West Midlands Centre for Adverse Drug Reactions (UK)

Drug maker Aurobindo Pharma said it has entered into an agreement with AstraZeneca to supply several solid dosage and sterile products to emerging markets. (Source: The Economic Times Healthcare and Biotech News)

A popular diabetes drug is still being prescribed two months after a safety body recommended its withdrawal amid concerns the drug can increase the risk of heart attacks. (Source: Telegraph Health)

A diabetes drug taken by up to 100,000 patients increases the risk of heart attacks and should be withdrawn on safety grounds, senior doctors say today. (Source: the Mail online | Health)

The Texas Association of Health Plans, which represents health insurers in the Lone Star State, says pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, should not be blamed for skyrocketing drug prices. (Source: bizjournals.com Health Care:Health Insurance headlines)

Authors: Traynor K PMID: 20811020 [PubMed - in process] (Source: American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy : AJHP)

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Conclusion Saxagliptin, a DPP-4 inhibitor approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, demonstrated safety and efficacy in lowering HbA(1c), FPG, and PPG levels as both monotherapy and in combination with other oral antidiabetic medications. PMID: 20811029 [PubMed - in process] (Source: American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy : AJHP)

Conclusion A pharmacist participating on the ED trauma response team commonly provided dosage recommendations and drug information, facilitated drug administration, and optimized sedation, analgesia, and antimicrobial therapy. PMID: 20811031 [PubMed - in process] (Source: American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy : AJHP)

A POPULAR diabetes drug is still being prescribed, two months after a safety body recommended its withdrawal amid concerns the drug can increase the risk of heart attacks. (Source: Scotsman.com News - Health)

A type two diabetes drug is still being prescribed in the UK two months after it is recommended for withdrawal, Panorama learns. (Source: BBC News | Health | UK Edition)

LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline's diabetes drug Avandia should be pulled from sale because of concerns about heart risks, British drug regulators said on Monday ahead of a special European meeting on the drug's safety. (Source: Reuters: Health)

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Authors: Opstrup MS, Mosbech H, Garvey LH PMID: 20635797 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] (Source: Journal of Investigational Allergology and Clinical Immunology)

We describe a case of chronic idiopathic urticaria in which symptoms improved dramatically after treatment with omalizumab. This drug, which is approved for the treatment of asthma, has been studied in other allergic conditions and a number of reports have described its efficacy as an immunomodulator in chronic and physical urticaria. Immunopathologic mechanisms are poorly understood. In chronic autoimmune urticaria, it has been postulated that this monoclonal antibody against immunoglobulin (Ig) E might reduce FcepsilonRI expression on the surface of basophils, thus preventing IgG antibody-mediated crosslinking and the release of mast cell mediators. We analyzed activation and homing molecules of B cells and type 1 and type 2 cytokine production by T cells and document a new immunomodulat...

CONCLUSION: In children with a family history of allergy, it seems to be important to distinguish between maternal and paternal predisposition as children whose fathers have a history of atopic disease seem to benefit most from breastfeeding for >4 months. PMID: 20635784 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] (Source: Journal of Investigational Allergology and Clinical Immunology)

Authors: Azuma H, Inamoto T, Ibuki N, Ubai T, Kotake Y, Takahara K, Kiyama S, Nomi H, Uehara H, Komura K, Yamamoto K, Narumi Y, Katsuoka Y We investigated the effect of balloon-occluded arterial infusion (BOAI) of anticancer agent (cisplatin/gemcitabine), used concomitantly with hemodialysis, which delivers an extremely high concentration of anticancer agent to the site of a tumor without systemic adverse effects, along with concurrent radiation (referred to as the OMC-regimen) in patients with advanced bladder cancer. One hundred and ninety-two patients were assigned to receive either the OMC-regimen (n=96) or total cystectomy (n=96). Patients in the OMC-regimen group who failed to achieve CR underwent cystectomy, or secondary BOAI with an increased amount of CDDP or gemcitabine (1600...

Authors: Ota K, Fujimori H, Ueda M, Jono H, Shinriki S, Ota T, Sueyoshi T, Taura M, Taguma A, Kai H, Shinohara M, Ando Y Midkine (MK) expression has been documented to be inversely correlated with the prognosis of patients with various tumors, but the mechanism of this relationship has not been well characterized. Recent studies have also correlated p53 expression with prognosis of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). We evaluated the relationship between MK expression and clinicopathological features of patients with OSCC to clarify the influence of p53 status on MK expression in OSCC cells. Our results showed that patients with MK over-expression in OSCC cells had a significantly lower 5-year survival rate compared with patients with low MK expression. Immunohistochemic...

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In conclusion, our results indicate that functional cell surface expression of TLR9 in human HCC may play an important role in tumorigenesis and cancer progression. PMID: 20811701 [PubMed - in process] (Source: International Journal of Oncology)

Authors: Morishita A, Gong J, Nomura T, Yoshida H, Izuishi K, Suzuki Y, Kushida Y, Haba R, D'Armiento J, Masaki T Several studies have reported that activated receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) are highly expressed in colon cancer and may promote tumor growth and survival. However, there is little information available as to the function and signaling of RTKs in colon cancers. In the present study, we performed protein array technology to determine the expression status of various RTKs that are activated in colon cancer compared to normal colonic cells and tissues. Of the 42 different phospho-RTKs, 5 (ErbB2, FGFR1, FGFR2a, FGFR3 and MSPR) were activated in Caco-2, SW480, WiDr, Lovo colon cancer cell lines and cancerous tissues. In order to determine the effect of inhibition of RTKs, espe...

We examined if blood monocytes from mammary tumor-bearing mice are already altered in their activation profiles before becoming macrophages and whether they correspond to inflammatory or resident monocyte subtypes. Much effort is currently devoted to reversing macrophage adverse traits in tumor hosts; as these cells reside within tissues, access is limited. Blood monocytes could be better targeted and manipulated by less invasive means. In the present study, mononuclear cells were isolated from whole blood of D1-DMBA-3 mammary tumor-bearing and normal BALB/c mice and CD115+ monocytes were analyzed. Our results show that there is an increase in circulating monocytes in tumor hosts; these monocytes exhibit a reduced expression of several myeloid differentiation markers such as CD115, F4/80, ...

Authors: Li CM, Narayanan R, Lu Y, Hurh E, Coss CC, Barrett CM, Miller DD, Dalton JT Phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt and 5'-AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) are attractive targets for anti-cancer drug development. Inhibition of Akt or activation of AMPK is cytotoxic to human cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. We previously demonstrated that 2-arylthiazolidine-4-carboxylic acid amides (ATCAA) are effective cytotoxic agents in prostate and melanoma cancer cell lines, with IC50 values in the low/sub micromolar range. Using in vitro and in vivo studies, we further characterized the anti-cancer efficacy and mechanism of action of ATCAA-10, a potent lead. ATCAA-10 exhibited equal potency on both MES/SA and P-glycoprotein over-expressing multidrug resistant MES/SA/Dx5 cells, sugge...

In this study, we evaluated the effects of novel combinations of conventional anti-cancer treatments (temozolomide or irradiation) with the targeted drug, imatinib, or with psychotropic drugs, belonging to the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and phenothiazine subclasses, as well as combination of imatinib with psychotropic agents, on a human U87 glioblastoma cell line. The combination of temozolomide with imatinib or the psychotropic drugs resulted in an additive anti-proliferative effect, while the combination of irradiation and the psychotropic agents resulted in a less than additive effect on cell proliferation. A marked synergistic anti-proliferative effect of imatinib combined with the psychotropic drugs fluoxetine, sertraline or perphenazine was demonstrated. None of ...

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