September 27, 2006, 9:02 PM CT

Genetic Variations In Parkinson's Disease

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have completed one of the first large-scale studies of the role of common genetic variation in Parkinson's disease (PD). While the results fill in some missing pieces of the genetic puzzle, they are primarily of benefit as a starting point for more detailed studies. The information generated by the study is now publicly available in a database that will serve as a valuable research tool for the future.

The study was led by researchers at the National Institute of Aging (NIA) and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). The data were derived from blood samples of 267 people with PD and 270 neurologically normal individuals. These samples were made available by The NINDS Human Genetics Resource Center at the Coriell Institute (http://ccr.coriell.org/ninds), a publicly-funded bank for human cells, DNA samples, clinical data, and other information that aims to accelerate research on genetics of disorders of the nervous system. Results of the study appear in the September 27, 2006, early online publication of The Lancet Neurology.

"This is, to my knowledge, the first publicly available genotype data of this magnitude outside of the International HapMap effort, and certainly the first disease-linked dataset. I hope that this will prove to be a valuable resource for future genetics work in Parkinson's disease, both for our laboratory and for other researchers around the world," says Andrew Singleton, Ph.D., the NIA researcher who led the study. "The use of neurologically normal controls from the NINDS neurogenetics repository means that these data can be readily used as a control group in future large scale SNP studies performed in many other neurological diseases".........

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September 27, 2006, 8:40 PM CT

Inheriting a Tendency to Brain Infection

Might some infectious diseases run in families because one inherits susceptibility to them? Eventhough scientists generally agree that an individual's genetic makeup contributes in subtle ways to susceptibility to infectious disease, new findings from scientists in France support the controversial idea that an error in a single gene is enough to dramatically alter an individual's susceptibility to certain infections.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) international research scholar Jean-Laurent Casanova and Emmanuelle Jouanguy of the Necker Medical School in Paris, along with other colleagues, have identified a single gene that predisposes individuals to herpes simplex encephalitis, an infectious disease that tends to be extremely choosy about its victims. In a paper reported in the September 29, 2006, issue of the journal Science, they describe two young patients who carry mutations in this gene who are susceptible to the disease while being otherwise immunologically normal. The paper was published in advance online.

As a number of as 8 out of 10 adults are infected by the herpes simplex virus. For most, the worst symptom is a cold sore, but in some individuals, the virus causes inflammation of the brain that can lead to mental retardation, epilepsy, or death. Until now, researchers have been unable to identify any specific risk factors for the disease.........

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September 27, 2006, 7:22 PM CT

Spinal Cord Stimulators For Migraine Headaches

Anyone who has gone through the experience of migraine headache knows the misery of this miserable disease. Now there is some active research going on in this field that might interest those who are suffering from those miserable headaches.

A new treatment for migraine headaches is in the horizon: occipital nerve stimulation, a surgical procedure in which an implanted neurostimulator delivers electrical impulses to nerves under the skin at the base of the head at the back of the neck.

This therapy may help migraine sufferers who do not respond to other available therapies, or who cannot tolerate the side effects of existing medications.

"The purpose of the randomized, double-blinded study is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of occipital nerve stimulation as a treatment for refractory migraine headache," says Dr. Sandeep Amin, Rush study investigator and anesthesiologist who surgically implants the device in the two-visit operation.

Rush is recruiting patients through the Diamond Headache Clinic and is the only site in Illinois in the trial.

The study, known as PRISM (Precision Implantable Stimulator for Migraine), uses Boston Scientific's Precision neurostimulator with approximately 150 patients at up to 15 sites in the U.S. The implantable pulse generator will deliver electrical impulses to the occipital nerves located just under the skin at the base of the skull at the back of the neck.........

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September 27, 2006, 6:39 PM CT

Improving Patient's Meal Experience

Anyone who had spent a day in the hospital knows about the quality of the hospital food. Now there is an innovative idea from the Rush University Medical Center.

Sometimes innovation in health care takes the form of advanced imaging technology or breakthroughs in drug therapys. Sometimes it takes the form of hamburgers cut into squares and soup served in a cup.

It may seem simple, but these innovations are making a big difference for geriatric psychiatry patients at Rush University Medical Center, which recently established a new meal service to increase patient nutrition and satisfaction.

"We totally changed the way we do business on our geriatric psychiatry unit. It is part of our effort to gear our food and nutrition services to the needs of our patients on the different floors," said Marcy Stone, RD/LDN, assistant director of Food Service Operations at Rush, who led the team that developed the new meal service.

The patients in the geriatric psychiatric unit, located in Rush's Johnson R. Bowman Health Center, range in age from 49 to 101 and suffer from Alzheimer's disease and/or clinical depression. The center that is adjacent to Rush's acute care hospital.provides medical and rehabilitative patient care services to older persons and to persons with short-term and long-term disabilities. These illnesses make it difficult to eat, because the patients become overwhelmed when they see too much food in front of them, and their reduced motor skills make it difficult for them to feed themselves.........

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September 25, 2006, 10:10 PM CT

Bacterial Protein To Treat Intestinal Parasites

Scientists at the University of California, San Diego and Yale University have discovered that a natural protein produced by Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacterium sprayed on crops by organic farmers to reduce insect damage, is highly effective at treating hookworm infections in laboratory animals.

Their discovery, detailed in this week's early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could pave the way for the development of more effective treatments for hookworm and other soil-transmitted nematode infections, which are a major global health problem in developing countries. Many of the nearly two billion people worldwide infected with these intestinal parasites are children, who are at particular risk for anemia, malnutrition and delayed growth.

The UCSD-Yale team found that a protein produced by the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, given orally to laboratory hamsters infected with hookworms was as effective in eliminating the parasites, curing anemia and restoring weight gain in the hamsters as mebendazole, one of the drugs currently recommended to treat infections in humans. The scientists also discovered that this protein, called Cry5B, targets both developing, or larval, stages and adult parasites, as well as impairs the excretion of eggs by female worms.........

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September 25, 2006, 9:42 PM CT

Avian Flu Vaccine Provokes Strong Immune Response

When combined with an immune-boosting substance called an adjuvant, low doses of an experimental vaccine against a strain of avian influenza (H9N2) provoked a strong antibody response in human volunteers, report scientists supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

The clinical trial of 96 adults was conducted at the NIAID-supported Viral Respiratory Pathogens Research Unit at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, and was led by Robert L. Atmar, M.D. The results are now online in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

"The results of this clinical trial add to the growing body of information demonstrating the potential value of adjuvanted avian influenza vaccines," says NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. An adjuvant is a substance that is added to a vaccine to boost the body's immune response to the vaccine's antigen. "In the event of an influenza pandemic, adjuvanted vaccines could provide a way to extend a limited vaccine supply to more people," he adds.

In 1999, two children in Hong Kong became infected with H9N2, a strain of avian influenza that had not previously been detected in humans. Humans have little or no natural immunity to a virus--such as H9N2 or the more deadly H5N1 avian influenza--that historically has circulated only in birds. If H9N2 or H5N1 were to acquire the ability to spread easily from person to person, an influenza pandemic could result, health experts say.........

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September 25, 2006, 6:03 PM CT

Breakthrough In Heart Research

For the first time ever, researchers at the University of Bristol have been able to directly measure energy levels inside living heart cells, in real time, using the chemical that causes fireflies to light up. This is hailed as a major breakthrough in research and could lead to improved recovery of the heart when it is re-started after a heart attack or cardiac surgery.

Dr Elinor Griffiths said: "Being able to see exactly what's going on in heart cells will be of great benefit to understanding heart disease".

The research is published recently (22nd September, 2006) in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

The 'power stations' within heart cells that make energy are called mitochondria. They convert energy from food into chemical energy called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP.

Under normal conditions, mitochondria are able to make ATP extremely rapidly when the heart is stressed, such as during exercise or in 'fight-or-flight' mode.

However, if the cells are made to beat suddenly from rest, a situation that happens when the heart is re-started after cardiac surgery or a heart attack, the team found there is a lag phase where the supply of ATP drops before mitochondrial production starts again, potentially preventing the heart from beating properly.........

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September 24, 2006, 10:18 PM CT

How much parents know aboutTeenage alcoholism?

Prior assessments of child psychopathology have shown that parents can be helpful in reporting symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). A new study examines just how helpful parents are in assessing their children's alcohol and/or drug use and abuse. The answer? Not much.

Results are reported in the recent issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research

"'Externalizing' disorders such as ADHD and ODD have behaviors linked to them that are obvious and affect others," explained Laura Jean Bierut, associate professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine. "For example, a child who cannot sit still or focus on his or her work at school and is disruptive in the classroom, or a child who argues with his or her parents or refuses to do the things that they ask. However, the symptoms linked to 'internalizing' disorders such as depression can be much more subtle and not as easily recognized. Things like feelings of worthlessness or loss of interest in favorite activities can be very troubling to a child, but they don't necessarily impact others and might go unnoticed unless the child chooses to talk about them." Bierut is also the corresponding author for the study.

In terms of psychiatric disorders in general, added Sherri Fisher, project coordinator of the St. Louis site of the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) as well as co-author, this "disconnect" points out the importance of talking to both parents and children about the child's behavior and symptoms. "In terms of a child's substance use or substance-related problems, however, parents may be unaware of what's going on with their children, or simply repeat information that has already been reported by their child," she said.........

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September 24, 2006, 10:15 PM CT

Alcoholics Anonymous

There is a strong link between alcohol use and violence, such as homicide. New research that looks at the relationship among drinking, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) membership, and homicide mortality has found that AA can have a beneficial effect on alcohol-related homicide mortality rates, particularly among males who consume beer and spirits.

Results are published in the recent issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research

"It is important to try to understand the factors that could reduce alcohol's adverse effects," said Robert E. Mann, senior scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and associate professor of public health sciences at the University of Toronto. "We know that economic and legal measures such as taxation policies, increased drinking ages, and lowered legal limits for driving can exert powerful effects on alcohol problem rates. We also know that individual participation in AA and alcohol treatment can have very beneficial effects. We wanted to see if these beneficial effects are observable at population levels, that is, if numerous people are positively influenced." Mann is also the study's corresponding author.

According to the World Health Organization, said Mark Asbridge, assistant professor and chair of graduate studies in the department of community health and epidemiology at Dalhousie University, "alcohol is a leading [contributor to the] global burden of disease, and homicide is just one of a number of negative consequences of its consumption. Given this link, any policies or intervention that reduce or remove alcohol consumption are bound to offer some beneficial reduction in aggregate violent incidents in this case, mortality".........

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September 24, 2006, 9:53 PM CT

It Is Not Obesity But Diabetes

It is diabetes that puts people at risk of developing critical illness and dying early, not obesity. Without diabetes obesity does not do much harm. A study published recently in the open access journal Critical Care reveals that individuals suffering from diabetes are three times more at risk of developing critical illness and dying young than individuals who do not have diabetes. Obese individuals who do not have diabetes, by contrast, have the same risk of dying or of falling critically ill as non-obese patients who do not have diabetes. These results are surprising, as obesity is linked to diabetes. The authors of the study conclude that the relationship between obesity, diabetes and critical illness is complex and that obesity, per se, does not predict poor outcomes.

Katarina Slynkova and colleagues from the University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital collaborated with colleagues from Emory University School of Medicine to analyse data from 15,408 subjects aged 44 to 66, coming from four different US communities, who had originally been studied between 1986 and 1989. The authors analysed the subjects' body mass index (BMI), presence of diabetes (either type 1 or type 2) and the subjects' history of critical illness (acute organ failure) and mortality within 3 years.........

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