SUNDAY - May 20, 2007---------------------------- Previous Week News Alerts / Return to Today's News Alerts

Commonly Used Drug Offers Promise For Premature Babies.
Scientists have found evidence that the cox-2 inhibitor celecoxib, a common pain reliever used to treat arthritis, may offer a new way to reduce the risk of the most common cause of brain damage in premature babies. The work involves shoring up blood vessels in the part of the brain known in developing infants as the germinal matrix, a temporary structure that is the birthplace of all brain cells and is active until around week 36 of gestation. The structure runs like a jagged coastline just below spaces in the brain called ventricles, and in premature infants it's extremely active, churning out new brain cells that migrate and settle into other parts of the brain. When a baby is born prematurely, the structure is suddenly thrust into a role for which it is not designed, handling high rates of blood flow and pressure. Researchers focused on a molecule known as VEGF, which is largely responsible for answering the brain's call for more oxygen by actively building new blood vessels. It's the same compound that many cancerous tumors use to feed their demand for oxygen and to grow. The team showed that celecoxib cut the risk in offspring of having a moderate or severe bleed in half, from 90 percent to 45 percent.

Clock Gene Plays Role In Weight Gain, Study Finds.
Scientists at the University of Virginia and the Medical College of Wisconsin have discovered that a gene that participates in the regulation of the body’s biological rhythms may also be a major control in regulating metabolism. Their finding shows that mice lacking the gene Nocturnin, which is regulated by the circadian clock in the organs and tissues of mammals, are resistant to weight gain when put on a high fat diet and also are resistant to the accumulation of fat in the liver. This new understanding of weight gain could potentially lead to therapies for inhibiting obesity and for treating its effects on health. Research in this field has many health implications for dealing with aging, jet lag, sleep disorders, shift work and dieting. It is possible that, “after a great deal of further research, a drug possibly could be developed that would inhibit Nocturnin and reduce the risk of developing obesity.”

New Michael Moore Film Attacks U.S. Health Care.
Director Michael Moore says the U.S. health care system is driven by greed in his new documentary "SiCKO", and asks of Americans in general, "Where is our soul?" The controversial film maker is back in Cannes, where he won the film festival's highest honor in 2004 with his anti-Bush polemic "Fahrenheit 9/11". In "SiCKO" he turns his attention to health, asking why 50 million Americans, 9 million of them children, live without cover, while those that are insured are often driven to poverty by spiraling costs or wrongly refused treatment at all.

Scotland Unsure of Ability to Lead Stem Cell Research Against US.
WHEN THE governor of Massachusetts pledged earlier this month to make his state "the capital of stem cell research on the planet", one could almost hear the collective sigh ringing across the stem cell laboratories of Scotland. Another day, another billion dollars. And, indeed, his generosity would match New York State, which is also proposing a $1 billion cash infusion, and at least make it slightly more competitive against California, which plans to stump up $3bn over the next decade. These commitments put into context just how competitive the stem cell research field is becoming and invites the question of how exactly the UK, and more specifically Scotland, hopes to remain a world-class contender. In 10 years' time, will Scotland actually see any economic and medical benefits from the millions of pounds worth of investment from their government agencies? It's a depressing prospect that frustrates stem cell pioneers such as John Ansell, a director with the Scottish Stem Cell Network, a body that strives to bring everyone in the field to work together. He, too, has concerns that Scotland, which has all the ingredients to be a major world player, will be pushed to the side by deep-pocketed Americans.

Demand for Donor Eggs Soars, High Prices Stir Ethical Concerns.
Though many egg donors derive great satisfaction from knowing that they helped someone start a family, the price of eggs has soared in recent years as demand has increased, and the sizable payments raise controversy. A survey published this month in the journal Fertility and Sterility, “What Is Happening to the Price of Eggs?” found that the national average compensation for donors was $4,217. At least one center told the authors of the paper that it paid $15,000. Many centers did not respond.

STRICTLY SCIENCE

Revisiting the Role of the Mother Centriole in Centriole Biogenesis.
Centrioles duplicate once in each cell division cycle through so-called templated or canonical duplication. SAK, also called PLK4 (SAK/PLK4), a kinase implicated in tumor development, is an upstream regulator of canonical biogenesis necessary for centriole formation. We found that overexpression of SAK/PLK4 could induce amplification of centrioles in Drosophila embryos and their de novo formation in unfertilized eggs. Both processes required the activity of DSAS-6 and DSAS-4, two molecules required for canonical duplication. Thus, centriole biogenesis is a template-free self-assembly process triggered and regulated by molecules that ordinarily associate with the existing centriole. The mother centriole is not a bona fide template but a platform for a set of regulatory molecules that catalyzes and regulates daughter centriole assembly.
1 Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Cell Cycle Regulation Laboratory, Rua da Quinta Grande, 6, P-2780-156 Oeiras, Portugal.
2 Cancer Research UK, Cell Cycle Genetics Research Group, Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EH, UK.
3 Department of Evolutionary Biology, University of Siena, Via A. Moro 4, I-53100 Siena, Italy.

SATURDAY - May 19, 2007---------------------------- Previous Week News Alerts / Return to Today's News Alerts

How Insulin-producing Cells Develop Could Help Fight Diabetes.
A key aspect of how embryos create the cells which secrete insulin is revealed in a new study published 18 May in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. The researchers hope that their findings will enable the development of new therapies for diabetes, a condition caused by insufficient levels of insulin.

Immune Sys. Coaxed to Treat Autoimmune Dis/Tissue Rejection.
The immune system's ability to police itself may offer a new method of arresting the cells responsible for autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and for the rejection of transplanted organs and tissues, scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute report in a study in the May issue of the journal Immunity.

Method Tracks Immune System Enzyme In Live Animals.
Scientists supported by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) at the National Institutes of Health have created two mouse strains that will permit researchers to trace, in a live animal, the activity of an enzyme believed to play a crucial role both in the normal immune response as well as autoimmunity and B cell tumor development.

A Thymus Transplant For Babies With Fatal Immune Disease.
The latest results of Duke's experience with thymus transplant as treatment of the DiGeorge anomaly, published Tuesday, May 15, in the journal Blood, show that 75 percent of the babies who received a thymus transplant were alive after one year. The recipient of the first transplant, in 1994, is alive and well. Duke University Medical Center.

Kidney Cancer Shuts Down Protein Destruction Complex.
New evidence shows that Wilms tumor - a rare kidney cancer that affects children - promotes its own growth agenda by taking over a genetic program used by normal cells during development. The studies demonstrate that Wilms tumor exploits the same signaling pathway that is targeted by colorectal cancer cells, but it goes about hijacking that pathway in an entirely different way. The finding suggests that drugs targeting this pathway may be effective against a variety of cancers. Misguided Wnt signaling is now understood to be the culprit in a variety of cancers and other diseases. The study demonstrates how a perfectly normal form of cell-to-cell communication can be misappropriated.

Stanford Assesses Economic Benefits of Cal Stem Cell Funding.
If every person with juvenile diabetes lived five extra years because of a new stem-cell treatment, would that make California’s $3 billion investment in stem cell research worthwhile? What if heart attacks caused less damage to the heart, or Alzheimer’s disease struck at age 75 instead of 70? Stanford researchers published a paper in the May issue of Nature Biotechnology using a hypothetical model of a future treatment for diabetes as a way of examining the potential economic benefits of funding stem cell research.

STRICTLY SCIENCE

Study of Protein Folds Offers Insight Into Metabolic Evolution.
Researchers at the University of Illinois have constructed the first global family tree of metabolic protein architecture. Their approach offers a new window on the evolutionary history of metabolism. The study appears this week in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “This mosaic is telling you that the new enzymes and old enzymes are together performing side by side,” said Gustavo Caetano-Anollés, principal researcher on the study. “In some cases in the same protein you have old domains and new domains working together.” This finding supports the hypothesis that protein architectures that perform one function are often recruited to perform new tasks. The new, global family tree of protein architecture also revealed that many metabolic protein folds are quite ancient: These architectures were found to be quite common in all the species of bacteria, animals, plants, fungi, protists and archaea the researchers analyzed.
Published online before print May 14, 2007
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 10.1073/pnas.0610149104.

Functional identification of the hematopoietic stem cell niche in the ventral domain of the embryonic dorsal aorta.
The first definitive/adult-type hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in the mouse aorta-gonad-mesonephros region emerge between embryonic days 10.5 and 11.5. The discovery of clusters of hematopoietic cells on the ventral luminal surface of the dorsal aorta in various vertebrate species has led to speculation that the floor of the dorsal aorta may play an essential role for the development of the definitive hematopoietic system. Here, we functionally show affiliation of definitive HSCs with the ventral floor of the dorsal aorta, whereas colony-forming hematopoietic activity is associated with both ventral and dorsal domains. We show that a rare population of PECAM1highCD45+ cells, within which definitive HSCs reside, is predominantly localized to intraaortic clusters. Furthermore, using ex vivo culture analysis, we demonstrate that the ventral domain of the dorsal aorta has an exclusive functional capacity of inducing and expanding definitive HSCs.
Published online before print May 17, 2007
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 10.1073/pnas.0700984104.



FRIDAY - May 18, 2007---------------------------- Previous Week News Alerts / Return to Today's News Alerts

California High Court Clears Way For Stem Cell Grants.
The California Supreme Court cleared the way for the state's stem cell research agency to distribute billions of dollars in grants Wednesday when it turned back a last-ditch legal challenge by abortion foes and other critics. The state's high court declined to review a lower court ruling that upheld the constitutionality of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. The litigation fostered by a small band of conservatives had prevented the agency from doling out $3 billion in research grants.

Tommy Thompson's Embryonic Stem-Cell Conundrum.
Former Wisconsin governor and presidential hopeful Tommy Thompson celebrated the 1998 isolation of human embryonic stem-cells by throwing a party at his house. Last night, he tacitly defended President Bush's decision to limit federal funding to 21 lines.

Britain to Allow Hybrid Stem Cells.
The British government is withdrawing its objections to creating hybrid embryos from humans and animals for use in stem-cell research. The government had proposed a ban on the procedure last year. The stem cells are created by injecting human DNA into empty animal eggs, making the embryos 99.9 percent human, The Times of London.

Aspirin May Cut Pregnancy Complication Risk.
Women at high risk for the pregnancy complication preeclampsia can lower their odds by 10 percent by taking daily aspirin, a new study suggests.

A Bald Truth Is That Mice Can Regenerate Hair .
In what may be good news for the bald, researchers here have shown that mice can regenerate hair follicles in much the same way that newts and salamanders can regrow body parts. The findings "will undoubtedly inspire new thinking in the management of alopecia, in tissue engineering, and in the regeneration of other organs", Cheng-Ming Chuong, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

How "The Worm Turns" Left-Right Wiring in the Embryonic Worm.
Researchers have discovered that the developing worm’s neural network, which had not previously been mapped, is completely different from that of the adult animal. “A large number of embryonic neurons are heavily interconnected by gap junctions,” says Cori Bargmann, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. “They all grow to the midline, communicate with each other and create a conduit of information that links together these two different sides of the brain.” Then, after the gap junctions do their job, they disappear. A similar system of extensive gap junctions appears in the developing mammalian brain, but researchers have yet to figure out exactly what it does. In worms, at least, they now know that it’s involved in differentiating the left and right sides.

STRICTLY SCIENCE

Allele-Specific Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Studies Show Genetic Influence on Chromatin State in Human Genome.
Human health and disease are determined by an interaction between genetic background and environmental exposures. Both normal development and disease are mediated by epigenetic regulation of gene expression. The epigenetic regulation causes heritable changes in gene expression, which is not associated with DNA sequence changes. Instead, it is mediated by chemical modification of DNA such as DNA methylation or by protein modifications such as histone acetylation and methylation. Although much has been known about epigenetic inheritance during development, little is known about the influence of the genetic background on epigenetic processes such as histone modifications. In this report the authors studied five histone modifications on a genome-wide level in cells from different families. Global epigenetic states, as measured by these histone modifications, showed a similar pattern for cells derived from the same family. This study demonstrates that genetic inheritance may be an important factor influencing global chromatin states mediated by histone modifications in humans. These observations illustrate the importance of integrating genetic and epigenetic information into studies of human health and complex diseases.
Citation: Kadota M, Yang HH, Hu N, Wang C, Hu Y, et al. (2007) Allele-Specific Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Studies Show Genetic Influence on Chromatin State in Human Genome. PLoS Genet 3(5): e81 doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0030081.
Received: August 23, 2006; Accepted: April 6, 2007; Published: May 18, 2007

RNA Maps Reveal New RNA Classes and a Possible Function for Pervasive Transcription.
Significant fractions of eukaryotic genomes give rise to RNA, much of which is unannotated and has reduced protein-coding potential. The genomic origins and the relations of human nuclear and cytosolic polyadenylated RNAs longer than 200 nucleotides and whole-cell RNAs less than 200 nt are investigated in this genome-wide study. Subcellular addresses for nucleotides present in detected RNAs were assigned, and their potential processing into short RNAs was investigated. Taken together, these observations suggest a role for some unannotated RNAs as primary transcripts for the production of short RNAs. Three novel potentially functional classes of RNAs have been identified, two of which are syntenically conserved and correlate with the expression state of protein-coding genes. These data support a highly interleaved organization of the human transcriptome.
Published Online May 17, 2007
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1138341.

THURSDAY - May 17, 2007---------------------------- Previous Week News Alerts / Return to Today's News Alerts

Full-Term but Low-Birth-Weight Babies Risk Respiratory Illnesses.
In The Netherlands, children up to age five, born full term but at a low birth weight, were more likely to have respiratory symptoms, though not asthma. Early problems, including wheezing, coughing (not associated with a cold), and pulmonary infections, waned by age seven, reported Johan C. de Jongste, M.D., Ph.D., of Erasmus MC/Sophia Children's Hospital here and colleagues, in the May issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

In Spain, Pregnant Women Tested Positive for Pesticides.
Researchers at the Universidad de Granada, Spain, found 100% of the 308 pregnant women who had given birth to healthy children between 2000 and 2002, had at least one pesticide in their placenta, the average rate being eight different chemical substances.

Study Finds No Link Between Autism - Thimerosal In Vaccines.
"This study adds to the evidence that there is no casual association between thimerosal and childhood autism," said Judith Miles, who is the William S. Thomson Endowed Chair of Autism and professor of pediatrics and pathology in the MU School of Medicine. "We conclude that there is no indication that pregnancies resulting in children with autism were more likely to be complicated by Rh immune globulin/thimerosal exposure."

Britain Eyeing Breastfeeding Legislation.
The British government is considering legislation that would allow mothers to breastfeed their children in public and at their place of employment. The Times of London said Sunday that ministers began contemplating giving mothers such rights after the release of a World Health Organization report showing that only 21 percent of British mothers breastfeed their children for the full six months recommended.

Pheromone May Help Baby Rabbits Tell Night From Day.
Rabbit pups nurse just once a day, and some of them manage to down a third of their body weight in rich, high-fat milk. More remarkable, the feed usually lasts no longer than three minutes. No young bunny wants to miss out on its one and only meal, so the pups emerge from their nest about an hour before feeding time, which happens at the same time each day. Their temperatures rise and they start to move around in anticipation of their mother's visit. When the mother enters the nest, they make straight for a nipple. Newborn rabbits, born blind, find the nipple with the help of their mother's "nipple search pheromone". Robyn Hudson of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City, who first identified that chemical signal, told the annual meeting of smell and taste scientists, AChemS, in Sarasota, Florida, that the pheromone also appears to induce circadian rhythms.

STRICTLY SCIENCE

Blastocyst Axis Aligns with the Zona Pelucida Shape.
The mechanisms controlling the establishment of the embryonic-abembryonic (E-Ab) axis of the mammalian blastocyst are controversial. We used in vitro time-lapse imaging and in vivo lineage labeling to provide evidence that the E-Ab axis of the mouse blastocyst is generated independently of early cell lineage. Rather, both the boundary between two-cell blastomeres and the E-Ab axis of the blastocyst align relative to the ellipsoidal shape of the zona pellucida (ZP), an extraembryonic structure. Lack of correlation between cell lineage and the E-Ab axis can be explained by the rotation of the embryo within the ZP.
Science 4 May 2007: Vol. 316. no. 5825, pp. 719 - 723
DOI: 10.1126/science.1138591.

Drosophila Brakeless Interacts with Atrophin and Is Required for Tailless-Mediated Transcriptional Repression in Early Embryos.
Nuclear receptors play important roles in embryonic development and cellular differentiation by regulating gene expression at the level of transcription. The functions of transcriptional repressors, including nuclear receptors, are often mediated by other proteins, so-called co-repressors. We performed a genetic screen in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to search for novel co-repressor proteins. We isolated mutations in the brakeless gene that alter normal transcriptional repression in early fly embryos. Brakeless was already known to regulate axon guidance in the eye, larval behavior, and gene expression in wing imaginal discs. However, the molecular function of this protein was unknown. Here we show that Brakeless is a co-repressor required for function of the Tailless nuclear receptor.
Citation: Haecker A, Qi D, Lilja T, Moussian B, Andrioli LP, et al. (2007) Drosophila Brakeless Interacts with Atrophin and Is Required for Tailless-Mediated Transcriptional Repression in Early Embryos . PLoS Biol 5(6): e145 doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050145
Received: May 24, 2006; Accepted: March 26, 2007; Published: May 15, 2007.



WEDNESDAY - May 16, 2007---------------------------- Previous Week News Alerts / Return to Today's News Alerts

Low Glucose Levels Offer Clue to Sudden Infant Deaths.
Each year in the UK as many as 300 babies die from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) where there is no apparent reason and understanding why some babies and not others are more susceptible to sudden infant death syndrome is a complex puzzle. But now a team led by Dundee University professors have found what they believe could be a key piece in the puzzle. The team have identified defects in glucose production, particularly in premature and small babies, which make infants more prone to risk factors linked to cot death.

Synthetic Coloring/Preservatives Linked to Hyperactivity in Kids.
United Kingdom (UK) government funded research is suggesting another link between additives and hyperactivity, restlessness and tantrums and overall effects on children's behavior. Researchers analysed the effect of seven synthetic colourings and preservatives found in dozens of products and found that children consuming drinks with colourings were more likely to suffer from tantrums and become restless. Experts fear the findings may not be released for up to two more years even though this Southampton University report confirmed one released in 2002 concerning the same additives.

Oral Quick-Dissolve Strips for Rotavirus Vaccine.
An innovative drug-delivery system was developed by Johns Hopkins undergraduate biomedical engineering students. During a two-semester course, the seven-student team fabricated a thin film that should melt quickly in a baby's mouth, prompting the child to swallow the vaccine. The dissolved medication is coated with a material to protect it in the child's stomach. This coating is also designed to release the vaccine in the small intestine, where it should trigger an immune response to prevent a rotavirus infection.

Smokeless Cannabis Delivery Device - Efficient and Less Toxic.
Results of a UCSF study, which focuses on delivery of the active ingredient delta-9-tertrahydrocannibinol, or THC, are reported in the online issue of the journal “Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.” “We showed in a recent paper in the journal ‘Neurology’ that smoked cannabis can alleviate the chronic pain caused by HIV-related neuropathy, but a concern was expressed that smoking cannabis was not safe. This study demonstrates an alternative method that gives patients the same effects and allows controlled dosing but without inhalation of the toxic products in smoke,” said study lead author Donald I. Abrams, MD, UCSF professor of clinical medicine.

Glucosamine-Like Supplement Inhibits MS, Type 1 Diabetes.
In studies on mice, Dr. Michael Demetriou and colleagues with the UC Irvine Center for Immunology found that N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), which is similar but more effective than the widely available glucosamine, inhibited the growth and function of abnormal T-cells that incorrectly direct the immune system to attack specific tissues in the body, such as brain myelin in MS and insulin-producing cells of the pancreas in diabetes. Study results appear on the online version of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Insulin Levels May Dictate Success With a Diet.
A diet slightly higher in fat and lower in processed carbohydrates - such as refined cereals, white bread and white sugar - may help people who secrete insulin at higher levels lose more weight than a low-fat, higher-carb plan. In the study, those with higher insulin levels lost nearly five times as much weight on the lower-carb plan than on the low-fat plan, dropping 12.8 pounds in 18 months compared to just 2.6 pounds.

Just 10 Minutes of Daily Exercise Boosts Heart Health.
A new study has good news for those who've been avoiding exercise because they don't think they have enough time: Even 10 minutes a day can improve your cardiovascular fitness. Research found that when overweight or obese, sedentary women started to exercise an average of 72 minutes a week, they increased their peak oxygen consumption - a measure of cardiovascular fitness - by 4.2 percent compared to women who stayed on the sidelines..



TUESDAY - May 15, 2007---------------------------- Previous Week News Alerts / Return to Today's News Alerts

No Alcohol In Pregancy Is The Safest Choice.
Women should not drink alcohol while pregnant or planning to become pregnant, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians was told today in Melbourne. Alcohol causes many problems in pregnancy including stillbirth, prematurity, low birth-weight and miscarriage. For live born babies, it can cause fetal alcohol syndrome, neurodevelopment problems and birth defects. The National Health and Medical Research Council will release revised guidelines on alcohol and pregnancy by the end of the year. Currently the NHMRC recommends no more than two standard drinks a day and no more than seven standard drinks a week for pregnant women.

Sexual Selection's Important Influence On Primates Brains.
According to research published in the online open access journal BMC Biology, brain structures have developed due to different pressures on males and females to keep up with social or competitive demands. Greater male-on-male competition (sexual selection) correlated with several brain structures involved with autonomic functions, sensory-motor skills and aggression. Where sexual selection played a greater role the septum was smaller, and therefore potentially exercised less control over aggression. In contrast, the average number of females in a social group correlates with the relative size of the telencephalon (or cerebrum), the largest part of the brain. The telencephalon includes the neocortex, which is responsible for higher functions such as sensory perception, generation of motor commands and spatial reasoning. Primates with the most sociable females evolved a larger neocortex, suggesting that female social skills may yield the biggest brains for the species as a whole.

Effort To Develop Patient-specific Stem Cell Lines Launched.
Scientists launched a project to develop stem cell lines that genetically match human patients. These lines would allow medical scientists to better study various medical conditions - including diabetes. Scientists will use a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) in which a patient’s DNA is transplanted into a donated unfertilized egg cell in order to generate stem cell lines with the same genetic makeup of the patient. These lines have tremendous therapy potential because the human immune system is less likely to attack genetically identical cells.

Opossum DNA Provides New Insight Into Natural Selection.
When scientists scrutinised the opossum's DNA they discovered that genes situated near the edge of a chromosome were better at discarding mutations that might otherwise lead to disease. "It really is all about location; where a gene lives matters. This discovery is important because it will help us to separate DNA changes in the human genome that lead to disease from those that don't" says Professor Chris Ponting of the Medical Research Council Functional Genetics Unit at Oxford University, published in Genome Research.

Women Get Lower Quality Health Care Than Men.
Women are less likely to achieve good control of both heart disease and diabetes than men because they get lower quality care, researchers here reported. Diabetic women enrolled in Medicare managed care plans were 19% less likely to achieve LDL control compared with men and women enrolled in commercial managed care plans were about 16% less likely to have cholesterol under control, according to a RAND study published in the May/June issue of the journal Women's Health Issues.

Whole Grains Grind Down Diabetes Risk.
After adjustment for diet and other potentially confounding factors, the only factor associated with significantly lowered diabetes risk was fiber intake from grain. The relative risk for participants who ate the most cereal grain (average 17 g/day) was 27% lower compared with those who averaged only 7 g/day.

Flies Show Link Between Sleep And Immune System.
Go a few nights without enough sleep and you're more likely to get sick, but scientists have no real explanation for how sleep is related to the immune system. Now, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine are finding that fruit flies can point to the answers. What they have learned thus far is that illness and sleep disruption may be a two-way street: sick flies can't sleep, and losing sleep makes them more susceptible to infection.



MONDAY - May 14, 2007---------------------------- Previous Week News Alerts / Return to Today's News Alerts

Does Omega-3 Fatty Acid Slow Down Alzheimer’s Disease?
Nutritionists have long endorsed fish as part of a heart-healthy diet, and now some studies suggest that omega-3 fatty acids found in the oil of certain fish, algae and human breast milk also may benefit the brain by lowering the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. In order to test whether docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), an omega-3 fatty acid, can impact the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, researchers took part in a nationwide consortium of leading Alzheimer’s disease research.

Reversed Peptide Enhances HIV Infection.
The peptide, retrocyclin-111, is a synthetic analog of a naturally occurring peptide called retrocyclin-100. But while retrocyclin-100 protects cells against HIV-1, the reverse peptide actually promotes infections - reported the April issue of AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses. Retroviral vectors are currently being explored as vehicles for gene therapy.

Govenor Patrick Increases Stem Cell Funds.
Governor Deval L. Patrick ’78 announced a $1.25 billion funding initiative earlier this week for life science research in Massachusetts that will focus in part on embryonic stem cells. A sizable chunk of the money will be reserved for public institutions. The proposed multi-million dollar Massachusetts Stem Cell Bank and a separate center for RNA research will both be located at the University of Massachusetts, according to plans released by the Governor’s office. The stem cell bank will be the world’s largest repository for stem cell lines.

Should Your Child Be Tested for Cholesterol Levels?
According to the AHA scientific statement, physicians should conduct a full lipid profile on children and adolescents who present with a high-risk family history, including familial hypercholesterolemia, cardiovascular disease, diabetes or early heart attack and stroke. Children and adolescents who are overweight or obese should also be screened. Physicians should continue to monitor patients as they grow, taking into consideration factors that effect cholesterol in children, such as race, gender and puberty. Although prior guidelines, established in 1992, estimated that 25 percent of children and adolescents should be targeted for cholesterol screening, more recent studies suggest the number is actually between 36 percent and 46 percent.

E. Coli With a "Riboswitch" Chemo-Navigational System.
Published online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, researchers reported equipping E. coli with a "riboswitch," a segment of RNA that changes shape when bound to certain small target molecules, which can then turn genes on or off. Researchers believe that the riboswitch can be used to equip other types of self-propelled bacteria with "chemo-navigation" systems to move them toward desired targets.

Highly Unlikely That Older Women Generate New Eggs.
It is highly unlikely that older women generate new eggs, report researchers at the University of South Florida in collaboration with a center in China. The USF study, published in the March 2007 issue of the journal Developmental Biology and highlighted April 26, 2007 in Nature, counters the controversial findings of reproductive endocrinologist Jonathan Tilly, PhD, and his team of Harvard scientists. Tilly's work, published in 2004 in Nature with a follow-up study a year later in Cell, challenged the biological dogma that mammals, including women, are born with a limited lifetime supply of eggs. Tilly reported the discovery of stem cells capable of migrating from bone marrow to mouse ovaries and generating new eggs there. The research fueled hopes that a new treatment - such as bone marrow transplantation - might one day help older women regain their fertility. Since then, other papers have refuted Tilly's surprising finding that mice can produce eggs throughout their lives. Now, David Keefe, MD, professor and chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at USF, and colleague Lin Liu, who also holds a post at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China, say they can find no evidence to support his hypothesis that women may generate new eggs after birth.