Medications

Scientists have found a way to use the bacteria E. coli to convert plastic waste into a popular painkiller, a study said Monday, though outside experts doubted the technique would make a dent in the fight against plastic pollution.

In a follow-up investigation into the multibillion-dollar drug ticagrelor, The BMJ has uncovered fresh concerns, this time in key platelet studies used in its FDA approval.

Before 1846, surgery was a crude and brutal undertaking, typically performed on conscious patients lashed to their beds. Then a Boston dentist publicly demonstrated that the highly flammable chemical diethyl ether—commonly called ether—could render a patient unconscious and insensitive to pain. Overnight, surgery became a major player in modern medicine.

The UK’s state-run health service said Thursday it will not offer two new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, citing high costs and “too small” benefits.

Cornell researchers have identified an antibiotic, rifampin, that is 99.9% effective against Salmonella Typhi, the bacterium that causes typhoid fever. Researchers also predict that rifampin will work on other life-threatening diseases like bacterial pneumonia and meningitis.

A study led by University of Manchester epidemiologists has revealed which opioid painkillers are most likely to be associated with constipation in patients with non-cancer pain.

Cleveland Clinic researchers are working to improve the way we use evolutionary modeling to understand drug resistance. The study, published in Science Advances, uses a new type of evolutionary model called a “fitness seascape” to incorporate a patient’s dosage schedule into models that predict whether an infection will develop antibiotic resistance, and has found that inconsistent timing and missing early doses can lead to treatment failure.

A cheap over-the-counter supplement could hold the key to preventing heart failure in people with Type 2 diabetes, according to research presented Tuesday at the British Cardiovascular Society conference in Manchester.

Three lots of a drug designed to treat various urinary tract infections have been recalled because the white round tablets might have black spots from microbial contamination.

Can a small fish help identify possible treatments for an ultra-rare inherited disease found in an Alabama boy? The genetic disease is XMEA, which progressively weakens the muscles and can affect the liver and heart. XMEA stands for X-linked myopathy with excessive autophagy. As of March 2024, only 33 cases had ever been seen worldwide.