Simple delivery method enhances a promising cancer treatment

A new study has found that a current cancer diagnosis posed a significant risk for severe outcomes during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, including ICU admission and death. UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers took part in the study, which was published this week in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

Can you eat your way out of a kidney disease? Perhaps you can—according to a new study from Aarhus University. In the study, Associate Professor Markus Rinschen from Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies and Department of Biomedicine has shown that the intake of the amino acid lysine, an over-the-counter food supplement, protects laboratory animals from kidney damage.

Kidney cancer encompasses a wide spectrum and can present with extensive metastases or just a handful. However, today all patients are treated the same. They all receive medication. Building upon pioneering work at UT Southwestern Medical Center, investigators report the results of a clinical trial exploring the role of stereotactic...

Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem have identified in mice the cell of origin of combined liver/biliary duct carcinomas, a rare type of cancer of the liver. The pro-inflammatory immune messenger interleukin 6 (IL-6) was found to be the driver of carcinogenesis. Blocking of IL-6 reduced both the number and size of tumors in mice.

UC San Diego Health is first in the nation to offer a new injectable medication to patients with nerve damage caused by hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis, a rare disease that can be fatal without management. Previously, patients with this systemic disease were tethered to long, intravenous infusion therapy sessions every three weeks. Now, they receive one injection every three months to stop disease progression.

In work published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers—led by the University of Minnesota Medical School and School of Public Health—have found that metformin, a commonly prescribed diabetes medication lowers the odds of emergency department visits, hospitalizations, or death due to COVID-19 by over 40 percent—and over 50 percent if prescribed early in onset of symptoms. The study also found no positive effect from treatment with either ivermectin or low-dose fluvoxamine.

Inflammatory myopathies can be challenging to treat, but a new study reports encouraging findings for patients with these debilitating conditions. Researchers from Japan have found that a novel member of a class of anti-diabetes drugs could be the key to treating patients with muscle wasting disease. In a study published...

Giving out vape starter kit vouchers through the UK's National Health Service could help even hardened smokers quit, according to a new Nicotine and Tobacco Research study from the University of East Anglia. Researchers worked with GPs and the NHS stop smoking service, which is commissioned locally by Public Health...

The dietary supplement chlorophyllin alleviates inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, according to researchers from the Center for Diabetes and Metabolism Research at Sichuan University in China and from Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. In addition, chlorophyllin significantly reduces mortality related to IBD, weight loss, diarrhea and hidden blood in the stool, intestinal epithelial damage and infiltration of inflammatory cells. The findings are published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology-Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, and the study has been chosen as an APS select article for August.

The World Health Organization said Friday that two existing treatments dramatically reduced deaths from Ebola and should be given to people of all ages suffering from the often-fatal haemorrhagic disease. Publishing its first-ever guidelines on which therapeutics to use against Ebola, the UN health agency strongly recommended using two monoclonal...

A randomized, double blind human clinical trial conducted by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine reveals that supplementation with GlyNAC—a combination of glycine and N-acetylcysteine—improves many age-associated defects in older humans and powerfully promotes healthy aging. This is relevant because until now, there have been no solutions toward improving many of these age-related declines in people.

Alzheimer's disease is a representative neurodegenerative disease showing up at an increasing rate in an aging society. Sufferers of this disease are not only portrayed in media, but can often be seen around us. Patients with Alzheimer's disease and their families continue to suffer as the precise cause of dementia remains unknown, and it can only be treated with symptom-relieving therapeutics.

For some smokers, the first cigarette of the day is just not as satisfying without a cup of coffee. That could be more than just a morning habit: Chemical compounds in roasted coffee beans may help lighten the effects of morning nicotine cravings, University of Florida researchers have found. In...

Copper is essential for many cellular functions, including cellular respiration, antioxidant defense, neurotransmitter biosynthesis and neuropeptide amidation, among others. Until recently, only two inborn errors of copper metabolism were well established. Both are rare. Wilson's disease and Menkes disease result from mutations in the copper-transporting P-type ATPases; ATP7B and ATP7A, respectively.

The majority of people who were likely infected with the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, didn't know they had the virus, according to a new study from Cedars-Sinai investigators. The findings are published in JAMA Network Open. "More than one in every two people who were...

UF Scripps Biomedical Research scientists have a discovered a key gene that is shedding light on how people develop tolerance to pain-relievers over time, a problem that raises risk of addiction and overdose. The finding could open the door to a new generation of pain medications designed to function differently,...

Obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OGIB) is defined as gastrointestinal bleeding from a source that cannot be determined even after upper or lower gastrointestinal endoscopy is performed. It is an intractable disease that can cause repeated bloody stools and anemia without an identifiable cause, and may require frequent blood transfusions. Although the pathogenesis of OGIB remains largely unclear, it is assumed that in most cases, the bleeding is from the small intestine.

A large team of researchers working at the University of Pennsylvania, has found evidence that suggests increased concentrations of the transmembrane protein Glycoprotein Nonmetastatic Melanoma Protein B (GPNMB) in blood samples could be an early biomarker for Parkinson's disease. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes how they studied possible risk factors associated with chromosome 7 in Parkinson's disease patients and what they found regarding a link to the GPNMB. Brit Mollenhauer and Christine A. F. von Arnim have published a Perspectives piece in the same journal issue outlining the work done by the team in Philadelphia.

Cedars-Sinai investigators have developed a method to help identify which human gut microbes are most likely to contribute to a slew of inflammatory diseases like obesity, liver disease, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer and some neurological diseases. The technique, described in the peer-reviewed journal Science Translational Medicine, uses a protein found...

Nearly half of cancers worldwide can be traced back to a known risk factor, primarily tobacco or alcohol, a huge global study found on Friday, which said that behavioral changes can help reduce the threat of disease. The study—published in The Lancet and conducted as part of a vast research...