Halloween -- chemistry and witches

Stumbled onto the PBS Halloween special on witchcraft tonight. Some of you probably know already that one particular investigator (Linnda [sic] Caporael) started in 1976 making it her life's work (well, virtually) to find out what was really going on when the Salem witch trials created such a blot on American history.

In case you haven't heard this story, we weren't the first to blot our history with accusations of witchcraft. The middle ages found massive areas of Europe regularly reporting this phenomenon--people having severe convulsions and wild hallucinations--and hanging witches. As late as 1951 a whole town in France experienced many of the same symptoms as the people of Salem did back in the 16th and 17th centuries--and were found to have eaten bread made from contaminated flour.

Thanks to the dedicated research of this one woman--who discovered that in 1943 a Swiss scientist was the one to discover that a strange natural substance called ergot created a drug with crazy symptoms like she'd seen in the people who indulged in the drug called LSD during the 60s. And those symptoms, shockingly, exactly mirrored those described in the written testimonies from the Salem episodes.

Anyway, it's a long and fascinating case of research that uncovered a quite natural cause for the horrible sypmtoms people were experiencing--ergot poisoning. Ergot occurs naturally when grain--especially rye--is grown in extremely swampy, humid conditions. Poisoned bread is the result.

Long story short, the DNA and stomach contents of the guy they found perfectly preserved in the bogs gave them scientific proof that ergot had entered his bloodstream and may have been the reason he was found with his skull crushed by a severe blow and his throat cut from ear to ear--he was probably exhibiting these insane symptoms and they were terrified that he was possessed.

It's too long to explain, but they even believe Shakespeare described similar fits and convulsions in one of his plays. But very interesting. Check out the PBS story about ergot poisoning masquerading as bedevilment.

Now nitric oxide plays a dual devil

New Italian research links migraine and endometriosis (a condition in which tissue that's like the uterine mucous membrane occurs randomly in the pelvis). What the heck could headaches and random mucous membrane tissue growing in the pelvis have in common?

"'We don't really understand the link between the two conditions although some biochemical mediators have been implicated. It is possible that systemic spreading of prostaglandins [medical dictionary says: powerful proteins with a 32-line explanation that seems to say they're related to non-normal changes in tissue] produced by endometriosis may contribute to migraine and it has also been shown that upregulation or disregulation [which means it doesn't adapt to changed conditions] of nitric oxide synthesis has a role in both migraine and endometriosis. But the association between the two conditions requires further research.'

Well, that's a mouthful. Looks like the only thing they can tell for sure is that they have nitric oxide in common--along with hundreds of other functions in the body. But at least there's a correlation between these two seemingly random occurrences that might lead to some pre-dawn insight. Bless our research scientists...

To learn more - find out what doesn't work

Besides an earlier entry on finally eliminating the use of a long-standard treatment for traumatic head injuries (more people died with it than with nothing), here comes a study testing the use of antibiotics (azithromycin) to treat coronary patients.

Scientists have long thought that a certain bacteria has something to do with causing arteriosclerosis. This test measured results from treating people who'd had some form of a heart attack. The hope was that antibiotic treatment would help prevent secondary coronary events. "The Azithromycin and Coronary Events Study (ACES) enrolled 4012 participants...in [locations across] the United States" and followed them for four years. After a year of antibiotic treatment, there was no difference in incidence between them and the control group.

This is like Thomas Edison and trying the what-was-it? three thousand things that didn't work before he invented the light bulb. Research is a slow and painstaking process. This may have something to do with why investors are so nervous about getting into the bioscience area. High-risk, high-return--because it something hits, the payback can be enormous (ask any pharmaceutical company), but you might have to wait a lo-o-o-ng time for that to happen.

Curing with the body's own materials

As the number of genes thought to make up a human being shrinks (from a high of 100,000 ten years ago to the current estimate of 20 to 25,000, scientists are increasingly able to hone in on particular gene and figure out what's going on with it. Zinc "fingers" (proteins that point to and "read" specific genes) have been proven to help regrow blood vessels.Interestingly, these fingers are unique to humans--mice, rats, apes and most mammals have the same number of genes as we do, but they don't have these zinc fingers.

The fingers are already being reproduced artificially at will and experimentation is rolling along. They're being used to grow new blood vessels in animals--something that could bring dramatic progress to treating heart disease and associated cardiovascular ailments such as congestive heart failiure. The possibilities are exciting. "It's a different strategy. This is using the body's strategy as opposed to producing what you think the body needs," says one of the scientists involved.

Yes, using the body's natural abilities is what stem cell research is all about, too. It is promising and thrilling to learn that we humans actually can learn to work with our bodies to heal rather than inventing painful and destructive methods such as chemotherapy and radiation or horribly invasive things like open heart surgery.

Will zinc fingers one day grow new blood vessels around a set of diseased arteries--making open-heart surgery unnecessary? Will stem cells be able to grow new heart valves--obviating the need for surgery to replace them with artificial means? These ideas don't seem so far-fetched anymore.

Obesity surgery means nerve damage for some

This item's been reported a lot recently. A study, published in the journal Neurology, revealed that of 435 patients who got obesity surgery, 16 percent developed peripheral neuropathy (nerve damage characterized by numbness, tingling and pain) that was caused by malnutrition--a direct result of interfering with the body's ability to absorb vitamin B-12.

Got curious about B-12 and found this on the Vegan Society's website:
No plant sources are reliable sources of B-12. Many vegan (no meat, eggs or dairy) foods have to be fortified. And listen to this:

Human faeces can contain significant B12. A study has shown that a group of Iranian vegans obtained adequate B12 from unwashed vegetables which had been fertilised with human manure. Faecal contamination of vegetables and other plant foods can make a significant contribution to dietary needs, particularly in areas where hygiene standards may be low. This may be responsible for the lack of aneamia due to B12 deficiency in vegan communities in developing countries.

Another good reason to file up the grill...

Stem cell "miracle cure" gives lessons

Parents of a little boy suffering from a tough but rare bone-marrow-blood disease called Diamond Blackfan anaemia decided to have in vitro fertilization so their doctor could conduct pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and pick the embryo that was a perfect match. Stem cells from the new baby's umbilical cord have ended his brother's daily regimen of shots in the stomach and nearly cured his disease.

Interestingly, the British hospital that started the procedure had to transfer the couple to Chicago to complete the work because of their government's objection to the procedure.

Lesson 1: stem cells are capable of performing incredible transformations.
Lesson 2: Those countries that hesitate to approve these advanced healing techniques--for whatever reasons--are only delaying the inevitable and will lose ground to those that recognize and honor the powerful potential here.

U.S. naysayers, listen well.

New MRI technique promises better diagnostics for MS

MS is an insidious disease that afflicts 1 in 700 people in America with short-term memory loss, gradual loss of motor control and/or other neurological damage. Statistics for MS are high: 250,000 to 500,000 cases in the US (Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, NIH, 2004), and the most common type is the relapsing/remitting form. Its early stages are characterized by alternating damage and then spontaneous repair to the myelin sheath surrounding and insulating nerve fibers--which until now doctors were unable to detect until much later. Eventually the spontaneous repairing stops.

Now a relatively recent MRI advance called magnetization transfer "makes damaged tissue stand out more clearly against the backdrop of normal brain tissue." They hope that this will eventually mean they can better evaluate treatments in clinical trials--to tell whether people might improve by reading the brain tissue.

Medical device researchers back in the lab studying how MRI works knows they're working to improve diagnostics. But it's got to be really gratifying to hear how those discoveries are being put to use to give people that most precious gift--hope.

Aspirin fortified with nitric oxide is newest weapon against cancer

Now they're combining that amazing natural substance nitric oxide (see earlier posts) with another equally amazing, but much more well known substance aspirin (already shown to prevent certain cancers in half the cases) to slow or stop the growth of colon cancer cells.

This sounds like maybe a promising trend--identifying natural substances that can be mixed with known effective medicines to boost their power against certain diseases or conditions.

The new compound is called nitroaspirin, and studies (reported at an international conference on cancer prevention held in Seattle) have shown it to be "hundreds to thousands of times more potent than traditional aspirin." Scientists expect to start testing on humans by the end of this year.

Minneapolis discovers they can't do it without the bioscience business execs

Seems that my earlier admonition to get the companies themselves involved is being echoed by the Minneapolis bioscience council. Formed last May, it's now asking executives of local bioscience companies to come on board. People whose lives and financial fortunes are not intimately tied in with results will never have the same passion and commitment as those who live in the trenches everyday. Medtronic is just one of the companies being invited to come on board and basically "make the bioscience council work." In Northeast Ohio that might translate into having successful local biomed entrepreneurs sitting on the governing bodies of--or at least advising them--the several groups (Jumpstart, NorTech, etc.) that are being given money by the conglomeration of local foundations to build the region up for bioscience.

Just as the lines are being blurred between countries with global marketing, so the lines between business and medicine and business and nonprofits are growing ever dimmer. That means big challenges and, if handled well, new opportunities.

Statins for lowering cholesterol equal big money--and conflict of interest for bioscientists

Businesses aren't the only ones whose ethics are up for review these days. Conflict of interest is an increasing phenomenon in bioscience because so much private money is funding research at universities--two-thirds of it in fact. Twenty years ago, one-third of research was funded privately. And now the guidelines for what constitutes "good" levels of cholesterol are being revised lower--meaning more people "need" medicine.

How do scientists avoid this? It's the same as in business--the higher your rank, the more you tend to hang out with those who want to leverage your power to help them get what they want--in this case, a pharmaceutical company's cholesterol-lowering drugs sold to ever more citizens.

Power and position have always been the great temptations in our world. Even the most ethical people sometimes compromise in the interests of substantial personal gain. In the bioscience "game," the challenge to avoid this is even more important--for it's people's lives that are the chips with which we gamble.

It's coming--Internet access through your electrical outlets

Yep. Affordable networks for every business owner and every research lab, for every person in each office or conference room. Most of us have telephones in a lot of rooms, but unless you have a wireless network--including routers and cards for every computer--you can't have Internet access for every person with a computer.

But soon you will be able to do just that without routers or cards. And I suspect it's going to change the nature of the business day for those who can use the Internet for their work. How has having "instant" Internet access all day changed the way you conduct your day? Too much attention to email might be one way--and/or giving better customer service because you CAN respond immediately. Knowing important news more quickly is another--and maybe making better strategic decisions because of it.

Read more about why the FCC has changed its mind and BPL (broadband over powerlines) and how the competition is reacting on www.blogforbusiness.com.

In vitro fertilization is de rigeur--stem cell reseach will soon be

It's being said at every level. But this quote from a story in the BangorDailyNews.com website says it quite well so I'll just include the whole thing...

"Ken Paigen, the longtime director of the Jackson Lab (a Maine bioscience lab that does IVF) and now a senior researcher there, estimates that there must be several million surplus embryos in freezers in the United States by now. 'Using even a few hundred or a thousand of these with donors' permission would be a breakthrough.' He puts the matter this way: 'Once they are no longer needed, tens or even hundreds of thousands of human embryos are destroyed every year in in vitro fertilization clinics, but by order of the president we can't use our NIH (National Institutes of Health) support to use them for stem cell research, even when the donors want us to. This is pure hypocrisy, blocking efforts that have the potential to alleviate great human suffering. Any parent with a diabetic child, any adult with a parent suffering from Parkinson's or Alzheimer's disease should be in revolt.'"

And in the same vein, Harvard researchers are now asking permission of their ethics board to clone human embryos for the express purpose of removing their stem cells for research and then destroying the blastocytes (as embryos that have not been implanted are called). Some scientists believe the cells from cloned embryos are better for research (because they are able to recreate and extract the stem cells that contain the genetic ID for specific diseases like Parkinson's. But the President has asked Congress to expressly forbid cloning human embryos.

So, do you suppose the world is flat after all? Or will we eventually admit that this science is miraculously promising and just get going?

Heart specialists discuss state of the art - watch the webcast

I love the world of doctors. Writing medical materials has pretty much convinced me that medical professionals must spend a great deal of their training time just learning alternate terms for ordinary things--like "coronary" for "arteries to your heart."

Anyway, four highly respected members of the cardiovascular [heart and blood vessels] community are holding forth at a conference in Alberta, Canada on the "serious medical repercussions of ischemic reperfusions [oxygen-deprived blood flow] injury leading to acute coronary syndromes [heart attacks and other heart problems], Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery (CABG) and other cardiovascular interventions (heart operations)."

If you'd like to hear the webcast today go to the Medicure website at www.medicureinc.com, then click on the link found on the home page: http://events.onlinebroadcasting.com/medicure/101304.

Nitric oxide again? Yep. Now it relaxes blood vessels.

Okay, the article is actually about the role of folate (you can get in red beef, spinach, dried beans and peas) in helping lower blood pressure in younger women. It was a bit less stellar for older women.

But you hear us talk about nitric oxide all the time in this blog. So the part that attracted me was the statement that in this study of 250,000 women (that's a significant number for a long-term study) folate reduces levels of "homocysteine," a compound that runs around in our blood and is thought to lower blood pressure. Of course, if this compound gets too high, it reduces levels of nitric oxide--which relaxes blood vessels. So in other words, blood vessels stiffen up if they don't get enough nitric oxide, and stiff blood vessels are much better candidates for heart attacks and strokes...

This nitric oxide is miraculous--both good and bad.

But this study says you need a LOT of folate--like 800 micrograms a day. "Folate is a B vitamin that is found naturally in leafy green vegetables such as spinach and turnip greens, fruits, dried beans and peas. To consume 800 micrograms a day, you would need to take a multivitamin plus eat three-quarters of a cup of breakfast cereal fortified with 400 micrograms of folate, or other foods. A half cup of spinach, for instance, has 100 micrograms, and three ounces of beef liver has 185 micrograms."

Okay, but why does folate work better in younger women? And why was the study done only on women? Hmmm. Stay tuned...

Can nerves be used the same way as stem cells?

Amazing news comes from South Africa today. Neurologists there have discovered a revolutionary technology that grafts nerves from the lining of the nose (new layers of these nerves are grown every month) to stimulate nerves in other areas of the body -- and begin to restore sensation and even the ability to move in patients with paralysis.Professor Geoffrey Raisman of the National Institute for Medical Research there, says he hopes to see people with spinal cord injuries (such as those suffered by Christopher Reeve--former Superman star who just died) walking within 10 years.

Wow. The nerves in the nose that regularly renew themselves as a source of regenerative recovery. It seems like a miracle. It seems like something we should somehow have known long, long ago. If this works as expected, this could begin to make all the controversy about stem cell research a moot point. Maybe there are other nerves in the body that can work the same way and we wouldn't have to use discarded human embryos after all.

This is a technology we'll be watching closely.

Trial proves standard trauma care harmful

It looks a lot like the modern equivalent of using leeches to suck blood as a cure. A recent British clinical trial contraindicates traditional head injury treatment that uses corticosteroid drugs. It showed that if used within 2 weeks after serious head injuries, the drugs increase deaths by 20%.

"The study involved 10,000 patients from 239 hospitals in 49 countries and was co-ordinated by scientists from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Universities of Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham, and Oxford." Of patients treated with the steroid drugs 3 more out of every hundred died than among those on placebos.

The thought now is that steroids and drugs routinely used to treat inflammation in other areas may be way off base--and may be inadvertently killing many people. Here's what one professor said:

"We are trying to stop inflammation with corticosteroids steroids, but maybe
inflammation is part of the healing process," he said. "Whenever we are
interfering with nature, we have to have a certain humility because we could be
wrong." [emphasis mine]

Herein lies the rub for all bioscientists. Everything in the body is so interrelated--and so many substances play both positive and negative roles in health and disease--that attempting to solve a challenge by dealing with only one or a few facets of a problem ends up being, as the doctor said, "playing Russian roulette" with patients' lives.

This is further evidence of the need to weave more of the mind/body/spirit connection into our Western attitudes about healing. Fewer people died with no medicine at all than those who received treatment considered de rigeur by most physicians. It's a huge call for rethinking our beliefs and our approaches--perhaps in many areas.

Kansas pushes in bioscience race--but this ain't the new nuts-and-bolts industry

Passing the Kansas Economic Growth Act was only the first of many efforts the state is making to position itself as a player in the bioscience boom. They're conducting a week of summit meetings; they've got the founder of New Economy Strategies in Washington, D.C. helping them create the state's bioscience road map over the next six months. "With 40 states now targeting the bioscience industry and its high-paying jobs--and the new Kansas Bioscience Authority now funneling bioscience-related tax revenue into new research, businesses and products--the pressure is on for Kansas to find and capitalize on its niche," says this Wichita Eagle article. At the same time, they worry that the region's leaders won't work together enough to put real muscle behind the effort.

As a seasoned industry expert observed yesterday during a bioscience meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, it's nice to see a new source of jobs and growth emerging to take the place of the old manufacturing order. Clearly, this is happening in a lot of places in the United States--but bioscience is not as simple to understand as nuts and bolts. The end products are much more complex, and a great deal of the work touches on areas humans have traditionally left to the priests and the philsosophers. In vitro fertilization, stem cell research, cloning and other processes raise all kinds of questions no one's ever had to think much about before.

This is a race that will not be run full out, with eyes closed and only the goal (of economic growth and jobs) in mind. This is a race that will call upon all the intelligence, skills and soulfulness mankind can muster.

The Force really does exist

Three Americans Win Nobel Prize for Physics (washingtonpost.com) for discovering that "quarks, the particles that make up protons and neutrons, bind more closely together as they are pulled apart."

Quarks are the bottom line for subatomic particles--there's nothing smaller. ANd here's a new scientific term we'll all be hearing lots more about in the future: quantum chromodynamics. This describes the "colors" of quarks--their unique set of characteristics and electrical charges.

Scientists use what they call the Standard Model to talk about the interactions of the three basic forces of particle physics -- the strong force (that's what's just been proven), the weak force (which is about radiation decay) and electromagnetism. Unlike the strong force that quarks show in binding together, the latter two forces grow weaker with distance.

Gravity, which is considered the fourth force, hasn't quite yielded enough secrets for scientists to link it to the Standard Model to achieve a "theory of everything." But when they do, what we'll have is the beginning of a map of the universe that doesn't just show us relationships, but actually explains interactions.

Imagine if we add this understanding of physics to our understanding of genes and stem cells in molecular biology and so on. We will surely achieve a quantum leap in our ability to grasp--and therefore change--the course of many more things in life...an awesome responsibility indeed.

Unraveling the mystery of smell merits Nobel Prize

Smell is a powerful sense that reaches deep into the primitive, feeling area of the brain. This prize-winning work is truly groundbreaking neurology with revolutionary implications for many areas of human life--not least of which are the perfume, the erotica, and the advertising industries.

The two molecular biologists (a man and a woman are sharing the Nobel Prize) discovered that "as much as 5 percent of the genes in mammals were devoted to the sense of smell--an astonishingly high percentage that reflects their importance." Can you imagine that every mammal has 1500 different smell processors in its nose--only one in each cell of the nasal lining? Incredible. And 900 of the genes associated with smell in humans have simply gone dormant as we've come to rely more on sight and hearing.

Just think: Advertisers will begin to create "aroma" campaigns. Just as now you can open a flap in a magazine and sample a new fragrance, soon the sexy smell of leather in a new car will hit you when you pick up a Cadillac ad. Restaurants will create ads that feature the mouthwatering smell of pot-roast-like-your-mom-used-to-make. Gyms will attract new members with the smell of "clean." This is going to create a whole new category of jobs. We already have IT experts; now we'll have ST (smell technology) experts who will be in great demand. They'll be asked not just to formulate smells and aromas that work through different media, but also to analyze what makes a smell attractive.

Beware. Soon you'll be placed in an SS (smell sense) category and then everyone will know what "turns you on" in the smell department. In any case, this stuff looks like it might present some exciting investment possibilities.

Virginia bio trade association holds early-stage VC party

Cool idea: People with money invite startup companies from their own state to tell their stories. Companies from all over the state of Virginia were asked to submit applications to be considered for review at the conference. Four of the biotech ones that got picked have some pretty exciting ideas:

• REDEEM THE EARTH - plant-based environmental solutions for helping land (in manufacturing sites, mines, agricultural land, and firing ranges) recover from various poisoning agents;
• NON-INVASIVE TARGETING - ways of delivering drugs that are molecular (meaning biological) and use ultrasound (imaging with sound waves) so doctors can target therapies to specific sites (we're trying to locate these guys because this description needs further clarification);
• KEEP BETTER TRACK OF DRUGS - a system for tracking drugs that combines a database of up-to-date drug product, packaging and legal information with a sensor that authenticates drug products throughout their life cycle (from manufacture to sale) without destroying them; and
• PHYSICAL HELP FOR ADDICTION - therapies to help reduce addicts' dependencies on drugs and alcohol.

The Virginia Biotechnology Association, a 200-member statewide trade group that "promotes the impact" of the life sciences on the local economy, is hosting the event. Trade associations are common for other kinds of businesses. Why not for biomed/tech? Maybe this kind of organization would have more wollop than an unrelated group that's given a mandate to do something for bioscience. After all, trade association members are business owners with a lot more to lose--and to gain--from how their industry is accepted, understood and promoted than people who have no heart-felt stake in the outcome, but rather whose main job may be about proving how "plugged in" they are...

Vioxx--the designer drug is finally recalled

It's all over the news this morning. Pharmaceutical giant Merck's stock is suffering after it announced a recall of its most popular anti-pain-and-we-think-and-cross-our-fingers-it's-also-anti-cancer drug. Annual global sales revenue of $2.5 billion for 2003 ($1.8 billion in the U.S. alone) lost...

What's surprising to me, though, is how long it took them to take it off the market. A whole year ago I wrote a website on this topic for a personal injury law firm. My research showed ample evidence that Vioxx significantly increased the risk of heart attack in those taking it. And this Wasington Post article cites one of the same startling facts I uncovered: that Merck itself had disovered the risk--more than TWO years ago in 2002. The FDA, which issued Merck a warning letter back then, has been watching ever since, and apparently has only now totally convinced itself that the higher risk was more than a fluke.

The most amazing part, though, is that aspirin and ibuprofen are considered just as effective for the pain. Wonder how many people made Merck executives rich and died with their desire for this designer drug?