NEWS OF TH E WEEK
NATURAL PRODUCTS:
Antioxidant sulforaphane elicits improvements in a small study reports that a compound derived from broccoli can alleviate some of their symptoms (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2014, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1416940111). The collection of behavioral and intellectual symptoms known as autism—including social and communication difficulties and repetitive behaviors—likely has myriad causes, largely genetic. To alleviate the symptoms associated with autism, researchers are studying a handful of potentially therapeutic molecules, including certain probiotics and the diuretic blood pressure medication bumetanide. But this work is still in its infancy, says Michael Ehlers, chief scientific officer for neuroscience at Pfizer Neuroscience in Cambridge, Mass. “Despite a real advance in the complex genetics of autism spectrum disorders, we still have very little by way of rational strategies for therapeutic intervention by novel medicines,” he says. Andrew W. Zimmerman, a pediatric neurologist at the Lurie Center for Autism at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children; Paul Talalay of Johns Hopkins
AGILENT TO EXIT NMR BUSINESS INSTRUMENTATION: About 300 jobs will go as firm drops nuclear magnetic resonance operation
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GILENT TECHNOLOGIES is shutting down its
struggling nuclear magnetic resonance instrumentation business and eliminating 300 jobs in Yarnton, England, and Santa Clara, Calif. “This action is a step in ensuring that our investments are placed on high-value life sciences, applied markets, and diagnostics solutions,” says Mike McMullen, Agilent’s chief operating officer. The firm will immediately stop taking NMR system orders but will continue to fill orders in progress and will support existing systems. Agilent unsuccessfully tried to shore up its NMR operation last year when it exited specialty magnets and magnetic resonance imaging. The closure will reduce revenues by about $30 million in 2015, the firm says, but will boost operating profit by $10 million. To account for shutdown costs,
SHUTTERSTOCK
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SMALL STUDY of boys and men with autism
University School of Medicine; and their colleagues have now discovered another possible therapeutic angle in the compound sulforaphane. This molecule is an isothiocyanate, the precursor of which, glucoraphanin, is found in high concentrations in broccoli sprouts. Sulforaphane protects cells against numerous biochemical threats, including oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction. These biochemical abnormalities have also been associated with autism symptoms. In addition, Zimmerman previously showed that in at least 30% of people with autism, symptoms appear to lessen temporarily when they have a fever. Both fevers and sulforaphane stimulate the production of heat shock proteins involved in the cellular stress response. These lines of evidence, along with the inherent harmlessness of sulforaphane, prompted the S authors to conduct a study in which they gave 29 males, ages 13 to 27, with moderate to severe autism a standardized dose of sulforaphane for 18 weeks. The group found improvement in several symptoms, including social interaction and verbal communication, compared with a control group. Tellingly, they also found that these improvements waned once the subjects stopped taking sulforaphane. Pfizer’s Ehlers, who says he finds the work intriguing, says larger studies are needed. “If replicated in larger cohorts, these results may point toward drugs targeting oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and inflammatory processes for autism,” he says.—ELIZABETH WILSON
Agilent plans to take a $72 million restructuring charge. The NMR business, acquired as part of the purchase of Varian in 2010, made Agilent a major player in supplying the large instruments, which researchers use to determine molecular structure. The acquisition was one of the key reasons behind the $1.5 billion Varian purchase. The deal also brought with it imaging and vacuum technologies and a consumables portfolio. With Agilent out of the picture, only two makers of large NMR systems for molecular analysis survive: Bruker and Jeol Resonance. The sudden withdrawal has upset some in the NMR community. “Many of us thought Agilent had turned a corner,” says David Rovnyak, associate professor in Bucknell University’s chemistry department. “This comes as a shock. We are now worried about Agilent’s ability to service existing instruments when such deep cuts have been announced.” Agilent is not alone in shutting down former Varian instrument businesses this year. Citing “significant losses,” Bruker said in July that it would shutter or divest stand-alone gas chromatography, GC/single-quadrupole mass spectrometry, and inductively coupled plasma/MS systems. Bruker bought most of them in 2010 from Agilent, which had to sell them to get antitrust authorities to clear the Varian purchase.—MARC REISCH
CEN.ACS.ORG
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OCTOBER 20, 2014
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D EAN OLSON
BROCCOLI FOR AUTISM SYMPTOMS
An Agilent 800-MHz NMR magnet at the University of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign.
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