Sound Medicine -- May 31, 2003

Hosts Barbara Lewis and Dr. David Crabb talk to physicians and researchers about:

SARS diagnostic test

Epothilones: A natural defense against cancer

Metastases gene

Real Media | Windows Media

SARS diagnostic test

Severe Acute Repertory Syndrome (SARS) led health care organizations on a chase to understand and control the public health threat. Along with several other pharmaceutical firms, Roche Diagnostics is planning to announce a SARS test kit in July 2003, when it will be available for research use. Dr. Tadd Lazarus, Roche's medical director of molecular diagnostics, joins the program to discuss his firm's effort to make a diagnostic test available.

The SARS diagnostic test uses a Nobel Prize-winning technology that takes the SARS coronavirus's genetic information and multiplies it millions of times so that it can be easily and readily detected. The test uses an automated technology that isolates highly purified genetic material in under a few hours, and then the test itself runs approximately thirty minutes.

Like other viruses, the SARS coronavirus does mutate; however, virus specimens from a number of outbreaks around the world are remarkably similar, so it does not appear that SARS can mutate so much that it is unrecognizable. Once the test kit is made available for public use, physicians and researchers can better determine what therapeutic treatment will be best for SARS, as well as what necessary precautions the public should take.

Resources:

Read about Roche's agreement with the Genome Institute of Singapore to co-develop the kit

Browse an overview of SARS from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Questions and answers about SARS

Epothilones: A natural defense against cancer

The human body may have more natural defenses against cancer than previously realized. Epothilones, which are naturally occurring anticancer compounds, mimic all the biological effects of the cancer drug Taxol, but may be even more powerful. Researchers at the University of Notre Dame's Walther Cancer Research Center, including associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry Dr. Richard Taylor, are studying epothilones and how the shape of the compound affects biologic activity. If researchers can manipulate the shape of the compound to produce an even more potent compound with improved properties, the result could mean better cancer treatments later on.

Epothilone interrupts the cancer cell during mitosis (reproduction, or cell-splitting), and interacts with a protein that is necessary to separate cell into daughter cells. Thus, it effectively freezes the cancer cell at this particular point and the cell subsequently destroys itself.

One major goal is to make the compound water-soluble, so that it may be easily administered in pill form. Taxol is not water-soluble, and some patients have a negative reaction to the castor oil-like substance in which the drug is immersed. Right now the compound is in very early development, but it appears to have the same range of abilities as Taxol. Nevertheless, Dr. Taylor is optimistic that some structure based on the existing epothilone compound will become an effective and orally available drug.

Resources:

Dr. Taylor's project website

Read a news release from Notre Dame about the anticancer research

More information about Taxol

Metastases gene

After more than ten years of research, scientists have identified a gene that promotes metastases, the spread of cancer cells through the body. This may result in the development of new therapies to combat the spread of cancer, which is often more deadly than the cancer itself. Dr. Richard Pestell led the research team, and is the director of the Lombardi Cancer Center and chairman of Georgetown University Medical Center's Department of Oncology.

Researchers are interested in understanding the mechanisms in a particular gene that make cells move, and Dr. Pestell and his team are using this knowledge to find a way to stop cancer cells from spreading. Once this is accomplished, researchers can devise a more specific and targeted treatment for cancer. The majority of cancers spread, although some spread more quickly than others. However, it is dangerous to block the entire gene, because it has other purposes as well. Instead, researchers are striving to block the specific part of this gene that is involved with cell migration.

It is possible that there is a genetic link to every type of cancer. When some patients have a predisposition to breast cancer, for example, they have a mutation in certain genes. Once certain sections of individual genes are identified as assisting particular cancers and can subsequently be controlled or deactivated, Dr. Pestell anticipates a better quality of life for patients.

Resources:

Read more information about the metastases gene and cancer research

Learn how cancer develops

Find out how support groups can help those diagnosed with cancer and their families.

Is there a medical topic you'd like us to cover? Reach us by email: soundmed@iu.edu
or by phone:
(317) 274-4848.

With the upcoming warm weather and outdoors come diseases such as Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. During which of the following activities is it most possible to contract these two diseases?

A. Swimming in contaminated pools
B. Picnicking in grassy or wooded areas
C. Excessive tanning

Find out!

Besides the Memorial Day holiday, the last weekend in May signals another springtime ritual - the opening of swimming pools. Why do fingers and toes get wrinkly and pruny from the water?

Find out!

Healthy eating can be as easy as adding nuts to a salad, grilling fish, experimenting with different fruits or vegetables, or drinking a yogurt smoothie rather than a soft drink. Listed below are a few tips and facts about healthy eating.

Adding just a handful of pecans to a traditional low-fat, cholesterol-lowering diet can dramatically lower your cholesterol. (Journal of Nutrition, September 2001)

Diets high in low-fat dairy foods such as milk, yogurt and cheese can help reduce body fat as much as 69 percent. (The University of Tennessee, 2000 study)

Men who eat at least two meals a week containing tomato products can lower their risk of prostate cancer by 24 to 36 percent. (Journal of the National Cancer Institute, March 2002)

Women who eat two to three slices of wholegrain bread daily (or the equivalent) are 30 to 40 percent less likely to have a stroke than women who eat less than half a slice daily. (Journal of the American Medical Association, 2000)

More tips...