Drug overdose deaths approaching 2,000 annually Does passive policing and harm reduction improve health and safety? Vancouver is a living, breathing example to the contrary – or perhaps more like a dying, gasping person. In his film Vancouver is Dying, Aaron Gunn demonstrates the rot of addiction and criminality that is destroying one of Canada’s…
The data does not support progressive dogma that racism explains high black incarceration rates
There are many sacred texts in the Barrack Obama canon of progressive belief. Among the most sacred is that U.S. prisons are full of black men serving time for simple marijuana possession. This presumed truth has been taken to the mountaintop by Obama acolytes from Rob Reiner to Maxine Waters to Stephen Colbert. And hammered…
RNA technology used to target gene defects in blood cells that lead to diseases like leukemia
A University of Alberta researcher is hot on the trail of a new drug to combat blood cancers. Based on RNA technology — best known for the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines — the drug targets specific gene defects in blood cells responsible for cancers such as leukemia. “With conventional cancer drugs, there is a…
Could become the standard treatment for acute ischemic stroke
Tenecteplase (TNK), a common clot-busting drug used in people suffering from a heart attack, is a safe and effective treatment for those in the midst of acute ischemic stroke, reports a University of Alberta research team involved in the largest stroke clinical trial in Canadian history. Brian Buck, a neurology professor in the University of…
Findings show promise for new anti-inflammatory drugs and treatments for autoimmune diseases
New research shows a group of enzymes may have a critical role in how immune cells are activated and then migrate to certain sites in the body – findings that could improve our understanding of inflammation and potentially lead to new treatments. In a recent study, researchers explored a particular family of enzymes called neuraminidases. "We…
Politicians have to stop creating impediments to access
By Nigel Rawson and John Adams Macdonald-Laurier Institute On April 14, 2022, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos announced the federal government’s decision to cancel most of its plan for the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) to regulate significantly lower prices for new medicines in Canada – a mess created five years ago by then Health…
Research points the way to better tests and potential new treatments for pain management
Researchers have uncovered signature metabolites – much like fingerprints in the blood – linked to the cognitive dysfunction and impaired motor skills associated with medical cannabis treatment. The work could lead to better roadside blood tests for impairment, and could also point the way toward supplements or strains of medical cannabis that reduce impairment while…
Treatment acts like a Band-Aid for mutations, allowing the body to rebuild muscle tissue
Up to 45 per cent of patients with the most common inherited neuromuscular disease could benefit from a new “cocktail” drug being developed at the University of Alberta, according to research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The drug could provide an effective and economical treatment to lessen symptoms for the six of…
Mushrooms show long-term benefits in those who suffer from treatment-resistant depression
Regardless of where one stands on legalizing psychedelics for mental-health treatment, Canada is late to the party when it comes to relaxing federal regulations. And given the disturbing rise (and costs of treating) trauma, depression and other mental health disorders worldwide, we better speed up. University researchers, consumers, investors and private-sector companies aren’t waiting for…
Understanding drugs and viruses key to being ready for the next pandemic
Understanding exactly how antiviral drugs interact with viruses at a molecular level will be key to developing the broad-spectrum therapies needed to battle against the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and get ready to fight the next one, according to a newly published paper in the The Journal of Biological Chemistry. The paper reveals the inner workings of the…