EurekAlert! - National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 9-Jul-2012

Menopause
Long-term hormone treatment increases synapses in rat prefrontal cortex
A new study of aged female rats found that long-term treatment with estrogen and a synthetic progesterone known as MPA increased levels of a protein marker of synapses in the prefrontal cortex, a brain region known to suffer significant losses in aging.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 9-Jul-2012

Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention
Technique spots disease using immune cell DNA
By looking at signature chemical differences in the DNA of various immune cells called leukocytes, scientists have developed a way to determine their relative abundance in blood samples. The relative abundance turns out to correlate with specific cancers and other diseases, making the technique, described in two recent papers, potentially valuable not only for research but also for diagnostics and treatment monitoring.

National Institutes of Health, Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute

Public Release: 9-Jul-2012

EMBO Molecular Medicine
Turning off key piece of genetic coding eliminates toxic effect of statins, SLU research finds
In research funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association and published in EMBO Molecular Medicine, Saint Louis University investigator �ngel Bald�n, Ph.D., found that the microRNA miR-33 plays a key role in regulating bile metabolism. Further, the research suggests that, in an animal model, the manipulation of this microRNA can improve the liver toxicity that can be caused by statins.

National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association

Public Release: 9-Jul-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Regulation by proteins outside cancer cells points to potential new drug target
Proteins outside cancer cells that send signals to the cancerous cells to stop proliferating represent a potential novel target for therapeutic strategy, says a biochemist whose team made the finding. The study is from of the School of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 9-Jul-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Hormone curbs depressive-like symptoms in stressed mice
A hormone with anti-diabetic properties also reduces depression-like symptoms in mice. The finding offers a novel target for treating depression. The study is from the School of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio.

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

Public Release: 9-Jul-2012

PLOS ONE
New evidence for link between obesity and circle of friends
A Loyola study of high school students provides new evidence that a person's circle of friends may influence his or her weight. Students were more likely to gain weight if they had friends who were heavier than they were. Conversely, students were more likely to get trimmer -- or gain weight at a slower pace -- if their friends were leaner than they were.

NIH/National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Public Release: 9-Jul-2012

Nature Genetics
UTHealth, French researchers discover gene defect for new syndrome
Research teams from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Paris, France have discovered a gene defect linked to a cluster of systemic complications, including life-threatening thoracic aortic disease and intracranial aneurysms. The new syndrome is similar, but distinct from known syndromes such as Marfan and Loeys-Dietz syndrome.

National Institutes of Health, Vivian L. Smith Foundation, Tex-Gen Foundation

Public Release: 9-Jul-2012

Journal of Perinatology
Lower iron levels seen in newborns of obese mothers
Being born to an obese mother with elevated levels of the hormone hepcidin was associated with lower iron status at birth, according to researchers at Tufts University and Tufts Medical Center.

US Department of Agriculture, Tufts Medical Center, Natalie V Zucker Foundation, Stanley N. Gershoff Scholarship, NIH/Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

Public Release: 9-Jul-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Training improves recognition of quickly presented objects
"Attentional blink" is the term psychologists use to describe our inability to recognize a second important object if we see it less than half a second after a first one. It always seemed impossible to overcome, but in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Brown University psychologists report they've found a way.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 9-Jul-2012

Pediatrics
HPV vaccine reduces infection, even in unvaccinated
The HPV vaccine not only has resulted in a decrease in human papillomavirus infection in immunized teens but also in teens who were not immunized. The study is believed to be the first to show a substantial decrease in HPV infection in a community setting as well as herd protection.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 9-Jul-2012

Health Affairs
Generic drugs key to US overseas HIV relief
The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPfAR) program has spent billions of dollars during the last nine years to provide HIV-related care to millions of people in 15 developing nations. Had the program not overcome a late start in adopting generic drugs, it would never have accomplished that scale of benefit, write Brown University researchers in the journal Health Affairs.

Lifespan/Tufts/Brown Center for AIDS Research, National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 9-Jul-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
New silk technology preserves heat-sensitive drugs for months without refrigeration
Stabilizing vaccines and other heat-sensitive drugs in a protein made from silkworm cocoons maintains their potency without refrigeration, for months and possibly years at temperatures above 110 degrees F. The pharmaceutical-infused silk can be made in a variety of forms such as microneedles that allow the non-refrigerated drugs to be stored and administered in a single device. The discovery addresses a serious obstacle to the effective, convenient use of life-saving drugs: keeping them cold.

NIH/National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering

Public Release: 9-Jul-2012

Journal of Clinical Investigation
Decreasing cancer risk associated with inflammatory bowel disease
Inflammatory bowel disease is caused by chronic inflammation, which leads to damage of the intestinal epithelium. Patients with inflammatory bowel disease have an elevated risk for developing colorectal cancer because of this chronic inflammation. In an effort to develop strategies to break the cycle of inflammation, Dr. Brent Polk and colleagues at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles examined two mouse models of colorectal cancer.

National Institutes of Health, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America

Public Release: 8-Jul-2012

Nature Genetics
Exome sequencing of health condition extremes can reveal susceptibility genes
Comparing DNA from patients at the best and worst extremes of a health condition can reveal genes for resistance and susceptibility. This approach discovered rare variations in the DCTN4 gene among cystic fibrosis patients prone to early, chronic airway infections. The gene codes for part of a molecular motor that moves microbes along a cellular conveyer belt to their annihilation. Similar "testing the extremes" strategies may uncover genes behind more common traits -- healthy and unhealthy hearts, leaness and obesity, and normal and high blood pressure.

National Institutes of Health, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Life Sciences Discovery Fund

Public Release: 8-Jul-2012

Nature Medicine
Researchers discover molecule in immune system that could help treat dangerous skin cancer
Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have made a groundbreaking discovery that will shape the future of melanoma therapy.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 8-Jul-2012

Nature Medicine
What happens when we sunburn
The biological mechanism of sunburn � the reddish, painful, protective immune response from ultraviolet (UV) radiation � is a consequence of RNA damage to skin cells, report researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and elsewhere in the July 8, 2012 Advance Online Publication of Nature Medicine.

National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH/NIEHS Center, Department of Veterans Affairs

Public Release: 6-Jul-2012
Like humans bacteria remember (if only for 4 seconds), says MU researcher
The National Institute of General Medical Sciences recently recognized and rewarded Hazelbauer's scientific contributions by granting him a "Method to Extend Research in Time" Award.

NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Public Release: 6-Jul-2012
TMC institutions get $20 million renewal grant for translational medicine center
In 2006, three Texas Medical Center institutions were among the first in the nation to receive a Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to accelerate the translation of laboratory discoveries into patient treatments. That grant has been renewed for another 5 years.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 6-Jul-2012

American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine
BWH researchers discover new vaccine candidate for Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital have discovered a new vaccine candidate for the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa taking advantage of a new mechanism of immunity.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 6-Jul-2012

PLOS ONE
Keeping the flu away
San Diego State University researchers at the Donald P. Shiley BioScience Center may have found the secret to helping the immune system fight off the flu before it gets you sick. A new study published today in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE, finds that EP67, a powerful synthetic protein, is able to activate the innate immune system within just two hours of being administered.

NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Public Release: 5-Jul-2012

Journal of Biological Chemistry
Loss of protein SPDEF allows prostate cancer cells to gain foothold at possible sites of metastasis
Prostate cancer kills only by metastasis to other tissues. A study published online July 2 shows likely mechanism required for this metastasis: cells' loss of protein SPDEF. The presence of SPDEF could be used to recognize prostate cancers that can't kill and so don't require treatment. Adding SPDEF back to cancer cells that have lost it may remove cells' ability to metastasize.

National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Cancer Institute

Public Release: 5-Jul-2012

Diabetes
Antibodies reverse type 1 diabetes in new immunotherapy study
Scientists at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine have used injections of antibodies to rapidly reverse the onset of Type I diabetes in mice genetically bred to develop the disease. Moreover, just two injections maintained disease remission indefinitely without harming the immune system.

NIH/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Public Release: 5-Jul-2012

Blood
miR loss may power maligant transformation in chronic leukemia
This study shows that loss of a particular molecule in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) shuts down normal cell metabolism and turns up alternative mechanisms that enable cancer cells to produce the energy needed to proliferate and invade neighboring tissue. The study shows that the molecule, miR-125b, is often lost in CLL, and that the loss is associated with a characteristic of cancer cells called the Warburg effect.

NIH/National Cancer Institute

Public Release: 5-Jul-2012

Cell Stem Cell
The key (proteins) to self-renewing skin
In the July 6 issue of Cell Stem Cell, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine describe how human epidermal progenitor cells and stem cells control transcription factors to avoid premature differentiation, preserving their ability to produce new skin cells throughout life.

National Institutes of Health, Ray Thomas Edwards Award

Public Release: 5-Jul-2012

Journal of American Society of Nephrology
Vanderbilt study finds obesity linked to kidney injury after heart surgery
Obesity increases the risk of acute kidney injury following cardiac surgery, according to a Vanderbilt study published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

National Institutes of Health