Washington, April 8: An experimental drug for metastatic prostate cancer has shown considerable promise in early clinical trials by reducing signs of the disease in patients with drug-resistant cancer.

Of 30 men who received low doses of one the drugs in a multisite phase I/II trial designed to evaluate safety, 22 showed a sustained decline in the level of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in their blood.

Washington, April 8 : A research team, including an Indian-origin boffin, has shed light on why people with diabetes have high blood glucose levels.

Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center have shown for the first time that insulin plays a significant role in suppressing levels of glucagon, a hormone involved in carbohydrate metabolism and regulating blood glucose levels.

According to researchers, the new findings could lead to development of a drug aimed at targeting glucagon levels.

Washington, Apr 8 : An inflammatory factor-already implicated in causing several diseases, like pulmonary disease, lung cancer, and arthritis- may also have a role to play in insulin resistance linked with obesity, according to a study.

The researchers behind the study say that an inflammatory protein, known as CXCL5, rises and falls with obesity and subsequent weight loss in humans.

They say that they experiments on mice have provided further evidence linking the inflammatory factor, which is produced and secreted at high levels by fat tissue, to insulin resistance.

The researchers have also shown that treatments designed to block its action improve the animals'' sensitivity to insulin.

Washington, April 8: A leading new tuberculosis vaccine, called MVA85A, has been found to be safe in its Phase I trial.

Lead researcher Dr. Helen McShane, reader in vaccinology and Wellcome senior fellow at the University of Oxford’s Jenner Institute in England, studied the effects of the vaccine specifically in people who had latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI), which can cause full-blown disease when re-activated.

For the study, the researchers recruited 12 individuals with LTBI, who did not have other complicating factors like HIV or hepatitis.

Singapore  - A second woman died Wednesday after a food-poisoning outbreak hit Singapore last week, a radio report said.

Norani Kassim, 59, who was admitted to hospital Saturday, died after lapsing into a coma, hospital officials told the local 938LIVE station.

Aminah Samijo, 57, died Monday while another woman lost her 2-month-old foetus after suffering food poisoning by eating a salad at a food stall.

News reports said 137 people had suffered food poisoning after eating the salad of meat and deep-fried vegetables called India rojak from a popular hawker stall last week.

The government has initiated an investigation of the stall operators while the entire market where it was located has been closed for cleaning.

Washington, Apr 8: Carrying an extra four inches of fat around the waist can increase a person''s risk of being hospitalised with heart failure, warn researchers.

A study led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has found that larger waist circumference is associated with increased risk of heart failure in middle-aged and older populations of men and women.