Monthly Archives: May 2012

Lilies are highly toxic to cats. It is safest to avoid all lilies -- both as cut flowers as part of a bouquet or as a garden plant. Dr. Denise Petryk, an emergency medicine vet and co-owner of the Animal Emergency Clinic / Puget Sound Veterinary Referral Center in Tacoma, answers this week's question. Answer: Spring in our Pacific Northwest is so beautiful. With a little careful planning, it is very easy to create a pet-safe garden. There are two main factors to consider when putting together our spring plantings: -- Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), pictured right -- vomiting, diarrhea, weakness, cardiac failure, death. -- Japanese Yew (Taxus cuspidata) -- tremors, difficulty breathing, vomiting, seizures, death. -- Jerusalem cherry (Solanum pseudocapsicum) -- vomiting, seizures, depression, trouble breathing. -- Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis) -- vomiting, heart trouble, disorientation, coma, seizures. -- Lily (Lilium species) -- kidney failure in cats -- ALL parts of the plant, even in small amounts. -- Morning Glory (Ipomea sp.) -- vomiting, diarrhea, agitation, tremors, disorientation, ataxia, anorexia. -- Nightshade (Atropa belladonna) -- drooling, vomiting, diarrhea, depression, slow heart, weakness. More here: Veterinary Q&A: Outdoor plants and your pets … Continue reading →

Public release date: 9-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Joseph Caspermeyer Joseph.Caspermeyer@asu.edu Arizona State University Infectious diseasesboth old and newcontinue to exact a devastating toll, causing some 13 million fatalities per year around the world. Vaccines remain the best line of defense against deadly pathogens and now Kathryn Sykes and Stephen Johnston, researchers at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute, along with co-author Michael McGuire from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center are using clever functional screening methods to attempt to speed new vaccines into production that are both safer and more potent. In a recent study appearing in the journal Proteome Science, the group used high-throughput methods to identify a modulator of immune activity that exists naturally in an unusual pathogen belonging to the Poxviridae family of viruses. Parapoxvirus infection causes immune cell accumulation at the site of infection; direct screening in the host for this biological activity enabled the isolation of an immunomodulatorlabeled B2. Indeed, B2 by itself causes immune cell accumulation at the site of skin injection. When added to a traditional influenza vaccine, B2 improves the vaccine's protective capacity. Furthermore, the immunomodulator also demonstrated the ability to shrink the size of cancerous tumors, even … Continue reading →

Michael Pacanowski, PharmD, MPH; Shashi Amur, PhD; Issam Zineh, PharmD, MPH Author Affiliations: Genomics Group, Office of Clinical Pharmacology, Office of Translational Sciences, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, US Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland. Treatment of chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is a prototype for personalized medicine. Combination therapy with peginterferon alfa plus ribavirin was the standard of care for more than a decade. Greater understanding of the disease and determinants of treatment response have improved sustained virologic response (SVR) rates from less than 10% with interferon alfa in the 1990s to more than 80% with contemporary triple therapy regimens that include direct acting antivirals (DAAs) (Figure). Patient-specific factors such as viral genotype and early on-treatment responses are considered in therapeutic individualization. New approaches to search the human genome for predictors of drug response led to the discovery that single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) near the host IL28B gene are among the strongest predictors of response to peginterferon alfa and ribavirin. This Viewpoint discusses the evolution of CHC pharmacogenetics, its real-time incorporation into recent regulatory science evaluations, and its application in future drug development. cDNA indicates complementary Read the original here: New Genetic Discoveries and Treatment for Hepatitis C [Viewpoint] … Continue reading →

Public release date: 9-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Sandy Van sandy@prpacific.com 808-526-1708 Cedars-Sinai Medical Center LOS ANGELES (May 9, 2012) Scientists have confirmed that mutations of a gene are responsible for some cases of a rare, inherited disease that causes progressive muscle degeneration and weakness: spinal muscular atrophy with lower extremity predominance, also known as SMA-LED. "Typical spinal muscular atrophies begin in infancy or early childhood and are fatal, involving all motor neurons, but SMA-LED predominantly affects nerve cells controlling muscles of the legs. It is not fatal and the prognosis is good, although patients usually are moderately disabled and require assistive devices such as bracing and wheelchairs throughout their lives," said Robert H. Baloh, MD, PhD, director of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Neuromuscular Division and senior author of a Neurology article describing the new findings on DYNC1H1. It is a molecule inside cells that acts as a motor to transport cellular components. Using cells cultured from patients, Baloh's group showed that the mutation disrupts this motor's function. The researchers found that some subjects with mutations had global developmental delay in addition to weakness, indicating the brain also is involved. "Our observations suggest that a range of DYNC1H1-related … Continue reading →