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G8 Summit Begins Wednesday; WFP Calls For 'Twin-Track' Approach To Food Security
The G8 summit is scheduled to open Wednesday in L"Aquila, Italy. The World Food Program (WFP) on Tuesday issued a statement praising the G8 leaders" focus on food security and calling for support of its efforts to combat hunger among the world"s poorest people, Xinhua reports. In the statement, WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran recommended leaders take a "twin-track" approach to food security, which includes supporting long-term agricultural production along with immediate hunger assistance.
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Survey: Speech Therapy Helps, But People Who Stutter Suffer Discrimination
Four out of 10 adults who stutter have been denied a job or promotion and 82 percent of children who stutter have been bullied or teased, according to a new survey by the National Stuttering Association. People who stutter make up about 1 percent of the population.
News of the day
Tiller Murder Unlikely To Stall Abortion Debate In Kansas
Antiabortion-rights legislators in Kansas plan to push for harsher restrictions on abortion when the next legislative session begins in January 2010, despite increased tensions following the murder of abortion provider George Tiller, the AP/Indianapolis Star reports.According to state House Judiciary Committee Chair Lance Kinzer (R), the debate over abortion rights should continue in the state because some laws aimed at restricting abortion access are not being enforced properly. This year, Kinzer pushed legislation (S.B. 218) to strengthen the state"s restrictions on abortions performed later in pregnancy, but the bill was vetoed by former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D). Gov. Mark Parkinson (D) has said his views are "very similar" to those of Sebelius on abortion rights. On Monday, he called on advocates on both sides of the issue to tone down their rhetoric. Parkinson also has said that Kansas should aim to reduce unplanned pregnancies.State Rep. Tom Sawyer (D), who supports abortion rights, said he would like to see legislators take one year off of debating the issue, adding that he thinks this is unlikely. He said, "It"d be nice to have one session where we didn"t have to debate it," adding, "People who are adamant, who keep bringing up these issues, are going to keep bringing them up. I don"t think [Tiller"s murder] is going to slow them down."However, state House Speaker Mike O"Neal (R) said tensions over abortion rights "will calm down a great deal" in the coming months. He added, "All those issues are still there. As long as the parties on both sides behave themselves and not let the rhetoric get out [of] hand, I think we can stay focused on the issues." State Sen. Tim Huelskamp (R) said that abortion-rights opponents likely will focus in the short term on the Board of Healing Arts, which licenses and regulates physicians, and the courts. A criminal case against a Planned Parenthood clinic in Johnson County, Kan., is pending (Hanna, AP/Indianapolis Star, 6/5).
Medical Devices

Like Burrs On Your Clothes, Molecule-Size Capsules Can Deliver Drugs By Sticking To Targeted Cells

It is now possible to engineer tiny containers the size of a virus to deliver drugs and other materials with almost 100 percent efficiency to targeted cells in the bloodstream. According to a new Cornell study, the technique could one day be used to deliver vaccines, drugs or genetic material to treat cancer and blood and immunological disorders. The research was published recently (June 25, 2009) online at the Web site of the journal Gene Therapy. "This study greatly extends the range of therapies," said Michael King, Cornell associate professor of biomedical engineering, who co-authored the study with lead author Zhong Huang, a former Cornell research associate who is now an assistant professor at the Shenzhen University School of Medicine in China. "We can introduce just about any drug or genetic material that can be encapsulated, and it is delivered to any circulating cells that are specifically targeted," King added. The technique involves filling the tiny lipid containers, or nanoscale capsules, with a molecular cargo and coating the capsules with adhesive proteins called selectins that specifically bind to target cells. A shunt coated with the capsules is then inserted between a vein and an artery. Much as burrs attach to clothing in a field, the selectin-coated capsules adhere to targeted cells in the bloodstream. After rolling along the shunt wall, the cells break free from the wall with the capsules still attached and ingest their contents. The technique mimics a natural immune response that occurs during inflammation, which stimulates cells on blood vessel walls to express selectins, which quickly form adhesive bonds with passing white blood cells. The white blood cells then stick to the selectins and roll along the vessel wall before leaving the bloodstream to fight disease or infection. Selectin proteins may be used to specifically target nucleated (cells with a nucleus) cells in the bloodstream. The study shows that since only the targeted cells ingest the contents of the nanocapsules, the technique could greatly reduce the adverse side effects caused by some drugs. In a previous paper, King showed how metastasizing cancer cells circulating in the blood stream can stick to selectin-coated devices containing a second protein that programs cancer cells to self-destruct. Said King, "We"ve found a way to disable the function of cancer cells without compromising the immune system," which is a problem with many other therapies directed against metastasis. The current study demonstrates that genetic material can be delivered to targeted cells to turn off specific genes and interfere with processes that lead to disease. The researchers filled nanocapsules with a small-interfering RNA (siRNA) and targeted them to specific circulating cells. When the targeted cells ingested the capsules, the siRNA turned off a gene that produces an enzyme that contributes to the degradation of cartilage in arthritis. In a similar manner, the method could be used to target the delivery of chemotherapy drugs, vaccine antigens to white blood cells, specific molecules that mitigate auto-immune disorders and more, King said. The paper is available here. Blaine Friedlander Cornell University


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