ASH Daily News for 22 July 2008

Tobacco vaccine 'could help treat cancer'

The tobacco plant - responsible for millions of cancer cases - may actually offer the means to treat one form of the disease, a study suggests. US scientists used the plant to "grow" key components of a cancer vaccine. The National Academy of Sciences study suggests they could be used to tackle a form of lymphoma. UK specialists said while "potentially exciting", more research would be needed to test how well the vaccine actually worked.

The ironic new role for tobacco is the work of researchers from Stanford University in California. They are using the plants as factories for an antibody chemical specific to the cells which cause follicular B-cell lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. These antibodies are put into a patient newly-diagnosed with the disease, to "prime" the body's immune system to attack any cell carrying them. If successful, this would mean the body would then recognise and destroy the lymphoma cells.

However, every patient's antibodies are different, and would need to be produced quickly once the diagnosis was made. The idea is not a new one - attempts have already been made to grow these antibodies inside animal cells, with mixed success. However, a plant-grown vaccine would be much cheaper and in theory could carry less risk to the patient, as animal cells might hold unknown viruses. So far, the experimental vaccine has only been tested on a handful of patients to check for any side-effects of using plant-produced antibodies, so its effectiveness at fighting the disease is uncertain.

Dr Ronald Levy, who is leading the research, said: "It's pretty cool technology - and it's really ironic that you would make a treatment for cancer out of tobacco. That appealed to me." The technique is relatively straightforward. Once a patient's cancer cells are isolated in the laboratory, the gene responsible for producing the antibody is extracted and added to the "tobacco mosaic virus". The plants are then "infected" with the virus, and as it spreads through the cells, the added gene starts the process of producing large quantities of the antibody. After just a few days a few leaves are taken, ground up, and the antibody extracted from them.

Only a few plants are needed to make enough vaccine for a patient. Professor Charles Arntzen, from Arizona State University, said that the sheer speed of the production process could convince patients to wait for their own tailored vaccine rather than undergoing other treatment. A spokesman for Cancer Research UK, said: "While these results could potentially be very exciting, this was a small and early-stage trial and it did not look at whether this vaccination strategy reduced the size of the tumours. This is a good foundation for future work, but a larger study will be needed to test the success of this plant-made antibody in fighting non-Hodgkin's lymphoma."

Source: BBC News, 21 July 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/2L4K0

Wales: Heritage Minister quits after breaking smoking ban

National Assembly Culture Minister Rhodri Glyn Thomas has sensationally resigned after being told to leave a pub for smoking a cigar. Plaid Cymru’s Mr Thomas quit following a meeting with Deputy First Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones in Caernarfon. Mr Jones said: “I have accepted Rhodri’s decision to resign and have thanked him for his important work as Minister, particularly for his preparation of the Welsh language legislative competence order. I have wished him well for the future.”

An Assembly Government spokesman said Mr Thomas’s resignation followed a number of occasions over the past few months which had put him into the public eye for the wrong reasons. An onlooker who was in Cardiff’s Eli Jenkins pub on Wednesday evening said Mr Thomas wandered in with a lit cigar, apparently not realising what he was doing. When a member of staff at the pointed out the cigar in his hand, Mr Thomas apologised and went back outside. The pub is well known to journalists, politicians and staff at the nearby National Assembly.

Breaking the smoking ban in Wales carries a £50 fixed penalty fine. Mr Thomas, 55, is an ordained minister of religion and is a former independent TV company executive. He has been an AM since the Assembly’s inception in 1999, and lives in St Clears, Carmarthenshire. From the early days of the Assembly, Mr Thomas made a name for himself as a larger than life character who worked hard and played hard. In his case the term “flamboyant” was most definitely an apt description.

Source: walesonline.co.uk, 18 July 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/TSw9D

Netherlands: "Church" set up as a haven for smokers

Dutch smokers are flocking to a religious movement known as "The Only and Universal Smokers Church of God" following a ban on tobacco smoking indoors. Michiel Eijsbouts, founder and "Smokelighter" of the church he founded in 2001, has insisted that the Dutch smoking ban in place does not apply to members of his church under national and European human rights legislation.

Smoking has been banned in Dutch bars since July 1 and over 100 cafés have applied to the Church so as to be counted as religious institutions. "We stand firmly behind the church's teachings and that is smoking," said Cor Busch, owner of the Lindeboom bar in the northern Dutch town of Alkmaar. "Smokers are being discriminated against, a beer and a cigarette belong together." A spokeswoman for the Dutch health ministry said: "Whether they call it church or not, it is still a bar or café and smoking is still prohibited."

Source: The Telegraph, 21 July 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/b2wCE

Canada: Calgary proposes $1,000 litter fines

Chucking your lit cigarette butt on a Calgary sidewalk could soon set you back $1,000 - if a city committee trying to strengthen litter bylaws gets its way. The committee is also recommending a $750 fine for tossing trash out a car window, and $500 for "basic littering."

Ald. Druh Farrell, who's spearheading the proposal to institute the hefty new fines, says bylaws act as a "last resort when education and common courtesy fail." Fines show people that behaviour such as littering is unacceptable, she said. "There's definitely been a shift in behaviour," Farrell said. "We're seeing more and more litter, especially in the core, and also on major corridors."

However, Dermot Baldwin, head of the Calgary Drop-In Centre, called the fines unreasonably punitive, especially when it comes to the poor and homeless. "They know our clients can't pay it," said Baldwin. "And anybody who can't pay will not show up for their court date. That means an automatic guilty plea, a warrant and maybe thousands of dollars in fines. It just compounds the problem for people who are disadvantaged, financially."

"A thousand-dollar fine would be about three or four weeks of full-time work for those on minimum wage. Are you going to forgo putting food on the table or risk being evicted in order to pay a fine for flicking a cigarette butt on the ground?" he said. Baldwin said the new litter and panhandling bylaw changes represent intimidation tactics used by police and bylaw officers to instill fear in the homeless population and force them out of sight.

But the proposed litter bylaw is "absolutely not" going to target the homeless, the head of bylaw services said. "When I'm driving down Bow Trail or . . . Blackfoot Trail, those aren't homeless people (littering), those aren't homeless people throwing cigarette butts out of car windows," said Bill Bruce. Furthermore, he reviewed every public-behaviour bylaw ticket issued during Stampede week, for things such urinating in public. Not a single one, he said, went to a homeless person.

Source: canada.com, 18 July 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/nOQyX