FOR generations scientists have tirelessly been looking for a cure to what appears to be the enemy from within—cancer. Though tremendous progress has been made and multiple avenues of treatment made available, it is apparent that there is never going to be a single golden bullet to cure cancer because …
IT IS no mean task to detect tuberculosis. Suspects are subjected to a battery of tests, including sputum and molecular, to ascertain the disease. One of the most expensive and widely used by private pathological labs is the blood test. But the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued advisory asking …
This refers to the editorial “When business rules our kitchens” (June 16-30, 2011). Do we want to sensationalise the issue of poor food safety regulations and use big companies as a whipping boy or work on the solutions? How are we going to deal with the fundamental issue of feeding …
THAT day when Darla Dhanalakshmi suffered severe joint pain and numbness in the limbs she knew something was seriously wrong. She had been suffering from the pain since January after she visited a clinic on the outskirts of Hyderabad. There she was asked to pop an unknown pill. The pain …
Nine-year-old Rani is unhappy. She has to stay away from her mother Janki Patel, who is taking part in a clinical trial at a centre 10 kilometres from her house at Bapu Nagar in Ahmedabad. “I do not like these trials. They take my parents away,” says Rani. In their …
To tighten regulations around clinical trials, a bill was drafted in 2002. Framed as per the guidelines of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), it was submitted to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2007 to be tabled in Parliament. But it has seen no progress ever since. …
What if a participant dies during a clinical trial? ICMR guidelines clearly mention that a participant must be insured for injuries and deaths. They bind ethics committees to review insurance documents before giving approval for the trial. Contract Research Organisations (CROs) and pharmaceutical companies say they ensure that participants are …
The journal Science has asked the authors of a 2009 research paper, which linked chronic fatigue syndrome to a virus, to withdraw their findings. It has also published an editorial saying the validity of the study was “seriously in question”. In 2009, a study at the Whittemore Peterson Institute was …
DRUG-resistant NDM-1 gene has been debated ever since India was identified a source of the gene in patients in the UK. The debate intensified on April 7, 2011, when the journal Lancet Infectious Disease published a paper which stated that the gene (New Delhi Metallo-betalactamase- 1) was found in tap …
RESEARCHERS have found a new culprit of cardiovascular diseases—gut flora. The bacteria present in the intestine help in the metabolism of fats and carbohydrates setting off a chain of reactions which lead to the development of plaque. Its accumulation clogs the arteries which finally becomes the cause of cardiac disorders. …
Money matters and no one knows it better than Murlidhar Dhurve, a 55-yearold farmer in Maharashtra suffering from hypertension for almost four years now. “I sustained chest injuries in an accident four years ago. It was then that doctors at the hospital said I was also suffering from high blood …
First-in-human clinical trials represent a critical juncture in the translation of laboratory discoveries. However, because they involve the greatest degree of uncertainty at any point in the drug development process, their initiation is beset by a series of nettlesome ethical questions: has clinical promise been sufficiently demonstrated in animals? Should …
London: Doctors have for long said that cycling is good for health. But, now a new study has claimed it is literally one of the biggest triggers of heart attacks. The study, which analysed 36 pieces of research, has revealed that the
CHRONIC diabetics are at a greater risk of kidney problems. As the kidneys overwork to filter high blood sugar, its filtering system gets damaged, eventually leaking blood proteins into urine. Poor filtration also pushes the blood pressure up. Doctors usually recommend ACE inhibitors, available under trade names of capton and …
In 1947, a Boston shipyard worker’s child fell sick. Examining the twoyear- old’s blood through the microscope, Sydney Farber, a city doctor, saw billions of malignant white cells “dividing in frenzy, their chromosomes condensing and uncondensing, like tiny clenched and unclenched fists.” The child was suffering from leukaemia and by …
A recent civil society-led investigation has highlighted serious ethical violations in a trial of the Human Papilloma Virus vaccine on girls in Khammam district in Andhra Pradesh. The findings are presented along with a review of clinical trials of the hpv vaccine in India and an analysis of the Drugs …
MALARIAL parasites are known to develop quick resistance to drugs. Two groups of scientists, working independently on alternative drugs for malaria, have identified a couple of compounds that could treat drug-resistant malaria. One team synthesised and evaluated a compound called spiroindolone NITD 609. It is effective against drug resistant strains …
LATELY things have not been going smoothly for Koel Dutta. A homemaker in Kolkata, the 38-year-old has asthma. Doctors have put her on Pediapred—a class of glucocorticoid steroids—for the past one year. Since January, Dutta was getting fractures easily. Once she tripped on the doorstep and fractured her wrist. The …
Rapid expansion of the standardised approach to tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment that is recommended by WHO allowed more than 36 million people to be cured between 1995 and 2008, averting up to 6 million deaths. Yet tuberculosis remains a severe global public health threat. There are more than 9 million …
Recent epidemiological studies suggest that diabetes mellitus is a strong risk factor for Alzheimer disease. However, the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. In this study, to investigate the pathophysiological interaction between these diseases, we generated animal models that reflect the pathologic conditions of both diseases. We crossed Alzheimer transgenic mice …
