Zairin Noor (1), Sutiman Bambang Sumitro (2),Mohammad Hidayat (3), Agus Hadian Rahim (4), Akhmad Sabarudin (5,6), and Tomonari Umemura (6)

1. Department of Orthopaedics, Ulin General Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Lambung   Mangkurat University, Banjarmasin 70232, Indonesia
2. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Brawijaya University, Malang 65145, Indonesia
3. Department of Orthopaedics, Syaiful Anwar General Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Brawijaya University, Malang 65122, Indonesia
4. Department of Orthopaedics, Hasan Sadikin Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Padjadjaran University, Bandung 40161, Indonesia
5. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Brawijaya University, Malang 65145, Indonesia
6. Division of Nanomaterial Sciences, EcoTopia Science Institute, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8603, Japan

Received 31 October 2011; Accepted 25 December 2011

Academic Editor: Jameela Banu

Copyright © 2012 Zairin Noor et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Clinical research indicates that negative calcium balance is associated with low bone mass, rapid bone loss, and high fracture rates. However, some studies revealed that not only calcium is involved in bone strengthening as risk factor of fracture osteoporosis. Thus, in this report, the difference of metallic and nonmetallic elements in osteoporosis and normal bones was studied by high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HR-ICP-MS). The influence of these elements on bone metabolic processes is also discussed. Inclusion criteria of bone samples consist of postmenopausal woman, trabecular bone fracture, normal and osteoporosis BMD value, and no history of previous disease. The results showed that the concentration of B, Al, S, V, Co, Mo, Te, Ba, La, Ni, As, and Ca/P ratio is higher in osteoporosis than normal. These atomic minerals have negative role to imbalance between bone resorption and bone formation activity. Conversely, concentrations of Na, Mg, P, K, Ca, Cr, Pd, Ag, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Rb, Sr, Pb, and Se are lower in osteoporosis than in normal bones. Among these atoms, known to have important roles in bone structure, we found involvement of atomic mineral and calcium which are considerable to contribute to osteoporotic phenomena.

Full publication text : The Scientific World Journal

LISA PRIEST
From Wednesday’s Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012 8:04PM EST

In a Toronto laboratory, an experiment on mice is seeking to answer a question that could turn conventional wisdom on its head: Can tobacco cure cancer?

The plant best known for its negative health effects has been genetically engineered to create a drug comparable to Herceptin that could one day be used to treat highly aggressive breast cancers at a lower cost.That development is part of a plant-based trend in pharmaceuticals. It is based on the belief that proteins can be made faster, cheaper and easier, allowing patients in remote parts of the world to gain access to medicines once unaffordable. And it’s not just tobacco. Plants being tested as biological drugs sound like they belong not in the laboratory but in the vegetable section at the health-food store: carrots for Gaucher’s disease, duckweed – those green flecks on top of ponds – to treat hepatitis C, and safflower to make insulin. Read more

Sutiman B. Sumitro
Guru Besar Biologi Sel dan Molekuler Dosen Program Doktor Biologi dan Biomedik, Universitas Brawijaya

Ringkasan
Selama ini, menurut kaidah Fisika, pendekatan Biologi diklasifikasikan sebagai cara berfikir Newtonian. Maksudnya, seluruh fakta Biologi hanya dikembangkan dari fenomena yang dapat diikuti dan diamati melalui indera dan atau dengan instrumentasi yang membantu keterbatasan indera. Basis berfikir Newtonian ini menuntut seluruh proses hidup perlu digambarkan dan divisualisasikan baik tentang struktur, bentuk, posisi (spatial) maupun kecepatan gerakan dan perubahan dalam konteks tautan antara ruang dan waktu. Dengan demikian ketika berfikir Newtonian ini, sistem kehidupan terlihat sebagai obyek kajian yang sangat rumit. Akibat dari rumitnya obyek, maka kajian di bidang Biologi dan life sciences pada umumnya, cenderung dilakukan dengan pendekatan analitik yang bertujuan mengurai kerumitan sehingga memudahkan pembicaraan dalam pengembangan konsep dan simpulan (gambar 1). Namun demikian, tetap saja kita dihadapkan pada kenyataan rumitnya sistem serta banyaknya data sehingga cenderung untuk memilih maupun memilah yang pada akhirnya melakukan penyederhanaan dan pembatasan pada hal-hal yang dianggap penting atau utama sesuai dengan kapasitas kemampuan manusiawi yang kita miliki.
Kompleksitas tubuh direduksi menjadi untaian DNA Read more

The sickbays seen on Star Trek could soon be reality thanks to researchers who have transformed tech used to comb the universe for stars and planets into non-invasive medical diagnostic devices

Sumitro, S.B., Zahar G.,  Yudi A., Aris M. W., Kumalaningsih, S., Permana, S., Widodo, Rurini, Rifai M., and Djoko, S.

The Indonesian Cigarette which consists of mixing plant materials produces smoke with huge number of chemical compounds. These chemical compounds used non chemical bound to form particulate. They usually are exited and have highly electron density position. Introducing this smoke with some amino acids, polypeptides or any biological related materials will construct structures with unique architectures. An important question: Is this indicating some biological like potential characteristic of the smoke in regard to develop functional materials?

Figure: Unique structure enable to be made after yeast extract materials exposed with Indonesian cigarette smoke

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Gold In Nicotine by Wanda Hamilton publication date: July 13, 2001

“It helps digestion, the gout, the toothache, prevents infection by scents; it heats the cold, and cools them that sweat, feedeth the hungry, spent spirits restoreth, purgeth the stomach, killeth nits and lice; the juice of the green leaf healeth green wounds, although poisoned; the syrup for many diseases; the smoke for the phthisic, cough of the lungs, distillations of rheum, and all diseases of a cold and moist cause; good for all bodies cold and moist taken upon an empty stomach; taken upon a full stomach it precipitates digestion.” John Josselyn on the medicinal uses of tobacco, 1675 (quoted in C.A. Weslager, Magic Medicines of the Indians, Signet, NY: 1974)

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Rasanya belum pernah terdengar  ada studi tentang rokok Indonesia yang serius. Kebanyakan studi tentang rokok di Indonesia bersifat parsial, dan sangat disayangkan opini lebih banyak didasarkan pada hasil studi di luar negeri.  Sesungguhnya memang budaya meneliti kita yang sangat minim sehingga kita tidak pernah atau sangat jarang mencoba menyelesaikan setiap problema kemasyarakatan dengan mendasarkan pada kajian yang kita lakukan sendiri. Berbagai isu dunia tentang rokok ada kemiripan dengan isu-isu lainnya seperti isu flu burung, terlalu cepat dipakai dan mendapat prioritas dalam perhatian pemerintah ketika menetapkan kebijakan.  Kita mustinya tidak terlalu mudah untuk mengadopsi isu dari luar untuk menetapkan simpulan. Kita harus mememiliki kemandirian dalam bersikap dan dalam pengambilan keputusan-keputusan atas dasar kajian serius guna melihat ketepatannya dengan kondisi riil dengan mempertimbangkan  spesifikasi masalahnya. Sekali lagi ditekankan di sini marilah kita jangan mudah melakukan serta merta menggeneralisir isu-isu yang bertiup dari luar negeri sebagai isu penting kita. Seperti halnya isu rokok di Indonesia, mengapa kita tidak pernah mencoba melakukan kajian komprehensif untuk benar-benar melihat dampak rokok kretek yang sangat khas rokok Indonesia?

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