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Biotech / Medical : Ligand (LGND) Breakout! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Henry Niman who wrote (10467)	10/30/1997 9:39:00 PM
From: Andrew H	Respond to of 32384

Thanks for the quick study in SERMs, Henry. Just what I was looking for. I reaaly do appreciate the time you take to explain these things. My mistake was confusing estrogen with SERMs. And I was probably confusing the endometrial cancer associated with Tamoxifen with the increased breast cancer associated with estrogens. Once again, I really do appreciate your clarifications.

To: Henry Niman who wrote (10467)	10/30/1997 10:19:00 PM
From: Peter Singleton	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

Henry, did you see this press release on a herpes-family virus implicated in KS? Note the efficacy shown by cidofovir ... which is GILD's CMV drug already on the market. Peter TAMPA, Fla., Oct. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- A study to track and destroy the DNA of a newly identified virus will bring the University of South Florida's Peter Medveczky, MD, into the heart of the battle of Kaposi's sarcoma and other cancers that may be caused by the virus. The four-year, $800,000 National Institutes of Health grant is for the study of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV). "We want to understand all we can about the DNA replication of this virus, including its dormant stage, so that new antiviral drugs can be developed to eliminate it." said Dr. Medveczky, a professor in the USF Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology. In addition to its link with Kaposi's sarcoma, a cancer typically associated with AIDS and aging, KSHV encodes for several cancer-causing genes and has been linked to multiple myeloma, a cancerous tumor of the bone marrow. Dr. Medveczky, who specializes in the molecular biology of tumor viruses, is the principal investigator of the grant. Ultimately, researchers would like to find drugs that target and destroy a viral DNA binding protein, which they suspect is produced in the "untouchable" dormant stage. Knocking out that stubborn protein would eliminate all traces of KSHV from the body, not just control reactivation of the virus, Dr. Medveczky said. A USF study published in the September issue of the journal AIDS found that KHSV was very sensitive to low doses of cidofovir. Cidofovir, a drug originally developed for cytomegalovirus infections, was 20 times more potent in inhibiting replication of KHSV than in combating cytomegalovirus, Dr. Medveczky said. This suggests that small amounts of cidofovir, with less likelihood of toxic side effects, could be effective in preventing Kaposi's sarcoma in AIDS patients, he said. Ganciclovir or phosphonoformic acid, two other antiviral drugs also tested, had only marginal effect on KSHV. All the drugs worked by suppressing the replication of KSHV; none attacked the virus in its dormant stage when it was not replicating. SOURCE University of South Florida CO: University of South Florida ST: Florida IN: EDU MTC SU: 10/30/97 12:37 EST prnewswire.com

To: Henry Niman who wrote (10467)	10/31/1997 8:13:00 AM
From: Abuckatatime	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

Henry, >>I doubt that droloxifene increases breast cancer risk (but I'm not sure about endometrial cancer)<< A Science [(278) 17/10/97 p419-24] article The Endocrinology of Aging by Lamberts, van den Beld, and van der Lely contains this statement that indicates that SERM's effects on various tissues/cell types require much more study before definitive conclusions can be drawn: "It remains to be seen whether compounds such as raloxifene have clinically important beneficial effects on bone density, the vascular wall, and the brain, as well as inhibition of the development of breast cancer without inducing endometrium hyperplasia."