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Clinical trial studies breast cancer drug abemaciclib as a therapy for Kaposi sarcoma

Kaposi sarcoma (KS) is cancer that causes patches of abnormal tissue, called lesions, to grow under the skin or in other organs. The lesions are red or purple and usually appear on the legs or face, often causing no symptoms. However, lesions in the lungs, liver or digestive tract can be life-threatening. KS, caused by a virus known as Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus (KSHV), is common in people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) but can occur in people who do not have HIV.  Ramya Ramaswami, M.B.B.S., M.P.H. , Physician-Scientist Early Investigator in the  HIV and AIDS Malignancy Branch , is leading a study to see if a drug is currently used to treat patients with breast cancer can help people with KS. Abemaciclib works by blocking the action of an abnormal protein that signals cancer cells to multiply. Research from the  Yarchoan Lab  has shown that abemaciclib impacts the growth of KSHV-infected cells and can enhance the expression of immune surface markers on these cells
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Blind Patient Recovers Partial Vision with Optogenetics

After receiving an intraocular injection of the gene for a light-sensitive protein, a 58-year-old man diagnosed with the neurodegenerative eye disease retinitis pigmentosa was able to locate objects on a table using engineered goggles. S ince its early days in the mid-2000s, optogenetics, with its potential to activate neurons with light, emerged as a promising technique for restoring vision in blind patients. P atients who were blind or nearly blind from retinitis pigmentosa could detect light and motion following treatment.  The 58-year-old man described in the paper was the first patient in a clinical trial—partially funded by GenSight Biologics—designed to assess the safety and, secondarily, the efficacy of the therapy. Forty years before enrolling in the trial, he had been diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare, genetic disease that results in the degeneration of the photoreceptor cells in the retina, leading to blindness. To compensate for the loss of these photosensitive ce
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How To conduct Clinical Trials

Clinical trials or clinical research studies, to tests the potential treatments in human volunteers to see whether they should be approved for wider use in the population. In the examine a treatment could be a medicine, medical device, or biological or gene therapy. Potential treatments, however, must be studied in laboratory animals first to control potential toxicity before they can be tested on anyone or patients. Treatments having acceptable safety profiles most promises are then moved into clinical trials. Although the word new may imply betterment, it is not known whether the potential medical treatment offers to patients until clinical research on that treatment is complete. Clinical trials are an integral part of new product discovery and trials before a new product can be brought to the market. The organization is committed to protecting the participants of clinical trials, as well as providing reliable information to those interested in participating. Recently, unethical beha
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