all toxicology stories

Method automates capture of cell image data

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:36:38 -0400

A new type of drug profiling will be useful in identifying the biological targets of experimental compounds and predicting drug toxicity. "This work brings microscopy into the 'omics' era," said Timothy Mitchison, the Hasib Sabbagh professor of systems biology, codirector of the Harvard Medical School Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology (ICCB) and co-author on the work, which was reported in the Nov. 12, 2004 Science. In the study, the researchers treated human cancer cells with widely varying concentrations of 100 different chemical compounds known to affect cell growth and metabolism. To measure changes in the cells' behavior, they used fluorescent stains for DNA and 10 different proteins.

Maternal bone lead levels pose toxic prenatal risk

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:22:10 -0400

Although much attention has been paid to public health efforts to reduce lead exposure in children between the ages of six months and five years, when environmental lead exposures (such as from leaded paint in old houses) tend to be greatest, less attention has been paid to understanding the transfer of lead from mother to fetus and its resulting health effects. Now, Harvard researchers have concluded that elevated maternal bone lead levels are linked to impaired cognitive development in infants. Given the lengthy amount of time lead can reside in maternal bone and that bone is demineralized into the blood during pregnancy, the findings highlight a potentially significant public health problem, linking the history of a mother's lead exposure to risk for the next generation. The study appeared in the July 2002 issue of the journal Pediatrics. Howard Hu, principal investigator of the study, is associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. The study was supported by grants from the March of Dimes, National Institute of Environmental Health and Safety, US and Consejo National de Cienca y Technologia and CONSERVA, Department of Federal District, Mexico.

Endostatin shows no toxicity and some clinical activity in latest report on phase I trial

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:21:46 -0400

Discovered in the Children's Hospital Boston laboratory of Judah Folkman, Endostatin is a natural substance that blocks the formation of new blood vessels around and in tumors, thereby disrupting their ability to survive and grow. The formation of new blood vessels, a process called angiogenesis, can be helpful -- in wound healing, for example -- or harmful: it is involved not only in cancer but in diseases such as macular degeneration of the eye, arthritis, and heart disease. One attraction of anti-angiogenic drugs is that they are gentler than conventional chemotherapy drugs, which kill cancer cells but also damage normal cells, often resulting in punishing side effects such as hair loss, nausea and blood cell abnormalities.