Morning News Run
June 20, 2007 by Liz Lewis
Filed under Morning News
Researchers Light Up for Nicotine, the Wonder Drug – WIRED
Smoking may be bad for you, but researchers and biotech companies are quietly developing pharmaceuticals that are decidedly good for brains, bowels, blood vessels and even immune systems — and they’re inspired by tobacco’s deadly active ingredient: nicotine.
Heart survival ‘higher in obese’ – BBC
Obese heart attack and angina patients are more likely to survive after treatment, a study suggests. Researchers found obese patients were less than half as likely to die in the three years after treatment as patients with a normal body mass index.
5-second dropped-food rule debunked – Boston.com
Good news for sloppy chowhounds – that food you dropped on the floor is still safe to eat 30 seconds later.
Impotence Indicates Risk Of Heart Disease – Science Daily
Many people who suffer a heart attack had never had any symptoms of heart disease. Of the roughly 5,000 individuals who die of sudden cardiac arrest in Sweden each year, two thirds had not had any known heart disease. But in men there is one thing that should constitute a advance sign of coming heart problems: impotence.
Researchers turn a rabies protein into a therapy – Ars Technica
One of the big problems with diseases that strike the brain is that the body keeps the the nerves there pretty well sealed off from normal routes of delivering drugs. Even if we can get a treatment into the blood stream, it will often get stopped at the blood-brain barrier, which keeps all but a few molecules from reaching the neurons in the brain. But a research team has now figured out a way to send therapy straight to the brain: use a bit of the rabies virus, which normally attacks the cells there.
