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Parents Should Choose Zero Tolerance Alcohol Policy
Restaurants in Germany legally sell alcohol to teenagers after their sixteenth birthdays and French children drink wine with dinner at an early age, but U.S. parents who follow this relaxed European example, believing it fosters a healthier attitude toward alcohol, should be careful -- it may increase the likelihood that their children binge drink in college.
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At American Diabetes Association Meeting, 2 Preclinical Abstracts Published By Versartis
Versartis, Inc., a new company developing novel biologics with enhanced properties for patients with metabolic diseases, published abstracts for preclinical data on its two product candidates, VRS-859 (exenatide-rPEG) and VRS-808 (glucagon-rPEG), at the American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions annual meeting in New Orleans.
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Ohio Bill Would Require Biological Father's Consent For Abortion
A bill (HR 252) introduced this month in the Ohio House would require a pregnant woman seeking an abortion to obtain written consent from the fetus" biological father, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. If the woman does not know the identity of the biological father, she would have to provide proof of paternity tests of potential fathers. The bill is sponsored by Rep. John Adams (R) and co-sponsored by four other Republicans.The bill would establish "abortion fraud" as a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. Repeat offenders could be charged with a fifth-degree felony, punishable by up to one year in jail and up to a $2,500 fine. The bill is not clear as to who could be fined or jailed. Becki Brenner, president of Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio, said that she believes doctors would be the ones ultimately fined or jailed.Brenner criticized the bill, saying that a woman would have to pay at least $1,400 for each DNA test if she is unsure who the father is. Brenner called the legislation "a burden on a woman," adding that the whole purpose behind the bill is to make it harder to obtain a legal abortion. She said, "Hopefully, [the bill] won"t even get debate in the committee" because it is "blatantly anti-woman."Paula Westwood, executive director of Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati, said that her group supports the bill. She added, "I would think men would want to have these rights."According to the Enquirer, the bill does not have the support of the House Democratic majority. The current version of the bill has not been assigned to a committee, and it is unlikely to pass the House, much like past bills seeking new restrictions on abortion (Craig/Preston, Cincinnati Enquirer, 7/24).
Nutrition

Protein Linked To Change In Tissue That Surround And Support Breast Tumors

A protein known to be overly active in breast cancer can exist in a form that seems to change the structural composition of mammary tissue, potentially making it more conducive to tumor progression, say researchers from the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC). At the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in Washington, DC, the scientists report that the protein, AIB1 (Amplified in Breast Cancer 1), has a shorter form known as AIB1delta3 which turns breast tissue more fibrous. The researchers say this shorter form may contribute to the dense breast tissue that is a known risk factor for breast cancer. "We found that AIB1delta3 alters the stroma, or environment that surrounds and supports cancer cells, producing excessive fibrosis," says the study"s lead author, Priscilla Furth, MD, Professor of Oncology and Medicine. "This is significant, because disordered interactions between the epithelial and stromal compartments are being increasingly recognized as an important component of breast cancer risk." A splice variant occurs as the gene is expressed, resulting in deletion of extra amino acids when the protein is formed, changing its shape and possibly its function. Many genes produce these kinds of variants, and the GUMC researchers wanted to know if AIB1delta3 played the same role, or a different one, than its parent larger protein, AIB1, which is known to be over-produced at the RNA level in a significant portion of breast cancers. Previous research at GUMC has found that AIB1 acts as a co-activator of growth proteins, such as estrogen receptor alpha and HER2/neu, which are also often over-expressed in tumor development. "AIB1 and its more active variant potentiate both estrogen and HER2/Neu at different stages of breast cancer. We knew that AIB1 delta 3 was more active than AIB1 but this study is evidence that we have of a major functional difference between the two proteins," says the study"s other senior author, Anna Riegel, PhD, a professor of oncology and associate director for cancer research education at Lombardi. In this study, the researchers used transgenic mice in which either the AIB1 or the AIB1delta3 slice variant gene were over-expressed. Upon examination of mammary tissue, they found that the tissue in mice with the splice variant of AIB1 was thicker than that seen in mice with too much of the parent protein. This fibrosis may be related to the hard, scar-like tissue frequently seen around a breast tumor, Furth says. "What we don"t know is whether generation of this dense tissue, which seems to increase growth factor responses, is required for cancer to develop, or whether cancer would regress if development of this abnormal stroma was interrupted," she says. Investigators in the project include Maddalena Tilli, degreenow an Assistant Professor in the department of Biology at Georgetown University, and Rebecca Nakles, a graduate student in the Tumor Biology Training Program at Georgetown University. The National Cancer Foundation, National Institutes of Health and the Susan G. Komen Foundation funded the study. Riegel and Furth report no related financial interests. Karen Mallet Georgetown University Medical Center


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