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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. –A class of oral drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes may make heart failure worse, according to an editorial published online in Heart Wednesday by two Wake Forest University School of Medicine faculty members.

Researchers running cancer trials are often critical of the Research Ethics Committee (REC) process they have to go through to get their trials approved, complaining that it's too complex, burdensome and sometimes unreasonable. In the UK only 17% of research study applications are given immediate favourable opinion by RECs.

But a new study from the University of Leicester, recently reported in The Lancet Oncology, suggests that RECs may sometimes identify important problems in applications to conduct cancer trials.

By manipulating the machinery used by our cells for quality control, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh have found a way to restore the function of cystic fibrosis (CF) airway cells. This could significantly reduce the sticky mucus that plugs the lungs of CF patients, which leads to antibiotic-resistant infections and untimely death.

Troy, N.Y. – The advantage of using two eyes to see the world around us has long been associated solely with our capacity to see in 3-D. Now, a new study from a scientist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has uncovered a truly eye-opening advantage to binocular vision: our ability to see through things.

As antiviral treatment for HIV infection allows patients to live longer, many will be confronted with additional health challenges. A new study shows for the first time that one of these may be significantly increased risk of bone fractures. The report in the September Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism finds that fracture prevalence was increased more than 60 percent in those infected with HIV compared to patients without HIV infection.

An international study, led by the University of Edinburgh, raises concerns that some patients may not be receiving the optimum medical treatment and follow-up care because doctors are misjudging the risk of a further heart attack.

Researchers looked at data taken from the Global Registry of Coronary Events that included more than 46,000 heart attack patients from 115 hospitals in 14 countries.

Researchers at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UC SD) in La Jolla have found evidence explaining why a common chemotherapy drug, cisplatin, may not always work for every cancer patient. They have shown that when a variant version of a key protein that normally causes cell death is active, patients may be resistant to the cancer-killing drug.

High impact activities such as jumping and skipping that can easily be incorporated into warm-ups before sports and physical education classes, have been shown to benefit bone health in adolescents.

The 10 minute school-based intervention, provided twice a week for about eight months, significantly improved bone and muscle strength in healthy teenagers compared to regular warm-ups.

Chevy Chase, MD—HIV-infected patients have a higher prevalence of fractures than non HIV-infected patients, across both genders and critical fracture sites according to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

The Endocrine Society has released a new clinical practice guideline for the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of patients with primary aldosteronism. The guidelines appear in the September issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM), a publication of The Endocrine Society.

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LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 27, 2008) – A University of Kentucky ophthalmologist, along with a team of scientists, has discovered a genetic mutation that offers protection against a type of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a disease of the eye that is the leading cause of blindness in adults over age 50.

Having discovered a genetic trigger for age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss in people over 50, researchers report that an experimental state-of-the-art therapy for treating eye disease could adversely affect the vision of some patients with the "wrong" genetic makeup.

In a study that underscores the important role that individual genetic profiles will play in the development of new therapies for disease, a multi-institutional research team – led by Kang Zhang, MD, PhD professor of ophthalmology and human genetics at Shiley Eye Center at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine – has made two important discoveries related to age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in adults over the age of 60.

WHAT: Events of the past year in HIV vaccine research have led some to question whether an effective HIV vaccine will ever be developed. In the August 28 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, officials from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, examine the extraordinarily challenging properties of the virus that have made a vaccine elusive and outline the scientific questions that, if answered, could lead to an effective HIV vaccine.