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MEDICINE

A Fruit that Fights PMS
As many women know, Premenstrual Syndrome better known as PMS, is difficult to treat. But some relief may be in sight. According to a report in the January 20 issue of the British Medica//ourna/, the fruit of the chaste tree, Vitex angus castus,

proved effective in
easing the sometimes debilitating symptoms of PMS. Researchers at the Institute for Health Care and Science in Hutten berg, Germany, studied 170 women diagnosed with the
syndrome. Over the
course of three
menstrual cycles, 86
of the participants
received agnus
castus extract; the
other 84 received

place-bos. The team assessed six symptoms-irritabiI ity, anger, mood alteration, headache, .bloating and breast fullness-at the start of the first cycle and then at the end of the third cycle.
they found those women who had taken the agnus ~astus extract, experienced sig~jficant improvement in all the symptoms except bloating. Indeed, more than half the women had at least a 50 percent improvement in their symptoms, and side effects were few and mild. "Dry extract of agnus castus fruit," the researchers conclude, "is an effective and well-tolerated treatment for the relief of svmptoms of the premenstrual syndrome."

www.bmj.com

New Compound Controls Weight Gain
We've all heard scantily clad
spokespeople make bogus claims about instant weight-loss supplements on late-night television. But in February 6, 2001, online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers describe what sounds like the real deal-for mice, anyway. Harvey Lodish and his colleagues of the Whitehad Institute for Biomedical Research have discovered a new compound that causes profound weight loss in mice fed an unlimited diet high in
fat and sugar. The compound, called
gAcrp30, is a fragment of the Acrp30
protein. Most weight loss drugs work by absorbing fatty acids in the intestine or by inhibiting the breakdown of fatty acids so that they are excreted rather than
Compound to control weight gain even after a cafeteria diet?

stored. In contrast, gAcrp30 actually causes muscle to burn fatty acids faster. Mice treated with the compound showed significantly reduced levels of free fatty acids, as well as lower glucose and triglyceride levels. Moreover, daily low doses of gAcrp30 enabled the mice to keep the weight off, despite their cafeteria diet Though the results are promising, don't wait up nights looking for a phone number to call now. "Much further research is needed to determine whether this substance can be used in man as an aid in weight loss," Lodish remarks. "Though such a therapy is urgently needed by the many thousands of obese patients who suffer from many related health problems such as diabetes".                                                CBS Health Watch

How Breast Cancer Starts and Spreads
New research is revealing
breast cancer's deadly secrets, focusing on how the disease starts and later spreads. One study published in February 2, 2001, issue of the journal
Nature has identified a
pivotal event before breast
cancer first buds. Thea
TIsty of the University of
California at San Francisco

Tharmogram showing breast cancer and its metastasis (ye/fow).

and her colleagues ran cell culture studies of breast epithelial cells. The work revealed that those cells, more often than other cell types, slip past a built-in regulatory control on cell g!owth called senescence. And when they do escape senescence, the epithelial cells almost always develop genetic changes associated with the very beginnings of breast cancer.
The team was further able to identify molecular markers that indicate when breast epithelial cells have escaped senescence, and how far they have progressed in accumulating damaging genetic changes. Eventually these markers could be used to target cells for cancer prevention and therapy early on. "Figuring out why mutations occur-never mind what they actually are-could provide a new means for intercepting the disease before it gets started," Tlsty says.
A second study from scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital appears in February, 2001 issue of Nature Medicine reveals a remarkable mechanism by which breast cancer spreads to the lymph nodes and lungs. Researchers long thought that the cancer reaches the lymph nodes via the lymphatic system, out exactly how the cancer got from the tumor to the lymphatic system remained unknown. The new work suggests that tumors actually develop their own internal lymphatic systems. That system then hooks up with the surrounding lymphatic vessels, providing a highway by which the tumor cells can metastasize. Important to the highway building is a protein known as VEGF-C,which encourages lymphatic vessel growth. "This could provide a new target for therapy," principal investigator Michael Detmar remarks. "By blocking the interaction of VEGF-C with its receptor on the l~mDhatic sYstem we may be able to block metastasis from occuring," he concludes.                                                                                     www.sciam.com