A study has confirmed that powerful steroids can affect brain development in premature babies.

Researcher Emily Tam, MD, of the University of California-San Francisco explains that animal studies found that the steroids called glucocorticoids affect a certain part of the brain.

From Voanews.com:

“The cerebellum is particularly targeted, resulting in cell death and decreased cell growth,” Tam says. “And so, the question then is, is this same thing happening in humans?”

The cerebellum is involved in motor control and some cognitive functions, among other things, so it plays a critical role in an infant’s first years.

In a study, which was published in Science Translational Medicine, 172 premature babies born in the United States and Canada got MRI scans to measure their cerebellums. Tam says researchers found no adverse affects from steroids given to the pregnant mothers before birth.

“On the other hand,” Tam says, “we did find that when hydrocortisone and dexamethasone were given after the child was born, this was associated with decreased growth of cerebellum. So by term age, the cerebellum was 10 percent smaller that it should have been.”

Tags: dexamethasone, glucocorticoids, steroids

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Preterm infants who are treated with glucocorticoids could be at a growing risk for damage to the cerebellum in the brain, according to a recent study by scientists from the University of California.

Glucocorticoids are usually administered to premature infants to facilitate lung maturation and normalization of breathing and blood pressure.

From Healthjockey.com:

Emily Tam, MD, a child neurologist in the Neurological Intensive Care Nursery at the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital and lead author of the study, remarked, “This study provides new evidence that these drugs, even at low doses, are associated with impaired cerebellar development when given to babies after birth.”

Initial studies have linked smaller cerebellum volumes of premature children to cognitive and motor disorders as they reach young adulthood. In order to test the effects of glucocorticoids, nearly 172 premature babies were examined. Around 85% of them had received betamethasone before birth and almost 20% of them were given hydrocortisone or dexamethasone after birth.

The study, ‘Preterm Cerebellar Growth Impairment After Postnatal Exposure to Glucocorticoids’, is published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Tags: betamethasone, dexamethasone, glucocorticoids, hydrocortisone

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Cancer drug Treanda, in combination with steroids like prednisone or dexamethasone, could be effective in elapsed and refractory multiple myeloma patients.

The finding was revealed by a recent French analysis and the researchers recommended that Treanda (bendamustine) be considered as a treatment option for patients with advanced multiple myeloma.

From Myelomabeacon.com:

Treanda is an alkylating agent, which causes cancer cell death by damaging the cancer cells’ DNA.  The drug, which was originally developed in East Germany in the 1960s, is currently approved by the FDA to treat certain types of leukemia and lymphoma.

Treanda also is approved in a number of European countries to treat multiple myeloma in patients older than 65 years who are not eligible for stem-cell transplantation and cannot be treated with thalidomide (Thalomid) or Velcade (bortezomib).

Cephalon Inc., the company that markets Treanda in the United States, is currently sponsoring several Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials that are investigating Treanda as a multiple myeloma treatment. In a recent Phase 1 trial, Treanda showed promising activity in combination with Revlimid (lenalidomide) and dexamethasone (Decadron).

Data on side effects was not collected or reported as safety was not part of the analysis.

Tags: dexamethasone, multiple myeloma, steroids

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A recent study has determined that glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis (OP) is now treatable with a synthetic form of the human parathyroid hormone, Teriparatide.

It was found by the researchers that patients with glucocorticoid-induced OP and administered with teriparatide for 36 months had a greater increase in bone mineral density (BMD) and fewer new vertebral fractures than those treated with alendronate.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Glucocorticoids are steroid hormones that are naturally produced in the body or synthetically created compounds (drugs) used to reduce inflammation. These steroid drugs are used to control inflammation in patients with such autoimmune diseases as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and Crohn’s disease as well as inflammatory conditions such as asthma. Glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis occurs when patients taking steroid medications such as prednisone, prednisolone, dexamethasone, and cortisone exhibit reduced bone mass and bone strength.

This 36-month, randomized, double-blind, controlled trial, led by Kenneth Saag, M.D., from the University of Alabama, was conducted at 76 centers located in 13 countries. A total of 428 patients between the ages of 22-89 with confirmed OP who had received greater than 5 mg/day of prednisone or equivalent for more than 3 months preceding screening were included. Research measures included changes in lumbar spine and hip bone, BMD, changes in bone biomarkers, fracture incidence, and safety.

The findings of this study are published in the November issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR).

Tags: alendronate, bone-mineral density, cortisone, dexamethasone, prednisolone, Prednisone, steroid, teriparatide

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A single 10 mg dose of the steroid, dexamethasone can be useful in terms of safety, efficacy, and affordability for treating bacterial or viral pharyngitis (sore throat), as per a Mayo Clinic study published in an edition of Laryngoscope.

In a study involving 118 patients, it was revealed that patients given dexamethasone in a shot or a pill form reported pain relief four hours sooner than patients on placebo in pill or injection form.

From Sciencedaily.com:

A team of researchers led by Julie Wei, M.D., a former Mayo Clinic ear, nose and throat physician resident; Andrew Boggust, M.D., a Mayo Clinic emergency medicine specialist; Jan Kasperbauer, M.D., a Mayo Clinic ear, nose and throat specialist and Amy Weaver, M.S., a Mayo Clinic biostatistician, initially observed how effectively steroids decrease nausea, vomiting and throat pain in children the day after they have their tonsils removed. Dr. Wei noted the children also were able to swallow food sooner after taking steroids.

“Studies have shown that steroids take away pain in children who have just had tonsillectomies,” says Dr. Wei. We thought we could apply the same principle to sore throat. The team reasoned that steroids also might help reduce sore throat. Patients with pharyngitis may experience difficulty with breathing and swallowing, resulting in dehydration and increasing the number of hospital visits. The team of researchers noted that steroids have been effectively used in emergency room settings for treatment of asthma, bacterial meningitis, cerebral edema, acute spinal cord injury and acute allergic reactions.

Sixty seven percent of patients administered with steroids returned to normal activity in 12 hours and 84 percent returned to normal activity in 24 hours.

Tags: dexamethasone, placebo, sore throat, steroid, steroids

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Scientists from the University of Illinois have reported that steroids can be more than just useful for reducing inflammation. It was disclosed that use of steroids can lead to reversal of a loss of myelin, which is a major problem in multiple sclerosis and other demyelinating diseases and injuries associated with the central and peripheral nervous systems.

It was further reported that steroids dexamethasone and progesterone can actually signal the initiation and dramatically increases in context of the rate of myelin synthesis.

From Sciencedaily.com:

“Steroids seem to be very important in regulating the initiation and synthesis,” said Michael Glaser, professor of biochemistry and lead investigator of the project. “They had been implicated as having a role in the overall process, but not for enhancing the actual synthesis. It is our hope that this line of work will lead to a line of treatment for nerve injuries and demyelinating diseases.”

Last year in the Journal of Neuroscience Research, Glaser’s team reported the first technique for observing the continual synthesis of myelin by Schwann cells around axons of neurons. In their new work, researchers added various forms of steroids and antagonists, observing their effects on the cells under a fluorescence digital-imaging microscope. When dexamethasone and progesterone were added, individually, to the tissue culture cells, the initiation of myelin production began 24 hours earlier than it did under control conditions, and the peak rate of myelin formation increased by more than 2-fold.

Their findings provided the first live look at the signals initiating myelin formation in live cells, Glaser said. Before his new assay was developed, researchers were restricted to simply observing myelin at a single stage of production.

The new findings were published in a biochemistry section of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Tags: dexamethasone, progesterone, steroids, use of steroids

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The primary controller medication for asthma, glucocorticoids, is 40 percent less effective in obese and overweight asthmatic patients when compared to patients with normal weight, according to researchers at National Jewish Health.

A long-term study was initiated by Dr. Sutherland and his colleagues for evaluating the clinical effects of steroid resistance among overweight and obese asthma patients and further clarifying the signaling pathways involved.

From Sciencedaily.com:

The study at National Jewish Health sought to understand why glucocorticoids, commonly called steroids, might be less effective in overweight and obese asthma patients. Dr. Sutherland and his colleagues enrolled 45 nonsmoking adults, 33 of whom had asthma, and measured the response of cells in the blood and the lungs to the steroid dexamethasone.

Steroids interfere with inflammatory signaling pathways by raising the level of a molecule known as MAP kinase phosphatase-1 (MKP-1). When the researchers applied the steroid dexamethasone to cultures of the participants’ blood cells, they found that steroids did not increase MKP-1 as effectively in overweight and obese asthmatics when compared to lean asthmatics. Dexamethasone increased the levels of MKP-1 by 5.27 times in cultured blood cells from lean asthma patients, whereas MKP-1 levels in overweight and obese asthmatics increased by only 3.11 times, a 41 percent smaller response. The heavier a person was the less their cells were likely to respond to dexamethasone. This negative relationship between weight and response to steroids did not occur in participants who did not have asthma.

The study by Associate Professor of Medicine E. Rand Sutherland, MD, MPH and his colleagues at National Jewish Health, appeared in an issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Tags: dexamethasone, glucocorticoids, steroid, steroids

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According to results of Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Phase III clinical trial E4A03 for multiple myeloma, patients with multiple myeloma can experience dramatically improved results when they are administered with a combination of lenalidomide and low-dose dexamethasone therapy when compared to a combination of lenalidomide plus high-dose dexamethasone.

This finding was reported by S. Vincent Rajkumar, M.D. at the American Society of Hematology‘s annual meeting.

From News-Medical.Net:

The study compared combination treatment of oral medications lenalidomide (a novel chemotherapeutic agent) and either high- or low-dose dexamethasone (a potent steroid effective against myeloma) in 445 patients with newly diagnosed myeloma. Lenalidomide plus high-dose dexamethasone had an 18-month survival rate of 80 percent. The comparative therapy using low-dose dexamethasone showed a significantly higher 91 percent overall survival rate at 18 months, with much less toxicity.

“The lower survival rates with the high-dose dexamethasone can be attributed to disease progression as well as treatment-related toxicities,” says Dr. Rajkumar. “This is a major advance in the treatment of this cancer, and also gives researchers a new direction to explore — that more is not necessarily better.”

Dr. Rajkumar, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center hematologist and lead investigator of the study, noted that it is surprising to know that side effects are increased and survival rate is reduced when high doses of steroids are administered.

Tags: dexamethasone, lenalidomide, multiple myeloma, steroid, steroids

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Lenalidomide and Dexamethasone, two drugs when taken in a combination, can prove useful for providing significant relief to patients afflicted with multiple myeloma. This finding was disclosed by a study that was conducted at 44 centers in the United States and Canada and involved 353 patients with myeloma.

Progression of myeloma can be slowed down with the pairing of a new derivative of thalidomide with a steroid and this combination could prolong lives of patients who have relapsed from treatments in the past.

From News-Medical.Net:

“These trials highlight how large-scale cooperation in a team effort by myeloma investigators can quickly confirm benefits and introduce new active agents for patients with this disease,” Weber says. “We also owe a debt to the willing patients who participated in this study.”

Multiple myeloma is caused by formation of abnormal plasma cells, a type of white blood cell, in the bone marrow. These cells multiply rapidly, crowding out normal red and white blood cells and platelets. Tumors starting in the bone marrow may cause pain, and weaken bones predisposing them to fracture. In the United States about 20,000 people are diagnosed with multiple myeloma annually, and about 11,000 succumb to the disease each year.

Thalidomide, a breakthrough drug for multiple myeloma, is produced and marketed by Celgene Corporation as Thalomid(r). The company chemically altered thalidomide to make lenalidomide, known commercially as Revlimid(r), in hopes of reducing side effects and improving efficacy against the disease. The drugs attack both the malignant cells and the cellular environment that nurtures them.

Lead author Donna Weber, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, remarked that this combination can do the trick particularly when the disease becomes immune to one therapy.

Tags: dexamethasone, lenalidomide, multiple myeloma, steroid

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A combination of steroids, lenalidomide and dexamethasone, is effective against multiple myeloma that is considered to be one of the most dreaded forms of cancer. This finding was disclosed by a study involving 353 patients with myeloma that was conducted at 44 centers in the United States and Canada.

The study highlighted that pairing a new thalidomide derivative with a steroid could be more than useful for slowing down future progression of multiple myeloma.

From News-Medical.Net:

“These trials highlight how large-scale cooperation in a team effort by myeloma investigators can quickly confirm benefits and introduce new active agents for patients with this disease,” Weber says. “We also owe a debt to the willing patients who participated in this study.”

Multiple myeloma is caused by formation of abnormal plasma cells, a type of white blood cell, in the bone marrow. These cells multiply rapidly, crowding out normal red and white blood cells and platelets. Tumors starting in the bone marrow may cause pain, and weaken bones predisposing them to fracture. In the United States about 20,000 people are diagnosed with multiple myeloma annually, and about 11,000 succumb to the disease each year.

Thalidomide, a breakthrough drug for multiple myeloma, is produced and marketed by Celgene Corporation as Thalomid(r). The company chemically altered thalidomide to make lenalidomide, known commercially as Revlimid(r), in hopes of reducing side effects and improving efficacy against the disease. The drugs attack both the malignant cells and the cellular environment that nurtures them.

Lead author Donna Weber, M.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, said that a combination of steroids can be useful for treating the disease, especially when the disease becomes resistant to one drug.

Tags: dexamethasone, multiple myeloma, steroid, steroids

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