Tuesday, January 15, 2008

U.S. government - meat and milk from cloned animals safe

The U.S. government ruled on Tuesday that meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring is as safe as other food, but pressed firms that produce clones to hold off on bringing them into the food supply.
The FDA said it did not have enough information to make an assertion about cloned sheep.
The ruling was the latest twist after years of debate over the reproductive technology, which advocates say will provide consumers with top-quality food by replicating prized animals that can breed highly productive offspring.

The cloning industry, made up so far of only a handful of firms, expects that it will be the offspring of cloned animals, not the costly clones themselves, that would eventually provide meat or milk to U.S. consumers.

Some dairy firms oppose cloning, betting that consumers will shun goods they see linked to cloning technology.

Others believe that more investigation is needed before concluding that cloning is safe -- especially after a year in which consumer confidence was marred by numerous food scares -- or oppose it on moral or religious grounds.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Way to reduce the amount of bad cholesterol

Researchers at the University of Alberta, have found a way to reduce the amount of bad cholesterol and fatty acids that end up in the blood from food the body metabolizes, a key discovery that could lead to new drugs to treat and reverse the effects of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease related to obesity.

In a series of recently published articles,* Dr. Richard Lehner and his colleagues report they successfully decreased the level of LDL (low-density lipids) – the so-called bad cholesterol – and triglycerides in the blood of mice and hamsters by manipulating a particular enzyme.

It’s well-known that eating too much fat and sugar and too little exercise will make you fat, and that obesity often leads to diabetes and heart disease. Lehner’s group studied the mechanisms behind this.

“We established the proof of principle of how these metabolic pathways work,” he says. “We discovered the activity of an enzyme that releases fatty acids from fat cells and the liver into the blood and how to inhibit this from happening.”

Drugs called statins are used to lower LDL levels in patients, but do not treat obesity. What makes the U of A researchers’ findings noteworthy is their discovery of how to inhibit LDL and triglycerides, which are another form of fat in the blood and a leading risk in obesity-related Type 2 diabetes as well as heart disease.

Lehner is director of the Group on Molecular and Cell Biology of Lipids in the U of A’s Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. The research is being supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

“There is a substantial pharmacological interest in the enzymes that control TG (triglycerides – fatty acids) and cholesterol metabolism in tissues,” he says.

This unique discovery is an important scientific breakthrough, but one that requires further testing.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Treating some kidney cancers

A new study suggests that removing the entire kidney from younger patients with small kidney tumors may lead to decreased overall survival compared with an operation that removes the tumor but leaves the kidney intact.

Radical nephrectomy is a surgical procedure to remove the entire kidney along with the adrenal gland that sits a top the kidney and adjacent lymph nodes. In a partial nephrectomy, only the tumor is removed, sparing the surrounding normal kidney tissue.

Recent evidence suggests that there is a graded impact on survival based on declining overall kidney function. So as kidney function declines, the risk of heart attacks and heart-related events goes up, and consequently the risk of death from these events goes up.

In this retrospective study, the research team reviewed the cases of 648 patients who underwent either a partial or radical nephrectomy for a kidney tumor 4 centimeters or smaller. In the 327 patients younger than 65 years of age, radical nephrectomy was significantly associated with death from any cause when compared with partial nephrectomy. Ten-year overall survival rates were 82 percent for patients treated with a radical nephrectomy and 93 percent for patients treated with a partial nephrectomy.

Urologic surgeons need to consider long-term health consequences for patients with small renal mass undergoing complete nephrectomy.

Less than 25 percent of patients who are treated surgically for small kidney tumors undergo a partial nephrectomy in the United States. The fact that this is being performed in less than a quarter of cases raises a quality of care concern, more study is needed.

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Cancer drug sunitinib (Sutent) can cause high blood pressure

New anti-cancer drug sunitinib (Sutent) can cause high blood pressure in patients with kidney cancer
Sunitinib works by blocking the activity of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Besides sunitinib, other so-called VEGF inhibitors have been developed, including bevacizumab (Avastin). Although these drugs are promising in fighting several types of cancer, they are associated with side effects, including high blood pressure, bleeding, gastrointestinal perforation, wound-healing complications and clotting.

The finding echoes the results of a study published last month that found the drug increased blood pressure and the risk of heart failure among patients with stomach cancer.

For the study were used home blood pressure monitoring, with the results sent automatically by telephone to the hospital. They found an immediate and marked increase in blood pressure in 14 patients with kidney cancer who were treated with 50 milligrams of sunitinib a day for four weeks.

In a statement released in December , sunitinib's maker, Pfizer Inc., agreed that these heart risks do exist.