Edmund's Newsletter September 23, 2008 Issue: #39 Volume 8 Join Our List In This Issue Inflammatory Response To Infection And Injury May Worsen Dementia Study Helps Stop Drugs Slipping Through Safety Net COPD? Eat Your Veggies Study Finds Treatment With New Drug Might Make Tumor Cells More Sensitive To Therapy How Often To Screen for Colon Cancer? NEJM Study Finds 5-Year Risk Extremely Low A Strict Mediterranean Diet Can Help Reduce Deaths From Major Chronic Diseases Viral "Magic Bullet" Targets Cancer Cells With Help Of New Compound 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 Inflammatory Response To Infection And Injury May Worsen Dementia Inflammation in the brain resulting from infection or injury may accelerate the progress of dementia, research funded by the Wellcome Trust suggests. The findings, published recently in the journal Biological Psychiatry, may have implications for the treatment and care of those living with dementia. Systemic inflammation - inflammation in the body as a whole - is already known to have direct effects on brain function. Episodes of delirium, in which elderly and demented patients become extremely disoriented and confused, are frequently caused by infections, injury or surgery in these patients. For example, urinary tract infections, which are typically bacterial, appear to be particularly potent inducers of psychiatric symptoms. Until now, there had been little research into the impact of systemic inflammation on the progress of dementia and neurodegenerative diseases. However, with over 700,000 people currently living in the UK with dementia - a figure set to rise with our ageing population - scientists are keen to understand more about the mechanisms behind such diseases. Now, in a study to mimic the effect of bacterial infection in people with dementia, Dr Colm Cunningham and colleagues at Trinity College Dublin, in collaboration with Professor Hugh Perry at the University of Southampton have shown that the inflammatory response to infection in mice with prior neurodegenerative disease leads to exaggerated symptoms of the infection, causes changes in memory and learning and leads to accelerated progression of dementia. Read more..... Study Helps Stop Drugs Slipping Through Safety Net Recent advances in genetic screening will lead to safer pharmaceutical drugs, with reduced adverse side effects, if the methods are incorporated in clinical development. A rallying call to bring key scientists into this growing field of pharmacogenics, the application of genetics to drug development and safety, was made recently at a major conference organized by the European Science Foundation (ESF) in collaboration with the University of Barcelona. Growing use of pharamacogenetics will not just reduce side effects, but also speed up the process of drug development by helping eliminate unsuitable candidates at an earlier stage and enable researchers to concentrate on the most promising compounds. The potential benefits are therefore enormous, with pharmacogenetics playing a major role in the emerging era of personalized medicine where drugs and treatments are increasingly tailored to the circumstances and genetic makeup of individuals and sub-groups within populations. It will complement existing methods, in particular animal testing, which although valuable sometimes fails to identify critical side effects that may be caused by individual genetic traits, or combinations of genes specific to the human species as a whole. "It was confirmed by the conference that we need to ensure we have the appropriate study designs including randomised controlled trials to unravel the complexity of variable drug responses, and we need to embrace the new technologies such as whole genome scans to identify novel and known genetic predisposing factors," said the conference chair Munir Pirmohamed from the University of Liverpool in the UK. Read more..... COPD? Eat Your Veggies You know it's good for you in other ways, but could eating your broccoli also help patients with chronic lung disease? It just might. According to recent research from Johns Hopkins Medical School, a decrease in lung concentrations of NRF2-dependent antioxidants, key components of the lung's defense system against inflammatory injury, is linked to the severity of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in smokers. Broccoli is known to contain a compound that prevents the degradation of NFRP. The findings were published in the second issue for September of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society. COPD is the fourth-leading cause of death in the U.S. and affects more than 16 million Americans. Read more..... Study Finds Treatment With New Drug Might Make Tumor Cells More Sensitive To Therapy Study shows treatment with a newly discovered drug could be useful in sensitizing tumor cells to therapeutic irradiation and potentially some chemotherapies Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have shown that it might be possible to make tumor cells more sensitive to irradiation and some types of chemotherapy by treating them with a drug that cripples their ability to repair DNA damage caused by these therapies. The St. Jude researchers demonstrated in the laboratory that a molecule called CP466722 rapidly blocks the ATM protein's ability to orchestrate a series of biochemical events that culminate in the repair of DNA damaged by irradiation. The molecule exerted its effect in small quantities, and its effects rapidly ended after it was removed from cells, suggesting that such a treatment in humans would not have significant or long-term side effects, the researchers said. Results of the study were published in the Sept. 15 issue of the journal Cancer Research. Read more..... How Often To Screen for Colon Cancer? NEJM Study Finds 5-Year Risk Extremely Low How frequently should symptom-free individuals at average risk for colon cancer undergo screening with colonoscopy? In a study published in the Sept. 18, 2008, New England Journal of Medicine, researchers led by Thomas F. Imperiale, M.D., of the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute, report that while there still is no definitive answer to the question, they now know the procedure need not be performed any sooner than every five years. This is the first large study to systematically rescreen a group of average risk individuals who had normal findings from an initial colonoscopy. The rescreening showed that after five years they remained cancer free. All 1,256 participants in the study were 50 years or older, had undergone a first-time screening with no cancer or pre-cancerous findings, and had no symptoms of colon cancer such as rectal bleeding, change of bowel habits or unexplained weight loss during the 5 year interval between screenings. Read more..... A Strict Mediterranean Diet Can Help Reduce Deaths From Major Chronic Diseases Sticking to a full Mediterranean diet provides substantial protection against major chronic diseases including heart disease, cancer and Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published on bmj.com today. A 'score' based on adherence to the Mediterranean diet could be used as an effective preventive tool for reducing the risk of premature death in the general population, say the authors. The Mediterranean diet from populations bordering the Mediterranean Sea has a reputation for being a model of healthy eating and contributing to better health and quality of life. It is rich in olive oil, grains, fruits, nuts, vegetables, and fish, but low in meat, dairy products and alcohol. Previous research on the Mediterranean diet suggests that it has a protective role in cardiovascular disease and cancer, but no study has reviewed all the available data for a possible association between sticking to the Mediterranean diet, premature death, and the occurrence of chronic diseases in the general population. Read more..... Viral "Magic Bullet" Targets Cancer Cells With Help Of New Compound Researchers at McGill University and the affiliated Lady Davis Research Institute of the Jewish General Hospital - along with colleagues at the University of Ottawa and the Ottawa Health Research Institute (OHRI) - report a significant breakthrough in the use of viruses to target and destroy cancer cells, a field known as oncolytic virotherapy. Their results were published in the September early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The research team, led by Dr. John Hiscott of McGill's Faculty of Medicine and the Lady Davis Institute, along with Dr. John C. Bell and colleagues at the University of Ottawa and OHRI, have discovered that a family of compounds called histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDIs) may be the missing link that turns oncolytic viruses into a potent new weapon against cancer. Their research program is supported by the Canadian Oncolytic Virus Consortium, which is funded by the National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC) and the Terry Fox Foundation. "One of the greatest challenges in cancer therapy is to target and kill cancer cells that are resistant to conventional therapy," said Dr. Hiscott. "The strategy that we developed is to use a harmless, non-human virus that specifically enters, replicates and kills cancer cells, but not normal cells." However, Dr. Hiscott explained, many primary cancers have proven resistant to a pure virotherapy approach. "One way to overcome this obstacle is to treat the tumor with other molecules that augment the ability of these viruses to target and kill the cancer cells." Read more..... Believe it or not World's oldest man has 113th birthday The world's oldest man celebrated his 113th birthday Thursday in southern Japan, telling reporters he wants to live another five years. Tomoji Tanabe, who was born Sept. 18, 1895, received birthday gifts, flowers and $1,000 cash from the mayor of his hometown of Miyakonojo, on Japan's southern island of Kyushu. Tanabe told reporters he wants to live "another five years or so," according to city spokesman Akihide Yokoyama. That was a slight downgrade from last year, when he said he wanted to live "for infinity." The former city land surveyor, who lives with his son and daughter-in-law, is in good health and sticks to the habits that have gotten him this far. He rises early and reads the newspaper each day, drinks milk every afternoon and eats regular meals. He also avoids alcohol and does not smoke. On Tuesday he woke up early in the morning to eat breakfast before walking out to meet the mayor and members of the press at his home, Yokoyama said. The cash gift he received is given annually to the city's oldest resident. Japan has one of the world's longest life expectancies, nearly 86 years for women and 79 years for men, which is often attributed to the country's healthy diet rich in fish and rice. The number of Japanese living past 100 has more than doubled in the last six years, reaching a record high of 36,000 people this year. The country's centenarian ranks are dominated by women, who make up 86 percent of the total. Japan's centenarian population is expected to reach nearly 1 million - the world's largest - by 2050, according to U.N. projections. The world's oldest person is 115-year-old Edna Parker, who was born on April 20, 1893, and lives in a nursing home in Indiana. 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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