Month: January 2006

Vioxx Drugs Okay?

Researchers at Imperial College London and Queen Mary, London, are suggesting that drugs related to the withdrawn Vioxx may still be the best drugs for treating arthritis.

They argue that although Vioxx and related drugs have been associated with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke, the same might also be true for the more conventional non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

Jane Mitchell and her colleagues have reviewed the medical literature on the use of NSAIDs and Vioxx-like drugs and are convinced that despite the cardiovascular side-effects of certain COX-2 drugs they could still be the drug of choice for certain patients without cardiovascular risk factors, especially if they cannot tolerate NSAIDs because of the gastric side effects of those drugs.

It’s all about benefit-risk management (BRM) which sounds a little like marketing jargon, but underpins a much more effective attitude to medicine than holistically abandoning effective drugs.

Regardless of the status of Vioxx and its analogues there is much imminent movement in the pharmaceutical industry as the likes of GlaxoSmithkline vie for pole position in the market for the successor to COX-2 inhibitors. Of course, if Mitchell and her colleagues are right, then, the generic NSAID manufacturers could take another nice chunk of that market before it’s even opened up.

Primary Elements

Primary age school kids will be exposed to chemistry for the first time, thanks to an initiative instigated by scientists at Queen’s University Belfast.

Chris Hardacre and Marie Migaud of QUB hope to catch students at a young age through their new science programme, which will be tested on final year primary children (age 10-11 years).

Universities in Ireland and the UK are struggling to attract new students, doors have closed at several departments in the last year or two and straight chemistry has been subsumed by new ChemBioChemPhysBiolChem centres and the like. In stark contrast to the many, QUB has actually seen an increase in chemistry enrolment because of targeted approaches to students from primary school to A-level (17-18y) with departmental visits, open days, and demonstration lectures.

This latest initiative could plant the seed (sorry, that’s sounds a bit Bio) in the next generation of chemists through a five-month test period starting this month.

The program will include interactive demonstration lectures, support materials, and student science projects with a prize at the end.

If that doesn’t get them reaching for their labcoats, I don’t know what will!

Flu is Not the Only Germ

Flu isn’t the only pathogenic threat at this time of year, according to a report on News Medical Net [link now defunct], metapneumovirus, rhinoviruses, coronaviruses, parainfluenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and others knock many of us for six each winter and are responsible for thousands of deaths. They don’t make the headlines because they’re not so easy to pronounce as “bird flu” nor is there anything particularly newsy about how you catch them (from doorknobs, faucets, and appliance handles, if you must know). They also lie dormant in your nose and lungs too waiting the right conditions to pounce. Despite their low profile, however, these are killer diseases that claim lives needlessly, while celebrity viruses such as H5N1 and SARS steal the headlines.

H2O and All That

Chemical philosopher Eric Scerri recently mentioned a humorous book by Martyn Berry about which I’d entirely forgotten: H2O and All That. Berry was/is a chemistry teacher and created this hilarious compilation of the wit and wisdom of years of student chemists as revealed in their exam papers.

I remember receiving a copy for review when I worked at the Royal Society of Chemistry, some fifteen years ago, and thinking it was the text to bring the wonder of chemistry to the masses. As Scerri points out, it’s still available on amazon for about 8 quid (12 bucks). If you fancy a laugh, I can highly recommend it, it’s timeless humor.

Stardust Falls to Earth

The BBC reports that the US Stardust probe has returned to earth after its 3billion mile round trip to the comet Wild 2. It returns with a payload of dust trapped in an aerogel. The pristine dust from the very early solar system should tell scientists a great deal about the evolution of our planetary neighbourhood. Watch this space.

Oh, one thing (that should really be reserved for my Sig Fig blog) BBC reporter Helen Briggs refers to the probe’s speed – 46,660kph (29,000mph) and it’s altitude when its parachute was deployed – 32km (or 105,000 feet)

I’ll leave regular SigFig readers to draw their own conclusions about how I would normally comment on such units!

Frozen Chicken Tenders

Sciencebase visitor Enrico Dematt emailed to ask me how long one can store chicken tenders in the freezer. Well, as this is one of the most off-topic questions I’ve ever received, I thought I’d better answer it. According to various foody websites poultry will keep for up to 12 months in a freezer held at a constant -18 Celsius. So, there you go Enrico. Just watch out if you have a long power outage!

Turkish H5N1

This joint statement from the UK’s Medical Research Council’s National Institute for Medical Research and the World Health Organisation just in:

The genetic and antigenic analyses of viruses recovered from two fatal cases of H5N1 influenza in Turkey have been completed at the WHO International Influenza Centre at the MRC’s National Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill, London.

These viruses are very closely related to current avian H5N1 viruses in Turkey, and also to those isolated at Qinghai Lake in Western China last year.

The gene sequences of the viruses indicate that they are sensitive to the antivirals Tamiflu and amantadine.

Virus from one of the human cases contains mutations in the receptor binding protein, haemagglutinin. One of these has been observed before in viruses from Hong Kong in 2003 and Vietnam in 2005. Research has indicated that the Hong Kong 2003 viruses preferred to bind to human cell receptors more than to avian receptors and it is expected that the Turkish virus will also have this characteristic.

You can read more on the bird flu story

CES 2006: Top Ten Gadgets

The Register’s write-up on the Epos Digital pen and USB flash drive bundle” got me all excited…for a moment. Just think, you can write notes when you’re on the road without having to worry about lugging a laptop everywhere, transfer them to your PC on your return and leave XP’s scrawl-to-text transfer software to convert them into real text, all for under 50 quid.

Then it occurred to me that the last time I used a pen for anything other than signing cheques was probably a decade ago! I doubt I could even write analog style these days. So, I might as well stick to the laptop, or writing on my cellphone and SMS texting it to myself for upload. Technology! Who’d have it?

Cloning – it’s a pup!

I received a press statement from Nature today in which the journal “welcomes the announcement by the inquiry organised by Seoul National University concluding that the Afghan hound Snuppy was indeed a clone”, as originally reported in Nature (Nature 436, 641, 2005).

To quote: “Three weeks ago, as soon as it became clear that there was a strong possibility of fraud in some of the publications from Dr Hwang and colleagues, Nature commissioned Elaine Ostrander, at the National Human Genome Research Institute, in Bethesda Maryland USA, to conduct independent DNA tests on samples supplied by colleagues of Dr Hwang. The authenticity of the samples used was overseen by In Kwonchung Chung of Yonsei University, Korea, a member of the Investigative Committee at Seoul National University.

The tests conducted include DNA fingerprinting analysis of nuclear and
mitochondrial DNA from blood samples of Snuppy, the dog who donated the nucleus, and unrelated Afghan hounds. We heard informally, late yesterday, that these tests are most consistent with Snuppy being a clone.

We have as yet received no technical report or data. The data will be peer reviewed and hopefully published promptly, as well as an account of our review of our procedures in handling such papers. However we feel it in everybody’s best interests to confirm these preliminary indications of the outcome of our test.”

It’s probably too little, too late. The mainstream media has already cast the team involved as fraudsters and the sector of the lay public that cares simply sees this as yet another example of “tampering with nature” gone wrong. Let’s just hope that the peer-reviewed assessment further supports the claim that Snuppy is a clone and that this fascinating area of science can move forward once more.