Antacids linked to asthma in offspring

Children whose mothers took antacid drugs during pregnancy were 1.5 times more likely to develop asthma than children whose mothers did not take the drugs, researchers from Children's Hospital Boston report.

Antacid drugs, including such proton pump inhibitors as Prilosec or Nexium and such histamine 2 receptor antagonists as Pepcid or Zantac, have been implicated before in adults who became allergic. Experiments in mice have also shown a tie between antacids and allergies.

The Children's researchers tested the apparent connection in Sweden, where large databases track births, the drugs people take, and the reasons for their hospital stays.

After following children from 1995 through 2004, they found a significant increase in the odds of developing childhood allergies and asthma when mothers took antacids. This held true even when the researchers considered what kind of drug the women were taking, when they took it, and whether the women themselves had allergies.
BOTTOM LINE: Women who took antacids during pregnancy were more likely to have children who developed asthma.
CAUTIONS: The study did not take into account other factors, such as living conditions after the babies were born.
WHAT'S NEXT: Further studies in other groups of people are needed to confirm these results.
WHERE TO FIND IT: Clinical and Experimental Allergy, published online on Jan. 19 and in print in February.

ELIZABETH COONEY

Think of them as the conductors for the orchestra of the cell: a single microRNA watches over and modifies the way hundreds of genes carry out their functions. Messing with a microRNA interrupts the symphony: cells may start to grow uncontrollably, spreading to places they shouldn't be.

The mutations in microRNAs have been associated with a variety of cancers. Now, a research group from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas has found an association between disruptions in the microRNA system and the most deadly of gynecological cancers facing women today: ovarian cancer.

"The challenge we face with ovarian cancer is that patients often have vague symptoms, meaning they don't come into the clinic until they already have advanced difficult-to-treat disease, " says the principal investigator of the study, Dr. Anil Sood. What's needed is a good test, a marker, for catching patients who are more likely to go on to have severe disease, so that they can be targeted with more intensive therapies.

To find such a marker, the research group looked at cancer cells from more than a 100 patients with ovarian cancer treated with chemotherapy.

They found that patients with ovarian cancer who have low levels of two components of the microRNA system - called Drosha and Dicer - have significantly reduced survival rates, while patients with high levels of the molecules have greatly improved survival rates of more than 11 years.

"Now that we have a potential marker, we need to focus on how this may guide therapy," says Sood.

BOTTOM LINE: Levels of Drosha and Dicer, two key components of the microRNA system, are useful markers for predicting the severity of ovarian cancer.
CAUTIONS: More studies are needed before the markers can be used to guide therapy in the clinic.
WHAT'S NEXT: Study of therapeutic strategies using microRNAs that will improve outcomes.
WHERE TO FIND IT: The New England Journal of Medicine, Dec. 17.
SUSHRUT JANGI