Recent studies on mice reveal that a drug, being tested as an anticancer agent to treat breast cancer, supports recovery from muscular dystrophy//, a disease that has no cure.

Duchene muscular dystrophy is a disease characterized by progressive weakness and degeneration of the muscles that control movement. According to earlier studies, the functional decline of "dystrophic" muscles can be slowed down by agents that enhance muscle fiber size.

The recent study conducted by Dr. P. L. Puri, from The Burnham Institute in La Jolla, California, and colleagues is published on line yesterday in the journal Nature Medicine. According to this study, the anticancer drug trichostatin A or TSA increases muscles fiber size in two mouse models of muscular dystrophy. Mice with this disability, when given TSA for 3 months, were able to run on treadmills and swim as long as healthy mice. According to the researchers, the drug caused no obvious side effects or signs of toxicity. TSA belongs to a class of drugs called deacetylase inhibitors.

The dystrophic muscles became resistant to contraction-related degeneration when treated with trichostatin A and this is linked with functional and morphological recovery. "We have identified a new rationale for treating muscular dystrophy, aimed at correcting the devastating effects of a single flawed gene," Dr Lorenzo Puri said in a statement. "In the window of time that we have analysed these mice, they seem to perform like normal mice. All the decreases in muscle performance were restored by the treatment. "This is a significant advance over the use of steroid -- currently the only treatment available -- which offers palliative relief, often with severe side effects," he said.

Ms Sharon Hesterlee, a vice-president of the association, which helped finance the research, said "I am hesitant to call the finding a breakthrough, because that could raise expectations unfairly, but it's certainly an i
'"/>




Page: 1 2
Related medicine news :

1. An Anti-cancer Smart Bomb delivered using a Nanocell
2. Gene Study Offers Hope of Potent Anti-cancer Drugs
3. Indian Court Refers Novartis Plea for Patent on Anti-cancer Drug to a Separate Board
4. Thyroid hormone treatment hastens recovery after cardiac surgery
5. Feeding channel created by malaria parasite - a new target for malaria treatments
6. New drug to treat Heart Attack and damaged tissue
7. Now umbilical cord helps in stroke treatment.
8. Now AIDS treatment comes dirt-cheap
9. Breast cancer treatment to be determined by gene test
10. Hemopurifier may revolutionise AIDS treatment
11. New drug helps boost cancer treatment