February 26, 2007, 7:57 PM CT

Common Ingredient In Big Macs And Sodas

The future of cancer detection and treatment may be in gold nanoparticles - tiny pieces of gold so small they cannot be seen by the naked eye. The potential of gold nanoparticles has been hindered by the difficulty of making them in a stable, nontoxic form that can be injected into a patient. New research at the University of Missouri-Columbia has found that a plant extract can be used to overcome this problem, creating a new type of gold nanoparticle that is stable and nontoxic and can be administered orally or injected.

Because gold nanoparticles have a high surface reactivity and biocompatible properties, they can be used for in vivo (inside the bod)) molecular imaging and therapeutic applications, including cancer detection and therapy. The promise of nanomedicine comes from the high surface area and size relationships of nanoparticles to cells, making it possible to target individual cells for diagnostic imaging or therapy. Gold nanoparticles could function as in vivo sensors, photoactive agents for optical imaging, drug carriers, contrast enhancers in computer tomography and X-ray absorbers in cancer therapy. Despite their promise, however, scientists have been plagued with problems making nontoxic gold nanoparticle constructs.

Kattesh Katti, professor of radiology and physics in MU's School of Medicine and College of Arts and Science, and director of the University of Missouri Cancer Nanotechnology Platform, worked with other MU scientists in the fields of physics, radiology, chemistry and veterinary medicine. The team tested plant extracts for their ability as nontoxic vehicles to stabilize and deliver nanoparticles for in vivo nanomedicinal applications. The researchers became interested in gum arabic, a substance taken from species of the acacia tree, because it is already used to stabilize everyday foods such as yogurt, Big Macs and soda. Gum arabic has unique structural features, including a highly branched polysaccharide structure consisting of a complex mixture of potassium, calcium and magnesium salts derived from arabic acid. The scientists found that gum arabic could be used to absorb and assimilate metals and create a "coating" that makes gold nanoparticles stable and nontoxic......... Posted by: Adona      Read more         Source

January 28, 2007, 9:40 PM CT

Nudging Genes Into Activity

A new technique that employs RNA, a tiny chemical cousin of DNA, to turn on genes could lead to therapeutics for conditions in which nudging a gene awake would help alleviate disease, scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center say.

The gene-activating method, which is being developed by UT Southwestern scientists, also is providing scientists with a novel research tool to investigate the role that genes play in human health.

In a paper appearing online at Nature Chemical Biology and in an upcoming edition of the journal, lead author Dr. Bethany Janowski, assistant professor of pharmacology at UT Southwestern, and her colleagues describe how they activated certain genes in cultured cells using strands of RNA to perturb the delicately balanced mixture of proteins that surround chromosomal DNA, proteins that control whether genes are turned on or off.

Dr. David Corey, professor of pharmacology and the paper's senior author, said the results are significant because they demonstrate the most effective and consistent method to date for coaxing genes into making the proteins that carry out all of life's functions - a process formally called gene expression.

In any medical specialty, Dr. Janowski said, there are conditions where increased gene expression would prove beneficial.........

Posted by: Adona      Read more         Source

January 15, 2007, 4:55 AM CT

Marker For Aggressive Form Of Breast Cancer

Scientists have linked a structural protein called nestin to a especially deadly form of breast cancer, identifying a new biomarker that could lead to earlier detection and better therapy.

In the January 15 issue of Cancer Research, scientists from Dartmouth Medical School demonstrate that nestin could represent a selective biological marker for basal epithelial breast tumors, a highly aggressive cancer with similarities to mammary stem cells, the regenerative cells thought to bethe site of breast cancer initiation.

"Patients with this type of breast cancer are at high risk for recurrence," said James DiRenzo, Ph.D., assistant professor at Dartmouth Medical School. "Ideally, a marker like nestin would enable clinicians to monitor these patients through frequent tests of a biomarker and, in doing so, detect the cancer before it has a chance to come back".

Basal epithelial tumors lack important molecular targets such as the estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and Her2. This not only makes positive diagnosis difficult, say researchers, but also eliminates several important lines of treatment, such as tamoxifen or Herceptin, that work well for other breast cancer subtypes.

"Currently, there is no direct means of determining if a breast cancer is a basal epithelial tumor - doctors only know for certain once the other forms of breast cancer are ruled out," DiRenzo said. "This type of breast cancer is generally difficult to manage, but several important studies have shown that it is more likely than other breast cancer subtypes to respond to certain types of treatment, which highlights the need for a definitive diagnostic marker".........

Posted by: Adona      Read more         Source

December 18, 2006, 4:44 AM CT

Some Types of Cancer Becoming More Common

Some types of cancer are occurring less frequently, the rates of others are still surging upward. According to a new study published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, incidence of skin cancer is climbing in both sexes - more men are facing prostate cancer, while more women are diagnosed with breast cancer. Cancers showing a decrease in incidence in both sexes include lung, stomach and colon cancers.

"There are a variety of factors that may explain these numbers," says study author Elizabeth Ward. "Cancer trends over time could reflect changes in exposure to risk factors such as sun or smoking, changes in how we classify cancer or the introduction of new screening or diagnostic tests." Ward notes that while the incidence of some cancers is climbing, overall cancer mortality rates have decreased since 1991 for both men and women.

"For some cancers, the reasons for their changing incidence rates are somewhat clear," says Ward, citing well-known connections between sun exposure and smoking, with skin and lung cancers, respectively. "In a complex environment that is constantly changing, understanding the factors influencing other cancers, such as non-Hodgkin lymphoma or testicular cancer, will continue to be a formidable challenge".

This study is published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Volume 1076 Living in a Chemical World: Framing the Future in Light of the Past. Media wishing to receive a PDF of this article please contact journalnews@bos.blackwellpublishing.net.........

Posted by: Adona      Permalink         Source

December 3, 2006, 9:10 PM CT

Math Model To Predicts Cancer

Vito Quaranta clicks on a small black dot on his computer screen. The dot which represents about a thousand cancer cells begins to "grow," morphing into a mass with finger-like projections that looks like an invasive tumor.

The Vanderbilt professor of cancer biology envisions a future when computer simulations like this will be used to predict a tumor's clinical progression and formulate individualized therapy plans. For the last two years, he has headed a major effort to develop the kind of mathematical model for cancer invasion powerful enough for this purpose. The result was published as an entirely theoretical paper in the journal Cell and, if he is right, it represents a "sea change" in how biology is done.

The new approach is not so different from forecasting the weather.

"Today we can know pretty well that for the next few days we're going to expect good weather or that there's a storm on the way," Quaranta said. "That's the kind of predictive power we want to generate with our model for cancer invasion".

Quaranta and his colleagues at Vanderbilt University and the University of Dundee in Scotland developed a computational model for cancer invasion and described the model in the Dec. 1 issue of Cell. The model a series of mathematical equations that drive computer simulations of tumor growth suggests that the microenvironment around tumor cells determines the tumor's ultimate cellular makeup and invasive potential.........

Posted by: Andria      Permalink         Source

November 30, 2006, 4:17 AM CT

Vegetables May Help Protect Against Prostate Cancer

Our parents may have been on to something when they told us to eat our vegetables, finish eating every pea and bean on our plates.

In two separate studies it was found that nutrients in certain foods might reduce the risk for prostate cancer, according to Jackilen Shannon, Ph.D., M.P.H., a member of the Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute and the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Shannon will present these findings Tuesday, Nov. 14 between 6 and 8 p.m. in Boston, Mass., at the Fifth Annual International Conference of the American Association of Cancer Research Frontiers in Cancer Prevention.

In the "Folate Nutrition, Alcohol Consumption and Prostate Cancer Risk" study, Shannon looked at the folate and alcohol consumption among two groups of veterans: 137 men who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and 238 men who had a normal prostate specific antigen (PSA) level and thus were considered to be at low risk for prostate disease. Folate is found in foods such as dark, green leafy vegetables; liver; kidney; dried beans and mushrooms. Folate is required for the production of red blood cells but also plays an important role in inhibiting a certain type of DNA damage known as methylation. DNA damage is thought to be important in the development of cancer.........

Posted by: Adona      Permalink         Source

November 29, 2006, 4:38 AM CT

Scientists Working In A 'Boundary-less' Environment

A cadre of world-renowned scientists working in the most promising areas of cancer research have come together to work as a team at one institution Memorial Health to accelerate findings for the prevention and treatment of cancer.

The new approach to making advances in cancer research is focused on a "boundary-less" environment which the scientists expect will stimulate faster, cross-disciplinary results and increased collaboration between scientists and physicians. The "boundary-less" approach applies to all aspects of the research and even extends to the physical facility which features a laboratory that literally has no internal walls.

This team of scientists, all recruited from top institutions in the United States, is focused exclusively on translational or "bench to bedside" research of molecular genetics, allowing them to work closely with physicians to translate laboratory findings into individualized treatments, earlier diagnostics, and new cancer prevention methods for patients.

Tapped to lead Memorial Health's newly created Laboratory Research Program, Jeff Boyd, Ph.D., a distinguished scientist from Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, selected some of the nation's top research talent including Dominique Broccoli, Ph.D., Fox Chase Cancer Center; Nagendra Ningaraj, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University; Ranjan Perera, Ph.D., Burnham Institute, La Jolla, California; Apostolos Psychogios, M.D., Harvard University; John Risinger, Ph.D., National Cancer Institute; and, Cindy Yee, Ph.D., Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.........

Posted by: Jenn      Permalink         Source

November 28, 2006, 5:12 AM CT

Aging Gene Protects Against Prostate Cancer

Cancer researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia have shown that a gene that is involved in regulating aging also blocks prostate cancer cell growth. The researchers, led by Kimmel Cancer Center director Richard Pestell, M.D., Ph.D., hope the newly found connection will aid in better understanding the development of prostate cancer and lead to new drugs against the disease.

SIRT1 is a member of a family of enzymes called sirtuins that have far-reaching influence in all organisms, including roles in metabolism, gene expression and aging.

"We know that sirtuins play a role in aging, and that the risk for prostate cancer increases with aging, but no one has ever linked the two until now," says Dr. Pestell, who is also professor and chair of cancer biology at Jefferson Medical College.

"We've shown that by making a prostate cancer with cells overexpressing a mutation for the androgen receptor, which is resistant to current forms of treatment, we can almost completely block the growth of these cells with SIRT1," he says. Dr. Pestell and his team report their findings in November in the journal Molecular and Cellular Biology.

As per Dr. Pestell, prostate cancer cells can express a mutation that makes patients resistant to current forms of therapy such as hormonal treatment. Such treatment focuses on inactivating the androgen receptor by giving agents that shut off testosterone production.........

Posted by: Adona      Permalink         Source

November 23, 2006, 5:22 AM CT

Prolonged Anthracycline Therapy Reduces Heart Problems

Stretching out a dose of chemotherapy over six or more hours may reduce the risk of heart problems caused by certain usually used cancer drugs, as per a new review of recent research.

Anthracycline drugs like daunorubicin and doxorubicin are used to treat a number of types of solid tumors and blood cancers such as leukemias in adults and children.

Anthracycline treatment can be very successful at controlling cancer, but heart damage caused by anthracycline therapy is a considerable and serious problem, said Dr. Elvira van Dalen of the Emma Childrens Hospital in the Netherlands.

She and her colleagues observed that the rates of heart failure among adult patients receiving anthracycline treatment were significantly lower when the patients had an infusion of the drug that lasted six or more hours, in comparison to shorter infusions times.

In five studies involving 557 patients, the longer therapy cut the risk of heart failure by nearly 75 percent in comparison to the risk in patients who received the short therapy.

van Dalen said the prolonged dose of six hours or more might be justified if a patient is at high risk of heart damage or needs a high cumulative dose of the chemotherapy.

The review appears in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing medical trials on a topic.........

Posted by: Adona      Permalink         Source

November 1, 2006, 4:04 PM CT

Nap A Day Makes Doctors OK

Give emergency room doctors a nap, and not only will they do a better job, they'll also be nicer to you, as per a new study from Stanford University School of Medicine.

The findings, would be reported in the recent issue of Annals of Emergency Medicine, showed improved mood, a higher alertness level and the ability to complete a simulated I.V. insertion more quickly among doctors and nurses who were allowed a short nap while working the night shift in an emergency room.

"Napping is a very powerful, very inexpensive way of improving our work," said one of the study's authors, Steven Howard, MD, associate professor of anesthesia and expert on sleep deprivation and fatigue.

Howard has taken the results of the study one step further and begun implementing an official napping program at the hospital at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. "This is the first time a napping program has been instituted to try to get at the problem of fatigue in the workplace for health-care workers," he said.

As per statistics on America's need for sleep, plenty of people could use a nap. More than 50 percent of Americans are sleep-deprived.

Scientific research has documented the need for naps to mitigate drowsiness and improve performance and alertness in pilots and truckers, but no prior study has looked specifically at the possible benefits for health-care workers, said the first author of the study, Rebecca Smith-Coggins, MD, associate professor of surgery (emergency medicine).........

Posted by: Adona      Permalink         Source