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Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Gene Therapy Reverses Muscular Dystrophy in Rats

University of Washington researchers say they have used a harmless virus to transmit a missing muscle-strengthening gene to all muscles of a rat's body, reversing the muscle wasting that characterizes muscular dystrophy.

Up to now, finding a method that would deliver the missing gene to the entire body has limited research into using gene therapy against muscular dystrophy, the researchers said in a statement.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a genetic disorder that affects one of every 3,500 newborn males. Characterized by lack of dystrophin protein production, a victim's muscles eventually weaken to the point where he cannot survive.

Dr. Jeffrey Chamberlain, professor of neurology at the school's Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Center, said the technique delivered "therapeutic levels of dystrophin to every skeletal and cardiac muscle of an adult, dystrophic mouse. These muscles include the heart, the muscles used during breathing, and all the limb muscles."

Chamberlain, whose research are published in the August edition of Nature Medicine, said he's seeking government approval to conduct limited trials in people, although such an experiment may be years away.

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Chromosome Abnormality Found for Familial Lung Cancer

Scientists have identified a genetic abnormality that may account for higher rates of lung cancer among certain families, the U.S. National Institutes of Health said in a statement released Monday.

The genetic trait affected 36 of 52 families that had been identified as having at least three primary family members affected by lung, throat, or laryngeal cancer. The marker was discovered on chromosome 6, and the researchers said they must conduct further studies to identify the exact gene or genes that are responsible for the increased risk.

The team, which included two government agencies and 12 research institutions and universities, also discovered that people with the same genetic pattern were more susceptible to harm from smoking. The more a person with the trait smoked, the greater his risk of developing lung cancer, the researchers said.

More than 160,000 people in the United States are expected to die of lung cancer this year, the researchers said. Their findings could explain why some people acquire the disease despite having none or few of its risk factors, their statement said.

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Parents Worry About AIDS and Their Children: Poll

More than 60 percent of American parents who participated in a new survey worry that AIDS could infect their children.

The poll, conducted for the Associated Press, found that even adults who didn't have children worried about the possibility of a child becoming infected if they ever had one. A majority of participants, 55 percent, said that teaching safe sex was the best way to prevent AIDS, vs. promoting abstinence, backed by 40 percent.

Only two in 10 said they were concerned that they personally would be infected with the AIDS-causing HIV virus.

Four in 10 in the AP poll said they knew someone who had AIDS, had died of it, or had been infected with HIV.

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Bush Administration Seeks to Prevent Medical Lawsuits

In a break with past practice, the Bush administration has been using the nation's courts to try to block lawsuits by consumers who contend they have been hurt by prescription drugs and medical devices, The New York Times reported Sunday.

Administration officials are arguing that consumers can't sue for damages if the products have received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. The administration recently persuaded a federal appeals court in Philadelphia to dismiss a lawsuit by a woman who said her husband had died due to defects in his heart pump, the newspaper said.

Permitting consumers to sue manufacturers would "undermine public health" and interfere with federal regulation of drugs and devices, by encouraging "lay judges and juries to second-guess" experts at the FDA, the government contended in the Pennsylvania case. In addition, such lawsuits could lead to the removal of beneficial products, the government said, according to the Times.

The administration's new policy reflects President Bush's position on "tort reform," and his commitment to fight lawsuits that he says drive up health-care costs, the paper said.

The new approach has dismayed some consumer advocates and lawmakers.

Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey, a New York Democrat, said the administration had "taken the FDA in a radical new direction, seeking to protect drug companies instead of the public." Hinchey recently convinced the House of Representatives to cut $500,000 from the budget of the FDA's chief counsel as a penalty for its "aggressive opposition to consumer lawsuits," the Times said.

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Maker of Schizophrenia Drug Said It Understated Risks

The maker of a billion-dollar schizophrenia drug has acknowledged that it minimized potentially fatal safety risks, such as diabetes, and made misleading claims in promotional materials for the medicine, the Miami Herald reported.

Janssen Pharmaceutica sent a two-page letter to doctors and other members of the health-care industry last week to clarify the risks of Risperdal, a company spokeswoman said. The promotional material had ''minimized potentially fatal risks, and made misleading claims'' that the drug was safer in treating mental illness than similar drugs, the newspaper said.

The letter was in response to a directive last year from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that told several makers of anti-psychotic drugs to update their product labels.

Risperdal is the leading drug used to treat schizophrenia and other types of psychotic disorders. It generates about $2.1 billion in annual sales. The drug was first marketed about eight years ago, the newspaper said.

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Japan Science Council Backs Human Embryo Cloning

Japan's top science council has agreed to policy recommendations that would allow for limited cloning of human embryos for research purposes, according to the Associated Press.

The council, headed by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, will now ask the country's ministries to draft specific guidelines.

The recommendations, which were announced Friday, would permit researchers to produce and use cloned human embryos, but only for basic research, said Tomohiko Arai, an official at the Council for Science and Technology Policy. The cloning wouldn't be used for treating human patients. Arai declined to speculate on how long it might take to draft the guidelines, the AP said.

Many scientists back human embryo cloning to obtain stem cells that can be used to reproduce damaged body tissues or organs.

Japan banned human cloning in 2001, but has permitted researchers to use human embryos that aren't produced by cloning. Britain and South Korea allow therapeutic cloning. The United States prohibits any kind of embryo cloning and has lobbied strongly against it, the news service said.

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