Kidney function, damage markers could help predict mortality risk

May 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 18 (ANI): A new study has shown that common tests of kidney function and damage can predict the risk of death from cardiovascular diseases and all causes.

This analysis of 21 studies from 14 countries found that a common blood test to estimate kidney function and a urine test measuring protein (albumin) to estimate kidney damage were strongly related to mortality risk.

“People with high levels of albumin in their urine were at markedly higher risk of mortality than people with low levels of albumin in the urine,” said Kunihiro Matsushita, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health”s Department of Epidemiology.

“The risk of mortality was elevated by nearly 50 percent at 30 mg/g albumin to creatinine ratio, which is the threshold for defining chronic kidney disease. In addition, mortality risk increased more than four-fold at high levels of albuminuria compared to an optimal level of 5 mg/g.

“The data presented in this analysis confirm that the current thresholds are indicative of increased all-cause and cardiovascular mortality risk with both kidney filtration function and urine protein contributing to risk,” Matsushita added.

The results are published in the May 17, 2010 issue of the Lancet. (ANI)

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Maternal Vitamin A improves offspring lung function

May 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 13 (ANI): Scientists have discovered that deficiency of Vitamin A in the mother’s body may affect the lung function in the child.

Scientists at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health conducted a study in order to come to this conclusion.

“Children of mothers who received vitamin A supplementation before, during and after pregnancy had significantly improved lung function when compared to those whose mothers received beta-carotene supplementation or placebo,” said lead author of the study, William Checkley, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine with a joint appointment in the Bloomberg School”s Department of International Health.

They found that children whose mothers received vitamin A instead of a placebo had a significantly greater forced expiratory volume at one second (FEV1) and a greater forced vital capacity (FVC), while children whose mothers received beta-carotene instead of a placebo had similar FEV and FVC.

Vitamin A deficiency affects nearly 190 million preschool-age children worldwide and is the underlying cause of 650,000 early childhood deaths annually.

In the 1970s, Alfred Sommer, MD, MHS, dean emeritus at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and colleagues discovered the link between vitamin A deficiency and night blindness among children in rural Indonesia and found that vitamin A given twice a year reduced childhood mortality by a third.

The World Bank declared vitamin A supplementation as one of the most cost-effective medical interventions of all time.

The results are published in the May 13, 2010, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. (ANI)

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Vaccine response could depend on your sex

May 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 13 (ANI): Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have claimed that biological differences between the sexes could be a significant predictor of responses to vaccines.

The scientists examined published data from numerous adult and child vaccine trials and found that sex is a fundamental, but often overlooked predictor of vaccine response that could help predict the efficacy of combating infectious disease.

The review is featured in the May 2010 issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

“Sex can affect the frequency and severity of adverse effects of vaccination, including fever, pain and inflammation,” said Sabra Klein, PhD, lead author of the review and an assistant professor at the Bloomberg School”s W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology. “This is likely due to the fact that women typically mount stronger immune responses to vaccinations compared to men. In some cases, women need substantially less of a vaccine to mount the same response as men. Pregnancy is also a factor that can alter immune responses to vaccines.” (ANI)

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Infections cause two-thirds of child deaths: Study

May 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 12 (ANI): According to a new study, preventable infectious diseases cause two-thirds of child deaths.

Published in The Lancet, experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF”s Child Health Epidemiology Reference Group (CHERG) assessed data from 193 countries to produce estimates by country, region and the world.

“With less than five years to reach the United Nations Millennium Development Goal 4—to reduce child deaths by two-thirds from 1990 levels—it is vital for governments, public health organizations, and donors to have accurate country-level estimates so they can target their efforts effectively,” said lead author Dr. Robert Black, chair of the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“These findings have important implications for national programs,” said UNICEF Chief of Health, Dr. Mickey Chopra. “The persistence of diarrhea, pneumonia and malaria, all of which are easily preventable and curable but which nonetheless remain the leading single causes of death worldwide, should spur us to do more to control these diseases.”

The study”s country and regional estimates, however, underscore how global efforts must be targeted to have maximum impact. Malaria, for instance, is responsible for approximately 16 percent of deaths in Africa, but is a comparatively minor disease in the rest of the world. The study did reveal successes in fighting some infectious diseases, such as measles and tetanus—each now only accounts for 1 percent of child deaths worldwide.

Newborn deaths—those within the first month of life—increased as a proportion of all child deaths globally from 37 percent in 2000 to 41 percent in 2008.

The two greatest single causes of death among neonates are pre-term birth complications and birth-related asphyxia.

“These new data make the compelling case that for countries to get on track for Millennium Development Goal 4, they need to scale up low-cost, effective newborn health interventions,” said co-author Dr. Joy Lawn, director of Global Policy and Evidence for Save the Children”s Saving Newborn Lives program. (ANI)

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Rampant HR violations, apathy by Burmese Military Junta leaves cyclone victims hapless

May 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 8 (ANI): The survivors of Cyclone Nargis that devastated Burma in 2008, continue to reel under the problems brought by the cyclone.

A study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Emergency Assistance Team—Burma, has revealed that the victims of Nargis are yet to receive vital assistance that would enable them to rebuild their lives, and they face lack of access to relief and reconstruction efforts even though its been over a year since the cyclone ripped through the country.

The study “Community-Based Assessment of Human Rights in a Complex Humanitarian Emergency: The Emergency Assistance Teams-Burma and Cyclone Nargis” is published May 7 in the journal Conflict and Health.

“Accounts of survivors and independent relief workers one year after the cyclone make clear that the basic needs remain unmet for many survivors—a situation made worse by Burma’s military rulers who continued to hamper the recovery effort and to limit access by independent relief workers,” said study co-author Chris Beyrer, MD, professor and director of the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at the Bloomberg School.

For the study, a network of community-based organizations, known as the Emergency Assistance Team–Burma, worked on the ground to conduct an assessment of the human rights conditions in Burma immediately following Cyclone Nargis. In response to the cyclone—a storm that killed an estimated 138,000 people and affected 2.4 million people—the team was formed within days after the storm’s landfall.

The assessment found that community aid efforts faced government restrictions and harassment, including the threat of arrest of independent relief workers.

Storm survivors reported land confiscation, misappropriation of reconstruction materials and governmental restrictions on communication and information, all of which continued in 2009.

“The team’s ability to quickly provide appropriate relief services and conduct these assessments reaffirms the key role of community-based organizations in responding to disasters, particularly in challenging settings such as Burma, where official restrictions on humanitarian assistance are extensive,” said Beyrer adding that efforts such as these must be encouraged in the face of such arrant human rights violations. (ANI)

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Carbon monoxide exposure may up heart problem risk for the elderly

September 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep 1 (ANI): Carbon monoxide exposure has been found to elevate the risk of hospitalisation for the elderly with heart problems in an American study.

The nationwide study of 126 urban communities has shown that an increase in carbon monoxide of 1 part per million in the maximum daily one-hour exposure is linked with a 0.96 percent increase in the risk of hospitalisation from cardiovascular disease among people over the age of 65.

The connection remains even when carbon monoxide levels are less than 1 part per million, which is well below the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Ambient Air Quality Standard of 35 parts per million.

The finding has indicated that an under-recognized health risk to seniors.

Presently, the EPA is evaluating the scientific evidence on the link between carbon monoxide and health to determine whether the health-based standard should be modified.

“This evidence indicates that exposure to current carbon monoxide levels may still pose a public health threat. Higher levels of carbon monoxide were associated with higher risk of hospitalisations for cardiovascular heart disease,” said Michelle Bell, the study’s lead investigator.

Working in collaboration with experts from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, Bell analysed hospital records for 9.3 million Medicare recipients and data on air pollution levels and weather, gathered between 1999 and 2005.

The analysis considered the health effects of other traffic-related pollutants, including nitrogen dioxide, fine particles, and elemental carbon.

“We found a positive and statistically significant association between same-day carbon monoxide levels and an increased risk of hospitalisation for cardiovascular disease in general, as well as for multiple, specific cardiovascular disease outcomes, including ischemic heart disease, heart rhythm disturbances, heart failure and cerebrovascular disease,” said Bell.

Carbon monoxide is a tasteless, odourless gas that is a component of automobile exhaust.

The researchers stressed the need for additional research to investigate whether carbon monoxide or a combination of it and other traffic-related pollutants could result in increased cardiovascular hospitalisations in the elderly.

Their most recent findings have been detailed in a research article published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. (ANI)

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New tool may help predict mortality risk in COPD patients

August 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Aug 29 (ANI): Researchers have developed a new tool that would help predict a patient’s risk of dying from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

What’s more, it would also help determine the effective level of treatment.

Boffins have come up with an ADO index that can help physicians assess the severity of the illness.

Presently, the BODE index is used by chest physicians to estimate a patient’s risk of death from COPD. It assesses body-mass index, airflow obstruction, dyspnea and exercise capacity.

However, the BODE index is rarely used in primary care settings where most patient treatment options are managed, because exercise capacity cannot be easily measured in the typical doctor’s office.

“The burden from COPD is so enormous that we need to reach out to any doctors who care for COPD patients,” The Lancet quoted Dr Milo A. Puhan, associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and lead author of the study.

“The ADO index can be used in any setting and we hope that it will serve as a basis for more individualized treatment selection in the near future,” Puhan added.

For the study, Puhan and colleagues developed a simplified BODE index and the ADO index, which included age, dyspnea and airflow obstruction.

The research team compared the predictions of the BODE index with the 3-year risk of all-cause mortality from 232 COPD patients from Switzerland.

The updated BODE index and the new ADO index were then validated with a cohort of 342 COPD patients from Spain.

The findings showed that updated BODE and ADO indices accurately predicted 3-year mortality compared to the original BODE index, which performed poorly at predicting 3-year risk of mortality. (ANI)

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Teens exposed to too much alcohol advertising on cable TV

August 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 21 (ANI): A new US study has revealed that ads for beer, spirits and ‘alcopop’ are frequently aired when more teens were watching television.

This is the first study to demonstrate an association between ad placement and teen cable TV viewership.

“Alcohol advertisers have pledged to avoid audiences made up of more than 30 percent underage viewers – such as children’s programming,” said David H. Jernigan, director of the Centre on Alcohol Marketing and Youth and an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“However, many other shows have adolescent appeal. This research suggests that ads are aimed at groups that include a disproportionate number of teens and that the alcohol industry’s voluntary self-monitoring is not working to reduce adolescent exposure to ads,” he added.

The study showed that audiences with a higher percentage of youth between the ages of 12 and 20 were exposed to a higher frequency of alcohol ads, even after accounting for other factors that might explain ad placement decisions.

Each 1-percentage-point increase in adolescent viewership was associated with a 7-percent increase in beer ads, a 15-percent increase in spirits ads and a 22-percent increase in ads for low-alcohol refreshers/alcopops – flavored alcoholic beverages that taste similar to juice or soda.

However, wine ads decreased by 8 percent with each 1-percentage-point increase in adolescent viewership.

This finding suggests that alcohol advertisers can, in fact, successfully avoid adolescent audiences.

“This study did not examine whether alcohol advertisers are intentionally overexposing adolescents,” said lead study author Dr. Paul J. Chung, assistant professor of pediatrics at Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA and a senior natural scientist at the RAND Corp.

“The alcohol industry has consistently denied actively targeting teens, and our study isn’t designed to test that claim. However, the ultimate effect of their advertising strategies, intentional or not, appears to be greater exposure than might be expected if adults were the sole targets of ads,” he added.

The study appears online in American Journal of Public Health. (ANI)

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Parents’ eating habits have very less influence on kids’

May 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 30 (ANI): Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health say that the suggestion that parents’ dietary choices have a significant influence on children’s eating habits may need rethinking.

Their challenge to the age-old belief is based on an examination of dietary intakes and patterns among U.S. families, which found that the resemblance between children’s and their parents’ eating habits was weak.

“Child-parent dietary resemblance in the U.S. is relatively weak, and varies by nutrients and food groups and by the types of parent-child dyads and social demographic characteristics such as age, gender and family income,” said Dr. Youfa Wang, senior author of the study and associate professor with the Bloomberg School’s Center for Human Nutrition.

“When looking at overall diet quality, parent-child correlation in healthy eating index score was similar for both younger and older children. To our knowledge, this is the first such study that examined the similarities between children’s and their parents’ dietary intakes in the United States based on nationally representative data.

Our findings indicate that factors other than family and parental eating behaviors may play an important role in affecting American children’s dietary intakes,” Dr. Wang added.

The research team examined data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals, a nationally representative multi-stage sample of 16,103 people containing information about dietary intake, socio-economic, demographic and health parameters surveyed from 1994 to 1996.

Average dietary intake and dietary quality indicators were assessed using two 24-hour dietary recalls provided by study participants.

The researchers also assessed the overall quality of the participating children’s and their parents’ diets based on the USDA 2005 Health Eating Index (HEI) along with a number of other covariates.

According to them, the correlations between children’s and their parents’ HEI scores ranged from 0.26 to 0.29 across various child-parent dyads, such as mother-daughter and father-son.

For total energy intake they were 0.14 to 0.29, while for fat intake -0.04 to 0.28.

The researchers say that the range of the correlation measure is between -1 and 1, while 0 means no resemblance and 1 indicates a perfect resemblance.

The team also found some differences in the resemblance between different types of child-parent dyads and nutrient intakes, and by children’s age and family income.

“Factors other than parental eating behaviors such as community and school, food environment, peer influence, television viewing, as well as individual factors such as self-image and self-esteem seem to play an important role in young people’s dietary intake,” said Dr. May A. Beydoun, co-author of the study and a former postdoctoral research fellow at the Bloomberg School.

“Our findings have a number of important public health implications. In particular, the overall weak to moderate parent-child resemblance in food groups, nutrients and healthy eating index scores suggest that interventions targeting parents could have only a moderate effect on improving their children’s diet.

Nevertheless, based on our findings stratified by population groups, for interventions targeting parents, those would be more effective when targeted at mothers, minority groups, and as early as possible in childhood. We suspect that the child-parent resemblance in dietary intake may have become weaker over time, due to the growing influence of other factors outside of the family,” said Wang.

The study has been published in the journal Social Science and Medicine. (ANI)

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Bacteria in mosquito gut may prevent spread of malaria

May 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 9 (ANI): Bacteria in the gut of Anopheles mosquito could play a major role in preventing the spread of malaria, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

They said that the bacteria could prevent the Anopheles gambiae mosquito from getting infected with Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria in humans.

The researchers showed that removing these bacteria, or microbial flora, with the help of antibiotics could make the mosquitoes more susceptible to Plasmodium infection because of a lack of immune stimulation.

Usually, a mosquito acquires the malaria-causing parasite as part of the malaria transmission cycle after feeding on blood from an infected person.

The parasite then develops within the mosquito, and can later be transmitted to another human when the mosquito feeds again.

“Our study suggests that the microbial flora of mosquitoes is stimulating immune activity that protects the mosquito from Plasmodium infection. The same immune factors that are needed to control the mosquito’s infection from the microbes are also defending against the malaria parasite Plasmodium,” said Dr. George Dimopoulos, senior author of the study.

He added: “The interplay between bacteria and the mosquito’s immune system may have significant implications for the transmission of malaria in the field where mosquitoes may be exposed to different types of bacteria in different regions. Theoretically, these bacteria could be introduced to the mosquitoes to boost their immunity to the malaria parasite and make them resistant and incapable of spreading the disease. Our current research aims at identifying those bacteria that trigger the strongest mosquito immune defense against the malaria parasite.”

For the study, the researchers treated mosquitoes with antibiotics to kill the gut bacteria.

They noted that treated mosquitoes were more susceptible to infection by Plasmodium when feeding on infected blood as compared to mosquitoes that were not treated with antibiotics.

For further verification, bacteria-free mosquitoes were infected with bacteria to determine if they were less susceptible to Plasmodium infection.

Also, the researchers determined that mosquitoes infected with bacteria died earlier than mosquitoes without bacteria when infected with Plasmodium, even with Plasmodium levels five times higher than those with bacteria.

“The malaria parasite must live in the mosquito for about two weeks in order to complete its life cycle and be transmitted to a person. The fact that these bacteria shorten the mosquito’s life span is additional good news,” said Dimopoulos.

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

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Media overlooks health contexts of DUI cases among young celebrities

April 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, April 23 (ANI): Though drinking and driving (DUI) arrests of celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan stir up a news storm, little attention is paid to the health consequences, according to a new study.

According to Katherine Smith, PhD, lead author of the study, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Injury Research and Policy, very few articles pointed towards public health contexts.

The assistant professor with the Bloomberg School’s Center for Injury Research and Policy and her team examined the stories covered by the New York Times, TIME, People and the evening news broadcasts from ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and Fox.

Smith, along with co-author Andrea Gielen, ScD, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy, and colleagues Denise Twum and Andrea Gielen, found that only 4 percent of the articles mentioned any harm or potential harm arising from the DUI events.

Smith said: “While the celebrity DUI stories raised awareness of the issue of drinking and driving among young people, an opportunity to educate this audience on solutions to prevent DUI was missed.”

It was further revealed that most stories concentrated on arrest, sentencing and going to or release from jail whilst less than 50 percent covered the legal aspects of the DUI event.

Experts observed that there was very little thought given to any DUI-related policy or possible societal intervention, while consequences of the DUI mainly referred to legal repercussions or professional setbacks.

Even quotes leaned more towards the justice process, such as those from police, district attorney, judge, while there were no words from public health stakeholders or DUI advocacy groups, the study claims.

Gielen said: “This is really a missed opportunity.”

She continued: “Unfortunately, when media cover paltry legal consequences for the celebrities alongside routine use of their glamorous photos, we are likely doing a disservice to young people.

“We need to be getting the message to young people that drinking and driving is a serious issue with substantial legal and life-threatening consequences.”

The results of the study are to be published in the May 2009 issue of Alcohol and Alcoholism. (ANI)

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Media overlooks health contexts of DUI cases among young celebrities

April 24, 2009 By 1 Comment

Washington, April 23 (ANI): Though drinking and driving (DUI) arrests of celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan stir up a news storm, little attention is paid to the health consequences, according to a new study.

According to Katherine Smith, PhD, lead author of the study, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Injury Research and Policy, very few articles pointed towards public health contexts.

The assistant professor with the Bloomberg School’s Center for Injury Research and Policy and her team examined the stories covered by the New York Times, TIME, People and the evening news broadcasts from ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and Fox.

Smith, along with co-author Andrea Gielen, ScD, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy, and colleagues Denise Twum and Andrea Gielen, found that only 4 percent of the articles mentioned any harm or potential harm arising from the DUI events.

Smith said: “While the celebrity DUI stories raised awareness of the issue of drinking and driving among young people, an opportunity to educate this audience on solutions to prevent DUI was missed.”

It was further revealed that most stories concentrated on arrest, sentencing and going to or release from jail whilst less than 50 percent covered the legal aspects of the DUI event.

Experts observed that there was very little thought given to any DUI-related policy or possible societal intervention, while consequences of the DUI mainly referred to legal repercussions or professional setbacks.

Even quotes leaned more towards the justice process, such as those from police, district attorney, judge, while there were no words from public health stakeholders or DUI advocacy groups, the study claims.

Gielen said: “This is really a missed opportunity.”

She continued: “Unfortunately, when media cover paltry legal consequences for the celebrities alongside routine use of their glamorous photos, we are likely doing a disservice to young people.

“We need to be getting the message to young people that drinking and driving is a serious issue with substantial legal and life-threatening consequences.”

The results of the study are to be published in the May 2009 issue of Alcohol and Alcoholism. (ANI)

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Media overlooks health contexts of DUI cases among young celebrities

April 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, April 23 (ANI): Though drinking and driving (DUI) arrests of celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan stir up a news storm, little attention is paid to the health consequences, according to a new study.

According to Katherine Smith, PhD, lead author of the study, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Injury Research and Policy, very few articles pointed towards public health contexts.

The assistant professor with the Bloomberg School’s Center for Injury Research and Policy and her team examined the stories covered by the New York Times, TIME, People and the evening news broadcasts from ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and Fox.

Smith, along with co-author Andrea Gielen, ScD, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy, and colleagues Denise Twum and Andrea Gielen, found that only 4 percent of the articles mentioned any harm or potential harm arising from the DUI events.

Smith said: “While the celebrity DUI stories raised awareness of the issue of drinking and driving among young people, an opportunity to educate this audience on solutions to prevent DUI was missed.”

It was further revealed that most stories concentrated on arrest, sentencing and going to or release from jail whilst less than 50 percent covered the legal aspects of the DUI event.

Experts observed that there was very little thought given to any DUI-related policy or possible societal intervention, while consequences of the DUI mainly referred to legal repercussions or professional setbacks.

Even quotes leaned more towards the justice process, such as those from police, district attorney, judge, while there were no words from public health stakeholders or DUI advocacy groups, the study claims.

Gielen said: “This is really a missed opportunity.”

She continued: “Unfortunately, when media cover paltry legal consequences for the celebrities alongside routine use of their glamorous photos, we are likely doing a disservice to young people.

“We need to be getting the message to young people that drinking and driving is a serious issue with substantial legal and life-threatening consequences.”

The results of the study are to be published in the May 2009 issue of Alcohol and Alcoholism. (ANI)

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Beverage consumption plays key role in weight loss plan

April 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 3 (ANI): Want to shed those extra pounds? Well, then focus more on what you drink than what you eat, suggest Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers.

The researchers studied the relationship between beverage consumption among adults and weight change and found that weight loss was positively linked to a reduction in liquid calorie consumption and liquid calorie intake had a stronger impact on weight than solid calorie intake.

“Both liquid and solid calories were associated with weight change, however, only a reduction in liquid calorie intake was shown to significantly affect weight loss during the 6-month follow up,” said Benjamin Caballero MD, PhD, senior author of the study and a professor with the Bloomberg School’s Department of International Health.

“A reduction in liquid calorie intake was associated with a weight loss of 0.25 kg at 6 months and 0.24 kg at 18 months. Among sugar-sweetened beverages, a reduction of 1 serving was associated with a weight loss of 0.5 kg at 6 months and 0.7 kg at 18 months. Of the seven types of beverages examined, sugar-sweetened beverages were the only beverages significantly associated with weight change,” Caballero added.

The researchers carried out a prospective study of 810 adults aged 25-79 years old participating in the PREMIER trial, an 18-month randomized, controlled, behavioral intervention. Caballero along with colleagues from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; the National Heart, Lung, and Blood institute; Duke University; the Pennington Biomedical Research Center; the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research; the University of Alabama; and Pennsylvania State University measured participant’s weight and height using a calibrated scale and a wall-mounted stadiometer at both 6 and 18 months.

Dietary intake was measured by conducting unannounced 24-hour dietary recall interviews by telephone.

Researchers divided beverages into several categories based on calorie content and nutritional composition. They found that at 37 percent sugar-sweetened beverages were the leading source of liquid calories.

The results are published in the April 1, 2009, issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. (ANI)

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Gene silencing blocks malaria parasites development in multiple mosquito species

March 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, March 14 (ANI): Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have revealed that they have been able to block the development of the malaria-causing parasite in Anopheles gambiae, A. stephensi and A. albimanus mosquitoes-three mosquito species that spread malaria in Africa, Asia and the Americas-by silencing a gene called caspar.

The researchers revealed that caspar silencing activates the transcription factor Rel 2, a key molecule involved in regulating several potent anti-Plasmodium defence genes that attack the parasite in the mosquito gut.

They said that caspar silencing through the manipulation of gene expression resulted in mosquitoes that successfully blocked the development of Plasmodium falciparum in the gut tissue.

The team said that silencing a gene called cactus, which is part of another pathway called Toll, was also found to have similar effect in controlling the development of Plasmodium berghei, which causes malaria in rodents.

“When a mosquito is feeding on malaria-infected blood, the parasite will be recognized by the mosquito’s immune system through receptors that then start the immune response. In the wild, this response is believed to occur too late to mount an efficient immune defense that would kill all parasites.

At least a few Plasmodia will successfully develop inside the mosquito and enable transmission of malaria,” said Dr. George Dimopoulos, senior author of the study and associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute.

“In the lab we activated this immune response in advance of infection, giving the mosquito a head start in defeating the invading parasite,” he added.

The researchers also found that Rel 2 activation did not affect the survival and egg laying fitness of the modified mosquitoes.

“This came as a pleasant surprise since it essentially means that we one day could spread this trait in natural mosquito populations using genetic modification. Furthermore, by activating Rel 2, the genetically modified mosquitoes will attack the malaria parasite with several independent immune factors, and this will make it very difficult for Plasmodium to develop resistance,” said Dimopoulos.

An article on this study has been published in PLoS Pathogens.(ANI)

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