Roche says it’s on track to raise Tamiflu production
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Roche will raise the production of its antiviral drug Tamiflu, the drugmaker said, just as the World Health Organisation warned on Monday that a lethal strain of the avian influenza virus was spreading fast.
The Swiss firm said it is in talks with other drugmakers and with governments to step up the production of Tamiflu—seen as the most effective drug to fight bird flu—as the world braces for the possibility of a catastrophic pandemic among humans.
Methylphenidate shows promise for hyperactivity associated with autism
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Medication commonly used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be effective for treatment of hyperactivity symptoms in children with autism and related pervasive developmental disorders, according to a study in the November issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.
Children with autism and other pervasive developmental disorders often also have symptoms of hyperactivity, distractibility and impulsiveness requiring treatment, according to background information in the article. Some previous small studies on the use of medications to treat hyperactivity in these children have shown promise, although side effects have been common, including irritability and social withdrawal.
Specific bacterial markers for bacterial vaginosis discovered
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Findings reported in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine (November 3 issue) highlight promising findings from two Seattle-based researchers on the origins of bacterial vaginosis (BV).
In a collaborative effort to identify specific bacterial markers for bacterial vaginosis in vaginal-fluid samples, David Fredricks, MD, of the Program in Infectious Diseases, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Jeanne Marrazzo, MD, MPH, of the University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle report the detection of three newly recognized bacteria that were highly specific for bacterial vaginosis. Subjects for this study were recruited from Dr. Marrazzo’s Vaginal Health Project and from Public Health-Seattle and King County Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Clinic. Although preliminary, the researchers are hopeful that these findings may contribute to identifying the specific cause of and better treatment for the disease.
Change in neurons’ responsiveness marks newly formed sensory associations during learning
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During our waking hours, our brains are inundated with sensory information that shifts from one moment to the next.
Recognizing meaningful associations between different snippets of this information is a basic form of learning that is essential for survival, even for animals with much simpler brains than our own. For learning to occur, these associations must be made and reinforced in some way at the neuronal level, but how this happens is poorly understood. Research reported this week sheds light on this problem by identifying a group of neurons whose activity changes during the learning process in a way that reflects the new association that is formed between two different sensory stimuli.
Smoking a hookah can damage teeth
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Smoking a hookah also known as a water pipe is becoming an increasingly trendy menu item in Mediterranean restaurants, cafes and bars. People should be warned to “skip this course” according to a study that appeared in the November issue of the Journal of Periodontology.
Researchers found that the impact of water pipe smoking is largely the same magnitude as that of cigarette smoking. The prevalence of periodontal diseases was 30 percent in water pipe smokers, 24 percent in cigarette smokers and eight percent in non-smokers.
Chlamydia pneumoniae may cause vision problems
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Researchers at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI) have found that Chlamydia pneumoniae, a bacterium linked to heart disease and capable of causing chronic inflammation, was present in the diseased eye tissue of five out of nine people with neovascular, or “wet,” age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
However, it was not found in the eyes of more than 20 individuals without AMD, providing more evidence that this disease may be caused by inflammation.
Antisocial behavior in children associated with gene variant and environmental risk factors
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For children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), possessing a variant of a gene involved in brain signaling may predict antisocial behavior and increase susceptibility to the effects of lower birth weight, according to a study in the November issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.
Biological processes play a key role in the genesis of antisocial behavior with specific evidence of brain involvement and contribution of genetic and early environmental risk factors, including prenatal factors, according to background information in the article. Given the links between deficits in a brain region called the prefrontal cortical and antisocial behavior and between the enzyme catechol O-methyltranferase (COMT) and prefrontal cortical functioning, the authors suggest that a variant of the COMT gene might be associated with antisocial behavior.
Adolescents Who Watch Smoking in Movies More Likely to Try Smoking
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The first national study to look at the connection between smoking in movies and smoking initiation among adolescents shows that exposure to smoking in popular films is a primary risk factor in determining whether young people will start smoking.
The study by researchers from Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) and Norris Cotton Cancer Center (NCCC) appears in the November 7 issues of the journal, Pediatrics. The research, supported by the National Cancer Institute, suggests that exposure to movie smoking accounts for smoking initiation among over one-third of U.S. adolescents. It concludes that limiting exposure of young adolescents to movie smoking could have important public health implications.
Doors cause most childhood amputations
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Hands caught in doors cause most of the childhood amputations in the United States, a study said on Monday, though they most often involve only partial loss of a finger and no hospital stay.
The most serious amputation injuries occur among adolescents and often involve lawn mowers and tools, according to a review of hospital records from 1990 to 2002 done at Ohio State University.
Withdrawn drug may help in Crohn’s disease
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A drug pulled from the market by the manufacturer following reports of serious side effects in patients with multiple sclerosis may help some sufferers of Crohn’s disease, a new study showed.
But in many instances, the drug natalizumab will be no better than a placebo, said the study published in the November 3rd edition of The New England Journal of Medicine.
Studies outline dangers of mixing stress, deprivation and tempting foods
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Two studies in the October issue of Behavioral Neuroscience show that when animals are stressed, deprived and exposed to tempting food, they overeat, with different degrees of interaction. The powerful interplay between internal and external factors helps explain why dieters rebound and even one cookie can trigger a binge if someone’s predisposed to binge.
The findings also implicate the brain’s opioid, or reward, system in regulating overeating, especially when the food is extra-tempting - and not only in under-fed animals. This knowledge may help even non-stressed people to avoid overeating, keep their weight down and improve their health. Behavioral Neuroscience is published by the American Psychological Association (APA).
Exposure to movie smoking accounts for smoking initiation among over one-third of U.S. adolescents
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The first national study to look at the connection between smoking in movies and smoking initiation among adolescents shows that exposure to smoking in popular films is a primary risk factor in determining whether young people will start smoking.
The study by researchers from Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) and Norris Cotton Cancer Center (NCCC) appears in the November 7 issues of the journal, Pediatrics. The research, supported by the National Cancer Institute, suggests that exposure to movie smoking accounts for smoking initiation among over one-third of U.S. adolescents. It concludes that limiting exposure of young adolescents to movie smoking could have important public health implications.
Important that GP’s take flu pandemic threat seriously
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Family doctors are advised to plan their response to managing a flu pandemic in this week’s BMJ.
The advice is based on a module that is freely available on BMJ Learning to help keep health professionals up to date with key issues.
Genetics and language or genetic language?
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Most comparisons of language and inherited traits consider whether genetic patterns conform with expected relationships observed by linguists. But few have considered the use of genetic data to support specific hypotheses raised by linguists regarding the relationships between language families.
In a forthcoming article in Current Anthropology, Francisco M. Salzano (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil) examines the proposals of three eminent linguists through the lens of genetic data.
Genetic profile of ovarian cancer
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A newly identified gene expression profile could help predict how patients with advanced ovarian cancer will respond to chemotherapy treatment.
Described in a study in the November 1, 2005 issue of The Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO), the new findings further establish an important role for microarray gene profiling as a predictor of clinical outcome in ovarian cancer, and could eventually provide clinicians with insights into the mechanisms of drug resistance.
