PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

New drug raises potential for cancer treatment revolution

New drug raises potential for cancer treatment revolution
2014-03-25
(Press-News.org) A revolution in cancer treatment could soon be underway following a breakthrough that may lead to a dramatic improvement in cancer survival rates.

A new study at the University of Warwick, published today in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition, has developed a new drug that can manipulate the body's natural signalling and energy systems, allowing the body to attack and shut down cancerous cells.

Called ZL105, the drug is a compound based on the precious metal iridium. The study has found ZL105 could potentially replace currently used anticancer drugs, which become less effective over time, cause a wide-range of side-effects and damage healthy cells as well as cancerous.

Commenting on the breakthrough, University of Warwick researcher and study co-author Dr Isolda Romero-Canelon said "The energy-producing machinery in cancer cells works to the limit as it attempts to keep up with quick proliferation and invasion. This makes cancer cells susceptible to minor changes in the cell 'power-house'. Our drug pushes cancer cells over the limit causing them to slow and shut down, whilst normal cells can cope with its effects".

Preliminary data indicate that the novel drug may be ten times more effective in treating ovarian, colon, melanoma, renal, and some breast cancers, according to data obtained by the US National Cancer Institute. The researchers now aim to expand the study to cancers that are inherently resistant to existing drugs and to those which have developed resistance after a first round of chemotherapy treatments.

Study co-author Professor Peter J. Sadler said "Existing cancer treatments often become less effective after the first course, as cancer cells learn how they are being attacked. The drug we have developed is a catalyst and is active at low doses. It can attack cancer cells in multiple ways at the same time, so the cancer is less able to adapt to the treatment. This means the new drugs could be much more effective than existing treatments."

"Platinum-based drugs are used in nearly 50% of all chemotherapeutic regimens, exert their activity by damaging DNA and cannot select between cancerous and non-cancerous cells, leading to a wide-range of side-effects from renal failure to neurotoxicity, ototoxicity, nausea and vomiting.

"In contrast, the new iridium-based drug is specifically designed not to attack DNA, but to have a novel mechanism of action, meaning that it could not only dramatically slow down and halt cancer growth, but also significantly reduce the side effects suffered by patients" argues Professor Sadler.

This research could also lead to substantial improvements in cancer survival rates. "Current statistics indicate that one in every three people will develop some kind of cancer during their life time, moreover approximately one woman dies of ovarian cancer every two hours in the UK according to Cancer Research UK .It is clear that a new generation of drugs is necessary to save more lives and our research points to a highly effective way of defeating cancerous cells" said Dr Romero-Canelon.

INFORMATION: Notes to Editors:

The University of Warwick study, The Potent Oxidant Anticancer Activity of Organoiridium Catalysts, is published in the Angewandte Chemie International Edition - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1521-3773

[Attachments] See images for this press release:
New drug raises potential for cancer treatment revolution

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Can virtual reality-based therapy help veterans overcome posttraumatic stress disorder?

Can virtual reality-based therapy help veterans overcome posttraumatic stress disorder?
2014-03-25
New Rochelle, NY, March 25, 2014—Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is common among military veterans and together with the often-related anxiety, depression, and psychological and emotional impairment can dramatically affect quality of life. A type of virtual reality (VR) treatment called Graded Exposure Therapy (GET) can improve PTSD symptoms and may also have a positive impact on these associated disorders, as described in an article in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is ...

Electronic medication alerts designed with provider in mind reduce prescribing errors

Electronic medication alerts designed with provider in mind reduce prescribing errors
2014-03-25
INDIANAPOLIS -- Changing how medication alerts are presented in electronic medical records resulted in safer prescribing, increased efficiency and reduced workload for health care providers who placed drug orders in a study published online in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. "The VA electronic medical record system is one of the most widely used and respected EMR systems in the country," said Alissa L. Russ, Ph.D., a human factors engineer who led the study. "This EMR is used by providers at over 150 VA hospitals. We are looking at ways to ...

Pesticides make the life of earthworms miserable

Pesticides make the life of earthworms miserable
2014-03-25
Pesticides have a direct impact on the physiology and behaviour of earthworms, a Danish/French research team reports after having studied earthworms that were exposed to pesticides over generations. "We see that the worms have developed methods to detoxify themselves, so that they can live in soil sprayed with fungicide. They spend a lot of energy on detoxifying, and that comes with a cost: The worms do not reach the same size as other worms, and we see that there are fewer of them in sprayed soil. An explanation could be that they are less successful at reproducing, ...

RI Hospital: Number of patients admitted with antibiotic-resistant infections is rising

2014-03-25
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The emergence of community-acquired infections, such as urinary tract infections (UTI), due to strains resistant to common antibiotics are on the rise, according to Rhode Island Hospital researchers. The study is published online in the journal Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control. "Over the last several years, we've seen an increase in the number of bacteria -- many of which are forms of E. coli -- that are resistant to commonly administered antibiotics," said Leonard Mermel, D.O., medical director of the department of epidemiology and infection ...

Twenty-five percent of breast cancer survivors report financial decline due to treatment

Twenty-five percent of breast cancer survivors report financial decline due to treatment
2014-03-25
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Four years after being treated for breast cancer, a quarter of survivors say they are worse off financially, at least partly because of their treatment, according to a new study led by University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers. In addition, 12 percent reported that they still have medical debt from their treatment. Financial decline varied significantly by race, with Spanish-speaking Latinas most likely to be impacted. Debt was reported more frequently in English-speaking Latinas and Blacks, the study found. Results appear in ...

Blood test may help predict whether a child will become obese

2014-03-25
Scientists have found that a simple blood test, which can read DNA, could be used to predict obesity levels in children. Researchers at the Universities of Southampton, Exeter and Plymouth used the test to assess the levels of epigenetic switches in the PGC1a gene – a gene that regulates fat storage in the body. Epigenetic switches take place through a chemical change called DNA methylation which controls how genes work and is set during early life. The Southampton team found that the test, when carried out on children at five years old, differentiates between children ...

Kids' books featuring animals with human traits lead to less learning of the natural world

2014-03-25
TORONTO, ON – A new study by University of Toronto researchers has found that kids' books featuring animals with human characteristics not only lead to less factual learning but also influence children's reasoning about animals. Researchers also found that young readers are more likely to attribute human behaviors and emotions to animals when exposed to books with anthropomorphized animals than books depicting animals realistically. "Books that portray animals realistically lead to more learning and more accurate biological understanding," says lead author Patricia ...

MRI reveals genetic activity

MRI reveals genetic activity
2014-03-25
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Doctors commonly use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to diagnose tumors, damage from stroke, and many other medical conditions. Neuroscientists also rely on it as a research tool for identifying parts of the brain that carry out different cognitive functions. Now, a team of biological engineers at MIT is trying to adapt MRI to a much smaller scale, allowing researchers to visualize gene activity inside the brains of living animals. Tracking these genes with MRI would enable scientists to learn more about how the genes control processes such as forming ...

Coerced sex not uncommon for young men, teenage boys, study finds

2014-03-25
WASHINGTON - A large proportion of teenage boys and college men report having been coerced into sex or sexual behavior, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. A total of 43 percent of high school boys and young college men reported they had an unwanted sexual experience and of those, 95 percent said a female acquaintance was the aggressor, according to a study published online in the APA journal Psychology of Men and Masculinity. "Sexual victimization continues to be a pervasive problem in the United States, but the victimization ...

Long-term productivity higher in university spin-offs than in other companies

2014-03-25
The study, published in the journal Technovation and written by Pere Ortín Ángel and Ferran Vendrell Herrero, covers financial data from two comparison samples of companies founded between 1994 and 2005. One sample is made up of 104 university spin-offs and the other is made up of 73 technology-based, non-university companies. The study compares what is known as the total factor productivity of these two samples. According to the study, in the university spin-offs this productivity is, on average, lower in the year in which the company is founded. Nevertheless, data shows ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Are lifetimes of big appliances really shrinking?

Pink skies

Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research

Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered

% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?

An app can change how you see yourself at work

NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals

New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China

Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds

Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea

New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea

Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes

Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others

Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke

Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition

Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life

Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy

Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

Alcohol makes male flies sexy

TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income

Study links teen girls’ screen time to sleep disruptions and depression

Scientists unveil starfish-inspired wearable tech for heart monitoring

Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs

AI effectively predicts dementia risk in American Indian/Alaska Native elders

First guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis calls for changes in practice to improve outcomes

Existing international law can help secure peace and security in outer space, study shows

Pinning down the process of West Nile virus transmission

UTA-backed research tackles health challenges across ages

In pancreatic cancer, a race against time

[Press-News.org] New drug raises potential for cancer treatment revolution