Clinical

A landmark Phase 3 clinical trial is beginning in the UK, testing whether a common cough medicine can be used to treat Parkinson's disease. Early studies indicate the 50-year-old drug can cross into the brain and help clear out the toxic proteins known to cause Parkinson's.Around a decade ago, researchers were investigating novel treatments for a condition known as Gaucher disease. The rare genetic disorder leaves people deficient in an enzyme called glucocerebrosidase (or GCase). Screening hundreds of already approved…

Earlier this year, the developer of a promising antibody designed to slow Alzheimer’s disease strengthened a key warning given to participants in an ongoing trial of the experimental drug. Taking the antibody alongside blood clot medications, the Japanese biotech company Eisai cautioned, increases the risk of possibly fatal brain hemorrhages. That revision of its informed consent form, revealed in a 14 July version obtained by Science, appears to challenge the…

Robert Krayn is the co-founder and CEO of Talkiatry. Previously, he spent five years as vice president and senior analyst at an investment management firm. Early indications show funding to digital health startups in Q4 2022 fell so much, they’re close to levels last seen in 2019. But the dollar amounts don’t tell the whole story. How you grow as a digital healthcare company is just as important as if you grow at all. A company built for the long term should have clinical experts…

As enthusiasm mounts for a new experimental antibody that appears to slow cognitive decline in some Alzheimer’s patients, a third death linked to the drug during its clinical testing may amplify concerns about its safety. Science has obtained medical records showing a 79-year-old Florida woman participating in an ongoing trial of the antibody died in mid-September after experiencing extensive brain swelling and bleeding, as well as seizures. Multiple…

A combination of immunotherapy and chemotherapy has shown promise for treating stage IV melanoma in a new clinical trial. The chemo drug targets a type of cell that suppresses the immune response, and together the two showed an increased response rate.Immunotherapy is an emerging treatment where a patient’s immune system is boosted to help it fight off cancer. While it’s particularly effective against some types of cancer, such as leukemia, there are cases where tumors can suppress the immune reaction.In previous studies,…

Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation announced that the amyloid-clearing drug lecanemab will be a positive step in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease based on study results presented at the 15th Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease (CTAD) conference and published in The New England Journal of Medicine.Positive results from new amyloid-clearing drug represent a starting point for <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="<div…

Elon Musk said on Wednesday a wireless device developed by his brain chip company Neuralink is expected to begin human clinical trials in six months.The company is developing brain chip interfaces that it says could enable disabled patients to move and communicate again. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area and Austin, Texas, Neuralink has in recent years been conducting tests on animals as it seeks US regulatory approval to begin clinical trials in people."We want to be extremely careful and certain that it will work well…

Blood grown in a laboratory has been transfused into humans for the first time in a landmark clinical trial.Future Publishing | Future Publishing | Getty ImagesLONDON — Blood grown in a laboratory has been transfused into humans for the first time in a landmark clinical trial that U.K. researchers say could significantly improve treatment for people with blood disorders and rare blood types.Two patients in the U.K. received tiny doses — equivalent to a few teaspoons — of the lab-grown blood in the first stage of a wider…

The new tool uses natural language descriptions from the accompanying clinical reports to identify diseases on chest X-rays.A new tool overcomes a significant hurdle in clinical AI design.Scientists from Harvard Medical School and Stanford University have created a diagnostic tool using artificial intelligence that can detect diseases on chest X-rays based on the natural language descriptions provided in the accompanying clinical reports.Because most existing AI models need arduous human annotation of enormous amounts of…

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are common and treatable, but there can be complications, especially when the bacteria become drug resistant. Now, a new drug combo has shown promise in a Phase 3 clinical trial.UTIs are often cleared up with a round of antibiotics, but other risk factors can make them more complicated. This includes urinary obstructions, catheters, fever or sepsis, all of which can make it harder to kill off the infection. Worse still, the bacteria involved are increasingly developing resistance to…