Nathan Seppa
Biomedical Writer (retired September 2015)
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All Stories by Nathan Seppa
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Health & Medicine
Bad Combo? Some antidepressants may hamper breast cancer drug
Certain widely used antidepressants and a woman's own genes might diminish the effect of tamoxifen, a frontline breast cancer drug.
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Health & Medicine
One-Two Punch: Vaccine fights herpes with antibodies, T cells
An experimental vaccine against genital herpes shows promise in animal tests.
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Health & Medicine
Expanding the therapeutic arsenal
Two experimental drugs can send chronic myeloid leukemia into remission in patients who don't benefit from the best currently available drugs.
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Health & Medicine
Drug counters severe platelet shortage
An experimental drug called AMG531 revs up production of platelets in people with severe shortages of these clotting agents.
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Health & Medicine
Viagra eases lung pressure in patients
Viagra eases increased blood pressure in the lungs, a condition that affects about one-third of adults with sickle-cell disease.
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Health & Medicine
Taking on a lethal blood cancer
A drug called bortezomib can induce remission of an aggressive kind of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
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Health & Medicine
Birth Dilemma: Doctors weigh pros and cons of cesareans
Women attempting a vaginal birth after a cesarean delivery have more uterine ruptures and other complications than do women undergoing a second cesarean section.
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Health & Medicine
TB vaccine gets a needed boost
An experimental vaccine against tuberculosis imparts significant immunity, but only in people who have previously received the existing bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine for TB.
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Health & Medicine
Antioxidant Booster: Protein curbs lung damage caused by smoke
A protein called Nrf2 defends against emphysema by activating dozens of genes that combat free radicals and toxic pollutants, a study in mice suggests.
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Health & Medicine
Extensive test shows cholera vaccine works
A vaccine for cholera has proved up to 81 percent effective in a large-scale public health trial in Mozambique.
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Health & Medicine
Soldiers in Iraq coming down with parasitic disease
Hundreds of U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have contracted leishmaniasis, a parasite-borne disease that attacks the skin.
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Health & Medicine
Probing a parasite for vulnerability
Researchers have discovered an enzyme that is indispensable to the parasite that causes sleeping sickness, and disabling that enzyme could offer a novel treatment strategy for the disease.