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ATS, ERS Jointly Issue Asthma Assessment Guidelines
The American Thoracic Society and the European Respiratory Society have released official standards for clinical trials and practice with respect to the assessment of asthma. The statement appears in the July 1 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Obama Administration's Filings On Asylum For Abused Foreign Women Brings 'Overdue Dose Of Clarity,' Editorial Says
The Obama administration recently laid out "a clear but narrow pathway" toward asylum for foreign women who have experienced severe physical or sexual abuse, a New York Times editorial states, noting that the U.S. government has debated the issue for 15 years. According to the editorial, the "question is not the fact of persecution, but whether the women would qualify for protection under the law, which limits asylum to those who suffer due to their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or "membership in a particular social group."" It adds that attorneys general under former Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush "have gone both ways and in circles" in their decisions.Although "[n]ot all victims will qualify," the Obama administration "made it clear that some could," the editorial states. "A petitioner would have to demonstrate to a judge that domestic violence was widely tolerated by society and government in her country, that women were viewed as subordinate to men and that she had no place within its borders to find a safe haven," the editorial adds.Department of Homeland Security lawyers say the new definition could apply to a severely abused Mexican woman, identified only by her initials, whose asylum petition is before a San Francisco immigration court. The editorial notes that DHS "did not immediately recommend asylum" for the woman, but "it did urge that she be allowed to continue to gather evidence and to refine her case according to the standards it proposed." The editorial concludes, "Advocates who have fought for years to advance women"s rights are celebrating the department"s action, which brings reasoned compassion, and an overdue dose of clarity, to an issue of anguish and difficulty" (New York Times, 7/19).
News of the day
Foresight Biotherapeutics Announces FST-100 Displays Robust Clinical Improvement In Adenoviral Conjunctivitis Model
Foresight Biotherapeutics, Inc. announced data from a pre-clinical study designed to assess the safety and efficacy of the topical administration of FST-100 in a highly regarded Ad5 NZW rabbit model of adenoviral conjunctivitis. FST-100 demonstrated a clinically and statistically significant reduction in signs of adenoviral conjunctivitis versus all other groups including the current experimental "gold standard", topical cidofovir. The study was conducted at the Louisiana State University (LSU) Health Science Center, LSU Eye Center in New Orleans, Louisiana by Professor James M. Hill and colleagues, in the Departments of Pharmacology, Microbiology, Ophthalmology and Neuroscience.
Mental Health

Potent Inhibitor Blocks Tumors From Metastasizing

Researchers at Children"s Hospital Boston have isolated a potent inhibitor of tumor metastasis made by tumor cells, one that could potentially be harnessed as a cancer treatment. Their findings were published in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences during the week of June 22. Metastasis the migration of cancer cells to other parts of the body is one of the leading causes of death from cancer, and there is no approved therapy for inhibiting or treating metastases. Randoph S. Watnick, PhD, an assistant professor in the Vascular Biology Program at Children"s, has been finding that metastatic tumors prepare landing places in distant organs for their metastases, by secreting certain proteins that encourage tumor growth and attract feeder blood vessels. Now, he and his colleagues show that non-metastatic tumors secrete a protein called prosaposin -- which inhibits metastasis by causing production of factors that block the growth of blood vessels. Cells from localized prostate and breast tumors, which didn"t metastasize, secreted high levels of prosaposin, they found, while metastatic tumors secreted very little. When the researchers injected mice with tumor cells that were known to be highly metastatic, but to which they had added prosaposin, lung metastases were reduced by 80 percent and lymph node metastases were completely eliminated, and survival time was significantly increased. Conversely, when they suppressed prosaposin expression in tumor cells, they saw more metastases. When prosaposin was directly injected into mice that had also received an injection of tumor cells, the tumor cells formed virtually no metastases in the lung, or, if they did, formed much smaller colonies. These mice lived at least 30 percent longer than mice not receiving prosaposin. Watnick and colleagues also demonstrated that prosaposin stimulates activity of the well-known tumor suppressor p53 in the connective tissue (stroma) surrounding the tumor. This in turn stimulated production of thrombospondin-1, a natural inhibitor of blood vessel growth (angiogenesis), both in the tumor stroma and in cells at the distant location. "Prosaposin, or derivatives that stimulate p53 activity in a similar manner in the tumor stroma, might be an effective way to inhibit the metastatic process in humans," says Watnick. If this bears out, Watnick envisions treating cancer patients for their primary tumor, and concurrently giving them drugs to prevent metastases or slow their growth. "While we may not be able to keep patients from getting cancer, we can potentially keep them metastasis-free," he says. Initially, Watnick"s scientific interest was focused on metastatic cancer cells; he hoped to use proteomics techniques to isolate different proteins that steered metastases to different parts of the body (explaining, for example, why lung cancer often metastasizes to bone, or prostate cancer to liver). But the late Judah Folkman, MD, founder of the Vascular Biology program at Children"s, encouraged him to focus on the metastasis inhibitor -- prosaposin. "You might have a drug right here," he told Watnick. A patent has been filed by Children"s Hospital Boston on the discovery. The hospital"s Technology and Innovation Development Office is in active discussions to license prosaposin for commercial development. The study was funded by the Gackstatter Foundation, a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and a Breast Cancer Innovator Award from the Department of Defense. Children"s Hospital Boston is home to the world"s largest research enterprise based at a pediatric medical center, where its discoveries have benefited both children and adults since 1869. More than 500 scientists, including eight members of the National Academy of Sciences, 11 members of the Institute of Medicine and 12 members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute comprise Children"s research community. Founded as a 20-bed hospital for children, Children"s Hospital Boston today is a 397-bed comprehensive center for pediatric and adolescent health care grounded in the values of excellence in patient care and sensitivity to the complex needs and diversity of children and families. Children"s also is the primary pediatric teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. For more information about the hospital and its research visit: www.childrenshospital.org/newsroom. Children"s Hospital Boston


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