Pharmacology

Between the 1932 and 2008 Olympic Games, world record times in the men's 100 meter sprint improved by 0.6 seconds, mostly due to improved training techniques and technological advances. Scientists at the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology in Austria say they can duplicate that improvement with a simple change in diet.  The research presented on 29th June 2009 at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Meeting says they have managed to achieve an equivalent feat in mice fed on a diet high in polyunsaturated fatty acids. Polyunsaturated fatty acids are important dietary components…

High cholesterol levels are considered to be a risk factor not only for cardiovascular disease including stroke, but also for the development of Alzheimer's disease so cholesterol lowering drugs, including statins, developed in recent years may help with both. In addition to the cholesterol reducing effect of statins Amalia Dolga, PhD, of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, and her co-investigators have demonstrated that statins can protect nerve cells against damage which we know to occur in the brain of Alzheimer's disease patients. The results are published in the June issue of…

Melatonin can slow down the effects of aging, according to a team at laboratoire Arago in Banyuls sur Mer (CNRS / Université Pierre et Marie Curie) who say that a treatment based on melatonin can delay the first signs of aging in a small mammal. Better known as the ‘time-keeping' hormone, melatonin is naturally secreted by the body during the night. It is therefore a kind of biological signal for nightfall, allowing an organism to synchronize itself with the day/night rhythm. At Laboratoire Arago, Elodie Magnanou and her co-workers studied the long-term effects of melatonin on the Greater…

According to results of a study published in Cancer Prevention Research,  men with prostate cancer who consumed the active compounds in green tea demonstrated a significant reduction in serum markers predictive of prostate cancer progression.  Green tea is the second most popular drink in the world, and some epidemiological studies have shown health benefits with green tea, including a reduced incidence of prostate cancer, according to Cardelli. However, some human trials have found contradictory results. The few trials conducted to date have evaluated the clinical efficacy of…

I've always hated Zicam, because of it's ridiculous claim to be a homeopathic remedy, when the mechanism of action of zinc gluconate (the active ingredient) has nothing whatsoever to do with the pseudoscientific principles of homeopathy. Now the FDA is cracking down, because Zicam may be downright harmful - you could lose your sense of smell because zinc ions applied directly to your nasal epithelia can be toxic. A PubMed run through the literature on zinc gluconate brings up mixed results. Many studies suggest that, when taken soon after the onset of symptoms, zinc sprays or lozenges can…

University of Leicester researchers writing in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology say they have found "convincing evidence" that cannabis smoke damages DNA and it could potentially increase the risk of cancer development in humans. Using a newly developed highly sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method, the University of Leicester scientists say they have found clear indication that cannabis smoke damages DNA under laboratory conditions. The researchers are Rajinder Singh, Jatinderpal Sandhu, Balvinder Kaur, Tina Juren, William P. Steward, Dan Segerback and…

Almost 90 percent of the world’s population will not have timely access to affordable supplies of vaccines and antiviral agents in the current influenza A (H1N1) pandemic but inexpensive generic drugs that are readily available even in developing countries could save millions of lives, according to the conclusion reached by an extensive review and analysis by immunization expert Dr David Fedson within hours of the World Health Organization declaring a pandemic. Fedson points out that seasonal flu resistance to antiviral drugs like Tamiflu may make them ineffective in the pandemic and…

Most people won't eat two cups of blueberries a day but tell them a cup of red wine will make them healthier and they seem downright happy.   Red wine has cultural and historical mystique blueberries lack so it has a psychological edge. Red wine contains a complex mixture of bioactive compounds, including flavonols, monomeric and polymeric flavan-3-ols, highly colored anthocyanins, as well as phenolic acids and the stilbene polyphenol, resveratrol. Some of these compounds, particularly resveratrol, appear to have health benefits. But look at the PubMed citations and you'd think red wine…

A new, international study found that the combination of two drugs delays disease progression for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Results from the Phase III “ATLAS” trial were presented today by Dr. Vincent Miller of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting.  According to the National Cancer Institute, in 2008 the estimated number of new lung cancer cases (non-small cell and small cell combined) was 215,000 and the number of deaths was 161,840. Non-small cell lung cancer is the most common among…

Practically every month in my Chemistry World there appears an article where a group of workers has synthesized some natural product with amazing ingenuity. But why, to use a Hogwartsian analogy, does one go to such great effort when the greenhouse is only a walk away from the potions department? So let us join Professor Sprout for a walk around the Hogwarts greenhouses. Some plant families, such as the Cruciferae and the Labiatae are remarkably free from poisonous plants, whereas others such as the Araceae all seem to come with a toxic hazard warning sign. The Umbelliferae are generally…