Tenaxis Medical, a Mountain View, California-based medical device company, said vascular surgeons in Dresden, Germany were the first to clinically use their vascular sealant. The investigational product was used on a 74-year-old man suffering from vascular insufficiency of the leg, which required the implant of a synthetic vascular bypass graft. This procedure is usually accompanied by profuse bleeding at the suture lines and requires the physician to use manual pressure for up to 30 minutes to stop the bleeding. The sealant, which has been designed to cure in 15 seconds, was applied over the top of the suture line and immediately stopped the bleeding through the needle holes created when the artificial graft was sutured in place. It was the first of up to 60 procedures that are anticipated to be conducted in Germany.
CANCER: NIH FUNDS TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT FOR GENOME ATLAS
As part of The Cancer Genome Atlas pilot project, the National Institutes of Health awarded eight two-year grants totaling $3.4 million to support the development of innovative technologies for exploring the genomic underpinnings of cancer. The National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute, both part of NIH, announced the pilot project in December 2005 to test the feasibility of a large-scale, systematic approach to identifying the changes that occur in the genomes of cancer cells. The goal is to generate genomic information that the research community can use to develop new and improved strategies for detecting, treating and, ultimately, preventing cancer. Three California institutions—City of Hope/Beckman Research Institute, Stanford University, and the University of California at Davis—are among those getting the grants.
DRUG DEVELOPMENT: RESEARCHERS DISCERN ENZYME FUNCTION FROM STRUCTURE
A team of researchers from the University of California at San Francisco described the first success in decrypting an enzyme's function from its structure. If their new strategy works with other enzymes, it could become a potent tool to determine how key enzymes work in the body. Because enzyme action is crucial to disease, the technique opens an efficient route to drug discovery, the researchers said. In the last 40 years, scientists have perfected ways to determine the knot-like structure of enzymes, but they've been stumped trying to translate the structure into an understanding what the enzyme actually does in the body. This puzzle has hurt drug discovery, since many of the most successful drugs work by blocking enzyme action. The researchers described their work in an article in the journal Nature.
DEPRESSION: VARIED MECHANISMS FUNNEL THROUGH SAME CIRCUIT
Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine said they have found that differing mechanisms implicated in depression all appear to funnel through a single brain circuit. In a study of rats published in the online edition of the journal Science, the researchers said changes in how the electrical signals spread through the circuit appear to be the cause of depression-related behavior. They said the finding will help them make sense of how there can be so many different causes and treatments for depression.
FDA APPROVAL: AGENCY OKs PEDIATRIC VERSION OF TAMIFLU
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a supplemental new drug application from Roche to market its flu drug Tamiflu in 30 mg and 45 mg doses. The company said the lower-dose capsules provide a convenient alternative for the treatment and prevention of influenza types A and B in patients one year and older. They also have a five-year shelf life compared to a two-year shelf life for the liquid-suspension formulation of the drug, a difference that would make the new form more appropriate for government stockpiles. Tamiflu was co-developed by Foster City, California-based Gilead Sciences.
CANCER: DISCOVERY SHOWS HOW TUMORS EVADE THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
One of the fundamental traits of a tumor—how it avoids the immune system—might become its greatest vulnerability, according to researchers at the University of Southern California. Their findings, demonstrated in human breast and colorectal cancers, indicate that a technique for determining a tumor's "immune signature," could be useful for diagnosing and treating specific cancers. Writing in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, the researchers describe a means for determining which genes have been altered in a tumor so as to allow it to evade the body's natural defenses. In time, the researchers believe such analysis could become a standard practice in cancer diagnosis and treatment.
SMOKING: INTERFERES WITH THINKING IN RECOVERING ALCOHOLICS
After six to nine months of abstinence from alcohol, recovering alcoholics who were also chronic smokers showed a significantly lower rate of improvement in tests of memory, reasoning, judgment and visual/spatial coordination than non-smoking recovering alcoholics, in a study conducted by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. Not only did the smokers improve less, but their overall scores were lower than the non-smokers on most neurocognitive measures tested by the researchers. The study, published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research is significant in light of previous research indicating that 60 to 80 percent of people who seek treatment for alcoholism are chronic smokers.
PRERTERM LABOR: COMMON DRUG HAS MORE SIDE EFFECTS THAN ALTERNATIVE
The drug most commonly used to arrest preterm labor, magnesium sulfate, is more likely than another common treatment to cause mild to serious side effects in pregnant women, according to a study from researchers at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and Stanford University School of Medicine. The findings suggest that since the effectiveness of the two drugs appears similar, physicians should consider side effects more strongly when choosing which drug to prescribe. Newborns whose mothers had received magnesium sulfate were also more likely to be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit than those whose mothers had received the alternative treatment, although the data do not offer an explanation for this finding. The researchers said what is clear is that currently available treatments for preterm labor are far from perfect.
PAIN: ANESIVA REPORTS POSITIVE DATA FOR OSTEOARTRITIS DRUG
South San Francisco-based Anesiva said that a mid-stage clinical trial of its drug Adlea in patients with moderate-to-severe osteoarthritis of the knee produced substantial reductions in pain that persisted for up to 12 weeks. Adlea is long-acting, with the potential to provide pain relief for weeks or months after just a single localized treatment. It is a non-opioid with a unique mechanism of action that provides a long-lasting, localized effect and blocks the transmission of aching, throbbing pain caused by major surgical procedures and end-stage osteoarthritis. Anesiva expects to advance Adlea into late-stage trials in various indications this summer.
INTERNET: FDA FINDS CONSUMERS CONTINUE TO BUY DRUGS ONLINE DEPSITE RISKS
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it continues to warn the American public about the dangers of buying medications over the Internet. New data collected by the agency found that consumers who are trying to save money on prescription drugs don't need to take chances by buying prescription drugs from foreign Internet sites, because low-cost generic versions are available in the United States. The FDA said it may be an indication that some consumers are buying foreign drugs online to avoid getting a prescription from their doctor or healthcare professional, since many websites do not require a prescription.
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