Open-source drug discovery

Posted: 28 Jul 2016 01:00 AM PDT

In what is being called the first-ever test of open-source drug-discovery, researchers from around the world have successfully identified compounds to pursue in treating and preventing parasite-borne illnesses such as malaria as well as cancer. Starting in late 2011, the Medicines for Malaria Venture, based in Geneva, Switzerland, distributed 400 diverse compounds with antimalarial activity free of charge to 200 labs in 30 countries.

Pasta is not fattening, quite the opposite

Posted: 04 Jul 2016 03:00 AM PDT

In recent years pasta gained a bad reputation: it will fatten you. This led lots of people to limit its consumption, often as part of some aggressive "do it yourself" diets. Now a study conducted by the Department of Epidemiology, I.R.C.C.S. Neuromed in Pozzilli, Italy, does justice to this fundamental element of the Mediterranean diet, showing how pasta consumption is actually associated with a reduced likelihood of both general and abdominal obesity.

Exercise, future anticancer therapy?

Posted: 27 May 2016 01:00 AM PDT

Several studies have demonstrated the benefits of exercise to improve the quality of life of people with cancer. But Dr. Fred Saad, urologist-oncologist and researcher at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM), goes further. He believes that physical exercise has a direct effect on cancer, as effective as drugs, for treating patients with prostate cancer, even in advanced stages of the disease.

Heart attacks could be reduced by rethinking the way we prescribe statins

Posted: 11 Mar 2016 03:00 AM PST

Millions of people today take statins to help lower their cholesterol level. Currently statins are prescribed to patients based on their future risk of cardiovascular disease - mainly driven by age - which excludes many individuals who may benefit from them. A new study led by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) in Montreal, with collaborators from the United-States, is changing the way we think about prescribing statins.

New drug could be safer, non-addictive alternative to morphine

Posted: 28 Jan 2016 03:00 AM PST

Researchers at Tulane University and Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System have developed a painkiller that is as strong as morphine but isn't likely to be addictive and with fewer side effects, according to a new study in the journal Neuropharmacology.

Most top-selling, over-the-counter sexual treatments unproven, some could be harmful

Posted: 11 Jan 2016 01:00 AM PST

From horny goat weed to ginseng and maca, over-the-counter dietary supplements sold to improve male sexual health contain a wide variety of "natural" ingredients. Researchers from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center reviewed the scientific evidence for the most common ingredients to determine if they are effective - and most importantly - safe.

Midday naps associated with reduced blood pressure and fewer medications

Posted: 31 Aug 2015 12:00 AM PDT

Midday naps are associated with reduced blood pressure levels and prescription of fewer antihypertensive medications, according to research presented at ESC Congress by Dr Manolis Kallistratos, a cardiologist at Asklepieion Voula General Hospital in Athens, Greece. The purpose of this prospective study was to assess the effect of midday sleep on blood pressure (BP) levels in hypertensive patients.