Pharmacology
A new paper in Biology Letters raises more questions about the benefits of vitamins as a health supplement.
High doses of dietary antioxidants such as vitamins are claimed to slow the process of cellular aging by lessening the damage to proteins, lipids and DNA caused by free radicals. Some research has found that the longevity of mice could be extended by administering particular vitamin supplements, despite the supplements' limited effectiveness in reducing free radical damage. However, the opposite was found to be true in voles in a new study.
Instead, vitamin C and vitamin E were found…
Oxytocin, a hormone with powerful effects on brain activity that is linked to the formation of social bonds, could have benefits for children with the autism disorder - but it is unlikely, according to the results of a new study.
Autism is a complex condition of unknown cause in which children exhibit reduced interest in other people, impaired social communication skills and repetitive behaviors.
Research in people who are healthy shows oxytocin can increase levels of trust and eye-gazing and improve their identification of emotions in others.
Previous research suggested that oxytocin would…
RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation, an RNA-targeted technologies company, today announced positive results from their second placebo-controlled Phase 1 study with RXI‑109, an sd-rxRNA compound that targets Connective Tissue Growth Factor (CTGF), and is being developed for the treatment of abnormal dermal scars such as hypertrophic scars and keloids in conjunction with scar revision surgery.
In this study, subjects received small skin incisions in their abdomen and were treated with 3 intradermal doses of RXI‑109 over a 2-week period. This dose escalating study consisted of 3 cohorts of 3 healthy…
Generex Biotechnology has announced the results of a Phase 3 clinical trial of Generex Oral-lyn, their buccal insulin spray product, in preparation for the approval for marketing and commercial distribution of the product in India, to be trademarked there as Oral Recosulin.
The International Diabetes Federation currently estimates there are over 50 million people with diabetes in India.
The trial, entitled "A 12 Week, Open Label, Parallel Group, Comparative, Multi-centric Phase III Study to Assess Efficacy and Safety of Metered Dose Buccal Insulin Spray versus Rapid Insulin, s.c. on Subjects…
With increasing Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, major patent expiries and generic competition cutting future potential revenue there is no saturation of drug development, there is instead the opposite - but one area shows potential growth: drug delivery systems.
Among the 15 drug delivery systems surveyed by Frost&Sullivan for their Drug Delivery Technology: End-User Preferences, Utilization and Perceptions analysis, physicians preferred topical delivery, either as a transdermal patch or topical gel/cream, and expressed willingness to switch their current mode of therapy…
Hospira received a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), recommending European Commission approval of Inflectra (infliximab) for rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and plaque psoriasis.
Inflectra (infliximab) is a biosimilar medicine to the reference medicinal product, Remicade (infliximab), and is the first monoclonal antibody therapy to reach a positive opinion following review via the EMA biosimilars regulatory pathway. A biosimilar developed in-line with EU requirements can be considered a therapeutic…
A new paper says that exposure to a banned neonicotinoid insecticide causes changes to the genes of the honeybee. The paper was written to support the recent decision taken by the European Commission to temporarily ban three neonicotinoids amid concerns that they could be linked to bee deaths.
Honeybees pollinate one-third of the food that we eat and the experiment looked at changes in the activity of honeybee genes linked to one of the recently banned neonicotinoids, imidacloprid.
The work (in press), led by Dr. Reinhard Stöger, Associate Professor in Epigenetics in the University of…
So. We have seen lots and lots of research articles on how agonist can cause cell proliferation. Figure 1 is a nice dose-response graph showing how estrogen induces proliferation of breast cancer cells.
Nearly 70 percent of Americans take at least one prescription drug and more than 50 percent take two, scholars writing in Mayo Clinic Proceedings say. Antibiotics, antidepressants and painkilling opioids are most commonly prescribed, they found. 20 percent of patients are on five or more prescription medications, according to the findings.
17 percent of those studied were prescribed antibiotics, 13 percent were taking antidepressants and 13 percent were on opioids. Drugs to lower lipids, such as cholesterol, came in fourth (11 percent) and vaccines were fifth (11 percent). Drugs were…
A trending "miracle" weight-loss product is green coffee bean dietary supplements. Some people swear by them and marketing claims are not modest about the effectiveness.
But do they actually work or is it placebo and/or other changes (exercise, diet) that concerned people adapt?
Science would never criticize coffee. It is rich in healthful, natural, plant-based polyphenol substances and evidence from past studies links coffee drinking to a lower risk of obesity, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and other disorders collectively termed the "metabolic syndrome." Chlorogenic acid (…