HWN Suggests

The Johnson & Johnson cancer drug scandal that encapsulates corruption in health care

Erythropoietin — also known as EPO — is mostly remembered as the drug that cyclist Lance Armstrong dishonestly used to win seven Tours de France. The blood thickener’s role in a cancer drug disaster that, by one estimate, cost nearly 500,000 Americans their lives has been forgotten. That darker tale is one of the defining narratives of American health care. At its center is Johnson & Johnson, the largest health care products conglomerate in the world. Lies, feckless government oversight, and the participation of nearly every oncologist and cancer hospital in the country are all part of this story. Indeed, EPO’s history demonstrates just how unscrupulous one of America’s most important companies…

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 The Story of Erythropoietin

Millions of patients worldwide have benefited from research on erythropoietin spanning many decades. In the last 15 years, epoetin alfa (Epo) has become one of the most widely used drugs created through recombinant DNA technology, in which a nearly identical form of a substance that naturally occurs in the body - in this case, erythropoietin - is created by replicating human DNA in a laboratory.

Articles of Interest

Confusion Reigns Over Proper Use Of Anemia Drug

But a string of studies in recent months called the strategy into question. The studies show that aggressive treatment with EPO carries a risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer progression or poorer overall survival. In particular, researchers argue that at high doses, EPO's red-cell boosting benefits are undermined by other risks.

EPO (erythropoietin)

While the human body naturally produces EPO, thanks to recombinant DNA technology we now have exogenous EPO known as Epoetin Alfa. Medicinally, this form of EPO is most commonly used to treat anemia.

Erythropoietin & Critical Illness

There is no high level evidence of patient-orientated outcome benefit for EPO in critical illness

Erythropoietin & Erythropoiesis-Stimulating Agents: Uses + Risks

Erythropoietin (EPO) is a hormone that stimulates the production of new red blood cells. Drug forms of EPO are used in anemia to reduce the need for blood infusions. EPO is also popular as a performance-enhancing substance and is banned in professional sports.

Erythropoietin (EPO) for beginners

Erythropoietin (abbreviated EPO) is a relatively recent entry into the deceitful pursuit of glory. EPO is a protein hormone produced by the kidney. After being released into the blood stream it binds with receptors in the bone marrow, where it stimulates the production of red blood cells (erythrocytes). Medically, EPO is used to treat certain forms of anemia (e.g., due to chronic kidney failure). Logically, since EPO accelerates erythrocyte production it also increases oxygen carrying capacity. This fact did not long escape notice of the athletic community. EPO has put a whole new spin on blood doping.

Erythropoietin and blood doping

Erythropoietin (EPO) is a 30 400 molecular weight glycoprotein hormone produced mainly in the kidney, and also in the liver (<10%) and, in very little quantities, in the brain. The physiological stimulus for EPO production is tissue hypoxia, which, in the large majority of instances, is directly related to the number of circulating erythrocytes.

Erythropoietin and Cancer: The Unintended Consequences of Anemia Correction

Until 1990, erythropoietin (EPO) was considered to have a single biological purpose and action, the stimulation of red blood cell growth and differentiation. Slowly, scientific and medical opinion evolved, beginning with the discovery of an effect on endothelial cell growth in vitro and the identification of EPO receptors (EPORs) on neuronal cells. We now know that EPO is a pleiotropic growth factor that exhibits an anti-apoptotic action on numerous cells and tissues, including malignant ones.

Erythropoietin use and abuse

Recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) is arguably the most successful therapeutic application of recombinant DNA technology till date. It was isolated in 1977 and the gene decoded in 1985. Since then, it has found varied applications, especially in stimulating erythropoiesis in anemia due to chronic conditions like renal failure, myelodysplasia, infections like HIV, in prematurity, and in reducing peri-operative blood transfusions. The discovery of erythropoietin receptor (EPO-R) and its presence in non-erythroid cells has led to several areas of research.

Erythropoietin Use and Misuse

EPO, an individual from the kind I cytokine superfamily, was first recognized as the chemical that invigorates erythroid begetters inside the bone marrow to develop into erythrocytes. The primary site of creation of EPO is from the kidney and to a lot lesser degree from the liver. In the kidney, certain interstitial fibroblasts give off an impression of being a significant wellspring of EPO; notwithstanding, different investigations propose a significant job of proximal rounded cells as well

F.D.A. Urges Less Use of Anemia Drugs

Epogen, Aranesp and Procrit work by spurring the body’s production of red blood cells, which ferry oxygen to the body’s tissues. Professional athletes, particularly cyclists, have used the drugs (often improperly) to improve performance. They were developed to help dialysis patients cut down on blood transfusions, but Amgen and Johnson & Johnson soon persuaded doctors that the drugs helped both kidney and cancer patients feel better even when not suffering severe anemia.

Know All About : Erythropoietin use and abuse

Erythropoietin(EPO), a member of the type I cytokine superfamily, was first identified as the hormone that stimulates erythroid progenitors within the bone marrow to mature into erythrocytes. The main site of production of EPO is from the kidney and to a much lesser extent from the liver. In the kidney, certain interstitial fibroblasts appear to be a major source of EPO; however, other studies suggest an important role of proximal tubular cells as well.

Milestones in Erythropoietin

An article on the story of erythropoeitin by John W. Adamson, MD, and these accompanying milestones were published in December 2008 as part of the special ASH anniversary brochure,

The Path to a Nobel Prize

I trained as a nephrologist and became interested in the blood circulation within the kidney, where the vessels run counter-current, so as to produce quite profound hypoxia within the renal tissue. It was thought that this pre-disposed patients to kidney interim shock. For a time, I worked on this problem, but then became interested in whether the kidneys’ circulation had a relevance to its production of EPO. We didn’t really solve that problem, but it led me to consider the molecular mechanism by which hypoxia is sensed. This was thought to be something that occurred in very specialized cells within the kidney, and that’s where I started.

The science of doping and how cheating athletes pass drug tests

Another common method of doping is the use of recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO), which stimulates the production of red blood cells. Erythropoietin (EPO) is a naturally occurring hormone found in the blood; recombinant EPO is the artificial version.

Resources

Life in the Fastlane

Erythropoietin (EPO) is an endogenous hormone that stimulates erythrocytosis. it’s role in critical illness is unclear and is limited by the complications of hematopoietic activation (e.g. VTE)