�Researchers at the NYU Cancer Institute and the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology have identified mebendazole, a drug used globally to treat bloodsucking infections, as a novel investigational agentive role for the treatment of chemotherapy-resistant malignant melanoma.
Because most patients with metastatic melanoma fail to respond to available therapies, the discovery of a viable investigational treatment with an established safety profile could address a dangerous unmet indigence in oncology. Effectively sidestepping the prohibitive costs and long lead times typically required to discover new cancer medicines, the NYU team screened a library of already approved drugs for activity against the most deadly form of skin cancer.
Their report, which was selected for upgrade online publication by Molecular Cancer Research, is published in the August issue of the journal. Since submitting the article for publication, the authors possess conducted additional pre-clinical studies of mebendazole in an in vivo model of chemotherapy-resistant malignant melanoma and are now preparing a phase I clinical trial, expected to commence next class at NYU Cancer Institute.
"While rational drug design stiff a perfectly valid way to develop cancer therapies, we likewise need approaches that are less dear and more productive of new in effect treatments," aforesaid lead generator Seth J. Orlow, M.D. Ph.D., Chair of the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology at New York University School of Medicine. "You could aver this is more of a guerilla approach. Instead of screening millions of untested compounds for an agent that inhibits or stimulates a particular molecular target, we chose to screen a large library of already approved drugs for novel activity against melanoma cells, and then advance the most promising candidate apace to clinical practice."
First, the NYU researchers screened a library of 2,000 well-known drugs [Spectrum Collection (Microsource Discovery Systems)] and identified members of the benzimidazole category for their ability to inhibit malignant melanoma growth and induce programmed cell death (apoptosis) of malignant malignant melanoma cells without affecting normal melanocytes (pigment-producing cells). Of the identified benzimidazoles, the team selected mebendazole for further report because it was known to be a well-tolerated, orally usable drug with anti-cancer properties.
In a surprising discovery, the team establish that mebendazole takes vantage of a special difference of opinion between a melanoma cell and normal melanocytes. Melanomas produce high levels of a protein called Bcl-2, which is known to protect certain cancer cells from caspase-mediated cell death. The team saw that when a melanoma genus Cancer cell was exposed to mebendazole, it resulted in inactivation of Bcl-2, allowing apoptosis to occur.
Mebendazole, sold as a generic do drugs in the United States, has been used since the seventies to handle roundworm, hookworm, pinworm, whipworm, and other worm-based parasitical infections. Previous research has shown it to have some antitumor activity in lung and adrenocortical cancer.
"Our ability to identify novel treatments for melanoma and advance them rapidly into the clinic very much depends on NYU's multidisciplinary approach to melanoma charge and research," Dr. Orlow said. "To be effective, translational medicine cannot be unidirectional. Discovery moves endlessly back and forth between the clinic and the bench. We are now focused on determining the range of doses to be tested in the clinic, whether specific types of melanomas will respond better than others, and whether combine mebendazole with other agents will be of further benefit"
The authors of this study are NYU Cancer Institute researchers Nicole Doudican, Adrianna Rodriguez, Iman Osman, and Seth J. Orlow. The work was supported by private philanthropic grants.
New York University Langone Medical Center
1 Park Ave.
New York, NY 10016
United States
http://www.med.nyu.edu
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Thursday, 28 August 2008
Monday, 18 August 2008
Male Circumcision - A Dangerous Distraction In The HIV Battle
�The human rights group,
International Coalition for Genital Integrity, is continuing to raise
concerns about the harms and costs of male circumcision at their booth in
the AIDS 2008 league in Mexico City this week, stating that january 1
programs will be a dangerous distraction in the HIV struggle.
"Mass feast of the Circumcision campaigns volition result in hundreds of thousands of
complications, and could make the HIV crisis worsened," cautions voice
John Travis, MD, MPH, "There are already legion reports of males lining up
to get circumcised so they no longer will motive to purpose condoms."
Recent studies depict that male circumcision is not associated with lour HIV
rates in the general population. One showed that the likelihood of
circumcision being effective is nil. Another showed that condom programs are
95 times more cost-effective than circumcision. The ratio of physicians to
patients in sub-Saharan Africa is much lower than in more than developed
countries. In Africa, there ar 20,000 patients for every dr.,
compared to 400 patients in developed countries.
Dr. Travis farther warns, "Male circumcision is a severe distraction in
the HIV battle. Even if circumcision does offer some degree of reduced risk
per sexual incident, individuals engaged in high risk behavior are motionless at
risk for HIV. And, circumcision does non protect women. Giving circumcised
males and their partners the false impression that they are protected testament
make the situation worse by increasing risk-taking behaviour. Further, spate
circumcision campaigns will likely overwhelm the already overburdened
African health care infrastructure and divert resources away from other
needed and more effective HIV prevention strategies."
The published results of three African randomized clinical trials, conducted
in optimum conditions with free condoms and extensive counseling, render that
male circumcision was associated with lower rates of straight person HIV
transmission during the 21 month to 24 month report periods. All three
studies were hack short, and there give birth been no follow-ups.
International Coalition for Genital Integrity
More information
International Coalition for Genital Integrity, is continuing to raise
concerns about the harms and costs of male circumcision at their booth in
the AIDS 2008 league in Mexico City this week, stating that january 1
programs will be a dangerous distraction in the HIV struggle.
"Mass feast of the Circumcision campaigns volition result in hundreds of thousands of
complications, and could make the HIV crisis worsened," cautions voice
John Travis, MD, MPH, "There are already legion reports of males lining up
to get circumcised so they no longer will motive to purpose condoms."
Recent studies depict that male circumcision is not associated with lour HIV
rates in the general population. One showed that the likelihood of
circumcision being effective is nil. Another showed that condom programs are
95 times more cost-effective than circumcision. The ratio of physicians to
patients in sub-Saharan Africa is much lower than in more than developed
countries. In Africa, there ar 20,000 patients for every dr.,
compared to 400 patients in developed countries.
Dr. Travis farther warns, "Male circumcision is a severe distraction in
the HIV battle. Even if circumcision does offer some degree of reduced risk
per sexual incident, individuals engaged in high risk behavior are motionless at
risk for HIV. And, circumcision does non protect women. Giving circumcised
males and their partners the false impression that they are protected testament
make the situation worse by increasing risk-taking behaviour. Further, spate
circumcision campaigns will likely overwhelm the already overburdened
African health care infrastructure and divert resources away from other
needed and more effective HIV prevention strategies."
The published results of three African randomized clinical trials, conducted
in optimum conditions with free condoms and extensive counseling, render that
male circumcision was associated with lower rates of straight person HIV
transmission during the 21 month to 24 month report periods. All three
studies were hack short, and there give birth been no follow-ups.
International Coalition for Genital Integrity
More information
Friday, 8 August 2008
Sneaking their way to the top
SNEAKY Sound System is going going places thanks to a hot new album, writes Nui Te Koha.
Kylie�Minogue knows quality pop. Early last year, as she prepped her X album, Kylie collaborator Jake Shears, of Scissor Sisters, revealed the one song sparking their creative fire.
It was the Sneaky Sound System hit, Pictures.
"They were trying to replicate Pictures in the studio,'' says Sneaky's Angus McDonald.
"Jake said he'd introduced the song to Kylie and they ended up playing it 20 times a day. It became the inspiration for the new record.''
�
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