The Thyroid Blog

Autoimmune Disease Triggered If T Cells Miss A Single Protein Early On

Scientists have discovered that autoimmunity can be triggered in the thymus, where the immune system's T cells develop, if T cells fail to recognize just one of the body's thousands of proteins as "self." The research confirms an emerging view that autoimmunity can start in this cradle of the immune system, and not only at the sites where autoimmune diseases emerge, such as the pancreas in the case of type 1 diabetes, or the joints in rheumatoid arthritis.

The discovery, from a mouse model of a human autoimmune condition, suggests that effective strategies to treat autoimmune disease should target not only the "peripheral" sites where autoimmune disease is active, but also the thymus -- the organ where T cells and self-proteins, or self-antigens, first interact.

Shire Bioequivalence Study Results Of SPD465, Investigational Drug For Adults With ADHD

Shire plc (LSE: SHP, NASDAQ: SHPGY, TSX: SHQ) announced today that a single once-daily morning dose of the investigational amphetamine compound SPD465, extended release triple-bead mixed amphetamine salts, designed to reduce symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in adults for up to 16 hours, was bioequivalent to a dose of ADDERALL XR (mixed salts of a single-entity amphetamine product) followed by a dose of mixed amphetamine salts immediate release ("MAS IR") eight hours later. The results of this phase I clinical trial in healthy adults were presented today at the 2006 U.S. Psychiatric & Mental Health Congress (USPMHC) annual meeting in New Orleans.

"Adults with ADHD are particularly challenged by a normal day's activities that often extend into the evening, and SPD465 offers the possibility of full-day symptom control," said Lenard A. Adler, M.D., director of the Adult ADHD Program in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology at New York University (NYU) School of Medicine and author of Scattered Minds: Hope and Help for Adults with ADHD (Putnam).

Shire Analysis Compares Stimulant to Nonstimulant ADHD Medications In Patients Aged 8 To 15 Years

Shire plc (LSE: SHP, NASDAQ: SHPGY, TSX: SHQ) announced the results of a study which suggested that stimulant medications such as ADDERALL XR® (mixed salts of a single-entity amphetamine product) are significantly more effective than non-stimulant medications in the treatment of patients aged 8 to 15 with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

The study, a meta-analysis of 29 double-blind, placebo-controlled treatment studies undertaken over the past 25 years and involving nearly 4,500 children with ADHD, was presented today at the U.S. Psychiatric & Mental Health Congress in New Orleans.

Thyroid Cancer Discovery Points to New Treatments, Prevention

The actions of a mutated protein in cells linked to thyroid cancer have been uncovered by researchers at Queen's University. The discovery paves the way for the future development of drugs to more effectively target, treat and possibly even prevent both inherited and non-inherited thyroid cancers.

"We now know why this gene causes these tumours and can start looking at how best to target the mutant proteins so that the cells expressing them can be killed or stopped from growing," says Lois Mulligan, professor of pathology and molecular medicine with the Division of Cancer Biology and Genetics of the Queen's Cancer Research Institute. She is senior author of a study to be published November 15 in the journal Cancer Research.

Nuclear Medicine Patients: No-alarm Holiday Travel Tips

Traveling during the holidays--especially for the nearly 60,000 individuals who daily undergo a nuclear medicine treatment or test in this country--will go smoother if medical professionals advise their patients to follow some simple tips from SNM, the leading international molecular imaging and nuclear medicine society.

"Due to heightened concerns about terrorism, sensitive radiation detectors are used in some major cities and in public transportation facilities," explained SNM President Martin P. Sandler. "Occasionally, a patient who has had a nuclear medicine procedure may be stopped by security personnel because he or she may trigger the alarm on a radiation detector. On rare occasions, this could cause long delays, interrogation and body searches," added Sandler, who speaks for 16,000 physician, technologist and scientist members of the international scientific and professional society.

Enzyme Inhibitor Produces Stable Disease in Patients With Advanced Solid Cell Cancers

Prague, Czech Republic: Preliminary trials of a MEK enzyme inhibitor have shown that it is capable of producing long-lasting stable disease in patients with advanced solid cancers. Tests showed that the drug inhibited key targets in the patients' tumours, and now it is being tested in phase II clinical trials.

Professor Alex Adjei told the EORTC-NCI-AACR [1] Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Prague today (Wednesday 8 November) that the drug AZD6244 (ARRY-142886) [2] inhibited MEK1/2 – an enzyme that plays an important role in the Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK cell signalling pathway, which regulates cell proliferation and survival. Activation of this pathway has been implicated in a number of cancers, including lung, pancreatic, colon, melanoma and thyroid cancer.

Thyroid Disease Raises Risk for Birth Defects

Women with thyroid disease are more likely to give birth to babies with heart, brain and kidney defects even if the thyroid function tests are normal during the pregnancy, according to new research from Johns Hopkins.

Results of the study, to be presented Jan. 17 at the annual meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in New Orleans, showed that babies born to women with overactive or underactive thyroid also were at increased risk of a variety of other anomalies, including cleft lip or palate, or extra fingers. In addition, infants born to women with underactive thyroid were at increased risk of cardiac problems even if the mothers were on medication.