Turbo Bacteria Thrives on Arsenic

Let's hope this one doesn't get out of the lab! 

Scientists said Thursday that they had trained a bacterium to eat and grow on a diet of arsenic, in place of phosphorus — one of six elements considered essential for life — opening up the possibility that organisms could exist elsewhere in the universe or even here on Earth using biochemical powers we have not yet dared to dream about.The arsenic loving bacteria

The bacterium, scraped from the bottom of Mono Lake in California and grown for months in a lab mixture containing arsenic, gradually swapped out atoms of phosphorus in its little body for atoms of arsenic.

Scientists said the results, if confirmed, would expand the notion of what life could be and where it could be. “There is basic mystery, when you look at life,” said Dimitar Sasselov, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and director of an institute on the origins of life there, who was not involved in the work. “Nature only uses a restrictive set of molecules and chemical reactions out of many thousands available. This is our first glimmer that maybe there are other options.”

High school chemistry texts will have to be updated accordingly.

Read the article in the New York Times.

Read the research in Science

More Trouble for Resveratrol Cancer Drug Trials

In May, Glaxo Smith Klein suspended a multiple myeloma cancer trial of resveratrol SRT501--Glaxo's very expensive ($720 million) version of the anti-aging grape extract--due to complications including kidney failure in patients taking the drug. Now in a statement this morning to reporters at Fiercebiotech.com, the drug giant said that after a thorough analysis researchers concluded that particular formulation "may offer minimal efficacy while having a potential to indirectly exacerbate a renal complication common in the patient population." The company has no further plans to develop SRT501.

"Going forward," said GSK, "we've decided to focus our efforts on more selective SIRT1 activator compounds that have no chemical relationship to SRT501 and more favorable drug-like properties."

SRT501 is a special formulation of resveratrol, an ingredient in grapes that has been linked to a wide array of health benefits. Researchers had been evaluating the safety of the drug alone and in combination with Velcade when they spotted the cast nephropathy that developed in several patients with multiple myeloma.

The news was first reported this morning by the Myeloma Beacon.

Researchers Seek Test for Possible Chronic Fatigue Virus in Nation's Blood Supply

Scientists are racing to develop tests for a retrovirus called XMRV, which could be used to determine if the blood supply is tainted and to assess how many people may be infected.

The impetus behind the drive is a paper published in the journal Science last year that reported a link between XMRV and chronic fatigue syndrome. Public health officials were alarmed that close to 4% of healthy people used as controls in the study were infected with XMRV. That could mean as many as 10 million Americans are infected.

XMRV has gotten a lot of attention because, like HIV, it is a retrovirus. This means the virus cannot be eradicated from the body, only controlled. There is some preliminary evidence that XMRV may be transmitted sexually or through transfusions. While the retrovirus has been linked to certain diseases, scientists don't yet know if it actually causes any disease.

Read the full article at WSJ.com

Update on Saturday, December 4, 2010 at 5:03PM by Kathy

From WSJ.com

The controversy over whether the retrovirus XMRV is linked to chronic fatigue syndrome has still not been resolved, but the American Red Cross has just weighed in. The organization said today that as a result of concerns over XMRV, it is barring people with a diagnosis of CFS from donating blood.

In a press release, the Red Cross said that there isn’t enough data yet to determine for sure that XMRV is transmitted through blood transfusions or that it causes diseases. But “in the interest of patient and donor safety,” the organization said it was indefinitely barring blood donations from people with CFS.

FDA Approves Testosterone for Underarms

The FDA last week approved a testosterone replacement solution for men that is applied to armpits using a deodorant-like applicator, a major milestone for the Australian company that developed the solution (partly owned by Eli Lilly) and a questionable breakthrough for men using the drug to correct a deficiency of the male sex-hormone, which causes low-libido among other problems.

Current testosterone therapies are delivered in a variety of ways including topical gels applied by the hands. The big advantage of armpit application is that it's less likely to rub off on others in the household--partners, children, pets--which can cause serious side effects, for example, aggressive behavior and premature development in children.Middle-aged men aspiring to The Situation's abs are trying testosterone replacement therapy. One downside to the new applicators is that the underarm area has many glands, which would absorb the testosterone with uncertain consequences.

Testosterone therapy is currently approved for use only in men with hypogonadism, whose sex glands produce extremely low amounts of testosterone or none at all because of an underlying disorder. But there's been an explosion of off-label use for age-related symptoms of testosterone decline including erectile dysfunction and decreased sexual desire, fatigue and loss of energy, depression and loss of muscle. We are talking about male menopause--dudes with boobs and no libido--who can blame them for seeking a fix?

There are unanswered questions about the use of testosterone as an anti-aging drug for men. Use of the hormone has been shown to speed the growth of existing hormone-related cancers such as prostate tumors. Earlier this year, a federally funded study of testosterone gel--aiming to increase muscle in elderly, frail men--was halted due to a disproportionate number of heart attacks and other serious cardiac problems in the men on testosterone.

Still, some researchers are forging ahead with more research aimed to explore testosterone's anti-aging powers. Dr. Peter J. Snyder of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine is leading a much larger $45 million study financed by the National Institute on Aging. In the 12-center trial, 800 men 65 and older who have low testosterone will be randomly assigned to testosterone treatment or placebo for a year. The trial, which is actually a set of studies, will assess testosterone's effect on physical functioning, fatigue and sexual and cognitive function. ''There is even a cardiovascular trial, the hypothesis of which is that testosterone actually makes cardiac risk factors better,'' Dr. Snyder told the New York Times.

One of the major concerns over testosterone replacement as an anti-aging therapy is that it will be used by men who do not have low testosterone. In addition to serious concerns over the effect on cancer growth and heart disease, use of the hormone by men who do not have low testosterone can cause a host of problems, including shriveled testicles and lowered sperm count....not exactly the turn-on guys are looking for. 

Daily Pill Greatly Lowers Aids Risk

From The New York Times

Healthy gay men who took an anti-AIDS pill every day were well protected against contracting H.I.V. in a study suggesting that a new weapon against the epidemic has emerged.

In the study, published Tuesday by the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that the men taking Truvada, a common combination of two antiretroviral drugs, were 44 percent less likely to get infected with the virus that causes AIDS than an equal number taking a placebo.

But when only the men whose blood tests showed that they had taken their pill faithfully every day were considered, the pill was more than 90 percent effective, said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, head of the infectious diseases division of the National Institutes of Health, which paid for the study along with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“That’s huge,” Dr. Fauci said. “That says it all for me.”

The large study, nicknamed iPrEx, included nearly 2,500 men and was coordinated by the Gladstone Institutes of the University of California, San Francisco.