Consuming turmeric – the oriental spice often used in cooking – accelerates post-match recovery in professional footballers, a study has shown. Researchers at Nottingham Trent University found that drinking a 60 ml turmeric drink twice-a-day allowed players to return to their pre-game fitness faster than those who did not. Playing football causes muscle damage in players and an inflammatory response – and their rapid recovery is crucial to optimising their next performance and reducing injury risk. The active ingredient in turmeric is curcumin – known to have anti-inflammatory properties – and previous studies have found that curcumin supplementation can reduce soreness following muscle-damaging exercise. This process appears to be aided by a reduction in pro-inflammatory proteins in the blood, known as cytokines, which increase in response to a stress, such as intense exercise. The Nottingham researchers are the first to demonstrate that a curcumin-containing supplement can reduce pro-inflammatory cytokine concentrations ...
A team of researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi, led by Associate Professor of Biology Youssef Idaghdour and working in collaboration with clinicians at several Abu Dhabi hospitals, investigated the association between microRNAs, a class of small RNA molecules that regulate genes, and COVID-19 severity among 259 unvaccinated COVID-19 patients living in Abu Dhabi. The team identified microRNAs that are associated with a weakened immune response and admission to ICU. During this process, they created the first genomic picture of the architecture of blood microRNAs in unvaccinated COVID-19 patients from the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia regions whose populations are consistently underrepresented in genomics research. The researchers identified changes in microRNAs at the early stages of infection that are associated with specific blood traits and immune cell death, allowing the virus to evade the immune system and proliferate. The results of the system’s genetics study demonstrate that a patient’s ...
Global CDMO giant Catalent, which has been struggling through difficult financial times, added more biologic processes to its OneBio platform, which features capabilities for antibody and recombinant proteins, cell and gene therapies, and messenger RNA.The rollout of the added services is part of the company’s participation at the BIO International Convention taking place in Boston this week, Catalent said in a June 5 press release. The additions come in the wake of the CDMO delaying the release of its earnings report multiple times after admitting in April that it was struggling with “productivity issues” and high costs at three major production sites—including two of its largest. The locations at issue include Catalent’s gene therapy manufacturing site in Harmans, Maryland, as well as its drug product and drug substance plants in Bloomington, Indiana, and Brussels, Belgium. Catalent’s problems may have caused life sciences conglomerate Danaher to shelve plans in April to ...
AstraZeneca (AZ) has announced that it will stop its post-marketing study of bleeding reversal agent Andexxa (andexanet alfa) after the trial met its primary endpoint earlier than planned. The phase 4 ANNEXA-I study has been assessing the safety and efficacy of the drug versus standard care in more than 450 patients experiencing an intracranial haemorrhage who have received oral Factor Xa-inhibitor treatment, including apixaban and rivaroxaban. Results from a planned interim analysis of the trial showed that Andexxa-treated patients experienced superior haemostatic efficacy – the ability to limit the expansion of a potentially life-threatening bleed in the brain – compared with the control arm, leading the data monitoring board to recommend that the study be ended. Millions of people worldwide depend on Factor Xa inhibitors to manage their risk of blood clots developing, but these medicines carry a small but significant risk of an acute major bleed. AZ reports that ...
Seeking to launch their respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) prevention antibody for infants later this year, Sanofi and AstraZeneca have cleared one more regulatory hurdle.Thursday, experts on the FDA’s Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee voted 21 to 0 that nirsevimab boasts a favorable benefit-risk profile to protect against RSV-associated lower respiratory disease in infants born during or entering their first RSV season. On a separate question of whether the drug has a favorable benefit-risk profile in children up to 24 months of age who remain vulnerable through their second RSV season, the vote was 19 to 2 in favor of the drug. “Most babies hospitalized with RSV are born at term and healthy, which is why interventions specifically designed to protect all infants are likely to result in the greatest impact,” Sanofi’s executive vice president of vaccines, Thomas Triomphe, said in a Thursday statement. “We are encouraged by the Advisory Committee’s positive ...
David Epstein’s short tenure as Seagen’s CEO will likely end soon with the antibody-drug conjugate specialist’s sale to Pfizer. After a rich career spanning companies of various sizes, Epstein is keeping an open mind about where he might head next.“I will hopefully make new drugs somewhere else,” Epstein said in a recent interview on the sidelines of the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting. “I don’t know where that will be.” Throughout his time in biopharma, Epstein has worn many hats. He’s known for building Novartis’ oncology unit and leading the Swiss giant’s larger global pharma business. He fostered startups for five years at Flagship Pioneering before taking the reins at Seagen in November. Those roles have given him experience in almost every therapeutic area and in both drug development and commercialization. That kind of resume opens a lot of possibilities—although going back to Flagship isn’t his plan right ...
By Jamie Gumbrecht, CNN CNN — Advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration voted Thursday to endorse a monoclonal antibody designed to protect infants and some young toddlers from RSV. Members of the agency’s Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee voted 21-0 that the benefit-risk profile of nirsevimab was favorable in infants and 19-2 that it was favorable in children up to 24 months who are vulnerable to severe respiratory syncytial virus. Next, the FDA will consider the advice of the advisers and decide whether to approve the treatment. The monoclonal antibody, nirsevimab, was developed by AstraZeneca and Sanofi. It’s designed to be given to infants in a single shot at birth or just before the start of a baby’s first RSV season, or as a larger dose in a second RSV season in children who are highly vulnerable. If approved, it will be the first single-dose preventative treatment for all ...
Dive Brief As many as 57,000 Evo ventilators are facing a voluntary recall by Philips over problems with the machines’ air flow sensor. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has labeled the recall Class I, warning that filters must be changed regularly to prevent debris accumulating on sensors and impeding air flow. The recall is the second for the Evo ventilator in recent months, and follows the recall of more than 5 million CPAP, BiPAP and other breathing assistance devices made by Philips. Dive Insight Philips’ Respironics unit has faced multiple recalls since it first flagged problems with soundproofing foam used in several of its sleep apnea devices and ventilators in 2021. The Evo ventilator used in hospital and professional care settings is facing its second Class I recall in recent months. The Dutch device maker issued the recall on May 1, instructing users to change filters more frequently to ...
GSK’s respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine has been approved by the European Commission (EC) for the prevention of RSV-caused lower respiratory tract disease (LRTD) in adults aged 60 years and older. The EC’s decision, which follows a recent recommendation from the European Medicines Agency’s human medicines committee, makes Arexvy the first RSV vaccine for older adults to be granted European Marketing Authorisation. RSV is a common contagious virus characterised by several mild, cold-like symptoms. Although most people can recover within a week or two, older adults are at a high risk for severe disease. This is partly due to age-related decline in immunity. RSV can also exacerbate other conditions, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and chronic heart failure. Overall, RSV infections in older adults account for over 270,000 hospitalisations and approximately 20,000 in-hospital deaths each year in Europe. GSK’s EU application was supported by positive results from its phase ...
Researchers led by Dr. Nima Mesgarani at Columbia University, US, report that the brain treats speech in a crowded room differently depending on how easy it is to hear, and whether we are focusing on it. Publishing June 6th in the open access journal PLOS Biology, the study uses a combination of neural recordings and computer modeling to show that when we follow speech that is being drowned out by louder voices, phonetic information is encoded differently than in the opposite situation. The findings could help improve hearing aids that work by isolating attended speech. Focusing on speech in a crowded room can be difficult, especially when other voices are louder. However, amplifying all sounds equally does little to improve the ability to isolate these hard-to-hear voices, and hearing aids that try to only amplify attended speech are still too inaccurate for practical use. In order to gain a better ...
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