Israeli-developed cancer drug found to effectively treat autoimmune baldness
(JNS.org) Researchers from Israel’s Hadassah Medical Center who gave a patient a cancer drug that is being studied as a possible treatment for rheumatoid arthritis discovered that the drug is also effective in treating alopecia areata, the autoimmune disease that causes baldness.
In most cases of alopecia—which is triggered by an inflammatory process around the hair follicle that causes it to fall out—hair loss is concentrated in the scalp, beard, and other parts of the body. Dr. Yuval Ramot, an attending physician in the Department of Dermatology and Venereal Diseases at Hadassah, said there are currently “no successful treatments for the disease.”
“There is treatment with steroids, which suppress the immune system and have serious side effects, and can’t be administered continually,” Ramot said, Israel Hayomreported.
The new Israeli-developed alopecia treatment was discovered by chance when a 16-year-old boy, who in addition to alopecia suffered from a genetic disorder, was given a drug called baricitinib.
“It was like a miracle. His hair started to grow in the bald spots that had resisted treatment for years,” said Ramot.
Subsequent experiments on mice carried out in conjunction with researchers from Columbia University, as well as clinical trials, found the drug is indeed effective in treating alopecia.
Baricitinib “belongs to a family of medicines… known as JAK inhibitors that are currently used to treat inflammatory diseases or cancer,” Ramot explained.
“Since the mechanism at the root of alopecia areata is a process of inflammation around the hair follicle, the use of inhibitors on that path can be effective against this disease as well,” he said. “There is also evidence from researchers throughout the world that drugs from the same family have been shown effective in treatment-resistant patients.”
The research, which Ramot conducted with Professor Abraham Zlotogorski and Professor Yackov Berkun, was published in the EBioMedicine journal.
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Two IDF soldiers wounded in Palestinian stabbing attack in Samaria
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Two IDF soldiers were wounded, one seriously and one lightly, in a stabbing attack carried out by a Palestinian terrorist on Wednesday near Shiloh in Samaria. The attacker was shot to death.
The seriously wounded soldier was stabbed in the neck, while the lightly wounded soldier was stabbed in the back. Both were transported to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem for treatment. The attack took place north of Ramallah, on Route 60 between Shiloh Junction and the Palestinian village of Singil.
The terrorist was shot dead by the lightly wounded soldier. In the wake of the attack, Israeli security forces conducted searches in the area for any accomplices of the terrorist.
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Turkey’s Erdogan meets with Iran’s Rouhani in Tehran
(JNS.org) Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with his counterpart Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran on Tuesday in an effort to forge closer economic relations and to downplay regional differences between the two countries.
The meeting between the leaders of the two largest non-Arab Middle Eastern countries comes amid sharp disagreements over the conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Turkey has been largely supportive of the Saudi-led airstrikes against the Iranian-backed Shi’a Houthi rebels in Yemen, leading some Iranian lawmakers to call on Rouhani to cancel the visit.
“I don’t look at the sect. It does not concern me whether those killed are Shiite or Sunni, what concerns me is Muslims,” Erdoğan said at a press conference during his one-day visit, the Turkish Hurriyet Daily News reported.
“We both believed that it is necessary for us to witness the end of war and bloodletting in Yemen as soon as possible,” Rouhani added.
British Jews overwhelmingly support Conservative Party in upcoming elections
(JNS.org) British Jews overwhelmingly support the Conservative Party and U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron in the upcoming national elections next month.
According to a poll conducted by the Jewish Chronicle, 69 percent of Jewish voters said they would support the Conservative Party, while only 22 percent said they would vote for the Labour Party. Only two percent of Jewish voters said they would vote for the Liberal Democrats or the U.K. Independence Party (UKIP).
In addition, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron enjoys substantial support from the British Jewish community, which favors him at 64 percent, compared to only 13 percent for his counterpart Labour Party leader Ed Miliband.
For many British Jews, the political parties’ attitudes towards Israel were also “very” or “quite” important influences on how they would vote, with 65 percent saying that Cameron had a good approach to Israel and only 10 percent favoring Miliband’s approach.
Despite being born to Jewish parents, Miliband has been heavily criticized by the British Jewish community for his Labour Party’s hard stances on Israel, including introducing non-binding legislation last year calling on the U.K. to recognize Palestinian statehood.
The general election in the U.K. will be held on May 7 with opinion polls suggesting a narrow lead for the Conservative Party over Labour. However, the far-right UKIP has seen its popularity surge, potentially drawing away voters from the Conservative Party.
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Rand Paul announces presidential candidacy
(JNS.org) Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky.) announced on Tuesday, April 8, his candidacy for president of the United States in the 2016 election.
“Today I announce with God’s help, with the help of liberty lovers everywhere, that I’m putting myself forward as a candidate for president of the United States of America,” Paul said , CNN reported.
In his announcement, given in a speech at a rally in Louisville, Ky., Paul said that “government should be restrained and freedom should be maximized.”
On the foreign policy front, Paul was behind a January bill that called on an immediate halt on all funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA) unless the PA withdrew its request to join the International Criminal Court (ICC), which was accepted as of April 1 by the U.N.
“Certainly groups that threaten Israel cannot be allies of the U.S. I will continue to do everything in my power to make sure this President and this Congress stop treating Israel’s enemies as American allies,” Paul has said about the bill.
Paul was also among the 47 Republican senators who signed an open letter to Iran explaining that any deal signed by President Barack Obama is merely an executive agreement if it does not include Senate approval, and that such a deal can be revoked by a future president.
“I want the negotiated deal to be a good deal. So my reason for signing onto the letter, I think it reiterates what is the actual law, that Congress will have to undo sanctions. But I also signed onto the letter because I want the president to negotiate from a position of strength which means that he needs to be telling them in Iran that “I’ve got Congress to deal with,” Paul said about signing the letter, the Huffington Post reported.
The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) raised concern about Paul’s presidential candidacy over his views on the issue of foreign aid.
“Senator Paul has stated that he wants to be a ‘different kind of Republican.’ Based on his history, we can only imagine what that kind of Republican will be. Undoubtedly, it will be a Republican who would cut foreign aid to our allies throughout the world, including Israel, which would be dangerous for their safety and security,” NJDC said in a statement.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who is the only other politician who has so far officially announced his run for the Republican party’s presidential nomination, said that Paul’s “entry into the race will no doubt raise the bar of competition.”
SodaStream to label products sold in U.S. as ‘Made in West Bank’
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Israel-based beverage carbonation company SodaStream will soon begin labeling its products in the U.S. as “Made in the West Bank.” The reason for the decision, according to media reports, was pressure on the company and complaints filed by U.S.-based human rights groups.
The company had already declared it would shut down its facilities beyond the Green Line and relocate them to Israel proper. The facility in Maaleh Adumim, which also employs a large number of Palestinians, is slated to relocate to Lehavim in southern Israel in 2015.
SodaStream made headlines in early 2014 after pro-Palestinian organizations publicly berated American actress Scarlett Johansson for agreeing to be a global brand ambassador for the company. Johansson, for her part, refused to resign from her position at the company.
The complaint against SodaStream was submitted to the Oregon Department of Justice in May 2014, and accused SodaStream of violating fair trade laws by labeling products made in Maaleh Adumim as “Made in Israel.” Under Oregon’s fair trade laws, companies are prohibited from false advertising and can be punished for misleading packaging.
SodaStream said in a statement that relocating the factory to Lehavim stems from “purely commercial” reasons, and was unconnected to the pressure applied by pro-Palestinian groups.
“The company labels its products in accordance to the local legal requirements in any territory which it operates,” SodaStream said.
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Alan Gross negligence lawsuit appeal rejected by Supreme Court
(JNS.org) The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal filed by Alan Gross, the Jewish American government contractor who was imprisoned in Cuba for 5 years, over a negligence lawsuit Gross filed against the U.S.
Gross, 65, was imprisoned in Cuba from December 2009 after he was sentenced to a 15-year term for bringing communications devices to the country’s Jewish community. At the time of his arrest, Gross was working for a U.S. firm called Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI) to promote democracy, but Cuba convicted him of “crimes against the state.”
Gross, who was released in December 2014 as part of a renewal of relations between the U.S. and Cuba, had sued the U.S. government with his wife for negligence back in 2012, arguing that it sent him to Cuba without the right supervision and training.
Gross’s lawsuit was, however, thrown out by a district court judge, and the decision was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in November 2014 on the grounds that that the U.S. government cannot be sued over acts that took place in another country.
Meanwhile, Gross is expected to receive $3.2 million in compensation from settlement with the U.S. Agency for International Development and DAI, the Jerusalem Post reported.
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Articles from JNS.org appear on San Diego Jewish World through the generosity of Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman
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