What do you get when you pit two bacteria in a death ring match? Researchers at MIT did this for their amusement, which they claim was research, and found out the winner uses a unique weapon to dominate its opponent.

Professor Anthony Sinskey’s laboratory at MIT was doing a weekly bacteria battle royale fight when they noticed that the soil-dwelling bacteria, Rhodococcus, who always loses these fights, won. Kazuhiko Kurosawa, postdoctoral associate, was intrigued by the winner’s fighting spirit and decided to try and stress the bacteria by placing it in different environments to see if it would produce any new antibiotics, it did not. Finally, Kurosawa decided to pit the bacteria in more death-match fights against a new competitor, Streptomyces. Normally Streptomyces produces an antibiotic which kills other bacteria but this time around Rhodococcus did the killing by making its own antibiotic.

The researchers realized these games had actually produced a new compound which they isolated and called rhodostreptomycin. This new antibiotic proved be very effective against other strains of bacteria such as Helicobacter pylori, the now famous bacteria which is known to cause stomach ulcers. More amazing is that this new antibiotic, an aminoglycoside, is actually a novel new molecule, it has a ring structure which has never been seen before. This new structure could be used as a building block for newer antibiotics, something that the medical community is in dire need of with the recent stories on Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis. This battle royale technique could be used to make more antibiotics that have previously been undiscovered, the only step left is for MIT to stream the fights over the Internet so everyone can enjoy the action.

Genentech announced on Friday that the FDA has granted accelerated approval for Avastin, a VEGF inhibitor that has been previously discussed here, for treatment of metastatic HER2-negative breast cancer. The approval is based on a phase III study done by Genentech which showed a 52% reduction in death or disease progression compared to the current medical treatment for advanced breast cancer. Two more phase III trials are expected to have results in late 2008 and if successful the FDA should grant full approval.

Genentech is considered to be one of the first biotechnology companies. In 1977, the company produced the first human protein, somatostatin, in Escherichia Coli bacteria. Since then they have become a powerhouse in the biotechnology field with a market cap of 82.33 Billion and yearly revenue of 11.72 Billion. I am not surprised that Avastin, the first anti-angiogenesis therapy approved by the FDA, is continuing to have success. I also would not be surprised to hear Genentech announce a second therapeutic antibody targeting PGC-1alpha (peroxisome-proliferator-activated receptor-gamma coactivator-1alpha), a cofactor that activates a secondary angiogenesis pathway.

Update: As of 11:38Am Genentech’s stock is up over 8%.

Researchers at Pukyong National University have claimed that they have isolated a new antioxidant from the skin of bullfrogs.

The research team, lead by Kim Se-kwon, claims that the isolated chemical can reduce the effects of oxidation of skin cells by 73 percent. Currently, most skin products contain tocopherol, a powerful antioxidant. Dr. Kim claims that the new material discovered by his team is 10% more efficient than tocopherol.

I am continuously surprised by the discovery of new drugs from species which have been ignored or considered a nuisance for centuries.

As the Wall Street Journal reported last week, about half of the world’s supply of heparin originates in China. Heparin is the main ingredient in a type of blood thinning medication that is sold by Baxter International. In the U.S., it has recently been associated with hundreds of adverse reactions and a few deaths, though the exact causes remain unclear. Raw heparin originates from pig intestine, and the harvesting starts in small Chinese factories using relatively coarse methods, such as wringing the intestines by hand and boiling in concrete vats. Some of the same factories even make sausage casings from the pig intestines. The methods by which heparin is harvested are raising questions over whether heparin makers should be able to track their product back to individual pigs. There is, of course, a lengthy purification process between the time heparin leaves a pig’s intestine and it reaches your blood. Drug companies argue that this process is enough to remove impurities. However, others argue that the raw materials should be traceable in order to quickly track any problems that arise.

What we are ultimately facing is a larger issue of economics and how much people are willing to pay for their drugs and the purity. Many products, from heparin to ginger root, originate through accumulation of small lots contributed from essentially untraceable Chinese sources. Are we as American consumers willing to pay the price for accountability? And if so, it is not clear how to go about it in the case of heparin. DNA fingerprinting of pigs seems to be a solution, but a very expensive one at that.

At the 2008 Greener Gadgets Conference in New York, a conceptual design was released that could cool food or items while at the same time heating other items in a separate compartment. The design recieved a notable entry reward. The concept uses solar energy and converts it into electrical to run a compressor. The compressor can then cool or heat the items that have been placed in the compartments.

The original designers built the device with the intention of holding food. While I can imagine this would be a nice cooler to use for a picnic on a sunny day, it seems like it would have limited utility with the solar power requirement. However a great need exist in pharmaceuticals for an efficient and cheap way to ship new drugs or vaccines that require 4 degrees Celsius. With a slight modification to the device this could be a potential cheap and reusable shipper which could keep a constant temperature, a possible boon in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries.  

Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have published in Nature today results that identify a new pathway for Angiogenesis, new blood vessel growth.

Previously Angiogensis was believed to only occur due to oxygen deprivation which activates Hypoxia Inducible Factors, ultimately stimulating production of vascular endothelial growth factor, VEGF. However the newly discovered pathway is regulated by estrogen-related receptor-alpha and is completely independent of VEGF.

In recent years, companies have developed a number of drugs that manipulate the angiogenic pathway – in both directions. Among them is Genentech’s Avastin, which is designed to starve tumors by blocking the formation of blood vessels in metastatic carcinoma of the colon or rectum. With the recent discovery of a new pathway companies will begin a new round of drug discovery for inhibition of this secondary pathway costing them billions more and possible explaining why a large percentage of drugs developed for angiogenic pathway manipulation have failed.