http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. A novel tool exploits baker's yeast to expedite the development of new drugs to fight multiple tropical diseases, including malaria, schistosomiasis, and African sleeping sickness. The unique screening method uses yeasts which have been genetically engineered to express parasite and human proteins to identify chemical compounds that target disease-causing parasites but do not affect their human hosts. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-tool-tropical-diseases.html Medical research Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:10:01 EST news281124813 The largest study of epilepsy in sub-Saharan Africa to date reveals that programmes to control parasitic diseases and access to better antenatal care could substantially reduce the prevalence of the disease in this region. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-parasites-poor-antenatal-main-epilepsy.html Neuroscience Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:00:02 EST news278789821 One of the most insidious ways that parasitic diseases such as malaria and toxoplasmosis wreak their havoc is by hijacking their host's natural cellular processes, turning self against self. Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University, led by Doron Greenbaum, Ph.D., assistant professor of Pharmacology at Penn, have identified the cell signaling pathway used by these parasites to escape from and destroy their host cells and infect new cells—pointing the way toward possible new strategies to stop these diseases in their tracks. The study appears in Cell, Host and Microbe. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-malaria-parasites-host-cell-basis.html Medical research Wed, 16 Jan 2013 12:00:05 EST news277556076 Poverty and disease often come together. That much is well understood. But how much does poverty foster disease? Or, how much can disease perpetuate poverty? And what's the role of nature, given that so many infectious diseases are spread by mosquitoes or spend part of their life cycle outside of the human body? http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-links-disease-poverty-biodiversity.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 28 Dec 2012 13:50:01 EST news275922401 (Medical Xpress)—A well-established family of drugs used to treat parasitic diseases is showing surprising potential as a therapy for tuberculosis (TB), according to new research from University of British Columbia microbiologists. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-repurposed-anti-parasite-drug-tb-treatment.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 23 Nov 2012 07:58:29 EST news272879872 Research carried out at the University of Gothenburg may lead to more effective arsenic-containing drugs. The results may also lead to more resistant plants, and crops with a limited absorption and storage of arsenic. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-arsenic-drugs-cleaner-crops.html Medications Mon, 25 Jun 2012 12:40:02 EST news259844757 Scientists have identified which strains of the Toxoplasma gondii parasite, the cause of toxoplasmosis, are most strongly associated with premature births and severe birth defects in the United States. The researchers used a new blood test developed by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, to pinpoint T. gondii strains that children acquire from their acutely infected mothers while in the womb. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-links-strains-common-parasite-severe.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:17:36 EST news253466031 The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has completed a comprehensive study of an unexplained skin condition commonly referred to as Morgellons and found no infectious agent and no evidence to suggest an environmental link. The full results are reported in the Jan. 25 issue of the online journal PLoS ONE. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-unexplained-skin-condition-non-infectious-linked.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:00:14 EST news246710905 Scientists of the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITG) discovered a parasite that not only had developed resistance against a common medicine, but at the same time had become better in withstanding the human immune system. With some exaggeration: medical practice helped in developing a superbug. For it appears the battle against the drug also armed the bug better against its host. "To our knowledge it is the first time such a doubly armed organism appears in nature", says researcher Manu Vanaerschot, who obtained a PhD for his detective work at ITG and Antwerp University. "It certainly makes you think." http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-medicines-boost-pathogens.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:36:23 EST news243689649 With the help of another $2 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, researchers are moving closer to setting up human clinical trials for a reformulated drug that could be the linchpin of treatment efforts against two debilitating tropical diseases. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-safe-treatment-parasitic-diseases.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 08 Jul 2011 10:41:21 EST news229340430 Scientists have for years been puzzled by why drugs are sometimes effective in treating parasitic diseases, while other times they have little or no effect. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-potential-mechanisms-drug-resistance-toxoplasma.html Medical research Tue, 21 Jun 2011 10:18:52 EST news227870307 Mummies from along the Nile are revealing how age-old irrigation techniques may have boosted the plague of schistosomiasis, a water-borne parasitic disease that infects an estimated 200 million people today. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-mummies-history-modern-plague.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 23 May 2011 10:18:04 EST news225364662 Drugs used to treat HIV may form templates for lifesaving drugs targeted at malaria and other parasitic diseases, according to a new study from the University. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-tropical-parasites.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 11 May 2011 09:29:57 EST news224324948