CEET: Newsworthy Items

Newsworthy Items

Public Interest

On May 23, the UNC Chapel Hill Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility hosted the seminar "Hydrofracking: Public Health Issues and Impacts," presented by Dr. Trevor Penning, the Director of the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology at the University of Pennsylvania. Over 110 faculty, staff, students, representatives of federal and state health and environment offices, and community leaders and members attended the hour-long presentation or joined the live webcast. Following his presentation on the process and potential health implications of hydrofracking, Dr. Penning answered questions from the audience. Click here to access the archived webcast of the presentation

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High Levels of Teflon Chemical in Maternal Blood Are Not Associated With Increased Risk of Birth Defects or Pregnancy Complications, Penn Study of Ohio Drinking Water Finds

A study conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and colleagues, and published in Reproductive Toxicology, found that maternal exposure to C8, a chemical used in the manufacture of non-stick surfaces, was not associated with an increased risk of birth defects and pregnancy complications. These findings are based on an examination of the vital records of babies and mothers residing in Little Hocking, Ohio, who were exposed to significant amounts of C8 through residential drinking water. Edward Emmett, MD, MS, Director of the Community Outreach and Engagement Core of the CEET, is co-author of the study.

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Anticancer Activity from Select Herbal Additives Found in Ancient Alcoholic Beverages
Penn Museum and Penn Medicine Research Collaboration Yields First Promising Evidence for Efficacy of Medicinal Compounds Once Employed by Our Ancestors

McGovern and Christofidou-Solomidou examine a sherd from Jiahu (China) New biomolecular archaeological evidence backed up by increasingly sophisticated scientific testing techniques are uncovering medicinal remedies discovered, tested, and sometimes lost, throughout millennia of human history—herbs, tree resins, and other organic materials dispensed by ancient fermented beverages like wine and beer. Did those ancient "remedies" work-and if so, is there something we can learn—or re-learn—from our ancestors to help sick people today?

A review of the research undertaken, and early results obtained, is available in the July 2010 issue of International Journal of Oncology (“Anticancer activity of botanical compounds in ancient fermented beverages” authored by Dr. McGovern, with M. Christofidou-Solomidou, W. Wang, F. Dukes, T. Davidson, and W.S. El-Deiry.)

Photo: Patrick McGovern and Melpo Christofidou-Solomidou ( member of CEET Lung and Airway Disease Affinity Group) examine a sherd from Jiahu (China), which provided evidence for the earliest alcoholic beverage in the world to date--ca. 7000 BCE.

BoRit Asbestos Site Added to Superfund List
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced the addition of the BoRit Asbestos Site in Ambler, Pa. to the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL).

The Lung Cancer Enablers
Jong-Heum Park et al. illuminate one of the three pathways by which polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) can be activated, showing for the first time the specific pathway for oxidative damage in human lung cell.
Evidence for the Aldo-Keto Reductase Pathway of Polycyclic Aromatic Trans-dihydrodiol Activation in Human Lung A549 Cells. Park JH, Mangal D, Tacka KA, Quinn AM, Harvey RG, Blair IA, Penning TM. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 May 13;105(19):6846-51.

Tracking The Chemicals In Us: Monitoring trace chemicals in people has benefited public health, but many challenges lie ahead
LARGE-SCALE MEASUREMENTS of chemicals in human tissues, or biomonitoring, is only about two decades old. But it has already led to a revolution in how chemical exposures are assessed in humans, to new opportunities in disease detection and prevention, and to a recognition that endocrine disrupters—compounds that mimic hormones or interfere with hormonal action—in the environment may cause a variety of adverse effects.
By Bette Hileman
Chemical and Engineering News, April 23, 2007, Volume 85, Number 17, pp 32-34.

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Feature Publications

	20-HETE Mediates Ozone-Induced, Neutrophil-Independent Airway Hyper-Responsiveness in Mice Cooper PR, Mesaros AC, Zhang J, Christmas P, Stark CM, Douaidy K, Mittelman MA, Soberman RJ, Blair IA, Panettieri RA. PLoS One. 2010 Apr 20;5(4):e10235.
	The Pattern of p53 Mutations Caused by PAH o-quinones is Driven by 8-oxo-dGuo Formation While the Spectrum of Mutations is Determined by Biological Selection for Dominance. Park JH, Gelhaus S, Vedantam S, Oliva AL, Batra A, Blair IA, Troxel AB, Field J, Penning TM. Chem Res Toxicol. 2008 May;21(5):1039-49.
	Evidence for the Aldo-Keto Reductase Pathway of Polycyclic Aromatic Trans-dihydrodiol Activation in Human Lung A549 Cells. Park JH, Mangal D, Tacka KA, Quinn AM, Harvey RG, Blair IA, Penning TM. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 May 13;105(19):6846-51.
2007 Highly Cited Article	The 2007 Most Highly Cited Article of Amercan Chemical Society Journals Metabolism of Benzo[a]pyrene in Human Bronchoalveolar H358 Cells Using Liquid Chromatography-mass Spectrometry. Jiang H, Gelhaus SL, Mangal D, Harvey RG, Blair IA, Penning TM. Chem Res Toxicol. 2007 Sep;20(9):1331-41. Epub 2007 Aug 17. PMID: 17702526
	San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge Welder Study: Olfactory function (pdf) Marcelo B. Antunes, Rosemarie Bowler and Richard L. Doty. Neurology 2007;69;1278-1284
	BEYOND THE BENCH Research Helps Clean Up A Water Supply NIEHS Environmental Health Perspectives (pdf) VOLUME 115 \| NUMBER 3 \| March 2007 Dr. Ted Emmett, Director of the CEET Community Outreach and Engagement Core, is featured for his work with the Little Hocking community and the problem of perfluorooctanoic acid in their water supply.
	A 2006 Most-Cited Article of American Chemical Society Journals Competing Roles of Aldo-Keto Reductase 1A1 and Cytochrome P4501B1 in Benzo[a]pyrene-7,8-diol Activation in Human Bronchoalveolar H358 Cells: Role of AKRs in P4501B1 Induction (pdf) Hao Jiang, Daljit K. Vudathala, Ian A. Blair, and Trevor M. Penning Chemical Research in Toxicology. 19:1. (2006), 68-78.
	Population-Based Study of Natural Variation in the Melanocortin-1 Receptor Gene and Melanoma (pdf) Peter A. Kanetsky, Timothy R. Rebbeck, Amanda J. Hummer, Saarene Panossian,Bruce K. Armstrong, Anne Kricker, Loraine D. Marrett, Robert C. Millikan, Stephen B. Gruber, Hoda Anton Culver, Roberto Zanetti, Richard P. Gallagher, Terence Dwyer, Klaus Busam, Lynn From, Urvi Mujumdar, Homer Wilcox, Colin B. Begg, and Marianne Berwick, for the Genes Environment and Melanoma Study Group Cancer Res 2006; 66: (18). September 15, 2006: 9330–9337.
	Quantification of benzo[a]pyrene diol epoxide DNA-adducts by stable isotope dilution liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (pdf) Qian Ruan, Hye-Young H. Kim, Hao Jiang, Trevor M. Penning, Ronald G. Harvey and Ian A. Blair Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 20 (2006): 1369–1380.
	Proteomic Profiling of Accessory Structures from the Mouse Sperm Flagellum (pdf) Wenlei Cao, George L. Gerton, and Stuart B. Moss Molecular & Cellular Proteomics. 5.5 (2006), 801-810.
	Reactive Oxygen Species Generated by PAH o-Quinones Cause Change-In-Function Mutations in p53 (pdf) Yu, Deshan, Jesse A. Berlin, Trevor M. Penning, and Jeffrey Field Chemical Research in Toxicology. 15:6 (June, 2002), 832-842.
	Role of Quinones in Toxicology (pdf) Bolton, Judy L., Michael A. Trush, Trevor M. Penning, Glenn Dryhurst, and Terrence J. Monks. Chemical Research in Toxicology. 13:3 (March, 2000), 135-160.
1999 Highly Cited Article	A Highly Cited Paper of American Chemical Society Journals Dihydrodiol Dehydrogenases and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Activation: Generation of Reactive and Redox Active o -Quinones Penning, T. M.; Burczynski, M. E.; Hung, C.-F.; McCoull, K. D.; Palackal, N. T.; Tsuruda, L. S. Chem. Res. Toxicol.; (Review); 1999; 12(1); 1-18.
	*Citation Classic:* A New Nomenclature for the Aldo-Keto Reductase Superfamily (pdf) Joseph M. Jez, T. Geoffrey Flynn, and Trevor M. Penning Biochemical Pharmacology. 54 (1997), 639-647.

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