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Unique Immunization Method Provides Insights About Protective Anti-Malaria Immune Response
In this week"s New England Journal of Medicine, scientists in Singapore, The Netherlands and France report that they have developed a novel immunization method that will induce fast and effective protection in humans against the life-threatening malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, which infects 350 to 500 million people world-wide and kills over one million people each year.
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FDA Approves Effient To Reduce The Risk Of Heart Attack In Angioplasty Patients
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the blood-thinning drug Effient tablets (prasugrel) to reduce the risk of blood clots from forming in patients who undergo angioplasty, a common procedure to unblock a clogged coronary artery.
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'Invading' Bacteria In DNA
Call it advanced warfare on the most elemental of levels.
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Polyomavirus Infection In Merkel Cell Carcinoma Is Associated With Better Outcomes

A polyomavirus known as MCPyV is associated with clinical outcomes, including fewer metastases and better survival, in patients with a rare form of skin cancer called Merkel cell carcinoma, according to a new study published online June 17 in the JNCI. Integration of the Merkel cell carcinoma polyomavirus (MCPyV) genome into the tumor genome was recently found to be frequent in skin cancers, but the clinical consequences of MVPyV genomic integration was unclear. To examine the consequences of viral DNA integration, Heikki Joensuu, M.D., of the Department of Oncology at Helsinki University Central Hospital, and colleagues, conducted histopathologic and molecular biological analyses of tumor tissue and DNA from 109 Finnish patients who were diagnosed with Merkel cell carcinoma from 1979 to 2004. Approximately 50% of the tumors were positive for MCPyV DNA. These cancers tended to be located in a limb, to have less frequent nodal or distant metastases at the time of diagnosis, and to be associated with better survival compared with MCPyV DNA-negative cancers. "Identification of MCPyV as a contributing factor to the pathogenesis of Merkel cell carcinoma might provide novel choices for future therapeutic strategies," the authors write. In an accompanying editorial, James A. DeCaprio, M.D., of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, points out parallels between MCPyV infection in Merkel cell carcinoma and human papillomavirus infection in head and neck cancers, suggesting reasons that the presence of these viruses would predict a better prognosis. "Perhaps expression of the viral oncogenes can induce or promote the development of cancers that have fewer host cell chromosomal abnormalities, which may result in tumors with simpler genomic abnormalities," the editorialist writes. "Alternatively, the viral oncogenes may specifically perturb host signaling pathways, including immune surveillance, that render them less aggressive or lethal." Author: Joensuu Heikki Steve Graff Journal of the National Cancer Institute


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