BNT116 and LungVax are nucleic acid lung cancer vaccine candidates – the former is based on mRNA technology similar to “COVID-19 mRNA vaccines” such as BNT162b2 of Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna’s mRNA-1273 while the LungVax vaccine is similar to Oxford/AstraZeneca...
Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) lecanemab and donanemab have been approved for the treatment of early Alzheimer’s disease in the UK and USA respectively while lecanemab has been refused marketing authorisation in the EU in view of “unsatisfactory” safety and efficacy...
The monkeypox virus (MPXV), called so because of its first discovery in monkeys kept in research facility in Denmark, is closely related to variola virus that causes smallpox. It is responsible for monkeypox (mpox) disease that has gradually emerged...
The upsurge of mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and in many other countries in Africa has been determined by WHO to constitute a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) under the International Health Regulations...
In view of serious and growing outbreak of monkeypox (Mpox) disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that has now spread outside the country and detection of the new strain that first emerged in September 2023 outside DRC,...
Neffy (epinephrine nasal spray) has been approved by the FDA for the emergency treatment of Type I allergic reactions including life-threatening anaphylaxis. This provides an alternative route of administration of epinephrine to those (especially children) averse to injections and...
Tecelra (afamitresgene autoleucel), a gene therapy for the treatment of adults with metastatic synovial sarcoma has been approved by the FDA. The approval was based on assessment of safety and effectiveness in a multicentre, open-label clinical trial. It is...
Current antibiotics used in clinical practice, in addition to neutralising target pathogens also harm healthy bacteria in the gut. The disturbance in gut microbiome has toxic effects on liver, kidney and other organs. This is an issue to be addressed....
An investigation of the rapid monkeypox (MPXV) outbreak that emerged in October 2023 in the Kamituga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has revealed that sexual contact was a key mode of transmission of infection. This...
The broad-spectrum fifth-generation cephalosporin antibiotic, Zevtera (Ceftobiprole medocaril sodium Inj.) has been approved by FDA1 for the treatment of three diseases viz.
Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections (bacteremia) (SAB), including those with right-sided infective endocarditis;
acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI);...
Rezdiffra (resmetirom) has been approved by the FDA of the USA for the treatment of adults with noncirrhotic non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) with moderate to advanced liver scarring (fibrosis), to be used along with diet and exercise.
Until now, patients with...
World Health Organization (WHO) has published a new, comprehensive diagnostic manual for mental, behavioural, and neurodevelopmental disorders. This will help qualified mental health and other health professionals to identify and diagnose mental, behavioural and neurodevelopmental disorders in clinical settings...
In February 2024, five countries in the WHO European region (Austria, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and The Netherlands) reported an unusual increase in psittacosis cases in 2023 and at the beginning of 2024, particularly marked since November-December 2023. Five deaths...
Iloprost, a synthetic prostacyclin analog used as vasodilator to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treatment of severe frostbite. This is first approved medication in the USA to treat...
Antibiotic resistance particularly by Gram-negative bacteria has nearly created a crisis like situation. The novel antibiotic Zosurabalpin (RG6006) shows promises. It has been found to be effective against drug-resistant, Gram-negative bacteria CRAB in pre-clinical studies.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), driven mainly by...
Mindfulness meditation (MM) can be an effective sedative technique for dental implant operation conducted under local anaesthesia.
Dental implant surgery lasts for 1-2 hours. Patients nearly always feel anxious during the procedure which leads to psychological stress and increased sympathetic...
A new vaccine, R21/Matrix-M has been recommended by the WHO for the prevention of malaria in children.
Earlier in 2021, WHO had recommended RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine for prevention of malaria in children. This was the first malaria vaccine to...
This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2023 has been awarded jointly to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman "for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19".
Both Katalin Karikó and...
Brain-eating Amoeba (Naegleria fowleri) is responsible for brain infection known as primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). The infection rate is very low but highly fatal. The infection is contacted through taking up water contaminated with N. fowleri through nose. Antibiotics...
Researchers have found that memory in aged monkey improved following a single administration of low-dose Klotho protein. It is the first time that restoring levels of klotho has been shown to improve cognition in a non-human primate. This paves the...
In a recent in-vivo study on Zebrafish, researchers successfully induced disc regeneration in a degenerated disc by activating an endogenous Ccn2a-FGFR1-SHH signalling cascade. This suggests that Ccn2a protein could be exploited in promotion of IVD regeneration for treatment of backpain.
Back...
Using appropriate enzymes, researchers removed ABO blood group antigens from donor kidney and lung ex-vivo, to overcome ABO blood group mismatch. This approach can solve organ shortage by improving availability of donor organs for transplantation considerably and make the...
On 08 August 2022, the expert group of WHO arrived at consensus on nomenclature of known and new monkeypox virus (MPXV) variants or clades. Accordingly, the former Congo Basin (Central African) clade will be known as Clade one(I) and...
Two henipaviruses, Hendra virus (HeV) and the Nipah virus (NiV) are already known to cause fatal disease in humans. Now, a novel henipavirus has been identified in febrile patients in Eastern China. This is phylogenetically distinct strain of henipavirus...
Monkeypox virus (MPXV) is closely related to smallpox, the deadliest virus in history responsible for unparalleled devastation of human population in the past centuries accounting for more deaths than any other single infectious disease, even plague and cholera. With...
