Exercise during pregnancy could be beneficial for improving fetal breathing movements and also for autonomous nervous system development, according to a study presented at The American Physiological Society, annual meeting held during April 18-22, 2009, at the New Orleans Convention Center, Louisiana. Continue Reading

The investigational humanized monoclonal antibody, tigatuzumab (Daiichi Sankyo, Inc.), in combination with gemcitabine (Gemzar® | Eli Lilly and Company) has shown to reduce pancreatic cancer stem cells, achieve tumor remission, and prevent tumor recurrence in a preclinical study. The study results were presented at the 100th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, held at Denver, Colorado, during April 18-22, 2009. Continue Reading

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval to everolimus oral tablets (Afinitor® | Novartis AG) to be used as the first treatment for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma, following failed response to previous therapies using other kinase inhibitor cancer drugs such as sunitinib or sorafenib. The FDA approval is based on the results from a clinical trial that demonstrates 67% reduced risk of disease progression or death in patients administered with everolimus. Continue Reading

The early detection of malignant melanoma, which currently relies on the histological examination of biopsied tissue, is challenging due to ambiguous results and increased time for diagnosis. Now, researchers have developed a multi-marker diagnostic assay that can precisely distinguish malignant melanoma from benign nevi. The results of the first large-scale study that shows the accuracy of the multi-biomarker assay in diagnosing melanoma have been recently published in the online issue of the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Continue Reading

Olanzapine and fluoxetine HCl capsules (Symbyax® | Eli Lilly and Company) was initially approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2003 for the treatment of bipolar I depression. Now, the single pill combination gained approval from the organization for the acute treatment of treatment-resistant depression (TRD) in adults. Continue Reading

Human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, adult somatic cells induced in vitro to pluripotency through the expression of certain genes, hold great promise in regenerative and stem cell research. Now, researchers have successfully converted stem/progenitor cells from adult testis into pluripotent embryonic-like stem cells without the use of any additional genes. The results of the study are published in the online issue of the journal Stem Cells and Development. Continue Reading