Insights into tobacco smoking addiction

Tobacco smoking leads to 90% of all lung cancer cases and contributes to other lung and heart diseases. As shown in a recent publication in Nature, scientists at the Scripps Institute may have a new method for combatting smoking addiction. Their research shows that a specific subunit of the nicotine receptor, the α5 subunit of the acetylcholine receptor, sends inhibitory signals at high doses of nicotine in the brain to prevent continued smoking (or intake of nicotine). When functioning normally, activation of this receptor operates to avoid the negative effects of high nicotine levels. Activating this subunit could be a new way to stop smoking.


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IL-15 implicated in celiac and inflammatory bowel disease

In diseases including celiacs and inflammatory bowel disease, the inflammatory cells in the intestinal mucosa mount an immune response to antigens in the ingested food. In a recent study in Nature, DePaolo and colleagues have found a new enemy in those suffering from these diseases. The cytokine, IL-15, an activator of the immune response, is elevated in patients. This leads to an increase in T lymphocyte development, specifically Th1 cell development, and an produces an inflammatory response leading to the digestive complications found in celiacs and inflammatory bowel disease. These findings also suggest that anti-IL15 therapy may be an effective way to prevent these diseases or restore systems back to normal.


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Diamond Nanoparticles to treat cancer

Attaching tiny diamond chips, just slivers of carbon really, to nanoparticles helps to shrink lung tumor cells in animal models, according to recent research by Ho et. al. in the latest Science Translational Medicine. Scientists created small nanoparticles with attached diamond specks and the chemotherapeutic agent, doxorubicin (dox) and injected them into mice with lung cancer. These nanoparticles zoomed in on their target, the cancerous tumor, without causing any auxiliary toxicity that is seen when dox is just injected directly into mice. Therefore, higher doses of dox could be given without having liver toxicity or other side effects.


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Very bad fad diet

The New York Times published an article this week about a new fad diet. It’s appalling. Apparently, a cosmetic surgeon and an orthodontist are prescribing human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) -- a pregnancy hormone that is given to help aid women in becoming pregnant -- to women who want to lose weight. The claim is that hCG along with a 500 calorie per day diet will result in a pound per day weight loss. First, giving hCG as a weight-loss aid is an off-label prescription, meaning that there is no scientific data indicating that it is safe or effective as a weight loss aid. The limited data that does exist shows that it is no more effective than sugar pills. Second, a 500 calorie diet is unsustainable. Those who follow a calorie restricted diet (including some monks and others) consume at least 1000 to 1200 calories per day. Anyone who restricts themselves to 500 calories a day of course is going to lose weight, but that is incredible unhealthy (because you are not eating) and will cause irreparable damage if continued long term, if you don’t die first. It is inconceivable that these physicians are advocating this diet and the NYT is promoting it. How can any self-respecting physician tell their patients who trust them to not eat and to inject an substance with unknown side effects into them to lost weight? There is no magic bullet or key diet that will result in weight loss. There are proven ways to lose weight. Many scientific studies have shown, repeatedly, that the key to weight loss is to exercise and to eat a healthy, well balanced diet, one that doesn’t restrict you to eating a pea and cracker per day

Panel to review bioethics rules

New evidence of a clinical trial conducted in the 1940s containing blatant ethical abuses has prompted President Obama to establish a panel to investigate clinical trial ethical rules.

Based on new revelations of a study conducted in Guatemala in the 1940s, the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues has convened a panel to investigate the ethical rules for clinical trials. Apparently, between 1946-1948 in a US-funded study, Guatemalan prisoners and soldiers were exposed to syphilis and gonorrhea in order to study how to treat the disease. At that time, indications were that penicillin was a successful treatment for disease. Unfortunately, some wanted to test other treatment options, so they infected prisoners, soldiers and others with syphilis or gonorrhea and tested other therapies. No data was published from this study and it isn’t clear if other therapies were developed. The scientists did receive institutional approval to conduct the study but it does not appear that individuals knew they were being infected and tested.

Ethical policies regarding use of human subjects have changed dramatically since the 1940s. Today, no experimentation on humans can occur without the expressed informed consent of the patient involved. An international panel, with advisors from 10 countries, will review these policies and ensure the safety of human subjects.


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