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Archive for October, 2011

Coffee Drinking Linked To Lower Risk Of Common Skin Cancer

Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 October 2011 11:19 Written by admin Tuesday, 25 October 2011 11:19

New research presented at a conference in the US on Monday finds that drinking coffee is linked to a lower risk of a common form of skin cancer known as basal cell carcinoma (BCC). Results of a prospective study that followed over 25,000 cases of skin cancer suggest coffee may be an important dietary option to prevent BCC.

The research is the work of Dr Fengju Song and colleagues. Song is a postdoctoral fellow in the department of dermatology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

For the study, the researchers used data from the Nurses’ Health Study, covering 72,921 participants followed from June 1984 to June 2008, and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, covering 39,976 participants from June 1986 to June 2008. These studies gathered detailed information about diet and health, including consumption of beverages such as coffee.

From those cohorts, the researchers identified 25,480 cases of skin cancer, comprising 22,786 BCC cases, 1,953 squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) cases, and 741 cases of melanoma.

Song and colleagues found a 20% reduction in risk for BCC among women who drank more than three cups of coffee per day, while for men who drank more than three cups per day the risk was 9% lower. These reductions were in comparison to counterparts who only drank less than 1 cup of coffee a month.

The relationship between amount of coffee consumed and BCC was inverse: that is more coffee was linked to lower risk, so that when participants were ranked according to how much coffee they drank, those in the top 20% of consumption (upper quintile) had the lowest risk, with 18% reduction for women and 13% reduction for men, compared to those in the lowest 20% of consumption (bottom quintile).

Song told the press:

“Given the nearly 1 million new cases of BCC diagnosed each year in the United States, daily dietary factors with even small protective effects may have great public health impact. Our study indicates that coffee consumption may be an important option to help prevent BCC.”

The researchers were quite surprised at the finding, and that it only applied to BCC and not the other types of skin cancer.

Animal studies have pointed to links between skin cancer risk and coffee consumption, but epidemiological studies in human populations have not arrived at the same conclusions, they said.

Song explained that tests on mice have shown that consuming caffeine or applying it to the skin reduces the number of UV-damaged keratinocytes (the most common cell type in the outer skin layer or epidermis) via programmed cell death or apoptosis, and that this also markedly reduces the subsequent development of SCC.

“However, in our cohort analysis, we did not find any inverse association between coffee consumption and the risk for SCC,” said Song, who suggests there is a need for further research that specifically addresses the link between coffee intake and BCC and also explores the underlying biological mechanism.

Written by Catharine Paddock PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today

Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/236557.php

Posted under Cancer Research, Discoveries, Innovations and Patents, Oncology Research, R & D, Reports, Research Projects  |  Comments Off

XXI Century Database of Traditional Chinese Medicine Released

Last Updated on Tuesday, 18 October 2011 12:18 Written by admin Tuesday, 18 October 2011 12:18

October 18, 2011

A comprehensive database developed by King’s College London researchers that features the chemical components found in traditional Chinese medicines has been released to market this month, allowing researchers to explore age-old remedies in the search for tomorrow’s new drugs.

Provided under licence to Tim Tec LLC, a US-based life science supplier company, the ‘Chem-TCM’ database is the most comprehensive of its kind. Featuring over 12,000 chemicals found in plants used in Chinese medicine, the database provides a valuable research tool for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, academic researchers, and the medical profession (including the complementary health sector).

Part-funded by Innovation China UK (ICUK), the database has been developed through collaboration between researchers in the Institute of Pharmaceutical Science at King’s, Dr David Barlow, Dr Thomas Ehrman and Professor Peter Hylands, and the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica (SIMM).

To create the Chem-TCM database, the King’s researchers analysed patterns in the known and predicted biological activities of 12,000 chemicals from over 300 Chinese herbs in relation to their usage in traditional Chinese medicine. Their results reveal that many categories in Chinese medicine are translatable into Western terminology. Dr David Barlow said: ‘Traditional Chinese medicine has undergone a remarkable renaissance in recent years. However, the unique language used to describe categories of medicines has hindered effective understanding of one of the most developed and mature systems of alternative medicine in existence.

‘With the Chem-TCM database, future researchers will now be better able to understand the chemical basis of remedies that have been in use for thousands of years. This is likely to be of benefit both in the search for new drugs and, equally significantly, in understanding how Chinese medicine works.’

Chem-TCM features four major parts: chemical identification, botanical information, predicted activity against Western therapeutic targets, and estimated molecular activity according to traditional Chinese medicine categories.

Dr. Marat Niazoff, CEO of TimTec LLC, said: ‘This database is a comprehensive attempt to link Chinese and Western medicine on the molecular level. It is a great contribution to the further study of natural products and their pharmacological potential. The database gathers diverse structural material and a wealth of phytochemical information, opening new possibilities for virtual screening in particular.’ With over 15 years of experience in serving life-science R&D and established global customer base TimTec is well positioned to assume product development and distribution role. Chem-TCM commercial license is the protected adaptation of ChemDBsoft, TimTec chemical records and database managements software. TimTec welcomes this unique database product to its offerings.

Manyi Cristofoli, Director of ICUK, said: ‘I am pleased another ICUK-funded proof-of-concept project has now been commercialised in the pharmaceutical industry – this is a very good example of how academia and industry can successfully collaborate for innovation at a truly international level. The partnership with TimTec opens up a new global channel to jointly realise the wide potential in traditional Chinese medicine.’

King’s College London

King’s College London is one of the top 30 universities in the world (2011/12 QS international world rankings), and was The Sunday Times ‘University of the Year 2010/11′, and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King’s has nearly 23,500 students (of whom more than 9,000 are graduate students) from nearly 140 countries, and some 6,000 employees. King’s is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.

King’s has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £450 million.

King’s has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.

King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King’s Health Partners. King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world’s leading research-led universities and three of London’s most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org.

The College is in the midst of a five-year, £500 million fundraising campaign – World questions|King’s answers – created to address some of the most pressing challenges facing humanity as quickly as feasible. The campaign’s three priority areas are neuroscience and mental health, leadership and society, and cancer. For more information, please visit www.kcl.ac.uk

TimTec

TimTec LLC is a privately held company located in Newark, Delaware, USA. It was founded in 1995 to begin its work in the areas of acquisition and distribution of synthetic organic and natural compounds, custom synthesis, scientific software and laboratory equipment to become a full service partner for drug discovery.

TimTec has developed strong in-house expertise in the design of screening products to offer a full line of libraries and compound sets of various specialisation for different assays. In addition, the company provides compound management, custom formatting and computational services.

www.chemtcm.com , www.timtec.net, or info@timtec.net


Innovation China UK

Funded by HEIF3 and BIS Global Partnership Fund, the Innovation China UK (ICUK) is a collaboration programme supporting joint innovation and knowledge transfer between the UK and China. Based at Queen Mary Innovation Limited – a wholly-owned subsidiary company of Queen Mary University of London, ICUK provides a full range of services to UK companies and HEIs seeking to develop and commercialise their research and technology in the Chinese market. www.icukonline.org

Posted under New Products, Press Releases, R & D, Reports  |  Comments Off

X-Body BioSciences and Tanabe Research Labs Team Up to Develop mAbs for Autoimmune Diseases

Last Updated on Tuesday, 4 October 2011 12:18 Written by admin Tuesday, 4 October 2011 12:18

X-Body Biosciences entered a partnership with Tanabe Research Laboratories (TRL) to identify therapeutic target epitopes and develop monospecific and/or bispecific antibodies against those targets. TRL is focussed on discovery and development of biologicals for autoimmune diseases.

Under terms of the deal, X-Body will be responsible for screening, and TRL will fund the work. TRL has the option to negotiate rights to the antibodies discovered in the collaboration for further preclinical research, clinical development, and commercialization.

X-Body will leverage its human antibody library and Protein Chain Reaction™ screening technology. The platform reportedly allows for screening against cell surface targets in their native state on live cells or purified target proteins.

This selection system employs next-generation sequencing to analyze thousands of hits to obtain high-quality leads. The modular leads generated can be incorporated into V(H) domain, scFv, IgG, and bispecific antibody formats.

“X-Body’s technology represents a major step forward in the ability to rapidly generate thousands of human antibodies against functionally relevant targets,” according to Roland Newman, Ph.D., CSO of TRL. “The power and versatility of X-Body’s platform in generating antibodies against targets that are inaccessible by conventional techniques offers new and exciting prospects.”

Source: http://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/x-body-biosciences-and-tanabe-research-labs-team-up-to-develop-mabs-for-autoimmune-diseases/81245774/

Posted under Cell Analysis, Clinical Trials, Discoveries, Innovations and Patents, Medicinal Chemistry, R & D, Reports, Research Projects  |  Comments Off