Reporting serious adverse drug events and deaths on the rise

The FDA has operated the Adverse Event Reporting System since 1998. From 1998 to 2005 reported serious adverse drug events increased by 260%. The reporting of fatal drug events has increased by 270%. Drugs withdrawn fro the market due to serious adverse events only made up 1% of these events in 2005 (26% in 1999; a very disturbing trend). For 13 new biotechnology drugs reported serious events grew by 1,580%. Out of 1489 drugs related to serious adverse events, just 20% of these drugs caused 97% of all of these events. The information is available in the September 10th, 2007 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Resveratrol deprives ovarian cancer cells of glucose triggering them to devour themselves

When cells are deprived of food they digest key parts of themselves known as organelles in a process known as autophagy. Organelles are the parts of the cell involved with energy use, replication, growth, and all key functions of the cell for survival and duplication.

Resveratrol has been shown to inhibit the growth of a number of types of tumor cells. These researchers from the University of Michigan Women's Hospital have previously shown that Resveratrol triggers autophagy in ovarian cancer cells. In this newest study it was shown that ovarian cancer cells are very sensitive to glucose deprivation and this leads to cell death. When the epithelial ovarian cancer cells were incubated with Resveratrol it dramatically deprived the cells of glucose and lactic acid production stimulating a starvation-like, autophagy effect in the ovarian cancer cells. The study is published in the September 6th, 2007 issue of the journal Gynecologic Oncology.