Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis, is responsible for eight million human infections and two million deaths worldwide each year. M. tuberculosis infections can be treated...
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Amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptides play a crucial role in Alzheimer’s disease – they are a main component of the toxic amyloid plaques found in patients’ brains. Aβ is so dangerous because it can aggr...
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The global cosmetics industry is a $460 billion dollar market with the skin whitening sector valued at $381 million in 2014. This growing market is projected to increase at a CAGR of 11.7%, reaching $...
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Warfarin is a “first-generation” anticoagulant that has been widely used as a multiple feeding rodenticide for more than 60 years. The prolonged use of warfarin as a rodenticide has, according to ...
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Clostridium botulinum produces botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT), which can cause debilitating disease but also is used to treat disorders like chronic headache, spastic muscles and strabismus. Several di...
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Millions of people in the U.S. suffer from chronic pain each year. Narcotic-based medications commonly are given for pain relief, but they are not always effective and can lead to addiction.Botulinum ...
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Maintaining an adequate supply of oxygen to tissue is necessary for survival. The oxygen-carrying capacity of blood is governed by the concentration of red blood cells (erythrocytes). It is critical t...
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Iron overload or hemochromatosis is a disease marked by an accumulation of iron in the blood. It typically occurs in subjects (e.g., anemia patients) receiving chronic infusions of red blood cells. Th...
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More than 30 million people suffer from age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common cause of permanent vision loss among older adults. Few treatment options are available for AMD, or for j...
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Absence epilepsy (formerly known as ‘petit mal epilepsy’) afflicts thousands of people worldwide, many of them children. It is characterized by nonconvulsive seizures, loss of consciousness, glass...
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The proper functioning of cells depends on information traveling from the extracellular environment to the cytoplasm. Most signals must be conveyed via proteins that span the cellular membrane. Many o...
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Diabetes mellitus continues to be a chronic public health issue despite the availability of injectable insulin since the 1920s. Finding alternative treatments is the subject of intense research. In re...
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Clostridium botulinum produces botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT), which can cause debilitating disease but also is used to treat disorders like chronic headache, spastic muscles and strabismus.The bacteria ...
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Vaccines against influenza and other viruses can be grown in Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells. Problematically, an influenza virus that is made by combining H1N1 and PR8 strains, and that is recommen...
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Influenza infects up to 20 percent of the world’s population every year, causing 500,000 deaths and costing tens of billions of dollars in medical expenses. Influenza A virus, which causes pandemics...
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Fungal infections range in severity from common athlete’s foot to life-threatening illness. Treatment can be very expensive. The cost of treating systemic Candida yeast infections exceeds $31,000 pe...
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‘Staph’ infections, particularly by Staphylococcus aureus strains, can cause skin ailments and more serious conditions like heart valve inflammation and toxic shock syndrome. These strains also ar...
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Influenza virus causes millions of infections each year worldwide. Human parainfluenza virus (PIV) types 1,2,3 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) types A and B are the major viral pathogens respons...
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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune disease that afflicts more than 2.5 million people worldwide. Symptoms include weakness and numbing, pain, swallowing problems, blurred vision and diffi...
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There are no commercial vaccines against fungi. Infections like aspergillosis and Valley Fever can be life-threatening, particularly in immune-compromised patients. These patients also are more vulner...
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One promising approach to cancer treatment is to leverage the immune system. Specifically, tumors can be ‘tagged’ with foreign antigens that attract the body’s defensive antibodies. The antibodi...
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Johne’s disease, or paratuberculosis, is a chronic and usually fatal wasting disease that is found worldwide and impacts more than half of the dairy herds in the U.S. alone. It costs the ruminant in...
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Ebola is the deadliest virus on earth. It has caused death in 90 percent of cases during some outbreaks, afflicting human and great ape populations in tropical Africa. The virus is highly contagious i...
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Primary ovary insufficiency (POI) caused by chemotherapy treatment is experienced by many cancer survivors, including up to 40 percent of reproductive-age breast cancer survivors and eight percent of ...
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The inhalation of small amounts of carbon monoxide (CO) by a transplant organ recipient has been shown to significantly improve transplant outcomes. Currently, medical grade CO is only available in hi...
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