Blood test for schizophrenia could be ready this year

A blood test for diagnosing schizophrenia — the most serious form of mental illness — could be available this year, according to an article in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS' weekly newsmagazine. The disorder, with symptoms that can include hallucinations and delusional thoughts, affects more than two million people in the United States and millions more worldwide. more  

Counterfeit Internet drugs pose significant risks and discourage vital health checks

Men who buy fake internet drugs for erection problems can face significant risks from potentially hazardous contents and bypassing healthcare systems could leave associated problems like diabetes and high blood pressure undiagnosed. That's the warning just published online by IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Practice. more

New treatment shown to reduce recurrence of debilitating diarrhea

A combination of two fully human monoclonal antibodies was shown to reduce recurrence of a debilitating form of diarrhea by 72 percent in patients enrolled in a Phase 2 clinical trial. The results of the trial are reported in the article "Treatment with Monoclonal Antibodies against Clostridium difficile Toxins" to be published January 21, 2010 in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). more  

Little pill means big news in the treatment of MS

A new drug for multiple sclerosis promises to change the lives of the 100,000 people in the UK who have the condition, say researchers at Queen Mary, University of London. more

Potential new class of drugs to combat hepatitis C identified by Stanford scientists  

Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have discovered a novel class of compounds that, in experiments in vitro, inhibit replication of the virus responsible for hepatitis C. If these compounds prove effective in infected humans as well, they may dramatically accelerate efforts to confront this virus's propensity to rapidly acquire drug resistance, while possibly skirting some of the troubling side effects common among therapies in current use and in late-stage development. more

New gene discovered for recessive form of brittle bone disease  

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions have discovered the third in a sequence of genes that accounts for previously unexplained forms of osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), a genetic condition that weakens bones, results in frequent fractures and is sometimes fatal. more

Scientists show how brain tumors outsmart drugs

Researchers at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Moores UCSD Cancer Center have shown one way in which gliomas, a deadly type of brain tumor, can evade drugs aimed at blocking a key cell signaling protein, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR),that is crucial for tumor growth. In a related finding, they also proved that a particular EGFR mutation is important not only to initiate the tumor, but for its continued growth or "maintenance" as well. more

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