Americans are less willing to pay more for healthy dishes, less knowledgeable about healthy menu items, and more likely to consider healthy items bland-tasting, compared to three years ago, according to a study from researchers at Temple University. The results underscore the importance of competitively pricing healthy foods, the researchers said. Fast-food restaurants were the most popular eating establishments for breakfast and lunch, while fast-food and casual dining were the two most popular places for dinner. The researchers found eating out can have serious consequences. The body mass index of those consuming three to six fast-food meals per week was significantly greater than the BMI of those who reported never consuming fast-food meals or consuming one to two fast-food meals per week. Adding just one additional fast-food meal a week to a diet was associated with a 1.4-pound increase in weight and three additional fast-food meals a week increased weight 4.2 pounds.

 

South San Francisco-based Acumen Pharmaceuticals said the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Journal has published a study co-authored by its co-founder and chief scientific officer Grant Krafft and former Acumen scientist Wei-Qin Zhao that shows that ADDLs (amyloid β-derived diffusible ligands) block key insulin-signaling pathways in the brain. ADDLs are small soluble neurotoxic protein assemblies discovered by Acumen’s founding scientists over a decade ago, and they are now widely regarded as the cause of early memory failure and eventual degeneration in Alzheimer's disease. Earlier research demonstrated that ADDLs bind specifically at nerve synapses where they trigger abnormal signaling, which interferes with critical memory pathways. These latest results now reveal that ADDL signaling also causes a rapid loss of synaptic insulin receptors, which are involved in diverse brain functions including synaptic activities required for learning and memory.

 

People with more years of education lose their memory faster than those with less education in the years prior to a diagnosis of dementia, according to a study by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. The study, published in the journal Neurology, found that for each additional year of formal education, the rapid accelerated memory decline associated with oncoming dementia was delayed by approximately two and one half months. However, once that accelerated decline commenced, the people with more education saw their rate of cognitive decline accelerate 4 percent faster for each additional year of education. The latter portion of this finding corroborates previous research, which had shown that people with more education had more rapid memory loss after diagnosis of dementia. The researchers said that a person with 16 years of formal education would experience a rate of memory decline that is 50 percent faster than someone with just 4 years education.

A study published in Nature Neuroscience show that the excess of glucose chains induces neuronal death and causes Lafora disease, a fatal kind of epilepsy that affects adolescents. A phenomenon considered healthy for cells, such as the accumulation of long chains of glucose (glycogen), which tissues store for energy purposes, is harmful for neurons. The findings, made by a team of Spanish researchers at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine and the Centro Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, point to a strategy of inhibiting glycogen synthesis in neurons as a target for a therapy to treat Lafora disease. 

 

A common human virus may prove useful in attacking the deadliest form of brain tumors, according to a study by researchers at Duke University’s Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center. The researchers said the finding is an important step in developing a vaccine that can attack the tumors by enlisting the help of the body’s immune system. Human cytomegalovirus, which infects 50 percent to 90 percent of people at some point during their lives, is active in more than 90 percent of patients diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, the most deadly type of malignant brain tumor. The researchers don’t know if the virus plays a part in the growth of the brain tumors or whether the tumors lead to reactivation of the virus, but said the virus has the potential to affect the growth and invasiveness of the cancers. Because of that, they believe if they can target the virus, they may be able to rev up the body’s immune system to fight infected tumor cells and destroy the cancer. The study, published online in the journal Neuro-Oncology, said a vaccine targeting the virus would likely be administered to patients following conventional chemotherapy.

 

A study by scientists at University College London shows that mice lacking the insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-1 are more resistant to aging than normal mice. The research adds to a growing body of work showing the importance of insulin-signaling pathways as an aging mechanism in mammals—and potentially humans. The researchers studied “knock-out” mice engineered to lack either insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-1 or -2. These proteins are activated by insulin, a hormone that regulates glucose and fat metabolism, informing the body’s cells when the animal is well fed. The study, published in The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Journal, shows that mice lacking IRS-1 had an average lifespan increase of 20 per cent when compared to normal mice. In female mice lacking IRS-1 this figure was even higher, averaging 30 per cent. As well as living longer, the mice without IRS-1 also experienced better health than the normal mice as they aged—they had brighter eyes, were more alert and were much healthier overall. In comparison, the mice that lacked IRS-2 were shorter-lived than the normal mice and displayed signs of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

 

Viruses may contribute to cancer by causing excessive death to normal cells while promoting the growth of surviving cells with cancerous traits, according to a study from researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The study, published in the online journal PLoS ONE,finds viruses may act as forces of natural selection by wiping out normal cells that support the replication of viruses and leaving behind those cells that have acquired defects in their circuitry. When this process is repeated over and over, cancer can develop, the researchers said. Infection with viruses has been linked to many human cancers, including some forms of Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas, sarcomas, and cancers of the throat and liver. Over the years, scientists have proposed a number of mechanisms to explain this link. One commonly held belief is that when a virus infects a cell, its genetic material alters the cell, making it grow uncontrollably, eventually leading to cancer. Some viruses also are thought to promote cancer by causing chronic inflammation. The study suggests that viruses can lead to cancer in a less direct way.

 

A neural network that may generate the human tendency to be optimistic has been identified by researchers at New York University and University College London. As humans, we expect to live longer and be more successful than the average person, and we underestimate our likelihood of getting a divorce or having cancer. The results, reported in the most recent issue of Nature, link the optimism bias to the same brain regions that show irregularities in depression. The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine brain function while participants thought of possible future life events. When participants imagined positive future events relative to negative ones, enhanced activation was detected in the rostral anterior cingulate and amygdala, which are the same brain areas that seem to malfunction in depression, the researchers said.

 

An international team of researchers led by a Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center geneticist has discovered two genes linked to a disabling form of arthritis called ankylosing spondylitis, a painful and progressive disease in which some or all of the spine’s vertebrae fuse together. The researchers also validated the association of two genes implicated in Graves’ disease, an autoimmune condition that causes over-activity of the thyroid gland. The researchers, including colleagues in the U.K.-based Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium and The Australo-Anglo-American Spondylitis Consortium, reported their findings in the online version of Nature Genetics. The study revealed two genes linked to ankylosing spondylitis: ARTS1 and IL23R, both of which influence immune function. Together with the previously known gene HLA-B27, the new findings increase to three the number of genes known to be involved in the disease. A person who carries all three genetic variants would be expected to have a one-in-four chance of developing the disease.

 

A team of Johns Hopkins scientists reports in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that humans can be protected against the damaging effects of ultraviolet radiation—the most abundant cancer-causing agent in our environment—by topical application of an extract of broccoli sprouts. The results in human volunteers, backed by parallel evidence obtained in mice, show that the degree of skin redness caused by UV rays, which is an accurate index of the inflammation and cell damage caused by UV radiation, is markedly reduced in extract-treated skin. Unlike sunscreens, the extract does not absorb UV light and prevent its entry into the skin. Rather, the extract works inside cells by boosting the production of a network of protective enzymes that defend cells against many aspects of UV damage. As a result, researchers said the protection lasts for several days, even after the extract is no longer present on or in the skin.

 

In South Africa, the 2001 implementation of the World Health Organization’s anti-tuberculosis program may have inadvertently helped to create a new strain of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB). In a new study published online in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, researchers tracked the developing drug resistance of one particular strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis over 12 years. They found that at the time of the 2001 adoption of the directly observed therapy plus strategy for multi-drug resistant strains to use observers to ensure compliance with drug regimens, the strain was already resistant to one or more of the drugs mandated by that strategy. This allowed the strain to survive and develop resistance to additional drugs. Researchers at the University of KwaZulu-Natal said the spread of a highly transmissible strain of drug-resistant tuberculosis has been facilitated by applying standard treatment regimens for susceptible and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in the absence of drug resistance surveillance.

 

When elderly nursing home residents contract pneumonia, it is a blow to their already fragile health. Researchers at Tufts University report that maintaining normal serum zinc concentration in the blood may help reduce the risk of pneumonia development in that population. The researchers found that study participants with normal serum zinc concentrations in their blood reduced their risk of developing pneumonia by about 50 percent. Additionally, deaths from all causes were 39 percent lower in this group. The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, also found that maintaining normal serum zinc concentration in the blood throughout the 12-month study period benefited the participants even if they did develop pneumonia. Those participants with normal serum zinc concentrations in their blood were more likely to spend fewer days on antibiotics and recover more quickly.

 

When people living in many parts of the world move their clocks forward one hour in the spring in observance of daylight saving time, their bodies’ internal, daily rhythms don’t adjust with them, according to a study in the journal Current Biology. The finding suggests that this regular time change—practiced by a quarter of the human population—represents a significant seasonal disruption, raising the possibility that daylight saving time may have unintended effects on other aspects of human physiology, the researchers from Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich, Germany said. The researchers said after taking the seasonal adjustment into account, their results show that the human circadian clock does not adjust to the daylight saving time transition. Essentially, they said people’s biological timing stays on standard, winter time, while they have to adjust their social schedules to the advanced clock time throughout the summer.

 

Just three months of daily, vigorous physical activity in overweight children improves their thinking and reduces their diabetes risk, researchers at the Medical College of Georgia report. Studies of about 200 overweight, inactive children ages 7 to 11 also showed that a regular exercise program reduces body fat and improves bone density. The researchers said in an abstract presented during The Obesity Society’s Annual Scientific Meeting in New Orleans that regular exercise may be a simple, important method of enhancing children’s cognitive and academic development.

 

A new study finds that survival for elderly patients with lung cancer has changed little despite large increases in healthcare expenditures for lung cancer treatment. The study by researchers from Harvard University, the National Cancer Institute, and the National Bureau of Economic Research, published in the journal CANCER, finds that average life-expectancy rose by less than one month between 1983 and 1997, while costs rose by over $20,000 per patient. Lung cancer remains the top cause of cancer death in the United States, with an estimated 160,390 deaths expected to occur in 2007. The U.S. spends more than $5 billion a year on detection, determining the disease severity, and treatment of lung cancer. The researchers found that by conventional benchmarks, the additional money spent on lung cancer treatment in the mid-1990s compared to in the early 1980s did not result in a favorable economic rate of return.

 

Canadians would welcome a vaccine against the human papillomavirus (HPV) if it were introduced at no charge, a Quebec, Canada survey suggests. Research published in the open access online journal BMC Public Health shows that 91 percent of young women (ages 18 to 25) would agree to vaccination, and that 89 percent of men and women would recommend it to their daughters or nieces. However, they note that the level of acceptance dropped sharply to 72 percent when it was suggested that the vaccine might cost $103 ($100 Canadian). HPV is the major cause of cervical cancer and is the most common sexually transmitted disease. A vaccine against some strains of HPV is now commercially available in Canada.

 

Lake Forest, Illinois-based Hospira Inc. and a German partner Stada Arzneimittel AG said they received a "positive opinion" recommending European Union approval of a cheaper generic copy of Amgen’s blockbuster anti-anemia drug Epogen, which is used for kidney dialysis patients and cancer patients, the Chicago Tribune reported. An advisory committee to European regulators has issued a positive opinion on the product, a sign that the European Union is serious about approving copycat versions of high-priced biotechnology products. Efforts in the United States to pass legislation that would lead to the establishment of a regulatory pathway for so-called bioequivalents have stalled. Consumer groups have pushed for such legislation to gain excess to less expensive therapies, but the industry has argued that the science to determine that a generic version of a biotechnology product is truly equivalent to the original product and that it would need to go through a clinical pathway to determine its safety and efficacy.

 

The U.S. Senate approved an appropriations bill that includes a provision directing the National Institutes of Health to strengthen its Public Access Policy by requiring rather than requesting participation by researchers. The bill will now be reconciled with the House Appropriations Bill, which contains a similar provision, in another step toward support for public access to publicly funded research becoming U.S. law, according to the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, which has pushed for the requirement. The bill would mandate that NIH-funded researchers deposit copies of eligible manuscripts into the National Library of Medicine’s online database, PubMed Central. Articles will be made publicly available no later than 12 months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal. The current NIH Public Access Policy, first implemented in 2005, is a voluntary measure and has resulted in a deposit rate of less than 5 percent by individual investigators.

LEGISLATION: HOUSE APPROVES NEW SCHIP BILL
In the wake of President George Bush’s veto, the U. S. House of Representatives voted yesterday to approve a new version of legislation to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, The Washington Post reported. The 265 to 142 vote fell short of the majority needed to overturn another presidential veto. The new version of the bill won support from 43 Republican House members, two less than its previous version despite efforts by Democratic leaders to respond to Republican criticism by toughening language to exclude illegal immigrants from the program, provide states incentives to drop families that earn more than 300 percent of the poverty level and push adults out of the program faster.