Killing cancer with capsaicin
Back in January, I wrote about a new type of therapy called resiniferatoxin where polymodal nociceptors were destroyed by a cousin of capsaicin. Now a new treatment involving resiniferitoxin's cousin, capsaicin, is showing promise in killing tumor cells.
Capsaicin is what's found in spicy foods — it's what gives these food their burn. It's also remarkably good at dulling pain (it's the active ingredient in Zostrix, for example), and now it appears that it can also kill prostate cancer cells by increasing the rates of apoptosis. Apoptosis is programmed cell death; for instance skin cells undergo apoptosis to make way for newer cells. Cancer cells, on the other hand, are notorious for proliferating without ever dying, which is the definition of cancer: uncontrolled cellular proliferation.
In any event, a baseline rate of cell death of 3% was established with low concentrations of capsaicin. By increasing the dose, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center were able to increase the rates of apoptosis to as high as 75%.
He believes that capsaicin jump starts a pathway that triggers cell death. Molecular tests suggest that it achieves this by causing a cascade of events inside the cell that lead to the release of a protein complex called NF-kappa Beta, which subsequently causes the cell to self-destruct. This is crucial since cancer is characterised by the uncontrolled growth of cells.
The team also found that capsaicin suppressed the growth of human prostate cancer cells – grafted into mice with suppressed immune systems – by about 80%.
There is no indication that increased capsaicin intake decreases one's risk of developing prostate cancer; rather, it only appears to slow its rate of growth. Nonetheless, Phillip Koeffler, head of the research team hopes to see clinical trials within the next two years to determine capsaicin's actual effect on men with prostate cancer.
It would be interesting to see if resiniferatoxin can kill bone cancer cells via a similar pathway — while it might not save a terminal patient's life life, it could prolong it.
[tags]prostate cancer, capsaicin, cancer, medicine[/tags]
Wal-Mart to start selling Plan B
Wal-Mart recently got into some hot water because they decided they didn't want to carry Plan B, better known as the "morning after" pill. Several womens' rights groups and others had criticized the company, and lawsuits had been filed. While the negative publicity surrounding the issue probably isn't good for business, Wal-Mart has always marched to the beat of their own, ostensibly "family-oriented" drum. (For instance, they sell only edited CDs with no explicit lyrics.) Now they've decided that they will sell Plan B.
Personally, I don't really care what Wal-Mart does in the case of Plan B. In a capitalistic world, businesses can sell what they like, and if they choose to not sell something, well then they're the ones that have to live with the consequences, which is why I was surprised by the hue-and-cry over the Plan B thing. The only one Wal-Mart was hurting was themselves: there are other pharmacies (yes, even in rural areas) that patients can go to. What's the big deal? On the other hand, Wal-Mart is allowing their pharmacists to refuse to dispense the medication, which isn't the big deal that some would be tempted to make it out to be. You can't make a pharmacist dispense any medication if s/he has moral qualms about doing so. It's the same as the idea that you can't make an anesthesiologist participate in an execution.
[tags]Wal-Mart, Plan B[/tags]
Vaccine for (some) ear infections developed
Researchers in the Czech republic have developed a vaccine that reduces the incidence of ear infections in children. Better known to medical professionals as otitis media, ear infections afflict almost every kid at some point in time. Personally, I had chronic ear infections as a child, and I had to have tubes placed in my ears six times as a result.
This new vaccine is effective against two of the more common bacterial causes of otitis media: Strep. pneumonia and H. influenza. Of 5,000 infants in the test, 333 given the vaccine got middle ear infections compared to 499 in the control group.
These results may not seem especially good, but they aren't bad either: there are many causes of ear infections, and the infants weren't sorted into those that had Strep. pneumonia- or H. influenza-mediated otitis media and those who did not. The important finding from this study is that overall incidence was decreased by one-third.
This vaccine is a first for another reason: traditionally vaccines are formulated against lethal or otherwise potentially-devastating diseases: smallpox, polio, MMR, etc. This marks the first time that a vaccine has been developed for what is essentially a relatively trivial medical condition. There are concerns over the cost of developing the vaccine, and whether it will be a big hit, but given the amount of aggravation that many parents go through with their children's chronic ear infections, I see no reason to worry over the financials of the drug company who makes this and continues its development.
[tags]otitis media, vaccination, ear infections[/tags]
MAOI patch approved
The FDA just approved the first transdermal one-a-day anti-depressant: Emsam, an MAO inhibitor. In theory, this patch allows patients to continue eating the foods that they enjoy — at least at the lowest dose, which they wouldn't be able to do with a tablet. Higher strengths allow no such luxury.
With the amazing assortment of drug interactions that MAOIs have, I question whether this is really beneficial for anyone. I can honestly say that I've seen one prescription for an MAOI in the last three years. With the advent of safer anti-depressants — the SSRIs — and the rightfully-earned stigma against MAO inhibitors, I wonder if Emsam really has a market. Sure there will be some sales, but given that it costs ~$500 million to bring a new drug to market, will it recoup its own R&D costs before its patent expires?
[tags]selegiline, MAO inhibitors, Emsam, SSRIs, anti-depressants[/tags]