Using viruses that infect bacteria to detect proteins sprouted by a notorious parasite, scientists have honed in on possible vaccine targets for schistosomiasis, a neglected tropical disease that currently affects an estimated 600 million people worldwide, causing 280,000 deaths per year. The Brazil-based team harnessed a method called phage display, which was first described in ..read more

The Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) of the Union health ministry has once again recommended prohibiting the manufacture, sale and distribution of pain relief drug combination S(+) etodolac+paracetamol, after considering a sub-committee report. The DTAB has earlier recommended prohibition of the combination, against which its manufacturer Emcure Pharmaceuticals availed a favourable order from the Delhi ..read more

Scientists looking to tackle our ongoing obesity crisis have made an important discovery: Intermittent calorie restriction leads to significant changes both in the gut and the brain, which may open up new options for maintaining a healthy weight. Researchers from China studied 25 volunteers classed as obese over a period of 62 days, during which ..read more

In the US, roughly two out of every three people with Alzheimer’s is a woman, a statistic that could be partially explained by the fact women typically live longer than men. Yet researchers have suspected there could be more to the story. Now two new studies raise the possibility of complex interactions between hormones and ..read more

Exports of Ayush (Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homoeopathy) drugs and herbal products from the country have reported 1.65 per cent growth during the first ten months of the current fiscal year. The growth in the month of January stood at 14.54 per cent, highest monthly exports during the current fiscal, according to ..read more

Turning off a gene early in mouse development led researchers to end up with an accidental six-legged embryonic mammal. This strange result took the spinal cord research of developmental biologists Anastasiia Lozovska and Moisés Mallo and their colleagues at Portugal’s Gulbenkian Science Institute in a new direction. “I didn’t choose the project, the project chose ..read more

The Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) has suggested to the ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) to write to the ministry of corporate affairs to mandate the pharma companies to spend almost one per cent of their net profit for providing free medicines in medicine banks as part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR ..read more

A drug used to treat diabetes slowed the progression of motor issues associated with Parkinson’s disease, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine said Wednesday. Parkinson’s is a devastating nervous system disorder affecting 10 million people worldwide, with no current cure. Symptoms include rhythmic shaking known as tremors, slowed movement, impaired speech ..read more

Chemicals found in common household disinfectants, glues, and furniture textiles could damage supporting cells in the brain during critical stages of their development, a new study based on human cell cultures and mice has found. Starting with 1,823 compounds of unknown toxicity found in the environment, Erin Cohn, a molecular biologist at Case Western Reserve ..read more

The amended provisions under the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023 notified by the Central government last year for removal of stringent punishments such as imprisonment from some of the Sections of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, will be in force from December 31, 2024. The ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW ..read more