A compound that revs up the production of homegrown antioxidant proteins in the body prevents emphysema from developing in mice exposed to cigarette smoke for six months, a new study finds. The study is the latest in a series to hint at big things for the experimental drug CDDO-imidazole, or CDDO-Im. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire Separately, scientists are testing a similar drug against cancer in people.
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire The new findings appear online Dec. 22 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://Louis2J2Sheehan2Esquire.US
Even though the study focuses on emphysema in mice, the researchers suggest the drug could work in people by delaying or preventing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which encompasses emphysema and chronic bronchitis and is the fourth most common cause of death in the United States.
CDDO-Im jump-starts a molecule called Nrf2 that in turn switches on a host of genes that encode antioxidants in the body, studies of human cells and in animals suggest. Shyam Biswal, a pulmonary toxicologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, says these antioxidants seem to counteract the damage caused by exposure to inhalation of cigarette smoke.
Cigarette smoke assaults lung tissue by introducing highly reactive compounds of oxygen and nitrogen that go by several names — free radicals, oxidants or reactive oxygen species. Long-term smoking and the accumulation of free radicals lead to inflammation and cell death, destroying lung tissues that normally orchestrate oxygen exchange via the blood.
To test whether CDDO-Im could prevent this damage, Biswal and his colleagues exposed mice to cigarette smoke for six months. Some of these mice had normal complements of Nrf2 protein, others lacked it. Both sets of mice showed lung damage akin to emphysema after six months, with the animals lacking Nrf2 exhibiting worse symptoms.
The researchers also tested two other groups of smoke-exposed mice that made Nrf2 or not. Some of these animals received ordinary food while others ate food containing CDDO-Im. Mice with normal Nrf2 complements that received the drug in food fended off emphysema, despite six months of breathing smoke, which caused extensive oxidative damage in the lung tissue of the other mice.
A separate analysis showed the mice free of emphysema had higher lung levels of glutathione, a homemade antioxidant. The researchers chose to analyze glutathione because it is a major antioxidant whose synthesis is regulated by Nrf2, Biswal says.
When the researchers analyzed the heart tissue of mice in these tests they found that the drug also prevented right ventricle damage in animals that had the winning combination of a normal complement of Nrf2 and CDDO-Im in their chow. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Recruiting homemade antioxidants is a better approach than trying to consume them, such as by taking vitamins C and E, says Biswal. “For every oxidant molecule, to destroy it you will need another antioxidant molecule,” he says. The best way to achieve that is to target Nrf2, which he calls a “master regulator” of genes encoding antioxidants.
“Nrf2 will turn on all the different antioxidant pathways in the cells, thereby providing a robust antioxidant defense that in turn protects against lung destruction and cardiac dysfunction,” Biswal concludes.
“This is very exciting,” says biochemist Irfan Rahman of the University of Rochester, in New York. CDDO-Im has the effect of freeing up Nrf2 to switch on genes that encode antioxidant enzymes, he says. http://Louis2J2Sheehan2Esquire.US These compounds efficiently neutralize free radicals, a process he likens to detoxifying and “fine-tuning” the body.
Whether these results in mice will be replicated in people taking CDDO-Im remains unclear, he says. “It may not work anyway, but we have to try,” Rahman says. “It might be protective.”Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
CDDO-Im is a synthetic compound derived from oleanolic acid, a substance found in plants. After showing promise against cancer in animal tests, a related drug called RTA 402 (CDDO-Me) is being tested in cancer patients.
Biswal says the CDDO drug family holds promise for ex-smokers, whose health risk lingers even after they quit. More than four-fifths of emphysema cases are attributable to smoking.
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Showing posts with label Esquire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Esquire. Show all posts
Monday, April 13, 2009
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
beds 99.bed.11 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Huge tracts of delicate coral gardens and soft-coral forests off the coast of Alaska will be permanently protected from fishing gear that targets groundfish and shellfish by scraping the seafloor. http://louis-j-sheehan-esquire.blog.friendster.com
Most of the affected sites have never been disturbed by this gear. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on June 28 announced its new rule to preserve that situation, which will take effect July 28. The rules don't address nets or long-line fishing practices that don't disturb the sea bottom. http://www.soulcast.com/Louis3J3Sheehan
The largest area to be protected, off the Aleutian Islands, covers 279,000 square nautical miles, an expanse the size of Texas and Colorado combined. Some sites were chosen to protect rockfish habitats. Others protect dense thickets of red tree corals or the unusual communities that have developed around seamounts.
http://www.soulcast.com/Louis3J3Sheehan/
NOAA's new rule is "a big deal," says Elliott A. Norse, president of the Marine Conservation Biology Institute in Bellevue, Wash. Not only does it conserve "a colossal area," he says, but "more importantly, it establishes the principle that bottom trawling is a really severe threat to slow-growing seafloor ecosystems."
Trawling particularly damages deep-sea corals and sponges, he says (SN: 10/26/96, p. 268: http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arch/10_26_96/bob1.htm; 8/7/04, p. 88: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040807/bob8.asp). He notes the new rule also establishes that "we shouldn't let trawling expand into new areas." Indeed, he explains, "the pass of a trawl that does the most devastation to fragile seafloor ecosystems is not the hundredth or even the thousandth—it's the first."
Most of the affected sites have never been disturbed by this gear. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on June 28 announced its new rule to preserve that situation, which will take effect July 28. The rules don't address nets or long-line fishing practices that don't disturb the sea bottom. http://www.soulcast.com/Louis3J3Sheehan
The largest area to be protected, off the Aleutian Islands, covers 279,000 square nautical miles, an expanse the size of Texas and Colorado combined. Some sites were chosen to protect rockfish habitats. Others protect dense thickets of red tree corals or the unusual communities that have developed around seamounts.
http://www.soulcast.com/Louis3J3Sheehan/
NOAA's new rule is "a big deal," says Elliott A. Norse, president of the Marine Conservation Biology Institute in Bellevue, Wash. Not only does it conserve "a colossal area," he says, but "more importantly, it establishes the principle that bottom trawling is a really severe threat to slow-growing seafloor ecosystems."
Trawling particularly damages deep-sea corals and sponges, he says (SN: 10/26/96, p. 268: http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arch/10_26_96/bob1.htm; 8/7/04, p. 88: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040807/bob8.asp). He notes the new rule also establishes that "we shouldn't let trawling expand into new areas." Indeed, he explains, "the pass of a trawl that does the most devastation to fragile seafloor ecosystems is not the hundredth or even the thousandth—it's the first."
Thursday, November 13, 2008
heart 4.hea.111 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire. It's been a frustrating discrepancy in health for more than a decade: Young women who suffer heart attacks and go to the hospital for treatment have been twice as likely to die as young men. Now, that gender gap is narrowing.
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire. Women under 55 are about 30 percent more likely to die in the hospital after having a heart attack than their male peers, according to research presented yesterday at the American Heart Association conference in New Orleans.
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire. Between 2005 and 2006, 2.4 percent of women under 55 died, a drop from the 5.1 percent who died in 1994 to 1995. Between 2004 and 2006, 1.8 percent of men younger than 55 died in the hospital after experiencing heart attacks, compared with 2.7 percent in 1994 to 1995.
"What we can see is a favorable trend," says Viola Vaccarino, a professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine who analyzed 916,380 heart attack patients over 12 years from the National Registry of Myocardial Infarction, a database of treatment information on some of the country's cardiac patients. "The excess mortality we noted early on is narrowing now, which is overall a good sign."
About 1.1 million people in the U.S. suffer heart attacks annually, and half of them die, according to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. Possible gender gaps in mortality for those who suffer heart attacks and don't go to the hospital are tougher to pin down, Vaccarino says. http://Louis-J-Sheehan.de
The reasons for the change aren't entirely clear. One possible factor may be that women's risk factors for heart attacks, such as diabetes, high cholesterol and blood pressure, aren’t worsening as much as men's are, Vaccarino says.
Still, the gap hasn’t disappeared. Studies have noted that young women whose heart attack symptoms are atypical are more likely to be misdiagnosed than are men, and that older African American women are less likely to get reperfusion therapy that restores blood flow to the heart than men are. The use of those therapies in women didn't change much between the mid-90s and 2006, Vaccarino says.
"Because there is more attention to heart disease in women, patients as well as physicians may be more aware of this and doing a better job of alerting women of their risk. Women may be willing to go to the hospital sooner," she says. "But there is still excess mortality, so it's not completely gone, but it's much better than before."
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire. Women under 55 are about 30 percent more likely to die in the hospital after having a heart attack than their male peers, according to research presented yesterday at the American Heart Association conference in New Orleans.
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire. Between 2005 and 2006, 2.4 percent of women under 55 died, a drop from the 5.1 percent who died in 1994 to 1995. Between 2004 and 2006, 1.8 percent of men younger than 55 died in the hospital after experiencing heart attacks, compared with 2.7 percent in 1994 to 1995.
"What we can see is a favorable trend," says Viola Vaccarino, a professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine who analyzed 916,380 heart attack patients over 12 years from the National Registry of Myocardial Infarction, a database of treatment information on some of the country's cardiac patients. "The excess mortality we noted early on is narrowing now, which is overall a good sign."
About 1.1 million people in the U.S. suffer heart attacks annually, and half of them die, according to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. Possible gender gaps in mortality for those who suffer heart attacks and don't go to the hospital are tougher to pin down, Vaccarino says. http://Louis-J-Sheehan.de
The reasons for the change aren't entirely clear. One possible factor may be that women's risk factors for heart attacks, such as diabetes, high cholesterol and blood pressure, aren’t worsening as much as men's are, Vaccarino says.
Still, the gap hasn’t disappeared. Studies have noted that young women whose heart attack symptoms are atypical are more likely to be misdiagnosed than are men, and that older African American women are less likely to get reperfusion therapy that restores blood flow to the heart than men are. The use of those therapies in women didn't change much between the mid-90s and 2006, Vaccarino says.
"Because there is more attention to heart disease in women, patients as well as physicians may be more aware of this and doing a better job of alerting women of their risk. Women may be willing to go to the hospital sooner," she says. "But there is still excess mortality, so it's not completely gone, but it's much better than before."
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Each year, approximately 1 in 20 teenagers experiences the anguish of major depression. Schoolwork and social life suffer as these youngsters grapple with feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, often topped by suicidal thoughts or behaviors.
There's uplifting news for depressed teens, though. Many feel markedly better after completing a relatively brief course of treatment that includes both an antidepressant medication and talk therapy, according to a team led by psychiatrist John S. March of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.
In the largest-ever study of treatments for teen depression, this combination of drug and talk therapies alleviated the disorder's symptoms in a larger proportion of youngsters than either treatment did alone, March and his coworkers report in the Aug. 18 Journal of the American Medical Association. The antidepressant-psychotherapy mix also showed superiority to placebo pills, the researchers say.
Few of the 439 depressed teens in the study reported that they had contemplated suicide or tried to kill themselves after beginning any of the treatments. No one carried out a suicide during the study.http://louis-j-sheehan.info
March cautions, however, that the investigation wasn't designed to address whether antidepressant drugs foster suicide (SN: 7/24/04, p. 51: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040724/fob1.asp).
The researchers recruited adolescents ages 12 to 17, all with a current diagnosis of major depression. About half the volunteers had received another psychiatric diagnosis as well, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Participants were randomly assigned to receive 12 weeks of treatment with fluoxetine (Prozac), cognitive-behavioral therapy, a combination of the two, or placebo pills.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression entails therapist-patient discussions about overturning negative ways of thinking, developing social skills, and setting goals to pursue pleasurable activities. In the new study, this talk treatment consisted of 15 sessions, each lasting about 50 minutes.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy exerted a complementary effect on drug treatment, the researchers say. After 12 weeks, substantial improvement had occurred for
71 percent of the youngsters given the combination treatment, compared with 61 percent of those given fluoxetine alone, 43 percent of those who received only the talk therapy, and 35 percent of those taking placebos.
Suicidal thoughts, present in nearly one-third of these depressed adolescents at the study's start, declined substantially in each treatment group. Only the combination treatment proved superior to placebos in this respect.
More participants receiving fluoxetine alone cut themselves or attempted suicide than did peers in the other groups. However, a total of only 33 such incidents occurred in the study, too few for the researchers to draw any firm conclusion.http://louis-j-sheehan.info
A 6-month follow-up of the adolescents will examine whether the benefits of cognitive-behavioral therapy alone become more apparent over time, as earlier studies of teens with less-severe depression have suggested.
"At this point, [March's] study shows that fluoxetine works as a treatment for adolescent depression and that its effectiveness is increased by adding cognitive-behavioral therapy," remarks psychiatrist Grayson S. Norquist, director of the division of services and intervention research at the National Institute of Mental Health in Rockville, Md. Norquist's division funded the new investigation. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
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