SUNDAY - June 17, 2007---------------------------------Previous News Archive/ Return to Today's News Alerts

British Medical Body Backs Inter-Species Clones.
Making human-animal embryos for scientific experiments should be allowed because of the benefits to science and medicine, British experts said in a report released today. Such embryos should never, however, be implanted into either a woman or an animal, said the Academy of Medical Sciences. A cloning technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer, or SCNT for short, involves removing the nucleus from an egg cell and replacing it with the nucleus of a cell from the animal to be cloned - perhaps a skin cell, for instance. "Provided good laboratory practice is rigorously followed, research involving cytoplasmic hybrids or other inter-species embryos offers no significant safety risks over and above regular cell culture research," said Martin Bobrow of Britain's Wellcome Trust, who chaired the panel making the recommendations.

Tracking Babies' Life Chances.
Born in Bradford is one of the world's biggest studies into the reasons behind why some children fall ill while others do not. It will track the lives of more than 10,000 babies born in the city of Bradford, UK over three years from pregnancy, through childhood, until they become adults. Born in Bradford is the latest in the 60-year history of post-war birth "cohort" studies of society in Britain. Cohort studies are a special type of research project in which a group of people with something in common are followed for a period of time to identify what factors affect them. Despite being the fifth largest city in the UK the city's health is cause for concern. Bradford has higher than average levels of deprivation and child poverty. The number of babies who die before reaching their first birthday is amongst the highest in the country. Blood samples will be taken from mothers and fathers before the birth and a sample will also be taken from the newborn baby. The family will also fill in a detailed lifestyle form asking about issues such as diet, living conditions and exercise. The blood samples will provide a DNA profile of each person. That along with the questionnaires will allow researchers to assess how health is impacted by environmental conditions as well as genetic make-up. It will also become a valuable research tool for those looking at specific diseases such as epilepsy or asthma.

African Countries Want Increased Women's Health Funding.
Members of Commonwealth countries in East, Central and Southern Africa at a conference in Munyonyo, Uganda, agreed to recommend that governments increase budget allocations to health sectors to enable women access to emergency obstetric care without paying medical service fees, Uganda's Monitor newspaper reports. Representatives from Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia agreed to the recommendations, which included:

• Eliminating medical service fees for pregnant women;
• Institutionalizing deliveries and maternal death audits;
• Remuneration for medical workers; and
• Strengthening training for midwifery services..

In addition, the recommendations called for developing ways to empower women to seek health services without relying on their husbands and bringing health services closer to women to reduce maternal mortality. According to the representatives, a lack of funds for health services in the region is inhibiting countries from preventing obstetric emergencies - such as hemorrhaging, obstructed labor, sepsis and eclampsia - and has led to an increase in maternal mortality. The three-day conference was organized by the Commonwealth Secretariat and its Health Section and Social Transformation Programmes Division in collaboration with the East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community (Nafula, Monitor, 6/11).

Researchers Reveal Structure of Protein Altered in Autism.
As a result of mapping the structure of the protein complex implicated in autism spectrum disorders, a research team led by scientists at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences has discovered how particular genetic mutations affect this complex and contribute to the developmental abnormalities found in children with autism. Their work, published as the cover article in the June issue of the journal Structure, should help scientists pinpoint the consequences of other genetic abnormalities associated with the disorder. “By understanding the three-dimensional structure of the normal protein, researchers can now make predictions about how mutations in the gene affect the structure of the gene product,” said first author Davide Comoletti, Ph.D., UCSD research associate at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy.

Marine Organism Produces Promising Disease-Fighting Agents.
Scientists at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences have solved the genomic puzzle of an organism discovered in the oceans with potential for producing compounds showing promise in treating diseases such as cancer. Daniel Udwary and Bradley Moore joined colleagues at Scripps and the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Joint Genome Institute in successfully sequencing the genome of Salinispora tropica. The decoding opens the door to a range of possibilities for isolating and adapting potent molecules the marine organism naturally employs in the ocean environment for chemical defense, scavenging for nutrients and communication. The results were released this week in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Worth Repeating - How Cell Division Misfires Into Cancer.

Disorderly Protein Brings Order to Cell Division.
The secret to the ability of a molecule critical for cell division to throw off the protein yoke that restrains its activity is the yoke itself—a disorderly molecule that seems to have a mind of its own, say investigators at St. Jude, the Innsbruck Medical University (Austria) and the Max Planck Institute (Martinsried, Germany). A report on their work appears in the January 25 issue of the journal Cell. The researchers showed that the disorderly protein yoke, called p27, participates in its own destruction by swinging the end of its long arm up into a key side pocket of the cell division molecule, called CDK2. After the end of p27 slips into the pocket, CDK2 marks p27 for destruction by tagging it with a molecule called phosphate. The tag signals the cell’s protein destruction machinery to dispose of p27, freeing CDK2 to trigger cell division.  However, in order for the long arm of p27 to swing up into the pocket, an enzyme called a kinase must first remove the upper part of p27 that is lodged in the pocket by tagging it with phosphate. Only then is there room for the far end of p27 to insert itself. The findings explain how CDK2 normally shrugs off p27 and how some abnormal enzymes cause this to occur prematurely, putting cell division into overdrive - a state that produces cancer, noted co-senior author Richard Kriwacki, PhD, Structural Biology.



SATURDAY - June 16, 2007---------------------------------Previous News Archive/ Return to Today's News Alerts

Statement on Importance of Fetal exposures for Adult Health.
An international scientific conference has forged a new consensus statement on the importance of fetal exposures for adult health. Chemical exposures during prenatal and early postnatal life can bring about important effects on gene expression. New research on rodent models shows that developmental exposures to toxic chemicals, such as the hormonally active substances, diethylstilbestrol, tributyl tin, bisphenol A, genistein, can increase the incidence of reproductive abnormalities, metabolic disorders, including obesity and diabetes, and cancer. The PPTOX conference attracts toxicologists, epidemiologists, paediatricians, and other specialists with an interest in environmental health, developmental toxicity, and human disease etiologies.

Hormone Therapy Extends Lives of Ovarian Cancer Patients.
Hormone therapy that has proved successful against breast cancer may also extend and improve the lives of women with estrogen-sensitive ovarian cancer, a British study suggests. Letrozole hormone therapy may also be an alternative to chemotherapy for some women with the disease, according the report in the June 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research. "This study demonstrates that some ovarian cancers are responsive to anti-estrogen hormonal therapy, and these cancers, and therefore the patients who would benefit, can be identified," said lead researcher Simon Langdon, a Cancer Research UK scientist and a senior lecturer in cancer research at the University of Edinburgh.

Stem Cell Study Data Retracted, but Findings Still Stand.
In the latest chapter of the ongoing saga over flawed figures from a high-profile 2002 study on the versatility of adult stem cells taken from mouse bone marrow, the journal Nature has retracted the data. Scientists, however, say the errors, which involved descriptions used in the paper to identify the cells, were fairly unimportant and don't affect the study's conclusions. The findings - which showed that a particular type of adult stem cell could, at least in mice, become almost any kind of cell in the body - have been difficult to replicate. Her research was seized upon by opponents of embryonic stem cell research. Both Nature's editors and scientists interviewed in articles about Verfaillie seem to agree that her work itself was solid -- that, in short, she did a bad job of telling people what the cells looked like, but that the cells did what she said. Unfortunately, the paper was so prominent, and stem cell research is so politically charged, that this perspective gets lost in the uproar.

Bacteria Can Hide Out In Cells For Weeks.
A team of 12 researchers from University Hospital of Geneva, Switzerland and the Institute of Food Research, Norwich, UK set out to uncover what S. aureus (6850) did inside human lung epithelial cells (A549) using an in vitro model. They found that shortly after S. aureus entered the lung cells, the bacteria's gene expression profile dramatically changed: gene expression for bacterial metabolic functions and transport shut down, putting the bacteria in a dormant state. Simultaneously, production of toxins potentially lethal for the epithelial cells becomes strictly controlled to limit cellular damage. Mechanisms that helped the bacteria to survive and/or multiply, including metabolic and energy production functions, then resumed. Although most of the bacteria had died by about four days as a result of antibiotic treatment, the team still found viable bacteria in their model system two weeks after infection. The findings may help in understanding persistent infections, and in designing new antibacterial drugs. Article: "A global view of Staphylococcus aureus whole genome expression upon internalization in human epithelial cells" Christian Garzoni, Patrice Francois, Antoine Huyghe, Sabine Couzinet, Caroline Tapparel, Yvan Charbonnier, Adriana Renzoni, Sacha Lucchini, Daniel P Lew, Pierre Vaudaux, William L Kelley and Jacques Schrenzel, BMC Genomics (in press).

A Possible Link Between Stress and Alzheimer Tangles.
Subjecting mice to repeated emotional stress, the kind we experience in everyday life, may contribute to the accumulation of neurofibrillary tangles, one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease, report researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. While aging is still the greatest risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease, a number of studies have pointed to stress as a contributing factor. “A long-term study of about 800 members of religious orders had found that the people who were most prone to stress were twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, but the nature of the link between the two has been elusive,” says Paul E. Sawchenko, Ph.D., a professor in the Neuronal Structure and Function Laboratory, who led a phalanx of Salk researchers contributing to the current study.

Cytokine Resistance Contributes To Pathology Of Type 2 Diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is classified as a metabolic disorder, but a growing number of researchers are beginning to think of it also as a disease of the innate immune system. Inflammation is a key component of the early immune response, and is chronically elevated in people with type 2 diabetes. While the pro-inflammatory pathways of type 2 diabetes have received much attention, the anti-inflammatory side is less well known. A team, led by University of Illinois at Urbana pathology professor and department head Gregory Freund, has demonstrated that human monocytes cultured under type 2 diabetic conditions had impaired interleukin-4 signaling. Interleukin 4 (IL-4) is an important player in the immune response in that it steers macrophages toward the production of other anti-inflammatory cytokines. It also inhibits secretion of the pro-inflammatory cytokines. The study appears in this month's Journal of Immunology.

An Immune Function Discovery Could Boost Vaccine Research.
Bacteria, most of them "friendly," appear in huge quantities along the intestinal wall, the mouth, nose and throat, and the anal and urogenital tracts. Now, groundbreaking research at Weill Cornell Medical College shows that the epithelial cells that line these mucosal surfaces help guide the immune system's efforts to keep bacteria in check. "That's a wholly new finding, since most biologists think of epithelial cells as a barrier cell - not as a highly active player in immune function," explains senior researcher Dr. Andrea Cerutti, associate professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. "Armed with this knowledge, perhaps we can harness the mechanisms we've discovered to ward off more dangerous pathogens that use mucosal surfaces as their point of entry into the body -- viruses such as HIV, or rotavirus, the diarrhea pathogen that kills millions of children in poor countries each year," he explains. Research findings were published in the June issue of Immunity.



FRIDAY - June 15, 2007---------------------------------Previous News Archive/ Return to Today's News Alerts

Most Brain Aneurysms in Children Arise Spontaneously.
The origins of most of intracranial arterial aneurysms in children are not, as commonly believed, the result of trauma, infections, or vascular malformations, said Todd Abruzzo, M.D., of the University of Cincinnati, and colleagues, at the American Society of Neuroradiology meeting here. The findings suggest that unidentified environmental exposures, genetics, or an interplay between the two could be risk factors for aneurysm development, Dr. Abruzzo said. And these children are at increased risk for developing new intracranial aneurysms, said the authors. Source reference: Greeley AL et al. "Intracranial Arterial Aneurysms in the Pediatric Population." Abstract 276, presented June 13.

Polygamist Community Faces Rare Genetic Disorder.
The twin border communities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, have the world's highest known prevalence of Fumarase Deficiency, an enzyme irregularity that causes severe mental retardation brought on by cousin marriage, doctors say. The community of about 10,000 people, who shun outsiders and are taught to avoid newspapers, television and the Internet, is home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), a sect that broke from the mainstream Mormon church 72 years ago over polygamy.

IKBKE Gene Linked to 30% of Breast Cancers.
Reserachers found as many as 10 copies of the gene, called IKBKE, in some cancers. Normal cells have only two copies of IKBKE. Multiple copies were "found in anywhere from 30 to 40 percent of breast cancers, a pretty large percentage," said Dr. William Hahn of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston, who led the research. "If we can think of ways to target it, (IKBKE) can become potentially very useful in the future," he added. The gene codes for a certain kind of a protein, a kinase known as IKK-epsilon. It acts as a control switch to help regulate cell growth. When it has too many copies, a cell can make too much of the kinase, over stimulating a series of growth signals and allowing the cell to resist death and proliferate inappropriately, the researchers reported in the journal Cell. They are now trying to find a drug, perhaps a pill, to do the same in patients whose tumors have extra copies. Gleevec, a pill made by Novartis, fights chronic myelogenous leukemia by preventing another kinase from doing its job in rapidly dividing white blood cells. "There's a lot of similarity in how to target these things," Hahn said.

Progress Toward An Antitumor Vaccine.
How can we induce the body to use its own weapon, the immune system, to battle cancer? In principle, by the same means used against infectious diseases: immunization. The production of a selective vaccine is not a trivial task, however. A team led by Horst Kunst at the University of Mainz has now found a way to bind a molecule that is typical for tumors to a carrier protein without irritating the immune system. As they report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, their method is based on an immunocompatible connection by way of a sulfur atom, namely, a thioether. Epithelial tumor cells have unusually large amounts of mucin MUC1 on their surface. Mucins are mucilaginous substances that protect the surfaces of mucus membranes. They are glycoproteins—macromolecules with a central protein chain and long side chains made of polysaccharides. The modified MUC1 would be a good target molecule (antigen) for antibodies in immunological antitumor therapy.

Genetic Factors Linked To Fever Following Smallpox Vaccination.
Immunization against infectious agents has been one of the greatest successes of modern medicine, and the eradication of smallpox from the world is considered by some to be the crowning event of the 20th century. However, immunization with live virus particles, as in the smallpox vaccine, can sometimes cause reactions that range from fatigue to serious illness. Samuel L. Stanley Jr., MD, and colleagues at Washington University, St. Louis University, and The Emmes Corporation, hypothesized that people who develop fever after vaccination may have genetically determined differences in their immune responses compared to those who do not. The new study identified a total of eight haplotypes in four different genes that were associated with altered susceptibility to fever after vaccination. It is the first study to show that fever after smallpox vaccination is associated with specific gene clusters in the interleukin-1 (IL-1) gene complex on chromosome 2 and the interleukin-18 gene on chromosome 11. The interleukins, and especially the IL-1 gene complex, are groups of molecules associated with inflammation and immune responses. The IL-1 gene complex, and especially the IL-1A gene, was the site most significantly associated with different risks of fever.

The 'Eyes' Have It.

Shifty Eyes See Finer Details.
Most animals with sharp central vision, such as humans, monkeys, and cats, make microscopic eye adjustments when they fix their gaze. These jitters wiggle the image on the retina, and scientists know surprisingly little about why this happens. In the 1950s, vision researchers used cumbersome techniques involving rotating mirrors to negate the jitter when volunteers stared at an image. The volunteers began to see a featureless gray field rather than the image at hand, so scientists concluded that jittering kept the image from fading. But it wasn't clear how, or if, the jitters served other functions. Boston University neuroscientist Michele Rucci and colleagues revisited these questions using a less awkward approach: They used a computer to track the eye's movements. The research, published tomorrow in Nature, "makes a very compelling case" for the role of eye movements in discriminating details, says neuroscientist Richard Krauzlis of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, California.

Oven Cleaner Provides Surprising Eye Treatment.
Glaucoma involves an abnormal build-up of fluid inside the eye. Existing eye-drop treatments contain chemicals that don't attach to transport proteins very effectively, so only a small amount gets through the cornea. Now Sudipta Seal at the University of Central Florida in Orlando and colleague Sanku Mallik have successfully combined nanoceria with a compound that blocks the hCAII enzyme, which is involved in producing fluid inside the eye (The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, DOI: 10.1021/jp067666l).



THURSDAY - June 14, 2007---------------------------------Previous News Archive/ Return to Today's News Alerts

UK Doctors Warn Pregnant Women to Stay Out of The Sun.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) in Britain have issued a warning to pregnant women saying women in early pregnancy should stay out of the hot sun and away from high temperatures. The RCOG says studies suggest that babies can be affected by heat during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy and exposure to high temperatures in the first three months could lead to slightly lower birth weight. A study published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 2005 found that exposure to high temperatures in the first three months could lead to babies being born with a slightly lower birth weight. Such babies are prone to a low IQ and learning disabilities and are also more likely to exhibit behavioural problems.

Discovery of New Survival Mechanism in Common Bacteria.
Bacteria are divided into two types, gram-positive and gram-negative, the primary difference being the nature of the bacterial cell wall. Little is known about how gram-positive bacteria - those that can lead to food poisoning, skin disorders and toxic shock - avoid being killed by antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). AMPs are made by virtually all groups of organisms, including amphibians, insects, several invertebrates and mammals, including humans. Michael Otto, Ph.D., of NIAID's Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML), has discovered the mechanism that lets the gram-positive bacteria protect itself by warding off attacks from AMPs.

There Is No "Junk" in DNA.
Published in the June 14 issue of Nature, the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) Project has examined just 1 percent of the human genome in the last 2.5 years and come up with some fascinating observations. In about half of this 1 percent are areas known by scientists that initiate gene replication and protein coding, the building blocks of life. The other half is a random sample of other aspects of the genome, included so-called "junk DNA." "When they first sequenced the genome, [scientists] were surprised at how little DNA was involved in protein coding regions," explained Ewan Birney of the European Bioinformatics Institute in Hinxton, England. Birney noted that just 1.5 percent of the "letters" in the genome actually make cellular proteins. "One of the big surprises is that the regions between genes seem to be alive, not only with regulatory regions - which we suspected - but also there's a lot of [gene] transcription," Birney said. Transcription is the process whereby DNA transcribes its information into usable proteins.

Eye Protein Could Protect Against Multiple Sclerosis.
A protein found primarily in the lens of the eye could be the critical “tipping point” in the spiral of inflammation and damage that occurs in multiple sclerosis, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine report. This protein—alphaB-crystallin—is not normally found in the brain, but develops in response to the injuries inflicted on nerve cells by multiple sclerosis. The nerve-cell injuries can cause people to suffer loss of motor control and even paralysis. “The big breakthrough in this paper is answering the question ‘What is alphaB-crystallin doing?’” said Lawrence Steinman, MD, professor of neurology and neurological sciences. Steinman and his team demonstrated that the protein plays a protective role in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis—and when injected in mice, it can reverse paralysis. Their findings are published in the June 13 advance online edition of Nature.

Early Symptoms of Ovarian Cancer Identified.
Cancer experts have identified a set of health problems that may be symptoms of ovarian cancer, and they are urging women who have the symptoms for more than a few weeks to see their doctors. Bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly, and frequent or urgent need to urinate may be early signs of ovarian cancer. It was long believed that ovarian cancer gave no warning signs until it was far advanced, which is why it is considered one of the deadliest cancers. The new recommendations are the first official recognition that ovarian cancer does cause symptoms at earlier stages in many women, The New York Times reported. The new recommendations, expected to be formally announced on June 25, are being made by the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation, the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists and the American Cancer Society. Dr. Goff and other specialists said women with the listed symptoms should see a gynecologist for a pelvic and rectal examination. (The best way for a doctor to feel the ovaries is through the rectum.) If there is a question of cancer, the next step is probably a test called a transvaginal ultrasound to check the ovaries for abnormal growths, enlargement or telltale pockets of fluid that can signal cancer. The ultrasound costs $150 to $300 and can be performed in a doctor’s office or a radiology center. A $100 blood test should also be conducted for CA125, a substance called a tumor marker that is often elevated in women with ovarian cancer.

Odes to Dads For US Father's Day

Sleek, Fast and Focused: The Cells That Make Dad Dad.
Sperm are fast and as cute as tadpoles. They have chubby teardrop heads and stylish, tapering tails, and they glide, slither, bumble and do figure-eights. So while a father may not be entitled to take the same pride in his sperm as he does in his kids, it’s fair to celebrate the single-minded cellular commas that helped give those children their start.

Partner Choice 'Shaped By Father'.
Scientists have found women who were treated well by their dad during childhood are attracted to men who resemble their father facially. The research, led by a psychologist at Durham University, is published in Evolution and Human Behaviour. But the link is lost on women who did not have good relationships with their fathers. Author Dr Lynda Boothroyd thinks such knowledge could have implications for fields such as relationship counselling.




WEDNESDAY - June 13, 2007---------------------------------Previous News Archive/ Return to Today's News Alerts

Gene Switched Off In Cancer Can Be Turned On.
University of Michigan School of Medicine researchers have found a gene called Brahma, or BRM, is silent - but not missing - in some cancer cells. By exposing the BRM protein to an inhibitor drug, the researchers were able to turn the gene back on, allowing BRM to be expressed. The researchers found this gene is turned off in about 15 percent of tumors studied, including cells from lung, esophageal, ovarian, bladder, colon and breast cancers.

Myelin Implicated in Early Evolution of Huntington’s Disease.
Last month, Dr. George Bartzokis, director of the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) Memory Disorders and Alzheimer's Disease Clinic, suggested in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia that the breakdown of a type of myelin that develops late in life promotes the buildup of toxic amyloid plaques long associated with Alzheimer's disease. Myelin is the "insulation" that wraps around nerve axons in the brain. Now, in a new report currently online in the journal Neurochemical Research, Bartzokis turns his attention to Huntington's disease. Again, he suggests that a breakdown of myelin is the cause, but with a twist - it is the myelin that develops early in the formation of the brain that breaks down prematurely and eventually leads to the disease's symptoms.

"Lucky thirteen" New Gene Offers Hope for Childhood Blindness.
An international research team has discovered a gene that, when mutated, causes one of the most common forms of inherited blindness in babies. Scientists at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom, working in collaboration with experts from other centres around the world, identified the gene, which is essential to photoreceptors in the eye, the cells that "see" light. The finding, the thirteenth gene to be linked to Leber’s congenital amaurosis (LCA), comes at a time of hope for the people born with the disorder. Scientists at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, recently announced the start of clinical trials for a gene therapy involving injecting genes into the eye of patients with LCA to restore their sight. The finding of the new LCA gene, based on work funded by the Wellcome Trust and local charity Yorkshire Eye Research, appears in this month's edition of the journal Nature Genetics.

Father Skin-to-Skin Contact Same As Mom for Cesarean-Born.
A father providing skin-to-skin contact with his newborn immediately after a cesarean birth offers the same calming and comforting benefits as a mother, according to a new study by Swedish researchers published in the journal Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care. In a study of 29 father-infant pairs, full-term healthy newborns born by planned cesarean section were randomized to be placed either skin-to-skin on their father’s chest or beside their father in a crib. The infants in the skin-to-skin group stopped crying and were more calm compared to infants in the crib group. A father should therefore be regarded as the primary caregiver for the baby when a mother is not available immediately following a birth.

Gene Identified for Chronic Celiac Disease.
Researchers have identified a new genetic risk factor for celiac disease, an autoimmune disease affecting 1 in 100 of the population. The findings, made by an international research group investigating the causes of intestinal inflammatory conditions, could pave the way towards improved diagnostics and treatments for the lifelong complaint. Triggered by gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye, currently the only treatment for celiac disease is a life-long gluten free diet. David van Heel, Professor of Gastrointestinal Genetics at Queen Mary, University of London the study, said; “We previously knew that coeliac individuals had a specific tissue type which recognised wheat proteins. We did not know why healthy individuals who had the same tissue type did not develop symptoms or disease. The first findings from our study suggest that interleukin genes that control inflammation are critical. We expect to find more disease risk factors from further in-depth analysis of the genome wide data.” published: Nature Genetics, Advance Online Publication.

Antibody May Be Body's Natural Defense Against Alzheimer's.
In an important advance in the battle against Alzheimer's disease, physician-scientists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center have identified naturally occurring antibodies in human blood that may help to defend against this form of dementia as well as other neurodegenerative diseases. The newly found antibodies selectively target aggregates of beta amyloid proteins called "oligomers" that are toxic to brain cells, while ignoring the benign single-molecule forms of the same proteins. The existence of such antibodies was predicted by animal studies, but they were never previously demonstrated to be present in substantial quantities in blood from normal humans.

Cancer Stem Cells Can Go It Alone.
At the heart of most, if not all cancers, lie a handful of wayward stem cells that feed the ever growing tumor mass, but their scarcity make it difficult for scientists to study them. Now, times of plenty may lie ahead as a breast cancer cell line – established long ago – turned out to behave a lot like cancer stem cells. In a study to be published in this week’s online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences an international group of researchers led by Nobel Laureate Renato Dulbecco, M.D., a distinguished research professor and president emeritus of the Salk Institute, demonstrates that injection of a single cell taken from cultured LA7 cells into mouse breast tissue can seed a new mammary carcinoma.



TUESDAY - June 12, 2007---------------------------------Previous News Archive/ Return to Today's News Alerts

Stem Cells Evade Immune System Hit.
An experimental spinal cord injury treatment may eliminate the need for drugs that suppress the immune system, Geron Corp., which is developing stem cell-based therapies. Drugs that suppress the immune system are used to prevent the body from rejecting transplanted organs. The Menlo Park, California-based biotechnology company said its stem cell therapy, GRN0PC1, is not directly attacked by the immune system, thus requiring lower or fewer doses of such drugs than are typically required with solid organ transplants.

Twin Pregnancy Raises Risk of HIV Spread.
Dr. Laurent Mandelbrot of the University of Paris, and associates investigated mother-to-child spread of HIV in twins, compared with single infants, born to HIV-infected mothers in the French Perinatal HIV Cohort. Before the advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), an effective combination of anti-HIV drugs, the mother-to-child HIV transmission rate in twin pregnancies was two to three times that in singleton pregnancies, the investigators report. Since HAART began in 1997, rates have been similarly low in both groups. The pre-HAART data indicate that, after adjustment the data for length of pregnancy, delivery method, and other factors, the results indicate that twin pregnancy remained associated with a 2.3-fold increased risk of mother-to-child HIV spread.

Antibiotic Use in Infants May Up Asthma Risk.
Giving antibiotics for a non-respiratory tract infection to an infant younger than 1 greatly increases the odds that the child will develop asthma, according to new research. The study found that the risk was highest for those infants who received multiple courses of antibiotics and those who received prescriptions for broad-spectrum antibiotics. Broad-spectrum antibiotics tend to kill a wide range of bacteria - both good and bad.

Breakthrough Developments In Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Dr. Peter K. Gregersen, MD has finally closed the circle between key genes identified in his laboratory at the Robert S. Boas Center for Genomics and Human Genetics at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, NY and more than a 1,000 patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The genes will help tell the story of how the immune system works to create specific antibodies that in turn increase a person's risk for this crippling disease.

Drugs Show Small Effects in Alzheimer's.
Several new drugs showed early promise against Alzheimer's disease, but none had a dramatic effect, demonstrating that the battle against the brain-wasting illness will be long. One of the new drugs offers an alternative food source to damaged brain cells that can no longer make use of sugar, while another was originally developed as an antihistamine. "I think this is just exactly what we should expect - incremental progress," Dr. Sam Gandy, chairman of the Alzheimer's Association's medical and science council, told a news conference. He said Alzheimer's will likely be treated with a cocktail of compounds, similar to chemotherapy in cancer.

Simple Test Predicts Dementia Risk Six-Years Ahead.
A simple test that can be given by any physician predicts a person’s risk for developing dementia within six years with 87 percent accuracy, according to a study led by researchers at San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC). The test, developed in the study by the researchers, is a 14-point index combining medical history, cognitive testing, and physical examination. It requires no special equipment and can be given in a clinical setting such as a doctor’s office or at a patient’s bedside.

Self-Healing Materials Mimic Human Skin, Healing Again & Again.
The next generation of self-healing materials, invented by researchers at the University of Illinois, mimics human skin by healing itself time after time. The new materials rely upon embedded, three-dimensional microvascular networks that emulate biological circulatory systems. “In the same manner that a cut in the skin triggers blood flow to promote healing, a crack in these new materials will trigger the flow of healing agent to repair the damage,” said Nancy Sottos, a Willett Professor of materials science and engineering, and the corresponding author of a paper accepted for publication in the journal Nature Materials.


MONDAY - June 11, 2007---------------------------------Previous News Archive/ Return to Today's News Alerts

Major Progress Toward Cell Reprogramming.
Last week, two Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers and scientists at Whitehead Institute and Japan's Kyoto University independently took major steps toward discovering ways to reprogram cells in order to direct their development - a key goal in developmental biology and regenerative medicine.

What A Frog's Mouth Tells Us About Human Birth Defects...
As early embryos, humans bear a striking resemblance to frogs. Both species comprise three basic cell types, arranged in the same general pattern. And that isn’t surprising, considering we evolved from a common ancestor. “Our wild and crazy idea is that animals as different as sea urchins and humans use the same biological mechanisms to organize their heads,” says Whitehead Institute member Hazel Sive.

Obese Moms Encouraged To Lose Weight During Pregnancy.
Most women who are obese can safely exercise and diet to lose weight during pregnancy, according to a small pilot study conducted by Saint Louis University researchers. Findings suggest the babies born to women who lost or maintained their weight were more likely to be of normal size. Infants born to women who gained weight were more likely to be bigger - 8 pounds, 8 ounces and heavier. More women who gained weight during pregnancy delivered their babies by Caesarian section than those who lost or kept their weight constant.

Diet/Exercise Key to Surviving BreastCancer, Not Obesity.
Breast cancer survivors who eat a healthy diet and exercise moderately can reduce their risk of dying from breast cancer by half, regardless of their weight, suggests a new longitudinal study from the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). “We demonstrate in this study of breast cancer survivors that even if a woman is overweight, if she eats at least five servings of vegetables and fruits a day and walks briskly for 30 minutes, six days a week, her risk of death from her disease goes down by 50 percent,” said the paper’s first author, John Pierce, Ph.D., director of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at the Moores UCSD Cancer Center. “The key is that you must do both.”

Finding Protection From Tumor Growth In Unexpected Places.
Researchers have discovered that an enzyme commonly involved in regulating blood pressure also provides protection from tumor growth when strongly expressed in immune cells. The related report by Shen et al, "Mice with enhanced macrophage angiotensin-converting enzyme are resistant to melanoma," appears in the June issue of The American Journal of Pathology. Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) plays a direct role in controlling blood pressure and is a common therapeutic target in hypertension. However, it also plays roles in such diverse processes as fertility, immune cell development, and atherosclerosis, and a few studies have even suggested a role for ACE in generating an effective immune response. In an effort to tease out the role of ACE in immune modulation during cancer, Dr. Kenneth Bernstein's group at Emory University generated mice (ACE 10/10) that express ACE only in macrophages.

Genetic Analysis Reveals Changes - Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.
The one-gene, one-disease concept is elegant, but incomplete. A single gene mutation can cause many other genes to start—or stop—working, and it may be these changes that ultimately cause clinical symptoms. Identifying the complete set of affected genes used to appear impossible. Not anymore. Using a new gene sequencing technique called polony multiplex analysis of gene expression, or PMAGE, the researchers compared a healthy group of mice to a group with a genetic mutation that causes hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) after about 25 weeks of age. In people with HCM, the heart muscle thickens and fails to relax normally after contraction. HCM is the most common cause of sudden death in athletes.

Brain tumor researchers find their "niche."
St. Jude researchers have found a vulnerable spot in brain tumors they are trying to exploit to improve the treatment of these cancers and prevent tumors from returning. The researchers showed in laboratory studies that brain tumors appear to arise from cancer stem cells (CSCs) that live within microscopic, protective “niches” formed by blood vessels in the brain; and that certain drugs can disrupt these niches, depriving the tumors of their source of cancer cells. CSCs are cells that continually multiply, acting as the source of tumors.