Tualang Honey Has Potential To Be Used In Cancer Therapy - USM Study (BERNAMA)

KOTA BAHARU, Jan 11 (Bernama) -- Tualang honey, mostly found in lowland rain forests of Peninsular Malaysia, has the potential to become a supplement for cancer therapy, especially breast cancer, said Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Prof Madya Dr Nik Soriani Yaacob.

Dr Nik Soriani, USM Kubang Kerian Pathology Department's Head of Department, said initial research found honey from the Tualang trees had a very high potential to be used for proliferation of cancer cells and destroy 'bad' cells to prevent them from spreading.

"However, the research is still in the early stages and need a more in-depth study to determine honey can kill active cancer cells," said Dr Nik Soriani who presented a paper on the activities of Tualang Honey as an Anti-cancer supplement, at the 2nd International Conference on the Medicinal Use of Honey.

About 300 delegates attended the two-day seminar organised by the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (FAMA), to discuss the qualities and nutritional values of honey in the medicinal field and explore various ways of popularizing the product.

Dr Nik Soriani said the next step would be to study whether Tualang honey can kill active cancer cells or would be able to reduce the dosage of drugs and radiation used to kill cancer cells.

"The study is to identify whether honey can reduce or prevent cancer because earlier studies have shown honey had components like anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer," said Dr Nik Soriani.

She added that studies had also shown that Tualang honey had anti-cancer qualities and significant cytotoxic effect on cancer cells cultured in the lab.

"Cancer cells treated with Tualang honey went through a apoptosis process where cancer cells die, a process that normally does not happen, and Tualang honey can also expedite the effect of tamoxifen that is used to kill cancer cells," she said.

Meanwhile, USM Clinical Research Dean Prof Dr Nor Hayati Othman said FAMA had contributed 1.3 metric tones of honey for the research, especially for research on cancer.

Through research since 2006, Tualang honey has been identified as among the purest form of honey and probably better than some of the imported honey.

"Honey that is not in its purest form can cause side effects in the long run and must be avoided," said Dr Nor Hayati.

Tualang honey is extracted from honeycombs found atop Malaysia's tallest tree - Tualang tree - which grows to an astonishing height of more than 250m (about 30 storeys) and found in East Asian rainforests and is mostly found in Peninsular Malaysia, southern Thailand, northeastern Sumatra, Borneo and Palawan.

The towering tree is best known as home of the Apis dorsatas or Asian rock bees, the world's largest honeybees and the most ferocious, who build their disc-shaped honeycombs on horizontal branches of the tree and each tree can have more than 100 honeycombs.

Some honeycombs are two metres long and can contain as many as 30,000 bees.

They are said to prefer the Tualang tree because the branches start at least 30 metres above the ground and moreover, the trunk is slippery, making it hard for honey-loving sun bears to climb.

-- BERNAMA

New Treatment Option In Coronary Artery Therapy (BERNAMA)

By Zulkiple Ibrahim

This is the second feature from a series of three on coronary artery disease

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 14 (Bernama) -- In the treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD), the idea is to deliver growth inhibition drugs to the dilated stenosis site without implanting a stent.

According to Lam Chee Hong the managing director for B. Braun Medical Supplies Sdn Bhd, this approach resulted in the development of a new treatment option for vascular occlusion, the drug eluting balloon catheter - SeQuent�Please.

He said the drug eluting balloon (DEB) SeQuent�Please is a new therapeutic option for treating narrowing of the coronary arteries which has produced excellent results.

SEQUENT�PLEASE

Lam said this is the first and as yet only drug eluting balloon (DEB) with successful proof of efficacy in the treatment of narrowing of the coronary arteries.

SeQuent�Please is used in the same way as a coronary balloon catheter for balloon expansion of narrowed blood vessels (stenosis). Unlike conventional balloon catheters, SeQuent�Please also releases a drug from the balloon surface that is absorbed by the surrounding wall of the blood vessel.

B. Braun's Medical Industries Sdn Bhd manager for regional strategy planning (Asia Pacific), Pallraj Armugum, said the drug is paclitaxel, which has been studied extensively in clinical trials and is also used for drug eluting stents (DES).

To enhance transfer of the drug to the vessel wall, the paclitaxel in SeQuent�Please is embedded in an x-ray contrast medium matrix (iopromide). This technology delivers a sufficient dose of drug from the balloon surface to the vascular wall after a brief contact period of just a few seconds.

Paclitaxel inhibits the growth and spread of smooth muscle cells over a prolonged period and so prevents the expanded artery from closing in again due to cell growth.

The matrix is bioabsorbable and dissolves completely after use. No foreign bodies remain at the intervention site, thereby minimising the risk of thrombosis.

ADVANTAGES

According to Lam, SeQuent�Please is a new treatment option in coronary artery therapy with significant benefits.

Unlike stent implantation, no foreign bodies remain in the artery with the new system, he said.

The drug eluting balloon also reaches narrowed areas that would not be accessible for stent treatment, such as, for instance, very small blood vessels, bifurcations and very long areas of stenosis.

Lam said SeQuent�Please is associated with a significantly lower incidence of restenosis of expanded arterial segments. In addition, the required length of treatment with platelet inhibiting drugs (platelet aggregation inhibitors) is much shorter after the new procedure than after DES implantation.

With the latter, patients generally required treatment for as long as 12 months after the procedure. With SeQuent�Please, a treatment period of no longer than three months is sufficient. This is associated with significantly lower treatment costs.

SeQuent�Please thus has the potential to bring about a paradigm shift in the treatment of vascular restenosis, said Lam.

STUDY DATA

Lam said when coronary artery disease (CAD) is treated with an uncoated stent, the artery narrows again over time in as many as 30 per cent of cases, and this occurs at the stent implantation site.

In-stent restenosis, as it is called, can be expanded either with a balloon catheter or by the implantation of a second stent into the existing one. However, there is a high likelihood of recurrence of restenosis in both cases.

To establish whether a paclitaxel eluting balloon catheter reduces restenosis, in-stent restenosis in 52 patients was treated either with a novel drug eluting balloon (DEB) or with a conventional uncoated balloon.

Result: re-narrowing occurred within six months in only 5.0 per cent of DEB patients versus 43 per cent of patients treated with the conventional uncoated balloon.

He said another study showed that the drug eluting balloon is significantly superior to drug eluting coronary stents. Again, subjects in this clinical trial had in-stent restenosis.

In this study, however, one half of patients were treated with a paclitaxel eluting stent, while the other half underwent expansion with SeQuent�Please. At six months after the intervention, only 6.7 per cent of the SeQuent� Please patients versus 20.4 per cent of paclitaxel eluting stent recipients required re-intervention.

The positive study findings are already reflected in the guidelines of the German Society of Cardiology (DGK).Good results were also obtained for the use of SeQuent� Please to treat stenosis of small arteries, with restenosis rates of only 5.5 percent in patients treated with SeQuent� Please alone.

Considerably higher percentages have been observed in similar studies of drug eluting coronary stents in this therapeutic indication.

Further applications for SeQuent� Please are currently being investigated by B. Braun Melsungen AG in an extensive study programme.

-- BERNAMA

International Medical University Will Be Build In Perak (BERNAMA)

International Medical University Will Be Build In Perak

From Kamarul Ariffin Md Yasin

LONDON, Dec 13 (Bernama) -- An international medical university will be built in Perak next year in collaboration with several leading universities, mainly from India, Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir said Saturday.

He said the project, which would involve an investment of RM7 billion to RM8 billion, had been planned for the past two years through private initiatives and the state government would have equity in it.

"It's some kind of (university) consortium. Initially, the Malaysian-based company will invest RM300 million. We hope they can start operation by next year with a minimum intake. They can have pre-university courses first," he said at a meeting with Malaysian students in the United Kingdom at King's College London.

Dr Zambry said the state government had allocated 120ha of land in Gua Tempurung, near Ipoh, for the company to build the university.

"After the whole project is completed we believe it can accommodate 10,000 students from all over the world. We hope to give more people an opportunity to study in the medical field," he said.

Touching on eradication of poverty in the state, he told the students that the state government would cooperate with Ikhtiar Malaysia.

"Basically, we will transform from an agro-based to a service-based economy," he said, adding that the state government wouldl look into the issue seriously.

"We will address poverty. It's not only about poor people or hardcore poor. We also have to look at those who are not from a poor background but suddenly become poor...vulnerable, like single mothers who are left destitute after their husband's death," he said.

Dr Zambry later met members of the United Kingdom Umno Club and Perakians in the United Kingdom at Malaysia Hall.

-- BERNAMA

Two dead, two critically injured as car plunges from third floor of mall (BERNAMA)

KOTA BARU (Dec 6, 2009) -- Two students from Masterskill College of Nursing and Health here were killed while another two were seriously injured when a car plunged from the parking area of KB Mall here at 5.40pm today.

Kota Baru district police chief ACP Zahruddin Abdullah said the dead were Siti Nor Amira Samsuddin, 19 and Siti Nor Diana Azman, 18 while Rashidah Ahmad Lutfi, 24 and the driver of the car, Nor Ain Said, 19 suffered serious injuries.

"The incident happened at about 5pm when the Ford Laser TX3 car driven by Nor Ain lost control and plunged while being pushed after it had broken down on the third floor of the parking area.

"The ill-fated car landed near the escalator of the KB Mall," he told reporters at the scene.

He said Siti Nor Amira from Felda Chiku Tujuh, Gua Musang died at the spot while Siti Nor Diana from Chabang Empat, Tumpat died on the way to the Raja Perempuan Zainab II Hospital here.

He added that Rashidah from Jerteh, Terengganu and Nor Ain from Kampung Chekeli, Dewan Beta here were being treated at the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital and that their condition was critical.

Zahruddin said during the incident, apart from the driver Nor Ain, the other three victims who were on the ground floor, were crushed by the plunging car.

He added that the car had initially broken down on the third floor before Nor Ain, her sister Nurul Afika, 17 and their friend Sabri, 27, from Besut, Terengganu, decided to push the car.

"Nor Ain and her sister were in the car while Sabri was pushing the car when the driver lost control and the car hit the retaining wall and plunged down," he said.

He added that Nurul Afika miraculously escaped unhurt and went home in trauma after the incident while Sabri disappeared from the scene.

A witness, Johan Salleh, 47, said he was on the ground floor and saw the car plunging down.

"I was able to drag my son away but he remains in trauma," said Johan.

Police and the Fire and Rescue Department were at the scene to extricate the bodies.-- BERNAMA