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Aneurysm Procedure Not Good Over Long Run
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By LINDA A. JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer Wed Jun 8
A promising technique for fixing dangerous bulges in the biggest abdominal artery saves more lives than open surgery initially, but not over the long term, researchers found. While the results were disappointing, they could help patients deciding between the two options.
In a technique called endovascular repair, a cloth patch is threaded up an artery from the groin to cover the bulge, or aneurysm, in the abdominal aorta, which carries blood from the heart to the lower body. A spring-like device called a stent holds the patch in place.
Last fall, Dutch researchers reported that the approach reduced patients' chances of dying within a month of surgery by about three-fourths, compared with cutting open the abdomen and sewing in a patch. A larger British study had similar findings.
In Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, the Dutch group reported that after nearly two years spent following 350 patients, about 90 percent were still alive in both groups.
The frailest patients were more likely to die soon after the open surgery, but very sick patients surviving the endovascular procedure were more likely to die over the next two years, said lead researcher Dr. Jan D. Blankensteijn, chief of vascular surgery at Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in the Netherlands.
"For high-risk patients, endovascular repair is clearly the way to go," said Dr. Peter J. Pappas, director of vascular surgery at New Jersey Medical School in Newark.
Pappas and Blankensteijn said relatively healthy patients likely to live another decade or more should opt for the open surgery.
A ruptured aneurysm kills about 80 percent of patients, often within minutes, so if the bulge is big enough, surgeons repair it. About 40,000 procedures are done in this country each year.
A growing number of patients are now demanding the endovascular procedure, believing it is best, Pappas said, despite the suspicions of many vascular surgeons that open surgery is better in the long term. He said that over years, the endovascular grafts can slip out of place, leak or be punctured by the metal stent.
The results of a few years' follow-up from the British study, expected within weeks, could disprove that.
Better grafts now in development may improve survival, Pappas added.
On the Net: http://www.nejm.orgw
Society for Vascular Surgery: http://svs.vascularweb.org
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British Scientists Said to Clone Embryo
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Friday May 20
LONDON - Scientists who were awarded Britain's first license for human cloning say they had succeeded in creating a cloned embryo for the first time in the country.
The Newcastle University scientists said Thursday they had successfully produced an early stage embryo cloned from a human cell using nuclear transfer.
Britain, which four years ago became the world's first country to license cloning to create stem cells, is aiming to join South Korea on the leading edge of the research, which many scientists believe may lead to new treatments for a range of diseases.
A team of South Korean scientists who last year were the first to clone a human embryo announced Thursday that they had dramatically sped up the creation of human embryonic stem cells, growing 11 new batches that for the first time were a genetic match for injured or sick patients.
The Newcastle researchers were granted a license in August by Britain's Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority. Ian Wilmut, the creator of Dolly the sheep, was later granted a license earlier this year to clone embryos as part of his research into motor neuron disease.
The Newcastle researchers hope eventually to create insulin-producing cells that could be transplanted into diabetics.
Two of the team, Alison Murdoch and Dr. Miodrag Stojkovic, said they were "delighted" by the Koreans' progress.
"They have shown conclusively that these techniques can be successful in humans," they said. "The promise of new treatments based on stem cell technology is moving nearer to becoming a realistic possibility."
The researchers are not using cloning to make babies. Instead, scientists create test-tube embryos to supply stem cells, the building blocks which give rise to every tissue in the body and which are a genetic match for a particular patient, preventing rejection by the immune system.
If scientists could harness the regenerative power of those stem cells, they might be able to repair damage from spinal cord injuries, diabetes, Parkinson's and other diseases.
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Coffee May Help Prevent Liver Cancer
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Feb 16
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Researchers in Japan have discovered some eye-opening news about coffee: It may help prevent the most common type of liver cancer.
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A study of more than 90,000 Japanese found that people who drank coffee daily or nearly every day had half the liver cancer risk of those who never drank coffee. The protective effect occurred in people who drank one to two cups a day and increased at three to four cups.
Animal studies have suggested a protective association of coffee with liver cancer, so the research team led by Monami Inoue of the National Cancer Center in Tokyo analyzed a 10-year public health study to determine coffee use by people diagnosed with liver cancer and people who did not have cancer.
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They found the likely occurrence of liver cancer in people who never or almost never drank coffee was 547.2 cases per 100,000 people over 10 years.
But for people who drank coffee daily the risk was 214.6 cases per 100,000, the researchers report in this week's issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
They were unable to compare the effect of regular and decaffeinated coffee, however, because decaf is rarely consumed in Japan.
The caffeine in coffee has been shown in other studies to prompt mental alertness in many drinkers, although it makes some people nervous. Some studies have suggested caffeine aggravates symptoms of menopause or intensifies the side effects of some antibiotics. Heavy caffeine use has been linked to miscarriage. But studies have also shown that a skin cream spiked with caffeine lowers the risk of skin cancer in mice.
"It's an excellent, interesting and provocative study and their conclusions seem justified," commented Dr. R. Palmer Beasley of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
"It will provoke a lot of new work here," said Beasley, who was not part of the research group.
The American Cancer Society estimates that 18,920 new cases of liver cancer were diagnosed in the United States last year and some 14,270 people died of the illness. Causes include hepatitis, cirrhosis, excess alcohol consumption and diseases causing chronic inflammation of the liver.
While the study found a statistically significant relationship between drinking coffee and having less liver cancer, the authors note that it needs to be repeated in other groups.
The reason for the reduction remains unclear. Inoue's team noted that coffee contains large amounts of antioxidants, and several animal studies have indicated those compounds have the potential to inhibit cancer in the liver.
In their study, the team also looked at green tea, which contains different antioxidants, and they found no association between drinking the tea and liver cancer rates.
"Other unidentified substances may also be responsible" for the reduction in cancers, they said.
A separate study reported in the same issue of the journal reported no relationship between drinking caffeinated coffee or tea and the rates of colon or rectal cancer.
However, that analysis did find a 52 percent decline in rectal cancer among people who regularly drank two or more cups of decaffeinated coffee.
In that study a team led by Karin B. Michels of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston analyzed data from two large studies — the Nurses' Health Study of women and the Health Professionals' Follow-up Study involving men. The analysis of nearly 2 million person-years found 1,438 cases of colorectal cancer.
While they did not find any association between cancer rates and consumption of caffeinated coffee or tea, people who regularly drank two or more cups per day of decaffeinated coffee had about half the incidence of rectal cancer as those who never drank decaf.
The rate of rectal cancer was 12 cases per 100,000 person-years among those who consumed two or more cups of decaffeinated coffee per day. For those who never drank decaffeinated coffee, the rate was 19 cases per 100,000 person-years.
That difference may, however, be due to differences in lifestyle, the researchers commented, suggesting that drinkers of decaffeinated coffee might be more health-conscious overall.
The Japanese study was funded by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan. The U.S. study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
On the Net:
Journal of the National Cancer Institute: http://jncicancerspectrum.oupjournals.org/
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Mental Health Charity Calls for Cannabis Probe
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Saturday, January 29
LONDON (Reuters) - A British health charity called on Saturday for an investigation into evidence that smoking cannabis may cause psychosis in people at risk of mental illness.
Rethink, which campaigns on behalf of schizophrenia sufferers, said the mental health risks of using cannabis were not widely understood.
"There is strong evidence from a wide range of sources that long term and short-term use of cannabis can 'trigger' a psychotic episode of schizophrenia in people who are at high risk of developing schizophrenia --- for instance, people who have close family members who have schizophrenia," it said in a statement.
The organization pointed out that it was a year since the government reclassified cannabis from a Class B to a Class C drug, adding that a government awareness campaign that followed ignored the mental health dangers of using the drug.
"There is a general consensus that long-term, and in some cases short-term, use of cannabis by someone who has schizophrenia worsens the psychotic symptoms of the illness -- paranoia, hallucinations and delusions," it said.
The charity added that it believed many young people viewed cannabis as a risk-free drug.
"A long-term, well-funded, innovative campaign aimed at publicizing the real mental health risks associated with cannabis needs to be in place as soon as possible to counter the 'risk-free' message," the statement said.
"Rethink is asking MPs and Peers to support further research into the links between cannabis and severe mental illness that focuses on its widespread use among young people, the increasing strength of cannabis on sale on the streets and its short and long-term effects on mental health."
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Asia Tsunami Death Toll May Pass 100,000
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By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writer
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India issued a tsunami warning at midday Thursday following aftershocks in the Indian Ocean region, prompting tens of thousands to flee the southeastern coast. Hours later, no waves had arrived and the warning appeared to have been false.
Surveys of the swath of tropical Asia struck by Sunday's 9.0 earthquake and tsunamis were gaining ground, with relief workers still uncovering scenes of flattened villages and survivors living on coconuts.
The death toll topped 84,000, with Indonesia worst affected, followed by Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. With tens of thousands still missing, that number was almost certain to grow, amid fears that disease could bring a new wave of deaths.
The tsunami warning sparked panic among people still rattled by the weekend's devastation.
"We got into a truck and fled," said 40-year-old Gandhimathi of Nagappattinam in Tamil Nadu state, who said authorities told her to leave her home. "We took only a few clothes and left behind all of our belongings, everything we had."
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Sri Lanka's military later told residents there to be vigilant but not to panic, while coastal villagers climbed onto rooftops or sought high ground. "There is total confusion here," said Rohan Bandara in the coastal town of Tangalle.
Tsunami sirens in southern Thailand sent people dashing from beaches, but only small waves followed the alarms.
An estimated 5.7 magnitude aftershock was recorded in seas northwest of Sumatra by the Hong Kong observatory Thursday morning, along with earlier, overnight quakes at India's Andaman and Nicobar islands. But a 5.7 quake would be about 1,000 times less powerful than Sunday's, and probably would have "negligible impact," said geologist Jason Ali of University of Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, military ships and planes rushed to get desperately needed aid to the ravaged coast of Sumatra, the Indonesian island closest to Sunday's quake. Countless corpses strewn on the streets rotted under the tropical sun causing a nearly unbearable stench.
Food drops began along the coast, mostly of instant noodles and medicines, with some of the areas "hard to reach because they are surrounded by cliffs," said Budi Aditutro, head of the government's relief team.
On the streets of Banda Aceh, a provincial capital in Sumatra, fights have broken out over packets of noodles dropped from military vehicles.
"I believe the frustration will be growing in the days and weeks ahead," U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland said.
The United States, India, Australia and Japan have formed an international coalition to coordinate worldwide relief and reconstruction efforts, U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) announced.
"We will prevail over this destruction," Bush said from his Texas ranch Wednesday.
The number of deaths in Indonesia stood at about 52,000. Authorities there said that did not include a full count from Sumatra's west coast, and UNICEF (news - web sites) estimated the toll for that country alone could be 80,000.
Sri Lanka reported 22,800 dead, India more than 7,300 and Thailand 1,800 — though that country's prime minister said he feared the toll would go to 6,800. A total of more than 300 were killed in Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Somalia, Tanzania and Kenya.
The disaster struck a band of the tropics that not only is heavily populated but attracts tourists from all corners. Throughout the world, people sought word of missing relatives, from small-town Sri Lankan fishermen to Europeans on sand-and-sun holidays.
On hundreds of Web sites, the messages were brief but poignant: "Missing: Christina Blomee in Khao Lak," or simply, "Where are you?"
But even as hope for the missing dwindled, survivors continued to turn up.
A 2-year-old Swedish boy was reunited with his father days after the toddler was found alone on a roadside in Thailand's southern beach resort island of Phuket. In Sri Lanka, a lone fisherman named Sini Mohammed Sarfudeen was rescued Wednesday by an air force helicopter crew after clinging to his wave-tossed boat for three days.
The body count mounted as survey teams reached remote areas. Peter Ress, operations support chief for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said the toll could top 100,000.
Rescuers on Thursday plied the dense forests of India's remote Andaman and Nicobar islands, where authorities fear as many as 10,000 more people may be buried in mud and thick vegetation. Many hungry villagers were surviving on coconut milk, rescuers said.
Mohammad Yusef, 60, a fisherman who fled his village and was holed up at a Catholic church in the territory's capital Port Blair along with about 800 others, said all 15 villages on the coast of Car Nicobar island had been destroyed.
"There's not a single hut which is standing," he told The Associated Press. "Everything is gone. Most of the people have gone up to the hills and are afraid to come down," Yusef said.
Many villagers had not eaten for two days and said that crocodiles had washed ashore during the disaster, compounding the horror of more than 50 aftershocks since Sunday's quake.
In southern Thailand, rescue and forensic teams from Australia, Japan, Germany and Israel fanned out in a race to find survivors and identify rapidly decomposing corpses.
"We have to have hope that we'll find somebody," said Ulf Langemeier, heading a team of 15 Germans who combed a wrecked resort early Thursday. Langemeier said there's always a chance of finding survivors trapped under rubble when earthquakes strike on land, but "when waves enter a building you have no chance."
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Scientists Make Phone That Turns Into a Sunflower
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Monday Dec 6, 2004
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AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Scientists said on Monday they have come up with a cell phone cover that will grow into a sunflower when thrown away.
Materials company Pvaxx Research & Development, at the request of U.S.-based mobile phone maker Motorola, has come up with a polymer that looks like any other plastic, but which degrades into soil when discarded.
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Researchers at the University of Warwick in Britain then helped to develop a phone cover that contains a sunflower seed, which will feed on the nitrates that are formed when the polyvinylalcohol polymer cover turns to waste.
"It's a totally biodegradable and non-toxic plastic," said Pvaxx spokesman Peter Morris.
"This is the first product that we've made public. We're working with blue chip companies and will introduce several products next year," he said, adding it would be used in electronics, horticulture, ammunition and household cleaning.
The company's new plastic, which was created over the past five years but was in development for longer, can be rigid or flexible in shape.
Some 650 million mobile phones will be sold this year, and most of them will be thrown away within two years, burdening the environment with plastics, heavy metals and chemicals. A biodegradable cover can offer some relief for nature, Warwick University said.
Motorola said it had not yet decided if it would introduce a model built with the new plastic, and that it would take until at least the second quarter of 2005 to get a commercial product.
"(To improve) the quality (of the plastic) is something we're working on," said Motorola project manager Peter Shead, adding the new plastic may be used in snap-on covers first.
Many young consumers buy cheap and interchangeable plastic covers to personalize their standard phone.
HIV Found in More U.S. Gay, Bisexual Men
By Paul Simao
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Thuesday Dec 2
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ATLANTA (Reuters) - The number of newly diagnosed HIV infections in gay and bisexual men has risen in many U.S. states, according to a federal study on Wednesday which stoked concerns AIDS may be poised for a resurgence in the country.
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In a study of HIV/AIDS data from 32 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 11 percent more infections were diagnosed from 2000 through 2003 among men who have sex with men. The study was released to commemorate World AIDS Day.
Gay and bisexual males accounted for 44 percent of the 125,800 diagnoses reported by these states during the period, the Atlanta-based agency said.
"This is not a trend we want to ignore," said Dr. Ronald Valdiserri, deputy director of the CDC's HIV/AIDS prevention program. "We need to make sure the leadership in the gay community understands the importance of tracking this very carefully.
The HIV/AIDS diagnosis rate for the overall population remained relatively stable at 19.7 cases per 100,000 people in 2003, compared to 19.5 per 100,000 people in 2000, the CDC said. Blacks, who represent about 13 percent of the U.S. population, made up 51 percent of all diagnoses from 2000 to 2003.
Valdiserri said the findings appeared to back up other studies that suggested rising HIV infections among gay and bisexual males, but he added that the limited geographical reach of the study made it difficult to determine the exact scope of the epidemic.
New York, California and 16 other states which had not met reporting standards were excluded from the study.
AIDS, which destroys the immune system and leaves victims vulnerable to an array of opportunistic infections and cancers, has killed about half a million Americans and 22 million people worldwide since 1981.
U.S. public-health experts have been warning of a possible resurgence of the epidemic, which eased in the early 1990s following the development of antiretroviral drugs targeting the disease.
Since the late 1990s, when U.S. deaths from AIDS stabilized at 16,000 per year and new HIV infections stabilized at 40,000 per year, the disease has shown signs of a comeback, particularly among gay and bisexual men.
This group is believed to account for a majority of the estimated 850,000 to 950,000 Americans living with HIV, the virus that causes the disease.
A recent surge in syphilis infections among gay and bisexual men has prompted concern among infectious disease experts and public health officials. Syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases increase the risk of contracting HIV.
To combat the changing scope of the AIDS epidemic in America, the U.S. government decided last year to emphasize programs that focus on testing and counseling people who are already infected.
Some AIDS activists have attacked the new approach, saying it will lead to reduced funding for many programs that emphasize condom use and other safe-sex practices for uninfected people.
The CDC also has recommended routine HIV testing be expanded to include pregnant women, intravenous-drug users and anyone who engages in unsafe sex.
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British Government to Seek Smoking Ban
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November 16 2004
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LONDON - The British government said Tuesday it would seek a ban on smoking in most public places, including restaurants and any pub or bar that serves food.
The proposed ban would be phased in gradually if it is approved by Parliament, Health Secretary John Reid announced.
It would first apply on government premises and eventually in offices, restaurants and any pub or bar where substantial food is available, he said.
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Bars and pubs that serve no food — about 20 percent of England's drinking establishments, Reid said — would not be affected by the ban.
"This is a sensible solution, I believe, which balances the protection of the majority with the personal freedom of the minority in England," the health secretary said in announcing the proposal to the House of Commons.
"Our starting point is informed choice, that means an approach that respects the freedom of individual choice," he said.
The ban would apply only in England, which along with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland makes up Great Britain. Scotland's government announced last week that it would seek to ban smoking in all enclosed public places by 2006.
Ireland's implementation earlier this year of a ban on smoking in all enclosed workplaces helped bring the smoking issue to the forefront in Britain.
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Heavy computer use linked to glaucoma: study
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Mon Nov 15
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PARIS (AFP) - Heavy users of computers, especially those who are short-sighted, may be at risk from glaucoma, a disease that can cause blindness, a study published in a specialist journal on Tuesday says.
Japanese doctors assessed the sight of more than 10,200 Japanese workers, measuring them for visual acuity and signs of glaucoma.
The volunteers were also asked to fill in questionnaires about their computer use, at home or in the office, and any history of eye disease.
A total of 165 workers, or 1.6 percent, turned out to have suspected glaucoma, characterised by tunnel vision or blind spots.
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Those who were heavy computer users -- defined as working onscreen more than eight hours a day -- were twice as likely to have glaucoma than light or medium users.
In addition, of the 165 with glaucoma, 136 had myopia.
The study appears in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, published by the British Medical Association (BMA).
Glaucoma is a slow, gradual disease of the optic nerve that often goes undetected. Among the identified risk factors are smoking and high blood pressure.
The authors speculate that the optic nerve in short-sighted people may be more vulnerable to computer stress than in normal-sighted people.
If so, that would be dramatic news, given that so many hundreds of millions of people around the world now work at computer terminals, at work and at home.
They stress though that the study has limitations, notably in that most of the volunteers were male and this may have skewed the outcome. Further work is needed to probe the suspected link, they say.
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Breast Cancer Genes Tied to Other Malignancies
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November 15, 2004, HealthDay
By E.J. Mundell
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Nov. 15 (HealthDayNews) -- Data on nearly a million families suggest that mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes -- which are strongly linked to some breast cancers -- may also confer a slight increase in risk for pancreatic, prostate and stomach cancers.
However, that increase poses little real threat to those who carry either one of these gene mutations, experts added.
"Even though there's an association, I think they should be reassured that, while the risk for breast or ovarian cancer is fairly high, the risk for these other cancers is still pretty low," said Debbie Saslow, director of breast and gynecologic cancers at the American Cancer Society.
About 10 years ago, researchers identified mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 -- two large, unrelated genes -- that boost the risk for breast and ovarian cancer.
According to Saslow, up to 8 percent of all breast cancers may be attributed to mutations in one of these two genes, although not all carriers will develop the disease.
Still, women from families with a strong history of breast or ovarian cancer may want to consider genetic testing and counseling, she said. According to Saslow, "strong family history" doesn't mean an isolated case of breast cancer, even when that cancer occurs at a relatively young age.
"With strong family history, we're talking two or more relatives, especially at a young age, or the occurrence of rarer cancers -- ovarian cancer is much rarer than breast cancer in women, as is male breast cancer," she explained. "Also, when a woman develops cancer in one breast and then, later on, in the second breast. Bilateral breast cancer is much rarer than cancer in just the one breast."
Women mulling over genetic testing may also wonder if the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes predispose them to other cancers.
To help settle that question, researchers led by Dr. Lorenzo Bermejo, of the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, examined data from the Swedish family-cancer database, one of the largest such databases ever compiled.
Analyzing information on genetics and cancer incidence from nearly 948,000 Swedish families collected over three generations, the researchers found that individuals with mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 were at a somewhat increased risk for malignancies of the pancreas, prostate and stomach, compared to non-carriers.
For example, members of BRCA-affected families with a history of both breast and ovarian cancer were nearly twice as likely to develop stomach cancer compared to members of the general population. However, in terms of the overall incidence of stomach cancer, "that risk is still tiny," Saslow said, meaning that the actual incidence of these cancers remained very low.
"It's like asking, 'What's twice the risk of getting hit by lightning?'" Saslow said. "It's still a very rare event."
The study, published in the November issue of the Annals of Oncology, did confirm BRCA1's and BRCA2's links to breast and ovarian cancer. But the Swedish data also suggest the two cancers are not always linked: In families hit by one case of breast cancer and one case of ovarian cancer, most of the ovarian cancers were not caused by BRCA1 or BRCA2, the researchers found. In those cases, ovarian cancers appear to have arisen separately, due to undetermined genetic or environmental factors.
The study provides important information on who should be most concerned about their genetic risks, Saslow said. But she cautioned that genetic testing may not be for everyone.
"An important question would be, 'What would I do with that information once I got it?' Let's say you had three sisters with breast cancer, but you know you're not going to do anything differently if you find out you have this gene," Saslow said. "Then testing might not be worth it."
"On the hand, if your family has a history of breast cancer and you worry every day 'I might get breast cancer,' then finding out you don't have the gene might help," she added. "Or you might decide to have prophylactic [breast-removing] surgery. Then, you'd definitely want to get tested beforehand, of course, because who wants to get that surgery if they don't need it?"
Discussing these issues with a doctor beforehand is important, Saslow said.
More information
To learn more about genes and other breast cancer risk factors, visit the American Cancer Society.
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Experiment Stretches Flu Vaccine for Healthy
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Wed Nov 3 - By Gene Emery
BOSTON (Reuters) - It might be possible to stretch out the scarce U.S. supply of flu vaccine by diluting it and injecting it differently, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.
he approach does not work for those most at risk from influenza -- people over 60 -- but could be used to vaccinate healthier adults who care for high-risk people and do not wish to infect them, the researchers said.
It also hurts less.
"We found that we can give lower doses of vaccine, 40 percent of the full dose, if we gave the vaccine not as a shot into the muscle, but if we gave the shot 'intradermally' between the layers of the skin," said Dr. Robert Belshe of St. Louis University in Missouri, who led the study.
"This lower-dose intradermal vaccine worked well in adults 18 to 60 years of age."
Influenza vaccine is usually jabbed into the muscle. Intradermal vaccination is an injection between the layers of the skin with a tiny needle, like those used for a tuberculosis skin test.
"We are learning that the same size dose doesn't seem to fit all ages," Belshe said in a statement. "Younger people may need less vaccine, and older people may need more vaccine."
The U.S. vaccine supply for younger healthy persons conceivably could be multiplied 2.5 times using the approach, the researchers report in an upcoming issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (news - web sites).
Chiron Corp. lost the license for a vaccine plant in Britain last month -- costing the United States 48 million doses of vaccine just as influenza season started.
SCRAMBLING FOR DOSES
U.S. health officials have hastily assembled several million more doses but still have only about 61 million out of an anticipated 100 million for this year.
Only high-risk people -- those over 65, people with chronic diseases, babies, and pregnant women -- are supposed to get the vaccine. People who care for anyone in those groups should also get it, even if they are healthy young adults.
About 200,000 Americans are hospitalized each year with the flu and 36,000 people, 90 percent of them over 65, die.
Belshe and colleagues found that 61 volunteers under age 61, who received 40 percent of the usual dose, were as well-protected against flu when injected in the skin as the 69 who received in-muscle injections with the standard dose.
A total 238 volunteers were tested at Saint Louis University and the University of Rochester for the study.
They found significantly less pain with intradermal administration, but more inflammation -- which could indicate a strong immune response.
In the second study, a team led by Richard Kenny of Iomai Corp. in Gaithersburg, Maryland, which is involved in delivering drugs through the skin, found that one fifth of the standard dose, if injected under the skin surface, provided protection equal to, or better than, muscle injections.
The amount of protection varied according to the strain of flu. The 100 healthy volunteers treated at Stuivenberg Hospital in Antwerp, Belgium, ranged in age from 18 to 40.
The vaccines used were Aventis-Pasteur's formulation licensed for use in the United States and a rival made by GlaxoSmithKline, which is not.
Healthy young adults and children over 5 can also get MedImmune's FluMist nasal vaccine.
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Customers smoke cigarettes ...
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Wednesday, October 27, 2004
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Customers smoke cigarettes as they have a drink at the brasserie "Le Griffon" in Paris, Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2004. Convincing Parisians to cut back on smoking in the city's ubiquitous cafes and restaurants is no easy task, so City Hall is taking a gentler approach to try to clear the air with voluntary smoke-free establishments. Brasserie owner Janine Boussac, seen behind, will not participate for business reasons, saying "we would lose 30 percent of our clientele". (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere) REMY DE LA MAUVINIERE (AP)
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Israelis, American Win Nobel for Chemistry
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Wed, Oct 06, 2004
By MATT MOORE, Associated Press Writer
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Israelis Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko and American Irwin Rose won the 2004 Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for discovering a key way cells destroy unwanted proteins — starting with a chemical "kiss of death."
Their work provides the basis for developing new therapies for diseases such as cervical cancer and cystic fibrosis.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honored Ciechanover, 57, Hershko, 67, and Rose, 78, for work they did in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Each human cell contains about 100,000 different proteins, busy bees that carry out jobs like speeding up chemical reactions and acting as signals. At least five Nobel prizes have been given for research into how cells control the creation of proteins, but the question of how they destroy proteins has received much less attention, the assembly said.
The three scientists uncovered a process that starts when a doomed protein is grabbed by a particular molecule, marking it for destruction. Such marked proteins are then chopped to pieces.
The process governs such key processes as cell division, DNA repair and quality control of newly produced proteins, as well as important parts of the body's immune defenses against disease, the academy said in its citation.
Scientists are trying to use the process to create medicines, either to prevent the breakdown of proteins or make the cell destroy disease-causing ones. One example is the cancer drug Velcade, approved last year in the United States, which interferes with the cell's protein-chopping machine.
Many other drugs that harness the protein-destroying process are in development, said Ciechanover, who is director of the Rappaport Family Institute for Research in Medical Sciences at the Technion, in Haifa, Israel. Hershko, originally from Hungary, is a professor there.
Rose is a professor emeritus at the University of California, Irvine.
Ciechanover told reporters, "I'm happy that I can speak on the phone at all and that I remember I my English. "I'm not myself, that's for sure, not for a while."
It's the first time an Israeli has won a Nobel science prize, although Israelis have won peace and literature Nobels. "I am as proud for myself as I am for my country," Ciechanover said.
This year's award announcements began Monday with the Nobel Prize in medicine going to Americans Richard Axel and Linda B. Buck.
Axel and Buck were selected by a committee at Stockholm's Karolinska Institutet for their work on the sense of smell. They clarified the intricate biological pathway from the nose to the brain that lets people sense smells.
On Tuesday, Americans David J. Gross, H. David Politzer and Frank Wilczek won the physics prize for their explanation of the force that binds particles inside the atomic nucleus.
Their work has helped science get closer to "a theory for everything," the academy said in awarding the prize.
The winner of the literature prize will be announced Thursday. The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel will be announced Oct. 11.
The winner of the coveted peace prize — the only one not awarded in Sweden — will be announced Friday in Oslo, Norway.
The prizes, which include a $1.3 million check, a gold medal and a diploma, are presented on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.
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The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2004
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"for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system"
Richard Axel
1/2 of the prize USA
Howard Hughes Medical
Institute, Columbia
University, Hammer
Health Sciences Center
New York, NY, USA
b. 1946
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Richard Axel
1/2 of the prize USA
Howard Hughes Medical
Institute, Columbia
University, Hammer
Health Sciences Center
New York, NY, USA
b. 1946
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Press Release: The 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
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Press Release: The 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
4 October 2004
The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2004
jointly to
Richard Axel and Linda B. Buck
for their discoveries of
"odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system"
Summary
The sense of smell long remained the most enigmatic of our senses. The basic principles for recognizing and remembering about 10,000 different odours were not understood. This year's Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine have solved this problem and in a series of pioneering studies clarified how our olfactory system works. They discovered a large gene family, comprised of some 1,000 different genes (three per cent of our genes) that give rise to an equivalent number of olfactory receptor types. These receptors are located on the olfactory receptor cells, which occupy a small area in the upper part of the nasal epithelium and detect the inhaled odorant molecules.
Each olfactory receptor cell possesses only one type of odorant receptor, and each receptor can detect a limited number of odorant substances. Our olfactory receptor cells are therefore highly specialized for a few odours. The cells send thin nerve processes directly to distinct micro domains, glomeruli, in the olfactory bulb, the primary olfactory area of the brain. Receptor cells carrying the same type of receptor send their nerve processes to the same glomerulus. From these micro domains in the olfactory bulb the information is relayed further to other parts of the brain, where the information from several olfactory receptors is combined, forming a pattern. Therefore, we can consciously experience the smell of a lilac flower in the spring and recall this olfactory memory at other times.
Richard Axel, New York, USA, and Linda Buck, Seattle, USA, published the fundamental paper jointly in 1991, in which they described the very large family of about one thousand genes for odorant receptors. Axel and Buck have since worked independent of each other, and they have in several elegant, often parallel, studies clarified the olfactory system, from the molecular level to the organization of the cells.
The olfactory system is important for life quality
When something tastes really good it is primarily activation of the olfactory system which helps us detect the qualities we regard as positive. A good wine or a sunripe wild strawberry activates a whole array of odorant receptors, helping us to perceive the different odorant molecules.
A unique odour can trigger distinct memories from our childhood or from emotional moments – positive or negative – later in life. A single clam that is not fresh and will cause malaise can leave a memory that stays with us for years, and prevent us from ingesting any dish, however delicious, with clams in it. To lose the sense of smell is a serious handicap – we no longer perceive the different qualities of food and we cannot detect warning signals, for example smoke from a fire.
Olfaction is of central importance for most species
All living organisms can detect and identify chemical substances in their environment. It is obviously of great survival value to be able to identify suitable food and to avoid putrid or unfit foodstuff. Whereas fish has a relatively small number of odorant receptors, about one hundred, mice – the species Axel and Buck studied – have about one thousand. Humans have a somewhat smaller number than mice; some of the genes have been lost during evolution.
Smell is absolutely essential for a newborn mammalian pup to find the teats of its mother and obtain milk – without olfaction the pup does not survive unaided. Olfaction is also of paramount importance for many adult animals, since they observe and interpret their environment largely by sensing smell. For example, the area of the olfactory epithelium in dogs is some forty times larger than in humans.
A large family of odorant receptors
The olfactory system is the first of our sensory systems that has been deciphered primarily using molecular techniques. Axel and Buck showed that three per cent of our genes are used to code for the different odorant receptors on the membrane of the olfactory receptor cells. When an odorant receptor is activated by an odorous substance, an electric signal is triggered in the olfactory receptor cell and sent to the brain via nerve processes. Each odorant receptor first activates a G protein, to which it is coupled. The G protein in turn stimulates the formation of cAMP (cyclic AMP). This messenger molecule activates ion channels, which are opened and the cell is activated. Axel and Buck showed that the large family of odorant receptors belongs to the G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR).
All the odorant receptors are related proteins but differ in certain details, explaining why they are triggered by different odorous molecules. Each receptor consists of a chain of amino acids that is anchored into the cell membrane and traverses it seven times. The chain creates a binding pocket where the odorant can attach. When that happens, the shape of the receptor protein is altered, leading to G protein activation.
One type of odorant receptor in each olfactory receptor cell
Independently, Axel and Buck showed that every single olfactory receptor cell expresses one and only one of the odorant receptor genes. Thus, there are as many types of olfactory receptor cells as there are odorant receptors. It was possible to show, by registering the electrical signals coming from single olfactory receptor cells, that each cell does not react only to one odorous substance, but to several related molecules – albeit with varying intensity.
Buck's research group examined the sensitivity of individual olfactory receptor cells to specific odorants. By means of a pipette, they emptied the contents of each cell and showed exactly which odorant receptor gene was expressed in that cell. In this way, they could correlate the response to a specific odorant with the particular type of receptor carried by that cell.
Most odours are composed of multiple odorant molecules, and each odorant molecule activates several odorant receptors. This leads to a combinatorial code forming an "odorant pattern" – somewhat like the colours in a patchwork quilt or in a mosaic. This is the basis for our ability to recognize and form memories of approximately 10,000 different odours.
Olfactory receptor cells activate micro regions in the olfactory bulb
The finding that each olfactory receptor cell only expresses one single odorant receptor gene was highly unexpected. Axel and Buck continued by determining the organization of the first relay station in the brain. The olfactory receptor cell sends its nerve processes to the olfactory bulb, where there are some 2,000 well-defined microregions, glomeruli. There are thus about twice as many glomeruli as the types of olfactory receptor cells.
Axel and Buck independently showed that receptor cells carrying the same type of receptor converge their processes into the same glomerulus, and Axel's research group used sophisticated genetic technology to demonstrate in mice the role of the receptor in this process. The convergence of information from cells with the same receptor into the same glomerulus demonstrated that also glomeruli exhibit remarkable specificity (see figure).
In the glomeruli we find not only the nerve processes from the olfactory receptor cells but also their contacts with the next level of nerve cells, the mitral cells. Each mitral cell is activated only by one glomerulus, and the specificity in the information flow is thereby maintained. Via long nerve processes, the mitral cells send the information to several parts of the brain. Buck showed that these nerve signals in turn reach defined micro regions in the brain cortex. Here the information from several types of odorant receptors is combined into a pattern characteristic for each odour. This is interpreted and leads to the conscious experience of a recognizable odour.
Pheromones and taste
The general principles that Axel and Buck discovered for the olfactory system appears to apply also to other sensory systems. Pheromones are molecules that can influence different social behaviours, especially in animals. Axel and Buck, independent of each other, discovered that pheromones are detected by two other families of GPCR, localized to a different part of the nasal epithelium. The taste buds of the tongue have yet another family of GPCR, which is associated with the sense of taste.
Odorant Receptors and the Organization of the Olfactory System
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Embryonic stem cells pace the heart
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Philippe Menaschaé , chirurgien de l'hôpital Pompidou, in Nature Biotechnology
Sujet : Des cellules cardiaques dérivées de cellules embryonnaires humaines peuvent fonctionner dans un modèle de Porc dont la fonction cardiaque a été détruite et permettent la survie de l'animal. Groupe israelien de Joseph Istkovitz-Eldor (consortium europeen sur les cellules souches)
 New evidence that human embryonic stem cells can rescue injured heart may bring these cells closer to clinical use.
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