Faculty Bibliography

According to a study of heart attack patients organized by researchers at Oxford University, two drugs commonly used to treat heart attacks show little or no benefit in preventing death, and a third shows only a small benefit

The new study involved 58,000 patients who were treated for heart attacks in more than 1,000 hospitals in 30 countries in Europe, Australia and North, Central and South America from July 1991 to August 1993. The study's only positive finding was that Captopril had a small benefit in preventing death, as measured at one month and six months after a heart attack. The benefit was a reduction of about five deaths per 1,000 patients treated, and possibly as few as two or three

Summary: British researchers report that magnesium, nitrates and captopril weren't very beneficial in treating heart attacks This mode of therapy -- aspirin, clot-dissolving drugs and beta blockers -- has become a widely accepted method of treating heart attacks. The Oxford group then set out to determine whether even further benefit could be gained by adding other drugs to the standard regimen. The new study involved 58,000 patients who were treated for heart attacks in more than 1,000 hospitals in 30 countries in Europe, Australia, and North, Central and South America from July 1991 to August 1993. Cardiologists who were interviewed said the new study is likely to be influential in determining doctors' attitudes in using the three drugs

This mode of therapy -- aspirin, clot-dissolving drugs, and beta blockers -- has become a widely accepted method of treating heart attacks. The Oxford group then set out to determine whether even further benefit could be gained by adding other drugs to the standard regimen. The new study involved 58,000 patients who were treated for heart attacks in more than 1,000 hospitals in 30 countries in Europe, Australia, and North, Central and South America from July 1991 to August 1993. Cardiologists who were interviewed said the new study is likely to be influential in determining doctors' attitudes in using the three drugs

At the time, he said, 'it was a discouraging observation' because 'it demonstrated what a lot of people hoped wasn't true for common cancers -- that mutations did underlie certain cancers, and it was the first strong demonstration that cancer arose from a single altered cell.' Discovery of the Philadelphia chromosome was one of many findings that have resulted from undirected research and serendipity, Dr. [Peter C. Nowell] said. He said he was culturing leukemia cells in the laboratory in the hope that the growth characteristics might provide a clue to how cancers developed. He was working with samples in which 'you could see the chromosomes, and this was just a couple of years after scientists had learned there were 46 human chromosomes, not 48, and I decided it was a shame to throw the samples away.' Dr. Nowell looked around Philadelphia for someone to examine the chromosomes in the samples. He found Mr. Hungerford, then a graduate student in search of a thesis project. They collaborated, with Dr. Nowell supplying the cells from cancer patients and Mr. Hungerford using new staining techniques to examine the chromosomes systematically through a conventional microscope. Defect Missed Earlier

Although a safe and effective AIDS vaccine remains an ultimate goal, scientists are much more sober about its prospects than they were in 1984, shortly after the discovery of H.I.V. It is becoming clearer how difficult it will be to develop such a vaccine, particularly one that would work against all strains of H.I.V. Strains of the virus have been found to vary throughout the world, and experts are not confident that a vaccine derived from one strain will necessarily protect against the others. Nevertheless, a fully effective vaccine would preclude the need for condoms, microbocides and other forms of protection against H.I.V., and health officials are continuing to pursue this goal. Nonoxynol-9 was tested for its effectiveness in stopping H.I.V. transmission in three studies in Africa. The results were conflicting. While two studies in Cameroon and Zambia showed some protection, a third, conducted among female prostitutes in Nairobi, Kenya, found an unexpected hazard: the women who used a sponge containing nonoxynol-9 developed ulcers in the vagina and cervix, raising concerns that the ulcers might increase the risk of H.I.V. transmission by making it easier for the virus to enter cells. In developing a vaginal microbicide, scientists must be sure that the substance is safe, does not kill microbes naturally present in the vagina that benefit female hygiene and does not impair a woman's ability to conceive. Any microbicide will have to be tested to determine whether it damages spermatozoa and thus causes birth defects. The same safety tests must be applied to any foam or gel that is combined with an anti-H.I.V. compound for vaginal use

Researchers said in a preliminary report at a national scientific meeting on microbes and antibiotics on Oct 18, 1993 that Louisiana hot sauce kills the rare but sometimes fatal bacteria called Vibrio vulnificus that is found in some raw oysters

NEW YORK -Does Louisiana hot sauce, a principal ingredient in the spicy New Orleans cocktail sauce commonly served with raw shellfish, kill certain bacteria found in raw oysters? [Charles V. Sanders] said in an interview that his team had not narrowed the lethal effects on bacteria to an acid or other ingredient. Louisiana hot sauce ranked ahead of horseradish, lemon and ketchup, which are the other common components of cocktail sauces, in killing the bacteria

Harriet L. Hardy, a pioneer in occupational medicine and the first woman to become a full professor at Harvard Medical School, died from lymphoma on Oct 13, 1993 at the age of 87

Phillip A. Sharp of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Richard J. Roberts of New England Biolabs will share the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their independent discovery in 1977 of 'split genes.' Their discovery proved that genes can be composed of several separate segments, refuting scientific dogma holding that genes were continuous segments within DNA. The Nobel committee noted the importance of their work in medical, and especially cancer, research