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Health - Pharmacology - 01.12.2022

’Smart contact lens’ to detect eye infections
Using the new -smart contact lens- could prevent deaths caused by fungal eye infections in developing countries Currently, detecting which bacteria or fungus is present in an eye infection is an invasive and lengthy process - the new test would involve the patient wearing the special lens for an hour, with the results determined soon afterwards It will also cut down on the misprescribing of antibiotics, helping in the fight to reduce antibiotic resistance A pioneering -smart contact lens- to test for eye infections in a quick, non-invasive way is being developed.

Health - Pharmacology - 01.12.2022

Coronavirus drug target identified that could halt virus replication
Structural details of an attractive drug target in coronaviruses that could be used against SARS-CoV-2 and in future pandemics have been published by international teams co-led by UCL researchers. Two new studies published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences and eLife reveal pockets in an important piece of the virus' machinery that drugs could bind to in order to halt virus replication.

Pharmacology - Health - 01.12.2022

Opioid-involved car crashes plummeted following efforts to curb use
The number of non-fatal car accidents that involve prescription opioids has dropped significantly in recent years, suggesting efforts to curb use are working. People taking prescription opioids are more than twice as likely to be involved in a car accident than those who aren-t, research has shown. In fact, between the early 1990s and early 2010s, as opioid use rose sharply in the United States, the number of fatalities among drivers using prescription opioids increased seven-fold.

Pharmacology - Health - 01.12.2022

Opioid-involved car crashes decrease following efforts to curb use
The number of non-fatal car accidents that involve prescription opioids has dropped significantly in recent years, suggesting efforts to curb use are working. People taking prescription opioids are more than twice as likely to be involved in a car accident than those who aren-t, research has shown. In fact, between the early 1990s and early 2010s, as opioid use rose sharply in the United States, the number of fatalities among drivers using prescription opioids increased seven-fold.

Life Sciences - Pharmacology - 29.11.2022

COPD patients have a higher risk of brain problems, possibly due to inflammation
Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have a higher chance of suffering from brain-related problems such as anxiety, depression and memory problems. PhD candidate Charlotte Pelgrim discovered that inflammation in the brain and a less protective barrier of the blood vessels in the brain may play a role.

Health - Pharmacology - 25.11.2022

Fighting depression with personalised medicine
MHH psychiatry coordinates largest German study to improve depression treatment Using biomarkers to find individual diagnostic and therapeutic paths - what already works in oncology is also to become possible in psychiatry. Under the leadership of Professor Dr Helge Frieling, Vice Head of the Department of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the Hannover Medical School (MHH), a national research network is now being launched that aims to tailor the treatment of depression more closely to the individual patient than before.

Health - Pharmacology - 24.11.2022

Protein shapes indicate Parkinson’s disease
Researchers have found that a set of proteins have different shapes in the spinal fluid of healthy individuals and Parkinson's patients. These could be used in the future as a new type of biomarker for this disease. Many human diseases can be detected and diagnosed using biomarkers in blood or other body fluids.

Health - Pharmacology - 23.11.2022

Diabetes: do some sport!
Regular exercise may protect pancreatic beta cells from stresses that contribute to diabetes. Researchers from the ULB Center for Diabete Research observed this in a study published in Diabetologia . Diabetes is characterized by a progressive loss of pancreatic beta cells, the same cells that produce insulin and thus maintain the right level of sugar in the blood.

Pharmacology - Health - 23.11.2022

Cold shivers?
Due to the Western lifestyle with a high fat diet combined with little exercise, more and more people in the Netherlands are overweight or even obese. This causes an increased risk of type II diabetes. What can be done about this besides a healthier lifestyle? The answer comes from an unexpected source: shivering from the cold! Apart from the fact that this mechanism ensures that your body stays a bit warm, it also appears to improve sugar metabolism in type II diabetes patients.

Pharmacology - Health - 22.11.2022

Performance-enhancing pill
Increasing numbers of young people reportedly make regular use of low doses of LSD or other illegal substances to improve their cognition. Disquiet among parents and educational institutions is growing. Nadia Hutten investigated this phenomenon during her PhD, supervised by Professor Jan Ramaekers. How dangerous is this type of 'microdosing'- And does it actually enhance students' performance? No, Hutten has never used drugs to improve her own mood or cognition.

Pharmacology - Health - 22.11.2022

New study brings personalised immunotherapy prescriptions a step closer
Research validates an imaging platform co-developed at CTI-Bath which predicts if a cancer patient would respond well to immunotherapy. In a step likely to advance personalised cancer treatment, scientists have for the first time shown in patients that levels of biomarkers are not enough to tell which patients are likely to respond best to immunotherapy.

Health - Pharmacology - 18.11.2022

PETN reduces risk of preterm birth and hypertension in pregnancy
In about one in twenty pregnant women, ultrasound Doppler measurement in mid-pregnancy reveals that the uterus and placenta are not sufficiently supplied with blood. There is then a risk that the baby will not be adequately supplied by the mother's body and will not develop in time. In the worst case, the baby may die in the womb before birth.

Pharmacology - Health - 18.11.2022

Improving antimicrobial stewardship: RVC research reveals extent of systemic antimicrobial usage in UK equine practice
To mark World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) has released new research using real-world antimicrobial prescription data to investigate the use of systemic antimicrobials in UK equine practice. The research, which is the first of its kind, reveals the extent to which antimicrobials are prescribed to equids and uncovers the lack of routine culture and sensitivity testing, particularly prior to the prescription of the 'last resort' Category B antimicrobials, whose efficacy needs to be preserved for the treatment of serious illnesses in human medicine.

Health - Pharmacology - 17.11.2022

Obesity: research focuses on treatments for secondary diseases
As the number of obese people suffering from related conditions such as liver disease increases, so does the need for research to develop interventions to improve patient care. The Christian Doppler Laboratory, which opened today at MedUni Vienna, is investigating the physiological basis of the consequences of obesity.

Health - Pharmacology - 17.11.2022

Machine learning can help predict patient response to cancer immunotherapy
Predicting which patients will respond well to treatment is a quandary that has plagued the field of cancer immunotherapy for more than four decades. Now, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center and its Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy are one step closer to solving that problem.

Health - Pharmacology - 16.11.2022

Full vaccination more effective than boosters in preventing the spread of Covid
A small increase in the number of people having two vaccines against Covid-19 was more effective in controlling the virus during Europe's fourth wave - when the Omicron variant appeared - than the rapid uptake of booster vaccines, finds a new UCL-led study. Published in the International Journal of Public Health , the study found that a 4.2% increase in the number of people having two doses (full vaccination) led to a 54% reduction in case rates across Europe - despite the detection of the highly infectious Omicron.

Pharmacology - Chemistry - 16.11.2022

Urine reveals our eating habits
We already know that a urine test can establish whether someone has an infection of the urinary tract or has taken illegal drugs. But there are lots more traces to be found in urine - if you know how to read them. Developing and refining techniques to get pointers to a person's eating habits or to harmful substances in their urine is one of the pet projects being pursued by food chemist Prof. Hans-Ulrich Humpf and his working group at the University of Münster.

Health - Pharmacology - 16.11.2022

How an Emerging Drug Class Dampens Harmful Immune Reactions
Although the complement system forms part of the innate immune system, it can cause damage to the body in some cases. This is because unwanted complement activation contributes to many autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases. Now, researchers have described molecular details of a recently approved class of drugs that can inhibit the complement system.

Health - Pharmacology - 16.11.2022

Preventing European cancer epidemic 
Europe will face a cancer epidemic in the next decade if weaknesses in cancer health systems and cancer research are not urgently addressed, say the authors of a major new report. The large-scale collaborative research project, in which the University is a key participant, warns that prioritising cancer research is crucial for European countries to deliver more affordable, higher quality, and more equitable cancer care.

Pharmacology - Health - 15.11.2022

Potential new lead compounds for the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders
Currently, various classes of drugs are available for the treatment of mental illnesses - such as depression and anxiety disorders. However, although these drugs confer benefits, they are also associated with adverse side-effects. Conseqeuntly, medical researchers continuously thrive to improve the pharmacological properties of therapeutic agents to optimize the benefit-to-side-effect ratio.