One minute of running per day associated with better bone health in women
A single minute of exercise each day is linked to better bone health in women, new research shows. Scientists from the University of Exeter and the University of Leicester found those who did "brief bursts" of high-intensity, weight-bearing activity equivalent to a medium-paced run for pre-menopausal women, or a slow jog for post-menopausal women, had better bone health.
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New research highlights optimal methods for administering children's medications
New research published today, conducted by a research team from the University of Liverpool and Alder Hey Children's Hospital, aims to help solve the problem of dose optimisation of children's medicines. Medicines can have different effects on different people. The effects in children can vary due to changes that take place as they grow and develop. Historically, there has been very little focus on paediatric clinical pharmacology, and there are still a lot of unknowns with regard to optimally delivering medicines to children.
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A new ligand extends the half-life of peptide drugs from minutes to days
Peptides are biological molecules, made up of short sequences of amino acids. Because they are easy to synthesize, show low toxicity and high efficiency, peptides such as insulin and other hormones can be used as drugs. But peptides are quickly cleared by the kidneys, which means that we can only use peptide drugs that act within minutes. This problem can be overcome by connecting peptides to ligands that bind blood-serum proteins such as albumin, allowing the peptide to linger in the bloodstream longer.
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Antibody against carcinogenic substance deciphered
Summertime is barbecue time. However, when fat reacts with glowing coal, a substance chemists call benzopyrene is created. It is a widespread environmental toxin that can cause cancer in humans. Since buildings were heated with coal and wood for decades, dispersed by chimney smoke, it is now also found in soil and groundwater. A team led by Prof. Arne Skerra from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has deciphered the binding mechanism of an antibody to benzopyrene
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Shortcut method in drug development
The majority of promising new drug candidates are effective only within the body's cells, but quick general methods of determining intracellular drug quantities are lacking. A team of researchers, headed by the Drug Delivery Group at Uppsala University, may now be on the track of a solution through a new, small-scale and fast method of determining a drug's bioavailability (the fraction available to work in biological processes) inside cultured cells.
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Fasting blood sugar and fasting insulin identified as new biomarkers for weight loss
Researchers from the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports at the University of Copenhagen today announced the findings from a weight loss biomarker study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN). The study, "Pretreatment fasting plasma glucose and insulin modify dietary weight loss success: results from 3 randomized clinical trials," found that fasting blood sugar and/or fasting insulin can be used to select the optimal diet and to predict weight loss, particularly for people with prediabetes or diabetes.
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The most efficient option for treating unexplained infertility
An inexpensive fertility drug, which has been available for more than 50 years and can be taken orally, has proved as effective as other more costly hormones when used for ovarian stimulation before intrauterine stimulation (IUI). Investigator Dr Noor Danhof from the AMC Centre for Reproductive Medicine in Amsterdam says the results of the study, a large randomised trial performed in the Netherlands, now make this "least expensive and least invasive stimulation agent" the drug of choice in IUI.
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