Other items of interest:

• As concern grows over the rise of MRSA infections, development of a promising new antibioticto treat it is underway at Merck.
• A “stripped-down” form of the e. colibacteria may help scientists create new kinds of vaccines.
• Immunotherapy vaccines are in the works for glioblastoma and leishmaniasis. One has succeeded in extending survival rates of glioblastoma patients by at least 18 months, and one against leishmaniasisis about to begin animal testing.
• A drug has been approved to treat the rare but often fatal Pompe Disease.
• The trend to “bloodless” surgery, begun by Jehovah’s Witnesses on Biblical grounds, is moving into the general patient population because it is safer and less expensive than the transfusion alternative.

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Studies in a variety of animals, including fish, rodents and dogs, have consistently shown a 25 to 50 percent increase in lifespan from calorie restriction, reports John Fauber in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. A monkey experiment at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center is now the center of attention, since people and rhesus monkeys share 93 percent of the same genes. The study began in 1989 and is likely to go on until all the monkeys are dead, so that the actual as opposed to estimated effect on lifespan can be known; but health benefits are already apparent. The calorie-restricted monkeys are thinner, younger-looking, have fewer ailments, and (so far) fewer early deaths than the unrestricted control group.

A recent six-month study among 48 overweight, but non-obese, people showed that cutting out about 25 percent of their normal calories (but maintaining nutritional balance) led to physiological changes associated with increased longevity: Improvements in insulin levels, a beneficial decrease of about one degree in body temperature, and less DNA damage to cells. Similar benefits accrued to a group whose members cut their calories by 12.5 percent and exercised enough to burn 12.5 percent of their caloric intake. The exercise involved very hard work on stationary bikes or treadmills, not “just walking around the block.”

An earlier study suggested that people on similar restricted diets had younger, more elastic heart muscle and substantially lower levels of inflammatory substances — proteins associated with heart attacks and strokes — in their blood. Such benefits should lead to longer lifespans, and we are likely to be sure of that first from the Wisconsin monkeys.

In the meantime, scientists are looking for foods or drugs that mimic caloric restriction, or a safe diet drug that will allow people to cut calories by 25 percent over a period of years. So far, the most successful regimen has been in a group of people that have been able to cut calories by 17 percent for one year. Over-aggressive diets (30 percent or greater calorie reduction) may cause low blood pressure, reduced sex drive, menstrual irregularities, infertility, bone thinning, cold sensitivity, loss of strength, slower wound healing, and various psychological conditions, according to one recent review.

Natural Obesity Cure

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The hormone oxyntomodulin, found naturally in the stomach, is what tells us we are full after eating. A recent British study has also revealed that it increases our level of physical activity. Since fatter people have less of it, they eat more before feeling full. Increasing their supply of oxyntomodulin would limit their appetite and raise their level of activity — leading to fast but healthy weight loss.

Since it is a natural substance already in the body, “topping up” the hormone is unlikely to cause side-effects. At high levels — which can occur naturally after injury to the gut — the only side effect is a tendency to lose a lot of weight and to keep it off.

The small-scale, short-duration British study suggests that oxyntomodulin boosters could indeed cure obesity. Fifteen healthy but overweight male and female volunteers aged between 23 and 49 were divided into two groups. One received doses of oxyntomodulin three times a day for four days, the other received saline. By the fourth day, the treated subjects ate on average 128 kcal or 17.4 percent less than normal, their energy expenditure increased by 143 kcals (more than one-and-a-quarter times normal) , and their body weight was 0.5 percent less — which would translate to a weight loss of around a pound or half a kilo a week.

New Antibiotic

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Merck is developing an antibiotic called platensimycin which is capable of killing methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA.) The substance was isolated from a strain of the bacteria Streptomyces platensis found in a sample of South African soil. It works by blocking enzymes involved in the synthesis of fatty acids, which bacteria need to construct cell membranes. Most current antibiotics block synthesis of the cell wall, DNA, and proteins within bacteria.

The new antibiotic cleared mice of infection with a form of bacteria related to MRSA and did not appear to cause toxic side effects. Further testing showed activity against a variety of drug-resistant organisms, including MRSA. A Health Protection Agency official cautioned that “the drug is at a very early stage of development and it may be several years before it could be used to treat humans.”

Bare-bones E. coli for Pharma R&D

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In collaboration with international colleagues, a University of Wisconsin geneticist has created a streamlined and hardy, but benign and laboratory-friendly, form of the E. coli bacterium. It was achieved using molecular tools to cut out 15 percent of the normal bacterium’s DNA, leaving just the bare essentials.

Glioblastoma Vaccine

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US researchers have developed an easy-to-use “off-the-shelf” vaccine that stimulates the immune system to attack glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most aggressive form of brain tumor. Survival times for 23 patients on whom it was tested increased by at least 18 months, but four of the patients subsequently died from the cancer. A larger trial is now planned.

The vaccine is made from an artificial form of a protein found on the outside of 30-50 percent of tumors, to alert the immune system to its presence and attack it. The brain recognizes the artificial protein as foreign, and the immune system then sends in the troops. Although the vaccine significantly delays the progression of tumors, the cancer eventually finds a new way to grow. Used together with chemotherapy, it may further retard that new growth.

Its greatest significance is that it demonstrates the potential of immunotherapy to treat cancer. But much of the work is still at an early stage.

Leishmaniasis Vaccine

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A vaccine for leishmaniasis (black fever), a tropical disease which kills about 60,000 people a year, is in the making. The disease attacks the spleen, bone marrow, and liver, and destroys the immune system. Left untreated, it is nearly always fatal.

Swiss researchers are developing a vaccine using synthetic forms of carbohydrates taken from the parasite or bacteria responsible for the disease, plus a deactivated flu virus to boost the effect, to prepare the patient’s immune system for an attack of the disease itself.

The vaccine could also help dogs, which can also contract the disease. Tests in animals are starting, but an approved human vaccine is at least five years off.

Drug for Pompe Disease

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Genzyme’s Myozyme treatment for Pompe disease, a rare enzyme-deficiency disorder that often causes extreme muscle damage, heart failure, and death won orphan-drug approval from the US Food and Drug Administration in April, having been earlier approved in Europe.

The treatment will likely cost around US$200,000 a year. The disorder affects between 5,000 to 10,000 people world-wide. Most babies born with the genetic condition die from respiratory or heart complications before 18 months of age. It was described as “the first real treatment available which changes the lives of these people” [if they can afford it, one feels obliged to add] by the principal investigator in the drug’s clinical trial, in which all but one of the 62 babies in the control group (taken from medical records of already-dead babies) had died before reaching the age of 18 months. In the Myozyme group, all 18 babies were alive at 18 months.

The FDA granted broad approval for the drug in treating both the infantile and late-onset forms of the disease, though the use of Myozyme in older patients “has not been adequately studied to assure safety and efficacy” and Genzyme is conducting a trial of 90 patients with the late-onset form of the disease. About 3 percent of patients who have taken Myozyme experienced severe or significant reactions, and side effects include pneumonia, fevers, and respiratory failure.

Bloodless Surgery

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Pennsylvania Hospital is the latest of some 120 US hospitals now offering “bloodless surgery” to nearly all patients who want it, not just Jehovah’s Witnesses, who believe the Bible forbids transfusions. Advances in equipment and changes in protocols are helping drive the trend.

A Pennsylvania Hospital cardiologist told Associated Press writer Joann Loviglio that among the benefits are reductions in recovery time, hospital stay, cost, and complications — adding up to an estimated US$20,000 in savings per patient. “There’s no downside to it that we can see, and there’s certainly no downside that’s been documented,” he said.

Open-heart surgery is one procedure that may not be appropriate to be performed bloodlessly, since the blood loss is extensive.

During bloodless surgery, blood suctioned or sponged out of the body cavity is salvaged, and pumps keep blood circulating while the heart and lungs are stopped. After surgery, less blood is taken for post-operative tests. The technique requires meticulous organization, planning, and teamwork, but the payoff is in eliminating the risk of blood-borne infection and complications from clerical errors, in discharging patients an average of one day earlier, and in avoiding potential transfusion-related complications including immune system suppression, inflammatory response, and renal or respiratory failure.