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Wednesday 10, Mar 2010

  Protein known to suppress androgen receptors may be useful for treating prostate cancer

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protein-known-to-suppress-androgen-receptors-may-be-useful-for-treating-prostate-cancerAccording to a finding reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition, a protein known for regulating androgen receptor expression may be the focal point to stage and treat testosterone-fueled prostate cancer.

This finding was reported by researchers from the College of Georgia.

Dr. Yehia Daaka, Distinguished Chair in Oncologic Pathology in the MCG School of Medicine and co-author of the study, said that an increase in the number of androgen receptors is considered to be behind the progression of prostate cancer in men with advanced disease.

From Sciencedaily.com:

With increased numbers of androgen receptors, prostate cancer can make use of the limited testosterone available after a diseased prostate gland is removed or after testosterone production is blocked by drug therapy. In fact, the increased number of androgen receptors may mutate so they can start feeding off other steroids or even growth factors, Dr. Daaka says.

These wily skills help explain why cancer returns despite initially promising treatment results.

“It is clear that signaling by the androgen receptor is paramount for not only the initiation but also the progression of the disease, including escape to a hormone-refractory disease,” he says. Moves androgen receptors make to support cancer growth make it “unbeatable at this point,” for some patients.

However increased levels of βarrestin2 appear to halt the potentially deadly increase in androgen receptor expression, the MCG research team has found.

Collaborators on this study included Dr. Vijayabaskar Lakshmikanthan, postdoctoral fellow; Dr. Lin Zou, former postdoctoral fellow;  Jae Kim, graduate student; Dr. Nidia C. Messias, assistant professor; and Dr. Zhongzhen Nie, assistant professor; from the MCG Department of Pathology; and Drs. Allison Michal, and Jeffrey L. Benovic from Thomas Jefferson University.


Monday 08, Mar 2010

  Rashard Lewis suspended for doping violation

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Rashard Lewis suspended for doping violationRashard Lewis, the Orlando Magic All-Star forward, was suspended for ten games by the NBA. This suspension was a result of violation of the doping policy by Lewis after elevated levels of testosterone were found in Lewis’s sample.

It was remarked by Lewis that he took an over-the-counter supplement and believed that there was nothing like a banned substance in it.

From NYTimes.com:

Gary Wadler, an internist and a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said that elevated levels of testosterone can be caused by ingesting or injecting a substance, which helps build muscle mass and improves recovery time. Elevated levels of testosterone can also be caused by the substance DHEA, which is often found in supplements, Wadler said.

The supplement industry has come under increased scrutiny from federal authorities. The Food and Drug Administration warned consumers on July 29 not to use body-building products that are sold as over-the-counter nutritional supplements because they may contain steroids or steroid-like substances. The warning came five days after federal agents searched several locations tied to the company American Cellular Labs, which the authorities said sells supplements that contain designer steroids.

The Associated Press said that Lewis will be docked approximately $1.6 million of his $18 million salary for the 2009-10 season.

Monday 01, Mar 2010

  SARMs sale witnessing highs like never before

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SARMs sale witnessing highs like never beforeThere have many highs in the sale of non-steroidal and tissue-selective anabolic agents such as Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators (SARMs) in the black market for their performance enhancing qualities.

This finding was revealed by researchers from the German Sport University Cologne in Germany when the detection of the drug candidate Andarine was demonstrated in a product sold via the Internet.

From Sciencedaily.com:

SARMs represent a promising class of therapeutics for the treatment of various diseases such as sarcopenia, osteoporosis, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), and cancer cachexia. While none of these agents have yet been approved for therapeutic use, SARMs are gaining popularity in the sports doping community because they are believed to provide the benefits of traditional anabolic/androgenic steroids such as testosterone with fewer unwanted side effects.

In 2008, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) prohibited the use of SARMs in sports due to their potential for misuse. WADA closely cooperates with pharmaceutical and biotechnological companies, as well as medicine agencies and drug evaluation bodies on the issue of therapeutics being misused in sports. WADA’s preventive approach was validated with the recent finding of a commercially available, non-approved arylpropionamide-derived SARM termed Andarine. This product, declared as green tea extracts and face moisturizer to pass customs, was available on the Internet at a discount price of $100 USD.

The issue of SARMs sold openly and cheaply (readily available without sufficient research on its undesirable effects) in the black market was recently addressed at the Conference of Parties to the International Convention against Doping in Sport, held October 26-28, 2009 at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) headquarters in Paris.

Tuesday 23, Feb 2010

  Ban of two years for Australian Club prop

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Ban of two years for Australian Club propA two-year ban has been imposed on Luke Troy, the Australian club rugby prop, for ordering two different types of steroid drugs (21 packets of testosterone-1 a mixture of Androstenes in February 2006 and 100 capsules of DHEA 200 containing 200 mg dehydropepiandrosterone per capsule in August 2006).

The Australian Rugby Union initially cleared the Newcastle Waratahs club prop as he had not collected the drugs from the customs and no evidence was found to suggest if the intercepted drugs were actually what the packaging said they were.

From Brisbanetimes.com.au:

Troy had told ASADA: ”I acknowledge that I may have been naive to order [over the internet] but did so in good faith with no intention of using any prohibited substance. However at no time did I have possession of such items due to them being seized by Australian Customs.”

However the International Rugby Board appealed against the decision of the ARU and asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport to decide the matter.

This week the CAS ruled Troy had committed an anti-doping violation by using or attempting to use a prohibited substance. The CAS found that Troy had searched the internet for products, deliberately ordered products believing they contained testosterone and DHEA and that he intended to use those substances personally for ”recovery and meal replacement”.

The CAS said it was not essential that the substances were in fact proven to be prohibited substances.

Troy was banned from playing sports till May 5, 2011 after a lengthy appeal process.

Tuesday 16, Feb 2010

  Weight and muscle gains likely with steroid use

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Weight and muscle gains likely with steroid useAdministration of anabolic steroids to patients suffering from the life-endangering HIV may result in modest weight and muscle mass gains, according to a review.

This review appeared in an issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration.

From News-Medical.Net:

Anabolic steroids are synthetic substances similar to the male sex hormone testosterone that promote growth of skeletal muscle and the development of male sexual characteristics.

Although most recently in the news for their misuse by professional athletes, anabolic steroids have legitimate medical application for men with low testosterone and people with certain types of anemia. Two anabolic steroids available in the United States, nandrolone decanoate and oxandrolone, have been used to help increase weight and muscle mass in small studies of people with wasting.

Conversely, anabolic steroid use has been associated with increased rates of HIV in those who share needles or use nonsterile needles when they inject steroids.

In the review studies, anabolic steroids were administered to patients either orally or by injection. The main side effects were mild and included abnormal liver function tests; acne; mild increase in body hair; breast tenderness; increased libido, aggressiveness and irritability; and mood swings — all common side effect of anabolic steroid use.

“The risks and side effects of taking anabolic steroids long-term are certainly of concern,” Johns said. “We were unable to assess these risks in our review due to the short duration of treatment in the studies.”

Lead author Karen Johns, a Medical Assessment Officer from the Agency Health Canada, said that the magnitude of these gains can be termed as relevant in clinical terms.

Monday 15, Feb 2010

  Hormone stimulating appetite found useful for muscle atrophy

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Hormone stimulating appetite found useful for muscle atrophyA new treatment form has been identified to provide significant relief to people suffering from muscle atrophy, as per the results of an animal study that were presented at the Endocrine Society’s 91st Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

Study co-author Andrea Graziani, PhD, molecular biologist with the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine and the Biotechnology Center for Applied Medical Research, University of Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy, said that some of the presently prescribed options including anabolic steroids (testosterone) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IFG-1) cannot be termed as completely safe.

From News-Medical.Net:

“Because of the wide impact of muscular atrophy on public health, it is of pivotal importance to find new and better drug strategies to treat it,” Graziani said.

Graziani and his co-workers are studying des-acyl ghrelin, a form of ghrelin, the appetite-stimulating hormone found in the body. Until recently, researchers thought that des-acyl ghrelin was inactive because it does not share the main activities of ghrelin-stimulating appetite, fat and the release of growth hormone.

However, Graziani’s group recently found that des-acyl ghrelin shares some biological activities with ghrelin, such as stimulating differentiation of other cells, including-important to this study-cells that are precursors to skeletal muscle cells.

In this new study, the researchers discovered that des-acyl ghrelin has a direct anti-atrophic activity on the skeletal muscle of mice with muscular atrophy caused by either denervation (nerve injury) or fasting. Mice that were genetically altered to have increased levels of des-acyl ghrelin had less skeletal muscle loss than the untreated control mice. This held true for both causes of muscular atrophy.

The mechanism by which des-acyl ghrelin protects muscle against atrophy is not yet known, the authors reported. However, it is distinct from the action of anabolic steroids and IGF-1.

The researchers noted that the appetite-stimulating hormone, des-acyl ghrelin, poses a direct anti-atrophic activity on mice’s skeletal muscle caused by fasting or nerve injury.

Wednesday 10, Feb 2010

  SARM sale on high for enhancing performance

Posted Byi steroids

sarm-sale-on-high-for-enhancing-performanceThe sale of non-steroidal and tissue-selective anabolic agents such as Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators (SARMs) is on an all-time high in the Internet black market. According to researchers from the German Sport University Cologne in Germany, this demand hike is due to the performance enhancing features of these SARMs.

The researchers were able to identify one drug that was sold on the Internet that included Andarine suggesting that anabolic agents are readily and affordably sold on the online black market.

The study findings were presented in an issue of Drug Testing and Analysis published by Wiley-Blackwell.

From News-Medical.Net:

SARMs represent a promising class of therapeutics for the treatment of various diseases such as sarcopenia, osteoporosis, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), and cancer cachexia. While none of these agents have yet been approved for therapeutic use, SARMs are gaining popularity in the sports doping community because they are believed to provide the benefits of traditional anabolic/androgenic steroids such as testosterone with fewer unwanted side effects.

In 2008, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) prohibited the use of SARMs in sports due to their potential for misuse. WADA closely cooperates with pharmaceutical and biotechnological companies, as well as medicine agencies and drug evaluation bodies on the issue of therapeutics being misused in sports. WADA’s preventive approach was validated with the recent finding of a commercially available, non-approved arylpropionamide-derived SARM termed Andarine.

The issue was addressed a few months ago at the Conference of Parties to the International Convention against Doping in Sport, held on October 26-28, 2009 at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) headquarters in Paris.

John Fahey, WADA President, said that strict laws need to be adopted by government agencies for preventing distribution and sale of steroids in sporting events.

Tuesday 09, Feb 2010

  Cattle steroid abuse identifiable with new test

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Cattle steroid abuse identifiable with new testNew innovative tests have been developed by scientists at Queen’s University Belfast to identify the use of steroids in an illegal manner in the European beef industry, as per a study.

The new tests are not only economical but also more accurate and easier than the conventional drug tests for tracing the presence of illegal steroids in cattle.

The study appeared in the scientific journal Analytical Chemistry and was led by Professor Chris Elliot, the Director of the Institute of Agri-Food and Land Use at Queen’s.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Using a commercial blood analyser commonly found in hospitals, the researchers measured 20 different chemical markers, including proteins and cholesterol, in cattle treated with and without the commonly used steroids testosterone and oestrogen over a 42-day study period.

The new test detected the presence of the steroids with a high accuracy rate - between 91 and 96 per cent.

Professor Elliot said: “In recent years, a trend of administration of very low dose cocktails of naturally occurring hormones has made conventional forms of analysis even more problematic.

“Even if minute traces of steroids can be detected, proving definitive illegal administration under these circumstances is close to impossible.

“The ability to detect evidence of such administrations using metabolic markers would be a major scientific advance.

Professor Chris Elliot, the Director of the Institute of Agri-Food and Land Use at Queen’s said that single steroid administration means that a lowered metabolic response was generated as compared to what would have been achievable via cocktail hormone treatments that are presently abused in Europe.

Monday 08, Feb 2010

  Levels of hormones affect financial traders’ performance

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levels-of-hormones-affect-financial-traders-performanceHigh morning levels of testosterone can help city traders to make more than just average profits, as per a research conducted at the University of Cambridge.

The involved scientists hypothesized that the improvement in terms of performance can be attributed to the fact that testosterone is known for increasing the appetite for risk and confidence - two factors that are good enough for augmenting the performance of a trader.

From News-Medical.Net:

The researchers also speculated that if testosterone continued to rise or became chronically elevated, it could begin to have the opposite effect on a trader’s profitability by increasing risk-taking to unprofitable levels. Previous studies have shown that administered testosterone can lead to irrational decision-making. They believe that this is because testosterone has also been found to lead to impulsivity and sensation seeking, to harmful risk taking, and in extreme cases (among users of anabolic steroids) to euphoria and mania.

Testosterone may therefore underlie a secondary consequence of the ‘winner effect’ in which a previous win in the markets leads to increased, and eventually irrational, risk taking in the next round of trading.

The study noted that naturally produced steroids in the body, especially cortisol and testosterone, can have a positive influence when it comes to finding as to how and why people caught in crashes often find it tedious to make a rational decision.

Wednesday 03, Feb 2010

  Some hormonal dietary supplements may promote progression of prostate cancer

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Some hormonal dietary supplements may promote progression of prostate cancerAccording to a discovery by researchers at the UT Southwestern Medical Center, hormonal components in some of the over-the-counter dietary supplements can promote the progression of prostate cancer along with reducing the effectiveness of anti-cancer drugs.

The findings appeared in the journal Clinical Cancer Research and reaffirmed the fact that patients must communicate the use of any herbal or hormonal dietary supplements they are taking or considering taking.

From Sciencedaily.com:

An estimated 42 percent to 69 percent of U.S. adults use dietary supplements, at an estimated out-of-pocket expenditure of about $34.4 billion, according to published reports cited in the study. Individuals often use supplements because they believe these natural products are safe and drug-free. The sale of androgenic steroids is exponentially increasing. In 2004, U.S. expenditures on testosterone supplements were estimated to be $425 million.

“Given that testosterone supplements are in high demand, there is significant concern that supplements, in addition to the one we evaluated, may pose an urgent human health risk,” Dr. Shariat said.

Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston also contributed to the research.

Dr. Claus Roehrborn, chairman of urology at UT Southwestern and one of the study’s authors, said that physicians need to make enquiries from not only about the prescription drugs they may be taking but also the over-the-counter drugs and supplements.

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