Medical Research

What is Medical Research?

Medical research ranges from fundamental research to clinical and applied technology. Fundamental research involves investigations into biological functions; knowledge thus acquired may then be applied in clinical research to help understand specific diseases and to develop improved treatments, cures and methods of prevention.

Medical research can be divided into two general categories: the evaluation of new treatments for both safety and efficacy in what are termed clinical trials, and all other research that contributes to the development of new treatments. The latter is termed preclinical research if its goal is specifically to elaborate knowledge for the development of new therapeutic strategies.

Among the major benefits of medical research have been vaccines for measles and polio, medication for high blood pressure, improved treatments for AIDS, insulin treatment for diabetes, classes of antibiotics for treating a host of maladies, statins and other treatments for atherosclerosis, new surgical techniques such as microsurgery, and increasingly successful treatments for cancer.

A clinical trial is a comparison test of a medication or other medical treatment, versus a placebo, other medications and devices, or the standard medical treatment for a patient's condition.

Preclinical research is research in basic science, which precedes the clinical trials, and is almost purely based on theory and animal experiments.

In the United States, the most recent data from 2003 suggest that about 94 billion dollars were provided for biomedical research in the United States. The National Institutes of Health and pharmaceutical companies collectively contribute 26.4 billion dollars and 27.0 billion dollars, respectively, which constitute 28% and 29% of the total, respectively.

In the UK, funding bodies such as the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust derive their assets from UK tax payers, and distribute this to institutions in a competitive manner.

Disabled World brings you a summary of the latest medical and drug news from around the world including breakthroughs and advances regarding health and disability cures.

More and more exciting advances in the field of medicine are being discovered each day by doctors, researchers, and scientists around the globe. For instance testing yourself at home for diseases such as cancer and multiple sclerosis will very soon be as simple as using a home pregnancy testing kit.

In this section of Disabled World News we bring you up to date with all the latest medical news from all over the world including news such as how cholesterol lowering drugs and new technologies are significantly advancing the worlds battle against heart disease.

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Further Information Regarding Medical Research

Mayo Clinic Proceedings Reviews Deep Brain Stimulation to Treat Psychiatric Diseases
Pioneering therapeutic trials to investigate the effectiveness of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in hard-to-treat depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette's syndrome are underway at multiple medical centers around the world, according to a review in the June 2009 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Risk of Transmission of Huntington's Disease to Children
Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have quantified the probability of a male who carries a "high normal" variant of the Huntington's Disease (HD) gene having a child who develops the disease.

Obesity and Diabetes Double Risk of Heart Failure
The twin epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes will continue to fuel an explosion in heart failure, already the world's most prevalent chronic cardiovascular disease, according to John McMurray, professor of cardiology at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, and President of the Heart Failure Association.

Caffeine Beneficial in Males with Lou Gehrig's Disease
A new study investigates the role of dietary intervention focused on an antioxidant popular in diets worldwide - coffee. The researchers examined the effect of coffee, caffeine and chlorogenic acid supplementation on markers of oxidative stress, antioxidant enzyme protein content and cell death in male and female mice models of ALS.

Vaccine for E. coli Diarrheal Diseases Discovered
A Michigan State University researcher has developed a working vaccine for a strain of E. coli that kills 2 million to 3 million children each year in the developing world. Enterotoxigenic E. Coli, which is responsible for 60 percent to 70 percent of all E. coli diarrheal disease, also causes health problems for U.S. troops serving overseas and is responsible for what is commonly called traveler’s diarrhea.

Rare Eye Retinal Disorder Treatment Success
Patients with a rare, blinding eye disease saw their vision improve after treatment with drugs to suppress their immune systems, according to researchers at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center. Because autoimmune retinopathy (AIR) is difficult to diagnose, the biggest challenge now is to find biologic markers that identify patients who can benefit from treatment.

Hospital Infections - Research may Lead to New Non-antibiotic Drugs
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the most serious hospital-acquired pathogens. A common cause of lung infections, it is also found in the intestinal tract of 20 percent of all Americans and 50 percent of hospitalized patients in the United States.

Mayo Clinic and IBM Host Medical Language Initiative
Biomedical informatics researchers at Mayo Clinic and IBM today launched a Web site for the newly founded Open Health Natural Language Processing (NLP) Consortium. The consortium is establishing the open-source space to promote past and current development efforts, including participation in information extraction from electronic medical records.

1,000 Kidney Transplant Milestone by Arizona Mayo Clinic
A 53-year-old woman from Ajo, Ariz., is the 1,000th patient to receive a kidney transplant at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, a milestone for the program that opened in June 1999.

Waking up During Surgery Prevention
Consciousness during general anaesthesia is an extremely distressing condition leading to post-operative psychological trauma and contributes towards patients' fear of surgery.

A Splice of Life - Point Genetic Disease Develops in Humans
In a new study this week in Nature, researchers at Brandeis University and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge, U.K.) for the first time shed light on a crucial step in the complex process by which human genetic information is transmitted to action in the human cell and frequently at which point genetic disease develops in humans.

Redefining DNA: Darwin from the Atom Up
In a dramatic rewrite of the recipe for life, scientists from Florida today described the design of a new type of DNA with 12 chemical letters instead of the usual four. Presented here at the 237th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), this artificial genetic system already is helping to usher in the era of personalized medicine for millions of patients with HIV, hepatitis and other diseases.

Garden Pea Fights High Blood Pressure and Kidney Disease
Researchers in Canada are reporting that proteins found in a common garden pea show promise as a natural food additive or new dietary supplement for fighting high blood pressure and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Those potentially life-threatening conditions affect millions of people worldwide.

New TB Test Will Cut Diagnosis Time
Researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and The University of Pittsburgh have developed an onsite method to quickly diagnose tuberculosis (TB) and expose the deadly drug-resistant strains that can mingle undetected with treatable TB strains.

Shellfish and Inkjet Printers May Hold Key to Faster Healing
Using the natural glue that marine mussels use to stick to rocks, and a variation on the inkjet printer, a team of researchers led by North Carolina State University has devised a new way of making medical adhesives that could replace traditional sutures and result in less scarring, faster recovery times and increased precision for exacting operations such as eye surgery.

Spinal Taps Carry Higher Risks for Infants and Elderly
An X-ray-guided spinal tap procedure fails more than half of the time in young infants and should be used sparingly, if at all, for those patients, according to a new study done by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

Potential Pathway for Drug Intervention
A newly identified molecular pathway that directs stem cells to produce glial cells yields insights into the neurobiology of Down's syndrome and a number of central nervous system disorders characterized by too many glial cells, according to a recent study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

Biomarkers detected for Chikungunya fever
Three specific biomarkers provide an accurate indication of the severity of Chikungunya fever (CHIKF), which is emerging as a threat in South-East Asia, the Pacific and Europe, according to research conducted in Singapore. Since the biomarkers can be easily detected and measured in blood, this finding could expedite identification and monitoring of patients.

Drug Improves Mobility For Some Multiple Sclerosis Patients
The experimental drug fampridine (4-aminopyridine) improves walking ability in some individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS). That is the conclusion of a multi-center Phase 3 clinical trial, the results of which were published February 26 in the journal The Lancet.

Arthritis Hinders Vital Physical Activity for Adults with Heart Disease
Arthritis affects more than half of adults with heart disease and appears to be a substantial barrier to utilizing physical activity to help manage their condition, according to a new Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) study released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Dark Cells of Eye Retina Imaged for the First Time
A layer of "dark cells" in the retina that is responsible for maintaining the health of the light-sensing cells in our eyes has been imaged in a living retina for the first time. The ability to see this nearly invisible layer could help doctors identify the onset of many diseases of the eye long before a patient notices symptoms. The findings are reported today's issue of Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science.

When Parents Seek Siblings of their Donor Conceived Children
Re-shaping the family: What happens when parents seek siblings of their donor-conceived children. Findings of new study have wider implications for policy in this area. Parents who have conceived children with the help of sperm or egg donors and then try to find the donors and also other children conceived with the donors' help, often end up creating new forms of extended families, according to research.

Reseachers See Brain Memory
People voluntarily pick what information they store in short-term memory. Now, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers can see just what information people are holding in memory based only on patterns of activity in the brain.

NASA Study Predicted Rift Valley Fever Outbreak
An early warning system, more than a decade in development, successfully predicted the 2006-2007 outbreak of the deadly Rift Valley fever in northeast Africa, according to a new study led by NASA scientists.

New Drug may Prevent Colon Cancer
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida have found that a drug now being tested to treat a range of human cancers significantly inhibited colon cancer development in mice. Because the agent appears to have minimal side effects, it may represent an effective chemopreventive treatment in people at high risk for colon cancer, the investigators say.

Starve Cancer Tumors of Blood
The development of cancerous tumors is highly dependent on the nutrients the tumors receive through the blood. The team of Dr. Janusz Rak, of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center (MUHC) at the Montreal Children's Hospital, including Dr. Khalid Al-Nedawi and Brian Meehan, has just discovered a new mechanism that tumors use to stimulate the growth of the blood vessels that feed them.

Angiogenesis Poor Survival in patients with Ovarian Cancer
Researchers from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have found that increased angiogenesis, or blood vessel formation, and vascular endothelial growth factor expression are associated with poor survival in women with sex cord-stromal ovarian tumors. This data was presented in a poster session today at the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists' 40th Annual Meeting on Women's Cancer.

Climate Change and Disease Spread
Ever since scientists first proposed that our planet might be experiencing widespread climate change, concerns have been raised about its implications for the spread of arboviruses - viruses carried by arthropods such as mosquitoes, midges and ticks. However, while alterations in temperature and rainfall are important factors in making new territory hospitable to an invading arbovirus, many other forces also play significant parts in new patterns of viral emergence.

Vaccines and Autism No Correlation
An extensive new review summarizes the many studies refuting the claim of a link between vaccines and autism. The review, in the February 15, 2009 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases and now available online, looks at the three main hypotheses and shows how epidemiological and biological studies refute these claims.

Treating Neurodegenerative Diseases Drug Combination is Key
Combining the benefits of multiple drugs in a single pill may hold the key to treating neurodegenerative diseases, Medical College of Georgia researchers say. Drugs that protect neurons, for example, can be used with those targeting memory to make real progress in treating diseases such as Alzheimer’s,

Rheumatoid Arthritis - New Treatment Possible?
Led by Wan-Uk Kim of Catholic University of Korea inSeoul, Korea, researchers analyzed blood and synovial fluid cells from RA patients and healthy controls and found that synovial cells were the major source of PIGF production in RA patients and that PIGF stimulates TNFa and IL-6 production.

Omega 3 oils Ease Menopause Depression Symptoms
Omega-3s ease psychological distress and depressive symptoms often suffered by menopausal and perimenopausal women, according to researchers at Universite Laval's Faculty of Medicine.

Spinal Fluid Proteins Can Show Lou Gehrig's Disease
High levels of certain proteins in the spinal fluid could signal the onset of Lou Gehrig's disease, according to researchers. The discovery of these biomarkers may lead to diagnostic kits for early diagnosis, accurately measuring the progression of the disease and monitoring the effects of treatment.

I Feel Your Pain: Neural Mechanisms of Empathy
Is it possible to share a pain that you observe in another but have never actually experienced yourself? A new study uses a sophisticated brain-imaging technique to try and answer this question. The research, published by Cell Press provides insight into brain mechanisms involved in empathy.

Acupuncture Pain Relieving Effects Limited
The pain relieving effects of acupuncture compared with placebo are small and seem to lack clinical relevance, according to a study published on bmj.com today.

Rasagiline Hope for Parkinson's Patients
There is hope that the drug rasagiline can do what no other medication for Parkinson's disease now does, slow the progression of a devastating degenerative brain disease that eventually robs people of their ability to move and function.

Immune System has Ability to Learn
Half of the immune system has a hidden talent, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered. The finding, published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, will help scientists better understand the immune system and seek new ways to modulate its responsiveness.

New Way to Stop Autoimmune Diseases and Transplant Rejection
The possibility that these antibodies can be used to treat diverse autoimmune diseases with minimal risk of infections represents a new horizon for reversing these disabling and often fatal conditions.

Dynamical Theory and 4-D Colorimetric Reveals Function of Living Brain
In groundbreaking research published in the January 2009 issue and featured on the cover of Progress in Neurobiology, researchers at Florida Atlantic University's Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science propose a theoretical model of the brain's coordination dynamics and apply a novel 4D colorimetric method to human neurophysiological data collected in the laboratory.

Impaired Kidney Function Raises Risk of Heart Problems in Elderly
A study published next week in the open access journal PLoS Medicine suggests that elderly people with damaged kidneys are at greater risk of cardiovascular disease, such as heart failure and stroke, and other causes of mortality.

Antibiotic Resistant Disease ESBL Killing People
Health officials watch with apprehension as the antibiotic-resistant bacteria ESBL continues to kill both people and pigs in Denmark. It is being spread to human beings from pigs and may be a result of the increased use of antibiotics being used in agriculture.

Researchers Assess the State of Stroke Telemedicine
Stroke telemedicine is a lifesaving practice that deserves further advancement, Mayo researchers write in the January 2009 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Since its inception, stroke telemedicine has developed nationally and internationally as a reliable means of aiding patients. Yet certain key systematic components need to be developed more fully while specific unsettled issues must be resolved.

Slow Bone Healing in Seniors - New Research
Researchers have unraveled crucial details of how aging causes broken bones to heal slowly, or not at all, according to study results published today in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. The research team also successfully conducted preclinical tests on a potential new class of treatments designed to "rescue" healing capability lost to aging.

Abnormal DNA Repair Genes may Predict Risk of Pancreatic Cancer
Abnormalities in genes that repair mistakes in DNA replication may help identify people who are at high risk of developing pancreatic cancer, a research team from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports in the Jan. 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.

Traumatic Brain Injury Severity Reduced with Contraceptive Pill
Individuals who have suffered from a traumatic brain injury (TBI) may see the severity of their injuries reduced by the administration of a progesterone, which is used in contraceptive pills for women.

Liver Disease Marked by Cell Stress
Researchers have recently made a link between the onset of cell stress and the development of liver disease, according to studies conducted by scientists at the University of Michigan and the University of Iowa. The study reported that there is a direct link between disruption of a critical cellular housekeeping process and fatty liver disease.

New Drug Holds Promise of Normal Diet for Sufferers of Phenylketonuria
A new pharmaceutical being developed by researchers at McGill University and the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) – along with colleagues at the Scripps Research Institute and BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. is offering PKU sufferers the hope of being able to eat a normal, protein-rich diet. Their preclinical evaluation study was published in December in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Brain Asymmetry Research
Left-right asymmetry is present in the brains of most animals and is first evident at the time of early brain development. However, until now, scientists did not know the mechanisms that bring it about. Now, in a study funded primarily by the Wellcome Trust, researchers have shown that a competition between the two sides causes this asymmetry.

Surgery Provides Good Outcome for Gastrointestinal Cancers
New research published in the January issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons shows that laparoscopic removal of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) is safe and effective, with a disease-free survival rate of nearly 80 percent after an average follow-up time of three and a-half years.

Researchers Identify Protein Trigger of Breast Cancer
Canadian researchers have identified a new protein in the progression of breast cancer. According to a recent study from the University of Montreal and the University of Alberta, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the protein ARF1 plays a critical role in cancer cell growth and the spread of tumours. Targeting this protein with drug therapy may provide hope to women with breast cancer.

Treadmill Exercise Improves Endurance for Patients with PAD
Patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), which can include symptoms such as pain in the legs, who participated in supervised treadmill exercise improved their walking endurance and quality of life, according to a study in the January 14 issue of JAMA. The treadmill exercise also improved walking performance for PAD patients without the classic symptoms of pain in the leg muscles.

Epidurals and Spinal Anesthetics Safer than Previously Reported
The largest ever prospective study into the major complications of epidurals and spinal anaesthetics published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia today (Monday 12 January 2009) concludes that previous studies have over-estimated the risks of severe complications of these procedures.

Tiny Capsules May Provide Drug Delivery that Targets Diseased Cells
A tiny particle syringe composed of polymer layers and nanoparticles may provide drug delivery that targets diseased cells without harming the rest of the body, according to a team of chemical engineers. This delivery system could be robust and flexible enough to deliver a variety of substances.

New Genes that Fuse in Cancer
Using new technologies that make it easier to sequence the human genome, researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a series of genes that become fused when their chromosomes trade places with each other. These recurrent gene fusions are thought to be the driving mechanism that causes certain cancers to develop.

Researchers Unlock Molecular Origin of Blood Stem Cells
A research team led by Nancy Speck, PhD, Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has identified the location and developmental timeline in which a majority of bone marrow stem cells form in the mouse embryo.

Synthetic HDL Fights Cholesterol
Northwestern University scientists now offer a promising new weapon, synthetic high-density lipoprotein (HDL), the "good" cholesterol, that could help fight chronically high cholesterol levels and the deadly heart disease that often results.

Research Shows Cell Inactive State Critical for Cancer Treatment
A new study sheds light on a little understood biological process called quiescence, which enables blood-forming stem cells to exist in a dormant or inactive state in which they are not growing or dividing. Researchers identified the genetic pathway used to maintain a cell's quiescence, a state that allows bone marrow cells to escape the lethal effects of standard cancer treatments.

Unique Skeletal Muscle Design Contributes to Spine Stability
The novel design of a deep muscle along the spinal column called the multifidus muscle may in fact be key to spinal support and a healthy back, according to researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.

Avian Flu Becoming More Resistant to Antiviral Drugs
The avian flu, an Influenza A subtype dubbed H5N1, is evolving a resistance to a group of antiviral drugs known as adamantanes, one of two classes of antiviral drugs used to prevent and treat flu symptoms, said CU-Boulder doctoral student Andrew Hill, lead study author.

New Therapy may Ease Spinal Muscular Atrophy Symptoms - MU Researchers
University of Missouri researchers have discovered a new therapeutic target that improves deteriorating skeletal muscle tissue caused by Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

Fragile X Syndrome Drug being Evaluated
A pilot trial of an oral drug therapy called fenobam has shown promising initial results and could be a potential new treatment option for adult patients with Fragile X syndrome (FXS).

Smoking During Pregnancy Fosters Aggression in Children
Women who smoke during pregnancy risk delivering aggressive kids according to a new Canada-Netherlands study published in the journal Development and Psychopathology. While previous studies have shown that smoking during gestation causes low birth weight, this research shows mothers who light up during pregnancy can predispose their offspring to an additional risk: violent behavior.

Proteins Role in Repairing Damaged Cells Revealed
University of Michigan researchers have discovered that a key protein in cells plays a critical role in not one, but two processes affecting the development of cancer.

Iodine to be added to Bread in Australia
Two out of three women of child-bearing age are not getting enough of the vital mineral iodine needed for a baby's healthy brain development, Australian research shows.

Leukaemia Drug Alemtuzumab Treats Multiple Sclerosis
Scientists have discovered alemtuzumab, a drug used to treat leukaemia, is effective in combating multiple sclerosis and is more effective than interferon beta-1a.

Research shows ACTEMRA Improves Rheumatoid Arthritis
Roche announced today that the innovative new therapy ACTEMRA
(tocilizumab) can significantly inhibit structural damage to joints in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Research Needed for Treatment of Medication Overuse Headaches
There is a critical need to review current treatment strategies for the increasingly common problem of medication overuse headaches (MOH), according to a series of international papers in the November issue of Cephalalgia.

Curing Inflammatory Disease
Multiple sclerosis patients aren’t the only ones who should be feeling optimistic about their diagnosis. For although there is currently no cure for any of these diseases, the future looks promising. As we unravel the mysteries of the immune system and identify the genes that are passed on in families we may be able to develop therapies that can be used long-term or that actually cure these disorders.