AGU: Small clique of nations found to dominate global trading web of food, water |  |
- AGU: Small clique of nations found to dominate global trading web of food, water
- Tuberculosis international conference: April 13-14 at Emory University
- Scientists reprogram cancer cells with low doses of epigenetic drugs
- Understanding individual genetic variation can help predict chemotherapy side effects
| AGU: Small clique of nations found to dominate global trading web of food, water Posted: 22 Mar 2012 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) WASHINGTON - It's not easy, or economically feasible, to ship freshwater across the globe. But when scientists use food as a proxy for that water - taking into account how much crops are irrigated and livestock are fed - they can get a glimpse of the flow of freshwater between countries. When one research group studied this virtual water network, they found that the interconnectedness between countries has almost doubled over the last two decades - potentially lending some resiliency to the water trade. Still, ahandful of nations control a majority of the freshwater flow, and some regions, including much of Africa, are left out of the trading loop. In general, we have more trade going on, and more and more countries are now connected, said Joel Carr, an ecohydrologist with the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and one of the authors of the new study. But these increases in trade and connections are not equally spread among countries. Food production is one of the primary uses of fresh water, and as countries grow in population, they need more food, and therefore more water, to support their residents. If they don't have the water to grow crops or raise livestock but have money to spend, countries can import food - essentially importing water. The virtual water network is a way to look at the global balance of this freshwater trade, Carr said. Carr and his colleagues studied the changes in the network - variations in how much virtual water (i.e. food) was being traded, which countries were trading, etc. - between 1986 and 2008. In that first year, there were 205 countries trading with each other, with about 8,200 trade links between them. In 2008, the number of countries trading virtual water had increased to 232, and the number of links had almostdoubled to about 15,800 links. While part of that increase was due to geopolitical factors, such as the U.S.S.R. breaking up into more than a dozen new countries that joined in... http://www.rxpgnews.com    |
| Tuberculosis international conference: April 13-14 at Emory University Posted: 22 Mar 2012 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Leading international experts in tuberculosis and related diseases from at least 10 countries will gather at a Human Immunity to Tuberculosis conference April 13-14 in Atlanta. The meeting will take place at the Emory Conference Center, 1615 Clifton Rd., Atlanta, GA 30329. This first international conference devoted to human immunity to tuberculosis will advance the study of human immunity to Mycobacterium tuberculosis and determine critical areas of focus in TB research. Participants will identify important knowledge gaps and roadblocks to understanding the mechanisms of human immunity to TB and their limitations. Organizers include Drs. Jyothi Rengarajan (Emory Vaccine Center), Joel Ernst (NYU School of Medicine), Willem Hanekom (South African TB Vaccine Initiative and University of Cape Town), Tom Hawn (University of Washington), and Beate Kampmann (Imperial College and Medical Research Council Laboratories, the Gambia). Tuberculosis is a serious global health problem that causes about two million deaths each year, says Rengarajan. TB is particularly deadly in combination with HIV and is the leading cause of death in people infected with HIV. Developing an effective vaccine to prevent TB is clearly an important goal but in order to do that we need to better understand the protective and pathological immune responses against the causative agent in humans, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. One-third of the world's population is infected with TB, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and each year nine million people become sick with the disease, resulting in nearly two million related deaths. In 2010 more than 11,000 cases of TB were reported in the United States. Tuberculosis is an important area of research at the Emory Vaccine Center, where Rengarajan and her group work to understand how M. tuberculosis causes disease as well as how the immune system responds to infection. In collaboration with Susan... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Scientists reprogram cancer cells with low doses of epigenetic drugs Posted: 22 Mar 2012 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Experimenting with cells in culture, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have breathed possible new life into two drugs once considered too toxic for human cancer treatment. The drugs, azacitidine (AZA) and decitabine (DAC), are epigenetic-targeted drugs and work to correct cancer-causing alterations that modify DNA. The researchers said the drugs also were found to take aim at a small but dangerous subpopulation of self-renewing cells, sometimes referred to as cancer stem cells, which evade most cancer drugs and cause recurrence and spread. In a report published in the March 20, 2012, issue of Cancer Cell, the Johns Hopkins team said their study provides evidence that low doses of the drugs tested on cell cultures cause antitumor responses in breast, lung, and colon cancers. Conventional chemotherapy agents work by indiscriminately poisoning and killing rapidly-dividing cells, including cancer cells, by damaging cellular machinery and DNA. In contrast, low doses of AZA and DAC may re-activate genes that stop cancer growth without causing immediate cell-killing or DNA damage, says Stephen Baylin, M.D., Ludwig Professor of Oncology and deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. Many cancer experts had abandoned AZA and DAC for the treatment of common cancers, according to the researchers, because they are toxic to normal cells at standard high doses, and there was little research showing how they might work for cancer in general. Baylin and his colleague Cynthia Zahnow, Ph.D., decided to take another look at the drugs after low doses of the drugs showed a benefit in patients with a pre-leukemic disorder called myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Johns Hopkins investigators also showed benefit of low doses of the drugs in tests with a small number of advanced lung cancer patients. This is contrary to the way we usually do things in cancer research, says Baylin, noting that typically, we start in... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Understanding individual genetic variation can help predict chemotherapy side effects Posted: 22 Mar 2012 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Vienna, Austria: The largest study ever on the effect of genetic variability on the toxicity of chemotherapy in breast cancer shows that it is possible to predict which patients are most likely to suffer serious side effects, a researcher will tell the 8th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-8) today (Friday). Dr. Christof Vulsteke, from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, will explain how his team's research is an important step towards achieving a personalised chemotherapy regime for each patient. The researchers examined germline DNA[1] from blood samples from 1089 breast cancer patients who were treated between 2000 and 2010 with three commonly used chemotherapy drugs (fluorouracil, epirubicin and cyclophosphamide). For each patient, the variability in the genes that are important for metabolising these three chemotherapeutic drugs was compared with the side effects experienced. We found that genetic variation in one gene was highly correlated with chemotherapy side effects, says Dr. Vulsteke. Investigating this gene before starting chemotherapy would allow us to support the patient with either growth factors to increase the patient's immunity, or dose modifications, or a different chemotherapy regimen better adapted to the patient, or a combination of these. Currently, most patients receive the standard treatment; however, the side effects they suffer can be very different, ranging from severe to very minimal reactions. Making adjustments to treatment would have a major impact on both the physical and psychological well-being of patients, and on the financial burden to society posed by chemotherapy side effects, for example, hospitalisation. The most important side effects of chemotherapy are mainly caused by immune system depression, which can result in potentially life threatening infections. Even though patients may take every precaution to avoid contamination, the vast majority of these infections are... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
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