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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
Tiny Worm is Newest Weapon to Discover
Cancer-Causing Compounds in Household Products
Helps detect virtually any potential cancer-causing
chemical
 June 21, 2006 A little worm has enabled scientist
to detect action that blocks "cell suicide," and causes chemical
compounds in household products, like mothballs and air fresheners, to
become possible cancer-causing agents. It is the first systematic way
to screen virtually any potential cancer-causing chemical that may
affect humans, according to the study spearheaded by the University of
Colorado at Boulder.
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Cancers Cured in Mice by Blood Cell Transfers from
Immune Mouse
Also
offered protection for the lifespan of the recipient mouse
May 9, 2006 - White blood cells from a strain of
cancer-resistant mice cured advanced cancers in ordinary laboratory mice
and appears to have made them immune from new cancers, researchers at
Wake Forest University School of Medicine reported yesterday.
Read more...
Alzheimer's Climbs in Leading Causes of Death for
2004
Heart disease and cancer accounted for over
half the deaths in 2004
April
20, 2006 - The 15 leading causes of death in 2004 were the same as in
2003 except Alzheimer's disease moved up a notch higher, shoving
Influenza and pneumonia down one. Alzheimer's moved up to number 7 with
65,829 deaths and was one of only two of the leading causes of death to
increase, according to a report yesterday by the National Center for
Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Read more...
Cancer Deaths Could be Reduced by Changes to Newly
Found Gene
New gene found
that is responsible for the spread of cancer
March 29, 2006 - Scientists at the University of
Liverpool have identified a new gene that causes the spread of cancer
and speculate that turning off the action of these genes could stop the
spread of the primary tumor, which would improve the chances of
survival. It is the secondary cancers that are the primary cause of
cancer deaths.
Read more...another study
says cancer may be prevented...
Cancer Deaths to Continue Decline in 2006
Annual report from American Cancer Society says
death rate has declined since 1991
Feb. 9, 2006 - -The American Cancer Society's
annual estimate of cancer deaths says 2006 will see a slight decline in
the projected number of cancer deaths compared to estimates made for
2005. The projections are based on a decline in the actual number of
cancer deaths reported by the National Center for Health Statistics for
2002 (557,271 deaths) and 2003 (556,902 deaths), the first decline in
the actual number of cancer deaths in over 70 years.
Read
more... with graphs...
Read more
on
Health & Medicine |
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Naphthalene in mothballs and para-dichlorobenzene,
or PDCB, found in some air fresheners, were shown to block enzymes that
initiate programmed cell death, or apoptosis, said Associate Professor
Ding Xue of CU-Boulder's molecular, cellular and developmental biology
department. Apoptosis is a normal function of certain cell groups that
acts as a "brake" to prevent unchecked cellular proliferation similar to
the process that triggers the formation of cancerous tumors, said Xue.
While naphthalene and PDCB have been shown to cause
cancer in rodents and are classified by the National Toxicology Program
and the International Association for Research on Carcinogens as
potential human carcinogens, their biochemistry has not been well
understood, said Xue.
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The worms used in this cancer research are
also playing a key role in Alzheimer's research. See story
below. |
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Aging is the Critical Factor Allowing Alzheimer's to
Develop
Aging process plays an active role, too, in
Parkinsons and Huntingtons
August 10, 2006 For those who have wondered if
Alzheimer's disease is a consequence of aging or if it just takes a long
time for the toxic protein aggregates that cause it to form, researchers
have the answer. A collaboration between researchers at the Salk
Institute for Biological Studies and the Scripps Research Institute
shows that aging is the critical factor.
Read more...
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But using a common, eyelash-sized worm known as C.
elegans, the research team has shown that naphthalene can cause the
inactivation of a group of enzymes known as caspases -- which control
cell suicide -- by oxidizing them.
The study appears in the June issue of Nature
Chemical Biology. It was authored by Xue and David Kokel of CU-Boulder's
MCD biology department and Yehua Li and Jun Qin of the Baylor College of
Medicine in Houston.
"This study shows why mothballs and some air
freshener products may be harmful to humans," said Xue. "And, for the
first time, we have developed a systematic way to screen virtually any
potential cancer-causing chemical that may affect humans using these
nematodes as animal models."
In the study, caspase enzymes from both nematodes
and from humans were blocked after exposure to naphthalene, indicating a
"comparable pharmacology" between worms and humans, said Xue.
Understanding how carcinogenic compounds can
trigger tumor growth is important for federal regulatory agencies that
deal with human exposure to hazardous chemicals, said Xue. More than 1
million pounds of naphthalene and PDCB are used by consumers annually,
according to the study.
The nematodes were grown on a culture medium coated
with a soybean-based oil that is harmless to the worms but which can
dissolve naphthalene and PDCBs, said Xue. When the chemicals were added
to the culture, they deactivated the caspases, resulting in the survival
of "extra" cells in the tiny worms that normally would have been
eliminated by apoptosis, said Xue.
Apoptosis is an essential process in animal
development and occurs in many tissues, said Xue. In amphibians it rids
frogs of tails as they develop from larvae to adults, and in humans it
removes cells that make up "webbing" tissue between the fingers and toes
of embryos during development, he said.
"Apoptosis serves as a checking mechanism to ensure
that the right amount of cells are generated in the body," Xue said. In
Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, too much apoptosis is
occurring, while in cancer and autoimmune disorders, too little
apoptosis is occurring, he said.
Popular with scientists in research labs around the
world, C. elegans worms have essentially the same basic biological
processes as humans even though their average lifespan is less than
three days, he said. Xue's team currently is using C. elegans as an
animal model "bioassay" to test common industrial chemicals like
biphenyl, toluene and benzene that are suspected to be carcinogens.
"The power of C. elegans' molecular genetics, in
combination with the possibility of carrying out large-scale chemical
screens in this organism, makes C. elegans an attractive and economical
animal model for both toxicological studies and drug screens," the
researchers wrote in Nature Chemical Biology.
"Bioassays involving lab rats can take two years to
complete," he said. "But we can do the same kind of bioassays with
nematodes in two weeks, and we can do them at our lab benches instead of
animal care facilities."
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Movies of C. Elegan Worms
>>
Caenorhabditis elegans - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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