NEW BLOOD TEST CAN PREDICT FUTURE BREAST CANCER

According to the World Health Organization, breast cancer is one of the most common cancer in women both in the developed and less developed world, and in the long term the scientists hope that the new method will lead to better prevention and early treatment of the disease.

The method is better than mammography, which can only be used when the disease has already occurred. It is not perfect, but it is truly amazing that we can predict breast cancer years into the future," said Rasmus Bro, a professor of chemometrics in the Department of Food Science at University of Copenhagen. He stressed the method has been tested and validated only for a single population (cohort) and needs to be validated more widely before it can be used practically.

A new way of detecting diseases

Nevertheless, the method could create a paradigm shift in early diagnosis of breast cancer as well as other diseases.

"The potential is that we can detect a disease like breast cancer much earlier than today. This is important as it is easier to treat if you discover it early. In the long term, it will probably also be possible to use similar models to predict other diseases," said Lars Ove Dragsted, a professor of biomedicine in the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports.

The method has been developed in cooperation with the Danish Cancer Society and the study was recently published in Metabolomics.

Food science showed the way

The researchers' approach to developing the method was adopted from food science, where it is used for control of complex industrial processes. Basically, it involves handling and analysing huge amounts of biological data in a holistic and explorative way. The researchers analysed all compounds a blood sample contains instead of -- as is often done in health and medical science -- examining what a single biomarker means in relation to a specific disease.

"When a huge amount of relevant measurements from many individuals is used to assess health risks -- here breast cancer -- it creates very high quality information. The more measurements our analyses contain, the better the model handles complex problems," continued Professor Rasmus Bro.

The model does not reveal anything about the importance of the single biomarkers in relation to breast cancer, but it does reveal the importance of a set of biomarkers and their interactions.

"No single part of the pattern is actually necessary nor sufficient. It is the whole pattern that predicts the cancer," said Professor Dragsted.

A metabolic blood profile describes the amounts of all compounds (metabolites) in our blood. The scientists measured metabolic blood profiles for this project. When you are in a pre-cancer state, the pattern for how certain metabolites are processed apparently changes.

While a mammography can detect newly developed breast cancer with a sensitivity of 75 per cent, the new metabolic blood profile is able to predict the likelihood of a woman developing breast cancer within the next two to five years with a sensitivity of 80 per cent.

Based on population study

The research is based on a population study of 57,000 people followed by the Danish Cancer Society over 20 years. The participants were first examined in 1994-96, during which time their weight and other measurements were recorded and they answered a questionnaire. They also provided a blood sample that was stored in liquid nitrogen.

The scientists used the 20-year-old blood samples and other available data from 400 women who were healthy when they were first examined but who were diagnosed with breast cancer two to seven years after providing the first sample, and from 400 women who did not develop breast cancer.

The method was also used to test a different dataset of women examined in 1997. Predictions based on the new set of data matched the first dataset, which indicates the validity of the model.

TACKLING LIVER INJURY WITH NEW DRUG

A new drug spurs liver regeneration after surgery, according to a paper published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Liver cancer often results in a loss of blood flow and thus oxygen and nutrients to the liver tissue, resulting in deteriorating liver function. Although the diseased part of the liver can often be surgically removed, the sudden restoration of blood flow to the remaining liver tissue can trigger inflammation -- a process known as ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI). IRI results in part from the deposition of immune proteins called complement on the surface of liver cells, causing them to die and thus impairing liver regeneration.

Complement inhibitors effectively dampen IRI, but the benefits of this approach come at a cost, as certain complement proteins are also required for liver tissue to regrow. A group of scientists at the Medical University of South Carolina now show that a novel complement inhibitor reduces complement-mediated liver cell death and actually stimulates post-surgery liver regrowth in mice. The novel inhibitor limited the deposition of complement proteins and promoted the division of new liver cells. Even after removal of as much as 90% of the liver, treatment increased survival from 0% in untreated animals to an impressive 70%.

The selectivity of this novel complement inhibitor, and its unexpected ability to promote liver regeneration, suggests that it might represent a new treatment strategy for a variety of liver injuries in humans.

NEW TREATMENT FOR COMMON ALLERGIES

Researchers have successfully tested treatments for people with allergies to grasses and to dust mites.

There are two treatments, one for grass allergy, which is commonly known as hay fever, and the other for dust mite allergy. They are expected to be helpful for the millions of people who, as a reaction to grass pollen or the tiny bugs that live in house dust, have sneezing, itching eyes and a running nose that often significantly impacts their productivity at school or work.

The two studies were conducted by Adiga Life Sciences, a joint venture between McMaster University and Circassia, a U.K. based biotechnology company, and was supported by St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton.

It is estimated that together, these allergens are responsible for more than 50% of allergic respiratory disease. Between 15 and 25 per cent of the population in North America and Europe is sensitive to pollen from different grass species. One in four people is sensitized to house dust mites, more than any other common allergen, which includes millions of people in these regions.

The treatments are from a new class of therapy, known as 'synthetic peptide immuno-regulatory epitopes', or SPIREs.

The 280 patients in the phase two clinical trial for the grass allergy treatment recorded their allergy symptoms while exposed to grass pollen in a controlled environment, both before treatment and at the end of the hay fever season. Study participants received one of three treatment regimens over three months, completed prior to the beginning of the pollen season. Those who had the optimal short course of therapy had significantly improved symptoms at the end of the season, compared to those who had a placebo. This treatment, called Grass-SPIRE, was well tolerated.

During the clinical trial for the dust mite treatment, 172 patients who received four doses of the treatment over 12 weeks had significantly improved allergy symptoms a year after the start of treatment, compared to patients who received a placebo. The treatment, called HDM-SPIRE, was well tolerated.

"This result is an important validation of the approach we are taking to treat allergic diseases," said Mark Larché, who led the design of the treatments. "Positive results, first with a cat allergy therapy and now with house dust mite and grass allergy treatments, suggest that this approach may be used for many common allergies."

Larché is a professor of medicine of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster and member of the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton.

Hay fever is a seasonal response to many different grass pollens which are heaviest in the spring and fall.

Dust mites are close relatives of spiders and ticks and are too small to see without a microscope. They eat skin cells shed by people, and they thrive in warm, humid environments. Upholstered furniture, bedding and carpeting provide an ideal environment for dust mites

NEW TREATMENT FOR MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

 A new treatment under investigation for multiple sclerosis (MS) is safe and tolerable in phase I clinical trials, according to a study published August 27, 2014, in Neurology® Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation, a new online-only, freely accessible, specialty medical journal. The publication is part of the Neurology® family of journals, published by the American Academy of Neurology

The phase I studies were the first to test the drug candidate in humans. Studies with animals showed that the drug, which is called anti-LINGO-1, or BIIB033, may be able to reverse the demyelination of the nerves. Anti-LINGO-1 blocks LINGO-1, a central nervous system protein that prevents myelination. Current treatments for MS work to reduce new damage to the brain, but do not repair new or past damage.

In MS, the body's immune system begins to attack the myelin that acts as insulation around the nerves in the central nervous system. This makes it more difficult for the nerves to send messages to and from the brain and spinal cord.

In the study, 72 healthy people without MS and 47 people with either relapsing-remitting MS or secondary progressive MS were given the drug or a placebo. The healthy participants received either a placebo or one dose of the drug by an infusion or injection. The people with MS received either placebo or two intravenous doses of the drug two weeks apart. In both groups, participants received varying amounts of the drug, ranging from 0.1 mg/kg to 100 mg/kg.

The occurrence of side effects was similar for people who received the drug and those who received the placebo. Most side effects were mild to moderate and were not related to the drug. Side effects included headaches, upper respiratory infections and urinary tract infections. There were no serious side effects or deaths.

There were no significant changes in vital signs, EKGs or other safety tests of the drug.

Intravenous doses of 10 mg/kg and higher resulted in concentrations of the drug in the blood that were similar to or higher than the concentration that was associated with 90 percent of the maximum remyelination effect in studies with rats.

"With these results we have been able to start phase II studies to see whether this drug can actually repair the lost myelin in humans and have any effect on restoring physical and cognitive function and improving disability," said study author Diego Cadavid, MD, of Biogen Idec in Cambridge, Mass., which developed the drug. Cadavid is a member of the American Academy of Neurology.