New approach to defeating flu shows promise – New research on mice has shown that pulmonary administration of granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) significantly reduces flu symptoms and prevents death after a lethal dose influenza virus.
GM chickens that don’t transmit bird flu developed – Breakthrough could prevent future bird flu epidemics – Chickens genetically modified to prevent them spreading bird flu have been produced by researchers at the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh. They developed a new gene coding that controls bird flu virus progress.
A blood test for Alzheimer’s disease? – Using a new technology that relies on thousands of synthetic molecules to fish for disease-specific antibodies, researchers have developed a potential method for detecting Alzheimer’s disease with a simple blood test.
FDA: Gardasil approved to prevent anal cancer – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the vaccine Gardasil for the prevention of anal cancer and associated precancerous lesions due to human papillomavirus (HPV) types 6, 11, 16, and 18 in people ages 9 through 26 years.
International clinical trial tests targeted drug for melanoma — Rush University Medical Center enrolls first US patient – Rush University Medical Center has just enrolled the first U.S. patient in an international clinical trial testing a novel drug to treat certain kinds of melanoma, a deadly skin cancer that in its advanced stages currently has few effective treatments.
Breakthrough in cancer vaccine research — New research could lead to improved vaccines for cancerous tumors – Researchers at the University of Cambridge hope to revolutionise cancer therapy after discovering one of the reasons why many previous attempts to harness the immune system to treat cancerous tumours have failed.
New genomic marker for tuberculosis may help identify patients who will develop the disease — Study highlights how blood profiling techniques could change patient care – It may soon be possible to identify patients who will develop tuberculosis, as scientists have identified changes in the blood specific to the disease.
Novel ‘antisense’ therapies protect primates from lethal Ebola and Marburg viruses – Treatments targeting specific viral genes protected monkeys infected with deadly Ebola or Marburg viruses, revealed in a new research.
NIH-led scientists find antibodies that prevent most HIV strains from infecting human cells — Discovery to advance HIV vaccine design, antibody therapy for other diseases – Scientists have discovered two potent human antibodies that can stop more than 90 percent of known global HIV strains from infecting human cells in the laboratory, and have demonstrated how one of these disease-fighting proteins accomplishes this feat.
Combination MMRV vaccine linked with 2-fold risk of seizures — Electronic health records study of 459,000 children sparked new CDC recommendations – The combination vaccine for measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox (MMRV) is associated with double the risk of febrile seizures for 1- to 2-year-old children compared with same-day administration of the separate vaccine for MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) and the varicella (V) vaccine for chicken pox.
Investigational Compound Ipilimumab Demonstrates Improved Overall Survival in Phase 3 Trial of Previously-Treated Patients with Metastatic Melanoma – Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) announced positive results from a Phase 3 randomized, double blind study of ipilimumab which demonstrated that overall survival (OS) was significantly extended in patients with previously-treated metastatic melanoma who received ipilimumab.
Vaccine hope for skin cancer sufferers – Nottingham scientists have been given the green light to test a vaccine which they hope could reverse, and even cure malignant melanoma, the most deadly type of skin cancer.
