Green tea cut obesity and a number of inflammatory biomarkers linked with poor health in a new study. Mice fed a diet of 2 percent green tea extract fared far better than those that ate a diet without it, a finding that has prompted an upcoming study of green tea's potential benefits in people at high risk of diabetes and heart disease.
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New cholesterol-lowering drug could help patients unable to take statins
A new class of oral cholesterol-lowering drug could help patients unable to take statins due to side effects. The findings come from the largest study to date to test the effectiveness and safety of bempedoic acid, an oral medication - yet to be approved in Europe - which inhibits the body's ability to create the building blocks of cholesterol.
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When a cell's 'fingerprint' can be a weapon against cancer
A research team led by Nuno Barbosa Morais, group leader at Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes (iMM) in Lisbon, computationally analysed the expression of marker genes that are associated with a "fingerprint" of cancer cells in thousands of tumors and revealed its therapeutic potential in the fight against cancer. The study published in the scientific journal PLoS Computational Biology shows
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Novel treatments offer new hope for patients with autoimmune disease
Autoimmune diseases, including type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis, arise when the body's immune cells attack itself. Current treatments eliminate these misfunctioning immune cells, but also destroy normal, protective immune cells, leaving patients susceptible to immune deficiency and opportunistic infections. Researchers at University of Utah Health have developed a new approach that targets the misfunctioning immune cells while leaving normal immune cells in place.
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Protein content as a marker for response to therapy in brain cancer
Brain tumors vary widely in how they respond to treatment. However, early assessment of therapy response is essential in order to choose the best possible treatment for the patient. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have now been able to show in a study using non-invasive high-resolution 7-Tesla MRI scans that the protein content of tumors correlates with response to treatment and survival.
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Could medical marijuana help grandma and grandpa with their ailments?
Medical marijuana may bring relief to older people who have symptoms like pain, sleep disorders or anxiety due to chronic conditions including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, neuropathy, spinal cord damage and multiple sclerosis, according to a preliminary study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 71st Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, May 4 to 10, 2019.
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New treatment offers potentially promising results for the possibility of slowing, stopping, or even reversing Parkinson's disease
A pioneering clinical trials program that delivered an experimental treatment directly to the brain offers hope that it may be possible to restore the cells damaged in Parkinson's disease. The study investigated whether boosting the levels of a naturally-occurring growth factor, Glial Cell Line Derived Neurotrophic Factor (GDNF), can regenerate dying dopamine brain cells in patients with Parkinson's and reverse their condition, something no existing treatment can do.
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