Benefits of daily aspirin outweigh risk to stomach
Stomach bleeds caused by aspirin are considerably less serious than the spontaneous bleeds that can occur in people not taking the drug, concludes a study led by Cardiff University. Published in the journal Public Library of Science, the extensive study of literature on aspirin reveals that while regular use of the drug increases the risk of stomach bleeds by about a half, there is no valid evidence that any of these bleeds are fatal.
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False alarm from the body may be responsible for acute pancreatitis
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden may have discovered one of the keys to understanding how the body develops acute pancreatitis. The results offer hope for the development of drugs that specifically target the disease. Within gastro research it is a well-known fact that the excessive activation of a type of white blood cells, neutrophils, causes the inflammation of the pancreas. Until now, however, there has been no satisfactory explanation for what causes neutrophil activation. Three research groups at Lund University have worked together to find an answer.
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Promising drug for Parkinson's disease
A drug which has already been in use for decades to treat liver disease could be an effective treatment to slow down progression of Parkinson's disease, scientists from the University of Sheffield have discovered. The pioneering research led by academics from the Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience (SITraN), in collaboration with scientists from the University of York, supports the fast-tracking of the drug ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) for a clinical trial in Parkinson's patients.
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Vitamin C related to reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and early death
New research from the University of Copenhagen and Herlev and Gentofte Hospital shows that high vitamin C concentrations in the blood from the intake of fruit and vegetables are associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and early death. Fruit and vegetables are healthy. We all know that. And now there is yet another good reason for eating lots of it. New research from the University of Copenhagen shows that the risk of cardiovascular disease and early death falls with a high intake of fruit and vegetables, and that this may be dued to vitamin C.
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How removing a protein slows blood vessel growth in tumors
Scientists from the University of Leeds and The Institute of Cancer Research, London, have discovered a new protein which triggers the growth of blood vessels in breast cancer tumours which have spread to the brain, a common location which breast cancer can spread to. Dr Georgia Mavria's team in the School of Medicine at Leeds found that by withholding the DOCK4 protein in mouse models, a particular part of the blood vessel did not form as quickly, meaning tumours grew at a slower rate.
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Brain inflammation targeted in first drug discovery project from £3m Dementia Consortium
Funding worth nearly half a million pounds will unite academics at the University of Southampton with drug discovery experts at the medical research charity MRC Technology, to target the immune system in the hunt for new treatments for Alzheimer's disease. The work is the first to be funded by the Dementia Consortium - a unique £3m drug discovery collaboration between Alzheimer's Research UK, MRC Technology and the pharmaceutical companies Eisai and Lilly. By uniting expertise, this focused cash injection will bridge the gap between academic research and the pharmaceutical industry in the search for new drugs to slow the development of Alzheimer's.
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Restoring natural immunity against cancers
Scientists at the Institut Pasteur and Inserm have successfully increased the infiltration of immune cells into tumors, thus inducing the immune system to block tumor growth. In an article published in Nature Immunology, the scientists show that, in combination with existing immunotherapies, this process efficiently destroys cancer cells. Chemokines are small molecules that can attract immune cells towards inflammatory tissues, acting for example during tumor development or upon infection, in order to support migration of lymphocytes into diseased tissues. However, these molecules may be degraded by enzymes, a process that limits the influx of immune cells.
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