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Stem cell transplantation may correct rare genetic disorder in kids

September 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep 18 (ANI): Scripps Research Institute scientists have offered new hope for parents whose children suffer from the rare genetic disorder ‘cystinosis’ by showing through an experiment on mice that stem cell transplantation can successfully correct the defect.

“After meeting the children who suffer from this disease, like an 18-year-old who has already had three kidney transplants, and the families who are desperately searching for help, our team is committed to moving toward a cure for cystinosis, a lysosomal storage disorder. This study is an important step toward that goal,” said principal investigator Stephanie Cherqui.

In the study, the researchers used bone marrow stem cell transplantation to address symptoms of cystinosis in a mouse model.

The procedure virtually halted the cystine accumulation responsible for the disease, and the cascade of cell death that follows.

Cystine is a by-product of the break down of cellular components the body no longer needs in the cell’s “housekeeping” organelles, called lysosomes.

Normally, cystine is shunted out of cells, but in cystinosis a gene defect of the lysosomal cystine transporter causes it to build up, forming crystals that are especially damaging to the kidneys and eyes.

Cystinosis is a rare but devastating disease affecting children as young as six months, who begin to suffer renal dysfunction, which grows progressively worse with time. Other symptoms include diabetes, muscular disease, neurological dysfunction, and retinopathy.

The only available drug to treat cystinosis, cysteamine, while slowing the progression of kidney degradation, does not prevent it, and end-stage kidney failure is inevitable.

In the new study, the researchers found that transplanted bone marrow stem cells carrying the normal lysosomal cystine transporter gene abundantly engrafted into every tissue of the experimental mice.

This led to an average drop in cystine levels of about 80 percent in every organ.

Not only it prevented kidney dysfunction, there was less deposition of cystine crystals in the cornea, less bone demineralization, and an improvement in motor function.

“The results really surprised and encouraged us. Because the defect is present in every cell of the body, we did not expect a bone marrow stem cell transplant to be so widespread and effective,” says Cherqui.

Cherqui said that adult bone marrow stem cell therapy is particularly well suited as a potential treatment for cystinosis because these cells target all types of tissues.

In addition, stem cells reside in the bone marrow for the duration of a patient’s life, becoming active as needed, a particular benefit for a progressive disease like cystinosis.

The study has been published in the journal Blood. (ANI)

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Charles Dickens ‘displayed mild OCD symptoms’

September 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sept 13 (ANI): Charles Dickens developed a ritualistic routine in his domestic life, together with an obsessive approach to work, which is consistent with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and can be seen reflected in some of his characters, claims a new biography.

Dickens had a habit of rearranging furniture whenever he stayed in a hotel room and inspecting his children’s bedrooms every morning, leaving behind notes when he was not satisfied with their tidiness.

According to Michael Slater, emeritus professor of Victorian literature at Birkbeck college, London, and author of the book, Charles Dickens, the genius’ behaviour could be traced to his childhood when poverty forced his family to move home repeatedly, reports The Times.

Slater said: “The disorder of his upbringing may have had the effect on him of wanting to be in control.”

He reckons that Little Dorrit, the main character in Dickens’s novel of the same name, reflected his character.

“There she is, the epitome of neatness, in the squalid atmosphere of the Marshalsea prison making order and making her father comfortable and sweeping and cleaning and tidying all the time,” said Slater.

Slater said there were also signs of OCD in the semi-autobiographical David Copperfield.

Also, when it came to women, the author’s attitude was governed by neatness. (ANI)

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New biomarker can bring rapid relief from major depression

September 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 11 (ANI): Scientists from University of California have identified a biomarker that can help accurately predict whether a particular drug will be effective in treating major depression.

During the study, the researchers measured changes in brain-wave patterns using quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG), a non-invasive, computerized measurement that recognizes specific alterations in brain-wave activity.

These changes precede improvement in mood by many weeks and appear to serve as a biomarker that accurately predicts how effective a given medication will be.

The new non-invasive test would help predict within a week whether a particular drug will be effective.

The added benefit of the biomarker test is that it ispainless and fast – about 15 minutes – and only involves the placement of six electrodes around the forehead and on the earlobes.

The researchers recruited a total of 375 people who had been diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) and prescribed the antidepressant escitalopram, commonly known as Lexapro.

Then they examined a biomarker called the antidepressant treatment response (ATR) index – a specific change in brain-wave patterns.

The study showed that the ATR predicted both response and remission with an accuracy rate of 74 percent, much higher than any other method available.

The researchers also found that they could predict whether subjects were more likely to respond to a different antidepressant, bupropion, also known as Wellbutrin XL.

“Until now, other than waiting, there has been no reliable method for predicting whether a medication would lead to a good response or remission,” said Dr. Andrew Leuchter, professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and lead author of the study.

“And that wait can be as long as 14 weeks. So these are very exciting findings for the patient suffering from depression,” said Leuchter.

The study results appear in the journal Psychiatry Research. (ANI)

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Three genes linked to Lou Gehrig’s disease identified

September 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep 10 (ANI): Researchers at Michigan Technological University have identified three genes that play a major role in the most common type of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), generally known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The team of mathematicians, led by Shuanglin Zhang, isolated the genes from the many thousands scattered throughout human DNA.

Zhang noted that the discovery does not mean an end to ALS, but it could provide scientists with valuable clues as they search for a cure.

“I felt very urgent to find the genes for ALS,” Zhang said.

“This is very nice work. It’s very challenging to map genes for complex diseases, and while many statistical methods have been developed, most don’t work well in practice. Zhang’s group has developed a method to detect genes and gene-gene interaction in complex diseases and provided evidence that it works,” said Xiaofeng Zhu, an associate professor of epidemiology at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine.

“Their findings will need to be confirmed by other researchers, but I think this will be very useful for the investigators who are trying to find genes underlying complex diseases such as ALS,” said Zhu.

According to the ALS Association, only about 10 percent of patients have familial ALS, a directly inherited form of the usually fatal neuromuscular disorder, while the remaining 90 percent are diagnosed with the sporadic form of the disease.

While everyone has the three genes in question, but in people with sporadic ALS, they differ from those in people who don’t have ALS.

The mathematicians were not surprised when they tracked down the location of the genes.

“Everybody has 23 chromosomes, and the three genes on chromosomes 2, 4, and 10 interact. If you have this combination of the three genes, you are at high risk of developing the disease. It’s really exciting, especially because my husband has sporadic ALS. Maybe they can find a cure by blocking the genes,” explained Zhang’s wife Qiuying Sha.

ALS destroys the nerves in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary movement, eventually leading to paralysis.

Zhang’s team used a new statistical method to analyse the genetic codes of 547 individuals, 276 with sporadic ALS and 271 without.

The method, a two-locus interaction analysis approach, allows the researchers to identify multiple genes associated with a complex illness.

The data set they analyzed was provided by National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Human Genetics Resource Center at the Coriell Institute, a publicly funded “bank” or repository for human cells, DNA samples, clinical data, and other information that aims to accelerate research on the genetics of nervous system disorders.

The study has been published in the open access journal BMC Medical Genetics. (ANI)

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Donkeys help five-year-old to “find his voice”

September 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sept 8 (ANI): Donkeys have helped a five-year-old boy suffering from selective mutism – a severe childhood anxiety disorder in which a person who is normally capable of speech is unable to speak in given situations -to “find his voice”.

Edward Wright was diagnosed with selective mutism at the age two.

His mother, Michelle, says she wasn’t worried initially but gradually she could not help noticing his silence.

The Daily Express quoted her as saying: “I was worried…He’d chat at home but if we were in a supermarket or at the doctors he wouldn’t say a word. It was as if he was scared of people he didn’t know hearing his voice.”

“At nursery he’d point to pictures of what he wanted to do each day rather than telling the staff. At first we thought he was just shy,” she added.

Although Edward’s family could not understand his behaviour, his speech therapist said his symptoms showed he was suffering from selective mutism.

Edward’s special coordinater suggested visits to a donkey-riding centre might help.

The Elisabeth Svendsen Trust (EST) For Children And Donkeys is situated on the outskirts of Leeds.

Every week nearly 150 children with disabilities and special needs spend time with the donkeys here.

Michelle explained: “The idea was that the games and activities Edward would do with the donkeys might help him overcome whatever was stopping him talking.”

Edward attended sessions at the centre last September and showed marked improvement in the weeks to follow.

Michelle said: “Gradually he became more confident…after a few weeks he began whispering commands into the donkeys’ ears. Later he would say instructions out loud to stop and start them while riding. It was lovely to see.”

She added: “At school he now talks to friends in the playground and he answers teachers when they ask questions. Every day he has an hour or two of speech therapy which also helps.

“Edward talks about the donkeys a lot, especially his favourite one Eeyore. The donkeys really have helped him find his voice.” (ANI)

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Missing protein in rare genetic brain disorder restored

September 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep 7 (ANI): By using protease inhibitors, researchers at the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF) have restored to normal levels a key protein that is involved in early brain development, and causes the rare brain disorder lissencephaly.

Reduced levels of the protein called LIS1 have been shown to cause lissencephaly, which is characterized by brain malformations, seizures, severe mental retardation and very early death in human infants.

The findings in mice offer a proof-of-principle that the genetic equivalent to human lissencephaly, also known as “smooth brain” disease, can be treated during pregnancy and effectively reversed to produce more normal offspring.

The researchers are hoping that this approach could also be used to treat other defects in utero, or even those manifesting after birth, when caused by a partial deficiency in one gene, according to Dr. Anthony Wynshaw-Boris.

“Researchers have not considered it possible to treat such a pervasive, early developmental brain disorder as lissencephaly. Not only were we able to show a clear cellular effect from using these protease inhibitors, but also were able to treat the disorder in utero,” Nature quoted Wynshaw-Boris as saying.

The work is the culmination of 15 years of collaborative research into the cause and mechanisms of lissencephaly, which is caused by a deletion or loss of one copy of the LIS1 gene, and affects an estimated one in 50,000-100,000 infants.

In 1998, the researchers reported of producing a mouse with the same mutation that displayed defective brain development.

The current research used these mice, and found that the protein calpain degrades the LIS1 protein to less than half its normal levels near the surface of the cells.

The team then used a specific small-molecule protease inhibitor of calpain in these mice.

At a cellular level, the protease inhibitors enabled LIS1 protein to be expressed at near-normal levels.

The team then gave daily injections of a calpain inhibitor to pregnant mice whose foetuses had the mouse-model of this defect.

They observed that the resulting offspring had more normal brains and showed no sign of mental retardation.

“This study is really a proof-of-principle not only for treating complex developmental brain disorders, but also for any disorder with reduced protein levels where proteases normally play some role in breaking down that protein. This will be much more difficult to apply to humans, because of the safety issues involved, but it could lead to new therapies that might be effective for a wide range of developmental disorders,” said the researchers.

The findings have been published in the journal Nature Medicine. (ANI)

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Single gene behind essential tremor, Parkinson’s disease identified

September 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 2 (ANI): A single gene promotes development of essential tremor in some patients and Parkinson’s disease in others has been identified by an international team of researchers.

In a study report published in Parkinsonism and Related Disorders, Mayo Clinic researchers in Florida and their collaborators worldwide note that patients with essential tremor shake when they move, while those with Parkinson’s disease shake when they are at rest.

They further state that a variant in LINGO1, a gene involved in neuronal survival, is the first proven evidence of a common genetic component in the development of both disorders.

Analysing their findings, the researchers have come to the conclusion that mutations in this gene are potentially responsible for five percent of patients with Parkinson’s disease, and five percent of patients with essential tremor.

Lead researcher Dr. Carles Vilarino-Guell, of Mayo Clinic, said: “There is a mutation in the gene that must be causing or contributing to Parkinson’s disease in some people and essential tremor in others.”

He, however, added that that did not mean that people with essential tremor have an increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.

The findings are intriguing because “although essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease are considered to be different diseases, researchers have been arguing for a long time about whether essential tremor is a milder, preliminary form of Parkinson’s disease, and they have been looking for the genetic connection between these disorders,” he said.

“Now we know LINGO1 is the first gene identified,” he added.

The scientists have yet to identify any specific mutation or mutations on LINGO1 responsible for either disorder.

“The easiest explanation is that there are two separate and clearly distinct mutations in the gene contributing to the disorders. But because this gene doubles the risk of developing either disease and it is found at the same frequency in both diseases, it is possibly the same mutation,” Dr. Vilarino-Guell said.

“Both diseases are also affected by environmental factors, and that may influence which disorder a person would be more likely to develop,” he added. (ANI)

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Brain function of earthquake survivors gets acutely affected

September 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep 1 (ANI): The earthquake that jolted Wenchuan, China, in 2008 has had an acute impact on the brain function of physically healthy survivors, and even poses a risk to their mental health, according a new research.

Working with collaborators from universities in China, the US and Liverpool, researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry focussed on the survivors of the earthquake that occurred on May 12 last year.

The researchers wanted to gain a better understanding of how functional brain systems adapt to severe emotional stress.

Previous animal studies have demonstrated the importance of limbic, paralimbic, striatal, and prefrontal structures of the brain in stress and fear responses.

Human studies, which have focused primarily on patients with clinically established posttraumatic stress disorders, have reported abnormalities in similar brain structures.

But not much is known about potential alterations of brain function in trauma survivors shortly after traumatic events such as an earthquake.

The epicentre of the devastating earthquake was in Wenchuan, in the Sichuan Province of China.

The tremor measured 8.0 on the Richter scale and severely affected many geographical regions including Yingxiu, Wenchuan, Dujiangyan, and Shifang, where 45 million people were directly affected.

The researchers found that a significant proportion of the survivors (around 20 per cent) are likely to develop stress-related disorders, such as acute stress disorder (ASD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“Given the serious and persistent impact of these highly prevalent psychiatric disorders, it is vital to develop a better understanding of the alterations of cerebral function evident in the early stages of adaptation to trauma. Such knowledge may lead to a better understanding of posttraumatic responses and the development of more effective early interventions,” said Dr Andrea Mechelli from the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London.

The researchers used a method known as ‘resting-state fMRI’ to examine 44 healthy survivors and 32 controls shortly after the massive psychological trauma.

They found that significant alterations in brain function similar to those observed in posttraumatic stress disorders could be seen shortly after major traumatic experiences, highlighting the need for early evaluation and intervention for the survivors.

The results of the study show that individuals experiencing severe emotional trauma showed hyperactivity in certain areas of the brain, and decreased functional connectivity in others, shortly after the massively traumatic Wenchuan earthquake.

Particularly, the findings indicated that traumatic experiences affect not only regional function but also dynamic interactions within brain networks.

It is not clear if this pattern of brain alteration remains the same or evolves further over the following weeks or months after the traumatic experiences.

“A better understanding of the impact of traumatic events on brain function may help us identify those in need of early treatment and reduce the long-term psychological impact in trauma survivors of national disasters, military conflict, and other causes of severe emotional distress,” said Mechelli.

The results of the study have been published in PNAS online. (ANI)

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Depressed teens ‘at higher risk of mental health problems in later life’

September 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sept 1 (ANI): Teenagers who suffer from minor depression are at a higher risk of suffering from mental health problems in their adult life, says a new study.

Psychiatrists at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute surveyed 750 fourteen to 16-year-old teenagers and then interviewed them as adults, to come up with the findings.

Researchers found anxiety, severe depression and eating disorders were much more common in those 20 to 30-year-olds who had suffered from minor depression as adolescents, reports The BBC.

The report published in the British Journal of Psychiatry found that 8 percent of participants had minor depression as teenagers.

By the age of 20 and 30, these people were four times more prone to developing major depression than those who did not face bouts of depression as teens.

According to the research, teens with minor depression had a two-and-a-half times increased risk of agoraphobia, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder and a threefold risk of anorexia or bulimia as adults.

The researchers defined minor depression as one which lasted for at least two weeks and had symptoms like feeling low, losing interest in activities, sleeping problems and poor concentration.

Study leader Dr Jeffrey Johnson said more research was needed to see if depression problems in teenagers were an early phase of major depressive disorder or if minor depression earlier in life contributed to the development of more serious problems later on.

Lucie Russell, director of campaigns at Young Minds, said: “Ensuring teachers, social workers and the rest of the children’s workforce have the appropriate skills and knowledge to identify when a child is showing signs of depression will enable young people to get help early before problems escalate to crisis point.” (ANI)

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New technique to help Parkinson’s patients speak louder

August 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 26 (ANI): Scientists from Purdue University’s Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences have come up with a novel technique that would help Parkinson’s patients speak louder.

“People with Parkinson’s disease commonly have voice and speech problems,” said Jessica Huber, an associate professor in Purdue’s Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences.

“At some point in their disease they will have some form of voice or speech disorder that generally occurs a little later in the disease,” she added.

The most common therapy, the Lee Silverman voice treatment program, trains patients to speak louder in one-hour sessions four days a week for a month.

“Some Parkinson’s patients do great with this approach, but others do not. They forget to keep speaking louder the minute they have left the therapy room,” said Huber.

Lee Silverman tends to work less for people with later stages of disease or those who have some cognitive decline.

Huber used a new approach: The patients were asked to speak louder while a recording of background “multitalker babble noise” was played. The noise is essentially the sound of a restaurant full of patrons, but without the clattering silverware and clinking glasses.

“They had an easier time getting louder when I had the noise in the room,” she said.

“Ordinarily, when I asked them to be twice as loud they would say they couldn’t. They couldn’t speak 10 decibels louder, but when I turned on the babble noise, they spoke over 10 decibels louder,” she added.

In the device built by engineering resources manager Jim Jones and senior research engineer Kirk Foster, both in the Weldon School, the voice-activated device automatically plays the background babble when the person begins to speak.

A sensor placed on the neck detects that the person has begun to speak and tells the device to play the babble through an earpiece worn by the patient.

“I got the idea that if we train them with a natural cue in their everyday environment, we will probably get better results. We ask them to wear the system for about four hours a day as they go about their daily routine,” she added.(ANI)

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Regulation of ‘short stature’ gene crucial for growth in kids

August 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 26 (ANI): A team of researchers in Germany have found that not only a gene called SHOX is involved in the development of short stature, but sequences of genetic material on the X and Y chromosome that regulate it are also crucial for growth in children.

Professor Gudrun Rappold, the Director of the Department of Human Molecular Genetics at Heidelberg University Hospital, points out that these gene regulators determine how frequently a gene is copied, and, thus, how effective it is.

In many cases, she says, the mutation of one regulatory sequence of the SHOX gene is sufficient to give rise to the full-blown syndrome.

Publishing their results in the Journal of Medical Genetics, she and her colleagues have said that their findings may open up new possibilities for diagnosing the cause of short stature, and initiating treatment before it is too late.

According to background information in the report, the SHOX gene (short stature homeobox gene) is responsible for the normal growth of bones, and is often mutated in short-stature patients-no more than 160 cm of final height in men, and 150 cm in women.

Hormone disorders, malnutrition, chronic disease, or a genetic disorder are some of the causes of short stature. If, in addition to short stature, other symptoms such as short forearms and lower legs or other bone malformations also occur, it is considered a syndrome.

However, often no exact cause can be determined and other typical features are lacking – this is then known as idiopathic short stature.

In 2007, a research team led by Professor Rappold found that in over 4 percent of children with idiopathic short stature, the trigger for the disorder was a mutation in the SHOX gene. er latest study has shown that not only the gene itself, but its regulators as well can be crucial for developing the disease.

During the study, the researchers examined the genetic material from a total of 893 subjects.

About 5 percent of the patients with idiopathic short stature, and 80 percent of the patients with Leri-Weill syndrome, had mutations in the segment either including or around the SHOX gene.

The researchers said that some patients had an intact SHOX gene, but an unexpectedly high number of mutations in its enhancer sequences: for 26 percent of patients with SHOX deficiency and idiopathic short stature and for 45 percent of patients with SHOX deficiency and Leri-Weill syndrome, the disease could be attributed solely to a genetic mutation of the enhancer sequence.

“The astounding thing is that this enhancer mutation is quite far away from the affected gene and yet it still leads to the exact same clinical symptoms as a mutation in the gene itself,” said Professor Rappold.

The researchers hope that their results will give them a better understanding of the causes of the disease, and allow them to optimise the diagnostic possibilities for patients with SHOX gene mutations.

“Patients who suffer from their short stature often have a great need to be able to name the cause. Even if it is not possible to treat the cause, patients with mutations of the SHOX gene can benefit from a treatment of the symptoms with growth hormones,” said Professor Rappold. (ANI)

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Ancient Irish skeletons could help solve mystery of rare genetic bone disease

August 25, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Dublin, August 25 (ANI): Two ancient skeletons with a rare genetic bone disease unearthed from a medieval Irish graveyard may hold key insights for medical experts in solving the mysterious ailment.

The two skeletons – one around 800-years-old and the other 1,100-years-old – dug up along with the remains of more than 1,000 men, women and children from the Ballyhanna graveyard site at Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, have attracted the attention of international medical researchers.

There have only been 16 cases of the hereditary bone growth disorder, now known as multiple osteochondromas, identified in ancient remains worldwide.

Dr Eileen Murphy, an archaeology lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast, believes that the discovery of the remains – afflicted by massive bone growths – could help modern-day clinicians glean more information about that unusual debilitating condition.

According to Dr Murphy, the two cases could “help inform clinicians” in understanding the disease.

“I think it is good for clinicians to look at how diseases change and the way they turn up in the body over time. Some of the Jericho cases (dating from the Middle Bronze Age) are very old and can show if it has progressed in any way or mutated,” said Dr Murphy, who is writing a paper on the two cases.

A sample of the 800-year-old remains from Skeleton 331 known as ‘Ballyhanna Man’ was sent to a genetics unit in Italy for further examination.

“We took a sample of the bone to send off to genetics units but the DNA in the bone was too degraded,” Dr Murphy explained.

However, the research team holds hopes that in the future, a specialized laboratory may be able to extract DNA of sufficient quality for analysis to provide clues as to the evolution of the disease, which is estimated to affect one in 50,000 people.

Researchers from the Institute of Technology in Sligo and Queen’s University Belfast are collaborating on the Ballyhanna project.

The 800-year-old remains of the worst-affected man, who died aged between 25 to 35 years old, showed he would have been physically disabled due to massive bony projections.

It is likely that he would have suffered from pain and have been recognized by others as having a physically debilitating condition from a young age.

The remains of the other man, who died a few hundred years earlier aged around 35-50 years, had less prominent growths.

In both cases, they were interred in the community graveyard, suggesting they were not shunned and treated as equals. (ANI)

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‘Thick’ blood causes as well as protects from heart attack, stroke

August 25, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 25 (ANI): Animal studies carried out by researchers at Heidelberg University Hospital have shown that “thick” blood can not only cause heart attack and stroke, but also prevent them.

In their study report, the scientists say that mice with a greater tendency to form blood clots have larger plaques in their vessels, but they are more stable.

Thus, there is less risk that these plaques will rupture and obstruct circulation.

Usually, the more blood coagulates, the greater is the risk of vascular obstruction, and anticoagulants are used to protect against these complications.

However, clinical studies have thus far not proven that an increased clotting tendency also has a detrimental effect for plaque development.

Led by Dr. Berend Isermann, the researchers examined mice with elevated blood fat levels, and a genetic defect that leads to an increase in blood clotting.

They found that the mice developed larger plaques than those without the genetic defect, but the plaques were more stable.

In addition, no vascular obstruction was observed, as the vascular wall expanded to adapt to the new situation.

The negative effect of larger plaques on circulation was compensated by the positive effect of stability and a greater vessel diameter.

However,the long-term use of anticoagulants (in this case, low molecular weight heparin) reversed these advantages- the size of the plaques was reduced, but stability was lost, increasing the risk of complications.

“Our findings were made on mice, but they confirm the results of clinical studies on humans. In addition, in vitro studies show that human cells react similarly to mouse cells,” said Isermann.

The team assumed that the results could be transferred to humans and recommends weighing the advantages and disadvantages of anticoagulants carefully before administering them to a patient.

“Currently, there is no indication that these new observations also apply to drugs that inhibit the function of platelets,” said Isermann.

When deciding on therapy, the cause of the coagulation disorder and the degree of already existing atherosclerosis should be taken into consideration.

Additionally, the researchers recommended using anticoagulants that inhibit specific coagulation factors in order to preserve the positive effects on plaque stability.

Various new drugs that inhibit specific coagulation factors are currently being studied in clinical trials.

“It is important that plaque stability and the influence on atherogenesis are also studied in these trials,” said Isermann.

The study has been published in the journal Circulation. (ANI)

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Weight loss shows spark fears of child eating disorders

August 25, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Melbourne, Aug 24 (ANI): In wake of the increasing number of eating disorder cases, experts have warned that kids should be banned from watching weight loss shows.

Figures from Queensland Health show the number of children aged 13 or under being diagnosed with eating disorders at community mental health services jumped from 14 in 2002-2003 to 57 in 2007-2008.

The most severe child eating disorder cases rose slightly in five years, from 13 children aged under 14 admitted to hospital in the public sector between 2002-2003 to 17 in 2007-2008.

Queensland Health said the figures could underestimate the extent of cases, as more children were seen by the private sector.

Julie Parker, general manager of the Butterfly Foundation, which supports people with eating disorders, said that weight loss shows are ‘dangerous’ for children.

“We constantly have a dieting and thin culture in front of us and children and young people are exposed like never before,” the Courier Mail quoted Parker as saying.

She said kids in particular should not be exposed to extreme weight loss programs as they presented “a very warped and unrealistic view of exercise, dieting and health”.

Eating Disorders Association (Qld) Resource Centre co-ordinator Desi Achilleos said any information that made people feel bad about themselves for not having an ideal body weight and size was unsafe for children. (ANI)

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Sleep apnea ‘raises death risk’

August 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 18 (ANI): Moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea raises the risk of dying from any cause in middle-aged adults, says a new study.

The study provides the strongest evidence to date of a link between increased risk of death and sleep apnea, a common disorder in which the upper airway is intermittently narrowed during sleep, causing breathing to be difficult or completely blocked.

Overall, study participants with severe sleep apnea were at a 40 percent increased risk of death compared to those who did not have the breathing condition. The mortality risk was most apparent in men, who were more likely to die from any cause as well as from heart disease if they had severe sleep apnea.

In particular, men between the ages of 40 and 70 with severe sleep apnea were twice as likely to die during the study compared to their peers who did not have the condition.

“Sleep-Disordered Breathing and Mortality: A Prospective Cohort Study,” is published in the August 18 issue of the open-access journal PLoS Medicine.

To reach the conclusion, researchers from the Sleep Heart Health Study (SHHS) studied more than 6,000 men and women aged 40 years and older who had no sleep apnea or had mild, moderate, or severe sleep apnea as determined by a standard at-home sleep test at the beginning of the study.

After an average of eight years, participants who had severe sleep apnea at enrollment were one and one-half times more likely to die from any cause, regardless of age, gender, race, or weight, or whether they were a current or former smoker or had other medical conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease, or diabetes. (ANI)

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Positive parental attitude can help stop child obesity epidemic

August 9, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 9 (ANI): An eminent obesity expert has said that parents can help to prevent obesity in children by helping them with their eating habits and building a healthy body image.

According to Edward Abramson, PhD and professor emeritus at California State University, parents can ward off obesity by getting their children to eat better food and exercise.

Dr. Abramson said childhood obesity has increased fourfold in the last 40 years, which may make today’s children to become the first generation to have a shorter lifespan than their parents.

Speaking at the American Psychological Associations’ 117th Annual Convention, the expert said that in the last decade, “we’ve seen a [tenfold] increase in Type-2 diabetes and psychological and social consequences, such as prejudice, rejection, discrimination and low self-esteem in children…More than 60 percent of overweight children have one risk factor for cardiovascular disease and 20 percent have two or more risk factors.”

Abramson said, “emotional eating” or eating when one is not hungry may trigger off obesity.

“This can lead to a weight problem or an eating disorder,” he added. “Parents’ attitudes and behaviours also have an influence on children’s eating, and mothers more than fathers affect children’s eating habits and body image.”

He noted that multiple factors contribute to a mother’s concern for her child’s weight problems.

“For example, there is evidence that minority parents (e.g., African-American, Hispanic) are less concerned about their children’s weight…. Often, when a mother is struggling with her own weight, she becomes more involved in regulating her daughter’s eating. In general, mothers are more concerned than fathers about their child’s weight, especially their daughter’s, and are more likely to restrict foods,” the expert added.

According to Abramson children are genetically coded with a tongue for sweet and salty tastes.

“For these children, it may take several repetitions (10 or more) to have a child try a new food, but parents should retreat gracefully and try again another day rather than get into a battle of wills when the child refuses a food,” he said.

He also spelled out a way to get children to try out new and healthy foods.

“If the child is in the kitchen cooking with Mom or Dad, it’s unlikely that he/she will refuse the food that they’ve helped prepare, ” he added.

Abramson pointed out that physical activity could prevent children to gain extra flab even if there is a familial tendency to gain weight. (ANI)

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Lack of sunlight can cause ‘brain drain’ in depressed people

July 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 28 (ANI): Depressed people are less able to think clearly when there’s a short-term lack of sunlight, a new study has found.

Writing in BioMed Central’s open access journal Environmental Health, researchers used weather data from NASA satellites to measure sunlight exposure across the United States and linked this information to the prevalence of cognitive impairment in depressed people.

The team of US researchers, which was led by Shia Kent, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, used cross-sectional data from 14,474 people in the NIH-NINDS-funded REGARDS study, a longitudinal study investigating stroke incidence and risk factors, to study associations between depression, cognitive function and sunlight.

He said, “We found that among participants with depression, low exposure to sunlight was associated with a significantly higher predicted probability of cognitive impairment. This relationship remained significant after adjustment for season.

“This new finding that weather may not only affect mood, but also cognition, has significant implications for the treatment of depression, particularly seasonal affective disorder”.

Kent and his colleagues speculate that the physiological mechanisms that give rise to seasonal depression may also be involved in sunlight’s effect on cognitive function in the context of depressive symptoms.

Cognitive function was assessed by measurement of short-term recall and temporal orientation. As well as regulating the hormones serotonin and melatonin, light has been shown to also affect brain blood flow, which has in turn been linked with cognitive functions.

The researchers write, “Discovering the environment’s impact on cognitive functioning within the context of seasonal disorders may lead not only to better understanding of the disorders, but also to the development of targeted interventions to enhance everyday functioning and quality of life.” (ANI)

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Synchronised light bursts may make jet lag history

July 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 15 (ANI): A software program that prescribes a regimen for avoiding jet lag using timed light exposure has been created by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the University of Michigan.

The method has been described in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology.

Traveling across several times zones can cause an individual to experience jet lag, which includes trouble sleeping at night and difficulty remaining awake during the day. These effects largely reflect de-synchronization between the body”s internal time clock and local environmental cues.

Now, the program, which seeks to re-synchronize the body with its new environment, considers inputs like background light level and the number of time zones traveled. Then, based on a mathematical model, the program gives users exact times of the day when they should apply countermeasures such as bright light to intervene and reduce the effects of jet lag.

Timed light exposure is a well known synchronization method, and when used properly, this intervention can reset an individual”s internal clock to align with local time. The result is more efficient sleep, a decrease in fatigue, and an increase in cognitive performance. Poorly timed light exposure can prolong the re-synchronization process.

Using their computational method, researchers simulated shifting sleep-wake schedules and the subsequent light interventions for realigning internal clocks with local time.

They found that the mathematical computation resulted in quicker design of schedules and also predictions of substantial performance improvements. They were able to show that the computation provided the optimal result for timing light exposure to reduce jet lag symptoms.

“Using this computation in a prototyped software application allows a user to set a background light level and the number of time zones traveled to obtain a recommendation of when to expose a subject to bright light, such as the bright lights sometimes used to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder” said lead-author Dennis Dean.

“Although this method is not yet available to the public, it has direct implications for designing schedules for jet lag, shift-work, and extreme environments, such as in space, undersea or in polar regions,” the expert added.

“This work shows how interventions can cut the number of days needed to adjust to a new time zone by half,” said co-author Daniel Forger. (ANI)

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Obesity linked to increased risk of rapid cartilage loss

July 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 14 (ANI): A new study has shown that obesity, among other factors, is strongly associated with an increased risk of rapid cartilage loss.

Tibio-femoral cartilage is a flexible connective tissue that covers and protects the bones of the knee. Cartilage damage can occur due to excessive wear and tear, injury, misalignment of the joint or other factors, including osteoarthritis (the most common form of arthritis).

In osteoarthritis, the cartilage breaks down and, in severe cases, can completely wear away, leaving the joint without a cushion. The bones rub together, causing further damage, significant pain and loss of mobility.

The best way to prevent or slow cartilage loss and subsequent disability is to identify risk factors early.

“Osteoarthritis is a slowly progressive disorder, but a minority of patients with hardly any osteoarthritis at first diagnosis exhibit fast disease progression,” said the study’s lead author, Frank W. Roemer, M.D., adjunct associate professor at Boston University and co-director of the Quantitative Imaging Center at the Department of Radiology at Boston University School of Medicine.

“So we set out to identify baseline risk factors that might predict rapid cartilage loss in patients with early knee osteoarthritis or at high risk for the disease,” Dr. Roemer added.

The researchers recruited patients from the Multicenter Osteoarthritis (MOST) Study, a prospective study of 3,026 people, age 50 – 79, at risk for osteoarthritis or with early x-ray evidence of the disease.

Dr. Roemer’s study consisted of 347 knees in 336 patients. The patient group was comprised of 65.2 percent women, mean age 61.2, with a mean BMI of 29.5, which is classified as overweight. Recommended BMI typically ranges from 18.5 to 25. Only knees with minimal or no baseline cartilage damage were included.

Of 347 knees selected for the study, 20.2 percent exhibited slow cartilage loss over the 30-month follow-up period and 5.8 percent showed rapid cartilage loss.

Rapid cartilage loss was defined by a whole organ magnetic imaging score of at least 5, indicating a large full thickness loss of 75 percent in any subregion of the knee during the follow-up period.

The results showed that the top risk factors contributing to rapid cartilage loss were baseline cartilage damage, high BMI, tears or other injury to the meniscus (the cartilage cushion at the knee joint) and severe lesions seen on MRI at the initial exam. Other predictors were synovitis (inflammation of the membrane that lines the joints) and effusion (abnormal build-up of joint fluid).

Excess weight was significantly associated with an increased risk of rapid cartilage loss. No other demographic factors-including age, sex and ethnicity-were associated with rapid cartilage loss.

“As obesity is one of the few established risk factors for osteoarthritis, it is not surprising that obesity may also precede and predict rapid cartilage loss,” Dr. Roemer said.
he study has been published in the August issue of Radiology. (ANI)

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‘Jackson’s minders threatened doctor into giving him prescription drugs’

July 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 14(ANI): A doctor has revealed that Michael Jackson’s bodyguards had threatened him when he refused to give the singer prescription drugs at Las Vegas in 2003.

The unnamed physician claims to have visited the icon in his hotel suite after he was told that Jackson was suffering from cough and sore throat.

“The whole thing was staged. It was all a lie. They just wanted drugs. They wanted me to call in all these pills under someone else’s name,” Contactmusic quoted him as telling Las Vegas Review Journal newspaper.

He described: “His minder started giving me a rough time. He was trying to intimidate me. I said, ‘I can’t do that,’ and he replied, ‘What do you mean, they always do that.’ “

The doctor who spoke in condition of anonymity said that he first thought the episode to be a prank on him.

He said: “The handler came up to me and put a finger in my chest and said, ‘You do that.’

“I was waiting for someone to jump out of bushes and say ‘You’ve been punked!’ I felt like I was on ‘Candid Camera.’ “

Now, the doctor believes that the King of Pop was suffering from autism, which is a brain development disorder.

He said that the singer displayed “classic signs of autism”, that include poor social interaction and communication, abnormal intensity or focus, severe insomnia and unusual eating habits. (ANI)

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Stem cell transplantation may correct rare genetic disorder in kids

Charles Dickens ‘displayed mild OCD symptoms’

New biomarker can bring rapid relief from major depression

Donkeys help five-year-old to “find his voice”

Missing protein in rare genetic brain disorder restored

Depressed teens ‘at higher risk of mental health problems in later life’

New technique to help Parkinson’s patients speak louder

Regulation of ‘short stature’ gene crucial for growth in kids

Ancient Irish skeletons could help solve mystery of rare genetic bone disease

‘Thick’ blood causes as well as protects from heart attack, stroke

Weight loss shows spark fears of child eating disorders

Sleep apnea ‘raises death risk’

Lack of sunlight can cause ‘brain drain’ in depressed people

Synchronised light bursts may make jet lag history

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