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CytRx Drug Candidate INNO-206 Results In Ovarian Tumor Shrinkage In Animal Trials
CytRx Corporation (NASDAQ: CYTR), a biopharmaceutical research and development company engaged in the development of high-value human therapeutics, announced that results demonstrating that its cancer drug candidate INNO-206 caused statistically significant tumor shrinkage in an animal model of ovarian cancer have been accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed journal Investigational New Drugs. The manuscript based on this animal trial, "INNO-206, the (6-maleimidocaproyl hydrazone derivative of doxorubicin), shows superior antitumor efficacy compared to doxorubicin in different tumor xenograft models and in an orthotopic pancreas carcinoma model," was made available ahead of journal printing in electronic format in the January 8, 2009 on-line issue of Investigational New Drugs.

University Of Minnesota Research Finds Teens Who Believe They'll Die Young Are More Likely To Engage In Risky Behavior
University of Minnesota Medical School researcher Iris Borowsky, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues found that one in seven adolescents believe that it is highly likely that they will die before age 35, and this belief predicted that the adolescents" would engage in risky behaviors.
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South African Health Minister To Launch PMTCT Plan
South African Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi within the next two weeks is expected to launch a plan to address mother-to-child HIV transmission in an effort to reduce infant mortality in the country, The Times reports. The MTCT plan is part of a new health program adopted by President Jacob Zuma"s administration, according to The Times."This is one of the most urgent things I want to (deal with) as the new minister," Motsoaledi said. According to Motsoaledi, a child dies every eight minutes in South Africa, and about 40% of child deaths are related to HIV/AIDS. The plan was developed by the Development Bank of Southern Africa at a July meeting of government and health sector stakeholders. Participants at the meeting also examined maternal deaths and the decrease in life expectancy among young adults because of HIV/AIDS. According to Motsoaledi, these and other issues have been identified as priorities for the Zuma administration if South Africa is to meet targets in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. They also have been consolidated into a 10-point plan to help the Department of Health focus on urgent issues through 2015."Health and education are the biggest challenges for (the government) and we ought to be doing something drastic," Motsoaledi said, adding, "These are very serious issues in society." The health department"s plan also calls for the revival of the National AIDS Council and says that the government should improve regulation of the private health sector. It also calls for the establishment of a national tuberculosis reference laboratory, a focus on infection rates among women ages 17 to 21 and the improvement of HIV prevention among commercial sex workers (Molele, The Times, 5/25).
Mental Health

Tumor Suppressor Gene In Flies May Provide Insights For Human Brain Tumors

In the fruit fly"s developing brain, stem cells called neuroblasts normally divide to create one self-renewing neuroblast and one cell that has a different fate. But neuroblast growth can sometimes spin out of control and become a brain tumor. Researchers at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore have found a tumor-suppressing protein in the fly"s brain, with a counterpart in mammals, that can apparently prevent brain tumors from forming. "Our data explicitly show that the fruitfly protein PP2A (protein phosphatase 2A) suppresses brain tumor formation and controls the balance of self-renewal and differentiation of neural stem cells," said Hongyan Wang, Ph.D, assistant professor of neuroscience and behavioral disorders, and senior author of a paper published online in the journal Development. "Given that mechanisms for stem cell division in flies and mammals are likely to be similar, our study on fly PP2A may provide useful insights for certain types of human brain tumors and possibly in a wide variety of cancers," Wang said. By studying flies that had a PP2A mutation, the researchers learned that flies with missing or abnormally expressed PP2A had ten times the amount of stem cell growth in their larval brains. The flies" neural stem cells did not become neurons (nerve cells) in the brain, the types of cells needed for normal function. Instead, they effectively grew into a tumor mass. Dr. Wang"s previous work had identified a protein kinase called Polo as a tumor suppressor. Because phosphatases like PP2A usually have the opposite biochemical function to kinase, the scientists predicted that PP2A would stop the tumor suppressor Polo and allow for unchecked cell growth. "We were very surprised when we found that PP2A also suppressed tumors," Wang said. Follow-up experiments showed that PP2A is important for regulating Polo kinase function, and showed that these two critical brain tumor suppressors work together to control neural stem cell divisions. "Our discovery suggests that PP2A and Polo, both of which are crucial brain tumor-suppressors and cell cycle regulators, can function in the same pathway to regulate stem cell self-renewal and tumor development," Wang said. The research team plans to uncover novel proteins in this pathway by learning which protein functions between PP2A and Polo during the neural stem cell division process. Notes> Other authors include Cheng Wang (lead author) and David Virshup at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School; Kai Chen Chang and Fengwei Yu, Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory in Singapore; Gregory Somers, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Melbourne, Australia; and Beng Ti Ang and Carol Tang at the National Neuroscience Institute. The study was supported by Duke-NUS funding and by the Singapore Millennium Foundation. Mary Jane Gore Duke University Medical Center


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