The News Review:
- Anti-Clotting Drug Trial Shortened by Bleeding Problems
- Merck and Schering-Plough Respond To Issues Raised About ENHANCE…
- Protein That Controls Hair Growth Also Keeps Stem Cells Slumbering
- Ayurveda institute on the lines of AIIMS to be set up
- ABC News: Coming Back From the Dead: Can It Be?
Anti-Clotting Drug Trial Shortened by Bleeding Problems
Washington Post – Jan 25, 2008
26 issue ofThe Lancet. To outside observers that was a depressing repeat of studies reported last September that showed the drug to be effective against deep vein thrombosis and long-term prevention of blood clots but with a high rate of serious bleeding complications. “This is clearly a setback” said Dr. Alan Go associate director for clinical research at Kaiser Permanente of Northern California co-author of an accompanying editorial in the journal. Go like other experts in the field acknowledged that “we are eager to find a replacement for warfarin. It is a remarkably effective drug but challenging to deliver and challenging to take. “Buller said that if all turns out as well as he hopes idraparinux could be a useful alternative for many people who could get the needed anti-clotting activity with a single weekly injection while forgoing the constant blood tests required for warfarin users.
Merck and Schering-Plough Respond To Issues Raised About ENHANCE…
Free with registration – Business Wire – AccessMyLibrary.com – Jan 25, 2008
VYTRIN contains two medicines: ZETIA and Zocor([R]) (simvastatin). It has not been shown to reduce heart attacks or strokes more than simvastatin alone. “More than 20 years of clinical research has demonstrated that lowering LDL cholesterol along with a healthy diet and other therapeutic lifestyle changes is the cornerstone of lipid treatment for patients at risk for heart disease” said Dr. “VYTRIN and ZETIA are important treatment options that can help appropriate patients lower their LDL cholesterol. ” Regarding the ENHANCE trial The ENHANCE study involved 720 patients with a rare form of inherited high cholesterol known as Heterozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia (HeFH) that affects less than 0. 2 percent of the population… An abstract has been submitted on the ENHANCE trial to the American College of Cardiology with the expectation that the data will be presented and discussed in an appropriate scientific context at their annual meeting in March 2008. The companies look forward to participating in rigorous scientific debates on this important issue in the months ahead. “We are committed to conducting clinical research with the highest integrity and quality and reporting the results as quickly as possible” said Dr. “We remain committed to the advancement of the study of high LDL cholesterol its relationship to heart disease and the availability of effective therapies in the interest of patients and healthcare providers everywhere” said Dr. To further clarify issues surrounding the timeline of the ENHANCE study a chronology of events is attached.
Protein That Controls Hair Growth Also Keeps Stem Cells Slumbering
Science Daily – Science Daily (press release) – Jan 25, 2008
It may also be key in developing new treatments for thinning hair. The impetus for the work began five years ago when Elaine Fuchs head of the Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development and several researchers in her lab discovered that the protein NFATc1 was one of only a few that are highly expressed within the stem cell compartment of the hair follicle. Clinical research meanwhile showed that a particular immunosuppressant that inhibits NFATc1 a drug called cyclosporine A has a rather unsightly side effect: excessive hair growth. Fuchs and Valerie Horsley a postdoc in her lab realized that there was a connection between the drug’s side effect and the abundance of NFATc1 within the hair follicle’s stem cell compartment — the bulge. The mice they treated with the drug grew fur at a much faster rate than mice they did not treat. The researchers then showed that this excessive hair growth was due to increased stem cell activity within the bulge a process that cranked up the production of hair. Specifically the hair cycle shifted gears from its resting phase when stem cells slumber to its growth phase when stem cells proliferate.
Ayurveda institute on the lines of AIIMS to be set up
Hindu – Jan 25, 2008
It will focus on fundamental research drug safety evaluation standardisation quality control and scientific validation of Ayurvedic medicines. The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The institute will offer post-graduate and doctoral teaching and have a 200-bed research and referral hospital to facilitate clinical research. It would be initially set up as an autonomous registered body of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with the objective of raising it to the status of deemed university in 10 years. The project is scheduled to be completed within the 11th Plan period. The hospital will be operational within three years. Research and development activities and academic programmes would be developed later.
ABC News: Coming Back From the Dead: Can It Be?
ABC News – Jan 25, 2008
Historically doctors have defined clinical death as the point at which either the heart irreversibly stops beating or the brain shows no signs of activity according to Dr. Benjamin Abella the center’s clinical research director. “But researchers ? now believe there’s a third state of being that hovers somewhere between life and death — a place where most of the body’s cells are still alive but neither of these two classical signs of life are present” Dr. How can medicine bring patients back from that state without causing irreversible damage to the cells?”It used to be thought that getting someone back as quickly as possible with CPR defibrillation and warming ? was the best approach” said Dr.
