density and reduced bone size in their grandsons. “This is the first time this risk factor for low bone mass has been demonstrated across two generations,” says associate professor Mattias Lorentzon, who led… Continue reading