Tips on how to build a better home for biological parts

Researchers at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech have compiled a series of guidelines that should help researchers in their efforts to design, develop and manage next-generation databases of biological parts. The stakes are high: the concept of biological parts is essential if methods developed in other fields of engineering are to be applied to biology. If successful, this approach will result in significant productivity gains for the biotechnology industry. The findings of the research, published in the Public Library of Science's open-access journal PLoS One, arose from a systematic analysis of the Registry of Standard Biological Parts, the most well developed collection of biological parts currently available to the synthetic biology research community.

Jean Peccoud, associate professor at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, remarked: "Our research group is very interested in providing the wider research community with design automation tools that will facilitate the engineering of biological systems. We needed to take a close look at the Registry of Standard Biological Parts in order to understand how GenoCAD™, the platform we are developing to build and verify complex genetic constructs, should interface with this important community resource. In this process, we came to understand that repositories of biological parts represent a new generation of bioinformatics databases that pose a number of original and very interesting challenges." He added: "We believe that articulating the issues associated with these resources will help improve existing databases of biological parts. It will also assist in the development of new collections of parts for specialized applications such as bioenergy or biodefense."

The Registry of Standard Biological Parts is a publicly available resource and the focal point of the annual International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition. iGEM undergraduate students engineer novel biological systems starting from BioBricks, the parts documented in the Registry of Standard Biological Parts. The BioBrick is an emerging standard for DNA fragments that facilitates the assembly of biological parts into more complex devices and systems by using a standardized fabrication process. The entire collection of parts associated with the Registry is distributed to all teams enrolled in the iGEM competition. The iGEM participants are expected to return the designs they made to the Registry at the end of the competition.

The new study by VBI researchers not only examined the information content of the Registry database but also the collection of publicly available DNA sequences or clones (BioBricks) that are used to make the biological devices and systems. The analysis of the Registry database and the associated DNA clones identified several key needs where improvements could be made. These included the following: (a) to distinguish basic parts and composite parts that can be broken down into smaller parts; (b) to set curation standards to document the sequences of basic parts by associating them with entries in bioinformatic or bibliographic databases; (c) to define and implement quality control standards that ensure the integrity of DNA clones; and (d) to provide editorial policies that could help build registries of biological parts with high-value and high-quality content.

Peccoud concluded: "The Registry of Standard Biological Parts has been a pioneering experiment for the synthetic biology community and lessons should be learned to improve this resource and design the next-generation registries of biological parts. This bottom-up approach to biology raises a number of challenging theoretical questions. Defining what is a biological part, for example, remains a problem that the entire synthetic biology community needs to solve. In this respect, recent initiatives led by the BioBrick foundation and others to organize forums that define technical standards for biological parts appear to be very timely and laudable."

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‡ A complete description of the findings and recommendations of the analysis are available in the publication: "Targeted development of registries of biological parts", July 16, 2008 edition of PLoS One: http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0002671.

About VBI

The Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech (www.vbi.vt.edu) has a research platform centered on understanding the "disease triangle" of host-pathogen-environment interactions in plants, humans and other animals. By successfully channeling innovation into transdisciplinary approaches that combine information technology and biology, researchers at VBI are addressing some of today's key challenges in the biomedical, environmental and plant sciences.

D-cycloserine may improve behavioral therapy treatment for anxiety

Anxiety is a normal human response to stress, but in some, it can develop into a disabling disorder of excessive and irrational fears, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, or posttraumatic stress disorder. Effective treatments are available and can involve either behavioral therapy or medications. Although "it makes intuitive sense that combining these two treatments would result in even better results," David Tolin, Ph.D. notes that has unfortunately not yet been the case and the majority of the evidence suggests that combined therapy is no more effective than behavior therapy alone, and in some cases can even be less effective. However, Dr. Tolin is one of the three authors on a meta-analysis scheduled for publication on June 15th in Biological Psychiatry, in which they evaluated a potentially important new treatment paradigm for anxiety.

Dr. Tolin explains the impetus behind their analysis: "Recently, several researchers have tried a radically different approach: instead of just throwing two effective monotherapies at the problem, they have instead looked at medications that specifically target the biological mechanisms that make psychotherapy work in the first place." John H. Krystal, M.D., Editor of Biological Psychiatry and another of the study's authors, adds that "there has now been a sufficient amount of research in this area to take a step back to look at the basic research conducted in animals and the initial clinical trials." This research effort has involved the addition of D-cycloserine, an old drug long approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of tuberculosis, to exposure-based fear treatment in animals and humans. The meta-analysis, a pooling of the published literature on this approach, provides evidence that D-cycloserine enhances the learning process in the brain, indicating that, unlike many other medications, it may improve the effectiveness of behavioral therapy.

There is a caveat, however, as the authors also discovered that tolerance may develop to this effect. Dr. Krystal comments that, if so, "it may be best used before therapy sessions to 'warm up the brain' and make it more responsive to the treatment sessions rather than as a daily treatment."

Dr. Tolin makes an additional, important observation regarding this line of work: "Another very exciting aspect of this work is that it's one of the few really good examples of translational research in psychiatry: taking basic science from the laboratory, in this case animal studies, and translating that research into useful interventions for humans." Although additional research is clearly necessitated, this confirmation of the effectiveness of D-cycloserine is a positive step forward in improving treatments for individuals suffering with anxiety disorders.

Men and women may need different diets: University of New South Wales research

Diet can strongly influence how long you live and your reproductive success, but now scientists have discovered that what works for males can be very different for females.

In the first study of its kind, the researchers have shown that gender plays a major role in determining which diet is better suited to promoting longer life or better reproductive success.

In the evolutionary "battle of the sexes", traits that benefit males are costly when expressed in females and vice versa. This conflict may have implications for human diet, aging and reproduction, says a team of scientists from UNSW, the University of Sydney and Massey University.

"When it comes to choosing the right diet, we need to look more closely to the individual, their sex and their reproductive stage in life," says Associate Professor Rob Brooks, Director of the Evolution and Ecology Research Centre at the University of New South Wales. "It may be, for example, that women in their child-bearing years need a different diet to those who are post-menopausal.

"It also underlines the important lesson that what we want to eat or, if you like, what we're programmed to eat, is not necessarily best for us." The researchers are conducting long-term studies on Australian black field crickets and have discovered that the lifespan of both males and females is maximised on high-carbohydrate, low-protein diets, they say in the latest issue of Current Biology.

But reproductive success differs dramatically between the sexes when the carbohydrate-protein balance is changed: males live longest and have the greatest reproductive success with a diet that favours carbohydrates to protein by eight-to-one, whereas females have greatest success when the ratio is just one-to-one. Given a choice, however, females eat only a small amount more protein than males. The shared ability to sense and choose food dooms both males and females to eat a diet that is a compromise between what is best for each sex.

"Male and female crickets maximise their fitness on different diets," says UNSW's Dr Alexei Maklakov, the study's lead author. "Despite that, the dietary preferences of the sexes are very similar. Instead of selecting foods in a sex-specific manner, males and females select 'intermediate' diets that are less than optimal for both sexes.

The researchers believe the sexes share most of their genes and this fact can constrain the evolution of sex differences in traits such as diet choice, because many of the same genes are likely to be responsible for trait expression in both sexes.

Significance for humans – "Men and women invest differently in reproduction, a difference that is even more marked than that between male and female crickets," says Rob Brooks. "Think of the tremendous amounts of energy and protein required of a mother in carrying a baby to term and breastfeeding. We also know that men and women need to eat different diets - think of the careful attention we pay to what expectant mothers eat.

"What men and women need to eat might be more dramatically different than we had realised. However, men and women eat very similar diets and our results suggest that our tastes and food preferences could be a shared compromise, as they are in crickets."

Duke University Medical Center : Duke scientists show why cells starved of iron burn more glucose

DURHAM, N.C. – Duke University Medical Center scientists have found a mechanism that allows cells starved of iron to shut down energy-making processes that depend on iron and use a less efficient pathway involving glucose. This metabolic reshuffling mechanism, found in yeast cells, helps explain how humans respond to iron deficiency, and may help with diabetes research as well.
"If we can understand what metabolic changes happen along a gradient of iron deficiency, then we might be able to identify signatures of a modest iron deficiency in humans," said lead researcher Dennis J. Thiele, Ph.D., who is the George Barth Geller Professor of the Duke Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, "We could head it off at the pass."
"This basic science discovery in yeast sheds important new light on how humans may respond to iron deficiency, which is the most common nutritional disorder," said Duke School of Medicine Dean Nancy C. Andrews, an expert in human diseases of iron metabolism.
The findings, published in the June issue of Cell Metabolism, are also potentially important for those studying diabetes. "Evidence is growing that if there is an iron imbalance in the beta cells of the pancreas, these cells won't produce insulin properly," Thiele said. "Now we know what happens in yeast in terms of glucose (sugar) utilization. We need to learn whether the same cause and effect holds true in mammals."
Iron deficiency anemia affects nearly 2 billion people worldwide, most often pregnant women, premature babies, and young children, Thiele said. Anemia profoundly affects cognitive development, and motor and neuronal development, he said.
The scientists wanted to know how organisms establish a balance of iron in their cells. "We now know when yeast cells encounter iron deficiency, they reorganize their metabolism by degrading specific messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and leaving other messenger RNAs alone, which begins a sequence of events," said Thiele. Messenger RNAs are molecules that carry coding information from the DNA to the structures that make proteins, which in turn regulate the body's structures and functions.
The first response to iron deficiency is to shut down the energy hub of the cell, the mitochondria, which takes glucose and turns it efficiently into cell energy fuel, or ATP. The mitochondria depend greatly on iron. As a cell becomes more starved for iron, it "dials down" the mitochondrial processes by degrading the mRNAs encoding the proteins involved in such processes, and thus, some iron is freed up, Thiele said.
The second response is to shut down iron storage pathways and other, more dispensable biochemical reactions that depend on iron. "When you are low on iron, you don't want to save it and take it out of use," Thiele explained.
The third response is to increase glucose utilization pathways outside of the mitochondria, which is a much less efficient way to produce energy. Glucose molecules processed for energy outside of the mitochondria create about 18 times less energy, said co-author Sandra Vergara, a doctoral student in Thiele's lab.
"Cellular iron balance follows the rules of economics," Vergara said. "During scarcity, the cell prioritizes the utilization of iron, saving it for more essential processes. This prioritization comes at a cellular cost, which is reflected in the higher demand for glucose, so the cell can keep the correct amount of energy flowing."
If we run low on ATP, we become tired and lethargic, which are symptoms of iron deficiency, Thiele said. "Iron is hard for humans to get from plant sources, which form the basis for most of the world's diet." Iron is very abundant in nature, but cells have a hard time taking it up, because it can change its form inside the body.
Thiele stressed that the findings show what happens during iron deficiency in baker's yeast cells, but probably in some way do extend to people. "Nearly 35 percent of all known human disease genes have a counterpart in the yeast genome. A scientist is always conservative about extrapolating. I think we can make predictions that the metabolic reshuffling that we observe in yeast, the same types of key proteins and enzymes that are involved during iron deficiency, are likely to follow similar patterns in human cells."
Most of the primary metabolism pathways are conserved at the molecular level from yeast to humans, Vergara said.
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The third co-author on this work was Sergi Puig, who was a postdoctoral fellow in the Thiele lab and now is an assistant professor at the University of Valencia in Spain. This research was funded by a grant from the Spanish Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia and FEDER funds from the European Community, an NIH grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and an NIH predoctoral fellowship.

Wiley-Blackwell : Specialist nurses can play a key role in supporting patients having radiotherapy

Cancer patients who attended a specialist nurse clinic rather than a consultant-led clinic for regular radiotherapy reviews benefited from longer, more frequent consultations and good symptom management, according to a paper in the June issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing.
And because the clinical nurse specialist was able to carry out 83 per cent of the consultations without referring issues to the consultant, patients also avoided the need to see their doctor on a routine basis.
Researchers from the University of Dundee and the City's Ninewells Hospital also found that the patients – who were undergoing treatment for head and neck cancer – were more likely to be referred to members of the multi-disciplinary team. This resulted in better management of common radiotherapy side effects, like oral and nutritional problems.
When researchers compared the 23 patients attending the nurse specialist-led clinics with the 20 who had attended consultant-led clinics in the previous six months, they found that the patients reported few significant differences in quality of life. Their comments also showed that they particularly valued the relationship they had built up with the clinical nurse specialist.
Feedback from the family doctors who took part in the study was also good. They were positive about the timing and content of the information they received from the clinical nurse specialist about their patients' ongoing treatment.
"Our study showed that clinical nurse specialists can play a key role in the management of head and neck cancer patients having radiotherapy and this may take the pressure off busy consultants, with no reduction in the quality of care provided" says lead author Dr Mary Wells, a Lecturer and Clinical Research Fellow in Cancer Nursing from the University.
"As a result of our research, the majority of radiotherapy review clinics at Ninewells Hospital are now conducted by a clinical nurse specialist. But greater investment is needed to develop specialist nursing roles if initiatives like this are to be replicated elsewhere in the UK."
Key findings of the study included:
Nurses were able to spend 16 minutes on each consultation - four times as long as the consultants - and patients had shorter waits to see them (two minutes versus nine).
Overall quality of life scores were similar in both groups, but patients in the consultant-led clinic group reported slightly higher emotional functioning.
Baseline pain scores were higher in the nurse-led group but rose less sharply than in the medical group.
Patients in the nurse-led group had better scores for social eating, social contact, dry mouth, sticky saliva, teeth problems and weight loss.
Patients in the medical group were more likely to have lost weight and less likely to have gained weight, despite receiving more nutritional supplements.
"Our study demonstrates that clinical nurse specialists in radiotherapy can effectively lead on-treatment reviews for patients using a protocol-based approach and that patients and family doctors appreciate the support, information and communication provided by nurse-led clinics" says Dr Wells.
"The findings suggest that when nurses work as part of a supportive multi-disciplinary team they can manage the majority of these routine consultations without direct input from the consultant, even in this highly symptomatic and complex group."
The study has led to direct changes in the way neck and head cancer patients are managed at Ninewells Hospital and the majority of the radiotherapy review clinics are now conducted by a clinical nurse specialist with specific training and expertise in radiotherapy care.
"The clinical nurse specialist is now able to prescribe a wider range of medication and is responsible for coordinating complex treatment regimes and supporting patients with complex symptoms" says Dr Wells.
"We also believe there is considerable potential to develop the assessment and care of patients with head and neck cancer before and after treatment as well as during radiotherapy.
"Clinical nurse specialists are ideally placed to provide information and advice on issues like health education, smoking cessation and alcohol consumption, to help reduce the impact of the patient's symptoms and improve their quality of life.
"They could also provide support, community liaison and symptom management immediately after treatment when patients are no longer in day-to-day contact with the hospital but the side effects continue to affect their daily life."
However the researchers point out that the potential to develop nurse-led radiotherapy clinics across the UK is hampered by a lack of investment in radiotherapy nursing.
"Nurses working in radiotherapy are relatively few and far between, postholders often work in isolation and their contribution has not been sufficiently acknowledged" says Dr Wells.
"We hope that our study, and the service developments it has inspired, will stimulate a debate about the valuable role that nurses can play in supporting cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy.
"We also hope that it will highlight the need for greater investment in this valuable speciality."
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Notes to editors
A study to evaluate nurse-led on-treatment review for patients undergoing radiotherapy for head and neck cancer. Wells et al. Journal of Clinical Nursing. 17, 1428-1439. (June 2008)
Founded in 1992, Journal of Clinical Nursing is a highly regarded peer reviewed Journal that has a truly international readership. The Journal embraces experienced clinical nurses, student nurses and health professionals, who support, inform and investigate nursing practice. It enlightens, educates, explores, debates and challenges the foundations of clinical health care knowledge and practice worldwide. Edited by Professor Roger Watson, it is published 10 times a year by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, part of the international Blackwell Publishing group. www.blackwellpublishing.com/jcn
About Wiley-Blackwell. Wiley-Blackwell was formed in February 2007 as a result of the acquisition of Blackwell Publishing Ltd. by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and its merger with Wiley's Scientific, Technical, and Medical business. Together, the companies have created a global publishing business with deep strength in every major academic and professional field. Wiley-Blackwell publishes approximately 1,400 scholarly peer-reviewed journals and an extensive collection of books with global appeal. For more information on Wiley-Blackwell, please visit www.blackwellpublishing.com or http://interscience.wiley.com

Weber Shandwick Worldwide Prevent a bone break, drink milk to boost calcium

New study finds adding calcium could help prevent adult fractures
Boosting calcium intake by drinking milk could reduce healthy adults' chances of a debilitating bone break. In a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, healthy men and women supplemented with 1,200 mg of calcium per day – the amount in four glasses of milk – reduced their risk of bone fractures by 72%.
An international team of researchers from University Hospital Zurich and Dartmouth Medical School divided 930 healthy men and women ages 27 to 80 into two groups for a four year intervention study. One group was given a placebo, while the other took a daily calcium supplement containing 1,200mg of calcium daily – the calcium recommendation for adults over the age of 51.
The researchers found that those receiving an additional 1,200 mg of calcium were significantly less likely to have a bone fracture of any sort during the four-year period, including everyday activity fractures (bone breaks that occurred while walking or standing) and seemingly unavoidable accident-related fractures (bone breaks sustained during falls, running, sports injuries or car accidents). In fact, during the four-year intervention, not a single adult receiving calcium experienced a fracture tied to everyday activities – fractures that researchers call "potentially preventable" and more likely linked to bone health.
To sustain the benefits, researchers found that the adults needed to maintain their calcium intakes. After the four-year supplementation period ended, the bone benefits dissipated, underscoring the need to adopt lifelong habits, like drinking milk, to prevent bone loss.
Adult bones continue to grow in density and strength until about age 35. After that, preventing further bone loss is essential. Poor bone health and bone fractures can have negative consequences for adults of all ages, interfering with recreational activities, ability to work or physical capacity to exercise and stay healthy. These adult bone fractures may also be an early sign of risk for osteoporosis – a serious condition of brittle bones afflicting more than 10 million Americans.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend three servings of fat-free or lowfat milk each day, providing 90% of the recommended daily value of calcium for most adults. Milk is also an excellent source of vitamin D, helping the body absorb this much-needed calcium to help maintain strong bones and reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
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Sources:
Bischoff-Ferrari HA, Rees JR, Grau MV, Barry E, Gui J, Baron JA. Effect of calcium supplementation on fracture risk: a double-blind randomized controlled trial. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2008;87:1945-1951.

American Chemical Society : American Chemical Society

ARTICLE #1 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Super paper:" New nanopaper more break-resistant than cast iron Biomacromolecules
Researchers in Sweden and Japan report development of a new type of paper that resists breaking when pulled almost as well as cast iron. The new material, called "cellulose nanopaper," is made of sub-microscopic particles of cellulose and may open the way for expanded use of paper as a construction material and in other applications, they suggest. Their study is scheduled for the June 9 issue of ACS' Biomacromolecules, a monthly journal.
In the new study, Lars A. Berglund and colleagues note that cellulose — a tough, widely available substance obtained from plants — has potential as a strong, lightweight ingredient in composites and other materials in a wide range of products. Although cellulose-based composites have high strength, existing materials are brittle and snap easily when pulled.
The study described a solution to this problem. It involves exposing wood pulp to certain chemicals to produce cellulose nanopaper. Their study found that its tensile strength — a material's ability to resist pull before snapping — exceeded that of cast iron. They also were able to adjust the paper's strength by changing its internal structure. — MTS
ARTICLE #1 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE "Cellulose Nanopaper Structures of High Toughness"
DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT ARTICLE http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/bm800038n
CONTACT: Lars A. Berglund, Ph.D. Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden Phone: 46-8-7908118 Fax: 46-8-7908101 Email: blund@kth.se

Compared to bottled garlic, fresh garlic contains higher levels of an ingredient called allicin, which can help prevent blood clots and bacterial infections.
Click here for more information.
ARTICLE #2 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Love that garlic? Fresh may be healthier than bottled Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
The next time you use garlic for its renowned antibacterial effects, consider fresh garlic instead of those bottles of chopped garlic. Researchers in Japan report that fresh garlic maintains higher levels of a key healthy ingredient than preserved versions and may be better for you. Their study is scheduled for the June 25 issue of ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication.
In the new study, Toyohiko Ariga and colleagues point out that allicin is one of the main active ingredients in garlic. Other studies have shown that allicin has beneficial effects in preventing blood clots, cancer, and bacterial infection. Although commercially bottled garlic is often stored in oil or water, researchers did not know how various storage and preservation methods affect levels of allicin, which is fragile and disappears quickly.
To find out, Ariga's group compared allicin levels in extracts of fresh garlic after 1-2 weeks of storage in water, alcohol, and vegetable oil. Garlic stored in water at room temperature lost about half its allicin in 6 days and garlic in vegetable oil lost half its allicin in less than an hour. The garlic lost its antibacterial action as allicin broke down. However, allicin broke down into materials that still are believed to have some anticancer and anti-blood clot effects. — MTS
ARTICLE #2 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE "Biological and Chemical Stability of Garlic-Derived Allicin"
DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT ARTICLE http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jf8000907
CONTACT: Toyohiko Ariga, Ph.D. Nihon University Fujisawa, Japan Phone: 81-466-84-3948 Fax: 81-466-84-3949 Email: ariga@brs.nihon-u.ac.jp
ARTICLE #3 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sniffing out a broad-spectrum of airborne threats in seconds Analytical Chemistry
Scientists in California are reporting successful laboratory and field tests of a new device that can sniff out the faintest traces of a wide range of chemical, biological, nuclear, and explosive threats - and illicit drugs - from the air in minutes with great accuracy. The ultra-sensitive detector, known as the single-particle aerosol mass spectrometry (SPAMS) system, could tighten security at airports, sports stadiums and other large-scale facilities, according to their report, scheduled for the July 1 issue of ACS' Analytical Chemistry, a semi-monthly journal.
Matthias Frank and colleagues explain that chemical, biological, nuclear, and explosive materials, as well as illicit drugs, all release minute amounts of aerosol particles into the air. Detecting these particles requires a device with a high sensitivity, low probability of false alarms, and a fast response time. "SPAMS uniquely meets these requirements in realistic field environments," the report states. While other aerosol detectors exist, SPAMS is specifically designed for the rapid detection of low-concentration aerosols, it adds.
The study describes laboratory tests of SPAMS and extended field tests at San Francisco International Airport. It showed that within seconds, SPAMS detected a diverse set of materials including simulants for potentially hazardous biological, chemical and radiological materials, as well as actual explosives and drugs. The study terms SPAMS a "significant and important advance in rapid aerosol threat detection." — AD
ARTICLE #3 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE "Autonomous, Broad-Spectrum Detection of Hazardous Aerosols in Seconds"
DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT ARTICLE http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ac8004428
CONTACT: Matthias Frank, Ph.D. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Livermore, California 94550 Phone: (925) 423-5068 Fax: (925) 424-2778 Email: frank1@llnl.gov
ARTICLE #4 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Inhalable form of gene-therapy takes aim at lung cancer and inflammatory lung disease Molecular Pharmaceutics
A new inhalable form of gene therapy — based on technology recognized in the 2006 Nobel medicine prize, shows increasing promise for treating lung cancer, infectious diseases and inflammatory lung disease, scientists have concluded after an exhaustive review of worldwide research on the topic. Their report is scheduled for the June 2 issue of ACS' Molecular Pharmaceutics, a bi-monthly journal.
In the article, Sally-Ann Cryan, Niamh Durcan, and Charlotte Murphy focus on research efforts to develop an inhalable form of RNA interference (RNAi), a gene-therapy technique that interferes with or "silences" genes that make disease-causing proteins. The authors explain that RNAi has advantages over other gene therapies. It is potent, very specific, and appears to have a low risk of side effects.
They cite encouraging results with RNAi in laboratory studies in cells and animals with a range of lung diseases, including lung cancer, certain respiratory infections and inflammatory lung disease. Keys to successful therapy in humans include careful design of the gene-silencing agents, determining the most effective doses, and developing better ways of delivering RNAi agents to the lungs, the scientists say. — MTS
ARTICLE #4 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE "Inhalable siRNA: Potential as a Therapeutic Agent in the Lungs"
DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT ARTICLE http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/mp070048k
CONTACT: Sally-Ann Cryan, Ph.D. Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Dublin, Ireland Phone: 353-1-4022741 Fax: 353-1-4022765 Email: scryan@rcsi.ie
ARTICLE #5 EMBARGOED FOR 9 A.M., EASTERN TIME, June 9, 2008
Researchers band together in global battle on bacterial biofilms Chemical & Engineering News
The discovery that bacteria are not loners, but social creatures that congregate and chemically communicate in communities — termed biofilms — has sparked a global scientific effort to control spread of these slimy coatings that grow on hospital surfaces, inside tubing, and a multitude of other places. That's the topic of an article scheduled for the June 9 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS' weekly newsmagazine.
In the C&EN cover story, Senior Editor Lisa M. Jarvis points that biofilms are the major culprit behind hospital-acquired infections that are now the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, claiming thousands of lives each year. Biofilms also cause other problems ranging from dental plaque to the biofouling of ship hulls. The films are large, complex communities of bacteria that are difficult to kill.
But researchers from academia and industry are now collaborating in a global effort to develop promising new strategies to combat this problem. New approaches include the development of non-stick surfaces and the identification of chemicals that silence bacterial communication or starve them of key nutrients. The first commercial compound to specifically target biofilms is still a few years away, according to the article.
ARTICLE #5 EMBARGOED FOR 9 A.M., EASTERN TIME, June 9, 2008 "Communal Living"
This story will be available on June 9 at http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/86/8623cover.html
FOR ADVANCE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Michael Bernstein ACS News Service Phone: 202-872-6042 Fax: 202-872-4370 Email: m_bernstein@acs.org
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