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Biotech / Medical : Celgene-CELG -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Biomaven who wrote (297)	4/26/1999 8:26:00 PM
From: Miljenko Zuanic	Respond to of 804

Peter, They (First Union from NY)are on the way to lose shirts, pants, and underwear. Unless they start to cover short position. Maybe Empster was their second advisor? It will be interesting to see April short position for CELG. Miljenko

To: Biomaven who wrote (297)	4/27/1999 7:46:00 PM
From: Miljenko Zuanic	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 804

If promotion of DNA oxidation (oxidative stress, as proposed in this article) is reason for T embriotoxic side effects, why this wasn't observed randomly across all cell type? Why so powerful on embrionic (highly dividing cells)? I will guess and speculate (full article may explain) that this is some sort of drug interaction (neutralization or prevention that T cross blood-placenta-barrier). Anyway, if anti-oxidant do help it is major positive. Miljenko PS: Anyone here with some explanation? Thalidomide birth defect mechanism identified NEW YORK, Apr 27 (Reuters Health) -- Scientists believe they have identified the mechanism through which the drug thalidomide causes serious birth defects, especially defects of the limbs. Thalidomide, banned for many years in most countries because of this risk, is making a 'comeback' as a potential treatment for leprosy, Crohn's disease, and the wasting associated with AIDS. Research into therapies that suppress thalidomide's mutational side effects should become an "urgent priority," concludes Dr. Barbara F. Hales of McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Her comments come in response to findings published in the May issue of the journal Nature Medicine. In their study, Dr. Peter G. Wells and colleagues at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada, sought to determine the exact mechanism by which thalidomide causes birth defects. Based on the results of previous research, they suspected that the drug might increase the likelihood of oxidation of DNA in the embryo. To investigate this possibility, the authors fed thalidomide to a group of pregnant female rabbits. Half of these females also received a powerful antioxidant, alpha-phenyl-N-t-butylnitrone (PBN). As expected, offspring born to mothers fed thalidomide had a relatively high rate of death in the neonatal period, shrunken limbs, absence of digits, and other serious birth defects and complications. However, "pre-treatment with PBN abolished almost all birth defects in thalidomide-treated rabbits," the authors report, "and this protection was highly significant for phocomelia (absent or shrunken limbs)," a deformity commonly associated with maternal thalidomide use. The investigators speculate that antioxidant therapy may protect embryonic DNA against the oxidative side effects of thalidomide use. Use of antioxidants might be an important preventive therapy "in high-risk situations in which pregnant women must take (thalidomide)," according to the researchers. Hales agrees. In her commentary, she speculates that antioxidant "protection against oxidative stress... may separate the therapeutic effects of thalidomide" from its tendency to promote birth defects. SOURCE: Nature Medicine 1999;5:489-490, 582-585.