Using probiotics successfully against a number of animal diseases has helped scientists from University College Cork, Ireland to understand some of the ways in which they work, which could lead to them using probiotics to prevent and even to treat human diseases.
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In a new study, a therapeutic agent called sorafenib dramatically improved the condition of rats with portal hypertension. The drug is already approved in several countries for treatment of kidney and liver cancer, and it may be time to consider it for patients suffering from advanced portal hypertension, the authors suggest.
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Docosahexanoic acid (DHA), an omega-3 fatty acid found in fish oils, has been shown to reduce the size of tumours and enhance the positive effects of the chemotherapy drug cisplatin, while limiting its harmful side effects. The rat experiments, described in BioMed Central’s open access journal Cell Division, provide some support for the plethora of health benefits often ascribed to omega-3 acids. Professor A. M.
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Carbohydrates are part of our daily vocabulary. We all know they’re part of a healthy diet. We know they’re in breads and pastas. We know they have something to do with starches and sugars. But, even though carbohydrates are so familiar, there’s still a lot for science to learn about them. “Our knowledge of carbohydrates is still in its infancy,” said Nikki Pohl, an Iowa State University associate professor of chemistry.
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Cranial radiation therapy to treat brain cancer can result in various long-term neurological side effects, particularly in children. Lithium has protective properties in the brain that make it a potential therapy for reducing these side effects; however, little is known about the mechanisms by which it protects nerves.
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Research led by scientists in Sweden found that our heart muscle cells are renewed over our lifetime and we are not limited to those we are born with. They believe the discovery opens a door to treatments that could replace damaged heart tissue with new cells. The study was the work of Professor Jonas Frisén of the Karolinska Institutet, in Stockholm, Sweden, and colleagues and is published online in the 3 April issue of Science.
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Following the launches of the xCELLigence RTCA SP Instrument and the RTCA MP Instrument last year, Roche Applied Science has now completed its xCELLigence Real-Time Cell Analyzer product line with its newest model, the RTCA DP Instrument. The xCELLigence system measures impedance-based signals both in label-free cellular analysis and in cell invasion/migration assays.
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Chimerix, Inc., a biotechnology company developing orally available antiviral therapeutics, announced that the Company has joined the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and its network of public-private partnerships to discover, develop and facilitate the delivery of new, effective and affordable antimalarial drugs.
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Transgenomic, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: TBIO). In a peer-reviewed paper published in the February 2009 issue of the journal Human Mutation, a team at Weill Cornell Medical College New York describes in detail the key advantages of using Transgenomic’s Surveyor Nuclease technology for mutation scanning of PKD1 and PKD2, two important genes used in the diagnosis and prognosis of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD).
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Intercell AG (VSE: ICLL) announced that its new vaccine to prevent Japanese Encephalitis, IXIARO(R), has been approved by the European Commission. The approval by the European Union, the first for a vaccine to prevent the disease, provides formal market authorization in all 27 member states as well as Norway and Iceland.
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