Blood proteins may offer alcohol abuse test

March 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, March 24 (ANI): Penn State College of Medicine researchers say that measuring a set of protein changes in the blood linked to alcohol use may potentially lead to a more accurate diagnostic test than those currently available.

“The challenge in alcohol abuse as opposed to substance abuse — things like cocaine or heroin or PCP — is that alcohol is a perfectly legal substance for those over 21,” said Willard M. Freeman, department of pharmacology and lead investigator.

“Unlike routine testing for illicit drugs, you can”t just look for a trace of alcohol because many people enjoy a drink in a responsible manner and alcohol is very quickly metabolized. Discriminating between excessive and responsible levels of drinking makes this a greater challenge,” Freeman added.

The researchers identified a set of 17 proteins in the blood that accurately predicted alcohol usage 90 percent of the time in non-human primates.

Researchers were able to separate usage into three categories — no alcohol use, drinking up to two drinks per day and drinking at least six drinks per day.

Protein levels rose and declined depending on alcohol consumption.

“We observed that the levels of some proteins increased or decreased with as little as one or two drinks a day. These same changes occurred with heavier levels of drinking. We also found other proteins that responded only to heavy levels of drinking. Combined, these proteins allow us to classify subjects into non-drinking, alcohol-using, and alcohol-abusing groups,” Freeman said.

The study was published online in the journal Biological Psychiatry. (ANI)

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HIV uses several routes to escape immune system pressure

September 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, September 19 (ANI): Researchers at the Emory Vaccine Center have shown that HIV relies upon a number of strategies rather than use any preferred escape route to escape immune system pressure.

The human immune system has the ability to temporarily overpower HIV in early infection.

Studies conducted in the recent past have shown that most newly infected patients develop neutralizing antibodies. These are blood proteins that glob onto the virus and would allow patients to defend themselves – if they were facing only one target.

However, the problem occurs when HIV mutates, and disguises itself enough to get away from the antibodies. The virus eventually wears down the immune system into exhaustion.

The Emory team’s findings attain significance as they suggest that even if any scientist succeeds in identifying a vaccine component that can stimulate neutralizing antibodies, HIV’s capacity for rapid mutation could still be a confounding factor.

Dr. Cynthia Derdeyn, associate professor of pathology at Emory University School of Medicine, Emory Vaccine Center and Yerkes National Primate Research Center, says that a single type of neutralizing antibody may not be enough to contain HIV.

“These neutralizing antibodies work really well – they hit the virus fast and hard. But so far, every time we look, the virus escapes,” she says.

During the study, the researchers took blood samples from the participants a few weeks after infection occurred, and then later as two participants’ immune responses continued.

They isolated individual viruses over the first two years of HIV infection, and tested how well the patients’ own antibodies could neutralize them.

“In one patient where we had very early samples, there was evidence that neutralizing antibody came up within weeks, and that’s earlier than what was previously thought,” Derdeyn says.

In both patients, some viruses mutated part of their outer proteins so that after the mutation, an enzyme would be likely to attach a sugar molecule to it.

Though the sugar molecule interferes with antibody attack, this tactic, known as the “glycan shield”, was not observed in all cases.

Other viruses mutated the part of the outer protein that the neutralizing antibodies stick to directly. In both patients, many changes in the virus’ genetic code were necessary for escape.

“We need to understand early events in the immune response if we are going to figure out what a potential vaccine should have in it. What we can show is that even in one patient, several escape strategies are going on,” Derdeyn says.

According to her, that means that in order to be immune to HIV infection, someone may need to have several types of neutralizing antibodies ready to go.

Seeing how the virus mutates will allow researchers to choose the best parts to put in a vaccine, she says.

The results are online and scheduled for publication in the September issue of the journal Public Library of Science Pathogens.(ANI)

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Blood protein may hold key to stopping cancer progression

April 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, April 1 (ANI): Scientists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have reached a step closer to developing a new drug to inhibit tumour growth in cancer patients, and potentially help in the healing of wounds.

The researchers looked at angiogenesis – the body’s formation of new blood vessels from existing blood vessels – and how some blood proteins are involved in that process and affect blood vessel growth during a study.

They found that a protein called ferritin binds to and cripples the ability of another blood protein, called HKa, to shut down blood vessel growth.

The researcher point out that new blood vessels supply a steady stream of nutrients and oxygen, which are essential for tumour growth.

According to them, their study showed that the binding of the two proteins actually assists in new blood vessel formation by removing HKa’s influence, and therefore promotes tumour growth.

Based on their observations, the researchers hypothesised that if the binding of ferritin and Hka could somehow be prevented, it would help block the growth of tumours.

The finding also has possible implications for wound care, as the healing of wounds needs blood vessel growth.

Thus, according to the researchers, it is possible that by increasing the binding of ferritin to HKa, one could increase the rate at which a serious wound heals.

“It’s been known for a long time that levels of ferritin are increased in people with tumours, but it’s never been understood why that happens,” said Dr. Suzy V. Torti, the study’s lead investigator, an associate professor of biochemistry and an expert in iron biology at the School of Medicine.

“Ferritin appears to play an important role in blood vessel formation. Further, the interaction between ferritin and HKa may represent a new area of interest for possible drug development,” Torti added.

During the study, mice were injected with prostate cancer cells to determine how ferritin and HKa affected the formation of new blood vessels.

The mice injected with the cancer cells grew tumours.

However, upon mixing HKa with the tumour cells, the researchers found that the blood vessel formation was inhibited. hen the team added ferritin to the mixture of HKa and cancer cells, the blood vessel formation was restored, and it allowed the tumours to grow again.

“Blood vessels can either be helpful, for example in wound healing, or they can be harmful, for example by favouring tumour growth,” Torti said.

“Our new finding is that the interaction between ferritin and HKa can influence blood vessel formation. This finding could serve as the basis for strategies to either inhibit or stimulate blood vessels. This opens up a new realm of potential ways to treat tumors or other conditions that depend on new blood vessel formation,” Torti added.

The study has been reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (ANI)

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