Pharmacology

People who have survived severe trauma such as events during war, torture or sexual assault can experience after-effects, a condition called posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The symptoms may include anxiety, uncontrolled emotional reactions, nightmares, intrusive memories, sleep and concentration difficulties, evasion of situations that resemble the trauma, and feelings of shame or even  amnesia. For many, the condition fades away with time but for some PTSD is a chronic condition that needs treatment, which typically involves drugs that help with anxiety and depression and/or…

New research into the effects of antipsychotic drugs commonly prescribed to Alzheimer's patients concludes that the medication nearly doubles risk of death over three years. The study, funded by the Alzheimer's Research Trust, was led by Prof Clive Ballard's King's College London team and is published in Lancet Neurology on 9 January.  The study involved 165 Alzheimer's patients in UK care homes who were being prescribed antipsychotics. 83 continued treatment and the remaining 82 had it withdrawn and were instead given oral placebos.  Findings showed a significant increase in risk…

A study published in Cancer Prevention Research identifies components of black raspberries with chemopreventive potential.  Researchers at the Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center found that anthocyanins, a class of flavonoids in black raspberries, inhibited growth and stimulated apoptosis in the esophagus of rats treated with an esophageal carcinogen.  Gary D. Stoner, Ph.D., a professor in the department of internal medicine at Ohio State University, and his team of researchers fed rats an anthocyanin-rich extract of black raspberries and found that the extract was nearly as…

Scientists can now call up stem cell troops to repair the body using new drug combinations.  They have basically 'tricked' bone marrow into releasing extra adult stem cells into the bloodstream, a technique that they hope could one day be used to repair heart damage or mend a broken bone, according to a new study published today in Cell Stem Cell.  When a person has a disease or an injury, the bone marrow mobilizes different types of stem cells to help repair and regenerate tissue. The new research by researchers from Imperial College London shows that it may be possible to boost…

Commonly used pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccines do not appear to be effective for preventing pneumonia, found a study by a team of researchers from Switzerland and the United Kingdom writing in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. In many industrialized countries, polysaccharide pneumococcal vaccines (PPVs) are currently recommended to help prevent pneumococcal disease in people aged 65 and over and for younger people with increased risk due to conditions like HIV. Studies have shown conflicting results regarding the efficacy of PPV.  The study, a systematic review and meta-…

An extract from grape seeds forces laboratory leukemia cells to commit cell suicide, according to researchers from the University of Kentucky. They found that within 24 hours, 76 percent of leukemia cells had died after being exposed to the extract. The investigators, who report their findings in the January 1, 2009, issue of Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, also teased apart the cell signaling pathway associated with use of grape seed extract that led to cell death, or apoptosis. They found that the extract activates JNK, a protein that…

Using tiny gold particles and infrared light, researchers have developed a drug-delivery system that allows multiple drugs to be released in a controlled fashion.  Such a system could one day be used to provide more control when battling diseases commonly treated with more than one drug, according to the researchers. Delivery devices already exist that can release two drugs, but the timing of the release must be built into the device — it cannot be controlled from outside the body. The new system is controlled externally and theoretically could deliver up to three or four drugs. …

Contact with nature has long been believed to increase positive feelings, reduce stress and provide distraction from the pain associated with hospital stays and researchers now say they have confirmed the beneficial effects of plants and flowers for patients recovering from abdominal surgery. A recent study by Seong-Hyun Park and Richard H. Mattson, researchers from the Department of Horticulture, Recreation and Forestry at Kansas State University, provides evidence that contact with plants is directly beneficial to a hospital patient's health. Using various medical and psychological…

University of Cincinnati researchers say they have discovered a new therapy for transplant patients; targeting the antibody-producing plasma cells that can cause organ rejection.  Steve Woodle, MD, and colleagues found that a cancer drug. bortezomib, that is used to treat multiple myeloma, or cancer of the plasma cells, is also effective in treating rejection episodes caused by antibodies that target transplanted kidneys and reversing rejection episodes that did not respond to standard therapies. B-lymphocytes, or B cells, play a large role in the humoral immune response by making immune…

People can make their own salicylic acid (SA), the principal metabolite of aspirin. SA that gives aspirin its famous action on pain, fever, and inflammation is now looking like a star in its own "class" of bioregulators. Aspirin has been the common name given to acetylsalicylic acid since 1890s. Researchers in the United Kingdom reported their new evidence in the Dec. 24 issue of ACS' biweekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. John R. Patterson and colleagues reveal that SA exists in the blood of people who have not recently taken aspirin. Vegetarians had much higher…