Alex Rodriguez

Tiger Woods is currently in a dilemma as he just cannot find any way to keep “curtains” on his personal life, but Rodriguez is feeling easy. This has been primarily because while Woods tasted success long back, Rodriguez is still a winner.

From NYdailynews.com:

What will make him different from Bonds? Or McGwire? What makes him different from any of them? If you can forgive A-Rod now that he is a big winner Yankee, does that mean you have to forgive McGwire and Bonds, too, and stop worrying about what Sammy Sosa – who grew big and strong and hit 60 home runs three times in four years – might have been taking?

It could be 15 years or more before Alex Rodriguez is up for election to the Hall of Fame, maybe having finished out his career with 800 home runs in the big leagues. Does he go right through the front door if a lot of other drug guys are on the outside, still looking in?

He is, in so many ways, the greatest show on earth. He gets into it with Dallas Braden. He is in this story with Dr. Tony Galea, even though he still hasn’t given a straight answer about why a Canadian doctor had to give him anti-inflammatories.

The Yankees privately wrung their hands about the steroid confession last spring, and about Galea. It won’t be the last time they do that. Doesn’t matter. Where’s A-Rod going? Here’s where: Six hundred home runs. Seven hundred home runs. And the Yankees will ride him for all he’s worth. Derek Jeter is one face of the team, representing all those old-Yankee values. A-Rod? He’s the face of who they really are.

Rodriguez is expected to pass 600 runs before he turns 35 in the month of July.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

An inhaled steroid, Fluticasone propionate, could possibly reduce the ability of major pathogens to invade the respiratory epithelium, according to a study by Sebastian Albertí (Institut Universitari d’Investigacions en Ciències de la Salut, IUNICS, Palma de Mallorca, Spain) and colleagues.

From Medicalnewstoday.com:

Patients affected by COPD often suffer episodes of worsening of symptoms called acute exacerbations, mostly caused by bacterial infections. These episodes of exacerbation impact negatively on the health status of the patients, worsen their prognosis and are associated with a very significant social and economic cost.

Treatment with inhaled steroids, such as fluticasone propionate, reduces the frequency and severity of acute exacerbations in patients with COPD, but their role in controlling bacterial infection is controversial.

In healthy subjects the lung is sterile, but in patients with COPD it is not and bacteria like S. pneumoniae and H. influenzae is frequently isolated.

The study findings are considered to have critical implications for worldwide physicians for treating patients with COPD.

Severe asthma is rare and seen only in 1 out of 10 people struggling with asthma. High doses of steroids are required to be administered, in a progressive manner, to control the disease symptoms.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Seventeen people with severe asthma who still had symptoms, despite being treated with a range of drugs, were also given 25 mg of a drug that blocks TNF alpha production (etanercept) twice weekly, injected below the skin for 12 weeks. Fifteen completed the course.

At the end of the study period, these patients experienced a significant improvement in symptoms and lung function. Two patients were able to discontinue one of their drugs.

The treatment also curbed the inflammatory reaction in the lungs, known as bronchial hyperresponsiveness. And there were few side effects.

The authors caution that further research will be required before this approach can be recommended, but they say that it offers a potentially new avenue of treatment for severe asthma.

Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha), the chemical, was evaluated by the research team and is noticed in many chronic inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, and psoriasis.

Antonio Pettigrew

Pettigrew admitted use of performance enhancers and this admission could mean that the gold medals won by other relay team members, Alvin and Calvin Harrison, are in jeopardy.

From Foxsports.com.au:

Pettigrew testified that Graham encouraged him in 1997 to inject human growth hormone and the oxygen-boosting drug EPO, which are both banned in track.

Soon after, Pettigrew said, he began buying the drugs from Angel “Memo” Heredia, an admitted steroids dealer from Laredo, Texas.

Once he began taking the banned substances, Pettigrew said he was able to run 400 metres in under 43 seconds for the first time.

“I was running incredible times as I was preparing for track meets,” Pettigrew said during 30 minutes of testimony.

“I was able to recover faster.”

Pettigrew initially lied to federal investigators and denied doping when they first talked to him in February 2005. But he finally confessed to cheating when confronted with documents in October 2006 strongly suggesting drug buys from Heredia.

The doping admission came during a testimony in the trial of Trevor Graham, the former coach of Pettigrew, who is accused of hiding the truth before federal authorities investigating doping in sports.

This finding was disclosed in a study published in the July 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

From News-Medical.Net:

The study compared hospitalization rates for 600 children between the ages of 2 months and 12 months who visited emergency rooms with moderate-to-severe bronchiolitis. Patients were treated with either a dose of dexamethasone (a glucocorticoid form of steroid medication) or a placebo and evaluated after one hour, and again at four hours. The hospital admission rate for both groups was identical at nearly 40 percent. Both groups improved during treatment, but the placebo group did as well as the group treated with active medication. The study was conducted in the emergency departments at 20 hospitals across the United States between November and April during a three-year period. Bronchiolitis is most common during the winter months.

“We learned that a commonly used treatment doesn’t work,” said Howard M. Corneli, M.D., professor of pediatrics at the University of Utah and the principal investigator on the study. “Now that we’ve demonstrated glucocorticoids aren’t effective in treating bronchiolitis, we can focus our efforts on finding better treatments and better preventive strategies.”

These findings by the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) are hailed by the medical community as a set of qualified advice for treating bronchiolitis, one of the most common causes of infant hospitalization.

Nathan Kuppermann, M.D., a professor of emergency medicine and pediatrics at the University of California, Davis, chair of the PECARN network’s steering committee, and the senior investigator of the study, was of the view that this study demonstrates the power of PECARN in providing answers to otherwise difficult-to-answer questions.

Intervention can reduce the frequency and severity of COPD exacerbations highlighting considerable public health implications, according to John Heffner, M.D., past president of the ATS.

From News-Medical.Net:

The researchers found that not only did the patients randomized to receive erythromycin have fewer exacerbations, but among the patients studied, 60 percent of the exacerbations that occurred were within the placebo group. While the number of exacerbation-related hospitalizations was small, more than twice as many occurred among the placebo group—14 versus 6. The median duration of exacerbations from onset to resolution of symptoms was 9 days in the erythromycin group and 13 days in the placebo group.

“Our results did not allow us to determine a mechanism for these findings. However based on in-vitro studies we suspect that the mechanism is likely to involve the anti-inflammatory properties of erythromycin,” noted Dr. Seemungal.

While their findings are encouraging, Dr. Seemungal points out that they must be put in context with future findings. Furthermore, the threat of growing antibiotic resistance resulting from widespread prophylactic use of erythromycin is not a trivial concern. “In this scenario, substantial, widespread emergence of macrolide bacterial resistance is virtually foreordained, with attendant reduction in the antimicrobial usefulness of this drug class,” wrote Ken M. Kunisaki, M.D. and Denise E. Niewoehner, M.D., of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Minneapolis, in the accompanying editorial. “Balancing benefit against harm could pose a dilemma for which there might be no clear answers.”

As per lead author of the paper, Terence A. R. Seemungal, Ph.D., and Jadwiga Wedzicha, M.D., principle investigator, this study revealed that low doses of macrolide therapy were effective in reducing frequency of exacerbations and severity with moderate to severe COPD.

Robert Naclerio, M.D., professor of surgery at the University of Chicago and director of the study, said patients afflicted with hay fever and treated with fluticasone propionate experienced significant improvement in terms of inflammation measures.

From News.Bio-Medicine.Org:

“Because of the effect on inflammation, we prefer fluticasone,” he added, “but for patients, the choice may come down to cost and whether they would prefer a pill or a spray.”

Since one out of five people in the United States suffers from seasonal allergies, such preferences have financial implications. Antihistamines are prescribed three times as often, even though intranasal corticosteroids are less expensive than the non-sedating antihistamines. Combining loratidine with montelukast increases the cost difference.

A daily dose of Claritin, the leading antihistamine, costs $2.92 at the University of Chicago Hospitals pharmacy. Singulair, which works by blocking leukotrienes — substances that trigger inflammation — costs $4 per day. Flonase, the leading prescription nasal spray, costs $2.21 per day.

The finding by researchers from University of Chicago was presented at the 58th annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

It was reported that this drug is effective for bringing an overall response rate of 63 percent when used as a rescue therapy.

The data will be presented by the study’s lead author, Joanne Kurtzberg, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology and Director of the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at Duke University Medical Center at the 2010 BMT Tandem Meeting.

From News-Medical.Net:

“Treatment-resistant GvHD remains a significant challenge in transplantation and results in poor outcomes and high mortality,” said Dr. Kurtzberg. “We are encouraged to see high response rates and improved survival in children with disease unresponsive to other treatments. Because of its excellent risk-benefit profile, Prochymal should be considered in pediatric patients with GvHD that does not respond to steroids.”

Highlights from the Study

The study (Protocol 275) evaluated Prochymal as a rescue therapy in 59 pediatric patients with severe, treatment resistant GvHD. Patients were evaluated for response to Prochymal at day 28 of therapy and survival through day 100.

The children in this study had severe, refractory GvHD:

* At study entry, six patients (10%) had Grade B, 18 patients (31%) had Grade C and 35 patients (59%) had Grade D GvHD. Grades C and D represent the most severe forms of GvHD.

* Prior to treatment with Prochymal, patients had GvHD that was unresponsive to an average of three lines of therapy for an average of 46 days.

The study results were included in the February supplement issue of the peer-reviewed journal, Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation.

There could be a possible association between this disorder and specific genetic variations, as per scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the National Institute of Mental Health.

From News-Medical.Net:

Compared to the control group, women with PMDD were significantly more likely to have the ESR1 gene variants, the study found.

“While these are preliminary findings that require replication in larger studies, we would argue that this may explain part of the variance among women in the susceptibility to developing this mood disorder,” Rubinow said. “Studies have shown that PMDD is characterized by abnormal sensitivity to reproductive steroids like estrogen. As a receptor for the hormone that can trigger the onset of PMDD symptoms, ESR1 has clear physiologic relevance for this disorder.”

The authors acknowledge that as with other complex genetic disorders, the contribution to PMDD of polymorphisms in a single gene may not be large. In addition, they also noted that the findings may be telling us more about the control group.

Dr. David R. Rubinow, the study’s senior author and the Meymandi distinguished professor and chair of psychiatry at UNC School of Medicine, said that findings of this study provide implications to help find why some women experience mood swings and what could be the possible nature of this susceptibility.

The use of steroids in long run could weaken the heart more than previously considered along with leading to heart failure, as per a research reported in Circulation: Heart Failure, an American Heart Association journal.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Baggish and his co-investigators used a technique known as Doppler echocardiography to examine the left ventricle’s function and structure. The test uses high-frequency sound waves, or ultrasound, to create moving pictures of the heart and its blood flow.

The steroid-using group included 12 male weight lifters, average age 40, who reported taking about 675 milligrams of steroids per week for nine years. The control group was seven age-matched, male weight lifters who reported no steroid exposure. Both groups had similar durations of past and current weight lifting and other physical activity, as well as similar cardiac risk factors other than steroid use. Although the users and non-users had comparable body-mass indices and body-surface areas, the steroid users had more muscle mass than the non-users.

Despite the small sample size, the statistically significant differences in heart function suggest a strong link between steroid use and heart impairment, said investigators who are conducting further studies to confirm their findings.

Co-authors of the study were Rory B. Weiner, M.D.; Gen Kanayama, M.D., Ph.D.; James I. Hudson, M.D.; Sc.D.; Michael H. Picard, M.D.; Adolph M. Hutter, Jr., M.D.; and Harrison G. Pope, Jr., M.D.

Dr. Eli Lewis, director of the Clinical Islet Laboratory at BGU, said that using a safe, non-toxic and non-steroidal drug may be effective in blocking inflammation by targeting multiple inflammatory molecules.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Human pancreatic islet transplantation is a vital option for type-1 diabetes patients. In this procedure, globally performed in over 50 centers, islets are collected from donors soon after death in a sterile laboratory. At the same time, a diabetic transplant candidate is reached and a transplantation team is recruited. In this relatively simple surgical procedure, islets are introduced into the liver under local anesthesia, and covered by minimal immunosuppression, complete insulin independence is achieved.

Unfortunately, islet mass is rapidly reduced after engraftment by robust local inflammation. Even more unfortunate for the grafted cells, there is no anti-inflammatory coverage due to the removal of steroids from immunosuppression protocol. For this reason, the typical islet recipient will receive at least two grafts in order to restore glucose levels. But perhaps the most discouraging information is that five-year islet cell function follow-up studies reveal unacceptably high islet erosion caused in part by unrestrained ongoing inflammation. There is, therefore, great demand for an anti-inflammatory islet survival regimen that is safe, feasible and effective.

Normal glucose levels can be restored along with relieving patients from injections of insulin by treating diabetes with transplanted human pancreatic islet cells.

Two airmail boxes from Thailand, which were addressed to the Wentworthville Magpies Jim Beam Cup player, were intercepted by the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service on July 8, 2009.

From news.smh.com.au:

Customs officers seized the boxes and notified ASADA of the attempted importation of performance-enhancing drugs.

ASADA Chairman Richard Ings said the case against Mansfield was then strengthened after financial transactions linked to the importation were uncovered during investigations.

Based on the evidence collected during the investigation, the NSWRL handed down a two-year ban which means Mansfield cannot play until July, 2011.

“Our partnership with customs and border protection is vital in allowing ASADA to detect forms of doping that would not be detected through traditional testing alone,” ASADA chairman Richard Ings said in a statement.

“Our intelligence and investigations work is a critical component of a comprehensive anti-doping capability.

Liquid in the vials included testosterone and nandrolone, both of which are prohibited substances under the World Anti-Doping Code.

The FDA has already issued a warning to the customers not to make use of products that are marketed for the purpose of bodybuilding and include steroids or steroidlike substances, or claiming to improve testosterone.

From NYTimes.com:

Under the law, dietary supplements are generally defined as products that contain or are derived from natural foodstuffs like minerals or herbs and do not claim to prevent, mitigate or cure specific illnesses.

But when products marketed as supplements are found to contain pharmaceutical ingredients like steroids, the federal government considers them misbranded — and unapproved illegal drugs.

Testifying on Tuesday at a Senate hearing on bodybuilding products, Travis T. Tygart, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, estimated that hundreds of illegal products containing steroids were now available in the United States. As evidence of the problem, Mr. Tygart introduced Jareem Gunter, a former college baseball player who said he suffered acute liver failure after taking a bodybuilding product called Superdrol.

“Jareem had no way of knowing that a regulatory scheme designed over 15 years ago for a few companies selling a limited number of simple vitamins and mineral supplements has been hijacked by unscrupulous profiteers,” Mr. Tygart told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs at the hearing on bodybuilding products.

Michael Levy, the director of the F.D.A.’s division of new drugs and labeling compliance, in a phone interview said that the FDA is really urging consumers not to make use of products marketed as including steroids or steroidlike ingredients.

The rare eye condition, which is known as sympathetic ophthalmia, occurs when injury or multiple surgeries lead to loss of vision in one eye. At this time, body’s overactive immune system attacks the remaining healthy eye and this can result in total blindness if not treated properly and on time.

From Sciencedaily.com:

However, University of Iowa ophthalmologists and colleagues have tested and are now using a surgical implant called Retisert to prevent complete vision loss and eliminate dependence on systemic, or whole-body, immunosuppression. Before use of the surgical technique, doctors had to “shut down” a person’s entire immune system to stop the attack on the remaining good eye.

“Until recently, the primary treatment option for sympathetic ophthalmia was non-surgical and involved high doses of oral steroids followed by oral immunosuppressive medication to preserve vision in a patient’s remaining eye,” said Vinit Mahajan, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and a retinal surgeon with University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

“But this treatment, similar to organ transplantation cases, subjects patients to life-long use of immunosuppressive drugs that have serious side effects such as osteoporosis, weight gain, potentially life-threatening infection and liver or kidney damage,” he added.

Mahajan along with University of Iowa retinal surgeons James Folk, M.D., professor of ophthalmology, and Karen Gehrs, M.D., clinical associate professor of ophthalmology, published a retrospective paper online in January in the journal Ophthalmology that acknowledged the successful use of Retisert for treating eight patients with sympathetic ophthalmia.

The finding was disclosed in a study appearing in the January 2009 issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN).

From News-Medical.Net:

The investigators studied 11 patients with FSGS whose condition had not responded to previous treatment with steroids and other immunosuppressive drugs. Patients ranged from ages 2 to 28 years. Because a phase I trial is a preliminary study done before an agent’s effectiveness is measured, the researchers focused on determining the safety and appropriate dosing of rosiglitazone in patients enrolled in the study.

Patients receiving rosiglitazone at a dose of three mg/m2 per day for 16 weeks experienced no serious adverse effects, including no cardiovascular complications that have been associated with rosiglitazone in other studies.

The investigators also evaluated patients’ total exposure over time to rosiglitazone – in other words, how much and how long the drug stays in the body. They assessed whether certain clinical parameters such as urinary protein excretion, blood levels of the protein albumin, and kidney filtration rate might affect the drug’s activity. They also looked to see if demographic factors including age, pubertal status, and body surface area had any effects. Serum albumin and kidney filtration had significant effects on the body’s exposure to rosiglitazone. Other clinical parameters and demographic factors did not seem to play a role.

It was remarked by the authors that results of this study indicate that the drug warrants further investigation for treating FSGS and the dose of 3 mg/m2 per day or a higher dose must be evaluated in later-stage studies.

The involved researchers remarked that these nanoparticles, could one day, be used to carry life-saving drugs for benefiting patients suffering from complications such as eye and female reproductive tract diseases.

From Sciencedaily.com:

In proof-of-concept experiments, previous research teams led by Hanes earlier demonstrated that latex particles coated with polyethylene glycol could slip past mucus coatings. But latex particles are not a practical material for delivering medication to human patients because they are not broken down by the body. In the new study, the researchers described how they took an important step forward in making new particles that biodegrade into harmless components while delivering their drug payload over time.

“The major advance here is that we were able make biodegradable nanoparticles that can rapidly penetrate thick and sticky mucus secretions, and that these particles can transport a wide range of therapeutic molecules, from small molecules such as chemotherapeutics and steroids to macromolecules such as proteins and nucleic acids,” Hanes said. “Previously, we could not get these kinds of sustained-release treatments through the body’s sticky mucus layers effectively.”

The biodegradable nanoparticles, which are capable of penetrating the mucus, were developed by an interdisciplinary team led by Justin Hanes, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering in the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins.

The three cases included individuals suffering from liver injury and renal failure and were discussed in an issue of The Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology.

From Medicalnewstoday.com:

The cases of three otherwise healthy adult males, ages 21 to 38, were reported with symptoms including nausea, anorexia, jaundice, severe itching and renal failure.

* A 21-year-old previously healthy white male presented with nausea, anorexia, jaundice, and severe itching. He denied alcohol consumption or illicit drug use and took no prescription medications on a regular basis but did acknowledge use of the over-the-counter supplement Superdrol, a bodybuilding agent containing methasteron, for several months before his presentation. He had purchased this compound over the internet, and he discontinued taking the supplement at the onset of his symptoms.

* A previously healthy 30-year-old white businessman initially presented to a hospital with a 5-week history of jaundice and severe itching. His medications included omeprazole and herbal supplements including chondroitin sulfate, glucosamine, glutamine, and creatine. He also acknowledged the use of a bodybuilding supplement that contained dehydroepiandrosterone. Concerned about his symptoms, he stopped consuming this supplement just before his hospitalization.

* A 38-year-old previously healthy white man initially presented for evaluation of jaundice. He first noticed the onset of scleral icterus 6 weeks previously. His symptoms included intense and worsening itching, generalized fatigue, nausea, decreased energy, and weight loss. His past history was unremarkable. He denied alcohol or illicit drug use and used no prescription medications. Owing to worsening of his symptoms and renal failure, he was admitted to the hospital.

It was remarked by Stuart C. Gordon, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Henry Ford Hospital that some over-the-counter health food supplements possibly include anabolic steroids.

These benefits include minimized early mortality, fewer cardiovascular events, and enhanced graft survival rates.

From Sciencedaily.com:

“Ten years ago, almost 80 percent of post-transplant kidney patients were discharged from the hospital on steroids,” she says. “Now, according to United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) reports, less than 20 percent are discharged from the hospital on steroids. We’ve effectively removed chronic steroids from the immunosuppressive regimen while maintaining similar graft survival outcomes.”

In work led by UC research assistant professor of surgery Adele Rike Shields, PharmD, researchers are now able to show patients removed from a steroid treatment have decreased cardiovascular events after transplant, in addition to their lowered side effects.

Shields evaluated acute graft rejection and graft loss in 630 kidney transplant patients withdrawn from corticosteroids. She found the risk factors in the corticosteroid-withdrawn kidney transplant population are similar to those traditionally defined under conventional immunosuppression with steroids.

Researchers with the division of transplantation and department of internal medicine presented the work at the American Transplant Congress (ATC), the annual meeting of the American Society of Transplantation, held May 1-5 in San Diego.

Dr. Anthony Brissett, assistant professor in the Bobby R. Alford Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Communicative Sciences and the study’s principal investigator as well as director of keloid clinics at BCM and the Harris County Hospital’s District’s Ben Taub General Hospital said that there is an affinity for formation of keloids in cases of activity, tension, or movement near the wound.

From News-Medical.Net:

The slightest break in the skin – a mild scratch, an ear piercing or even a mosquito bite – can trigger an overabundance of scar tissue in people with keloids, which tend to occur above the neck and most often in dark-skinned individuals. The fibrous outgrowths continue to swell if untreated, causing pain, itching, and grotesque disfiguration.

Until a cure is found, current treatments may include the use of steroids, surgical excisions, silicone gel creams, radiation therapy, and customized pressure clips that hydrate the wound area. Brissett estimates that 60 to 70 percent of his patients respond favorably to a combination of these therapies although regular follow-up visits are vital – and lifelong, in many cases.

“The problem with keloids is that they are extremely difficult to treat,” said Brissett. “I tell my patients that this is a chronic problem and that we will see each other for treatments for the rest of our lives.”

Researchers in the study, funded by the Mayo Foundation, are examining whether Botox injections that are used to “paralyze” the affected area can help in relieving enough tension to improve healing and scar appearance.

It was remarked by lead author of the paper, Terence A. R. Seemungal, Ph.D., and Jadwiga Wedzicha, M.D., principle investigator that the study results suggest a significant impact of low-dose macrolide therapy, minimizing frequency of exacerbation, and severity with moderate to severe COPD.

From News-Medical.Net:

While their findings are encouraging, Dr. Seemungal points out that they must be put in context with future findings. Furthermore, the threat of growing antibiotic resistance resulting from widespread prophylactic use of erythromycin is not a trivial concern. “In this scenario, substantial, widespread emergence of macrolide bacterial resistance is virtually foreordained, with attendant reduction in the antimicrobial usefulness of this drug class,” wrote Ken M. Kunisaki, M.D. and Denise E. Niewoehner, M.D., of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Minneapolis, in the accompanying editorial. “Balancing benefit against harm could pose a dilemma for which there might be no clear answers.”

Moreover, not all of the study patients were treated with guideline-recommended therapy, such as inhaled corticosteroids or inhaled long-acting bronchodilators, which have been shown to decrease exacerbation frequency. The degree of added benefit of erythromycin over and above standard therapy will require further study.

“Observations that any intervention might decrease the frequency and severity of acute exacerbations in COPD present considerable public health implications,” observed John Heffner, M.D., past president of the ATS. “Exacerbations occur about once a year among patients with moderate to severe COPD and account for more than $30 billion dollars in direct and indirect costs annually in the United States alone.”

The results of this study were published in the first issue for December of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, which is published by the American Thoracic Society.

These advantages are useful in improving the overall life quality of the affected patients besides helping them avoid the use of many anti-rejection drugs that may lead to severe complications and serious infections.

From News-Medical.Net:

The protocol involves giving a one-time pre-transplant dose of either the drug thymoglobulin – a drug that kills and depletes T cells – key immune system cells that target the donor organ, or a similar drug called campath, which depletes both T and B cells, immune system cells involved in organ rejection.

Following transplantation, the 103 patients who received thymoglobulin and the 20 patients who received campath received the standard anti-rejection drug tacrolimus and none of the patients received steroids. Tapering of tacrolimus was attempted after 120 days.

While 43 percent of patients experienced some level of rejection before initial weaning, none showed evidence of chronic rejection. Patients under the campath protocol did slightly better than those treated with thymoglobulin.

Of the 123 intestinal transplants, 55 involved children, while the other 68 were adult cases.

The current success of this novel anti-rejection protocol should allow major improvement in both the long-term efficacy and quality of life after intestinal and multivisceral transplants, according to the researchers.

Kareem Abu-Elmagd, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.S., professor of surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and director of the Intestinal Rehabilitation and Transplant Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s (UPMC) Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute and lead author of the study, said this protocol helps many patients to live full and productive lives.

The Salk researchers, led by Joanne Chory, a professor in the Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, published their findings in the journal Nature.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Brassinolide, a member of a family of plant hormones known as brassinosteroids, is a key element of plants’ response to light, enabling them to adjust growth to reach light or strengthen stems. Exploiting its potent growth-promoting properties could increase crop yields or enable growers to make plants more resistant to drought, pathogens, and cold weather.

Unfortunately, synthesizing brassinosteroids in the lab is complicated and expensive. But understanding how plant steroids work at the molecular level may one day lead to cheap and simple ways to bulk up crop harvests.

Likewise, since low brassinolide levels are associated with dwarfism, manipulating hormone levels during dormant seasons may allow growers to control the height of grasses, trees or other plants, thereby eliminating the need to constantly manicure gardens.

Based on earlier studies, the Salk researchers had developed a model that explained what happens inside a plant cell when brassinolide signals a plant cell to start growing.

It was remarked by Chory that the study clarifies what happens in the downstream in the nucleus when a signal is transmitted by the brassinolide to a plant cell to grow.

Proliferative diabetic retinopathy is a condition that characterizes formation of new blood vessels on the optic disc or another retina component.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Corticosteroids have been shown to interfere with the creation of new blood vessels, possibly by reducing the production of compounds that spur their growth, the authors note. However, steroids are also associated with other eye diseases.

“Use of this intravitreal [injected into the eye] corticosteroid preparation to reduce the likelihood of progression of retinopathy is not warranted at this time because of the increased risk of glaucoma and cataract associated with intravitreal steroid use,” the authors write. “Any treatment to be used routinely to prevent proliferative diabetic retinopathy likely needs to be relatively safe because the condition already can be treated successfully and safely with panretinal photocoagulation. Nevertheless, further investigation with regard to the role of pharmacotherapy for reduction of the incidence of progression of retinopathy appears to be warranted.”

This study was conducted by Neil M. Bressler, M.D., of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, and colleagues in the Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research Network and involved 840 eyes of 693 participants having macular edema.

Striking results are possible of being achieved with benfotiamene, a fat-soluble form of vitamin B1, as per the involved researchers in a paper appearing in an issue of the Journal Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science.

This ailment is currently treated with antibiotics or steroid eye drops.

From Sciencedaily.com:

“Benfotiamene strongly suppresses this eye-damaging condition and the biochemical markers we associate with it,” said UTMB associate professor Kota V. Ramana, senior author of the study. “We’re optimistic that this simple supplementation with vitamin B1 has great potential as a new therapy for this widespread eye disease.”

The researchers’ data shows benfotiamene works by suppressing the activation of a crucial signaling molecule called NF-kappa B, which is normally triggered by the stress caused by infection. Shutting down NF-kappa B, they said, prevents the runaway production of inflammatory proteins that generates uveitis.

Benfotiamene’s low cost, rapid absorption by the body and lack of negative side effects make it an ideal candidate for uveitis prevention, according to Ramana.

It was concluded by Ramana that the vitamin B1 type is better than thiamine, which was suggested by clinical trials, and has the capability of offering advantages such as significant improvements in terms of diabetic polyneuropathy in patients.

The involved team was able to find that a a protein called peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha (PPAR-alpha) is important in the process and the finding was believed to have explained the high incidence of diabetes and hypertension in obese individuals.

From News-Bio-Medicine.org:

The team found that when given the glucocorticoid dexamethasone, mice lacking only LDLR had increased levels of insulin, fasting glucose and leptin, all signs of diabetes. The animals also became less hypoglycemic when given insulin, suggesting that they were developing insulin resistance, the precursor to diabetes. Mice lacking both LDLR and PPAR-alpha showed no signs of diabetes.

Surprisingly, dexamethasone also increased blood pressure in mice that had PPAR-alpha but not LDLR; it did not have an affect on blood pressure in mice lacking both PPAR-alpha and LDLR.

“Somehow, animals missing PPAR-alpha were protected from developing diabetes and hypertension,” Semenkovich says.

The team then replaced PPAR-alpha in the liver in mice lacking both PPAR-alpha and LDLR. The animals developed the same symptoms of diabetes and hypertension (high blood pressure) when chronically treated with dexamethasone as mice with normal levels of PPAR-alpha throughout the body.

The study appears online and in the August issue of the journal Nature Medicine. Bernal-Mizrachi led the study, in collaboration with Clay F. Semenkovich, M.D., professor of medicine and of cell biology and physiology and director of the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Lipid Research, and Daniel P. Kelly, M.D., professor of medicine, of molecular biology and pharmacology and of pediatrics and director of the Center for Cardiovascular research.

This study was aimed to find out if a steroid drug, antiviral agent, or a combination of the two can prove effective for improving the outcome of patients with vestibular neuritis.

From Bio-Medicine.Org:

Researchers conducted a study to see if a steroid drug, antiviral agent, or a combination of the two could improve the outcome of patients with vestibular neuritis. For the study, 141 patients who were diagnosed with vestibular neuritis were randomly assigned to one of the treatment groups. The treatment groups included the corticosteroid group (that received methylprednisolone, also known as Medrol), the antiviral agent group (that received valacyclovir, also known as Valtrex), a group that received both, and a group that received placebo. Researchers followed up with patients three days after treatment and again 12 months after treatment.

Researchers found that 62 percent of the patients on the steroid improved compared to 39 percent in the placebo group, 36 percent in the antiviral group and 59 percent in the combination group. Researchers say the antiviral drug clearly did not improve the outcome in patients with vestibular neuritis despite the assumed viral cause. In fact, the steroid-alone group had better outcomes than the steroid-antiviral combination group.

It was found by the involved researchers that methylprednisolone alone can significant improve recovery of patients with vestibular neuritis.

This finding was revealed by a study that is considered to be the largest single-center experience of adult and pediatric intestinal and multivisceral transplantation. It was disclosed by researchers at the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute in a study published in the October 2009 issue of Annals of Surgery.

From Sciencedaily.com:

During what the researchers dubbed Era I (1990 to 1994), transplant recipients were treated with the immunosuppressive drug tacrolimus and steroids. In 1994, this protocol was discontinued due to high mortality and morbidity rates. The five-year survival rate for these patients was 40 percent.

Era II (1995 to 2001) introduced the use of donor bone marrow to encourage organ acceptance. The five-year survival rate for these patients was 56 percent.

During Era III (2001 to 2008), patients were given a pre-conditioning protocol with agents that deplete recipients’ own immune calls. Their post-transplant drug regimen was minimal and was initiated with tacrolimus, followed by steroids when necessary. Tacrolimus doses were subsequently spaced to a single dose twice to three times per week with a careful weaning process that started three to six months after transplant. Through the use of new immunosuppressive and management strategies, the five-year survival rate for these patients increased to 68 percent, which is similar to any other abdominal and thoracic organ transplant procedure.

The study was led by Kareem Abu-Elmagd, M.D., Ph.D., director, Intestinal Rehabilitation and Transplantation Center, Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute, and professor of surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

The review was published by the British-based Cochrane Library and draws heavily from a recently concluded study of corticosteroid treatment for brain injury that included 10,008 patients, more than all similar studies combined.

From News-Medical.Net:

The large study found that patients treated with corticosteroids were 18 percent more likely to die from their brain injury than those who did not take the drugs. Among the patients who received steroid treatment, 21 percent, or 1,052 of the 4,985 treated, died, compared to 18 percent who received a placebo.

“The significant increase in death with steroids found in this trial suggests that steroids should no longer be routinely used in people with traumatic head injury,” says Dr. Phil Alderson, lead author of the Cochrane study.

The review appears in the January issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing medical trials on a topic.

Dr. Phil Alderson, lead author of the Cochrane study, remarked that not all of the modern day physicians routinely prescribe corticosteroids but steroid use is often widespread.

A compound known as benzodiazepine-423 (Bz-423) suppresses growth of cells in a model of psoriasis, as per scientists from the University of Michigan.

It was suggested by the study that Bz-423 can prove beneficial for treating patients with psoriasis. The study is available online in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

From News-Medical.Net:

“Currently, the best treatments for skin lesions associated with psoriasis are topical steroids, but the problem with those drugs is that they’re not selective for the disease-causing cells. They affect normal cells as well, and repeated use over time can lead to tissue destruction,” said Gary Glick, who is the Werner E. Bachmann Collegiate Professor of Chemistry and a professor of biological chemistry in the U-M Medical School. “There are also protein drugs approved for use in treating psoriasis, but those drugs are injected instead of applied topically, which makes them more costly, less convenient and more likely to cause side effects since they are delivered throughout the body.”

“What makes our compound particularly exciting is that it has the potential to be applied topically, and it shows very good selectivity for models of the disease-causing cells versus normal cells,” Glick said. “So we believe the problems associated with repeated topical steroid use could possibly be alleviated with compounds like this.”

This study was led by Gary Glick, who is the Werner E. Bachmann Collegiate Professor of Chemistry and a professor of biological chemistry in the U-M Medical School. Glick’s coauthors on the paper were James Varani, professor of pathology; Narasimharao Bhagavathula, a research investigator in the pathology department; Hilary Scherzer and Kevin Fay, research associates in pathology; Kent Johnson, professor of pathology; Sewon Kang, professor of dermatology; and Anthony Opipari, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology.

It suggested that athletes and bodybuilders on anabolic steroids for gaining muscle mass and strength run a high risk of damage to the kidneys due to long-term and habitual use of steroid products.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Reports of professional athletes who abuse anabolic steroids are increasingly common. Most people know that using steroids is not good for your health, but until now, their effects on the kidneys have not been known. Leal Herlitz, MD (Columbia University Medical Center) and her colleagues recently conducted the first study describing injury to the kidneys following long-term abuse of anabolic steroids. The investigators studied a group of 10 bodybuilders who used steroids for many years and developed protein leakage into the urine and severe reductions in kidney function. Kidney tests revealed that nine of the ten bodybuilders developed a condition called focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a type of scarring within the kidneys. This disease typically occurs when the kidneys are overworked. The kidney damage in the bodybuilders has similarities to that seen in morbidly obese patients, but appears to be even more severe.

This study was conducted in the laboratory of Dr. Vivette D’Agati, MD at Columbia Univeristy Medical Center. Study co-authors include Glen Markowitz, MD, Joshua Schwimmer, MD, Michael Stokes, MD, Cheryl Kunis, MD, Vivette D’Agati, MD, (Columbia University Medical Center); Alton Farris, MD, and Robert Colvin, MD (Massachusetts General Hospital).