Test designed to screen resistance to cancer drug

July 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Researchers in Japan have designed a test to identify patients who are likely to be resistant to imatinib, the standard drug for treating leukemia or cancer of the blood cells.

Such a test is important as imatinib resistance occurs usually to relapse patients, who tend to deteriorate very rapidly if they are given the wrong treatment.

In a paper published in Clinical Cancer Research on Thursday, the scientists said they developed a test which will help doctors tell if a patient with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is resistant to imatinib.

Imatinib, known by the brand Gleevac, is sold by Novartis AG to treat CML and other cancers. It blocks the enzymes of cancer cells instead of killing all rapidly multiplying cells.

“Most patients are sensitive to imatinib when they are diagnosed with CML, but resistance can indeed be acquired during or after imatinib treatment,” said Yusuke Ohba, an associate professor at Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine.

“Even in cases where resistance develops or becomes apparent gradually, the most critical issue is what to switch over to. If the patient is switched to another (treatment) to which he/she is also resistant, the treatment will just be a waste of time and detrimental to the patient’s condition.”

“With our test, we can identify the most suitable drug, dose and/or drug combination, enabling therapy to be tailor-made for each individual patient. I believe this approach will make CML care more accurate and effective,” he said in an email reply to questions from Reuters.

New drugs being developed for treating CML claim to overcome imatinib resistance, but until now, it is difficult to tell who has that resistance.

Using this test developed by Ohba and his colleagues, blood samples are collected from patients and then cultured and tested to see if they are resistant to imatinib.

These tests should help doctors determine if the patient may require stronger doses, combination therapy, or other drugs, Ohba said.

(Reporting by Tan Ee Lyn; Editing by Sugita Katyal)

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Scientists find way to predict timing of menopause

June 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

LONDON, June 27 (Reuters) – Iranian scientists say they have developed a way of using a simple blood test to predict accurately when women will reach the menopause, offering the chance for women to plan for family and career far in advance.

The test, which measures levels of a hormone produced by cells in the ovaries, was able to predict the age at which women reached menopause to within an average of 4 months, according to data to be presented at the conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Rome on Monday.

“The results … could enable us to make a more realistic assessment of women’s reproductive status many years before they reach menopause,” said Ramezani Tehrani of the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, who led the study.

Experts commenting on the work agreed it was promising, but said its findings would need to be confirmed in larger trials.

“The possibility of an accurate predictor for menopause is very exciting. People have been looking for something like this for years,” said Dagan Wells of the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Oxford University.

The average age for menopause is 51, with ovulation in most women ending sometime between age 40 and 60. But it can happen later or earlier, making it difficult for women who want to develop a career before having babies to know how long to wait.

Tehrani’s team took blood samples from 266 women aged between 20 and 49 who were also taking part in another study called the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study, which started in 1998.

They then measured concentrations of a hormone called the anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH) that is produced by cells in women’s ovaries. AMH controls the development of follicles in the ovaries from which eggs develop, and the scientists suspected it might be useful for judging ovarian function.

STATISTICAL MODEL

The researchers took two more blood samples at three yearly intervals and also collected information on the women’s socioeconomic background and reproductive history.

“We developed a statistical model for estimating the age at menopause from a single measurement of AMH concentration,” Tehrani explained in a report on the study. “Using this model, we estimated mean average ages at menopause for women at different time points in their reproductive life span.”

Tehrani said the results showed “a good level of agreement” between predicted and actual age at menopause for the 63 women in the group who reached menopause during the study.

The average difference between the predicted age and the women’s actual age at menopause was a third of a year, and the maximum margin of error was three to four years.

Wells said Tehrani’s team appeared to have hit upon a “fairly accurate algorithm” for predicting menopause.

But said it would be important to see if the method could also help predict the time when fertility effectively ends.

“A woman may cease monthly ovulation and experience menopause at 50, but she will probably have been effectively infertile for several years prior to this,” he said. “It will be important to let patients know that fertility will have declined greatly in the years preceding the final ovulation.”

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Malaysian Study Further Validates GeneNews’ ColonSentry(TM) Test

June 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

TORONTO, ONTARIO, Jun 03 (MARKET WIRE) —
GeneNews Limited (TSX: GEN), a company focused on developing blood-based
biomarker tests for the early detection of diseases and personalized
health management, announced that an abstract describing a 210-patient
Malaysian study entitled “Blood-based Seven-gene Biomarker Panel for
Colorectal Cancer: Validation in Malaysia” was presented yesterday
at the 2010 National Committee for Clinical Research conference, Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia, June 2 to 4.

The abstract reported on the application of the seven gene biomarker
panel to 99 colorectal cancer patients and 111 controls. The seven gene
biomarker panel forms the basis of the company’s lead product,
ColonSentry(TM), the world’s first blood test for colorectal cancer.

Quoting directly from the abstract, “Screening is key to colorectal
cancer prevention and mortality reduction, but patient compliance with
faecal testing and endoscopy is low. We have previously reported our
patient-friendly blood-based test for colorectal cancer current risk
stratification (Marshall KW, Mohr S, El Khettabi F, Nossova N, Chao S,
Bao W, et al. Blood-based biomarker panel for stratifying current risk
for colorectal cancer. Internat J Cancer 2010;126:1177-86). The test
utilizes a seven-gene panel of biomarkers, which was validated using
blood samples collected from North American patients at average risk for
colorectal cancer. In this study, we evaluate this seven-gene biomarker
panel in blood samples collected from patients in Malaysia.”

The abstract concluded, “Our results independently confirmed and
validated the study previously conducted in North America and demonstrate
the performance of the seven-gene biomarker panel to discriminate between
colorectal cancer and control blood samples in Malaysia.”

“It is well established that the greatest barrier to reducing
mortality arising from colorectal cancer is patient compliance with
screening. ColonSentry(TM) provides a blood-based testing option that can
be easily incorporated into a routine physical examination. We believe
that widespread adoption of this practice would encourage more patients
to be tested and enhance the effectiveness of colonoscopy, leading to
earlier detection, improved patient outcomes and reduced healthcare
costs,” said Gailina J. Liew, President & Chief Operating Officer of
GeneNews.

About GeneNews

GeneNews is an emerging molecular diagnostics company focused on the
application of functional genomics to enable early diagnosis and
personalized health management based on disease-specific biomarkers. The
Company has a patented core platform technology, the Sentinel
Principle(R), which has the power to detect and stage virtually any
disease or medical condition from a simple blood sample. GeneNews is
currently applying the Sentinel Principle(R) in major areas with unmet
clinical needs such as cancer, arthritis, cardiovascular disease and
neurological disorders. GeneNews launched its first commercial product,
ColonSentry(TM), a blood-based test to assess an individual’s risk for
colorectal cancer, in Canada in 2008. The company’s first US marketing
partner, Enzo Clinical Labs, is expected to launch the ColonSentry(TM)
test in New York and New Jersey in the second half of 2010. For more
information on GeneNews and ColonSentry(TM), visit www.genenews.com and
www.ColonSentry.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, which reflect the
Company’s current expectations regarding future events. The
forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Actual events
could differ materially from those projected herein. Investors should
consult the Company’s ongoing quarterly filings and annual reports for
additional information on risks and uncertainties relating to these
forward-looking statements. The reader is cautioned not to rely on these
forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any obligation to
update these forward-looking statements.

Contacts:
Company Contact:
GeneNews Limited
Gailina Liew
President & COO
(905) 739-2036
gliew@genenews.com

Investor Contact:
Kilmer Lucas Inc.
Stephen Kilmer
(905) 690-2400 X21
stephen@kilmerlucas.com

Media Contact:
Kilmer Lucas Inc.
Leonard Zehr
(905) 690-2400 X41
len@kilmerlucas.com

Copyright 2010, Market Wire, All rights reserved.

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Anti-HIV drugs slash risk of virus transmission by 92 pct

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

People with HIV reduced the risk of handing on the AIDS virus by an astonishing 92 percent while they were taking antiretroviral drugs, according to a trial reported today.

The research provides the strongest evidence to date that drugs which treat the human immunodeficiency virus could also be incorporated into strategies for fighting HIV’s spread.

In a paper published by the British journal The Lancet, doctors recruited 3,381 heterosexual couples in seven African countries.

Each couple was “serodiscordant,” meaning that one of the pair was infected with HIV while the other was uninfected. Antiretroviral drugs were given to 349 individuals after their immune system, as measured by the numbers of CD4 cells, plunged below a given threshold. The other infected individuals received a dummy pill called a placebo.

The researchers took blood samples from the other partner every three months to see whether he or she had become infected. The trial was closely monitored by an ethics committee, and included a training course in safe sex as well as routine health checkups.

After 24 months, 103 partners who had been HIV-free at the start of the experiment had become infected with the virus by their partner.

But only one of these 103 transmissions was caused by a partner who was on antiretrovirals.

The results were confirmed by genetic fingerprinting of the virus, showing whether it had been passed on by an infected partner or by someone from outside the trial.

All in all, taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) reduced the risk of infecting someone else by 92 per cent, a whopping fall that highlights the potential of these drugs as a weapon to prevent HIV, rather than just treat it, say the authors.

“Provision of ART to HIV-1 infected patients could be an effective strategy to achieve population-level reductions in HIV-1 transmission,” says the paper. HIV-1 is commonest strain of the AIDS virus.

The benchmark could be when an individual has a low count of CD4 cells and high numbers of viruses in the blood, it suggests. The biggest impact could be among people whose CD4 count is lower than 200 cells per microlitre, if the research is a guide.

ART cuts down the amount of virus in blood and body fluids such as semen and vaginal mucus and so reduces exposure to a non-infected person, experts believe.

There is a caveat, though, say the authors. Even though ART may lower the risk of infecting others, the danger is not eliminated, so safe-sex counselling is essential.

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Infants ‘at risk for measles in first year’

May 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 19 (ANI): A new research has found that young infants have a gap in their protection against measles, from around two to three months old until they are vaccinated at 12 months of age.

This is because the level of antibodies infants get from their mother drops over time, leaving them susceptible until they are vaccinated, says the study.

These findings underline the importance of measles vaccination at around 12 months of age and support ongoing research into earlier vaccination.

The study involved 207 healthy women-infant pairs recruited from five hospitals in the Province of Antwerp, Belgium from April 2006.

Medical records were used to divide women into two groups: those who had been vaccinated against measles during infancy and those with naturally acquired immunity from measles infection earlier in life.

Levels of measles antibodies were measured from blood samples taken during week 36 of pregnancy, at birth (cord blood), in all infants at 1, 3 and 12 months, and randomly at either 6 or 9 months.

Vaccinated women had significantly fewer antibodies than did naturally immune women. Similarly, infants of vaccinated women had significantly lower antibody levels than infants of naturally immune women.

The presence of maternal antibodies lasted a median time of 2.61 months – 3.78 months for infants of naturally immune women and 0.97 months for infants of vaccinated women.

At six months of age, over 99 percent of infants of vaccinated women and 95 percent of infants of naturally immune women had lost their maternal antibodies. And at 9 and 12 months, no positive samples were left in either group.

The researchers found no significant impact of breastfeeding, birth weight, educational level, caesarean section or day care attendance on the duration of maternal antibodies.

This study describes a very early susceptibility to measles in both infants of vaccinated women and women with naturally acquired immunity, say the authors.

If future studies show that measles vaccines can be offered with success at an age of less than nine months, policy makers could consider moving forward the routine measles vaccination programme.

The study has been published on bmj.com. (ANI)

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Run a marathon to arrest cellular suicide

May 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 11 (ANI): Running a marathon can halt apoptosis, the natural ”programmed” death of cells, a new study has found.

Gabriella Marfe from the University of Rome ”Tor Vergata” led a team of researchers who studied ten amateur athletes after a 42km run.

The team studied peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), isolated from whole blood samples taken from people after finishing a marathon, finding that the balance between expression of pro- and anti-apoptotic genes is shifted after the race.

“Apoptosis is a normal physiological function dependent on a variety of signals, many of which can be modulated by strenuous exercise. Here, we”ve shown for the first time that exercise modulates expression of the sirtuin family of proteins, which may be key regulators of training,” Marfe said.

The scientists believe that the sirtuin family of proteins, particularly SIRT1, may be involved in the protective effects of exercise against cell death.

Talking about the study”s findings, Marfe said: “Sirtuins may play a crucial role of mediators/effectors in the maintenance of skeletal and cardiac muscle tissues as well as neurons, thus explaining the synergic protective effects of physical exercise and calorie restriction for survival and ageing”.

However, the researchers also caution that any exercise people carry out should be done properly.

Marfe said: “Untrained amateur athletes often do hard training without professional advice. Such intense and exhaustive exercise can be harmful to health. In order to achieve beneficial effects, we recommend that exercise training should form part of a lifelong regime with expert medical advice and supervision”.

The study has appeared in the open access journal BMC Physiology. (ANI)

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Laughter affects body just the way exercise does

April 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, April 27 (ANI): Repetitive laughter could have the same effects on the body as exercise, according to a new study.

Results of the study, from Loma Linda University”s Schools of Allied Health (SAHP) and Medicine, showed that laughing not only enhances a positive mood, but lowers stress hormones, increases immune activity, and lowers cholesterol and blood pressure, similar to moderate exercise.

In the study, 14 healthy volunteers were recruited to a three-week study to examine the effects that eustress (mirthful laughter) and distress have on modulating the key hormones that control appetite.

During the study, each subject was required to watch one 20-minute video at random that was either upsetting (distress) or humorous (eustress) in nature.

During the study, the researchers measured each subject”s blood pressure and took blood samples immediately before and after watching the respective videos.

Each blood sample was separated out into its components and the liquid serum was examined for the levels of two hormones involved in appetite, leptin and ghrelin, for each time point used in the study.

When the researchers compared the hormone levels pre- and post-viewing, they found that the volunteers who watched the distressing video showed no statistically significant change in their appetite hormone levels during the 20-minutes they spent watching the video.

In contrast, the subjects who watched the humorous video had changes in blood pressure and also changes in the leptin and ghrelin levels.

Specifically, the level of leptin decreased as the level of ghrelin increased, much like the acute effect of moderate physical exercise that is often associated with increased appetite.

Dr. Lee S. Berk, a preventive care specialist and psychoneuroimmunology researcher at Loma Linda University”s Schools of Allied Health (SAHP) and Medicine, said that this research does not conclude that humour increases appetite.

“The ultimate reality of this research is that laughter causes a wide variety of modulation and that the body”s response to repetitive laughter is similar to the effect of repetitive exercise,” he said.

“The value of the research is that it may provide for those who are health care providers with new insights and understandings, and thus further potential options for patients who cannot use physical activity to normalize or enhance their appetite,” he added.

The study is being presented at the 2010 Experimental Biology conference. (ANI)

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Simple blood test identifies people at heart attack risk

April 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 20 (ANI): Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University claim that Gamma-prime fibrinogen test can identify people who are at risk for a heart attack, including thousands who don”t have high cholesterol.

The new simple blood test measures gamma-prime fibrinogen, a component of the blood”s clotting mechanism.

Elevated levels indicate greater likelihood of a heart attack, even when other signs don”t point to cardiovascular trouble, says David H. Farrell, Ph.D., professor of pathology in the OHSU School of Medicine and a member of OHSU”s Heart Research Center.

The results were published in Clinical Chemistry.

“Half a million people suffer fatal heart attacks each year,” Farrell says. “About 250,000 of the patients who die have normal cholesterol and some of the patients with normal cholesterol also have elevated levels of gamma-prime fibrinogen. We think this is another risk factor that we should test for.”

Farrell and his team confirmed the effectiveness of the gamma-prime fibrinogen test by analyzing 3,400 blood samples from the landmark Framingham Heart Study, the oldest and most prestigious cardiovascular disease study in the world.

In addition, OHSU”s analysis of the Framingham samples found that patients with well-established heart attack risk factors, including cholesterol, high body mass index, smoking and diabetes also have elevated gamma-prime fibrinogen levels.

“We found that if your gamma-prime fibrinogen levels were in the top 25 percent, you had seven times greater odds of having coronary artery disease,” Farrell says. (ANI)

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HUNT Biosciences Signs Collaboration Agreement with Tissue Solutions

April 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Major boost to biomarker discovery anticipated
LEVANGER, Norway–(Business Wire)–
HUNT Biosciences AS, the specialized biomarker discovery and validation company,
today announced that it had signed a collaboration agreement with Tissue
Solutions Ltd, a leading international supplier of biological samples for the
pharmaceutical and diagnostics industry.

The collaboration aims to promote the value of the unique HUNT Study, which for
the past 25 years has gathered blood samples from the general population of the
Nord-Trøndelag region in mid-Norway together with detailed phonotype and
environmental data.

According to Per Foss, CEO of HUNT: “We believe that the unique combination of
biomedical and phenotypic information that has been collected over the past 25
years from a general population rather than a specific disease cohort can help
accelerate biomarker discovery and validation. Furthermore, working from a
general population base gives core strengths in a whole range of key public
health areas such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obstructive lung
disease, osteoporosis and mental health. Already HUNT samples are widely used in
academic research, and through this collaboration with Tissue Solutions we aim
to significantly increase our pharma and diagnostic industry customer base.

Tissue Solutions Ltd recently won West of Scotland`s Most Promising Young Life
Science Company and according to CEO Dr Ann Cooreman, their success in rapidly
building up a high quality international client list has been based on being
able to offer a single point to access the entire range of human biological
materials for research and development needs: “We are delighted with this
agreement with HUNT Biosciences which is a natural extension to our services.
Having access to population biobank samples means, for example, that we can
provide samples that predate onset of disease. We are sure both existing and new
customers will share our excitement.”

This agreement follows the recent Norwegian report referring to HUNT Biosciences
as a role model for a proposed future national Norwegian Biobank Company. Foss
also believes this collaboration with Tissue Solutions and Scotland could
provide a major focal point for high quality, ethical tissue provision on the
worldwide stage.

Notes to editors

The HUNT Study and its associated biobank represent a regional cohort of more
than 100.000 individuals and is part of CONOR, the Cohort of Norway. In addition
to professionally stored genetic samples, the HUNT Study comprises more than
3000 clinical variablesincluding 800 environmental exposure variables collected
since the early 1980′s. This unique resource operates as a satellite to the
Norwegian University of Science and Technology ( NTNU) in Trondheim and is
situated in a new, specially designed National Biobank building with
state-of-the-art infrastructure, storing samples from 250 000 CONOR
participants. The Norwegian authorities have earned the population`s trust
through a well-established framework and rigorous routines for protection of
personal information. Based on this trust and the unique system of unambiguous
personal identification numbers, the HUNT Study offers integration of biobank
data with other national registries on clinical information and medical
end-points, as well as genealogical and family linkage information.

Genetics:

DNA from about 250.000 individuals (CONOR) and 15.000 RNA samples

Immortalized cells for cell line production from 50.000 individuals

Genetic expression analysis from tumor biopsies can also be provided from
selected HUNT participants

Phenotype:

Precise information on health status and extensive lifestyle data

Cross-linkage to local clinical endpoints and national registries:

“Medical Birth”. “Cause of Death”, Prescription Registry”, “Cancer Registry” and
other validated clinical endpoint registries on myocardial infarction, venous
tromboembolism, stroke and factures based on local hospital records.

Environment:

Coverage of more than 800 exposure variables

Prospective information due to long observation period.

The HUNT Study is also an integrated part of three EU projects in FP 6 and FP 7
and its role in EU funded medical research is expected to be further extended
and deepened in the Framework 7 programs. HUNT cooperates actively with a number
of European biobanks, and the CONOR consortium signed a bilateral national
agreement with UK Biobank in 2005, including the development of integrated
solutions for data management and automated sample handling.

Corporate Inquiries
HUNT Biosciences AS
Per A Foss, CEO
Mobile: +47 95124048
Email: per.a.foss@huntbiosciences.com
or
Media Inquiries
Schwartz Communications
Richard Hayhurst
Tel: +44 (0) 7950 878 218
Email: rhayhurst@schwartz-pr.co.uk

Copyright Business Wire 2010

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Orange juice suppresses oxidative stress from high-fat, high-carb meal

March 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 31 (ANI): Flavonoids in orange juice neutralize the oxidative and inflammatory stress generated by high-fat, high-carb meals and help prevent blood vessel damage, claims a new study.

Free radicals, or reactive oxygen species, are known to induce inflammation in blood vessel linings and contribute to the risk of heart attack and stroke. In the new study, University at Buffalo endocrinologists say the potent preventative effect of orange juice likely is linked to its heavy load of the flavonoids naringenin and hesperidin, which are major antioxidants.

“Our data show, for the first time to our knowledge, that drinking orange juice with a meal high in fat and carbohydrates prevented the marked increases in reactive oxygen species and other inflammatory agents,” says UB”s Husam Ghanim, PhD, first author on the study.

“This did not happen when participants drank water or a sugary drink with the meal,” he says. “These issues of inflammation following a meal are important because the resultant high glucose and high triglycerides are known to be related to the development of cardiovascular events.”

The study appears in the March issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and appeared online ahead of print.

The study involved three groups of 10 normal-weight healthy men and women between the ages of 20 and 40. After an overnight fast, participants ate a 900-calorie breakfast composed of an egg “muffin” sandwich, a sausage “muffin” sandwich and a serving of hash browns. The meal contained 81 grams of carbohydrates, 51 grams of fat and 32 grams protein.

Along with the breakfast, one group drank 300 calories of “not-from-concentrate” orange juice, a second group drank a 300-calorie glucose drink and the third group drank an equal amount of water. All participants were given 15 minutes to finish their food and drink. Blood samples were collected before the meal and at 1, 3 and 5 hours afterwards. There was no significant difference in inflammatory mediators among the groups before the meal.

Analysis of the samples after the meal showed that oxygen free radicals increased an average of 62 percent with water, 63 percent with the glucose and 47 percent with orange juice. There also was an increase in blood components known as toll-like receptors, which play an important role in the development of inflammation, atherosclerosis, obesity, insulin resistance, and injury to cardiac cells than can occur after a blocked vessel is reopened.

Orange juice also prevented a significant increase in SOCS-3, an important mediator of insulin resistance, which contributes to development of type 2 diabetes.

“These data emphasize that a high-fat, high-carbohydrate meal is profoundly and rapidly proinflammatory, and that this process occurs at the cellular and molecular level,” says Paresh Dandona, MD, UB distinguished professor of medicine, director of the Diabetes-Endocrinology Center of Western New York at Kaleida Health and senior author on the study.

“In addition, specific proinflammatory genes are activated after the intake of glucose and a high-fat, high-carbohydrate meal, and these changes are observed in mononuclear cells that participate in vascular inflammation and insulin resistance,” he says. (ANI)

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Key predictor of mortality in heart disease patients identified

March 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, March 16 (ANI): A team of Vancouver-based researchers has identified a key predictor of mortality in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients.

According to researchers, the finding means that specialists can better determine how to treat and improve outcomes for patients with CAD.

Coronary artery disease is the most frequent cause of heart disease and occurs when important blood vessels become narrow or blocked and can no longer give enough blood to meet the heart”s demand.

The researchers said that high levels of an enzyme, myeloperoxidase, in the blood of CAD patients more than doubles the risk for death over a 13 year period. Myeloperoxidase is an enzyme associated with oxidative stress, which damages arterial tissue.

The research team looked at blood samples and records from a group of patients admitted to hospital in the early 1990s with symptoms of heart disease.

Over a 13-year period, mortality was more than double for patients with high blood levels of myeloperoxidase than for those with lower levels.

Based on this work, the researchers were able to develop a new classification of risk for CAD patients based on their levels of myeloperoxidase.

Measurement of the enzyme provides added predictive value for cardiovascular death when compared to traditional risk factors such as smoking and diabetes.

“We hope that the discovery of new markers of cardiovascular risk will help identify specific patients who could benefit from more aggressive treatment strategies,” said lead investigator, Dr. John Hill.

The study has been published in the prestigious Journal of the American College of Cardiology. (ANI)

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HIV uses several routes to escape immune system pressure

September 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, September 19 (ANI): Researchers at the Emory Vaccine Center have shown that HIV relies upon a number of strategies rather than use any preferred escape route to escape immune system pressure.

The human immune system has the ability to temporarily overpower HIV in early infection.

Studies conducted in the recent past have shown that most newly infected patients develop neutralizing antibodies. These are blood proteins that glob onto the virus and would allow patients to defend themselves – if they were facing only one target.

However, the problem occurs when HIV mutates, and disguises itself enough to get away from the antibodies. The virus eventually wears down the immune system into exhaustion.

The Emory team’s findings attain significance as they suggest that even if any scientist succeeds in identifying a vaccine component that can stimulate neutralizing antibodies, HIV’s capacity for rapid mutation could still be a confounding factor.

Dr. Cynthia Derdeyn, associate professor of pathology at Emory University School of Medicine, Emory Vaccine Center and Yerkes National Primate Research Center, says that a single type of neutralizing antibody may not be enough to contain HIV.

“These neutralizing antibodies work really well – they hit the virus fast and hard. But so far, every time we look, the virus escapes,” she says.

During the study, the researchers took blood samples from the participants a few weeks after infection occurred, and then later as two participants’ immune responses continued.

They isolated individual viruses over the first two years of HIV infection, and tested how well the patients’ own antibodies could neutralize them.

“In one patient where we had very early samples, there was evidence that neutralizing antibody came up within weeks, and that’s earlier than what was previously thought,” Derdeyn says.

In both patients, some viruses mutated part of their outer proteins so that after the mutation, an enzyme would be likely to attach a sugar molecule to it.

Though the sugar molecule interferes with antibody attack, this tactic, known as the “glycan shield”, was not observed in all cases.

Other viruses mutated the part of the outer protein that the neutralizing antibodies stick to directly. In both patients, many changes in the virus’ genetic code were necessary for escape.

“We need to understand early events in the immune response if we are going to figure out what a potential vaccine should have in it. What we can show is that even in one patient, several escape strategies are going on,” Derdeyn says.

According to her, that means that in order to be immune to HIV infection, someone may need to have several types of neutralizing antibodies ready to go.

Seeing how the virus mutates will allow researchers to choose the best parts to put in a vaccine, she says.

The results are online and scheduled for publication in the September issue of the journal Public Library of Science Pathogens.(ANI)

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No toxic substance found in Urumqui’s latest syringe attack victims’ body

September 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Urumqui, Sep. 14 (ANI): The blood samples of Urimqui’s latest syringe attack victims showed no trace of radioactive, toxic or viral substances, such as AIDS, an expert at a Beijing-based laboratory has said.

However, Director of Disease Control and Biological Security Office with China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Qian Jun, has said that the victims have showed signs of depression.

“Although no radioactive or toxic substances were found, some patients showed various levels of anxiety and depression and have been recommended for psychological counselling,” China daily quoted Quian, as saying.

Meanwhile, the first group of syringe attack suspects were prosecuted in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

At least 500 cases of attacks have surfaced in the city since mid-August.

Two men and a woman were given sentences ranging from seven to 15 years in jail for syringe stabbings or robberies in which they threatened their victims with needles.

The court sentenced 19-year-old Yilipan Yilihamu to 15 years in prison for injecting a woman with a hypodermic needle on August 28 at a roadside fruit stall. (ANI)

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Boffins find link between common sexual infection, prostate cancer risk

September 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 10 (ANI): A strong association between the common sexually transmitted infection, Trichomonas vaginalis, and risk of advanced and lethal prostate cancer in men has been found by researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

The study appears online on September 9, 2009, on the Journal of the National Cancer Institute website and will appear in a later print edition.

“Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in western countries, and the second leading cause of cancer-specific mortality. Identifying modifiable risk factors for the lethal form of prostate cancer offers the greatest opportunity to reduce suffering from this disease,” said Jennifer Stark, an HSPH researcher and lead author of the study.

One potential risk factor is inflammation, which appears to play an important role in the development and progression of prostate cancer, but the source of inflammation of the prostate is not clear.

Trichomonas vaginalis is the most common non-viral sexually transmitted infection, and can infect the prostate and could be a source of inflammation.

In the study, researchers analyzed blood samples from 673 men with prostate cancer who were participants in the Physicians’ Health Study and compared infection status based on antibody levels to 673 control subjects who were not diagnosed with prostate cancer. The blood samples were collected in 1982, on average a decade before cancer diagnosis.

The results showed that Trichomonas vaginalis infection was associated with a more than two-fold increase in the risk of prostate cancer that was advanced stage at diagnosis, and a nearly three-fold increase in prostate cancer that would result in death.

“The fact that we found a strong association between serologic evidence of infection with Trichomonas vaginalis, a potentially modifiable risk factor, and risk of advanced and lethal disease represents a step forward in prostate cancer, especially given that so few risk factors for aggressive prostate cancer have been identified,” said Lorelei Mucci, assistant professor in the department of epidemiology at HSPH and senior author of the study. (ANI)

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Scientists establish new link between pre-eclampsia and diet

August 26, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, August 26 (ANI): A new study has shown that pregnant women with pre-eclampsia have unusually high levels of a chemical compound called ‘ergothioneine’, which is found in unpasteurised food, in the red blood cells.

The finding made by scientists at the University of Leeds attains significance because they suggest that ergothioneine is an indicator of pre-eclampsia, and may help scientists to understand the cause of the condition, which is currently unknown.

The researchers took blood samples from a group of 37 pregnant women, and compared the red blood cells from women with pre-eclampsia with those from women with no symptoms.

Writing about their findings in the journal Reproductive Sciences, the researchers said that they found a significantly higher concentration of the ergothioneine – a compound made by fungi – in the red blood cells of the women with pre-eclampsia.

Ergothioneine is already well known to be made by micro-organisms that are commonly found in foods like unpasteurised dairy products. Since humans cannot synthesise it, the compound finds its way into human cells exclusively through our diet.

Pregnant women are not advised against eating fungi or foods such as unpasteurised dairy products which contain ergothioneine producing fungi. In fact, scientific studies on animals highlight the benefit of ergothioneine.

“These results suggest that a higher level of ergothioneine is an indicator of pre-eclampsia,” says lead researcher Dr. Julie Fisher, a chemist at the University of Leeds.

“I would not recommend that pregnant women stop eating fungi. However, the high concentration of ergothioneine in the red blood cells of women with pre-eclampsia is a very interesting finding – the more we know about the chemicals involved in the disease the closer we get to understanding what causes it,” says Professor James Walker, Professor of Obstetrics at the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine (LIMM), and a co-author of the research.

The symptoms of pre-eclampsia include high blood pressure, protein in urine and fluid retention and affects almost 10 per cent of pregnancies after 20 weeks. If left untreated, the condition can cause a range of problems, such as growth restriction in babies and even foetal and maternal mortality. There is no known cause of the condition.

“Ergothioneine is known as an antioxidant and antioxidants have been proposed to be helpful in reducing the risk of preeclampsia. It is therefore very interesting that we have found it to be in excess for women with the condition,” says Dr. Fisher.

The researchers used a technique that is based on the same science as MRI scans, but which operates on fluids taken from the body, to identify chemicals in the red blood cells of pregnant women.

They say that the amount of these chemicals was found to depend on whether the women were healthy or whether they were suffering from pre-eclampsia.

They previously found that chemical markers for pre-eclampsia also exist in blood plasma. (ANI)

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Clues to gigantism provided by family in Borneo Mountains

August 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, August 22 (ANI): An indigenous family living in a mountainous area of Malaysian Borneo has helped Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) scientists to discover information about genetic mutations associated with acromegaly, a form of gigantism that often results in enlarged hands, feet, and facial features.

The information could lead to better screening for the disease, which most often results from a benign pituitary gland tumor that can be deadly if left untreated, but which is difficult to detect until later stages when features become pronounced.

Researchers located a 31-member aboriginal family that included individuals with acromegaly living in a mountainous region of Borneo, Malaysia, when the effects of the family patriarch’s growing pituitary tumor necessitated medical treatment.

A medical team including VARI Distinguished Scientific Investigator Bin Tean Teh, and staff from the Department of Medicine at the University of Malaya Medical Centre and the Department of Medicine at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Malaysia subsequently traveled to the family’s village several times to collect blood samples for testing.

“Researchers had recently found a mutation in the AIP gene associated with acromegaly, but we found that several family members who didn’t have visible symptoms of acromegaly had this mutation as well,” said Dr. The.

“This increases the importance of screening for families with cases of acromegaly since anyone could be a carrier. On one side of the family, at least two generations carried the gene before someone showed any symptoms,” he added.

The later stages of acromegaly often produce enlarged hands and feet, protruding brows and lower jaws, thick voice and slowed speech from swelling of vocal cords, and other symptoms.

When diagnosed, the tumor and entire pituitary gland are usually removed, followed by hormone therapy for the rest of the patient’s life. owever, because the progression of the disease is so gradual, it is difficult to detect. If left unchecked, patients can die from complications such as heart or kidney failure.

Sok Kean Khoo, VARI Research Scientist and lead author of the study, led researchers in scanning DNA in the family’s blood to find other factors that might explain why only some family members with the genetic mutation had visible symptoms of the disease.

They found regions on a few chromosomes that might lead to further insight.The sooner we know how and why people are affected differently by this disease, the sooner we can help families who have it,” said Dr. Teh. (ANI)

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Why HIV progresses faster in women than in men

July 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, July 14 (ANI): An international team of researchers have shed light on why HIV progresses faster in women than in men with same viral load.

Researchers from Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), MIT and Harvard claim to have identified a receptor molecule that responds to the HIV-1 virus differently in women.

“This study may help to account for reported gender differences in HIV-1 disease progression by demonstrating that women and men differ in the way their immune systems respond to the virus,” Nature magazine quoted Dr. Marcus Altfeld, of the Ragon Institute and the MGH Division of Infectious Disease, as saying.

“Focusing on immune activation separately from viral replication might give us new therapeutic approaches to limiting HIV-1-induced pathology,” he added.

During the study, the researchers focused on plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs), among the first cells of the immune system to respond to HIV-1 and other viral pathogens.

Previous studies have shown that pDCs recognize HIV-1 with the help of a receptor called Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) that triggers the production of interferon-alpha and other important immune system molecules.

It has also been shown that progesterone may modulate pDC activity.

Supporting the previous study results, the researchers found that pDCs from postmenopausal women produced levels of interferon-alpha in response to HIV-1 that were closer to levels observed in men.

They also found that in premenopausal women, higher progesterone levels correlated with increased activation of pDCs in response to HIV-1.

Since activation of T cells predicts the progression of HIV-1 infection to AIDS, the researchers found that stimulation of pDCs in response to HIV-1 led to the subsequent activation of CD8+ T cells by means of interferon-alpha secretion.

For further study, the researchers tested blood samples taken from a group of chronically HIV-1-infected women and men prior to treatment initiation and confirmed that women had higher levels of CD8+ T cell activation than did men with the same blood levels of HIV-1.

“While stronger activation of the immune system might be beneficial in the early stages of infection, resulting in lower levels of HIV-1 replication, persistent viral replication and stronger chronic immune activation can lead to the faster progression to AIDS that has been seen in women,” Altfeld added.

The study has been published in the journal Nature Medicine. (ANI)

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One more person with symptoms of swine flu quarantined in Tamil Nadu

July 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Coimbatore, July 14 (ANI): One more person with symptoms of the dreaded swine flu was quarantined in Coimbatore.

Presently, he is in the isolation ward of the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital.

The blood samples of a youngster named Harijan (24) who returned to India from Malaysia has been sent to the National Institute of Communicable Disease (NICD) in New Delhi for further analysis.

So far, nine cases of swine flu have been reported in Tamil Nadu out which, two from Coimbatore were confirmed positive cases.

“Thirteen cases were reported here out of which two were positive and all others were negative. The two positive cases have been treated successfully and sent back home. This is the fourteenth case referred from the nearest district,” said Dr. Durai Kannan, Joint Director, Health Department, Coimbatore Medical College Hospital.

Meanwhile, experts from the New Delhi-based National Institute of Communicable Diseases visited the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital and examined the quarantine wards in the hospital.

“We have come to see the situation. The Joint Director is here and the Regional Director looking after this area,” said Shahai Hussain, Joint Director, National Institute of Communicable Diseases, New Delhi.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared influenza pandemic last month and advised governments to prepare for a long-term battle against an unstoppable new flu virus.

The WHO had no immediate comment on the case of Tamiflu resistance. (ANI)

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Elevated insulin linked to increased breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women

July 10, 2009 By 1 Comment

Washington, July 10 (ANI): A new study by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University has shown that elevated insulin levels in the blood could raise the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women.

Increased breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women has previously been linked to obesity and diabetes. Both conditions involve insulin resistance, which causes increases in circulating levels of insulin.

Since insulin is known to promote cell division and enhance breast tumour growth in animal models, the Einstein scientists reasoned that relatively high insulin levels might contribute to breast cancer risk in women.

“Up to now, only a few studies have directly investigated whether insulin levels are associated with breast cancer risk, and those studies have yielded conflicting results,” says Geoffrey Kabat, Ph.D., senior epidemiologist in the department of epidemiology and population health at Einstein and the lead author of the paper.

“Those other studies were based on just a single baseline measurement of insulin, while our study involved analyzing repeated measurements of insulin taken over several years – which provides a more accurate picture of the possible association between insulin levels and breast cancer risk,” Kabat added.

In the new study, Dr. Kabat and his colleagues analyzed data on 5,450 women enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative, a large multicenter study investigating the influence of a number of factors on women’s health. Most of the women had participated in the clinical trial portion of the study and provided fasting blood samples at the start of the study (i.e., at baseline) and then at years one, three and six.

The remaining women, who were enrolled in a separate “observational” component of the study, provided fasting blood samples at baseline and at year three of the study. Among all these women, 190 cases of breast cancer were identified over eight years of follow-up.

The results showed a strong association between elevated insulin levels and increased risk for breast cancer.

“This finding is potentially important because it indicates that, in postmenopausal women, insulin may be a risk factor for breast cancer that is independent of obesity,” Dr. Kabat said.

Their findings are published in the online version of the International Journal of Cancer. (ANI)

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Simple blood test can reveal IVF’s suitability for individual patients

July 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, July 2 (ANI): A simple blood test can now tell whether In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) would be successful in a particular patient or not.

Dr. Cathy Allen and her team from the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, Ireland, have for the first time identified genetic predictors of the potential success or failure of IVF treatment in blood-a discovery, they reckon, can help understand why IVF works for some patients but not for others.

Earlier studies focussed at gene profiles in such tissues as the uterine lining, but in the current study, the researchers chose to examine the gene expression patterns in RNA extracted from peripheral (circulating) blood-an easily accessible biological sample.

They took blood samples at eight different stages during the period around conception and the early stages of the IVF cycle.

Five of the samples came from women who had achieved clinical pregnancies, three from those who had had implantation failure, and three from subfertile women who had conceived spontaneously.

The analysis revealed that 128 genes showed a more than two-fold difference in expression in early clinical pregnancy compared with a non-pregnant state.

The molecular pathways that were most over-represented in this expression were concerned with angiogenesis (the growth of new blood vessels), endothelin signalling (blood vessel constriction), inflammation, oxidative stress (damage to cell structures), vascular endothelial growth factor (signalling processes in blood vessel growth), and pyruvate metabolism (the supply of energy to cells).

“All these processes are important in the achievement and maintenance of pregnancy,” said Allen.

She added: “We found that the gene expression profiles in blood of patients at the time of pituitary down-regulation showed interesting patterns of gene clustering. Over 200 genes were differentially expressed in patients who went on to achieve an IVF pregnancy compared with those who did not.”

It was found that the peripheral blood gene expression “signature”-also known as the transcriptome-before IVF was predictive of IVF outcome.

The researchers said that the finding had demonstrated the power of high-dimensional technology in biomarker discovery, and highlighted the potential for developing clinically useful tools.

They hope that the results generated by their work will lead to the development of a test to aid in IVF decision-making.

They said that the work would help to identity biomarkers that can identify events occurring at implantation, the maintenance of pregnancy and successful or unsuccessful pregnancy outcome.

The findings of the study were presented at the 25th annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.(ANI)

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