Drug Information

Exercise slows muscle wasting from age and heart failure
A four-week exercise program for heart-failure patients slowed muscle-wasting and improved their exercise capacity, regardless of age, according to new research. The study confirms that exercise can reduce inflammation in skeletal muscle. Findings offer a possible avenue for future drug therapy to treat muscle-wasting in heart failure patients.

Phase I clinical trial shows drug shrinks melanoma brain metastases
An experimental drug targeting a common mutation in melanoma successfully shrank tumors that spread to the brain in nine out of 10 patients in part of an international phase I clinical trial report.

Elderly women with irregular heart beat at higher risk for stroke
Older women who have been diagnosed with an irregular heart beat are at higher risk of stroke than men. A new study shows that warfarin, the most common anticoagulant therapy used to prevent stroke in patients with Atrial fibrillation may not be as effective in women, 75 years or older, as in men.

Unexpected source for diabetic neuropathy pain
Nearly half of all diabetics suffer from neuropathic pain, an intractable, agonizing and still mysterious companion of the disease. Now researchers have identified an unexpected source of the pain and a potential target to alleviate it.

Gene therapy for hearing loss: Potential and limitations
Regenerating sensory hair cells could form the basis for treating age- or trauma-related hearing loss. One way to do this could be with gene therapy that drives new sensory hair cells to grow. Researchers have shown that introducing a gene called Atoh1 into the cochleae of young mice can induce the formation of extra sensory hair cells.