Articles by Delthia Ricks
Medical Xpress / Stopping DNA damage in T cells during PARP inhibitor cancer treatment enhances antitumor effectiveness
The cancer drugs called PARP inhibitors have a puzzling reputation: even though they are treatment mainstays for multiple forms of cancer, they can damage cancer-killing T cells and disrupt the potential for meaningful therapy. ...
Phys.org / Kinase enzymes exist throughout tree of life—those found in bacteria may be vulnerable targets for new antibiotics
Enzymes known as kinases play a critical role in cell growth, metabolism and signaling in a multitude of organisms across the tree of life—from algae to helminths to mammals. Now, scientists have developed an atlas of bacterial ...
Medical Xpress / Click chemistry PET imaging tracks antisense drug distribution in the brain
Assessing the distribution of a medication in the brain is critical for the treatment of a vast range of neurological disorders, especially conditions such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. To that end, scientists ...
Medical Xpress / Can monoclonal antibodies effectively treat malaria? Scientists say the answer is a resounding 'yes'
Monoclonal antibodies provide protection against a wide range of infectious microbes, and now, in a series of elegant laboratory experiments, scientists have uncovered how a pair of these lab-engineered molecules fight malaria.
Medical Xpress / Size matters when it comes to antibiotics. Obese patients may need customized doses of certain drugs
Obesity can have a distinct impact on the absorption, effectiveness and excretion of antibiotics, medications that have been in use for more than 80 years, but only now have consensus guidelines been proposed on prescribing ...
Medical Xpress / Positive proof-of-concept experiments may lead to the world's first treatment for celiac disease
An investigational treatment for celiac disease effectively controls the condition—at least in an animal model—in a first-of-its-kind therapeutic for a condition that affects approximately 70 million people worldwide.
Medical Xpress / Investigational test detects earliest stages of autoimmune assault that causes type 1 diabetes, scientists report
An investigational blood test for type 1 diabetes can accurately detect the disorder's characteristic autoimmunity with only small samples of blood, a feature that makes it ideal to screen pediatric patients, scientists in ...
Medical Xpress / New technique protects 'architecture' of insulin-producing islet cells for transplant into type 1 diabetics
Stem cell-derived pancreatic islets are being studied as a rich transplantable source for insulin production, a therapeutic for type 1 diabetes that overcomes the need to obtain islet cells from deceased donors.
Medical Xpress / Scientists work toward a vaccine for filoviruses, Ebola's deadly kin
Filoviruses are among the globe's most lethal—indeed, so dangerous they can be handled only in high-security laboratories. Yet, more than five decades after the discovery of the Marburg virus and nearly 50 years after the ...
Medical Xpress / Low levels of a single enzyme influence pathway to malignancy in colorectal cancer, scientists find
The transformation of healthy cells into invasive colorectal tumors is an extraordinarily complex process involving numerous molecular mechanisms, according to cancer biologists in China who have discovered that low levels ...
Medical Xpress / A protective immune system cell disappears from a key form of fat, but only in those who are obese
The mammalian immune system is an evolutionary wonder. It's capable of recognizing and destroying cancer cells, and it can deploy armies of antibodies against viruses, bacteria, parasites and fungi.
Medical Xpress / In quest to construct a better flu shot, scientists zero in on tiny flu protein shaped like a mushroom
Not long after the first flu shot was introduced in 1945 by University of Michigan virologist Thomas Francis and his co-researcher, Jonas Salk (who would later garner worldwide fame as developer of the first polio vaccine), ...
Phys.org / Exploring the dark side of Staph aureus, a bacterium resistant to multiple drugs—even those yet to be tested in humans
British physician and microbiologist Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin nearly 100 years ago, was the first to warn of the dangers of antibiotic resistance.
Medical Xpress / Scientists peel away the mystery of JAK enzymes, which play roles in everything from eczema to ulcerative colitis
Pharmaceutical ads are difficult to avoid in American television programming and a growing number of them promote a class of medications called JAK inhibitors, using an acronym that assumes the average TV watcher knows exactly ...
Medical Xpress / Can a heart failure drug effectively treat a lethal form of ovarian cancer? Scientists hope the answer is 'yes'
Ovarian cancer is the deadliest gynecologic malignancy globally and is increasing in incidence and mortality with currently more than 300,000 new cases and 200,000 deaths annually, according to data from the World Health ...
