Stress family environment may spark early puberty in girls

While a stressful family environment in childhood has long been blamed for various psychological effects later in life, new research suggests that hostile situations at home may also have big physical implications for young girls.

In a study released Thursday, researchers at the University of Arizona and the University of Wisconsin-Madison looked at families of 227 preschool children, following them as they progressed through middle school. Specifically, the researchers looked for the first hormonal signs of puberty in these children.

What they found was that parental support -- or lack of it -- may partially determine at what age young girls hit puberty. Specifically, young girls with families who were more supportive in preschool years tended to hit puberty later than their counterparts in less supportive family environments.

The research stops short of drawing a bold link between early stress and early puberty, as factors such as family income and other environmental factors may also be at play. But lead study author Bruce Ellis said that while it is still too early for parents to make solid conclusions based on the evidence, the findings hint at an interesting evolutionary link between sexual maturation and stress.

"Children adjust their development to match the environments in which they live," said Ellis, an associate professor in the Division of Family Studies and Human Development at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

"Children who grow up in environments that are dangerous and unpredictable tend to grow up faster," he said. "In the world in which humans evolved, danger and uncertainty meant a shorter lifespan, and going into puberty earlier in this context increased chances of surviving, reproducing and passing on your genes."

Source

Drug research center launch speeded up

The Food and Drug Administration is moving with unprecedented speed to launch a drug research center to be paid for by companies it regulates.

The goal of the Reagan-Udall Foundation, approved by Congress and signed into law late last month, is to streamline and improve the development of drugs and medical devices, a goal long sought by regulators and the biggest players in the industry, such as Merck & Co. Inc., Pfizer Inc., Wyeth, GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Johnson & Johnson.

At a time when the FDA's reputation has been battered by perceptions that it is lax on some safety issues and too cozy with drug makers, consumer advocates say the loosely defined partnership increases the agency's vulnerability to industry clout despite its promise of groundbreaking success. It's an ambitious undertaking that puts regulators and companies in a relationship unlike that of any other industry.

Read more from source

China recalls tainted leukemia drugs

Chinese authorities ordered the recall of tainted leukemia drugs blamed for leg pains and other problems, state media reported Sunday, the latest crisis to strike the country's embattled food and drug industries.

Most of the drugs involved — methotrexate and cytarabin hydrochloride — have been recovered and authorities have traced the remainder, the Xinhua News Agency said. The report did not say if any of the drugs had been exported.

Authorities have banned the sale and distribution of the drugs, produced by the Shanghai Hualian Pharmaceutical Co., it said.

China, a major global supplier, has been facing growing international pressure to improve the quality of its exports after dangerous toxins — from lead to an antifreeze ingredient — were found in goods including toys and toothpaste.

China has been eager to cast itself as a victim, too, of unsafe imports. Xinhua on Saturday announced that inspectors recently found residue of the banned stimulant ractopamine in frozen pig kidneys imported from the United States and frozen pork spareribs from Canada. The names of the exporting companies were not identified. Ractopamine is forbidden for use as veterinary medicine in China.

RA Drugs Linked to Slight Skin Cancer Risk

People taking rheumatoid arthritis drugs such as etanercept (Enbrel) or infliximab (Remicade) may be at a slightly increased risk for skin cancer, researchers report.

However, the risk is probably not significant enough to outweigh the benefits of these drugs, the researchers said.

These so-called biologic treatments work by blocking tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), which previous studies had found to be linked with increased risk of skin, lung and blood cancers.

"The risk of skin cancer is marginally increased among people with rheumatoid arthritis," said lead researcher Dr. Frederick Wolfe, a clinical professor of internal medicine at the University of Kansas School of Medicine. "But it's nothing that anybody should be worried about," he added.

For the study, Wolfe and his colleagues collected data on 13,001 patients with rheumatoid arthritis included in the National Data Bank for Rheumatic Diseases and the U.S. National Cancer Institute SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End-Results). The researchers found a total of 623 cases of skin cancer and 537 cases of other cancers.

They also found that anti-TNF-alpha medications were associated with a slight increased risk of skin cancer. But, they did not find any increased risk for other cancers, according to the report in the September issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism.

More..

Methcathinone is a structural analogue of methamphetamine and cathinone. It is potent and it, along with the parent compound, are easily manufactured.

They are sold in the U.S. under the name CAT. It is distributed as a white to off-white chunky powdered material and is sold in the hydrochloride salt form. Outside of the U.S., methcathinone is known as ephedrone and is a significant drug of abuse in Russia and some of the Baltic States.



Methcathinone was permanently placed in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act in October 1993. Prior to its scheduling, two federal cases were effectly prosecuted in Ann Arbor and Marquette, Michigan, utilizing the analogue provision of the Controlled Substances Analogue and Enforcment Act of 1986.

PHENETHYLAMINES

The class of compounds with the largest number of individual compounds on the illicit drug market is the Phenethylamines. This class of compounds consists of a series of compounds having a phenethylamine skeleton. Phenethylamines are easily modified chemically by adding or changing substituents at various positions on the molecule.

Phenethylamines fall into one of two categories in terms of physiological effects — these compounds are either stimulants or hallucinogens. Phenethylamines are suitable for clandestine laboratory production. The parent compound in the phenethylamine series is amphetamine, a central nervous system stimulant(CNS). With this molecule, the modifications begin by adding a methyl group to the nitrogen on the side chain. The resulting structure is the most popular clandestinely produced controlled substance in the U.S. in 1995 — methamphetamine

Like amphetamine, methamphetamine is also a CNS stimulant. It is easily produced in clandestine laboratories using two basic synthetic routes. The traditional route used by “methcooks” began with phenyl-2-propanone; however, when bulk sales were limited by law, most clandestine chemists began using ephedrine as a precursor, although some now synthesize their own supply of phenyl-2-propanone, and still other routes are possible New legislation has now limited bulk purchases of ephedrine in the U.S., though not in neigboring countries. And the chemical structure is such that further molecular synthetic modifications are easily accomplished resulting in a number of homologues and analogues. Few of the synthetic modifications of phenethylamines by clandestine laboratory “chemists” are novel. Most have been documented either in the scientific literature or in underground scientific literature. And the Internet now provides answers to anyone tenacious enough to search for a simple method to synthesize any analogue or homologue of a phenethylamine.

The parent compound of a second set of phenethylamine homologues and analogues is 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA). This compound was first reported in the literature in 1910.14 In the mid-1980s, the N-methyl analogue of MDA came into vogue and was known then and is still referred to as “Ecstasy”.

The synthesis of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) follows the same synthetic protocols as the less complicated phenethylamines. The clandestine laboratory operator or research chemist selectively adds one N-methy group, an N,N-dimethyl group, an N-ethyl group, an N-propyl, an N-isopropyl group, and so on. In 1985 the N-hydroxy MDA derivative was reported.

FENTANYL

Fentanyl [the technical nomeclature is N-(1-phenethyl-4-piperidyl)propionanilide] is a synthetic narcotic analgesic approximately 50 to 100 times as potent as morphine.6 The drug had its origin in Belgium as a synthetic product of Janssen Pharmaceutica.7

In the 1960s in Europe and in the 1970s in the U.S., it was introduced for use as an anesthesia and for the relief of post-operative pain. Almost 70% of all surgical procedures in the U.S. use fentanyl for one of these purposes.

Fentanyl has been called “synthetic heroin”. This is a misnomer. Victims of fentanyl
overdoses were often heroin abusers with “tracks” and the typical paraphenalia. The fentanyls as a class of drugs are highly potent synthetic narcotic analgesics with all the properties of opiates and opinoids.9 However, the fentanyl molecule does not resemble heroin. Fentanyl is strictly a synthetic product while the morphine used in heroin production is derived from the opium poppy.

Beginning in the late 1970s with -methylfentanyl,10 nine homologues and one analogue
(excluding enantiomers) of fentanyl appeared in the illicit marketplace.11 The degrees of potency vary among the fentanyl homologues and analogues. The potencies of the fentanyl derviatives are much higher than those of the parent compound. But the high potencies cited above explain why even dilute exhibits result in the deaths of users who believe they are dealing with heroin. Another name used by addicts when referring to Fentanyl and its derivatives is “China White”. This term was first used to described substances seized and later identified as alpha-methylfentanyl in 1981.

There are many fentanyl homologues and analogues . Because of the size and complexity of fentanyl derivatives, the interpretation of IR, MS, and NMR spectral data prove very valuable in elucidating specific structural information required for the identification of the material.