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YEKATERINBURG, Russia — The treatment center does not handcuff addicts to their beds anymore. But caged together on double-decker bunks with no way out, they have no choice but to endure the agonies of withdrawal, the first step in a harsh, coercive approach to drug treatment that has gained wide support in Russia. “We know we are skirting the edge of the law,” said Sergei Shipachev, a staff member at the center, which is run by a private group called City Without Drugs. “We lock people up, but mostly we have a written request from their family. The police couldn’t...

ScienceDaily (Feb. 13, 2010) — Yale University scientists have streamlined the process for synthesizing a family of compounds with the potential to kill cancer and other diseased cells, and have found that they represent a unique category of anti-cancer agents. Their discovery appears in this week's online edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. more here..

BOSTON (Reuters) – Bone marrow transplants, already used to treat some children with sickle cell disease, also may cure some adults with this deadly genetic defect that causes red blood cells to contort, U.S. scientists said on Wednesday. > Destroying a patient's bone marrow and replacing it with healthy marrow from a donor, often a sibling, is considered too risky for adults. > This approach leaves enough space inside the patient's bones for the donated marrow to find a home and produce enough healthy red blood cells to compensate for the defective ones. >

University of Minnesota Center for Drug Design and Minneapolis VA Medical Center researchers have discovered a new fast-acting antidote to cyanide poisoning. The antidote has potential to save lives of those who are exposed to the chemical -- namely firefighters, industrial workers, and victims of terrorist attacks. Current cyanide antidotes work slowly and are ineffective when administered after a certain point, said Steven Patterson, Ph.D., principal investigator and associate director of the University of the Minnesota Center for Drug Design. Patterson is developing an antidote that was discovered by retired University of Minnesota Professor Herbert Nagasawa. This antidote works in...

Michigan Bishops Launch Massive Statewide Stem Cell Education Program - Video Online 12 minute DVD and other material being sent to over 500,000 Catholic homes and nearly 800 parishes LANSING, October 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In an effort to communicate the Catholic Church's teaching on human life as it relates to adult and embryonic stem cell research, the Michigan Catholic Conference on Monday announced the state's seven diocesan bishops have launched a monumental internal education program that includes over 500,000 Catholic homes and nearly 800 parishes. As part of the internal education program, which has the theme "The Science of...

Bioethics: Congress is debating competing bills on expanding funding for embryonic stem-cell research, but British researchers aren't waiting. Using patients' own stem cells, they've weaned them off insulin injections. Despite the fact that George W. Bush is the only president to have spent federal funds on embryonic stem-cell research (Clinton spent zero), and that private embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) is not restricted, the myth persists that the only thing standing between us and a bevy of miracle cures is a cabal of right-wing Bible thumpers led by Dubya himself.

New Scientist has received an unprecedented amount of interest in this story from readers. If you would like up-to-date information on any plans for clinical trials of DCA in patients with cancer, or would like to donate towards a fund for such trials, please visit the site set up by the University of Alberta and the Alberta Cancer Board. We will also follow events closely and will report any progress as it happens. It sounds almost too good to be true: a cheap and simple drug that kills almost all cancers by switching off their “immortality”. The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA),...

A small, non-toxic molecule may soon be available as an inexpensive treatment for many forms of cancer, including lung, breast and brain tumours, say University of Alberta researchers. But there's a catch: the drug isn't patented, and pharmaceutical companies may not be interested in funding further research if the treatment won't make them a profit. In findings that "astounded" the researchers, the molecule known as DCA was shown to shrink lung, breast and brain tumours in both animal and human tissue experiments. "You typically get this eureka type of feeling. It's the most exciting thing a scientist can get," Dr....

To the dismay of some advocates for the disabled and sick, a draft report issued today by California's $3 billion stem-cell institute says the agency is unlikely to develop cures for diseases or other ailments any time soon. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine's proposed strategic plan, written by a group that included two Nobel scientists, methodically sets out a detailed blueprint for eventually turning stem cells into treatments for a variety of health problems. But the plan -- which must be approved by the institute's board -- cautions that stem cell science remains in its infancy and that much...

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 27 (HealthDay News) -- The latest study on islet cell transplantation has both good and bad news for people with type 1 diabetes. The good news is that nearly half of those who receive an islet cell transplant are insulin-free at one year after transplant; the bad news is that by the end of the second year that number drops to about one in seven. Still, researchers expect that with improvements in the technical aspects of the procedure, and better anti-rejection drugs, those numbers will improve. "A phenomenal amount of glycemic control can be provided with islet transplantation,"...

NATURE TO THE RESCUE - AGAINThe deadly sea snail venom that will take away your pain By Nigel Hawkes, Health Editor Times Online A NEW painkiller based on the venom of a sea snail will be available in Britain from today. Prialt, or ziconotide, is the result of more than 20 years’ research by a scientist born in the Philippines, Baldomera Olivera, who is a professor at the University of Utah. It is 1,000 times more potent than morphine but, unlike that drug, is not addictive. It is aimed at people suffering from severe, chronic pain who would normally...

A breakthrough in using donor pancreas cells in patients' livers means an end to several injections a day. For the first time, a diabetic patient in Britain has been completely cured by a revolutionary transplant operation. Richard Lane, 61, has been able to abandon the daily insulin injections he has endured for the past 28 years thanks to transplants of pancreas cells from three donors. He is the third patient to be treated at King’s College Hospital in London using a technique developed at the University of Alberta in Canada by a Leeds-born specialist, James Shapiro. The two earlier cases...

Have You No Shame Senators? Judson Cox In January, I wrote a column entitled “The John Edwards North Carolina Knows.” I accused Sen. Edwards of being a side show huckster, a snake oil salesman, a man willing to exploit any situation and use any person to advance his career. I based my evaluation of Edwards, not only on his public statements, but on my personal experience with him. I knew his faults, because I know the man. Many people responded, angrily defending Edwards. This week, Edwards proved my point. Edwards said, at a rally in Newton, Iowa, “... when John...

John Cornepone Edwards: "We will stop juvenile diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other debilitating diseases. When John Kerry is president." -Or me and my Lawyer buds will sue the PANTS of the Doctors that fail to cure these diseases.

President of Queens Firm Found Guilty of Criminal Contempt For Violating Court Order Not to Market Bogus Cancer Cure Over the Internet ROSLYNN R. MAUSKOPF, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and MARK B. McCLELLAN, M.D., Ph.D., Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), announced today that a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York has convicted Jason Vale, president of the Queens based company Christian Brothers Contracting Corporation ("Christian Bros."), of three counts of criminal contempt in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 401(3). On April 20, 2000, in a civil suit brought...