Nathan Seppa

Biomedical Writer (retired September 2015)

All Stories by Nathan Seppa

  1. 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.

  2. Health & Medicine

    One-Two Punch: Vaccine fights herpes with antibodies, T cells

    An experimental vaccine against genital herpes shows promise in animal tests.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Taking on a lethal blood cancer

    A drug called bortezomib can induce remission of an aggressive kind of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. 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.

  11. 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.

  12. 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.