Dog Nutraceutical Wins Grant To Apply Research to Human Cancer

Functional Nutriments, the makers of Apocaps®, the world's first dietary apoptogens for dogs, announced it was awarded a $244,479 federal grant to research the application of its apoptosis-inducing formula for human cancers.

The grant is part of the U.S. government's $1 Billion Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project, overseen by the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The QTDP program offers funding to small companies creating medical therapies with the potential to reduce health care costs, create jobs, improve U.S. competitiveness, or significantly advance the goal of curing cancer within the next 30 years.

Apoptosis is a form of cell death in which a programmed sequence of events leads to the elimination of cells without releasing harmful substances into the surrounding area. Apoptosis plays a crucial role in developing and maintaining health by eliminating old cells, unnecessary cells, and unhealthy cells. The human body replaces perhaps a million cells a second. Too little or too much apoptosis plays a role in many diseases. When programmed cell death does not work correctly, cells that should be eliminated may hang around and become immortal. For example, in cancers like leukemia. When apoptosis works overly well, it kills too many cells and inflicts grave tissue damage. This is the case in strokes and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer, Huntington, and Parkinson diseases. Apoptosis is also called programmed cell death or PCD.

It was a competitive awards process with applications being reviewed by the National Institutes of Health. The program was oversubscribed with about $10 Billion in requests. The projects that won the federal grants and tax credits were seen as the most promising by the NIH review committee. The cash grant was the highest amount a single project could receive.

"We are pleased for the recognition and to receive this grant to further our research and development in the use of apoptogens to combat cancer," said James Jacobson, Functional Nutriment's Chief Executive Officer. "We believe that this grant is further validation that our research may one day extend beyond dogs and help people who are fighting cancer."

Chief Medical Officer and company co-founder Dr. Demian Dressler, DVM, said, "Apoptosis is a such a fundamental biological process and the ability to induce it in cancer cells using natural apoptogens suggests enormous potential for human cancer patients."  

Research Breakthrough: Brain Scans Accurately Identify Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

After measuring the magnetic fields in the brain, a research team at the University of Minnesota Medical School and a local VA hospital say they have found a biomarker that can be routinely used to diagnose post-traumatic stress disorder.

Using magnetoencephalography (MEG) technology, the researchers were able to determine that increased activity on the right side of the mind was linked to the flashbacks, nightmares and anger associated with PTSD. And by measuring the activity, they thought they were able to determine signposts for the severity of the case.

Practice makes perfect, in this biomarker case. The researchers improved their accuracy on a healthy diagnosis from 88 percent to 95 percent over the course of the year. And they earned a 96 percent accuracy rate for spotting PTSD. Now they want to see more of the MEG devices in use in other VA hospitals around the country as physicians struggle to correctly diagnose the illness and move toward early treatment.

"Having a diagnostic exam capable of confirming post-traumatic stress disorder is critical in treating these patients properly," Dr. Apostolos Georgopoulos, the study leader, says in a statement.

Read the source article.

HPV and Non-Cervical Cancers

A new study reiterates mounting evidence that HPV (human papillomavirus) is involved in more than just cervical cancer. The recent study, looking at detection methods for HPV virus, confirms, "HPV is detectable in approximately a quarter of all squamous cell head and neck cancers, and is particularly prevalent in the oropharynx [back of the mouth] in which the positivity rates approach 40%." In previous studies, HPV has been established as a cause of 70%-76% of cervical cancers, 90%-93% of anal cancers and about half of penile cancers. The current public health recommendation that the HPV vaccine (Gardasil) be given only to girls is very much the subject of heated debate among adolescent physicians and policy makers.Should the HPV vaccine be given to boys too?

The good news from previous studies, the viral form of head and neck cancer is more curable.  People with HPV-specific head and neck cancers had much greater survival rates (a 60% better chance) than people whose cancers did not test positive for the HPV virus. While smoking and alcohol consumption are considered risk factors for head and neck cancer, researchers are beginning to take a look at associations between sexual practices and head and neck cancers. 

Researchers from the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at the National Cancer Institute, writing in the Journal of Adolescent Health this past spring had this to say: "The high proportion of cervical and noncervical cancers caused by HPV types 16 and 18, that is, 70%-76% for cervical cancers and 63%-95% for noncervical cancers, underscores the potential for prevention of a majority of cervical as well as noncervical HPV-related cancers through prophylactic HPV vaccination."

Researchers in Europe have begun to calculate the cost-benefits of giving the vaccine to boys in light of new associations between HPV and non-cervical cancers. Similar research in the U.S. can't be far behind.

Tendon Pain: Cortisone Injections Could Make It Worse

A review of 41 trials of the use of corticosteroid injections for non-inflammatory tendon pain like tennis elbow found that while cortisone injections help in the short-term, they can make it worse in the long term. Overall, data from the 28 studies comparing corticosteroids to other interventions found that corticosteroid benefits were short-lived. In the case of the three studies comparing corticosteroids to no treatment for tennis elbow, for instance, corticosteroids were associated with pain relief for up to eight weeks, but with greater pain at six months and one year. It's unclear why corticosteroids might cause long-term pain, but the researchers suggested the injection could weaken tendons' internal structure. There's also a potential for corticosteroids to mask the pain, enabling a person to inflict further damage on an already painful tendon.

Read the abstract in The Lancet.

Asthma Surgery: New Procedure Treats Asthma

A new procedure called bronchial thermoplasty approved this past Spring for treating asthma, and now more widely available, can permanently reverse asthma. Using radiofrequency energy, the device applies heat inside the bronchial passage, which shrinks the smooth muscle lining the airways (typically thickened in asthma patients), and literally opens up the lungs to more oxygen. Some patients have been followed for up to 4 years after treatment with the new device, and the smooth muscle has remained thin. The procedure carries potential complications, including lung collapse, and is considered only for severe cases in which drugs are proving inadequate.

Read more about this in The Wall Street Journal.