Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Today's Headlines

Some very interesting snippets in the news today.

Potential treatment option in the works for CFS.  A company has combined a specialized supplement for mitochondria with low dose ritalin that seems to work for CFS symptom improvement.  It is currently going into a double blind placebo study (the gold standard).  BTW, it is being developed by a man that suffers from CFS himself.  Woot!!
http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_25395316/mill-valley-company-develops-treatment-mysterious-chronic-fatigue

The next potential treatment is an antiviral drug being tested on fibro patients.  It is further off on the horizon though.  It has completed phase 1 and phase 2 trials (animals and small batch of humans) and now is raising money for phase 3 (double blind placebo on a large cohort).  It will be a few years before patients will be recruited, whereas the ritalin trial is already in the recruitment phase.
http://www.cortjohnson.org/blog/2014/03/24/pridgen-reports-fibromyalgia-antiviral-trial-results-positive/#comment-303641

And in the way way far off future.  It appears that someone has figured out how to flip genes on and off.  Now this sounds minor but this can have a MAJOR impact on the future of medicine.  If I could go in and fix my MTHFR genes, then I would probably get way way better than I am.  Potential fully cured.  Right now the only discussion is around cancer cures but anyone with a genetic problem should be jumping for joy with this breakthrough.
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/39545/title/DNA-Bends-Control-Gene-Activation/

Then we have this: a bacterial Frankenstein....
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140323152144.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Ftop_news%2Ftop_science+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Top+Science+News%29&utm_content=FaceBook
This just scares the crap out of me.  Then again it might be harnessed for good.  One hopes anyway...


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