Children with progeria, such as this sister and brother in India, foreground, age at many times the normal rate
Premature aging, or Hutchison-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (progeria), is obvious in the appearance of a child before it is a year old. Although their mental faculties are normal, they stop growing, lose body fat and suffer from wrinkled skin and hair loss. Like old people, they suffer stiff joints and a buildup of plaque in arteries which can lead to heart disease and stroke. Most die of cardiovascular diseases before they are 20. in 2003, a team of scientists in the United States found that progeria was caused by mutation in a protein called Lamin A, which lines the nucleus in human cells. A team at the University of Hong Kong, led by Zhou Zhongjun, took the research a step further in 2004 and found that mutated Lamin A actually disrupted the repair process in cells, thus resulting in accelerated aging. The study was published in the July issue of the Nature Medicine journal. Zhou said the team came by their findings after comparing skin cells taken from two progeria sufferers, normal humans, progeria mice and normal mice. While damaged DNA was quickly repaired in the healthy human and mice cell samples, the samples taken from the progeria humans and mice had difficulty repairing damaged DNA. "Mutation in this protein (Lamin A) can cause defects in repair and thus lead to progeria," Zhou, a research assistant professor with the biochemistry department at the University of Hong Kong, said in an interview. DNA damage is not effectively repaired in cells with defective Lamin A but very efficiently repaired in normal cells." The study highlights the importance of Lamin A to the repair process, and any mutation to Lamin A that disrupts repair will bring about aging, Zhou said. Having established the link between Lamin A and repair, Zhou is using major findings from other research he did in 2002 to work on his next project, a product which he hopes could kill cancer cells. Zhou, Professor Karl Tryggvason in Sweden's Karolinska Institute and a Spanish research group found in 2002 that the enzyme Zmpste 24 was responsible in converting prelamin A to functional Lamin A. Zhou's laboratory is now developing inhibitors to Zmpste 24, which he hopes to apply to tumors. These inhibitors should theoretically disrupt Lamin A production, thwart the repair function in cancer cells, and bring on their premature aging and death. "We're now trying to develop inhibitors to Zmpste 24 and apply it to tumor cells," he said. (Scientific news posted on AOL news on 06-30-05 17:45 EDT).
3. HYPERTHERMIA: A HEALTH AND ANTI CANCER TECHNIQUE USED IN EUROPE FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS:
Dr. A. Lwoff, famous French bacteriologist, (Nobel prize winner) has demonstrated in repeated scientific experiments that fever is indeed a "great medicine," and that it can help to cure many "incurable diseases". In health and spa clinics in Europe, artificially induced fever, mostly in the form of overheating baths, has been used successfully to treat such conditions as rheumatic diseases, skin disorders, insomnia, arthritis - and cancer. Dr. Josef Issels has said, "Artificially induced fever has the greatest potential in the treatment of many diseases, including cancer." Give me a chance to create a fever and I will cure any disease," said the great ancient physician Parmenides. Many modern giants of biological medicine in Europe in addition to Lwoff have adopted hyperthermia for cancer. The famous German cancer specialist, Prof. Werner Zabel, (the director of one of the most successful cancer clinics in the world, the Ringberg-Klinik), Dr. Josef Issels, and other have used the technique to artificially induced fever in their battle against cancer. When medical science saw its birth, healing disease with water was recognized as one of the most important therapeutic modalities. Hippocrates, Celus, Galen and other ancient greats of medicine praised water for its many curative properties. In all major ancient civilizations, bathing was held in esteem not only for its remedial properties, but as an important health-building and disease-preventive measure. In more modern times, the therapeutic properties of water were popularized by Father Kneipp, a French priest of the 16th century, as well as by , Maria Schlenz, Priessnitz, and other European water-cure pioneers. There are hundreds of Spas and "Bads" in most European countries where therapeutic baths are used as a major healing measure, especially so-called Kneipp-baths. As Father Kneipp said, "Water contains great healing power" - and millions of yearly visitors to these "bads" can testify that water, indeed, does possess great therapeutic, Lourdes included.
. In this perspective, our next newsletter will also look at Coley's toxins. Rich in lipopolysaccharide, (renamed tumor necrosis factor (TNF)), Coley's toxins is a mixed bacterial vaccine (MBV). In a German study, advanced non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients receiving MBV had a 93% remission rate, compared to 29% for controls receiving chemotherapy. Coley's Toxins were removed from the American Cancer Society's "unproven methods" list in 1975, but are still not generally available in the USA. China has a renowned hospital that practices this art, as other centers in latin America and Europe.