Copyright 2000 P.G. Publishing Co.
Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette
June 28, 2000, Wednesday, SOONER EDITION
SECTION: SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE, Pg. A-3,
HEALTH & SCIENCE ROUNDUP
LENGTH: 774 words
HEADLINE: NO HEADLINE
BODY:
ANTIBIOTIC AGAINST HUNTINGTON'S?
WASHINGTON -- An antibiotic
used to treat a variety of infections may one day offer hope to people suffering
from the inherited and deadly Huntington's disease, if experiments in mice also
work in humans.
An estimated quarter-million Americans suffer from the
currently untreatable disorder in which the brain degenerates, gradually
reducing the person's ability to walk, talk and reason.
But researchers
at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School report that
they were able to slow the progress of the disease in mice by using the
antibiotic minocycline. Their findings appear in the July issue of the journal
Nature Medicine.
"We're very excited about this," said Dr. Robert M.
Friedlander, lead researcher. He expects minocycline will eventually become part
of a cocktail of several drugs in treating Huntington's.
But minocycline must first be tested for toxicity in humans, Friedlander
cautioned, noting that the drug appeared slightly more toxic in
mice with their form of Huntington's than it did in normal mice.
Minocycline is a form of tetracycline used in humans to treat acne,
rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases. Unlike the better-known tetracycline,
minocycline can cross the blood-brain barrier that blocks most chemicals from
entering the brain.
In the brain, minocycline blocks the production of
some of the enzymes called caspases that cause brain cells to commit suicide.
Production of caspases in adult brains has been associated with Huntington's
disease, Lou Gehrig's disease, Parkinson's disease and strokes, Friedlander
said.
Claritin patent uproar
WASHINGTON -- A
bipartisan group of lawmakers renewed efforts yesterday to block a
patent extension for the allergy drug
Claritin, fearing that supporters will try to add the provision to one of the
spending bills now moving through Congress.
"People are sick and tired
of this kind of wheeling and dealing," said Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn.
Claritin now sells for up to $ 2.66 per tablet, a price so high some
health insurance companies have stopped paying for it. The expiration of the
patent would allow cheaper, generic versions to be developed
and sold.
The issue grew out of a 1984 bill, when Congress extended the
patents of future drugs by five years in
recognition of the lengthy approval process by the Food and
Drug Administration. Drugs already being
reviewed by the FDA, like Claritin, got two-year extensions.
Because Claritin wasn't approved for another nine years, Schering-Plough has
argued that it should be allowed to seek an additional three-year
extension of its patent.
Support for quitters
WASHINGTON -- A majority of Americans who smoke want to quit but get
little help from their doctors, who often don't even ask whether they smoke or
offer treatments, according to a report released yesterday.
The report
by the U.S. Public Health Service urges physicians to aggressively treat smoking
just like any other chronic illness.
The agency, which summarizes new
guidelines for getting people to quit, said spending as little as 3 minutes
talking to patients about their smoking habit can dramatically raise the chance
that patients will eventually quit.
"A doctor isn't providing an
appropriate standard of care for his or her patients if he or she doesn't ask
two key questions -- 'Do you smoke?' and 'Do you want to quit?' -- and then work
with that individual to make it happen," said Dr. Michael Fiore, a tobacco
researcher at the University of Wisconsin Medical School who headed a panel of
private and public health officials that created the guidelines.
IVF
gaps
BOLOGNA, Italy -- More than half the in vitro fertilization
treatments worldwide are carried out in Europe, but the success rate is higher
in the United States, mainly because U.S. doctors implant more embryos.
American women are also more likely to have multiple births, which
doctors try to avoid because it increases the risk the children will be
handicapped, Dr. Karl Nygren of Sweden said yesterday at a meeting of the
European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.
About 20 percent
of European women who undergo IVF give birth, compared with 26 percent in the
United States. But 38 percent of American women have multiple births; among
European women, the rate is 29 percent.
Much of the disparity in success
rates is tied to who pays.
In France and Scandinavia, the state medical
systems pay for four attempts.
In the U.S., these services aren't
covered by insurance, so women often pressure their doctors to implant more
embryos per attempt.
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