Archive for September, 2006
If true, the biggest breakthrough in HIV/AIDS, ever…
Yesterday, Sangamo Biosciences announced, “human immune system cells can be made permanently resistant to HIV infection by treatment with zinc finger DNA-binding protein nucleases” (Sangamo.com)
If this pans out in clinical trials, this will be amazing!
A slate of natural pharmaceutical products are in the works.
When it comes to nutritional supplements, most people equate “natural” to mean “good” and “safe,” but that’s not entirely true. The natural substance Ephedra, for instance, can be deadly. Still, the perception is based on somewhat-sound logic: if it’s found in natural substances, how could it be bad? The key really isn’t [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 3 so far )Feeling sick? Here’s another good reason to eat oatmeal.
You now have one more reason to “eat your oatmeal.”
Oatmeal contains a substance called beta-glucan, which, in addition to its cholesterol-lowering property, also bolsters your immune system. Its structure is so similar to some common bacteria and yeast that our immune system recognizes it as potentially harmful and immediately begins mounting a system-wide immune [...]
Sirtuins: compounds that just might help us live longer and lower heart disease
Semi-recently discovered (circa 2003), naturally occurring compounds called sirtuins are nature’s “emergency crew,” essentially repairing the body and strengthening it from the inside-out during stress.
Sitris Pharma is working on a set of drugs to modulate these sirtuins. Resveratrol, which is found in red wine, is responsible for the “French Paradox.” It activates–but [...]
Mitigating the harmful, potentially lethal, effects of the Sun.
At least a couple of companies are working to mitigate harmful effects of overexposure to the sun.
AGI Dermatics’ lead product Dimericine is thought of as more therapeutic than preventative. Its DNA-repair enzyme T4 endonuclease V can actually go through and fix damaged DNA skin cells. This press release describes it in layman’s terms.
Clinuvel’s (formerly [...]
Novel HIV treatment approaches.
The current HIV treatment approaches primarily rely on inhibiting viral HIV attachment/replication to and within healthy cells. There are a few novel approaches I’d like to note here.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Pozen’s painkiller PN candidate
In the report mentioned in my previous post, the recommendation is to take an acid reflux drug along with naproxen sodium, in order to mitigate the latter’s stomach-acid inducing effect.
Pozen, a nascent biotech, is working on its PN candidate: a combination of naproxen sodium with a protein pump inhibitor (PPI). PPIs buffer stomach acid. Additionally, [...]
Common sense, rather than reliance on medical studies, should prevail.
Unfortunately, as is usually the case with the scientific community, although studies at times seem enlightening, they’re usually not final, or authoritative.
Just three days ago on Sept. 13, 2006, a new report published by the Journal of American Medical Association came out countering the “FDA warns naproxen users” report from Dec. 21, 2004, just under [...]
Why bird flu might not be so devastating after all, if all goes well.
Should it make its way here, or even worse, advance its ability to transmit from human to human, bird flu–the avian H5N1 subtype virus–poses a lethal threat.
Thankfully, there are a number of vaccine and pharmaceutical companies whose products–at various stages in development–have shown early promise (most in pre-clinical trials) in either preventing or successfully treating [...]
Getting at the “root” of Cancer
Cancer, according to the American Cancer Society, “develops when cells in a part of the body begin to grow out of control. Although there are many kinds of cancer, they all start because of out-of-control growth of abnormal cells.”
Those abnormal cells have managed to slip through the body’s cell cycle, a process where the body [...]
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