Researchers identify new target for common heart condition
Researchers have found new evidence that metabolic stress can increase the onset of atrial arrhythmias, such as atrial fibrillation (AF), a common heart condition that causes an irregular and often abnormally fast heart rate. The findings may pave the way for the development of new therapies for the condition which can be expected to affect almost one in four of the UK population at some point in their lifetime. The British Heart Foundation (BHF) study, led by University of Bristol scientists and published in Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology, found that metabolic stress - a condition induced by insufficient oxygen supply to the heart (e.g. following blockage of a coronary artery) - caused marked changes in the electrical activity of the heart's atria (the upper chambers of the heart).
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Cholesterol medicine affects energy production in muscles
Up to 75 per cent of patients who take statins to treat elevated cholesterol levels may suffer from muscle pain. Scientists at the Center for Healthy Aging at the University of Copenhagen have now identified a possible mechanism underlying this unfortunate side effect. The results have just been published in the well-reputed Journal of American College of Cardiology. Statin is a class of drugs which are used to treat high levels of blood cholesterol by way of inhibiting the liver's ability to produce cholesterol. Statins are the most potent drugs on the market for lowering low-density cholesterol (LDL). At present 600,000 Danes with elevated cholesterol levels take statins daily. 30-40 per cent of the older Danish population (ages 65+) are currently undergoing treatment.
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A new type of nerve cell found in the brain
Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, in collaboration with colleagues in Germany and the Netherlands, have identified a previously unknown group of nerve cells in the brain. The nerve cells regulate cardiovascular functions such as heart rhythm and blood pressure. It is hoped that the discovery, which is published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, will be significant in the long term in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases in humans.
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Alzheimer's Disease: Inflammation as a new therapeutic approach
The number of Alzheimer's patients will continue to dramatically increase in the next several decades. Various teams of researchers worldwide are feverishly investigating precisely how the illness develops. A team of scientists under the guidance of the University of Bonn and University of Massachusetts (USA) and with the participation of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases have discovered a new signaling pathway in mice which is involved in the development of chronic inflammation which causes nerve cells in the brain to malfunction and die off. The results are now being published in the renowned scientific journal Nature.
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Innovative Medicines Initiative launches €242.7 million 8th Call For Proposals
Today, the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) is launching its 8th Call for proposals. With a total budget of €242.7 million (€143.3 million cash from IMI, plus a €99.4 million in-kind contribution from participating EFPIA companies), the projects resulting from this Call will tackle some of the biggest challenges in health research. Michel Goldman, IMI Executive Director commented: "These new projects demonstrate that public-private partnerships are essential for taking on the biggest issues in medical research, such as the scourge of antibiotic resistance, and the definition of diseases based on their underlying biology."
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Automated design for drug discovery
A system of 'automated design' for new drugs could help develop the complex therapies needed for many medical conditions while also improving drug safety and efficiency, new research from the University of Dundee has shown. The 'Moneyball' approach taken by the research team utilises the principles of advanced statistical and data analysis which have seen to be increasingly influential in areas as varied as sport, finance and in forecasting the recent US Presidential election.
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New anticoagulant discovered based on the same used by malaria vectors to feed on
An international project lead by the Molecular and Cell Biology Institute of Porto University with the participation of researchers from IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute) has, for the first time ever, deciphered the mechanism by which a substance called anophelin binds to an enzyme (thrombin) involved in the process of blood coagulation. This discovery was published in the last issue of the PNAS journal and opens the door to, on the one hand, designing a new generation of anticoagulant drugs with a totally different functioning to current ones and, on the other hand, fighting against the spreading of malaria by designing inhibitors for this substance.
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