| Novel Basis Identified For Tamoxifen Failure |
| Tamoxifen may worsen breast cancer in a small subset of patients. Research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Breast Cancer Research suggests that in patients who show reduced or absent expression of the protein E-cadherin, commonly used anti-oestrogen drugs such as tamoxifen may promote more harmful cancer cell behaviour. A team of researchers co-ordinated by Dr.
12/04/2008
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| Thyroid Function And Structure May Be Altered In Pediatric Obesity |
| In addition to its strong associations with hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, pediatric obesity may induce alterations in thyroid function and structure, according to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).
12/04/2008
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| Testosterone Levels Reduced By Prostate Cancer Drug In As Little As 3 Days |
| More than 95 per cent of men who took degarelix for prostate cancer saw their testosterone levels fall dramatically as early as three days after they started treatment, according to a paper in the December issue of BJU International. They also experienced much greater falls in their prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels at 14 and 28 days than men taking leuprolide.
12/04/2008
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| Protalix BioTherapeutics Announces Completion Of Enrollment For Its Pivotal Phase III Clinical Trial Of Gaucher Disease |
| Protalix BioTherapeutics, Inc. (Amex: PLX), announced today that it has completed enrollment in the Company's pivotal phase III clinical trial of prGCD, a proprietary plant cell expressed recombinant form of human glucocerebrosidase (GCD) for the treatment of Gaucher disease. Gaucher disease is a rare and serious lysosomal storage disorder in humans. "The completion of enrollment signifies that we are one important step closer to our goal of commercializing prGCD," said Dr.
12/04/2008
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| Study Explains How Hormones Interact With Waist-To-Hip Ratios In Women |
| Having an imperfect body may come with some substantial benefits for some women, according to a new article in the December issue of Current Anthropology. The hormones that make women physically stronger, more competitive and better able to deal with stress also tend to redistribute fat from the hips to the waist, according to Elizabeth Cashdan, an anthropologist at the University of Utah.
12/03/2008
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| TorreyPines Therapeutics Muscarinic Agonist NGX267 Meets Primary Endpoint In A Phase II Clinical Trial In Patients With Xerostomia |
| TorreyPines Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: TPTX) announced positive results from a 26 patient Phase II trial evaluating three doses of NGX267 as a treatment for xerostomia, or dry mouth, in patients with Sjogren's syndrome. NGX267 met the primary endpoint of a statistically significant increase in salivary flow production compared to placebo at all three doses: 10 mg, 15 mg, and 20 mg.
12/03/2008
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| How Do Individuals React To Metabolic Stress? - Genetic Variation In Metabolism Identified |
| Metabolic diseases in particular the increasingly prevalent type 2 diabetes are caused by a complex interaction between genetic disposition and unfavorable lifestyle, above all unbalanced diet and too little physical exercise. Researchers at the Helmholtz Zentrum München have now for the first time been able to show a relationship between the genetic make-up of an individual and differences in his/her metabolism.
11/29/2008
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| Molecular Partnership Controls Daily Rhythms, Body Metabolism |
| A research team led by Mitchell Lazar, MD, PhD, Director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has discovered a key molecular partnership that coordinates body rhythms and metabolism. Lazar and his colleagues, including the study's first author Penn Veterinary Medicine doctoral student Theresa Alenghat, studied a protein called NCoR that modulates the body's responses to metabolic hormones.
11/27/2008
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| For Women With Existing Heart Risk, Estrogen Therapy Could Be Dangerous |
| Hormone therapy could accentuate certain pre-existing heart disease risk factors and a heart health evaluation should become the norm when considering estrogen replacement, new research suggests.
11/26/2008
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| Does Hormone Treatment Predispose Patients To Breast Cancer? |
| Breast cancer, the leading cause of death among women in France, is the most commonly occurring cancer in women. Sporadic breast cancer, which is non-hereditary, turns out to be the most widespread, representing 85 to 90% of all cases, but remains the least well-known. Researchers at CNRS and CEA (1), working with a team from Hôpital Saint-Louis (2), have just discovered the cause of 50% of sporadic breast cancers.
11/22/2008
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| A Key Question For The Uterine Muscles In Pregnancy: To Contract Or Not |
| During pregnancy, the muscles of the uterus are relatively inactive. A switch to an activated state capable of strong contractions is therefore essential prior to the onset of labor. Kathleen Martin and colleagues, at Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, have now provided new insight into the events that prime the uterine muscles for contraction, something that they hope might have implications for the development of therapies for preterm labor (i.e.
11/21/2008
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| Peripheral Fat Breakdown Undermined By Bad Cholesterol |
| The so called bad cholesterol (LDL) inhibits the breakdown of fat in cells of peripheral deposits, according to a study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet. The discovery reveals a novel function of LDL as a regulator of fat turnover besides its well-established detrimental effects in promoting atherosclerosis. The study, which is a collaboration of two research groups at Karolinska Institutet, is published in the open-access journal PLoS ONE.
11/20/2008
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| Pancreatic Insufficiency - Altus Pharmaceuticals Plans To Submit New Drug Application For Trizytek Approval |
| Altus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ALTU) announced today that it is reaffirming its plan to submit a new drug application (NDA) for Trizytek TM (liprotamase) in the first-half of 2009. Trizytek is a non-porcine derived enzyme replacement therapy for patients with pancreatic insufficiency.
11/18/2008
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| Major Breakthrough Transforms Field Of Hormone Receptor Research |
| For decades, scientists have been studying nuclear hormone receptors to gain a better understanding of how they turn genes on and off throughout the body and how they function as key drug targets for a number of diseases, such as diabetes, breast cancer, osteoporosis and high cholesterol. A new UVA Health System study, led by Fraydoon Rastinejad, Ph.D.
11/18/2008
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| Intravail(R) Drug Delivery Technology Provides Unmatched Non-Invasive Delivery Of An Anti-Obesity Peptide |
| Aegis Therapeutics LLC announced today that preclinical data was presented at the 2008 International Congress of Endocrinology in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil demonstrating that its Intravail(R) formulation technology provides unmatched non-invasive delivery of the OB-3 peptide, a peptide previously shown to control weight gain and glucose levels in an animal model of diabetes. The results of the study, presented by Dr.
11/17/2008
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