ScienceCache
Vol. 186
Nov. 4, 2004
SCIENTISTS PINPOINT FLAW, OFFER NEW PROMISE FOR STROKE TREATMENT
The best treatment doctors currently have for stroke can accelerate the
death of brain cells in addition to dissolving blood clots, researchers
report in the December issue of Nature Medicine. But they also found
good news: Another drug currently used to treat patients with severe
sepsis counters the harmful effects, offering the possibility that
a combination of two already-approved drugs might offer a powerful
new stroke treatment that would give doctors a bigger window of time
to treat patients. The team found that the clot-buster tPA (tissue
plasminogen activator) can magnify the harmful effects of stroke in
mice and in human cells, and that a compound known as APC (activated
protein C) counters the harmful effects. “TPA has been a great
therapy for some patients, but right now it’s available to a
tiny minority of patients. We hope to extend the window of opportunity
that tPA could be given, by protecting the brain against its toxic
effects,” says Berislav Zlokovic, the Rochester neuroscientist
who led the research thanks to funding from the National Heart, Lung
and Blood Institute. “This holds great promise for stroke therapy.” Rochester
neurologist Curtis Benesch has received approval from the U.S. Food & Drug
Administration to test APC as a new investigational drug in patients
who have had a stroke and who are treated within six hours.
Full story
FDA BUYS UNIVERSITY’S TECHNOLOGY THAT IDENTIFIES DRUG TOXICITY
TO HEART
Scientists have developed a new tool to assess whether a medication might
be harmful to the heart. The technology addresses a major health issue – drug
toxicity – illustrated most recently by Merck’s voluntary
withdrawal of Vioxx from the market after concerns that it may cause
heart attacks and strokes. Biomedical engineer Jean-Philippe Couderc
developed a software program that provides a simpler, more accurate way
to analyze the electrocardiograms (EKGs) of people who volunteer for
clinical trials to test new drugs. The Food and Drug Administration has
purchased a copy of the technology, called COMPAS, which stands for Comprehensive
Analysis of Repolarization Signal. The university hopes to license the
copyrighted software to drug companies and other institutions involved
in pre-market drug testing, says John Fahner-Vihtelic, deputy director
of the medical center’s Office of Technology Transfer. “Our
program provides a more reliable method to identify cardiovascular toxicity
at a time when the scientific community is diligently seeking ways to
address this problem,” says Couderc, research assistant professor
in cardiology and assistant director of the Heart Research Follow-up
Program.
Full story
EASING THE ‘OUCH’ OF FLU ‘SHOT’ STRETCHES
SUPPLY TOO
By delivering the flu vaccine a new way – using a tiny needle that
scratches the skin much like the skin test for tuberculosis – researchers
may be able to extend the supply of flu vaccine for healthy adults. John
Treanor, director of the Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit, and colleagues
from St. Louis University will report the results Nov. 25 in the New
England Journal of Medicine, but the journal released the paper yesterday
because of current concerns about the flu. The study, which was led by
Robert Belshe of Saint Louis University, included 114 participants from
Rochester. Scientists found healthy adults from 18 to 60 needed just
40 percent of a full dose of vaccine if the injection was given not as
a shot into the muscle but instead “intradermally,” between
the layers of the skin using a tiny needle. The lower-dose intradermal
vaccine did not work as well in an older population, however. The new
method was also far less painful for patients than the traditional shot
into the muscle. The paper marks the second publication in the New England
Journal of Medicine in less than a month by Treanor; three weeks ago
the journal turned to him for perspective and published his advice for
physicians on how to weather the flu vaccine shortage. His piece concluded: “At
a time when vast resources are being funneled into the development of
vaccines against agents that might hypothetically be used by terrorists,
we must find ways to protect our citizens against a virus that predictably – each
and every year – causes major morbidity and mortality.”
Full story
TECHNOLOGY TO COOL HOT FLASHES LICENSED TO PFIZER
The university has signed a license agreement with Pfizer that will allow
the company to market a specific class of non-hormonal drugs for the
treatment of hot flashes associated with menopause. For tens of millions
of women who suffer from hot flashes, such a drug would be a welcome
alternative to hormone replacement therapy, which has been linked to
an increased risk of heart disease and breast cancer in some patients.
In 2001 the university was granted a “method of treatment” patent
that covers the use of drugs that treat hot flashes by targeting a specific
group of cells in the hypothalamus, the region of the brain that regulates
body temperature. The proposed link between those cells and hot flashes
was suggested by Thomas Guttuso Jr., a neurologist who had been thanked
profusely by a patient who told him the headache medication he had prescribed
her also eliminated her hot flashes. Guttuso listened to the patient,
did several more studies to confirm the effects on hot flashes, and went
to the laboratory to investigate the causes of hot flashes. Now Pfizer
is developing a drug that quells hot flashes by targeting the mechanism
covered by Rochester’s patent. The Rochester patent received little
attention when it was granted; that changed when two rigorous and widely
reported studies challenged the safety of hormone replacement therapy.
Millions of women have stopped taking hormone replacement as a result,
and there is currently no non-hormonal drug alternative on the market
that has proven effective.
Full story
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