Coal-Tar Sealant Ban, Coating Stents with Vitamin C, Parkinson’s and Pesticides

By Mary Jane Dittmar

Health is a complex and multifaceted issue. Examples of some of the diverse factors involved in working toward improved health are presented is this column. It encompasses environmental health factors, improved medical procedures that can cut patient risk, promising research in genetics that one day will have major significance for new treatments and cures, finding links between disease and exposure to substances in our everyday environment, and the discovery of new drugs that will help to alleviate health conditions that are difficult to treat.


Coal-Tar Sealant Ban Lowers PAH Levels in Austin (TX) Lake

A ban on the use of pavement sealants derived from coal tar in Austin, Texas, was found to have reduced the presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the city’s Lady Bird Lake. In “PAH Concentrations in Lake Sediment Decline Following Ban on Coal-Tar-Based Pavement Sealants in Austin, Texas,” researchers Peter C. Van Metre and Barbara J. Mahler credit the ban on the use of the sealants institute in 2006 for the decrease in PAHs in Lady Bird Lake over the eight-year period. PAHs are considered to be cancer-causing compounds in the environment and were found to cause cancer in animals.

The researchers report that samples of the mud at the bottom of the lake show that PAH concentrations dropped by about half and that the PAH levels, which had been rising in the lake’s sediments for some 40 years, are still continuing to decline. Lady Bird Lake receives much of the water that runs off Austin’s streets and parking lots. The study has been published in the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science & Technology and is available at http://bit.ly/1qsJuHu. The U.S. Geological Survey funded the research.

 

Coating Stents with Vitamin C Could Lower Adverse Effects

Scientists have found that coating stents (mesh tubes inserted in blood vessels to keep blocked arteries open) with vitamin C may lower the risks of adverse effects for patients, according to the American Chemical Society’s journal Langmuir (http://bit.ly/1nPJYUT). Stents are implanted each year in more than one million people in the United States who have suffered heart attacks or chest pain from blocked arteries.

Eagappanath Thiruppathi and Gopinath Mani note in their study “Vitamin-C Delivery from CoCr Alloy Surfaces Using Polymer-Free and Polymer-Based Platforms for Cardiovascular Stent Applications” that although today’s stents are safer than when they were first introduced, about 10,000 to 50,000 people who receive stents develop “late stent thrombosis” (LST), in which clots form and re-block the arteries. One problem in LST is that endothelial cells must be encouraged and smooth muscle cells must be inhibited. In their research, Thiruppathi and Mani found that vitamin C inhibits smooth muscle cells and encourages endothelial cells, making it a good alternative for or an addition to the drugs now used to coat stents. The researchers devised a way to successfully coat a common stent material with vitamin C so that it would release the nutrient slowly over time, which—they concluded—could make stents and other implantable medical devices safer. Additional information is available from Dr. Mani, Biomedical Engineering Program, the University of South Dakota, Gopinath.Mani@usd.edu.

 

NIST Developing Standards for Treatments Based on Patients’ Genetic Makeup

The Biochemical Sciences Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory is developing reliability standards to enable doctors to confidently make treatment and prevention decisions based on a patient’s individual genetic makeup. The work is being conducted by a research team directed by Laurie Locascio, Ph.D. Before clinicians employ the new and emerging DNA sequencing technologies for patient treatment, they must be able to assess the accuracy of Human Genome Project-level data using the standards adopted by this team.

 

Parkinson’s and Pesticides: Exploring the Link

Scientists discovered evidence of a link between pesticides and Parkinson’s disease more than 30 years ago, according to Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society. However, some questions relative to the potential association have yet to be fully answered. 

Lauren K. Wolf, associate editor at C&EN, explains in the article that the focus on pesticides as a potential culprit for inducing Parkinson’s can be traced back to the illicit drug market. In 1982, she explains, several young people with symptoms of Parkinson’s disease appeared at medical centers. They had been experimenting with, and had taken, a heroin-like drug that contained a compound that breaks down into a powerful neurotoxin. Researchers began to more closely associate pesticides with a possible Parkinson’s link when they discovered that the neurotoxic derivative in the compound had been developed as an herbicide in the 1970s.

Wolf says the evidence supporting a link between pesticides and Parkinson’s is growing. Parkinson’s disease affects seven to 10 million people worldwide. Among the questions scientists are working to answer are why many people exposed to pesticides don’t develop the disease, the specific pesticides that are involved, and whether there are possible genetic explanations that make some people more susceptible to Parkinson’s than others. At least two genetic mutations that can increase a pesticide-exposed person’s risk for Parkinson’s have been identified. The full story is available at http://cen.acs.org/articles/91/i47/Pesticide-Connection.html.

Source: American Chemical Society (ACS) PressPac December 4, 2013.www.acs.org

 

Research Pointing to New Meds for Lowering Triglycerides

Many people have difficulty keeping their triglyceride (a type of fat found in the blood) levels within the” normal” parameters established by the medical establishment. Research that recently appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and reported in the New York Times suggests that variants in the apolipoprotein (APOC3) gene may be associated with lower triglyceride levels. http://nyti.ms/1m6gFZS

A study, “Loss-of-Function Mutations APOC3, Triglycerides, and Coronary Disease,” led by researcher Sekar Kathiresan of Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute of Harvard, found that study subjects who had rare mutations in the APOC3 gene had lower plasma triglyceride levels and a 40-percent lower risk of coronary artery disease. http://bit.ly/1rgMVPa

In a second study, “Loss-of-Function Mutations in APOC3 and Risk of Ischemic Vascular Disease,” also published in NEJM, Anne Tybjærg-Hansen, M.D., D.M.Sc., at the University of Copenhagen and her colleagues, found that the loss of function mutations in APOC3 was associated with lower triglyceride levels and a reduced risk of ischemic cardiovascular disease. http://bit.ly/1uYmo9A

According to the Times article, Isis, a small company in California, developed a drug that appears to be able to reduce triglyceride levels by about 70 percent. The chief executive of Isis is quoted as saying, “This drug is the most important drug in our pipeline. He described the study findings as “really exciting.”

Photos found on www.Photos8.com.

 

Mary Jane Dittmar is senior associate editor of Fire Engineering and conference manager of FDIC. Before joining the magazine in January 1991, she served as editor of a trade magazine in the health/nutrition market and held various positions in the educational and medical advertising fields. She has a bachelor’s degree in English/journalism and a master’s degree in communication arts.

Fatal Queens fire

Three Killed in Queens (NY) Fire

Three people were killed by a fire that ripped through a Queens home early Sunday, officials said.
New Orleans (LA) Vacant House Fire

Two-Alarm Fire Breaks Out at New Orleans (LA) Vacant House, Authorities Say

A vacant house caught fire in the 7th Ward Saturday morning, according to the New Orleans Fire Department.