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Unique Collaboration Between TB Alliance And Tibotec To Accelerate Tuberculosis Drug Development
A new landmark collaboration between the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance), a not-for-profit, product development partnership, and Tibotec Inc., (Tibotec), a global pharmaceutical company, has been announced at the Pacific Health Summit in response to the urgent need to accelerate the discovery and development of new drugs to fight tuberculosis (TB).
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Health Industry Officials Offer $2 Trillion Savings Plan To The White House
"Health industry officials delivered a plan to the White House Monday documenting how they"ll attempt to save $2 trillion over a decade through measures like reducing hospitalizations and cutting down on paperwork," the Associated Press reports. "Health insurers, doctors, hospitals, drug-makers and others were under pressure to make good on a pledge they made last month to curb their own costs to help President Barack Obama achieve his health care overhaul goals." Their three big areas of savings: $150 billion to $180 billion would come from more efficient use of health care services, $350 billion to $850 billion from better management of chronic diseases, and $500 billion to $700 billion through administrative improvements such as standardizing claim forms (Werner, 6/1).
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AICR And Giant Food Encourage Consumers To Shop For Health, Eat For Life
The American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) is launching a new campaign in partnership with Giant Food. The campaign, called Shop for Health, Eat for Life, will run in all Giant food stores from June 19 to July 2, 2009.
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DNA Damage From Environmental Exposures May Occur In As Little As Three Days

Exposure to particulate matter has been recognized as a contributing factor to lung cancer development for some time, but a new study indicates inhalation of certain particulates can actually cause some genes to become reprogrammed, affecting both the development and the outcome of cancers and other diseases. The research was presented on Sunday, May 17, at the 105th International Conference of the American Thoracic Society in San Diego. "Recently, changes in gene programming due to a chemical transformation called methylation have been found in the blood and tissues of lung cancer patients," said investigator Andrea Baccarelli, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of applied biotechnology at the University of Milan. "We aimed at investigating whether exposure to particulate matter induced changes in DNA methylation in blood from healthy subjects who were exposed to high levels of particulate matter in a foundry facility." Researchers enrolled 63 healthy subjects who worked in a foundry near Milan, Italy. Blood DNA samples were collected on the morning of the first day of the work week, and again after three days of work. Comparing these samples revealed that significant changes had occurred in four genes associated with tumor suppression. "The changes were detectable after only three days of exposure to particulate matter, indicating that environmental factors need little time to cause gene reprogramming which is potentially associated with disease outcomes," Dr. Baccarelli said. "As several of the effects of particulate matter in foundries are similar to those found after exposure to ambient air pollution, our results open new hypotheses about how air pollutants modify human health," he added. "The changes in DNA methylation we observed are reversible and some of them are currently being used as targets of cancer drugs." Dr. Baccarelli said the study results indicate that early interventions might be designed which would reverse gene programming to normal levels, reducing the health risks of exposure. "We need to evaluate how the changes in gene reprogramming we observed are related to cancer risk," he said. "Down the road, it will be particularly important not only to show that these changes are associated with increased risk of cancer or other environmentally-induced diseases, but that, if we were able to prevent or revert them, these risks could be eliminated." Session # A45: "Genetic Basis for Environmental and Occupational Respiratory Diseases" Abstract # 2589: "Effects of Particulate Matter Exposure on p16, p53, APC and RASSF1A Promoter Methylation" Keely Savoie American Thoracic Society


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