Seafood allergy sufferers may soon be able to eat prawns without the fear of an adverse reaction. Chinese scientists have taken a promising step towards removing from prawns the proteins that cause an allergic response without resorting to genetic manipulation, reports Lisa Richards in Chemistry & Industry, the magazine of the SCI.Li Zhenxing led the research at the Ocean University of China. [click link for full article]

New data demonstrated the maintenance combination asthma therapy, SYMBICORT® (budesonide/formoterol fumarate dehydrate), provides a rapid, clinically significant bronchodilatory response, or opening of the airways, defined as the median time to achieve more than / equal to 15% improvement in lung function within 15 minutes after administration. [click link for full article]

Androgen deprivation therapy - one of the most common treatments for prostate cancer - may increase the risk of death from heart disease in patients over age 65, according to a new study by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and other institutions.The study results were based on data from CaPSURE, a national registry of men with prostate cancer. [click link for full article]

Teens who start having sex significantly earlier than their peers also show higher rates of delinquency in later years, new research shows.A national study of more than 7,000 youth found that adolescents who had sex early showed a 20 percent increase in delinquent acts one year later compared to those whose first sexual experience occurred at the average age for their school. [click link for full article]

The number of new drugs being developed to relieve neuropathic pain - a chronic, devastating condition affecting three to eight per cent of the population - has quadrupled over the past year and a half, a Queen’s University study shows. But under present regulations, pharmaceutical companies are not required to test their products against currently used neuropathic pain drugs, notes Dr. [click link for full article]

The following highlights recent news of state actions on abortion legislation. Alabama: The Committee on Public Health on Wednesday gave final approval to a proposal that sets standards for follow-up care and equipment maintenance at clinics that offer abortions, as well as increases the role of a clinic’s medical director, the [click link for full article]

The United Nations World Food Programme said today that Puntland authorities this morning arrested four men whom they say were part of a group that hijacked a WFP-contracted ship off the north eastern coast of Somalia. The men were arrested when they went ashore to buy supplies in the town of Bargal. However some four hijackers remain in control of the MV Rozen. [click link for full article]

A new study has found that the current estimates of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection rates in girls and women in the US are too low. It suggests the actual infection rate is about 60 per cent higher, or about 1 in 4 females aged between 14 and 59. This is equivalent to 25 million American girls and women.The study is published in today’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.Dr Eileen F. [click link for full article]

The parents of three Texas girls on Friday filed a lawsuit claiming Gov. Rick Perry (R) went beyond his authority and illegally issued an executive order mandating that all girls entering the sixth grade beginning in September 2008 receive a human papillomavirus vaccine, the [click link for full article]

Hypoxia, which is defined as a shortage of oxygen, can occur throughout the body (e.g., at high altitude) or within a specific organ or tissue of the body (e.g., due to blockage of a blood vessel, which in the heart ultimately results in a heart attack). In many instances, inflammation is the response of the body to hypoxia and this often causes many of the problems that arise from hypoxia. [click link for full article]