Swedish Discovery May Provide New Treatments For Alcohol Dependence
Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy, Gothenburg, have discovered a new brain mechanism involved in alcohol addiction involving the stomach hormone ghrelin. When ghrelin"s actions in the brain are blocked, alcohol"s effects on the reward system are reduced. It is an important discovery that could lead to new therapies for addictions such as alcohol dependence.
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Two new specialist teams will be set up to improve diagnosis, care and support for people with eating disorders in Wales, Health Minister Edwina Hart officially announced. The new teams - for North Wales and South Wales - will comprise of specialist clinicians and work closely with existing services such as GPs surgeries, social services, child and adolescent mental health services and community mental health teams. Additional funding has been allocated to deliver this plan.
÷£0.5 million will be available this year for the recruitment of additional staff and extra training. After that, ÷£1 million will be available every year to sustain and develop services. 
The NPHS influenza surveillance scheme, which records reports of diagnoses of flu from more than 300 GP practices across Wales, shows low levels of influenza activity in all parts of Wales. Further detail can be found on the NPHS website: http://www.wales.nhs.uk/sites3/page.cfm?orgid=457&pid=38241 -- The report from 8 July estimates there were 12.2 cases of a flu-like illness diagnosed by GPs out of every 100,000 people in Wales - this is the equivalent of 366 people
in Wales contacting their GPs in the last seven days with flu like symptoms. Not all of these people will have swine flu and not everyone with flu like symptoms will contact their GP. It is expected that the proportion of influenza cases diagnosed that are due to swine flu will increase as the virus spreads in Wales.
Bayer Diabetes Care in the UK and Ireland today unveils "DIDGET(TM), the first and only blood glucose meter for kids with diabetes that connects directly to Nintendo DS(TM) and Nintendo DS(TM) Lite gaming systems. The DIDGET meter is designed to help kids manage this lifelong condition by rewarding them for building consistent blood glucose testing habits and meeting personalised glucose target ranges. "One of the biggest challenges facing parents of children with
diabetes is the constant struggle to instil the habit of regular blood glucose testing that is critical for consistent diabetes management," says John Gregory, Professor in Paediatric Endocrinology, Wales School of Medicine, Cardiff University. "Bayer"s DIDGET meter can help ease the parent/child tension that testing often creates by adding an element of fun and rewards to the routine. Because it is designed with children in mind, Bayer"s DIDGET meter can transform a child"s blood glucose
testing experience from something they have to do into something they want to do.
NovImmune, an immunology-focused biotech company dedicated to the development of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, announced the successful completion of the first phase I clinical study with its fully human monoclonal antibody NI-0801 targeting the chemokine IP-10 (CXCL10) in healthy volunteers. The randomized, doubleblinded, placebo controlled, single centre, phase I study of escalating single intravenous doses of NI-0801 in healthy volunteers (study NI-0801-01) demonstrated
that NI-0801 is well tolerated at doses up to and including 20mg/kg. Chemokines are a group of low molecular weight proteins that induce the chemotaxis of different leukocytes to sites of injury or infection.