Pharmacology

The argument for making marijuana legal despite its health risks is that so many people use it anyway that it creates a society of casual criminals at best - maybe they are getting a bogus prescription for 'pain' or glaucoma or inventing some way it helps them. And at worst it makes criminals rich and puts users at risk because the quality is unmonitored and perhaps even dangerous. That's the same reason to get the erectile dysfunction drug sildenafil (e.g. Viagra) over the counter sooner rather than later. At least two-thirds of sildenafil consumed in the Netherlands may be illegal,…

It's unclear why there is a natural medicine craze in the modern era. Real medicine was invented because natural medicine didn't help people. If natural medicine survived double-blind clinical trials, it became regular medicine. People taking St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum), the leading complementary and alternative treatment for depression in the United States, are not only gullible, they are putting themselves in danger if they take commonly prescribed drugs, according to a study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, because it can reduce the concentration of numerous…

Antihistamines, which help reduce watery eyes and runny noses during allergy season, might also help ward off tumors too. A new report suggests that antihistamines may have significant anti-cancer properties as they interfere with the function of a type of cell that is known to reduce the body's ability to fight tumors - myeloid derived suppressor cells. To make this discovery, researchers examined two groups of mice that involve myeloid derived suppressor cells. The first group of mice was infected with a rodent intestinal helminth to simulate a strong allergic response. Then they were…

Scientists working to make gene therapy a reality say they have figured out how to bypass a blood stem cell's natural defenses and efficiently insert disease-fighting genes into the cell's genome. The drug rapamycin, which is commonly used to slow cancer growth and prevent organ rejection, enables delivery of a therapeutic dose of genes to blood stem cells while preserving stem cell function. The findings in Blood could lead to more effective and affordable long-term treatments for blood cell disorders in which mutations in the DNA cause abnormal cell functions, such as in leukemia and sickle…

We all have bad days. Sometimes "bad" is a woefully insufficient adjective. Ask Dr. Mehmet Oz (henceforth known as The Lizard of Oz). He had a really bad day this week, courtesy of Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO).  She is not someone you want as an enemy. She tricked The Lizard into testifying before  the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. He thought he was going to be the expert witness talking about bogus diet claims. But it turned out that he was the target of Senator McCaskill's investigation—not the expert witness. Oops.It didn't take him long to…

A new analysis by Karolinska Institutet in Sweden found that drug therapy for ADHD does not entail an increased risk of suicide attempts or suicide.  Other studies have found  that ADHD drug treatment would increase the occurrence of suicidal thoughts but the authors of the new paper in BMJ say those studies were too small scale and/or methodologically unsound, which make the results uncertain. For the new paper, the authors used national patient registers to identify all patients in Sweden diagnosed with ADHD between 1960 and 1996; a total of 37,936 individuals. These people were…

In the many hypotheses surrounding autism, one posits it is the consequence of abnormal cell communication. Researchers at the U.C. San Diego recently did a study using a drug from 1916, suramin, which was approved for treating sleeping sickness. The findings in Translational Psychiatry were that it restored normal cellular signaling in a mouse model of autism, reversing symptoms of the neurological disorder in animals that were the human biological age equivalent of 30 years old.  Robert K. Naviaux, MD, PhD, said one of the universal symptoms of autism is metabolic disturbances. "…

The number of deaths involving commonly prescribed painkillers is far higher than the number of deaths by overdose from heroin and cocaine. In fact, the deaths due to overdose of opiods - legal painkillers - is higher than cocaine and heroin combined, according to a new paper. In a first-of-its-kind review of existing research, the McGill team has put the spotlight on a major public health problem: the dramatic increase in deaths due to prescribed painkillers, which were involved in more than 16,000 deaths in 2010 in the U.S. alone. Currently, the US and Canada rank #1 and #2 in per capita…

Harrisvaccines has been granted United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) conditional licensure of the company's Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDv) Vaccine.   PEDv is a highly contagious swine disease that entered the United States in April 2013. PEDv causes vomiting and diarrhea in older animals and extreme dehydration and mortality of up to 100 percent in piglets that are less than one week of age. Since entering the U.S. a year ago, PEDv has spread to nearly 30 states and throughout North America, causing the death of millions of piglets. PEDv is not a zoonotic disease,…

Due in large part to the popularity of energy drinks and chain coffee shops, caffeine intake by children and adolescents has risen substantially - some drinks are marketed to children as young as four. Unlike nicotine, caffeine has slipped under the cultural radar as a harmless drug, even for kids, but some research is happening. A new paper about a small study says that after puberty, boys and girls experience different heart rate and blood pressure changes after consuming caffeine. Girls also experience some differences in caffeine effect during their menstrual cycles.  The…