October 24, 2007, 8:01 PM CT

Cannabis effective in treating neuropathic pain

Smoked cannabis eased pain induced in healthy volunteers, as per a research studyby scientists at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Center for Medical Cannabis Research (CMCR.) However, the scientists observed that less may be more.

In the placebo controlled study of 15 subjects, a low dose of cannabis showed no effect, a medium dose provided moderate pain relief, and a high dose increased the pain response. The results suggest a "therapeutic window" for cannabis analgesia, as per lead researcher Mark Wallace, M.D., professor of anesthesiology at UCSD School of Medicine and Program Director for the UCSD Center for Pain Medicine.

The paper, would be reported in the recent issue of the journal Anesthesiology, is the second published study out of the CMCR. Headquartered at UCSD, the CMCR is collaboration between UCSD and UC San Francisco that was funded by a state-funded initiative in 1999 to rigorously study the safety and efficacy of medicinal cannabis in treating diseases.

The study used capsaicin, an alkaloid derived from hot chili peppers that is an irritant to the skin, to mimic the type of neuropathic pain experienced by patients with HIV/AIDS, diabetes or shingles brief, intense pain following by a longer-lasting secondary pain. The subjects were healthy volunteers who inhaled either medical cannabis or a placebo after pain was induced. The marijuana cigarettes were formulated under NIH supervision to contain either zero, two, four or eight percent delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC.)......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

October 24, 2007, 7:46 PM CT

Obesity genes hidden in discarded data

Previously hidden obesity-related genes have been uncovered from old experiments by scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. The finding suggests that useful information about a number of medical disorders may be languishing in mountains of discarded data.

"We've devised a fairly simple way to convert large amounts of existing raw data into candidate disease genes for further genetic study," said Atul Butte, MD, PhD, a pediatrician at Packard Children's and director of the hospital's Center for Pediatric Bioinformatics. "When we put the information together, we were not only able to pinpoint those that have already been identified, but we also came up with some very interesting new predictions".

The researchers teased out the existence of more than a dozen new obesity-related genes by comparing the results of 49 independent experiments conducted by other scientists - none of which had yielded similar results on their own.

Butte, who is also an assistant professor of medicine and of pediatrics at the medical school, plans to investigate the biological roles of the new genes soon. The research appears in the Oct. 5 advance access section of the journal Bioinformatics.

Identifying novel genetic culprits for complicated diseases like obesity, diabetes and autism is tricky. Unlike cystic fibrosis, which is caused by a mutation in just one gene, these conditions are often the result of a "perfect storm" of interacting genes and environmental factors. This complexity leaves scientists with limited time to pursue only their most promising results, leaving other candidates behind......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

October 23, 2007, 8:57 PM CT

Brain Waves That Distinguish False Memories From Real Ones

For the first time, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania are able to pinpoint brain waves that distinguish true from false memories, providing a better understanding of how memory works and creating a new strategy to help epilepsy patients retain cognitive function.

The study, the first to show that brain waves predict the veracity of human memories, is available online in the journal Psychological Science and in the November 2007 print edition.

To test whether distinct patterns of electrophysiological activity previous to a response can distinguish true from false memories, psychology experts at Penn recorded brain activity from 52 neurosurgical patients being treated for drug-resistant epilepsy. Patients were asked to perform a verbal free-recall task while scientists used an array of implanted electrodes and intracranial electroencephalographic recordings to locate where in their brains the patients seizures originated. Patients volunteered to study lists of words which they were then asked to recall at a later time. When asked to recall the studied words, participants recalled some number of correct items and also made a small number of errors, recalling words that had not appeared on the target list.

While patients performed the memory game, researchers observed electrical activity in their brains to determine whether specific brain waves were linked to successfully storing and retrieving memories. Scientists observed that a fast brain wave, known as the gamma rhythm, increased when participants studied a word that they would later recall. The same gamma waves, whose voltage rises and fall between 50 and 100 times per second, also increased in the half-second previous to participants correctly recalling an item......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

October 23, 2007, 8:49 PM CT

Getting Fathers Involved in Children's ADHD Treatment

While working with parents of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at the University at Buffalo, Gregory A. Fabiano noticed something was missing: the fathers.

Fabiano, an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education, made the discovery while still a graduate assistant at the UB Center for Children and Families, which runs a summer therapy program that has helped more than 2,500 children with behavioral, emotional and learning problems. The program uses sports as a way to teach children peer-relationship skills, Fabiano said.

"I knew a lot of the dads in that program, because they would show up early to watch their kids on the soccer fields or the softball fields and we'd chat it up when we were out there," recalled Fabiano, who teaches in the counseling, school and educational psychology department.

"But then they would take their child and go home in the one car, and then the mom would drive up in another car and go to the parenting group," he added. "I thought 'There is something wrong with this picture.'".

To find out why fathers of children with ADHD weren't participating in therapy programs, or why some initially participate, but then drop out soon after, Fabiano turned to research literature on the subject and found.....nothing......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

October 22, 2007, 8:54 PM CT

Fight against HIV needs local scientists

Researchers from developing countries are vitally important in the fight against HIV and they must be given the proper resources to conduct their work, as per a new commentary published recently in the journal Nature Immunology.

Scientists from Imperial College London, who are evaluating multiple candidate vaccines designed to prevent HIV, argue that Western governments and funding agencies must commit to sharing technology and expertise with those in the developing world on a long-term basis.

The scientists have been working with local researchers in Uganda and other sites in the developing world to enable large-scale international trials of potential vaccines against HIV. They argue their work shows that it is both feasible and desirable to carry out high-quality trials in developing countries, but that more state-of-the-art laboratories are needed in the developing world to support such trials and enable the roll-out of antiretroviral drugs.

The authors write that people in countries like Uganda wish to take ownership of, or at the very least be equal partners in, efforts to develop therapys for HIV to benefit their population.

Old fashioned parachute science where researchers from the developed world flew in, bled a few patients, and immediately returned to their country of origin with their samples, are no longer mandatory or acceptable. In-house development and research is an effective and efficient way forward, said Professor Frances Gotch, one of the commentarys authors from the Division of Investigative Science at Imperial College......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

October 22, 2007, 8:49 PM CT

Epstein-Barr: a virtual look at a vexing virus

Scientists at Tufts University School of Medicine in collaboration with the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech have created a computer program called Pathogen Simulation (PathSim) to study the progression of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in humans. David Thorley-Lawson, PhD, professor of pathology at Tufts University School of Medicine, is combining PathSim, laboratory methods, and clinical studies to provide a new and powerful approach to understanding EBV and ultimately designing anti-viral therapies.

PathSim is an agent-based computer program. The agents are the virus itself, and the T and B cells of the patients immune system, explains Thorley-Lawson. Using PathSim, Thorley-Lawson can manipulate these agents to simulate EBV infection and persistence in humans. EBV can infect one person and remain latent not cause any symptoms. It can infect another person and cause infectious mononucleosis, or, in rare cases, cancer, like Hodgkins, Burkitts, and immunoblastic lymphomas, says Thorley-Lawson.

Researchers can use PathSim like a video game and change variables, such as number of virus particles or characteristics of the patients immune cells, to follow the course of disease and observe what drives the virus to either latency or illness.

We validated PathSim by comparing it to EBV infection in patients, says Thorley-Lawson. For example, PathSim projected that the peak in the number of infected immune cells, called B cells, would occur 33 through 38 days post-infection, which is consistent with the peak of 35 through 50 days actually seen in infected patients. This consistency is important because it validates the predictive power of PathSim; the power to reveal what EBV is doing in a patients body, says Thorley-Lawson......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

October 22, 2007, 8:46 PM CT

Zinc may reduce pneumonia risk in nursing home elderly

When elderly nursing home residents contract pneumonia, it is a blow to their already fragile health. Simin Nikbin Meydani, DVM, PhD of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University and his colleagues report that maintaining normal serum zinc concentration in the blood may help reduce the risk of pneumonia development in that population.

Based on our data, it appears that daily zinc intake can help nursing home residents who are susceptible to pneumonia, particularly those with low serum zinc concentrations in their blood, says Meydani, corresponding author and director of the Nutritional Immunology Laboratory at the USDA HNRCA. The study participants with normal serum zinc concentrations in their blood reduced their risk of developing pneumonia by about 50 percent. Additionally, deaths from all causes were 39 percent lower in this group.

Meydani and his colleagues analyzed blood samples from a prior study that investigated the role of Vitamin E in preventing respiratory infections in nursing home residents ages 65 and older. The study enrolled 617 men and women from 33 nursing homes in the Boston area. All of the participants received daily supplements containing 50 percent of the recommended dietary allowance of several vitamins and minerals, including zinc, for one year. Foods that provide zinc include oysters, red meat, poultry, whole grains, beans and dairy products......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

October 22, 2007, 8:24 PM CT

Genes involved in autism

The Autism Consortium, a group of researchers, clinicians and families dedicated to radically accelerating research and enhancing clinical care for autism, announced recently that it has completed the first genome scan for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) through its Autism Gene Discovery Project and has released the reference data set to a database that autism scientists around the world can use. The scan was conducted using new, high resolution technology developed by Affymetrix on genetic data from more than 3,000 children with ASD and their families.

Todays release of genetic and phenotypic data on autism marks a significant achievement for the autism research community, said Thomas Insel, Ph.D., Director of the National Institute for Mental Health. Progress in finding the causes and cures for autism spectrum disorders rests in large part on improving the rapid access and sharing of data and resources That the Consortium is making the data available to the scientific community even before its own scientists have fully analyzed the information, demonstrates their high degree of commitment to and leadership in advancing autism research.

Along with complementary data generated by Dr. Aravinda Chakravarti at Johns Hopkins and provided to the NIMH this week, these data provide the most detailed look to date at the genetic variation patterns in families with autism......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

October 21, 2007, 10:17 PM CT

Ubiquitin builds up an immune response

Ubiquitin is a small protein, which can be attached to other cellular proteins, a process known as ubiquitination. Discoveries in the 1980 th on a key function of ubiquitination in the regulation of protein degradation where awarded with the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2004. A study headed by the Junior Group of Dr. Daniel Krappmann (GSF - National Research Center for Environment and Health, Institute of Toxicology) in collaboration with Dr. Jürgen Ruland (TU Munich) and Dr. Claus Scheidereit ( Max-Delbrück-Center , Berlin ) now reports a novel finding about ubiquitination as a key event for the activation of an immune response. (EMBO J. AOP, 18.10.2007).

The acquired immune response is triggered after specific engagement of foreign peptides (antigens) by receptor molecules on white blood cell (lymphocytes). Cellular signaling pathways are responsible for the activation of lymphocytes. Krappmann and co-workers present evidence, that in T cells, which constitute a subgroup of lymphocytes, ubiquitin is attached to the Malt1 protein in response to antigen stimulation. Malt1 is part of the CBM (Carma1-Bcl10-Malt1) complex that constitutes a crucial switch for the activation of the immune defense. Using biochemical, molecular and genetic techniques the researchers could prove that this novel Malt1 ubiquitination is an essential step in the regulation of T cell activation......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

October 21, 2007, 10:05 PM CT

Genetic change happens fast

While looks can be deceiving, heredity is revealing, and two researchers who've studied the genetic makeup of a common field mouse report that what's most revealing to them is how fast both genes and morphology can change.

Oliver Pergams, visiting research assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Robert Lacy, population geneticist and conservation biologist at the Chicago Zoological Society, compared the genetic makeup of 115 white-footed mice in the Volo Bog State Natural Area northwest of Chicago using mitochondrial DNA taken from collection samples as old as 150 years and mice collected in recent years.

They found a new type of mouse replaced the old type in Volo Bog between 1976 and 2001.

"The new mice were genetically very different," says Pergams. Structural changes were readily apparent. "Looking at size and shape, the new mice were much bigger and a little flatter".

Pergams and Lacy report the findings in Molecular Ecology, Volume 17, now online, and in print in late December.

Pergams and UIC biological sciences professor Mary Ashley reported in 2001 on similar morphological changes in size and shape over the past century of two widely disparate habitats and species -- deer mice on three different California Channel Islands, and black rats from two Galapagos Islands. While Pergams found these coincidental changes surprising, he said it is too soon to say if this is somehow correlation to world climate change......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source