The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week approved the first new sunscreen filter in more than two decades, sparking industry-wide excitement. And while this ingredient will be new to the U.S., it’s far from new to the market internationally. The FDA broke a 27-year dry spell on Tuesday when it added bemotrizinol, sold under the brand name PARSOL®… Source link
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week approved the first new sunscreen filter in more than two decades, sparking industry-wide excitement. And while this ingredient will be new to the U.S., it’s far from new to the market internationally. The FDA broke a 27-year dry spell on Tuesday when it added bemotrizinol, sold under the brand name PARSOL®… Source link
People come up with all kinds of excuses to avoid wearing sunscreen. They hate the chalky consistency, the white cast, and the heavy feeling that many formulas leave behind. They can’t bear their eyes stinging as product drips when they run outdoors or simply exist in the summer heat. They’ve heard that chemical sunscreens are toxic and better off avoided altogether. But thanks to the FDA’s approval of a new sunscreen filter, many of those complaints could soon be lulled. After decades of lobbying, the FDA finally approved the new sunscreen ingredient bemotrizinol (aka Tinosorb S, or BEMT) on June 10. Long used across Europe and Asia, this chemical sunscreen filter will soon make its grand entry stateside—making skincare obsessives, industry insiders, and product developers sound a lot like sneakerheads. Why the approval is such a big win The FDA hasn’t approved a new sunscreen filter since the late ‘90s. Because sunscreen is regulated as a drug in the U.S., new filters face a far longer approval process than they do overseas. In terms of …
A drug long used to fight cancer may soon take on a very different role. Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have found that doxorubicin, an FDA-approved chemotherapy medicine, can block drug-resistant herpes infections in early studies. The discovery offers hope for patients who face limited treatment options when standard antivirals stop working. The research centers on herpes simplex virus type 1, known as HSV-1. This virus infects billions of people worldwide and stays in the body for life. For many, it causes cold sores. For others, especially those with weakened immune systems, it can lead to serious complications, including brain inflammation and organ failure. “This opens up an unexpected, potentially fast-moving path toward treating drug-resistant herpes infections,” said Deepak Shukla, a virologist in the College of Medicine at UIC. “HSV-1 infections have serious, sometimes life-threatening consequences, and this drug may help save lives.” A Growing Problem With Few Solutions HSV-1 has challenged doctors for decades. Standard antiviral drugs such as acyclovir can control outbreaks by stopping the virus from copying itself. These medicines …
Doctors are finding new hope for people at risk of losing their sight from age-related macular degeneration, or AMD. Research from the University of Liverpool suggests that metformin, a long-used diabetes drug, may slow the disease before it reaches more serious stages. Metformin was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1994 for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. It was earlier approved for use in the UK in 1958. AMD primarily affects the area of the retina responsible for sharp vision, known as the macula, and damages the light-sensitive cells that comprise that part of the retina over time. As a result, people develop difficulty reading, driving, and recognizing faces. It is also the leading cause of blindness in high-income countries. This new research focuses on finding ways to protect individuals with diabetes and over the age of 55 from developing intermediate stages of AMD as they age. After five years, those who were taking metformin were approximately 67% less likely than those not taking metformin to have developed intermediate AMD. …
Long before memory problems appear, your brain may already be losing neurons. That is the unsettling message from new work by scientists at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, who found that signs of brain cell injury begin in early life and rise sharply with age. In a study, the team tracked proteins in blood that spill out when neurons are damaged or die. Two of these markers, called UCH-L1 and NfL, were very low in children and young adults. Their levels climbed every year, then rose exponentially up to about age 85. Early in life, those changes likely reflect normal aging. Later on, the same markers appear to signal trouble. High levels of UCH-L1 in older adults were linked with worse outcomes, suggesting that the quiet loss of neurons may already be affecting thinking and memory. Plasma UCH-L1 concentrations are higher with advancing age in healthy control participants, especially in females. (CREDIT: Cell Reports Medicine) The researchers also measured another protein, GFAP, which rises with brain inflammation. They found that GFAP in blood …
