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PARKINSON’S: ADULT STEM CELLS OFFER HOPE OF A CURE
Griffith University researchers said in a study published in the journal Stem Cells that adult stem cells harvested from the noses of Parkinson’s patients gave rise to dopamine-producing brain cells when transplanted into the brain of a rat. The symptoms of Parkinson’s such as loss of muscle control are caused by degeneration of cells that produce the essential chemical dopamine in the brain. Current drug therapies replace dopamine in the brain, but these often become less effective after prolonged use. The discovery is the work of the National Centre for Adult Stem Cell Research, part of Griffith’s Eskitis Institute for Cell and Molecular Therapies. Project leader Professor Alan Mackay-Sim said researchers simulated Parkinson’s symptoms in rats by creating lesions on one side of the brain similar to the damage Parkinson's causes in the human brain. The lesions to one side of the brain caused the rats run in circles. When stem cells from the nose of Parkinson’s patients were cultured and injected into the damaged area the rats re-acquired the ability to run in a straight line.

 

HEART ATTACKS: MEN WITH VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY MAY HAVE INCREASED RISK

Low levels of vitamin D appear to be associated with higher risk of heart attack or myocardial infarction in men, according to a report in the June 9 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. Studies have shown that the rates of cardiovascular disease-related deaths are increased at higher latitudes and during the winter months and are lower at high altitudes, according to background information in the article. Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston said this pattern is consistent with an adverse effect of hypovitaminosis D or vitamin D deficiency, which is more prevalent at higher latitudes, during the winter and at lower altitudes. They also said that while other explanations are possible, vitamin D has been shown to affect the body in ways that may influence the risk of heart attack or heart disease. Fatty fish is one of the few foods where the fat-soluble Vitamin D, or calciferol, is found. It is also made in the body after exposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun. Researchers reviewed medical records and blood samples of 454 men (age 40 to 75) who had non-fatal heart attack or fatal heart disease from the date of blood collection (between January 1993 and December 1995) until January 2004. Men with a vitamin D deficiency (having 15 nanograms per milliliter of blood or less) had an increased risk for heart attack compared with those with a sufficient amount (having 30 nanograms per milliliter of blood or more) of vitamin D. Researchers said the findings add further support that the current dietary requirements of vitamin D need to be increased.

 

University of Illinois at Chicago researchers said they have modified the procedure for islet cell transplantation, allowing diabetes patients to achieve insulin independence with fewer but better-functioning pancreatic islet cells. The new procedure enabled patients to get off insulin after a single transplant versus the two to four transplants that were needed using the older protocol, researchers said in the June issue of the American Journal of Transplantation. In the study, 10 patients with diabetes received between one and three islet cell transplants and were followed for 15 months. Four received a combination of two immunosuppressants and a monoclonal antibody drug, daclizumab. Six patients received the protocol developed by the researchers—a combination of etanercept (an anti-inflammatory drug developed to treat rheumatoid arthritis) and exenatide (a drug approved for use in type 2 diabetes to improve glucose control)—and the previous regimen. All patients in the study achieved insulin independence, but those who received the new protocol required fewer than half the number of islets as those who were treated under the older protocol known as the Edmonton protocol. The six patients who were treated using the new protocol initially achieved insulin-independence after only one islet transplant. Two of these patients required a second islet cell transplant, and one resumed insulin five months after the second transplant due to other complications, researchers said. The four patients who received the Edmonton protocol needed either two or three sequential islet cell transplants to achieve insulin-independence.

 

MEDICATION COSTS: HIGHER CO-PAYMENTS REDUCE USE OF ANTIDEPRESSANTS
Research from Brandeis University published in the Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics suggests that the prevalent multi-tiered formulary system does impact how patients fill antidepressant prescriptions, even though antidepressants have certain characteristics that can make it difficult for patients to switch medications. The study evaluated claims and eligibility files for a large nonprofit managed care organization that started introducing its three-tier formulary in 2000. The researchers found for the antidepressants that became non-preferred, prescriptions per plan member decreased 11 percent in the three-tier group, and increased 5 percent in the comparison group of patients who had not been moved yet to a three-tier system. The study found that out-of-pocket spending increased while the health plan’s spending per user decreased. Notably, the proportion of plan members using antidepressants decreased, unlike what previous studies have found for other classes of drugs, such as medications for high cholesterol and heart disease, when they faced similar price incentives.

 

DIABETES: TYPE 2 FORM OF THE DISEASE CLOSELY RELATED TO SLEEP APNEA
The International Diabetes Federation Task Force on Epidemiology and Prevention warned that recent research demonstrates that type 2 diabetes and obstructive sleep apnea are closely related, and that both disorders have significant implications on public health and on individuals. The warning came at both a presentation at the American Diabetes Association 68th Annual Scientific Sessions and in an article published in the journal Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice. While type 2 diabetes is recognized as a serious global epidemic, the severe health consequences of untreated sleep apnea, especially in people with diabetes, are not. The federation said health policy makers and the general public must be made aware of the link between type 2 diabetes and sleep apnea so that the medical community can begin to address the significant economic burden and debilitating health consequences to both individuals and the community. OSA is common in people with diabetes: estimates suggest that up to 40 percent of people with OSA have diabetes. However, the federation said further research is needed in this area in order to strengthen the evidence base between diabetes and OSA.

 

PANCREATIC CANCER: RESEARCHERS IDENTIFY BIOMARKERS

A multicenter team of researchers has identified a panel of proteins linked to early development of pancreatic cancer in mice that applies also to early stages of the disease in humans—a breakthrough that brings scientists a significant step closer to developing a blood test to detect the disease early, when cure rates are highest. The study, published in PLoS Medicine, was the collaborative effort of researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center from Massachusetts General Hospital, University of Michigan, and Belfer Institute for Innovative Cancer Science at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute collaborated on the research. It was the first time protein changes associated with early-stage pancreatic-tumor development in genetically engineered mice that were also found to be associated with the presence of the disease in humans at an early, pre-symptomatic stage. Scientists believe that such proteins could be used in screening blood tests for early and more accurate detection of cancer and other diseases.

 

Rutgers University scientists said beta-endorphin peptide or BEP neurons—the “feel good” hormones in the brain released during exercise or a good conversation—boosted the immune system in rats by increasing the activity of particular immune cell types and decreasing inflammation. In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, researchers said the “natural killer” cells that typically attack cancer cells in the body, are activated by these inserted neurons. The natural killer cells in turn reduced inflammation around the cancer cells, which slowed down caner cell growth and killed many of these cells. The researchers said the neurons protected the rats against prostate cancer 90 percent of the time. Scientists have been aware for many years that if cancer patients are not able to deal with the stress associated with being sick, the cancer will progress faster than in calmer patients. To counteract this phenomenon, physicians encourage treatments that help cancer patients handle their stress. To test their hypothesis about the role of BEP in controlling tumor growth and progression, the Rutgers scientists took neural stem cells, transformed them into BEP neurons by treating them with particular chemicals, and then transplanted them into brains of live rats. The authors studied tumor growth in the rats that had been given carcinogens to induce prostate tumors. They noted that the BEP neurons boosted the immune system by increasing the activity of particular immune cell types and decreasing inflammation.

Infants of obese black mothers had a higher risk of death in the first 27 days following birth than newborns of obese white mothers, according to researchers at the University of South Florida the researchers found. Furthermore, this black disadvantage in neonatal infant mortality widened with an increase in the body mass index or BMI, said the study, which was published in the June 2008 issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology. Among all women, the likelihood of neonatal death (up to 27 days following death) and early neonatal death (up to six days following death) was 20 percent greater than for non-obese women, the researcher found. The researchers analyzed more than 1.4 million births recorded from Missouri’s vital records database, covering the period 1978 through 1997. The database linked black and white mother-infant pairs. Further analysis revealed that the higher risk of neonatal deaths among newborns of obese mothers was confined to blacks only. The rate of neonatal deaths increased significantly with rising BMIs of black women (ranging from 50 to 100-percent increments). However, the offspring of obese white mothers, regardless of the severity of maternal obesity, had no greater risk of neonatal death than the newborns of non-obese women. Researchers said several factors may play a role in newborn survival including access to prenatal care as well as differences in the way fat is distributed in white and black women. Studies have shown that fat tucked deep inside the waistline may be worse for adults’ health than fat padding the rest of the body.

 

For older patients fighting tuberculosis, increasing their white blood cell count or enhancing infected cells’ interaction with their immune system appear to be the most promising potential therapy options, according to researchers at Ohio State University who looked at mathematical modeling of how mice respond to TB infection. Tuberculosis is a potentially deadly disease caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis that usually attacks the lungs. Simulations of TB infection in an old mouse showed that increasing the number of infection-fighting white blood cells, called CD4 T cells, could be particularly effective at bolstering the mouse’s immune response, which naturally slows with aging, researchers said in a recent issue of the journal Experimental Gerontology. The math modeling also suggested that making changes to macrophages, cells that essentially eat infecting bacteria, could enhance those cells’ interactions with other warriors in the immune system, reducing the concentration of bacteria in the lungs associated with TB infection. Researchers said both findings suggest potential strategies for development of vaccines or treatments specifically for elderly TB patients. About 2 billion people worldwide are thought to be infected with TB bacteria. People who are infected can harbor the bacterium without symptoms for decades, but an estimated one in 10 will develop active disease characterized by a chronic cough and chest pain. The elderly are considered highly susceptible to both reactivation of latent TB infection and newly acquired infections, especially in long-term care facilities, where people are generally sicker and transmission can occur more rapidly.

 

Medical researchers are not designing cancer clinical trials with the 13-24 age group in mind, and are not recruiting sufficient numbers of young people to those trials that do exist, according to researchers with University College Hospital. Researchers said people between the ages of 15 and 24 were particularly neglected, with an average of just 16.6 percent joining clinical trials between April 2005 and March 2008, compared to 44.1 percent of 5- to 14-year-olds who joined trials over the same period. Speaking at the Teenage Cancer Trust’s Fifth International Conference on Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Medicine, researchers said improvements in cancer treatments and outcomes for the older age group will continue to stagnate until this situation changes and more teenagers and young adults are recruited into clinical trials. Researchers analyzed 23 trials of 4,429 patients aged 0-59 years recruited between April 2005 and March 2008 in England, Scotland, and Wales. Accrual rates fell considerably for patients aged 20-24 years in all three years. Analysis of the 2007-08 data suggested that recruitment of 20- to 24-year-olds has fallen to approximately 7.5 percent of those in that age group with cancer, compared to 39.7 percent of 10- to 14-year-olds and 25.4 percent of 15- to 19-year-olds. Researchers said there are several reasons for the low level of recruitment of teenagers and young adults to trials, including inappropriate trial design, poor accessibility to trials for this group, as well as too few young people being treated by specialist cancer teams.

 

A single dose of antibiotics can significantly help heal the severe tearing that occurs in vaginal tissues during many births, according to researchers at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, the Stanford University School of Medicine and Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. As many as one in five women suffer severe vaginal tears during childbirth, researchers said. In the study published in the June issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the women who received the antibiotic suffered roughly one-third as many infections or other wound-healing complications two weeks after surgical repair of their tears. Vaginal tears, which occur between the vagina and the anus, are classified in severity according to their length. Third-degree tears extend into the muscle of the anal sphincter and fourth-degree tears reach the rectum. The tears are surgically repaired immediately after delivery but subsequent infections and poor healing that sometimes occur can have lifelong consequences, including incontinence of stool or gas and sexual dysfunction. The randomized, double-blind study involved 147 women who experienced third- or fourth-degree tears while delivering infants at either Packard Children’s Hospital or Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and were randomly assigned to receive a one-time intravenous infusion of either antibiotic or placebo during the repair of their tear. The researchers found that four of 49 patients (8.2 percent) treated with antibiotics and 14 of 58 patients (24.1 percent) who received the placebo showed symptoms of infection or breakdown two weeks after the repair. The remaining 40 women did not return for their scheduled follow-up appointments.

 

AGE-RELATED EYE DISEASE: EATING FISH AND FOODS WITH OMEGA-3 FATTY ACIDS LINKED TO LOWER RISK

Eating fish and other foods high in omega-3 fatty acids is linked to reduced risk of the eye disease age-related macular degeneration, according to a meta-analysis of nine previously published studies in the June issue of Archives of Ophthalmology. But the researchers cautioned that the accumulated evidence includes few clinical trials and is insufficient to support the routine consumption of such foods for prevention of the eye disease. The researchers said age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of severe vision loss among elderly people. Researchers from the University of Melbourne conducted a systematic review of studies published before May 2007 evaluating the fish consumption and overall omega-3 fatty acid intake for the prevention of the disease. When results from all nine studies were combined, a high dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids was associated with a 38 percent reduction in the risk of late (more advanced), while eating fish twice a week was associated with a reduced risk of both early and late AMD. Researchers said long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, docosahexaenoic acid in particular, form an integral part of the layer of nerve cells in the retina. Outer cells of the retina are continually shed and regenerated, and deficiencies of omega-3 fatty acids may therefore initiate AMD. The researchers said a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids and fish, as a proxy for long-chain omega-3 fatty acid intake, has therefore been hypothesized as a means to prevent AMD.

STEM CELLS: CELLS DESTINED TO BUILD AN EMBRYO IN A MOUSE CAN BE MANIPULATED TO BUILD THE CELL MASS THAT LEADS TO THE PLACENTA

Researchers said they manipulated a specific gene in a mouse blastocyst—the structure that develops from a fertilized egg but is not yet an actual embryo—causing cells destined to build an embryo to instead change direction and build the cell mass that leads to the placenta scientists. Understanding the conditions that cause these cells to go off to different fates may have a bearing on health problems such as ectopic pregnancy, said the researchers with University of Florida’s McKnight Brain Institute and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. An ectopic pregnancy occurs when the embryo develops outside of the womb in about 1 of 60 pregnancies. By activating a gene called Ras in cells bathed in a very specific culture medium, scientists were able to cause embryonic stem cells—which originate from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst—to become more like the trophoblastic stem cells that give rise to the placenta from the outer portion of the blastocyst, the researchers said in the online edition of Nature Genetics. Researchers marked these newly minted cells, which they called ES-TS cells, and injected them into mouse embryos. Instead of joining the stem cells that build the embryo, ES-TS cells joined the stem cells that build the placenta. What’s more, when scientists transferred the engineered mouse embryos to foster mothers, the ES-TS cells went to work exclusively laying the foundation for the placenta. The researchers said the findings revealed that embryonic stem cells are more plastic than previously thought. They added that the technique of genetically modifying the cells and growing them in a special medium could be valuable for additional research.

 

STEM CELL RESEARCH: SCIENCE LARGELY IGNORED WHEN FORMING OPINIONS
People are influenced by a number of things when forming attitudes about embryonic stem cell research, but a study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison finds for most people, understanding science plays a negligible role in how favorable an opinion they have. The findings, published in the International Journal of Public Opinion, follow a two-year study of attitudes toward embryonic stem cell research. The researchers found that values were critical. For respondents who reported that religion played a strong role in their lives, scientific knowledge had no effect on their attitudes toward stem cell research. But for those who claimed to be less religious, understanding the science was linked to more positive views of the research.

 

DRUG DEVELOPMENT: CRYSTAL-MONITORING TECHNOLOGY COULD SAVE PHARMA MILLIONS
Drug companies could save millions thanks to a new technology to monitor crystals as they form, according to engineers at the University of Leeds who developed a technique to control crystal forms. Most drug compounds are crystalline and their structure can affect both their physical attributes and their performance. Changes to these structures are often caused by undetected fluctuations in the process. The new technology identifies and monitors changes in crystal structures online, providing a method of ensuring production of the desired drug compounds. Changes in crystal structure during processing can lead to huge delays in bringing drugs to market, costing drug companies many millions of dollars. It can also lead to challenges to intellectual property protection. There have been a number of high profile cases where patents have been challenged by companies making an established formulation using a different crystal structure for a drug known as a polymorph.

 

DIABETES: WEIGHT GAIN MAY BE HEALTHY IN TYPE 1 FORM OF THE DISEASE
Gaining body fat may be a good thing, at least for people with type 1 diabetes, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. The study, presented at the 68th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association in San Francisco, showed that type 1 diabetes patients whose BMI increased the most during the 20-year study period (2 to 11 points or about 10 to 55 pounds) were one-third less likely to die than those who had smaller increases in BMI, indicating that weight gain may protect people with type 1 diabetes from premature death. The researchers said that gaining a reasonable amount of weight may be a sign patients are getting enough insulin and appropriately controlling their disease. The researchers found no difference in mortality between those with a BMI in the overweight range (BMI 25 to 30) and the normal range (BMI 20 to 25). Conversely, they found that having a BMI in the underweight (BMI less than 20) or obese range (BMI 30 and greater) was a strong predictor of mortality.