news

A long-term analysis designed by Christian Gerges and Irene Lang at the Department of Medicine II of the University Hospital Vienna and MedUni Vienna indicates that one third of patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) also have left heart disease. In the past, the possibility of overlap between these two conditions had not been considered in the diagnosis and treatment of CTEPH patients.

Patients suffering from Crohn's disease, a chronic inflammatory intestinal disorder, develop painful constrictions in the bowel. Due to a lack of methods until now, these complications cannot be characterised with sufficient precision to initiate targeted treatment. An interdisciplinary research group at MedUni Vienna has investigated a new imaging technique that can improve the treatment of intestinal strictures.

Medicine & Science A team of researchers at MedUni Vienna has newly appraised the immunosuppressive effect of antithymocyte globulin (ATG) and identified a previously unknown mode of action. The new findings on ATG, which are used for induction therapy prior to organ transplantations and for the treatment of T-cell mediated rejection reactions, provide a new approach for further improvements in transplantation medicine.

Medicine & Science With vaccination fatigue growing and the emergence of new coronavirus variants a possibility, health officials face a potential challenge when it comes to encouraging the public to get regular boosters to protect them against Covid-19.

Medicine & Science In the case of the rare genetic disease of hereditary angioedema (HAE), swelling occurs in one or more parts of the body without a recognisable trigger. An HAE attack can be life-threatening especially if the upper respiratory tract is affected. Active substances for on-demand medication are currently only available in the form of injections and transfusions.

Studies & Further Education People in Austria have great confidence in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), diagnostic and therapeutic methods of TCM should also be strengthened further in national healthcare systems. A recent publication by MedUni Vienna found a clear divergence between the perceived and actual scientific character of TCM.

Medicine & Science Mutations of virus and illnesses caused by new variants are still to be expected even in a SARS-CoV-2 situation that has now become endemic. Although the population has developed specific immune responses due to previous infections and vaccinations, vaccinated and vulnerable individuals continue to contract COVID-19.

Medicine & Science Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) accounts for 15% of all lung cancer cases and is still associated with a particularly high mortality rate. According to a recent multicenter study led by MedUni Vienna, SCLC can be classified into specific molecular subtypes. New research from the same international team now suggests that a novel combination drug therapy could be an effective option for patients with specific molecular backgrounds.

Newly developed nanoparticles in the form of tiny shag brushes effectively transport drugs through the body . Once their work is done, they are degraded into natural precursors, releasing active substances that they have brought with them, explained Ian Teasdale of the Institute of Chemistry of Polymers at Johannes Kepler University Linz.

People of the MedUni Vienna Erdem Yildiz from the University Department of Otorhinolaryngology received the internationally renowned Spoendlin Junior Award for young basic scientists in hearing research for his research work "Investigation of Inner Ear Drug Delivery with a Cochlear Catheter in Piglets as a Representative Model for Human Cochlear Pharmacokinetics".

When proteins are produced in the pharmaceutical industry, they are often initially misfolded and have to be rearranged. At TU Wien, this is being studied in detail in a new CD laboratory . Certain proteins are among the most important products of the pharmaceutical industry - such as insulin or interferons, which are used to treat diabetes, cancer or viral diseases.

Medicine & Science An international research group, including scientists from MedUni Vienna and led by Leiden University Medical Center, has found that patients have 30% fewer serious side-effects when the drug dose is adapted to their DNA. The study, published in "The Lancet", is the first to demonstrate the practical application of prescribing drugs based on a person's genetic information.

Medicine & Science A study led last year by Wolfgang Schreiner from MedUni Vienna demonstrated the advantage of decision theory as a valuable extension of conventional statistics in therapy selection in precision medicine. In a research study based thereon, a new method was investigated to render medical decisions more justifiable and independent of intuitions.

Medicine & Science The cancer therapy of the future is increasingly customised in the sense of precision medicine. The basis for this is comprehensive "profiling" of each individual tumour, which extensively analyses the genetic make-up of the individual tumour at molecular level. This "comprehensive cancer profiling" is already being used at the Comprehensive Cancer Center Vienna (CCC) of MedUni Vienna and Vienna General Hospital for all types of cancer and permits the identification of changes in a tumour that argue for or against the use of a particular therapy.

Medicine & Science Alcohol-related liver disease is among the most common causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Due to an incomplete understanding of the factors contributing to disease development, liver transplantation is still the only available cure. A team led by Tim Hendrikx from MedUni Vienna's Department of Laboratory Medicine has now uncovered a new mechanism that plays an important role in the progression of the disease.

Medicine & Science Using prenatal magnetic resonance imaging, a group of MedUni Vienna researchers examined the placentas and foetuses of women who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy. Their research results demonstrate that the different strains of the virus that emerged during the pandemic led to varying degrees of damage: especially involving pre-Omicron variants, the detected placental lesions could potentially harm both development and health in some of the affected unborn children.

A MedUni Vienna research team has discovered a highly potent biomarker for clinical response to CAR-T cell therapy, describing the prerequisites for optimal use of this novel therapy for lymphoma treatment. The current findings are an essential step forward towards optimizing this promising therapy.

Cervical cancer is the cancer with the fourth highest mortality rate among women worldwide. Locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC) is treated with a combination of external and internal radiotherapy (brachytherapy) and chemotherapy. For the first time, a study conducted by a research group at the Comprehensive Cancer Centre Vienna of MedUni Vienna and Vienna General Hospital using data from the multicentre EMBRACE-I trial demonstrated the superiority of a targeted approach in brachytherapy.

Severe covid 19 disease is characterized by excessive immune and inflammatory processes in the body. Conversely, long covid syndrome is likely to have a strong anti-inflammatory immune status. Scientists have now found this out with extensive blood plasma analyses of vaccinated persons without subsequent disease, persons with completely survived covid 19 infection and long covid patients.

Using several million medical records, a research group from MedUni Vienna and the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) showed that there was a correlation between the dosage of statins and the diagnosis of osteoporosis as early as 2019. This finding has now been confirmed in a preclinical study, which was recently published in the journal Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy.