Tag Archives: china

Potential treatment for drug-resistant H7N9 influenza virus

"Emergence of a novel drug-resistant H7N9 influenza virus: Evidence-based clinical potential of a natural IFN-alpha for infection control and treatment" is set to publish in an early online edition of January’s Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy journal. Richt is a regents distinguished professor and Kansas Bioscience Authority eminent scholar at Kansas State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. He also is the director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Diseases, or CEEZAD, at the university…

Cigarette smoking after cancer diagnosis increases risk of death

Compared with men who did not smoke after a cancer diagnosis, those who smoked after diagnosis had a 59 percent increase in risk of death from all causes, after adjusting for factors including age, cancer site, and treatment type. When limited to men who were smokers at diagnosis, those who continued smoking after diagnosis had a 76 percent increase in risk of death from all causes compared with those who quit smoking after a diagnosis…

Smoking increases risk of death for nasopharyngeal carcinoma survivors

"While it is established that tobacco smoke is a risk factor for nasopharyngeal carcinoma [the most common cancer arising from the upper part of the throat behind the nose and near the base of skull], its role in influencing survival of patients with established cancers is not known," said Fang-Yun Xie, M.D., professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center in Guangzhou, China. …

Peptide derived from cow’s milk kills human stomach cancer cells in culture

"Gastric cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide, especially in Asian countries," says Wei-Jung Chen, PhD, of the Department of Biotechnology and Animal Science of National Ilan University, Taiwan Republic of China. "In general, the main curative therapies for gastric cancer are surgery and chemotherapy, which are generally only successful if the cancer is diagnosed at an early stage. Novel treatment strategies to improve prognosis are urgently needed." Investigators evaluated the effects of three peptide fragments derived from lactoferricin B, a peptide in milk that has antimicrobial properties. …

Immune system discovery could lead to vaccine to prevent mono, some cancers

EBV causes infectious mononucleosis and cancers such as Hodgkin’s lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma, which is the most common cancer in China, as well as opportunistic cancers in people with weakened immune systems. A member of the herpes virus family that remains in the body for life, the virus infects epithelial cells in the throat and immune cells called B cells. The researchers discovered that the virus triggers molecular events that turn off key proteins, making infected cells invisible to the natural killer T (NKT) immune cells that seek and destroy EBV-infected cells. "If you can force these invisible proteins to be expressed, then you can render infected cells visible to NKT cells, and defeat the virus. …

Treat the fungus among us with nontoxic medicinal compound

Govindsamy Vediyappan, assistant professor of biology, noticed that diabetic people in developing countries use a medicinal herb called Gymnema slyvestre to help control sugar levels. He decided to study the microbiological use of Gymnema slyvestre — a tropical vine plant found in India, China and Australia — to see if it could treat a common human fungal pathogen called Candida albicans. The investigation was successful on two levels: Vediyappan’s research team found the medicinal compound is both nontoxic and blocks the virulence properties of the fungus so that it is more treatable. The results are important for human health, biomedical applications and potential drug development. …

Scientists analyze genetic makeup of human and mouse embryos in amazing detail

The technique could lead to earlier and more accurate diagnoses of genetic diseases, even when the embryo consists of only eight cells. The study was led by Guoping Fan, professor of human genetics and molecular biology and member of both the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research. The findings were published in the online edition of the journal Nature and will appear later in the print edition…