Category: Cancer

Tellurium steroids, angiogenesis against cancer, favourite chemical things and more…

• My name is tellura – Drugs based on tellurium catch the eye of Derek Lowe
• Antiangiogenic "anticancer" foods – Can eating these foods help prevent pin-head sized cancers that grow in people from gaining the blood vessels they need to grow into something malignant? In other words, can we eat to starve cancer?
• Spicing meat cuts cancer risk – They say variety is the spice of life, but spice has some hidden benefits in reducing the risk of absorbed cancer-causing chemicals from barbecued meat, apparently.
• A few of my favorite (chemistry) things – One of the originals from the chemistry things meme to which I succumbed this week.
• UK Geocoding – Want to know precisely where you are in the UK, just enter your postcode to get latitude and longitude.
• Sunless tanning will not protect you – Fashionable (but generally ugly) spray tanning that gives caucasians a familiar orange glow do not protect them from UV skin damage caused by the sun

The 1st of January issue of SpectroscopyNOW is live:

MRI nanoparticles seek and destroy cancer cells – A single nanoparticle can be tracked using real-time MRI as it homes in on cancer cells. A fluorescent dye used to tag the nanoparticle couples with heat therapy to kill the targeted cells. Naomi Halas and Amit Joshi of Rice University and their colleagues there and at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), both in Houston, Texas, have demonstrated the “theranostics” approach in laboratory cell cultures so far but are confident that they will, one day, be able to use this approach to MRI tracking and cancer cell targeting in animals, then people. The all-in-one particle is another example of the growing field of theranostics being developed to allow physicians to diagnose and treat disease in a single procedure. The team reports details in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

NMR test for pneumonia – The first demonstration of how metabolic analysis using NMR spectroscopy to analyse a urine sample for diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia has been undertaken. The simple diagnostic could be useful as the incidence of community-acquired pneumonia rises across the globe.

Regulatory crystallography – The structure and function of a chromatin regulator in yeast has been determined using X-ray crystallography. The structure provides new insights into epigenetics and may ultimately represent a target for the development of pharmaceutical therapies for a whole range of diseases.

Raman targets bacterial cell walls – Bacterial cell walls are a key target for antibiotics but they can change structure during reproduction. Now, Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy have been used to home in on these changes in a bacterium and so provide important clues about the biochemical changes that occur at the cellular level.

Snagging supernova spectra – Spectroscopy reveals that an extraordinarily bright, very long-lasting supernova named SN 2007bi, spotted in the night sky by a robotic telescope is the first example of the earliest type of star in the universe

Latest news reports from yours truly on Spectroscopynow.com

Juggling matters on the brain – UK scientists have used magnetic resonance imaging to reveal that learning a complex task like juggling can causes changes in the white matter in the brain. The findings could have implications for developing new approaches to neurodegenerative diseases, such as multiple sclerosis.

Cancer transition – Anticancer drugs for treating ovarian and colon cancer could use rare metals as weapons in the battle against these diseases. The presence of unusual metal centres in organometallic compounds presents a novel affront to tumour cells that may even beat cancer cells that have evolved resistance to conventional drugs.

17th century mathematics and 21st century materials – Nanoparticles can self-assemble into quasicrystalline structures, according to researchers in the USA. The newly discovery structures could provide useful insights into how such non-periodic, and yet ordered, that lie half way between amorphous solids and regular crystals can arise.

Spectroscopy quickly reveals drug contamination – Near infrared (NIR) reflectance and laser Raman spectra can be used to quickly screen drug samples non-destructively and to spot contamination. The techniques could not displace nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and electrophoresis required by drug regulators, but could be used as a quick first test for screening potentially contaminated drug products.

Organic ferroelectrics – Raman spectroscopy touches on the properties of an organic ionic material, only the second of its type to be synthesised, that apparently undergoes a phase transition at low temperature making it ferroelectric.

Methylmercury marker – Detecting methylmercury usually involves complex sample preparation and a sophisticated analytical procedure. Now, a European team has developed a novel approach to detecting this hazardous substance much more quickly and easily using a new type of fluorescent marker.

Toxic sunscreen testing – Regardless of the debate on whether or not you can have too little sunshine on your skin, it is important to remember that currently there is no standard tests for monitoring toxic heavy metals contained in sunscreen creams.

Now, researchers in Greece have demonstrated that a sophisticated, but relatively straightfoward technique can be used to simultaneously determine levels of the inorganic UV filter, titanium dioxide, and several trace or toxic elements, including lead and zinc, in sunscreens and cosmetics. The results from their multi-element analysis were compared successfully with standardised data from atomic absorption spectroscopy, which suggests their approach could easily be used for quality control of these products and for regulatory testing.

Keeping an eye on anticancer drug – Chemists have devised a route to the compound, cyclopamine. This substance is found in corn lilies and causes lambs born of ewes that eat the lilies to be born with a single eye in the middle of their foreheads, a condition known as cyclopia. But, the chemists aren’t out to create a race of mutant sheep, the very same compound is known to interfere with a critical cell signalling pathway and so could be used as a novel anticancer drug.

Chicken shack solution for gun-slingers – Whatever you think of gun law, people shoot, and when they shoot they leave behind toxic lead. Japanese scientists are now using an X-ray technique to test how well soil remediation works in immobilising lead residues on gun club land. They have demonstrated that growing guinea grass and fertilising the soil with chicken guano could be the way forward. That said, it’s going to make for an awfully smelly day’s shooting.

Finally, in my SpectroscopyNOW column this week – Smoke under fire: Smoking marijuana is no less harmful than smoking tobacco, according to Canadian researchers who have looked at its toxic effects on cells. They draw their conclusion from an examination of the cytotoxicity, mutagenicity and clastogenicity of mainstream and sidestream marijuana smoke as compared to tobacco smoke. Inhalers of all kinds…beware.