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Commonly Used Blood Pressure Medication Prevents Aortic Aneurysm In Mice With Marfan Syndrome |
Scientists at Johns Hopkins have used a commonly prescribed blood pressure medicine, losartan (Cozaar), to prevent a potentially fatal weakening of arteries in mice with Marfan syndrome.
As a result, efforts are already under way with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and its affiliated network of hospitals in the Pediatric Heart Health Network and The Johns Hopkins Hospital to begin a clinical trial for people with Marfan syndrome, which is expected to start in the fall.
"The results of our study in mice greatly increase the likelihood that losartan will also serve as an effective treatment in humans and quickly, because it is already approved for use in the United States as a safe and effective treatment for hypertension," says study senior author, Harry (Hal) Dietz, M.D., a professor at the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
The Hopkins findings, to be published in the journal Science online April 6, are considered a breakthrough discovery, researchers say, because they are the first to identify a drug that can prevent Marfan syndrome's most life-threatening complications from developing and potentially reverse the damage already done. Marfan syndrome can lead to a fatal tear or rupture in the aorta, the body's main blood vessel that carries blood away from the heart. The disease is often diagnosed in childhood or early adulthood, when people are still young enough to consider long-term therapies.
"It is very exciting that an existing medication has proven capable of not only treating the problems of Marfan syndrome, but also disrupting the biological pathway that precipitated them," says cardiac geneticist Daniel P. Judge, M.D., an assistant professor at Hopkins and its Heart Institute and co-lead author of the study.
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| Dutch Stroke Study Urges Greater Anticoagulant Use |
Dutch doctors called on Sunday for greater use of oral anticoagulants to prevent strokes in people with a common heart arrhythmia.
Atrial fibrillation (AF), a heart flutter, is dangerous because blood pools in the heart, forming clots that can lead to deadly strokes.
Current guidelines recommend that AF patients be treated with drugs to stop this happening, but many doctors are wary of using the anticoagulant pills because they are difficult to monitor and can lead to uncontrolled bleeding.
That physician caution may be costing lives, Ron Pisters and colleagues at the University Hospital Maastricht told the annual European Society of Cardiology congress.
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| New Viruses To Treat Bacterial Diseases: My Enemies' Enemy Is My Friend |
Viruses found in the River Cam in Cambridge, famous as a haunt of students in their punts on long, lazy summer days, could become the next generation of antibiotics, according to scientists.
With antibiotics now over-prescribed for treatments of bacterial infections, and patients failing to complete their courses of treatment properly, many bacteria are able to pick up an entire array of antibiotic resistance genes easily by swapping genetic material with each other.
MRSA -- the multiple drug resistant strain of Staphylococcus aureus - and newly emerging strains of the superbug Clostridium difficile have forced medical researchers to realise that an entirely different approach is required to combat these bacteria.
By using a virus that only attacks bacteria, called a phage -- and some phages only attack specific types of bacteria -- we can treat infections by targeting the exact strain of bacteria causing the disease, says Ana Toribio from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, UK. This is much more targeted than conventional antibiotic therapy.
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| Old Therapy, New Application: Pitt Researchers Show Gamma Globulin Effective in Treating Eye Infections Caused by Adenoviruses |
Gamma globulin, a type of antibody isolated from blood samples that used to be routinely given to health care workers and international travelers to protect them from infectious diseases, is a highly effective treatment for pinkeye with little apparent toxicity, according to a study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The results of the study, being published in the September 1 issue of the journal Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science and available online now, have significant implications for the treatment and prevention of eye diseases caused by adenovirus infections, such as conjunctivitis.
Conjunctivitis, commonly known as pinkeye, is an inflammation of the conjunctiva, the clear membrane that covers the white part of the eye and the inner surface of the eyelids. Although typically a mild, self-limiting disease in children and adults, newborns are particularly susceptible to pinkeye and can be more prone to serious health complications, even blindness, if it goes untreated. The most common cause of conjunctivitis is adenovirus infection. Unfortunately, current treatments for conjunctivitis are not specifically targeted to the virus, and, presently, there is no FDA-approved therapy for the treatment of adenoviral-mediated eye infections.
In the study, led by Andrea Gambotto, M.D., assistant professor of surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, the researchers investigated the antiviral activity of gamma globulin (Ig) on human "wild-type" adenovirus as well as adenovirus subtypes isolated from patients diagnosed with viral eye infections. Specifically, they investigated the ability of Ig to neutralize these various adenovirus strains in both cell cultures infected with adenovirus and in rabbits with conjunctivitis.
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Study Gives Hope Transplant Patients Could Live Free Of Anti-Rejection Drugs
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People with organ transplants, resigned to a lifetime of anti-rejection drugs, may now have reason to hope for a respite, say researchers at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and the School of Medicine. Using a simple blood sample, the scientists have identified for the first time a pattern of gene expression shared by a small group of patients who beat the odds and remained healthy for years without medication.
The findings suggest that transplant recipients who share the same pattern of genes but are still on conventional medication may be able to reduce or eliminate their lifelong dependence on immunosuppressive drugs. The study may also help physicians determine how best to induce acceptance, or tolerance, of donor organs in all transplant patients, regardless of their gene expression profiles.
"We're very excited by the findings," said Minnie Sarwal, MD, PhD, a pediatric nephrologist at Packard Children's. "Most transplant patients who stop taking their medications will reject their organ. But now we have the chance of telling someone committed to a lifetime of drugs that it may be possible to minimize their exposure to the drugs."
Although the anti-rejection medications, known as immunosuppressants, tamp down the immune system enough to permit lifesaving organ transplants, their benefits come at a price. They also quash the body's natural response to dangerous invaders, such as bacteria and viruses, and to rogue cancer cells. Transplant physicians prescribing immunosuppressants to their patients walk a fine line between avoiding organ rejection and increasing the risk of infection and cancer.
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| FDA Approves New Drug to Treat Rare Disease, Acromegaly |
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Somatuline Depot (lanreotide acetate injection) for the treatment of acromegaly, a rare and potentially life threatening disease in adults caused by abnormal secretion of growth hormone (GH), commonly from a benign tumor located in the pituitary gland located in the brain.
"This type of therapy provides an alternative for patients who have not responded to other therapies," said Steven Galson, M.D., M.P.H., director, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. "The new approval reflects FDA's goals for making effective and safe treatments available to patients with rare diseases under the Orphan Drugs program."
FDA has approved Somatuline Depot for the long-term treatment of patients with acromegaly who have had inadequate response to or can not be treated with surgery and/or radiation therapy. This new treatment lowers the levels of certain hormones in the body, including GH and insulin-like growth factor. Excessive GH secretion, working through insulin-like growth factor, can cause enlargement of the hands, feet, facial bones, and enlargement of internal organs such as the heart and liver. If untreated, patients with acromegaly often have a shortened life span because of heart and respiratory diseases, diabetes mellitus, and colon cancer.
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Blood Pressure Drug Combo Helps Diabetic Hearts
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Using a combination of diuretics and ACE inhibitors to manage blood pressure in people with type 2 diabetes can help protect against heart disease, according to new data released Sunday.
The combined therapy, administered as part of a worldwide study known as ADVANCE, reduced the risk of dying from heart disease by 18 percent.
"If the benefits seen in ADVANCE were applied to just half the population with diabetes worldwide, more than a million deaths would be avoided over five years. For these reasons, there is now a case for considering such treatment routinely for patients with type 2 diabetes," study author John Chalmers, from The George Institute at the University of Sydney in Australia, said in a prepared statement.
By 2030, an estimated 350 million people will be living with diabetes worldwide. Heart disease kills two out of three people with diabetes, who are at increased risk of stroke, heart attacks and related conditions such as degenerative eye disease. Blood pressure management is recommended to reduce the risk of heart disease.
The new findings comes from the ADVANCE trial, which tracked more than 11,100 people with type 2 diabetes from 215 medical centers in 20 countries for four years.
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Believe it or not
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Group says costemtic genital surgery not safe.According to a prominent physician's group, there is no strong evidence that costemtic genital surgery is either safe or effective.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), says it is, "deceptive to give the impression" that these procedures, which by some accounts are among the hottest new trends in plastic surgery, are "accepted and routine surgical practices."
"Vaginal rejuvenation," "designer vaginoplasty," "revirgination" and "G-spot amplification" are being marketed by Internet sites, magazines and late-night TV ads claiming to enhance sexual pleasure.
However, critics say the procedures offer little benefits and are often risky procedures to sensitive areas. Possible side effects include; infection, dyspareunia, adhesions, and scarring.
"Absence of data supporting the safety and efficacy of these procedures makes their recommendation untenable," the medical group's Committee on Gynecologic Practice concluded in a two-page statement published in the September issue of its magazine.
Others say that the women are trying to get a surgical fix for problems that can often be treated by correcting misconceptions and boosting self-esteem.
Although ACOG does not collect statistics on the procedures, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons in 2005 began collecting data on vaginal rejuvenation, reporting 793 procedures that year and 1,030 in 2006, the Wall Street Journal reported. |
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News From MedWatch |
| Keep up-to-date on all of the recent
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medical products regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by CLICKING HERE
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Recently Approved Drugs/Indications |
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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: |
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