Erectile dysfunction - Viagra cream safer alternative

Viagra pill have proved to be effective to treat erectile dysfunction or ED, but it has side effects which include headaches, blurred vision and upset stomachs. Men who have heart problems or have suffered a stroke need to also use viagra pill with extreme caution or avoid it altogether. Another negative factor is that it takes time to take effect.

Photo of bottle of Viagra is property of Robert S. Donovan

Photo of the blue pill (Viagra) is property of Felix E. Guerrero

According to a research report published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine by a Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Yeshiva University, New York, a cream containing nanoparticles encapsulating particles of drugs is not only safer with less side effects, but also fast acting, effecting an erection within minutes as compared with 30 minutes to an hour for oral medication. The use of the Viagra cream confined the active ingredients of the drug to a small area of the body rather than circulating systematically through the body plus reaching the target area much faster.

The tests were done on rats bred to suffer erectile dysfunction and tests found the cream containing Cialis, sialorphin and nitric oxid to be effective and showed no side of side effects.

Before the Viagra cream can be prescribed for human however, further tests need to be done to ensure the treatment is safe before clinical trials with human can be carried and getting approval for general use may take 10 years or more.

Erectile dysfunction at Amazon


Men's Health at Amazon

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New damaged heart repair treatment?

The result of a study carried out on mice and rats by the Children's Hospital Boston published int the journal Cell is giving hopes that a new way to repair damaged heart may be in the offing. The key lies in a protein called Neuregulin 1 or NRG1.

A team of Boston researchers tested the abilities of various molecules to spur cell divisions in cultured cardiomyocytes (cardiac muscle cells) and found that NRG1 produced the most significant effect. NRG1 was administered to animals which had suffered heart attacks and it was found to promote regeneration of the heart muscles, proving that adult heart cells of mice can be stimulated to reproduce itself. The researchers thus conclude that they have identified a new approach to promote myocardial regeneration.

The researchers now plan to test this new therapy in pigs which have more in common with humans than mice and rats.

While this finding point towards a possible new therapy (patients getting daily NRG1 infusions over period of weeks) for damaged hearts, researcher Dr. Bernhard Kühn cautioned that the safety of the therapy need to be tested before the study can proceed to testing in humans.



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Antibodies kill cancer cells - new cancer treatment?

It has been known that antibodies can be used to tag cancer cells and mobilize the disease fighting cells of the immune system to attack and kill cancer cells. Now according to a report in the Journal of Clinical Investigations by researchers of the University of Nottingham and the University of Manchester, the antibodies it selves can attack and destroy directly cancer cells.

The antibody works as follows. It attaches to a cancer cell and trigger lysosomes (small acid-containing sacs) within the cell to bloat up and burst in the process releasing their deadly content leading to the death of the cell. According to researcher Dr. Mark Cragg, the findings throws up the tantalizing possibility of applying this knowledge of how antibodies trigger cell death to come up with new effective treatments for cancer.

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Rapamycin (Sirolimus) - elixir of life?

Rapamycin also known as Sirolimus

Rapamycin (C₅₁H₇₉NO₁₃) also known by its alternative name Sirolimus was first discovered as a product of the bacterium Streptomyces hygroscopicus in a soil sample from Easter Island. It is an immunosuppressant drug often used to prevent autoimmune organ rejection in organ transplant.

Rapamycin molecular structure courtesy of Wikipedia - Sirolimus

Rapamycin - elixir of life?

Research done at three centres in Texas, Michigan and Maine and published in Nature journal gives hope that we may be nearer at finding an elixir of life or at least an anti-ageing drug that can prolong life. The researchers fed rapamycin to mice which were bred to mimic the genetic diversity and susceptibility to disease of humans as closely as possible and at an age equivalent to 60 years in humans and found that the drug prolong life by 28 to 38%

However, we should not yet jump up with joy because Rapamycin in an immunity suppressant and will suppress the body immune system leading to infection. The mice in the research which were fed Rapamycin were protected from infection. This would be almost impossible for human in real life situation. Dr Lynne Cox, an expert in ageing at the University of Oxford, the findings are interesting because they highlighted an important molecular pathway that new, more specific drugs might be designed to work on.

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Familial hypercholesterolemia: life saving cascade testing

Familial hypercholesterolemia

Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is an inherited condition characterized by very high blood bad cholesterol (LDL or low density lipoprotein) levels. It is estimated that 1 in 500 UK residents suffers from FH and will have dangerously high levels of bad cholesterol from an early age.

Most FH patients have a mutated LDLR gene. Victims with only one abnormal gene will likely suffers premature cardiovascular disease at the young age of 30 to 40. Those with 2 abnormal gene will likely suffer severe cardiovascular disease while at tender childhood.

It is estimated that 50% of men and 33% of women with familial hypercholesterolaemia will suffers a heart attack before reaching 60 years of age.

Treatment of familial hypercholesterolaemia

Patients with familial hypercholesterolemia can be treated with statin drug which can prolong the lifespan to almost normal. It is thus important to screen families if any member of the familial is tested positive for familial hypercholesterolaemia and anyone testing positive for FH should be put on statin drug.

Cascade testing (CT)

Lab medicine The sequencing of tests to diagnose a disease or process–eg, familial hypercholesterolaemia; Cascade Testing is appropriate when a 'gold standard' method is technically demanding and/or costly and the diagnosis can usually be established by simpler or more cost-effective strategies.

Dr Dermot Neely, consultant in clinical biochemistry and metabolic medicine at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust, said cascade testing with DNA diagnosis was very effective in practice.

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Olaparib: New promising treatment for breast, ovarian and prostate cancers

Are you or any of your loved ones or contacts blighted with inherited forms of advanced breast, ovarian or prostate cancer which are associated with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations? If so, perhaps here is good news. A new oral drug Olaparib may be an effective treatment. Olaparib belongs to a new class of drug called PARP (Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase family, a human gene) inhibitors.

In a study led by the Institute of Cancer Research and reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, 19 patients with inherited forms of advanced breast, ovarian and prostate cancer caused by BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, were given Olaparib. Out of these 19, 12 (63%) had their cancer tumors shrunk or stabilized. They also experienced very few side-effects from the treatment.

One of the 12, Julian Lewis who had been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer had levels key chemical marker reduced to a low level within a month after been treated with Olaparib and had stayed low for more than 2 years. Further, secondary tumors in the bones have also almost disappeared. As for side effects from Olaparib, Julian only reported experiencing stomach discomfort and mild nausea which is a big improvement over those drastic side effects from chemotherapy.

Professor Stan Kaye, one of the researchers, said that they plan to further study whether Olaparib can be used for other more common forms of breast and ovarian cancers.

In another study at the Royal Marsden National Health Service Foundation Trust in Sutton, UK, 60 patients out of which 22 are carriers of BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, were treated with Olaparib. Dosage used was 10mg daily for 2 to 3 weeks increasing to 600mg twice daily. Patients similarly experienced few mild side effects.

Both studies were early-stage trials but were published early because the studies are pointing to a new direction in the development of anti-cancer drugs which targets specific molecular defects rather then the types of cancer.

Sources:
BBC News: New cancer drug 'shows promise'
Olaparib May Benefit BRCA Mutation Carriers

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Scarless belly button surgery Paraskevas

A surgeon Paraskevas Paraskeva of the Imperial College London Healthcare NHS Trust pioneered a practically scarless single incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS) to remove a gall bladder and the appendix. The surgery involved making a 10mm incision in the belly button and using laparoscopic "key-hole" surgery technique to remove the organs. By making that 10mm incision, Paraskevas could insert a "single access port" through which instruments and a small camera are fed to enable the almost scarless surgery.

Such surgery normally involved making 3 incisions which leaves scars and requires hospitalization. However, the technique perfected by Paraskevas not only left practically no scar, the patient could be discharged on the same day as the surgery.

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