HealthNews.in

Britain’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has recommended apixaban for the prevention of stroke and systemic embolism in some people with atrial fibrillation.

Aapixaban is a direct Xa inhibitor, and so does not require regular blood tests to monitor the blood’s clotting properties, unlike the most commonly used antithrombotic, warfarin.

Researchers at the Cambridge Research Institute and University of Cambridge have found evidence for the formation of G-quadruplex structures in the genome of mammalian cells.

G-quadruplexes are capable of forming a four-stranded structure, unlike the normal two strands of DNA.

The experiments demonstrate that G-quadruplex structures are modulated during the cell cycle in a manner that is sensitive to whether or not the DNA is being replicated. It may be possible to develop drugs that trap the quadruplexes to stop cells dividing and prevent proliferation of cancer cells.

Researchers at Imperial College London analysed lifetime occupational histories for more than 9000 people born in Britain in 1958.

Adult onset asthma was associated with 18 occupations. Four were cleaning occupations and a further three occupations were likely to use cleaning agents. Others included farming, printing, metalwork, and textile production.

Risk factors included exposure to chemicals – such as cleaning and disinfecting products, metal fumes, and printing ink – as well as biological agents such as flour and enzymes.

This the conclusion of previous work that showed several job categories were associated with adult onset asthma.

The European Commission has approved Bexsero Meningococcal Group B Vaccine for use in individuals 2 months of age and older.

MenB disease is a bacterial infection and is the leading cause of meningitis across Europe, particularly in infants. The disease is rare but can strike rapidly and prove fatal, so prevention through vaccination is important.

The Meningitis Trust welcomed the licensing of Bexsero and is urging governments to include the vaccine in national immunization programmes.

PharmaKure, a company spun out from the University of Manchester, is looking for investment to fund drug library screening, pre-clinical and early phase human trials.

The company’s first drug, PK-048, was discovered in the 1980s as a drug candidate for Parkinson’s disease, but PharmaKure hopes to reposition it for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

Japanese scientists have found that biological clock dysfunction exacerbates contact hypersensitivity in mice.

CLOCK mutant mice showed an increased immune response that exacerbated contact hypersensitivity (CHS), suggesting that circadian rhythm might be an important factor in the regulation of CHS via corticosterone level.