Cholesterol-Lowering Medicines May Be Effective Against Cancer
Millions of people around the world use medicines based on statins to lower their blood cholesterol, but new research from the University of Gothenburg, shows that statins may also be effective in the treatment of cancer. Statins lower cholesterol by blocking certain enzymes involved in our metabolism. However, they have also been shown to affect other important lipids in the body, such as the lipids that help proteins to attach to the cell membrane (known as lipid modification). Because many of the proteins that are lipid-modified cause cancer, there are now hopes that it will be possible to use statins in the treatment of cancer.
It is, however, very difficult to study the side-effects of statins in mammals. As a first step, Marc Pilon, researcher at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Gothenburg, has teamed up with Swedish and international colleagues to carry out studies on the nematode C. elegans. This nematode, which is made up of just a thousand or so cells, does not produce cholesterol and is therefore an ideal test subject.
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Green Tea Shows Promise as Chemoprevention Agent for Oral Cancer
Green tea extract has shown promise as cancer prevention agent for oral cancer in patients with a pre-malignant condition known as oral leukoplakia, according to researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. The study, published online in Cancer Prevention Research, is the first to examine green tea as a chemopreventative agent in this high-risk patient population. The researchers found that more than half of the oral leukoplakia patients who took the extract had a clinical response.
Long investigated in laboratory, epidemiological and clinical settings for several cancer types, green tea is rich in polyphenols, which have been known to inhibit carcinogenesis in preclinical models. Still, clinical results have been mixed.
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Common Pain Relievers May Dilute Power of Flu Shots
With flu vaccination season in full swing, research from the University of Rochester Medical Center cautions that use of many common pain killers - Advil, Tylenol, aspirin - at the time of injection may blunt the effect of the shot and have a negative effect on the immune system.
Richard P. Phipps, Ph.D., professor of Environmental Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology, and of Pediatrics, has been studying this issue for years and recently presented his latest findings to an international conference on inflammatory diseases. (http://bioactivelipidsconf.wayne.edu/)
"What we've been saying all along, and continue to stress, is that it's probably not a good idea to take common, over-the-counter pain relievers for minor discomfort associated with vaccination," Phipps said. "We have studied this question using virus particles, live virus, and different kinds of pain relievers, in human blood samples and in mice - and all of our research shows that pain relievers interfere with the effect of the vaccine."
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The Long Path To Developing An AIDS Drug
By 2002, Daria Hazuda had bet her career and several years of her life on what she hoped would be a groundbreaking HIV drug, one that could help save lives and reap huge profits for her employer, Merck & Co. Inc. When the phone rang in her lab in West Point, Montgomery County, the news was bad: In tests, Hazuda's drug had sickened dogs. The results threatened to kill a project her superiors already were questioning because competitors' ideas seemed more promising. "It was really devastating to the whole team," Hazuda said. "We had worked so hard." Dead ends, however, had always spurred her on. "It's like being a detective, putting the pieces together to make a story and seeing how those seemingly unrelated pieces can come together in that big eureka moment," said Hazuda, a fan of John le Carre's spy novels.
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Approved Lymphoma Drug Shows Promise in Early Tests Against Bone Cancer
A drug already approved for the treatment of lymphoma may also slow the growth of the most deadly bone cancer in children and teens, according to an early-stage study published online today in the International Journal of Cancer. The study drug, Bortezomib, was found to be effective against bone cancer in human cancer cell studies and in mice. While key experiments were in animals, the cancer studied closely resembled the human form and the drug has already been proven to be safe in human patients. In the current study, researchers sought to use Bortezomib (Velcade®) against osteosarcoma, an aggressive cancer that starts in bone, spreads quickly and responds poorly to current chemotherapies. The drug, a proteasome inhibitor developed by Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Johnson & Johnson, was approved by the FDA for the treatment of a rare, aggressive form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2006 and for multiple myeloma in 2008. "Our most clinically relevant finding is that a drug already proven safe and effective in treating the most common cancers of the blood may be equally effective in suppressing bone cancer," said Roman Eliseev, M.D., Ph.D., research assistant professor within the Center for Musculoskeletal Research and the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center, both within the University of Rochester Medical Center. "Bortezomib caused osteosarcoma cells to self destruct, and prevented their spread. While further studies are needed, our findings suggest that this drug may represent a new treatment option for a devastating disease and an effective complement to current chemotherapies."
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Researchers Identify Drug Candidate For Treating Spinal Muscular Atrophy
A chemical cousin of the common antibiotic tetracycline might be useful in treating spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a currently incurable disease that is the leading genetic cause of death in infants. This is the finding of a research collaboration involving Adrian Krainer, Ph.D., of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and scientists from Paratek Pharmaceuticals and Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. SMA is caused by mutations in a gene called Survival of Motor Neuron 1 (SMN1), resulting in a decrease in the levels of SMN protein in the motor neurons of the spinal cord - the cells that control muscle activity. Without the protein, these neurons degenerate, and infants born with the mutations progressively lose the ability to move, swallow, and breathe. There are no approved therapies for the treatment of SMA, which affects approximately 1 in 6,000 babies born in the United States. The new molecule boosts the levels of SMN protein in cells by fixing a mistake in a cellular processing mechanism called RNA splicing. In a study that will appear in the journal Science Translational Medicine on November 4th, the scientists report this fix in both mouse models of SMA, as well as in cells isolated from SMA patients.
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Study Links Folic Acid Supplements To Asthma
A University of Adelaide study may have shed light on the rise in childhood asthma in developed countries like Australia in recent decades. Researchers from the University's Robinson Institute have identified a link between folic acid supplements taken in late pregnancy and allergic asthma in children aged between 3 and 5 years, suggesting that the timing of supplementation in pregnancy is important. Associate Professor Michael Davies says that folic acid supplements - recommended for pregnant women to prevent birth defects - appear to have "additional and unexpected" consequences in recent studies in mice and infants.
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Believe it or not
Mich. Man without vehicle steals ambulance
Authorities said a 31-year-old Detroit man who was stranded at a southeast Michigan hospital face charges after he stole an ambulance. Police said the man stole the ambulance from the St. John River District Hospital in St. Clair County's East China Township on Saturday night after people inside the facility refused to give him a ride to St. Clair where his vehicle was located. Michigan State Police Sgt. Craig Nyeholt told The Times Herald in Port Huron that the man fled in an ambulance left idling outside the emergency room entrance, but was arrested a short time later. Police have not identified the man, who was expected to be arraigned Monday. No further details were released
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WELCOME TO OLE' BILL'S WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
November 2009 - Week 3
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