18 September, 2013

Cancer drug has potential to treat diabetes

A new research has found that a cancer drug has the potential to treat diabetes. 

A pair of studies by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine has identified a molecular pathway — a series of interaction among proteins — involved in the development of diabetes. Furthermore, they have found that a drug already approved for use in humans can regulate the pathway. 

The studies, done in mice, identify a previously unexpected link between a low-oxygen condition called hypoxia and the ability of cells in the liver to respond to insulin. 

The drug, aflibercept (marketed as Eylea or Zaltrap), is used to treat metastatic colorectal cancer and a form of macular degeneration. 

Aflibercept is a member of a family of proteins that inhibit the vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF, pathway. 

It works by blocking the growth of the blood vessels into tumors and starving them of oxygen. 

The lab of Calvin Kuo, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, identified a series of protein interactions that link VEGF inhibitors and blood glucose levels. 

"We were surprised to find that this drug currently used in patients for cancer treatment had beneficial effects on diabetes in laboratory mice and could, potentially, in humans," Kuo, senior author of one of the Nature Medicine papers, said. 

Amato Giaccia, PhD, the Jack, Lulu and Sam Willson Professor of Cancer Biology, is senior author of the other paper. 

"Proteins involved in this pathway could also be targeted for the development of new diabetes therapies," Giaccia, who also is a professor and director of radiation oncology, said. 

His laboratory has identified a protein called PhD3 that could be a particularly attractive target. 

The findings are published online in Nature Medicine.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

18.09.2013

Handwriting helps diagnose Parkinson’s early

Researchers have suggested that Parkinson'sdisease can be diagnosed at an early stage by comparing the handwriting of sick and healthy subjects.

Prof. Sara Rosenblum, of the University of Haifa's Department of Occupational Therapy, said that identifying the changes in handwriting could lead to an early diagnosis of the illness and neurological intervention at a critical moment.

Studies from recent years show that there are unique and distinctive differences between the handwriting of patients with Parkinson's disease and that of healthy people. However, most studies that to date have focused on handwriting focused on motor skills and not on writing that involves cognitive abilities, such as signing a check, copying addresses, etc.

According to Prof. Rosenblum, Parkinson's patients report feeling a change in their cognitive abilities before detecting a change in their motor abilities and therefore a test of cognitive impairment like the one performed in this study could attest to the presence of the disease and offer a way to diagnose it earlier.

In the research, which was conducted in cooperation with Dr. Ilana Schlesinger, head of the Center for Movement Disorders and Parkinson's Disease at Haifa's Rambam Medical Center and occupational therapists working in the hospital, the subjects were asked to write their names and gave them addresses to copy, two everyday tasks that require cognitive abilities.

Participants were 40 adults with at least 12 years of schooling, half healthy and half known to be in the early stages of Parkinson's disease.

It was found that the Parkinson's disease patients wrote smaller letters ("micrograph"), exerted less pressure on the writing surface, and took more time to complete the task. According to Prof. Rosenblum a particularly noticeable difference was the length of time the pen was in the airbetween the writing of each letter and each word.

The study is published in the journal of the European Neurological Society.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

18.09.2013

One who has lost confidence can lose nothing more

Boiste