ACS News Service Weekly PressPac: Oct. 25, 2006

• New evidence on why alcohol consumption is a risk factor for cancer
• Shedding light on the darkening of ancient Pompeii's paintings
• Barbiturates are detectable in the environment 30 years after use peaked
• A potential anti-prion drug with “unprecedented” potency
• Biotechs expand into small molecules for drug discovery

Now researchers in Japan have discovered direct molecular evidence supporting that link between acetaldehyde and alcohol-related cancers. In a report published in the current (October) issue of the monthly ACS journal Chemical Research in Toxicology, Tomonari Matsuda and colleagues studied DNA from the blood of 44 patients being treated for alcoholism.

They found that those patients with a variation in the aldehyde dehydrogenase gene also had increased amounts of the kind of DNA damage that can lead to cancer. The gene produces an enzyme that breaks down acetaldehyde. Individuals with the gene variant produce little aldehyde dehydrogenase and high levels of acetaldehyde build up in their blood after alcohol consumption.

Millions of people have the gene variant, which occurs mainly in individuals of East Asian heritage. “Taken together, the observations from biochemical, epidemiological, and molecular studies, in conjunction with this study, well fit the scenario that acetaldehyde is a primary causative factor in alcohol-induced cancers,” the scientists report.

Back to Top

Valium and other modern tranquilizers largely replaced barbiturate drugs 30 years ago. However, barbiturates are still detectable among the pharmaceutical and personal care products that wind up in the environment, researchers in Germany report.

Thomas P. Knepper and colleagues conducted what they believe to be the first systematic search for barbiturates in the environment. The results are scheduled for publication in the Dec. 1 issue of the ACS semi-monthly journal, Environmental Science & Technology. Use of phenobarbital and other barbiturates, once a mainstay of sedatives and hypnotics, has declined dramatically since introduction of safer alternatives in the 1970s.

Researchers knew that barbiturates have a chemical trait that makes compounds resistant to biodegradation; so they expected to find traces of barbiturates in groundwater sites that had been infiltrated by wastewater decades ago. Knepper's group was surprised, however, to find significant concentrations of the drugs in a river.

The river was near a landfill in Germany, and researchers suspect that barbiturates leaked out. They recommend monitoring ground water near landfills for barbiturates, especially those containing old medical waste. About 2,000 tons of barbiturates were produced each year in the United States during the 1960s, the study notes.

Back to Top

Biotech companies traditionally focus on large proteins in their quest to find new drugs. But faced with the complex nature of disease, these companies are increasingly turning to small molecules as well. This new push into small-molecule drug design, which researchers hope will deliver better and more effective disease treatments, is explored in a report scheduled for the Oct. 30 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, the ACS’s weekly newsmagazine.

Associate Editor Lisa M. Jarvis describes how major biotech companies such as Genentech and Amgen have moved into the small-molecule arena and expanded their chemistry operations in the process, including new partnerships with drug discovery firms. These efforts have increasingly brought together chemists from a wide range of disciplines, including medicinal, computational and process chemistry, Jarvis writes.

Biotech’s investment in small-molecule research is starting to pay off in the form of new drugs, she notes. A few companies already have commercialized new small-molecule drugs for the treatment of lung cancer and kidney disease, while drugs for multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s and other diseases are making their way through the pipeline. By combining small-molecule approaches with protein research, biotech companies are boosting their odds of producing more effective treatments for some of our most challenging diseases, according to the article.

Back to Top

• ACS National Meeting Resources
  A treasure trove of news sources, background material and story ideas is available from the ACS’ latest national meeting. Reporters can search and view abstracts of 10,000 scientific presentations, 600 non-technical summaries of those presentations, and browse press releases online.
  Index Of Press Releases
  View Non-Technical Summaries
  General ACS National Meeting Information
  Abstracts From The Technical Program
• ACS News Service Weblog
  Science, September & San Francisco
  Visit the ACS News Service’s National Meeting Weblog for reports from scientific sessions and other events at the ACS National Meeting in San Francisco.

Back to Top