Edmund's Newsletter November 6, 2007 Issue: #45 Volume 7 Join Our List In This Issue Broccoli Sprout-Derived Extract Protects against Ultraviolet Radiation Vitamin D Cuts Colon Cancer Death Risk Team Blocks Bacterial Communication System to Prevent Deadly Staph Infections Potential New Therapeutic Molecular Target to Fight Cancer Einstein Scientists Treat Cancer As An Infectious Disease-With Promising Results A Fresh Look at Existing Therapies: Researchers Explore Ways to Teach Approved Drugs New Tricks Smoked Cannabis Proven Effective In Treating Neuropathic Pain Believe It Or Not News From MedWatch Recently Approved Drugs/Indications FDA Recalls and Safety Alerts in the Past 60 Days Quick Links Edmund's Blog Edmund's Newsletter Edmund's Web Page Past Issues SPECIAL THANKS TO Michael R. Cohen President The Institute for Safe Medication Practices and Dr. Stephen Barrett Quackwatch Some links in Edmund's Newsletter will point to a page that requires registration.  In all cases the most you will have to do is fill out a simple form to enroll as a member.  In no case will I point you to a site that requires payment to view the page. PRAY FOR PEACE © 2001,2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 Join Our List Broccoli Sprout-Derived Extract Protects against Ultraviolet Radiation A team of Johns Hopkins scientists reports in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that humans can be protected against the damaging effects of ultraviolet (UV) radiation - the most abundant cancer-causing agent in our environment - by topical application of an extract of broccoli sprouts. The results in human volunteers, backed by parallel evidence obtained in mice, show that the degree of skin redness (erythema) caused by UV rays, which is an accurate index of the inflammation and cell damage caused by UV radiation, is markedly reduced in extract-treated skin. Importantly, notes investigator Paul Talalay, M.D., professor of pharmacology, this chemical extract is not simply a sunscreen. Unlike sunscreens, it does not absorb UV light and prevent its entry into the skin. Rather, the extract works inside cells by boosting the production of a network of protective enzymes that defend cells against many aspects of UV damage. Consequently, the effects are long-lasting; the protection lasts for several days, even after the extract is no longer present on or in the skin. As skin cancer incidence is rising dramatically due to the escalating exposure of aging populations to the UV rays of the sun, Talalay says that "treatment with this broccoli sprout extract might be another protective measure that alleviates the skin damage caused by UV radiation and thereby decreases our long-term risk of developing cancer." Read more..... Vitamin D Cuts Colon Cancer Death Risk People with higher vitamin D levels are less likely to die of colorectal cancer, researchers said on Tuesday, but the vitamin does not appear to affect the chances of dying from any other type of cancer. A number of studies have found protective effects from higher intake of vitamin D for cancer and other ailments. A team led by National Cancer Institute epidemiologist Michal Freedman sought to determine whether vitamin D can reduce a person's chances of dying from various cancer types. The researchers tracked 16,818 people who joined a nationwide government health survey between 1988 and 1994, following them through 2000. Among them, 536 died of cancer. The participants provided blood samples that the researchers used to determine the level of vitamin D in their blood. Read more..... Team Blocks Bacterial Communication System to Prevent Deadly Staph Infections In hopes of combating the growing scourge of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, in particular drug-resistant staph bacteria, a team of scientists from The Scripps Research Institute has designed a new type of vaccine that could one day be used in humans to block the onset of infection. The advantage of the new vaccine is that it would work not only on current bacterial resistant stains but also would not induce the potential for new bacterial resistance because, rather than killing bacterial cells, it blocks their communication system, preventing the shift from harmless to virulent, thus allowing the body's natural defenses to combat the bacteria. The work was published in the October 29 issue of the journal Chemistry and Biology. Staph and other infections are becoming increasingly deadly because many strains of the bacteria that cause disease develop resistance to the array of antibiotics used to control them. A recent Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report released last week estimated that more than 94,000 Americans were infected in 1995 by a drug-resistant staph "superbug" called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and more than 18,000 Americans died that year during hospital stays involving this type of infection. The bacterial infection process is dependent on a sort of chemical conversation between individual bacterial cells, referred to as quorum sensing. In their free-living state, bacteria are typically easy to kill and non-virulent. The shift to virulence is dependent on small molecules emitted by bacteria known as autoinducers, because bacteria sense when concentrations of these autoinducers are high enough to suggest a large number of other bacteria are present. Read more..... Potential New Therapeutic Molecular Target to Fight Cancer Researchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center have identified the enzyme sphingosine kinase 2 as a possible new therapeutic target to improve the efficacy of chemotherapy for colon and breast cancer. In the Nov. 1 issue of the journal Cancer Research, researchers examined human colon and breast cancer cells and established a role of sphingosine kinase 2 (SphK2), an enzyme that forms the potent lipid mediator sphingosine-1-phosphate in the death of cancer cells mediated by the chemotherapeutic drug, doxorubicin. Doxorubicin is able to kill cancer cells by working with p53, one of the most protective anti-cancer proteins in the human body. However, doxorubicin also relies on p53- independent mechanisms to induce death in colon and breast cancer cells. "Understanding how doxorubicin kills in a p53-independent manner is a major goal of cancer researchers because most cancer cells have mutated p53," said lead author Sarah Spiegel, Ph.D., chair and professor in the VCU Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and co-leader of the cancer center's cancer cell biology program. Read more..... Einstein Scientists Treat Cancer As An Infectious Disease-With Promising Results Researchers at the Albert Einstein Cancer Center, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, have shown for the first time that cancers can be successfully treated by targeting the viruses that cause them. The findings, published in the October 31 issue of PLoS One, also raise the possibility of preventing cancer by destroying virus-infected cells before they turn cancerous. The Einstein researchers used a technique called radioimmunotherapy, in which radioisotopes are piggybacked onto antibodies. Once these precision-made molecules are injected into the body, the antibodies home in on a specific protein target, and the radioisotope destroys the cell to which the protein is attached. In this research the targets were viral antigens: proteins expressed by virus-infected cells that can cause those cells to multiply out of control and become cancerous. Nearly 20 percent of human cancers worldwide are caused by preexisting virus infections. Prime examples are liver cancer (caused by hepatitis B and C viruses), cervical cancer (caused by human papillomaviruses) and certain lymphomas (caused by the Epstein-Barr virus). But while antigens on the surface of cells are susceptible to attack by antibodies, the viral antigens associated with cancers typically lurk inside infected cells, so scientists had assumed that antibodies couldn't reach them. "We had a hunch that because rapidly growing tumors can "outgrow" their blood supply, this might result in dead tumor cells that spill their viral antigens amongst the living cancer cells," says Dr. Arturo Casadevall, Forchheimer Professor and Chair of Microbiology & Immunology at Einstein and co-senior author of the study. "So we hoped that by injecting antibodies hitched to isotopes into the blood that they'd be carried deep into the tumor mass and would latch onto these now-exposed antigens. Then the radiation emitted by the radioisotope would destroy the live tumor cells nearby." Read more..... A Fresh Look at Existing Therapies: Researchers Explore Ways to Teach Approved Drugs New Tricks Although all cancers are not alike, most share common causes, whether it is the result of a genetic mutation or faulty biochemical signaling pathway. For that reason, drugs developed specifically for one disease might have an impact on many others. Increasingly, researchers are discovering ways of combining new and existing drugs to fight cancer - broadening the targets of already-approved targeted therapeutics. Today at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, researchers present the results of some of these investigations, whether it is finding a new use for the immunosuppressant rapamycin or adapting the use of approved antibodies to reach the same targets within different cancers. Combination of CP-751871, a human monoclonal antibody against the IGF-1 receptor, with rapamycin results in a highly effective therapy for xenografts derived from childhood sarcomas: Abstract C172. Researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, have discovered that an engineered antibody, in combination with rapamycin, may offer treatment for rhabdomyosarcoma, osteosarcoma, and Ewing's' sarcoma -- three rare childhood cancers. The antibody, called CP-751871, is currently in a Phase III trial by its developer, Pfizer, Inc., while rapamycin, an approved immunosuppressant, is also under study for its anti-cancer properties. Read more..... Smoked Cannabis Proven Effective In Treating Neuropathic Pain Smoked cannabis eased pain induced in healthy volunteers, according to a study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Center for Medical Cannabis Research (CMCR.) However, the researchers found that less may be more. In the placebo controlled study of 15 subjects, a low dose of cannabis showed no effect, a medium dose provided moderate pain relief, and a high dose increased the pain response. The results suggest a "therapeutic window" for cannabis analgesia, according to lead researcher Mark Wallace, M.D., professor of anesthesiology at UCSD School of Medicine and Program Director for the UCSD Center for Pain Medicine. The study used capsaicin, an alkaloid derived from hot chili peppers that is an irritant to the skin, to mimic the type of neuropathic pain experienced by patients with HIV/AIDS, diabetes or shingles -- brief, intense pain following by a longer-lasting secondary pain. The subjects were healthy volunteers who inhaled either medical cannabis or a placebo after pain was induced. The marijuana cigarettes were formulated under NIH supervision to contain either zero, two, four or eight percent delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC.) "Subjects reported a decrease in pain at the medium dose, and there was also a significant correlation between plasma levels of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, and decreased pain," said Igor Grant, M.D., F.R.C.P.(C), professor and Executive Vice-Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, the director of the CMCR. "Interestingly, the analgesic effect wasn't immediate; it took about 45 minutes for the cannabis to have an impact on the pain," he said. Read more..... Believe it or not Patient says dancing dentist misstepped A dentist was dancing to a song on the radio while drilling on a woman's tooth, and she wound up in the hospital when the drill bit snapped off and lodged near her eye, a lawsuit alleges. Brandy Fanning, 31, said she had to undergo emergency surgery and spent three days in the hospital because of the October 2004 mishap. The federal lawsuit filed last month against Dr. George Trusty seeks $600,000 for her medical expenses, pain and suffering. Trusty, 57, a dentist at Syracuse Community Health Center, declined to comment, as did Dr. Ruben Cowart, the center's president and CEO. Fanning said she went to the center's emergency dental clinic after pain in a left molar started getting worse. With a root canal ruled out as an option, Trusty gave her some Novocain and began drilling to break up the tooth before extracting it, she said. As Trusty drilled, he was "performing rhythmical steps and movements to the song `Car Wash,'" which was on the radio, according to the lawsuit. Then, Fanning heard a snap. Trusty tried to use a metal hook to pull the bit out, but that only pushed it farther up, driving it through the sinus and bone near her eye socket, the lawsuit alleged. After first minimizing the problem, Trusty talked to an oral surgeon to set up an appointment - and then told Fanning she needed to get to an emergency room immediately, according to the lawsuit. She claimed he had initially told she would likely sneeze the drill bit out, but doctors said later that if she really had sneezed, the drill bit could have blinded her left eye. Fanning said she sued because Trusty failed on a promise to pay her medical bills. She said she still suffers facial swelling, nerve damage and chronic infections. The suit is in federal court because the health center operates under federal law. 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