Source: UPI
A new anti-aging ingredient developed by university researchers in Australia may be available in skin products as soon as next year.
Known as GGC, the ingredient is a forerunner for the anti-oxidant glutathione and has a number of possible health benefits, the University of New South Wales researchers said. Glutathione is a defense for detoxifying harmful compounds implicated in cancer, diabetes, aging and other diseases and degenerative conditions in the body.
University researchers said after nine years they developed a new, cost-effective way to manufacture GGC, which has been licensed to Biospecialties Australia.
Researchers said they expected the ingredient would be used in foods, health and beauty products, dietary supplements and anti-aging creams.
Natural dietary sources of GGC are available, including milk whey protein and garlic in diluted concentrations, researchers said. The new GGC product could allow for more effective doses.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
Monday, 18 December 2006
'Clumping' Protein Linked To Return Of Ovarian Cancer
Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that women treated for ovarian cancer are at increased risk of a rapid and potentially fatal recurrence if their tumor cells have high levels of a binding protein that triggers abnormal growth and slows down cell death, both hallmarks of malignancy.Now there's the possibility that testing for NAC-1 protein in cancer tissue removed during surgery might identify women most at risk for recurrence and guide doctors and patients to greater vigilance and extended therapy," said Ie-Ming Shih, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. The research also suggests that drugs capable of blocking NAC-1 activity may be a useful strategy in preventing and treating recurrences as well.
A report on the research, the first to link NAC-1 to cancer, appears in the December 5 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Because recurrent cancers are often what really kill patients, and most ovarian cancer is diagnosed when it's already advanced, our findings offer women a better chance of catching or preventing recurrent disease early and increasing survival," says Shih.
An estimated at least 60 percent of advanced-stage ovarian cancer patients who appear to be disease-free after initial treatment develop recurrent disease, according to the researchers.
When the investigators compared levels of NAC-1 among primary and recurrent tumor samples taken from 338 ovarian cancer patients from two hospitals, they found that levels of NAC-1 were significantly higher in recurrent tumors compared with primary tumors taken from the same patient. Women whose primary cancers had high levels of NAC-1 were more likely to suffer a recurrence within one year.
Studying the functions of NAC-1, the researchers genetically modified cells so they made both NAC-1 and a component of the protein found at the ends of natural NAC-1 that is a binding site. In the modified cells, N130 capped off NAC-1 proteins disrupting their ability to bind with each other. This action can prevent tumor formation and kill cancer cells in experimental mice. Shih says that in the future, drugs that mimic N130 can be used to treat cancer.
This research was supported by the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health.
Co-authors of the published research include Kentaro Nakayama, Naomi Nakayama, Jim J.-C. Sheu, Antonio Santillan, Ritu Salani, Natini Jinawath, Robert E. Bristow, Robert J. Kurman, and Tian-Li Wang from Johns Hopkins; Ben Davidson from the Norwegian Radium Hospital, Oslo, Norway; and Patrice J. Morin from the National Institute on Aging, NIH.
Nakayama, K. "A BTB/POZ protein, NAC-1, is related to tumor recurrence and is essential for tumor growth and survival." Proceeding of the National Academy of Science, Vol 103:49: pp18739-18744.
Source:
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and Sciencedaily
A report on the research, the first to link NAC-1 to cancer, appears in the December 5 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Because recurrent cancers are often what really kill patients, and most ovarian cancer is diagnosed when it's already advanced, our findings offer women a better chance of catching or preventing recurrent disease early and increasing survival," says Shih.
An estimated at least 60 percent of advanced-stage ovarian cancer patients who appear to be disease-free after initial treatment develop recurrent disease, according to the researchers.
When the investigators compared levels of NAC-1 among primary and recurrent tumor samples taken from 338 ovarian cancer patients from two hospitals, they found that levels of NAC-1 were significantly higher in recurrent tumors compared with primary tumors taken from the same patient. Women whose primary cancers had high levels of NAC-1 were more likely to suffer a recurrence within one year.
Studying the functions of NAC-1, the researchers genetically modified cells so they made both NAC-1 and a component of the protein found at the ends of natural NAC-1 that is a binding site. In the modified cells, N130 capped off NAC-1 proteins disrupting their ability to bind with each other. This action can prevent tumor formation and kill cancer cells in experimental mice. Shih says that in the future, drugs that mimic N130 can be used to treat cancer.
This research was supported by the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health.
Co-authors of the published research include Kentaro Nakayama, Naomi Nakayama, Jim J.-C. Sheu, Antonio Santillan, Ritu Salani, Natini Jinawath, Robert E. Bristow, Robert J. Kurman, and Tian-Li Wang from Johns Hopkins; Ben Davidson from the Norwegian Radium Hospital, Oslo, Norway; and Patrice J. Morin from the National Institute on Aging, NIH.
Nakayama, K. "A BTB/POZ protein, NAC-1, is related to tumor recurrence and is essential for tumor growth and survival." Proceeding of the National Academy of Science, Vol 103:49: pp18739-18744.
Source:
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and Sciencedaily
Boost For New Cancer Therapies
Scientists have revealed the critical role a key enzyme plays in helping cells divide in what could prove an important breakthrough for new cancer therapies.
Cells divide to form two identical cells as part of the body's natural development and replenishment processes but when cells divide in an abnormal manner, tumours can develop.
Research has shown that an enzyme called 'Polo kinase' is involved in normal cell division but that it also goes into overdrive in cancer helping cells to multiply in an uncontrolled way.
Clinical trials on drugs that block the actions of Polo kinase started in the United States last year but the complete picture of how the enzyme assisted the cell-division process has not been clear until now.
Writing in the highly respected science journal, Nature, a team of researchers from the Universities of Manchester and Newcastle-upon-Tyne have described a new way in which the enzyme works.
"Enzymes are proteins that speed up or 'catalyse' the body's chemical reactions such as those required for normal cell division," explained Professor Andrew Sharrocks, lead researcher in Manchester's Faculty of Life Sciences.
"As its name suggests, the enzyme we have studied is from a group known as kinase enzymes which use a particular chemical -- a phosphate -- to catalyse the reactions that lead to cell division.
"Our study has identified a new target protein that uses these phosphate groups to switch on genes and alter the properties of cells.
"When the actions of enzymes like Polo kinase go unchecked, cells divide in an uncontrolled manner to form tumours. However, if we block their activity using chemical inhibitors the cells can no longer divide and the cancer cannot grow and spread."
The identification of a new key step in which Polo kinase functions confirms the choice of this enzyme as a target for anti-cancer drug development and will spur on efforts in this direction.
Indeed, as scientists now have a much greater understanding of the mechanisms involved, it might enable them to either develop more effective drugs or suggest different situations in which the drug can be used.
"Kinase inhibitors are proving to be very effective at killing off rogue cells and trials on patients elsewhere have been promising with fewer toxic effects than current cancer treatments," said Professor Sharrocks.
"Our research on Polo kinase will help with this line of drug development and hopefully produce more effective kinase-blocking chemicals that will one day treat patients with different types of cancer."
Source:
University of Manchester and Sciencedaily
Cells divide to form two identical cells as part of the body's natural development and replenishment processes but when cells divide in an abnormal manner, tumours can develop.
Research has shown that an enzyme called 'Polo kinase' is involved in normal cell division but that it also goes into overdrive in cancer helping cells to multiply in an uncontrolled way.
Clinical trials on drugs that block the actions of Polo kinase started in the United States last year but the complete picture of how the enzyme assisted the cell-division process has not been clear until now.
Writing in the highly respected science journal, Nature, a team of researchers from the Universities of Manchester and Newcastle-upon-Tyne have described a new way in which the enzyme works.
"Enzymes are proteins that speed up or 'catalyse' the body's chemical reactions such as those required for normal cell division," explained Professor Andrew Sharrocks, lead researcher in Manchester's Faculty of Life Sciences.
"As its name suggests, the enzyme we have studied is from a group known as kinase enzymes which use a particular chemical -- a phosphate -- to catalyse the reactions that lead to cell division.
"Our study has identified a new target protein that uses these phosphate groups to switch on genes and alter the properties of cells.
"When the actions of enzymes like Polo kinase go unchecked, cells divide in an uncontrolled manner to form tumours. However, if we block their activity using chemical inhibitors the cells can no longer divide and the cancer cannot grow and spread."
The identification of a new key step in which Polo kinase functions confirms the choice of this enzyme as a target for anti-cancer drug development and will spur on efforts in this direction.
Indeed, as scientists now have a much greater understanding of the mechanisms involved, it might enable them to either develop more effective drugs or suggest different situations in which the drug can be used.
"Kinase inhibitors are proving to be very effective at killing off rogue cells and trials on patients elsewhere have been promising with fewer toxic effects than current cancer treatments," said Professor Sharrocks.
"Our research on Polo kinase will help with this line of drug development and hopefully produce more effective kinase-blocking chemicals that will one day treat patients with different types of cancer."
Source:
University of Manchester and Sciencedaily
Just How Useful Are Animal Studies To Human Health?
Just How Useful Are Animal Studies To Human Health?
Animal studies are of limited usefulness to human health because they are of poor quality and their results often conflict with human trials, argue researchers in a study online in the British Medical Journal.
Before clinical trials are carried out, the safety and effectiveness of new drugs are usually tested in animal models. Some believe, however, that the results from animal trials are not applicable to humans because of biological differences between the species.
So researchers compared treatment effects in animal models with human clinical trials.
They used systematic reviews (impartial summaries of evidence from many different studies) of human and animal trials to analyse the effects of six drugs for conditions such as head injury, stroke and osteoporosis.
Agreement between human and animal studies varied. For example, corticosteroids did not show any benefit for treating head injury in clinical trials but did show a benefit in animal models. Results also differed for the drug tirilazad to treat stroke - data from animal studies suggested a benefit but the clinical trials showed no benefit and possible harm.
Some results did agree. For instance, bisphosphonates increased bone mineral density in both clinical trials and animal studies, while corticosteroids reduced neonatal respiratory distress syndrome in animal studies and in clinical trials, although the data were sparse.
Animal studies are generally of poor quality and lack agreement with clinical trials, which limits their usefulness to human health, say the authors. This discordance may be due to bias, random error, or the failure of animal models to adequately represent clinical disease.
Systematic reviews could help translate research findings from animals to humans. They could also promote closer collaboration between the research communities and encourage an interative approach to improving the relevance of animal models to clinical trial design, they conclude.
Source:
BMJ-British Medical Journal
and Sciencedaily
Animal studies are of limited usefulness to human health because they are of poor quality and their results often conflict with human trials, argue researchers in a study online in the British Medical Journal.
Before clinical trials are carried out, the safety and effectiveness of new drugs are usually tested in animal models. Some believe, however, that the results from animal trials are not applicable to humans because of biological differences between the species.
So researchers compared treatment effects in animal models with human clinical trials.
They used systematic reviews (impartial summaries of evidence from many different studies) of human and animal trials to analyse the effects of six drugs for conditions such as head injury, stroke and osteoporosis.
Agreement between human and animal studies varied. For example, corticosteroids did not show any benefit for treating head injury in clinical trials but did show a benefit in animal models. Results also differed for the drug tirilazad to treat stroke - data from animal studies suggested a benefit but the clinical trials showed no benefit and possible harm.
Some results did agree. For instance, bisphosphonates increased bone mineral density in both clinical trials and animal studies, while corticosteroids reduced neonatal respiratory distress syndrome in animal studies and in clinical trials, although the data were sparse.
Animal studies are generally of poor quality and lack agreement with clinical trials, which limits their usefulness to human health, say the authors. This discordance may be due to bias, random error, or the failure of animal models to adequately represent clinical disease.
Systematic reviews could help translate research findings from animals to humans. They could also promote closer collaboration between the research communities and encourage an interative approach to improving the relevance of animal models to clinical trial design, they conclude.
Source:
BMJ-British Medical Journal
and Sciencedaily
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