EurekAlert! - National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 23-May-2013

Circulation: Heart Failure
Death rates decline for advanced heart failure patients, but outcomes are still not ideal
UCLA researchers examining outcomes for advanced heart-failure patients over the past two decades have found that, coinciding with the increased availability and use of new therapies, overall mortality has decreased and sudden cardiac death, caused by the rapid onset of severe abnormal heart rhythms, has declined. However, the team found that even today, with these significant improvements, one-third of patients don't survive more than three years after being diagnosed with advanced disease.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 23-May-2013

Science Signaling
UCI study reveals new mechanism for estrogen suppression of liver lipid synthesis
By discovering the new mechanism by which estrogen suppresses lipid synthesis in the liver, UC Irvine endocrinologists have revealed a potential new approach toward treating certain liver diseases. With this finding, Dr. Ellis Levin and colleagues believe they are changing long-held views in the field.

National Institutes of Health, Department of Veterans Affairs

Public Release: 23-May-2013

Radiology
MRI-based measurement helps predict vascular disease in the brain
Aortic arch pulse wave velocity, a measure of arterial stiffness, is a strong independent predictor of disease of the vessels that supply blood to the brain, according to a new study.

NIH/National Center for Research Resources, UT Southwestern Clinical and Translational Alliance for Research

Public Release: 23-May-2013

Scientific Translational Medicine
Researchers find common childhood asthma unconnected to allergens or inflammation
Little is known about why asthma develops, how it constricts the airway or why response to treatments varies between patients. Now, a team of researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College, Columbia University Medical Center and SUNY Downstate Medical Center has revealed the roots of a common type of childhood asthma, showing that it is very different from other asthma cases.

Weill Cornell Medical College, Columbia University Medical Center, Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 23-May-2013

The Gerontologist
Adult day services for dementia patients provide stress relief to family caregivers
Family caregivers of older adults with dementia are less stressed and their moods are improved on days when dementia patients receive adult day services, according to Penn State researchers.

NIH/National Institute on Aging

Public Release: 23-May-2013

Nature Communications
The secret lives, and deaths, of neurons
University of North Carolina School of Medicine researchers uncover surprising insights about how nerve cells rewire themselves, shedding light on a process linked with neurodegenerative diseases and neurodevelopmental disorders like schizophrenia and autism.

National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Public Release: 23-May-2013

Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association
Regenerating spinal cord fibers may be treatment for stroke-related disabilities
A study by researchers at Henry Ford Hospital found "substantial evidence" that a regenerative process involving damaged nerve fibers in the spinal cord could hold the key to better functional recovery by most stroke victims. The findings may offer new hope to those who suffer stroke, the leading cause of long-term disability in adults.

American Heart Association, National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 23-May-2013

Journal of Academic Medicine
Future doctors unaware of their obesity bias
Two out of five medical students have an unconscious bias against obese people, according to a new study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. The study is published online ahead of print in the Journal of Academic Medicine.

NIH/National Cancer Institute

Public Release: 23-May-2013

Science
Drug reverses Alzheimer's disease deficits in mice, Pitt research confirms
An anti-cancer drug reverses memory deficits in an Alzheimer's disease mouse model, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health researchers confirm in the journal Science. The research, funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer's Association, reviewed previously published findings on the drug bexarotene, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for use in cutaneous T cell lymphoma.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 23-May-2013

Current Biology
Motion quotient
A brief visual task can predict IQ, according to a new study. This surprisingly simple exercise measures the brain's unconscious ability to filter out visual movement. The study shows that individuals whose brains are better at automatically suppressing background motion perform better on standard measures of intelligence.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 22-May-2013

Psychological Science
Study shows people can be trained to be more compassionate
Until now, little was scientifically known about the human potential to cultivate compassion -- the emotional state of caring for people who are suffering in a way that motivates altruistic behavior. A new study by researchers at the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center of the University of Wisconsin�Madison shows that adults can be trained to be more compassionate.

National Institutes of Health, Hertz Award, Fetzer Institute

Public Release: 22-May-2013

Psychological Science
Brain can be trained in compassion, study shows
A new study by researchers at the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows that adults can be trained to be more compassionate. The report, published Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, investigates whether training adults in compassion can result in greater altruistic behavior and related changes in neural systems underlying compassion.

National Institutes of Health, John Templeton Foundation, Impact Foundation, J. W. Kluge Foundation, Mental Insight Foundation

Public Release: 22-May-2013

Journal of Controlled Release
Research offers promising new approach to treatment of lung cancer
Researchers have developed a new drug delivery system that allows inhalation of chemotherapeutic drugs to help treat lung cancer, and in laboratory and animal tests it appears to reduce the systemic damage done to other organs while significantly improving the treatment of lung tumors -- the tumors virtually disappeared.

NIH/National Cancer Institute, National Science Foundation, Department of Defense

Public Release: 22-May-2013

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Mosquito behavior may be immune response, not parasite manipulation
Malaria-carrying mosquitoes appear to be manipulated by the parasites they carry, but this manipulation may simply be part of the mosquitoes' immune response, according to Penn State entomologists.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 22-May-2013

SLEEP 2013, 27th Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies

Sleep
Study shows that insomnia may cause dysfunction in emotional brain circuitry
A new study provides neurobiological evidence for dysfunction in the neural circuitry underlying emotion regulation in people with insomnia, which may have implications for the risk relationship between insomnia and depression.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 22-May-2013

Neuron
Researchers eliminate schizophrenia symptoms in an animal model
Overexpression of a gene associated with schizophrenia causes classic symptoms of the disorder that are reversed when gene expression returns to normal, scientists report. They genetically engineered mice so they could turn up levels of neuregulin-1 to mimic high levels found in some patients then return levels to normal, said Dr. Lin Mei, Director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University.

National Institutes of Health, National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression

Public Release: 22-May-2013

Nature
Penn study shows how immune system peacefully co-exists with 'good' bacteria
The human gut is loaded with helpful bacteria microbes, yet the immune system seemingly turns a blind eye. Now, researchers know how this friendly truce is kept intact. Innate lymphoid cells directly limit the response by inflammatory T cells to commensal bacteria in the gut of mice. Loss of this ILC function effectively puts the immune system on an extended war footing against the commensal bacteria a condition observed in multiple chronic inflammatory diseases.

National Institutes of Health, Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America, Burroughs Wellcome Fund

Public Release: 22-May-2013

Neuron
Scientists uncover molecular roots of cocaine addiction in the brain
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have unraveled the molecular foundations of cocaine's effects on the brain, and identified a compound that blocks cravings for the drug in cocaine-addicted mice. The compound, already proven safe for humans, is undergoing further animal testing in preparation for possible clinical trials in cocaine addicts, the researchers say.

NIH/National Institute on Drug Abuse

Public Release: 21-May-2013

American Thoracic Society 2013 International Conference

JAMA
Researchers find genetic tie to improved survival time for pulmonary fibrosis
Research into genetic features of pulmonary fibrosis by physicians and scientists at the University of Colorado School of Medicine may lead to improved treatment of this deadly lung disease, according to a paper published online by JAMA.

NIH/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Cancer Discovery
Changing cancer's environment to halt its spread
By studying the roles two proteins, thrombospondin-1 and prosaposin, play in discouraging cancer metastasis, a trans-Atlantic research team has identified a five-amino acid fragment of prosaposin that significantly reduces metastatic spread in mouse models of prostate, breast and lung cancer. The findings suggest that a prosaposin-based drug could potentially block metastasis in a variety of cancers.

NIH/National Cancer Institute, Norwegian Cancer Society, Norwegian Research Council, and others

Public Release: 21-May-2013

New England Journal of Medicine
Researchers find genetic risk factor for pulmonary fibrosis
A paper recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine and co-written by physicians and scientists at the University of Colorado School of Medicine finds that an important genetic risk factor for pulmonary fibrosis can be used to identify individuals at risk for this deadly lung disease.

National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, US Veterans Administration

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Journal of Neuroscience
Drugs found to both prevent and treat Alzheimer's disease in mice
Researchers at USC have found that a class of pharmaceuticals can both prevent and treat Alzheimer's disease in mice.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 21-May-2013

eLife
Keeping stem cells strong
A team of researchers led by biologists at the California Institute of Technology has found that, in mouse models, the molecule microRNA-146a acts as a critical regulator and protector of blood-forming stem cells (called hematopoietic stem cells, or HSCs) during chronic inflammation, suggesting that a deficiency of miR-146a may be one important cause of blood cancers and bone marrow failure.

NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NIH/National Cancer Institute

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Obesity
'Doctor shopping' by obese patients negatively affects health
Overweight and obese patients are significantly more likely than their normal-weight counterparts to repeatedly switch primary care doctors, a practice that disrupts continuity of care and leads to more emergency room visits, new Johns Hopkins research suggests.

Health Resources and Service Administration, NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Nano Letters
Single-cell transfection tool enables added control for biological studies
Northwestern researchers have developed a novel tool for single-cell transfection, in which they deliver molecules into targeted cells through temporary nanopores in the cell membrane created by a localized electric field.

National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health