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There is great news for parents suffering the harrowing ordeal of their child needing a bone marrow transplant. The announcement came from Osiris Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: OSIR) on Friday that Health Canada has approved its groundbreaking stem cell therapy Prochymal® (remestemcel-L). The drug can be used to treat children with acute graft-vs-host disease. (GvHD). The decision is a historic one, as it's both the first stem cell drug going into formal use, as well as the first treatment for GvHD...

Generic versions of blood-thinning medication - Plavix (clopidogrel bisulfate) - have been approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). Clopidogrel bisulfate reduces the likelihood of blood platelets clumping together and forming clots in blood vessels, resulting in a lower risk of stroke and heart attack. Clopidogrel is approved by the FDA for individuals who recently had a stroke or heart attack, as well as patients who have peripheral artery disease - partial or total blockage of an artery. Keith Webber, Ph.D...

SAN DIEGO - The investigational compound PA32540 provides faster gastric protection than enteric-coated omeprazole 40 mg, researchers announced at Digestive Disease Week 2012. PA32540 is an investigational coordinated-delivery tablet of immediate-release (IR) omeprazole (40 mg), a proton pump inhibitor (PPI), layered around enteric-coated aspirin (325 mg). The product was developed to provide the cardiovascular benefits of aspirin in patients at risk for aspirin-associated ulcers...

It appears that in some cases, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, the so-called "good" cholesterol, does not protect against heart disease, and may even be harmful. A new study suggests a subclass of HDL that carries a particular protein is bad for the heart. Previous studies have shown that high levels of HDL cholesterol are strongly linked to low risk of heart disease...

A tiny filter could have a big impact around the world in the fight against tuberculosis. Using the traditional microscope-based diagnosis method as a starting point, a University of Florida lung disease specialist and colleagues in Brazil have devised a way to detect more cases of the bacterial infection. "We're hopeful that this more sensitive method, which is both simple and inexpensive, will improve diagnosis in patients," said lead researcher Kevin Fennelly, M.D., M.P.H...

There are always exceptions to a rule, even one that has prevailed for more than three decades, as demonstrated by a Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) study on RNA splicing, a cellular editing process. The rule-flaunting exception uncovered by the study concerns the way in which a newly produced RNA molecule is cut and pasted at precise locations called splice sites before being translated into protein...

Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital for Children in Boston have determined that pediatric epilepsy significantly impacts sleep patterns for the child and parents. According to the study available in Epilepsia, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE), sharing a room or co-sleeping with their child with epilepsy decreases the sleep quality and prevents restful sleep for parents. Over 1% of children in the U.S. are diagnosed with epilepsy - a chronic, neurological disease characterized by recurring seizures...

Stories of athletes bravely "playing through the pain" are relatively common and support the widespread belief that they experience pain differently than non-athletes. Yet, the scientific data on pain perception in athletes has been inconsistent, and sometimes contradictory. Investigators from the University of Heidelberg have conducted a meta-analysis of available research and find that in fact, athletes can indeed tolerate a higher level of pain than normally active people...

One-letter switches in the DNA code occur much more frequently in human genomes than anticipated, but are often only found in one or a few individuals. The abundance of rare variations across the human genome is consistent with the population explosion of the past few thousand years, medical geneticists and evolutionary biologists report in the advanced online edition of Science...

A change in the formulation of tenofovir gel, an anti-HIV gel developed for vaginal use, may make it safer to use in the rectum, suggests a study published online this week in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. In laboratory tests of rectal tissue, researchers from the Microbicide Trials Network (MTN) found that the reformulated gel was less harmful to the lining of the rectum than the original vaginal formulation, and just as effective in protecting cells against HIV...