Edmund's Newsletter February 26, 2008 Issue: #9 Volume 8 Join Our List In This Issue Ingredient in Yellow Curry Can Reduce Heart Enlargement and May Prevent Heart Failure Before a CT Scan or Angiogram, Many People Should Take Inexpensive Drug to Protect Kidneys New Findings Show Similarity Between Opiate and Nicotine Addiction FDA Licenses New Hemophilia Treatment Vaccine-and-Antibody Treatment Shows Effectiveness and Milder Side Effects in Advanced Melanoma and Ovarian Cancer Patients Salivating for Knowledge: Potential Pharmacological Agents in Tick Saliva Cocaine's Effects on Brain Metabolism May Contribute to Abuse 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 Ingredient in Yellow Curry Can Reduce Heart Enlargement and May Prevent Heart Failure Eating curcumin, a natural ingredient in the spice turmeric, may dramatically reduce the chance of developing heart failure, researchers at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre of the Toronto General Hospital have discovered. In a study entitled, "Curcumin prevents and reverses murine cardiac hypertrophy," published in the February edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers found when the herb is given orally to a variety of mouse models with enlarged hearts (hypertrophy), it can prevent and reverse hypertrophy, restore heart function and reduce scar formation. The healing properties of turmeric have been well known in eastern cultures for some time. The herb has been used in traditional Indian and Chinese medicine to reduce scar formation. For example, when there is a cut or a bruise, the home remedy is to reach for turmeric powder because it can help to heal without leaving a bad scar. Unlike most natural compounds whose effects are minimal, curcumin works directly in the cell nucleus by preventing abnormal unraveling of the chromosome under stress, and preventing excessive abnormal protein production. Read more..... Before a CT Scan or Angiogram, Many People Should Take Inexpensive Drug to Protect Kidneys As more and more Americans undergo CT scans and other medical imaging scans involving intense X-rays, a new study suggests that many of them should take a pre-scan drug that could protect their kidneys from damage.   This top-down view of a patient's abdomen was made using one of U-M's advanced CT scanners and an iodine-containing contrast dye that reflects the CT scanner's X-rays and improves the visibility of certain details. The kidneys are the two gray heart-shaped areas on either side of the spine, which is bright white. Because of the contrast dye, the medulla (inner) part of each kidney can be distinguished from the cortex (outer) part -- a level of detail that can be important in diagnosing disease. But since CT contrast dye can also harm the kidneys of some patients, U-M researchers say many people should receive a drug called N-acetylcysteine before their scans, to protect against such damage.   The inexpensive drug, called N-acetylcysteine, can prevent serious kidney damage that can be caused by the iodine-containing "dyes" that doctors use to enhance the quality of such scans. That "dye," called contrast agent, is usually given intravenously before a CT scan, angiogram or other test. But the new study shows that taking an N-acetylcysteine tablet before receiving the contrast agent can protect patients - and that it works better than other medicines that have been proposed for the same purpose. People whose kidneys are already vulnerable, including many older people and those with diabetes or heart failure, are the most at risk from contrast agents, and have the most to gain from taking the drug. Read more..... New Findings Show Similarity Between Opiate and Nicotine Addiction "That was good!" "Do it again." This is what the brain says when people use tobacco, as well as 'hard drugs' such as heroin. New research published in the February 13 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience indicates that the effects of nicotine and opiates on the brain's reward system are equally strong in a key pleasure-sensing areas of the brain--the nucleus accumbens. "Testing rat brain tissue, we found remarkable overlap between the effects of nicotine and opiates on dopamine signaling within the brain's reward centers," says Daniel McGehee, Associate Professor in Anesthesia & Critical Care at the University of Chicago Medical Center. McGehee and colleagues are exploring the control of dopamine, a key neurotransmitter in reward and addiction. Dopamine is released in areas such as the nucleus accumbens by naturally rewarding experiences such as food, sex, some drugs, and the neutral stimuli or 'cues' that become associated with them. Nicotine and opiates are very different drugs, but the endpoint, with respect to the control of dopamine signaling, is almost identical. "There is a specific part of the nucleus accumbens where opiates have been shown to affect behavior, and when we tested nicotine in that area, the effects on dopamine are almost identical," says McGehee. Read more..... FDA Licenses New Hemophilia Treatment The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today licensed a treatment for hemophilia A, a rare, hereditary blood-clotting disorder that affects approximately 15,000 individuals, almost exclusively males, in the United States. The new treatment, called Xyntha Antihemophilic Factor (Recombinant) Plasma/Albumin Free, is a genetically engineered version of factor VIII, a protein essential for the clotting of blood. Factor VIII, known as an anti-hemophilic factor, is missing or decreased in patients with hemophilia A. Xyntha is licensed for the control and prevention of bleeding, which can occur spontaneously or after an accident or injury in patients diagnosed with hemophilia A. Xyntha is also licensed to help prevent surgical bleeding in this patient population. Xyntha is manufactured using recombinant DNA techniques that enable scientists to create new DNA strands with specific traits, such as the capacity to produce a specific protein. Read more..... Vaccine-and-Antibody Treatment Shows Effectiveness and Milder Side Effects in Advanced Melanoma and Ovarian Cancer Patients One of the shortcomings of a therapy that uses millions of identical antibodies to boost the immune system's attack on cancer cells is that many patients whose tumors recede in response to the treatment also experience serious inflammatory problems, such as severe diarrhea and rashes. In a new study, a team led by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers shows that giving periodic infusions of such "monoclonal" antibodies to patients who have received a widely used cancer vaccine unleashes a strong immune response to tumors, with less-harsh side effects. The study, to be published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on the week of Feb. 18, reflects efforts to untangle the benefits of monoclonal antibody therapy from its drawbacks, which result from a too-aggressive immune system assault on normal, healthy tissue. Besides demonstrating the potential usefulness of a vaccine-and-antibody approach, the new study suggests a way of refining treatment strategies even further, based on the biological events that antibody treatment sets in motion. "We now have a better understanding of how the treatment works - by increasing the ratio of tumor-killing to immune system-suppressing cells," says the study's lead author, Stephen Hodi, MD, of Dana-Farber. "This suggests techniques for further focusing the immune system to attack the cancer with less 'fallout' for normal tissue." Read more..... Salivating for Knowledge: Potential Pharmacological Agents in Tick Saliva The incidence of tick-borne diseases has drastically increased over the past few years resulting in a marked increase in research on tick-host-pathogen interactions. As a result, the knowledge on molecules present in tick saliva and their function has significantly expanded. Ticks are obligate hematophagous ectoparasites, and hundreds of tick species are distributed worldwide. While taking a blood meal, ticks are attached to their host for several days and introduce saliva into the host skin. Like saliva from other hematophagous animals, such as mosquitoes, flies, leeches, and nematode species, tick saliva contains a wide range of physiologically active molecules that are crucial for attachment to the host or for the transmission of pathogens, and that interact with host processes, including coagulation and fibrinolysis, immunity and inflammation, and angiogenesis. In this article, we discuss molecules in tick saliva that have been intensively studied in vitro or in animal models for human diseases, and that, due to their specificity, are potential future anticoagulant or immunosuppressive agents. We also discuss how immunologically targeting specific tick salivary proteins could prevent the transmission of tick-borne pathogens from the tick to the host. Read more..... Cocaine's Effects on Brain Metabolism May Contribute to Abuse Many studies on cocaine addiction - and attempts to block its addictiveness - have focused on dopamine transporters, proteins that reabsorb the brain's "reward" chemical once its signal is sent. Since cocaine blocks dopamine transporters from doing their recycling job, it leaves the feel-good chemical around to keep sending the pleasure signal. Now a new study conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory suggests that cocaine's effects go beyond the dopamine system. In the study, cocaine had significant effects on brain metabolism, even in mice that lack the gene for dopamine transporters. "In dopamine-transporter-deficient mice, these effects on metabolism are clearly independent of cocaine's effects on dopamine," said Brookhaven neuroscientist Panayotis (Peter) Thanos, who led the research. "These metabolic factors may be a strong regulator of cocaine use and abuse, and may also suggest new avenues for addiction treatments." The study will appear in the May 2008 issue of the journal Synapse, and will be available online on Monday, February 18, 2008. The scientists used positron emission tomography, or PET scanning, to measure brain metabolism in dopamine-transporter deficient mice (known as DAT knockouts) and in littermates that had normal dopamine transporter levels. In this technique, the scientists administer a radioactively labeled form of sugar (glucose) - the brain's main "fuel" - and use the PET scanner to track its site-specific concentrations in various brain regions. They tested the mice before and after cocaine administration, and compared the results to mice treated with saline instead of the drug. Read more..... Believe it or not Funeral horses stampede, overturn hearse A hearse overturned when the horses pulling it to a south London cemetery stampeded, dragging the carriage and coffin past appalled relatives and sending floral tributes flying.   "It was dreadful," a mourner told the South London Press. "The horses dragged the carriage to the cemetery on its side, tossing the coffin all over the place and destroying all the flowers inside. "Some people got very angry and had to be restrained by other mourners... It is understandable given the circumstances. I'm horrified that something like this could happen." Police were called to calm angry mourners so that the funeral last month could go ahead. The carriage appeared to have clipped a mini-roundabout as it entered Lambeth Cemetery for the funeral, the local council which administers the graveyard said Friday. 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  CLICKING HERE   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 by CLICKING HERE   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   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   Recommend Edmund's Newsletter Edmund's Newsletter is published for only one reason and that is expand our knowledge base, join people together with like minds and to disseminate valuable information. If you feel this newsletter is of worth, please pass it along to your friends and colleagues. 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