EurekAlert! - National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 10-Jul-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Study reveals new mechanism that might promote cancer's growth and spread in the body
Researchers have discovered a previously unknown mechanism that promotes the growth and spread of cancer. The mechanism involves key immune cells and a new role for small regulatory molecules called microRNA. The findings suggest a new strategy for treating cancer and perhaps diseases of the immune system.

NIH/National Cancer Institute, Kimmel Foundation Fellowship

Public Release: 10-Jul-2012

Hepatology
Levels of hepatitis C virus higher among African-Americans and males
Epidemiologists have determined that levels of hepatitis C virus (HCV) found among injection drug users (IDUs) were higher in individuals who are male or African-American even after differences in other factors were considered. Results of the study published in the July issue of Hepatology, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, also showed higher levels of HCV among IDUs who were co-infected with human immunodeficiency virus.

NIH/National Cancer Institute

Public Release: 10-Jul-2012

Eukaryotic Cell
UMass Amherst researchers unravel secrets of parasites' replication
A group of diseases that kill millions of people each year can't be touched by antibiotics, and some treatment is so harsh the patient can't survive it. They're caused by parasites, and for decades researchers have searched for a "magic bullet" to kill them without harming the patient. Now UMass Amherst microbiologists report the first detailed characterization of the way key proteins in the model parasite Trypanosoma brucei organize to replicate its mitochondrial DNA.

NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 10-Jul-2012

Nature Genetics
U-M researchers identify new genetic cause for chronic kidney disease
A new single-gene cause of chronic kidney disease has been discovered that implicates a disease mechanism not previously believed to be related, according to research from the University of Michigan.

National Institutes of Health, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Doris Duke Charitable Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award, NIH/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

Public Release: 10-Jul-2012

Journal of Youth and Adolescence
Multiracial youths show similar vulnerability to peer pressure as whites
Experts have thought that multiracial adolescents, the fastest growing youth group in the United States, use drugs and engage in violence more than their single-race peers. But in a new study, researchers find that mixed-race adolescents are more similar to their white counterparts than previously believed.

NIH/National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIH/National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, Australian Research Council

Public Release: 10-Jul-2012

Journal of American Geriatrics Society
Dangerous caregivers for elderly
A troubling new national study finds many agencies place potentially dangerous and vastly unqualified caregivers in the homes of vulnerable elderly people. The study found many agencies recruit random strangers off Craigslist and place them in the home of elderly people with dementia, don't do national criminal background checks or drug testing, lie about testing the qualifications of caregivers and don't offer training.

NIH/National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 10-Jul-2012
University of Minnesota licenses Clinical Decision Support technology
Clinical Decision Support technology developed by University of Minnesota researchers will enable healthcare providers to improve preventative care, communication and coordination among clinicians, researchers, and patients. Minneapolis-based startup Omicron Health Systems, Inc. will incorporate the technology in its Population Health Management offering to research networks and healthcare organizations.

NIH/National Center for Research Resources, NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Public Release: 10-Jul-2012

Radiology
Preclinical studies use specialized ultrasound to detect presence of cancer
Vessel "bendiness" can indicate the presence and progression of cancer. This principle led UNC scientists to a new method of using a high-resolution ultrasound to identify early tumors in preclinical studies. The method, based on vessel bendiness or "tortuosity," potentially offers an inexpensive, non-invasive and fast method to detect cancer that could someday help doctors identify cancers when tumors are less than a centimeter in size.

National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, UNC Lineberger

Public Release: 10-Jul-2012

Journal of Neuroscience
Preclinical development shows promise to treat hearing loss with Usher syndrome III
A new study published in the July 11 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience details the development of the first mouse model engineered to carry the most common mutation in Usher syndrome III causative gene (Clarin-1) in North America. Further, the research team from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine used this new model to understand why mutation in Clarin-1 leads to hearing loss.

Usher III Initiative, Elden Foundation, National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 10-Jul-2012

20th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior

Appetite
Weight gain induced by high-fat diet increases active-period sleep and sleep fragmentation
Obesity is characterized by excess daytime sleep. It is unknown if body weight (BW) gain by high-fat diet (HFD) alters sleep patterns. We hypothesized that HFD-induced BW gain in rats promotes active period sleep. To test the effect of HFD-induced weight gain on sleep, 3-month old Sprague-Dawley rats (n=12) were implanted with radiotelemetry transmitters connected to electroencephalogram and electromyogram leads.

US Department of Veterans Affairs, National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 10-Jul-2012

Arthritis & Rheumatism
Cancer screening rates comparable for those with and without rheumatoid arthritis
New research reveals that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients do not receive fewer cancer screening tests than the general population. Results of the study, funded in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), found that RA and non-RA patients receive routine screening for breast, cervical, and colon cancer at similar rates.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 9-Jul-2012

Journal of Experimental Medicine
TLR1 protein drives immune response to certain food-borne illness in mice
A naturally occurring protein called TLR1 plays a critical role in protecting the body from illnesses caused by eating undercooked pork or drinking contaminated water, according to new research from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

NIH/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America

Public Release: 9-Jul-2012

Biophysical Journal
Small molecule may play big role in Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease is one of the most dreaded illnesses facing older Americans. Researchers at UCSB used supercomputing to reach a consensus on the underlying mechanism of the disease.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 9-Jul-2012
$53 million grant will help health researchers develop new therapies -- with the public's help
University of Michigan scientists and doctors do some of the most advanced medical research in the world. But much of it wouldn't be possible without the thousands of people a year who volunteer their time, health information, blood, saliva, DNA or other samples to help those researchers better understand diseases and improve health outcomes. Now, a $53 million grant will renew U-M's ability to support such research.

NIH/National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences

Public Release: 9-Jul-2012
Einstein receives nearly $5 million to study how Ebola causes infection
The National Institutes of Health has awarded researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University a five-year, $4.8 million grant to study the molecular mechanism that allows the Ebola virus to cause infection and spread in animals.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 9-Jul-2012

Pediatrics
Rating films with smoking 'R' will cut smoking onset by teens
New research from Norris Cotton Cancer Center estimates, for the first time, the impact of an R rating for movie smoking. James Sargent, M.D., co-director of the Cancer Control Research Program at Norris Cotton Cancer Center, emphasizes that an R rating for any film showing smoking could substantially reduce smoking onset in US adolescents -- an effect size similar to making all parents maximally authoritative in their parenting, Sargent says.

NIH/National Cancer Institute

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