Diabetes drug increases the weight of fetus

When pregnant women take the common diabetes medication metformin throughout pregnancy, it can positioned their kids at increased hazard of having weight problems or obese. Many pregnant women are taking metformin to deal with gestational diabetes or polycystic ovary syndrome PCOS. PCOS increases the risk of developing diabetes and other metabolic problems.

When pregnant women with PCOS or gestational diabetes take metformin, it crosses the placenta and passed to the fetus. According to Liv Guro Engen Hanem, M.D., of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, the children of pregnant women who took metformin or placebo during pregnancy are at risk of weight gain.

Researchers invited parents of 292 children who participated in previous randomized scientific trials to be part of the study. In the preceding trials, pregnant women with PCOS were assigned to take either metformin or a placebo during pregnancy, the researchers wound up reviewing frame mass index BMI and other measurements for 161 children born following the advance studies.

At age four, the children whose mothers had been randomized to metformin at some point of being pregnant tended to weigh greater than the children whose mother took the placebo despite the fact that metformin did not appear to have an effect on birth weight, the trend became apparent whilst children reached six months of age. At age four, the children in metformin group had higher BMI scores and were much more likely to satisfy the criteria for weight problems or overweight than children in placebo group.
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Drug for breast cancer gene

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved drug  for treating metastatic breast cancers linked to the BRCA gene mutation. These mutated genes, called BRCA1 and BRCA2, first came to prominence in five years ago. According to FDA, expanding approval of Lynparza (olaparib) to include use against BRCA-linked tumors that have spread beyond the breast. Lynparza is one of a group of powerful new cancer drugs known as PARP inhibitors, and it's the first such drug to be approved for use against breast cancer.

 This approval demonstrates the current paradigm of developing drugs that target the underlying genetic causes of a cancer, often across cancer types. BRCA mutations are involved in up to one in every four breast cancers that are thought to have a hereditary component. These aberrant genes are also implicated in between 5 and 10 percent of non-hereditary breast tumors. When it's functioning properly, BRCA actually helps repair damaged cellular DNA and prevent tumors, but when BRCA1 and BRCA2 go awry they instead encourage breast cancers.

PARP inhibitor medicines such as Lynparza appear to interfere with the function of mutated BRCA with breast cells, causing them to die rather replicate-slowing tumor growth. The safety and effectiveness of Lynparza for women with advanced BRCA-linked breast cancers was established after a trial on patients. The trial measured the length of time the tumors did not have significant growth after treatment. The median progression-free survival for patients taking Lynparza was 7 months compared to 4.2months for patients taking chemotherapy only.

Common side effects of Lynparza include anemia, low white blood cell counts, nausea, fatigue, vomiting, headache, joint pain, increased susceptibility to colds and other respiratory tract infections, and other effects. Because Lynparza can harm a developing fetus, women are advised to use contraception while on the drug. Women should also not breast-feed while using Lynparza.
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Ebola virus inhibited in cell cultures

When the Ebola virus enters the human cell, its only purpose is to copy itself, fast. First it must copy all its proteins, then its genetic material. But by inhibiting a specific enzyme we rob the Ebola virus of its ability to copy itself. And that may potentially prevent an Ebola infection from spreading.

When Ebola virus ravaged West Africa, where thousands of people died from the extremely infectious Ebola infection. Once you are infected, all you can do is hope that your own immune system is able to kill the infection, because there is no treatment for Ebola presently.

However, the researchers behind the new study have found what is called a new host factor for Ebola virus. It can be described as a small part of the host's-for example the human body's-own cells, which the Ebola virus uses to copy itself and produce more infection. The virus uses the host factor enzyme PP2A-B56 to start producing proteins. So if the researchers switch off PP2A-B56, the virus' ability to copy itself and produce more infection is never 'switched on.

When we inhibit the PP2A-B56 enzyme, we remove the first link in a long process, which ends with Ebola spreading. The Ebola infection in cell cultures where we have inhibited the PP2A-B56 enzyme is 10 times smaller after 24 hours compared to infections where we have not inhibited this enzyme. But because the researchers have so far focused on cell cultures, there is still work to be done before their results can be used to treat people infected with Ebola.

 Initially the researchers hope to be able to test it on animals and, in the long term, develop a drug that inhibits the relevant enzyme.The potential of the new discovery may turn out to work on other viruses too, because the structure of Ebola virus is very similar to the other filoviruses.
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Alternative therapies for antibiotic resistance

Drug development strategies have focused on replacing antibiotics in extreme infections, such as sepsis, where every minute without an effective drug increases the risk of death. But the evolutionary process that brings forth antibiotic resistance doesn't happen nearly as often in those big infections as it does in the multitude of small ones like sinusitis, tonsillitis, bronchitis, and bladder infections.

 Antibiotic prescriptions against those smaller ailments account for about 90 percent of antibiotic use, and so are likely to be the major driver of resistance evolution. Bacteria that survive these many small battles against antibiotics grow in strength and numbers to become formidable armies in big infections, like those that strike after surgery.  It is advisable to give antibiotics less often and preserve their effectiveness for when they're really needed.

E. coli is widespread in the human gut, and some strains secrete enzymes that thwart antibiotics, while other strains don't.
 A broad-spectrum antibiotic can kill off more of the vulnerable, less dangerous bacteria, leaving the more dangerous and robust bacteria to propagate. Much too often, superbugs have made their way into hospitals in someone's intestines, where they had evolved high resistance through years of occasional treatment with antibiotics for small infections. Then those bacteria have infected patients with weak immune systems.

Drug developers facing dwindling antibiotic effectiveness against evolved bacteria have looked for multiple alternate treatments. Developing non-antibiotic therapies for strep throat, bladder infections, and bronchitis could prove easier, thus encouraging pharmaceutical investment and research.

For example, one particular kind of strep bacteria , group A streptococci, is responsible for the vast majority of bacterial upper respiratory infections. People often carry it without it breaking out. Strep bacteria secrete compounds that promote inflammation and bacterial spread. If an anti-virulence drug could fight the secretions, the drug could knock back the strep into being present but not sickening.

Strep infection can lead to rheumatic heart disease, a deadly condition that is very rare in the industrialized world. Some push-back against virulent bacteria until the body's immune system can take care of it. Developing a spray-on treatment with bacteriophages, viruses that attack bacteria can prevent the resistance.
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Abilify MyCite for treating schizophrenia

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first drug with a digital ingestion tracking system. Abilify MyCite (aripiprazole tablets with sensor) has an ingestible sensor embedded in the pill that records that the medication was taken. The product is approved for the treatment of schizophrenia, acute treatment of manic and mixed episodes associated with bipolar I disorder and for use as an add-on treatment for depression in adults.

The system works by sending a message from the pill’s sensor to a wearable patch. The patch transmits the information to a mobile application so that patients can track the ingestion of the medication on their smart phone. Patients can also permit their caregivers and physician to access the information through a web-based portal. Being able to track ingestion of medications prescribed for mental illness may be useful for some patients.

Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe and disabling brain disorder. Symptoms of those with schizophrenia include hearing voices, believing other people are reading their minds or controlling their thoughts, and being suspicious or withdrawn. Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is another brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks.

The symptoms of bipolar disorder include alternating periods of depression and high or irritable mood, increased activity and restlessness, racing thoughts, talking fast, impulsive behavior and a decreased need for sleep. Abilify MyCite contains a Boxed Warning alerting health care professionals that elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis treated with antipsychotic drugs are at an increased risk of death.

Abilify MyCite is not approved to treat patients with dementia-related psychosis. The Boxed Warning also warns about an increased risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children, adolescents and young adults taking antidepressants. The safety and effectiveness of Abilify MyCite have not been established in pediatric patients. Patients should be monitored for worsening and emergence of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Abilify MyCite must be dispensed with a patient Medication Guide that describes important information about the drug’s uses and risks.

In the clinical trials for Abilify, the most common side effects reported by adults taking Abilify were nausea, vomiting, constipation, headache, dizziness, uncontrollable limb and body movements (akathisia), anxiety, insomnia, and restlessness. Skin irritation at the site of the MyCite patch placement may occur in some patients.
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Link between immune systems and drinking behaviour

Alcohol is the world's most commonly consumed drug, human body's circadian rhythms affect the reward signals we receive in the brain from drug-related behaviour, and the peak time for this reward occurs in the evening.

There is a link between the brain's immune system and the desire to drink alcohol in the evening. Researchers were able to switch off the impulse to drink alcohol in mice by giving them a drug that blocks a specific response from the immune system in the brain.

The researchers focused their attention on the immune receptor Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). They administered the drug (+)-Naltrexone, which is known to block TLR4, to mice. Naltrexo is used to reduce the amount and frequency of drinking.

They discovered reduction in alcohol drinking behaviour in mice that had been given (+)-Naltrexone, specifically at night when the reward for drug-related behaviour is high. Blocking a specific part of the brain's immune system substantially decrease the motivation of mice to drink alcohol in the evening.
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Cell can makes or breaks your habits

Some habits are useful and healthy like drinking enough water everyday, eating of fruits and vegetables while habits like eating a cookie every day after work, smoking after meal and excess consumption of alcohol are not healthy.

Neuroscientists have identified a single type of neuron in the brain that serves as a master controller of habits. The team found that habit formation increases the activity of this influential cell, and that shutting it down with a drug is enough to break habits in sugar-seeking mice.

This cell exerts its control through a web of connections to more populous cells that are known to drive habitual behavior. This cell is a relatively rare cell but heavily connected to the main neurons that relay the outgoing message for this brain region. We find that this cell is a master controller of habitual behavior, and it appears to do this by re-arranging the message sent by the outgoing neurons.

The scientists trained healthy mice to receive a tasty treat every time they pressed a lever. Many mice developed a lever-pressing habit, continuing to press the lever even when it no longer dispensed treats. The team compared the brain activity of mice who had developed a lever-pressing habit with those who hadn't. They focused on an area deep within the brain called the striatum, which contains two sets of neural pathways: a "go" pathway, which incites an action, and a "stop" pathway, which inhibits action.

They discovered that the go and stop pathways were stronger in habit-driven mice. Habit formation also shifted the relative timing of the two pathways, making the go pathway fire before the stop. The fast-spiking interneuron in striatum FSI might serve as master conductor of the widespread changes in the outgoing neurons activity. The FSI belongs to a class of neurons responsible for relaying messages located between other types of neurons in a particular brain region.

Though FSIs make up about only one percent of the cells in the striatum, they grow long branch-like tendrils that link them up to the 95 percent of neurons that trigger the stop and go pathways. Forming a habit appeared to make the FSIs more excitable. After giving the mice a drug that decreases the firing of FSIs, they discovered that the stop and go pathways reverted to their previous brain activity patterns, and the habit behavior disappeared. Harmful behaviors like compulsion and addiction in humans might involve corruption of the normally adaptive habit -learning mechanisms.
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Effects of long, mysterious strip of RNA on sperm count

Scientists have discovered part of genetic material known as lncRNAs that help sperm develop. Male mice lacking a particular lncRNA have low sperm count, this shows that lncRNAs could represent novel infertility drug targets.

The strands, called long non-coding RNAsor lncRNAs don't seem to encode proteins, but have been implicated in everything from cancer to brain function. Many are located in the testes, suggesting they could contribute to infertility.

Researchers collected and measured lncRNA levels during the process of cellular differentiation that leads to sperm production. They found that specific lncRNAs are associated with each stage of sperm development.

The researchers also identified lncRNAs and mRNAs that are testes-specific -- that is, not found in other human or mouse tissues. Genetically-modified male mice lack one particular lncRNA. They used these mice to assess how the loss of this one lncRNA affects overall mouse fertility.

 Mice provide a model to study human sperm development as the process is highly conserved between the two species. Researchers discovered massive changes in lncRNAs produced in cells that eventually increase mouse sperm. Each stage of sperm development was associated with different lncRNAs. This shows that lncRNAs are important for creating complex biological process.

Many of the lncRNAs were strictly found in mouse testes, a subset of lncRNAs are able to escape gene silencing processes that help turn off unnecessary genes on the X and Y sex chromosomes during sperm development. The X and Y sex chromosomes determine whether a sperm will produce a male or female embryo. lncRNA could serve as a potential therapeutic target for male infertility drugs.
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Idhifa drug for treatment of acute myeloid leukemia

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Idhifa (enasidenib), an isocitrate dehydrogenase-2 inhibitor for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with an isocitrate dehydrogenase-2 (IDH2) mutation as detected by an FDA-approved test.

Idhifa is a prescription medicine used to treat people with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with an isocitrate dehydrogenase-2 (IDH2) mutation whose disease has come back or has not improved after first treatment.

Enasidenib is an active ingredient in Idhifa while the inactive ingredients are: colloidal silicon dioxide, hydroxypropyl cellulose, hypromellose acetate succinate, iron oxide yellow, magnesium stearate, microcrystalline cellulose, polyethylene glycol, polyvinyl alcohol, sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium starch glycolate, talc and titanium dioxide

The drug may cause serious side effects like:nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, jaundice and lack of appetite.
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Reasons for deadly resistance in lung cancer and melanoma

Researchers have discovered why some lung cancer and melanoma develop deadly resistance to targeted therapies.
 Intricate DNA sequencing tests was performed on single cells using genetic models of lung cancer and melanoma.

Lung cancer and melanoma are amongst the hardest to treat of all the cancers because of their capacity to change their genetics and developing resistance to targeted therapies.

 Researchers used animal models from tumours derived from patients and single-cell genomics to develop a hypothetical model of resistance, known as "fitness threshold model," that shows why and how resistance to therapy occurs in lung and melanoma cancer.

Tumours like melanoma and lung cancers can grow back shortly after therapy, but when they do they are made of genetically diverse sub-groups of malignant cell that are resistant to treatment.

The genetic diversity of the lung cancer  and melanoma tumour allow them to adapt to the treatment and resist it. The effect of a given drug with the selection of resistance-causing alterations in DNA, resulting in significant implications for the treatment of cancer patients.

The way the drugs are administered during therapy can have a critical impact on the outcome of the response to treatment; intermittent administration enables simultaneous delivery of multiple targeted therapies while maintaining lower toxicity.
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Patentiflorin A more effective for HIV treatment than AZT

Patentiflorin A, is a chemical derived from the willow-leaved Justicia, It is a compound in a plant found in Southeast Asia.

AZT is an anti-viral drug that reduces the amount of HIV virus in the body and reduces the risk of developing AIDS.

Pateniflotin A is more effective than
AZT for treating HIV virus at the early stage of the infection and when the
virus enters macrophage cells.

It's also effective against drug resistance strains of HIV virus, it may be useful in future for producing better HIV drug.

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New drug for heart attack damage

Heart attack can leads to heart failure. During heart attack, heart suffers enlargement and scarring. Hormone
used by body builders can prevent scarring and enlargement of heart after attack.

Cork University Hospital examined 50 heart attack patients and discovered that the heart of those that used higher dose of IGF1 -( insulin-like growth factor) prevented them from experiencing heart failure.

Different people were selected to use two different low doses of IGF1, after using the drug, their scans results shows that 16 people that used the drug did not have enlargement of heart muscle and scarring after two months.

Repairing the heart after attack can prevent heart failure, and this will prevent sudden death of affected people, the research has been recognized and peer reviewed by the European Society of Cardiology.

New drug for ovarian cancer

Cancerous growth that occurs in the ovary is ovarian cancer,  it occurs when cells in the ovaries grow and increase uncontrollably.

It is common in women who are more than 60 years, common symptoms are: abnormal vaginal bleeding, nausea, bloating and cramps in the abdomen.

Ovarian cancer returns in some women after treatment, researchers have discovered a new drug that can take care of the cancer completely.

Family history, age, hormone replacement therapy and endometriosis are the common risk of developing ovarian cancer.

Platinum-resistance ovarian cancer returns after six months of chemotherapy, the new drug targets folate receptor alpha-expressing cells and kills them through cytotoxicity.

Solution to 'chemo brain' problems

Chemotherapy is the use of chemical substance like drug to treat diseases, cytotoxic and some other drugs are used to treat cancer.

Some patients experience cognitive impairment after chemotherapy treatment, cognitive dysfunction that is linked to cancer is known as 'chemo brain'.

Common symptoms of 'chemo brain' are: confusion, visual and verbal memory loss, mental fogginess, difficulty in learning new skills and processing information.

Michael Johnson, a professor of Chemistry suggested potential solution to chemotherapy-associated cognitive impairment.

According to Michael Johnson, chemotherapy drug like 5-Fluorouracil destroy the integrity of myelin in brain cells, the drug also increases the levels of hydrogen peroxide in the brain.

  'KU-32' drug can control chemo brain and counter the effects of chemotherapy treatment in rats and prevent increase in production of hydrogen peroxide in the brain.

Chemotherapy treatment alter proper functions of dopamine and serotonin which can cause adverse effect on learning and other cognitive skills.

How to treat leukemia effectively

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a type of cancer in which the bone marrow produces too many immature white blood cells

Activation of a protein called STAT5 causes competition among others that leads to acute lymphoblastic leukemia ALL.

According to new study, competition among some proteins causes an imbalance that leads to leukemia .

Using a drug that will stop the initial activation of STAT5 and reverse the natural balance of protein will leads to effective treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Researchers used innovative methodology by combining mouse models and patience samples in high-throughput DNA sequencing, epigenetic and proteomic analysis and discovered that patients with a high ratio of imbalance proteins of STAT5 to IKAROS or NF-KB had worse prognosis.

Mesothelioma is getting better with immunotherapy drug

Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that develops in the lining of the lungs and chest wall, it is causes by inhalation of asbestos fibre.

It is difficult to detect the cancer at early stage because their is no symptoms until it reach an advanced stage.

An immunotherapy drug,
Pembrolizumab seems to be effective in the treatment of mesothelioma.

First-line therapy is the standard treatment for mesothelioma, according to Dr.Evan Alley, researchers have studied different drugs but have not seen positive results.

Pembrolizumab is a checkpoint inhibitor, it is designed to fight cancer by defeating process that cancer cells use to avoid being destroyed by the immune system.

Common adverse effect of the drug are: dry mouth, nausea, fatigue, and loss of appetite.

HIV reservoir marker makes it possible to kill the virus

Discovery of HIV marker makes it possible to differentiate between dominant HIV infected cells and healthy cells.

Researchers have discovered a way of isolating and analyzing reservoir cells that are responsible for hosting HIV virus.

HIV virus can hide in these reservoir cells for a long period of time, taking antiviral drugs does not stop the activities of the virus.

The discovery will make it possible to study viral reservoirs and therapeutic plan to kill the hidden HIV virus.