Blue Food Dye Treats Spine Injury in Rats

• By Hadley Leggett
• July 27, 2009 |
• 5:00 pm |
• Categories: Brains and Behavior, Health, Medicine

The same blue food dye that gives your Gatorade its turquoise tint and turns your tongue a peculiar shade of purple might also protect your nerves in the case of spinal cord injury.

By lucky accident, researchers discovered that the commonly used food additive FD&C blue dye No. 1 is remarkably similar to a lab compound that blocks a key step in nerve inflammation. When rats with spinal cord injury were given an infusion of blue dye, they recovered much faster than rats that didn’t get the treatment. And researchers reported only one adverse effect: The rats turned blue.

“One of the reasons no one had done this before is that food science is very separate from neuroscience,” said neuroscientist Maiken Nedergaard of the University of Rochester Medical Center, who co-authored the study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. [http://www.pnas.org/content/106/30/12489.abstract?sid=94d0f0c1-7a4c-4039-8221-a01dc495ff13 ] “Those two fields don’t interact at all.”

Approximately 12,000 people suffer spinal cord injuries each year in the United States, mostly in car accidents or catastrophic falls. After an initial blow to the spine or neck, swelling around the spinal cord can cut off blood supply to the cord and kill additional nerve cells. A small number of patients benefit from steroids given immediately after the injury, Nedergaard said, but most continue to get worse because of secondary swelling.

“We have no treatment at all right now for most patients with spinal cord injury,” she said. “Right now we’re just observing patients get worse.”

In 2004, Nedergaard and colleagues discovered that swelling around the cord is caused by the rapid release of ATP, the molecule that normally provides energy for the cell. Excessive amounts of ATP overstimulate nerve cells and cause them to die of metabolic stress. The researchers found that blocking an ATP receptor called P2X7 prevented much of the inflammation associated with spinal cord injury. But until now, they hadn’t identified a clinically useful drug that could block the receptor.

“We just had proof of principle,” Nedergaard said. “We didn’t have anything we could give to patients.” Then, while searching for chemicals with structures similar to the P2X7 receptor, the scientists came across FD&C blue dye No. 1, completely non-toxic and approved by the FDA in 1928.

“Each of us in United States eats about 14 milligrams of blue dye per day,” Nedergaard said. “It’s in anything blue, in M&Ms, in Gatorade, in Jell-O. We eat 100 million pounds a year in the U.S., so we already know that there’s no toxicity.”

Another benefit of blue food dye is it crosses the blood-brain barrier. So instead of injecting the medicine into the spine, which would be dangerous in an injured patient, blue food dye can be delivered into a vein.

To test whether the compound could improve recovery after spinal cord injury, rats were given an intravenous infusion of Brilliant Blue G, which is nearly identical to blue food dye, 15 minutes after a 10-gram weight was dropped on their spinal cords (under anesthesia). Animals who received the blue dye recovered much faster than animals who didn’t: By six weeks, the treatment group could walk with a limp, while the no-treatment group never recovered the ability to walk.

“The paper presents novel findings, in a convincing manner,” wrote neurosurgeon Michael Fehlings of the University of Toronto, who specializes in spinal cord injury but was not involved in the research. When given 15 minutes after injury, the food dye appears to improve recovery and reduce inflammation, Fehlings said. But he pointed out several issues that need to be addressed before assuming the treatment could work in people.

“The time window of 15 minutes post-injury is not clinically relevant,” Fehlings wrote in an e-mail. Most patients don’t make it to the emergency room within 15 minutes of getting hurt, so for the treatment to work, he said, it would have to be effective at least two hours after an injury. In addition, the rats experienced injury to their middle back, while most spinal cord injuries in humans are caused by damage to the neck and upper back.

Nedergaard agrees that more research is necessary, and her group hopes to pursue a phase I clinical trial as soon they can get funding. Unfortunately, because blue food dye is so cheap, they’re not likely to find a drug company to sponsor the trials. “There’s no commercial interest because you can buy it by the pound,” Nedergaard said. “We’re planning a clinical trial here in Rochester, but we’ll have to wait for funding from the government.”

Source

Common allergy drug reduces obesity and diabetes in mice

July 26th, 2009

Crack open the latest medical textbook to the chapter on type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes, and you'll be hard pressed to find the term "immunology" anywhere. This is because metabolic conditions and immunologic conditions are, with a few exceptions, distant cousins.

However, a group of papers appearing in Nature Medicine, two of which are from Harvard Medical School researchers, have linked type 2 diabetes with immunology in a way that might persuade leading researchers to start viewing them as siblings.

In the first study, researchers used two common over-the-counter allergy medications to reduce both obesity and type 2 diabetes in mice. The medications, called Zaditor and cromolyn, stabilize a population of inflammatory immune cells called mast cells. In the second study, researchers found that a kind of white blood cell called a regulatory T cell, once thought to manage only other white blood cells, also acts as a liaison between the metabolic and immune systems—in this case, controlling inflammation in fat tissue. Fat tissue from obese and insulin-resistant mice and people is marked by a dramatic absence of this cell type, in dramatic contrast to an already reported overabundance in fat tissue of inflammatory immune cells called macrophages.

"It seems that we're seeing the emergence of a new biomedical discipline: immunometabolism," says HMS professor of pathology Diane Mathis, senior author on one of the papers.

Both papers will appear online July 26 in Nature Medicine.

Molecular garbage

Type 1 and type 2 diabetes both involve abnormalities in the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas, but their root causes are completely different. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the pancreas, destroying its ability to produce insulin. In contrast, type 2 diabetes is a strictly metabolic condition in which cells grow increasingly deaf to insulin signals and thus lose their ability to metabolize glucose. In both cases, glucose mounts in the blood, at times to fatal levels.

But it is becoming increasingly clear that we should also think of type 2 diabetes in the context of immune function, Harvard scientists assert.

Guo-Ping Shi, Biochemist from the Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, began to suspect such a connection when, in a previous study, he found mast cells present in a variety of inflammatory vascular diseases.

Mast cells are immune cells that facilitate healing in wounded tissue, primarily by increasing blood flow to the site. However, in certain conditions mast cells build up to levels far beyond what the body needs. As a result these cells become unstable and eventually, like punctured trash bags, leak molecular "garbage" into the tissue. This can result in chronic inflammation that causes asthma and certain allergies.

As Shi and postdoctoral research fellow Jian Liu discovered, mast cells were far more abundant in fat tissue from obese and diabetic humans and mice than they were in normal weight fat tissue. This led to an obvious question: by regulating mast cells, could we then control the symptoms?

To find out, Shi and colleagues took a group of obese and diabetic mice and, for a period of two months, treated them with either ketotifen fumarate (also called Zaditor) or cromolyn, both over-the-counter allergy drugs.

"We knew from published research that both cromolyn and Zaditor help stabilize mast cells in people suffering from allergy or asthma," said Shi. "It's almost as if the drugs place an extra layer of plastic on the ripped trash bag. So it seemed like a logical place to begin."

The mice were divided into four groups. The first was the control group; the second group was simply switched to a healthy diet; the third was given cromolyn or ketotifen fumarate; and the fourth was both given the drug and switched to a healthy diet.

While symptoms of the second group improved moderately, the third group demonstrated dramatic improvements in both body weight and diabetes. The fourth group exhibited nearly 100 percent recovery in all areas.

To bolster these findings, Shi and colleagues then took a group of mice whose ability to produce mast cells was genetically impaired. Despite three months of a diet rich in sugar and fat, these mice neither became obese nor developed diabetes.

"The best thing about these drugs is that we know it's safe for people," says Shi. "The remaining question now is: Will this also work for people?"

Shi now intends to test both cromolyn and ketotifen fumarate on obese and diabetic non-human primates.

Beyond friendly fire

In findings independent of Shi, researchers at Harvard Medical School and Joslin Diabetes Center discovered that a class of immune system cells called regulatory T cells, or Tregs, were abundant in the abdominal fat tissue of normal-weight humans and mice, but were virtually absent in the same tissue from obese and diabetic humans and mice.

Their numbers were inversely correlated with the numbers of a class of inflammatory immune cells, macrophages, in a sense creating parallel universes of fat. While obese and diabetic fat tissue was full of inflammatory macrophages and nearly absent of Tregs, normal-weight fat tissue was the diametric opposite.

"For immunologists this is very important, because Tregs had always been thought to control other T cells and that's it," says Markus Feuerer, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of HMS professors of pathology Diane Mathis and Christophe Benoist. "But this is an entirely new concept." Mathis and Benoist collaborated on the study with Steven Shoelson, HMS professor of medicine at the Joslin Diabetes Center.

"I come at this studying the effects of obesity and why it can spread systemically to cause chronic health problems," says Shoelson, an endocrinologist. "It's possible that the inflammation caused by macrophages results in insulin resistance. And it's more likely, from what we've just seen, that Tregs are keeping the macrophages in check in normal fat tissue, thus preventing inflammation."

For over a decade, Tregs have been known as guardians for the immune system, ensuring that when white blood cells attack a foreign pathogen they don't become overzealous and harm healthy host tissue in a kind of friendly fire. Malfunctioning Tregs, however, have recently been implicated in diseases as diverse as multiple sclerosis and certain cancers.

"Now we're seeing that Tregs may be needed to prevent metabolic abnormalities as well," says Mathis. She adds, half joking, "As an immunologist, I always thought that type 2 diabetes was a pretty boring condition. After these findings, I'm starting to change my mind."

More information: "Genetic deficiency and pharmacological stabilization of mast cells reduce diet-induced obesity and diabetes in mice" Nature Medicine, July 26, 2009, early online publication

Source: Harvard Medical School

Source

Novel Light-Sensitive Compounds Show Promise for Cancer Therapy

July 22, 2009

by Lynn Shapiro, Writer

Chemists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have developed novel compounds that show promise for photodynamic cancer therapy, which uses light-activated drugs to kill tumor cells.

The new compounds, called dye-sensitized ruthenium nitrosyls, are absorbed by cancer cells and respond to specific wavelengths of light by releasing nitric oxide, which triggers cell death.

"For cancer treatment, you want localized delivery of a very high concentration of nitric oxide. We've designed these molecules to do just that," said Pradip Mascharak, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UCSC.

Nitric oxide is a simple molecule with a wide range of biological effects. Long known for its role in regulating blood pressure, it has attracted the attention of cancer researchers in recent years. According to Mascharak, one advantage of nitric oxide for cancer treatment is that it induces an orderly type of cell death known as apoptosis. Also known as "programmed cell death," apoptosis does not lead to the inflammation, pain, and swelling normally associated with damage to cells and tissues in the body.

The drugs currently used in photodynamic therapy, called photosensitizers, produce a highly reactive form of oxygen when activated by light. The reactive oxygen kills cells in a way that tends to cause local swelling and inflammation.

Mascharak and graduate student Michael Rose have synthesized several different ruthenium nitrosyls in their lab. They described these compounds in detail in a recent paper published in Inorganic Chemistry (published online May 29, 2009). In another paper published last year in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the researchers reported that the compounds were effective against breast cancer cells in laboratory experiments.

"We know it works in cancer cells, so now we're very confident about taking it to the next level," Mascharak said. "The idea for cancer therapy would be to embed the compounds in a matrix that you can place in the treatment site, then shine light on it to produce a high concentration of nitric oxide."

In designing the ruthenium nitrosyls, Rose and Mascharak were inspired by natural bacterial enzymes called nitrile hydratases, which release nitric oxide as a by-product when activated by light.

"We borrowed the idea from nature," Mascharak said. "Our initial goal was to understand these very unusual enzymes. Every hint that nature embedded in the behavior and structure of the enzyme we employed in designing a drug that can deliver nitric oxide in a very site-specific and controlled way."

Rose, who earned his Ph.D. this year, has been working on the project since 2004. He began by replacing the iron atom in a synthetic model of the enzyme with a different metal, ruthenium.

"Iron complexes are good in nature because they are highly reactive, but if you're trying to make a drug you want something that's more stable," Rose said. "The ruthenium complexes are much more stable when dissolved in water."

The first ruthenium nitrosyls he made released nitric oxide only under ultraviolet light, so Rose spent several years developing ways to sensitize them to specific wavelengths of visible light that could be used in photodynamic therapy. He did this by attaching dye molecules, called chromophores, to the ruthenium complex.

To test the resulting compounds as potential drugs, the chemists teamed up with breast cancer researcher Lindsay Hinck, a professor of molecular, cell, and developmental biology at UCSC. Hinck and postdoctoral researcher Rebecca Marlow worked with Rose to test the dye-sensitized ruthenium nitrosyls against breast cancer cells growing in tissue culture.

The unactivated compounds are fluorescent, which allowed the researchers to track them using a fluorescence microscope as the compounds were absorbed by the cancer cells. The release of nitric oxide after exposure to light quenched the fluorescence, and the cells showed signs of apoptosis within four to eight
hours.

Source: University of California, Santa Cruz

Source

New way to kill cancer found using body's immune system/lysosomal bursting

July 21st, 2009

[Perhaps this lysosomal bursting finding could be applied to killing viruses?]

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have discovered a new way of killing cancer cells in a breakthrough that could eventually lead to new treatments for a range of different cancers.

Researchers at The University of Manchester, working with colleagues at the University of Southampton, investigated how antibody treatments make cancer cells kill themselves and found a previously undiscovered mechanism that could, in future, be even more effective in causing their death.

When antibodies bind to cells, including cancer cells, they can ‘flag’ those targets for destruction by the body’s immune system but this latest study has shown that antibodies can kill cancer cells directly. When the antibody binds, it causes lysosomes - small acid-containing sacs - inside the cell to swell and burst, rapidly releasing their toxic contents with fatal results for the cancer cell.

The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation , offers hope of more alternative approaches to killing cancer cells that may have become resistant to the traditional chemotherapy treatments.

”A number of antibody treatments for cancer have been developed over the last decade and some of them are a huge step forward in treatment,” said Professor Tim Illidge, in Manchester’s School of Cancer and Imaging Sciences at the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research.

“Our research focused on several antibodies that bind to a molecule found on many leukaemia and lymphoma cells called CD20. Until now scientists did not understand exactly how these antibodies work as treatments for these blood cancers but our research not only identifies how they kill the cancer cells but also provides exciting insights into how other antibodies that use this mechanism might be developed.”

Dr Mark Cragg, from the University of Southampton, added: “Our findings are significant and open up the possibility of applying the knowledge of how antibodies can be developed to trigger cell death and may enable us to design treatments for other cancers.”

http://www.physorg.com/news167408029.html

Ref:
http://jem.rupress.org/cgi/reprint/117/6/879.pdf

Could science use the common cold to cure cystic fibrosis?

July 21st, 2009

In 1989 scientists identified the gene mutation that causes cystic fibrosis (CF), which led to the hope that CF lung disease could be 'cured' using gene therapy. The premise of gene therapy is that modified viruses or other gene-based systems could be used to deliver a corrected version of a gene into affected tissues. However, the projected cure has been hampered by the natural ability of the lung to limit the introduction of foreign genes into its cells.

Now, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine scientists have found what may be the most efficient way to deliver a corrected gene to lung cells derived from CF patients, renewing hope that gene therapy for CF lung disease could be a successful future treatment.

While Cystic Fibrosis is a multiple organ disease, it most devastatingly affects the lung. In people with CF the airways are clogged with mucus that is dehydrated and thicker than normal. The inability to clear mucus from the lung increases the susceptibility of CF patients to lung infections, which results in lung damage. Over the last two decades scientists have developed a variety of viral and non-viral vector systems suitable for delivering a corrected CF gene back into lung cells grown in the laboratory. Several of these vectors systems have been tested in human clinical trials. However, the efficiency of gene delivery achieved in the laboratory has not borne out in the clinical studies, suggesting that the cell models used in the laboratory do not represent the status of the cells in patients' lungs. Scientists have since developed laboratory models of human lung cells derived from CF patients that recapitulate the architecture and function of the cells prese nt in the human lung. Studies using such cell models have revealed that previously used vector systems cannot deliver the corrected CF gene to enough lung cells to be of clinical benefit to CF patients.

In this new study reported today in PLoS Biology, UNC scientists took a different approach and used parainfluenza virus, a virus known to infect human lung cells and to cause common colds. The UNC scientists engineered this virus to contain the corrected CF gene and found that it could deliver this gene to 60-70% of lung cells although only 25% of cells needed to be targeted to restore normal function back to the tissue model. "This is the first demonstration in which we've been able to execute delivery in an efficient manner to a tissue that resembles what is present in the lung," said Ray Pickles, Ph.D., associate professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the Cystic Fibrosis Research and Treatment Center and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. "When you consider that in past gene therapy clinical trials, the targeting efficiency has been somewhere around 0.1 percent of cells at best, you can see this is a giant leap forward.

"We discovered that if you take a virus that has evolved to infect the human airways, and you engineer a normal CF gene into it, you can use this virus to correct hallmark CF features in the model system that we used," he said. For instance, the experiment restored the cells' ability to hydrate and transport mucus secretions making the CF cells function essentially like normal cells.

Now the researchers must work to ensure the safety of the delivery system. In a pleasant surprise, simply adding the CF gene to the virus significantly attenuated it, potentially reducing its ability to cause an inflammatory reaction. But the scientists may need to alter the virus further. "We haven't generated a vector that we can go out and give to patients right now," Pickles said, "but we are slowly but surely moving forward towards this goal" Pickles says. "It is going to require a long term commitment from the CF gene therapy field that has achieved so much this far and it's only a matter of time until we understand how to do this reproducibly and safely".

Zhang L, Button B, Gabriel SE, Burkett S, Yan Y, et al. (2009) CFTR Delivery to 25% of Surface Epithelial Cells Restores Normal Rates of Mucus Transport to Human Cystic Fibrosis Airway Epithelium. PLoS Biol 7(7): e1000155. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000155

Source

Swine Flu Vaccinations Could Prove More Deadly Than the Swine Flu

Bill Lindner

July 18, 2009

Austrian Investigative Journalist Jane Buergermeister (Bürgermeister) who recently filed criminal charges against the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations (UN) and several high-ranking Goverment and corporate officials concerning bioterrorism involving Swine Flu vaccines that could prove to be more deadly than the disease was fired from her job -- writing for Renewable Energy World -- earlier this week, apparently because she filed those charges, and that is unacceptable. Readers wishing to help her can read more about that on her blog.

Evidence that many organizations as well as Pharmaceutical companies such as Baxter and Novartis who merged with Chiron are part of a system controlled by a crime syndicate responsible for funding the development, manufacturing and release of artificial viruses with the intention of justifying mass vaccinations with a bioweapon substance to eliminate the people of the U.S. and to gain control of North America's assets and resources was produced by Burgermeister.

Burgermeister says the crime syndicate sets its goals using the Trilateral Commission and Bilderberg meetings, identifying the 'Illuminati,' a mafia-like group with family dynasties -- a global crime syndicate based in off-shore banking centers -- that employs international organizations such as the WHO and the UN.

The lawsuit filed by Burgermeister alleges that the Swine Flu pandemic was manufactured as part of a long term plan by the crime syndicate, who built large numbers of FEMA concentration camps with incinerators and prepared mass graves in states that include Indiana and New York to quarantine people and dispose of bodies of the people killed by the bioweapons attack.

Information on funding for the crime syndicate can be found in this article from InfoWars. Burgermeister also contends that there is evidence that Baxter AG, an Austrian subsidiary of Baxter International, deliberately sent 72 kilos of live bird flu virus, supplied by the WHO in the winter of 2009, to 16 laboratories in 4 countries. More on her charges can be found in this 'Swine Flu Outbreak or Bioterrorism and Intent to Commit Mass Murder?' article.

Number of Deaths does not Justify a Pandemic

A recent report by Dr. Russell Blaylock highlights dangers of the Swine Flu vaccine about to be thrust upon the world courtesy of the outbreak of the Swine Flu in Mexico this past April when President Obama -- who is also named in Burgermeister's lawsuit -- visited there.

The Swine Flu outbreak, according to Dr. Blaylock's figures, eventually affected 4,910 Mexican citizens and resulted in 85 deaths. Once the flu spread to the U.S. -- due to air travel and the failure of health officials to control travel from Mexico -- it caused primarily mild cases of flu-like illness. Now the virus has been spread worldwide.

Contrary to predictions of a massive amount of deaths and the WHO's manipulations making it possible for them to call it a pandemic, the virus has remained relatively mild, as happens each year with flu epidemics. There have been 311 deaths worldwide out of 70,893 cases diagnosed. The U.S. has had 27,717 cases that have resulted in 127 deaths. It's sad that people have died from this virus, but such low numbers do not come close to being pandemic and should not be the basis of implementing egregiously draconian government policies.

As noted by Dr. Blaylock, it's helpful to recall that the Centers for Disease Control, with the collusion of the media, constantly tells us that 36,000 people die from the flu each year, a figure that has been shown to be a lie. With the Swine flu, we're talking about a little over 300 deaths for the entire world. It's also interesting to note that the WHO said that the H1N1 flu pandemic is moving around the globe at an 'unprecedented' speed but stopped giving figures on numbers affected.

Scandal-ridden Companies Hurriedly Creating Pandemic Vaccine

Extensive analysis of the swine flu virus revealed that it contained the original 1918 H1N1 flu virus, the avian (bird) flu virus and 2 new H3N2 virus genes from Eurasia, meaning that it had to be genetically created in a laboratory.

Both Baxter Pharmaceuticals and Novartis Pharmaceuticals -- recently acquired from scandal-ridden Chiron vaccine company -- have agreements with the WHO to come up with a pandemic vaccine.

Baxter Pharmaceuticals has been involved in a few deadly scandals in the past couple decades. In 1996 hemophilia components were contaminated with HIV virus and injected into tens of thousands of people, including thousands of children. Even when the contamination became known, Baxter continued to release the HIV contaminated clotting substance. Baxter has had a couple of major scandals because of Heparin.

Earlier this year Baxter Pharmaceuticals was caught in what appeared to be an attempted worldwide release of a weaponized version of the H591 Avian Flu Virus that had been mixed with seasonal H3N2 flu viruses. It was shipped to at least 18 countries, despite the fact that it's virtually impossible for that type of contamination to mistakenly occur. It appears to have been intentional. Despite the scandals and the deadly events, WHO has an agreement with Baxter to produce pandemic vaccine to be used worldwide.

Immune Adjuvants Found to be Deadly to Animals

Celvapan, the vaccine created by Baxter, uses a new vero cell technology that utilizes cultured cells from the African green monkey -- the same animal tissue that transmits the HIV virus, among a number of other vaccine-contaminating viruses -- has had fast track approval.

According to Dr. Blaylock, the terrifying thing about these pandemic vaccines is that they contain ingredients called immune adjuvants -- pharmacological or immunological agents used to modify the effect of other agents -- that a number of studies have shown cause devastating autoimmune disorders including rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and lupus.

Animal studies using this adjuvant were found to be deadly -- when 14 guinea pigs were injected with the special adjuvant, only 1 animal survived -- not once, twice. Both studies had the same deadly outcome. Numerous studies have shown that squalene can trigger the autoimmune disorders mentioned above.

Swine Flu Vaccinations Could Prove More Deadly Than the Swine Flu

The deadly ingredient in the immune adjuvant is called squalene. The Chiron company, maker of the deadly anthrax and flu vaccines makes an adjuvant called MR-59 that contains squalene and gp120. Several vaccines have used Chiron's MF-59 adjuvant, including tetanus and diptheria, that has been frequently associated with adverse reactions.

Squalene has been attributed strongly to Gulf War Syndrome too. In the summer of 1991 the Secretary of Veterans Affairs admitted that soldiers who were vaccinated with anthrax vaccine from 1990 to 1991 had a 200 percent increased risk in developing a deadly disease called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Courtesy of the U.S. government, soldiers were also recipients of a number of debilitating and life-shortening diseases.

Dr. Blaylock reviewed several studies -- a number of which appeared in 'prestigious' medical journals claiming that it was a very safe adjuvant for humans -- on MR-59 and found, to no great surprise, that a great number of the studies were done by Novartis Pharmaceutical Company and Chiron Pharmaceuticals. A great number of studies done by independent laboratories and research institutions all found strong links between MF-59 and autoimmune diseases. Results of the Pharmaceutical studies are misleading, primarily because their results are based on one to two week time frames, when in reality, it can take years for the deadly reactions of the vaccines to manifest. Taking that vaccine could result in a lifetime of crippling illness and early death.

Some of the deadly dangers of Squalene -- the main ingredient in MF-59 -- can be found in Dr. Blaylock's article. The vaccines being rushed to market by these large pharmaceutical companies who stand to make billions of dollars in profits from the WHO as well as the U.S. and numerous other governments could kill a hell of a lot more people than the Swine Flu. One thing to keep in mind, as noted by Dr. Blaylock, is the fact that there is little you can do to protect yourself -- at least with conventional medicine -- once you receive an injection of the vaccine. Dr. Blaylock recommends a good diet, higher doses of vitamin D3 and selective immune enhancement using supplements to protect yourself from the Swine Flu virus.

A CBS "60 Minutes" expose that was only shown once looks at the great, falsely manufactured, Swine Flu scare of 1976 when 46 million Americans took the vaccine and 4000 ended up seeking damages that amounted to $3.5 billion due to neurological problems and death should serve as a precaution, not to mention evidence of how the government fraudulently and falsely creates disasters to intentionally scare the masses while killing an untold number of people. The last eight and a half years of U.S. government malfeasance also serves as a perfect example of why NOT to trust the government. Goverment propaganda causes many deaths.

The quick elevation of this 'swine flu outbreak' to pandemic status with such low death numbers makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. More background on the alleged pandemic and why to be suspicous of it can be found in this 'swine flu outbreak or bioterrorism and intent to commit mass murder?' article. It appears that this pandemic is an example of history repeating itself, but this time the results will probably end up being a lot worse because the swine flu vaccinations could prove more deadly than the swine flu.

Cure for radiation sickness found?

Exclusive: Dramatic discovery by Jewish-American scientists could change world; anti-radiation medication proves effective, safe in tests. Further experiments to be fast tracked, FDA approval possible within 1-2 years

07.17.09, 00:18

Medication that can protect humans against nuclear radiation has been developed by Jewish-American scientists in cooperation with a researcher and investors from Israel. The full story behind the dramatic discovery will be published in Yedioth Ahronoth's weekend edition.

The ground-breaking medication, developed by Professor Andrei Gudkov – Chief Scientific Officer at Cleveland BioLabs - may have far-reaching implications on the balance of power in the world, as states capable of providing their citizens with protection against radiation will enjoy a significant strategic advantage vis-à-vis their rivals.

For Israel, the discovery marks a particularly dramatic development that could deeply affect the main issue on the defense establishment's agenda: Protection against a nuclear attack by Iran or against "dirty bomb" attacks by terror groups.

Gudkov's discovery may also have immense implications for cancer patients by enabling doctors to better protect patients against radiation. Should the new medication enable cancer patients to be treated with more powerful radiation, our ability to fight the disease could greatly improve.

Dramatic test results

The process that led up to the medical innovation dates back to 2003, when Professor Gudkov came up with the idea of using protein produced in bacteria found in the intestine to protect cells from radiation.

Gudkov recounted an experiment he held with two groups of mice.

"We exposed both groups to lethal radioactive radiation," he said. "All the mice in the control group died within a short period of time. A few days later, when I approached the cage with the mice that received the protein, I could see that they're ok, that they're alive. They survived. It's hard to describe the joy all of us felt. We realized that finally, after so many years and so many experiments and frustrations, we made a breakthrough that may save the lives of millions."

Prof. Gudkov published the findings of the protein experiment in Science, the world's leading scientific journal; however, the discovery of the medication was kept secret until now, while Gudkov and his associated waited for the results of two series of critical tests examining the medication's effectiveness and safety.

The first series of tests included experiments on more than 650 monkeys. Each test featured two groups of monkeys exposed to radiation, but only one group was given the medication. The radiation dosage was equal to the highest dosage sustained by humans as result of the Chernobyl mishap.

The experiment's results were dramatic: 70% of the monkeys that did not receive the cure died, while the ones that survived suffered from the various maladies associated with lethal nuclear radiation. However, the group that did receive the anti-radiation shot saw almost all monkeys survive, most of them without any side-effects. The tests showed that injecting the medication between 24 hours before the exposure to 72 hours following the exposure achieves similar results.

Another test on humans, who were given the drug without being exposed to radiation, showed that the medication does not have side-effects and is safe. Prof. Gudkov's company now needs to expand the safety tests, a process expected to be completed by mid-2010 via a shortened test track approved for bio-defense drugs. Should experiments continue at the current rate, the medication is estimated to be approved for use by the FDA within a year or two.

'Stable, safe, and easy to inject'

The company's subcontractor in Europe is already prepared to embark on mass production. Meanwhile, emergency regulations in Israel allow the government to purchase drugs on short notice, even if they are still in the process of being approved. Notably, the medication in question is not a vaccine, but rather, a preventative drug administered via one or several shots.

The medication works by suppressing the "suicide mechanism" of cells hit by radiation, while enabling them to recover from the radiation-induced damages that prompted them to activate the suicide mechanism in the first place.

Prof. Gudkov heads a group of Jewish-American scientists and has cooperated with an Israeli researcher and Israeli investors. A large part of the revolutionary medication's development process was funded by the US Defense and Health departments, which thus far earmarked $40 million to the project. About two weeks ago, the US Defense Department announced that in light of the successful tests, it will continue to fund the project.

The Israeli scientist involved in the research, Dr. Elena Feinstein, made Aliyah to Israel in 1985 and for many years served as a cancer researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Dr. Feinstein met Prof. Gudkov while they worked together in Moscow and was among the founders of the company, serving as its deputy director for some time.

Today, Feinstein works for an Israel company engaged in cancer research and continues to cooperate with Gudkov. Referring to the innovative medication, she says: "Both its effectiveness and safety had been proven. It is stable, safe, and easy to inject."

Both Feinstein and Gudkov stress that the innovative drug does not provide 100% protection against radioactive damage. However, should the discovery announced by the scientists meet all the required tests and permits, it may change the 21st Century.

Source

Cleveland Biolabs
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=CBLI&.yficrumb=myzKIVdV2RC
http://www.cbiolabs.com/