21 posts · 28,964 views
Discusses discoveries and trends in natural product pharmacology (botanical supplements, OTCs, and prescription drugs), drug safety, and academic career development in the biomedical sciences.
David J Kroll
21 posts
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- November 14, 2011
- 07:02 AM
- 349 views
K2 Synthetic Marijuana: Heart Attacks, Suicides, and Surveillance
by David J Kroll in Terra Sigillata
Sixteen-year-old boys having heart attacks. Blog reports of deaths and suicides. And a little known chemistry and public health resource mobilized to identify “legal highs.” The chemical and biological phenomenon that is “synthetic marijuana” continued to develop over the last week as we learn more about these products from the medical and public health communities. [...]... Read more »
Mir, A., Obafemi, A., Young, A., & Kane, C. (2011) Myocardial Infarction Associated With Use of the Synthetic Cannabinoid K2. Pediatrics. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2010-3823
- May 11, 2011
- 08:02 AM
- 957 views
Fingolimod (Gilenya; Novartis) for Multiple Sclerosis
by David J Kroll in Terra Sigillata
A very well-written review of an orally-active drug for multiple sclerosis has just appeared in the April 25th issue of the Journal of Natural Products, a publication of ACS in conjunction with the American Society of Pharmacognosy. The review, Fingolimod (FTY720): A Recently Approved Multiple Sclerosis Drug Based on a Fungal Secondary Metabolite, is co-authored [...]... Read more »
Strader, C., Pearce, C., & Oberlies, N. (2011) Fingolimod (FTY720): A Recently Approved Multiple Sclerosis Drug Based on a Fungal Secondary Metabolite. Journal of Natural Products, 74(4), 900-907. DOI: 10.1021/np2000528
- March 21, 2011
- 07:56 AM
- 1,128 views
Molecular Target for Thunder God Vine
by David J Kroll in Terra Sigillata
This post appeared originally last Friday for my monthly gig at Science-Based Medicine. Thunder god vine may not be a useful herbal medicine but the compounds isolated from it are fascinating – if not as medicines, then most certainly as laboratory tools. Nature Chemical Biology recently published an article where a research team from Johns [...]... Read more »
Titov, D., Gilman, B., He, Q., Bhat, S., Low, W., Dang, Y., Smeaton, M., Demain, A., Miller, P., Kugel, J.... (2011) XPB, a subunit of TFIIH, is a target of the natural product triptolide. Nature Chemical Biology, 7(3), 182-188. DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.522
- December 12, 2010
- 10:41 PM
- 817 views
Not Miley Cyrus: A small human trial of salvinorin A
by David J Kroll in Terra Sigillata
Some interesting news came out last week regarding Salvia divinorum, the hallucinogenic mint plant, whose primary active constituent, salvinorin A, is a highly selective kappa opioid receptor agonist that is remarkable as a nonnitrogenous psychoactive compound. However, my interest had nothing to do with the widely-discussed video at TMZ.com showing actress and singer-songwriter Miley Cyrus doing a [...]... Read more »
Johnson MW, Maclean KA, Reissig CR, Prisinzano TE, & Griffiths RR. (2010) Human psychopharmacology and dose-effects of salvinorin A, a kappa opioid agonist hallucinogen present in the plant Salvia divinorum. Drug and alcohol dependence. PMID: 21131142
- October 14, 2010
- 08:14 AM
- 745 views
BMJ meta-analysis: Reboxetine “an ineffective and potentially harmful antidepressant”
by David J Kroll in Terra Sigillata
Thanks to Ben Goldacre and Vaughan Bell, I learned this morning of an interesting paper in British Medical Journal that analyzed substantial unpublished data from Pfizer on their norephinephrine reuptake inhibitor antidepressant, reboxetine. Sold in Europe as a pair of enantiomers under the trade name Edronax, reboxetine’s US application was rejected by the FDA in [...]... Read more »
Wieseler, B., McGauran, N., & Kaiser, T. (2010) Finding studies on reboxetine: a tale of hide and seek. BMJ, 341(oct12 1). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.c4942
- September 7, 2010
- 07:06 AM
- 697 views
What’s the buzz?: Synthetic marijuana, K2, Spice, JWH-018
by David J Kroll in Terra Sigillata
The topic of one of our most popular posts of all time has been the synthetic marijuana products containing JWH compounds, naphthoylindole cannabimimetics synthesized in the 1990s in the Clemson University laboratory of John Huffman. This post first appeared at the ScienceBlogs home of Terra Sigillata on 9 Feb 2010 and gives you some background [...]... Read more »
Aung MM, Griffin G, Huffman JW, Wu M, Keel C, Yang B, Showalter VM, Abood ME, & Martin BR. (2000) Influence of the N-1 alkyl chain length of cannabimimetic indoles upon CB(1) and CB(2) receptor binding. Drug and alcohol dependence, 60(2), 133-40. PMID: 10940540
- June 18, 2010
- 09:02 AM
- 1,187 views
HBCU medical schools at Morehouse, Meharry, and Howard lead "social mission" metric - Annals of Internal Medicine
by David J Kroll in Terra Sigillata
Reuters Health Executive Editor and proprietor of the excellent Embargo Watch blog, Ivan Oransky, was kind to alert me to this topical paper that appeared in Monday's issue of Annals of Internal Medicine entitled, The Social Mission of Medical Education: Ranking the Schools.
To the credit of the Annals, the full text of the primary article is currently free. An accompanying editorial is behind the subscription wall.
The study was conducted led by Fitzhugh Mullan with Candice Chen, MD, Gretchen........ Read more »
Mullan F, Chen C, Petterson S, Kolsky G, & Spagnola M. (2010) The social mission of medical education: ranking the schools. Annals of internal medicine, 152(12), 804-11. PMID: 20547907
- March 16, 2010
- 11:02 PM
- 1,178 views
What's the difference between HeLa and HeLa S3 cells? Part III: Theodore "Ted" Puck, MD, and the first clonal isolation of human tumor cells
by David J Kroll in Terra Sigillata
This post is the third in a series on the origin and history of HeLa S3 cells. The first post details how I came about to ask this question when launching my independent research laboratory. The second post details the life and careers of the legendary physician-scientist pioneer, Dr. Florence Rena Sabin.
Today, we take up a discussion where we will finally learn the origin of HeLa S3 cells, complete with original literature citations.
A recap
We left our previous discussion with the final ........ Read more »
Puck TT and Marcus PI. (1955) A rapid method for viable cell titration and clone production with HeLa cells in tissue culture: the use of X-irradiated cells to supply conditioning factors. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 41(7), 432-437. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.41.7.432
Puck TT, Marcus PI, and Cieciura SJ. (1956) Clonal growth of mammalian cells in vitro: growth characteristics of colonies from single HeLa cells with and without a "feeder" layer. Journal of Experimental Medicine, 103(2), 273-284. DOI: 10.1084/jem.103.2.273
Puck TT, & Fisher HW. (1956) Genetics of somatic mammalian cells: I. Demonstration of the existence of mutants with different growth requirements in a human cancer cell strain HeLa. Journal of Experimental Medicine, 104(3), 427-434. PMID: 19867118
Sato G, Fisher HW, and Puck TT. (1957) Molecular growth requirements of single mammalian cells. Science, 126(3280), 961-964. DOI: 10.1126/science.126.3280.961
- February 9, 2010
- 09:02 PM
- 1,388 views
What's the buzz?: Synthetic marijuana, K2, Spice, JWH-018
by David J Kroll in Terra Sigillata
My field of natural products pharmacology was founded by indigenous cultures who recognized that plants and fungi contain compounds that produce altered states of consciousness, leading to their most common use in religious ceremonies. While we may most often associate these naturally-occurring drugs with hallucinogens, the arguably most common natural product in use today is marijuana or Cannabis sativa. Indigenous to India and China, Cannabis has been the subject of increasing decriminalizati........ Read more »
Aung MM, Griffin G, Huffman JW, Wu M, Keel C, Yang B, Showalter VM, Abood ME, & Martin BR. (2000) Influence of the N-1 alkyl chain length of cannabimimetic indoles upon CB(1) and CB(2) receptor binding. Drug and alcohol dependence, 60(2), 133-40. PMID: 10940540
- December 4, 2009
- 06:02 PM
- 1,421 views
How to report in vitro cancer studies: maitake mushroom extract doesn't "fight cancer"
by David J Kroll in Terra Sigillata
Earlier this week, I saw one of the best treatments of a misinterpreted story that has me thinking about how all news outlets should report in vitro laboratory studies.
Only thing is that it didn't come from a news outlet.
It came a brainwashing site run by those medical socialist types - I am, of course, speaking of the UK National Health Service and their excellent patient education website, NHS Choices.
You may recall reading in the popular dead-tree or online press that investigators from........ Read more »
Louie, B., Rajamahanty, S., Won, J., Choudhury, M., & Konno, S. (2009) Synergistic potentiation of interferon activity with maitake mushroom d-fraction on bladder cancer cells. BJU International. DOI: 10.1111/j.1464-410X.2009.08870.x
- October 19, 2009
- 01:43 PM
- 1,652 views
Dietary supplement adulteration with prescription drugs: Is it really a problem of DSHEA?
by David J Kroll in Terra Sigillata
Rebecca Skloot, journalist, University of Memphis writing professor, and author of the upcoming book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (pre-order here), just brought to my attention this commentary by Dr Pieter Cohen in the New England Journal of Medicine entitled, "American Roulette -- Contaminated Dietary Supplements."
In the commentary, Dr Cohen remarks upon the epidemic of adulteration of herbal and non-herbal dietary supplements with undeclared prescription drugs or unapproved drugs:
I........ Read more »
Cohen, P. (2009) American Roulette -- Contaminated Dietary Supplements. New England Journal of Medicine, 361(16), 1523-1525. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp0904768
- October 2, 2009
- 07:02 PM
- 1,540 views
Destigmatizing depression among medical (and graduate) trainees
by David J Kroll in Terra Sigillata
The Clinical and Translational Science Network (CTSciNet) section of Science Careers has just published a superb article by Karyn Hede on the issues of depression precipitated during the rigors of medical education. Hede is a freelance writer in Chapel Hill and has contributed before to Science Careers, particularly with this article on the challenges of women MD-PhDs and another on why so many of us have crappy interpersonal and lab management skills.
The current article focuses primarily on t........ Read more »
Hede, K. (2009) Destigmatizing Depression. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.caredit.a0900118
- June 14, 2009
- 11:41 AM
- 1,816 views
Sage advice?: NC to join 13 states in outlawing Salvia divinorum
by David J Kroll in Terra Sigillata
Salvia divinorum (Salvia, Magic Mint) is a plant used for entheogenic purposes by the Mazatec people of Mexico. A relative of the common garden plant "scarlet sage" (Salvia splendens), S. divinorum contains several hallucinogens that include salvinorin A, the first non-nitrogenous agonist known for kappa opioid receptors (KOR).
I had known of salvinorin A since a highly-cited 2002 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper by Bryan Roth, Richard Rothman and colleagues (full text her........ Read more »
Roth, B. (2002) Salvinorin A: A potent naturally occurring nonnitrogenous kappa opioid selective agonist. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 99(18), 11934-11939. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.182234399
- February 23, 2009
- 12:02 PM
- 1,843 views
Entheogen and hallucinogen, N,N'-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), identified as endogenous ligand for sigma-1 receptors
by David J Kroll in Terra Sigillata
Thanks to Dave Munger & Co's ResearchBlogging.org, I just found a fabulous neuroscience grad student blogger from Emory University: Laura E Mariani at Neurotypical?
Doctor-to-be Mariani blogged last Monday about a paper in Science where the endogenous ligand of the orphan sigma-1 receptor was identified as the hallucinogen, N,N'-dimethyltryptamine, or DMT. The work originated with the group of Arnold Ruoho and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin's Depts of Pharmacology and Physiology, t........ Read more »
D. Fontanilla, M. Johannessen, A. R. Hajipour, N. V. Cozzi, M. B. Jackson, & A. E. Ruoho. (2009) The Hallucinogen N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) Is an Endogenous Sigma-1 Receptor Regulator. Science, 323(5916), 934-937. DOI: 10.1126/science.1166127
- December 2, 2008
- 08:08 AM
- 2,014 views
Chris Patil (ouroboros) on the Campisi lab's new PLoS Biology paper: cellular senescence, protein secretion, and the aging/cancer paradox
by David J Kroll in Terra Sigillata
I've kept a passing interest in senescence (cellular, not personal) over the last 20 years or so because I've always felt that attempts to increase longevity in a multicellular organism would also increase the risk of cancer (more seasoned readers may recognize this as the Hayflick phenomenon of replicative cellular senescence first identified in 1965). As a newly-minted PhD looking for postdoc fellowship, including in a yeast lab focused on aging, I thought that harnessing the senescence pathw........ Read more »
Jean-Philippe Coppé, Christopher K. Patil, Francis Rodier, Yu Sun, Denise P. Muñoz, Joshua Goldstein, Peter S. Nelson, Pierre-Yves Desprez, & Judith Campisi. (2008) Senescence-Associated Secretory Phenotypes Reveal Cell-Nonautonomous Functions of Oncogenic RAS and the p53 Tumor Suppressor. PLoS Biology, 6(12). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0060301
- October 24, 2008
- 03:55 PM
- 1,839 views
Missed opportunity: how many of the placebos "prescribed" were herbal or non-botanical dietary supplements?
by David J Kroll in Terra Sigillata
"Prescribing 'placebo treatments': results of national survey of US internists and rheumatologists," is the title of a newly-published article in the 23 October issue of BMJ (British Medical Journal). The full text article and PDF are available for free at the time of this posting.
In this study of 679 US physicians, Tilbert et al. reveal that 46-58% of those responding report regularly using some sort of placebo in their practice. The reason for the range is that questions were asked in a man........ Read more »
J. C Tilburt, E. J Emanuel, T. J Kaptchuk, F. A Curlin, & F. G Miller. (2008) Prescribing "placebo treatments": results of national survey of US internists and rheumatologists. BMJ, 337(Oct 23 (2)). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.a1938
- August 13, 2008
- 09:02 AM
- 1,797 views
Methadone for cancer (no) and cancer pain (yes)
by David J Kroll in Terra Sigillata
Most people know of methadone as a long-term substitution therapy for people addicted to heroin, morphine, or other similar drugs called opiates or opioids. A good, free full-text description of methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) can be found in the 15 June 2001 issue of American Family Physician.
Now, in the 1 August 2008 issue of Cancer Research, Claudia Friesen and colleagues at the University of Ulm report that methadone can kill leukemia cells in culture and reverse acquired resistance t........ Read more »
C Friesen, M Roscher, A Alt, & E Miltner. (2008) Methadone, Commonly Used as Maintenance Medication for Outpatient Treatment of Opioid Dependence, Kills Leukemia Cells and Overcomes Chemoresistance. Cancer Research, 68(15), 6059-6064. DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-08-1227
- April 12, 2008
- 11:01 AM
- 1,830 views
"You got lead in my marijuana. . ."
by David J Kroll in Terra Sigillata
". . .you got marijuana in my lead."
Two great tastes that do not go great together.
A concise but fascinating medical detective story appears in the letters of this week's (10 Apr 2008) issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (free full text at the time of this posting.).
An astute group of physicians at Leipzig Hospital in Germany noted a local surge of young people presenting with classic symptoms of lead poisoning - 29 patients aged 16 to 33 over the course of 3-4 mo........ Read more »
Franziska Busse, Leyla Omidi, Alexander Leichtle, Michael Windgassen, Eyleen Kluge, & Michael Stumvoll. (2008) Lead Poisoning Due to Adulterated Marijuana. New England Journal of Medicine, 358(15), 1641-1642. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/358/15/1641
- February 12, 2008
- 05:01 PM
- 1,054 views
Beware of alternative medicine sites offering breast cancer advice
by David J Kroll in Terra Sigillata
There are responsible ways to present medical information and irresponsible ways. I will say at the outset that I have no ethical issues with discussing complementary and alternative medicine with cancer patients, as long as the information presented is based in fact.
So it was no surprise to me and actually quite alarming to read a recent report suggesting that while only 1 in 20 breast cancer websites offer incorrect information, CAM-focused websites were 15 times more likely to contain inac........ Read more »
Elmer Bernstam, Muhammad F Walji, Smitha Sagaram, Deepak Sagaram, Craig W Johnson, & Funda Meric-Bernstam. (2008) Commonly cited website quality criteria are not effective at identifying inaccurate online information about breast cancer. Cancer. DOI: 10.1002/cncr.23308
- February 2, 2008
- 04:01 PM
- 1,836 views
More on medical geophagy in chimps: montmorillonite clay and the origins of life
by David J Kroll in Terra Sigillata
Readers and colleagues often ask why scientists care to blog, especially given increasing time demands and decreasing research funding. For me, the blog is an opportunity to have discussions with colleagues from diverse research areas all around the world. Quite often, I learn something quite new that I would not normally encounter in my chosen field of cancer pharmacology.
A case in point stems from a reader comment by Dr Italo MR Guedes, a Brazilian soil scientist who writes the blog, Ge&oa........ Read more »
James Ferris, & Gozem Ertem. (1992) Oligomerization of Ribonucleotides on Montmorillonite: Reaction of the 5'-Phosphorimidazolide of Adenosine. Science, 1387-1389. info:PMID/1529338
M Hanczyc. (2003) Experimental Models of Primitive Cellular Compartments: Encapsulation, Growth, and Division. Science, 302(5645), 618-622. DOI: 10.1126/science.1089904
James Ferris. (2006) Montmorillonite-catalysed formation of RNA oligomers: the possible role of catalysis in the origins of life. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 361(1474), 1777-1786. DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2006.1903
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