Environmental Medicine News

The News Review:

- Targeting the Adrenal Gland Could Be Key Against Heart Failure
- Cholesterol may play role in Type 2 diabetes
- Stanford Q&A: Largest-Ever Study Shows Possible Genetic Links…
- Liver An Excellent Target For Cancer Gene Therapy Using Viral…
- Vitamin D: Cheap wonder drug?
- Tea tree oil faces ban over health fear

Targeting the Adrenal Gland Could Be Key Against Heart Failure
Newswise - Newswise (press release) - Feb 18, 2007
By blocking GRK2, an important regulatory enzyme, they cut the hormone production that forces the heart to pump too hard, leading to heart failure. Such a novel approach – targeting the adrenal gland in addition to the heart – provides a potential new strategy against heart failure, and could lead to a new class of drugs. The researchers, led by Walter Koch, Ph… Smith Professor of Medicine and director of the Center for Translational Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Jefferson Medical College, report their findings February 18, 2007, in an advance online publication in the journal Nature Medicine. “The emphasis has always been in treating right at the heart,” says Stephen B. , director of the cardiopulmonary genomics program at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who has written an accompanying editorial.

Cholesterol may play role in Type 2 diabetes
Toronto Star - Feb 18, 2007
"This is an important observation because it demonstrates a new potential mechanism by which in Type 2 diabetes the beta cells could be dysfunctional," said Dr. Bernard Zinman, a diabetes expert who was not involved in the study. The article was published online Sunday by the journal Nature Medicine. The Vancouver research started in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Hayden, director of the institute's centre for molecular medicine and therapeutics. Hayden is an expert in the genes involved in cholesterol metabolism. That work led to the cloning of a gene called ABCA1 that was shown to play a key role in regulating the amount of cholesterol in the blood.

Stanford Q&A: Largest-Ever Study Shows Possible Genetic Links…
Free with registration - Business Wire - AccessMyLibrary.com - Feb 18, 2007
18, Nature Genetics will publish the largest-ever study on the genetics of autism. The research is the fruit of an international autism genetics consortium, called the A… The research is the fruit of an international autism genetics consortium, called the Autism Genome Project. The consortium, which was funded by the nonprofit group Autism Speaks and by the National Institutes of Health, brings together more than 120 scientists from more than 50 institutions in 19 countries to share data and expertise to identify genes responsible for susceptibility to autism. Recently the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital joined forces to form an autism working group at the university–an interdisciplinary effort to identify the neurological basis of the disorder. Joachim Hallmayer, MD, associate professor of psychiatry at Stanford and a member of the autism working group, chaired the collaboration’s executive committee.

Liver An Excellent Target For Cancer Gene Therapy Using Viral…
Science Daily - Science Daily (press release) - Feb 18, 2007
14 issue of Nature Cancer Gene Therapy demonstrates that cancer cells in the liver are excellent targets for gene therapy using adenoviral vectors, based upon a fundamental new understanding of the differences between cancerous and normal liver cells. The findings signal a new way to treat cancers that have spread to the liver, such as metastatic cancers of the colon and breast… "
Reid and his colleagues undertook this study following the death of Jesse Gelsinger, a participant in a gene therapy clinical trial at University of Pennsylvania for ornithine transcarbanoylase (OTC) deficiency, a metabolic liver disorder. That case virtually stopped gene therapy research and spawned widespread safety concerns about gene therapy involving the liver. "At that time, I was treating patients with colon cancer that had spread to the liver using a very similar adenoviral vector administered in exactly the same way — direct infusion into the main artery feeding the liver," said Reid, who is now an associate professor of clinical medicine in the UCSD School of Medicine. "We saw virtually no problems with toxicity in 35 study participants who received a total of nearly 200 infusions across several study sites. "
So Reid and colleagues carefully re-analyzed the data from the 17 participants from the Stanford site to determine the impact of repeated adenoviral exposure on liver function, and documented that there were no significant problems. While the analysis was not designed to demonstrate impact on disease, it showed that seven of the 17 patients had stable-to-improving disease at the completion of four viral infusions. The researchers then demonstrated that normal liver cells could not be infected with an adenovirus, which led them to investigate where the receptor was located.

Vitamin D: Cheap wonder drug?
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (subscription… - Feb 18, 2007
“If you are trying to generate vitamin D, just take it by mouth. ”

Indeed, a growing number of researchers now are saying that taking up to 2,000 IU a day, and possibly more, is safe for adults. The Institute of Medicine says that is the tolerable upper limit, or the highest daily intake that is likely to pose no adverse health risks for a healthy adult. Researchers say exposure to intense sunlight was mostly a year-round occurrence for our prehistoric ancestors who, for eons, existed naked near the equator. It has been only in relatively recent human evolutionary history that people moved north, began wearing clothing and spent more time indoors, resulting in vitamin D deficiencies. However, despite theories about why many people may not be getting enough vitamin D, much of the research pointing to its disease-preventing ability is observational in nature. Its possible benefits often are implied and not derived from the gold standard of research: randomized, double-blind clinical trials… Researchers say exposure to intense sunlight was mostly a year-round occurrence for our prehistoric ancestors who, for eons, existed naked near the equator. It has been only in relatively recent human evolutionary history that people moved north, began wearing clothing and spent more time indoors, resulting in vitamin D deficiencies. However, despite theories about why many people may not be getting enough vitamin D, much of the research pointing to its disease-preventing ability is observational in nature. Its possible benefits often are implied and not derived from the gold standard of research: randomized, double-blind clinical trials. It remains to be seen whether researchers will ever do those trials. Scientists say drug companies aren’t likely to conduct the trials because there is little money to be made off a non-proprietary substance such as vitamin D. “There is nobody who is going to promote it with doctors,” said Garland, of UC-San Diego.

Tea tree oil faces ban over health fear
The Observer - Feb 18, 2007
Researchers in the US believe that the oils may have hormone-like properties that lead to gynaecomastia - the growth of breasts. When the boys stopped using the oils, the breasts disappeared. Writing in New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers say that the repeated use of such oils may disrupt hormonal function. It has also been revealed that tea tree oil in cosmetics and creams could increase the chances of catching ’superbug’ infections in hospital. Exposure to low doses of the oil made pathogens such as MRSA, E. coli and salmonella more resistant to antibiotics. ‘Because essential oils are natural products, the public often assumes they must be safe,’ says Frances Fewell, director of the Institute for Complementary Medicine… ‘Essential oils are widely available under various forms of labelling and packaging, sometimes with insufficient regard for safety,’ says Sylvia Baker of the Aromatherapy Trade Council. ‘Many are of poor quality, and some are totally synthetic. There are companies that specialise in making nature-identical oils and then offering them as pure products. Others are bulked with cheaper oils and synthetics. ‘The oil, which is derived from the Australian melaleuca tree and has been a traditional remedy among Australian Aboriginals for centuries, is famous for its antiseptic properties. Used by Australian troops for battlefield injuries in the First World War, it is now found in shower gels, toothpastes, mouthwash and face cleansers, to cure skin complaints, to treat cuts and burns, and as an insect and lice repellent. After the birth of their son Alastair, rock star Rod Stewart and his girlfriend, Penny Lancaster, reportedly took home their baby’s placenta, sprinkled it with tea tree oil and buried it in their garden.