Pharma News

The way children sniff different aromas could form the basis of a test to accurately detect autism, a new study has found. Researchers have found that autistic children go right on sniffing in the same way, no matter how pleasant or awful the scent is. The findings suggest that non-verbal tests related to smell might serve as useful early indicators of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the researchers said.

A drug to treat diabetes can help obese people who don't have the disease lose weight and keep it off, a new study has found. Researchers found that 63 per cent of study participants given the drug liraglutide for 56 weeks lost at least 5 per cent of their body weight whereas just 27 per cent of the placebo group lost that much.

Researchers discovered that ethoxzolamide, a sulfa-based compound found in many prescription glaucoma drugs, actually turns off the bacterium's ability to invade the immune system.  In a breakthrough discovery, Robert Abramovitch, a Michigan State University microbiologist, along with a graduate student have suggested that a common medication used to treat glaucoma could also be used to treat tuberculosis (TB). The study has been published in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

A study conducted at the University of Colorado Boulder suggest even a placebo with no medical value can ease pain in research participants. The study found in The Journal of Pain.

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Apollo Children’s Hospital has recently performed surgeries on children using the da Vinci robot. Robotic procedures have proven to be highly precise and targeted. This technique provides advantages like quicker discharge time, minimal scarring, smaller incisions and less blood loss that conventional laparoscopy offers over open surgeries.

Prior studies suggesting that diabetes drug 'Actos' might raise users' risk of bladder cancer but  new study found no evidence for such an effect. Instead, researchers found a link between the use of Actos (pioglitazone) and a rise in pancreatic cancer risk, but experts say it's too early to draw any conclusive link. The study is published in Journal of the American Medical Association.

Ben-Gurion University researchers have developed a dynamic "smart" drug that targets inflammation in a site-specific manner and reduce side-effects. Study is reported in reported in the current issue of Journal of Immunology.

Cataracts are the most common cause of blindness in humans and account for half of blindness cases worldwide. Currently the only available treatment for the debilitating growths is surgery. It remains prohibitively costly. An eye drop tested on dogs suggests that cataracts could one day be cured without surgery. The study revealed that a naturally-occurring molecule called lanosterol, administered with an eye dropper, shrank canine cataracts. The study is found  in Nature.

Ludwig Cancer Research scientists finds normal cells have highly selective mechanisms. But they found that some types of cancer cells aren't so selective. These cells incorporate chemically modified nucleosides into their DNA, which is toxic to them. The findings indicate that it might be possible to use modified nucleotides for specific killing of cancer cells. The study is published in the journal Nature.