- - European weblog on food, health and environment
News - Week 36 - 2008
Grocery Store Wars
Not long ago in a supermarket not so far away. Help fight the dark side of the farm.
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freshest Free Range films.
Diagnosis: NOW! Health Care
Documentary
Produced by Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films. Think you are ok if you have health
insurance?
Watch this.
In 1988 the Navy did the 1st study that confirmed the incinerator right outside the
gate of NAF Atsugi, Japan, which was within 200 meters of the dependent housing area was a
health risk. The Navy conducted studies upon studies in 89, 91, 95, 98, 99 and 2001. In
2001 the USDOJ sued the owner of the private incinerator and altimately it was closed.
Military dependents did not know of health risks until late 97. Our children were exposed
to high levels of Heavy Metals, Dixoin, VOCs, PCBs, which polluted the air, dust and soil.
The Navy does not care to discuss why it continued to station families to NAF Atsugi,
Japan, for years after, they knew they were putting our children at risk. We are Proud
Military Families, we trusted and they put our children in harms way. June 08 Navy
Medicine released a Atsugi Risk Report - Will they following the recommendations? www.atsugi-incinerator-group.com
Chips are down as Manchester makes
protein scanning breakthrough
Scientists at The University of Manchester have developed a new and fast method for making
biological ‘chips’ – technology that could lead to quick testing for
serious diseases, fast detection of MRSA infections and rapid discovery of new drugs.
Researchers working at the Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre (MIB) and The School of
Chemistry have unveiled a new technique for producing functional ‘protein chips’
in a paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), published online today
(22 August 2008). Protein chips – or ‘protein arrays’ as they are more
commonly known – are objects such as slides that have proteins attached to them and
allow important scientific data about the behaviour of proteins to be gathered. Functional
protein arrays could give scientists the ability to run tests on tens of thousands of
different proteins simultaneously, observing how they interact with cells, other proteins,
DNA and drugs. As proteins can be placed and located precisely on a ‘chip’, it
would be possible to scan large numbers of them at the same time but then isolate the data
relating to individual proteins. These chips would allow large amounts of data to be
generated with the minimum use of materials – especially rare proteins that are only
available in very small amounts. The Manchester team of Dr Lu Shin Wong, Dr Jenny Thirlway
and Prof Jason Micklefield say the technical challenges of attaching proteins in a
reliable way have previously held back the widespread application and development of
protein chips.
The Older the Fatter - Longitudinal
Study about Overweight Children
Fast food and coke instead of fruits and vegetables: the consequences can already be seen
in children – more and more of them suffer from overweight and adiposity. But what
are the reasons? In what way are they connected, for example, with social status and body
weight of the parents? On the trail of overweight, the health scientist Prof. Dr. Günter
Eissing, Technische Universität Dortmund, carefully examined 432 Dortmund children at the
age of three, in cooperation with BKK Hoesch, Public Health Authority and the city’s
statistical department. More precisely, he measured them. Based on height and weight,
Prof. Eissing calculated the so-called Body Mass Index (BMI), compared it with birth
certificate data and medical examination documents, and found out: after the first three
years of their lives, 22 percent of the boys and eleven percent of the girls are
overweight. The results are only the first part of a unique longitudinal study about the
BMI development based on a test group of Dortmund children. After three years the test
subjects will be examined again within the scope of the pre-school medical examination. So
far the control of the BMI of the test subjects over a period of six years, is unique. The
first results already show: the older the children the fatter they are. Whereas the BMI
was quite in relation at birth, Prof. Dr. Günter Eissing discovered that at the age of
one, the percentage of children with an increased BMI was already higher. At the age of
three, 22 percent of the boys and eleven percent of the girls are to be classified as
overweight. Eleven percent of the boys and seven percent of the girls are considered to be
adipose. Other studies show that at the age of six the number of overweight children
increases once again.
Together with colleagues from the Department of Dermatology and Allergy and the Center for
Allergy and Environment (ZAUM) of the Technische Universität München, scientists at the
Helmholtz Zentrum München have pinpointed a major gene for allergic diseases. The gene
was localized using cutting edge technologies for examining the whole human genome at the
Helmholtz Zentrum München. Schematic representation of the high affinity receptor for
IgE. Variants within the gene encoding the alpha chain are associated with increased
levels of IgE antibodies The newly discovered FCER1A gene encodes the alpha chain of high
affinity IgE receptor, which plays a major role in controlling allergic responses. The
team of scientists led by Dr. Stephan Weidinger from the Technische Universität München
and Dr. Thomas Illig from the Helmholtz Zentrum München found that certain variations of
the FCER1A gene decisively influence the production of immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies.
IgE antibodies are a particular type of antibody that is normally used to protect against
parasites. In Western lifestyle countries with less contact, however, elevated IgE levels
are associated with allergic disorders. In genetically susceptible individuals the immune
system becomes biased and produces IgE antibodies against harmless agents such as pollen,
dust mites or animal hair. These IgE antibodies then work in conjunction with certain
cells to get rid of the allergens, a process that gives rise to the symptoms of allergy
such as allergic rhinitis (hay fever), atopic dermatitis or asthma.
New knowledge points to the fact that a genetically induced lack of filaggrin, a key
protein of the skin barrier, plays a decisive role in the origin of allergies. In a large
study on more than 3000 school-children scientists of the Helmholtz Zentrum München and
the Technische Universität München found that about 8% of the German population carry
variations of the filaggrin gene, which raise the risk to develop atopic dermatitis more
than threefold. In addition, these genetic variations predispose to hay fever and asthma
in those with atopic dermatitis. Allergic diseases have increased considerably in the past
decades in most industrial countries. A combination of genetic and environmentally related
factors is said to be the cause. In recent years, several genes were examined for a role
in allergic diseases, and one of them actually turned out to be a key player. This gene
encodes filaggrin, an essential protein in the horny layer of the skin. If this protein is
reduced or lacking due to a genetic defect, the natural cornification is impeded and the
natural barrier function of the skin is limited.
Individual cells in a population of bacteria can sacrifice their lives for others to
achieve a greater common good. Published in the scientific publication, " Nature
", ETH Zurich biologists have described a new biological concept in which
self-sacrifice and self-destruction play an important role. ETH Zurich biologists, led by
Professors Martin Ackermann and Wolf-Dietrich Hardt, in collaboration with Michael Doebeli
of the University of British Colombia in Vancouver (CN), have been able to describe how
random molecular processes during cell division allow some cells to engage in a
self-destructive act to generate a greater common good, thereby improving the situation of
the surviving siblings. The biologists investigated this unusual biological concept using
the pathogenic salmonella bacteria as an example. Diseases caused by salmonellae are very
unpleasant and even life-threatening. When contaminated food is consumed - for example,
egg-based foods or chicken and meat - salmonella bacteria enter the gastro-intestinal
tract where it triggers infection. Vomiting and diarrhoea can last for days.
Tel Aviv University researchers are
combatting cancer with a jasmine-based drug
Could a substance from the jasmine flower hold the key to an effective new therapy to
treat cancer? Prof. Eliezer Flescher of The Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv
University thinks so. He and his colleagues have developed an anti-cancer drug based on a
decade of research into the commercial applications of the compound Jasmonate, a synthetic
compound derived from the flower itself. Prof. Flescher began to research the compound
about a decade ago, and with his recent development of the drug, his studies have now
begun to bear meaningful fruit.
CSHL scientists identify new drug
target against virulent type of breast cancer
Tumor cells in a particular subset of breast cancer patients churn out too much of a
protein called ErbB2 -- also often called HER2 -- which drives the cells to proliferate
unchecked. Patients unlucky enough to be in this group -- about one in four -- have poorer
prognoses and clinical outcomes than those who don’t. Senthil K. Muthuswamy, Ph.D.
The drugs Herceptin and Lapatinib, prescribed in combination with other chemotherapeutic
agents, have improved this picture significantly, but leave plenty of room for
improvement: they suppress ErbB2 but are effective against less than half of
ErbB2-producing tumors. Moreover, patients with tumors that do respond usually develop
resistance to these drugs.A team of scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has just
published research identifying an enzyme called Brk that may serve as a target for future
drugs developed to fight ErbB2-positive tumors. Brk, they report, helps these tumors
become virulent and is also implicated in the process through which the tumors develop
drug resistance.
Alcohol consumption can cause too
much cell death, fetal abnormalities
The initial signs of fetal alcohol syndrome are slight but classic: facial malformations
such as a flat and high upper lip, small eye openings and a short nose. Researchers want
to know if those facial clues can help them figure out how much alcohol it takes during
what point in development to cause these and other lifelong problems. They have good
evidence that just a few glasses of wine over an hour in the first few weeks of fetal
life, typically before a woman knows she's pregnant, increases cell death. Too few cells
are then left to properly form the face and possibly the brain and spinal cord.
"It’s well known that when you drink, you get a buzz. But a couple of hours
later, that initial impact, at least, is gone," says Dr. Erhard Bieberich, biochemist
in the Medical College of Georgia Schools of Medicine and Graduate Studies. "But,
your fetus may have experienced irreversible damage."
Future for clean energy lies in
“Big Bang” of evolution
Amid mounting agreement that future clean, “carbon-neutral”, energy will rely on
efficient conversion of the sun’s light energy into fuels and electric power,
attention is focusing on one of the most ancient groups of organism, the cyanobacteria.
Dramatic progress has been made over the last decade understanding the fundamental
reaction of photosynthesis that evolved in cyanobacteria 3.7 billion years ago, which for
the first time used water molecules as a source of electrons to transport energy derived
from sunlight, while converting carbon dioxide into oxygen. The light harvesting systems
gave the bacteria their blue (“cyano”) colour, and paved the way for plants to
evolve by “kidnapping” bacteria to provide their photosynthetic engines, and for
animals by liberating oxygen for them to breathe, by splitting water molecules. For humans
now there is the tantalising possibility of tweaking the photosynthetic reactions of
cyanobacteria to produce fuels we want such as hydrogen, alcohols or even hydrocarbons,
rather than carbohydrates.Progress at the research level has been rapid, boosting
prospects of harnessing photosynthesis not just for energy but also for manufacturing
valuable compounds for the chemical and biotechnology industries. Such research is running
on two tracks, one aimed at genetically engineering real plants and cyanobacteria to yield
the products we want, and the other to mimic their processes in artificial photosynthetic
systems built with human-made components. Both approaches hold great promise and will be
pursued in parallel, as was discussed at a recent workshop focusing on the photosynthetic
reaction centres of cyanobacteria, organised by the European Science Foundation (ESF).
Visible Dangers associated with Disappearing Species- This entry focuses on both the
environment and agricultural issues that affect various animal populations, and how their
demise may prove untimely for the rest of us. By examining honey bees and bats as timely
examples, I argue that now, more than ever, we need to protect the environment to work
toward reversing the alarming rate of disappearance in animal groups in order to stabilize
the biosphere and continue enjoying normal life.
Documentary comparing the highly profitable American health care industry to other
nations, and HMO horror stories directed and writen by Michael Moore
Heavy metal link to mutations, low
growth and fertility among crustaceans in Sydney Harbor tributary
Heavy metal pollutants are linked to genetic mutations, stunted growth and declining
fertility among small crustaceans in the Parramatta River, the main tributary of Sydney
Harbour, new research shows. The finding adds to mounting evidence that toxic sediments
and seaweeds in Sydney Harbour are a deadly diet for many sea creatures. The new findings,
published in the journal, Science of the Total Environment, reveal genetic mutations among
crustaceans (Melita plumulosa) in the Parramatta River but none among those in the cleaner
Hawkesbury River. Earlier this year, UNSW scientists revealed that copper-contaminated
seaweeds in Sydney Harbour were killing 75 percent of the offspring of small crustaceans
that feed on a common brown seaweed. That study showed that the harbour's seaweeds have
the world's highest levels of copper and lead contamination as a consequence of stormwater
run-off, industrial wastewaters and motorised watercraft. The new study found the
mutations and lower growth and fertility persisted through several generations of M.
plumulosa in controlled laboratory conditions, suggesting that genetic changes are causing
permanent negative impacts. "The lower fertility and growth rates among the creatures
exposed to contaminants is probably a stress response," says the study's lead author,
UNSW science honours student, Pann Pann Chung.
Study Reveals How Blood Flow Force
Protects Against Atherosclerosis
Machines on cell surfaces, mechanical and lifeless as bed springs, protect blood vessels
by responding to blood flow force, according to research published today in the Journal of
Cell Biology. By sensing and reacting to force, such machines interfere with inflammatory
pathways central to atherosclerosis, the cause of clogged arteries that lead to heart
attack and stroke, the authors said. The next set of studies, already underway, seeks to
“tweak” the process with the goal of designing a new class of therapies. In
recent years, researchers determined that mechanical force alone can kick off biochemical
reactions which contribute to both health and disease. When applied to human bone during
weightlifting, for instance, force can trigger biochemical reactions that thicken bone. In
the current example, blood flow creates frictional force, called “shear stress,”
as it moves along the cells that line blood vessel walls. Secondly, each time the heart
pumps, related pressure changes create a second, simultaneous force that stretches vessel
walls. The fast, steady blood flow (high frictional force) and the relatively
straightforward stretch patterns seen in the straight portions of blood vessels have been
shown to somehow protect those areas against atherosclerosis.
Why a Common Treatment for Prostate
Cancer Ultimately Fails
Some of the drugs given to many men during their fight against prostate cancer can
actually spur some cancer cells to grow, researchers have found. The findings were
published online this week in a pair of papers in the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences. The results may help explain a phenomenon that has bedeviled patients for
decades. Hormone therapy, a common treatment for men with advanced prostate cancer,
generally keeps the cancer at bay for a year or two. But then, for reasons scientists have
never understood, the treatment fails in patients whose disease has spread – the
cancer begins to grow again, at a time when patients have few treatment options left. The
new findings by a team led by Chawnshang Chang, Ph.D., director of the George Whipple
Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Rochester Medical Center, help explain
the process by showing that the androgen receptor, through which male hormones like
testosterone work, is much more versatile than previously thought. Under certain
conditions the molecule spurs growth, and at other times the molecule squelches growth
– just like the same molecule does to hair in different locations on a man’s
head.
BBC World series “What a
Waste!” (Bogotá) - 22 min
What a Waste!” is a brand new BBC World series looking at how the world is going
to cope as the demand for power and energy grows and grows. As Mayor of Bogota until 2001,
Enrique Penalosa implemented the TransMilenio system, a rapid public transport system that
aimed to get everyone out of their cars and onto public transport. How will his vision
have fared since he left office?
How to Avoid Food Allergic
Reactions in Restaurants
This is one of the Food Allergy video series featuring food safety expert Dr. Robert
Gravani, from the Department of Food Science at Cornell University in which Dr. Gravani
provides answers to common food allergy questions. The following videos focus on the how
to avoid food allergic reactions in restaurants.
Why breastfeed? How long should you breastfeed? Is breast milk better than formula?
What are the benefits of breast milk for babies? Get the facts and truth about
breastfeeding your babe.
Researchers from Monash University have designed a nano-sized "trojan horse"
particle to ensure healing antioxidants can be better absorbed by the human body. Dr Ken
Ng and Dr Ian Larson from the University's Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
have designed a nanoparticle, one thousandth the thickness of a human hair, that protects
antioxidants from being destroyed in the gut and ensures a better chance of them being
absorbed in the digestive tract. Antioxidants are known to neutralise the harmful effect
of free radicals and other reactive chemical species that are constantly generated by our
body and are thought to promote better health. Normally our body's own antioxidant defence
is sufficient, but in high-risk individuals, such as those with a poor diet or those at
risk of developing atherosclerosis, diabetes or Alzheimer's disease, a nutritional source
of antioxidants is required.Dr Larson said orally delivered antioxidants were easily
destroyed by acids and enzymes in the human body, with only a small percentage of what is
consumed actually being absorbed.
Brain study could lead to new
understanding of depression
Dr Roland Zahn, a clinical neuroscientist in The University of Manchester’s School of
Psychological Sciences, and his colleagues have identified how the brain links knowledge
about social behaviour with moral sentiments, such as pride and guilt. The study, carried
out at the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in the US with Dr
Jordan Grafman, chief of the Cognitive Neuroscience Section, and Dr Jorge Moll, now at the
LABS-D'Or Center for Neuroscience in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, used functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the brains of 29 healthy individuals while they
considered certain social behaviours. The findings – published in the journal
Cerebral Cortex – for the first time chart the regions of the brain that interact to
link knowledge about socially appropriate behaviour with different moral feelings,
depending on the context in which the social behaviour occurs. “During everyday life
we constantly evaluate social behaviour and this largely affects how we feel about
ourselves and other people,” said Dr Zahn. “But the way we store and use
information about our own and other people’s social behaviour are not well
understood. “This latest study used functional brain imaging to identify the circuits
in the brain that underpin our ability to differentiate social behaviour that conforms to
our values from behaviour that does not.” The team observed that social behaviour not
conforming to an individual’s values evoked feelings of anger when carried out by
another person or feelings of guilt when the behaviour stemmed from the individuals
themselves. The fMRI scans of each volunteer could then be analysed to see which parts of
the brain were activated for the different types of feeling being expressed. Of particular
interest to Dr Zahn were the brain scans relating to feelings of guilt, as these have
particular relevance to his current work on depression. “The most distinctive feature
of depressive disorders is an exaggerated negative attitude to oneself, which is typically
accompanied by feelings of guilt,” he said.
Gene That Causes Childhood Cancer
Neuroblastoma Is Found
Scientists have discovered gene mutations that are the main cause of the inherited version
of the childhood cancer neuroblastoma. In addition, the researchers found that the same
mutations play a significant role in high-risk forms of non-inherited neuroblastoma, the
more common form of the disease. "This discovery enables us to offer the first
genetic tests to families affected by the inherited form of this disease," said
pediatric oncologist Yael P. Mosse, M.D., of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the
first author of the study, published online Aug. 24 in the journal Nature.
"Furthermore, because there already are drugs in development that target the same
gene in adult cancers, we can soon begin testing those drugs in children with
neuroblastoma." Neuroblastoma is the most common solid cancer of early childhood. It
accounts for 7 percent of all childhood cancers, but due to its often aggressive nature,
causes 15 percent of all childhood cancer deaths. It arises in the developing nerves of a
child, often appearing as a tumor in the chest or abdomen.
Iowa State University experts can
discuss new FDA produce irradiation rule
The Food and Drug Administration's new (Aug. 22) regulation that will allow irradiation
pasteurization to be used on fresh spinach and iceberg lettuce to kill illness-causing
bacteria is a step that two Iowa State University professors have long advocated.Dennis
Olson is a professor of animal science and directs Iowa State's Linear Accelerator
Facility, one of only two commercial-sized irradiation facilities for food research and
demonstration on a U.S. university campus. He has researched food irradiation for more
than a decade, and is an expert in food safety, particularly in the area of meat
processing. (The FDA has allowed irradiation of red meat to control pathogens since 1997;
in poultry since 1990).Had the FDA rule been in place sooner, Olson is convinced that
irradiation could have prevented some of the illnesses and three deaths that occurred
during spinach and lettuce outbreaks in 2006.
Women exposed to negative life
events at greater risk of breast cancer
Happiness and optimism may play a role against breast cancer while adverse life events can
increase the risk of developing the disease, according to a study by Professor Ronit
Peled, at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. An article on the study titled
"Breast Cancer, Psychological Distress and Life Events among Young Women," was
just published in the British journal BMC Cancer (8:245, August 2008). In the study,
researchers questioned women about their life experiences and evaluated their levels of
happiness, optimism, anxiety, and depression prior to diagnosis. Researchers used this
information to examine the relationship between life events, psychological distress and
breast cancer among young women. A total of 622 women between the ages of 25 and 45 were
interviewed: 255 breast cancer patients and 367 healthy women. "The results showed a
clear link between outlook and risk of breast cancer, with optimists 25 percent less
likely to have developed the disease. Conversely, women who suffered two or more traumatic
events had a 62 percent greater risk," Peled said. "Young women who have been
exposed to a number of negative life events should be considered an 'at-risk' group for
breast cancer and should be treated accordingly." The researchers indicate that women
were interviewed after their diagnosis, which may color their recall of their past
emotional state somewhat negatively. However, according to Peled, "We can carefully
say that experiencing more than one severe and/or mild to moderate life event is a risk
factor for breast cancer among young women. On the other hand, a general feeling of
happiness and optimism can play a protective role." "The mechanism in which the
central nervous, hormonal and immune systems interact and how behaviour and external
events modulate these three systems is not fully understood," Peled states. "The
relationship between happiness and health should be examined in future studies and
relevant preventative initiatives should be developed."
Pay attention! Small packages may
lead to overeating
Tempting treats are being offered in small package sizes these days, presumably to help
consumers reduce portion sizes. Yet new research in the Journal of Consumer Research found
that people actually consume more high-calorie snacks when they are in small packages than
large ones. And smaller packages make people more likely to give in to temptation in the
first place. Authors Rita Coelho do Vale (Technical University of Lisbon), Rik Pieters,
and Marcel Zeelenberg (both Tilburg University, the Netherlands) found that large packages
triggered concern of overeating and conscious efforts to avoid doing so, while small
packages were perceived as innocent pleasures, leaving the consumers unaware that they
were overindulging. "The increasing availability of single-serve and multi-packs may
not serve consumers in the long-run, but—because they are considered to be innocent
pleasures—may turn out to be sneaky small sins," write the authors. One
fascinating aspect of the research is the difference between belief and reality. In an
initial study, researchers found that consumers believe that small packages help them
regulate "hedonistic consumption," where self-restraint is at stake. When
participants were asked to choose phone plans, those who thought the plan was for social
rather than work purposes tended to choose smaller plans.
High cholesterol levels drop
naturally in children on high-fat anti-seizure diet, Hopkins study show
Elevated cholesterol levels return to normal or near normal levels over time in four out
of 10 children with uncontrollable epilepsy treated with the high-fat ketogenic diet,
according to results of a Johns Hopkins Children's Center study reported in the Journal of
Child Neurology. The study appears online ahead of print at
http//jcn.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/23/7/758. In the four-year study, the Hopkins Children's
team followed 121 epileptic children with intractable seizures on the high-fat,
low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet designed to control such seizures. While most children
developed high cholesterol after starting the diet, cholesterol gradually improved in
nearly half of them, returning to normal or near-normal levels, with or without
modifications to their diet to reduce fat intake. In fact, researchers point out, diet
modifications-including reducing total fat content or certain types of fats called
saturated fats and adding nutritional supplements-reduced high cholesterol just as much as
doing nothing. High cholesterol is defined as total cholesterol greater than 200 mg per
deciliter of blood, bad or LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol greater than 130,
triglycerides greater than 130, and good or HDL (high-density lipoprotein) lower than 35.
Researchers prescribed dietary modifications to increase "good," polyunsaturated
fats in the diets of 15 children with elevated cholesterol. Dietary modifications
decreased cholesterol by 20 percent in 9 out of the 15 (60 percent) children whose diets
were modified. Surprisingly, cholesterol also dropped by at least 20 percent in 41 percent
of the 37 children whose diets remained unchanged. The findings, while encouraging
overall, also mean that relying on diet changes alone may not do much for those children
in whom cholesterol remains persistently elevated, and that new approaches for these
patients are needed, researchers say.The findings should come as comforting news to
pediatric neurologists, general pediatricians and parents of children treated with the
ketogenic diet, and reassure them that, in most patients, increases in cholesterol may be
short-lived, researchers say. Previous long-term studies by the Hopkins group of children
who were on the diet between six and 12 years echoed these findings. The ketogenic diet,
believed to work by triggering biochemical changes that eliminate seizure-provoking
short-circuits in the brain's signaling system, is used in many children with
hard-to-control epilepsy and in those whose seizures do not respond to traditional
anticonvulsant medications.
Trouble Quitting? - A New
Pitt-Carnegie Mellon Smoking Study May Reveal Why
A new study from researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon
University sheds light on why smokers' intentions to quit “cold turkey” often
fizzle out within days or even hours. If a smoker isn't yearning for a cigarette when he
makes the decision to kick the habit-and most aren't-he isn't able to foresee how he will
feel when he's in need of a nicotine buzz. Published in the September issue of
Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, the study,
“Exploring the Cold-to-Hot Empathy Gap in Smokers,” bolsters the theory that
smokers not in a state of craving a cigarette will underestimate and underpredict the
intensity of their future urge to smoke. “We have observed previously that the idea
of smoking a cigarette becomes increasingly attractive to smokers while they are
craving,” said the study's lead investigator and University of Pittsburgh professor
of psychology Michael Sayette. “This study suggests that when smokers are not
craving, they fail to appreciate just how powerful their cravings will be. This lack of
insight while not craving may lead them to make decisions-such as choosing to attend a
party where there will be lots of smoking-that they may come to regret.” The study
looked at the cold-to-hot empathy gap-that is, the tendency for people in a
“cold” state (not influenced by such visceral factors as hunger, fatigue) to
mispredict their own behavior when in a “hot” state (hungry, fatigued), in part
because they can't remember the intensity of their past cravings.
Why do eyelids sag with age? UCLA
study answers mystery
Many theories have sought to explain what causes the baggy lower eyelids that come with
aging, but UCLA researchers have now found that fat expansion in the eye socket is the
primary culprit. As a result, researchers say, fat excision should be a component of
treatment for patients seeking to address this common complaint. The study, published in
the September issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, is
the first to examine the anatomy of multiple subjects to determine what happens to the
lower eyelid with age. It is also the first to measure what happens to the face with age
using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). "A common treatment performed
in the past and present is surgical excision of fat to treat a 'herniation of fat' —
meaning that the amount of fat in the eye socket does not change but the cover that holds
the fat in place, the orbital septum, is weakened or broken and fat slips out," said
lead author Dr. Sean Darcy, a research associate in the division of plastic and
reconstructive surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a plastic
surgery resident at the University of California, Irvine. "This orbital septum
weakening or herniation-of-fat theory is what most plastic surgeons have been taught.
Babies delivered by Caesarean section have a 20 per cent higher risk than normal
deliveries of developing the most common type of diabetes in childhood, according to a
study led by Queen's. The team, led by Dr Chris Cardwell and Dr Chris Patterson, examined
20 published studies from 16 countries including around 10,000 children with Type 1
diabetes and over a million control children. They found a 20 per cent increase in the
risk of children born by Caesarean section developing the disease. The increase could not
be explained by factors such as birth weight, the age of the mother, order of birth,
gestational diabetes and whether the baby was breast-fed or not, all factors associated
with childhood diabetes in previous studies. Dr Cardwell, from the School of Medicine,
Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, said: "This study revealed a consistent 20 per
cent increase in the risk of Type 1 diabetes. It is important to stress that the reason
for this is still not understood. It is possible that children born by Caesarean section
differ from other children with respect to some unknown characteristic which consequently
increases their risk of diabetes, but it is also possible that Caesarean section itself is
responsible.
University of Oklahoma Researchers
Developing New Tool to Detect Cancer
Early cancer detection can significantly improve survival rates. Current diagnostic tests
often fail to detect cancer in the earliest stages and at the same time expose a patient
to the harmful effects of radiation. Led by Dr. Patrick McCann, a small group of
internationally known researchers at the University of Oklahoma with expertise in the
development of mid-infrared lasers is working to create a sensor to detect biomarker gases
exhaled in the breath of a person with cancer. Proof-of-concept detection of a suspected
lung cancer biomarker in exhaled breath has already been established as reported by the
Oklahoma group in the July 2007 issue of Applied Optics. The research was inspired by
studies showing that dogs can detect cancer by sniffing the exhaled breath of cancer
patients. For example, by smelling breath samples, dogs identified breast and lung cancer
patients with accuracies of 88 and 97 percent, respectively, as reported in the March 2006
issue of Integrative Cancer Therapies. The evidence is clear—gas phase molecules are
uniquely associated with cancer. Intrigued by the concept of using breath analysis to
detect cancer, McCann saw an opportunity to use mid-infrared laser technology to help
elucidate the relationship between specific gas phase biomarker molecules and cancer. He
believes it is possible to develop easy-to-use detection devices for cancer, particularly
for hard-to-detect cancers like lung cancer. McCann says we need sensors that detect these
gas phase cancer biomarkers. “A device that measures cancer specific gases in exhaled
breath would change medical research, as we know it.”
High levels of uric acid may be
associated with high blood pressure
Reducing levels of uric acid in blood lowered blood pressure to normal in most teens in a
study designed to investigate a possible link between blood pressure and the chemical, a
waste product of the body's normal metabolism, said researchers at Baylor College of
Medicine in a report that appears in the current issue of the Journal of the American
Medical Association.
How do you know if your food is
genetically engineered?
Why does neither the USDA, the FDA nor the EPA require labeling for genetically
engineered foods? Deborah Koons Garcia, director of the acclaimed film "The Future of
Food", joins Kurt Olsen in this episode of The Massachusetts School of Law's
Educational Forum. The full interview is available at http://tinyurl.com/387qqr
. The Massachusetts School of Law also presents information on important current affairs
to the general public in television and radio broadcasts, an intellectual journal,
conferences, author appearances, blogs and books. For more information visit mslawledu.
The Coming Collapse of the Middle
Class
Distinguished law scholar Elizabeth Warren teaches contract law, bankruptcy, and
commercial law at
Harvard Law School. She is an outspoken critic of America's credit economy, which she has
linked to
the continuing rise in bankruptcy among the middle-class.
Could Fido be the cure for what ails you? Recent studies have shown that being a pet
owner can have significant medicinal benefits. Join Ruth MacPete, D.V.M., and David
Granet, M.D., for an insightful
look at the research confirming pets aren't just good friends, they are good medicine too.
Breast cancer affects one in eight women during their lives. Oncologist Dr. Judith Luce
of UCSF discuses the research and advances in technologies that are impacting the clinical
care of breast cancer patients.
Serum uric acid can be elevated due to high fructose intake, reduced excretion by the
kidneys, and or high intake of dietary purine.Fructose can be found in processed foods and
soda beverages - in some countries, in the form of high fructose corn syrup.
Scientists discover leptin can also
aid type 1 diabetics
Terminally ill rodents with type 1 diabetes have been restored to full health with a
single injection of a substance other than insulin by scientists atUT Southwestern Medical
Center. Since the discovery of insulin in 1922, type 1 diabetes (insulin-dependent
diabetes) in humans has been treated by injecting insulin to lower high blood sugar levels
and prevent diabetic coma. New findings by UT Southwestern researchers, which appear
online and in a future issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
suggest that insulin isn’t the only agent that is effective. Leptin, a hormone
produced by the body’s fat cells, also lowers blood glucose levels and maintains them
in a normal range for extended periods, they found. “The fact that these animals
don’t die and are restored to normal health despite a total lack of insulin is hard
for many researchers and clinicians to believe,” said Dr. Roger Unger, professor of
internal medicine and senior author of the study. “Many scientists, including us,
thought it would be a waste of time to give leptin in the absence of insulin. We’ve
been brainwashed into thinking that insulin is the only substance that can correct the
consequences of insulin deficiency.”Research led by Dr. Roger Unger, professor of
internal medicine, has shown in rodents that leptin, a hormone produced by the body’s
fat cells, lowers blood glucose levels. The discovery may lead to a treatment option other
than insullin for humans with type 1 diabetes. The mechanism of leptin’s
glucose-lowering action appears to involve the suppression of glucagon, a hormone produced
by the pancreas that raises glucose levels. Normally, glucagon is released when the
glucose, or sugar, level in the blood is low. In insulin deficiency, however, glucagon
levels are inappropriately high and cause the liver to release excessive amounts of
glucose into the bloodstream. This action is opposed by insulin, which tells the
body’s cells to remove sugar from the bloodstream.
Oral Administration of
Lactobacillus from Breast Milk May Treat Common Infection in Lactating Mothers
Oral administration of lactobacillus strains found in breast milk may provide an
alternative method to antibiotics for effectively treating mastitis, a common infection
that occurs in lactating mothers say researchers from Spain. They report their findings in
the August 2008 issue of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Mastitis,
inflammation of one or more lobules of the mammary gland, occurs in anywhere from 3 to 33%
of lactating mothers and of those incidences 75 to 95% are diagnosed within the first
twelve weeks postpartum. While Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis are
considered to be the main infectious agents associated with mastitis, increased multi-drug
resistance to antibiotics are making such infections difficult to treat, therefore
prompting researchers to explore alternative treatment options. In prior studies
researchers collected lactobacillus strains from the breast milk of healthy mothers and
found the probiotic potential of Lactobacillus gasseri and Lactobacillus salivarious to be
comparable to strains currently used in commercial probiotic products. Here the
researchers randomly divided twenty women diagnosed with staphylococcal mastitis into two
groups, a probiotic group and a control. The probiotic group received the same daily
dosage of L. salivarius and L. gasseri for four weeks, both of which were originally
isolated from breast milk. Results showed that on day zero staphylococcal counts in both
groups were similar. At day fourteen women in the probiotic group were displaying no
clinical signs of mastitis, but infection in the control group persisted. Finally, on day
thirty the staphylococcal count was lower in the probiotic group and L. salivarius and L.
gasseri were detected in milk samples from six of the ten women.
Hearing specialist leads effort to
craft first professional guidelines for earwax
The age-old advice to routinely clean out earwax is discouraged under the first published
guidelines from health care professionals about removing wax from the ear.
“Unfortunately, many people feel the need to manually remove earwax, called cerumen,
which serves an important protective function for the ear,” said the guidelines’
lead author, Dr. Peter Roland, chairman of otolaryngology — head and neck surgery at
UT Southwestern Medical Center. “Cotton swabs and some other home remedies can push
cerumen further into the canal, potentially foiling the natural removal process and
instead cause build-up, known as impaction.” The guidelines recommend professionals
use wax-dissolving agents, irrigation or ear syringing, or manually remove it with a
suction device or other specialty instrument under supervised care to avoid damaging the
ear or further impaction. The guidelines warn against using cotton-tipped swabs, and the
home use of oral jet irrigators. In addition, people with hearing aids should be checked
for impaction during regular check-ups because cerumen can cause feedback, reduced sound
intensity or damage the hearing aid, according to the guidelines.
The New Food Wars: Globalization
GMOs and Biofuels
Across the world, food riots are taking place. Scientist and activist Vandana Shiva
explores whether the future will be one of food wars or food peace. She argues that the
creation of food peace demands a major shift in the way food is produced and distributed,
and the way in which we manage and use the soil, water and biodiversity, which makes food
production possible.
Biofuel Backlash - World
Demand for biofuels like corn-based ethanol is leading to soaring food prices and
political instability. The price of wheat and corn has doubled, hitting the poor
particularly hard.Backed by generous government subsidies, the ethanol industry is on a
mission to "reduce our dependency on imported oil". Its insatiable demand for
corn is "driving world commodity markets", pushing up global prices. Prices of
eggs, meat and diary products have also shot up because corn is used in animal feed.
"A lot of pork farmers could lose money because of high feed costs", complains
farmer Randy Hilleman. But it's the poor, whose staple diet is grains, who will be most
affected. "The grain it requires to fill a 25-gallon SUV tank with ethanol will feed
one person for a year", explains Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute. The ethanol
boom could create unprecedented global insecurity. Already tortilla prices in Mexico have
increased 60%, prompting people to take to the streets. Sceptics question if ethanol can
reduce America's dependence on imported oil. Even if America's entire corn crop was
converted to fuel, it would only displace 15 per cent of petrol consumption. As most
ethanol plants are powered by coal, doubts have also been cast on its green credentials.
But the corn lobby blames high petrol prices for rising food costs and complain of an
anti-ethanol conspiracy.
For many, sizzling in the midday sun is one of the delights of summer. But as teenagers
continue to ignore the sun safety message, more and more young people are developing skin
cancer."It's a really hard thing to be told you're going to die," confides
Steven Nielson. He was 20 when he was first diagnosed with skin cancer. Now, the cancer
has spread to his spine and he's nearing the end of this life. Benjamin Foley was 16 when
he was first diagnosed and Renee Marchment 24. "We see so many people who are totally
unaware of the risks they're taking by sunbathing," states Prof John Thompson. Many
refuse to wear a hat or sunscreen. As Ben states: "I thought I was invincible from
the sun. I thought skin cancer only happened to older people. I was wrong."
Prince Charles has warned that the development of genetically modified crops risks
creating the biggest environmental disaster of all time. He told the Daily Telegraph that
multi-national corporations were meddling with nature. Paul Harrison reports.
Researchers Devise Means to Create
Blood By Indentifying Earliest Stem Cells
Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered the earliest form of human blood stem cells and
deciphered the mechanism by which these embryonic stem cells replicate and grow. They also
found a surprising biological marker that pinpoints these stem cells, which serve as the
progenitors for red blood cells and lymphocytes. The biochemical marker,
angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), is well known for its role in the regulation of blood
pressure, blood vessel growth, and inflammation. ACE inhibitors are already widely used to
treat hypertension and congestive heart failure, and the findings are, the researchers
say, likely to hold promise for developing new treatments for heart diseases, anemias,
leukemia and other blood cancers, and autoimmune diseases because they show for the first
time that ACE plays a fundamental role in the very early growth and development of human
blood cells. “We figured out how to get the ‘mother’ of all blood stem
cells with the right culture conditions,” says Elias Zambidis, M.D., Ph.D., of the
Institute of Cell Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the
Division of Pediatric Oncology at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns
Hopkins. “There is real hope that in the future we can grow billions of blood cells
at will to treat blood-related disorders, and just as critically if not more so,
we’ve got ACE as a ‘new’ old marker to guide our work,” Zambidis adds.
National Study Shows Magnesium
Sulfate Reduces Risk of Cerebral Palsy in Premature Births
Results of a 10-year study published in the August 28 issue of the New England Journal of
Medicine found that magnesium sulfate administered to women delivering before 32 weeks of
gestation reduced the risk of cerebral palsy by 50 percent. The Beneficial Effects of
Antenatal Magnesium Sulfate (BEAM) trial was conducted in 18 centers in the U.S.,
including Northwestern Memorial, and is the first prenatal intervention ever found to
reduce the instance of cerebral palsy related to premature birth. Magnesium sulfate is
traditionally used in obstetrics to stop premature labor and prevent seizures in women
with hypertension. The BEAM trial studied the link between magnesium sulfate and cerebral
palsy by identifying 2,240 women who were likely to give birth more than two months
premature. Half of the women intravenously received magnesium sulfate while the other half
received a placebo. Children born to the women in the study were examined at
two-years-old, and results found that the children in the magnesium group were 50 percent
less likely to develop cerebral palsy compared to children in the placebo group.
“This is a substantial breakthrough in maternal fetal medicine that could positively
impact the health of thousands of babies,” said Alan Peaceman, MD, chair of the
Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, professor of
Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and
an investigator in the study. “After 10 years of studying the effects of magnesium
sulfate, it has proven to be a successful method of reducing the outcome of cerebral palsy
in premature births.”
Americans Show Little Tolerance for
Mental Illness Despite Growing Belief in Genetic Cause
A new study by University of Pennsylvania sociology professor Jason Schnittker shows that,
while more Americans believe that mental illness has genetic causes, the nation is no more
tolerant of the mentally ill than it was 10 years ago. The study published online in the
journal Social Science and Medicine uses a 2006 replication of the 1996 General Social
Survey Mental Health Module to explore trends in public beliefs about mental illness in
America, focusing in particular on public support for genetic arguments. Prior
medical-sociology studies reveal that public beliefs about mental illness reflect the
dominant mental-illness treatment, the changing nature of media portrayals of the mentally
ill and the prevailing wisdom of science and medicine. Schnittker’s study, “An
Uncertain Revolution: Why the Rise of a Genetic Model of Mental Illness Has Not Increased
Tolerance,” attempts to address why tolerance of the mentally ill hasn’t
increased along with the rising popularity of a biomedical view of its causes. His study
finds that different genetic arguments have, in fact, become more popular but have very
different associations depending on the mental illness being considered. “In the case
of schizophrenia, genetic arguments are associated with fears regarding violence,”
Schnittker said. “In fact, attributing schizophrenia to genes is no different from
attributing it to bad character — either way Americans see those with schizophrenia
as ‘damaged’ in some essential way and, therefore, likely to be violent.
However, when applied to depression, genetic arguments have very different connotations:
they are associated with social acceptance. If you imagine that someone’s depression
is a genetic problem, the condition seems more real and less blameworthy: it’s in
their genes, they’re not weak, so I should accept them for who they are.”
Growth factor predicts poor outcome
in breast cancer
The response to insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-I) in breast cancer cells predicts an
aggressive tumor that is less likely to respond to treatment, said researchers at Baylor
College of Medicine in a report that appears in the current issue of the Journal of
Clinical Oncology. The finding gives impetus to the movement to tailor cancer treatments
to attributes of the various tumors. "These findings come at a critical time,"
said Dr. Adrian Lee, associate professor in the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center at BCM.
"Our goal is to identify biomarkers that will help predict which patients will
respond to therapy against insulin-like growth factor. Several inhibitors of the IGF
pathway are in patient studies right now. There's a large movement to understand which
patients will respond to these drugs. This is a step toward that goal." In this
study, Lee and his colleagues stimulated breast cancer cells with IGF-I in the laboratory
and defined how more than 800 genes in the cells responded to the growth factor. They then
examined samples of patient breast tumors with this "gene signature" and
correlated the gene signatures with the fate of the patients. "We have technology now
to allow us to globally assess what IGF is doing in breast cancer at the whole gene
expression level," said Lee. "This is one of the first studies to do that. We
know that IGF is bad in cancer, but now we can globally understand it in a more
comprehensive manner. It could lead to finding biomarkers for patients response" to
breast cancer treatments. "We found that IGF-I is a major regulator of cell growth
and cell survival," said Lee. "It also regulates DNA repair."
In America's earliest days, there were barn-raising parties in which neighbors helped
each other build up their farms. Today, in some churches, there are debt liquidation
revivals in which parishioners chip in to free each other from growing credit card debts
that are driving American families to bankruptcy and desperation. IN DEBT WE TRUST is the
latest film from Danny Schechter, "The News Dissector," director of the
internationally distributed and award-winning WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception), an expose
of the media's role in the Iraq War. The Emmy-winning former ABC News and CNN producer's
new hard-hitting documentary investigates why so many Americans are being strangled by
debt. It is a journalistic confrontation with what former Reagan advisor Kevin Phillips
calls "Financialization"--the "powerful emergence of a debt-and-credit
industrial complex." While many Americans may be "maxing out" on credit
cards, there is a deeper story: power is shifting into fewer hands.....with frightening
consequences. IN DEBT WE TRUST shows how the mall replaced the factory as America's
dominant economic engine and how big banks and credit card companies buy our Congress and
drive us into what a former major bank economist calls modern serfdom. Americans and our
government owe trillions in consumer debt and the national debt, a large amount of it to
big banks and billions to Communist China.
Electric Orgasm - Documentary - 44
min - Aug 21, 2008
A documentary from Discovery Health about North Carolina anesthesiologist who induces
orgasms in women using pain relief technology. Follow Follow three women who have
never experienced orgasm through a clinical trial that unlocks secrets to the human
brain's pleasure zone.
Sex differences seen in response to
common antidepressant
Women with depression may be much more likely than men to get relief from a commonly used,
inexpensive antidepressant drug, a new national study finds. But many members of both
sexes may find that it helps ease their depression symptoms. The persistence of a gender
difference in response to the drug — even after the researchers accounted for many
complicating factors — suggests that there’s a real biological difference in the
way the medication affects women compared with men. The reasons for that difference are
still unclear, but further studies are now examining hormonal variations that may play a
role. The study involved citalopram, a commonly used antidepressant that is available both
as a generic drug and under the brand name Celexa.
The widely-held perception that the influenza vaccination reduces overall mortality risk
in the elderly does not withstand careful scrutiny, according to researchers in Alberta.
The vaccine does confer protection against specific strains of influenza, but its overall
benefit appears to have been exaggerated by a number of observational studies that found a
very large reduction in all-cause mortality among elderly patients who had been
vaccinated. The results will appear in the first issue for September of the American
Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, a publication of the American Thoracic
Society. The study included more than 700 matched elderly subjects, half of whom had taken
the vaccine and half of whom had not. After controlling for a wealth of variables that
were largely not considered or simply not available in previous studies that reported the
mortality benefit, the researchers concluded that any such benefit "if present at
all, was very small and statistically non-significant and may simply be a healthy-user
artifact that they were unable to identify." "While such a reduction in
all-cause mortality would have been impressive, these mortality benefits are likely
implausible. Previous studies were likely measuring a benefit not directly attributable to
the vaccine itself, but something specific to the individuals who were vaccinated—a
healthy-user benefit or frailty bias," said Dean T. Eurich,Ph.D. clinical
epidemiologist and assistant professor at the School of Public Health at the University of
Alberta. "Over the last two decades in the United Sates, even while vaccination rates
among the elderly have increased from 15 to 65 percent, there has been no commensurate
decrease in hospital admissions or all-cause mortality. Further, only about 10 percent of
winter-time deaths in the United States are attributable to influenza, thus to suggest
that the vaccine can reduce 50 percent of deaths from all causes is implausible in our
opinion." Dr. Eurich and colleagues hypothesized that if the healthy-user effect was
responsible for the mortality benefit associated with influenza vaccination seen in
observational studies, there should also be a significant mortality benefit present during
the "off-season".
Heavy breathing -- an obscure link
in asthma and obesity
There is a strong link between obesity and asthma and as the prevalence of both conditions
has been increasing steadily, epidemiologists have speculated that there is an underlying
condition that connects the two. But one long-suspected link, the systemic inflammation
associated with obesity, has been ruled out by a recent New Zealand study that found no
evidence of its involvement. "We were disappointed not to find a 'smoking gun' that
would explain the common association between obesity and asthma," said lead
researcher, D. Robin Taylor, M.D., of the University of Otago in New Zealand.
"However, this research points us to other possibilities that future research should
examine." The results were reported in the first issue for September of the American
Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic
Society. "We hypothesized that the low-grade systemic inflammation present in obesity
would augment the inflammation of asthma (a synergistic effect)," wrote Dr. Taylor.
"Or alternatively, that the inflammation of obesity might affect the airways
independently (an additive effect), perhaps resulting in mixed airway inflammation."
In order to determine if there was indeed an interaction between systemic and local
inflammation, the researchers recruited 79 women—20 who were obese with asthma, 19
who were of a normal weight with asthma, 20 who were obese but who did not have asthma and
20 controls. Asthmatics were told to stop using their anti-inflammatory inhaler treatment
to avoid confounding effects until "loss of control." After the withdrawal
period of four weeks, subjects underwent blood tests and tests for biomarkers of systemic
and airway inflammation, such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and cytokines in blood and
inflammatory cells and cytokines in sputum. Those that are known to be relevant in both
obesity and asthma were chosen. The researchers then analyzed for interactions between
systemic and airway-specific markers of inflammation. "What we found was that
although inflammatory cells and other biomarkers of inflammation were increased, there was
no significant interaction demonstrated between obesity and asthma," said Dr. Taylor.
Researchers Discover Atomic Bomb
Effect Results in Adult-onset Thyroid Cancer
Radiation from the atomic bomb blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, likely
rearranged chromosomes in some survivors who later developed papillary thyroid cancer as
adults, according to Japanese researchers. In the September 1, 2008, issue of Cancer
Research , a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, the scientists
report that subjects who lived close to the blast sites, were comparably young at the
time, and developed the cancer quickly once they reached adulthood, were likely to have a
chromosomal rearrangement known as RET/PTC that is not very frequent in adults who develop
the disease. "Recent in vitro and in vivo studies suggest that a single genetic event
in the MAP kinase-signaling pathway may be sufficient for thyroid cell transformation and
tumor development," said the study's lead author, Kiyohiro Hamatani, Ph.D.,
laboratory chief, Department of Radiobiology and Molecular Epidemiology at the Radiation
Effects Research Foundation (RERF) in Hiroshima. "Thyroid cancer is associated with
exposure to external or internal ionizing radiation. Elucidation of mechanisms of
radiation-induced cancer in humans, especially early steps and pathways, has potential
implications for epidemiological risk analyses, early clinical diagnosis, and
chemopreventive interventions," Hamatani said.
University of Georgia researchers
show for the first time that dramatically more genes are controlled by biological clocks
than previously known
Researchers at the University of Georgia report that the number of genes under control of
the biological clock in a much-studied model organism is dramatically higher than
previously reported. The new study implies that the clock may be much more important in
living things than suspected only a few years ago. “This new finding may help to
explain why the clock is so far-reaching in its effects on the organism,” said
Jonathan Arnold, a professor in the UGA department of genetics and director of the
research project. “We found that some 25 percent of the genes in our model organism
appear to be under clock control. I wasn’t suspecting anything remotely like
that.” The new research, just published in the Public Library of Science One, also
shows how Arnold’s team used a new methodology called Computing Life to yield these
new discoveries about biological clocks. And this tool of systems biology was the key to
showing what makes a biological clock tick.
Barrow researchers identify a new
approach to detect the early progression of brain tumors
Researchers at Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center
recently participated in a pilot study with the Montreal Neurological Institute that
suggests a certain type of MRI scanning can detect when a patient is failing brain tumor
treatment before symptoms appear. The results of the study pave the way for a proactive
treatment approach.The study followed patients with recurring malignant brain tumors who
were receiving chemotherapy. Patients received scans through an imaging device called MR
spectroscopy to identify metabolic changes. The scanning technique suggested that the use
of metabolic imaging identifies chemical changes earlier than structural imaging such as a
conventional MRI and CT scans. This approach allowed researchers to determine if the
tumors were responding to treatment early by assessing metabolic changes in a brain tumor,
which are easy to detect and appear before structural changes or symptoms. The result may
give patients more time to try another treatment."The study has shown for the first
time that metabolic response to brain tumor treatment can be detected earlier and faster
by metabolic imaging instead of through structural imaging or assessment of the
neurological status of a patient," says Mark C. Preul, M.D., Newsome Chair of
Neurosurgery Research at St. Joseph's.The imaging can be done often, poses no radiation
hazard and is non-invasive.
Scientists based in Switzerland and South Africa have created a biophysical methodology
that may help to overcome hearing deficits, and potentially remedy even substantial
hearing loss. The authors propose a method of retuning functioning regions of the ear to
recognize frequencies originally associated with damaged areas. Details are published
August 29th in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology. Hearing loss is an
increasingly important problem in societies of growing average age. The conventional
hearing-aid and cochlear implant technology have only been partially successful in
recreating the experience of the fully functioning ear. A possible reason for the lack of
success could be because the cochlea – the hearing sensor – must be fully
embedded into the corto-cochlear feedback loop. While recent artificial cochleas have been
developed that are extremely close to the performance of the biological one, the
integration of artificial cochleas into this loop is an extremely difficult micro-surgical
task. In an attempt to circumvent this problem, the authors investigated the biophysics
and bio-mechanics of the natural sensor. They have identified modifications that would
enable the remapping of frequencies where the cochlea malfunctions to neighboring intact
cochlear areas. This remapping is performed in such a way that no auditory information is
lost and the tuning capabilities of the cochlea can be fully utilized. Their findings
indicate that biophysically realistic modifications could remedy even substantial hearing
loss. Moreover, with a recently designed electronic cochlea at hand, the changes in the
perception of hearing could be predicted.
Class of diabetes drugs carries
significant cardiovascular risks
A class of oral drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes may make heart failure worse,
according to an editorial published online in Heart Wednesday by two Wake Forest
University School of Medicine faculty members. "We strongly recommend restrictions in
the use of thiazolidinediones (the class of drugs) and question the rationale for leaving
rosiglitazone on the market," write Sonal Singh, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of
internal medicine, and Curt D. Furberg, M.D., Ph.D., professor of public health sciences.
Rosiglitazone and pioglitazone are the two major thiazolidinediones. In the editorial
Singh and Furberg say, "At this time, justification for use of thiazolidinediones is
very weak to non-existent." Oral drugs are given to control diabetes by lowering
blood sugar. But diabetics also experience elevated rates of high blood pressure and high
levels of cholesterol and triglyceride, which "further compound their already
increased risk of developing ischemic heart disease," Singh and Furberg say. Heart
disease and high blood pressure "represent conditions that are major precursors of
congestive heart failure." About 22 percent of diabetics have heart disease. Among
elderly patients with diabetes, more than half will develop congestive heart failure over
a 10-year period, the editorial says. The thiazolidinediones were approved for use based
on the ability to reduce blood sugar. In contrast, "we reported [in the journal
Diabetes Care] in June 2007 that thiazolidinediones doubled the risk of congestive heart
failure in patients with type 2 diabetes," is says. "The increased heart failure
appears to be a class effect."Singh and Furberg reported in The Journal of the
American Medical Association in 2007 after an analysis of four long-term trials that use
of rosiglitazone was associated both with increased heart attacks and a doubling of heart
failure.
By manipulating the machinery used by our cells for quality control, researchers from the
University of Pittsburgh have found a way to restore the function of cystic fibrosis (CF)
airway cells. This could significantly reduce the sticky mucus that plugs the lungs of CF
patients, which leads to antibiotic-resistant infections and untimely death. The study,
appearing in the September 2008 print issue of The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org),
is significant because it shows a new way to manipulate the cellular quality controls of
all sorts of proteins which play a role in conditions ranging from aging to cancer.
"Our hope is that this work will provide new approaches for recovering function from
the protein whose inability to fold and function properly compromises the quality of life
and life expectancies of people with CF," said Raymond Frizzell, senior author on the
study. The researchers say, however, that it is too early to tell exactly what other
conditions this technique will affect. Most people do not realize that when our bodies
produce proteins, they sometimes make mistakes. Similar to what happens on assembly lines,
these mistakes are rejected and prevented from being used. In most people with CF,
however, defective (i.e., mutant) CFTR proteins made by airway epithelial cells could
actually be beneficial if they were allowed to reach their final destination at cell
surfaces. To help these mutant proteins (the {DELTA}F508 CF gene mutation) reach cell
surfaces, researchers developed a "decoy," made up of only a portion of the
complete mutant protein, which is rejected instead. In airway epithelial cells taken from
CF patients, the "distracted" airway cells allowed the complete {DELTA}F508 CFTR
protein to evade the quality control mechanisms that would have normally destroyed it.
"Since this pivotal discovery of the CF gene nearly 20 years ago, researchers have
made more progress toward a cure than they had in thousands of years before," said
Gerald Weissmann, MD, Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "People with cystic
fibrosis now live longer than once ever thought possible, and basic science breakthroughs
like this one keep the trend ever upward."
Antidepressants need new nerve
cells to be effective, researchers find
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered in mice that the brain must
create new nerve cells for either exercise or antidepressants to reduce depression-like
behavior. In addition, the researchers found that antidepressants and exercise use the
same biochemical pathway to exert their effects. These results might help explain some
unknown mechanisms of antidepressants and provide a new direction for developing drugs to
treat depression, said Dr. Luis Parada, chairman of developmental biology and senior
author of a study in the Aug. 14 issue of the journal Neuron. In animals, it was already
known that long-term treatment with antidepressants causes new nerve cells to be generated
in a part of the brain called the dentate gyrus. Exercise, which can also relieve the
symptoms of depression, stimulates the generation of new nerve cells in the same area.
“We would never claim that what we study in mice directly relates to how
antidepressants work in humans, but there are interesting features in parallel,” Dr.
Parada said. “The study unifies different observations that point to the brain’s
dentate gyrus region and to creation of nerve cells as being important in
depression.” Antidepressants act very quickly to increase levels of natural
compounds, called neurotransmitters, which nerve cells use to communicate. It takes
several weeks to several months, however, for the patients who respond to such treatments
to feel less depressed. Dr. Parada said this implies that some other long-term mechanism
is also at work.
Rapid changes in key Alzheimer's
protein described in humans
For the first time, researchers have described hour-by-hour changes in the amount of
amyloid beta, a protein that is believed to play a key role in Alzheimer's disease, in the
human brain. A collaborative team of scientists at Washington University School of
Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Milan report their results this week in
Science. "Proving that we can directly measure amyloid beta in the human brain is an
important step forward for both clinical and basic research, and that may be true not just
in Alzheimer's disease but also in other serious neurological disorders," says
co-first author David L. Brody, M.D., Ph.D., a Washington University neurologist who
treats brain injury and general neurology patients at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. The results
of the study contradicted the expectations of researchers, who were hoping to learn why
brain injury is linked to higher risk of Alzheimer's disease. They had hypothesized that
such injuries, caused by motor vehicle accidents, assaults and falls, would lead to an
increase in amyloid beta levels. Instead, they found recovery from brain injury, rather
than the injury itself, seemed to increase amyloid. The better a patient's overall
neurological status, the higher their amyloid beta levels rose."We can't at this
point rule out a very early spike in amyloid right after a brain injury," notes
Brody, assistant professor of neurology. "This study is just the beginning."
All types of antipsychotic drugs
increase the risk of stroke
All drugs used to treat psychosis are linked to an increased risk of stroke, and dementia
sufferers are at double the risk, according to a study published on bmj.com today.
Previous research has shown that second generation (atypical) antipsychotic drugs can
increase the chances of patients having a stroke. But the risk of stroke associated with
first generation (typical) antipsychotics, and whether the risk differs in people with and
without dementia, is not known. Concerns about an increased risk of stroke among people
taking atypical antipsychotic drugs were first raised in 2002, particularly in people with
dementia. In 2004, the UK's Committee on Safety of Medicines recommended that these drugs
should not be used in people with dementia, despite a lack of clear evidence.A team of
researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, examined data from
the General Practice Research Database (GPRD), which contains the clinical information of
more than six million patients registered at over 400 general practices in the UK. They
assessed the effect of exposure to antipsychotic medication on the incidence of stroke in
6 790 patients with a recorded incident of stroke and at least one prescription of any
antipsychotic between January 1988 and the end of 2002. The authors found that during
periods when patients were receiving an antispychotic drug they were 1.7 times more likely
to have a stroke, whereas people with dementia were 3.5 times more likely to have a stroke
whilst taking any antipsychotic. The likelihood of having a stroke was slightly higher for
people taking atypical antipsychotics than people taking typical antipsychotics. The study
did not look at the specific mechanisms linking antipsychotics and stroke or why the risk
is greater with atypical antipsycotics. Previously, the risk of stroke associated with
typical antipsychotics was unclear, say the researchers, but "we have established
that all types of antipsychotics carry an increased risk, although the risk might be
somewhat higher with the atypical drugs." They conclude - "We reaffirm that the
risks associated with antipsychotic use in patients with dementia generally outweigh the
potential benefits, and in this patient group, use of antipsychotic drugs should be
avoided wherever possible."
Variation of Normal Protein Could
Be Key to Resistance to Common Cancer Drug
Researchers at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UC SD)
in La Jolla have found evidence explaining why a common chemotherapy drug, cisplatin, may
not always work for every cancer patient. They have shown that when a variant version of a
key protein that normally causes cell death is active, patients may be resistant to the
cancer-killing drug. The scientists say that such findings, reported online this week in
the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are important to
understanding how personalized therapies may be developed for patients. In a series of
experiments, Jean Wang, Ph.D., distinguished professor of medicine and Associate Director
of Basic Research at the Moores UCSD Cancer Center, Richard Kolodner, Ph.D., professor of
medicine at UC San Diego and Executive Director, Laboratory Science and Technology at the
Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and their co-workers found evidence that when a
specific variant form of a so-called “mismatch repair” protein, PMS2, is active,
cisplatin doesn’t kill cancer cells the way it normally does. The cancer is, in
effect, resistant to the drug. As a repair protein, PMS2 is crucial to fixing mistakes in
DNA that may occur during replication. It also has a darker side, playing a role in
instructing cells to kill themselves. For example, Wang, Kolodner and their colleagues had
previously shown that PMS2 is needed for cisplatin to kill cancer cells, activating
another protein, p73, which in turn begins a cascade of steps leading to cell suicide.
Since most cancer cell-killing therapies such as chemotherapy and radiation take advantage
of this process, the team wanted to better understand how cancer cells might evade such
suicide instructions, rendering the therapy ineffective. Defects in such mismatch repair
genes and proteins can increase cancer risk, particularly for hereditary colon cancer. The
researchers knew that the PMS2 gene had at least 12 different forms in humans. In studies
on mouse cells lacking PMS2, they tested several different variations of the human PMS2
protein, for the most part showing that PMS2 indeed sensitized cells to cisplatin, causing
cell suicide. They finally found that one variant, PMS2 (R20Q), failed to activate p73 and
bring about cell death in response to cisplatin. The drug’s toxic effects were
compromised in cells with the PMS2 (R20Q).
First Gene Associated with Dry
Macular Degeneration Found
In a study that underscores the important role that individual genetic profiles will play
in the development of new therapies for disease, a multi-institutional research team
– led by Kang Zhang, MD, PhD professor of ophthalmology and human genetics at Shiley
Eye Center at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine – has made
two important discoveries related to age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading
cause of blindness in adults over the age of 60. In a paper published in the August 28,
2008 online issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers describe the
discovery of the first gene associated with severe, “dry” macular degeneration,
also known as geographic atrophy. Secondly, they show that there could be adverse
consequences, including blindness, if individuals who possess a particular variation of
this gene are treated with an experimental therapy currently being tested for another form
of AMD. Zhang and the research team have discovered the link between dry AMD and a key
molecule that alerts the immune system to the presence of viral infections, a molecular
protein called toll-like receptor (TLR)3.
Sticks and Stones - A New Study on
Social and Physical Pain
We all know the famous saying: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will
never hurt me,” but is this proverb actually true? According to some researchers,
words may pack a harder punch that we realize. Psychologists Zhansheng Chen and Kipling D.
Williams of Purdue University, Julie Fitness of Macquarie University, and Nicola C. Newton
of the University of New South Wales found that the pain of physical events may fade with
time, while the pain of social occurrences can be re-instantiated through memory
retrievals. The researchers set up four experiments to demonstrate this finding. In the
first two experiments, participants reported the amount of pain they felt while trying to
relive a physically or a socially painful experience. After writing detailed accounts of
each experience, the participants reported how they felt. The last two experiments were
similar to the first two, except participants were asked to work on some cognitive tasks
with different levels of difficulty after reliving a socially or physically painful event.
Newly-defined factors may prevent
postpartum smoking relapse
Although many women quit smoking during pregnancy to protect their unborn children from
the effects of cigarettes, half of them resume the habit within a few months of giving
birth. By shedding light on the factors that enable the other half to put down that
cigarette for good, a study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill could lead to programs designed to help women quit and stay quit. According to the
study, women with a live-in partner who shared some of the burden of child-rearing were
more likely to remain smoke free, while women who were single mothers or who lacked the
social and financial resources to deal with being a new parent were more likely to
relapse. “In the future we can look at these and other factors in women who quit
smoking during pregnancy to assess who is at low or high risk of relapse,” said Carol
E. Ripley-Moffitt, MDiv, research associate in UNC’s department of family medicine
and the study’s lead author. “We can then offer more intensive interventions for
those at higher risk to address the physical, behavioral and social issues related to
relapse.” Smoking during pregnancy increases the risks of pregnancy complications,
decreased birth weight and SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), Ripley-Moffitt said. She
noted that the past 15 years have seen a steady decrease in the number of women who smoke
while pregnant, in part because of an overall decline in smoking rates among all women of
childbearing age and in part because of interventions targeting women during the prenatal
period. “But more needs to be done because over 50 percent of women who quit the
habit during pregnancy are smoking again at six months postpartum,” Ripley-Moffitt
said.
Scientists at the University of York have discovered a new role for a population of white
blood cells, which may lead to improved treatments for chronic infections and
cancer.Natural Killer (or NK) cells are abundant white blood cells that were recognised
over 30 years ago as being able to kill cancer cells in the test tube. Since that time, a
role for NK cells in activating other white blood cells (including ‘T’
lymphocytes and phagocytes) and in directing how the immune system responds to a wide
range of infections has also been established. Because of these properties, NK have been
widely regarded as being of benefit in the fight against cancer and infection, and methods
to increase NK cell activity underpin a range of new experimental anti-cancer drugs and
anti-infectives.However, a research team in the University’s Centre for Immunology
and Infection and led by Professor Paul Kaye, has now demonstrated that NK cells also make
chemicals that inhibit immune responses.
Black raspberries slow cancer by
altering hundreds of genes
New research strongly suggests that a mix of preventative agents, such as those found in
concentrated black raspberries, may more effectively inhibit cancer development than
single agents aimed at shutting down a particular gene. Researchers at the Ohio State
University Comprehensive Cancer Center examined the effect of freeze-dried black
raspberries on genes altered by a chemical carcinogen in an animal model of esophageal
cancer. The carcinogen affected the activity of some 2,200 genes in the animals’
esophagus in only one week, but 460 of those genes were restored to normal activity in
animals that consumed freeze-dried black raspberry powder as part of their diet during the
exposure. These findings, published in recent issue of the journal Cancer Research, also
helped identify 53 genes that may play a fundamental role in early cancer development and
may therefore be important targets for chemoprevention agents. “We have clearly shown
that berries, which contain a variety of anticancer compounds, have a genome-wide effect
on the expression of genes involved in cancer development,” says principal
investigator Gary D. Stoner, a professor of pathology, human nutrition and medicine who
studies dietary agents for the prevention of esophageal cancer. “This suggests to us
that a mixture of preventative agents, which berries provide, may more effectively prevent
cancer than a single agent that targets only one or a few genes.”
Young Type-2 Diabetic Men Suffer
Low Testosterone Levels, Study Shows
oung men with type 2 diabetes have significantly low levels of testosterone,
endocrinologists at the University at Buffalo have found -- a condition that could have a
critical effect on their quality of life and on their ability to father children. This
study follows research published earlier by these scientists reporting that one-third of
middle-aged men with type 2 diabetes have low testosterone levels, requiring treatment for
erectile dysfunction. "These new findings have several clinical implications besides
the impairment of sexual function in these young men," said Paresh Dandona, Ph.D., UB
Distinguished Professor in the Department of Medicine and senior author on both studies.
New evidence on addiction to
medicines Diazepam has effect on nerve cells in the brain reward system
Addictions to medicines and drugs are thought to develop over a relatively long period of
time. The process involves both structural and functional changes in brain nerve cells
that are still poorly understood. However, a single drug or alcohol dose is sufficient to
generate an initial stage of addiction. Recent research conducted under the umbrella of
the Academy of Finland Research Programme on Neuroscience (NEURO) has discovered the same
phenomenon in the dosage of benzodiazepine diazepam. Benzodiazepines are highly effective
medicines that are widely used in the treatment of anxiety, insomnia, pains, panic attacks
and other symptoms. However, over time patients may develop an increased tolerance towards
these medicines and an unhealthy dependence. "Previously, addiction to
benzodiazepines has been explained by reference to negative rather than positive
reinforcement. In other words, the thinking has been that the reason people continue to
use the medicine is that it helps to alleviate their distressing withdrawal symptoms and
general discomfort, rather than because it provides a sense of reward," says
Professor Esa Korpi, who has been in charge of the research project at the University of
Helsinki. However, according to the latest research it seems that diazepam causes a
similar change in the brain's reward-inducing dopamine cells as a dose of alcohol,
morphine, amphetamine or cocaine. Furthermore, neural message transmission in the dopamine
cells is reinforced for up to 72 hours after ingestion of diazepam. "Our studies have
shown that diazepam also affects the dopamine system, which adds a new positive
reinforcement mechanism of reward learning to the theory of benzodiazepine
addiction," Korpi explains.
Genetic predisposition may play a
role in anxiety disorders
Finnish scientists have identified genes that may predispose to anxiety disorders.
Research conducted under the supervision of Academy Research Fellow Iiris Hovatta have
focused on genes that influence human behaviour, and some of the studied genes show a
statistical association with specific anxiety disorders. The work is carried out as part
of the Academy of Finland Research Programme on Neuroscience (NEURO). Previously
Hovatta’s team have explored the genetic background of anxiety in experimental
models. The current study follows up on these findings in humans using data collected as
part of national Health 2000 Survey consisting of 321 individuals who had been diagnosed
with anxiety disorder and 653 healthy controls. Hovatta says it was interesting that
different genes showed evidence for association to specific types of anxiety disorders,
such as panic disorder, social phobias or generalised anxiety disorder. The results will
be published in Biological Psychiatry in October. “Environmental factors, such as
stressful life events, may trigger an anxiety disorder more easily in people who have a
genetic predisposition to the illness,” Iiris Hovatta says. The focus in the
team’s further studies will be to understand the molecular and cellular processes
that link these genes to the regulation of anxiety behaviour.
Most people would agree that stress increases your risk for illness and this is
particularly true for severe long-term stresses, such as caring for a family member with a
chronic medical illness. However, we still have a relatively limited understanding of
exactly how stress contributes to the risk for illness. In the August 15th issue of
Biological Psychiatry, researchers shed new light on one link between stress and illness
by describing a mechanism through which stress alters immune function. In a very promising
preliminary study, Miller and colleagues found that the pattern of gene expression
differed between caregivers of family members with cancer relative to a matched group of
individuals who did not have this type of life stress. They found that among the
caregivers, even though they had normal cortisol levels in their blood, the pattern of
gene expression in the monocytes, a type of white blood cell involved in the body's immune
response, was altered so that they were relatively less responsive to the
anti-inflammatory actions of cortisol, but relatively more responsive to pro-inflammatory
actions of a transcription factor called nuclear factor-kappa B, or NF-?B. Gregory Miller,
Ph.D., corresponding author, explains more simply that, although "caregivers have
similar cortisol levels as controls, their cells seem to be 'hearing' less of this signal.
In other words, something goes awry in caregivers' white blood cells so they are not able
to 'receive' the signal from cortisol that tells them to shut down inflammation."
Thus, the current findings might help to explain why the caregivers would seem to be in a
chronic pro-inflammatory state, a condition of immunologic activation. This activated
state could contribute to the risk for a number of medical illnesses, such as depression,
heart disease, and diabetes. Dr. Miller remarks that part of the importance of these
findings is "because people have traditionally thought that higher cortisol is the
reason that stress contributes to disease, but this work shows that, at least in
caregivers, it's actually the opposite - there's too little cortisol signal being heard by
the cells, rather than too much."
A Temple University study finds fat in obese patients is “sick” when compared to
fat in lean patients. When our bodies don’t work properly, we say we’re sick. A
study published in the September issue of Diabetes finds that the same could be said for
fat tissue found in obese patients. The cells in their fat tissue aren’t working
properly and as a result, are sicker than cells found in lean patients’ fat tissue.
Lead author Guenther Boden, M.D. theorizes that “sick fat” could more fully
explain the link between obesity and higher risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
Researchers from the departments of endocrinology, biochemistry and surgery at the Temple
University School of Medicine took fat biopsies from the upper thighs of six lean and six
obese patients and found significant differences at the cellular level. “The fat
cells we found in our obese patients were deficient in several areas,” said Boden,
Laura H. Carnell Professor of Medicine and chief of endocrinology. “They showed
significant stress on the endoplasmic reticulum, and the tissue itself was more inflamed
than in our lean patients.”
Low Levels of Brain Chemical May
Lead to Obesity, NIH Study of Rare Disorder Shows
A brain chemical that plays a role in long term memory also appears to be involved in
regulating how much people eat and their likelihood of becoming obese, according to a
National Institutes of Health study of a rare genetic condition. Brain derived
neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is, as its name implies, produced in the brain. Studies of
laboratory animals have suggested it also helps control appetite and weight. The NIH
study, appearing in the August 28 New England Journal of Medicine, provides the first
strong evidence that BDNF is important for body weight in human beings as well. The NIH
researchers studied children and adults with WAGR syndrome, a rare genetic condition. The
researchers found that some of the people with this syndrome lack a gene for BDNF and have
correspondingly low blood levels of the substance. The people in this subgroup also have
unusually large appetites and a strong tendency towards obesity. “This is a promising
new lead in the search for biological pathways that contribute to obesity,” said
Duane Alexander, M.D., director of the NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development. “This finding may eventually lead to
the development of new drugs to regulate appetite in people who have not had success with
other treatments.” The study’s first author was Joan C. Han, M.D. and the senior
author was Jack A. Yanovski, M.D., Ph.D., both of NICHD’s Unit on Growth and Obesity.
Other authors of the study were from the National Human Genome Research Institute and the
National Institute on Drug Abuse, also part of the NIH. Funding for the study was provided
by the NICHD and the NIH Office of Rare Diseases.
