Edmund's Newsletter July 8, 2008 Issue: #28 Volume 8 Join Our List In This Issue Accidental Fungus Leads to Promising Cancer Drug Effects of Healing Touch Therapy Being Studied New Antibiotic Beats Superbugs At Their Own Game Statins Have Unexpected Effect On Pool Of Powerful Brain Cells Blood Vessel Inhibitor Shows Promise Against Metastatic Thyroid Cancer Newborns In ICUs Often Undergo Painful Procedures, Most Without Pain Medication Resveratrol Found to Improve Health, But Not Longevity in Aging Mice on Standard Diet Believe It Or Not News From MedWatch Recently Approved Drugs/Indications FDA Recalls and Safety Alerts in the Past 60 Days Drug Shortages 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 Accidental Fungus Leads to Promising Cancer Drug A drug developed using nanotechnology and a fungus that contaminated a lab experiment may be broadly effective against a range of cancers, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday. The drug, called lodamin, was improved in one of the last experiments overseen by Dr. Judah Folkman, a cancer researcher who died in January. Folkman pioneered the idea of angiogenesis therapy -- starving tumors by preventing them from growing blood supplies. Lodamin is an angiogenesis inhibitor that Folkman's team has been working to perfect for 20 years. Writing in the journal Nature Biotechnology, his colleagues say they developed a formulation that works as a pill, without side-effects. They have licensed it to SynDevRx, Inc, a privately held Cambridge, Massachusetts biotechnology company that has recruited several prominent cancer experts to its board. Read more..... Effects of Healing Touch Therapy Being Studied Often, a gentle hand on your shoulder when you're upset is all it takes to ease your mind and calm your nerves. Now, UC researchers are looking at a similar occurrence by pairing a complementary therapy known as Healing Touch with mild sedation to see if the technique truly calms patients undergoing minor procedures. Healing Touch is a series of techniques that balance energy for wholeness within a person's body, mind and soul. It is an energy therapy that can be used in conjunction with other traditional medical treatments. Nathan Schmulewitz, MD, the lead author of this investigator-initiated study and assistant professor of digestive diseases, says people undergoing procedures often have problems falling asleep because of anxiety. Read more..... New Antibiotic Beats Superbugs At Their Own Game The problem with antibiotics is that, eventually, bacteria outsmart them and become resistant. But by targeting the  gene that confers such resistance, a new drug may be able to finally outwit them. Rockefeller University scientists tested the new drug, called Ceftobiprole, against some of the deadliest strains of multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria, which are responsible for the great majority of staphylococcal infections worldwide, both in hospitals and in the community. The research, to be published in the August 2008 issue of the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, looked at how well Ceftobiprole worked against bacterial clones that had already developed resistance to other drugs. In every case, Ceftobiprole won. "It just knocked out the cells 100 percent," says the study's lead investigator, Alexander Tomasz, head of the Laboratory of Microbiology at Rockefeller. Previous research had already shown that - in general - Ceftobiprole was highly effective against most clinical isolates of S. aureus. "Instead, we looked more carefully at the highly resistant cells that already occur in such clinical isolates at very low frequency - maybe in one bacterium in every 1,000," says Tomasz. Ceftobiprole was able to kill these resistant cells. Read more..... Statins Have Unexpected Effect On Pool Of Powerful Brain Cells Cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins have a profound effect on an elite group of cells important to brain health as we age, scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center have found. The new findings shed light on a long-debated potential role for statins in the area of dementia. Neuroscientists found that statins, one of the most widely prescribed classes of medication ever used, have an unexpected effect on brain cells. Researchers looked at the effects of statins on glial progenitor cells, which help the brain stay healthy by serving as a crucial reservoir of cells that the brain can customize depending on its needs. The team found that the compounds spur the cells, which are very similar to stem cells, to shed their flexibility and become one particular type of cell. The new findings come at a time of increasing awareness among neurologists and cardiologists of the possible effects of statins on the brain. Several studies have set out to show that statins provide some protection against dementia, but the evidence has been inconclusive at best. Meanwhile, there is some debate among physicians about whether statins might actually boost the risk of dementia. The new research published in the July issue of the journal Glia by Steven Goldman, M.D., Ph.D., and first author Fraser Sim, Ph.D., provides direct evidence for an effect of statins on brain cells. Read more..... Blood Vessel Inhibitor Shows Promise Against Metastatic Thyroid Cancer Thyroid cancer that has spread to distant sites has a poor prognosis, but an experimental drug that inhibits tumor blood vessel formation can slow disease progression in some patients, a research team led by investigators from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports in the July 3rd edition of The New England Journal of Medicine. The investigational drug, motesanib diphosphate, is a VEGF inhibitor, a biologic agent that targets receptors on a protein known as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). VEGF is instrumental in angiogenesis (formation of new blood vessels), a process that allows tumors to grow and spread. Study lead author Steve Sherman, M.D., chair and professor of M. D. Anderson's Department of Endocrine Neoplasia and Hormonal Disorders, noted strong evidence that VEGF receptors play an important role in metastatic thyroid cancer, a disease with few treatment options. "There is no standard accepted chemotherapy for advanced metastatic differentiated thyroid cancer, and response rates have typically been 25 percent or less," Sherman said. "Most patients are not treated with systemic chemotherapy because the limited benefit rarely justifies the side effects. Treatment of thyroid cancer has been a completely unmet need." Read more..... Newborns In ICUs Often Undergo Painful Procedures, Most Without Pain Medication An examination of newborn intensive care finds that newborns undergo numerous procedures that are associated with pain and stress, and that many of these procedures are performed without medication or therapy to relieve pain, according to a new study.   "Repeated invasive procedures occur routinely in neonates [a baby, from birth to four weeks] who require intensive care, causing pain at a time when it is developmentally unexpected. Neonates are more sensitive to pain than older infants, children, and adults, and this hypersensitivity is exacerbated in preterm neonates. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that repeated and prolonged pain exposure alters their subsequent pain processing, long-term development, and behavior. It is essential, therefore, to prevent or treat pain in neonates," the authors write. "Effective strategies to improve pain management in neonates require a better understanding of the epidemiology and management of procedural pain." Ricardo Carbajal, M.D., Ph.D., of the Hôpital d'enfants Armand Trousseau, Paris, and colleagues collected data on neonatal pain, based on direct bedside observations in intensive care units (ICUs) in the Paris region. The study, conducted between September 2005 and January 2006, included data on all painful and stressful procedures and corresponding analgesic (a medication used to relieve pain) therapy from the first 14 days of admission collected within a 6-week period from 430 neonates admitted to tertiary care centers. The average gestational age was 33 weeks, and the average intensive care unit stay was 8.4 days. Read more..... Resveratrol Found to Improve Health, But Not Longevity in Aging Mice on Standard Diet Scientists have found that the compound resveratrol slows age-related deterioration and functional decline of mice on a standard diet, but does not increase longevity when started at middle age. This study, conducted and supported in part by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, is a follow-up to 2006 findings that resveratrol improves health and longevity of overweight, aged mice. The report confirms previous results suggesting the compound, found naturally in foods like grapes and nuts, may mimic, in mice, some of the effects of dietary or calorie restriction, the most effective and reproducible way found to date to alleviate age-associated disease in mammals. The findings, published July 3, 2008, in Cell Metabolism, may increase interest in resveratrol as a possible intervention for age-related declines, said NIA scientists. The authors emphasized, however, that their findings are based on research in mice, not in humans, and have no immediate and direct application to people, whose health is influenced by a variety of factors beyond those which may be represented in the animal models. The study is a collaborative effort between the laboratories of Rafael de Cabo, Ph.D., of the Laboratory of Experimental Gerontology at the NIA; David A. Sinclair, Ph.D., of the Glenn Laboratories for Molecular Biology of Aging at Harvard Medical School; and an international group of researchers. The investigators compared mice fed a standard diet, a high-calorie diet, or an every-other-day feeding regimen with or without high- or low-dose resveratrol to study the impact of resveratrol on aging and health. In previous studies, different forms of dietary restriction, including every-other-day feeding, have been shown to improve markers of health. Read more..... Believe it or not Miniature dachshund gnaws off diabetic owner's toe An Illinois woman says her beloved miniature dachshund gnawed off her right big toe while she was asleep. Linda Floyd told the Alton Telegraph for a story Wednesday that her beloved Roscoe was euthanized because of safety concerns. The 56-year-old says she has no feeling in her toes because of nerve damage from diabetes. She discovered the toe missing after waking from a nap Monday. She called her daughter, who phoned 911. A veterinarian says the toe had been bandaged because of a healing hangnail. That might have somehow attracted the dog. 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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