Non-Disease Virus Kills Breast Cancer Cells In Lab

A virus that infects humans without causing disease kills breast cancer cells in the laboratory. Researchers from Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) College of Medicine in the US, tested an unaltered form of adeno-associated virus type 2 (AAV2) on three different human breast cancer types representing different stages of cancer and found it targeted all of them. They hope by uncovering the pathways the virus uses to trigger cancer cell death, their work will lead to new targets for anti-cancer drugs. A paper on this work appeared recently in the journal Molecular Cancer.

In earlier studies, the team also showed that AAV2 promotes cell death in cervical cancer cells infected with human papillomavirus (HPV).

Cells have different ways of dying. When a healthy cell gets damaged, or starts behaving in an abnormal way, this normally triggers production of proteins that cause apoptosis or cell suicide: part of this process also involves switching off proteins that trigger cell division. The problem with cancer cells is that apoptosis fails, and the proteins that regulate cell division and proliferation stay switched on, so abnormal cells continue to multiply and create new abnormal cells and that is how tumors develop.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the world and the main cause of cancer-related death in women.

First author Dr Samina Alam, research associate in microbiology and immunology at Penn State, told the press in a statement released on Thursday that breast cancer is also "complex to treat".

Senior investigator Dr Craig Meyers, professor of microbiology and immunology at Penn State, explained why:

"Because it has multiple stages, you can't treat all the women the same. Currently, treatment of breast cancer is dependent on multiple factors such as hormone-dependency, invasiveness and metastases, drug resistance and potential toxicities."

However, he went on to say that in their study, they showed that "AAV2, as a single entity, targets all different grades of breast cancer".

He and his team believe that AAV2 is switching back on the apoptosis pathways that were switched off in the cancer cells.

For their study they used lab tissue cultures of cancer cells and found AAV2 killed 100% of them within seven days, with most of the cell death proteins activated on day five.

In another experiment, working with cancer cells from an aggressive form of breast cancer, they found the virus took three weeks to kill the cells.

Alam said they can see the virus is killing the cells, but exactly how it is doing it remains somewhat of a mystery.

"If we can determine which viral genes are being used, we may be able to introduce those genes into a therapeutic. If we can determine which pathways the virus is triggering, we can then screen new drugs that target those pathways. Or we may simply be able to use the virus itself," said Alam.

They still need to do more to find out exactly how AAV2 kills the cancer cells and for instance establish which of its proteins trigger the cell death pathways.

Although AAV2 does not affect healthy cells, if it were used directly as a treatment, the human immune system would probably target it and expel it from the body. That is why the researchers think a better approach would be to find which pathways it uses and then develop drugs that use them.

Meyers has a hunch that it involves the cellular myc gene. This gene is usually linked to cell proliferation, but sometimes myc protein is known to be involved in apoptosis as well.

In their paper, he and his co-authors explain how they found increased expression of this gene close to the time of death in the breast cancer cells.

The researchers at Penn State have also found that AAV2 can kill cells derived from prostate cancer, methoselioma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma.

They have also studied the effect of AAV2 on the most aggressive form of breast cancer in a mouse model; preliminary tests suggest it destroys such tumors in mice, and they will be reporting those findings soon, they said in a statement.

German Study Says Condoms Contain Cancer-causing Chemical

A German scientific research institute has warned that most condoms on the market contain a cancer-causing chemical and has urged that their manufacture be subjected to stringent quality control.

Sobering news for rubber contraceptive users.

The Chemical and Veterinary Investigation Institute in Stuttgart said on Friday it had found the carcinogen N-Nitrosamine in 29 of 32 types of condoms it tested in simulated conditions.

The condoms, which were kept in a solution with artificial sweat, exuded huge amounts of cancer-causing N-Nitrosamine from its rubber coating. Researchers measured amounts of N-Nitrosamine, that were way above the prescribed limits for other rubber products such as baby pacifiers.

"N-Nitrosamine is one of the most carcinogenic substances," the study's authors said. "There is a pressing need for manufacturers to tackle this problem."

The study said that the carcinogen is thought to be present in a substance used to improve condom elasticity. When the rubber material comes in contact with human bodily fluids, it can release traces of N-Nitrosamine.

No immediate health risk

But since there are no prescribed limits of N-Nitrosamine for condoms, the study hasn't caused panic among manufacturers or mass-recalling of the products from counters.

Local government officials said condom users should not stop using rubber contraceptives based on the results of the study because N-Nitrosamine does not present an immediate health risk.

The Baden-Würtemmberg Social Ministry said it didn't think "it posed a risk." Authorities are also withholding the name of the affected manufacturers for fear of litigation.

Manufacturers should use alternative substances

But Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment said that daily condom use exposed users to N-Nitrosamine levels up to three times higher than levels naturally present in food.

Werner Altkofer, head of the Stuttgart-based Chemical and Veterinary Investigation Institute said that though the production of rubber usually uses chemicals that can exude N-Nitrosamine, condom manufacturers could bypass it by using more expensive alternative substances available on the market that didn't form the carcinogen.

"We believe that it's up to the manufacturers to use other production processes so that no N-Nitrosamine is formed in condoms," Altkofer said.

He added that the latter was technically possible going by the fact that products of some manufacturers didn't show traces of the carcinogen during the testing.

Beate Uhse taking no chances

Germany's biggest erotica compnay Beate Uhse however, has decided to play it safe.

Shortly after the results of the study were introduced on Friday, the group banned chocolate-flavored condoms from its range. That was because the study had show that condoms laced with a chocolate flavoring had overwhelming high levels of N-Nitrosamine.

Experts discuss the shocking findings of the peer-reviewed GMO cancer trial

The recent study undeniably linking genetically modified foods (GMOs) to cancer should shock the health world, especially in the United States where the overwhelming majority of grocery store food is derived from GMO-based crops.

The new peer-reviewed study to be published in the upcoming Food & Chemical Toxicology Journal in New York proves that GMO corn and world's best-selling weedkiller, Roundup, causes increased tumors, multiple organ damage and led to premature death in rats.

“This research shows an extraordinary number of tumors developing earlier and more aggressively - particularly in female animals. I am shocked by the extreme negative health impacts,” said Dr. Michael Antoniou, molecular biologist at King’s College London School of Medicine.

Here are the experts discussing the significance of the findings of this unprecedented study:



This study comes at a time when aware consumers in California are trying to force chemical and genetic engineering companies like Monsanto to label any food that contains genetic modification. These recent findings that GMOs are clearly a health threat will likely give this campaign a boost of credibility in the face of millions of lobbying dollars being spent to oppose Prop 37.

Quantum Computing Makes Huge Breakthrough

Cameras know you by your walk

EVERYONE knows how easy it is to recognise a friend or family member from their walk - even from a distance.

But despite more than three decades of research, using gait analysis as a biometric has never taken off. Until now, perhaps. Recent advances in the accuracy of automated gait recognition suggest the technology could soon form the basis for a new generation of security systems.

Gait analysis has attracted attention because of the shortcomings of other biometric security techniques. Iris scans and face recognition require reasonably high-quality images, for example. They also generally require a cooperative subject, as do fingerprints. By contrast, a person's gait can be recognised from low-quality CCTV footage.

In one leading technique, known as the gait energy image, computer vision techniques use video images of a person to create a blurred silhouette that is characteristic of their gait. A human operator links this gait "signature" to a person's identity, allowing the system to automatically spot that person when they are next caught on film.

This technique uses just a blank silhouette, but Martin Hofmann and colleagues at the Technical University of Munich in Germany have developed a version that also extracts information from the person's image, such as the shadows on their clothing, which leads to a more detailed signature. Hofmann also used Microsoft's gaming sensor Kinect to measure depth, allowing him to better separate the target from the background. The result is a system that is better at tackling tasks that cause problems for the standard version of the technique, such as recognising a person carrying a briefcase. In tests using videos of several hundred people the system achieved a recognition rate of almost 80 per cent, outperforming 13 other gait analysis methods, including the one using gait energy images.

Another problem that has troubled researchers is finding a way to identify a person captured at different camera angles, and Daigo Muramatsu and colleagues at Osaka University in Japan are now working on a solution. They filmed 20 people on a treadmill using 24 cameras ranged around them and used this data to write software that can model the appearance of a person's gait when viewed from different angles. In preliminary tests, the system led to lower identification error rates at almost all angles, results Muramatsu describes as "promising".

Muramatsu and Hofmann will present their work this week at the BTAS biometrics conference in Washington DC.

These and other developments suggest that automated gait analysis might be ready for commercial use in the near future. Muramatsu says his group is already working with forensic scientists in Japan and has also developed gait analysis software that can be used by non-experts.

At the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, UK, researchers have developed a demonstration system that can track people as they move through the laboratory building by their gait alone.

Hofmann cautions against thinking gait recognition will ever rival fingerprints for accuracy. Accuracy rates can plummet if a person walks more rapidly than normal, for example. But that does not mean it won't prove useful. "Gait has potential for commercial applications," he says. "Imagine a bank robber who has covered his fingers and face, but can be identified by the way he walks out of the bank."

Source: New Scientist

Nestle Embeds GPS Trackers In Candy Bars To Hunt Down Eaters

Select Kit-Kat bars in the UK will contain GPS devices, which Nestlé will use to find the buyers and give them a cash prize.

Customers buying Kit-Kat bars in the United Kingdom could be unwrapping a 21st-century version of Willy Wonka’s Golden Ticket--a GPS unit the candy-maker will use to find them, apprehend them and give them a prize. Nestlé claims to be the first to market its chocolatey wares with a GPS-based promotion.

The somewhat sinister-sounding “We Will Find You” campaign will place a GPS-enabled bar inside four versions of Kit-Kats. Inside the wrapper, it would look exactly like a regular Kit-Kat, according to the York Press newspaper, in the town where Nestlé is based. When the would-be snacker pulls a tab to open the wrapper, the GPS device will turn on, which will notify the company. Then a “prize team” will locate this person within 24 hours and hand him or her a check for £10,000 (about $16,000).

Nestlé said they devised the campaign to appeal to men, who presumably like GPS technology. It is backing the marketing blitz with TV ads and a smartphone campaign, wherein users are supposed to scan QR codes on Kit-Kat ads or use NFC-equipped phones to enter an online competition.

While Nestlé may be the first to do this with candy, they’re not the first to use GPS to track their customers. As Network World points out, multinational soap-and-ice-cream supplier Unilever added a GPS device to a box of laundry soap it sells in Brazil, and stalked 50 shoppers to their front doors to give them prizes.

Soda, fast food and candy wrappers always have some kind of contest running, but those usually rely on the consumer to notice the special winning code or wrapper and go get the prize. Tracking people down is definitely a different concept.

Source: Popsci

Germany urges public to stop using Internet Explorer

The German government urged the public on Tuesday to temporarily stop using Microsoft Corp’s Internet Explorer following discovery of a yet-to-be repaired bug in the Web browser that the software maker said makes PCs vulnerable hacker attacks.

It issued the warning as a researcher said he found evidence that suggests the hackers who exploited the flaw were seeking to attack defense contractors.

Microsoft said on Monday that attackers can exploit the bug in its Internet Explorer, used on hundreds of millions of computers, to infect the PC of somebody who visits a malicious website and then take control of the victim’s computer.

The German government’s Federal Office for Information Security, or BSI, said it was aware of targeted attacks and that all that was needed was to lure Web surfers to a website where hackers had planted malicious software that exploited the bug.

“A fast spreading of the code has to be feared,” the German government said in its statement.

BSI advised all users of Internet Explorer to use an alternative browser until the manufacturer has released a security update.

Officials with Microsoft did not respond to a request to comment on the move by the German government, although the company downplayed the impact of the flaw in a written statement.

“There have been an extremely limited number of attacks,” said company spokeswoman Yunsun Wee. “The vast majority of Internet Explorer users have not been impacted.”

The company said it planned to release software to protect PCs from attack within the next few days. Customers must manually install the code by visiting Microsoft’s website and clicking on a link.

Microsoft did not say how long it will take to release a full update to Internet Explorer, which will automatically be loaded onto the machines of most customers. Several security researchers have said they expect the update within a week.

‘NITRO’ LINK

The vulnerability in Internet Explorer was identified on Friday after the PC of a security researcher from Luxembourg was infected while analyzing a computer server that was used last year to launch a cyber industrial espionage campaign on at least 48 chemical and defense companies.

The victims of the so-called “Nitro” attacks included Fortune 100 corporations that develop compounds and advanced materials, according to security software maker Symantec Corp, which disclosed them in October 2011.

Network security firm AlienVault said on Tuesday it has discovered three other servers that host malicious that exploit the newly found Internet Explorer vulnerability.

Jaime Blasco, manager of AlienVault Labs, said he found evidence suggesting they targeted defense contractors. As an example, he said he found a related virus on a site that provides news on India’s defense sector.

“It seems that these guys are behind big targets,” he said.

Internet Explorer was the world’s second-most widely used browser last month, with about 33 percent market share, according to StatCounter. It was close behind Chrome, which had 34 percent of the market.

Source: Secrets of the fed