Category: COX
(July 15, 2009) -- HOBOKEN, NJ -- A recent study published in International Immunopharmacology, reveals why Pycnogenol® (pic-noj-en-all), an antioxidant plant extract from the bark of the French maritime pine tree, is effective for reducing inflammation and soothing pain associated with various health problems. Dr.
[Mechelen Belgium, June 3, 2009] ?Interim results from an ongoing phase 2, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of the investigational drug TMC207 for the treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) were published in the New England Journal of Medicine today. TMC207 is being developed by Tibotec BVBA.
CLEVELAND ? A new study finds that individuals who have low expression of the "Celebrex gene," 15-PGDH, are actually resistant to Celebrex treatment when used to prevent colon cancer.
Researchers at the University of Southern California have identified a new drug compound that appears to target tumor cells and surrounding blood vessels without the negative side effects typically associated with Cox-2 inhibitors.
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are widely used as anti-inflammatory and analgesic agents. However, they often cause gastrointestinal injury in gastric lesions by inhibiting COX (cyclooxygenase) and detailed mechanism remains unclear. Thus, effective strategies are required to protect the gastrointestinal mucosa.
A minimally invasive approach to curing the most common heart rhythm abnormality, atrial fibrillation, takes half the time of the traditional surgical procedure but is equally effective, according to research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. ''Our findings show that this technique is much easier to perform but works just as well as the more invasive approach.''
Early results from a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine study may determine if drugs called Cox-2 inhibitors, a newer type of non-aspirin pain medicine now widely prescribed for arthritis symptoms, may benefit men with recurrent prostate cancer. The new findings demonstrate that Cox-2 inhibitors may have anti-tumor effects on prostate cancer and may slow disease progression in men whose PSA blood tests indicate the cancer's recurrence, the researchers said. Findings were presented June 6 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting.
Patients given a class of anti-inflammatory drugs before and after minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery experienced less pain with fewer postoperative complications and an earlier return to normal activities, according to researchers. The class of drugs in question, known as cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 inhibitors, block a key enzyme in the cascade of immune system events leading to inflammation. Unlike other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), COX-2 inhibitors do not have any significant effect on blood platelet or gastrointestinal function.
Tumor cells have evolved a crafty scheme for protecting themselves from the killing power of the host immune system; in part, they disable the immune response. New studies implicate a receptor for prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in this phenomenon of tumor-induced immune suppression. The findings, published in the March 1 Journal of Clinical Investigation, suggest that drugs that block the PGE2 receptor, called EP2, might restore the immune system's tumor-killing capacity.
In an advance illustrating the power of genomic information, an international team of researchers today announced it has identified a gene that causes Leigh Syndrome, French Canadian type (LSFC), a fatal inherited disorder affecting 1 in 2000 live births each year in the Saguenay-Lac St Jean region of Quebec. The paper appears in the January 14 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The findings will have immediate clinical implications for families in the Saguenay-Lac St-Jean region in the Quebec province in Canada, where the disorder is common and is associated with high infant and childhood mortality.
