Food Giant Nestle set to develop new drug(s) based upon Chinese Herbal Medicine

Food Giant Nestle in works to develop new drugs based upon Chinese Herbal Ingredients and TCM. 

From: South China Post 

Hutchison Whampoa's pharmaceutical unit has joined forces with Swiss food giant Nestle to develop a new drug, which they said had the potential to be the first Chinese herbal-ingredient-based drug candidate to conduct a large-scale clinical trial for registration in a major disease area.

London's Alternative Investment Market-listed Hutchison China Meditech (Chi-Med), 70.4 per cent owned by Hutchison Whampoa, formed an equally owned joint venture in November last year with Nestle's wholly owned Nestle Health Science to develop nutritional and medicinal products derived from botanical plants.

Last week, the venture said the first patient had been enrolled to begin treatment in a phase-three clinical trial for a botanical-ingredient-based oral drug aimed at treating patients with moderate ulcerative colitis, a disease of the large intestine. The trial is expected to take 24 months.

Chi-Med chief executive Christian Hogg said the firm had spent 13 years identifying 15,000 "molecular level" substances by breaking down some 1,300 herbs, and come up with a "library" of data. The substances are being screened for medical efficacy.

"Back in the early 2000s, there was a lot of talk in Asia about bringing traditional Chinese medicine to the world, but it has taken this long to do it in a scientific and methodical manner," Hogg said. "It is only now that all this effort is reaching the final stages of registration trial."

Chi-Med started discovery work in 2003 and won approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration in 2005 to go into clinical trial for the oral drug, Hogg said last week.

He would not disclose the amount of money spent so far but said the drug's efficacy and safety had been demonstrated in more than 400 patients. He also declined to divulge the budget for the stage-three trial, which will enrol more than 2,500 patients, mainly in the US and Europe.

http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1225520/hutchison-develop-herbal-drug-nestle

New Study: Acupuncture can relieve pain on par with morphine.

Researchers from the University of California at San Francisco have determined that acupuncture stimulation reduces pain. The acupuncture induced pain relief was determined to be the equivalent of a moderate dose of morphine. Dr. Goddard from the renown University of California, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department conducted a laboratory experiment to measure the effects of needling acupuncture point ST36, located on the lower leg.

In detail (Acupuncture "shop talk") 

Acupuncture point ST36 (Zusanli, Leg Three Measures) has a function within Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to activate the Stomach (Yangming) channel and relieve pain. Although more commonly known for its ability to tonify Qi, Blood and Yin, ST36 is indicated for the treatment of leg, back, chest, breast, abdominal, eye and knee pain. Headaches are also indicated. In general, ST36 is indicated for pernicious cold damp painful obstruction related disorders.

ST36 treats channel specific pain. The research of this study measured the analgesic effects of ST36 for electrically induced pain of the lower incisor. It is not surprising that ST36 was found effective given that the channel runs along the gums and jaw. The primary Stomach channel begins at acupuncture point LI20 beside the nose and ascends to the root of the nose where it intersects UB1. Next, the Stomach channel descends along the lateral aspect of the nose and enters the upper gum and joins with acupuncture point DU26. The channel then circles around the corner of the mouth and meets with CV24 at the mentolabial groove. Next, the Yangming channel follows the angle of the jaw and runs upward in front of the ear. At this point, the primary channel traverses other regions of the body.

Mummies reveal clues about the history of disease.

When studying mummified remains, pathologist, Michael Zimmerman also is studying the earliest known cases of many diseases, many of which may have claimed the lives of the person that is now being studied, thousands of years later. But what can this information teach us? For starters, in his studies, he finds that cancer was relatively uncommon. 

By staining samples of its lung tissue, he found the pathogen that causes tuberculosis, thus establishing the oldest known case of the disease. The only previous evidence of TB dating back that far had come from artwork depicting figures with bone deformities characteristic of the disease.

In 1991, the head of the anthropology department at Austria's University of Innsbruck called him after a 5,300-year-old frozen body, "Otzi the Iceman," was found in the nearby mountains, preserved by ice and snow. He missed his chance to examine the body when scientists realized that Otzi's final resting place was on Italian side of the border and that the Austrians had to give him up to an Italian museum. There, a CT scan revealed the cause of death: an arrowhead lodged in Otzi's left shoulder.

Over the years, Zimmerman has seen mummies with arthritis, club foot (King Tut suffered from it), cirrhosis of the liver and plaque in their arteries - ailments similar to what doctors see in autopsies today.

It's not hard to find mummies, he said. When modern Egyptians built railroads, so many mummies turned up during the digging that workers burned them for warmth. Since that first Smithsonian mummy, he said, he has examined 200 to 300. When he started out, he did a complete autopsy, cutting up the body and removing the organs. Now, he uses less-damaging procedures, imaging them with CT scans and inserting endoscopic instruments through small holes.

What amazed him was that among all these mummies, he saw only two cases of cancer, though he says tumors are easy to spot. During a recent talk at Villanova, he showed a slide of a rectal cancer found in a middle-aged Egyptian mummy, explaining how the cells stained a distinct color and showed signs of abnormal cell division.

Zimmerman and University of Manchester professor Rosalie David, who founded the university's renowned Egypt Mummy Project, wrote a 2010 paper for the journal Nature on the lack of mummified cancer and their speculation that cancer might be more tied to modern environments than has been assumed. Zimmerman attributes most of the difference to the modern prevalence of smoking: There's nothing in the historical or archaeological record to suggest that ancient Egyptians smoked.

The paper stirred up controversy, with some questioning whether the low cancer rates in ancient people are merely a consequence of shorter life spans - perhaps people simply didn't live long enough to get cancer. But even taking age into account, Zimmerman said, there's surprisingly little cancer. Besides, he said, he sees osteoarthritis, clogged arteries and other diseases of aging in these mummies. Some of the pharaohs lived past 90.

Geneticist Mary Daly of Philadelphia's Fox Chase Cancer Center said it's also likely that obesity plays a role in making cancer so much more common today than it was in ancient Egypt. If you took away cigarettes and obesity from today's population, Daly said, you'd see a drastic drop in cancer rates. That's essentially the population you're studying in ancient Egypt.

Other researchers share Zimmerman's interest in diseases of the distant past, though most study bones rather than mummies. Bones have revealed ancient cases of osteoporosis and a striking decline in height and general health in a number of societies after the adoption of agriculture, possibly due to unsanitary conditions and a sudden shift from varied diets to ones based primarily on grain.

-excerpt from the Washington Post 

New study reveals exactly how herbal remedies can work.

From Huffpo

Science has confirmed just why an herb used in Chinese medicine possesses its healing properties.

The findings, published in the journal Nature, show that the herbal medicine Chang Shan, which is used to treat fever from malaria in Chinese medicine, works because of a derived compound in it called halofuginone.

The scientists from the Scripps Research Institute were able to find just how halofuginone works to suppress the immune system (since an immune response is generally what causes fevers) by creating a high-res molecular structure of the compound.

The university explained in a statement how exactly halofuginone may work in helping with malarial fever:

The new structure shows that, like a wrench in the works, halofuginone jams the gears of a molecular machine that carries out "aminoacylation," a crucial biological process that allows organisms to synthesize the proteins they need to live. Chang Shan, also known as Dichroa febrifuga Lour, probably helps with malarial fevers because traces of a halofuginone-like chemical in the herb interfere with this same process in malaria parasites, killing them in an infected person's bloodstream.

Halofuginone has been the focus of many other studies in the past, too. In a previous one, scientists from Harvard University School of Dental Medicine found thathalofuginone could block harmful immune cells from developing, which could be promising in treating autoimmune disorders.

Click to read more ...

Brian Jennings, NFL pro practices Yoga as part of his fitness.

"Some people do it with their health and some people don't," Jennings said. "My goal is to play as long as I can and finish the game as healthy as I can be."

 Jennings, a 12-year NFL veteran, has already carved his path to a long, healthy career. It helps that he is a long-snapper, on the field maybe a dozen times a game, the position minimizing the number of punishing hits he has taken.

But he also owes his health and career longevity to what he calls a "wellness lifestyle" that includes the practice of yoga as a major component.

 "The first time I did yoga, it just felt right to me," Jennings said.

Jennings' wellness lifestyle also include massages, chiropractic care, acupuncture, Chinese herbs, nutrition and supplements.

 "I do a lot of things that are considered alternative," Jennings said. "It's probably unusual being in a self-destructive business."

 Jennings is 36, with a durable NFL career that goes beyond the physical. Drafted by the 49ers back in 2000, he has survived four coaching changes, hundreds of new teammates and thousands of pages of new schemes and plays. His name is on the team's 10-year wall, next to legends such as Jerry Rice and Bryant Young.

USA Drug Manufacturers investing in Ancient Chinese Cures.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc is testing botanicals -- compounds extracted from plants -- for immune disorders, Sanofi plans to turn traditional Chinese medicines into alternative diabetes and cancer therapies, and Nestle SA (NESN) teamed last month with billionaire Li Ka-Shing to develop a drug derived from ancient Chinese approaches to cure inflammatory bowel disease.

The confluence of China’s growing middle class and pharmaceutical companies’ need to find new revenue have combined to give Western drugmakers an increasingly open mind about a 2,500 year-old form of medicine they once scoffed at.

Read the full story here: Ancient Chinese Cures Sought By Drugmanufacturers

Athletic Acupuncture: for Football Players, the treatment shows results.

Professional football players partake in a violent game, and as the season progresses, they spend more time in training rooms than on practice fields. They visit chiropractors and massage therapists, practice yoga, undergo electronic stimulation and nap in hyperbaric chambers. But in the last few years, there has been a significant uptick in the amount of professional athletes receiving Acupuncture as a treatment. 

From the New York Times: 

Acupuncturist Lisa Ripi, 46, travels at least 20 days each month during the season, treating 40 players on five teams (the Ripi Division: Jets, Giants, Steelers, Bengals and Dolphins). She flies to Miami on Sunday, Pittsburgh on Monday, New York on Tuesday, Cincinnati on Wednesday, back to Pittsburgh on Thursday and back to New York on Friday. She works 96 hours a week and naps mostly on airplanes. By Friday, even her assistant sends “hate texts,” Ripi said.

Players require individualized treatment. Steelers linebacker James Harrison takes more than 300 needles, and Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora begs for fewer than 40. Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis hates needles and grips the table as if under attack.

She spends roughly 12 hours each Thursday treating at least 10 players at Farrior’s house, where the Steelers hold their men’s “spa night” featuring acupuncture. Ripi cooks dinner for them, and they play cards while they wait turns. She starts with nose tackle Casey Hampton at 3:30 p.m. and finishes with Harrison roughly 12 hours later.

Ripi can tell the position each plays simply on the location of the pain: wide receiver (legs, shoulders), offensive lineman (elbows, back), quarterback (throwing shoulder), defensive lineman (back), running back (hamstring).

Chinese Traditional Medicine meets modern science: "Mushroom of Immortality" has now been genome mapped.

Used in Chinese medicine for centuries, the Lingzhi "mushroom of immortality" or Ganoderma lucidum, has "antitumour, antihypertensive, antiviral and immunomodulatory," properties, notes theNature Communicationsstudy led by Shilin Chen of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College. Some 400 medically-active compounds are made by the mushroom, the study authors note.

"As one of the most famous traditional Chinese medicines,G. lucidum has a long track record of safe use, and many pharmaceutical compounds have been found in this medicinal macrofungus" says the study. "However, the understanding of the basic biology of G. lucidum is still very limited."

So, they decided to map its genes, producing a first genome of the mushroom.

Overall, the Lingzhi (or reishi) mushroom possesses more than 12,600 genes packed into 13 chromosomes, the researchers report. Several hundred involve medically-useful compounds called Triterpenoids that may be effective in treating tumors. The genome reveals steps used to create them, the study authors find, useful for labs.

The mushrooms live on rotting trees, and many of its other genes are involved in decaying wood, making their associated proteins and enzymes potentially useful for biofuels applications.

"The genome sequence will make it possible to realize the full potential of G. lucidum as a source of pharmacologically active compounds and industrial enzymes," the study concludes.