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| Explaining Chemotherapy-Associated Nausea |
A new study from the Monell Center increases understanding of the biological mechanisms responsible for the nausea and vomiting that often afflict patients undergoing chemotherapy. The findings could lead to the development of new approaches to combat these debilitating side effects.
"By increasing knowledge of what causes the nausea and vomiting that accompany chemotherapy treatment, we move closer to providing patients with less traumatic and hopefully more effective drug treatment regimens," said lead author Bart De Jonghe, PhD, a Monell physiologist.
Anorexia (loss of appetite) and cachexia (a syndrome of physical wasting and weight loss) often accompany chemotherapy-induced symptoms of nausea and vomiting. These side effects can compromise the patient's nutritional status and impede recovery.
The research, published online in the American Journal of Physiology, uses a rat model to identify a nerve that transmits signals of chemotherapy-associated illness from the small intestine to the brain.
To explore whether sensory nerves traveling from the intestinal system to the brain contribute to nausea and illness associated with chemotherapy, the Monell researchers examined the incidence of pica in rats that received the potent chemotherapy drug cisplatin. Cisplatin treatment, widely used for a variety of cancers, is highly associated with nausea and vomiting.
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| Novel Vaccine Concept Developed by Scientists at The Wistar Institute: Protein from Herpes Virus Serves as Potent Vaccine Enhancer |
Creating vaccines to protect people against viral diseases like AIDS, cervical cancer and infectious hepatitis is a delicate balancing act: If the immune system's response to the vaccine is too strong, toxic side effects can kill the patient. If it's not strong enough, the virus will spread faster than the immune system can kill it.
A new vaccine design strategy developed by scientists at The Wistar Institute Vaccine Center could be the answer. The secret is using a herpes simplex protein called glycoprotein D to block a specific receptor molecule on antigen-presenting cells, or APCs. These sentinel cells monitor the body for foreign antigens - molecules that can stimulate an immune response - from invading viruses.
When they detect viral antigens, APCs signal the body's immune system to activate T cells to attack and destroy cells infected with the virus. At the same time, they also send inhibitory signals to prevent overreaction by the immune system. One of thee inhibitory signals is blocked by glycoprotein D from herpes virus.
In a study that will be published February 6 in Nature Medicine and is available online, Wistar scientists showed that vectors, which are vaccine delivery systems, made by fusing the glycoprotein D with genes from target antigens increase the immune system's response to those antigens in cell cultures and laboratory mice. The researchers used antigens from HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and from HPV-16, a human papilloma virus that causes cervical cancer.
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Anti-parasite Drug May Provide New Way To Attack HIV
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A drug already used to treat parasitic infections, and once looked at for cancer, also attacks the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in a new and powerful way, according to new research.
Past research has established that HIV has "learned" to hide out in certain human cells where it is safe from the body's counterattack, cells that come to serve as viral reservoirs. Operating from these havens, the virus slowly builds its numbers over more than a decade until it finally becomes capable of dismantling human immune defenses. In the end stages, this process leaves patients vulnerable to the opportunistic infections of AIDS. The newly published work* explains for the first time how the virus makes chemical changes that keep its chosen reservoirs alive long past their normal lifespan. The new study also provides the first evidence that an existing ant-parasite drug can reverse this deadly longevity.
"AIDS continues to take nearly 3 million lives worldwide each year, and novel treatment approaches are urgently needed," said Baek Kim, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Rochester Medical Center. "We think our results are profound because, in discovering exactly how HIV hides in the body, we think we have learned how to take away its hiding places. Without them, the virus would have a much harder time causing disease," said Kim, lead author of the new study.
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Review Looks at Latest Birth Control Options
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With many women still searching for the perfect birth control method, a systematic review analyzes a host of studies comparing the contraceptive skin patch or vaginal ring to the pill. Although perfection remains elusive and choices are equally effective, the review authors were able to pinpoint some preferences.
"Basically, all of these methods were similar in preventing pregnancy," said lead investigator Laureen Lopez, Ph.D., research associate at Family Health International in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration added warning data to the drug label for the contraceptive skin patch, advising users that the women using the patch have a greater risk of blood clots than pill users. The study prompting the FDA action was not part of the review.
For the review, the researchers looked at 11 randomized controlled trials - three comparing the patch to the pill, and eight comparing the ring to the pill - comprising more than 6,000 women.
Women using the patch were more likely to use the medication as prescribed than those on the pill were. However, patch users experienced more side effects and were more likely to abandon their method eventually than pill users were.
Ring users generally had fewer serious side effects than pill users, but had more vaginal irritation and discharge. Despite this, vaginal ring users tended to stick with their approach longer than the pill group.
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| Morphine Dependency Blocked by Single Genetic Change |
Morphine's serious side effect as a pain killer - its potential to create dependency - has been almost completely eliminated in research with mice by genetically modifying a single trait on the surface of neurons. The study scientists think a drug can be developed to similarly block dependency.
The research was published online January 17 by "Current Biology" and appears in the journal's January 23 print edition. The scientists were led by Jennifer Whistler, PhD, an investigator in the UCSF-affiliated Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center, and associate professor of neurology at UCSF.
Millions of people in the U.S. are given the opiate drug morphine for extreme pain caused by cancer, surgery, nerve damage and other conditions. It remains the pain killer of choice for many types of short-term pain, such as surgery, according to Whistler, but it is less useful for the treatment of chronic pain because its effectiveness decreases with continued use in a process called tolerance. As a consequence, an increasingly larger dose is required to treat the pain, thereby increasing the chance of addiction.
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| Modified Atkins Diet Can Cut Epileptic Seizures in Adults |
A modified version of a popular high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet can significantly cut the number of seizures in adults with epilepsy, a study led by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests. The Atkins-like diet, which has shown promise for seizure control in children, may offer a new lifeline for patients when drugs and other treatments fail or cause complications.
For almost a century, doctors have prescribed an eating plan called the ketogenic diet to treat children with epilepsy. This diet often consists of a short period of fasting, strictly limits fluids and drastically restricts carbohydrates. It appears to limit or even eliminate seizures, possibly by generating the build-up of ketones, compounds the body produces when it derives calories mostly from fat. Some of the largest studies to scientifically test this diet's efficacy took place at Johns Hopkins in the mid-1990s, led by pediatric neurologists John Freeman, M.D., and Eileen Vining, M.D.
Why exactly the ketogenic diet works remains unknown, and it is notoriously difficult to follow, relying almost solely on fat and protein for calories. Consequently, doctors typically recommend it only for children, whose parents can strictly monitor their eating habits. The ketogenic diet is almost never prescribed to adults, who generally make their own food choices and often have difficulty complying with the diet's strict guidelines.
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| Dogs Could Be a Diabetic's Best Friend Recommend |
Irish researchers hope to prove that a dog's keen sense of smell gives it the ability to watch over the blood sugar levels of diabetics.
Canines have already shown themselves capable of leading the blind, alerting the deaf, and helping the physically disabled with daily tasks.
But researchers at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, are taking the "helpful companion" idea one step further by gathering scientific evidence that could verify dogs can reliably detect dangerous blood sugar level drops in diabetics.
"Anecdotal reports suggest that some dogs can perform early warning of hypoglycemia by using their sense of smell to 'sniff out' if their owner's blood sugar levels are dropping," said lead researcher and psychology professor Deborah Wells.
More than 20 million U.S. children and adults have diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association. Those with the disease do not produce enough insulin, a hormone the body needs to convert sugars, starches and other food into energy.
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Believe it or not
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Man rides lawn mower to liquor store
A man was charged with drunken driving after going through two bottles of wine, cutting through a snowstorm on his lawn mower and riding down the center of the street to reach a liquor store, authorities said.
Police found Frank Kozumplik, 49, homeward bound on a John Deere tractor Saturday night, toting four bottles of wine in a paper bag, officials said.
He told officers that his wife had taken their car to work, and that the mower was the only way he could reach the store, two miles from home.
His blood alcohol level was 2 1/2 times Michigan's legal driving limit of 0.08 percent, police told WLEN-FM. They arrested him and confiscated the mower.
Kozumplik declined to comment Monday night. |
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News From MedWatch |
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Drug Shortages: |
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