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A laboratory-engineered virus cansuccessfully slow the growth of two types of hard-to-treat pediatrictumors without

harming healthy tissue, a new study shows.The targeted viral therapy, dubbed rQT3, slowed neuroblastoma andperipheral nerve sheath tumors in mice, according to findings published inthe Feb. 15 issue of Cancer Research. It also resulted in longerlife spans in the mice compared with ones receiving just saline or othertreatments for the tumors.Neuroblastoma is the most common solid cancer tumor in childhood, mostoften striking those under age 5. Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumorsaffect the connective tissue surrounding nerves.Researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center armed theoncolytic herpes simplex virus (oHSV)with a gene that steps up the body’swork to block enzymes that aid the development and progression of certaincancers. Previous studies had shown oHSV can infect and kill human cancercells without causing other harm or disease.”Malignant solid tumors are still very difficult to treat effectively,especially without causing harm to normal tissues, so we need to findinnovative therapeutic approaches,” Dr. Timothy Cripe, a physician andresearcher at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, said in aprepared statement. “In our study, this tumor-targeting viral therapyenhanced anti-tumor activity by stimulating multiple biological processes,including directly killing the cancer cells and reducing the formation ofblood vessels that fed the tumors. These data support continuingdevelopment and study of our tumor-targeted viral therapy to fightcancer.”The gene added to the virus carries instructions for a cancer-fightingprotein, human tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 3 (TIMP3). TIMP3blocks enzymes that aid the development and progression of cancer, calledmatrix of metalloproteinases (MMP).MMPs help break down molecules that are important for the structuralsupport and normal development of cells, organs and maintenance oftissues. However, when MMP activity becomes unbalanced, the enzyme plays awell-documented role in the formation of invasive and metastatic cancers,including pediatric neuroblastoma.The National Cancer Institute has more about childhood cancers.

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Once a newborn’s umbilical cord is cut justafter birth, the remaining piece needs proper care to preventinfection.The American Pregnancy

Association offers these suggestions:Keep the area around the cord clean. Ask your doctor what isrecommended — perhaps cleaning regularly with rubbing alcohol, or justwater and a gentle cleanser.Make sure the cord area stays dry. Use a newborn diaper with an areacut out to expose the cord. Also, let your baby wear a short t-shirt and adiaper when possible to help air get to the area.Don’t give your baby a full, submerged bath — just a sponge bath –until after the cord has fallen off.Never pick or pull at the remaining cord, but let it fall off on itsown.

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Allison?said that the drug has a great safety profile, it is inexpensive and has the potential to reduce blood sugar and may prove useful in the prevention of type 2 diabetes.

According to the researchers,? the drug which is similar to aspirin ?is promising enough to spur three more trials to see if salsalate can also treat diabetes by lowering blood glucose, slow the progression of coronary artery disease in those with metabolic syndrome, and perhaps prevent diabetes in those at high risk.

Allison said that it has long been known that high doses of aspirin could reduce blood glucose levels, but the risk of stomach bleeding is too high to allow for this treatment to be used.

Allison also noted that it has also been known for several years that inflammatory markers and proteins are elevated in people with diabetes and that aspirin can reduce inflammation.

In animal studies, it has been shown that aspirin could be effective, but since it could not safely be used in humans at high doses, the researchers thought of designing a new drug.

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The drug sorafenib attacks a genetic mutation active in about a third of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

“AML patients with this mutation

have a particularly poor prognosis, so this highly targeted drug appears to be a significant step forward in leukemia therapy,” said senior author Michael Andreeff of the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

In a Phase I clinical trial, sorafenib reduced the median percentage of leukemia cells circulating in the blood from 81 percent to 7.5 percent and in the bone marrow from 75.5 percent to 34 percent among AML patients with the genetic mutation.

Two of the 16 patients had circulating leukemia cells, or blasts, drop to zero.

There have been no major side effects in the clinical trial to date, so no maximum tolerated dose has been reached, Andreeff said.

The drug has little effect on cells with normal versions of the gene and does not interfere with normal blood cell formation.

Andreeff’s group has already opened a Phase II trial that combines sorafenib with the standard of care chemotherapy combination for acute myeloid leukemia.

As safety and dose escalation research progress, sorafenib could assume a role in frontline therapy, he said.

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OCD is a psychiatric anxiety disorder most commonly characterized by a subject’s obsessive, distressing, intrusive thoughts and related compulsions (tasks

or “rituals”), which attempt to neutralize the obsessions.

The study, led by Dr. Ghulam Mustafa Soomro, honorary research fellow at St. George?s Hospital Medical School in London, stated that patients who take selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, are twice as likely to get some relief from their OCD symptoms as compared to those who take placebo pills.

Common antidepressant drugs such as Prozac and Zoloft can be effective treatment options for Patients who take selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, are twice as likely to get some relief from their OCD symptoms compared with OCD sufferers who take placebo pills.

?Although SSRIs should be considered potentially effective treatments for OCD patients, treatment decisions need to take account of the potential adverse effects of these drugs, including nausea, insomnia and sexual dysfunction,? Soomro said.

In the research, the scientists reviewed 17 studies that included 3,097 patients.

From the analysis, the reviewers concluded that SSRIs were more effective than a placebo in reducing OCD symptoms six to 13 weeks after starting treatment.

None of the drugs stood out above the rest; they all appeared equally effective. However, in most cases, side effects such as nausea and headache were noticeably worse with the SSRIs than with the placebo pills.

The study is published in The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research.

Source-ANI
SRM/M

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