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News 16 april 2009

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UCSF, Stanford Study Reveals Neural Networks Targeted in Brain Diseases

Scientists are reporting the strongest evidence to date that neurodegenerative diseases target and progress along distinct neural networks that normally support healthy brain function. The discovery could lead to earlier diagnoses, novel treatment-monitoring strategies, and, possibly, recognition of a common disease process among all forms of neurodegeneration. The study, reported in the April 16 issue of the journal "Neuron," was conducted by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco and the Stanford University School of Medicine, who characterized their finding as "an important new framework for understanding neurodegenerative disease." The finding inspired the image for the cover of the issue of the journal. Researchers have known that neurodegenerative diseases are associated with misfolded proteins that aggregate within specific populations of neurons in the brain. Alzheimer's disease, for instance, results from misfolding events involving beta-amyloid and tau proteins, which result in neuritic plaque and neurofibrillary tangle formation in medial temporal memory structures. In all neurodegenerative diseases, synapses between nerve cells falter, and damage spreads to new regions, accompanied by worsening clinical deficits. In most cases, however, scientists have not known what determines the specific brain regions affected by a disease. The current neuroimaging study, which examined patients with five forms of early age-of-onset dementia -- Alzheimer's disease, behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia, semantic dementia, progressive nonfluent aphasia, and corticobasal syndrome - as well as two groups of healthy controls, showed that each disease targets a different neural network. "The study suggests that these diseases don't spread across the brain like a plaque but instead travel along established neural network pathways," says the lead author of the study, William W. Seeley, MD, assistant professor of neurology at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center.

Stanford researchers harness nanoparticles to track cancer cell changes

The more dots there are, the more accurate a picture you get when you connect them. A new imaging technology could give scientists the ability to simultaneously measure as many as 100 or more distinct features in or on a single cell. In a disease such as cancer, that capability would provide a much better picture of what’s going on in individual tumor cells. A Stanford University School of Medicine team led by Cathy Shachaf, PhD, an instructor in microbiology and immunology, has for the first time used specially designed dye-containing nanoparticles to simultaneously image two features within single cells. Although current single-cell flow cytometry technologies can do up to 17 simultaneous visualizations, this new method has the potential to do far more. The new technology works by enhancing the detection of ultra-specific but very weak patterns, known as Raman signals, that molecules emit in response to light.

Long-lasting Nerve Block Could Change Pain Management

Injectable local anesthetic shows promise for prolonged pain relief without toxicity. Boston, Mass. -- Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have developed a slow-release anesthetic drug-delivery system that could potentially revolutionize treatment of pain during and after surgery, and may also have a large impact on chronic pain management. In NIH-funded work, they used specially designed fat-based particles called liposomes to package saxitoxin, a potent anesthetic, and produced long-lasting local anesthesia in rats without apparent toxicity to nerve or muscle cells. The research will be published online on April 13 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "The idea was to have a single injection that could produce a nerve block lasting days, weeks, maybe even months," explains Daniel Kohane, MD, PhD, of the Division of Critical Care Medicine in the Department of Anesthesiology at Children's, and the report's senior author. "It would be useful for conditions like chronic pain where, rather than use narcotics, which are systemic and pose a risk of addiction, you could just put that piece of the body to sleep, so to speak."

New way to analyze sleep disorders

Sleep is such an essential part of human existence that we spend about a third of our lives doing it -- some more successfully than others. Sleep disorders afflict some 50-70 million people in the United States and are a major cause of disease and injury. People who suffer from disturbed sleep have an increased risk of heart attack, stroke, hypertension, obesity, depression, and accidents. Nearly a fifth of all serious car crashes, in fact, are linked to sleeplessness. Diagnosing sleep disorders is not necessarily easy. In standard "sleep studies," people spend one or more nights at hospitals or other inpatient centers, sleeping while sensors and electrodes attached to the head and torso record breathing, brain waves, heart rate, and other vital signs. Now, a group of scientists in Israel and Germany has discovered a simple new way to monitor sleep and potentially diagnose sleep disorders just by recording someone's heart rate. Their method relies on using a mathematical technique to analyze these recordings and tease out information related to the synchronization between heartbeat and breathing, which might be a measure of fitness of the cardio-respiratory system. Their work may one day help clinicians more easily diagnose sleep disorders and determine optimal treatments for people with congestive heart failure. Athletes might also be able analyze their own recordings to optimize workouts. Conducted by researchers at Technische Universität Ilmenau in Germany, Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg in Germany, and Schlafmedizinisches Zentrum der Charité Berlin, the work appears in a special focus issue of the journal Chaos, which is published by the American Institute of Physics (AIP). The special issue is focused on nonlinear dynamics in cognitive and neural systems. It asks how chaos affects certain brain areas and presents interdisciplinary approaches to various problems in neuroscience -- including sleep disorders.

New minimally invasive surgery option for patients with stomach cancer

A novel, minimally invasive surgical approach to treat stomach cancer has been shown to have advantages that may make it a preferable treatment for some patients. A new study led by researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) compares traditional "open" surgery to remove the stomach with laparoscopic gastrectomy – a minimally invasive procedure in which the surgeon removes the stomach while guided by a magnified image projected by a thin, lighted tube with a video camera at its tip, called a laparoscope. The findings demonstrate that while laparoscopic surgeries generally took longer to perform than open procedures, the minimally invasive approach yielded shorter hospital stays, decreased need for postoperative pain relief, fewer complications after surgery, and similar rates of recurrence-free survival after 36 months of follow-up. "Our number one goal in treating patients with stomach cancer is to remove the cancer completely and safely, while preserving his or her quality of life," says the study's lead author Vivian E. Strong, MD, a surgeon at MSKCC who specializes in laparoscopic surgery for the treatment of stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer. "Laparoscopic gastrectomy is an excellent option for certain patients with the disease, and for those patients, this approach has the same success rate as standard open surgery, with significantly fewer complications." Published online in the Annals of Surgical Oncology, the paper describes the largest US study of laparoscopic gastrectomy to date and demonstrates both the safety and efficacy of the procedure. The study examined the surgical characteristics and oncologic outcomes of 30 patients who underwent laparoscopic gastrectomy and compared them to 30 patients who had open gastrectomies. The patients in each group were matched for cancer stage, age, and gender, and had their surgeries during the same time period. In addition to the benefits seen among the patients who underwent laparoscopic gastrectomy, researchers also observed that this approach enabled adequate lymph node retrieval, an important part of a complete cancer surgery in which nearby nodes are removed and then carefully examined for the presence of cancer cells to determine whether the cancer has spread. According to the authors, this finding addresses an ongoing controversy that questions whether removal of the lymph nodes and other oncologic features of the resection during laparoscopic gastrectomy are equivalent to open surgery, particularly given the technical demands of the minimally invasive approach and the learning curve required to perform an adequate resection.

Genetic Abnormality May Increase Risk of Blood Disorders

Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) have shown for the first time that a tendency to develop some blood disorders may be inherited. Their research, published online today in Nature Genetics, identifies a common genetic sequence abnormality that enhances the likelihood of acquiring a mutation in a gene linked to certain blood diseases. The investigators carried out a genome-wide study to identify inherited DNA sequence changes that frequently occur in patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms, in which several types of blood cells are excessively produced in the bone marrow. They found that an inherited alteration in the gene for JAK2 - a protein with enzymatic activity that is linked to the abnormal production of blood cells - is more common in patients with these disorders. Importantly, patients who inherited this JAK2 alteration were predisposed to acquiring another JAK2 mutation on the same DNA strand. According to the research, these mutations do not arise randomly, but are specifically determined by the DNA sequence.

HIV dearms protective protein in cells

The AIDS-causing HIV specifically counteracts the mechanisms of human cells that protect these against viral infections – a special viral protein marks protective cellular proteins for their rapid destruction and thus diminishes the cell’s supply. A team of researchers in Heidelberg under supervision of virologist Dr. Oliver Keppler demonstrated this mechanism for the first time in cell cultures, thus discovering a target for a novel treatment strategy. Another important discovery of the Heidelberg virologists – this strategy of the human HIV is not effective in a rat model for AIDS. The protective protein in rats is immune to HIV counteraction. Consequently, HIV cannot propagate itself as easily in the animal model as in humans – one limitation of the current rat model. However, this new knowledge may enable an improvement of the small animal model developed by the Heidelberg researchers. The study was published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe in March 2009.

“First Aid” for Brain Cells Comes From Blood

In acute ischemic stroke, the blood supply to the brain is restricted. Initially, brain cells die from lack of oxygen. In addition, ischemia activates harmful inflammatory processes in the affected area of the brain. For the first time, scientists at the Neurology Clinic at Heidelberg University Hospital have shown that certain immune cells in the blood inhibit inflammation after a stroke. These cells are known as regulatory T lymphocytes (Treg). The regulator cytokine Interleukin 10 plays an important role in this protection, perhaps offering a new approach to stroke therapy. The study has now been published in Nature Medicine.  Every year, some 200,000 people suffer a stroke in Germany. It is still frequently fatal or causes severe disability. The Neurology Clinic in Heidelberg under the direction of its medical director Professor Dr. Werner Hacke is one of the most prestigious centers in the world for developing and testing innovative approaches to stroke treatment. Immune cells produce the protective Interleukin 10.

Changing climate will lead to devastating loss of phosphorus from soil

Crop growth, drinking water and recreational water sports could all be adversely affected if predicted changes in rainfall patterns over the coming years prove true, according to research published this month in Biology and Fertility of Soils. Scientists from Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)-funded North Wyke Research have found for the first time that the rate at which a dried soil is rewetted impacts on the amount of phosphorus lost from the soil into surface water and subsequently into the surrounding environment. Dr Martin Blackwell who is one of the project leaders said: "Our preliminary results show that despite best efforts, the changing climate may limit our ability to mitigate phosphorus losses at certain times of the year, especially summer. "This is really worrying because high phosphorus concentrations in surface waters can lead to harmful algal blooms which can be toxic, cause lack of oxygen during their decay and disrupt food webs. This can also affect the quality of water for drinking and result in the closure of recreational water sport facilities." Under laboratory conditions Dr Blackwell and his team re-wet dried samples of UK grassland soil over different time periods, ranging from two hours to 24 hours using the same quantity of water. The leachate – water that has washed through the soil – was then analysed for phosphorus. The study showed that the rate at which a dried soil is rewetted affects the concentration and forms of phosphorus lost in leachate which could potentially contaminate surface water bodies (e.g. rivers and lakes).

Non-drug treatment of Alzheimer’s disease - long-term benefit not proven

Reliable conclusions about the potential for benefit and harm are currently not possible / In general there is still a great need for good studies on non-drug interventions. Whether people with Alzheimer's disease benefit in the long term from non-drug treatment interventions remains an unanswered question. This unsatisfactory finding is mainly due to the fact that convincing studies are lacking so far. For individual approaches, the studies provide indications of a benefit, but also of harm. This is the result of the final report by the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) published on 17 March 2009. According to IQWiG, a general problem of the benefit assessment of non-drug treatment interventions is particularly shown in the therapy of Alzheimer's disease: small research budgets and an underdeveloped study methodology lead to the situation that even for procedures with potential, no reliable conclusions can be drawn and thus no proof of a benefit can be provided.

A new method for bone-marrow-derived liver stem cells isolation and proliferation

Great interest has been aroused in the identification and isolation of liver stem cells from bone marrow cells. Several subsets of bone marrow cells have been found to have the potential to differentiate into hepatocytes, however, sorting based on immunological methods is difficult because of the complicated surface markers of the stem cells; furthermore, no report of successful passage has been published. A research article to be published on April 7, 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. The research team led by Dr. Cai and his colleagues from the Affiliated Foshan Hospital and the Second Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University established a carefully designed culture system to isolate, proliferate and differentiate liver stem cells directly from bone marrow cells, and they were able to achieve six passages of the stem cells. The results suggest that BDLSCs can be purified and passaged. The selecting culture system that contains cholestatic serum can purify BDLSCs directly from bone marrow cells, which provides an easy method to separate stem cells, by avoiding complicated immunological manipulation. The successful passage of the stem cells further verifies the proliferating ability of the cells, although the passage is limited, and further research will provide more experience. In this study, the authors used their original method to retrieve the cells, which are possibly BDLSCs. Then, they used fluorescence-activated cell sorting to determine the cells' characteristics before and after differentiation. This is an interesting and potentially important study, which suggests that bone-marrow-derived cells can be stimulated to expand and then differentiate into hepatocyte-like cells, which can possibly be used to treat liver disease.

Neurodegeneration study reveals targets of destruction, UCSF, Stanford study shows

Scientists are reporting the strongest evidence to date that neurodegenerative diseases target and progress along distinct neural networks that normally support healthy brain function. The discovery could lead to earlier diagnoses, novel treatment-monitoring strategies, and, possibly, recognition of a common disease process among all forms of neurodegeneration.The study, reported in the April 16 issue of the journal "Neuron," was conducted by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco and the Stanford University School of Medicine, who characterized their finding as "an important new framework for understanding neurodegenerative disease."The finding inspired the image for the cover of the issue of the journal. Researchers have known that neurodegenerative diseases are associated with misfolded proteins that aggregate within specific populations of neurons in the brain. Alzheimer's disease, for instance, results from misfolding events involving beta-amyloid and tau proteins, which result in neuritic plaque and neurofibrillary tangle formation in medial temporal memory structures. In all neurodegenerative diseases, synapses between nerve cells falter, and damage spreads to new regions, accompanied by worsening clinical deficits. In most cases, however, scientists have not known what determines the specific brain regions affected by a disease. The current neuroimaging study, which examined patients with five forms of early age-of-onset dementia -- Alzheimer's disease, behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia, semantic dementia, progressive nonfluent aphasia, and corticobasal syndrome – as well as two groups of healthy controls, showed that each disease targets a different neural network.

Brain mechanisms for behavioral flexibility

New research provides insight into how the brain can execute different actions in response to the same stimulus. The study, published by Cell Press in the April 16 issue of the journal Neuron, suggests that information from single brain cells cannot be interpreted differently within a short time period, a finding that is important for understanding both normal cognition and psychiatric disorders. Humans exhibit incredible flexibility when it comes to adjusting to the demands of a particular task. For example, when the word "blue" is written in red ink, separate responses to the color or the meaning of the word can be elicited. "Although the roles played by the frontal cortex in this kind of switching behavior have been well documented, little is known about how neural pathways governing sensory and motor associations accomplish such a switch," explains senior study author, Dr. Takanori Uka from the Juntendo University School of Medicine in Tokyo. Dr. Uka and coauthor Dr. Ryo Sasaki investigated where and how identical sensory signals are converted into distinct motor signals. The researchers examined the responses of middle temporal (MT) neurons and the associations between MT neurons and downstream functions in monkeys as they switched between direction and depth discrimination tasks. Previous work has shown that the MT area is critical for both direction and depth discrimination. The monkeys were trained to view dots on a screen and to indicate whether dots moved up or down when they saw the color magenta or whether the dots were nearer or father away when they saw the color cyan. "We found that neuronal sensitivities were nearly identical during both the direction and depth discrimination tasks; that is, neural activity depended on the visual stimulus and not the task itself," says Dr. Uka. This finding suggests that inputs to the MT area were not directly responsible for task switching. Importantly, the researchers went on to show that signals from different MT populations were read out to perform different tasks. "We suggest that task switching is accomplished via the communication of distinct populations of MT neurons into a downstream decision system," explains Dr. Uka. "We hypothesize that single neurons probably cannot switch outputs in a short period of time, so the brain realizes behavioral flexibility by preparing separate pathways for each task through learning, and then chooses the appropriate pathways, rather than switching outputs, in a given trial."

Melatonin is an effective treatment for sleep problems in children with autism

A study in the April 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine determined that over-the-counter melatonin medication can shorted the length of time it takes for children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), Fragile X Syndrome (FXS), or both to fall asleep at the beginning of the night. Results of the study indicated that children who received over-the-counter melatonin treatments experienced significant improvements in total night sleep durations, sleep latency times, and sleep-onset times. Mean sleep duration was longer on melatonin than placebo by 21 minutes, sleep-onset latency was shorter by 28 minutes and sleep-onset time was earlier by 42 minutes. According to the senior author, Beth L. Goodlin-Jones, PhD of the M.I.N.D Institute at the University of California Davis Health System in Sacramento, Calif., treatment with over-the-counter melatonin supplements benefits children of all ages, which helps alleviate some of the additional stress that parents of special-needs children experience. "Sleep onset problems at the beginning of the night are very troublesome for children and their families," said Goodlin-Jones. "Sometimes children may take one to two hours to fall asleep and often they disrupt the household during this time." Authors report that sleep problems are reported in up to 89 percent of children with autism and 77 percent of children with FXS, the most common form of inherited mental impairment ranging from learning problems to mental retardation, and also the most commonly known cause of autism. Dyssomnia (difficulty falling asleep and frequent nighttime awakenings) are among the most commonly reported problems. Researchers hypothesize that difficulty sleeping in these children is increased due to abnormal levels of melatonin, a natural hormone secreted from the pineal gland that is believed to promote sleep at night. The study included information from 12 children between the ages of 2 to 15.25 years. Sleep quality and quantity were measured both objectively and subjectively. Five participants met diagnostic criteria for autism, 3 for FXS, 3 for FXS and ASD, and 1 for FXS alone.

Study suggests that trouble sleeping leads to increased ratings of pain in cancer patients

A study in the April 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine suggests that sleep problems lead to increased pain and fatigue in cancer patients. The results indicate that interventions aimed at trouble sleeping would be expected to improve both pain and fatigue in this patient population. Results show that more than half the sample reported having trouble sleeping, with 26 percent reporting moderate or severe trouble sleeping. Compared with patients who reported no trouble sleeping, patients with moderate to severe trouble sleeping reported significantly more fatigue, pain and depressed mood. Using structural equation modeling analysis to evaluate causal relations and directions of effect, the best-fitting model indicates that trouble sleeping led to increased ratings of pain. According to the authors, the relationship between pain and sleep often has been assumed to be reciprocal. In the present study, however, a model of reciprocal causation could not be fit to the data, and models in which pain caused trouble sleeping did not fit as well as the model in which trouble sleeping caused pain. "We believed we would find a bi-directional relationship between insomnia and pain, but instead found that trouble sleeping was more likely a cause, rather than a consequence, of pain in patients with cancer," said lead author Edward J. Stepanski, chief operational officer at the Accelerated Community Oncology Research Network in Memphis, Tenn. The study included demographic, clinical and patient-reported outcomes data from 11,445 cancer patients undergoing treatment at the West Clinic, a large community oncology practice in Memphis. Participants had an average age of 61.5 years, and 74 percent were female. Breast cancer was the most common form of cancer, and about 25 percent of study subjects had received chemotherapy in the last 30 days. Increases in depressed mood also led to increased ratings of pain. Younger age and recent administration of chemotherapy were both associated with increased trouble sleeping. According to the authors, younger patients often receive more aggressive chemotherapy than older patients; therefore, younger patients may be exposed to more treatment-related toxicity.

Treating sleep disorders in people with traumatic brain injury may not eliminate symptoms

A study in the April 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine is the first to assess the effectiveness of treating sleep disorders in adults with a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Results indicate that treatment may result in the objective resolution of the sleep disorder without improvements in daytime sleepiness or neuropsychological function. Results show that in brain-injured subjects with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), three months of treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy dramatically reduced the severity of OSA from 31.4 to 3.8 apneas and hypopneas per hour of sleep; however, there was no demonstrable improvement in measures of daytime sleepiness. Participants experienced no significant changes in measures of mood, quality of life and cognitive performance after treatment for a sleep disorder. According to principal investigator Richard J. Castriotta, M.D., director of the division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, researchers were not surprised by the fact that patients with sleep disorders had more severe injuries; however the lack of improvement in excessive sleepiness and neuropsychological testing after treatment was unexpected. "The TBI patients with sleep apnea and no improvement in sleepiness may have had a combination of pre-existing sleep apnea and posttraumatic hypersomnia, causing sleepiness after the injury," said Castriotta. "These patients may need stimulant therapy in addition to CPAP in order to improve symptoms." The study involved 57 adults with an average age of 39 years who had suffered a traumatic brain injury at least three months earlier (average 68 months). Seventy-seven percent of the injuries (44) were incurred as a result of a motor-vehicle accident; other causes were assault, a fall or a falling object. Sixty-one percent of the subjects (35) were free of a sleep disorder, while 23 percent (13) had OSA, 7 percent (4) had periodic limb movements in sleep (PLMS), 5 percent (3) had narcolepsy without cataplexy and 3 percent (2) had post-traumatic hypersomnia.
Participants underwent objective evaluation by overnight polysomnography to detect the presence of sleep disorders, and both objective and subjective tests were used to measure daytime sleepliness, mood, quality of life and cognitive performance. Subjects who were diagnosed with OSA received individualized treatment with CPAP therapy while those suffering from narcolepsy, post-traumatic hypersomnia and PLMS received predetermined dosages of medications that were not adjusted after assessment. According to the authors, research has shown that some OSA patients have residual hypersomnia despite adequate CPAP therapy, which may explain the lack of improvement in measures of daytime sleepiness. Castriotta stated that the study illustrates how difficult it can be to measure the burden of sleep disorders in people with traumatic brain injuries.

Using PET/CT imaging, UCLA researchers can tell after a single treatment if chemotherapy is working

Oncologists often have to wait months before they can determine whether a treatment is working. Now, using a non-invasive method, researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have shown that they can determine after a single cycle of chemotherapy whether the toxic drugs are killing the cancer or not. Using a combination Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) scanner, researchers monitored 50 patients undergoing treatment for high-grade soft tissue sarcomas. The patients were receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy treatments to shrink their tumors prior to surgery. The study found that response could be determined about a week after the first dose of chemotherapy drugs. Typically, patients are scanned at about three months into chemotherapy to determine whether the treatment is working.
"The question was, how early could we pick up a response? We wanted to see if we could determine response after a single administration of chemotherapy," said Dr. Fritz Eilber, an assistant professor of surgical oncology, director of the Sarcoma Program at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center and senior author of the study. "There's no point in giving a patient a treatment that isn't working. These treatments make patients very sick and have long-term serious side effects. "

Surgical Gel Used to Stop Bleeding Could Confuse Mammograms

Dr. Kathleen Ward noticed something odd when she examined the mammogram of a patient who had recently undergone breast cancer surgery. The Loyola University Health System radiologist saw a suspicious pattern of white specks, much like grains of salt. The specks were calcium deposits similar to microcalcifications that sometimes are a sign of early breast cancer. But it was too early for the patient's breast cancer to have returned because it had been only a month since her lumpectomy. It turns out the microcalcifications were not from cancer. Rather, they were due to a gel that is sometimes used during surgery to stop bleeding. In a recent article in the American Journal of Roentgenology, Ward and colleagues reported seven cases in which the sealant mimicked malignant microcalcifications in mammograms. The sealant, FloSeal, "is not recommenderd for use on breast tissue," Ward and colleagues wrote. Ward is Medical Director of Women's Health Imaging and an assistant professor in the Department of Radiology at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. FloSeal, is among the products surgeons use to stop bleeding when sutures or staples are not sufficient or are impractical. FloSeal generally stops bleeding in two minutes or less. "We hope our study will raise awareness for others who may be using this product or any similar product," said first author Dr. Amy Henkel, a third-year radiology resident at Loyola. Previous studies have described the use of FloSeal in urological surgery, such as kidney resection, and cardiovascular surgery. FloSeal does not cause imaging problems for those procedures, but should not be used in breast surgery, said study co-author Dr. Richard Cooper, a professor in the Department of Radiology at Stritch.

MSU researcher develops vaccine for E. coli diarrheal diseases that kill up to 3 million children annually

A Michigan State University researcher has developed a working vaccine for a strain of E. coli that kills 2 million to 3 million children each year in the developing world. Enterotoxigenic E. Coli, which is responsible for 60 percent to 70 percent of all E. coli diarrheal disease, also causes health problems for U.S. troops serving overseas and is responsible for what is commonly called traveler’s diarrhea. A. Mahdi Saeed, professor of epidemiology and infectious disease in MSU’s colleges of Veterinary Medicine and Human Medicine, has applied for a patent for his discovery and has made contact with pharmaceutical companies for commercial production. Negotiations with several firms are ongoing. “This strain of E. coli is an international health challenge that has a huge impact on humanity,” said Saeed, who has devoted four years to develop a working vaccine at MSU’s National Food Safety and Toxicology Center. “By creating a vaccine, we can save untold lives. The implications are massive.” ETEC affects millions of adults and children across the globe, mainly in southern hemisphere countries throughout Africa and South America. It also poses a risk to U.S. troops serving in southern Asia and the Middle East. Saeed’s breakthrough was discovering a way to overcome the miniscule molecular size of one of the illness-inducing toxins produced by the E. coli bug. Since the toxin was so small, it did not prompt the body’s defense system to develop immunity, allowing the same individual to repeatedly get sick, often with more severe health implications.

Low glycemic breakfast may increase benefits of working out

The benefits of physical activity and a balanced diet are well documented and form the basis of many public health recommendations. This is because each of these factors can independently influence risks for many chronic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and some forms of cancer. Some research also suggests that exercise and diet interact to influence health. For instance, exercising after short-term fasting (such as before breakfast) may increase the amount of fat burned. Similarly, consumption of a meal eliciting a low blood glucose response prior to exercise may also boost the use of body fat (instead of glucose). However, most of these studies have used either trained athletes or recreational exercisers, and none has looked at effects of the type of pre-exercise meal on metabolism during and after exercise. To better understand the effects of pre-exercise meal composition on fat metabolism in more typical (sedentary) individuals, a group of researchers headed by Dr. Emma Stevenson at the University of Nottingham conducted a controlled human intervention trial. The results of their study are published in the May 2009 issue of The Journal of Nutrition. As expected, blood glucose concentrations were higher after the HGI than the LGI meals and had returned to baseline levels by the time exercise was commenced, after which they were not influenced by breakfast type. Plasma free fatty acids (FFA; a marker for adipose oxidation) fell after consumption of both HGI and LGI breakfasts, but began to rise at ~2 h post-breakfast in the LGI (but not HGI) treatment. Exercise caused a rapid increase in FFA in both groups, but this was higher in the LGI trial compared to the HGI trial (P < 0.001). Circulating concentrations of FFA were not different between treatments following lunch. Overall, fat oxidation was higher in the LGI treatment than in the HGI treatment (P < 0.05) during the post-breakfast and exercise periods. Following lunch, fullness scores were higher in the LGI trial than in the HGI trial (P < 0.05). The authors concluded that consuming a LGI breakfast increases fat oxidation during subsequent exercise and improved satiety during recovery in sedentary females. As such, individuals trying to shed fat may consider choosing LGI foods eaten prior to when they exercise.

Study Suggests Power of Imagination is More Than Just a Metaphor

We've heard it before: "Imagine yourself passing the exam or scoring a goal and it will happen." We may roll our eyes and think that's easier said than done, but in a new study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychologists Christopher Davoli and Richard Abrams from Washington University suggest that the imagination may be more effective than we think in helping us reach our goals. A group of students searched visual displays for specific letters (which were scattered among other letters serving as distractors) and identified them as quickly as possible by pressing a button. While performing this task, the students were asked to either imagine themselves holding the display monitor with both hands or with their hands behind their backs (it was emphasized that they were not to assume those poses, but just imagine them). The results showed that simply imagining a posture may have effects that are similar to actually assuming the pose. The participants spent more time searching the display when they imagined themselves holding the monitor, compared to when they imagined themselves with their hands behind their backs. The researchers suggest that the slower rate of searching indicates a more thorough analysis of items closer to the hands. Previous research has shown that we spend more time looking at items close to our hands (items close to us are usually more important than those further away), but this is the first study suggesting that merely imagining something close to our hands will cause us to pay more attention to it.

Findings show insulin - not genes - linked to obesity

Researchers have uncovered new evidence suggesting factors other than genes could cause obesity, finding that genetically identical cells store widely differing amounts of fat depending on subtle variations in how cells process insulin. Learning the precise mechanism responsible for fat storage in cells could lead to methods for controlling obesity. "Insights from our study also will be important for understanding the precise roles of insulin in obesity or Type II diabetes, and to the design of effective intervention strategies," said Ji-Xin Cheng, an assistant professor in Purdue University's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Chemistry.

A cure for honey bee colony collapse?

For the first time, scientists have isolated the parasite Nosema ceranae (Microsporidia) from professional apiaries suffering from honey bee colony depopulation syndrome. They then went on to treat the infection with complete success. In a study published in the new journal from the Society for Applied Microbiology: Environmental Microbiology Reports, scientists from Spain analysed two apiaries and found evidence of honey bee colony depopulation syndrome (also known as colony collapse disorder in the USA). They found no evidence of any other cause of the disease (such as the Varroa destructor, IAPV or pesticides), other than infection with Nosema ceranae. The researchers then treated the infected surviving under-populated colonies with the antibiotic drug, flumagillin and demonstrated complete recovery of all infected colonies. The loss of honey bees could have an enormous horticultural and economic impact worldwide. Honeybees are important pollinators of crops, fruit and wild flowers and are indispensable for a sustainable and profitable agriculture as well as for the maintenance of the non-agricultural ecosystem. Honeybees are attacked by numerous pathogens including viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites. For most of these diseases, the molecular pathogenesis is poorly understood, hampering the development of new ways to prevent and combat honeybee diseases. So, any progress made in identifying causes and subsequent treatments of honey bee colony collapse is invaluable. There have been other hypothesis for colony collapse in Europe and the USA, but never has this bug been identified as the primary cause in professional apiaries. "Now that we know one strain of parasite that could be responsible, we can look for signs of infection and treat any infected colonies before the infection spreads" said Dr Higes, principle researcher.This finding could help prevent the continual decline in honey bee population which has recently been seen in Europe and the USA.

Epilepsy Drug Linked to Babies' Lower IQ

Women with epilepsy who took the drug valproate ( Depakote) during pregnancy gave birth to children whose IQ at age 3 averaged up to 9 points lower than the scores of children exposed to other epilepsy drugs, according to a new study. Cold and brown fat raise the prospect of a new method of treating obesity Sven Enerbäck, Professor at the Institute of Biomedicine at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, is one of the scientists who published their results in The New England Journal of Medicine this week. Studies carried out by Enerbäck and others show that adults use brown fat to convert energy to heat - a discovery that may provide new possibilities in treating overweight and obesity. It has previously been believed that the brown fat found in infants disappears as we grow up, but the new study shows that this is not the case. Brown fat cells have been found in adults, in the lower part of the neck just above the collarbone.

Prenatal Exposure to Hong Kong Flu Associated With Reduced Intelligence in Adulthood

The Hong Kong flu pandemic was responsible for more than 700,000 deaths worldwide in the late 1960s, with major disease outbreaks in Europe in the winter of 1969-1970. A number of studies have been conducted to determine if prenatal exposure to the influenza virus may result in mental disorders that affect a small portion of the population, but no studies have explored the possible effects of prenatal exposure on the mean intelligence in the general population. A new study found that early prenatal exposure to the Hong Kong flu may have interfered with fetal cerebral development and caused reduced intelligence in adulthood. The study is published in Annals of Neurology.

Singapore researchers first to transform carbon dioxide into methanol

Scientists at Singapore's Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) have succeeded in unlocking the potential of carbon dioxide – a common greenhouse gas – by converting it into a more useful product. In the international chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie, the IBN researchers report that by using organocatalysts, they activated carbon dioxide in a mild and non-toxic process to produce methanol, a widely used industrial feedstock and clean-burning biofuel. Organocatalysts are catalysts that are comprised of non-metallic elements found in organic compounds. NHCs such as IMes (1,3-bis-(2,4,6 trimethylphenyl)imidazolylidene) are a form of organocatalysts that are stable and easily stored. They do not contain toxic heavy metals and can be produced easily without high costs. The scientists made carbon dioxide react by using N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs), a novel organocatalyst. In contrast to heavy metal catalysts that contain toxic and unstable components, NHCs are stable, even in the presence of oxygen. Hence, the reaction with NHCs and carbon dioxide can take place under mild conditions in dry air. The IBN scientists showed that only a small amount of NHC is required to induce carbon dioxide activity in a reaction. "NHCs have shown tremendous potential for activating and fixing carbon dioxide. Our work can contribute towards transforming excess carbon dioxide in the environment into useful products such as methanol," said Siti Nurhanna Riduan, IBN Senior Lab Officer, who is also pursuing her Ph.D. under the Scientific Staff Development Award at IBN, one of the research institutes of Singapore's A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research). Hydrosilane, a combination of silica and hydrogen, is added to the NHC-activated carbon dioxide, and the product of this reaction is transformed into methanol by adding water through hydrolysis.

Safe exercise for migraine sufferers

Many patients who suffer from migraines avoid taking aerobic exercise because they are afraid that the physical activity may bring on a serious migraine attack. Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have now developed an exercise programme that can improve fitness among migraine sufferers without aggravating this painful condition. Patients who suffer from migraines are often advised to take exercise, but to date no studies have been conducted to show that exercise actually helps guard against migraine attacks. No exercise programme has so far been scientifically proven to be safe for migraine patients. "We know that everyone benefits from a little exercise, but if you're convinced that a session at the gym will end up with you being confined to bed with a thumping headache and nausea then it's hardly surprising that people give it a miss," says Jane Carlsson, Professor in Physiotherapy at the Sahlgrenska Academy. In the study, which is being published in the latest issue of the scientific journal Headache, some twenty migraine sufferers were asked to follow a special exercise programme three times a week for three months. The programme involved using an exercise bike under the guidance of a physiotherapist.
"We could see that those who participated in the study were much fitter after the training period, since their ability to absorb oxygen increased considerably," says physiotherapist Emma Varkey, one of the researchers behind the study. Only one of the patients suffered a migraine attack that was directly linked to the training session. "Now that we've been able to show that the risk of increased frequency of attacks in connection with this type of exercise is extremely small, we can study whether exercise can be used to prevent or alleviate migraine attacks. "We have already initiated a new study in which we plan to compare the results against a control group," says Mattias Linde, neurologist at Cephalea Headache Centre and researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy.

New therapeutic target for melanoma identified

A protein called Mcl-1 plays a critical role in melanoma cell resistance to a form of apoptosis called anoikis, according to research published this week in Molecular Cancer Research. The presence of Mcl-1 causes cell resistance to anoikis. This resistance to anoikis enables the melanoma cells to metastasize and survive at sites distant from the primary tumor, according to Andrew Aplin, Ph.D., an associate professor of Cancer Biology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, and a member of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson. The research was conducted at Albany Medical College in New York by Dr. Aplin and colleagues. Mcl-1 is part of the Bcl-2 protein family, and is regulated by B-RAF proteins, which are mutated in approximately 60 percent of all human melanomas. The Bcl-2 family includes several prosurvival proteins that are associated with the resistance of cancer cells to apoptosis, or cell death. Dr. Aplin and colleagues analyzed three candidate Bcl-2 proteins: Mcl-1, Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL. "When we depleted Mcl-1 from the tumor cells, they were susceptible to cell death," Dr. Aplin said. "Mcl-1 showed dramatic results compared to Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL, which was a surprise. Our findings show that targeting Mcl-1, which is upregulated in a majority of melanoma cells, could be a viable treatment strategy." Dr. Aplin said there are therapeutic agents in development to target this protein family, but most specifically target Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL. There is one agent in development by Gemin X Biotech that targets Mcl-1. This agent, called obatoclax, is currently in phase I/II trials.

Prenatal meth exposure linked to abnormal brain development

A first of its kind study examining the effects of methamphetamine use during pregnancy has found the drug appears to cause abnormal brain development in children. The research is published in the April 15, 2009, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. "Methamphetamine use is an increasing problem among women of childbearing age, leading to an increasing number of children with prenatal meth exposure," said study author Linda Chang, MD, with the John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawai`i at M?noa in Honolulu. "But until now, the effects of prenatal meth exposure on the developing brain of a child were little known."For the study, brain scans were performed on 29 three- and four-year-old children whose mothers used meth while pregnant and 37 unexposed children of the same ages. The MRI scans used diffusion tensor imaging to help measure the diffusion of molecules in a child's brain, which can indicate abnormal microscopic brain structures that might reflect abnormal brain development. The scans showed that children with prenatal meth exposure had differences in the white matter structure and maturation of their brains compared to unexposed children. The children with prenatal meth exposure had up to four percent lower diffusion of molecules in the white matter of their brains. "Our findings suggest prenatal meth exposure accelerates brain development in an abnormal pattern," said Chang. "Such abnormal brain development may explain why some children with prenatal meth exposure reach developmental milestones later than others."

New findings resolve long dispute about how the disease might kill brain cells

For a decade, Alzheimer's disease researchers have been entrenched in debate about one of the mechanisms believed to be responsible for brain cell death and memory loss in the illness. Now researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of California, San Diego have settled the dispute. Resolving this controversy improves understanding of the disease and could one day lead to better treatments.
Michael Mayer, an assistant professor in the U-M departments of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering, and Jerry Yang, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCSD, and their colleagues found a flaw in earlier studies supporting one side of the debate. Their findings are published online in the Journal of Neurotoxicity Research. They will appear in the May print edition.
Their results clarify how small proteins called amyloid-beta peptides damage brain cell membranes, allowing extra calcium ions to enter the neurons. An ion is an electrically-charged particle. An ion imbalance in a cell can trigger its suicide. Amyloid-beta peptides are the prime suspects for causing cell death in Alzheimer's, although other mechanisms could also be to blame. The disease is not well understood. The researchers confirmed evidence found by others that amyloid-beta peptides prick pores into brain cell membranes, opening channels where calcium ions can rush in. This was one mechanism the field had contemplated, but other evidence suggested a different scenario. Some researchers believed that the peptide caused a general thinning of the cell membranes and these thinned membranes lost their ability to keep calcium ions out of brain cells. Mayer and Yang disproved this latter theory. "When you understand these mechanisms better, you have a better chance of being able to pharmaceutically counteract them as a possible treatment. For instance, if amyloid-beta thins membranes, this general effect might be difficult to treat. On the other hand, if it forms pores, this effect might be treatable with pore blockers. Ion channel blockers are medications sold today to treat a variety of diseases," Mayer said. He cautions that much research is needed before it is known whether such medications are effective and safe to treat Alzheimer's. Mayer and Yang were able to explain the other experimental results that blamed cell membrane thinning for uncontrolled calcium ion fluctuations. It turns out that in these studies, trace amounts of residual solvent used to prepare the peptide had a dramatic effect. The Michigan- and UCSD-led team reproduced these experimental results using only the solvent, without the peptide. The solvent is called Hexafluoroisopropanol, or HFIP."HFIP is a good solvent used to break up clumps of the peptide to prepare for experiments, but it's toxic and membrane-active. What we found was that the reported preparation procedure did not remove the solvent effectively," Mayer said. "Our findings are watertight since we could reproduce the thinning effect in the absence of amyloid-beta peptides by this solvent alone."

Gene therapy for muscular dystrophy shows promise beyond safety

Researchers have cleared a safety hurdle in efforts to develop a gene therapy for a form of muscular dystrophy that disables patients by gradually weakening muscles near the hips and shoulders. Described as the first gene therapy trial in muscular dystrophy demonstrating promising findings, researchers from the University of Florida (UF), Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and The Ohio State University report how they safely transferred a gene to produce a protein necessary for healthy muscle fiber growth into three teenagers with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. The findings, which have relevance to genetic disorders beyond muscular dystrophy as well as conditions in which muscles atrophy, were published online today in the Annals of Neurology. "We think this is an important milestone in establishing the successful use of gene therapy in muscular dystrophy," said Jerry Mendell, MD, director of the Center for Gene Therapy in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital and the lead author of the study. "This trial sets the stage for moving forward with treatment for this group of diseases and we are very pleased with these promising initial results. In subsequent steps we plan to deliver the gene through the circulation in hopes of reaching multiple muscles. We also want to extend the trials over longer time periods to be sure of the body's reaction." Mendell is also a professor of Pediatrics and Pathology at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy actually describes more than 19 disorders that occur because patients have a faulty alpha-sarcoglycan gene. In each of the disorders, the muscle fails to produce a protein essential for muscle fibers to thrive. It can occur in children or adults, and it causes their muscles to get weaker throughout their lifetimes. The trial evaluated the safety of a modified adeno-associated virus — an apparently harmless virus known as AAV that already exists in most people — as a vector to deliver the alpha-SG gene to muscle tissue. "The safety data is accumulating because this is the same type of vector that we and other research groups have successfully used in gene therapy trials for other diseases," said Barry Byrne, MD, a UF pediatric cardiologist who is a member of the UF Genetics Institute and director of the Powell Gene Therapy Center. "In this effort, although proof of safety was the main endpoint, the added benefit was that this was an effective gene transfer. Even though we were dealing with a small area of muscle, the effect was long-lasting, and that has never been observed before."

Biodegradable gel being studied as a treatment for esophageal cancer

Gastroenterologists at Rush University Medical Center are studying the safety and efficacy of a new system for delivering chemotherapy for patients with esophageal cancer, a rare, but deadly disease that attacks the throat. The unique drug therapy delivers a highly concentrated dose of chemotherapy injected directly on to the hard-to-reach tumors in the esophagus non-surgically. Researchers at Rush are trying to determine if the gel treatment can reduce the size of the cancerous tumors. Patients diagnosed with esophageal cancer are usually diagnosed at very advanced stages and not only have to undergo chemoradiation therapy, but may also have an esophagectomy, which is a surgical procedure to remove a part of or the entire esophagus. "Patients with esophageal cancer have very few treatment options and life expectancy can be less than two years from first diagnosis," said Dr. Sohrab Mobarhan, principal investigator of the study and clinical director of the Coleman Foundation Comprehensive Clinic for Gastrointestinal Cancers at Rush. "This also could potentially be a viable treatment option for patients who have inoperable tumors located in their esophagus." The investigational drug, called OncoGel, is made of two major components, the ReGel drug delivery system, which is a gel made up of ingredients used in biodegradable stitches, and paxclitaxel, a well established, FDA-approved anti-cancer chemotherapy agent. Patients receive a one-time injection of OncoGel during an endoscopy."In pilot studies, OncoGel has been shown to continuously release paclitaxel, which is the chemotherapy agent, in concentrated doses at a higher magnitude than in just delivering it through the blood for up to six weeks," said Mobarhan. Esophageal cancer can develop when stomach acid backs up into the lower esophagus, in some cases damaging cells in the inner layer of the esophagus. This abnormal cellular change is known as Barrett's esophagus. A person could ultimately develop cancer of the esophagus as a result of developing Barrett's. "Because the symptoms do not seem unusual, the disease can go unnoticed and ignored for long periods of time," said Mobarhan. "A chronic cough, sore throat, indigestion and acid reflux are some of the symptoms that can mask the disease. The lesions that form into cancerous tumors can cause the opening of the esophagus to narrow to nearly half its usual width and make it difficult to swallow." Data indicates that only 16,000 new cases of esophageal cancer are reported in the U.S. in 2008 and more than 14,000 people – almost 90 percent – died from the disease. In an earlier phase of the study of OncoGel in patients with late stage inoperable esophageal cancer, 70 percent of patients had a reduction in tumor volume when OncoGel was used in combination with radiotherapy. In addition, after treatment, biopsy samples did not contain tumor cells in almost 40 percent of patients.

Researchers break the animal kingdom's colour code

Charles Darwin was fascinated by the colours of animals - he once wrote to his colleague Alfred Russell Wallace asking why certain animals were "so beautifully and artistically coloured". It is a question that has intrigued biologists ever since. Now research spearheaded at the University of York (in collaboration with researchersfrom the University of Glasgow, and Carleton University in Canada) has used computer models to trace the evolution of this extravagant colouring. Researchers in the York Centre for Complex Systems Analysis (YCCSA) sought to explain why most animals that have an anti-predatory defence, such as a sting or poison, tend to be brightly coloured. Mimicry is common in nature. Defenceless species frequently evolve to look like a nasty species, so that potential predators cannot distinguish between the two -- a good meal or an unpleasant experience. Such mimicry is good for the defenceless species which predators can mistake for a daunting adversary, but is bad for nasty species which might be mistaken as a good meal. The YCSSA research, published in Evolution, suggests that nasty prey may have evolved bright colours to avoid this kind of mimicry. Bright colours are harder for defenceless prey to mimic because they have a survival cost of increased detectability by predators. There are also many ways to look distinctive when brightly coloured, but limited scope for doing so when camouflaged, because camouflage needs to blend in with the background.

North east of Barcelona and south east of Madrid, the urban centres with the most polluted air

During the summer, the southern region of the Mediterranean basin, where Spain is found, frequently experiences high levels of chemical pollutants in the air. Catalan researchers have studied the contribution of atmospheric processes during the hottest months of the year and have concluded that the areas leeward of Barcelona and Madrid have the poorest air quality levels. To determine the most polluted areas of north east and central Spain in the summer, a team of researchers from the Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña (Polytechnic University of Catalonia) (UPC) and the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC) has quantified with great precision the atmospheric processes that contribute to the concentration of pollutants. "The worst air quality levels are observed in areas leeward of Barcelona and Madrid, due to the plume of urban contamination that affects the south-south-east region of Madrid and north-north-east of Barcelona", María Gonçalves, principal author of the study and researcher at BSC, explains to SINC. The work, led by José María Baldasano and Pedro Jiménez of BSC and recently published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, has been centred around Catalonia and the Autonomous Community of Madrid as they are home to the two most populated cities, Barcelona and Madrid, "where episodes of atmospheric contamination are frequent", the scientist adds.

New study finds "it's never too late to stop drinking"

Where there is life there is hope and it is never too late to stop drinking, even with the most severe case of alcohol-related liver disease, according to new research from the University of Southampton. However, the downside is that up a quarter of people with alcohol-related cirrhosis die before they get the chance to stop drinking. Alcohol-related cirrhosis develops silently but usually presents with an episode of internal bleeding or jaundice - which is often fatal. The study, led by Dr Nick Sheron, senior lecturer at the University of Southampton and consultant hepatologist at Southampton General Hospital, found that abstinence from alcohol is the key factor in long-term prognosis, even with relatively severe alcohol-related cirrhosis on a liver biopsy. The study 'Alcohol, cirrhosis and mortality' appears in this month's Addiction journal. Its aim was to determine the effect of pathological severity of cirrhosis on survival in patients with alcohol-related cirrhosis. Liver biopsies from 100 patients were scored for the Laennec score of severity of cirrhosis between 1 January 1995 and 31 December 2000, and medical notes were reviewed to determine various clinical factors including drinking status.

Snacking on high GI foods during late pregnancy may lead to the birth of a heavier baby with an increased risk of childhood obesity, says new research

Mothers who snack on high GI (Glycaemic Index) foods like chocolate and white bread during later pregnancy may give birth to heavier babies with a greater risk of childhood obesity, according to new research published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The research by scientists from the UCD Conway Institute at University College Dublin, Ireland, and the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) in Dublin, Ireland, into sheep models of pregnancy discovered that high GI snack diets among ewes during the third trimester of pregnancy resulted in a heavier birth weight and postnatal growth rate of newborn lambs. According to the scientists, the sheep model used in the scientific study is instructive of the relationship between a human mothers’ diet, the birth weight of their child, and the risk of childhood obesity. In previous scientific studies, the sheep model has been shown to share many elements of pregnancy with the human model including metabolic function and nutrient transport. For the past 40 years, sheep models have been used to investigate maternal–fetal interactions in humans because sheep have a body weight of 65 to 85 kg, a 17 day (average) reproductive cycle, and they usually have 1 or 2 lambs per pregnancy with a relatively long gestation period of 147 days. Sheep models are also amenable to reproduction, nutritional and surgical manipulation and can tolerate observations like ultrasound and tissue collections such as blood sampling.
“For the first time, in a sheep model, the findings show that ewes fed high glycaemic foods twice daily in addition to their normal meals, during the last trimester of pregnancy, gave birth to heavier lambs with a faster postnatal growth rate,” says Professor Alex Evans, Associate Professor of Animal Physiology at the UCD School of Agriculture, Food and Veterinary Medicine, at University College Dublin, one of the co-authors of the study.

Big Pharma's Thalidomide Drug was Actually Developed as Nazi Chemical Weapon

The notorious drug thalidomide, which produced birth defects in the children of women who were prescribed it as a treatment for morning sickness, appears to have been developed by Nazi concentration camp doctors as a nerve gas antidote. "It is now appearing increasingly likely that thalidomide was the last war crime of the Nazis," said Martin Johnson, director of the Thalidomide Trust and author of one of the papers.
Thalidomide, marketed between 1957 and 1961 by the German company Chemie Grünenthal, caused women to give birth to children with developmental deformities including brain damage and malformed arms, legs, hands and feet. Grünenthal has always claimed that its scientists developed the drug independently while searching for a new antihistamine formula, and the German government has consistently refused to compensate any victims without German citizenship.

Tart Cherries May Help Reduce Belly Fat

A diet containing tart cherries may help reduce the symptoms of metabolic syndrome and the risk of cardiovascular disease, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Michigan and presented at the annual meeting of the American Dietetic Association. The study was funded by the Cherry Marketing Institute, which did not have any involvement in its design, implementation or analysis. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of symptoms that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, including high blood pressure, high triglycerides, high fasting blood sugar, low HDL ("good") cholesterol and central obesity (obesity characterized mainly by belly fat). In the current study, researchers evaluated several symptoms of metabolic syndrome in mice that were fed one of two diets, either with or without added whole tart cherry powder.

Study Finds New Hazard in Third-Hand Smoke

Dr. Jonathan P. Winickoff, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, explains: "Third-hand smoke is the tobacco smoke contamination that remains after the cigarette is extinguished. It's the toxic layer that is deposited on every surface indoors where a smoker lights up: in cars, on smokers' clothing and hair." In the study, researchers surveyed 1,500 households in the United States to determine if people were aware of the hazards of third-hand smoke. Most smokers and nonsmokers agreed that second-hand smoke was an obvious danger. However, only 65 percent of nonsmokers and 43 percent of smokers thought third-hand smoke was hazardous to children. Most people, and especially those who smoke, simply aren't aware of the risks of third-hand smoke.

Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Increased C-Section Rate

A study indicates women who are short on vitamin D are more likely to have a cesarean section delivery. The findings can be attributed to the work of a larger study which looked at the vitamin D levels in women within 72 hours of delivery. None of the women in the study had previous c-sections, and the rate of cesarean deliveries during the study was 17 percent. Researchers found 36 percent of women who had delivered babies to be vitamin D deficient, and 23 percent were found to be severely deficient. The findings indicate that a woman with low vitamin D levels is four times more likely to deliver by cesarean than a woman with higher levels.

Relatively low dietary intake of vitamins A and C boosts asthma risk

A relatively low dietary intake of vitamins A and C boosts the risk of asthma, suggests a systematic analysis of the available evidence published ahead of print in the journal Thorax. hese findings clash with a large review of the evidence, which was published last year. Observational studies in recent years have pointed to a link between dietary antioxidant vitamins — A,C, and E — and asthma. But the results of clinical trials have proved inconclusive, claim the authors, from The University of Nottingham.