As per lab studies at the Johns Hopkins Medicine, Maryland, a chemical discovered from the liver of the deadly sharks has been proven to an excellent option for ensuring slowdown of formation of new blood vessels that are destined to feed tumors and brain cancer.

Squalamine, recovered from Sharks, inhibits the growth of brain cancers (gliomas), which are implanted in the flanks of the rats after disabling the growth of blood vessel.

The studies also pointed out that squalamine can also prove to be effective in the treatment of patients with brain tumor and other diseases that are dependent on growth of new blood vessel, as per Henry Brem, M.D., director of neurosurgical oncology at Hopkins and senior author of the study.

From News.Bio-Medicine.Org:

Named for the shark genus Squalus, squalamine was discovered in 1992 by scientists who founded Magainin Pharmaceuticals, which processes the chemical and funded the Hopkins studies. Squalamine is the first of a new class of naturally occurring molecules, aminosterols, under development for human therapies.

Squalamine is isolated from the tissues of the dog shark. It blocks or interferes with several steps in a cascade of events involved in blood vessel growth. Based on the Hopkins laboratory work, it is currently in Phase I clinical trials at the University of Texas (San Antonio) and at Georgetown Cancer Center.

In these lab tests, squalamine proved itself as potent as carmustine (chemotherapeutic agent) when it comes to slowing down the growth of gliomas. It also slows down the future growth of new blood vessels that resulted due to tumors in the eyes of rabbits.

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The benefits of steroids in treating sepsis were finally revealed. Recent meta-analysis showed that a low dose of steroids are actually beneficial to sepsis patients. This analysis was explained by Dr. Peter C. Minneci, MD, of the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland. The new meta-analysis confirmed that a delayed, low-dose five- to seven-day steroid regimen followed by steroid taper for an equal period is effective regardless of response to corticotropin stimulation test. The finding is contrary to the previous studies because according to Dr. Minneci, none of the earlier studies used steroid tapers, while newer studies use tapers and sicker patients.

From Medscape today:

The difficulty with steroid use is that most published articles provide little evidence to back up claims of efficacy. For example, Dr. Minneci said a literature search identified 1,324 articles, of which 162 were clinical trials, but most of those were not randomized.

“Studies published after 1997 consistently report a beneficial effect for steroids. Four studies report a mortality benefit.” “The newer studies generally enrolled sicker patients — for example, control mortality in the recent studies is 57% while in the earlier studies it was 34%, and 100% of patients in the recent studies are on vasopressors,” Dr. Minneci said.

The difference in total steroid dose is also striking: In the earlier studies, total steroid dose was 23,975 mg while in the newer studies total steroid dose is 1,209 mg. “And none of the earlier studies used steroid tapers, while all of newer studies used tapers, Dr. Minneci added.

Doctor Minneci found out that in the studies published before 1989, steroids were initiated in less than two hours, while in the later trials steroid therapy was started at 23 hours and administered for an average of six days rather than one day, which was the case in the earlier studies.

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A combination of inhaled inflammation-reducing steroids and airway-opening drugs is far effective than a standalone low dosage of steroids when it comes to preventing severe asthma attacks, as per a recently concluded study.

The study also pointed out that higher dose of steroids alone can prove to be as effective as the combination therapy.

Muireann Ni Chroinin, M.D., of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in England, and colleagues reported that patients suffering from asthma who used long acting beta-2 agonist (LABA) drugs in combination with inhaled steroids performed better than those who did not.

This study also reported that the rate of severe asthma attacks with the combination therapy helped in reducing the rate of severe asthma attacks from 27 to 22 percent.

From News-Medical.Net:

Combination therapy also improved overall lung function, increased the number of days where patients said they felt free of asthma symptoms and decreased the patients’ use of rescue inhalers, compared to inhaled steroids alone, the researchers found.

For patients who continue to have asthma symptoms while using an inhaled steroid medication, “the addition of long-acting beta-2 agonist is superior to remaining on similar doses of inhaled steroids alone,” Ni Chroinin says.

In a second review, Ilana Greenstone, M.D., of McGill University Health Center in Canada and colleagues concluded that a double dose of inhaled steroids worked just as well as combination therapy in reducing the rate of severe asthma attacks.

But the combination therapy “clearly leads to greater improvement in lung function and symptoms than a two- to two-and-a-half-fold higher dose of inhaled corticosteroids,” according to Greenstone. There was a 12 percent increase in symptom-free days among patients taking LABA and steroids, compared to those taking the higher steroid dose. Patients on the combination therapy also reduced their rescue inhaler use by as much as one less “puff” per day.

There were no significant differences in side effects between the combination therapy and higher steroid doses except for a three-fold increase in the rate of tremor, or uncontrolled muscle contractions, in the patients taking LABA medications, the researchers found.

Jerry Krishnan, M.D., an asthma researcher and assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, pointed out that there has been a tendency among the doctors to start the combination therapy of inhaled inflammation-reducing steroids and airway-opening drugs rather than persisting with steroid treatment alone in the initial stages and effectively combining the LABA drugs at a later stage.

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As per a new study conducted by plant biologists at the Carnegie Institution, the playbook of molecular signals that govern genes in promoting growth and development in plant cells is far complicated than that of human and animal cells.

The study, which was conducted by Zhi-Yong Wang and Wenqinag Tang of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Plant Biology with seven co-authors, was published in an issue of the Science Magazine.

Brassinosteroids (plant steroids) are key hormones in the world of Plant Kingdom. They tend to function in a different manner at the cellular level and have the ability to regulate different aspects of growth and development in plants.

From Bio-Medicine.org:

The study targeted a class of proteins called kinases, which transmit signals by exchanging phosphate ions. The electrophoresis analyses identified a group of kinases that responded to the presence of brassinosteroids. The researchers called these proteins BSKs (brassinosteroid signaling kinases). Follow-up analyses confirmed their crucial function in brassinosteroid signaling.

“BRKs are the first major signaling component to be identified by a quantitative proteomics approach in plants.” says Wang. “Finding them fills a major gap in the brassinosteroid signal pathway and may have major implications for our understanding of other signaling processes in plants as well. The plant genome codes for many hundreds of receptors at the cell surface, but a major missing link is their connection to the intracellular signaling cascades. Plant cells also contain quite a number of proteins that are similar to BSK, so it is tempting to speculate that they represent these missing connections”. Wang’s findings have not only helped establish the connections of the steroid signaling pathway, but possibly offers a paradigm for both kinase signaling in plants and for steroid signaling by cell-surface receptors in general. More importantly, the success of the proteomic methods demonstrated by Wang’s study will have a major impact on studies of other signal transduction pathways.

This study, which was conducted by hi-Yong Wang and Wenqinag Tang along with some team members, revealed that separation of membranes from the remaining of cell materials followed by an analysis of the fraction can help in isolating low-abundance signaling proteins besides identifying molecules. The study was primarily based on proteomics for identifying important links in the chain of steroid signaling.

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A man from Victoria Street in Dalton pleaded guilty on the charges of possession with intent to distribute of anabolic steroids to bodybuilders. Steven Allonby was surprised when drugs squad raided his house and found a significant amount of steroids including testosterone. Police officers with the help of a sniffing dog searched the area.

Aside from possession and selling of Class C drugs, Steven Allonby had previous criminal record involving cocaine in year 2007.

From North West Evening Mail:

A MAN whose house was raided by the drugs squad has admitted selling steroids to bodybuilders.

Steven Allonby returned to his home on April 9 to discover detectives had smashed down his front door. The police carried out the raid after gathering evidence that he was involved with illegal drugs. Allonby pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply a Class C drug and supplying a Class C drug when he appeared at Furness Magistrates’ Court, in Abbey Road, Barrow.

Allonby, 26, who has a caution on his criminal record for possessing cocaine in 2007, was represented by Mr Ben Leach. Mr Leach said: “He is trying to get his business off the ground, he was not making excessive amounts of money.”

Detective Chief Inspector Mike Forrester said after the implementation of Operation Arrowhead: “This operation sends out a clear message to offenders that the use or supply of drugs in the area won’t be tolerated – by the community or police – and we will continue to catch offenders and bring them to justice.“I would like to thank members of the public who have provided us with vital nuggets of information that led to the operation taking place.”

Although Allonby claimed that he only distribute small quantity to few bodybuilders, officials still charged him with 80 hours of unpaid work and a fine of £60.

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Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) patients who are treated with steroid hydrocortisone have high risk of adrenal suppression. According to the researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) low doses of the steroid hydrocortisone can cause slight improvement but the future complications can be greater.

From Bio-Medicine:

Low doses of the steroid hydrocortisone can cause slight improvement in some chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) symptoms but at the risk of inducing adrenal suppression.

“The data show that about half the people on placebo and two-thirds of those taking hydrocortisone reported some improvement in well-being,” comments Stephen E. Straus, M.D., chief of the Laboratory of Clinical Investigation at NIAID and senior author on the study. “The greater benefit seen in the hydrocortisone group, however, was modest, and there was clear evidence of adrenal suppression by the drug.” Twelve of 33 patients on the therapy developed laboratory evidence of adrenal insufficiency. “It was manageable and completely reversible,” says Dr. Straus, “but it’s the kind of suppression that in the context of minimal improvement afforded by the drug cannot, in our minds, justify using this treatment for CFS.

“Any time that long-term steroid therapy is considered, even at a low dose,” adds Dr. Straus, “one needs to be concerned that the treatment itself may suppress the adrenal gland’s normal production of steroids, which can lead to serious complications.

There is no specific medication for CFS but painkillers and anti-depressants can produce some relief. However, Dr. Stephen E. Straus said that the slight benefit of steroid hydrocortisone must not be the primary reason to use this drug in treating CFS because adrenal suppression may result to more serious complications. He pointed out that when the adrenal glands are suppressed, the body will not respond properly to sudden events such as accidents and heart attacks.

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A study conducted by the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) proved that steroid medications such as dexamethasone do not help treat bronchiolitis among infants. According to the study patients who were treated with a glucocorticoid form of steroid medication, and those who were given placebo exhibited almost the same results.

The team concluded that although steroid medications treat respiratory illnesses such as asthma and croup, they are ineffective in treating bronchiolitis.

From Medical News Today:

The study compared hospitalization rates for 600 children between the ages of 2 months and 12 months who visited emergency rooms with moderate-to-severe bronchiolitis. Patients were treated with either a dose of dexamethasone (a glucocorticoid form of steroid medication) or a placebo and evaluated after one hour, and again at four hours. The hospital admission rate for both groups was identical at nearly 40 percent. Both groups improved during treatment, but the placebo group did as well as the group treated with active medication. The study was conducted in the emergency departments at 20 hospitals across the United States between November and April during a three-year period.

“We learned that a commonly used treatment doesn’t work,” said Howard M. Corneli, M.D., professor of pediatrics at the University of Utah and the principal investigator on the study. “Now that we’ve demonstrated glucocorticoids aren’t effective in treating bronchiolitis, we can focus our efforts on finding better treatments and better preventive strategies.”

Bronchiolitis is a viral lower respiratory infection on infants. It is the leading cause of hospitalization for infants in the United States and accounts for more than 100,000 admissions each year. Bronchiolitis infections begin most frequently with a fever, runny nose, coughing, and wheezing. Most children recover from the illness in eight to 15 days. The majority of children hospitalized for bronchiolitis infections are under 6 months old.

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A recently concluded study has found out that repeated courses of steroids to women in their preterm labor have the ability to enhance the survival rate of babies.

This study revealed that multiple courses of steroids do not cause any brain damage to the baby in womb as thought previously.

Sanjiv Amin, M.D., assistant professor of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical center and author of the study, told that more babies are believed to be born needing ventilation when steroid therapy is avoided by the nursing mothers.

From Bio-Medicine.org:

“The consensus in recent years has been to no longer give women in preterm labor more than one course of steroids because of possible adverse effects, but it means more babies are born needing ventilation,” said Sanjiv Amin, M.D., assistant professor of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical center and author of the study. “These findings may give us back a tool to help give these fragile babies a better chance of survival.”

Before concerns arose in 2000 about safety of multiple courses of steroids, many mothers in on-and-off preterm labor received several rounds before delivering. Now, when mothers go into preterm labor, obstetricians will often administer only a single course of steroids to help strengthen the baby’s lungs upon birth. But if the birth is successfully held off for more than seven days, the mother does not receive another course of medication and the baby’s lungs may not be protected.

This is regrettable, because one of the biggest challenges for babies born preterm is breathing on their own. Many develop respiratory distress syndrome because their lungs have not developed a protective film over their air sacks, called surfactant, which aids in the transfer of oxygen and decreases the work of breathing. Because of that, they may receive medications and supplemental oxygen, which can cause problems of their own.

Amin was of the view that the ABR (auditory brainstem evoked response) is much like a window into the whole brain. He also said that there is no proof that the brain of an infant whose mother received multiple courses of steroids such as betamethasone steroids gets affected in any way.

He, however, said that there is a further need to conduct more studies in this regard so that the treatment can be termed as completely safe and effective.

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As per a recent Canadian Study, an experimental drug known as Mepolizumab or Bosatria, can help in preventing severe asthma attacks in patients who display no or fewer benefits when treated with inhaled steroid therapy.

Paul O’Byrne, a physician at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., who co-authored the Canadian study, remarked that patients with eosinophil-based asthma responded well to inhaled steroid therapy during the study processes.

From Sciencenews.org:

An experimental drug called mepolizumab can prevent severe asthma attacks in people with an uncommon form of the disease that responds poorly to standard steroid medications, researchers report in two studies in the March 5 New England Journal of Medicine.

Scientists from Britain and Canada also find that a simple test of sputum (coughed up matter) can reveal which patients would most likely benefit from mepolizumab. Thus the drug might help some people with asthma reduce the use of steroids such as prednisone, which have side effects, says Ian Pavord, a pulmonologist at Glenfield Hospital and University of Leicester in England and coauthor of one of the studies.

Asthma is a chronic disease in which the airways become inflamed, constricted, scarred and laden with mucus. The wheezing and shortness of breath that asthma causes — and the frightening struggle for air felt in a severe asthma attack — can be brought on by allergens, fumes, stress and even exercise or cold air.

An immune system overreaction to these triggers underlies the disease. Mepolizumab quells the reaction by neutralizing the effect of interleukin-5, an immune protein that activates circulating immune cells called eosinophils and recruits new ones from nascent cells in the bone marrow. The normally trustworthy eosinophils run amok in 50 to 60 percent of people with asthma.

Fortunately, most people with eosinophil-based asthma respond well to steroid treatment delivered by inhalers, says Paul O’Byrne, a physician at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., who coauthored the Canadian study.

Mepolizumab has a unique ability to quell an immune system overreaction by neutralizing the effect of an immune protein, known as interleukin-5. This immune protein can activate the circulating immune cells (eosinophils) besides recruiting new immune cells from the nascent cells in the bone marrow.

Medical-guided usage of this experimental drug can help in the prevention of emergency room visits but it may be able to completely eliminate all emergency asthma attacks.

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A US research led by Dr Michael Schatz showed that asthmatic pregnant women should continue their inhaled steroids. According to Dr. Schatz, inhaled steroids during pregnancy do not affect the growth of the fetus inside the womb, where as non-medication could result to greater risks on the health of the babies.

The US study looked at the effect of inhaled steroids on the birth weight of children of women with asthma. Researchers compared the birth weights of around 400 babies whose mothers used a range of inhaled steroids for their asthma throughout pregnancy.

From Medical news today:

Inhaled steroids have no effect on the growth of babies in the womb, according to a new study that should offer reassurance for pregnant women with asthma.

But many people with asthma have concerns about their medication: Asthma UK research shows more than 50% are worried about the long-term side effects of steroid treatment, including a possible impact on growth.

‘This study provides reassuring data that specific inhaled steroids do not lead to a restriction in fetal growth,’ said Dr Michael Schatz of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, San Diego, who led the research.

Katie Shepherd, Asthma UK’s Care Development Manager, echoed this: ‘It is most important that asthma is well controlled throughout pregnancy. Where inhaled steroids have been prescribed, women with asthma should feel safe taking them, as under-treated asthma can pose a much greater risk to the health of their fetus.’

The study proved that there were no differences between the range of birth weights of the children born to women who undergo treatment and those who are in healthy condition. Also, there were no differences in the numbers of pre-term births or the incidence of low birth weight children. In conclusion, inhaled steroids on pregnant women are safe on both mothers and their babies.

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