Rheumatoid arthritis breakthrough

Rheumatoid arthritis is a painful, inflammatory type of arthritis that occurs when the body’s immune system attacks itself. A new paper, published in this week’s issue of PLoS Biology, reports a breakthrough in the understanding of how autoimmune responses can be controlled, offering a promising new strategy for therapy development for rheumatoid arthritis.

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European researchers harness unique properties of boron to develop new drugs and diagnostics

Researchers are on the verge of unleashing the power of the element boron in a new generation of drugs and therapies, as decades of research begins to bear fruit. Boron has to date far been one of biology’s best kept secrets, but is now attracting fast growing research interest and investment from the pharmaceutical industry in the quest for novel drugs to tackle cancer and infectious diseases, potentially overcoming limitations and side effects of current products.

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Researchers suppress ‘hunger hormone’

New minimally invasive method tested in pigs yields result as good as bariatric surgery

Johns Hopkins scientists report success in significantly suppressing levels of the “hunger hormone” ghrelin in pigs using a minimally invasive means of chemically vaporizing the main vessel carrying blood to the top section, or fundus, of the stomach. An estimated 90 percent of the body’s ghrelin originates in the fundus, which can’t make the hormone without a good blood supply.

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