Psilocybin to treat cancer anxiety

Building on previous studies, a recent study discussed in Nature showed that psilocybin, the active psychedelic chemical in "magic" mushrooms, may be beneficial for treating the anxiety and depression accompanying chronic diseases such as cancer. These positive effects could last for a year or more.

Johns Hopkins is recruiting volunteers for a new study on psilocybin and cancer. It is a registered clinical trial.

HIV gels may benefit men

While the new anti-HIV gels being tested may benefit men, it's only at the expense of women. Researchers fear that the gels may promote the development of resistant HIV strains. There is still much research to be done, but current models show that caution is needed when it comes to the use of this new therapy.

Another bad clinical trial?

I was reading my backlog of The Scientist and ran across this newsblog entry about the death of a healthy man during a clinical trial for RhuDex, an anti-inflammatory treatment for rheumatoid arthiritis. Although I am usually trigger happy about pointing fingers at the pharmaceutical industry for early testing and gung-ho releases, I am not sure they are to blame on this one. My comments were posted there were as follows: Only 1 person in all the trials exhibited heart problems. Though this may indicate what could occur in a larger treated population, or what could occur if healthy individuals are mistakenly treated with the drug, it is not an indictment of the drug itself. Not yet. Heart problems can go unseen for decades and strike out of the blue in otherwise healthy individuals. I agree with others that caution is needed in proceeding, but cannot condemn the drug, the company, or the testing facility without more information about the man's death (and I'm usually all for holding pharma accountable). Also, this was voluntary. To clear his debts means he signed up for the cash, voluntarily. It was still his choice to pay his bills this way. Though there is some question as to the ethics of offering money to trial volunteers, and it is an ongoing discussion in the medical community, if they're healthy and taking a drug to help determine the side effects they deserve some sort of compensation for that effort. Looking further for more recent information, it turns out that the man had an unknown history of heart disease:

According to the investigation, the patient had suffered several small infarctions over the past years. In addition, the autopsy revealed coronary arteriosclerosis and myocardial hypertrophy existing for years.

These findings clearly prove impairment of cardiac function in this patient that had developed for many years. From MediGene's point of view, this is backing the assessment that a causal correlation between the death of the patient, which MediGene deeply regrets, and the administration of the trial medication is unlikely.

Cancer Vaccine From Tobacco?

Early stage testing of a vaccine for non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, a B cell proliferative disorder (cancer), that uses the tobacco plant to produce the vaccine has had promising results. The Scientist covered the story. It may be difficult to determine who to give the vaccine to, as not everyone should receive it, but those with a genetic susceptibility and at high risk for the disease will have more options.

Chelating agents to treat autism?

A potential study is under ethics review that would test chelating agents on children with autism. The reasoning is that the agents will remove mercury and prevent autism, because some parents are convinced that mercury in vaccines causes autism. This, by the way, has been discredited by much research, and most children have no heavy metal detected in their blood. But what are these "chelating agents"? And why would they even be considered? Well, chelating agents are compounds that bind to other elements - such as calcium, magnesium, mercury, iron - and help the body remove them. The chemical that would be studied, DMSA, is used to treat individuals with heavy metal poisoning. They want to test it in autistic children that have detectable levels of mercury in their blood. The problem though is that this could expose them to medical problems with no medical gain. The level in their blood is not even near the levels of poisoning. I would also like to add that fish, such as tuna, have high levels of mercury. Current environmental laws in the United States are a rollback of previous allowances so there is more now than previously. Pregnant women should limit their consumption. Also, mercury-based preservatives have been removed from pediatric vaccines. Any mercury that children have in their system now is due to environmental exposure, not vaccines. There is also no known neurological mechanism for mercury to cause Autism. So would chelating agents be worth researching - I don't think so. It is wasting time on a mechanism already shown to be uninvolved and it could make the kids more ill.