Popular Articles

Elekta Receives FDA 510 (k) Clearance For Monaco VMAT Treatment Planning Solution
Elekta (STO:EKTAB) has received FDA 510(k) clearance for the VMAT (Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy) enhancement to Monaco®, treatment planning solution.
generic viagra online
Costliest Medicare Markets In Florida, New York, California
U.S. News & World Report examines cost, frequency, and outcomes studies on Medicare patients from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice : "The Dartmouth research is particularly relevant to older Americans because it is based to a large extent on Medicare data, involving patients ages 65 and older. The 2008 atlas, in particular, paints a devastating portrait of Medicare treatments based on an extensive study of Medicare recipients who died from one or more of nine chronic illnesses. Not only are chronic illnesses very expensive to treat, but they"re also the cause of most deaths in the United States. According to the 2008 atlas: More than 90 million Americans live with at least one chronic illness, and 7 out of 10 Americans die from chronic disease. Among the population that receives Medicare, the toll is even greater: About 9 out of 10 deaths are associated with just nine chronic illnesses: congestive heart failure, chronic lung disease, cancer, coronary artery disease, renal failure, peripheral vascular disease, diabetes, chronic liver disease, and dementia."
News of the day
2009/044 NICE Issues Final Guidance On The Use Of Rituximab For First Line Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has today (22 July) published guidance on the use of rituximab for the first line treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. The guidance recommends that rituximab should be considered asa possible first treatment for people with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia who are able to take fludarabine in combination with cyclophosphamide.
Mental Health

Yale Researchers Suggests Gene Inhibition May Help Normalize Type 2 Diabetes

In research that could lead to new approaches for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, a Yale School of Medicine team has found that suppressing a liver enzyme that induces glucose production helped diminish the symptoms of the disease in a rat model - reducing blood glucose concentrations, decreasing rates of glucose production in the liver, and improving insulin sensitivity. Decreasing expression of the gene, Sirtuin 1, also lowered total cholesterol levels. The research appears in the June 15-19 Online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Type 2 diabetes is characterized by high blood glucose concentrations and insulin resistance, which play a major factor in causing the disease. In the U.S., rates of type 2 diabetes have doubled since 1990, and the Centers for Disease Control calls the disease an epidemic. Formerly known as "adult-onset diabetes," the disorder is increasingly diagnosed in children. The Yale researchers put the rats on a four-week diet of fructose and high-fat meals to create a metabolic condition that mimics type 2 diabetes. At the same time, they inhibited expression of the Sirtiun 1 gene through injection of an antisense oligonucleotide (short fragments of nucleic acid that inactivate gene expression) specifically targeted to that gene. "Blood glucose levels in the rats came down close to normal, as did their ability to regulate blood glucose levels with insulin," said first author Derek Erion, a graduate student in cellular and molecular physiology at Yale. The authors believe the falling plasma cholesterol levels that also resulted may be attributed to increased cholesterol uptake and export from the liver, due to suppression of key enzymes involved in cholesterol metabolism. Senior author Gerald Shulman, MD, said the results indicate that inhibiting Sirtuin 1 in the liver may be an attractive approach for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. "With this disorder, diet and exercise only get you so far," he said. "Many patients may need drug intervention to avoid suffering the debilitating effects of type 2 diabetes." Shulman is the George R. Cowgill Professor of Physiological Chemistry, Medicine and Cellular and Molecular Physiology at Yale and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Other authors include: Shin Yonemitsu, Yoshio Nagai and Matthew P. Gillum of the Yale School of Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Jennifer J. Hsiao, Takanori Iwasaki, Romana Stark, Dirk Weismann, Varman T. Samuel, Tamas. L. Horvath and Qian Gao of Yale School of Medicine; Xing Xian Yu, Susan F. Murray, Sanjay Bhanot and Brett P. Monia of Isis Pharmaceuticals in Carlsbad, CA. The work above was funded in part by the Yale Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) grant from the National Center for Research Res at the National Institutes of Health. Yale University


Add your comment:
Name:
Site address: http://
Your message:
Enter today\\\\'s date, 2 digits
(spam protection):