Chemistry – Page 58 – David Bradley

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Researchers at Imperial College London and Queen Mary, London, are suggesting that drugs related to the withdrawn Vioxx may still be the best drugs for treating arthritis.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

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.

Accelerated Aging

Chemical analysis spots malfunctioning protein.

Jin-Shan Hu and colleagues at the University of Maryland, National Cancer Institute, the National Centre for Scientific Research, France, have used NMR to determine the structure of the protein thought to malfunction in premature aging conditions, such as Werner syndrome. The structure might one day lead to a better understanding of this rare genetic disorder as well as other aging-related diseases.

Wedding Anniversary

Well…it’s our fourteenth wedding anniversary this year, today, so a good time to remind sciencebase readers of our alternative chymical wedding anniversary list where you will discover that the fourteenth is “pyrolytic carbon“, which is used to make heart valves.

If you favour the traditional list, then it’s ivory, so we won’t expect gifts, for obvious reasons.

Buckyballs versus DNA

Peter Cummings of Vanderbilt University and his colleagues have discovered that those marvels of the molecular playing field – the soccerball shaped fullerenes, aka buckyballs, can bind to DNA and cause it to deform, according to computer simulations published in the December issue of the Biophysical Journal. Perhaps most worrying is that they see this deformation in an aqueous environment rather than in an organic solvent.

Cummings and Alberto Striolo (now a faculty member at the University of Oklahoma), along with Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientist Xiongce Zhao, used molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the question of whether buckyballs would bind to DNA and, if so, whether they could then inflict any lasting damage.

Cummings suggests that his research reveals a potentially serious problem: “Buckyballs have a potentially adverse effect on the structure, stability and biological functions of DNA molecules.”

What is not mentioned in the Vanderbilt press release on this “discovery”, which as you will note is essentially theoretical is that the fullerenes are not particularly soluble in water under normal conditions. Indeed, researchers at London South Bank University explain that [60]fullerene can be dispersed in water but only if it is transferred from an organic solvent using high energy sound (sonication). That word “dispersed” is crucial irrespective of the relatively sophisticated technology required to carry these molecules into water.

One thing that our bodies generally lack is a large supply of organic solvent and a sonicator. So, with any luck, the Cummings work will remain theoretical rather than experimental. While this kind of research must be carried out under the precautionary principle, it is not necessarily providing us with any useful insights into the real risks or otherwise of fullerenes. Moreover, the powerful media machine that includes university press offices these days now has another opportunity to kick chemistry.

Cats aren’t all good

Toxic metals emitted from automotive catalytic converters have been detected in urban air in the USA. The research was carried out by scientists in Sweden working with Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

The researchers discovered high concentrations of the elements platinum, palladium, rhodium and osmium in air over the Boston metropolitan area. Although these particles are not a serious health risk, evidence suggests they potentially could pose a future danger as worldwide car sales increase from an estimated 50 million in 2000 to more than 140 million in 2050.

Scientists have also detected elevated concentrations of these elements in Europe, Japan, Australia, Ghana, China and Greenland.

Finding ways to “stabilize” these metal particles within the converters “should be a priority to limit their potential impact,” says Sebastien Rauch of Chalmers University of Technology in Goeteborg.

Catalytic converters reduce noxious emissions of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and other pollutants, but as with all technology there is a counterpoint in this discovery of their constituent elements in the environment. Previously, UK researchers have investigated techniques that could be used to “mine” valuable heavy metals, such as platinum, from road run-off. Whether or not this kind of recycling could ever be viable or whether or not it would reduce atmospheric contamination is still wide open to discussion.

Girls Aloud find the right chemistry

Bet you never thought you’d see a kitchy, yet somehow chic, Brit girl band featuring in the Sciencebase blog!

Well, I couldn’t resist giving the waspish popsters Girls Aloud a mention because their new album due out this week is called “Chemistry”.

Polydor records who promote and press the band say: “Sarah, Nicola, Nadine, Kimberley and Cheryl have made a quirky British pop album. In a genre where girl bands dream of being Destiny’s Vogue, Girls Aloud have made an album that reflects what it’s like to be a 20-something girl living in the UK….blah, blah, blah….”

Like anyone cares, know what I’m sayin? All we really want, what we really, really want is to know that Chemistry also features the new hit single “Biology”.

My friends at the Institute of Physics must be kicking themselves that they didn’t get a mention, but I bet the permanantly poptastic Royal Society of Chemistry with its perpetual penchant for publicity will be rubbing its collective hands with glee as all those teenyboppers start sending in their application forms for membership. Grrrl power to the chemists!

Yeah, right, whateva, d’you fink I’m bovvered?

Golden Anniversary for Chemistry News

Reactive Reports, the chemistry Webzine from science writer David Bradley and software company ACD/Labs, celebrate its fiftieth issue this month. The Webzine grew from discussions between ACD/Labs VP and Chief Science Officer Antony Williams and David Bradley and were aimed at finding a way to bring the best chemistry news to a growing Web audience.

The first issue was published in September 1999 and covered issues that are as topical today as they were then – novel anticancer drugs from natural products, how to improve battery life to cut energy costs, and nanotechnology for building the next generation of electronics.

Reactive Reports has picked up several prestigious awards in its almost seven-year history including being a finalist in the Pirelli Awards for the innovative use of multimedia in science, a Scientific American sci-tech Web award, and a Scout Report Selection.

The Webzine’s growing archive now contains more than 200 chemistry news items as well a humor section, reviews of 150 chemistry Websites, and a links section to point readers to other useful chemistry resources.

With Issue 50, Reactive Reports changes course slightly, gone are the Star Picks and in their place we present a new profile section featuring a different chemical innovator each month. This month it’s chemical Web pioneer Peter Murray-Rust of the University of Cambridge who has much to say about open source issues and how chemists can make the most of new technology.

We also have the usual round-up of chemistry news and a news feature on Chmoogle the chemical search engine.

We hope the new format of Reactive Reports will make the next 50 issues even more educational and stimulating for our readers. Get a sneak preview of Issue 50 and check our reactions now!

Blogging to Save the World

Imagine a blog that does more than flatter the ego of its creator and those it links to…imagine a blog that might actually be useful!

Dr Jean-Claude Bradley [no relation] an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Drexel University emailed to tell me that he has set up a blog that will join the dots between real scientific problems and concrete and actionable solutions.

For example, one posting presents 90 molecules that stand a good chance of being inhibitors of the enzyme HIV protease, which is essential to viral replication. “To the best of my knowledge,” Bradley told me, “these compounds have not yet been tested.”

However, in order to complete the trail from problem to solution, he says we need a cheap and efficient synthesis for each of these leads, so that they can be tested in vitro for activity against HIV. “The intended audience for the blog is mainly chemists,” he confesses, “and I would like there to be as much experimental detail provided as required for a chemist to understand fully how to reproduce the porposed and executed syntheses.”

Bradley also revealed that, as you’d expect, he has an organic chemistry lab at his disposal and is willing to execute proposed syntheses, if they make synthetic sense.
Bradley hopes to find similar specific problems in which a chemical synthesis or a specific compound or class or compounds is needed that could make a difference to solving the most important problems facing humanity today.

So, if you’ve got a chemistry degree don’t hang around, go to his blog and save the world!