The “New & Interesting” series is a biweekly compilation of select research findings, news articles, and random tidbits in bullet-point format. The entries are highly abbreviated, but provide links to the original articles or abstracts if you desire to read further.

General Articles

• Telaprevir leads to 75% cure rate in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected individuals, as shown in late-stage Phase III drug trial. This is a significant improvement over the 40-50% cure rate of the current HCV therapies: interferon and ribavirin. The side effect profile of telaprevir is also much more tolerable than with interferon and ribavirin. If approved by the FDA, telaprevir may also lead to a multi-billion dollar boon for its developer, Vertex Pharmaceuticals. (Reuters)

• Researchers at Ulm University in Germany discovered that children who ate three or more hamburgers a week had a 40% greater risk of developing asthma than those who ate less hamburgers. The group hypothesizes that saturated fats promote asthma by causing inflammation in the airways. This does not apply to all fats, such as omega-3, which may instead have a protective effect. (WebMD)

Technical Articles

• Bilateral necrosis of earlobes and cheeks may be another complication of cocaine. There has been an increasing percentage of cocaine cut with the antihelmintic agent levimasole. Levimasole is an immunomodulating agent that has neutropenia and vasculitis as adverse effects. Physicians from the University of Rochester report two cases of cocaine abusers who developed these yet unknown consequences of cocaine use. (Ann Intern Med)

• Inactive hepatitis B still carries risk for hepatocellular carcinoma and liver-related death. The REVEAL-HBV (Risk Evaluation of Viral Load Elevation and Associated Liver Disease/Cancer in HBV) Study Group found that the annual incidence rates of hepatocellular carcinoma and liver-related death was higher in inactive HBV carriers when compared to uninfected controls. (Gastroenterology)