10 Promising Treatments for World's Biggest Health Threats

Cutting-edge pharmaceuticals now being tested could revolutionize the fight against cancer, Alzheimer's, HIV, diabetes, nicotine addiction and other devastating diseases
By Charles Q. Choi

Alzheimer's Disease--AlzhemedA new drug targeting the root of this debilitating degenerative disease could be the vanguard of a novel class of treatments
Dengue--Live attenuated 17D yellow fever and dengue chimera
A disease afflicting half a million people annually requires a special kind of vaccine
Diabetes--Technosphere Insulin SystemInhalable insulin could help diabetics regulate blood sugar to an unprecedented degree
Hepatitis C--E1E2/MF59The world's first preventative vaccine against Hepatitis C could curb the spread of the disease that killed Allen Ginsberg and thousands of others
Arthritis--NaproxcinodPotential replacement for Vioxx combines the powers of nitroglycerin with those of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
Lung Cancer--StimuvaxNew vaccine against the deadliest of all cancers teaches the body to defend itself while avoiding the side effects of more traditional therapies
Malaria--RTS,S/AS02AKilling more than two million people, mostly children, every year, this disease will finally face the first ever commercially available vaccine designed to fight it
Smoking--NicVAXImmunizing the body against nicotine might be just what smokers need to quit for good
Vision Loss--BevasiranibFirst a Nobel Prize, and now a potentially viable treatment: the world's first interfering RNA drug could be the first of many
HIV--HPTN 046 and NevirapinePreventing the half-million cases of mother to child transmission of HIV every year would go a long way to turning the tide of an epidemic

from ScienceAmerican.com