Safe to treat dementia patients with clot-busting drugs
Stroke patients with dementia treated with intravenous thrombolysis using powerful clot-busting drugs are at no higher risk of brain haemorrhage or death than other patients receiving the same treatment, a study from Karolinska Institutet published in the journal Neurology reports.
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Completing the drug design jigsaw
A powerful new way of analysing how drugs interact with molecules in the body could aid the design of better treatments with fewer side-effects. Most pharmaceuticals work by binding to a small site on the large proteins they target, causing the protein to change shape and so also its activity. To find drugs that act specifically against a protein without also binding to others that are similar - and so causing side effects - it is important to understand this binding site in detail.
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Vitamin D protects against severe asthma attacks
Taking oral vitamin D supplements in addition to standard asthma medication could halve the risk of asthma attacks requiring hospital attendance, according to research led by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). Asthma affects more than 300 million people worldwide and is estimated to cause almost 400,000 deaths annually.
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Tracking the body's mini-shuttles
The development of a new technique for labelling the body's own transporters - exosomes - could have long term benefits in the treatment of life-threatening medical conditions, including cancer. A team of researchers at Cardiff University's Schools of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Medicine, and Biosciences, together with the Basque Foundation for Science in Spain, has discovered a new way of tagging these nanobodies that are made naturally by cells.
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Study finds being in a good mood for your flu jab boosts its effectiveness
New research by a team of health experts at the University of Nottingham has found evidence that being in a positive mood on the day of your flu jab can increase its protective effect. Flu vaccination is estimated to only be effective in 17-53% of older adults compared to 70-90% of younger people. With the onset of winter and so-called 'flu season', the research is likely to be of interest to everyone having their autumn flu jab.
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Danish discovery can pave the way for more effective cholesterol medicine
More than 600,000 Danes are being treated with cholesterol lowering medicine. 98 per cent of them are treated with statins, which curb the body's own production of cholesterol so that the level of cholesterol falls. However, statins also give rise to the body forming more of a harmful protein - known as PCSK9 - which counters the effect of the statins.
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Cell-based therapy success could be boosted by new antioxidant
Cell therapies being developed to treat a range of conditions could be improved by a chemical compound that aids their survival, research suggests. Lab tests found that the man-made molecule - a type of antioxidant - helps to shield healthy cells from damage such as would be caused when they are transplanted into a patient during cell therapy.
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