August 22nd, 2007 by Richard Brassaw
Karen Kaplan’s August 18, Los Angeles Times article, U.S. military practices genetic discrimination in denying benefits, tells how the U.S. Military denies disability benefits to both active and veteran military personnel.
The problem began in 1999, when the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) decided that soldiers with a genetic predisposition for a disease will be denied benefits for that [...]
August 21st, 2007 by Richard Brassaw
A team of researchers at the University of Rochester are exploring the role inflammation plays in Alzheimer’s disease. Like Rheumatoid Arthritis, which causes inflammation and irreparable damage to joints, it appears that there is also an inflammatory mechanism involved in patients with Alzheimer’s disease that is just as destructive.
The inflammation that appears in the brains of [...]
August 20th, 2007 by Richard Brassaw
Dr. Beka Solomon, professor at the Tel Aviv University, wondered if Alzheimer’s disease could be treated through the nasal passage. Her logic was simple. One of the early Alzheimer’s disease signs is a loss of smell, because Alzheimer’s plaques first appear in the olfactory bulb.
She also realized that a harmless bacterial virus, known as ”filamentous phage”, [...]
August 19th, 2007 by Richard Brassaw
The Florida Medical Association (FMA) serves as an advocate for physicians, their patients, and to promote public health. FMA publishes The Journal of the Florida Medical Association and has made the edition that deals with pain management available on-line.
The publication covers the topics of pain evaluation, treatment of pain, addiction, pain management, and the legal & ethical [...]
August 18th, 2007 by Richard Brassaw
Novartis is in the process of recruiting subjects for clinical trials for the drug Lumiracoxib. The clinical trials are to compare the effects of Lumiracoxib, ibuprofen, and placebo on a 24-hour blood pressure profile and on urinary excretions (of eicosanoids in controlled hypertensive) in patients who have osteoarthritis.
Meanwhile, Australia’s equivalent of the FDA, the Therapeutic Goods [...]
August 17th, 2007 by Richard Brassaw
Parkinson’s disease has long been recognized by tremors and a characteristic stiffness and sluggish gait. It has been thought that the cause of the disease was the death of neurons in the mid-brain that produces the neurotransmitter dopamine. The belief was supported by the fact that dopamine is known to help maintain motion control.
Emory University [...]
August 16th, 2007 by Richard Brassaw
Samaritan Pharmaceuticals has been granted a patent for a simple blood test that is capable of predicting and leading to an early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. The U.S. patent is waiting approval.
As stated in the patent’s abstract, “One of the major problems with the diagnosis and treatment of neurological diseases is the inability of clinicians [...]
August 15th, 2007 by Richard Brassaw
Pharmaceutical company, Novartis, produces Exelon that is used in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. A recent Exelon promotional brochure distributed to health-care professionals has caught the eye of the FDA because it is thought to be misleading.
The FDA faxed a warning to Novartis that states that Exelon is associated with numerous risks and that Novartis overstates [...]
August 14th, 2007 by Richard Brassaw
Sadly, a Seattle patient, who was part of a gene therapy clinical trial for inflammatory arthritis, died unexpectedly. As a result the FDA called a halt to the clinical trial.
The company conducting the clinical trial, Targeted Genetics, notified the FDA when the patient died. The clinical trial will remain on hold until the cause for [...]
August 13th, 2007 by Richard Brassaw
The on-line journal, Nature Medicine, reports that scientists from the University of Rochester Medical Center have an unique approach to ridding the brain of amyloid-beta—a protein that has been connected with the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
In a healthy brain, the protein sLRP (soluble low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein) attaches itself to amyloid-beta proteins, then neutralizes them—70-90% of [...]
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