Clinical Research

An investigational drug known as APT102 significantly reduced damage to heart muscle from a heart attack and minimized the risk of bleeding during follow-up treatments, according to an animal study based on a decade of work by APT Therapeutics, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and colleagues at Cornell and Harvard. Standard heart attack treatment often causes heart tissue damage. Once the blood clot that causes a heart attack is removed from an artery, molecules from dead and dying cells mix with blood rushing back through the artery. One of these molecules…

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) is in the popular media because celebrities are dumping buckets of ice on their heads to raise awareness. Researchers probably wish they would donate money to research rather than raising awareness and hoping someone else donates money rather than dumping water on their heads too, but all medical outreach is good medical outreach. Researchers at Mayo Clinic and The Scripps Research Institute in Florida have done something a little more practical; they developed a new therapeutic strategy to combat the most common genetic risk factor…

Generex Biotechnology Corporation has announced publication of a follow-up study from a Phase I clinical trial of the immunotherapeutic agent AE37 in patients with prostate cancer. The study demonstrates an association between a specific immune response generated by AE37 and improved overall survival.   A prior study showed that AE37-immunized patients had better overall and disease-free survival as a group than would be expected from their disease status and the current study shows that patients with the strongest immunological response did the best. In particular, both the presence of…

A recent study conducted by Mayo Clinic researchers recommends laparoscopic cholecystectomies (surgical removal of the gallbladder) for pediatric patients suffering from gallstones and other gallbladder diseases.  A cholecystectomy is a surgical procedure performed to remove the gallbladder, a pear-shaped organ located below the liver on the upper right side of the abdomen. The gallbladder is responsible for collecting and storing bile, which is a fluid secreted by the liver. During a laparoscopic cholecystectomy, four incisions are made in the abdomen. Then, a small video camera and…

Rheumatoid arthritis is a condition that causes painful inflammation of several joints in the body - the joint capsule becomes swollen, and the disease can also destroy cartilage and bone as it progresses. It affects 0.5% to 1% of the world's population and doctors have used various drugs to slow or stop the progression of the disease. Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH Zurich)  researchers have developed a therapy that takes the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in mice to a new level: after receiving the medication the animals have been fully cured. The drug is a…

Frogs, dogs, whales, snails can all do it, but humans and primates can't. Regrow nerves after an injury, that is — while many animals have this ability, humans don't. But new research from the Salk Institute suggests that a small molecule may be able to convince damaged nerves to grow and effectively rewire circuits. Such a feat could eventually lead to therapies for the thousands of Americans with severe spinal cord injuries and paralysis. "This research implies that we might be able to mimic neuronal repair processes that occur naturally in lower animals, which would be very exciting," says…

XBiotech has begun its European Phase III study using its novel cancer drug Xilonix™ for the treatment of colorectal cancer. Xilonix is an antiobody works to block a number of processes that tumors use to grow and spread, such as potentially inhibiting the formation of tumor blood supply and new metastasis. Blocking tumor-related inflammation may also inhibit or reverse wasting and other illness associated with the malignancy.  The double-blinded placebo controlled study is evaluating the use of the monoclonal antibody therapy designed to block chronic inflammation associated with…

Results  presented at the 2014 World Transplant Congress evaluated the safety and efficacy of CSL Behring's C1 Inhibitor (C1-INH) concentrate in preventing antibody-mediated rejection following kidney transplants in highly sensitized patients. C1-INH is a human protein and an important inhibitor of the complement system. Antibody-mediated rejection is a major cause of kidney transplant failure and a prime barrier to improving long-term outcomes for transplant patients. The types of antibody-mediated rejection vary in acuity and severity. Approximately 10 to 15 percent of kidney…

Achalasia is a rare disease, affecting 1 in 100,000 people, characterized by a loss of nerve cells in the esophageal wall and manifested as chest pain during eating, weight loss, and regurgitation of food. When we swallow, a sphincter in the lower esophagus opens, allowing food to enter the stomach. Nerve cells in the esophageal wall control the opening and closing of this sphincter, but in people with achalasia, these nerve cells gradually disappear. Without these cells, the esophageal sphincter fails to relax, causing food to accumulate in the esophagus. This results in the swallowing…

New York, NY - July 24, 2014 -- Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. has published results from the long-term, randomized, active control Phase 3 study of Zerenex (ferric citrate), their investigational oral ferric iron-based phosphate binder for the treatment of hyperphosphatemia in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) on dialysis. The PERFECTED study (PhosphatE binding and iRon delivery with FErric CiTrate in EsrD) was published online today in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). This Phase 3 study was a multicenter, randomized, open-label trial in 441 ESRD patients…