Gene-modified mosquitos could stop dengue fever

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NEW YORK — Scientists have made a promising advance for controlling dengue fever, a tropical disease .   spread by mosquito bites. They've rapidly replaced mosquitoes in the wild with skeeters that don't spread the dengue virus.     

More than 50 million people a year get the dengue virus from being bitten by infected mosquitoes in tropical and subtropical areas, including Southeast Asia. It can cause debilitating high fever, severe headaches, and pain in the muscles and joints, and lead to a potentially fatal complication. There's no vaccine or specific treatment.

Some scientists have been trying to fight dengue by limiting mosquito populations. That was the goal in releasing genetically modified mosquitoes last year at sites in Malaysia and the Cayman Islands.

Australian scientists took a different tack, they report in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature

By MALCOLM RITTER   

No illegal drugs in Winehouse toxicology report

Toxicology tests showed there were no illegal substances in British singer Amy Winehouse's system when she died last month aged 27, her spokesman said on Tuesday.
In a statement, he added that alcohol was present, but that it could not be determined what part, if any, it played in her death.

Bone drug tied to lower colon cancer risk.

A new study adds to evidence that bone drugs may play a role in suppressing cancer development, although there is still no proof that taking the medications would stave off malignancies.
The drugs, called bisphosphonates, have generated both good and bad headlines recently. Some work has linked them to fewer cases of cancer, while other research has found an increased risk of certain thigh fractures and serious jaw problems among women who take the drugs to treat the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis.
Bone drugs on the market include Merck's Fosamax, Roche's Boniva, Novartis's Reclast and Warner Chilcott's Actonel.
In the new study, researchers found that women on Actonel were only half as likely to be diagnosed with colon cancer as those who'd gotten just one prescription for the drug or none at all.
"At this point, I think people who are already taking the drug can be reassured," Dr. Harminder Singh, who worked on the study, told Reuters Health.
An Israeli study published earlier this year found a link between bisphosphonates and a lower risk of colon cancer among women, but it wasn't clear how to explain that result. It could be that the drugs have protective effects, or it could be that women taking them are healthier overall.
In contrast to the Israeli work, Singh's study, which is published in the journal Cancer, takes into account how often people see their doctors -- one factor that might muddy any differences found between those who take bone drugs and those who don't.                   

By Frederik Joelving

NEW YORK | Mon Aug 22, 2011 4:19pm EDT

Hypnosis as health care quietly gains ground.

In 1987, Marilyn Bellezzo was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a disorder that was, for her, debilitating.

"I was housebound," Bellezzo said. She spent hours curled up on the bathroom floor, suffering from abdominal pain and diarrhea. "I had to raise my children through the bathroom door," said the now 59-year-old resident of Glen Ellyn, Ill.

Over the next 12 years, Bellezzo tried medications and diets, to no avail. Then as a last resort, she started listening to audio tapes designed to treat IBS through hypnosis.

They made a difference. Now, she says her symptoms are virtually gone.

"I went from that level of severity to just having an occasional episodes lasting a few minutes," Bellezzo said.                                                                

addition to IBS, a number of rigorous studies have found the practice is effective at mollifying chronic pain and reducing stress and anxiety before surgery. Studies have also shown hypnosis reduces health care costs — patients who use it stay in the hospital for shorter periods and use less medication.

So why don't more people and hospitals use hypnosis? Part of the reason may be its stigma — patients anddoctors may think of it more as "hocus pocus" than science. Another reason may be problems with the quality of hypnosis studies, leading doctors to be wary that it wastes time and money.

All of these are misperceptions, its advocates say.

"Hypnosis is sort of the good kid with the bad reputation," said Julie Schnur a clinical psychologist and assistant professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. "It’s a fantastic procedure and can be very effective and very helpful to patients, but does come with this baggage," Schnur said

The concept of hypnosis might call to mind an entertainer lulling an audience 

member with a shiny pendulum, and then getting them bark like a dog.

But in medicine, hypnosis means putting a patient in an enhanced state of relaxationduring which the patient is more open to suggestions, said Harold Pass, an associate professor of clinical psychiatry at Stony Brook University Medical Center in New York. The patient is not asleep, nor unconscious, and does not lose control over his or her actions, Pass said.

By Rachael Rettner

Skin Cancer Drug Gets Quick Approval.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new drug to treat advanced melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. The drug got the green light faster than many other drugs under review, and advocates of personalized medicine say this bodes well for other gene-based drugs in development.

When study results for the new drug were released earlier this summer in the New England Journal of Medicine, experts called it a game-changer for people with melanoma that has metastasized or can't be operated on. And that's most cases — except when it's caught early, melanoma is invariably fatal.

The new pill, made by Roche Genentech and called Zelboraf, doesn't cure melanoma. But it can stop the cancer's growth for months and is expected to prolong patients' lives.

The way it works is by blocking a gene mutation that promotes uncontrolled growth of cancer cells. About half of melanoma patients have the mutation. The FDA has also approved a test that identifies who they are.And Zelboraf isn't the only new addition to the arsenal against melanoma. Earlier this year, the FDA approved Yervoy, made by Bristol-Myers Squibb. It also prolongs survival in patients with advanced cases. Plans are underway to test the two drugs together.

"This has been an important year for patients with late-stage melanoma," Dr. Richard Pazdur, director of the FDA's office of oncology drug products, said in a press release on Wednesday.

According to K. Peter Hirth, chief executive officer of Plexxikon — a company that helped Roche develop the drug —Zelboraf is an example of gene-based personalized medicine that can be developed faster than other drugs. The molecule in Zelboraf was discovered in 2005, and brought to market less than six years later.

It's expected to cost around $60,000 for a six-month course of treatment. Patients should be able to get it within a couple of weeks.

Don't Mess With Obama! Justice Dept Investigating S&P

The Justice Department is reportedly investigating whether credit ratings

 agency Standard and Poor's improperly rated dozens of mortgage securities in years leading up to the financial crisis.The investigation began before Standard & Poor's cut the United States' AAA credit rating this month, but it's likely to add to the political firestorm created by the downgrade, the newspaper said. Some government officials have since questioned the agency's secretive process, its credibility and the competence of its analysts, claiming to have found an error in its debt calculations.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/17/doj-reportedly-investigating-standard-poors/#ixzz1VO0e6SFx

Appeals court rules against health care law.

 (CBS)

(CBS/AP)  

Updated at 3:47 p.m. ET

A federal appeals court panel on Friday struck down the requirement in President Barack Obama's health care overhaul package that virtually all Americans must carry health insurance or face penalties.

The divided three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the so-called individual mandate, siding with 26 states that had sued to block the law. But the panel didn't go as far as a lower court that had invalidated the entire overhaul as unconstitutional.

"Whatever else this ruling does, it guarantees that the U.S. Supreme Court will take the case and break the dispute that now exists between at least two lower federal appeals courts," according to CBS Radio News legal analyst Andrew Cohen.

The states and other critics argued the law violates people's rights, while the Justice Department countered that the legislative branch was exercising a "quintessential" power.

The decision, penned by Chief Judge Joel Dubina and Circuit Judge Frank Hull, found that "the individual mandate contained in the Act exceeds Congress's enumerated commerce power."

CBSNews.com Special Report: Health Care and Medicare

Healthy obese people may live as long as thin folks

Rachael Rettner

Not everyone who is obese needs to lose weight — it's possible to carry extra pound and still be healthy, a new study says.and and still be healthy ,Although obesity brings an increased risk of 

many health complications, the new study shows that people who are obese but do not have such complications might live as long as normal weight individuals.

"This illustrates that you can't have one sweeping brush to categorize all obese individuals," said study researcher Jennifer Kuk, an assistant professor at York University in Toronto. People need to look at whether they have additional risk factors indicating poor health to determine whether they shouldlose weight, Kuk said.In fact, the results suggest that " yo-yo dieting," in which individuals lose weight but gain it back later, might be more unhealthful for some obese people than simply maintaining their weight, Kuk said. Participants in the study who lost the most weight over their lifetime, but hadn't necessarily kept the weight off, were more likely to have additional health complications from their obesity than those who lost less weight.

follow MyHealthNewsDaily staff writer Rachael Rettner on Twitter @RachaelRettner. Like us on Facebook.

Health Watch: Breast Cancer Research

Contrary to popular belief, not all breast

cancers are lethal. Some respond well to treatment while others are deadly even when found at an early stage. The difference is their ability to spread or metastasize to vital organs. "if cancers just stayed up in the organs that they're found they're not a problem. READ FULL NEWS AT ANDROSCOGGIN NEWS

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Does a family have a right to harvest eggs from a deceased child? Tell us what you think

when a 17-year-old girl died after being hit by a car. But a controversial court decision might allow a part of her to live on.

 Tragedy struck an Israeli girl's family last month when a 17-year-old girl died after being hit by a car. But a controversial court decision might allow a part of her to live on.

The Israeli-English newspaper Haaretz reports Chen Aida Ayash's family was granted a request by an Israeli court to harvest and freeze her eggs. The family had already agreed to donate their daughter's organs when they obtained the court order. 

A medical source familiar with the case told Haaretz that the family originally wanted to fertilize her eggs with donated sperm and freeze them as embryos. But the court order only permitted harvesting the eggs - for now.

Nobody knows for sure why the Ayash family petitioned for this procedure.

"We don't know the reason why Chen's parents wanted it done," Maayan Maor, spokesperson for the Meir Medical Center in Kfar Sava, where the harvesting was done, told The Guardian. "We just received the court order and did the procedure."

The case set off a global ethical debate. Some viewed it as a landmark decision for families seeking continuity after a spouse or child passes away. Others thought the decision set a dangerous precedent.

"Using the gametes of a dead child to create another child creates a troubling precedent," Laurie Zoloth, director of the center for bioethics, science and society at Northwestern University told ABC News. "In a world in which thousands of children are lost and starving, the use of medical technology for this end raises other questions about the just use of shared resources."

Ethical reasons aside, some debated the legality of potentially fertilizing the eggs. Even though the eggs were already harvested, the family would need to prove to the court that Chen actually wanted children to move forward with fertilization.

"It strikes me as unlikely a minor child would have had the capacity and maturity to meaningfully assert an interest in motherhood, let alone motherhood after her death," Judith F. Daar, professor of law at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, Calif, told ABC. "Families must try to set aside their understandable desire to keep a part of their child and focus on what their child would have actually wanted."

Apparently the family had a change of heart amid the media firestorm. The Independent reported Chen's family dropped their bid to fertilize her frozen eggs. But the ramifications of the court ruling will surely carry on.

"It's revolutionary," Irit Rosenblum, a lawyer who founded the family rights advocacy group, New Family, told The Independent ."It's great that people have a chance to decide"

The harvesting and freezing of eggs is a delicate procedure called oocyte cryopreservation. Doctors perform an egg retrieval by inserting an ultrasound-guided needle into the vagina to locate the ovaries to remove the eggs, which are then immediately frozen. Sometimes people harvest and freeze eggs when fertility is threatened by cancer or other diseases, according to theNYU Fertility Center. Other times people opt to freeze their eggs if they currently are not in a situation conducive to childbearing  but feel they might want that option at a later date.

 

“No Text Message is Worth a Life”

 Faces of Distracted Drivers

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has launched a video series, “Faces of Distracted Driving,” to raise awareness of the potentially tragic consequences of texting and cell phone use while driving. The videos share the stories of family members who have lost loved ones in distracted driving crashes.

In 2009, the year for which DOT has the most recent information, nearly 5,500 people died, and half a million were injured in accidents involving a distracted driver.

The latest installment will make you cry – and hopefully make viewers stow away their cell phones for good when they’re in the driver’s seat. Heather Hurd, 26, was on her way to meet her fiancé and parents at a wedding planner’s office when a truck driver, texting from his perch, slammed into Sharon and eight other cars. The driver never even braked. “No text message is worth a life,” says Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

“My message is simple,” says Russell Hurd, Heather’s father. “Turn the cell phone off and focus on safe, distraction-free driving.”

See Heather’s story here.

The DOT offers resources to help others get involved in preventing distracted driving here, including guidance for states on assessing distracted driving policies, laws and public awareness.

Weigh in: What ideas have worked in your community to reduce texting and cell phone calls while driving?

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"Amazing" cancer therapy wipes out leukemia in study!

NEW YORK (AP) -- Scientists are reporting the first clear success with a new approach for treating leukemia - turning the patients' own blood cells into assassins that hunt and destroy their cancer cells.

They've only done it in three patients so far, but the results were striking: Two appear cancer-free up to a year after treatment, and the third patient is improved but still has some cancer. Scientists are already preparing to try the same gene therapy technique for other kinds of cancer.

"It worked great. We were surprised it worked as well as it did," said Dr. Carl June, a gene therapy expert at the University of Pennsylvania. "We're just a year out now. We need to find out how long these remissions last."

He led the study, published Wednesday by two journals, New England Journal of Medicine and Science Translational Medicine.

It involved three men with very advanced cases of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL. The only hope for a cure now is bone marrow or stem cell transplants, which don't always work and carry a high risk of death.

That resulted in armies of "serial killer" cells that targeted cancer cells, destroyed them, and went on to kill new cancer as it emerged. It was known that T-cells attack viruses that way, but this is the first time it's been done against cancer, June said. The researchers described the experience of one 64-year-old patient in detail. There was no change for two weeks, but then he became ill with chills, nausea and fever. He and the other two patients were hit with a condition that occurs when a large number of cancer cells die at the same time - a sign that the gene therapy is working.

Scientists have been working for years to find ways to boost the immune system's ability to fight cancer. Earlier attempts at genetically modifying bloodstream soldiers called T-cells have had limited success; the modified cells didn't reproduce well and quickly disappeared.

June and his colleagues made changes to the technique, using a novel carrier to deliver the new genes into the T-cells and a signaling mechanism telling the cells to kill and multiply.

For the experiment, blood was taken from each patient and T-cells removed. After they were altered in a lab, millions of the cells were returned to the patient in three infusions.

"It was like the worse flu of their life," June said. "But after that, it's over. They're well."

The main complication seems to be that this technique also destroys some other infection-fighting blood cells; so far the patients have been getting monthly treatments for that.

Penn researchers want to test the gene therapy technique in leukemia-related cancers, as well as pancreatic and ovarian cancer, he said. Other institutions are looking at prostate and brain cancer.

Dr. Walter J. Urba of the Providence Cancer Center in Portland, Ore., called the findings "pretty remarkable" but added a note of caution because of the size of the study.

"It's still just three patients. Three's better than one, but it's not 100," said Urba, one of the authors of an editorial on the research that appears in the New England Journal.

What happens long-term is key, he said: "What's it like a year from now, two years from now, for these patients."

But Dr. Kanti Rai, a blood cancer expert at New York's Long Island Jewish Medical Center, could hardly contain his enthusiasm, saying he usually is more reserved in his comments on such reports.

"It's an amazing, amazing kind of achievement," said Rai, who had no role in the research.

One of the patients, who did not want to be identified, wrote about his illness, and released a statement through the university. The man, himself a scientist, called himself "very lucky," although he wrote that he didn't feel that way when he was first diagnosed 15 years ago at age 50.

He was successfully treated over the years with chemotherapy until standard drugs no longer worked.

Now, almost a year since he entered the study, "I'm healthy and still in remission. I know this may not be a permanent condition, but I decided to declare victory and assume that I had won."