Posts Tagged ‘Stanford University’

Four Startups After One Year: BioDesign Entrepreneurship Program @ Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical Center

Posted in Technology Transfer: Biotech and Pharmaceutical, tagged Hadassah Medical Center, Hebrew University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, Stanford University on November 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Four Startups After One Year: Biodesign entrepreneurship program @ Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical Center

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

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Israel’s First Biodesign Program Produces Four Startups After One Year

August 6, 2013

Students in Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical Center program develop “science fiction gadgets”

Biodesign entrepreneurship program is Israel’s first medical innovation accelerator

Jerusalem — As health costs spiraled over the last decade, the need for more cost-effective health care systems has become increasingly urgent. Medical innovation plays a vital role in making medicine both efficient and affordable — not to mention improving the quality of patient care and ensuring positive outcomes. However, the process of creating new medical devices requires an in-depth understanding of multiple disciplines including medicine, engineering, and finance that few could master alone. As a result, most aspiring medical innovators face disappointment as the vast majority of ideas fail before reaching the market.

According to Dr. Yaakov Nahmias, the director of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Center for Bioengineering, “When it comes to bringing an idea to market, there is a huge disparity between Hi-Tech, where a few programmers can succeed, and Bio-Tech, where clinicians, engineers, and business experts must all work together to bring a product to the market.”

To solve this problem, Nahmias partnered with Professor Chaim Lotan, the director of Hadassah Medical Center’s Heart Institute and an expert in clinical innovation. According to Prof. Lotan, “We knew that Stanford University’s Biodesign program was the most successful medical innovation program to date, and considering the outstanding students at The Hebrew University and Hadassah we were certain we could give them a run for their money.”

The two partnered with Professor Dan Galai, the former Dean of the Business School at The Hebrew University, and with the help of Dr. Todd Brighton, a Biodesign program director at Stanford University, established The Hebrew University’s Biodesign Medical Innovation Program, the first academic medical innovation accelerator in Israel.

View videos on the innovations

Biodesign is a multi-disciplinary, team-based approach to medical innovation. The program takes outstanding medical fellows, bioengineering and business graduate students, and tutors them in the science and practice of bringing a medical innovation to the market. The teams receive a list of clinical problems, collected from Israeli and American hospitals, and critically evaluate their commercial potential. Once they identify a clinical need with commercial potential, they find an engineering solution that can be protected by a patent application.

The students are mentored by some of Israel’s best and brightest academic and industrial experts, who bring their experience in scientific discovery, clinical applications, and business development.

According to the Hebrew University’s Nahmias, “This isn’t a pure academic exercise. We have students and clinicians who are eager to bring innovation to the market. The program generated quite of lot of excitement with the business and academic environment. It is exactly this drive that makes Israel a start-up nation.”

One year after starting with 20 students and medical fellows, the program has already produced four projects that passed through the proof-of-concept stage, are protected by provisional patent applications, and are showing excellent market potential.

One of the projects, called SAGIV, is a semi-automatic handheld device for rapid and safe IV insertion, using infrared sights and electrical sensing. SAGIV targets a $900 million market with elements already tested on difficult IV insertion cases at the Hadassah Medical Center.

Another project, called GuideIN Tube, is a robotic intubation device which automatically navigates towards the lungs, targeting a $3 billion market.

“The projects really look like science fiction gadgets,” said Dr. Nahmias. “Even if just a few Biodesign companies succeed, they can completely transform the Israeli medical device sector.”

“We have incredibly driven students at The Hebrew University, and Biodesign gives them critical tools they need to succeed,” added Prof. Lotan. Both directors noted that students accomplished in one academic year what many start-up companies take 2 to 3 years to complete, advancing to the point of having proof-of-principle prototypes.

Yehuda Zisapel, president of RAD-Bynet Group, one of the largest investment groups in Israel, said: “Biodesign is a truly innovative approach to generate and accelerate new ideas. The cooperative efforts of physicians, scientists, engineers and business development people allows for a multidimensional approach which encourages the creation and development of new ideas. I was really impressed by the team work and the spirit created by the program, and also by the impressive achievements of the projects.”

Hadassah Medical Center’s Prof. Lotan attributes the program’s success to several additional factors: “We are based in Jerusalem, where biotechnology ventures are buoyed by sustained government support. We are backed by the strong track record of Yissum and Hadasit, the technology transfer companies of The Hebrew University and Hadassah Medical Center. And we have an important relationship with Stanford’s Biodesign program, which offers knowledge, experience and course materials. The Biodesign program has increased Stanford University biomed startup success rates by 4 to 5 folds over the last decade. We envision a similar revolution in Jerusalem, where 50% of the medical research in Israel is already taking place.”

http://www.afhu.org/Israels-first-biodesign-program-produces-four-startups-after-one-year

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Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2013 for Cell Transport: James E. Rothman of Yale University; Randy W. Schekman of the University of California, Berkeley; and Dr. Thomas C. Südhof of Stanford University

Posted in Bio Instrumentation in Experimental Life Sciences Research, Biological Networks, Gene Regulation and Evolution, Biomedical Measurement Science, Calcium, Calcium Signaling, Calmodulin Kinase and Contraction, Cell Biology, Signaling & Cell Circuits, Chemical Genetics, Computational Biology/Systems and Bioinformatics, Genome Biology, Scientist: Career considerations, Technology Transfer: Biotech and Pharmaceutical, tagged Berkeley, James Rothman, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Randy Schekman, Stanford University, Thomas C. Südhof, University of California Berkeley, Yale University on October 7, 2013| 3 Comments »

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2013 for Cell Transport: James E. Rothman of Yale University; Randy W. Schekman of the University of California, Berkeley; and Dr. Thomas C. Südhof of Stanford University

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Comments by Graduate Students of the nobel Prize Recipients and other in NYT, 10/7/2013:

• Metastasis, Chapel Hill, NC Oct. 7, 2013 at 11:48 a.m

I had the privilege of meeting Randy Schekman a few times when I was a postdoc at Berkeley. In addition to pioneering the understand of cellular trafficking, he was also a great colleague and educator (of undergrads, grad students, postdocs). Hats off to a wonderful scientist who also pays it forward to future generations as a mentor!

• Paul Knoepfler,  Davis, CA Oct. 7, 2013 at 12:16 p.m

Last couple years, including this year, the Nobel for Physiology or Medicine Award has been dominated by Cell Biologists. I think this highlights how understanding cells is really the key to most medicine.
Paul Knoepfler
http://www.ipscell.com

• Raj, Long Island, NY, Oct. 7, 2013 at 8:20 a.m

I guess UC Berkeley will have to add a few more Nobel Laureate Parking Spots on their campus now!
Yes, in parking-challenged Berkeley campus, some of the best parking spots are reserved for the Nobel Laureate Faculty. They have so many winners, and rather spotty on-campus parking, so they don’t want such brains to go hunt for parking. They reason that the Laureates should be doing better things, like more research, or assisting newer researchers and students. A most elegant solution!
I don’t think there is any other institution anywhere in the world that has dedicated parking for their Nobel-winning employees. Or has so many Nobels on the payroll. But then, there is just one Cal.
This prize is another testament to UC Berkeley’s standing.
Congratulations to the scientists, and a big thank you to their institutions that allowed them the freedom and resources to pursue their ideas.

Randy Schekman awarded 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations | October 7, 2013

BERKELEY —

Randy Schekman, who will share the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (Peg Skorpinski photo)

Randy W. Schekman, professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, has won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his role in revealing the machinery that regulates the transport and secretion of proteins in our cells. He shares the prize with James E. Rothman of Yale University and Thomas C. Südhof of Stanford University.

Discoveries by Schekman about how yeast secrete proteins led directly to the success of the biotechnology industry, which was able to coax yeast to release useful protein drugs, such as insulin and human growth hormone. The three scientists’ research on protein transport in cells, and how cells control this trafficking to secrete hormones and enzymes, illuminated the workings of a fundamental process in cell physiology.

Schekman is UC Berkeley’s 22nd Nobel Laureate, and the first to receive the prize in the area of physiology or medicine.

In a statement, the 50-member Nobel Assembly lauded Rothman, Schekman and Südhof for making known “the exquisitely precise control system for the transport and delivery of cellular cargo. Disturbances in this system have deleterious effects and contribute to conditions such as neurological diseases, diabetes, and immunological disorders.”

“My first reaction was, ‘Oh, my god!’ said Schekman, 64, who was awakened at his El Cerrito home with the good news at 1:30 a.m. “That was also my second reaction.”

Be part of our developing story on Storify and Twitter: Tweet your congratulations to Professor Schekman, using hashtag #BerkeleyNobel.

Also see:

Happy ending for Berkeley’s newest Nobel winner

Schekman and Rothman separately mapped out one of the body’s critical networks, the system in all cells that shuttles hormones and enzymes out and adds to the cell surface so it can grow and divide. This system, which utilizes little membrane bubbles to ferry molecules around the cell interior, is so critical that errors in the machinery inevitably lead to death.

“Ten percent of the proteins that cells make are secreted, including growth factors and hormones, neurotransmitters by nerve cells and insulin from pancreas cells,” said Schekman, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and a faculty member in the Li Ka Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences.

Schekman takes a call at home after getting the news. (Carol Ness photo)

In what some thought was a foolish decision, Schekman decided in 1976, when he first joined the College of Letters and Science at UC Berkeley, to explore this system in yeast. In the ensuing years, he mapped out the machinery by which yeast cells sort, package and deliver proteins via membrane bubbles to the cell surface, secreting proteins important in yeast communication and mating. Yeast also use the process to deliver receptors to the surface, the cells’ main way of controlling activities such as the intake of nutrients like glucose.

In the 1980s and ’90s, these findings enabled the biotechnology industry to exploit the secretion system in yeast to create and release pharmaceutical products and industrial enzymes. Today, diabetics worldwide use insulin produced and discharged by yeast, and most of the hepatitis B vaccine used around the world is secreted by yeast. Both systems were developed by Chiron Corp. of Emeryville, Calif., now part of Novartis International AG, during the 20 years Schekman consulted for the company.

Various diseases, including some forms of diabetes and a form of hemophilia, involve a hitch in the secretion system of cells, and Schekman is now investigating a possible link to Alzheimer’s disease.

“Our findings have aided people in understanding these diseases,” said Schekman.

Based on the machinery discovered by Schekman and Rothman, Südhof subsequently discovered how nerve cells release signaling molecules, called neurotransmitters, which they use to communicate.

For his scientific contributions, Schekman was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1992, received the Gairdner International Award in 1996 and the Lasker Award for basic and clinical research in 2002. He was elected president of the American Society for Cell Biology in 1999. On Oct. 3, Schekman received the Otto Warburg Medal of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, which is considered the highest German award in the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology.

Schekman, formerly editor of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, currently is editor-in-chief of the new open access journal eLife.

Schekman and his wife, Nancy Walls, have two adult children.

MORE INFORMATION

• Nobel Prize summary
• Randy Schekman: A passion for yeast (2002)
• HHMI research summary (2012)
• UC Berkeley cell biologist receives Lasker Award for cell secretion research important to biotech industry (2002)

SOURCE

http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/10/07/randy-schekman-awarded-2013-nobel-prize-in-physiology-or-medicine/

tanford Report, October 7, 2013

Thomas Südhof wins Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Neuroscientist Thomas Südhof, MD, professor of molecular and cellular physiology at the Stanford School of Medicine, won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

BY KRISTA CONGER

Steve FischThomas Sudhof won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Neuroscientist Thomas Südhof, MD, professor of molecular and cellular physiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

He shared the prize with James Rothman, PhD, a former Stanford professor of biochemistry, andRandy Schekman, PhD, who earned his doctorate at Stanford under the late Arthur Kornberg, MD, another winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

The three were awarded the prize “for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells.” Rothman is now a professor at Yale University, and Schekman is a professor at UC-Berkeley.

“I’m absolutely surprised,” said Südhof, who was in the remote town of Baeza in Spain to attend a conference and give a lecture. “Every scientist dreams of this. I didn’t realize there was chance I would be awarded the prize. I am stunned and really happy to share the prize with James Rothman and Randy Schekman.”

The three winners will share a prize that totals roughly $1.2 million, with about $413,600 going to each.

Robert Malenka, MD, Stanford’s Nancy Friend Pritzker Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, is at the conference with Südhof, a close collaborator. “He’s dazed, tired and happy,” Malenka said by phone. “The only time I’ve seen him happier was when his children were born.”

Südhof, the Avram Goldstein Professor in the School of Medicine, received the award for his work in exploring how neurons in the brain communicate with one another across gaps called synapses. Although his work has focused on the minutiae of how molecules interact on the cell membranes, the fundamental questions he’s pursuing are large.

“The brain works by neurons communicating via synapses,” Südhof said in a phone conversation this morning. “We’d like to understand how synapse communication leads to learning on a larger scale. How are the specific connections established? How do they form? And what happens in schizophrenia and autism when these connections are compromised?” In 2009, he published research describing how a gene implicated in autism and schizophrenia alters mice’s synapses and produces behavioral changes in the mice, such as excessive grooming and impaired nest building, that are reminiscent of these human neuropsychiatric disorders.

Lloyd Minor, MD, dean of the School of Medicine, said, “Thomas Südhof is a consummate citizen of science. His unrelenting curiosity, his collaborative spirit, his drive to ascertain the minute details of cellular workings, and his skill to carefully uncover these truths — taken together it’s truly awe-inspiring.

“He has patiently but relentlessly probed one of the fundamental questions of medical science — perhaps the fundamental question in neuroscience: How nerve cells communicate with each other. The answer is at the crux of human biology and of monumental importance to human health. Dr. Südhof’s receipt of this prize is inordinately well-deserved, and I offer him my heartfelt congratulations. His accomplishment represents what Stanford Medicine and the biomedical revolution are all about.”

The Nobel committee called Südhof on his cell phone after trying his home in Menlo Park, Calif. His wife, Lu Chen, PhD, associate professor of neurosurgery and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, then gave the committee his cell phone number to reach him in Spain.

“The phone rang three times before I decided to go downstairs and pick it up,” Chen said. “I thought it was one of my Chinese relatives who couldn’t figure out the time zone.”

Chen and Südhof have two young children, and Südhof has four adult children from a previous marriage. “I was very surprised,” Chen said, “but he’s more concerned about how I’ll get the kids up this morning in time for school.”

“I was expecting a call from a colleague about the conference I’m here to attend, so I pulled off in a parking lot,” said Südhof, who was driving from Madrid to Baeza at the time he received the announcement. “I hadn’t slept at all the previous night, and I certainly wasn’t expecting a call from the Nobel committee.”

On the day he got the call from the Nobel committee, he was scheduled to give a talk at a conference, Membrane Traffic at the Synapse: The Cell Biology of Synaptic Plasticity, held in a 17th-century building that now serves as a conference center.

“Professor Sudhof’s contributions to the understanding of how cells operate have been of enormous importance to medicine, and to his own work in understanding how connections form within the human brain,” said Stanford President John Hennessy. “The recognition by the Nobel committee is a remarkable achievement.”

Südhof, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, has spent the past 30 years prying loose the secrets of the synapse, the all-important junction where information, in the form of chemical messengers called neurotransmitters, is passed from one neuron to another. The firing patterns of our synapses underwrite our consciousness, emotions and behavior. The simple act of taking a step forward, experiencing a fleeting twinge of regret, recalling an incident from the morning commute or tasting a doughnut requires millions of simultaneous and precise synaptic firing events throughout the brain and peripheral nervous system.

Even a moment’s consideration of the total number of synapses in the typical human brain adds up to instant regard for that organ’s complexity. Coupling neuroscientists’ ballpark estimate of 200 billion neurons in a healthy adult brain with the fact that any single neuron may share synaptic contacts with as few as one or as many as 1 million other neurons (the median is somewhere in the vicinity of 10,000) suggests that your brain holds perhaps 2 quadrillion synapses — 10,000 times the number of stars in the Milky Way.

“The computing power of a human or animal brain is much, much higher than that of any computer,” said Südhof. “A synapse is not just a relay station. It is not even like a computer chip, which is an immutable element. Every synapse is like a nanocomputer all by itself. The amount of neurotransmitter released, or even whether that release occurs at all, depends on that particular synapse’s previous experience.”

Much of a neuron can be visualized as a long, hollow cord whose outer surface conducts electrical impulses in one direction. At various points along this cordlike extension are bulbous nozzles known as presynaptic terminals, each one housing myriad tiny, balloon-like vesicles containing neurotransmitters and each one abutting a downstream (or postsynaptic) neuron.

When an electrical impulse traveling along a neuron reaches one of these presynaptic terminals, calcium from outside the neuron floods in through channels that open temporarily, and a portion of the neurotransmitter-containing vesicles fuse with the surrounding bulb’s outer membrane and spill their contents into the narrow gap separating the presynaptic terminal from the postsynaptic neuron’s receiving end.

Südhof, along with other researchers worldwide, has identified integral protein components critical to the membrane fusion process. Südhof purified key protein constituents sticking out of the surfaces of neurotransmitter-containing vesicles, protruding from nearby presynaptic-terminal membranes, or bridging them. Then, using biochemical, genetic and physiological techniques, he elucidated the ways in which the interactions among these proteins contribute to carefully orchestrated membrane fusion: As a result, synaptic transmission is today one of the best-understood phenomena in neuroscience.

Südhof, who was born in Germany in 1955, received an MD in 1982 from Georg-August-Universität in Göttingen. He came to Stanford in 2008 after 25 years at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, where he first worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the laboratories of Michael Brown, MD, and Joseph Goldstein, MD.. Brown and Goldstein were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1985 for their work in understanding the regulation of cholesterol metabolism. In 1986, Südhof established his own laboratory at the university.

Südhof became an HHMI investigator in 1991, and moved to Stanford as a professor in molecular and cellular physiology in 2008.

The proteins Südhof has focused on for close to three decades are disciplined specialists. They recruit vesicles, bring them into “docked” positions near the terminals, herd calcium channels to the terminal membrane, and, cued by calcium, interweave like two sides of a zipper and force the vesicles into such close contact with terminal membranes that they fuse with them and release neurotransmitters into the synaptic gap. Although these specialists perform defined roles at the synapses, similar proteins, discovered later by Südhof and others, play comparable roles in other biological processes ranging from hormone secretion to fertilization of an egg during conception to immune cells’ defense against foreign invaders.

“We’ve made so many major advances during the past 50 years in this field, but there’s still much more to learn,” said Südhof, who in a 2010 interview with The Lancet credited his bassoon instructor as his most influential teacher for helping him to learn the discipline to practice for hours on end. “Understanding how the brain works is one of the most fundamental problems in neuroscience.”

Südhof’s accomplishments also earned him the 2013 Lasker Basic Medical Research Award. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He also is a recipient of the 2010 Kavli Prize in neuroscience.

In the Lancet interview, Südhof defined basic research as an approach often neglected in the pursuit of medicine. “This ‘solid descriptive science,’ like neuroanatomy or biochemistry, [are] disciplines that cannot claim to immediately understand functions or provide cures, but which form the basis for everything we do.”

Südhof said this morning he is excited to speak with his family about the prize, although it may be too much for his youngest children, ages 3 and 4, to grasp. “I will try to explain it to them,” he said. “It will be a wonderful occasion.” He noted that he has already received congratulatory calls from two of his four adult children. For them, the news may have come as less of a surprise.

“The Nobel prize became an inevitable topic of conversation when Tom won the Lasker award,” Chen said. “But the two of us share a feeling that one should never work for prizes.”

“Everyone has pegged him as a potential Nobel prize winner for many years,” said Malenka, who described the scene at the conference during the lunch hour. “It was just a matter of time. The attendees were clapping and cheering for him.”

Although he plans to return to the United States as soon as possible, Südhof has no plans to let the award slow his research — or even his plans for the day. He responded to an inquiry with a characteristically low-key reply. “Well, I think I’ll go ahead and give my talk.”

SOURCE

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/october/sudhof-nobel-prize-100713.html

Rothman Lab

Membrane fusion is a fundamental biological process for organelle formation, nutrient uptake, and the secretion of hormones and neurotransmitters.

It is central to vesicular transport, storage, and release in many areas of endocrine and exocrine physiology, and imbalances in these processes give rise to important diseases, such as diabetes.

We employ diverse biophysical, biochemical, and cell biological approaches to characterize the fundamental participants in intracellular transport processes.

Time lapse images of fusing flipped-SNARE cells.

SNARE Overview

Over 30 years ago, we observed what we interpreted to be vesicular transport in crude extracts of tissue culture cells. In subsequent years we found that we had reconstituted vesicle trafficking in the Golgi, including the process of membrane fusion. Using this assay as a guide, we purified as a required factor the NEM-Sensitive Fusion protein (NSF). This led to the purification of the Soluble NSF Attachment Factor (SNAP), which bound NSF to Golgi membranes, and then with these tools discovered that the receptors for SNAP in membranes were actually complexes of proteins (which we called SNAREs) which we envisioned could potentially partner as a bridge between membranes to contribute to the process of membrane fusion and provide specificity to it (as captured in the ‘SNARE hypothesis’ proposed at the time).

We now know that organisms have a large family of SNARE proteins that indeed form cognate partnerships in just this way, and that NSF is an ATPase that (using SNAP as an adaptor protein) disrupts the SNARE complex after fusion is complete so its subunits can be recycled for repeated use. Recombinant cognate SNAREs introduced into artificial bilayers or expressed ectopically on the outside of cells ( “flipped SNAREs”) spontaneously and efficiently result in membrane (or cell) fusion, demonstrating that the SNARE complex is not only necessary but is sufficient for fusion. There are many proteins known and rapidly being discovered which closely regulate this vital process, but the muscle – if not always the brains – is in the SNAREs. Compartmental specificity is encoded to a remarkable degree in the functional partnering of SNARE proteins, a fact which is in no way inconsistent with the emerging contribution of upstream regulatory components (like rabGTPases and tethering complexes) to domain/compartment specificity.

Current Research & Projects

Our lab is working to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of vesicular transport within cells and the secretion of proteins and neurotransmitters.

Projects include:

1. The biochemical and biophysical mechanisms of vesicle budding and fusion;
2. Cellular regulation of vesicle fusion in exocytosis and synaptic transmission;
3. Structural and functional organization of the Golgi apparatus from a cellular systems view.

We take an interdisciplinary approach which includes cell-free biochemistry, single molecule biophysics, high resolution optical imaging of single events/single molecules in the cell and in cell-free formats.

The overall goal is to understand transport pathways form structural mechanism to cellular physiology. The latter is facilitated by high throughput functional genomics at the cellular level (see Yale Center for High Throughput Cell Biology).

We have a strong interest in new lab members who bring backgrounds in chemistry, physics, and engineering.

SOURCE

http://medicine.yale.edu/cellbio/rothman/index.aspx

3 Americans Win Joint Nobel Prize in Medicine

Reuters

From left: Randy W. Schekman, Thomas C. Südhof and James E. Rothman.

<nyt_byline>

By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN

Published: October 7, 2013 151 Comments

Three Americans won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Monday for discovering the machinery that regulates how cells transport major molecules in a cargo system that delivers them to the right place at the right time in cells.

 

The Karolinska Institute in Stockholmannounced the winners: James E. Rothman of Yale University; Randy W. Schekman of the University of California, Berkeley; and Dr. Thomas C. Südhof of Stanford University.

The molecules are moved around cells in small packages called vesicles, and each scientist discovered different facets that are needed to ensure that the right cargo is shipped to the correct destination at precisely the right time.

Their research solved the mystery of how cells organize their transport system, the Karolinska committee said. Dr. Schekman discovered a set of genes that were required for vesicle traffic. Dr. Rothman unraveled protein machinery that allows vesicles to fuse with their targets to permit transfer of cargo. Dr. Südhof revealed how signals instruct vesicles to release their cargo with precision.

The tiny vesicles, which have a covering known as membranes, shuttle the cargo between different compartments or fuse with the membrane. The transport system activates nerves. It also controls the release of hormones.

Disturbances in this exquisitely precise control system cause serious damage that, in turn, can contribute to conditions like neurological diseases, diabetes and immunological disorders.

Dr. Schekman, 64, who was born in St. Paul, used yeast cells as a model system when he began his research in the 1970s. He found that vesicles piled up in parts of the cell and that the cause was genetic. He went on to identify three classes of genes that control different facets of the cell’s transport system. Dr. Schekman studied at the University of California in Los Angeles and at Stanford University, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1974.

In 1976, he joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, where he is currently professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. Dr. Schekman is also an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Dr. Rothman, 63, who was born in Haverhill, Mass., studied vesicle transport in mammalian cells in the 1980s and 1990s. He discovered that a protein complex allows vesicles to dock and fuse with their target membranes. In the fusion process, proteins on the vesicles and target membranes bind to each other like the two sides of a zipper. The fact that there are many such proteins and that they bind only in specific combinations ensures that cargo is delivered to a precise location.

The same principle operates inside the cell and when a vesicle binds to the cell’s outer membrane to release its contents. Dr. Rothman received a Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1976, was a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and moved in 1978 to Stanford University, where he started his research on the vesicles of the cell. Dr. Rothman has also worked at Princeton University, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute and Columbia University.

In 2008, he joined the faculty of Yale University where he is currently professor and chairman in the Department of Cell Biology. Some of the genes Dr. Schekman discovered in yeast coded for proteins correspond to those Dr. Rothman identified in mammals. Collectively, they mapped critical components of the cell´s transport machinery.

Dr. Südhof, 57, who was born in Göttingen, Germany, studied neurotransmission, the process by which nerve cells communicate with other cells in the brain. At the time he set out to explore the field 25 years ago, much of it was virgin scientific territory. Researchers had not identified a single protein in the neurotransmission process.

Dr. Südhof helped transform what had been a rough outline into a number of molecular activities to provide insights into the elaborate mechanisms at the crux of neurological activities, from the simplest to the most sophisticated. He did so by systematically identifying, purifying and analyzing proteins that can rapidly release chemicals that underlie the brain’s activities. The transmission process can take less than a thousandth of a second.

Dr. Südhof studied at the Georg-August-Universität in Göttingen, where he received a medical degree in 1982 and a doctorate in neurochemistry the same year. In 1983, he moved to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Dr. Südhof, who has American citizenship, became an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 1991 and was appointed professor of molecular and cellular physiology at Stanford University in 2008.

All three scientists have won other awards, including the Lasker Prize, for their research.

<nyt_correction_bottom>

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: October 7, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated Randy W. Schekman’s age. He is 64, not 65.

SOURCE

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/08/health/3-win-joint-nobel-prize-in-medicine.html?_r=0

Nobel for Cell Transport

October 07, 2013

This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is going jointly to three scientists for their work figuring out how cells transport their cargo, according to the Karolinska Institute. They will share the $1.25 million prize.

“Imagine hundreds of thousands of people who are traveling around hundreds of miles of streets; how are they going to find the right way? Where will the bus stop and open its doors so that people can get out?” says Nobel committee secretary Goran Hansson, according to the Associated Press. “There are similar problems in the cell.”

By studying yeast cells with defective vesicles, Randy Schekman from the University of California, Berkeley, uncovered three classes of genes that control transportation within the cell, the New York Times adds. Schekman was awakened in California by the call from Stockholm. “I wasn’t thinking too straight. I didn’t have anything elegant to say,” he tells the AP. “All I could say was ‘Oh my God,’ and that was that.” Schekman adds that he called his lab manager to arrange a celebration in the lab.

Meanwhile, Yale University’s James Rothman discovered a protein complex that allows vesicles to bind to their intended membrane targets, getting the vesicle contents to a specific location. Rothman notes that he recently lost funding for work building on his discovery, and says that he hopes that having won the Nobel will help him when he reapplies.

And Thomas Südhof at Stanford University systematically studied how nerve cells communicate, finding that vesicles full of neurotransmitters bind to cell membranes to release their contents through a molecular mechanism that responds to the presence of calcium ions. He was on his way to a give a talk when he got his call. “I got the call while I was driving and like a good citizen I pulled over and picked up the phone,” Südhof says to the AP. “To be honest, I thought at first it was a joke. I have a lot of friends who might play these kinds of tricks.”

SOURCE

http://www.genomeweb.com//node/1290006?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Scan%20Blog:%20Nobel%20Prize%20in%20Medicine%20Announced,%20This%20Week’s%20PLOS,%20DARPA%20and%20Biotech,%20more%20-%2010/07/2013%2012:40:00%20PM

Other related articles published on these Open Access Online Scientific Journal include the following:

The Series on Cardiovascular Disease and the role of Calcium Signaling consists of the following articles:

Part I: Identification of Biomarkers that are Related to the Actin Cytoskeleton

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/12/10/identification-of-biomarkers-that-are-related-to-the-actin-cytoskeleton/

Part II: Role of Calcium, the Actin Skeleton, and Lipid Structures in Signaling and Cell Motility

Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Stephen Williams, PhD and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/26/role-of-calcium-the-actin-skeleton-and-lipid-structures-in-signaling-and-cell-motility/

Part III: Renal Distal Tubular Ca2+ Exchange Mechanism in Health and Disease

Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Stephen J. Williams, PhD
 and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/02/renal-distal-tubular-ca2-exchange-mechanism-in-health-and-disease/

Part IV: The Centrality of Ca(2+) Signaling and Cytoskeleton Involving Calmodulin Kinases and Ryanodine Receptors in Cardiac Failure, Arterial Smooth Muscle, Post-ischemic Arrhythmia, Similarities and Differences, and Pharmaceutical Targets

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/08/the-centrality-of-ca2-signaling-and-cytoskeleton-involving-calmodulin-kinases-and-ryanodine-receptors-in-cardiac-failure-arterial-smooth-muscle-post-ischemic-arrhythmia-similarities-and-differen/

Part V: Heart, Vascular Smooth Muscle, Excitation-Contraction Coupling (E-CC), Cytoskeleton, Cellular Dynamics and Ca2 Signaling

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/26/heart-smooth-muscle-excitation-contraction-coupling-cytoskeleton-cellular-dynamics-and-ca2-signaling/

Part VI: Calcium Cycling (ATPase Pump) in Cardiac Gene Therapy: Inhalable Gene Therapy for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension and Percutaneous Intra-coronary Artery Infusion for Heart Failure: Contributions by Roger J. Hajjar, MD

Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/01/calcium-molecule-in-cardiac-gene-therapy-inhalable-gene-therapy-for-pulmonary-arterial-hypertension-and-percutaneous-intra-coronary-artery-infusion-for-heart-failure-contributions-by-roger-j-hajjar/

Part VII: Cardiac Contractility & Myocardium Performance: Ventricular Arrhythmiasand Non-ischemic Heart Failure – Therapeutic Implications for Cardiomyocyte Ryanopathy (Calcium Release-related Contractile Dysfunction) and Catecholamine Responses

Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC, Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/28/cardiac-contractility-myocardium-performance-ventricular-arrhythmias-and-non-ischemic-heart-failure-therapeutic-implications-for-cardiomyocyte-ryanopathy-calcium-release-related-contractile/

Part VIII: Disruption of Calcium Homeostasis: Cardiomyocytes and Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells: The Cardiac and Cardiovascular Calcium Signaling Mechanism

Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC, Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/12/disruption-of-calcium-homeostasis-cardiomyocytes-and-vascular-smooth-muscle-cells-the-cardiac-and-cardiovascular-calcium-signaling-mechanism/

Part IX: Calcium-Channel Blockers, Calcium Release-related Contractile Dysfunction (Ryanopathy) and Calcium as Neurotransmitter Sensor

Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC, Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/16/calcium-channel-blocker-calcium-as-neurotransmitter-sensor-and-calcium-release-related-contractile-dysfunction-ryanopathy/

Part X: Synaptotagmin functions as a Calcium Sensor: How Calcium Ions Regulate the fusion of vesicles with cell membranes during Neurotransmission

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/10/synaptotagmin-functions-as-a-calcium-sensor-how-calcium-ions-regulate-the-fusion-of-vesicles-with-cell-membranes-during-neurotransmission/

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Calcium-Channel Blocker, Calcium as Neurotransmitter Sensor and Calcium Release-related Contractile Dysfunction (Ryanopathy)

Posted in Calcium Signaling, Cardiovascular Pharmacogenomics, Cell Biology, Signaling & Cell Circuits, Disease Biology, Small Molecules in Development of Therapeutic Drugs, Electrophysiology, Frontiers in Cardiology and Cardiovascular Disorders, tagged Aviva Lev-Ari, Bernard Katz, Calcium-Channel Blocker, gene therapy, Heart Failure, Larry H. Bernstein, Michael J Berridge, Smooth muscle tissue, Stanford University, Vascular smooth muscle on September 16, 2013| 19 Comments »

Calcium-Channel Blocker, Calcium Release-related Contractile Dysfunction (Ryanopathy) and Calcium as Neurotransmitter Sensor

Author, and Content Consultant to e-SERIES A: Cardiovascular Diseases: Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC

Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

and Article Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Image created by Adina Hazan 06/30/2021

Introduction

Author: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FACC  

This Chapter is one of a series of articles on calcium activation, in this case, in the signaling of smooth muscle cells by the interacting neural innervation.    The process occurs by calcium triggering neurotransmitter release by initiating synaptic vesicle fusion.   The mechanism by which this occurs is addressed in detail, and involves the interaction of soluble N-acetylmaleimide-sensitive factor (SNARE) and SM proteins, and in addition, the discovery of a calcium-dependsent Syt1 (C) domain of protein- kinase C isoenzyme, which binds to phospholipids.

The 2013 Lasker Prize was awarded to Richard Schell (Genentech) and Thomas Sudolf (Stanford University) for their discoveries concerning the molecular machinery and regulatory mechanism that underlie the rapid release of neurotransmitters, a process that underlies all of the brain’s activities. They identified and isolated many of this reaction’s key elements, unraveled central aspects of its fundamental mechanism, and deciphered how cells govern it with extreme precision. These advances have provided a molecular framework for understanding some of the most devastating disorders that afflict humans as well as normal functions such as learning and memory, explaining unresolved hypotheses derived from the earlier work in the 1950sof the late Bernard Katz.  We also see that the work clarifies the debates initiated by the Nobelist Santiago Ramon y Cajal (1891) concerning the development of neural networks.  A biological relay system achieves these feats. Neurotransmission kicks off with an electrical pulse that runs down a nerve cell, or neuron. When that signal reaches the tip, calcium enters the cell. In response, the neuron liberates chemical messengers—neurotransmitters.

In the 1950s, the late Bernard Katz figured out that cells eject neurotransmitters in fixed amounts.  Balloon-like containers—vesicles—each hold set quantities of the chemicals. Calcium incites these lipid-bound sacs to fuse with the membrane that encases the cell, and their contents spill out. The picture that emerges from the later work is that synaptic vesicle exocytosis operates by a general mechanism of membrane fusion that revealed itself to be a model for all membrane fusion, but that is uniquely regulated by a calcium-sensor protein called synaptotagmin. The general membrane-fusion mechanism thus identified is mediated by SNARE- (for soluble NSF-receptors) and SM-proteins (for Sec1/Munc18-like proteins), largely discovered at the synapse, with synaptotagmin acting together with a molecular assistant called complexin as a clamp and activator of the membrane fusion mediated by the SNARE- and SM-proteins. Strikingly, the biochemical properties of synaptotagmin were found to precisely correspond to the extraordinary calcium-triggering properties of release, and to account for a regulatory pathway that also applies to other types of calcium-triggered fusion, for example fusion observed in hormone secretion and fertilization. At the synapse, finally, these interdependent machines — the fusion apparatus and its synaptotagmin-dependent control mechanism — are embedded in a proteinaceous active zone that links them to calcium channels, and regulates the docking and priming of synaptic vesicles for subsequent calcium-triggered fusion. Thus, work on neurotransmitter release revealed a hierarchy of molecular machines that mediate the fusion of synaptic vesicles, the calcium-control of this fusion, and the embedding of calcium-controlled fusion in the context of the presynaptic terminal at the synapse.

http://www.nature.com/focus/Lasker/2013/pdf/ES-Lasker13-Sudhof.pdf

This portion of the discussion deals with the interaction of the neuronal endings interwoven into smooth muscle.   The calcium triggering of smooth muscle contractions is similar with respect to airways and arteries, urinary bladder, uterine contraction, and gastrointestinl tract.

The basic mechanism that underlie this MOTIF taken as variations of that described above are well described  by Michael J. Berridge in ‘Smooth muscle cell calcium activation mechanisms’. (J Physiol. 2008 Nov 1;586(Pt 21):5047-61.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.2008.160440.  Epub 2008 Sep 11.)

This is illustrated in his graphical examples.

http://jp.physoc.org/content/586/21/5047.full.pdf

Figure 1. The three main mechanisms responsible for generating the Ca2+ transients that trigger smooth muscle cell (SMC) contraction. From: Smooth muscle cell calcium activation mechanisms.

 

A, receptor-operated channels (ROCs) or a membrane oscillator induces the membrane depolarization (ΔV) that triggers Ca2+ entry and contraction.

B, a cytosolic Ca2+ oscillator induces the Ca2+ signal that drives contraction.

C, a cytosolic Ca2+ oscillator in interstitial cells of Cajal (ICCs) or atypical SMCs induces the membrane depolarization that spreads through the gap junctions to activate neighbouring SMCs. Reproduced from Berridge (2008), with permission.

Michael J Berridge. J Physiol. 2008 November 1;586(Pt 21):5047-5061.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/instance/2652144/bin/tjp0586-5047-f1.jpg

Figure 5. Vascular or airway SMCs are driven by a cytosolic oscillator that generates a periodic release of Ca2+ from the endoplasmic reticulum that usually appears as a propagating Ca2+ wave. From: Smooth muscle cell calcium activation mechanisms.

The oscillator is induced/modulated by neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine (ACh), 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), noradrenaline (NA) and endothelin-1 (ET-1), which act through inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (InsP3) that initiates the oscillatory mechanism. The sequence of steps 1–9 is described in the text. Reproduced from Berridge (2008), with permission.
Michael J Berridge. J Physiol. 2008 November 1;586(Pt 21):5047-5061.    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/instance/2652144/bin/tjp0586-5047-f5.jpg

Figure 7. The cytosolic Ca2+ oscillator responsible for pacemaker activity in interstitial cells of Cajal releases periodic pulses of Ca2+ that form a Ca2+ wave. From: Smooth muscle cell calcium activation mechanisms.

The increase in Ca2+ activates Cl− channels (CLCA) to give the spontaneous transient inward currents (STICs) that sum to form the spontaneous transient depolarizations (STD) resulting in the slow waves of membrane depolarization (see inset). Current flow through gap junctions allows these waves to spread into neighbouring smooth muscle cells to activate contraction. See text for a description of the oscillator that drives this activation process. Reproduced from Berridge (2008), with permission.
Michael J Berridge. J Physiol. 2008 November 1;586(Pt 21):5047-5061.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/instance/2652144/bin/tjp0586-5047-f7.gif

This article is the Part IX in a series of articles on Activation and Dysfunction of the Calcium Release Mechanisms in Cardiomyocytes and Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells.

The Series consists of the following articles:

Part I: Identification of Biomarkers that are Related to the Actin Cytoskeleton

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/12/10/identification-of-biomarkers-that-are-related-to-the-actin-cytoskeleton/

Part II: Role of Calcium, the Actin Skeleton, and Lipid Structures in Signaling and Cell Motility

Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Stephen Williams, PhD and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/26/role-of-calcium-the-actin-skeleton-and-lipid-structures-in-signaling-and-cell-motility/

Part III: Renal Distal Tubular Ca2+ Exchange Mechanism in Health and Disease

Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Stephen J. Williams, PhD
 and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/02/renal-distal-tubular-ca2-exchange-mechanism-in-health-and-disease/

Part IV: The Centrality of Ca(2+) Signaling and Cytoskeleton Involving Calmodulin Kinases and Ryanodine Receptors in Cardiac Failure, Arterial Smooth Muscle, Post-ischemic Arrhythmia, Similarities and Differences, and Pharmaceutical Targets

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/08/the-centrality-of-ca2-signaling-and-cytoskeleton-involving-calmodulin-kinases-and-ryanodine-receptors-in-cardiac-failure-arterial-smooth-muscle-post-ischemic-arrhythmia-similarities-and-differen/

Part V: Ca2+-Stimulated Exocytosis:  The Role of Calmodulin and Protein Kinase C in Ca2+ Regulation of Hormone and Neurotransmitter

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP
and
Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/12/23/calmodulin-and-protein-kinase-c-drive-the-ca2-regulation-of-hormone-and-neurotransmitter-release-that-triggers-ca2-stimulated-exocytosis/

Part VI: Calcium Cycling (ATPase Pump) in Cardiac Gene Therapy: Inhalable Gene Therapy for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension and Percutaneous Intra-coronary Artery Infusion for Heart Failure: Contributions by Roger J. Hajjar, MD

Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/01/calcium-molecule-in-cardiac-gene-therapy-inhalable-gene-therapy-for-pulmonary-arterial-hypertension-and-percutaneous-intra-coronary-artery-infusion-for-heart-failure-contributions-by-roger-j-hajjar/

Part VII: Cardiac Contractility & Myocardium Performance: Ventricular Arrhythmiasand Non-ischemic Heart Failure – Therapeutic Implications for Cardiomyocyte Ryanopathy (Calcium Release-related Contractile Dysfunction) and Catecholamine Responses

Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC, Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/28/cardiac-contractility-myocardium-performance-ventricular-arrhythmias-and-non-ischemic-heart-failure-therapeutic-implications-for-cardiomyocyte-ryanopathy-calcium-release-related-contractile/

Part VIII: Disruption of Calcium Homeostasis: Cardiomyocytes and Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells: The Cardiac and Cardiovascular Calcium Signaling Mechanism

Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC, Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/12/disruption-of-calcium-homeostasis-cardiomyocytes-and-vascular-smooth-muscle-cells-the-cardiac-and-cardiovascular-calcium-signaling-mechanism/

Part IX: Calcium-Channel Blockers, Calcium Release-related Contractile Dysfunction (Ryanopathy) and Calcium as Neurotransmitter Sensor

Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC, Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/16/calcium-channel-blocker-calcium-as-neurotransmitter-sensor-and-calcium-release-related-contractile-dysfunction-ryanopathy/

Part X: Synaptotagmin functions as a Calcium Sensor: How Calcium Ions Regulate the fusion of vesicles with cell membranes during Neurotransmission

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/10/synaptotagmin-functions-as-a-calcium-sensor-how-calcium-ions-regulate-the-fusion-of-vesicles-with-cell-membranes-during-neurotransmission/

Part XI: Sensors and Signaling in Oxidative Stress

Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/11/01/sensors-and-signaling-in-oxidative-stress/

Part XII: Atherosclerosis Independence: Genetic Polymorphisms of Ion Channels Role in the Pathogenesis of Coronary Microvascular Dysfunction and Myocardial Ischemia (Coronary Artery Disease (CAD))

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/12/21/genetic-polymorphisms-of-ion-channels-have-a-role-in-the-pathogenesis-of-coronary-microvascular-dysfunction-and-ischemic-heart-disease/

This article has FIVE Sections:

Section One

Innovations in Combination Drug Therapy: Calcium-Channel Blocker –  Amlodipine (Norvasc) in single-pill combinations (SPCs) of drugs

Section Two

Calcium-Channel Blockers: Drug Class and Indications

Section Three

Brand and Generic Calcium Channel Blocking Agents

Section Four

Dysfunction of the Calcium Release Mechanism

Section Five

The Calcium Sensor: How Calcium Ions Regulate the fusion of vesicles with cell membranes during Neurotransmission

 Section One

Innovations in Combination Drug Therapy:

Calcium-Channel Blocker, Amlodipine (Norvasc) in Single-Pill Combinations (SPCs) of Drugs

Latest development on Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy relates to the development of a Duo Combination Therapy to include a leading  Calcium-Channel Blocker, Amlodipine (Norvasc), as one of the two drug classes in one pill:The research investigated the therapeutic efficacy achieved via a comparison of a two single-pill combinations (SPCs) of drugs:

• telmisartan/amlodipine (T/A) [ARB/CCB]

and

• telmisartan/hydrochlorothiazide (T/H) [ARB/Diuterics]

Drug classes:

ARB – telmisartan
CCB – amlodipine
Diuretics – hydrochlorothiazide

A review of the benefits of early treatment initiation with single-pill combinations of telmisartan with amlodipine or hydrochlorothiazide

Authors: Segura J, Ruilope LM

Published Date September 2013 Volume 2013:9 Pages 521 – 528

http://www.dovepress.com/articles.php?article_id=14373

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/VHRM.S48291

Published:	16 September 2013, Dovepress Journal: Vascular Health and Risk Management

Julian Segura, Luis Miguel Ruilope

Department of Nephrology, Hospital 12 de Octubre, Madrid, Spain

Abstract:

This review discusses the rationale for earlier use of single-pill combinations (SPCs) of antihypertensive drugs, with a focus on telmisartan/amlodipine (T/A) and telmisartan/hydrochlorothiazide (T/H) SPCs.

• Compared with the respective monotherapies, the once-daily T/A and T/H SPCs have been shown to result in significantly higher blood pressure (BP) reductions, BP goal rates, and response rates in patients at all stages of hypertension.

• As expected, BP reductions are highest with the highest dose (T80/A10 and T80/H25) SPCs. Subgroup analyses of the telmisartan trials have reported the efficacy of both SPCs to be consistent, regardless of the patients’ age, race, and coexisting diabetes, obesity, or renal impairment.

• In patients with mild-to-moderate hypertension, the T/A combination provides superior 24-hour BP-lowering efficacy compared with either treatment administered as monotherapy.

• Similarly, the T/H SPC treatment provides superior 24-hour BP-lowering efficacy, especially in the last 6 hours relative to other renin–angiotensin system inhibitor-based SPCs.

• The T/A SPC is associated with a lower incidence of edema than amlodipine monotherapy, and

• The T/H SPC with a lower incidence of hypokalemia than hydrochlorothiazide monotherapy

• Existing evidence supports the use of the T/A SPC for the treatment of hypertensive patients with prediabetes, diabetes, or metabolic syndrome, due to the metabolic neutrality of both component drugs, and the use of the T/H SPC for those patients with edema or in need of volume reduction.

Keywords: angiotensin receptor blockers, or ARBs, calcium-channel blocker, or CCBs, essential hypertension, diuretic, , renin-angiotensin system inhibitor, or ACEI

http://www.dovepress.com/articles.php?article_id=14373
We reported on 5/29/2012

Triple Antihypertensive Combination Therapy Significantly Lowers Blood Pressure in Hard-to-Treat Patients with Hypertension and Diabetes

Triple Combination Therapy: ARB and Calcium Channel Blocker and Diuretics

In July 2010, a triple combination drug for hypertension was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Tribenzor contains olmesartan medoxomil, amlodipine and hydrochlorothiazide, according to Monthly Prescribing Reference.

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/05/29/445/ 

TRIBENZOR is a Daiichi Sankyo’s product- ARB and Calcium Channel Blocker and Diuretic

How TRIBENZOR work

Tribenzor contains olmesartan medoxomil, amlodipine and hydrochlorothiazide. High blood pressure makes the heart work harder to pump blood through the body and causes damage to blood vessels. TRIBENZOR can help your blood vessels relax and reduce the amount of fluid in your blood. This can make your blood pressure lower. Medicines that lower blood pressure may lower your chance of having a stroke or a heart attack.

Some people may need more than 1—or even more than 2—medicines to help control their blood pressure. TRIBENZOR combines 3 effective medicines in 1 convenient pill. Read the following chart to learn how each medicine works in its own way to help lower blood pressure.

TRIBENZOR: 3 effective medicines in 1 pill

The medicine in TRIBENZOR	How it works	What it does
Angiotensin II receptor blocker	Blocks a natural chemical in your body that causes blood vessels to narrow.	Lowers Yours blood pressure
Calcium channel blocker	Blocks the narrowing effect of calcium on your blood vessels. This helps your blood vessels relax.
Diuretic (water pill)	Helps your kidneys flush extra fluid and salt from your body. This lowers the amount of fluid in your blood.

http://www.tribenzor.com/how_works.html

            Effectively lower blood pressure. People taking the 3 medicines in TRIBENZOR had greater reductions in blood pressure than did people taking any 2 of the medicines combined

            Start to work quickly. People taking TRIBENZOR saw results in as little as 2 weeks

AZOR is a Daiichi Sankyo’s product- ARB and Calcium Channel Blocker

How AZOR work

AZOR relaxes and widens blood vessels to help lower blood pressure.

You may have already tried another blood pressure medicine that works a certain way to lower blood pressure. But 1 blood pressure medicine may not be enough for you. You may find the help you need with the 2 effective medicines in AZOR.

AZOR combines 2 effective medicines in 1 convenient pill.

Learn how each medicine in AZOR works in its own way to help lower blood pressure.

The medicine in AZOR	How it works	What it does
Angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB)	Blocks a natural chemical in your body that causes blood vessels to narrow. This helps your blood vessels relax and widen.	Lowers Your Blood pressure
Calcium channel blocker	Blocks the narrowing effect of calcium on your blood vessels. This helps your blood vessels relax.

http://www.AZOR.com/how_works.html

Section Two

Calcium-Channel Blockers: Drug Class and Indications

In Sudhof’s Lasker Award presentation he refers to the biochemical properties of synaptotagmin were found to precisely correspond to the extraordinary calcium-triggering properties of release, and to account for a regulatory pathway that also applies to other types of calcium-triggered fusion, for example fusion observed in hormone secretion.  A CCB would have to block the calcium-triggering properties of release, and consequently, would block the release of neurohormones.  This is because the fusion apparatus and its synaptotagmin-dependent control mechanism linked to the calcium channels, docking and priming synaptic vesicles, being blocked, disables the calcium-control of the vesicle fusion that is necessary for neurotransmitter release. Consequently, the end result would be increased vascular flow from the inhibition.

What are calcium channel blockers and how do they work?

In order to pump blood, the heart needs oxygen. The harder the heart works, the more oxygen it requires. Angina (heart pain) occurs when the supply of oxygen to the heart is inadequate for the amount of work the heart must do. By dilating the arteries, CCBs reduce the pressure in the arteries. This makes it easier for the heart to pump blood, and, as a result, the heart needs less oxygen. By reducing the heart’s need for oxygen, CCBs relieve or prevent angina. CCBs also are used for treating high blood pressure because of their blood pressure-lowering effects. CCBs also slow the rate at which the heart beats and are therefore used for treating certain types of abnormally rapid heart rhythms.

For what conditions are calcium channel blockers used?

CCBs are used for treating high blood pressure, angina, and abnormal heart rhythms (for example, atrial fibrillation, paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia).

They also may be used after a heart attack, particularly among patients who cannot tolerate beta-blocking drugs, have atrial fibrillation, or require treatment for their angina.

Unlike beta blockers, CCBs have not been shown to reduce mortality or additional heart attacks after a heart attack.

CCBs are as effective as ACE inhibitors in reducing blood pressure, but they may not be as effective as ACE inhibitors in preventing the kidney failure caused by high blood pressure or diabetes.

They also are used for treating:

• pulmonary hypertension,
• Raynaud’s syndrome,
• cardiomyopathy, and
• subarachnoid hemorrhage.

CCBs are also used in the prevention of migraine headaches.

Are there any differences among calcium channel blockers?

CCBs differ in their duration of action, the process by which they are eliminated from the body, and, most importantly, in their ability to affect heart rate and contraction. Some CCBs [for example, amlodipine (Norvasc)] have very little effect on heart rate and contraction so they are safer to use in individuals who have heart failure or bradycardia (a slow heart rate). Verapamil (Calan, Isoptin) and diltiazem (Cardizem) have the greatest effects on the heart and reduce the strength and rate of contraction. Therefore, they are used in reducing heart rate when the heart is beating too fast.

What are the side effects of calcium channel blockers?

• The most common side effects of CCBs are constipation, nausea,headache, rash, edema (swelling of the legs with fluid), low blood pressure, drowsiness, and dizziness.
• Liver dysfunction and over growth of gums may also occur. When diltiazem (Cardizem) or verapamil (Calan, Isoptin) are given to individuals with heart failure, symptoms of heart failure may worsen because these drugs reduce the ability of the heart to pump blood.
• Like other blood pressure medications, CCBs are associated with sexual dysfunction.

http://www.medicinenet.com/calcium_channel_blockers/article.htm

Section Three

Brand and Generic Calcium Channel Blocking Agents

A drug may be classified by the chemical type of the active ingredient or by the way it is used to treat a particular condition. Each drug can be classified into one or more drug classes.

Calcium channel blockers block voltage gated calcium channels and inhibits the influx of calcium ions into cardiac and smooth muscle cells. The decrease in intracellular calcium reduces the strength of heart muscle contraction, reduces conduction of impulses in the heart, and causes vasodilatation.

Decrease in intracellular calcium in the heart decreases cardiac contractility. Decreased calcium in the vascular smooth muscle reduces its contraction and therefore causes vasodilatation.

Decrease in cardiac contractility decreases cardiac output and vasodilatation decreases total peripheral resistance, both of which cause a drop in blood pressure.

Calcium channel blocking agents are used to treat hypertension.

Filter by: — all conditions –AnginaAngina Pectoris ProphylaxisArrhythmiaAtrial FibrillationAtrial FlutterBipolar DisorderCluster HeadachesCoronary Artery DiseaseHeart FailureHigh Blood PressureHypertensive EmergencyHypertrophic CardiomyopathyIdiopathic Hypertrophic Subaortic StenosisIschemic StrokeMigraine PreventionNocturnal Leg CrampsPremature LaborRaynaud’s SyndromeSubarachnoid HemorrhageSupraventricular Tachycardia

Drug Name ( View by: Brand | Generic )

Afeditab CR (Pro, More…)generic name: nifedipine

Diltia XT (Pro, More…)generic name: diltiazem

Diltiazem Hydrochloride SR (More…)generic name: diltiazem

Nimotop (Pro, More…)generic name: nimodipine

Verelan PM (Pro, More…)generic name: verapamil

Cartia XT (Pro, More…)generic name: diltiazem

Adalat (More…)generic name: nifedipine

Calan SR (Pro, More…)generic name: verapamil

Cardizem (Pro, More…)generic name: diltiazem

Diltiazem Hydrochloride CD (More…)generic name: diltiazem

Isoptin SR (Pro, More…)generic name: verapamil

Nifediac CC (Pro, More…)generic name: nifedipine

Tiazac (Pro, More…)generic name: diltiazem

Procardia (Pro, More…)generic name: nifedipine

Adalat CC (Pro, More…)generic name: nifedipine

Cardizem LA (Pro, More…)generic name: diltiazem

Calan (Pro, More…)generic name: verapamil

Procardia XL (Pro, More…)generic name: nifedipine

Isoptin (More…)generic name: verapamil

Nifedical XL (Pro, More…)generic name: nifedipine

Plendil (Pro, More…)generic name: felodipine

Taztia XT (Pro, More…)generic name: diltiazem

Cardizem CD (Pro, More…)generic name: diltiazem

Norvasc (Pro, More…)generic name: amlodipine

Verelan (Pro, More…)generic name: verapamil

Cardene SR (Pro, More…)generic name: nicardipine

DynaCirc CR (Pro, More…)generic name: isradipine

Sular (Pro, More…)generic name: nisoldipine

Cardene (Pro, More…)generic name: nicardipine

Cardene IV (Pro, More…)generic name: nicardipine

Cleviprex (Pro, More…)generic name: clevidipine

Covera-HS (Pro, More…)generic name: verapamil

Dilacor XR (Pro, More…)generic name: diltiazem

Dilt-XR (Pro, More…)generic name: diltiazem

Diltiazem Hydrochloride XR (More…)generic name: diltiazem

Diltiazem Hydrochloride XT (More…)generic name: diltiazem

Diltzac (Pro, More…)generic name: diltiazem

Dynacirc (Pro, More…)generic name: isradipine

Matzim LA (Pro, More…)generic name: diltiazem

Nymalize (Pro, More…)generic name: nimodipine

Vascor (More…)generic name: bepridil

Section Four

Dysfunction of the Calcium Release Mechanism

For Disruption of Calcium Homeostasis in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells, see

Part IV: The Centrality of Ca(2+) Signaling and Cytoskeleton Involving Calmodulin Kinases and Ryanodine Receptors in Cardiac Failure, Arterial Smooth Muscle, Post-ischemic Arrhythmia, Similarities and Differences, and Pharmaceutical Targets

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/08/the-centrality-of-ca2-signaling-and-cytoskeleton-involving-calmodulin-kinases-and-ryanodine-receptors-in-cardiac-failure-arterial-smooth-muscle-post-ischemic-arrhythmia-similarities-and-differen/

Part V: Heart, Vascular Smooth Muscle, Excitation-Contraction Coupling (E-CC), Cytoskeleton, Cellular Dynamics and Ca2 Signaling

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/26/heart-smooth-muscle-excitation-contraction-coupling-cytoskeleton-cellular-dynamics-and-ca2-signaling/

For Disruption of Calcium Homeostasis in Cardiomyocyte Cells, see

Part VI: Calcium Cycling (ATPase Pump) in Cardiac Gene Therapy: Inhalable Gene Therapy for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension and Percutaneous Intra-coronary Artery Infusion for Heart Failure: Contributions by Roger J. Hajjar, MD

Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/01/calcium-molecule-in-cardiac-gene-therapy-inhalable-gene-therapy-for-pulmonary-arterial-hypertension-and-percutaneous-intra-coronary-artery-infusion-for-heart-failure-contributions-by-roger-j-hajjar/

Part VII: Cardiac Contractility & Myocardium Performance: Ventricular Arrhythmias and Non-ischemic Heart Failure – Therapeutic Implications for Cardiomyocyte Ryanopathy (Calcium Release-related Contractile Dysfunction) and Catecholamine Responses

Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC, Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/28/cardiac-contractility-myocardium-performance-ventricular-arrhythmias-and-non-ischemic-heart-failure-therapeutic-implications-for-cardiomyocyte-ryanopathy-calcium-release-related-contractile/

Part VIII: Disruption of Calcium Homeostasis: Cardiomyocytes and Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells: The Cardiac and Cardiovascular Calcium Signaling Mechanism

Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC, Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/12/disruption-of-calcium-homeostasis-cardiomyocytes-and-vascular-smooth-muscle-cells-the-cardiac-and-cardiovascular-calcium-signaling-mechanism/

Section Five

The Calcium Sensor: How Calcium Ions Regulate the fusion of vesicles with cell membranes during Neurotransmission

This topic is covered in

Synaptotagmin functions as a Calcium Sensor: How Calcium Ions Regulate the fusion of vesicles with cell membranes during Neurotransmission

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/10/synaptotagmin-functions-as-a-calcium-sensor-how-calcium-ions-regulate-the-fusion-of-vesicles-with-cell-membranes-during-neurotransmission/

Part V: Heart, Vascular Smooth Muscle, Excitation-Contraction Coupling (E-CC), Cytoskeleton, Cellular Dynamics and Ca2 Signaling

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/26/heart-smooth-muscle-excitation-contraction-coupling-cytoskeleton-cellular-dynamics-and-ca2-signaling/

Summary

Work on neurotransmitter release revealed a hierarchy of molecular machines that mediate the fusion of synaptic vesicles, the calcium-control of this fusion, and the embedding of calcium-controlled fusion in the context of the presynaptic terminal at the synapse. The neural transmission is described as a biological relay system. Neurotransmission kicks off with an electrical pulse that runs down a nerve cell, or neuron. When that signal reaches the tip, calcium enters the cell. In response, the neuron liberates chemical messengers—neurotransmitters.  When the calcium-controlled fusion at the presynaptic junction is blocked, as with a CCB, neurotransmitters are not released.  The activity of the neurotransmitters would be to cause smaooth muscle contraction of the vessel.  The CCB would cause relaxation and flow.

http://www.nature.com/focus/Lasker/2013/pdf/ES-Lasker13-Sudhof.pdf

Part IX of this series of articles discussed the mechanism of the signaling of smooth muscle cells by the interacting parasympathetic neural innervation that occurs by calcium triggering neurotransmitter release by initiating synaptic vesicle fusion. It involves the interaction of soluble N-acetylmaleimide-sensitive factor (SNARE) and SM proteins, and in addition, the discovery of a calcium-dependent Syt1 (C) domain of protein- kinase C isoenzyme, which binds to phospholipids. It is reasonable to consider that it differs from motor neuron activation of skeletal muscles, mainly because the innervation is in the involuntary domain. The cranial nerve rooted innervation has evolved comes from the spinal ganglia at the corresponding level of the spinal cord. It is in this specific neural function that we find a mechanistic interaction with adrenergic hormonal function, a concept intimated by the late Richard Bing. Only recently has there been a plausible concept that brings this into serious consideration. Moreover, the review of therapeutic drugs that are used in blocking adrenergic receptors are closely related to the calcium-channels. Interesting too is the participation of a phospholipid bound protein-kinase isoenzyme C calcium-dependent domain Syt1. The neurohormonal connection lies in the observation by Katz in the 1950’s that the vesicles of the neurons hold and eject fixed amounts of neurotransmitters.  The mechanism of this action will be futher discussed in Part X.

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Biomedical Measurement Science Program @ Stanford with NIST, Life Tech and Agilent

Posted in Bio Instrumentation in Experimental Life Sciences Research, Biomedical Measurement Science, FDA Regulatory Affairs, Genomic Testing: Methodology for Diagnosis, Technology Transfer: Biotech and Pharmaceutical, tagged Agilent Technologies, Food and Drug Administration, Life Technologies, National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST, Stanford University on June 21, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Stanford University and NIST, Launch Biomedical Measurement Science Program; Partners Include Life Tech and Agilent

June 21, 2013

By Matt Jones

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Stanford University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have launched a new program that aims to develop methods for measuring the accuracy and comparability of life sciences and genomics technologies, particularly tools that are expanding beyond the lab and into clinical medicine.

The Advances in Biomedical Measurement Science (ABMS) program will use funding and resources from Stanford and NIST, as well as from commercial partners Life Technologies and Agilent Technologies, to develop industry consensus standards and standard reference materials for a range of genomics and imaging technologies, Marc Salit, leader of NIST’s Multiplexed Biomolecular Science Group, Biosystems and Biomaterials Divisions, told GenomeWeb Daily News today.

The ABMS partners plan to focus on technology areas that are edging their way into clinical medicine and other applications, including the use of high-throughput sequencing for HLA typing; stem cell phenotyping and genotyping; quantitative imaging for non-invasive cancer diagnosis and for drug response and screening; synthetic biology; and multiparameter protein measurement.

The partners expect that improving the accuracy and comparability of data from these tools will make it easier and faster to make decisions about how they will be used in research and in the clinic, and how they might be regulated.

The initiative is part of an effort by NIST to expand its presence in biotechnology, healthcare, and biomedicine, particularly through partnerships with universities that have competencies, medical facilities, and expertise in areas that the institute lacks.

“Stanford has a critical mass of some of these assets, and NIST thought [the ABMS program] would be an efficient way to expand its presence in the healthcare and biomedical areas,” Salit said.

“NIST was a spectacular resource for the century of physics in the 20th Century; we want to be that resource for the century of biology, this century,” he told GWDN. “We wanted to see if we could take what we had developed in chemistry — in terms of measurement assurance and the kinds of things that bring confidence to measurement results — and transfer it into genomic measurement.”

Several NIST researchers have relocated to Stanford from their offices in Gaithersburg, Md., and will work directly with established Stanford investigators and postdocs, while around half of Salit’s team will remain at the Maryland lab, he said.

Another selling point of this partnership for NIST is that it enables the agency to establish “a permanent presence” on the West Coast, near Silicon Valley, Salit said.

NIST has other well-established joint institutes at US universities, and the long-term aim is that the ABMS will be “a seed from which such a joint institute could grow,” Salit explained.

The program will operate as a virtual center at first, where investigators from NIST, Stanford, and the industry partners will “work shoulder to shoulder” to study genomics and imaging technologies that are working their way into clinical care, he added.

“Some of these [Stanford and industry] research groups have instruments and technologies that exist commercially which would benefit from a real thorough study, from a measurement science perspective” said Salit.

Tom Baer, director of the Advances in Biomedical Measurement Science Program, told GWDN that the life sciences companies involved in the program have a strong interest in working with partners to test, measure, and analyze their technologies in new ways. The two companies already involved, and any future industry partners, will pay annual fees to help support the program, he noted.

“We expect that there will be significant standards reference materials and protocols that will come out of the joint research here with Mark’s group on campus. And [Life Technologies and Agilent] are going to benefit because there will be some really first-class scientists working with their instrumentation, studying how well they perform now and coming up with ways that they could potentially be improved,” said Baer, who also is executive director of the Stanford Photonics Research Center.

Salit noted that NIST does not develop government regulations but informs their development, and added that in working with tech companies its mission is to help “grow the whole pie bigger,” and to support the US technology industry enterprise broadly.

This kind of partnership, he said, also will engage experts from the Food and Drug Administration, which will “bring real value” to these companies.

The HLA typing project, which will study the use of high-throughput sequencing and other nucleic acid-based technologies for identifying immune responses to bone marrow and stem cell transplantation, is a “perfect example” of the kind of program the partners will pursue, Baer explained. “This has great resonance with at least one of the commercial partners, who is trying to develop methods and products around HLA typing,” he added.

“We’re looking to identify areas of great medical need in the whole area of tissue transplants, both as it exists today and as it is going to grow with the stem cell and regenerative medicines initiatives that are underway,” said Baer. “This is an area of critical medical need where measurement science can play a very important role with the new quantitative technologies that are currently available.”

He said the HLA typing effort is “a prototype of how we’re developing the research programs at ABMS.” The goal is “to look not just at the concept of how you do this measurement, but what is the problem, where is measurement playing a role, and how we can improve the performance of the systems and technologies through both standards development, better understanding, and measurement science,” Baer said.

Baer also said that he expects this project will serve to educate regulatory agencies about “what is legitimate scientific data with a legitimate use of particular instrumentation, and what protocols have intellectual or scientific merit or not.”

He noted that NIST wasn’t aware of this need prior to beginning a dialogue with the Stanford researchers. “By coming here and interacting directly with groups that have patient contact, and dealing with developing solutions to significant medical problems, we are able to focus NIST on these areas and bring the resources of the medical community here at Stanford to bear with NIST, as well as with the companies that are supplying the instrumentation,” said Baer.

Matt Jones is a staff reporter for GenomeWeb Daily News. He covers public policy, legislation, and funding issues that affect researchers in the genomics field, as well as the operations of research institutes. E-mail Matt Jones or follow GWDN’s headlines at @DailyNewsGW.

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SOURCE

http://www.genomeweb.com//node/1244561?hq_e=el&hq_m=1592098&hq_l=1&hq_v=e1df6f3681

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CD47: Target Therapy for Cancer

Posted in Advanced Drug Manufacturing Technology, Biomarkers & Medical Diagnostics, BioSimilars, CANCER BIOLOGY & Innovations in Cancer Therapy, Cancer Prevention: Research & Programs, Cell Biology, Signaling & Cell Circuits, Disease Biology, Small Molecules in Development of Therapeutic Drugs, Drug Delivery Platform Technology, Pharmaceutical R&D Investment, Regulated Clinical Trials: Design, Methods, Components and IRB related issues, Technology Transfer: Biotech and Pharmaceutical, tagged Antibody, Cancer - General, CD47, CD47-SIRPα pathway, Chemotherapy, Integrins, macrophages, monoclonal antibody, Phagocytic cells, PI3K/AKT pathway, radiotherapy, Signal-regulatory protein alpha, Signal-regulatory protein-alpha (SIRPα), Stanford University, Stanford University School of Medicine, Thrombospondin 1, Thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1), Tilda Barliya, Trastuzumab on May 7, 2013| 7 Comments »

CD47: Target Therapy for Cancer

Author/Curator: Tilda Barliya

• 

“A research team from Stanford University’s School of Medicine is now one step closer to uncovering a cancer treatment that could be applicable across the board in killing every kind of cancer tumor” (1). It appeared that their antibody-drug against the CD47 protein, enabled the shrinking of all tumor cells. After completing their animal studies the researchers now move into a human phase clinical trials. CD47 has been previously studied and evaluated for its role in multiple cells, some of this data however, is somewhat controversy. So where do we stand?

CD47

CD47 (originally named integrin-associated protein (IAP)) is a cell surface protein of the immunoglobulin (Ig) superfamily, which is heavily glycosylated and expressed by virtually all cells in the body and overexpressed in many types of cancer  including breast, ovarian, colon, prostate and others (3). CD47 was first recognized as a 50 kDa protein associated and copurified with the  Alpha-v-Beta-3 integrin in placenta and neutrophil granulocytes and later shown to have the capacity to regulate integrin function and the responsiveness of leukocytes to RGD-containing extracellular matrix proteins. CD47 has also been shown to be identical to the OA-3/OVTL3 antigen highly expressed on most ovarian carcinomas (4,5).

CD47 consists of an extracellular IgV domain, a five times transmembrane-spanning domain, and a short alternatively spliced cytoplasmic tail. In both humans and mice, the cytoplasmic tail can be found as four different splice isoforms ranging from 4 to 36 amino acids, showing different tissue expression patterns (3).

CD47 interactions (3, 6):

• Thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1) – a secreted glycoprotein that plays a role in vascular development and angiogenesis. Binding of TSP-1 to CD47 influences several fundamental cellular functions including cell migration and adhesion, cell proliferation or apoptosis, and plays a role in the regulation of angiogenesis and inflammation.
• Signal-regulatory protein-alpha (SIRPα) – an inhibitory transmembrane receptor present on myeloid cells. The CD47/SIRPα interaction leads to bidirectional signaling, resulting in different cell-to-cell responses including inhibition of phagocytosis, stimulation of cell-cell fusion, and T-cell activation.
• Integrins – several membrane integrins, most commonly integrin avb3. These interactions result in CD47/integrin complexes that effect a range of cell functions including adhesion, spreading and migration

These interactions with multiple proteins and cells types create several important functions, which include:

• Cell proliferation – cell proliferation is heavily dependent on cell type as both activation and loss of CD47 can result in enhanced proliferation. For example, activation of CD47 with TSP-1 in wild-type cells inhibits proliferation and reduces expression of stem cell transcription factors. In cancer cells however, activation of CD47 with TSP-1 increases proliferation of human U87 and U373 astrocytoma. it is likely that CD47 promotes proliferation via the PI3K/Akt pathway in cancerous cells but not normal cells (7).  Loss of CD47 allows sustained proliferation of primary murine endothelial cells and enables these cells to spontaneously reprogram to form multipotent embryoid body-like clusters (8).
  
• Apoptosis – Ligation of CD47 by anti-CD47 mAbs was found to induce apoptosis in a number of different cell types (3). For example: Of the two SIRP-family members known to bind the CD47 IgV domain (SIRPα and SIRPγ), SIRPα as a soluble Fc-fusion protein does not induce CD47-dependent apoptosis, hile SIRPα or SIRPγ bound onto the surface of beads induces apoptosis through CD47 in Jurkat T cells and the myelomonocytic cell line U937.
• Migration – CD47  role on cell migration was first demonstrated in neutrophils, these effects were shown to be dependent on avb3 integrins, which interact with and are activated by CD47 at the plasma membrane. In cancer, Blocking CD47 function has been shown to inhibit migration and metastasis in a variety of tumor models. Blockade of CD47 by neutralizing antibodies reduced migration and chemotaxis in response to collagen IV in melanoma, prostate cancer and ovarian cancer-derived cells (9).
• Angiogenesis – The mechanism of the anti-angiogenic activity of CD47 is not fully understood, but introduction of CD47 antibodies and TSP-1 have been shown to inhibit nitric oxide (NO)-stimulated responses in both endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cells (10). More so, CD47 signaling influences the SDF-1 chemokine pathway, which plays a role in angiogenesis (11). (12)
• Inflammatory response – Interactions between endothelial cell CD47 and leukocyte SIRPγ regulate T cell transendothelial migration (TEM) at sites of inflammation. CD47 also functions as a marker of self on murine red blood cells which allows RBC to avoid phagocytosis. Tumor cells can also evade macrophage phagocytosis through the expression of CD47 (2, 13).

It appears that CD47 ligation induce different responses, depending on cell type and partner for ligation.

Therapeutic and clinical aspect of CD47 in human cancer:

CD47 is overexpressed in many types of human cancers  and its known function as a “don’t eat me” signal, suggests the potential for targeting the CD47-SIRPα pathway as a common therapy for human malignancies (2,13). Upregulation of CD47 expression in human cancers also appears to influence tumor growth and dissemination. First, increased expression of CD47 in several hematologic malignancies was found to be associated with a worse clinical prognosis, and in ALL to predict refractoriness to standard chemotherapies (13, 14-16). Second, CD47 was demonstrated to regulate tumor metastasis and dissemination in both MM and NHL (13, 17).

Efforts have been made to develop therapies inhibiting the CD47-SIRPα pathway, principally through blocking monoclonal antibodies directed against CD47, but also possibly with a recombinant SIRPα protein that can also bind and block CD47.

Chao MP et al. 2012 Combination strategies targeting CD47 in cancer

While monotherapies targeting CD47 were efficacious in several pre-clinical tumor models, combination strategies involving inhibition of the CD47-SIRPα pathway offer even greater therapeutic potential. Specifically, antibodies targeting CD47-SIRPα can be included in combination therapies with other therapeutic antibodies, macrophage-enhancing agents, chemo-radiation therapy, or as an adjuvant therapy to inhibit metastasis (13).

For example, anti-SIRPα antibody was found to potentiate  antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) mediated by the anti-Her2/Neu antibody trastuzumab against breast cancer cells (18).  CD47–SIRPα interactions and SIRPα signaling negatively regulate trastuzumab-mediated ADCC in vitro and antibody-dependent elimination of tumor cells in vivo

More so, chemo-radiation therapy-mediated upregulation of cell surface calreticulin may potentially augment the activity of anti-CD47 antibody. However, this approach may also lead to increased toxicity as cell surface calreticulin is expressed on non-cancerous cells undergoing apoptosis, a principle effect of chemo-radiation therapy (19).

Highlights:

• Phagocytic cells, macrophages, regulate tumor growth through phagocytic clearance
• CD47 binds SIRPα on phagocytes which delivers an inhibitory signal for phagocytosis
• A blocking anti-CD47 antibody enabled phagocytic clearance of many human cancers
• Phagocytosis depends on a balance of anti-(CD47) and pro-(calreticulin) signals
• Anti-CD47 antibody synergized with an FcR-engaging antibody, such as rituximab

Summary

Evasion of immune recognition is a major mechanism by which cancers establish and propagate disease. Recent data has demonstrated that the innate immune system plays a key role in modulating tumor phagocytosis through the CD47-SIRPα pathway. Careful development of reagents that can block the CD47/SIRPα interaction may indeed be useful to treat many forms of cancer without having too much of a negative side effect in terms of inducing clearance of host cells. Therapeutic approaches inhibiting this pathway have demonstrated significant efficacy, leading to the reduction and elimination of multiple tumor types.

Dr. Weissman says: “We are now hopeful that the first human clinical trials of anti-CD47 antibody will take place at Stanford in mid-2014, if all goes well. Clinical trials may also be done in the United Kingdom”. These clinical trials must be designed so that the data they generate will produce a valid scientific result!!!

REFERENCES

1. By Sara Gates:  Cancer Drug That Shrinks All Tumors Set To Begin Human Clinical Trials. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/28/cancer-drug-shrinks-tumors_n_2972708.html

2. Willingham SB, Volkmer JP, Gentles AJ, Sahoo D, Dalerba P, Mitra SS, Wang J, Contreras-Trujillo H, Martin R, Cohen JD, Lovelace P, Scheeren FA, Chao MP, Weiskopf K, Tang C, Volkmer AK, Naik TJ, Storm TA, Mosley AR, Edris B, Schmid SM, Sun CK, Chua MS, Murillo O, Rajendran P, Cha AC, Chin RK, Kim D, Adorno M, Raveh T, Tseng D, Jaiswal S, Enger PØ, Steinberg GK, Li G, So SK, Majeti R, Harsh GR, van de Rijn M, Teng NN, Sunwoo JB, Alizadeh AA, Clarke MF, Weissman IL. The CD47-signal regulatory protein alpha (SIRPa) interaction is a therapeutic target for human solid tumors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Apr 24;109(17):6662-6667. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/03/20/1121623109

3. Oldenborg PL. CD47: A Cell Surface Glycoprotein Which Regulates Multiple Functions of Hematopoietic Cells in Health and Disease. ISRN Hematology Volume 2013 (2013), Article ID 614619, 19 pages.  http://www.hindawi.com/isrn/hematology/2013/614619/

4. G. Campbell, P. S. Freemont, W. Foulkes, and J. Trowsdale, “An ovarian tumor marker with homology to vaccinia virus contains an IgV- like region and multiple transmembrane domains,”Cancer Research, vol. 52, no. 19, pp. 5416–5420, 1992. http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/52/19/5416.long

5. L. G. Poels, D. Peters, Y. van Megen et al., “Monoclonal antibody against human ovarian tumor-associated antigens,” Journal of the National Cancer Institute, vol. 76, no. 5, pp. 781–791, 1986. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3517452

6. CD47. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD47

7. Sick E, Boukhari A, Deramaudt T, Rondé P, Bucher B, André P, Gies JP, Takeda K (February 2011). “Activation of CD47 receptors causes proliferation of human astrocytoma but not normal astrocytes via an Akt-dependent pathway”. Glia 59 (2): 308–319. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21125662

8. Kaur S, Soto-Pantoja DR, Stein EV, Liu C, Elkahloun AG, Pendrak ML, Nicolae A, Singh SP, Nie Z, Levens D, Isenberg JS, Roberts DD.  “Thrombospondin-1 Signaling through CD47 Inhibits Self-renewal by Regulating c-Myc and Other Stem Cell Transcription Factors”. Sci Rep 2013: 3: 1673. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3628113/

9. Shahan TA, Fawzi A, Bellon G, Monboisse JC, Kefalides NA. “Regulation of tumor cell chemotaxis by type IV collagen is mediated by a Ca(2+)-dependent mechanism requiring CD47 and the integrin alpha(V)beta(3)”. J. Biol. Chem 2000. 275 (7): 4796–4802. http://www.jbc.org/content/275/7/4796

10. Isenberg JS, Ridnour LA, Dimitry J, Frazier WA, Wink DA, Roberts DD. “CD47 is necessary for inhibition of nitric oxide-stimulated vascular cell responses by thrombospondin-1”. J. Biol. Chem  2006. 281 (36): 26069–26080.  http://www.jbc.org/content/281/36/26069

11. Smadja DM, d’Audigier C, Bièche I, Evrard S, Mauge L, Dias JV, Labreuche J, Laurendeau I, Marsac B, Dizier B, Wagner-Ballon O, Boisson-Vidal C, Morandi V, Duong-Van-Huyen JP, Bruneval P, Dignat-George F, Emmerich J, Gaussem P. “Thrombospondin-1 is a plasmatic marker of peripheral arterial disease that modulates endothelial progenitor cell angiogenic properties”. Arterioscler. Thromb. Vasc. Biol  2011. 31 (3): 551–559. http://atvb.ahajournals.org/content/31/3/551

12. G. D. Grossfeld, D. A. Ginsberg, J. P. Stein et al., “Thrombospondin-1 expression in bladder cancer: association with p53 alterations, tumor angiogenesis, and tumor progression,” Journal of the National Cancer Institute 1997 vol. 89, no. 3, pp. 219–227. http://www.scopus.com/record/display.url?eid=2-s2.0-18744423089&origin=inward&txGid=9C86356DDB0B6816ACCBF90F9CA44E92.WlW7NKKC52nnQNxjqAQrlA%3a2

13. Chao MP, Weissman IL, Majeti R. “The CD47-SIRPα pathway in cancer immune evasion and potential therapeutic implications”. Curr. Opin. Immunol 2012. 24 (2): 225–32. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095279151200012X. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3319521/

14. Majeti R, Chao MP, Alizadeh AA, Pang WW, Jaiswal S, Gibbs KD, Jr, van Rooijen N, Weissman IL. Cd47 is an adverse prognostic factor and therapeutic antibody target on human acute myeloid leukemia stem cells. Cell. 2009;138(2):286–299. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2726837/

15. Chao MP, Alizadeh AA, Tang C, Jan M, Weissman-Tsukamoto R, Zhao F, Park CY, Weissman IL, Majeti R. Therapeutic antibody targeting of cd47 eliminates human acute lymphoblastic leukemia.Cancer Res. 2011;71 (4):1374–1384. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3041855/

16. Chao MP, Alizadeh AA, Tang C, Myklebust JH, Varghese B, Gill S, Jan M, Cha AC, Chan CK, Tan BT, Park CY, et al. Anti-cd47 antibody synergizes with rituximab to promote phagocytosis and eradicate non-hodgkin lymphoma. Cell. 2010;142(5):699–713. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2943345/

17. Chao MP, Tang C, Pachynski RK, Chin R, Majeti R, Weissman IL. Extranodal dissemination of non-hodgkin lymphoma requires cd47 and is inhibited by anti-cd47 antibody therapy. Blood.2011;118(18):4890–4901. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3208297/

18. Zhao XW, van Beek EM, Schornagel K, Van der Maaden H, Van Houdt M, Otten MA, Finetti P, Van Egmond M, Matozaki T, Kraal G, Birnbaum D, et al. Cd47-signal regulatory protein-alpha (sirpalpha) interactions form a barrier for antibody-mediated tumor cell destruction. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A.2011;108(45):18342–18347. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3215076/

19. Obeid M, Tesniere A, Ghiringhelli F, Fimia GM, Apetoh L, Perfettini JL, Castedo M, Mignot G, Panaretakis T, Casares N, Metivier D, et al. Calreticulin exposure dictates the immunogenicity of cancer cell death. Nat Med. 2007;13(1):54–61. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17187072

Other related articles on this Open Access Online Scientific Journal include the following:

I. By: Larry Bernstein MD. Treatment for Metastatic HER2 Breast Cancer http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/03/03/treatment-for-metastatic-her2-breast-cancer/

II. By: Tilda Barliya PhD. Colon Cancer.  http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/04/30/colon-cancer/

III. By: Ritu Saxena PhD. In focus: Triple Negative Breast Cancer. http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/01/29/in-focus-triple-negative-breast-cancer/

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Celebrating the First Anniversary of PharmaceuticalIntelligence.com, 4/30/2012 – 4/30/2013

Posted in Bio Instrumentation in Experimental Life Sciences Research, Biomarkers & Medical Diagnostics, Cell Biology, Signaling & Cell Circuits, Disease Biology, Small Molecules in Development of Therapeutic Drugs, Genome Biology, Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Medical and Population Genetics, Molecular Genetics & Pharmaceutical, Pharmaceutical Industry Competitive Intelligence, Population Health Management, Genetics & Pharmaceutical, Scientist: Career considerations, Technology Transfer: Biotech and Pharmaceutical, tagged National Academy of Sciences, Stanford University, Warburg Effect on April 30, 2013| 1 Comment »

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

First post published on 4/30/2012

We went pretty far:

On 4/30/2013 – Great News to Share

News from the National Academy of Sciences

Date: April 30, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

National Academy of Sciences Members and Foreign Associates Elected

The National Academy of Sciences announced today the election of 84 new members and 21 foreign associates from 14 countries in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

Those elected today bring the total number of active members to 2,179 and the total number of foreign associates to 437. Foreign associates are nonvoting members of the Academy, with citizenship outside the United States.

Newly elected members and their affiliations at the time of election are:

We congratulate OUR BOARD MEMBER for being elected 

Feldman, Marcus W.

Director, Morrison Institute for Population and Resource Studies, and Burnet C. and Mildred Finley Wohlford Professor of Biological Sciences, department of biological sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.

http://www.nasonline.org/news-and-multimedia/news/2013_04_30_NAS_Election.html

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OUR BioMed e-BOOKS Series

Forthcoming on e-Book List of Amazon-KINDLE

• Perspectives on Nitric Oxide in Disease Mechanisms (5/2013), 

Larry Bernstein, MD FCAP and Aviral Vatsa, MBBS, PhD, Editors

Target Market: CARDIOLOGISTS

• Cardiovascular Diseases: Causes, Risks and Management

Justin D. Pearlman MD ME PhD MA FACC, Editor (9/2013)

Target Market: CARDIOLOGISTS


• Genomics Orientations for Personalized Medicine 

Larry Bernstein, MD FACP, Sr. Editor, SJ Williams, PhD and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN, Editors  
(7/2013)

Target Market: Life Scientists and BIG PARMA, Academia and the Public

• Metabolic Genomics & Pharmaceutics (12/2013)
  

Larry Bernstein, MD, FCAP & Ritu Saxena, PhD, Editors


Target Market: GI MDs, Nutritionists, Food Industry, Academia and the Public


• Cancer Biology and Genomics for Disease Diagnosis (8/2013),


SJ. Williams, PhD, Sr. Editor,  Tilda Barliya, PhD and Ritu Saxena, PhD, Editors


Target Market: ONCOLOGISTS

• Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery (2014),

Dr. Tilda Barliya, Editor


Target Market: BIG PHARMA & Academics

• Human Immune System in Health and in Disease – 2014 

– Editor TBA

• Infectious Disease & New Antibiotic Targets – 2014 

– Editor TBA

List of ADDITIONAL TITLES for 2014 e-Books

• 2014 – The Patient’s Voice: Personal Experience with Invasive Medical Procedures

– Editor TBA

• 2014 – Interviews with Scientific Leaders

– Editor TBA

• 2014 – Milestones in Physiology: Discoveries in Medicine

– Editor TBA

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