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Botox receives US FDA approval to treat overactive bladder PG 33 New study could help earlier diagnosis of Parkinson’s diseaser PG 34
RESEARCH UPDATE Lilly stomach cancer drug extends survival vs placebo The drug also improved survival without the cancer worsening in patients who had failed to respond to earlier drug therapy li Lilly and Co's stomach cancer drug ramucirumab met its primary goal of improving overall survival in a late stage-study, extending the lives of patients for more than a month longer than those who received a placebo. This information was provided by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The overall survival among patients treated with the Lilly drug in the study was 5.2 months, compared with 3.8 months for those who received a placebo. However, some analysts were looking for a survival benefit greater than two months from the monoclonal antibody.
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The Indianapolis-based drugmaker previously said ramucirumab met its main goal of improving overall survival, but the extent of the benefit was not revealed
earlier. The injectable drug, which Lilly acquired in its purchase of ImClone Systems four years ago, is also undergoing late-stage
trials for cancers of the breast, colon, lung and liver. A study of the drug in combination with chemotherapy for treating stomach cancer is also under way. The drug also improved survival without the cancer worsening in patients who had failed to respond to earlier drug therapy. Progression-free survival was 2.1 months for ramucirumab, compared with 1.3 months for patients who got the placebo. Lilly is in need of new products to offset plunging sales of its Zyprexa schizophrenia medicine and other drugs facing generic competition. Reuters
Biolog’s PM technology by UK AHVLA makes discovery on TB bacterium Research team headed by Dr Paul Wheeler research team headed by Dr Paul Wheeler from the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA, Weybridge, UK) reported breakthrough progress in understanding the metabolic and phenotypic properties of the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its close relative, Mycobacterium bovis. This was reported at a paper published in the journal PLOS ONE. The publication from the AHVLA is important in several respects. Firstly, it shows that Biolog’s Phenotype MicroArray (PM) technology allows these bacteria to be studied much more quickly and easily, which will accelerate the pace of mycobacterial research. Results can be obtained in seven to 10 days.
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Secondly, it demonstrates diagnostic potential by phenotypically differentiating strains of these mycobacteria with different host ranges and levels of pathogenicity. Thirdly, the paper expands, as well as confirms, the knowledge of the metabolic properties of these mycobacteria. As a consequence, genome annotation can be improved, the biology of these bacteria can be better understood, and hopefully these insights will facilitate discovery of antibiotics more effective in their eradication. Wheeler said, “The genome sequence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis was published in 1998 and high-throughput phenotype analysis of pathogenic mycobacterial strains is needed and long overdue. www.expresspharmaonline.com
Molecular typing of Mycobacterium strains has limitations. Though key in surveillance and helpful in identifying emerging strains, it does not provide information on biological properties or phenotypes. This is a substantial gap in our knowledge since it is the phenotype which is selectable and must relate to the evolutionary advantage of one strain over another.” Mycobacterum tuberculosis is the causative agent of the respiratory disease tuberculosis which infects an estimated eight million people worldwide and is responsible for two million fatalities each year. Mycobacterium bovis afflicts cattle with losses to agriculture of approximately $3 billion per year. These mycobacteria have been very difficult for scientists to study, because they grow
very slowly, so experiments can take weeks or months to perform. Other mycobacterial species have also been successfully studied with PM technology. In June last year, researchers in the laboratory of Prof Yung-Fu Chang at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine published also in PLOS ONE on their use of PM technology to analyse the metabolic phenotypes of Mycobacterium avium. In 2009, a team of researchers in the laboratory of Prof Lacy Daniels at Texas A&M, Kingsville used gene knockouts combined with PM technology to show that the Mycobacterium smegmatis gene homologue of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis gene Rv1238 codes for a transporter of the sugar trehalose and plays a critical role in pathogenicity. EP News Bureau - Mumbai February 1-15, 2013