Pharmacology

A century-old drug that failed in its original intent to treat tuberculosis but has worked well as an anti-leprosy medicine now holds new promise as a potential therapy for multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases. "We never expected that an old antibiotic would hit this target that has been implicated in multiple sclerosis, psoriasis and type 1 diabetes," says Johns Hopkins pharmacologist Jun O. Liu "People have been working for years and spending tens of millions of dollars on developing a drug to inhibit a specific molecular target involved in these diseases, and here, we have a…

As children, we grow up with the notion that vitamins provide the key to thriving bodies. Without the proper vitamins, we wouldn’t grow up to be “big and strong,” and would instead be weak and useless versions of ourselves. Carrying this need for vitamins into adulthood, we can now buy vitamins in bulk, and consume them in pill form whenever we need to.  It seems that every other week, we are told another miracle that is carried out by vitamins. Vitamin C will stave off colds; vitamin E will help prevent Alzheimer’s, and Vitamin D will treat cancer. Exactly how much of this is true is…

In 2007 chocolate was all the rage, with Mars, Inc.-funded scientists even having their own panel at the AAAS meeting.  In 2008, blueberries were the rage.     In 2009, says Dr. Luis Cisneros, Texas A&M AgriLife Research food scientist, "Stone fruits are super fruits, with plums as emerging stars." Cisneros and Dr. David Byrne, AgriLife Research plant breeder, judged more than 100 varieties of plums, peaches and nectarines and found them to match or exceed the much-touted blueberries in antioxidants and phytonutrients associated with disease prevention. The duo acknowledge…

A study published in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society suggests that the use of certain medications in elderly populations may be associated with cognitive decline. The study examined the effects of exposure to anticholinergic medications, a type of drug used to treat a variety of disorders that include respiratory and gastrointestinal problems, on over 500 relatively healthy men aged 65 years or older with high blood pressure.  Older people often take several drugs to treat multiple health conditions. As some of these drugs also have properties that affect neurotransmitters in…

Researchers from the Peninsula Medical School, the University of Cambridge and the University of Michigan, have for the first time identified a relationship between Vitamin D, the "sunshine vitamin", and cognitive impairment in a large-scale study of older people. The importance of these findings lies in the connection between cognitive function and dementia: people who have impaired cognitive function are more likely to develop dementia. The study was based on data on almost 2000 adults aged 65 and over who participated in the Health Survey for England in 2000 and whose levels of cognitive…

Smallpox has a nasty history throughout the world. Caused by poxviruses, smallpox is one of the few disease-causing agents against which the human body’s immune system is ineffective. The human immune system is rendered helpless against poxviruses partly because the viruses block a human immune molecule, interleukin-18 (IL-18), from sending out a signal to the immune system. The body acts as if everything is fine and the deadly disease takes over. A major breakthrough by Junpeng Deng, a structural biologist in the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (DASNR) at Oklahoma…

The downside to new antibiotics is that bacteria think of new ways to become resistant to them.    While resistant bacteria continue to increase, scientists keep searching for new sources of drugs in this week's Journal of Biological Chemistry, one potential new bactericide has been found in the tiny freshwater animal Hydra. The protein identified by Joachim Grötzinger, Thomas Bosch and colleagues at the University of Kiel, hydramacin-1, is unusual,  and clinically valuable, as it shares virtually no similarity with any other known antibacterial proteins except for two…

The last thing scientists want to know is that either caffeine or beer could have negative effects on brain power because, let's face it, without those two things nothing would ever get done. So we note with some concern a new research study that suggests high caffeine consumption could be linked to a greater tendency to hallucinate.   How much is too much?   7 cups of coffee per day, they say.  Not even a full pot!  So that leaves just beer. People with a higher caffeine intake are more likely to report hallucinatory experiences such as hearing voices and seeing things…

If you're sick of an all chocolate diet and its miracle cure claims of 2007-2008 and you can't find blueberries or other flavonoid foods that appeal to you, take heart that vitamin D is quickly becoming the "it" nutrient with claimed health benefits for diseases, including cancer, osteoporosis, heart disease and now diabetes.   Like a Prius, it may not help but it can't hurt as long as you don't overdo it, like making people angry driving it in the HOV lane, so it's worth considering.   A recent review article published in the latest issue of Diabetes Educator by researchers from…

Cocaine is one of the most abused illicit substances in the United States. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), there are 35.3 million people in the US age 12 or older that have used cocaine and there were 977,000 new users of cocaine in 2006. Cocaine is a powerful stimulant which acts to inhibit dopamine re-uptake in the brain. This causes an increased level of dopamine for prolonged periods of time and causes a state of euphoria in the reward centers of the brain.  The increased dopamine amplifies signals and disrupts normal communication. Repeated use causes…