The News Review:
- Israeli studies offer solutions for infertility
- Medical Students And AARP Fight To End Gifts From Pharmaceutical…
- Key study offers hope to patients with lung and joint disease
- Saw palmetto no better than placebo for enlarged prostate
- FALL ARTS CALENDAR - New York Times
Israeli studies offer solutions for infertility
Israel 21C - Sep 3, 2006
In the other Israeli study, which also has upended conventional wisdom, researchers at the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem have discovered that the immune system’s primary function as a destroyer of foreign invaders is complemented by an ability to build as well. This previously unknown function plays a major role in fetal development and pregnancy, with important implications for conditions that cause pre-eclampsia and miscarriages. Their breakthrough findings were published in Nature Medicine. “Our research revealed that Natural Killer (NK) cells of the immune system are positive regulators of human cells, in addition to their well-known killing activity that eliminates infected cells, tumor cells and foreign bodies,” said Prof. Simcha Yagel, a senior physician in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Hadassah University Hospital-Mt. “This positive regulation stimulates the immune system to secrete special growth factors and triggers the tremendous uterine blood vessel widening necessary for the growth and development of the placenta.
Medical Students And AARP Fight To End Gifts From Pharmaceutical…
Medical News Today - Sep 3, 2006
“Because it often prompts doctors to prescribe drugs that they otherwise would not, the pharmaceutical industry devotes a considerable portion of its marketing budget to these kinds of gifts,” says AMSA President Jay Bhatt. “But we believe the practice is unethical and unnecessarily increases the costs of prescription drugs in this country. The introduction and passage of the New York State Pharmaceutical Drug Manufacturer and Wholesaler Disclosure Act will raise awareness of this common practice by forcing physicians to disclose the nature, extent and impact of their relationships with drug companies. Recent and overwhelming research indicates that the interaction with pharmaceutical sales representatives influences the prescribing habits of physicians in ways that are not always in the best interest of patients. AMSA, the country’s largest independent organization of physicians-in-training, believes that physicians should rely on objective, evidence-based information to make prescription decisions, and that the involvement of pharmaceutical sales representatives is inappropriate. AMSA is the only national medical professional organization that accepts absolutely no pharmaceutical advertisements or sponsorship from any pharmaceutical company. In 2002, AMSA launched the PharmFree Campaign to educate and train medical students to ethically interact with the pharmaceutical industry… ” About the American Medical Student AssociationThe American Medical Student Association (AMSA), with more than a half-century history of medical student activism, is the oldest and largest independent association of physicians-in-training in the United States. Founded in 1950, AMSA is a student-governed, non-profit organization committed to representing the concerns of physicians-in-training. With more than 68,000 members, including medical and premedical students, residents and practicing physicians, AMSA is committed to improving medical training as well as advancing the profession of medicine. AMSA focuses on four strategic priorities, including universal healthcare, disparities in medicine, diversity in medicine and transforming the culture of medical education. To learn more about AMSA, our strategic priorities, or joining the organization, please visit us online at:.
Key study offers hope to patients with lung and joint disease
EurekAlert - EurekAlert (press release) - Sep 3, 2006
A new study in Nature Medicine journal shows that certain drugs, already being tested as cancer treatments, can dramatically reduce tissue inflammation. The researchers have found that certain non-biological drugs, known as CDK inhibitors, can knock out the inflammatory cells which cause the tissue damage and scarring that leads to organ failure and joint pain. These drugs trigger a process of cell ’suicide’ called apoptosis in which the inflammatory cells, called neutrophils, destroy themselves before being removed by scavenger cells, called macrophages. The Edinburgh scientists have spent years devising ways of inducing apoptosis in specific inflammatory cells while, in parallel, driving macrophages to clear the resultant apoptotic cells more rapidly. Now they have shown that CDK inhibitors, like Roscovitine
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