Nathan Seppa
Biomedical Writer (retired September 2015)
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All Stories by Nathan Seppa
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Health & Medicine
Affairs of the Heartburn: Drugs for stomach acid may hike pneumonia risk
Acid-blocking drugs seem to boost a person's chances of getting pneumonia.
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Health & Medicine
Drug aids destruction of lymphoma cells
The drug rituximab, when added to chemotherapy, boosts survival rates in people with diffuse B-cell lymphoma, a kind of cancer.
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Health & Medicine
COX-2 inhibitor pulled off market
Merck's recall of rofecoxib, a COX-2 inhibitor drug for arthritis, raises the question of whether similar drugs might also increase the risk of heart attack.
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Health & Medicine
A Problem of Adhesion: More evidence of sickle-cell stickiness
Interrupted blood flow in people with sickle-cell disease might arise from stickiness inherent in the unusual red blood cells these individuals have.
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Health & Medicine
Vaccine protects monkeys from Ebola virus
A combination of a DNA vaccine and a vaccine based on a genetically modified common cold virus enables monkeys to resist Ebola virus, the first evidence that an Ebola vaccine works in primates.
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Health & Medicine
Dormant Cancer: Lack of a protein sends tumor cells to bed
Excess amounts of a protein called Myc triggers cancer in mice, but ratcheting back this supply sends the malignant cells into dormancy.
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Health & Medicine
Carotid Overhaul: Stents and surgery go neck and neck
Mesh cylinders called stents work as well as or slightly better than surgery in opening blocked carotid arteries in high-risk patients.
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Health & Medicine
Turmeric component kills cancer cells
Curcumin, the component of turmeric that makes the spice yellow, shows anticancer effects in lab-dish tests and in experiments on mice.
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Health & Medicine
Adopted protein might be MS culprit
A protein called syncytin might play a role in causing degradation of the fatty myelin sheath that insulates nerves, damage that leads to multiple sclerosis.
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Health & Medicine
Hepatitis B vaccine linked to MS
People who develop multiple sclerosis are more likely than others to have received a hepatitis B vaccination in recent years.
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Health & Medicine
Tapping an Unlikely Source: Scientists use mouth membrane to construct corneal-surface transplants
Using membranes taken from the inside of the mouth, researchers have fashioned transplants that act as replacement outer layers for corneas in people with damaged vision.
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Health & Medicine
Liver transplants succeed in many hepatitis C patients
People who receive liver transplants for hepatitis C infections fare about as well as people getting such transplants for other diseases.