Other highlights in the October 2 issue of JNCI
...s variation may account for why some tumors appear resistant to antiangiogenic antibody therapies, the authors write. These results have implications for the design and assessment of antiangiogenic compounds. Blocking Signaling Components Make Cancer Cells Appear Normal When treated with inhibitors that bl...'Prehabilitation' prevents functional decline of at-risk frail elders living at home
... 6 months. They exercised their arms and legs with resistant elastic bands to improve their balance, muscle strength, transfer skills, and mobility. Participants were instructed to perform balance exercises once a day and conditioning exercises 3 times a week after the physical therapist determined that the ...Antibiotics not always beneficial for childhood ear infections
...ria which cause ear infections learn quickly to be resistant to antibiotics. At some point we're going to run out of drugs to treat the problem," he says. "Antibiotic resistance is a huge problem in this country. The practice of treating eight children to help the one who needs antibiotics just makes it worse....Childhood circumstances linked to health in later life
...he British public, occurs because these people are resistant to the action of insulin. Researchers at the University of Bristol investigated the associations between social class in childhood and adulthood and insulin resistance in over 4,000 women aged 60-79 years. They found that belonging to a manual social...Bacterial protein kills tumors
... Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium that is often resistant to antibiotics and causes serious respiratory infections in people who are particularly susceptible, such as patients with cystic fibrosis or severe burns. The bacterium protects itself from destruction by killing macrophages, the immune system's fir...New type of antiobiotic tackles hard-to-treat pediatric infections
...for new treatments for children with hard-to-treat resistant gram-positive infections, because there are limite...ons, nosocomial pneumonia and bacteremia caused by resistant gram-positive bacteria including methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-...By repairing vessels, bone marrow cells slow atherosclerosis in mice
...e that the arteries of young people are remarkably resistant to damage because stem cells known as vascular progenitor cells (VPCs) produced in the bone marrow are continually repairing damage caused to the vessels," said Frederick Rauscher, a fourth-year medical student at the Duke University School of Medici...Imatinib shows early promise against Ewings sarcoma
...ll death in all cell lines tested, including those resistant to chemotherapy. "This observation is especially important because chemoresistance is a major contributor to the rate of treatment failure in recurrent Ewing's sarcoma," the authors say. Treatment with imatinib also blocked activation of the c-kit re...Soaking in the genius of Mother Nature
...e they can take effect. As a result, the cells are resistant to many of the drugs and treatment protocols normally used to combat cancer. Once introduced into multidrug-resistant cancer cells, though, lamellarins act quickly to disable and disrupt the cells' pumps. They are then free to remain in the cells unt...San Diego chemist wins national award for innovative drug design
...considered the last line of defense against highly resistant bacterial infections. His latest achievement came with one of his graduate students, Phil Baran, whom the dual award also recognizes. In an international race to synthesize CP molecules, Nicolaou and Baran were the first to make this set of highly co...UCB's pharma sector announces promising first results of a new antiepileptic drug candidate
...f these (25% of all epilepsy patients) will remain resistant to polytherapy and therefore suffer from refractory epilepsy5. In addition, treatment failure is often attributable to withdrawal due to adverse effects rather than lack of efficacy 5. Due to the effectiveness of levetiracetam in providing broad-spe...Compound developed from mussels may lead to safer, more effective medical implants
...ommon implant materials), rendering these surfaces resistant to cell attachment for up to two weeks. Although some antifouling coatings can fight contamination for a similar length of time, the researchers are optimistic that their compound can eventually be made to last much longer, perhaps permanently. Just ...Rice uses buckyballs to reinvent 'antibiotic of last resort'
...ome of which have proven more effective at killing resistant bacteria. Rice Chemistry Professor Lon Wilson decided to create a buckyball-vancomycin conjugate following years of work developing biochemical targeting mechanisms for buckyballs, spherical cages containing 60 carbon molecules. By linking antibodies...Testing may one day pinpoint which early-stage cancer patients are at risk for relapse
...mors also exhibit certain behaviors that make them resistant to cell death mechanisms. In the event a normal cell emanating from either the breast, color or prostate detaches, its epithelial cells will try, in a suspended state, to circulate in the blood or lymph and go elsewhere. These cells die, because thei...Newer vitamin D formulation appears to help dialysis patients live longer
...ients with high phorphorous levels, who tend to be resistant to the standard calcitriol, Thadhani and his colleagues decided to analyze whether the newer medication had an impact on patient survival. The research team which includes scientists from Fresenius Medical Care North America, based in Lexington, Ma...Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center study shows retinoids kill childhood brain tumor cells
...ed significant cell death, even to cells that were resistant to retinoids. Further, when retinoid-senstive cells were grown in close proximity to resistant cells, both types of cells were killed after addition of retinoids. This result indicates that BMP-2...Prescribing heroin can help treatment resistant addicts
... efficacy of prescribed heroin for addicts who are resistant to other forms of treatment," conclude the authors....Most resistance to Anti-HIV drugs created by good pill-taking patients
...l-taking behavior might accelerate the creation of resistant mutations of the HIV virus," said the study's lead..., even perfect, pill-taking are living longer with resistant virus, than those who do not take enough medication to select for resistant virus," said Bangsberg. ...Wyeth chemists honored for Prevnar first combined pneumococcal vaccine for infants
...he middle ear) in young children. If untreated or resistant to treatment, pneumococcal disease can result in hearing loss, learning disabilities, speech and hearing problems, and brain damage. Each year, more than one million children throughout the world die as a result of pneumococcal disease. The Heroes ......onic chest pain, such as angina pectoris, that are resistant to other treatments." The study, titled "Cardiac vanilloid receptor 1-expressing afferent nerves and their role in the cardiogenic sympathetic reflex in rats," was published today (Sept. 1) in the Journal of Physiology, accompanied by an editorial ar...