June 28, 2006, 0:21 AM CT

Scorpion Venom For Fighting Cancer

Health physicists are establishing safe procedures for a promising experimental brain-cancer therapy which uses a radioactive version of a protein found in scorpion venom. For many, this will conjure images of Spiderman's nemesis, the Scorpion. The purpose of this work is not science fiction, but rather to help to develop a promising new therapy for brain cancer. The venom of the yellow Israeli scorpion preferentially attaches to the cells of a type of essentially incurable brain cancers known as gliomas.

Responding to this urgent problem, scientists at the Transmolecular Corporation in Cambridge, Massachusetts created a radioactive version of this scorpion venom. Called TM-601, it contains an artificial version of the venom protein, attached to a radioactive substance called iodine-131 (I-131). When it enters the bloodstream, the compound attaches to the glioma cells, then the I-131 releases radiation that kills the cell.

This compound has enabled an experimental treatment for high-grade gliomas, found in 17,000 people in the US every year and usually causing death in the first year of diagnosis. Patients would simply be injected with the compound in an outpatient procedure, without needing chemotherapy or traditional radiotherapy. The first, early human trials of the venom therapy showed promising signs for treating the tumor and prolonging survival rates for patients.........

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June 26, 2006, 10:37 PM CT

Mushrooms Are Antioxidants

Many of the mushrooms that we eat contain good amounts of antioxidants and some of them can rival vegetables like carrot, green beans, red pepper and broccoli in their anti-oxidant contents. These findings were released by researchers of Penn State.

Dr. N. Joy Dubost, measured the activity of two antioxidants, polyphenols and ergothioneine, present in mushrooms, using the ORAC assay and HPLC instrumentation, as part of her dissertation research. She has demonstrated that portabella mushrooms had an ORAC value of 9.7 micromoles of trolox equivalents per gram and criminis had an ORAC value of 9.5. Data available from other researchers shows carrots and green beans have an ORAC value of 5; red pepper 10; and broccoli 12.

The ORAC assay, the most well known test of antioxidant capacity, focuses on the peroxyl radical, the most predominate in the human body. Free radicals, such as the peroxyl radical, are thought to play a role in the aging process and in many diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer's and atherosclerosis. Epidemiological studies have shown that those who eat the most fruits and vegetables rich in antioxidants have lower incidence of these diseases.

Dubost detailed her results in a paper, Quantification of Polyphenols and Ergothioneine in Cultivated Mushrooms and Correlation to Total Antioxidant Capacity Using the ORAC and HORAC Assays, presented Monday, June 26, at the Institute of Food Technologists meeting in Orlando, Fl. Her co-author is her dissertation adviser, Dr. Robert Beelman, professor of food science.........

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June 22, 2006, 7:05 AM CT

Progress In Understanding Of Breast-cancer Cell Migration

Understanding mechanisms behind the spread of cancer to distant organs (metastasis) is a very important topic in cancer research. In a never stopping attempt to defeat breast cancer scientists have moved a step closer to understanding how breast cancer spreads to other parts of the body, thanks to research published this week. Recently researchers from the University of Manchester have discovered a protein potentially involved in the spread or "metastatic progression" of tumors.

These researchers say that their findings could lead to new approaches to treating breast cancer as blocking the protein's actions has the potential to stop cancerous cells migrating. "What we have identified is a new role for a protein called LPP," explained Professor Andrew Sharrocks, who headed the research team.

"Until now, this protein was only thought to function at the cell periphery but we have shown that it works in conjunction with another protein - PEA3 - in the cell nucleus".

"PEA3 has already been implicated in the spread of breast cancer but we have found that the LPP molecule is essential for the correct function of PEA3".

"If we can target the LPP protein and stop it from working in cancerous cells, we have a possible new route to therapy".

This research report that was published in the scientific journal Molecular and Cellular Biology, may have significant implications for other cancer systems.........

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June 21, 2006, 11:50 PM CT

How Tumor Cells Form

MIT cancer researchers have discovered a process that may explain how some tumor cells form, a discovery that could one day lead to new therapies that prevent defective cells from growing and spreading.

The work was reported June 8 in the advance online issue of The EMBO Journal, a publication of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).

Tumor cells that grow aggressively often have an irregular number of chromosomes, the structures in cells that carry genetic information. The normal number of chromosomes in a human cell is 46, or 23 pairs. Aggressive tumor cells often have fewer or more than 23 pairs of chromosomes, a condition called aneuploidy.

To date it has not been clear how tumor cells become aneuploid.

"Checkpoint proteins" within cells work to prevent cells from dividing with an abnormal number of chromosomes, but scientists have been puzzled by evidence that aneuploidy can result even when these proteins appear to be normal.

What MIT researchers have discovered is a reason these checkpoint proteins may be unable to sense the defective cells, which tend to have very subtle errors in them. (These subtle errors are believed to be the cause of aneuploidy and the rapid growth of tumors.).

Before cells divide, individual chromosomes in each pair of chromosomes must attach to a set of tiny structures called microtubules. If they attach correctly, the checkpoint proteins give them the go-ahead to divide. If they don't, the checkpoint proteins are supposed to stop them from dividing.........

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June 21, 2006, 10:48 PM CT

Alzheimer's Disease: Searching For A Cure

It was 1997 when an alarm went off in Vivian Freed's head. She knew something was wrong with her 85-year old mother, who had always planned her trip to celebrate Thanksgiving with her children down to the last detail. But that year, she got the airline tickets for the wrong days. Freed also found out that her mother had been missing doctors' appointments and social engagements, so she flew from her home in Rockville, Md., to her mother's home in Florida to check on her.

"Everything that she had done perfectly before was a mess," says Freed. The bills weren't paid, and the medications that her mother had been giving to her ailing father weren't right. "We realized we needed to do something," says Freed, after a doctor diagnosed her mother with Alzheimer's disease.

Freed's sister, Annette Heller, later "adult-napped" her parents and moved them to Maryland under the pretense of just visiting." They didn't really notice that she was packing up more things than they would need for just a visit," says Freed.

Her parents were fiercely independent and would have objected to moving. "It would have been much nicer to give them closure, but it wasn't possible," Freed says.

Not long after Freed moved her parents into an assisted living facility in Maryland, her father passed away. "The day after he died, Mom remembered what happened, but never did again," she says. "Mom kept asking, 'Where's Daddy?'".........

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June 21, 2006, 10:12 PM CT

Herbal Therapies For Cancer

Whether herbal supplements can help cancer patients avoid common problems such as fatigue and sleeplessness is under study at the Medical College of Georgia.

Ginseng, a perennial found in North America and eastern Asia touted as a safe way to improve the body's stress resistance, is being tested for its potential in battling common fatigue.

Valerian, a flowering perennial from Eurasia widely used as a sedative, is being studied for its potential in helping cancer patients sleep.

"These are some of our quality of life trials to help cancer patients with side effects of their disease and treatment," says Dr. Daron G. Ferris, director of the MCG Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Center and a principal investigator. "Almost every cancer patient has fatigue, for some reason. Both cancer and its treatment can have an effect on blood count and patients may become anemic. Others battle depression, which can also make them feel tired".

Thirty to 50 percent of cancer patients also have trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep, a common side effect of chemotherapy, says Darlene Gibson, research nurse.

While anecdotal evidence abounds about the effectiveness of these herbal therapies, scientific studies in animals or humans, particularly those with cancer, are sparse, Dr. Ferris says. "Many cancer patients look for 'natural,' non-traditional treatments. We are delighted to offer alternatives that many patients desire in a way that ensures the quality of the supplement and does not interfere with the patient's cancer treatment".........

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June 21, 2006, 7:09 AM CT

Nutrition And Twin Pregnancies

The usually held view that IVF is the only culprit in the steady increase in the numbers of twins born over the past thirty years was challenged by a scientist speaking at the 22nd annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Prague, Czech Republic, Wednesday 21 June 2006. Professor Robert Jansen, Medical Director of Sydney IVF, Sydney, Australia, said that his research had shown that improved nutrition, both maternal and in the lab in the case of IVF, had produced better and stronger embryos.

"Over the last 100 years, both in the UK and Australia, there has been an increase in identical twinning through the division of the embryo into two, even without IVF", he said, "and with the move to single embryo transfer with IVF this trend is obviously set to continue." Professor Jansen went on to say that the present rate of identical twinning with IVF is between one-in-a-hundred and one-in-fifty, a little over twice the rate involved when getting pregnant naturally.

Professor Jansen and his team reviewed Australian national birth statistics from 1920 to 2003 to determine the sex of babies at birth among multiple pregnancies. They found that the rate of dizygotic (DZ) twinning - where two embryos are involved and half the twins will be of different sex - was relatively constant from 1920 until the 1960s, but there was then the well-known dramatic increase with the advent of induced ovulation and IVF - reaching 300 in every 1000 IVF conceptions by 2000. Among monozygotic (MZ) twins, caused by embryo division (so all are of like sex), the excess rate of same-sex twins among natural conceptions has risen steadily for the last 80 years. MZ twins were relatively rare among IVF babies in the 1980s - much less than occurs naturally - but then rose in the nineties to reach 14 per 1000 by the year 2000.........

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June 21, 2006, 7:05 AM CT

Gene Mutation Linked To Breast Cancer

Researchers have discovered another breast cancer gene, which may be involved with breast cancer development. Mutation in this gene greatly increases the risk of breast cancer in women of European heritage. These genes may work in combination with the well-known BRCA genes and may increase the risk of breast cancer development as much as 80 percent.

These new research findings come from Iceland's Decode Genetics, and researchers say that the study suggests that women with certain mutations in two of the genes have an almost certain risk of developing breast cancer.

The newly discovered gene is called BARD1. "The BARD1 variant works together with the BRCA2 mutation in Iceland and increases the likelihood of breast cancer from 45% in those who have only the BRCA2 mutation up towards 100% in those who also have the BARD1 variant," Decode chief executive Kari Stefansson said in a statement.

The research team has found that women who harbor BARD1 mutation tend to develop breast cancer on both breasts. The Decode team identified 1,090 women in Iceland who had breast cancer, and compared them to 703 Icelandic women who did not have breast cancer. A mutant variant of BARD1 gene was found in 5.4% of breast cancer patients and 3.1% of women who did not have breast cancer. This represents an 80% increase in risk of developing breast cancer.........

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June 20, 2006, 0:14 AM CT

Treatment For Cocaine Dependence

Scientists from the University of Virginia Health System have found that ondansetron, a serotonin antagonist drug, reduced cocaine's reinforcing effects in people who volunteered to be part of the study. These findings are the first to show the value of ondansetron in battling cocaine and its addictive qualities.

Most cocaine users find it very difficult to quit. Despite almost two decades of scientific effort, no medicine has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the therapy of cocaine dependence. Cocaine users have high relapse rates under the currently available behavioral and psychosocial interventions.

"These preliminary findings suggest that ondansetron, in combination with behavioral treatment, may offer a new alternative for treating cocaine addiction," says Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes of Health.

Prof. Bankole Johnson and his colleagues from the UVa Department of Psychiatric Medicine collected data from 63 cocaine-dependent men and women who were seeking therapy for this study, recently published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence. In the study, participants received a placebo or one of three dosages of ondansetron, twice daily. Cognitive behavioral treatment also was provided each week. "We are encouraged by the results of this study, which show a promising role for ondansetron in the effort to find new, effective therapy for cocaine dependence," Prof. Johnson said.........

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June 20, 2006, 0:04 AM CT

HDTV Technology Improves Cancer-catching Tests

A certain UVa alumnus named Katie Couric wanted to raise awareness of how colonoscopies are the "gold standard" to stop colorectal cancer in its tracks. Her televised colonoscopy in 2000 demystified the procedure and led to a 20 percent jump in the number of colonoscopies in the United States, perhaps saving hundreds of lives.

Now, patients who get colonoscopies at the University of Virginia Health System have a new, unique advantage in the ongoing fight to stay cancer-free. UVa has purchased fifteen high-definition endoscopes and the video processing systems that go with them.

The new scopes will give UVa doctors the ability to image the digestive tract in greater detail to detect worrisome growths inside the colon, like polyps and pre-malignant lesions. The half million-dollar upgrade in endoscopes is part of the Health System's ongoing efforts to have the most advanced technology available to patients. The older scopes and processors will be retired.

The new HDTV endoscopes are manufactured by the Olympus Co. and will be used for colonoscopies and upper endoscopy procedures. In colonoscopies, physicians visually examine the lining of the colon and rectum. Upper endoscopies are used to examine the esophagus, stomach and the upper part of the small intestine, the duodenum.........

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