Seizure News and Research

Latest Seizure News and Research

Foreign drug repackager complies with FDA order

The Food and Drug Administration today announced the settlement of a court case against an Illinois firm involved last year in FDA's seizure of thousands of imported unapproved drugs, including those that were labeled in foreign languages and/or labeled as repacked.

13 Apr 2004

FDA issues warning againts street drug alternatives

FDA issued a warning in February 2004, about adverse events experienced by four teenagers after they consumed Green Hornet Liquid that contained high levels of the over-the-counter drugs diphenhydramine and dextromethorphan.

11 Apr 2004

Natural medication shown to not always be a safe alternative to synthetic medication

The common perception that if medication is natural then it must be safe has recently come under fire from a researh by a Consumer Reports magazine. The consumer publication found a dozen herbal supplements, some banned in Asia, Europe and Canada but widely available in the United States, may cause cancer, kidney or liver damage and even death.

10 Apr 2004

Results of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease research in people who received human growth hormone from cadavers

The largest study of its kind, designed to track the development of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in people who received human growth hormone from cadavers, has found that the vast majority of those who received the hormone did not contract the fatal condition. However, some recipients (26 out of approximately 7,700) did develop the disease.

7 Apr 2004

New research findings in study of Rett Syndrome

Rudolf Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA reports in the April 6, 2004 online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that introduction of the MeCP2 protein into post-mitotic nerve cells of MeCP2 mutant mice rescues the symptoms of Rett Syndrome. This raises the possibility that neurons are functionally normal in a newborn child and that neural dysfunction manifests itself only later due to prolonged MeCP2 deficiency. If correct, therapeutic strategies aimed at preventing the onset of Rett symptoms could be initiated at birth.

7 Apr 2004

New Australian collaboration to discover new drugs targeting epilepsy and anxiety

Bionomics Limited and Southern Cross University announced today that they had established a collaboration to discover new drugs targeting epilepsy and anxiety. Under the arrangement, Southern Cross University will provide Bionomics with extracts from its collection of Australian-based natural products, together with expertise in natural products chemistry.

30 Mar 2004

St. John’s wort may interfere with cancer-fighting drug’s ability to prevent relapse in leukemia patients

St. John’s wort, an herb thought to be a safe, natural remedy for mild depression, may interfere with a powerful cancer-fighting drug’s ability to prevent relapse in leukemia patients, a University of Florida pharmacy researcher will report March 27 at the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

26 Mar 2004

Discovery of new gene sheds light on human brain development

With the identification of the gene responsible for a newly recognized type of mental retardation, researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have also discovered what appears to be the key target in the evolution of the frontal lobes of the brain's cerebral cortex. The findings offer a key insight into the complex puzzle of human brain development - and the evolution of human behavior.

25 Mar 2004

Researchers discover new form of the Rett syndrome protein

Adrian Bird and Skirmantas Kriaucionis of the University of Edinburgh have discovered a novel form of the protein MeCP2. This alternate form, coined MeCP2 alpha, differs from the original only in the first 19 amino acids. Interestingly, Adrian Bird, Director of the Welcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology at Edinburgh University, found that MeCP2 alpha, is ten times more prevalent not only in the brain but also in other tissues. These findings are currently reported online in Nucleic Acids Research. Similar findings were reported yesterday in Nature Genetics online by Berge Minassian, a neurologist and scientist at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children.

22 Mar 2004

Clinical study - Diagnostic testing for epilepsy released

Bionomics Limited announced today the publication of its international clinical study involving patients with a form of epilepsy confined to early childhood in the scientific journal, Annals of Neurology. The publication details genes associated with a condition known as Benign Familial Neonatal Infantile Spasms (BFNIS), a condition in which infants experience seizures in the first few months of their life.

22 Mar 2004