Burn treatment cream may delay healing

A cream commonly used to treat burns may actually delay healing. In addition, despite the wide range of wound dressings available for burns, there is no consensus on the most effective alternative treatment, say Cochrane Researchers who carried out a systematic review of existing data.

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Researchers have discovered on-off switch behind several major diseases?

In the advance online edition of Nature Medicine, scientists from Sainte-Justine Hospital Research Center, the Universit de Montral and the Institut national de la sant et de la recherche mdicale (INSERM) in France report how the GPR91 receptor contributes to activate unchecked vascular growth that causes vision loss in common blinding diseases. These findings could also have wide-ranging and positive implications for brain tissue regeneration.

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Newly identified cells increase number of fat cells

To understand where fat comes from, you have to start with a skinny mouse. By using such a creature, and observing the growth of fat after injections of different kinds of immature cells, scientists at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Rockefeller University have discovered an important fat precursor cell that may in time explain how changes in the numbers of fat cells might increase and lead to obesity. The finding, published online in this week’s issue of the journal Cell, could also have implications for understanding how fat cells affect conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

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Combined minimally invasive procedures offer new option for lumbar degenerative scoliosis

Surgeons at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Institute for Spinal Disorders have combined three innovative minimally invasive spine surgery procedures to treat spinal curvature in adults, a common consequence of aging. An article in the October issue of the Journal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques is believed to be the first to document the use of these procedures in combination to correct this condition, known as adult lumbar degenerative scoliosis.

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Sirtuin therapeutics for diseases of aging in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery

Sirtris, a GSK company focused on discovering and developing small molecule drugs to treat diseases of aging such as Type 2 Diabetes, announced today that it published a new review article on the growing body of sirtuin research and its potential to treat diseases of aging such as Type 2 Diabetes, mitochondrial disorders, inflammation, cancer, and heart disease. Entitled “SIRTUINS Novel Therapeutic Targets to Treat Age-Associated Diseases,” the review appears in today’s issue of the journal Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.

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Disease diagnosis in just 15 minutes

Testing for diseases such as cancer and multiple sclerosis could soon be as simple as using a pregnancy testing kit.

A team led by scientists at the University of Leeds has developed a biosensor technology that uses antibodies to detect biomarkers - molecules in the human body which are often a marker for disease much faster than current testing methods.

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MIT paves way to ‘artificial nose’

Engineers mass-produce smell receptors in lab

MIT biological engineers have found a way to mass-produce smell receptors in the laboratory, an advance that paves the way for “artificial noses” to be created and used in a variety of settings.

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Horny goat weed could be better than Viagra

The soft green heart-shaped leaf of the horny goat weed could hold the key to a new drug for treating erectile dysfunction. Researchers say the Viagra alternative could be as effective as the famous blue pill, but have fewer side-effects.

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A promising approach in the prevention and treatment of pancreatic cancer

Many gastrointestinal tumors, including pancreatic cancer, have been shown to overexpress the EGFR. The overexpression of EGFR correlates with rapidly progressive disease and poor prognosis. Targeting EGFR pathway as a potential therapeutic strategy for pancreatic cancer has been developed. Erlotinib is a small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor that efficiently blocks EGFR. Preliminary results of phase III trial in pancreatic cancer revealed an improvement in survival with the addition of erlotinib. Treatment with anti-EGFR agents is used as a potential therapeutic strategy for pancreatic cancer, but the mechanisms are not yet precisely understood.

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Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics announces major breakthrough - completion of the annotation of human proteins

Speaking at the 10th anniversary conference of the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics in Berne, Switzerland, its director Professor Ron Appel described his institute as a “Swiss success story”. He said that he was proud that as pioneers at the heart of science one of the SIB’s 25 working groups was today able to announce the completion of the annotation of human proteins.

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