University at Buffalo biophysicists have found a protein in tarantula venom that shows promise as a potential therapy for muscular dystrophy (MD). They have formed a start-up biotech company in Buffalo -- Rose Pharmaceuticals -- to advance the drug to clinical trials.

Fredrick Sachs, PhD, professor of physiology and biophysics at the University at Buffalo, and colleagues in his laboratory, discovered the peptide, called GsMTx4.

Therapies for muscular dystrophy are classed as "orphan drugs" by the FDA, allowing a shorter testing period than normal drugs. Sachs said he anticipates Rose Pharmaceuticals may be able to obtain FDA approval of the peptide for human use within two years. The new company is named for "Rose," the pet tarantula that has been in residence in Sachs' lab for nearly 20 years (see photo links).

The first target of the peptide is MD, a condition Sachs has been investigating for several years, but the peptide also has potential as a therapy for several other conditions, such as neuropathic pain and atrial fibrillation. Formation of the company was motivated by the goal of finding an MD therapy for the grandson of Sachs' friend Jeffrey Harvey.

The start-up is a collaboration between Sachs, Harvey, Thomas Suchyna, PhD, and Philip Gottlieb, PhD. Suchyna and Gottlieb, UB research scientist and UB research associate professor, respectively, have been working with Sachs at the university for several years to develop the peptide. Their work was supported by a grant from UB's Interdisciplinary Research and Creative Activities Fund. In collaboration with Eric Hoffman, PhD, director of the Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Center at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the team tested the effect of GsMTx4 on MD mice extensively. Results showed that the drug increased muscle strength and caused no mortality, morbidity or toxicity.

Rose Pharmaceuticals now is concentrating on developing methods to administer the drug. The peptide and its mirror image are covered by U.S. patents obtained by UB's Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach (STOR), and licensed to Rose Pharmaceuticals. Sachs noted that there are no other drugs known to act specifically on mechanosensitive ion channels, the target of GsMTx4. "Unlike most drugs, GsMTx4 seems to generate only positive side effects," said Sachs. "In addition to its effectiveness in MD, it inhibits atrial fibrillation, a cardiac arrhythmia that affects 2 million Americans, and for which there currently is no reliable drug therapy.

"In a second application, research groups in Korea and UC San Francisco have shown that GsMTx4 can inhibit mechanically induced pain (pain originating in nerve fibers)," he said. "This therapy is at least half as effective as morphine, but does not act on the brain, only at the site of increased sensitivity." Mark Kristal, Ph.D., UB professor of psychology, has been collaborating on the pain testing.

Vitamin-fortified foods and dietary health supplements can ease health worries. But what kinds of vitamins are right for you? And how much of them should you take, and how often?

A research group from Tel Aviv University has done the most comprehensive and accurate study of clinical data on Vitamin E use and heart disease to date, and it warns that indiscriminate use of high-dose Vitamin E supplementation does more harm than good. Their results were recently reported in ATVB, a leading journal of cardiology, and discussed in the journal BioFactors.

"There were so many conflicting reports about Vitamin E and its effect on various diseases, particularly heart disease, that we wanted to set the record straight, says Prof. Dov Lichtenberg of TAU's Sackler School of Medicine.

Our new study shows that some people may be harmed by the treatment, whereas others may benefit from it. Now we're trying to identify groups of people that are most likely to benefit from the effects of Vitamin E," adds study co-researcher Dr. Ilya Pinchuk. The TAU research team also included decision analyst Dr. Moshe Leshno of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Leon Recanati Faculty of Management and Dr. Yedidya (Didi) Dotan, whose PhD thesis is the basis for this analysis.

Rising threats and attacks on humanitarian operations, as well as the imposition of a string of unacceptable demands from armed groups, have made it virtually impossible for the World Food Programme (WFP) to continue reaching up to one million people in need in southern Somalia.

WFP's humanitarian operations in southern Somalia have been under escalating attacks from armed groups, leading to this partial suspension of humanitarian food distributions in much of southern Somalia.

WFP is deeply concerned about rising hunger and suffering among the most vulnerable due to these unprecedented and inhumane attacks on purely humanitarian operations.

Forty-one percent of college students with weight problems opened and read spam e-mail advertising weight loss products and 18.5 percent bought these weight loss products, according to a new study published in the January issue of the Southern Medical Journal. The research was conducted by Joshua Fogel, Ph.D., an Associate Professor of the Business Program at the Department of Economics at Brooklyn College , and Sam Shlivko, B.S., a former Brooklyn College student and currently a student at New York Law School.

In additional analyses considering the impact of a number of relevant variables, those with weight problems as compared to those without weight problems, were three times more likely to open/read and also three times more likely to purchase weight loss products from this spam e-mail. Also, increased psychological stress was associated with an increase in purchases of these weight loss products advertised in spam e-mail.

As lead investigator, Dr. Fogel analyzed data from a survey of 200 college students, who were asked if they had weight problems and if in the past year they received, opened/read, or purchased products from spam e-mail about weight loss topics. Psychological stress was measured by the Perceived Stress Scale

The master regulator of muscle differentiation, MyoD, functions early in myogenesis to help stem cells proliferate in response to muscle injury, according to researchers at Case Western Reserve University. The study appears online Jan. 4 in the Journal of Cell Biology.

MyoD is a transcription factor that activates muscle-specific genes as myoblast precursors differentiate and fuse to form mature muscle fibers. But MyoD is also expressed at an earlier stage of myogenesis when quiescent stem cells rapidly expand in number to generate the myoblasts needed to repair tissue damage. The transcription factor's function in this proliferative phase is unknown.

The team found that MyoD bound to the promoter of CDC6, a gene that initiates DNA replication, suggesting that MyoD might activate Cdc6 expression in muscle stem cells to promote their reentry into the cell cycle and rapid proliferation. Indeed, Cdc6 was expressed shortly after MyoD in stimulated muscle progenitors, and knocking down MyoD reduced Cdc6 production and slowed cells' entry into S phase. MyoD works in conjunction with transcription factors from the E2F family. E2F3a activated the CDC6 promoter with MyoD, but was replaced by the repressive family member E2F4 as myoblasts began to differentiate.

Researchers at UC Davis have identified 10 locations in California where the incidence of autism is higher than surrounding areas in the same region. Most of the areas, or clusters, are in locations where parents have higher-than-average levels of educational attainment. Because children with more educated parents are more likely to be diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, one need look no further for a cause, the authors say. The other clusters are located close to major autism treatment centers.

The clusters are located primarily in the high-population areas of Southern California and, to a lesser extent, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The researchers said that, while children born within the clusters during the study period were more likely to be diagnosed with autism, the majority of the state's children with autism were born in adjacent areas outside the clusters.

For the rigorous study, published online today in the journal Autism Research, scientists examined nearly all of the approximately 2-1/2 million births recorded in the state of California from 1996 through 2000. About 10,000 children born during that five-year period were later diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, according to the California Department of Developmental Services (DDS).

Arizona marked a historic milestone with the number of rabid animals in 2009. One case in particular, of a rabid bobcat walking into a bar, sounded more like the beginning of a joke, but highlighted the importance of rabies awareness.

So far 261 animals tested positive for rabies, 85 more than 2008. During the record breaking year, two counties established quarantines, another first for the state. "There is no sign of rabies letting up in many parts of the state," said Craig Levy, Vector-Borne Disease Program Manager. "As we head into 2010, we need to be prepared for more rabid animals and the exposures to people and pets that they bring."

ADHS works closely with Arizona Department of Game and Fish to educate the public about wild animals and rabies, as well as county health departments and local animal control programs.

In December, Santa Cruz County instituted a 60-day quarantine for the entire county, similar to Coconino County's quarantine earlier in the year. Both counties ordered people to keep their dogs in their yards or on a short leash, bring dishes of pet food indoors at night and vaccinate all pets.

Rabies is transmitted through bites or saliva contact with a rabid animal. It is almost always fatal once symptoms appear; for this reason people must be treated promptly to prevent infection. In 2009, 47 people in Arizona were exposed to confirmed rabid animals. They received the correct treatment quickly and the infection was stopped.

BioMedReports.Com, the news portal which covers Wall Street's biomedical sector and delivers financial and investment intelligence to a community of highly informed investors, is reporting Pfizer Inc. has announced that it has decided to discontinue the late-stage study of its lung cancer candidate figitumumab (CP-751,871) while Novelos' (OTCBB: NVLT) pivotal Phase 3 trial, with a primary efficacy endpoint of improvement in median overall survival, continues across approximately 12 countries and 100 clinical sites.

Yesterday, it was reported that an independent data monitoring committee found by analyzing data from Pfizer's late-stage study that the addition of figitumumab to a combination of older medications -- paclitaxel and carboplatin -- was unlikely to meet the primary endpoint of improving overall survival compared to the combination of paclitaxel and carboplatin alone.

Meanwhile, Novelos' randomized, open-label, international, pivotal Phase 3 trial continues evaluating NOV-002 in combination with paclitaxel and carboplatin versus paclitaxel and carboplatin alone, in approximately 900 patients with Stage IIIb/IV lung cancer. Other drugs like motesanib, by Takeda Pharmaceutical and Amgen and Nexavar, from Bayer and Onyx Pharmaceuticals, have shown negative effects in that cell type, leaving the market wide open for Novelos' NOV-002.

"We actually potentiate the chemotherapy," said Palmin in a recent interview with BioMedReports. "We make the cancer cells more sensitive to chemotherapy and we also inhibit the cancer's ability to metastasize (spread), so there are all sorts of interesting effects that happen at the tumor level. However, on the normal cells -- for example bone marrow cells and blood cells -- which of course get damaged by chemotherapy -- we don't stop the damage but we do help the recovery from that damage. In the words of big pharma, 'if this Phase III trial is positive, this will be revolutionary for the cancer field.'"

A new strategy that researchers believe provides a more comprehensive screening of the entire chromosomal makeup of an embryo shows tremendous promise in the field of preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) according to a study published in the December issue of Fertility and Sterility.

Forty-five infertile couples participated in the study with an average age of 37.7 years. Using a novel screening approach, researchers biopsied several cells from embryos five days after fertilization, also known as the blastocyst stage. The patients underwent comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) screening, which researchers say allows for a more comprehensive look at the chromosomal health of the cell.

Results show successful biopsy in close to 100 percent of the embryos using CGH. Of these embryos, more than half (51.3 percent) were diagnosed as abnormal. The remaining embryos with normal chromosome counts were implanted and of the CGH group, 68.9 percent produced a fetus.

US researchers found that even after the age of 80, smoking increased a person's risk of developing AMD, age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness among Americans aged 65 and over, suggesting it is never too late to give up the habit.

The study was the work of lead author Dr Anne Coleman, professor of ophthalmology at the Jules Stein Eye Institute at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and colleagues, and is published in the January issue of the American Journal of Ophthalmology.

AMD causes a darkening and/or blurring of central vision, and prevents you from being able to read, drive and recognize people you know. It is a progressive degeneration of the macula, the centre of the retina, the part of the membrane inside the back of the eye that allows us to see fine details.