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BioCis Pharma Reports Positive Phase IIa Clinical Results In Atopic Dermatitis
BioCis Pharma Ltd., a privately held drug development company with its headquarters in Turku, Finland, announced positive results from its Phase IIa clinical trial of ProtoCure(TM) emulsion cream, the company"s novel topical drug for dermatology. This double-blind, placebo-controlled study, conducted in Finland, included 13 patients with mild to moderate atopic dermatitis who applied the ProtoCure emulsion cream to the affected skin areas twice daily for up to four weeks. The objectives were to evaluate the tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and efficacy of the topical treatment.

Declaration Of H1N1 Pandemic To Accelerate H1N1 Vaccine Production
The WHO"s decision Thursday to declare H1N1 (swine) flu a pandemic will "speed the production of a vaccine against the new virus," however scientists continue to caution that "it will be fall at the earliest before the first doses are available," the Los Angeles Times reports.
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New Plans To Improve Eating Disorder Services In Wales
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.
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The Development Of Mechanosensitivity

Researchers of the Max DelbrÃøck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany, have gained crucial insight into how mechanosensitivity arises. By measuring electrical impulses in the sensory neurons of mice, the neurobiologists and pain researchers Dr. Stefan G. Lechner and Professor Gary Lewin were able to directly elucidate, for the first time, the emergence of mechanosensitivity. At the same time they were able to show that neurons develop their sensitivity to touch and pain during different developmental phases but always coincidentally with the growth of the neuronal pathways. (EMBO Journal, 2009, doi:10.1038/emboj.2009.73).* The sensory neurons, which are sensitive to touch and pain, are located in the dorsal root ganglia between the intervertebral discs. The neurons receive the stimulus and convert it into electrical signals that are conveyed to the brain. Signal transduction has been investigated very thoroughly, which has led to the development of drugs that block the transduction of pain signals to the brain. Very little, however, is known about how stimulus sensitivity actually emerges. Using the patch-clamp technique in isolated cells of mouse embryos, the MDC researchers succeeded in measuring tiny electrical currents in the cell membranes after a mechanosensory stimulus. "These measurements are extremely difficult," Dr. Lechner explained, "which is why only very few laboratories in the world are specialized in this area." The researchers in Berlin-Buch were able to show that the sensory neurons in the mouse embryo have already fully developed their mechanosensitivity competence on embryonic day 13. That corresponds to about the end of the sixth month of pregnancy in humans. For this development the neurons do not require any nerve growth factor, which is why the researchers suspect that this process is driven by a genetic program. In contrast, the competence to sense pain in the sensory neurons can only develop with the aid of nerve growth factor (NGF). It takes place at a later stage in embryonic development and even after birth. *Developmental waves of mechanosensitivity acquisition in sensory neuron subtypes during embryonic development Stefan G Lechner, Henning Frenzel1, Rui Wang1 and Gary R Lewin* Department of Neuroscience, Max DelbrÃøck Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin-Buch, Germany *Corresponding author Barbara Bachtler Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres


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