Gene Variations Linked to Brain Aneurysms
Variations in a gene seem to be linked to brain (cerebral) aneurysms, suggests research published ahead of print in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
Brain aneurysms occur when a section of an artery bulges, often at a stress point, such as a branch or a bend. This weakens the wall and makes it prone to rupture and the discharge of blood into other areas of the brain.
The condition may affect up to 8% of the population, but inflammation is thought to have a key role.
Britain Must Embrace Psychological Therapy for Mental Health Problems
Britain must embrace psychological therapies on a large scale if we are to tackle our mental health problems effectively, argues a leading economist in this week’s BMJ.
Depression and anxiety disorders cost the UK around £ 17bn in lost output. New drug treatments are now available to all, but psychological therapies are not. Yet the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends psychological therapy as a cost effective treatment.
So should the Treasury support psychological therapy?
Aspirin can prevent deafness in antibiotic use
People treated with the antibiotic gentamicin can reduce the risk of permanent hearing loss, a possible side effect, by also taking aspirin, a study showed on Wednesday.
The finding could be especially important in poorer countries where gentamicin and similar drugs, known as aminoglycosides, are used widely because they are inexpensive and often available over the counter, the researchers said.
Millions of people take the drug worldwide each year and perhaps one in 10 permanently loses at least some hearing because of it, the co-author of the study, Jochen Schacht of the University of Michigan, told Reuters.
At-risk drinking risky for older men
Elderly men who engage in “at-risk” drinking have higher mortality rates than those who abstain or drink safer amounts of alcohol, a report indicates.
The authors define at-risk drinking as excessive drinking or the “use of alcohol in amounts deemed risky in the presence of relevant comorbidities.” An example of excessive alcohol use alone would be 3 drinks per day on 4 or more occasions per week. At risk drinking would also encompass 2-3 drinks per day with anxiety disorder or gout, or while taking medication for pain or insomnia, for example.
Dr. Alison A. Moore, of the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues examined the effect of alcohol use and co-morbid illness on 20-year mortality in 4,691 adults who were at least 60 years of age.
Dual approach promising in advanced melanoma
A new analysis of a group of patients with advanced metastatic melanoma treated with peptide vaccines after surgery shows an average survival of nearly 4 years—far longer than seen in previous trials.
“Patients with resected Stage IV melanoma can do a lot better than we thought,” Dr. Jeffrey S. Weber of the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health. “We would want to do at least that well, if not better, in any future trials.”
Weber and his team analyzed survival for 41 patients with Stage IV melanoma because “a fair number of the patients had done very well,” he explained. The patients, who had participated in a total of five clinical trials, had all undergone resection of distant sites of disease followed by peptide vaccines therapy.
New technique to speed discovery of drug targets in chemical genetics
Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center have developed a new technique to speed discovery of drug targets in chemical genetics. As highlighted on the April cover of Chemistry & Biology, Fox Chase researcher Jeffrey R. Peterson, Ph.D., and his colleagues describe a new way to swiftly find the proteins targeted by small molecule inhibitors during high-throughput screening (HTS) experiments. The new work offers a critical solution to a common stumbling block in this booming field of drug discovery.
HTS allows researchers to test thousands of small drug-like molecules at once for a specific biological activity, such as inhibiting the cell movements that allow cancer cells to spread in the body. Screening for potential new drug compounds in complex systems differs from the traditional drug discovery approach, which begins with one particular protein of interest and tries to find inhibitors for that specific target.
Consumer group awards ‘bitter pills’ to drugmakers
It’s one of the most recognizable logos in drug advertising: a light green luna moth that floats across the television screen during advertisements for Sepracor Inc.’s sleeping pill Lunesta.
A national health and consumer advocacy group on Wednesday singled out ads by Sepracor and four other drugmakers as evidence of overly aggressive direct marketing by pharmaceutical companies to consumers.
The Prescription Access Litigation Project (PAL), a coalition of 118 state, local and national consumer health advocacy groups, gave the five what it calls a “bitter pill” award.
