Health Meaning

In a report published today, the Institute of Medicine recommends that men who suffer from brain injury traumatic (TBI) in the battlefield must receive adequate protein and calories immediately after the injury and for at least 2 weeks to help reduce inflammation and minimize brain damage. The report was commissioned by the Ministry of Defence, who wanted a review of the potential role of nutrition to minimize the impact of a brain injury, injury to the signing of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The panel of experts who wrote the report noted that although the current guidelines for the treatment of TBI recommend early feeding, the details vary.

They recommended the army develop standard nutritional guidelines for soldiers with studies on injuries and the conduct of the brain to determine the levels of sugar in the blood and optimal diets to minimize the impact of brain damage.

The committee also reviewed the scientific literature on the various nutritional supplements, including choline, creatine, fish oil and antioxidants, but concluded that there is insufficient evidence for beneficial effects in patients with brain injury to recommend their use for that time.

Can robots evolve altruism? What is hidden behind a visual battle of the sexes in dogs? And can you get leprosy from an armadillo? Science s Online News Editor David Grimm discusses about these stories and more with Science Podcast host Robert Frederick.

( Listen to the full Science podcast and podcasts.)

German researchers suspect cucumbers from Spain were the cause of a massive enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) outbreak which hit the northern regions of the country. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), so far 214 patients developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a potentially fatal complication of EHEC infection, characterized by destruction of red blood cells and severe kidney problems. At least two patients died.

Local authorities in Hamburg today announced that they had isolated the bacteria EHEC four cucumbers. Three of the samples came from a big market in Hamburg selling shops as well as restaurants and caterers of fruits and vegetables. These cucumbers from two organic producers in Spain. Scientists have speculated in recent days that manure from infected animals used on an organic farm could have spread the bacteria to vegetables. A fourth sample was from a restaurant, and it was not immediately clear where the cucumber was grown. After the announcement, the stores have started taking Spanish cucumbers on the shelves.

Consumers were already hesitant about vegetables since scientists at RKI and the Federal Risk Assessment Institute announced the results of a first case-control study Wednesday: Women who had become EHEC infection were significantly more likely to have eaten raw tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce in the days before falling ill than women who were not sick.

The scientists used a detailed questionnaire to ask 25 women EHEC patients and 96 women living in the same areas of what they had eaten in the days before hatching. Only women were included in the study because they got sick more often than men in the home. "It also strengthened the results of the study, because it meant that we could ignore all the sex-specific differences in eating habits," says Gérard Krause, head of the department of infectious disease epidemiology at RKI.

statistical analysis revealed that 92% of women who had been infected already had eaten tomatoes. only about 60% of healthy women did. "for something that people eat so often, it is a big difference "said RKI expert Klaus Stark. The results for cucumbers and lettuce were similar, but slightly smaller. These three results are statistically significant. Experts invited Germans, especially in the north, not to eat it raw tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce or until further notice.

This advice remains in place. "It is certainly possible that more than one of these foods is responsible," said Reinhard Burger, president of RKI. Scientists also want to be sure that the results of Hamburg are confirmed in another laboratory.

New idea of ​​the nature of the bacteria could help. scientists of the National reference Laboratory on hemolytic uremic syndrome in Münster have samples of all 42 cases of EHEC that occurred among patients HUS in Germany since 1996. They . have identified the strain of the current epidemic as HUSEC41, the type of sequence ST678 in common serotype classification which means the pathogen is a E. coli O104: H4

according to Helge Karch, head of the laboratory of Münster, O104: H4 has not a single documented outbreak in his name "that's why we were very surprised that this strain can cause severe illness in a short time," he said. -he.

Karch and others are now working on sequencing the entire genome of HUSEC41 and establish a new and easy way to diagnose this particular strain of EHEC. This is important because the bacterium is difficult to distinguish from normal, non-pathogenic E. coli .

The strain is also eae-negative, which is unusual for a pathogen E. coli . The gene eae encodes intimin protein that bacteria use to attach to the intestinal wall. "This has been shown to be particularly important to infect children, so it could be an explanation, why we mostly see adult patients in this epidemic," said RKI expert Stark.

Meanwhile the epidemic continues in full force. "he looked a little, as there was a dip in the numbers, but in particular in Hamburg many patients are still present in the hospital with bloody diarrhea" said Stark. the next few days will show whether the warning about eating cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce had an impact on the epidemic.

* This article has been corrected . June 3 An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that researchers had isolated the strain EHEC O104 H4 :. cucumbers

A new analysis of the literature confirms that from the scientific cells have been saying for some time: studies induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are presented as an ethical alternative to embryonic stem cells (hESCs), often involve hESCs as well. Therefore, research that limits funding of hESC would also harm the iPSC research.

hESCs are derived from human embryos, whereas iPS cells are made by reprogramming adult cells. In a study in the June 10 issue of cell , Stanford University bioethicist Christopher Scott Thomas and colleagues analyzed 2,086 publications on hESCs and iPSCs from 1998 to 2010. Although the number of publications using iPSCs climbed since the first report on these cells in 07, 100 of the 161 iPSC documents (62%) published last year used the two cell types. especially established researchers tend to include hESCs, which are often used as controls.

Many researchers are worried that a lawsuit claiming hESC research funded by the federal government violates a ban on research that destroys human embryos could thwart their work. The authors say that any decision by the courts or legislators to limit funding of hESC "will also have disastrous consequences for [iPSC funding] because research using two different types of cell lines is deeply, perhaps inextricably , related."

- The two sides in a high-stakes legal battle over the expanded stem cells on their arguments in the briefs filed today a case being heard by the judge Royce Lamberth chief of the US district court for the district of Columbia.

The case, Sherley v. Sebelius , was brought by two researchers who argue that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) 09 restrictions guidelines on research funded by the federal lifting government on human embryonic stem cells (hESCs ) violate a law prohibiting research funded by the federal government that destroys human embryos. Last August, Lamberth issued a preliminary ruling for the plaintiffs who briefly interrupted funding of hESC research.

April 29 in a 2-1 decision, the Court of Appeal set aside the injunction, finding that the NIH "seems reasonably have concluded that" the law prohibits the derivation of hESCs, but does not obstacle to fund research that uses cells. This decision sent the suit back to Lamberth to rule on the merits of the case.

the plaintiffs then requested a chance to respond to the court decision call. (they initially asked that they take turns and get a chance to respond to the memory of the Government ;. Lamberth decided instead both parties must file a single brief 10 pages of June 24)

the both parties spend most of their memories in a second argument made by the complainants has not been taken into consideration by the court of appeal that the guidelines "encourage" the destruction of embryos, creating a demand for more of hESC lines

de plaintiffs memory.

the hESC research sponsored by the federal government that the guidelines inevitably argue creates a risk indeed important, certainty that more virtual human embryos will be destroyed in order to derive more hESCs for research purposes.

As evidence, the memory includes a declaration by the applicant James Sherley who notes that researchers are increasingly developing new lines in order to study the genetic and ethnic diversity .

The counters of the Government in its submission:

The theory of the applicants that the guidelines "encourage" the future embryo donation throws doubt if NIH had reasonably interpreted the law both because future donors would not be engaged in "research in which" an embryo is subjected to risk of injury, and because it is not plausible to claim that researchers funded by NIH "knowingly" creating the incentive for future donation.

plaintiffs also argue that the NIH did not follow proper procedures when it developed the guidelines. The two sides both asked Lamberth for summary judgment, meaning they want to decide the case quickly without trial. Spectators predict Lamberth could exclude at any time between autumn and the end of the year.

UPDATE: A decision Lamberth could come very soon, according to professor Hank Greely Stanford Law School. He noted that last summer after a decision of the appeal court granting legal status to the plaintiffs reached a court Thursday Lamberth issued a preliminary injunction, the following Monday, August 23 This suggests that if Lamberth did not order oral arguments or call for a trial (which seems unlikely, says Greely), it could not rule on summary judgment within 2 to 4 weeks. If Lamberth ordered argument, it would probably take place in August with a decision soon after, says Greely.

If Lamberth is in favor of the plaintiffs and ordered a permanent injunction (which end funding of hESC again), the Court of Appeal should remain rapidly (suspend) the injunction until that it hears the case.

A drug already widely used in massive campaigns to help control two parasitic diseases, river blindness and elephantiasis, could also reduce malaria, a new study has found. The compound, called ivermectin, shortens mosquito spans the lives and makes them less likely to transmit the malaria parasite.

Ivermectin is known worldwide primarily developed as a drug to treat head lice in children and heartworm in animals. It also kills several tropical parasites, including those transmitted by mosquitoes that cause lymphatic filariasis, a disease also known as elephantiasis for members horribly swollen suffered by patients and those worn by black flies that cause river blindness, blindness rivers.

many countries use ivermectin in a strategy called mass drug administration (MDA), which means that the entire population in an affected area is given the drug once or twice a year. Merck, which produces ivermectin under the brand name Mectizan, provides free to treat river blindness and elephantiasis; the company promised to do as long as necessary.

But Brian Foy, who studies insect vectors at Colorado State University in Fort Collins (and became a minor internet celebrity last year after the sexual transmission of the virus to his wife Zika and the publication of a study on this), is interested in another effect of ivermectin: it kills mosquitoes. Laboratory studies have shown that when mosquitoes bite a person recently treated with the drug, they swallow a dose which is sometimes fatal to them. To see if the drug could thwart malaria transmission, Foy and colleagues studied mosquito populations in a region in southern Senegal where ivermectin is used in annual MDAs to stop river blindness. In a study published last year, the team showed that MDA has greatly reduced the lifespan of mosquitoes that feed on treated.

In the new study, Foy and colleagues wanted to know if the insecticide effect of ivermectin translates into less infectious mosquitoes, which could slow the spread of malaria. In theory it should, because Plasmodium falciparum , the malaria parasite, takes about 2 weeks to develop inside the body of the mosquito, which is the life of the insect. So the team took the mosquitoes in three villages who participated in a MDA and three others nearby who do not. Indeed, they found that in treated villages, the proportion of mosquitoes with fully developed P. falciparum in their saliva fell by 79% in 2 weeks. But in the villages of control, the proportion increased by 246%, the ratio of online research today The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene .

The discovery suggests the mass ivermectin treatment would be a new weapon against malaria, in addition to insecticide spraying, bed nets and other drugs, said Foy. But ivermectin should be given more often than once a year, he said, perhaps monthly, because the effect of the drug on the mosquito population will not last long. Merck will donate the extra amount needed Ivermectin is clear.

Brian Greenwood of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine paper called an "interesting pilot study," but he is "not very impressed" by the evidence in the document. He says the number of mosquitoes tested by researchers was small, and the paper leaves some unanswered questions such as why mosquitoes in treatment villages had much higher rates of malaria at the beginning of the study, or why rates rose in the control villages.

Peter Hotez, head of the Sabin Vaccine Institute in Washington, DC, and the current president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Deerfield, Illinois, agrees that much more study of the antimalarial activity ivermectin is necessary but calls the idea of ​​Foy "exciting" and "potentially very important." Hotez helped create the global Network for neglected tropical diseases, advocating the widespread use of a set of cheap drugs, including ivermectin, to target the seven tropical diseases less well known. "Now we have the proof possible that this package can also have an impact on other infections, including malaria," says Hotez.

Hotez sees a pattern emerging. In 09, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that the mass administration of antibiotics in Ethiopia to treat trachoma, a bacterial eye infection, had huge additional benefits. For reasons still under discussion, it has reduced infant mortality by half. "We are only beginning to understand the enormous potential impact of MDAs on diseases for which they are not intended," said Hotez.

The human brain is great, and it is powerful, able to imagine innovative solutions to complex problems. Yet, our brains do not age well: As we grow older, they tend to shrink and become increasingly vulnerable to cognitive impairments such as memory loss and dementia. A new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study comparing humans and chimpanzees found that chimps brains maintain their size as they age. slowly lose our minds, it is, perhaps the price changes we pay for having bigger brains and longer life.

Regarding the researchers can tell, humans are the only animals subjected to specific brain diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, which affects the United States nearly 50% of people aged over 85. But even normal, apparently healthy human brains showed the effects of aging, such as the accumulation of amyloid-beta plaque deposits and loss of neural connections, particularly in areas related to learning and Memory. And previous studies of human brains have suggested that these brain regions, which include the frontal lobe and the hippocampus, are especially prone to shrinkage with age.

Although few similar studies of other primates were conducted, recent research rhesus monkeys have shown that the very limited shrinkage with age. Nonetheless, the evolutionary lineages leading to humans and rhesus monkeys diverged there are about 30 million years, leaving scientists in the dark when the human model brain aging could have started.

For a better idea, a team led by Chet Sherwood, an evolutionary neuroanatomist at George Washington University in Washington, DC, directly compared the brain-shrinking chimps and humans schemes, which have diverged are only about 5000000 to 7000000 years. The study sample consisted of 87 humans ranging from ages 22-88, and 69 chimpanzees from 10 years to 51. As chimpanzees rarely live more than 45 years in the wild, although some in captivity survived in their 60s represents the sample at the normal lifetime of these two species.

The team used MRI scanners to measure the size of a number of brain regions in humans and chimpanzees. The differences are striking: Although chimpanzees showed no significant age-related shrinkage in one of the measured regions, all regions of the human brain have shown dramatic effects of age, reports the online team this week in the Proceedings of the national Academy of sciences . Some regions have decreased to 25% in 80 years. Furthermore, the tendency was somewhat different for the human gray matter, which contains the body of the nerve cells and their nuclei, as well as auxiliary cells such as microglial cells and human white matter, which consists of long axons neural and making connections between the various brain regions.

For example, the gray matter of the human frontal lobe shrank on average by about 14% between the ages of 30 and 80, and gray matter in the hippocampus by about 13% in the same period. But the withdrawal of the white matter was even more severe. The white matter of the frontal lobe decreased by approximately 24%, similar to white decrease in the volume of the material in most other brain regions measured

In addition, unlike the gray matter, which showed a gradual withdrawal over time, the decline in white matter was steepest between the ages of 70 and 80. Thus, although the average decline in the frontal lobe was 24% at 80 years, it was only about 6% to 70 years.

Why are chimpanzees throughout their normal life cover without significant shrinkage of the brain, whereas the human brain seems to wither with age?

"This is the question a million dollars," said Sherwood. In the paper, the team points out that the greatest human brain, which is more than three times larger than that of a chimpanzee, also energy demand much higher. Thus, the human brain uses up to 25% of the total available energy of the body when we are at rest, compared to no more than about 10% for other primates.

the record track with what energy supplies, the team argues, appears on the cellular and molecular levels in the human brain. this includes a decline in mitochondrial efficiency, energy storage of living cells, as well as damage caused by oxidative stress, the result of molecules containing oxygen that are produced during cellular metabolism.

"My guess is that our neurons essentially do the best they can to keep the maximum operating for as long as possible, "said Sherwood. "But they have the chance really stacked against them after years of high energy consumption."

Dean Falk, an anthropologist at the Advanced Research School in Santa Fe find the differences between gray and white matter material models particularly interesting withdrawal. White matter, humans have relatively more as chimpanzees and other primates, "is particularly important for complex cognition Homo sapiens ," Falk said, because it makes the connections between brain regions involved in the transmission of information in problem solving and other complex tasks.

Nevertheless, Peter Rapp, a neurobiologist at the National Health Laboratory of Experimental Gerontology Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, who conducted some of the earlier brain imaging studies in rhesus monkeys, indicates that the new study does not distinguish between brain shrinkage as a result of normal aging in humans and that the withdrawal could be due to the neuro-degenerative disease of the brain of a subset of subjects. "Is what distinguishes humans and chimpanzees susceptibility to disease, or a qualitative difference in the brains of aging in good health?"

Bruce Yankner, a neurologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, agrees. to test the hypothesis of the authors that the narrowing of the human brain is the result of greater longevity, Yankner said, "it would be interesting" to see if similar brain shrinkage occurs in other species with extreme longevity, "as turtles and tortoises that live for more than 100 years, elephants can live for 70 years, and parrots that can live for 80 years. "

A dozen plaintiffs filed a complaint against Duke University and administrators, researchers and doctors there, claiming they engaged in fraudulent behavior and neglect when they registered cancer patients in a clinical trial compromised by incorrect data. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday before a North Carolina court is 14 months after a scandal erupted at Duke who finally exposed the extent of testing problems in July 2010, Duke oncologist Anil Potti, whose job was the trial center, admitted he had embellished his resume and later resigned.

The complainants - cancer patients who were in the tests and the families of trial participants who are no longer alive - Duke officials say the long knew that the work Potti and Joseph Nevins , a cancer geneticist who was director of the Center for Applied Genomics at Duke & Technology, was "very suspicious", but launched clinical trials based on it anyway. (A series of co-author pair of documents was retracted during the past year.) "In May 07, after being placed on notice of the flawed science behind its cancer studies as mentioned above, Duke University and / or Duhs [Duke University Health System] nevertheless began their first clinical trial, "the lawsuit says. the trial assigned patients lung cancer to certain treatments based on gene expression profiles now discredited Potti and Nevins said that they had identified in tumor cells.

the prosecution is scathing in his assessment of how Duke handled the growing concern expressed by foreigners, especially the two biostatistician at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

the applicants argue that the answer of the Duke "to the charge of the invalid and fraudulent science was deceptive, misleading and fraudulent conduct to protect its reputation and interests of owners. .. rather than to protect the safety of patients involved in clinical trials. "The trial continues: This" reduces the likelihood that the plaintiffs to survive his / her cancer or the likelihood of experiencing a positive response to chemotherapy "

The plaintiffs want at least $ 30,000 each in. damages and a jury trial. Duke University said it can not comment on active litigation. Meanwhile, the Institute of medicine studies how gene expression profiles are used in medicine and hope conclude the project next year.

Two groups of scientists working independently of each other have discovered a genetic mutation that causes amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) known as the disease of Lou Gehrig. Both teams found that mutations of the same gene can also cause a common type of dementia called frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The results add to the growing evidence that these devastating disorders have more in common than meets the eye.

ALS robs patients of the ability to control their bodies. The first symptoms can be subtle, a tic, some muscle stiffness, or speech, but then occasionally mumbled paralysis spreads throughout the body. Most patients die of respiratory failure within 5 years. FTD is a very different beast. The most common type of dementia after Alzheimer's disease, it triggers a strange and inappropriate behavior, particularly in social situations, and difficulty with decision making, language, and other cognitive functions.

Despite these differences, there are overlapping signs. Clinicians have observed that people with a disorder may have symptoms of the other, and some families seem to have more than their share of both. In 06, researchers have linked a region of chromosome 9 in both ALS and FTD. The results suggest that a gene mutated in this region was responsible for many cases of the two conditions, but scientists PinPoint a specific gene.

The race that followed to find the gene was "very intense," said Rosa Rademakers, Neurogeneticist at Mayo Clinic Florida in Jacksonville, who led one of several teams that joined the lawsuit. "In areas of ALS and FTD, it was a result that everyone expected."

In papers published online today Neuron , the team of Rademakers and another group led by Bryan Traynor, a neurologist specializing in ALS at the National Institute on aging in Bethesda, Maryland, identified the same genetic culprit, mutations in an obscure gene called C9ORF72 . Do virtually nothing is known about its function . both teams found that repeated string of six-nucleotide building blocks of DNA that make up the "letters" of the genetic code in this gene can cause ALS or FTD. While healthy people in both studies had no more than 20 repetitions, those with ALS or FTD often were hundreds if not thousands.

the team reviewed hundreds Traynor patients and control subjects in Finland, where the SLA is almost twice as common as in other Caucasian populations. They found that C9ORF72 mutations accounted for 46% of familial ALS cases and about 21% of cases "sporadic" in which the patient reported no family history of the disease. In comparison, the proximate cause genetic most common of ALS gene mutations SOD1 , is responsible for about 15% of familial cases in other European populations, says Traynor.

Rademakers team studied patients in several clinics in the United States and Canada. They found that C9ORF72 mutations accounts for about 22% of familial ALS cases and 12% of familial cases of FTD, far more than any of a handful of other genetic risk factors they examined in the same patients. C9ORF72 mutations accounted for 3% to 4% of sporadic cases of both disorders.

"This is a great step forward because it is such a common mutation," said John Trojanowski, studying neurodegenerative disorders at the University of Pennsylvania. His group found that ALS and FTD share common cellular features, including a misfolded protein called TDP-43 which form clusters inside neurons. Trojanowski said that the new points working in a similar direction. "These results add another convincing proof that the concept ... and ALS [FTD] are mechanistically related disorders at both ends of a clinical and pathological spectrum."

Yet, many important questions remain. No team has found an explanation for why some people C9ORF72 ALS mutations while others get FTD. And it is unclear how mutations cause the disease is. It may be that the protein encoded by C9ORF72 performs an essential function that is yet to be discovered, that gets disturbed, says Traynor. Or perhaps the function of C9ORF72 does not matter. Alternatively, Traynor said, is that repeated nucleotides cause toxic accumulation of messenger RNA, a key player in the cellular machinery for the reading of the DNA for the manufacture of proteins.

LONDON- the most difficult part of the journey is often the last mile. Twenty-five years after health workers began a campaign to rid the world of Guinea worm cases have been reduced by over 99%. But the 1800s or that still occur each year are a threat to eradication efforts worldwide and will be the hardest and most expensive to treat.

At a press conference today, Minister for International Development of the UK, Stephen O'Brien, announced that the government will donate £ 20 million ($ 31 million) about 4 years to complete the eradication effort, led by the Carter Center in Atlanta provided other donors come forward with the remaining £ 40 million required.

If successful, the campaign would make Guinea worm only the second human disease to be eradicated, after smallpox and the first to disappear by behavioral change instead of a vaccine. The parasite, once abundant in Africa and South Asia, is now limited to only four countries. Mali, Ethiopia and South Sudan, the newly independent representing 98% of cases have not yet interrupted transmission; and disappointment eradication leadership, isolated cases have also occurred last year in Chad, which had previously been declared free of worm

The Guinea worm is spread when people ingest its larvae in contaminated drinking water. larvae incubating inside the human host and painfully emerge through the skin as fully grown, 1 meter long to a year later. At the conference, former US President Jimmy Carter, who at 87 still spearheads the campaign, recalled the first time he observed a worm coming out of the breast of a young woman. excruciating pain of women "brought tears to my eyes," he said.

Since the worm can grow inside the human body, it could be eliminated completely if no new infections took place. simple changes in behavior such as drinking water filter and discourage people with a worm emerging to walk the ponds and lakes have reduced cases of Guinea worm from 3.5 million in 1986 to 1797 in 2010. But finish the work was difficult, and the original deadline of 1995 was moved several times.

Among the problems, Carter said, is that Africans often resist the idea, ponds sacred premises are dangerous. the war and unrest have caused major setbacks as well although Carter's negotiations have resulted in an interruption of the Sudanese civil war in 1995 that allowed the country to move forward . Monitoring is the most difficult challenge. the health workers surveyed 23,0 villages in Africa to teach people about prevention and distribution of water filters, but most other cases occur in remote, isolated areas . "It's easier to spot a wildfire smoldering twig," said World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan at the conference this morning.

The current objective of Carter center is the global eradication defined as three consecutive years of unreported cases by 2015. £ 20 million by the British government, who said O'Brien is the first of many new contributions to neglected tropical diseases that the Kingdom -um plans to do, is a third of the amount Carter says is needed. the money will go to education and health training, digging their own wells, and providing tools such as water filters and larvicide to .. communities

Chan called on others to follow suit was difficult to keep the focus and funding of the disease because it is usually not fatal, she said: "for most of world is a worm invisible Out of sight, out of heart, living in remote areas beyond the end. .. Of the road "Carter holding her hand, she and her UK government thanked for their" do-good spirit in this time of austerity "

Fix: the number of cases of Guinea worm was 3.5 million in 1986, not 1996.

An Advisory Board of the US Department of Health and Human Services this user afternoon urged the US government to launch a controversial trial of the vaccine against anthrax in children. The 12-1 vote supports a recommendation in September from a working group that spent about 3 months weighing the pros and cons of such a study and is in favor of it.

Today's recommendation by the National Biodefense Science Board (NBSB), is not binding, and even if a study goes ahead, it will have to jump through many hoops before that it can get up and running. Indeed, a trial like this is almost unprecedented in modern medical research: It is to give children a vaccine that is almost certain not to the benefits, and that could hurt them, all to protect other children from a scenario of a Large- scale anthrax attack unlikely.

However, "science is clear that we need to," said Daniel Fagbuyi, medical director of disaster preparedness and emergency management at the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC Fagbuyi chaired the Anthrax Vaccine NBSB working group with seven voting members, who are also part of the NBSB. The only dissenting vote was on Patricia Quinlisk, epidemiologist of the State and medical director of the Iowa Department of Public Health. Quinlisk chairs the NBSB and also served on the working group, but said without specifying that it could not support the recommendation.

The working group began to consider a trial of pediatric anthrax in the spring, at the request of the government. The concern was that the researchers tested other childhood vaccines in advance to ensure that they are both safe and effective, but the vaccine against anthrax has never been given to children . In a disaster, medical staff would be decisions on the fly, uncertain whether children would react like adults in the vaccine dose. For some vaccines, like tetanus, "the same dose administered to infants 2 months, and an NFL football player," said John Grabenstein, senior medical director for adult vaccines at Merck, who also sat on working group and voted in favor of the recommendation this afternoon. Other vaccines, such as hepatitis B and influenza, are determined differently in children.

"In my opinion, this decision is up to, would I rather the first exhibitions [in children] occur before exposure to mass or not, and I would like," said Grabenstein during a conference telephone this afternoon before the vote. "I prefer to know what the response to the vaccine is before offering it to many, many, many thousands of children."

In adults, studies have suggested that the vaccine against anthrax is quite safe;. it is made with inactivated proteins by bacteria of anthrax, a bit like vaccines that protect against diphtheria and tetanus in general, however, studies in children must meet a standard higher than the test for adults to protect children against the risks, particularly if treatment is unlikely to provide benefits. And this is some fear that the trial of anthrax proposed does not meet the ethical standards .

"I do not see how you can ethically do a study on a child where there is no chance the child has of this study," said Paul Offit, an infectious disease specialist at 'children's Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, who often speaks for the vaccination of children. Offit attended one of the meetings of the working group and denounced a study. "I will prevail," he said.

Another big question is who would enroll their children in a clinical trial like this. Fagbuyi, who served in Iraq as a major in the US Army and received the vaccine against anthrax itself, said some military members, first responders and scientists working with anthrax many get the vaccine now expressed interest to vaccinate their children, too. They may be comfortable to them to volunteer for a study of anthrax, if it takes off.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced it was stripping the drug Avastin for approval for use to treat breast cancer. The move comes four months after an advisory committee of the FDA agreed that Avastin approved for breast cancer in 08, does not allow the disease after all.

Today's announcement by FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, is not really a surprise. In part, this is because the FDA usually follows the recommendations of its advisory committees. But high audience June issues, FDA officials have also argued that the cancellation of approval of Avastin for breast cancer was the right thing to do. The drug was approved as part of a "fast-track" program to the FDA, which aims to get medicines more quickly to those in need. But it also means therapies are approved with clinical data less under their belt, and was the case with Avastin. FDA gave its blessing on the basis of a test showing that it offered breast cancer patients an extra 5.5 months of "progression free survival" as their tumors are not growing. Subsequent tests showed a more modest benefit, in one case, less than a month, and the drug has serious side effects.

Avastin will remain on the market for several other cancers.

World health officials had hoped to reduce the number of deaths due to malaria by 50% between 00 and 2010. They got halfway, according to the latest estimates of the global burden of malaria, published today by the World Health Organization. The World Malaria Report 2011 calculates that mortality from malaria fell by 25% in the last decade. In 2010, an estimated 655,000 people died of malaria. This is 5% less than the estimates for 09. 86% of the victims were children under 5, and 91% were in Africa.

The report attributes the decline to the major boost in funding that malaria prevention programs have benefited, but he predicted that 2011 could be a high-water mark. The world has spent about $ 2 billion on malaria control this year. "This is likely to decrease over the next two years," said Robert Newman, Director of WHO's Global Programme against Malaria. To fully finance control efforts, including nets treated with insecticide bed, insecticide spraying inside, disease surveillance and treatment programs would require more than $ 5 billion, he said.

the report also documents an alarming increase in resistance, both of mosquitoes to insecticides and of the malaria parasite to artemisinin, the most potent drug available to treat it. mosquitoes resistant to pyrethroids, the only insecticide used in ITNs have been reported in 39 countries. scientists are trying to understand how this could affect their monitoring efforts, and have developed guidelines to try to manage populations of resistant mosquitoes

artemisinin resistance was found in the border area of ​​Cambodia and Thailand in 09. it is now believed to have spread to Myanmar and Vietnam. The good news is that artemisinin combination therapies, using artemisinin in combination with other drugs, are still very effective.

The report also sets the next major control targets: By 2015, reduce malaria deaths to "near zero" and reduce malaria cases by 75% compared to 00. If the world is approaching achieving these objectives depends on sustained and increased funding, says Newman. The disease is both preventable and treatable, he said. "No one should die from malaria, for want of a bed net $ 2, a diagnostic test of 50 cents, and a processing $ 1."

A paper on a new biomarker cancer who led a company to pursue two major universities for scientific fraud has been retracted by the authors because they could not verify the data.

Published in Urology in April 07 by a researcher from Johns Hopkins University Robert Getzenberg and his team, the paper reported that a new protein in the blood could be used as a test sensitive to detect early prostate cancer. Two years later, a company called Onconome which helped fund the study and related research continued Hopkins, Getzenberg and his former institution, the University of Pittsburgh, alleging that the biomarker test was "essentially as reliable as flipping a coin. "the parties have reached a settlement for an undisclosed amount in 2010.

Now it came to light (due to withdrawal shows) that Getzenberg and his co- authors retracted the paper Urology 3 October. (the date is not on the redemption notice on Urology website of, but Hopkins confirmed.) notice indicates that the conclusions of the paper "can be unreliable." the authors rereviewed data and found "differences" between certain values ​​and those reported in the paper. because of this and other problems, "inconsistencies in the validation data collection and registration justify the withdrawal of the article, "said the notice.

When asked if Hopkins has investigated the matter, the spokesman Gary Stephenson emailed a statement saying that the university "takes the circumstances that led to the retraction extremely seriously. Although internal investigations of this kind that could be triggered by the issues raised are confidential, we emphasize that issues of research integrity are at the heart of our mission. "in general, university does not comment on research misconduct investigations, the statement said.

Getzenberg Hopkins remains on the faculty, the statement said. And he's still writing papers - he co-wrote last nine years, according to Pubmed. Getzenberg did not respond to an e-mail from Science Insider.

The complete statement of Hopkins reads:

We are aware that, at the request of Dr. Robert Getzenberg, review Urology October 3, 2011, retracted his manuscript entitled "EPCA-2. a highly specific serum marker for prostate cancer," Johns Hopkins University takes the circumstances that led to the retraction extremely seriously Although internal investigations of this kind that could be triggered. by the questions that have been raised are confidential, we emphasize that issues of research integrity are at the heart of our mission and we are committed to ensuring that all research conducted under the auspices of the University Johns Hopkins are conducted with ethical and highest scientific standards.

in general, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine neither confirms nor denies the existence of public research misconduct investigations nor releasing details to the public. Exceptions may be made on a base case by case, if warranted. Beyond that, we have no additional information at this time and it would be inappropriate for us to comment further. Dr. Getzenberg remains on the faculty.

In the heated debate two laboratories has designed a variant of avian influenza H5N1 for the first time easily transmitted between mammals, a critical voice was missing: Yoshihiro Kawaoka. But today, Kawaoka speaks his mind in a Nature comment and a detailed response to the questions of Science Insider.

A virologist at the University of Tokyo and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Kawaoka conducted a study that sparked alarm around the world that these laboratory creations might escape or give ideas to bioterrorism. In a commentary published online by Nature today provides fascinating details about his study, a report which was accepted by the journal but remains unpublished. Kawaoka also discusses his thoughts on the recommendation of the National Scientific Advisory Council of the US Government for Biosecurity (NSABB) that Nature and Science who agreed but not published a paper by the second laboratory that performed the studies, key redact portions experiments to prevent the wide dissemination of the recipe for a potential bioweapon.

As explained Kawaoka, experience differs in several key ways from that conducted by the laboratory of Ron Fouchier at Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Both teams did their experiments in ferrets, a favorite laboratory model for studying the transmission of influenza viruses as they mimic the spread of the virus in humans. So far, H5N1 has never transmitted efficiently between ferrets or humans, although it is decimating poultry flocks and killing mammals that often infects. Fouchier, who discussed his work at scientific meetings and with the media, has concocted a transmissible H5N1 in ferrets both through manipulation of viral genes and repeatedly transplanting the virus from animals to help adapt in this host. This virus is highly lethal.

Kawaoka, however, stitched the gene for hemagglutinin H5 bird-in-a H1N1 virus that spreads easily between humans and caused relatively mild pandemic 09. His mutant, as of Fouchier, easily transmitted among ferrets housed in different cages, but it was not fatal. "Above all, the current vaccines and antiviral compounds are effective against it," Kawaoka wrote in his commentary.

Although Kawaoka and other Fouchier joined last week by signing an agreement to suspend studies for 60 days on the H5N1 virus that can transmit in mammals, it emphasizes both in his commentary and Science Insider he disagrees strongly with the efforts to restrict the work and any publication. "As the risks of this research and its publication are debated by the community, I argue that we should pursue transmission studies of the virus highly pathogenic avian influenza with the emergency," he wrote in Nature. "Because H5N1 mutations that confer transmissibility in mammals may emerge in nature, I think it would be irresponsible not to study the underlying mechanisms."

Kawaoka emphasized that the benefits of driving and fully the publication of this work outweigh the perceived risks. He argues that "there is already enough information publicly available to allow someone to make a transmissible H5 HA-possessing" highly qualified researchers conducted the work under stringent biosecurity standards, the results can help to inform surveillance efforts and the proposed mechanisms for restricting access to the data is "unwieldy." He also emphasizes that the work could attract other researchers to address critical issues. He notes, for eg surprising discovery from his lab that mutations associated with transmission are not simply not involve the hemagglutinin protein of how influenza binds to cellular receptors, as many researchers assume. "the writing of the manuscript, for to contain the risk, it will be harder for legitimate scientists to get this information while failing to provide a barrier to those who would do harm, "he wrote.

Fouchier, who was in close contact with Kawaoka during this controversy, welcomed his colleague make public his thoughts on issues. "I think it's a very powerful statement about the benefits that this type of work that far outweigh the theoretical risks," says Fouchier. "By following the tips NSABB, the world will not get more safe, it can actually get less secure. "

in a reply via email to questions submitted by Science Insider, Kawaoka explains that he has not spoken to this partly because of his discussions with Nature . "the newspaper advised me to avoid talking to the media until the document was published," he wrote. "Without being able to describe our results, I can not fully answer questions from the media want to talk. " He said he decided to break his silence because of the decision to delay the publication of his study. "I felt that now, especially with the publication of the statement that interrupt us transmission studies, it was time to comment," he said.

Kawaoka seemed unperturbed by claims that this type of research itself is irresponsible and should never have been done. "actually, I do not let such criticism bother me," he wrote. "I acknowledge the public concern about the influenza research HPAI. But despite what the headlines say, I know that our research has the potential to provide significant benefits for public health. "

In Japan, which unlike the United States have been several outbreaks of H5N1 in birds, "not much" controversy has surrounded this study, he said, that "the public has concerns about a real risk that exists in nature rather than a potential risk of bioterrorism. "He added that" people are asking why we break from the search, they think it is important that we continue . "

Kawaoka accepted the 60-day moratorium because he hoped it would lead to a more thoughtful discussion of the issues." I went controversy about these experiences had caused a situation very serious and that the regulatory discussions and the publication of our research took place without the contribution of science, "he said." and we were losing public support, who we wanted to enjoy our conclusions . "

He said he is confident that 60 days is enough time to resolve many of the issues raised by the work. "We should be able to find solutions if people are willing to listen to others and make decisions based on data, not fear," he concluded.

The budget proposal unveiled yesterday by President Barack Obama receives negative reviews from some advocates of public health. In particular, they say the Global Health Initiative, which aims HIV / AIDS, tuberculosis and neglected diseases, is scheduled for about a cut of $ 300 million to about $ 8.5 billion.

The cuts are "deeply disappointing and a far cry from what [Obama] promised," Sophie Delaunay, head of Doctors Without Borders said in a statement.

While the 2013 budget provides for an increase in spending of $ 350 million for the Global Fund against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an analysis by the Global Health Access Project (GAP), an organization nonprofit advocates for HIV / AIDS and human rights activists, suggests this is a "bait". Indeed, the proposed budget also more than $ 500 million chops the President's Emergency Plan for the fight against AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

"Robbing Peter to pay Paul in the global fight against AIDS is likely to leave Peter and Paul died without access to rescue services services that would have been there if the president was not offering reduce global programs against AIDS, "said Matthew Kavanagh, director of Health GAP US advocacy.

the Policy Tracker Kaiser Family Foundation, the budget cut $ 546.4 million for HIV / AIDS and $ 25 million from the treatment of tuberculosis, but added $ 350 million to the global Fund. the changes bring the overall decline of the Initiative's budget on the overall health of $ 310 million.

Four articles published today in the online, open access journal MBIO offer vast prospects biocontainment facilities that researchers should use to work with the bird flu virus that can transmit in mammals.

The controversy over two laboratory versions due to the H5N1 flu that for the first time can transmit in mammals. The studies, conducted with ferrets, led the National Scientific Advisory Council of the US Government for Biosecurity (NSABB) to recommend in December that documents describing experiences redact details to prevent information helping bioterrorism. The opinion of NSABB also triggered intense debate as to whether the work with these viruses should occur at biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) labs, as was done by the two groups that made the viruses, or even more secure BSL-4 laboratories.

A preview opening, co-written by an NSABB member and editor MBIO Arturo Casadevall notes that raising the level of containment has a difficult compromise: Additional measures to protect the company could make it more vulnerable because "the critical experimental work will not be done simply because BSL-4 facilities are few and already engaged in research with many other pathogens."

This perspective argues that "the heart of controversy "is the alleged fatality rate of H5N1. According to the World health Organization, nearly 60% of the 0 confirmed cases of H5N1 have resulted in death. But many researchers noted that this probably overestimates the true fatality rate as many subclinical cases go unnoticed. in another article, Lisa Murillo of theoretical biology and biophysics Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico argues that because of the confusion about the case fatality rate "it would be useful to err on the side of caution. "

A separate article co-written by Michael Imperiale NSABB member of the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor similar grows following the precautionary principle and using BSL-4, since there are many unknowns, including the reliability of the ferret model. This perspective points out that the level of biocontainment may change if more information comes later suggested that these viruses are not as dangerous as feared. "It's almost hard to believe today that cloning simplex virus thymidine kinase gene of herpes in 1979 was conducted BSL4 (or P4, as it was then called) confinement," the article notes, referring to a time when the first recombinant DNA experiments have emerged and have fueled similar security concerns. "This experience was considered high risk, but over time we came to understand that it is not, today, the same work would be done to BSL1 confinement"

Section. final Adolfo García-Sastre of Mount Sinai School of medicine in New York that supports BSL-3 provides sufficient security. García-Sastre argues that the H5N1 virus is sensitive to both antivirals and existing vaccines that would protect all laboratory workers were accidentally exposed. "the use of BSL4 containment would not reduce the risk of virus more than enhanced BSL3 containment release, but this would result in an unnecessary burden that would restrict research on H5N1 virus transmission fl uenza few facilities and considerably decrease the speed of research on this important pathogen, "he writes.

a single drug can shrink or cure tumors of the breast, ovary, colon, bladder, brain, liver and of the human prostate that were transplanted into mice, researchers have found. The treatment, an antibody that blocks a "do not eat" signal normally displayed on tumor cells, coaxes the immune system to destroy cancer cells.

There are ten, biologist Irving Weissman of school of medicine Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, discovered that leukemia cells produce higher levels of a protein called CD47 than healthy cells. CD47, he and other scientists found, is also displayed on healthy blood cells.. it is a marker that blocks the immune system to destroy them as they circulate Cancers take advantage of this flag to trick the immune system into ignoring the past years, the lab Weissman showed that blocking CD47 with an antibody cured some cases of lymphomas and leukemias in mice by stimulating the immune system to recognize cancer cells as invaders. Now he and his colleagues have shown that the CD47-blocking antibody may have a much larger impact than just blood cancers.

"What we have shown that CD47 is not just important on leukemias and lymphomas," says Weissman. "He's on every single human primary tumor that we tested." In addition, the laboratory Weissman found that cancer cells have always had higher levels of CD47 than did the healthy cells. How much CD47 a tumor made could predict the chances of survival of a patient.

To determine whether blocking CD47 was beneficial, the scientists exposed tumor cells to macrophages, a type of immune cell, and anti-CD47 molecules in petri dishes. Without the drug, the macrophages ignored the cancerous cells. But when the anti-CD47 antibody was present, sunken macrophages and destroys cancer cells of all types of tumors.

The team then transplanted in mouse feet, where the tumor can be easily monitored human tumors. When they treated the rodents with anti-CD47, the tumors shrank and did not spread to the rest of the body. In mice, since tumor cancer of the human bladder, for example, 10 untreated 10 mice had cancer which propagate in their lymph nodes. Only one of 10 mice treated with anti-CD47 had a lymph node with signs of cancer. In addition, the implanted tumor often got smaller after colon cancer treatment-transplanted into mice decreased to less than a third of their original size, on average. After five mice with breast cancer tumors, anti-CD47 eliminated all signs of cancer cells, and the animals remained 4 months after stopping treatment without cancer.

"We have shown that even after the tumor has taken hold, the antibody can either cure the tumor or slow its growth and prevent metastasis," said Weissman.

Although as macrophages also attacked blood cells expressing CD47 when mice received the antibody, the researchers found that the reduction in blood cells was short-lived; the animals turned into production of new blood cells to replace those that they lost the treatment, the team announced today online in the Proceedings of the national Academy of sciences .

Tyler Jacks cancer researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge says that while the new study is promising, more research is needed to see if the results hold in humans. "the microenvironment of a real tumor is a bit more complicated than the microenvironment of a transplanted tumor, "he notes," and it is possible that a real tumor has additional immune suppression effects. "

another important issue, Jacks said, is how the CD47 antibody complement existing treatments. "How can they work together and how they might be antagonistic?" Using anti-CD47 antibody in addition to chemotherapy, for example, could be cons-productive if the stress of chemotherapy causes normal cells CD47 to produce more than usual.

Weissman's team received a grant of $ 20 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to move the results of mouse studies to human safety tests. " We have enough data already, "says Weissman," I can say that I am convinced that it will move to phase I human trials. "

* Fixed April 2, 2013: A reference to the compound used to treat mice has been named as CD47, but in all cases was the antibody to this protein, anti-CD47.

Tomorrow the medical Council of Texas decide whether to sign what is said to be the first political-level state to impose control over the medical use of experimental treatments using adult stem cells. The hotly debated plan has attracted mixed views from the scientific community about whether it is a good way to raise standards and generated confusion in the media.

Some experts say that the rule will allow unscrupulous doctors to evade review by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) because it can identify methods that are not rigorously examined. But others say the rule, while not perfect, is a good faith effort to bring oversight to these treatments, unproven controversial, that clinical around the world supply of diseases ranging from arthritis to multiple sclerosis. Currently, the rules of society require physicians who provide stem cell therapies in Texas only comply with general standards for the practice of medicine. The International Society for Stem cells (ISSCR) today issued a statement that, contrary to press reports this week, he took no position on the proposed rule Texas.

Texas has become a flash point for concerns about stem cell clinics thanks in part to Governor Rick Perry, who has taken steps to promote stem cell industry in the state and last summer, as a treatment for a back injury, received an injection of his own stem cells from the fat of a Houston doctor. Meanwhile, Sugar Land, Texas, a company called CellTex Therapeutics Perry who prepared the cells has recently been under fire for charging patients for stem cell therapies that have not been validated in trials clinics.

Last summer after Perry requested a review, the Medical Council of Texas began drafting a rule that would impose new oversight on the use of experimental agents, including stem cell doctors. The latest project, published in the Register of Texas in March, would among other things require that stem cell treatments, or be part of a National Institutes of Health or protocol or study (all of the subject ethics review) approved by the FDA, or have approval from an ethical review of research of the local council known as an Institutional review Board (IRB).

Critics say the proposed rule would allow doctors to avoid rigorous monitoring. "It opens a lot of opportunities for abuse or fairly lax regulation," says the expert science policy Douglas Sipp of the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan. Commenting views similar to the card ( see p. 9), University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, bioethicist Leigh Turner warns that the proposed rule would review RIR, private for-profit. Turner opposes because it maintains that the RIR may be under financial pressure approve the protocols. And stem cell researcher Irving Weissman of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, told Houston Chronicle that the proposed rule is "a clever way around appropriate role FDA to oversee clinical trials "and violates ISSCR guidelines.

But unlike the Chronicle "the suggestion that Weissman spoke for the ISSCR, the company said in its statement that it" has not approved a position on the draft language. "the company is concerned about how the untested stem cell treatments are marketed it even created a website to inform patients and supports rigorous testing. "We've generally heard positive things about the intention" of Texas proposed rule says Director Heather Rooke ISSCR science.

Sean Morrison, ISSCR member at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, said that even if it wanted to, the board could not require the supervision of the FDA because the agency does not regulate not all experimental treatments: numerous clinical trials legitimate US, including stem cell trials, test treatments that do not meet the definition of an FDA regulated product. But the proposed rule would not stop the FDA to walk, he said, because "federal laws trump the state."

Morrison expressed their concerns that the requirements of the proposed rule for the review of the IRB are "weak" because, for example, the IRB would not have to be affiliated with a hospital or Texas the school. The regulations "are not perfect," said Morrison. But he said the medical commission "should be commended for trying to prevent the proliferation of unproven therapies of stem cells." Texas, he said, "has done more to remedy this problem that most other states "

CellTex dislikes is the rule. It argues in comments to the Commission (see page 3.) that its stem cells should be exempt because" they are "not more than" slightly modified "or in combination with another drug and it does not meet (and therefore the board) definition of an investigational agent by the FDA. (the premise of CellTex can be carried doubt, however: the US government has pursued a similar company in Colorado, arguing that stem cells offer it qualify as a regulated product)

the medical commission will be deciding to move the project. policy, pull down for more tweaking, or scrap it completely, said the spokeswoman Leigh Hopper board.

UPDATE April 13: Today, the Medical Council of Texas adopted the proposed rule by a vote from October to April after "many debate, "said the spokeswoman Leigh Hopper board. Some members were concerned the rule would open the door to abuse (physicians manage patients for large sums of money for unproven treatments), said Hopper. Others noted that some doctors treat patients and already felt that, in the absence of clear guidance from the FDA, the rule was imperfect reasonable start. She said the board has awarded a subcommittee to refine the rule with the participation of Leigh Turner and others.

Turner, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, bioethicist who spoke at the meeting, said Science Insider email from the Austin airport that he continues to feel the policy "has many flaws" and that what is needed are "more robust and consistent guidelines. "

A classified briefing from US intelligence officials helped convince a majority of members of a government advisory board that the benefits of publishing two controversial studies of H5N1 bird flu outweigh the risks, according to testimony presented yesterday at a hearing of the US Senate.

The briefing late March the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) left "the impression that the risk of abuse has not increased significantly with the full publication and there a high probability of adverse political consequences of not publishing, "microbiologist Paul Keim of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, acting chairman of NSABB, told the Committee on Homeland security and governmental Affairs.

Keim's comments, and discussion of other previously unknown details about the deliberations of the NSABB, came at a hearing to examine how the US government must manage biological research "dual use" could be used for both good and evil. The hearing was motivated in large part by the H5N1 controversy, said Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), the chairman of the committee.

Four witnesses, including Keim and Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), discussed the NSABB decision and new US government rules to identify research concern dual-use taxpayer-funded (DURC) before it starts. They also responded to criticism of the process NSABB by one of the panel members, Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, in a letter first obtained by Science Insider.

Highlights of the hearing:

• Fauci and Daniel M. Gerstein, the assistant sub Secretary for science and technology at the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), provided details on the number of studies of their screening programs Durc had reported.

For the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Fauci said comments were initially identified 404 intramural research projects and 147 manuscripts that could be DURC, but none proved problematic. The reviews also reported 381 grants and extramural contracts, 10 of which are currently discussed their implications for Durc. Seven of these projects involve influenza viruses, he said. The other three studies concerning anthrax, plague, botulism and officers (one each).

At DHS, Gerstein said reviewers overlook about 225 projects a year for DURC. Just 12-15 "could perhaps be some problems with the perception" DURC they are, he says, and five to 10 fall into the "highest category" that requires further consideration.

• microbiologist Keim provided new details about the NSABB deliberations in the two documents from the flu. He revealed that last year, the council split on how much detail to expunge from one study, led by Ron Fouchier of Erasmus MC in the Netherlands, but decided unanimously that there should not be published. (in March, the Board recommended, also on a split vote , publish a revised version of the document.)

Keim also discussed the classified briefing that Osterholm accused was "incomplete" and "useless." Keim said members Board entered the briefing "as scientists and pretty much have ... on faith that what we have heard in the risk assessments and the political consequences were made. ... It was an environment where perhaps the board a little naive. We do not have the ability to look behind these assessments ... and we were able to ask so many questions. "But the briefers were" quite confident, "he said," and this briefing in fact, suggested that the risk [of publishing the two papers] were quite minimal and the political consequences were great. And I think that had a great effect on the board. "

• Keim said he generally agreed with some Osterholm complaints made in his letter on the NSABB process, and considered" a very constructive type of communication. " But "it is regrettable that it has been disclosed and it has become part of the public dialog. It makes it difficult to have a type of constructive and proactive conversation. "

Keim was not convinced of the burden Osterholm that expert testimony" biased "in NSABB made a big difference, though. "one point he makes in the letter was that there was in fact a bias in the witness list. I think this is true. The first witnesses that we made to ... were in fact the investigators themselves. They are inherently biased. They wanted their work published. "But" I do not think this is a big concern, "said Keim." We are scientists on this board ... and we can be very critical. ... And if the prejudices that were inherent in these types of cookies that I think has not been a problem for us. ... We were able to ask very tough questions. " The meeting Mars "was never developed as a counterpoint to the point," he added.

Fauci said, "I disagree with most things" in the letter of Osterholm, and that NIH has "responded to a base point by point all" in it. "There were several things in there that I have to say quite frankly, Mr. Chairman, that I disagree with," said Lieberman. "One of them was the concern about the safety briefing. I have great confidence in the national intelligence director to tell us what we need to know." On the issue of witnesses, Fauci also said: "We had no indication Dr. Osterholm of people he wanted to see that there were not there"

The hearing is generally mild in. . tone, and was followed by only two senators Lieberman and Susan Collins (R-ME), Collins left early to attend other business Near the end of the hearing, Lieberman said, "I l 'learned a lot of testimony today, and overall, I am reassured by government policies that have been implemented and decision making we have a decision. "

the controversy over grant $ 20 million incubator made in March by the Institute of $ 3 billion cancer prevention and research of Texas (CPRIT) at two universities of Texas continues to be felt. This week, the President of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has publicly responded to the rumor, and the press has raised new questions about how the grant was presented and discussed.

As we reported last week, up $ 18 million of the grant goes to a discovery center co-directed drugs by Lynda Chin, wife of MD Anderson President Ron DePinho. The rest will fund a marketing center at Rice University. On May 8, the scientific director of CPRIT, Nobel Alfred Gilman prices, announced he resigned in part because other CPRIT leaders decided that the party MD Anderson (proposal and notes) did not include research and does not need to go through a scientific review. scientific examination of members of CPRIT board wrote CPRIT the board say they shared the concerns of Gilman.

New this week:

• The Houston Chronicle reported that two members of the review of the marketing board CPRIT had links with Rice. One is listed on the Rice proposal as a "leading member" and another is on its "strategic investment committee." CPRIT responded to the suggestion of conflict of interest in a letter to investigators, saying neither members participated in the examination of the proposal.

• the Houston Chronicle published responses DePinho and executive CPRIT DirectorWillam Gimson an editorial he wrote raising questions about the price. in the letter DePinho, he repeats the argument that the decision on how to revise the subsidy came down to a difference of opinion on the objectives of the Institute of applied science Cancer (IACS .) in his letter:

IACS is a game changer - not a traditional search business - which provides a robust drug development pipeline successfully ...

.

MD Anderson and Rice have applied for the grant on the basis of a request for proposals issued by CPRIT. Our final proposal presented a solid business strategy for improving drug development and new business creation. The proposal received four notices pending competent people outside of Texas. Because it is not a research project, not deep science was included. ...

[The] IACS is a new hybrid model that combines the best features of academia and industry in a coherent organization. With its professional staff of seasoned industry numbering 56, IACS leads activities resulted stringent steps oriented goals with sufficient resources are allocated to programs with the highest level of long-term success in the clinic.

Some "research." May choose to call our proposal we call business, and we are confident Texans will be the beneficiaries.

• The Letter cancer , a newsletter based in Washington DC, announced today that the grant application does not pass by the office of MD Anderson provost Raymond DuBois before it was submitted to CPRIT (subscription only, but excerpts here). The newsletter suggests that it is "unusual" because the plans of IACS include animal studies and clinical trials at early stage, and because Chin DePinho works for the written report:

Bypass examination by a provost of the institution that employs the researcher seeking funds is very unusual and problematic, especially when medical research is involved, and more in situations where there is a risk of conflicts arising from nepotism, ethics experts and review of subsidies say.

Imagine a world where if your heart or kidneys have failed, you would not have to endure an agonizing wait, perhaps futile for a donor that your body might reject organ . Instead, a doctor would simply take cells from your own body and use them to "grow" you a new body. One of the main obstacles to such tissue engineering has been producing network of tiny blood vessels that hold the newly growing natural tissue alive. But now a new technique, based on the material used by the confectionery industry, may have brought a solution closer.

The cell culture technology has advanced considerably in recent decades to the point where it is now possible for the skin of culture in a laboratory and transplanted to a patient. engineering bladders are now in clinical trials. But the skin and bladders are thin membranes, if transplanted into the body, can be supplied with blood from preexisting vessels. Growing a replacement version of a piece of thick fabric like a heart or a kidney requires the engineering of a network of channels connected in the tissue to act as blood vessels. Without them, the cells inside are deprived of oxygen and nutrients and would quickly die.

Various research groups have attempted to solve this problem. An avenue involved casting molds of blood vessels, then the culturing of tissue around them. The molds must then be dissolved so that the body can function properly. Getting rid of mold is hard to do, however, without killing the living tissue. If the mold was made of rubber, for example, a researcher should use a toxic solvent to dissolve them.

The new study solves this problem by turning to materials used by the food industry. As they report online today in Nature Materials Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and colleagues have developed a soluble carbohydrate drink water on the basis of a decoration used on cakes and lollipops. The material can be cast into a variety of shapes, is completely non-toxic, and when he did his job, will dissolve naturally in the moist environment of the cells, leaving spaces that can carry blood to the cells.

To test the quality of "blood vessels" products, researchers have grown a piece of cloth made from rat liver cells using their technique. The cells in the center of the tissue remained alive and functioning after the scaffold had dissolved, that vessels successfully carrying blood to the cells, said team member and bioengineer Christopher Chen.

The study is "a useful step in this effort to develop fully functional tissue with blood vessels," said Abraham Stroock chemical engineering from Cornell University, who also works on the blood vessels of the engineering in the fabric using different techniques.

both Stroock and Chen stressed, however, that there is still much work to be done before scientists can even consider becoming new implantable organs . for example, the real organs are not simply pieces of fabric interlaced with blood vessels, but internally structured machines including various types of tissues that work together to do a job. to reproduce this complexity will be a huge challenge, said Chen .

Stroock hope more short-term goals could be achieved, however. He says it may soon be possible to take healthy liver cells in a patient whose liver is failing and use them to make fabrics that would be stored in the laboratory. Although this fabric is not suitable for implantation, it could, said Stroock, make a kind of personalized, living dialysis machine to the patient, as well as being a step towards the goal of producing replacement organs .

LONDON -The Medical Research Council (MRC) and the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR), both funded by the Government of the United Kingdom, designed to support the Olympics antidoping laboratory. They plan to turn it into a national center dedicated to the metabolic phenotyping, a field that examines the blood, urine and tissues for thousands of molecules produced by chemical reactions in the body, the purpose of the relate to diseases.

"There is nothing like this anywhere in the world," said Jeremy Nicholson, head of the surgery department and cancer at Imperial College London and an area of ​​emerging pioneer, will become the first center's research director.

The antidoping laboratory state-of-the-art, the size of seven tennis courts, was originally a partnership between drug control scientists at King's College London and the pharmaceutical company British GlaxoSmithKline. It was going to be closed at the end of the Olympics, said Jonathan Weber, research director for medicine at Imperial College London, who helped coordinate the proposal. The transition to the MRC-NIHR Phenome Centre, as it is known, is scheduled for early October, and the center will open in January.

A phenome describes all the physiological features of a person in the same way a genome describes the genetic characteristics; metabolic phenotyping focuses on metabolites, products of chemical reactions within the body. By studying these unique biochemical signatures in fluids such as blood and urine, it is possible to make the link between a person's metabolism and diseases they develop, which can lead to diagnostic tests and targeted drugs to individual biochemistry of a person.

The anti-doping laboratory mass spectrometers and machines for liquid chromatography, high-performance gas chromatography, which enables high-speed tests of more than 6,000 urine and blood samples of athletes. About 60% of this material will be reused.

MRC and NIHR each provide £ 5 million funding; the site and buildings owned by GlaxoSmithKline, while the equipment manufacturers based US Bruker BioSpin and Waters will provide instrumentation. The center will analyze approximately 25,000 samples in its first year, the scaling purposes up to 100,000 per year.

More on this story in the press the Friday edition of Science .

At the top of the rock 'n' roll, drugs, sexual liberation, and unkempt hair, baby boomers are also eligible for hepatitis C virus (HCV) as a defining characteristic of their generation. A report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends that all Americans born between 1945 and 1965 receive HCV test.

An estimated 2.7 million to 3.9 million people in the United States are infected with this deadly virus liver-damaging and sometimes. CDC estimated that almost 75% of the infected population is from the baby boom generation: 3.25% of people born in this "birth cohort" positive test for HCV, which is five times higher than adults born before 1945 or after 1965. men are twice as likely to be infected than women, and the prevalence among black men (8.12%) far exceeds than white (4.05%) and Mexican-Americans males (3.41%).

"We do not think all [baby boomer] needs to run and see their primary care provider and get tested immediately but they should not put this off for years either, "says Bryce Smith CDC, a social scientist who authored lead recommendations published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. "The sooner it can happen, the more lives we will be able to save."

There are many unknowns about HCV, its transmission routes to its epidemiology. HCV was only identified in 1988 and virus surveillance system is much less robust than that following HIV infection in the country. However, CDC estimates that in 1980, the virus has infected an average of 230,000 Americans each year. It spreads mainly through blood and blood products; injecting drug users, transplant recipients, and hemophiliacs were hardest hit. The virus causes cirrhosis in about 20% of those infected for over 20 years, many need liver transplants to survive and it is the leading cause of liver cancer in this country. toxic and expensive drug treatments have cured the infection in a small percentage of infected people, but new, powerful and safer antiviral recently on the market that promise to have a much wider impact. There is no vaccine against HCV.

Several factors have led to a sharp drop cases after 190, the year of a blood test for HCV was introduced. The virtually eliminated blood test spread through transfusions and blood products. Injecting drug users also saw declining rates of infection because the virus had "saturated" the population, and because, in the wake of the epidemic of HIV booming, many communities have started programs exchange of needles and syringes to make safer injection. In 2010, the estimated number of new infections in the United States was only 17,000.

As Smith and colleagues explain in the report, studies have shown that 45% to 85% of those infected with HCV in the United States do not know they carry the virus. An estimated 45% of people who learn they are infected report without known risk factor for acquiring HCV. "People do not know the different ways they might be able to acquire hepatitis C, and that is really the point of just testing everyone in that [baby boomer] birth cohort," says Smith. "It is worthwhile to recognize that all these exhibitions happened in the 70s and 80s, and memories can not be that good."

HCV can live outside the body for a week-HIV, however, died within minutes, which means that the transmission can easily happen by sharing a toothbrush, razor blade, or straw for snorting drugs. "Hepatitis C is a highly resistant virus," notes Smith. Transmission can also occur from infected mother to child and unsterilized tattoo needles. Researchers still debate the importance of sexual transmission, although that those who reported having had more than 20 partners were 4.5 times increased risk. "We are not sure whether because of sexual behavior itself or if it is a proxy for other behaviors" said Smith.

CDC evaluated several birth cohorts over the past four years and determined that universal screening of baby boomers was the most profitable strategy for the detection of HCV infections undiagnosed in the United States. Models predict that, in the absence of improved screening and treatment over the next 40 to 50 years, nearly 2 million Americans will develop cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma afflict 400,000 others, and complications HCV kill about 1 million people.

Until 2011, the treatment of HCV invoked alpha interferon and ribavirin, drugs that have serious side effects and work through indirect mechanisms and a little blurry. This year, two protease inhibitors came on the market that directly attack the virus and cure rates have doubled among infected people who have used them. clinical trials underway with 20 other so-called direct-acting antivirals have been even more impressive results against HCV, and researchers are hopeful that cure this devastating disease will become routine, but only if people know they are infected and get treatment.

* Correction 24:37 October 1 :. The first test for hepatitis C was introduced in 190, not 1992 as previously written