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IN THIS ISSUE:

Can Aspirin Prevent Asthma?
A Curry A Day Keeps The Doctor Away?
Payment For Stem Cell Eggs Debated
Cigarette Makers Boost Nicotine 11 Percent
Cognitive Function Boosted by Folic Acid Supplements
Prostate Cancer Trial Halted Due to 3 Cases of Leukemia
Doctor Fatigue Hurting Patients
Believe It Or Not
News From MedWatch
Research Update
Recently Approved Drugs/Indications
FDA Recalls and Safety Alerts in the Past 60 Days
Drug Shortages
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Can Aspirin Prevent Asthma?

Can taking an aspirin each day stop asthma from developing in adults?
Maybe, suggests new research published in the January issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine that found adult-onset asthma risk was reduced by 22 percent in men who were already taking a daily aspirin for heart-disease prevention.
"Our findings suggest that low-dose aspirin may have beneficial effects on asthma," said study co-author Dr. Tobias Kurth, an assistant professor of medicine and an associate epidemiologist in the division of aging at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
But, Kurth added, it's too soon to recommend that anyone start using daily aspirin solely for asthma prevention.
As many as 20 million Americans have asthma, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI). Despite advances in treatment, about 5,000 people die due to asthma every year in the United States, the AAAAI reports.

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A Curry A Day Keeps The Doctor Away?

The chemical that gives spicy food its kick could hold the key to the next generation of anti-cancer drugs that will kill tumours with few or no side effects for the patient, say academics at The University of Nottingham.
A study by the scientists, published online in the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, has proven for the first time that the chemical compound capsaicin -- which is responsible for the burning sensation when we eat chillies -- can kill cells by directly targeting their energy source.
It could mean that patients could control or prevent the onset of cancer by eating a diet rich in capsaicin and that existing products to treat conditions such as psoriasis and muscle strain, which contain the compound and are already approved for medical use, could be adapted to tackle this more serious disease.
The Nottingham study has shown that the family of compounds to which capsaicin belongs, vanilloids, can kill cancer by attacking the mitochondria of the tumour cell, commonly known as its 'powerhouse', which produces ATP, the major energy-containing chemical in the body. By binding proteins in the cancer cell mitochondria the compound triggers apoptosis, or natural cell death, without harming the healthy surrounding cells.
Dr Timothy Bates, the study's leader, is a member of the Medical Research Council (MRC) College of Experts and an internationally-renowned researcher in the areas of mitochondrial research and anti-cancer drug development. He said: "This is incredibly exciting and may explain why people living in countries like Mexico and India, who traditionally eat a diet which is very spicy, tend to have lower incidences of many cancers that are prevalent in the western world."

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Payment For Stem Cell Eggs Debated

Say you're a woman who wants to have fertility treatment but can't afford the $5,000 to $6,000 cost.
What if you could get it for half-price, by agreeing to donate half the eggs you produce for stem cell research?
Interested?
British women may get a crack at that deal in a few months, under a plan pursued by Dr. Alison Murdoch of Newcastle University.
This concept, which resembles a strategy sometimes used to get eggs for fertility treatment, is just one of several new efforts to boost the supply of human eggs needed for research. The shortage has triggered an ethical debate on both sides of the Atlantic: Should women be paid for supplying eggs?
Scientists need eggs for a process called therapeutic cloning, which creates stem cells genetically matched to an individual. It may be used someday to create tissue to treat illnesses like diabetes and Parkinson's disease, providing transplant material that's genetically matched to the patient so that it won't be rejected. Therapeutic cloning may also help scientists develop better drug treatments.

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Cigarette Makers Boost Nicotine 11 Percent

An analysis of major cigarette brands sold in Massachusetts from 1997 to 2005 has confirmed that manufacturers have steadily increased the levels of nicotine in cigarettes, public health researchers say.
This independent analysis, based on data submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) by the manufacturers, found that increases in smoke nicotine yield per cigarette averaged 1.6 percent each year, or about 11 percent over a seven-year period (1998-2005). Nicotine is the primary addictive agent in cigarettes.
This analysis led by Harvard Public Health researchers Gregory Connolly and Howard Koh confirms a report by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health published last August. In addition, the new analysis found that cigarette makers have made design changes to cigarettes to increase the number of puffs per cigarette.
"Our findings call into serious question whether the tobacco industry has changed at all in its pursuit of addicting smokers since signing the Master Settlement Agreement of 1998 with the State Attorneys General," Connolly said in a prepared statement. "Our analysis shows that the companies have been subtly increasing the drug nicotine year by year in their cigarettes, without any warning to consumers, since the settlement. Scrutiny by the Attorneys General is imperative."
The studies will likely add to the movement in Washington, D.C. to once again consider bringing cigarettes under the jurisdiction of the FDA.

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Cognitive Function Boosted by Folic Acid Supplements

Folic acid supplementation appears to improve cognitive function, particularly memory, among older adults with poor folate status, Dutch researchers said.
Three years of daily 800 micrograms folic acid orally bestowed on patients the equivalent of a 4.7- to 6.9 years of younger memory, reported Jane Durga, Ph.D., of Wageningen University here, and colleagues, in the Jan. 20 issue of The Lancet.
These results follow on the heels of an observational study in New York that found a weak link between higher folate levels and a lowered risk of Alzheimer's disease in older Americans.
However, Dr. Durga and colleagues said it is unclear whether the cognitive benefits they found would yield a similar end result.
"Whereas some have argued that cognitive decline is the beginning of a continuum leading to dementia," they wrote, "others have argued that the cause of age-related cognitive decline differs from that of dementia and that age-related cognitive decline is not an early state of mild cognitive impairment or dementia."

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Prostate Cancer Trial Halted Due to 3 Cases of Leukemia

A trial testing whether the chemotherapy drug mitoxantrone would benefit men with prostate cancer has been stopped because three of the 488 patients who received the drug developed leukemia.
According to the Southwest Oncology Group, which was running this phase III trial, 983 patients were randomly assigned to receive hormone deprivation therapy alone or hormone deprivation therapy plus six doses of mitoxantrone.
"We were surprised by the incidence of leukemia," said principal investigator Dr. L. Michael Glode, a professor of medical oncology at the University of Colorado in Denver. "This general category of drugs has been associated with leukemia."
One expert thinks the decision to end the trial was correct.
"They are doing the right thing," said Dr. Anthony D'Amico, chief of radiation oncology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, in Boston. "The initial studies of mitoxantrone were done in men with end-stage prostate cancer -- but their life expectancy was about a year and a half. The life expectancy of the men in this study is 10 to 15 years or more. Only in a study like this can you see the long-term side effects of chemotherapeutic agents like mitoxantrone."
However, another expert doesn't see anything unusual about the incidence of leukemia among men receiving mitoxantrone.

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Doctor Fatigue Hurting Patients

Too many 24-hour shifts worked by hospital interns cause medical mistakes that harm and may even kill patients, according to a new Harvard Medical School study. Doctors in training who fall asleep during surgery or while examining patients make four times more errors that cause deaths than their better-rested colleagues, the research reveals.
Young doctors also suffer from their mistakes with emotional problems that can haunt them for years. They admit that their distress includes fear, guilt, anger, humiliation, and decreased compassion. What's more, the distress coupled with reduced empathy can increase the odds of more medical errors and even alcohol and drug abuse.
"The evidence demonstrates that academic medicine is failing both doctors and patients by routinely requiring exhausted doctors to work marathon shifts," says Charles Czeisler, Baldino Professor of Sleep Medicine. "The human brain simply does not perform reliably for 24 consecutive hours without sleep."

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Believe It Or Not

Viagra may decrease ability to smell

Higher doses of Viagra (sildenafil) may impair the ability to smell, which is possibly related to an increase in nasal congestion, German researchers report in The Journal of Urology.
A team led by Dr. V. Gudziol at the University of Dresden Medical School studied 20 healthy, young male volunteers who received Viagra, at a 50- or 100-mg dose, or inactive "placebo" and then were exposed to an odor-dispensing device.
The researchers tested the subjects' odor detection threshold, odor discrimination and odor identification ability.
They found that the 100-mg dose caused a drop in smelling or "olfactory" ability, specifically odor discrimination and odor threshold, compared with placebo. The 50-mg dose, by contrast, had no effect on olfactory function.
"In our subjects, the most likely reason for impaired...olfactory function was nasal congestion" brought on by Viagra, the authors write. They note that, while it was not evaluated in this study, previous reports have linked Viagra with a drop in nasal airflow.

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News From MedWatch

Keep up-to-date on all of the recent MedWatch reports that gives you timely safety information on the drugs and other medical products regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by CLICK HERE

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Recently Approved Drugs/Indications

Keep up-to-date on all of the recently approved drugs and/or approved new indications on already FDA approved drugs CLICK HERE

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FDA Recalls and Safety Alerts in the Past 60 Days:

To see a list of all FDA Recalls and product safety alerts for the last 60 days CLICK HERE

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Drug Shortages:

As many of you are aware, many drugs in the US are either unavailable or in short supply. To view a list of these drugs CLICK HERE

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Edmund M. Hayes, R.Ph., M.S., Pharm.D.
Departments of Pharmacy and Medicine
Stony Brook University Hospital
State University of New York at Stony Brook
Stony Brook, New York, 11794
631 444-2668

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