At the recent European Crohn's and Colitis Organization (ECCO) annual
meeting in Lyon, France, Abbott Laboratories announced that HUMIRA
(Adalimumab) is successful in the treatment of fistulas in susceptible
Crohn's patients.
Crohn's
Disease (CD) is a gastrointestinal disorder which is indicated by
chronic
inflammation of the wall of the digestive tract. The disease involves
constant cycles of flare-ups and
remission throughout the life of the patient, and without proper
treatment, must be addressed surgically. It is considered an
inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), similar to ulcerative colitis. Up to
43% of Crohn's disease patients develop painful and embarrassing
fistulas, which are tunnels that connect affected organs to surrounding
tissues such as the bladder, vagina, or skin. These are difficult to
treat, can cause fecal discharge in abnormal locations, and can thus
lead to incontinence, infections, and complications that will
necessitate surgery.
HUMIRA, or Adalimumab works by binding Tumor Necrosis Factor ?± (TNF-?±),
an important part of the immune response pathway -- in this way it is
related to infliximab and other TNF-?± blockers. It has been
approved in several countries for treatment of many autoimmune diseases
including CD, psoriasis, and certain types of arthritis. Abbott Labs is
also studying HUMIRA in pediatric CD.
The fistula study was based on data taken in the CHARM study. In a
subanalysis, it was shown that fistula healing was improved with
treatment with HUMIRA:
60% of patients experienced fistula healing at one year of
treatment
76% of patients who experienced healing at one year
sustained the healing through two years
71% of patients demonstrated a 50% reduction in the number
of draining fistulas after two years of treatment
Over a two year term, fistula patients had a higher quality of life
because the CD was in remission, defined as scoring greater than 170
points on the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (IBDQ):
after 1 year, 54% of patients and after 2 years, 60% of patients
achieved this score.
Sustainability of Adalimumab in Improving the Quality of Life
of Patients With Fistulizing Crohn's Disease: 2-Year Data From CHARM
E. V. Loftus, Jr., J. F. Colombel, R. Panaccione, B. G. Feagan, M. A.
Kamm, P. F. Pollack, J. Chao, P. Mulani
For More Information, see humira/
Anna Sophia McKenney
View drug information on Humira.
суббота, 18 февраля 2012 г.
суббота, 11 февраля 2012 г.
University Of Kentucky Gill Heart Researchers Study Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms
As the baby boomer generation races toward Medicare eligibility, a new screening procedure could mean that many men in the United States may soon learn that they have a killer condition they can do little or nothing about.
Anticipating a surge in diagnosed cases of abdominal aortic aneurysm, a condition for which Medicare just approved a one-time free screening for men, University of Kentucky researchers are working with $8.5 million in NIH funding to understand the condition and how it can be treated.
"In collaborative studies with Lisa Cassis, professor and director of the UK Graduate Center for Nutritional Sciences, we serendipitously developed an animal model of abdominal aneurysms that is not used in many laboratories, This model has provided us with way of defining the mechanisms that initiate and propagate this devastating disease," said Alan Daugherty, Director, UK Cardiovascular Research Center.
the United States there are currently 78.8 million baby boomers - people born between 1946 and 1964. More than half of baby boomers will be age 50 or older by next May, and this January will mark the 60th birthdays of the oldest boomers, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data by American Demographics.
Abdominal aneurysm currently ranks as the 10th leading killer in the United States; although scientists suspect that the incidence may be even higher as the disease is only detected upon autopsy, and autopsies are not always performed in the deaths of older people. The condition primarily affects men over age 55, so the Medicare-covered screening will only be for men. Currently, if a screening detects an abdominal aneurysm, patients face an expensive and unsure course of surgical of treatment. The aneurysm must be monitored, and physicians must use their best judgment to decide when and if surgery is warranted. Open surgery is a long term fix for this disease, but is associated with risks and long recovery times. More recently, endovascular approaches have been developed in which patients recover quickly. However, this intervention is not without significant risk, and is expensive. There is a dire need for development of a drug that will favorably impact this disease. At present, there is no non-surgical therapy for abdominal aortic aneurysm that has proven of benefit.
The expected hit to the Medicare system from the influx of aging baby boomers means that surgical treatment for every case of abdominal aneurysm expected to be diagnosed in coming years would be prohibitive.
Aside from costs, the number of surgeons, support staff and facilities equipped to deal with the surgery will be outstripped by the need to treat the huge numbers of men who may learn they have an aneurysm threatening their lives.
The research team at UK HealthCare's Jack and Linda Gill Heart Institute, led by Daugherty, will spend the next five years working with an animal model of abdominal aneurysm. The goal is to form a sufficient understanding of the condition to move into clinical trials, and eventually into the implementation of a pharmacological treatment for abdominal aneurysm.
Cassis and Nancy R. Webb, associate professor of internal medicine, along with Daugherty will direct their research toward understanding three separate facets of abdominal aneurysm. Cassis will lead a group focusing on gender effects, asking why the condition is much more prevalent in men. Webb's team will look at the role inflammation processes play in the disease, while Daugherty will investigate why abdominal aneurysm is always located in a specific location of the abdominal aorta.
A pharmacological solution to abdominal aneurysm treatment would mean that instead of waiting and wondering about a diagnosed aneurysm, patients and their doctors could aggressively treat the problem through drug therapies.
Pharmacological treatment is projected to be less expensive and less risky for most patients. Given the amount of time it takes to research a drug and bring it to market, it is possible that today's crop of 50-something baby boomer men may have an answer to abdominal aneurysm treatment by the time they qualify for the Medicare-approved screening at age 65.
UK was chosen as the site for this research after a peer review process at the National Institutes of Health enthusiastically endorsed the proposed research program that has been developed by the team of UK investigators, Daugherty, Cassis, and Webb. The Cardiovascular Research Center currently has more than $20 million dollars in NIH and other funding, and is a leader in cutting-edge clinical and translational research.
In striving to become a Top 20 public research institution, the University of Kentucky is a catalyst for a new Commonwealth - a Kentucky that is healthier, better educated, and positioned to compete in a global and changing economy. For more information about UK's efforts to become a Top 20 university, please go to uky.edu/OPBPA/Top20.html
Contact: Allison Elliott
University of Kentucky
Anticipating a surge in diagnosed cases of abdominal aortic aneurysm, a condition for which Medicare just approved a one-time free screening for men, University of Kentucky researchers are working with $8.5 million in NIH funding to understand the condition and how it can be treated.
"In collaborative studies with Lisa Cassis, professor and director of the UK Graduate Center for Nutritional Sciences, we serendipitously developed an animal model of abdominal aneurysms that is not used in many laboratories, This model has provided us with way of defining the mechanisms that initiate and propagate this devastating disease," said Alan Daugherty, Director, UK Cardiovascular Research Center.
the United States there are currently 78.8 million baby boomers - people born between 1946 and 1964. More than half of baby boomers will be age 50 or older by next May, and this January will mark the 60th birthdays of the oldest boomers, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data by American Demographics.
Abdominal aneurysm currently ranks as the 10th leading killer in the United States; although scientists suspect that the incidence may be even higher as the disease is only detected upon autopsy, and autopsies are not always performed in the deaths of older people. The condition primarily affects men over age 55, so the Medicare-covered screening will only be for men. Currently, if a screening detects an abdominal aneurysm, patients face an expensive and unsure course of surgical of treatment. The aneurysm must be monitored, and physicians must use their best judgment to decide when and if surgery is warranted. Open surgery is a long term fix for this disease, but is associated with risks and long recovery times. More recently, endovascular approaches have been developed in which patients recover quickly. However, this intervention is not without significant risk, and is expensive. There is a dire need for development of a drug that will favorably impact this disease. At present, there is no non-surgical therapy for abdominal aortic aneurysm that has proven of benefit.
The expected hit to the Medicare system from the influx of aging baby boomers means that surgical treatment for every case of abdominal aneurysm expected to be diagnosed in coming years would be prohibitive.
Aside from costs, the number of surgeons, support staff and facilities equipped to deal with the surgery will be outstripped by the need to treat the huge numbers of men who may learn they have an aneurysm threatening their lives.
The research team at UK HealthCare's Jack and Linda Gill Heart Institute, led by Daugherty, will spend the next five years working with an animal model of abdominal aneurysm. The goal is to form a sufficient understanding of the condition to move into clinical trials, and eventually into the implementation of a pharmacological treatment for abdominal aneurysm.
Cassis and Nancy R. Webb, associate professor of internal medicine, along with Daugherty will direct their research toward understanding three separate facets of abdominal aneurysm. Cassis will lead a group focusing on gender effects, asking why the condition is much more prevalent in men. Webb's team will look at the role inflammation processes play in the disease, while Daugherty will investigate why abdominal aneurysm is always located in a specific location of the abdominal aorta.
A pharmacological solution to abdominal aneurysm treatment would mean that instead of waiting and wondering about a diagnosed aneurysm, patients and their doctors could aggressively treat the problem through drug therapies.
Pharmacological treatment is projected to be less expensive and less risky for most patients. Given the amount of time it takes to research a drug and bring it to market, it is possible that today's crop of 50-something baby boomer men may have an answer to abdominal aneurysm treatment by the time they qualify for the Medicare-approved screening at age 65.
UK was chosen as the site for this research after a peer review process at the National Institutes of Health enthusiastically endorsed the proposed research program that has been developed by the team of UK investigators, Daugherty, Cassis, and Webb. The Cardiovascular Research Center currently has more than $20 million dollars in NIH and other funding, and is a leader in cutting-edge clinical and translational research.
In striving to become a Top 20 public research institution, the University of Kentucky is a catalyst for a new Commonwealth - a Kentucky that is healthier, better educated, and positioned to compete in a global and changing economy. For more information about UK's efforts to become a Top 20 university, please go to uky.edu/OPBPA/Top20.html
Contact: Allison Elliott
University of Kentucky
суббота, 4 февраля 2012 г.
New Technique Reveals Pancreatic Stem Cells
Wanted: stems cells. Just like those absconders chased by police all over the world, everybody can tell about their good deeds but none really knows how to recognize them. Yet, thanks to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Accademy of Sciences (PNAS) and authored by Nobel Laureate for Medicine in 2007 Mario Capecchi and by the researcher from the Catholic University of Rome Eugenio Sangiorgi, we now know how to reveal the stem cells camouflaged in the pancreas.
A stem cell is a cell capable of generating all the other cells constituting the same tissue (sometimes also called "adult stem cell").
"Reading the newspapers sometimes one would doubt it," says Sangiorgi, "but we don't know many things about stem cells. It might look odd, but for instance we don't have a method to distinguish a priori between a stem cell and any other cell in the same tissue. We can only infer that a cell really is a stem cell by observing its behaviour."
In other words, when a researcher encounters a tissue, it's not immediately possible to identify with certainty and thus isolate a stem cell. In some case, like in the meadows, we now know where they are located and how to single them out - and hence we have been capable of successful life saving transplants for many years. But in the case of the pancreas, as in that of many other tissues, until some years ago we doubted that these special cells were even present there.
"Together with Professor Capecchi, we had already designed in the past a novel way to mark the stem cells in a tissue: a sort of little flag, capable of helping us to effectively label the cells we were looking for", explains Sangiorgi. In order to achieve this, Capecchi and Sangiorgi used a molecular switch, that is a piece of DNA, which activates itself once the mouse under scrutiny takes a special drug. When the switch is "on", a special fluorescent protein is produced (and, as a matter of fact, the study about this type of proteins won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry last October). The luminous cells are indeed the long-sought stem cells.
"In order to understand that these are really stem cells, we need only to wait", comments Sangiorgi. "A normal cell is sooner or later destined to die. A stem cell, instead, retains its capacity to renew itself and replicate. Thus, if we can still observe, many months later, that a cell is still alive, that means it is indeed a stem cell - or a cell derived directly from the division of a stem cell".
In the newly published article, Sangiorgi and Capecchi have shown with their technique that a particular subset of the pancreatic cells, the so-called acinar cells, are indeed stem cells. The truly interesting aspect of their results is that these cells also produce important digestive enzymes.
"So far, a stem cell was really looked upon as a sort of General, in charge of all the other cells, but really doing nothing: an undifferentiated cell, but with no specific task other than generating new tissue. Acinar cells, on the other hand, despite being proved stem cells, have a well defined task in the pancreas. They are like soldiers doing their job, but also capable - when necessary - of taking over the reins of the government", tells Sangiorgi with a metaphor.
The work of Capecchi and Sangiorgi paves the way to an extension of the definition of the stem cell, which will lead to a more detailed study on the proliferation mechanisms at the root of the success of these cells - and of their potential danger.
"Thanks to their extraordinary reproductive power - Sangiorgi, in fact, explains - these cells might even turn out to be carcinogenic. But if we are capable of constructing an effective instrument like ours in order to isolate and study them even in other organs, we can study their properties and give many answers about the way they work. One of the things we would like to understand is if also in vivo these types of cells - somehow eternal - are more tumour-sensitive - for instance because they tend to accumulate all the potential environmental risk factors throughout their very long life".
Eugenio Sangiorgi has been collaborating with Mario Capecchi for many years: "I already admired him a great deal before he won the Nobel Prize", he says. "The nicest thing about him is that - even at 72 - he keeps working in active research and continues being as enthusiastic as a child, always full of new ideas".
Source:
Eugenio Sangiorgi
Catholic University of Rome
A stem cell is a cell capable of generating all the other cells constituting the same tissue (sometimes also called "adult stem cell").
"Reading the newspapers sometimes one would doubt it," says Sangiorgi, "but we don't know many things about stem cells. It might look odd, but for instance we don't have a method to distinguish a priori between a stem cell and any other cell in the same tissue. We can only infer that a cell really is a stem cell by observing its behaviour."
In other words, when a researcher encounters a tissue, it's not immediately possible to identify with certainty and thus isolate a stem cell. In some case, like in the meadows, we now know where they are located and how to single them out - and hence we have been capable of successful life saving transplants for many years. But in the case of the pancreas, as in that of many other tissues, until some years ago we doubted that these special cells were even present there.
"Together with Professor Capecchi, we had already designed in the past a novel way to mark the stem cells in a tissue: a sort of little flag, capable of helping us to effectively label the cells we were looking for", explains Sangiorgi. In order to achieve this, Capecchi and Sangiorgi used a molecular switch, that is a piece of DNA, which activates itself once the mouse under scrutiny takes a special drug. When the switch is "on", a special fluorescent protein is produced (and, as a matter of fact, the study about this type of proteins won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry last October). The luminous cells are indeed the long-sought stem cells.
"In order to understand that these are really stem cells, we need only to wait", comments Sangiorgi. "A normal cell is sooner or later destined to die. A stem cell, instead, retains its capacity to renew itself and replicate. Thus, if we can still observe, many months later, that a cell is still alive, that means it is indeed a stem cell - or a cell derived directly from the division of a stem cell".
In the newly published article, Sangiorgi and Capecchi have shown with their technique that a particular subset of the pancreatic cells, the so-called acinar cells, are indeed stem cells. The truly interesting aspect of their results is that these cells also produce important digestive enzymes.
"So far, a stem cell was really looked upon as a sort of General, in charge of all the other cells, but really doing nothing: an undifferentiated cell, but with no specific task other than generating new tissue. Acinar cells, on the other hand, despite being proved stem cells, have a well defined task in the pancreas. They are like soldiers doing their job, but also capable - when necessary - of taking over the reins of the government", tells Sangiorgi with a metaphor.
The work of Capecchi and Sangiorgi paves the way to an extension of the definition of the stem cell, which will lead to a more detailed study on the proliferation mechanisms at the root of the success of these cells - and of their potential danger.
"Thanks to their extraordinary reproductive power - Sangiorgi, in fact, explains - these cells might even turn out to be carcinogenic. But if we are capable of constructing an effective instrument like ours in order to isolate and study them even in other organs, we can study their properties and give many answers about the way they work. One of the things we would like to understand is if also in vivo these types of cells - somehow eternal - are more tumour-sensitive - for instance because they tend to accumulate all the potential environmental risk factors throughout their very long life".
Eugenio Sangiorgi has been collaborating with Mario Capecchi for many years: "I already admired him a great deal before he won the Nobel Prize", he says. "The nicest thing about him is that - even at 72 - he keeps working in active research and continues being as enthusiastic as a child, always full of new ideas".
Source:
Eugenio Sangiorgi
Catholic University of Rome
суббота, 28 января 2012 г.
Motion Sickness A Reality In The Virtual World, Too
Clemson University psychologist Eric Muth sees motion sickness as potential fallout from high-end technology that once was limited to the commercial marketplace moving to consumer use in gaming devices.
Microsoft's Kinect is the latest example of technology with the potential to use a helmet-mounted display to immerse the gamer in a 3D virtual world. It uses sensors and software to detect body movement and positioning to control responses in a game environment, although he said the risk of motion sickness from Kinect itself likely is low.
"What was once limited to the military and high-tech research, where users were screened and monitored for negative reactions, is available now to the public," said Muth, who is director of Clemson's Human Factors Institute. "You're not talking about carefully selected users like pilots and astronauts. Anybody with a few hundred dollars to spend can use it and the access will spread. The downside could be that people sensitive to visual disorders and susceptible to motion sickness suffer symptoms ranging from nausea to seizures. There needs to be a lot more research into the side effects."
Muth's research focuses on helmet-mounted displays that are used in virtual-environments technology. Before coming to Clemson 11 years ago, Muth spent three years in the Navy as an aerospace experimental psychologist working on wearable monitors and tracking systems to improve military training and to monitor soldiers, sailors and marines during combat. Now he uses helmet-mounted displays to study motion sickness, nausea and other upper gastrointestinal discomforts - the area of his graduate studies at the Pennsylvania State University under Robert Stern, a pioneer in biofeedback.
"Basically, when people are exposed to stimuli from a helmet-mounted display in the lab, it involves linking a subject's head movements to the changing view in the virtual environment," he said. "The response is complicated. It's not just a perceptual adjustment.
"Years ago research showed that the brain can re-set an upside-down view of world to be right side up. Constantly changing images pose a bigger challenge for the brain, which has to deal with 'lag': the time it takes the computer system to update and display changing visual images corresponding to the users head movements. This may be a variable linked to motion sickness and other symptoms related to helmet-mounted devices."
Muth and the other researchers at the Human Factors Institute seek to improve the way people interact with technology and devices.
"Helmet-mounted devices are going to be found everywhere as video gamers and the public get caught up in virtual reality," said Muth. "We have already seen the popularity of 3D movies, and 3D television is making its way into our living rooms. We need to know more about the side effects and how to deal with them. I would not allow my kids to use this technology before checking their susceptibility to the downsides, and even then I would limit and monitor their access to the virtual world."
Source:
Eric Muth
Clemson University
Microsoft's Kinect is the latest example of technology with the potential to use a helmet-mounted display to immerse the gamer in a 3D virtual world. It uses sensors and software to detect body movement and positioning to control responses in a game environment, although he said the risk of motion sickness from Kinect itself likely is low.
"What was once limited to the military and high-tech research, where users were screened and monitored for negative reactions, is available now to the public," said Muth, who is director of Clemson's Human Factors Institute. "You're not talking about carefully selected users like pilots and astronauts. Anybody with a few hundred dollars to spend can use it and the access will spread. The downside could be that people sensitive to visual disorders and susceptible to motion sickness suffer symptoms ranging from nausea to seizures. There needs to be a lot more research into the side effects."
Muth's research focuses on helmet-mounted displays that are used in virtual-environments technology. Before coming to Clemson 11 years ago, Muth spent three years in the Navy as an aerospace experimental psychologist working on wearable monitors and tracking systems to improve military training and to monitor soldiers, sailors and marines during combat. Now he uses helmet-mounted displays to study motion sickness, nausea and other upper gastrointestinal discomforts - the area of his graduate studies at the Pennsylvania State University under Robert Stern, a pioneer in biofeedback.
"Basically, when people are exposed to stimuli from a helmet-mounted display in the lab, it involves linking a subject's head movements to the changing view in the virtual environment," he said. "The response is complicated. It's not just a perceptual adjustment.
"Years ago research showed that the brain can re-set an upside-down view of world to be right side up. Constantly changing images pose a bigger challenge for the brain, which has to deal with 'lag': the time it takes the computer system to update and display changing visual images corresponding to the users head movements. This may be a variable linked to motion sickness and other symptoms related to helmet-mounted devices."
Muth and the other researchers at the Human Factors Institute seek to improve the way people interact with technology and devices.
"Helmet-mounted devices are going to be found everywhere as video gamers and the public get caught up in virtual reality," said Muth. "We have already seen the popularity of 3D movies, and 3D television is making its way into our living rooms. We need to know more about the side effects and how to deal with them. I would not allow my kids to use this technology before checking their susceptibility to the downsides, and even then I would limit and monitor their access to the virtual world."
Source:
Eric Muth
Clemson University
суббота, 21 января 2012 г.
Hospital Stress Turns Friendly Gut Bacteria Nasty, Killing 40% Of Patients
Researchers have discovered that our friendly gut bacteria, vital partners in fermenting and processing our everyday food, turn on us in times of stress such as major surgery, cancer chemotherapy or bowel disease and seize the opportunity to create havoc and kill our other probiotic bacteria.
Swimmer's Ear, infections from wearing contact lenses, and puncture wounds in children's feet which turn septic are all caused by the common bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is widely found in soil, water and sewage. While only 3% of people normally harbour this organism in their intestines, during hospitalization for critical illness, more than 50% of patients end up with this bacteria. Most of the time Pseudomonas aeruginosa lives within our guts in peaceful co-existence when we have plenty of food and good health. But in times of stress such as during hospital stays they rapidly turn on us and become concerned only for their own survival. Patients infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa have a high fatality rate approaching 40%.
"Since most hospital acquired infections develop from bacteria we already have in our guts, working out how to shield them from the stress molecules we produce may be a more effective treatment than trying to use antibiotics to kill them", says medical researcher Professor Olga Zaborina from the University of Chicago, USA.
The scientists have discovered for the first time that these bacteria have a highly sophisticated sensing apparatus which recognises and intercepts chemical compounds we produce during stress such as endorphin hormones, immune system molecules such as interferon, and signals produced by damaged and oxygen starved tissues like adenosine.
"This means that the bacteria have evolved a way of taking advantage of any opportunity through their highly refined 'sense and respond circuits' which can identify the very molecules we humans use to respond to stress or illness", says Professor Zaborina. "This virulence circuitry is so clever that P. aeruginosa can recognise our weakness, communicate this information to other bacteria, and simultaneously release compounds which kill our normal probiotic gut bacteria", giving them home field advantage right off the bat.
Currently over-using antibiotics in hospitals is causing major problems with the spread of antibiotic resistance amongst bacteria. Even ordinary environmental bacteria have evolved a highly sophisticated mechanism to become resistant to antibiotics, enabling them to kill badly stressed and weak patients. Intestinal bacteria such as P. aeruginosa are a particular problem because they form a protective slime, called a biofilm, which stops antibiotics from killing them. Even within the slime they can still sense and respond to a host's stress chemicals, causing infections.
The only treatments available until now have been a 'take no prisoners' approach using antibiotics which kill several types of bacteria including the normal, protective, probiotic bacteria in our guts, further weakening the patient.
"If we do not find a strategy to contain intestinal bacteria rather than eliminating them, which helps spread resistance, we will soon run out of effective antibiotics", says Professor Zaborina. "We know of many diseases caused or complicated by intestinal bacteria such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease, infectious diarrhoea, or cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants".
"Yet in all these cases specific bacterial strains responsible for the problem cannot always be identified, because the species are difficult to culture", says Professor Zaborina. In addition it is not just the mere presence of the strains in the intestine that may be threatening, but rather the state of their virulence, which is not routinely examined clinically. "Exposing the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde nature of intestinal bacteria is a key to understanding how they behave. We cannot afford to ignore their will to survive during stress".
The scientists suggest that in future paying better attention to the needs of our gut bacteria, especially when someone is sick, dehydrated, starved or stressed, could help to reduce the need for antibiotics and lead to a lower hospital acquired infection rate.
About the SOCIETY FOR GENERAL MICROBIOLOGY
The SGM has been established for over 50 years, promoting and supporting the art, science and significance of microbiology and associated subjects worldwide.
SOCIETY FOR GENERAL MICROBIOLOGY
Marlborough House
Basingstoke Road, Spencers Wood
Reading
RG7 1AG
socgenmicrobiol
Swimmer's Ear, infections from wearing contact lenses, and puncture wounds in children's feet which turn septic are all caused by the common bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is widely found in soil, water and sewage. While only 3% of people normally harbour this organism in their intestines, during hospitalization for critical illness, more than 50% of patients end up with this bacteria. Most of the time Pseudomonas aeruginosa lives within our guts in peaceful co-existence when we have plenty of food and good health. But in times of stress such as during hospital stays they rapidly turn on us and become concerned only for their own survival. Patients infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa have a high fatality rate approaching 40%.
"Since most hospital acquired infections develop from bacteria we already have in our guts, working out how to shield them from the stress molecules we produce may be a more effective treatment than trying to use antibiotics to kill them", says medical researcher Professor Olga Zaborina from the University of Chicago, USA.
The scientists have discovered for the first time that these bacteria have a highly sophisticated sensing apparatus which recognises and intercepts chemical compounds we produce during stress such as endorphin hormones, immune system molecules such as interferon, and signals produced by damaged and oxygen starved tissues like adenosine.
"This means that the bacteria have evolved a way of taking advantage of any opportunity through their highly refined 'sense and respond circuits' which can identify the very molecules we humans use to respond to stress or illness", says Professor Zaborina. "This virulence circuitry is so clever that P. aeruginosa can recognise our weakness, communicate this information to other bacteria, and simultaneously release compounds which kill our normal probiotic gut bacteria", giving them home field advantage right off the bat.
Currently over-using antibiotics in hospitals is causing major problems with the spread of antibiotic resistance amongst bacteria. Even ordinary environmental bacteria have evolved a highly sophisticated mechanism to become resistant to antibiotics, enabling them to kill badly stressed and weak patients. Intestinal bacteria such as P. aeruginosa are a particular problem because they form a protective slime, called a biofilm, which stops antibiotics from killing them. Even within the slime they can still sense and respond to a host's stress chemicals, causing infections.
The only treatments available until now have been a 'take no prisoners' approach using antibiotics which kill several types of bacteria including the normal, protective, probiotic bacteria in our guts, further weakening the patient.
"If we do not find a strategy to contain intestinal bacteria rather than eliminating them, which helps spread resistance, we will soon run out of effective antibiotics", says Professor Zaborina. "We know of many diseases caused or complicated by intestinal bacteria such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease, infectious diarrhoea, or cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants".
"Yet in all these cases specific bacterial strains responsible for the problem cannot always be identified, because the species are difficult to culture", says Professor Zaborina. In addition it is not just the mere presence of the strains in the intestine that may be threatening, but rather the state of their virulence, which is not routinely examined clinically. "Exposing the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde nature of intestinal bacteria is a key to understanding how they behave. We cannot afford to ignore their will to survive during stress".
The scientists suggest that in future paying better attention to the needs of our gut bacteria, especially when someone is sick, dehydrated, starved or stressed, could help to reduce the need for antibiotics and lead to a lower hospital acquired infection rate.
About the SOCIETY FOR GENERAL MICROBIOLOGY
The SGM has been established for over 50 years, promoting and supporting the art, science and significance of microbiology and associated subjects worldwide.
SOCIETY FOR GENERAL MICROBIOLOGY
Marlborough House
Basingstoke Road, Spencers Wood
Reading
RG7 1AG
socgenmicrobiol
суббота, 14 января 2012 г.
What The Public Needs To Know About Restaurant Inspections
Foodborne diseases cause an estimated 76 million illnesses in the U.S. each year with about half associated with restaurant meals. More than 70 billion meals per year are purchased in restaurants in the U.S., accounting for 47% of total food expenditure. Therefore, preventing restaurant-associated foodborne disease is an important task of public health departments. According to an article published in the June 2008 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the public is generally unaware of the frequency of restaurant inspections and the consequences of poor inspection results.
According to Timothy F. Jones, MD, Tennessee Department of Health and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, "That consumers have a number of misconceptions and unrealistically high expectations of the restaurant-inspection system was a major finding of this large survey. Inspections are one mechanism through which regulatory agencies educate operators and encourage ongoing compliance. However, the industry must ultimately take responsibility for consistently and effectively maintaining food safety. Public health and regulatory agencies should work closely with the industry to improve consumers' understanding of inspection scores and the limitations of regulatory inspections, as well as the role of regulatory inspections in disease prevention."
Using data from telephone surveys of 2000 adults in Tennessee in 2006, researchers found that while almost all respondents (97%) were aware that restaurants were inspected regularly, over 50% believed that inspections occurred from 5 to more than 12 times per year. Only 33% correctly answered that the inspection frequency is twice per year. When asked how often restaurants should be inspected, even fewer people (9%) responded that restaurants should be inspected two times per year; 53% believed that inspections should occur about 12 times per year. When asked about the relative importance of inspections to protect consumers from illnesses, 70% said "very important" and 28% said it was "the most important" safety measure.
Tennessee restaurant inspectors use a 44-item checklist with a total possible score of 100 for best performance. Respondents were asked what score would be the lowest acceptable for a restaurant at which they would eat. Seventy-seven percent said a score of 80 or greater, of whom, 45% said more than 90. This contrasts to a mean score of 82 from another study of 168,000 inspections in Tennessee and where only one third of all restaurants scored higher than 90.
When asked what should happen if a restaurant did not get an acceptable score, 657 (37%) said the restaurant should be closed immediately and allowed to reopen when the situation was corrected. In Tennessee, as in many jurisdictions, it is unusual for sanctions to be imposed on an establishment based on a single inspection. Regulators work with operators to promptly mitigate risks, but closure generally follows recurrent problems that have gone uncorrected after substantial training and consultation.
The article is "Public Knowledge and Attitudes Regarding Public Health Inspections of Restaurants" by Timothy F. Jones, MD, and Karen Grimm, MA. It appears in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 34, Issue 6 (June 2008) published by Elsevier.
Source: AJPM Editorial Office
Elsevier Health Sciences
According to Timothy F. Jones, MD, Tennessee Department of Health and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, "That consumers have a number of misconceptions and unrealistically high expectations of the restaurant-inspection system was a major finding of this large survey. Inspections are one mechanism through which regulatory agencies educate operators and encourage ongoing compliance. However, the industry must ultimately take responsibility for consistently and effectively maintaining food safety. Public health and regulatory agencies should work closely with the industry to improve consumers' understanding of inspection scores and the limitations of regulatory inspections, as well as the role of regulatory inspections in disease prevention."
Using data from telephone surveys of 2000 adults in Tennessee in 2006, researchers found that while almost all respondents (97%) were aware that restaurants were inspected regularly, over 50% believed that inspections occurred from 5 to more than 12 times per year. Only 33% correctly answered that the inspection frequency is twice per year. When asked how often restaurants should be inspected, even fewer people (9%) responded that restaurants should be inspected two times per year; 53% believed that inspections should occur about 12 times per year. When asked about the relative importance of inspections to protect consumers from illnesses, 70% said "very important" and 28% said it was "the most important" safety measure.
Tennessee restaurant inspectors use a 44-item checklist with a total possible score of 100 for best performance. Respondents were asked what score would be the lowest acceptable for a restaurant at which they would eat. Seventy-seven percent said a score of 80 or greater, of whom, 45% said more than 90. This contrasts to a mean score of 82 from another study of 168,000 inspections in Tennessee and where only one third of all restaurants scored higher than 90.
When asked what should happen if a restaurant did not get an acceptable score, 657 (37%) said the restaurant should be closed immediately and allowed to reopen when the situation was corrected. In Tennessee, as in many jurisdictions, it is unusual for sanctions to be imposed on an establishment based on a single inspection. Regulators work with operators to promptly mitigate risks, but closure generally follows recurrent problems that have gone uncorrected after substantial training and consultation.
The article is "Public Knowledge and Attitudes Regarding Public Health Inspections of Restaurants" by Timothy F. Jones, MD, and Karen Grimm, MA. It appears in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 34, Issue 6 (June 2008) published by Elsevier.
Source: AJPM Editorial Office
Elsevier Health Sciences
суббота, 7 января 2012 г.
European Regulators Reaffirm Pfizer's COX-2 Portfolio
Pfizer Inc said today that European regulators have completed their safety assessment of the COX-2 specific inhibitor class and have reaffirmed the use of Pfizer's COX-2 specific inhibitor medicines Celebrex, Bextra and Dynastat in a broad range of patients.
The review, which began in July 2002, was conducted by the Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products and has been ratified by the European Commission. As part of the ratification, Pfizer will revise the labels of its COX-2 specific inhibitors to clarify for physicians how best to use these medicines in patients with cardiovascular disease as well as patients at high risk of gastrointestinal events and patients who take low-dose aspirin.
'We are pleased that the Commission has affirmed the use of these important medicines for patients across Europe," said Dr. Jack Watters, Vice President of Medical and Regulatory Affairs for Pfizer Europe/Canada.
"Pfizer 's COX-2 specific inhibitor medicines have been studied in tens of thousands of patients worldwide and have been shown to be not only effective in reducing pain and inflammation, but do so with less risk of the gastrointestinal side effects often associated with older, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)."
One of the many studies that demonstrate the superior gastrointestinal safety profile of Celebrex involved more than 1.4 million elderly patients in Ontario, Canada of which over 15,000 were treated with Celebrex. This study showed that patients who took older NSAIDs were four times more likely to be hospitalized due to a gastrointestinal hemorrhage than patients who received Celebrex.
European regulators affirmed that Celebrex can be appropriately used in patients with cardiovascular disease based on the large body of data submitted by Pfizer. One of these studies, which included more than 22,000 patients, confirmed that those who received Celebrex were not at an increased risk of serious coronary heart disease compared to patients who received placebo or other pain medicines (rofecoxib, naproxen and ibuprofen).
Pfizer's COX-2 specific inhibitor portfolio consists of Celebrex and Bextra, both oral medicines indicated for the treatment of rheumatoid and osteoarthritis, as well as Dynastat, an injectable COX-2 specific inhibitor used to manage post-surgical pain.
Celebrex is the most widely prescribed COX-2 specific inhibitor in the world with over 42 million patients treated since its introduction in 1999.
View drug information on Bextra.
The review, which began in July 2002, was conducted by the Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products and has been ratified by the European Commission. As part of the ratification, Pfizer will revise the labels of its COX-2 specific inhibitors to clarify for physicians how best to use these medicines in patients with cardiovascular disease as well as patients at high risk of gastrointestinal events and patients who take low-dose aspirin.
'We are pleased that the Commission has affirmed the use of these important medicines for patients across Europe," said Dr. Jack Watters, Vice President of Medical and Regulatory Affairs for Pfizer Europe/Canada.
"Pfizer 's COX-2 specific inhibitor medicines have been studied in tens of thousands of patients worldwide and have been shown to be not only effective in reducing pain and inflammation, but do so with less risk of the gastrointestinal side effects often associated with older, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)."
One of the many studies that demonstrate the superior gastrointestinal safety profile of Celebrex involved more than 1.4 million elderly patients in Ontario, Canada of which over 15,000 were treated with Celebrex. This study showed that patients who took older NSAIDs were four times more likely to be hospitalized due to a gastrointestinal hemorrhage than patients who received Celebrex.
European regulators affirmed that Celebrex can be appropriately used in patients with cardiovascular disease based on the large body of data submitted by Pfizer. One of these studies, which included more than 22,000 patients, confirmed that those who received Celebrex were not at an increased risk of serious coronary heart disease compared to patients who received placebo or other pain medicines (rofecoxib, naproxen and ibuprofen).
Pfizer's COX-2 specific inhibitor portfolio consists of Celebrex and Bextra, both oral medicines indicated for the treatment of rheumatoid and osteoarthritis, as well as Dynastat, an injectable COX-2 specific inhibitor used to manage post-surgical pain.
Celebrex is the most widely prescribed COX-2 specific inhibitor in the world with over 42 million patients treated since its introduction in 1999.
View drug information on Bextra.
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