Channel 42
Science is the answer to everything.

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of sanofi-aventis Group, announced today that an investigational high-dose influenza vaccine demonstrated increased immune responses among adults 65 years of age and older compared with the standard influenza vaccine. The candidate high-dose intramuscular formulation of the influenza vaccine is being developed by Sanofi Pasteur.

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Rheumatologists, dermatologists and patient advocates have come together to publish the first-ever international guidelines for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis, a disease that mainly affects people who have psoriasis but also some people without it.

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Giving people age 65 and older a dose four times larger than the standard flu vaccine boosts the amount of antibodies in their blood to levels considered protective against the flu, more so than the standard flu vaccine does. The findings from a study of nearly 4,000 people were presented Oct. 26 at a national meeting on infectious diseases.

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Viruses — long regarded solely as disease agents — now are being used in therapies for cancer. Concerns over the safety of these so-called oncolytic viruses stem from their potential to damage healthy tissues. Now Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered a way of controlling the viruses behind potential cancer therapeutics.

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Scientists have expressed genes from snapdragon in tomatoes to grow purple tomatoes high in health-protecting anthocyanins.Anthocyanins are naturally occurring pigments found at particularly high levels in berries such as blackberry, cranberry and chokeberry. Scientists are investigating ways to increase the levels of health-promoting compounds in more commonly eaten fruits and vegetables.

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A University of Iowa study suggests that the prolonged fatigue after mild exercise that occurs in people with many forms of muscular dystrophy is distinct from the inherent muscle weakness caused by the disease. The research identifies a faulty signaling pathway that appears to cause exercise-induced fatigue in mouse models of muscular dystrophy and shows that Viagra can overcome the signaling defect and relieve the fatigue.

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Researchers from the John Innes Centre in Norwich, Great Britain, in collaboration with other European centers participating to the FLORA project, have obtained genetically modified tomatoes rich in anthocyanins, a category of antioxidants belonging to the class of flavonoids. These tomatoes, added to the diet of cancer-prone mice, showed a significant protective effect by extending the mice lifespan. The research has been published in the Oct. 26 issue of Nature Biotechnology.

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Vaccinating new mothers and other family members against influenza before their newborns leave the hospital creates a “cocooning effect” that may shelter unprotected children from the flu, a virus that can be life-threatening to infants, according to researchers at Duke Children’s Hospital.

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. . . or should that be, “Carnival of the Elitist Bastards VI”, in proper carved-above-a-colonnade fashion? In any case, it’s online at John Pieret’s place. Insert your monocles and enjoy! I do have to wonder, though, why these science …

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