Early Heart Attack Therapy With Bone Marrow Extract Improves Cardiac Function
June 30, 2009
A UCSF study for the treatment of heart failure after heart attack found that the extract derived from bone marrow cells is as effective as therapy using bone marrow stem cells for improving cardiac function, decreasing the formation of scar tissue and improving cardiac pumping capacity after heart attack.
Findings were published online and in the July 2009 issue of the Journal of Molecular Therapy. The cover of the journal features a microscope image of cells from the UCSF study.
The studies were done in mice using a novel stem cell delivery method developed by UCSF researchers to show that the extract from bone marrow cells is as beneficial to cardiac function as are intact, whole cells. Both the cell and cell extract therapies resulted in the presence of more blood vessels and less cardiac cell death, or apoptosis, than no therapy. The study also showed that heart function benefitted despite the finding that few of the injected cells remained in the heart at one month after therapy.
“Peer-reviewed medical literature is controversial as to whether bone marrow cells differentiate into cardiomyocytes, or cardiac muscle cells, but there is general agreement that stem cell therapy with these cells results in some level of functional improvement after a heart attack. The exact mechanism for this is not yet clear. Our results confirm that whole cells are not necessarily required in order to see the beneficial effects of bone marrow cell therapy,” said Yerem Yeghiazarians, MD, study author, cardiologist and director of UCSF’s Translational Cardiac Stem Cell Development Program.
Extending The Shelf Life Of Antibody Drugs
June 30, 2009
A new computer model developed at MIT can help solve a problem that has plagued drug companies trying to develop promising new treatments made of antibodies: Such drugs have a relatively short shelf life because they tend to clump together, rendering them ineffective.
Antibodies are the most rapidly growing class of human drugs, with the potential to treat cancer, arthritis and other chronic inflammatory and infectious diseases. About 200 such drugs are now in clinical trials, and a few are already on the market.
Patients can administer these drugs to themselves, but this requires high doses – and the drugs must therefore be stored at high concentrations. However, under these conditions the drugs tend to clump, or aggregate. Even if they are stored at lower concentrations and administered by a doctor intravenously, they often have stability issues. Addressing such issues typically takes place later in the drug development process, and the cost – both in time and money – is often high.
Dynasty: Influenza Virus in 1918 and Today
June 30, 2009
The influenza virus that wreaked worldwide havoc in 1918-1919 founded a viral dynasty that persists to this day, according to scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. In an article published online on June 29 by the New England Journal of Medicine, authors Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., Jeffery K. Taubenberger, M.D., Ph.D., and David M. Morens, M.D., argue that we have lived in an influenza pandemic era since 1918, and they describe how the novel 2009 H1N1 virus now circling the globe is yet another manifestation of this enduring viral family.
“The 1918-1919 influenza pandemic was a defining event in the history of public health,” says NIAID Director Dr. Fauci. “The legacy of that pandemic lives on in many ways, including the fact that the descendents of the 1918 virus have continued to circulate for nine decades.”
Influenza viruses have eight genes, two of which code for virus surface proteins—hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N)—that allow the virus to enter a host cell and spread from cell to cell. There are 16 H subtypes and 9 N subtypes, and, therefore, 144 possible HN combinations. However, only three (H1N1, H2N2 and H3N2) have ever been found in influenza viruses that are fully adapted to infect humans. Other combinations, such as avian influenza H5N1, occasionally infect people, but they are bird viruses, not human viruses.
University of Leicester Scientists Investigate Health Benefits Of Molecule Associated With Male Sexual Arousal
June 30, 2009
Medical scientists at the University of Leicester are investigating how signalling molecules known to control blood pressure and penile erection act to regulate brain function and which have potential for treatments of migraine, chronic pain, epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease.
The study in the MRC Toxicology Unit at the University of Leicester is being funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC).
The team is interested in the action of the molecule Nitric Oxide – made famous when it was discovered that its action could be exploited in the treatment of erectile dysfunction, notably by pharmaceutical drugs such as Viagra or Cialis.
The Leicester research is exploring how brain cells communicate by examining the junctions between brain cells – termed the “synapse”. The group, ‘Neurotoxicity at the Synapse’, led by Professor Ian Forsythe in the MRC Toxicology Unit, is interested in the action of Nitric Oxide at these synapses.
Researcher Adam Tozer said: “The brain is a communication station and understanding how the cells ‘talk’ to each other will help in the treatment of neurodegenerative disease.
Placebo Effects in Caregivers May Change Behavior of Children with ADHD
June 30, 2009
Stimulant medications, such as Ritalin and Adderall, are the accepted treatment to stem hyperactivity in children with attention deficit-hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and improve their behavior.
Now a recent review of research by University at Buffalo pediatric psychologists suggests that such medication, or the assumption of medication, may produce a placebo effect — not in the children, but in their teachers, parents or other adults who evaluate them.
A placebo effect is a positive change in symptoms or behavior after a patient receives a “fake” medication or procedure; in other words, the belief can become the medicine. In this case, the review suggested that when caregivers believed their ADHD patients were receiving ADHD medication, they tended to view those children more favorably and treat them more positively, whether or not medication was actually involved.
Pfizer Conceals Study Data
June 27, 2009
The pharmaceutical company Pfizer is concealing data on the effect of a drug (Edronax® containing the agent reboxetine) for the treatment of depression. Despite repeated requests by the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG), Pfizer has refused to provide a complete list of all published and unpublished trials on reboxetine. The Institute discovered through its own literature search that the drug approved in Germany has been tested in at least 16 trials. However, in 9 of these 16 trials, key information is missing that would enable an evaluation of reboxetine’s performance.
According to Peter T. Sawicki, IQWiG’s Director, “By concealing study data, the manufacturer is depriving patients and doctors of the opportunity to make an informed decision on different therapy options.” Furthermore, it hinders the work of institutions such as IQWiG. IQWiG’s aim is to draw reliable conclusions concerning the benefit and harm of drugs.
Insulin Analogue Glargine Possibly Increases Cancer Risk
June 27, 2009
The risk of cancer possibly increases if patients with diabetes use the long-acting insulin analogue glargine instead of human insulin. The Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG), in collaboration with the “Wissenschaftliches Institut der AOK” (WIdO), the research institute of the German Local Health Care Fund, analysed the data of almost 130,000 patients with diabetes in Germany who had been treated with either human insulin or the insulin analogues lispro (trade name: Humalog), aspart (Novorapid) or glargine (Lantus) between January 2001 and June 2005.
The analysis has now been published together with further studies in the scientific journal Diabetologia, the official organ of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD). The disturbing result is that malignancies were found more frequently in patients treated with glargine than in those prescribed a comparable dose of human insulin. “Our analysis does not provide absolute proof that glargine promotes cancer,” says Peter T. Sawicki, IQWiG’s Director and co-author of the study. “Our study does, however, arouse an urgent suspicion which should have consequences for the treatment of patients.”
No difference was found between the short-acting insulin analogues, lispro and aspart, and human insulin. Insulin analogues are synthetic molecules that do not occur naturally, whereas human insulin matches the insulin that the human body manufactures itself.
Transplant Drug Stimulates Immune Memory
June 25, 2009
Rapamycin, a drug given to transplant recipients to suppress their immune systems, has a paradoxical effect on cells responsible for immune memory, scientists at the Emory Vaccine Center have discovered.
In experiments conducted in both mice and monkeys, rapamycin can stimulate the formation of memory CD8 T cells, which enable the immune system to respond faster and stronger to an infectious agent upon a second encounter.
The results were published online ahead of print June 21 in Nature. The finding means that doctors might be able to boost the effectiveness of vaccines with drugs that act similarly to rapamycin, says postdoctoral researcher Koichi Araki, PhD, who is first author.
A New Weapon In The War Against HIV-AIDS
June 25, 2009
A discovery by a team of Canadian and American researchers could provide new ways to fight HIV-AIDS. According to a new study published in Nature Medicine, HIV-AIDS could be treated through a combination of targeted chemotherapy and current Highly Active Retroviral (HAART) treatments. This radical new therapy would make it possible to destroy both the viruses circulating in the body as well as those playing hide-and-seek in immune system cells.
The study was led by Dr. Rafick-Pierre Sékaly, of the Université de Montréal. Dr. Jean-Pierre Routy of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the University of Minnesota in the United States also collaborated on the investigation.
To date, anti-AIDS treatments have been stymied by “HIV reservoirs” – immune system cells where the virus hides and where existing HAART treatments cannot reach. The researchers successfully identified the cells where HIV hides and the “stealth” mechanisms that allow the virus to escape existing treatments. This breakthrough opens the way towards innovative therapies that are completely different from current approaches.
Exploring New Therapy Strategies For Tuberculosis
June 25, 2009
Certain protein degradation complexes, molecular “shredders”, dispose protein garbage. Molecular machines of that kind belong to the area of expertise of Eilika Weber-Ban, who together with her team has now successfully decoded how proteins in tuberculosis bacteria are prepared for disposal.
The fact that bacteria also possess a special “small” protein that can be attached to other proteins to alter their fate became known only recently. The “small” protein, which has been named “Pup”, helps to dispose of other proteins. However, its attachment may also control and regulate other important processes in the cells. “Pup” acts as a kind of marker. By being attached to another protein, it signals to the degradation complex that the marked protein is ready for disposal.
Eilika Weber-Ban, research group leader at the Institute of Molecular Biology & Biophysics of ETH Zurich, and her team have now succeeded in understanding how the “Pup” protein works in the tuberculosis pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In the test tube, the researchers were able to show how Pup is attached to proteins. By doing so, the scientists discovered a new enzyme which they call “Dop”. The results were published recently in “Nature Structural & Molecular Biology”. The study may provide the basis for therapeutic strategies for people suffering from tuberculosis, especially in the case of patients in whom the pathogen has acquired resistance to antibiotics.