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It sounds almost too good to be true: a cheap and simple drug that kills almost all cancers by switching off their “immortality”. The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), has already been used for years to treat rare metabolic disorders and so is known to be relatively safe. It also has no patent, meaning it could be manufactured for a fraction of the cost of newly developed drugs. Evangelos Michelakis of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and his colleagues tested DCA on human cells cultured outside the body and found that it killed lung, breast and brain cancer cells, but...

In a discovery that has stunned even those behind it, scientists at a Toronto hospital say they have proof the body's nervous system helps trigger diabetes, opening the door to a potential near-cure of the disease that affects millions of Canadians. Diabetic mice became healthy virtually overnight after researchers injected a substance to counteract the effect of malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas. "I couldn't believe it," said Dr. Michael Salter, a pain expert at the Hospital for Sick Children and one of the scientists. "Mice with diabetes suddenly didn't have diabetes any more." The researchers caution they have yet...

Putting Up with Self Critics warned of bad experiments and false hope. But Denise Faustman seems to be right about a strategy to regrow insulin-making cells killed off in diabetes By Philip E. Ross Five years ago Denise Faustman stunned the biomedical world--and not in a good way, it seemed. She declared that she had cured diabetic mice by getting them to regrow their insulin-producing beta cells, a finding that, if it could be translated to humans, would spare the million-odd Americans with type 1 diabetes their daily needle pricking and insulin dosing. Since her announcement, the academic establishment has...

ASSOCIATED PRESS The largest diabetes prevention study ever done has found that a drug already used to treat the disease also can help keep "pre-diabetics" from developing it. But many experts say losing weight and exercising remain a safer, cheaper approach. The drug, rosiglitazone, or Avandia, appeared to cut the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by more than half, doctors reported Friday. Type 2 is the most common form of diabetes, afflicting more than 200 million people worldwide. Avandia also helped restore normal blood-sugar function in many of those who took it. A second part of the study found...

We have always been told there is no recovery from persistent vegetative state - doctors can only make a sufferer's last days as painless as possible. But is that really the truth? ...For three years, Riaan Bolton has lain motionless, his eyes open but unseeing. After a devastating car crash doctors said he would never again see or speak or hear. Now his mother, Johanna, dissolves a pill in a little water on a teaspoon and forces it gently into his mouth. Within half an hour, as if a switch has been flicked in his brain, Riaan looks around his...

· Technique renders pathogens benign· Crop and animal diseases could also be targeted Scientists have taken a big step towards a new generation of antibiotics by designing compounds that stop bacteria "talking to each other", thwarting their ability to spread infection. The revolutionary approach renders bacteria benign rather than killing them off, and comes as many antibiotics are losing their potency against pathogens which have developed drug resistance.Tests showed the compounds actively blocked the spread of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a common bacterium which causes fatal lung infections in people with cystic fibrosis and leads to life-threatening blood infections in patients with...

We have always been told there is no recovery from persistent vegetative state - doctors can only make a sufferer's last days as painless as possible. But is that really the truth? Across three continents, severely brain-damaged patients are awake and talking after taking ... a sleeping pill. And no one is more baffled than the GP who made the breakthrough. Steve Boggan witnesses these 'strange and wonderful' rebirths For three years, Riaan Bolton has lain motionless, his eyes open but unseeing. After a devastating car crash doctors said he would never again see or speak or hear. Now his...

Glaxo has bird flu 'breakthrough' The threat of a bird flu pandemic has companies racing for a cure UK drugs firm GlaxoSmithKline believes it has developed a vaccine for the H5N1 deadly strain of bird flu that may be capable of being mass produced by 2007.The vaccine has proved effective at two doses of 3.8 micrograms during clinical trials in Belgium, BBC business editor Robert Peston has learned. It is the size of the dose that is highly significant, Glaxo explained. Firms want the smallest effective dose so that they can get the maximum number of shots out of...

Close window Published online: 25 June 2006; | doi:10.1038/news060619-14 Brain can be made to self-repair Triggering stem-cell growth could help brain recover after a stroke.Helen PearsonStimulating a protein on the surface of the brain's stem cells helps rats recover after a stroke, US researchers have found. The discovery suggests that in humans it could be possible to provoke the body's own stem cells into repairing an injury, rather than laboriously growing and transplanting new cells. Researchers believe that many of the body's tissues harbour stem cells capable of dividing to make new tissue. But some of these are recalcitrant...

An arthritis drug shows promise in a small, experimental study targeting a root cause of Alzheimer's -- inflammation in the brain. WALTER Skotchdopole worked for 20 years as a police officer and 20 years in the film industry before succumbing to the relentless decline of Alzheimer's disease. In his prime, he joked with everyone he met. By his early 70s, he had become a shell of his former self. "He's there, but he's not," says his son James Skotchdopole. "There's no real interaction, no real stake in life." Walter Skotchdopole had tried several drugs, with no noticeable improvement. But when...

Roughly one fifth of older Americans suffer from adult-onset diabetes. This form of the disease, also known as type 2 diabetes, arises when insulin-producing cells in the pancreas fail to make enough of the hormone, or cells in the body become resistant to its influence, causing blood sugar levels to rise. This surge, in turn, can lead to potentially life threatening effects. The Western medicine chest currently holds no cure for type 2 diabetes, though treatments can preserve and prolong life. But taking a cue from traditional Chinese medicine, researchers have uncovered a specific chemical from the fruit of the...

HALLE, Germany, May 16 (UPI) -- German scientists have reported synthesizing a compound that dramatically decreases damage to neurons in rats demonstrating stroke symptoms. Stroke is the third-leading cause of death in the United States and the most common cause of adult disability. An ischemic stroke occurs when a cerebral vessel occludes, obstructing blood flow to a portion of the brain. There is only one approved stroke therapy -- tissue plasminogen activator, which targets the thrombus within the blood vessel. Because of the lack of available stroke treatments, neuroprotective agents have also generated as much interest as thrombolytic therapies. The...

Scientists have identified a new molecule that inhibits proliferation of a broad range of lethal malignant glioma cells in vitro and in vivo. The findings, published in the May issue of Cancer Cell, shed light on which PI3 kinase family members are most likely to play a role in cancer progression. This study reinforces the concept that successful small molecule kinase inhibitors must display a broad reactivity to effectively attenuate the complex signaling pathways involved in malignant transformation and to thwart to the ability of cancer cells to adapt to stress. Lipid kinases belonging to the PI3 kinase family, made...

In 1980, a man from a small town called Limone Sul Garda in northern Italy went to a doctor for some problem, not heart related. Testing of his blood showed very high levels of triglycerides, and very low levels of HDL, the good form of cholesterol. By all rights, the man should have either been dead from, or in imminent danger of a heart attack. But his arteries were clear. Analysis of his blood showed he had a very special form of Lipoprotein, a type of HDL. And further work with this particular type of Lipoprotein revealed astounding results. In...

A nasal spray that is claimed to be the first clinically proven treatment to stop a common cold from fully developing goes on sale next month. Procter & Gamble said its Vicks First Defence can both reduce the chance of developing a full-blown cold and the severity of symptoms. After initial infection by a cold virus, sufferers become aware of a cold developing, marked by a scratchy throat, sneezing and feeling unwell. Research shows this incubation period, which can last two days before full-blown symptoms develop, offers an opportunity to inhibit the virus before it takes hold. The spray contains...

It's a miracle: mice regrow hearts 29aug05 SCIENTISTS have created "miracle mice" that can regenerate amputated limbs or damaged vital organs, making them able to recover from injuries that would kill or permanently disable normal animals. The experimental animals are unique among mammals in their ability to regrow their heart, toes, joints and tail. And when cells from the test mouse are injected into ordinary mice, they too acquire the ability to regenerate, the US-based researchers say. Their discoveries raise the prospect that humans could one day be given the ability to regenerate lost or damaged organs, opening up...

BRITISH scientists are developing a revolutionary vaccine that works against all types of flu, the UK DAILY MAIL fronts on Friday. It would protect people against flu and a single jab could give lifelong immunity. Currently, new vaccines have to be developed each year. The major breakthrough has been made by the Cambridge biotech firm Acambis. When it announced the news yesterday the value of its shares jumped by 9p. Such a vaccine would be massively lucrative for its manufacturer. Each year, flu kills up to 12,000 people in the UK, many of them elderly. But experts have been warning...

New drug blocks HIV from entering cells07/07/2005 The Asahi Shimbun A durable new drug that prevents HIV from entering human cells and causes almost no side effects has been developed by a team of researchers at Kumamoto University. The new drug, code named AK602, was reported by the research team's leader, Hiroaki Mitsuya, at the International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific in Kobe on Tuesday. The drug's main feature is that it shuts out the AIDS virus at the point when it tries to intrude into a human cell. Current AIDS medicines can lose their effectiveness in...