Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Biotech / Medical : Celera Genomics (CRA) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gao seng who wrote (353)	5/11/2000 11:18:00 PM
From: gao seng	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 746

LIFE HEALTH AND BEHAVIOR Superbug gives up its genes in science's battle against disease Tim Friend and wire services 05/11/2000 USA Today FINAL Page 12D (Copyright 2000) A federal laboratory has unraveled in a single day the genetic code of an organism that is a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections. The ability to sequence the genes of an entire organism in such a short time has implications for battling disease outbreaks, bioterrorism and threats to agriculture, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy announced Wednesday. Gene sequencing means breaking down the genetic code of a living thing, including humans, into the four building blocks of DNA. The work was performed at the Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute sequencing facility at Walnut Creek, Calif. The DOE is one of the major funders of the Human Genome Project and has led funding for sequencing microbes since the mid-1990. The DOE used the same method developed by Celera Genomics of Rockville, Md. That method allowed the company to race ahead of the federally funded gene sequencing facilities involved in the Human Genome Project. The method is called whole genome shotgun sequencing. The organism, Enterococcus faecium, is called a superbug because of its ability to resist treatment to antibiotics, including vancomycin, which is employed when all other antibiotics fail. The project was a collaboration between DOE scientists and researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. High fiber found to lower blood sugar A diet containing three times the fiber of a standard U.S. diet can give diabetics better control of their blood sugar, according to a study published in today's New England Journal of Medicine. The research involved 13 people with diabetes who alternated between a higher-fiber diet approved by the American Diabetes Association or a similar diet with twice the fiber -- 50 grams per day. After six weeks on one diet, the volunteers switched to the other. No fiber supplements were used. Most Americans typically consume 17 grams of fiber per day. The authors of the study, led by Manisha Chandalia of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, found that not only was blood sugar lower among people on the high-fiber diet, but cholesterol dropped as well. "Our study also demonstrates the feasibility of achieving a high intake of dietary soluble fiber by consuming unfortified foods," the Chandalia team said. Testing for AIDS strains can help customize treatments Tests that help identify drug-resistant strains of the AIDS virus should be routinely used in most infected patients to help doctors customize treatment, according to a recommendation in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association. Patients with drug-resistant strains are at greater risk of developing full-blown AIDS. Because the AIDS virus tends to mutate rapidly, becoming resistant to drugs, patients generally receive a combination of medicines. But initial treatment fails in about half of all AIDS patients, and doctors frequently have to change the treatment to keep up with mutations. In the journal, a panel of the International AIDS Society-USA said doctors should consider routine testing for virtually all HIV- infected patients except those whose infection is already being successfully treated. Two types of tests help determine resistance: Genotype tests identify genetic mutations known to be resistant. Phenotype tests determine whether a drug will kill a patient's virus strain. Both tests are costly, running about $400 to $1,000 each, Charles Flexner of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said in an accompanying editorial. Plus, it can take up to a month to get results, and the tests are not foolproof and may produce false- negative results, he said. Knock out opiate euphoria, retain analgesic benefits Drugs that block the effects of a gene could prevent opiates from becoming addictive while still retaining their painkilling properties, British and Spanish scientists said Wednesday. They discovered that the gene essential for the euphoria that keeps addicts hooked on heroin or morphine can be shut off in mice without changing the drug's analgesic effects -- possibly opening a new avenue for treating addiction. "Opiates are both the best analgesics we have as well as drugs producing euphoria leading to addiction," said Stephen Hunt of University College in London. "What we've shown is that you can knock out one particular gene, the substance P receptor gene, and you can disassociate these effects. So analgesia is retained intact whereas the pleasurable effects of opiates are apparently abolished." The research, published in the journal Nature, could have important implications in understanding drug addiction. But Hunt added that the findings do not apply to cocaine, suggesting that opiates act on the brain to produce an addictive effect in a different way. Viper-venom-derived drug vs. symptoms of stroke A blood-thinning drug derived from the venom of the Malayan pit viper can reverse symptoms in stroke victims, researchers reported Wednesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association. But other research suggests that if doctors wait too long to administer the drug, it might kill patients. The experimental treatment follows the discovery that blood failed to clot in people bitten by the snake. Scientists figured the venom could be used as an anticoagulant to help stroke victims whose clot is blocking blood flow to the brain. In a study of 500 stroke patients, 42% who were given the drug ancrod within three hours after the onset of symptoms regained significant functioning vs. 34% of those who got a placebo. The two groups had similar death rates three months after treatment. The study was led by David Sherman, a neurologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, and was conducted in the USA and Canada. The promising results led ancrod's manufacturer, BASF Pharma, to launch a separate European study to see whether it also would work within six hours of symptoms. But the three-month death rate in the ancrod patients was higher than in a placebo group, and the study was halted in March. Linda Mayer, spokeswoman for BASF Pharma's U.S. subsidiary, Knoll Pharmaceutical Co., said deaths were "minimally higher" in the ancrod patients. The company is analyzing data from both studies and has not yet applied for federal approval of ancrod for stroke treatment, Mayer said.