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Vaccine For Severe Form Of Malaria In Making
Plasmodium falciparium
Plasmodium falciparium is the name of by far the most virulent of the four malaria parasites that infect man. It is particularly dangerous in that it also infects the placenta of pregnant women, with fatal consequences for both her and the foetus. This, combined with the often feeble medical resources of malaria-stricken countries, can lead to such serous complications that the mother dies during delivery.
"For some reason, women in their first pregnancy lose the semi-immunity that is normally found in adults," explains Niloofar Rasti, a KI graduate student who has been working with the study. "The placenta seems to be an anatomically favourable environment for a subpopulation of the parasites".
The research group from Karolinska Institutet, under the leadership of Professor Mats Wahlgren, has been working with colleagues from KI's partner university in Uganda to study in detail how the parasite infects the placenta. Their results, which are published in the American scientific journal PNAS, can enable the development of vaccines and therapies to combat severe malarial infections.........
Posted by: Emily Permalink Source
More Research Needed
The report (The New Landscape of Neglected Disease Drug Development) by Mary Moran and his colleagues at the Pharmaceutical Research and Development Policy Group, The George Institute, argues that drugs for neglected diseases are increasingly being developed partly due to the use of public-private partnership (PPPs) mechanisms that spread the financial and organisational risk of product development. Anne-Laure Ropars, from the George Institute will be discussing the rise of drug development for neglected diseases and the role of PPPs at a major international conference, organised by the ESRC Innogen Centre to be held in London on 5-6 September 2006.
Steven Matlin, Executive Director of the Global Forum for Health Research, also speaking at the conference, does not think that the increases in development of health products for neglected diseases (drugs, vaccines and diagnostics) is simply due to the rise of PPPs. Matlin also stresses the rise of a group of 'innovating developing countries' (IDCs) including Brazil, China, India and South Africa. He argues that these countries have "growing national capacity for high-quality manufacturing to convert the inventions into health products for both domestic and international markets".........
Posted by: Emily Permalink Source
Cardiovascular deaths around the world
"We found that more than 10 percent of Eastern Europeans and 9 percent of Middle Easterners had died or suffered from a stroke or heart attack," said Duke University Medical Center cardiologist Magnus Ohman, M.D., who helped analyze an international registry of patients with proven or suspected cardiovascular disease. By comparison, 7.3 percent of North Americans with similar conditions either died or suffered from a stroke or heart attack, he said.
Four percent of Eastern European patients, 3.58 percent of Middle Eastern patients and 3.37 percent of North American patients died from their disease, he said.
"Based on the data collected to date, we can say that adverse health effects due to cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease are no longer afflictions solely of the Western, industrialized world," Ohman said.
"We are now seeing these diseases, and the death and disability they cause, spread to a significant degree to other parts of the world," he said. "These data suggest that heart attack and stroke represent an urgent international issue and are more prevalent than previously appreciated. The findings also raise the issue of whether or not the spread of Western culture is detrimental to the overall health of the rest of the world".........
Posted by: Emily Permalink Source
A Little Carbon Monoxide Goes A Long Way
Pre-eclampsia, a form of pregnancy-associated hypertension, affects 5-7% of pregnancies and poses serious risks for both mother and child. If maternal blood vessels at the placental barrier fail to remodel and adapt to the changing nutrient/oxygen needs of the growing fetus, the maternal blood pressure rises in an effort to improve nutrient delivery. This leads to oxidative stress and damage to the placenta, specifically to the syncytiotrophoblast. When syncytiotrophoblast cells die, they are released into the maternal circulation, initiating a cascade of inflammation that can damage maternal organs.
Interestingly, mothers who smoke cigarettes during pregnancy have a 33% decreased risk of developing pre-eclampsia compared to nonsmokers. New research questions whether the carbon monoxide found in cigarette smoke, and subsequently carried in a smoking mother's blood, may be the cause. Carbon monoxide, which is produced naturally by the body at low levels, possesses vessel-relaxing and cytoprotective activities that may prevent syncytiotrophoblast cell death and the resulting injury to fetus and mother.........
Posted by: Emily Permalink Source
Portion Distortion And Weight Maintenance
"It has previously been established that portion sizes of virtually all foods and beverages served at restaurants and packaged for single-serve have dramatically increased over the last two decades," said Jaime Schwartz MS, RD, who was a graduate student at Rutgers at the time of this study. "Our study compared what people perceive to be a typical portion size now to what waccording toceived as typical two decades ago, before portions began to grow. We also compared current perceptions of typical portions to reference portion sizes, defined in this study as the serving size on the Nutrition Facts panel".
This study replicated one that was done 20 years ago in which participants were asked to serve themselves the amount they considered to be a typical portion of each meal item on a buffet table2. To follow this model, Schwartz and co-author, Carol Byrd-Bredbenner, PhD, RD, enrolled 177 young adults to participate. All were invited to attend one meal, selecting typical portions of a total of eight meal items at breakfast or six at lunch and dinner. Food and beverage choices mirrored the study of 20 years ago as to permit valid comparisons between typical portions over time.........
Posted by: Emily Permalink Source
Stem Cell Growth In The Brain
The research study focused on two compounds--LTB4 and LXA4. Both play a role in inflammation and are regulators of proliferation of several cell types. When stem cells isolated from the brains of mouse embryos were exposed to LTB4 they proliferated and differentiated, giving rise to additional stem cells and to differentiated neurons with limited or absent capacity to divide. When exposed to LXA4, these cells experienced decreased growth and apoptosis.
"This study opens doors to new therapeutic approaches for a wide range neurological disorders and injuries that were once considered incurable," said Gerald Weissmann, MD, Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal.
The study also provided so insight into the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved when LTB4 stimulates neuronal stem cells. According to the study, cells generated as the result of LTB4 exposure had high levels of LTB4 receptors, whereas the level of LTB4 receptors was considerably lower in similar cells not generated by LTB4 stimulation. The scientists were further able to show that LTB4 up-regulated several molecules involved in cell cycling and growth, such as cyclins and epidermal growth factor receptor, and decreased those such as caspase 8 which play a role in apoptosis. LXA4 had the opposite effects.........
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Memory Molecule
Furthermore, erasing the memory from the brain does not prevent the ability to re-learn the memory, much as a cleaned computer disc may be re-used. This finding may some day have applications in treating chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, and memory loss, among other conditions.
The SUNY Downstate researchers reported in the August 25 issue of Science that an enzyme molecule called "protein kinase M zeta" preserves long-term memories through persistent strengthening of synaptic connections between neurons. This is analogous to the mechanism storing information as 0's and 1's in a computer's hard disc. By inhibiting the enzyme, scientists were able to erase a memory that had been stored for one day, or even one month. This function in memory storage is specific to protein kinase M zeta, because inhibiting related molecules did not disrupt memory.
These findings may be useful for the treatment of disorders characterized by the pathological over-strengthening of synaptic connections, such as neuropathic pain, phantom limb syndrome, dystonia, and post-traumatic stress. Conversely, the identification of the core molecular mechanism for memory storage may focus effort on the development of specific therapeutic agents that enhance memory persistence and prevent memory loss. Earlier this year, SUNY Downstate scientists reported that PKMzeta was bound up in the tangles of Alzheimer's disease, thus perhaps blocking its function in memory storage.........
Posted by: Emily Permalink Source
Fruit And Vegetable Juice Reduce Alzheimer's Disease
Recent studies of Alzheimer's disease biochemistry have focused on the accumulation of beta-amyloid peptide in the brain, and the action of hydrogen peroxide in mediating this process. Various studies have suggested that polyphenols, strong anti-oxidants available in a number of foods, might disrupt these processes and provide some protection against Alzheimer's disease. Eventhough some studies of anti-oxidant vitamins have been disappointing, this study is the first to examine juices rich in polyphenols as a preventive measure for Alzheimer's disease.
The subjects were already part of the Kame Project, a prospective study of Japanese populations living in Hiroshima, Japan; Oahu, Hawaii; and the metropolitan area of Seattle, Washington. Drawing from the Seattle population, 1836 people were identified as free of dementia in 1992-1994, and were followed at 2-year time intervals until the end of 2001. Dietary consumption of fruit and vegetable juices was determined from self-administered questionnaires developed for Asian populations. Cognitive function was assessed by trained interviewers using a standardized test, with clinical follow-up resulting in clinical diagnoses for those patients showing impairment.........
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Diagnostic Tests Have Low Risk Of Miscarriage
Amniocentesis
The findings are reported in the September 2006 issue of the journal "Obstetrics and Gynecology".
Two standard tests--amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling (CVS)--are common prenatal tests performed during the first and second trimester of pregnancy. Early testing using the CVS procedure has typically been thought to have a higher rate of miscarriage than amniocentesis. However, in a 20-year retrospective comparison study of the two procedures, researchers found that the loss rates for both procedures decreased over time.
"This is a significant finding for use as information in both patient counseling and in establishing widespread prenatal diagnostic and screening programs," said study co-author Mary E. Norton, MD, who is medical director of the Prenatal Diagnostic Center at UCSF Medical Center and associate clinical professor in the UCSF Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences.
Both amniocentesis and CVS are invasive diagnostic screening methods that carry a small risk of pregnancy loss. Amniocentesis requires insertion of a hollow needle through the abdominal wall and into the uterus to withdraw amniotic fluid. CVS is a biopsy procedure that involves removing a piece of tissue from the placenta. These samples are then cultured and chromosomes analyzed to determine abnormalities associated with Down syndrome and other genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs disease, and sickle cell disease.........
Posted by: Emily Permalink Source
Choices for Coronary Artery Disease
The research, conducted at the Heart Institute of the University of So Paulo Medical School in Brazil, appears in the recent issue of Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
For the study, researchers reviewed data collected during the Medicine, Angioplasty or Surgery Study II (MASS II) to determine how physician-recommended care affected patient outcomes one year after treatment. All patients were diagnosed with severe coronary artery disease affecting at least two blood vessels but not yet causing a loss of heart function. Coronary artery disease occurs when a buildup of cholesterol in the arteries prevents oxygen-rich blood from nourishing the heart muscle.
"We still currently do not know which is the best therapeutic option for patients with multivessel chronic coronary artery disease and a normal ventricular function," said Whady Hueb, MD, PhD, a cardiologist at the University of So Paulo Heart Institute (InCor). "I think our study offers additional information and reassurance for both doctors and patients that, at the end of the decision-making process, what the doctor and patient agree is the best option in most cases really is the best option".........
Posted by: Emily Permalink Source
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