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I find some hope for the future of our planet in the emergence of millions of unconnected environmental and social movements. The leaderless Anarchy of this mass phenomenon and its macro scale means that its cells will not be centrally controlled or turned aside by profit motives. It seems to be a genuine grass roots response to the global threat which our planet faces. —Paul Hawken
Meds wind up in tap water despite drug disposal regulations
Breast Cancer Cells Regulate Multiple Genes in Response to Estrogen-Like Compounds
ScienceDaily (July 20, 2010) — Cancer researchers have discovered a previously unknown type of gene regulation and DNA behavior in breast cancer cells that may lead to better insight about environmental exposure to estrogen-like compounds.
A new study, published in the journal Genome Research by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC-James), provides the first evidence that cells can regulate many genes at once by looping their DNA, contributing to cancer when it goes awry. In this study, the gene regulation was discovered in breast cancer cells as a response to the hormone estrogen and resulted in the silencing of 14 genes at one time.
Tim H.-M. Huang, professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics in the OSUCCC-James human cancer genetics program, and Pei-Yin Hsu, a visiting scholar and researcher in Huang's lab, discovered the DNA looping event in a breast cancer cell line gene cluster at chromosome region 16p11.2. They validated the finding using normal human breast epithelial cells and two animal models.
In addition, they used the normal-cell model to determine if long-term exposure to nine estrogen-like chemicals can initiate gene silencing through this mechanism. These chemicals included diethylstilbestrol, two thalates and bisphenol A (BPA).
The suppressive effects varied in normal cells. When the investigators exposed a group of four rats to BPA for 21 days, however, they found concurrent suppression of ten genes comparable to those located at 16p11.2. These findings, says Huang, suggest that continuous exposure to estrogen-like compounds might lead to permanent silencing of genes located in this conserved cluster.
In healthy breast epithelial cells, 14 gene regulatory sites came together to form a single, temporary transcription site, Huang says. "But in breast cancer cells, there is no coordinated transcription site pairing, the DNA loops become tangled and the entire gene complex shuts down in a dead knot." (For a demonstration of DNA looping, click here.)
In some cases, Huang says, this multi-gene regulatory mechanism can increase gene expression and oncogenic activity, and further contribute to cancer development.
"We offer a new concept in this paper for the collective regulation of gene transcription," says first author Hsu, who identified the loop structures and their significance. "We found that in normal breast cells, DNA looping is more flexible and brings different promoters together temporarily. But in cancer, this complex just locks up and causes long-term suppression."
Researchers generally believe that transcription factors bind to a site on a single gene, and then the gene is actively transcribed, according to Huang. The study's findings show that this is not always the case. Sometimes the promoter is located far away, and it is remotely controlled.
"Overall, our study shows that certain regions of the genome are silenced because the DNA has lost flexibility, and that this inflexible DNA status might be a good marker for studying environmental exposure to estrogen-like compounds," Hsu says.
Funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Cancer Institute supported this research.
Other researchers involved in this study were Hang-Kai Hsu, Gregory A.C. Singer, Pearlly S. Yan, Benjamin A.T. Rodriguez, Joseph C. Liu, Yu-I Weng, Daniel E. Deatherage, Zhong Chen and Qianben Wang of OSUCCC-James; Julia S. Pereira, Ricardo Lopez, and Jose Russo of Fox Chase Cancer Center; Coral A. Lamartiniere of the University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Kenneth P. Nephew of Indiana University.
California Watch—7/1/10
By Christina Jewett
The federal government has a patchwork of laws attempting to deal with the problem of pharmaceutical drugs showing up in city tap water across the nation.
Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., highlighted the issue during a congressional hearing in Washington, D.C., yesterday.
"We need to provide Americans with better information about what to do with their leftover medications. Contradicting guidelines put forth by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service need to be reconciled," Kohl said in a statement. "Americans deserve a safe and effective way to get drugs away from their homes and keep them out of our drinking water."
California has its own set of rules, in addition to federal guidelines, but they have not resulted in water that's free of unwanted pharmaceuticals.
An Associated Press investigation published last year probed the issue of meds in the water, finding that pharmaceuticals flow through the taps in the homes of 41 million people living in 24 metropolitan areas.
Among them are Los Angeles, Long Beach and Riverside County, where water tested positive for traces of anti-anxiety and anti-convulsant medications. The probe also turned up a female sex hormone in San Francisco water.
The journalists also found nine medications in watersheds near Los Angeles, Long Beach and Riverside. While the drugs found in those areas were not identified, testers found traces of Prozac, a blood pressure medication and an antibiotic, among others, in an area defined as Southern California.
The issue is not widely discussed or disclosed to consumers, AP reporters found: When water providers find pharmaceuticals in drinking water, they rarely tell the public. When researchers make the same discoveries, they usually don't identify the cities involved. There are plenty of reasons offered for the secrecy: concerns about national security, fears of panic, a feeling that the public will not understand - even confidentiality agreements. 'That's a really sensitive subject,' said Elaine Archibald, executive director of California Urban Water Agencies, an 11-member organization composed of the largest water providers in California. She said many customers 'don't know how to interpret the information. They hear something has been detected in source water and drinking water, and that's cause for alarm - just because it's there.'
A Southern California coalition of government agencies compiled a "No Drugs Down the Drain" website on the issue, breaking down the health impacts of tainted water. The major concerns to date regarding the presence of medications in surface water bodies have been increased bacterial resistance to antibiotics and interference with growth and reproduction in aquatic organisms such as fish and frogs. Aquatic organisms are sensitive to low levels of exposure and are particularly vulnerable when exposure occurs during developmentally sensitive times such as before birth and during juvenile stages of growth. Effects of exposure can include a gender-ratio imbalance (e.g., more females than males within a given population), intersex conditions (the presence of both male and female reproductive organs within an individual organism), poor egg hatching success, decreased fertility and growth and altered behavior (e.g., lethargy and disorientation).
California has regulations in addition to federal rules. The Department of Toxic Substances Control defines some drugs as "medical waste" and watches how large medical providers, such as hospitals and clinics, dispose of them. Still, the agency does not regulate smaller medical providers or individuals. The agency is taking a closer look at the issue, though, convening a stakeholder meeting July 20 on "model programs" dealing with home-generated medical waste. For now, The Associated Press published a guide on how to get rid of unwanted medications and the DTSC lists disposal sites in Northern and Southern California.