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Cuts to aid breathing

Removing damaged lung tissue could benefit many more patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, report researchers at the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals. Surgery reduces breathlessness by enabling healthy areas to work better, but fewer than 100 operations are performed annually because surgeons fear the risks. The researchers operated on 81 patients, who all survived. Earlier surgery cut through the sternum for operations on both lungs, but incisions today are through the side of the chest between ribs, and only the worst affected lung is targeted, minimising trauma and complications.

Hybrid healing 

A two-protein hybrid, now being designed, could become an effective prostate cancer treatment when other therapies fail. One half binds to the receptor to which male hormones already bind to cause prostate cancer, while the other blocks the receptor's activity. The combination was shown to obstruct cancer cell growth in laboratory tests at Essex University and Imperial College London. Dr Greg Brooke said: €The next step is to continue research in cell models to refine the therapy into something that is specific, potent and easy to deliver€. Patient trials are expected within five years.

Mosquito curbs

An international team has developed a means of reducing fertility in malaria- carrying mosquitoes to curb the disease. They used inhibitors to neutralise an enzyme that allows free radicals to protect sperm stored by the female after mating and enables egg fertilisation. Next they want to disable the male's enzyme that triggers expression of the female's enzyme. Researchers in London, working with the Harvard School of Public Health and Perugia University, Italy, emphasised the need for new approaches to malaria €“ which kills more than 650,000 people annually €“ partly because mosquitoes are evolving ways of resisting present treatments.

Strictly no smoking

Rheumatoid arthritis risks rise with the number of cigarettes smoked and the years spent smoking, a Swedish study reports. Researchers at the Karolinska Institute and a nearby hospital, who analysed data from 34,000 women aged between 54 and 89, said only one to seven cigarettes daily more than doubled the risk. The risk was considered significant even 15 years after smokers quit. The study confirms Manchester University findings that smoking is the biggest lifestyle factor in developing rheumatoid arthritis.

Answers in the sea

Insights into the regeneration of damaged cells in the central nervous system have been gained from a study of the sea cucumber, the latest investigation into some marine animals' ability to regrow tissues and organs. Scientists at Puerto Rico University, who studied the genes enabling central nervous system regeneration in sea cucumbers, hope to find the molecular mechanism responsible and use this to improve the process in human patients.

Hair drugs

A rheumatoid arthritis drug has restored all hair lost by an alopecia patient. This is the first reported example of successful targeted treatment for alopecia universalis, which causes total hair loss. Tofacitinib citrate, given at Yale University to a 25 year-old, appeared to block the immune system attack on hair follicles, which typifies alopecia. It achieved full regrowth after eight months. Dr Brett A. King said: €We believe the results will be duplicated in other patients, and we plan to try€. At Columbia University, New York, scientists successfully treated alopecia areata, which causes patchy baldness. Three patients who took ruxolitinib for five months had all lost hair restored.