RxPG News : Health

Study: Pedometer program helps motivate participants to sit less, move more

Thu, 30 May 2013 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Indiana University researchers found that a simple program that uses pedometers to monitor how much people move throughout the day was effective at increasing physical activity, decreasing sitting time, a particular problem for office workers, and helping participants drop some pounds.

Even if somebody works out 30 minutes a day, the fact that they're sitting and not moving for long periods of time for the rest of the day is in and of itself detrimental to their health and well-being, physiologically, said Saurabh S. Thosar, an associate instructor at the IU School of Public Health-Bloomington and one of the study's researchers.

The study, discussed Thursday afternoon at the American College of Sports Medicine annual meeting in Indianapolis, was the first to use pedometers to monitor and reduce sitting time and the first to examine the amount of physical activity versus structured exercise people experience throughout the day.

Four men and 22 women between the ages of 40 and 66 completed a 12-week program in which participants wore a pedometer every day and received emails twice a week offering nutritional and exercise tips.

The pedometer, called an Omron, monitors physical activity, which accounts for any type of movement involving the lower legs. The pedometer, which costs about $30 and can be carried in a backpack, also allows people to hook it up to a computer and look at a graph of the amount of steps taken as a function of time.

The participants were also encouraged to be active during the hours for which they had zero steps, such as when they watched TV or worked at a desk, and to download the data from the pedometers once a week.

The researchers found a significant decrease in sitting time and a significant increase in physical activity as a result of the program. The mean weight of participants dropped by almost 2.5 pounds.

This is a very simple intervention that can reach a large number of people at a low cost, said Jeanne Johnston, co-author of the study and clinical associate professor in the School of Public Health's Department of Kinesiology. As companies and communities develop programs to increase physical activity and positively impact health parameters such as weight, there is a need to think of the associated costs.

Johnston is presenting the findings of this study, Multifaceted pedometer program results in favorable changes in sitting time, physical activity, and weight, during a poster presentation from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Thursday in Hall C. Co-authors include Sylvanna Bielko, adjunct lecturer in the IU School of Public Health-Bloomington's Department of Kinesiology.

Fish oil may stall effects of junk food on brain

Tue, 14 May 2013 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Data from more than 180 research papers suggests fish oils could minimise the effects that junk food can have on the brain, a review by researchers at the University of Liverpool has shown.

The team at the University's Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease reviewed research from around the world to see whether there was sufficient data available to suggest that omega-3s had a role to play in aiding weight loss.

Research over the past 10 years has indicated that high-fat diets could disrupt neurogenesis, a process that generates new nerve cells, but diets rich in omega-3s could prevent these negative effects by stimulating the area of the brain that control feeding, learning and memory.

Data from 185 research papers revealed, however, that fish oils do not have a direct impact on this process in these areas of the brain, but are likely to play a significant role in stalling refined sugars and saturated fats' ability to inhibit the brain's control on the body's intake of food.

Dr Lucy Pickavance, from the University's Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease, explains: Body weight is influenced by many factors, and some of the most important of these are the nutrients we consume. Excessive intake of certain macronutrients, the refined sugars and saturated fats found in junk food, can lead to weight gain, disrupt metabolism and even affect mental processing.

These changes can be seen in the brain's structure, including its ability to generate new nerve cells, potentially linking obesity to neurodegenerative diseases. Research, however, has suggested that omega-3 fish oils can reverse or even prevent these effects. We wanted to investigate the literature on this topic to determine whether there is evidence to suggest that omega-3s might aid weight loss by stimulating particular brain processes.

Research papers showed that on high-fat diets hormones that are secreted from body tissues into the circulation after eating, and which normally protect neurons and stimulate their growth, are prevented from passing into the brain by increased circulation of inflammatory molecules and a type of fat called triglycerides.

Molecules that stimulate nerve growth are also reduced, but it appears, in studies with animal models, that omega-3s restore normal function by interfering with the production of these inflammatory molecules, suppressing triglycerides, and returning these nerve growth factors to normal.

Dr Pickavance added: Fish oils don't appear to have a direct impact on weight loss, but they may take the brakes off the detrimental effects of some of the processes triggered in the brain by high-fat diets. They seem to mimic the effects of calorie restrictive diets and including more oily fish or fish oil supplements in our diets could certainly be a positive step forward for those wanting to improve their general health.

The research is published in the

Intake of low energy dense food better than skipping meals

Thu, 02 May 2013 22:05:10 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Many of us can personally attest that caloric deprivation weight loss diets typically do not produce lasting weight loss. Oregon Research Institute (ORI) senior scientist Eric Stice, Ph.D., and colleagues provide results in a recent issue of NeuroImage that further our understanding of how and why most weight loss diets fail and provide a more comprehensive description of the impact of caloric restriction.

Results suggest that restricting food intake increases the reward value of food, particularly high-calorie, appetizing food (chocolate milkshakes), and that the more successful people are at caloric-restriction dieting, the greater difficulty they will face in maintaining the restriction. Additionally, abstaining from food intake for longer durations of time also increases the reward value of food, which may lead to poor food choices when the individual eventually does eat. Results imply that dieting characterized by meal skipping and fasting would be less successful than weight loss efforts characterized by intake of low energy dense healthy foods.

"These results are unique," said Stice "in that these data are the first to suggest that elective caloric restriction increases the degree to which brain regions implicated in reward valuation and attention are activated by exposure to palatable foods."

Participants were two groups of adolescents (Study 1 n=34; Study 2 n=51) who voluntarily restricted their caloric intake so as to approximate what occurs with real-world dieters. Using a brain imaging paradigm, Stice and his team examined the responsivity of adolescent's attention and reward regions of the brain to the individual's exposure to and imagined intake of palatable foods, unpalatable foods, and glasses of water shown in pictures. By including both pictures of palatable and unpalatable foods, the team was able to determine whether degree of "self-imposed" caloric deprivation correlated with hyper-responsivity of attention and reward regions for palatable versus unpalatable foods. In a second paradigm, the team measured teen's neural responses to consumption and anticipated consumption of a chocolate milkshake and a calorie-free tasteless solution. Stice examined whether the number of hours since last caloric intake (which varied from 3 to 22 hours) correlated with neural activation in response to receipt and anticipated receipt of a palatable food. They also tested whether youth who were in a negative energy balance for a 2-week period versus energy balance or a positive energy balance showed aberrant neural response to food stimuli.

"The implications of this imaging study are crystal clear; if people want to lose excess weight, it would be more effective to consume healthy, low-fat/low-sugar foods during regular meals, rather than go for long periods of time without any caloric intake" says Dr. Stice.

Inaugural IOF Olof Johnell Science Award presented to Professor Harry Genant

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Harry Genant, Professor Emeritus of the University of California San Francisco, has been named the winner of the International Osteoporosis Foundation's (IOF) first Olof Johnell Science Award.

The Award is granted in recognition of extraordinary and internationally recognized contributions to the field of osteoporosis in a scientific or policy implementation area. It was presented at the European Congress on Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis (ECCEO13-IOF), being held in Rome, Italy from April 17 to 20, 2013, by IOF General Secretary Professor Bess Dawson Hughes. She stated, Harry Genant is internationally renowned as a researcher, author and educator. His work in noninvasive and quantitative imaging methods for osteoporosis, arthritis and orthopaedics has been influential around the world, and he has made important contributions to clinical advances and the development of best practice guidelines.

Named in honour of the late Professor Olof Johnell, the Award will be presented annually by IOF. Professor Johnell achieved a wide breadth of knowledge in metabolic bone disease through a career that focused on basic research in the 1970s, clinical trials in the 1980s, epidemiology and health technology assessment in the 1990s, and health economics and guideline development in the later years of his life. Sought out as a colleague or consultant worldwide, he contributed significantly to the scientific policies of the European Union, the International Osteoporosis Foundation, and the World Health Organization.

Harry K. Genant, MD, is Professor Emeritus of the University of California San Francisco, and Member of the Board of Directors of CCBR-SYNARC, Inc. He received his medical degree from Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, completed his internship on the Osler Service at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland and later became Chief Resident and Assistant Professor in Radiology at the University of Chicago. In 1974 he assumed a faculty position at the University of California, San Francisco, as Chief of Musculoskeletal Radiology. He remained at UCSF for over 30 years, achieving the rank of Professor of Radiology, Medicine, Epidemiology and Orthopaedic Surgery. He founded the Osteoporosis and Arthritis Research Group (OARG) in the Department of Radiology, UCSF, and served as its Executive Director. This group was recognized as a leading source of research on the development and assessment of noninvasive and quantitative imaging methods for osteoporosis, arthritis and orthopaedics. In 1998 he co-founded Synarc, Inc, a global, contract research organization (CRO) specializing in management of quantitative imaging and biomarkers in large, multicenter, multinational, pharmaceutical drug trials. He serves as a Member of the Board of Directors and Senior Consultant for what is now CCBR-SYNARC, Inc.

Dr. Genant has been editor or co-editor of more than 30 books and author or co-author of more than 300 chapters or invited articles, over 600 articles in peer-reviewed scientific and medical journals, and over 1500 abstracts presented at national and international scientific and professional gatherings. He is Associate Editor of

Molecular hub links obesity, heart disease to high blood pressure

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Obesity, heart disease, and high blood pressure (hypertension) are all related, but understanding the molecular pathways that underlie cause and effect is complicated.

A new University of Iowa study identifies a protein within certain brain cells as a communications hub for controlling blood pressure, and suggests that abnormal activation of this protein may be a mechanism that links cardiovascular disease and obesity to elevated blood pressure.

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide, and hypertension is a major cardiovascular risk factor, says Kamal Rahmouni, Ph.D., UI associate professor of pharmacology and internal medicine, and senior study author. Our study identifies the protein called mTORC1 in the hypothalamus as a key player in the control of blood pressure. Targeting mTORC1 pathways may, therefore, be a promising strategy for the management of cardiovascular risk factors.

The hypothalamus is a small region of the brain that is responsible for maintaining normal function for numerous bodily processes, including blood pressure, body temperature, and glucose levels. Signaling of mTORC1 protein in the hypothalamus has previously been shown to affect food intake and body weight.

The new study, which was published April 2 in the journal

Bird flu mutation study offers vaccine clue

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Scientists have described small genetic changes that enable the H5N1 bird flu virus to replicate more easily in the noses of mammals.

So far there have only been isolated cases of bird flu in humans, and no widespread transmission as the H5N1 virus can't replicate efficiently in the nose. The new study, using weakened viruses in the lab, supports the conclusions of controversial research published in 2012 which demonstrated that just a few genetic mutations could enable bird flu to spread between ferrets, which are used to model flu infection in humans.

Researchers say the new findings could help to develop more effective vaccines against new strains of bird flu that can spread between humans.

Knowing why bird flu struggles to replicate in the nose and understanding the genetic mutations that would enable it to happen are vital for monitoring viruses circulating in birds and preparing for an outbreak in humans, said Professor Wendy Barclay, from the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London, who led the study.

The studies published last year pointed to a mechanism that restricts replication of H5N1 viruses in the nose. We've engineered a different mutation with the same effect into one of the virus proteins and achieved a similar outcome. This suggests that there is a common mechanism by which bird flu could evolve to spread between humans, but that a number of different specific mutations might mediate that.

Bird flu only rarely infects humans because the human nose has different receptors to those of birds and is also more acidic. The Imperial team studied mutations in the gene for haemagglutinin, a protein on the surface of the virus that enables it to get into host cells. They carried out their experiments in a laboratory strain of flu with the same proteins on its surface as bird flu, but engineered so that it cannot cause serious illness.

The research found that mutations in the H5 haemagglutinin enabled the protein to tolerate higher levels of acidity. Viruses with these mutations and others that enabled them to bind to different receptors were able to replicate more efficiently in ferrets and spread from one animal to another.

The results have important implications for designing vaccines against potential pandemic strains of bird flu. Live attenuated flu vaccines (LAIV) might be used in a pandemic situation because it is possible to manufacture many more doses of this type of vaccine than of the killed virus vaccines used to protect against seasonal flu. LAIV are based on weakened viruses that don't cause illness, but they still have to replicate in order to elicit a strong immune response. Viruses with modified haemagglutinin proteins induced strong antibody responses in ferrets in this study, suggesting that vaccines with similar modifications might prove more effective than those tested previously.

We can't predict how bird flu viruses will evolve in the wild, but the more we understand about the kinds of mutations that will enable them to transmit between humans, the better we can prepare for a possible pandemic, said Professor Barclay.

The research was funded by the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust and published in the

Youth with type 1 diabetes may suffer health risks when transitioning from pediatric to adult care

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) AURORA, Colo. (March 26, 2013) Adolescent type 1 diabetes patients face greater risk for heart attacks, strokes, blindness and kidney failure later in life if their transition from pediatric to adult care is not carefully managed, two CU researchers have found. The estimated median age at transition to adult care was 20.1 years and 77 percent of individuals with type 1 diabetes had left pediatric care by age 21. The study suggests that without support, they were 2.5 times more likely to have high blood glucose levels when transitioning from pediatric to adult care

The study is co-authored by Georgeanna Klingensmith, MD, professor, University of Colorado, Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes and Dana Dabelea, MD, PhD, professor, University of Colorado, Colorado School of Public Health.

With these results and our Colorado experience, we are developing a program for high school students and young college students to better prepare them to transition into adult care within 2-4 years of graduating from high school. We hope through this program they will have the support and learn the skills they need to successfully transition to the more independent care expected by providers of adult diabetes care, said Klingensmith. Dabalea added, Our data highlight the importance of optimal health care transition during a critical period in the life of a teenage with type 1 diabetes. Additional research and programs focusing at improving health care services for this high risk population are urgently needed.

These data were analyzed from the multi-centered SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Study, which has tracked children and young adults with diabetes from six centers across the U.S. since 2002. The cohort of youth studied included 185 adolescent and young adults with type 1 diabetes enrolled in the study in the year after their diabetes was diagnosed. Youth included in these analyses were cared for by pediatric diabetes physicians at the time of their initial study visit and were followed for an average of 4.5 years.

Previous research of youth with type 1 diabetes in the United States has primarily looked at youth from one diabetes specialty center or from one geographic area. Other research has looked at youth at one point in time, either before or after leaving pediatric care. This study is the largest national cohort of youth with type 1 diabetes in the U.S. to be followed over a period of time.

The authors did not find that type of insurance (such as public versus private) made a difference in switching to adult care, but they found that older age of the patient, less parental education and lower baseline blood glucose levels were independently associated with increased odds of transitioning to adult care.

The next stage of research is to study young adults who are leaving pediatric care directly as they are aging to see what happens as they get older, and look at how different types of help with the transition to adult care affect outcomes.

Type 1 diabetes is a condition where the body does not produce insulin and cannot convert sugar, starches and other food into energy and is often diagnosed during childhood or adolescence age. It requires life-long access to medical care and intensive daily self-management for people with diabetes to stay healthy.

Promoting poultry health through diet

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) URBANA -- Developing strategies to increase the amount of saleable product while reducing dietary inputs is a priority for animal scientists. University of Illinois researchers have been looking at how dietary components affect gut health and disease resistance in chickens.

An important nutritional outcome is how well an animal is able to digest and metabolize its diet, said Ryan Dilger.

Poultry and swine nutritionists are concerned about dietary fiber in alternative dietary ingredients, particularly the by-products of biofuel production. Fiber concentrations are very high in these ingredients because the starch content is removed during processing.

Dilger and his master's student Emma Wils-Plotz looked at how purified fiber fed to young chicks affects their dietary threonine (Thr) requirements, intestinal morphology, and ability to resist a disease challenge. Threonine is an essential amino acid accounting for as much as 11 percent of mucin, an important component of the mucus layer covering the intestine's absorptive surface, which promotes gut health by protecting the body against bacteria and digestive enzymes.

Previous research has suggested that mucin dynamics may be sensitive to Thr availability. Dilger and Wils-Plotz hypothesized that dietary Thr requirements would increase in the presence of two purified fiber sources, cellulose and pectin, which are natural components of many feed ingredients.

They fed diets containing purified cellulose, pectin, or silica sand (control) to chicks and found that body weight gain and feed efficiency (the conversion of feed into body-weight gain) were reduced when 7 percent supplemental pectin was added to the diet. Pectin creates a viscous environment in the gut that interfered with the birds' ability to access dietary nutrients, thus reducing growth performance. Feeding 7 percent purified cellulose did not provide any nutritional benefit.

In a second experiment, Wils-Plotz and Dilger quantified the dietary threonine requirement in the presence and absence of purified fiber sources. Chicks were fed one of the three fiber-containing diets. Within each diet, they were subdivided into seven groups, each fed a different level of Thr supplementation ranging from 0 to 9.6 grams per kilogram (g/kg). Contrary to the researchers' expectations, birds fed the diet with pectin had the lowest Thr requirements at 5.6 g/kg; birds fed the control diet had the highest, estimated to be 6.8 g/kg. Cellulose-fed birds required 5.8 g/kg.

Ileal tissue, which is at the end of the small intestine, was collected from chicks and examined for physical changes in the villi (small folds in the intestine), crypts (pockets next to the villi), and goblet cells, which produce and secrete mucin. Chicks fed cellulose or pectin had deeper crypts than chicks fed the control diet; crypts were deepest for birds fed cellulose and adequate Thr levels, and their outer intestinal muscle layer (serosa) was thicker. Chicks fed diets containing fiber had higher goblet cell counts than the birds fed the control diet, with highest levels in birds fed the pectin diet with adequate or high Thr levels.

The findings suggest that dietary Thr concentration and fiber source affect growth performance, intestinal morphology, and mucin secretion in young chicks. It also established optimal dietary Thr levels.

Having determined these levels, the researchers wanted to see if fiber and Thr in the diet could affect how chicks responded to a coccidiosis challenge. Coccidiosis is a parasitical disease of the intestinal tract caused by protozoa of the genus Eimeria maxima, which is responsible for major economic losses in the poultry industry.

Right now, there are few advancements in coccidiosis vaccine development, so we tried to develop dietary approaches to assist the bird through a coccidiosis challenge, Dilger said. Our hypothesis was that by providing adequate threonine, the bird would have better immune defenses through improved gut function and immunity.

Chicks received either a diet supplemented with pectin or a Thr-deficient control diet and either 75 percent or 125 percent of the previously determined optimal Thr supplement of 6.8 g/kg. Within each dietary treatment, one group of chicks was inoculated with E. maxima; the other was not.

The goal was to determine the interaction between dietary fiber and dietary threonine, knowing that pectin was going to negatively affect digestion and threonine was going to positively affect intestinal health, Dilger explained.

Growth and feed efficiency were monitored for 16 days; then ileal tissue, mucosal scrapings, and the ceca (the part of the digestive tract used for water absorption and fermentation) were collected. Researchers looked at growth performance, morphological changes in the intestine, changes in the cecal environment, and gene expression in the ceca and mucosa.

The most important part of the story was the cytokine response to the acute coccidiosis infection, Dilger said.

Cytokines regulate how the immune system communicates with the rest of the body and adjust the immune response. Interleukin-12 (IL-12) expression in the ceca was increased in birds fed the control diet with high threonine. Interleukin-1 beta expression increased with infection but only in birds fed the low-Thr diet.

Expression of interferon gamma (IFNG), a protein made and released in response to the presence of pathogens, increased in the ileal mucosa of birds fed high Thr, and was highest in the uninfected chicks. It increased with infection but only in control-fed birds

The researchers concluded that while pectin had some protective effects against coccidiosis infection, Thr supplementation had an even greater influence on the intestinal immune response and helped to maintain growth of chicks infected with coccidiosis. This study and others being conducted in Dilger's lab highlight the potential for using nutritional strategies to manage poultry and swine diseases.

Creeping epidemic of obesity hits Asia Pacific region

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Sophia Antipolis, 21 February 2013: Over eating, sedentary lifestyles, cultural attitudes, and lack of prevention programmes are to blame for the rising epidemic of obesity in the Asia Pacific region. Overweight and obesity has quadrupled in China and societies still label people of healthy weight as poor.

Prevention will be an important theme at the 19th Asian Pacific Congress of Cardiology held 21-24 February 2013 in Pattaya, Thailand. Experts from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) will lead a one day collaborative programme on 23 February.

Professor Kui-Hian Sim, President Elect of the Asian Pacific Society of Cardiology, said: In many of the countries in Asia Pacific the malnutrition problem nowadays is not undernutrition it is overnutrition, which has resulted in overweight and obesity.

He added: Asia Pacific has developed rapidly and technological advances mean that children now spend too much time on the internet and mobile devices so they don't take up much physical activity. The Asian culture revolves around food as a way of showing hospitality because in the past there was a lot of famine. As a result there is a cultural perception that if you're not fat or obese then you are not well off.

The Asia Pacific Cohort Studies Collaboration (APCSC) found that the prevalence of overweight and obesity among 14 countries in the Asia Pacific region varied considerably by country.1 The prevalence of obesity (BMI>30k/m2) in men ranged from 0.3% in India and 1.3% in Indonesia to 13.8% in Mongolia and 19.3% in Australia. In women the lowest rates were found in India (0.6%), China and Japan (both 3.4%) and the highest rates in Australia (22.2%) and Mongolia (24.6%).

But Dr Rachel Huxley (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA), APCSC co-investigator, said: Although the absolute prevalence of obesity in Australia was considerably higher than that of China and Japan, the relative increases in the prevalence over the last 20 years, has been much greater in these two Asian countries than in Australia.

The combined prevalence of overweight and obesity increased by 46% in Japan from 16.7% in 1976-1980 to 24% in 2000 and by 414% in China from 3.7% in 1982 to 19% in 2002.

The APCSC researchers also calculated the population attributable fraction for cardiovascular disease due to overweight and obesity in these 14 countries. Taking China as an example, despite the relatively low prevalence of overweight and obesity, it accounted for just over 3% of fatal coronary heart disease and 3.5% fatal ischemic stroke. At the other end of the scale, overweight and obesity accounted for nearly 8% of coronary heart disease in Mongolia and over 9% in Australia. It also accounted for nearly 9% of ischaemic stroke in Mongolia and more than 10% in Australia.

Dr Huxley said: There is convincing evidence that a sedentary lifestyle (due to a combination of reduced physical activity in the workplace and during leisure time), combined with energy dense diets are the key drivers of the obesity epidemic. Increasing 'westernisation' of lower- and middle-income countries in the Asia Pacific region is associated with increasing gross domestic product (GDP) and the adoption of more westernized patterns of physical inactivity and diets richer in calories and fat. The influx of fast food, confectionary and soft drink companies into the region is likely to further exacerbate the obesity problem.

She added: In high income countries there is an inverse association between income/education with obesity, whereas in lower-middle income countries the reverse is more commonly found.

The longest ongoing cardiovascular epidemiological study in India found that over a 20 year period BMI and overweight increased in urban middle-SES populations.2 More education was significantly associated with an increase in overweight. The authors concluded: The process of disease transition has started in the Indian middle class and a decline fuelled by socioeconomic changes and increasing education is inevitable in this group.

NOAA adds red tide alerts to Beach Hazards Statements

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) NOAA has added a new service to alert the public when red tides threaten human health at Tampa Bay area beaches. The new alert is timely since many of southwest Florida's beaches are experiencing or are under threat of red tide.

The alert is part of a broader experimental initiative NOAA's National Weather Service has been testing since June 2012, called the Beach Hazards Statement, which also alerts the public for coastal hazards such as rip currents. The Tampa Bay weather forecast office is the first to issue the Beach Hazard Statements to provide coastal residents and visitors with information to protect their safety. NWS is partnering with NOAA's National Ocean Service to provide these alerts to the public.

Red tides can have significant environmental impacts and threaten the health of some people, said Richard Edwing, director of NOAA's Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services. Currently, the National Ocean Service forecasts harmful algal blooms to give state and local organizations advanced warning and therefore more options to manage the impacts. Through this partnership with the National Weather Service, we can broaden public awareness about harmful algal blooms, their potential impacts and possible precautionary measures.

Red tide can cause acute respiratory problems for people, especially those suffering from asthma, emphysema or other chronic respiratory disorder. The Tampa Bay weather forecast office will issue a Beach Hazards Statement for red tide when its sister organization at NOAA's National Ocean Service forecasts a potential for moderate or high respiratory impacts along southwest Florida, extending from Levy County south to Lee County.

Red tide is the common term for the harmful algal bloom species, Karenia brevis. NOAA's National Ocean Service has been providing operational forecasts for harmful algal blooms of Karenia brevis in the Gulf of Mexico since 2004. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., and the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla., provide NOAA with expertise and data to identify and track harmful algal blooms in the Gulf.

Beach Hazards Statements for harmful algal blooms will be a valuable supplement to the FWC's statewide red tide status reports, said Gil McRae, director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. We look forward to continuing to share our monitoring information with NOAA to enhance this important resource.

Beach Hazards Statements for the Tampa Bay area are found here, and will be broadcast on NOAA Weather Radio and other National Weather Service systems, for broader dissemination. The public is invited to comment on the usefulness of the Beach Hazard Statements and to help NOAA evaluate whether the statements should be used in other parts of the country.

University-developed omega-3-rich ground beef available soon

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Thanks to Kansas State University research, part of a healthy diet can include a hamburger rich with omega-3 fatty acids.

Jim Drouillard, professor of animal sciences and industry, developed a technique that enriches ground beef with omega-3 fatty acids -- fatty acids that have been shown to reduce heart disease, cholesterol and high blood pressure. The enriched ground beef is named GreatO Premium Ground Beef and is being sold through Manhattan, Kan.-based company NBO3 Technologies LLC. It will be available mid-February at select retailers in Buffalo, N.Y., and expand to leading retailers and restaurants nationwide later this year.

Omega-3 fatty acids are found in fish and plant oils. The U.S. currently does not have a recommended daily intake of omega-3s, though many doctors and nutritionists recommend between 1,200-1,600 milligrams daily, depending on a person's age and health.

A quarter-pound hamburger made of the enriched ground beef has 200 milligrams of omega-3s and tastes the same as regular ground beef, Drouillard said. This makes the ground beef an alternative for people who want to add or increase their omega-3 fatty acids intake but do not want fish or supplements to do so.

As a society, Americans' consumption of fish, especially fish that contributes to these omega-3 fats, is quite low compared to other proteins, Drouillard said. Reasons for this include cost, access to fish and personal preference. Americans do, however, like hamburgers. So if we can give people a hamburger that is rich in omega-3s, it's an alternative form of a product that they already eat and does not require a lifestyle change, which is difficult to make.

The health benefits of omega-3s are not limited to humans. Studies show that dairy and beef cattle with an enriched diet of flaxseed and other omega-3 rich grains have fewer respiratory diseases. The cattle also have higher fertility rates, which helps offset infertility among dairy cattle.

The technology to enrich ground beef with omega-3s is a spinoff of flaxseed research Drouillard began in 1998. Drouillard and his students studied flax for several of its omega-3 fatty acids that may suppress inflammation and reduce diabetes in cattle. Research showed that omega-3 levels dramatically increased in the cattle as more flaxseed was introduced into their diet.

Keeping the omega-3s from becoming saturated fats in cattle's digestive system is a challenge, however. Microorganisms in the rumen -- the largest chamber in the cow's stomach -- modify most of the ingested fats and turn them into saturated fats. This causes ground beef to have low levels of omega-3s. Christian Alvarado Gilis, a doctoral candidate in animal sciences and industry, is researching how to improve omega-3 levels in cattle diets to further enhance the fat profile of beef. Gilis is from Chile.

According to Drouillard, substituting omega-3 fatty acids for saturated fats does not change the ground beef's flavor.

Knowing that there are a lot of desirable flavor characteristics associated with the fat in beef, we performed tons of sensory panel tests with Kansas State University's meat science faculty and with the department of human nutrition throughout the years to ensure that the flavor is not compromised, Drouillard said. We found that our panelists were never able to detect appreciable differences in the flavor profiles of the omega-3 rich beef and non-omega-3 beef, even though the fats are quite different.

The owners of NBO3 Technologies LLC have worked closely with Drouillard in developing the concept, and after more than a decade of research on improving the enrichment process, have started to distribute omega-3 enriched ground beef to retailers and food vendors.

The ground beef is part of the company's line of omega-3 enriched foods, which includes pork, chicken, cheese, milk, butter and ice cream. It will be the first ground beef to carry the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's seal of approval for containing omega-3 fatty acids.

Todd Hansen, CEO of NBO3 Technologies LLC, said consumer response has been positive in test markets.

We have to leap two hurdles with GreatO Premium Ground Beef, which are that the omega-3 fatty acids are really in the beef and that it doesn't change the flavor, Hansen said. Based on our consumer response, we've cleared those hurdles. We really believe in the health aspect of this product and are using the slogan 'When Every Bite Counts' to emphasize that. I can't wait for consumers to have it available to them.

Institute of Medicine report details for monitoring safety of childhood immunization schedule

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) ANN ARBOR -- A review of the available evidence underscores the safety of the federal childhood immunization schedule, according to a report released today by the Institute of Medicine. University of Michigan population ecologist Pejman Rohani served on the 13-person committee that wrote the report.

Roughly 90 percent of American children receive most childhood vaccines advised by the federal immunization schedule by the time they enter kindergarten, the committee noted. However, some parents choose to spread out their children's immunizations over a different time frame than recommended by the schedule, and a small fraction object to having their children immunized at all.

Their concerns arise in part from the number of doses that children receive. The schedule entails 24 immunizations by age 2, given in amounts ranging from one to five injections during a pediatric visit.

We reviewed the available data and concur with studies that have repeatedly shown the health benefits associated with the recommended schedule, including fewer illnesses, deaths and hospital stays, said Rohani, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, a professor of complex systems and a professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health.

Every new vaccine is tested for safety and evaluated in the context of the entire schedule before it is added. And the systems designed to detect possible harmful effects of immunization have worked well at discovering occasional problems with individual vaccines.

Until newer and bigger data collection systems can be harnessed, the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) is the best available tool for exploring questions about the immunization schedule should the need arise, the committee concluded. This database contains information on the immunization histories of more than 9 million people covered by nine participating managed care organizations.

Researchers can identify individuals who were vaccinated according to alternative schedules as well as any diagnoses, medical procedures and outcomes they have experienced. VSD also contains data on race, age, gender and other factors that help researchers do better comparisons and account for factors that might affect participants' health. Already a research team has tapped VSD to explore patterns among children in the Kaiser Permanente Colorado system who are defined as under-vaccinated.

However, VSD tracks people from only eight states and looks at a smaller percentage of low-income and minority people than is in the U.S. population as a whole. Moreover, VSD's usefulness depends on the continuing involvement of participating health plans. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and its partners should maintain their commitment to funding VSD and consider bringing in additional health plan members to enhance the data and make it more representative of the full U.S. population, the report states.

Some critics of immunization policies have called for studies comparing health outcomes among vaccinated and unvaccinated children and for research to determine if subgroups exist that are predisposed to experiencing harmful health effects from the vaccines.

Although randomized controlled trials are the gold standard for clinical research, such a trial cannot be safely and efficiently performed to compare health outcomes among vaccinated and unvaccinated or differently immunized children, the committee concluded. Among other reasons, children placed in the study group that does not receive vaccines in a timely fashion would be exposed to greater risk for contracting illnesses. Many parents who refuse immunization may object to their children being randomly assigned to the group that gets vaccines.

Some people have suggested comparing vaccinated children with children in naturally occurring populations of unimmunized individuals, such as certain religious communities. With less than 1 percent of the American population refusing all immunizations, however, it would be very difficult to recruit enough willing unvaccinated participants, the committee concluded.

It can take tens of thousands of study participants to discover uncommon health problems. Moreover, these populations tend to be much less diverse ethnically, racially, socioeconomically and genetically than the general population. Because such factors can influence health, it would be difficult to determine if differences between the study groups are the result of vaccines or these other factors, the committee concluded.

The costs of conducting this kind of study, or a randomized controlled trial, likely would be prohibitive, Rohani said.

Newer data collection and surveillance systems offer great potential to monitor rare adverse events that may be associated with the childhood immunization schedule, the committee said. When fully implemented, the Sentinel Initiative program being developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to monitor the safety of approved drugs and other medical products will complement existing passive vaccine surveillance systems, the report says. FDA's new Post-License Rapid Immunization Safety Monitoring Program is amassing a large amount of health data, offering the potential to analyze vaccine exposures and adverse events with a greater degree of statistical power.

Moms go online for seeking parenting advice

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:42:14 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Washington, Jan 10 - Moms are going online to consult one another and seek parenting advice, says a US study.

Research from the University of Missouri indicates that online discussion boards provide safe environments for mothers to anonymously express child-rearing concerns and receive support from other moms.

A major reason could be quick feedback from their e-cohort, not to mention steep medical costs and waiting times for appointments with doctors, according to a Missouri statement.

Mothers have feelings that they might be embarrassed to talk about face-to-face with someone, said Jean Ispa, professor and co-chair of human development and family studies at Missouri and study co-author.

Moms may feel ashamed if they have feelings like: 'My child is really stressing me out,' or 'my child is annoying me'. On message boards with a pseudonym, mothers can say whatever they're feeling, and they can get emotional support and advice from other moms with similar experiences, adds Ispa.

Ispa and Noriko Porter, who completed her doctorate at Missouri and now is an instructor of human development at Washington State University, monitored online message boards hosted by two popular parenting magazines.

They evaluated more than 100 posts from mothers of children two years old and younger and found the child-rearing concerns moms expressed related most often to feeding or eating, sleep, development, discipline, toilet-training and mother-child relationships.

One of the benefits of message boards is that they are constantly available, so parents can communicate with other parents anytime. Instead of or after consulting with medical professionals, some mothers look for quick feedback from their e-cohort, said Ispa.

High medical costs and waiting times for appointments may be contributing to mothers turning to the Internet for quick and practical solutions from their peers, added Ispa.

Although message boards provide accessible communication outlets for parents, the information available on the boards sometimes conflicts with information in other messages or from health care professionals and can be inaccurate, Ispa said.

Prevalence of personality traits disputed

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:26:06 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Washington, Jan 9 - US psychologists have disputed the long-held notion that a group of five personality traits or their variations are a universal feature of human psychology.

However, University of California Santa Barbara - anthropologists have questioned the veracity of that five-factor model - of personality structure, bearing on indigenous populations.

Studying the Tsimane, an indigenous group in central Bolivia, Michael Gurven, professor of anthropology at UCSB, found they did not necessarily exhibit the FFM model, comprising openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, according to the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The Tsimane live in communities ranging from 30 to 500 people dispersed among approximately 90 villages.

Since the mid-20th century, they have come into greater contact with the modern world although fertility and mortality rates remain high, the study noted.

Previous research has found strong support for what experts refer to as the Big Five in more developed countries and across some cultures, according to an UCSB statement.

But Gurven and his team, which includes Christopher Von Rueden, postdoctoral scholar in anthropology, discovered more evidence of a Tsimane Big Two -- prosociality and industriousness.

These combine elements of the traditional Big Five and may represent unique aspects of highly social, subsistence societies.

Similar to the conscientiousness portion of the Big Five, several traits that bundle together among the Tsimane included efficiency, perseverance, and thoroughness. These traits reflect the industriousness of a society of subsistence farmers, said Gurven.

However, Gurven continued, other industrious traits included being energetic, relaxed, and helpful. In small-scale societies, individuals have fewer choices for social or sexual partners, and limited domains of opportunity for cultural success and proficiency. This may require abilities that link aspects of different traits, resulting in a trait structure other than the Big Five.

Winning the battle against leukaemia: Positive early results in clinical trial for DNA vaccine

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Early results of a trial to treat leukaemia with a WT1 DNA vaccine, has shown robust vaccine-specific antibody responses in all vaccinated patients evaluated to date.

Furthermore, T cell immune responses, including those of the killer T cells, were detected. Antibody and T cell responses are strong signals of the DNA vaccine's potential to treat the disease.

Presented at the DNA Vaccines 2012 conference in California by Christian Ottensmeier, the trial's principal investigator and Professor of Experimental Cancer Research at the University of Southampton, these interim results, from eight patients, are part of a phase II trial that will enroll 31 patients in its chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML) arm.

To date, 14 CML patients have been enrolled while another 13 unvaccinated CML patients have been enrolled to serve as a control group. The vaccine has been shown to be safe overall and well-tolerated in the trial subjects. A detailed analysis of T cell immune responses as well as the impact of the vaccination on the molecular marker, BCR-ABL, which is a specific chromosomal abnormality that is associated with CML disease, will be performed during the trial.

As a result of the favourable safety and immunogenicity profiles observed in the CML vaccinated group, the trial is now open to enroll the acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) clinical trial arm, with a total target of 37 subjects in each of the vaccinated and control groups.

Professor Ottensmeier comments: These preliminary data show strong vaccine-induced immune responses in vaccinated subjects in the CML arm. We are looking forward to enrolling and testing the vaccine's impact in AML patients, who currently have limited treatment options and a low rate of progression free survival.

This open-label, multi-center phase II clinical trial is evaluating a DNA vaccine-based immune therapy to treat these two types of leukaemia. The DNA vaccine, developed by the University of Southampton, is delivered using Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc proprietary electroporation technology. The trial is funded by research charity Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research (LLR) and the National Institute for Health Research Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation Programme.

Leukemia is a cancer of the bone marrow and blood that accounts for at least 300,000 new cases and 222,000 deaths worldwide each year - a very high death rate. Wilms' Tumor gene 1 (WT1) is highly associated with these types of cancer. Preclinical data from mice showed strong induction of antigen-specific CD8+ T cells and the ability to kill human tumor cells expressing WT1. This is the first study to combine DNA vaccination with electroporation delivery of WT1 antigens with the goal of stimulating high and durable levels of immune responses, in particular T cells, which are considered critical for improving clinical outcomes for this disease.

In this ongoing phase II trial, all participants initially receive six doses of two DNA vaccines (called p.DOM-WT1-37 and p.DOM-WT1-126) delivered at four week intervals. Vaccine responders may continue with booster vaccinations every three months out to 24 months. An additional 60 to 75 AML/CML patients are being enrolled across the two arms as non-vaccinated controls for comparison. The primary endpoints are molecular response to a disease marker called BCR-ABL in CML patients and time to disease progression in AML patients. The study is also monitoring WT1 transcript levels, immune responses to the WT1 antigen, time to progression and overall survival, and two-year survival in the AML group. The trial is taking place at hospitals in Southampton, London and Exeter.

Inovio's CEO, Dr. J. Joseph Kim, adds: We are encouraged by preliminary phase II data showing a WT1 DNA vaccine's potential, administered with our novel delivery technology, to generate T cells and robust antibodies to treat leukemia. These results follow on our recent scientific breakthrough represented by our human data showing the powerful killing effect of T cells generated by our cervical dysplasia therapeutic vaccine.

Iron deficiency and cognitive development: New insights from piglets

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) University of Illinois researchers have developed a model that uses neonatal piglets for studying infant brain development and its effect on learning and memory. To determine if the model is nutrient-sensitive, they have done some research on the effects of iron-deficient diets.

Iron deficiency is a major problem worldwide, said Rodney Johnson, professor of animal sciences and director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences. Infants who experience iron deficiency during the first 6 to 12 months of age can have irreversible developmental delays in cognition.

He said that, even in the United States, iron deficiency is a significant problem. Babies born to obese mothers are at risk for iron deficiency, said Johnson. Furthermore, the incidence of child obesity is increasing, and being overweight or obese is a risk factor for iron deficiency. Overweight toddlers are nearly three times more likely to suffer from iron deficiency than are those with a healthy weight.

Johnson and his collaborators took 2-day-old piglets and fed them one of three diets. The diet for the control group contained the recommended levels of iron, the second was mildly deficient, and the third was severely deficient.

The piglet brain grows to approximately half of its maximum volume in the first 4 weeks of life. It continues to grow rapidly for the next 8 weeks, which is very similar to the way that human infant brains grow in the postnatal period.

At 4 weeks, the researcher began testing the piglets in a T-shaped maze. In an acquisition phase, piglets were trained to locate a milk reward in a constant place in space as well as direction, using visual cues from outside the maze. Pigs on the control diet learned the task quite well.

Piglets provided the diet severely deficient in iron just didn't learn the task, Johnson said. It's a T-maze so they have a 50 percent chance of getting it right. Even after 6 days of training, they never performed above chance levels. The piglets given the mildly deficient diet showed intermediate performance, but their performance was not significantly different from that of piglets given the control diet.

In the second phase of the test, the reward location was reversed. The piglets were retested to assess reversal learning.

We changed the rules so the piglets had to change their strategy, Johnson explained. It's more demanding, cognitively speaking. The piglets fed an adequate diet learned this task very well. However, piglets fed a diet severely deficient in iron continued to perform poorly while those given a mildly deficient diet showed intermediate performance.

Johnson said that one of the strengths of this paper is that it shows that this test is sensitive to a nutrient in a dose-dependent fashion.

The researchers then examined iron levels in different parts of the brain. They found reduced iron levels in the hippocampus, a brain region that is important for spatial learning and memory, of pigs in both experimental groups.

Johnson said that this work highlights a new translational model for studying micronutrient deficiencies. Traditional rodent models are less suited for examining these kinds of questions because they cannot be weaned early and placed on experimental diets. Pigs, however, are a precocial species, which means that their motor and sensory skills are quite well developed at birth. This facilitates early weaning and behavioral testing.

Johnson has recently received a 5-year NIH grant to do further work with this model. We are investigating the effects of maternal viral infection during pregnancy, he said. At a critical period during pregnancy, gilts are inoculated with a virus that causes pneumonia. When the piglets are born, we study their brain and cognitive development.

Feeding the world fairly

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Fair access to good food is a challenge as old as civilization, and failing to meet it contributed to the fall of the French monarchy ('let them eat cake'), Babylon, Athens and the Roman Empire. As the global populace climbs toward an expected nine billion by 2050, an $800,000 grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation will fund collaborative work by three divisions of Johns Hopkins University to develop ethical guidelines to help meet the challenge in our day.

There is something profoundly wrong about a world in which nearly two billion people are undernourished while another two billion people are overweight, says Ruth Faden, PhD, MPH, director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, who, along with Alan Goldberg, PhD, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Robert Thompson, PhD, of Johns Hopkins' Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, will lead the project. This collaboration among Johns Hopkins institutions will examine one of the fundamental obstacles to achieving global food security: profound disagreement about what it means to feed the world ethically, Faden says.

The project leaders will recruit diverse experts and stakeholders from around the world to characterize differences in ethical assumptions and aims, and to search for moral common ground, Faden says. Participants will include those involved in high and low yield farming, agricultural technology and the welfare of animals, the environment and workers.

We expect that there will be negotiation and conflict among competing interests, but all the players need to be at the table, says Thompson. A working, weeklong conference is planned for 2014.

The goal of this meeting is to produce a document of shared moral principles or commitments that will provide the understanding of the basic issues that must be included to identify fair or ethical food guidelines, says Goldberg.

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation funds diverse non-profit organizations and projects around the world that have the potential for broad, lasting and positive social impact, according to the foundation. In the 1930s, Niarchos expanded his family's grain business by thinking globally, buying the ships that transported wheat.

Mark Twain wrote that hunger is the handmaid of genius; I do believe that if we bring committed people together and treat these issues with the gravity they deserve, we will find a way to narrow what are now broad differences of opinion on a profoundly important question: how to feed everyone, ethically. It is doable, Faden says.

Michael Barnett of Boston College named Professor of the Year for Massachusetts

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Boston College Lynch School of Education Associate Professor of Science Education and Technology G. Michael Barnett has been named the 2012 Massachusetts Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) in recognition of his teaching excellence and positive influence on the lives and careers of students. It is the only national program that recognizes excellence in undergraduate teaching and mentoring.

Barnett's focus is on urban science education, specifically exciting undergraduates and the youngsters they student teach about STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields through projects that utilize technology and link to real-world issues.

In his teaching, Barnett uses innovative tools such as indoor hydroponic vertical farms where BC undergraduates work with their K-12 students to grow vegetables and then sell the produce at their own farmer's markets. Through the project, which takes the participants from seed to market, his students learn about topics such as environmental science, engineering, botany, nutrition, sustainability and economics. Barnett has set up vertical farms in Boston elementary schools, high schools and a community center.

This month, he launched a National Science Foundation-funded indoor hydroponic gardening youth initiative in partnership with the Salvation Army's Kroc Center in Dorchester and the non-profit STEM Garden Institute. The out-of-school project will serve hundreds of middle and high school students in Boston.

I try to get everybody excited about science, from K-12 students to college students to the general public, said Barnett.

A self-described recovering astrophysicist from Kentucky, Barnett caught the teaching bug when he was tapped to teach a lesson about the moon to immensely inquisitive fifth-graders while he was working on his PhD in astrophysics.

Barnett says he is always looking for ways to engage students. You have to reach students where they are, he said. This philosophy has led him and his research team to develop a mobile app called Touch Tree that allows users to identify trees and their ecological value.

Rock star and the most genuinely inspiring role model of effective instruction are just some of the words students used to describe Barnett in his nomination papers.

[Professor Barnett] loves educating people on how to teach science. A self-proclaimed technical geek, he consistently encourages his students to find way to put new technologies in the hands of their students, including some that I have incorporated in my high school classroom, wrote former student Andrew Trossello who now teaches chemistry and biology at a Boston high school.

His teaching is about more than teaching future science teachers. He wants to get non-science majors interested in learning about science. If I can get non-science majors interested in how science works and want to read the New York Times Science section, then I consider that a success, Barnett added.

Limiting carbs to dinner reduces diabetes and cardiovascular risks

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) An experimental diet with carbohydrates eaten mostly at dinner could benefit people suffering from severe and morbid obesity, according to new research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The diet influences secretion patters of hormones responsible for hunger and satiety, as well as hormones associated with metabolic syndrome. In this way the diet can help dieters persist over the long run, and reduce risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The research was carried out by research student Sigal Sofer under the auspices of Prof. (Emeritus) Zecharia Madar, at the Institute of Biochemistry, Food Science and Nutrition at the Hebrew University's Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment. (Prof. Madar is now Chief Scientist at Israel's Ministry of Education.)

Sofer randomly assigned 78 police officers to either the experimental diet (carbohydrates at dinner) or a control weight loss diet (carbohydrates throughout the day). 63 subjects finished the six-month program.

The researchers examined the experimental diet's effect on the secretion of three hormones: leptin, considered to be the satiety hormone, whose level in the blood is usually low during the day and high during the night; ghrelin, considered the hunger hormone, whose level in the blood is usually high during the day and low during the night; and adiponectin, considered the link between obesity, insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome, whose curve is low and flat in obese people.

The idea came about from studies on Muslims during Ramadan, when they fast during the day and eat high-carbohydrate meals in the evening, that showed the secretion curve of leptin was changed, explained Prof. Madar.

The researchers found that the innovative dietary manipulation led to changes in daylight hormonal profiles in favor of the dieters: the satiety hormone leptin's secretion curve became convex during daylight hours with a nadir in the late day; the hunger hormone ghrelin's secretion curve became concave, peaking only in the evening hours; and the curve of adiponectin, considered the link between obesity, insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome, was elevated. At the same time this dietary pattern led to lower hunger scores, and better anthropometric (weight, abdominal circumference and body fat), biochemical (blood sugar, blood lipids) and inflammatory outcomes compared to the control group.

The findings suggest there is an advantage in concentrating carbohydrate intake in the evening, especially for people at risk of developing diabetes or cardiovascular disease due to obesity. The findings lay the basis for a more appropriate dietary alternative for those people who have difficulty persisting in diets over time, said Prof. Madar. The next step is to understand the mechanisms that led to the results obtained.

Influenza vaccine may reduce risk of heart disease and death

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Getting a flu shot may not only protect you from getting sick, it might also prevent heart disease.

Two Toronto-based researchers presented studies at the 2012 Canadian Cardiovascular Congress which found that the influenza vaccine could be an important treatment for maintaining heart health and warding off cardiovascular events like strokes and heart attacks.

Dr. Jacob Udell, a cardiologist at Women's College Hospital and the University of Toronto, and his team from the TIMI Study Group and Network for Innovation in Clinical Research looked at published clinical trials on this subject, dating back to the 1960s.

For those who had the flu shot, there was a pretty strong risk reduction, says Dr. Udell.

The flu vaccine provided an approximate 50 per cent reduction in the risk of a major cardiac event (heart attack, stroke, or cardiac death) compared with placebo after one year of follow-up. A similar trend was seen for the flu vaccine reducing death from any cause (approximately 40 per cent).

The influenza vaccine reduced cardiovascular events and cardiovascular death in people with or without heart disease.

The combined studies examined a total of 3,227 patients, with an almost equal split between patients with and without established heart disease. Half of the participants were randomly assigned to receive flu vaccine and those that did not typically received a placebo vaccine.

Dr. Udell says these results provide support for current guideline recommendations for influenza vaccination of individuals with a prior heart attack, but for a different reason than simply reducing flu risk. And although it was encouraging to see a reduction in non-fatal cardiac events, he believes a large, lengthier multi-national study would comprehensively demonstrate the vaccine's effectiveness to reduce fatal cardiac events and save lives.

A large study that was international in scope and representative of patients such as those in North America and Canada in particular could help answer this question, he says.

This research could also potentially boost use of the vaccine, which Udell believes is still woefully low. The use of the vaccine is still much too low, less than 50 per cent of the general population; it's even poorly used among health care workers, he says. Imagine if this vaccine could also be a proven way to prevent heart disease.

An Ipsos Reid survey conducted by B.C. and Quebec Lung Associations this year found that 36 per cent of Canadians reported having received a flu shot in 2011.

And according to the Public Health Agency of Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), the 2008 Adult National Immunization Coverage Survey found that vaccination rates for adults 18 to 64 years of age with a chronic medical condition is low at 35 per cent.

It also found that non-institutionalized seniors aged 65 and older have higher coverage, at 66 per cent.

According to the NACI, rates for both groups have declined somewhat since their 2006 survey and fall short of the 80 per cent national targets for influenza vaccine coverage in adults under age 65 with chronic conditions and in seniors.

People with ICDS who get the shot have fewer adverse eventsThe second study, conducted by cardiologists Drs. Ramanan Kumareswaran and Sheldon Singh from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre examined the use of the influenza vaccine in patients with implantable cardiac defibrillators or ICDs.

Anecdotes suggest that patients have more ICD shocks during flu season. We were trying to figure out what we can do to reduce the amount of shocks in (our clinic's) ICD population during the flu season, says Dr. Kumareswaran.

Patients with ICDs that had appointments at the Sunnybrook Hospital ICD clinic between September 1st 2011 and November 31st 2011 completed a survey that identified their demographics, health status, if they received a flu shot in the past year and opinions towards the vaccine.

The patients' health charts were reviewed to determine all ICD therapies in five months preceding the 2010 flu season (June to October) and for three months during the 2010-2011 flu season (December to March).

A total of 230 patients with an average age between 70 and 74 completed surveys with 179 (78 per cent) patients reported receiving the vaccination in the previous year. Just over 20 per cent did not receive the vaccine.

The patients who did not receive the flu vaccine had a trend toward experiencing more ICD therapies on average. Specifically, 10.6 per cent of patients who received the vaccine received at least one ICD therapy during flu season compared to 13.7 per cent of patients who did not receive the influenza vaccine.

What is interesting is that if this is consistent over time, it could be of significant benefit to our patient population who already have compromised survival to start with, says Dr. Singh.

We would like to look at this on a larger scale to determine whether or not our results can be replicated. We're in the process to determine how best to do that.An ICD is a small battery-powered electrical impulse generator implanted in patients who are at risk of sudden cardiac death.

The device is programmed to detect cardiac arrhythmia and correct it by delivering a jolt of electricity or increasing the heart rate to restore a healthy rhythm once an irregular beat has been detected.

About 5,000 Canadians get ICDs every year and there are about 100,000 Canadians who currently have them. (Most Canadians with advanced heart disease are potential candidates for ICDs.)

Heart and Stroke Foundation spokesperson Dr. Beth Abramson says these studies strengthen National Advisory Committee for Immunization recommendations for the use of the influenza vaccine in those at high risk of developing influenza related complications, such as patients with heart disease or diabetes, and those who have close contact with those at high risk of developing complications.

In addition to leading a heart healthy life, having an annual flu shot could be another easy way to help prevent cardiac events, she says.

Dr. Abramson notes that the Heart and Stroke Foundation recommends an influenza vaccination for those at high risk of influenza-related complications or hospitalization (including people with heart conditions, those with diabetes, people over 65 years of age, people with a BMI at or above 40 and children or adults treated with ASA). It is also recommended for people who are most likely to transmit influenza to high risk individuals (family members, friends, coworkers, healthcare provider and caregivers).

NIH-funded study to test pneumococcal vaccine in older adults

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Researchers plan to see if a higher dose of a pneumococcal vaccine will create a stronger immune response in older adults who received an earlier generation vaccine against pneumonia and other pneumococcal diseases.

The study supported by the National Institutes of Health will compare two dosages of a pneumococcal vaccine approved for children ages 6 weeks to 5 years, and adults 50 and older. The trial will enroll up to 882 men and women ages 55 to 74.

The study is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of NIH. Researchers hope to gain new insights into the immune responses needed to provide protection.

More than 300,000 people in the United States are hospitalized annually for pneumonia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2009, pneumonia ranked eighth among the 15 leading causes of death in the United States, with adults 55 and older accounting for the majority (92 percent) of all pneumonia-related deaths that year.

The bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae can cause a type of pneumonia called pneumococcal pneumonia. S. pneumoniae can infect the upper respiratory tract and spread to the lungs, blood, middle ear or nervous system. Children younger than 5 and adults older than 65 are most susceptible to becoming ill from pneumococcal pneumonia. People who have been infected are susceptible to becoming re-infected.

For the past 30 years, the PPSV23 vaccine (23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine), known by the brand name Pneumovax 23, has been the standard protection from invasive pneumococcal disease in adults over 65 years of age. While this vaccine protects against pneumococcal meningitis and bloodstream infections, it is unclear how well it protects against bacterial pneumococcal pneumonia. The newer PCV13 vaccine (13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine), known by the brand name Prevnar 13, protects against bacterial pneumonia and other invasive pneumococcal illnesses in children, but the efficacy and most effective dosage in adults is unknown. Earlier studies suggest that PCV13 may not induce as strong an immune response in older adults who previously received the PPSV23 vaccine within the past 5 years as in those who have not.

Researchers will conduct a Phase IIb randomized clinical trial, involving two groups of adults ages 55 to 74. The first group, 294 participants who have never been vaccinated with the PPSV23 vaccine, will receive a single 0.5 milliliter (mL) injection of the PCV13 vaccine. The second group, 588 participants who were vaccinated with the PPSV23 vaccine three to seven years before study enrollment, will be randomized to receive one 0.5 mL injection of the PCV13 vaccine or 1.0 mL of the PCV13 vaccine administered as two 0.5 mL injections, one in each arm. Researchers will evaluate participants' immune responses via blood samples drawn 28 days and 180 days post-injection, to compare responses between those who had previously been vaccinated with the PPSV23 vaccine and those who had not been. The researchers will also evaluate whether the larger, 1.0 mL, dose of PCV13 is more immunogenic than the 0.5 mL dose in participants who were previously vaccinated with the PPSV23 vaccine.

Secondary osteoporosis: More than what meets the eye!

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) An SGH study has revealed that considering all osteoporotic patients as having simple osteoporosis and treating all of them alike by putting them on potent long term medication without finding out the cause of their osteoporosis may be ineffective and in most cases downright harmful.

Secondary osteoporosis is a rather common but lesser known type of osteoporosis that affects men and women of any age. It is caused by certain medical conditions that result in bone loss or interfere with development of peak bone mass. Contributors of secondary osteoporosis include conditions such as hypercalciuria, hyperthyroidism, hyperparathyroidism, vitamin D deficiency and hypogonadism. The study is the first of its kind in South East Asia.

To find out how common these secondary osteoporosis contributors are in our population, a team led by Dr Manju Chandran, Programme Director, Osteoporosis and Bone Metabolism Unit at SGH, evaluated 400 patients over two years. The study found that almost half of the patients with osteoporosis had one or more secondary contributors. Secondary osteoporosis, if not identified and treated, can lead to devastating consequences both in terms of fractures as well as from the disease that caused the osteoporosis in the first place.

Conditions that contribute to secondary osteoporosis may not be obvious without detailed history taking and laboratory testing. The study revealed that 22 per cent of the patients with a secondary cause had increased calcium excretion in the urine, which in most cases could be attributed to a high salt diet. Another 18.5 per cent had vitamin D deficiency, 10.1 per cent had hyperthyroidism and nearly 10 per cent of the men had hypogonadism or low sex hormone levels.

In our study, the prevalence of secondary osteoporosis in men was found to be high, almost 63 per cent. Our recommendation is for all men with osteoporosis to have some basic laboratory testing to look at their levels of male hormone, urine calcium, vitamin D, thyroid function, etc., said Dr Chandran, who is also Consultant, Department of Endocrinology, SGH and President, Endocrine and Metabolic Society of Singapore.

For post-menopausal women, laboratory testing may not be feasible or cost effective as post-menopausal osteoporosis is very common. However, directed testing based on their bone mineral density loss can be done to determine the appropriate treatment for these patients. The appropriate treatment for secondary osteoporosis is treating the condition, which caused it in the first place and not antiosteoporosis medicines, Dr Chandran added.

It is estimated that about 55,000 to 60,000 female Singaporeans above the age of 50 suffer from osteoporosis and that excludes men who are also hit by the disease. While secondary osteoporosis may not be completely reversible, the right treatment can halt the progress of bone loss and prevent excessive fracturing and in some cases even save the life of the patient.

Cardiff scientists bid to develop anthrax vaccine to counteract world bioterrorism threat

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A team of Cardiff University scientists is leading new research to develop a vaccine against anthrax to help counteract the threat of bioterrorism.

Working with scientists from the Republic of Georgia, Turkey and the USA, Professor Les Baillie from Cardiff University's School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences is leading a NATO project to tackle the potential misuse of anthrax.

Currently the majority of the world's population is susceptible to infection with Bacillus anthracis the bacterium which causes anthrax, according to Professor Baillie, who leads the multi-national research collaboration.

The US postal attacks in 2001 highlighted the vulnerability of civilian populations and brought home the need to develop effective, rapid, robust medical countermeasures to combat the threat posed by terrorist use of this organism, he added.

It is the growing concern over the threat posed by bioterrorism that has prompted world authorities like NATO through its Science for Peace and Security Programme to support efforts to develop more effective vaccines and medical countermeasures.

Efforts have so far been hampered by the fact that cases of naturally acquired human infection are rare in NATO countries. As a consequence, researchers have been forced to employ animal models to develop new vaccines.

The problem with this approach is the immune responses of animals and humans differ and as a consequence human clinical trials represent an essential element in confirming the efficacy of any new vaccine.

Such trials require access to several thousand volunteers at risk of infection and as such would be almost impossible to perform in Western Europe or the US.

In contrast anthrax represents a significant disease of animals and humans in the Cacuses and Central Asia. For this reason researchers from the UK and US have joined with colleagues from Turkey and the former Soviet republic of Georgia to tackle the problem.

Professor Baillie added: These unique resources, combined with the expertise of NATO researchers offers us an unparalleled opportunity.

The outputs of this study are expected to underpin the development of future vaccines capable of conferring broad-spectrum, robust protection following minimal dosing.

Such vaccines would impact on two levels, locally they would directly improve the life of workers at risk of contracting anthrax such as farmers, and globally they would contribute to the protection of citizens from the use of anthrax as an agent of bio-terrorism.

An additional benefit of this work will be the establishment of a research centre in Georgia which will support infectious disease research and ultimately improve the lives of all of the people in the region.

Musculoskeletal Health Roundtable recommends action to sustain active and healthy aging

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) The International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) and the Cyprus Society Against Osteoporosis and Musculoskeletal Diseases today hosted an event in Nicosia, Cyprus to call attention to the importance of musculoskeletal health for Europe's growing population of senior citizens.

The Roundtable is held in 2012 during the European Year for Active Ageing which aims to recognize and promote the important contribution of Europe's 30 million senior citizens to society. The event was hosted in conjunction with the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the European Union, with an opening address from the Cyprus Minister of Health, Dr. Stavros Malas.

Age-related chronic diseases, and in particular musculoskeletal health issues such as fragility fractures, osteoarthritis and sarcopenia, have a far-reaching impact on the health status of Europe's older population. Fragility fractures are common in older adults and at the age of 50 up to one in two women and one in five men will go on to suffer a fragility fracture.

The economic burden of fragility fractures exceeds that of many other age-related diseases, including stroke, MS and Parkinson's disease. Fractures, particularly of the vertebrae and hip, can result in substantial pain and suffering, disability, loss of quality of life and even early death, with 20% dying in the year following the fracture. Thirty-three per cent of seniors who suffer a hip fracture become physically impaired and lose their ability to live independently.

IOF President John Kanis commented, A recent IOF study revealed that, in Europe's five largest countries and Sweden alone, some 2.5 million new fragility fractures occur annually, or the equivalent of 280 fractures per hour. Osteoporosis and fractures occur primarily in seniors and prevalence generally increases with age. This is a cause for concern due to the projected growth in Europe's ageing population. Between the years 2000 and 2050, the population of seniors aged 65 and over has been projected to increase by 55% in women and 81% in men, and the increase in the numbers of seniors aged 80+ will be a staggering 160% and 239% respectively.

He added, We must brace ourselves for a tremendous increase in age-related musculoskeletal diseases and fragility fractures. Effective measures to mitigate the socio- and health-economic burden of chronic diseases in all countries of the EU are urgently required.

The upcoming publication of an 'EU Policy Scorecard' which will audit and compare osteoporosis-related data and policies in the EU is eagerly anticipated as it will highlight the areas and countries which require most attention by health policy officials. Another important focus of the IOF and other organizations worldwide is the improvement of secondary fracture prevention. IOF has launched the 'Capture the Fracture' programme to facilitate and promote the implementation of coordinator-based, multidisciplinary models of care in hospitals and clinics around the world. Such models of care have been shown to be the most effective in reducing the rates of secondary fractures.

Professor Juliet Compston, chair of the the EU Osteoporosis Consultation Panel, explained, People who have experienced a fracture are high-risk candidates for further fractures, and without treatment many will go on to suffer a cycle of debilitating and life-threatening fractures. Unfortunately, some 80% of fragility fracture patients are sent home without assessment or treatment for osteoporosis. Yet, osteoporosis treatment for fracture patients has been shown to reduce the overall incidence of costly hip fractures by 20-25%.

Dr. Kyriacos Christofi and Dr. George Georgiades, president and vice-president, respectively, of the Cyprus Society against Osteoporosis and Musculoskeletal Diseases, highlighted the need for policy support for large scale epidemiological fracture studies and the need for a Fracture Registry in Cyprus.

Given the immense importance of musculoskeletal health to the independence and quality of life of senior citizens, Roundtable participants urged health policy officials throughout Europe, in this EU Year of Active Ageing, to take immediate action to promote healthy ageing and to implement effective models of post-fracture care that will reduce the impact of secondary fractures.

From textbook to flexbook: Professor uses new collaborative tool in the classroom

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) MANHATTAN, KAN. -- A Kansas State University professor is gaining attention for creating a textbook replacement that saves students money and provides instructors with teaching flexibility.

Brian Lindshield, assistant professor of human nutrition, has developed an online form of textbook called a flexbook. His flexbook is one of three nominees for an Education-Portal.com People's Choice Award for Most Open Resource.

Instead of buying a textbook, students in Lindshield's human nutrition course use a flexbook titled Kansas State University Human Nutrition (HN 400) Flexbook, which is free for students to use. A flexbook is an open collaborative platform for open course materials. Lindshield created the flexbook to help students save money on course materials and to help students and instructors gain access to rapidly changing information.

I believe the courses that can most benefit from a flexbook are the lower-level, high enrollment, textbook utilizing courses, Lindshield said. The content in these courses is more general, and there are likely resources and material available that can be used to make an open educational resource for them.

Lindshield teaches more than 100 on-campus students every spring semester and approximately 45 online students in his human nutrition course each semester. He used a wiki the first time he taught the course in 2009. After feedback from students, Lindshield developed the flexbook in Google Docs to share with his students.

Because flexbooks are designed to be read online, they contain links to videos, animations, relevant news stories, websites and other online material, Lindshield said. A flexbook is designed to have more figures and visuals than huge amounts of text.

To meet students' various learning styles, Lindshield created four ways to share the flexbook with his students: through Google Docs, a Web link, a PDF posted on K-State Online or a print copy that students could either get from a copy center or print themselves. Students do not have to choose only one of the four ways, and the majority of them access the flexbook in multiple ways, Lindshield said. The hard copy of the flexbook is the least-used version.

In addition to saving students textbook costs, flexbooks have learning advantages. Lindshield said that students create flexnotes, where they take the flexbook and add comments and notes from class. Flexbooks also help instructors because it is a living, evolving resource that can be easily updated.

There are times students have told me they didn't understand a certain concept in the flexbook, Lindshield said. I have been able to make changes and get their feedback so that it's clear to them and future students. As an instructor, making and updating the flexbook continues to make me reflect on everything that I include in the course.

Flexbooks also provide instructors with collaborative opportunities. Lindshield's flexbook is being used for a course at Merrimack College in Massachusetts, where an instructor is using the flexbook and other resources to replace a previously used textbook.

Instructors can customize flexbooks to match what they teach, Lindshield said. The collaborative nature of flexbooks means that instructors of similar courses or members of professional societies can work together to make a base flexbook, then each instructor can make a customized flexbook off of that for their course.

Lindshield spent hundreds of hours creating the flexbook, but he was also developing the course at the same time. Lindshield noted that keeping the flexbook updated requires minimal effort because he usually updates the flexbook as he is preparing to teach class. He continues to refine the content, organization and look of the book.

Lindshield has conducted student surveys with his on-campus and online students to obtain their feedback and find ways to improve the flexbook. He has received positive reviews. In the survey, the majority of students said they preferred the flexbook to buying a traditional textbook because they appreciate the affordability, flexibility and features of the flexbook. Online students did use the flexbook more than on-campus students and the online students reported using the online components -- such as videos and animations -- more.

Lindshield encourages interested professors and instructors to try flexbooks in their courses and he suggests collaborating and obtaining student input when making a flexbook.

Given the time involved, it was important for me to have a vision for what the ultimate goal was going to be and to take satisfaction in the small steps I was completing toward that goal, Lindshield said.

UIC study examines exercise and weight loss for older adults with osteoarthritis

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) The University of Illinois at Chicago has been awarded a $3 million grant to study the effectiveness of two community-based health promotion programs for older adults with osteoarthritis.

The research is funded by the National Institute on Aging.

The study will compare Fit and Strong!, an evidence-based physical activity and health behavior change program, with Fit and Strong! Plus, the traditional program with an added weight management/dietary component.

Fit and Strong! has proven effective for older adults with osteoarthritis, the most common chronic condition and the primary cause of disability in older adults.

Fit and Strong! can improve joint stiffness, pain and function, anxiety/depression, lower extremity strength and gait speed and enhance maintenance of physical activity in older adults for up to 18 months, said Susan Hughes, co-principal investigator of the project and co-director of the Center for Research on Health and Aging at UIC's Institute for Health Research and Policy.

While the traditional program has been very successful, we felt that we needed to address the underlying weight issues that cause or exacerbate lower extremity osteoarthritis, Hughes said.

In the new study, researchers will enroll 400 adults ages 60 and older with lower extremity osteoarthritis who have a body mass index of between 25 and 50. Half will be enrolled in Fit and Strong! and half in Fit and Strong! Plus.

Participants in Fit and Strong! Plus will participate in the traditional program and will also receive dietary and weight loss interactive sessions. The goal is to achieve a minimum 5 percent weight loss by increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables, decreasing saturated fats and sugar sweetened drinks, reducing overall calorie consumption, and learning to manage triggers that can lead to overeating.

The weight loss component is adapted from a successful weight loss trial funded by the National Cancer Institute that was conducted by Marian Fitzgibbon, co-principal investigator of the project and deputy director of UIC's Institute for Health Research and Policy.

Participants who are randomly assigned to Fit and Strong! Plus will learn strategies to increase their intake of fruits and vegetables and whole grains as well as monitoring their food intake. Participants will also learn more about what may be triggers for overeating and mindless eating that can contribute to weight gain, said Fitzgibbon, who is also professor of medicine in the UIC College of Medicine.

Fit and Strong! was developed by Hughes and is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Administration on Aging. The program is used at 54 sites in Illinois, North Carolina, West Virginia and Florida.

The program provides 60 minutes of exercise and 30 minutes of education three times a week for eight weeks.

The focus is on making exercises easy to do, developing individual routines, and reinforcing new behaviors, said Hughes, professor of community health sciences in the UIC School of Public Health.

The U.S. is spending billions of dollars on hip and knee replacements and there is an urgent need to develop effective and affordable solutions that can be implemented in the community, according to Hughes.

UIC researchers will partner with the Chicago Park District to conduct the study at three sites: Eckhart Park, Washington Park and Columbus Park. Nationally certified exercise instructors will be trained to conduct the programming.

All participants will be evaluated at two, six, 12, 18 and 24 months. The researchers will assess dietary changes, weight loss, exercise participation, measurement of osteoarthritis symptoms, anxiety and depression.

The researchers will also analyze Medicare claims data for participants before and after the intervention to evaluate health care use and cost.

Co-investigators are Carol Braunschweig, Richard Campbell, H. Justina Chang, Pankaja Desai, Gail Huber, and Denise Hynes of UIC.

The project is supported by grant number 1R01AG039374 from the National Institute on Aging.

Piglets in mazes provide insights into human cognitive development

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) URBANA -- Events that take place early in life almost certainly have consequences for later cognitive development. Establishing the connections is difficult, however, because human infants cannot be used as laboratory subjects.

Rodney Johnson and his collaborators have developed an alternative model for studying infant brain development. Assistant professor Ryan Dilger and I became interested in establishing the neonatal piglet as a model of human brain and cognitive development 3 or 4 years ago, he said.

The idea came to Johnson when a former student, who was working for an infant formula company, asked about finding ways to determine differences in cognitive development between breast-fed infants and infants fed on formula.

Human breast milk is the gold standard, but not every infant can be breast fed. A major goal for many infant formula companies is to improve the formulation to capture all of the benefits of breast milk, he explained.

Johnson and his group had been working with rodent models to study learning and memory; they also had done some research looking at infectious disease in pigs. They wondered if it would be possible to develop tests to look at learning and memory using neonatal piglets.

It seemed like a reasonable idea because the growth and development of the piglet brain is similar to that of the human brain. The brain growth spurt is a perinatal event in both humans and pigs. At birth, the human brain is about 25 percent of adult size. In the first 2 years of life, it reaches 85 to 90 percent of adult size. The piglet brain grows in a similar way in a shorter time.

Johnson's team first developed structural MRI methods for quantifying brain volume in the neonatal piglet. They then used these techniques to determine total brain and brain region volumes in a cohort of male and female domestic pigs, taking repeated measurements every 4 weeks starting at 2 weeks of age and finishing at near sexual maturity at 24 weeks of age.

They found that at 4 weeks, the piglet brain had grown to approximately 50 percent of its maximum volume, and it continued to grow rapidly for the next 8 weeks. Human infant brains grow in a similar way in the postnatal period. The results suggested that environmental insults during this period could affect brain structure and function.

The researchers' next task was to develop a test to assess the piglets' learning and memory, using a T-maze. They thought that this would be easy. They were wrong.

It actually turned out to be very complicated because there were a lot of things that went wrong that we didn't predict, said Johnson. For example, when we first started these studies, we used things like Skittles and apple slices as a reward because that's what people using older pigs had done.

A new summary of guidance for wellbeing by Dr Lynne Drummond

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 07:29:06 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) In the past you may have tried ‘quick intense fixes, diets and de-tox’ for a particular health concern, finding them helpful but not sustainable. This is not a failing within you; it is because most of these heavily promoted programs are indeed NOT sustainable by most people. This guide is for those seeking incremental, sustainable improvement.

Your current concern might be weight gain; poor sleep pattern; lack of energy or stress & anxiety. For most though, this guide is just the opportunity to have a thorough review and overhaul in the knowledge that the better your general health is, the better you will feel and the stronger you will be in tackling your general life and career challenges.

There are templates to complete and follow, enabling you to measure your progress to a new lifestyle!

Helping pigs to digest phosphorus

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) URBANA -- Phosphorus is a vital nutrient for pig growth, but pigs do not always digest it well. Research conducted at the University of Illinois has determined how adding various levels of the enzyme phytase to the diet improves how pigs digest the phosphorus in four different feed ingredients. Improving phosphorus digestibility has positive implications for producers' bottom lines as well as for the environment.

The majority of the phosphorus in plant feed ingredients is bound in phytate, said U of I animal sciences professor Hans Stein. It is difficult for pigs to utilize that phosphorus because they cannot hydrolyze that phytate molecule. There is an exogenous enzyme called phytase that helps the pigs hydrolyze that phosphorus bond from phytate so the digestibility is increased.

However, there are no data on the response to different levels of phytase in the diet. It's not known if we need to add 500, or 1,000, or 1,500 units of phytase to get a maximum response, and it's also not known if the response is the same when we use different feed ingredients, Stein said.

Stein's team tested the digestibility of phosphorus in conventional corn grain, corn germ, distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), and high-protein distillers dried grains (DDG). They tested each ingredient with no phytate and with 500 units, 1,000 units, and 1,500 units of added phytate.

Supplementation with 500, 1,000, and 1,500 units of phytate increased phosphorus digestibility from 40.9 percent in corn grain with no added phytate to 67.5, 64.5, and 74.9 percent, respectively. Phosphorus digestibility in corn germ increased from 40.7 percent to 59.0, 64.4, and 63.2 percent, respectively. Digestibility of phosphorus in DDGS increased from 76.9 percent to 82.9, 82.5, and 83.0 percent, respectively, but the increase was not significant. Phosphorus digestibility in high protein DDG increased from 77.1 percent to 88.0, 84.1, and 86.9 percent, respectively.

What we discovered was that for corn and corn germ, we had a low digestibility without phytase, but as we added phytase to the diet, we increased the digestibility quite dramatically, Stein said.

For DDGS and high-protein DDG, the result was quite different. Because these two ingredients have been fermented, some of those phytate bonds are hydrolyzed in the ethanol plant and therefore, less of the phosphorus is bound to phytate in DDGS and high-protein DDG.

When we added phytase to DDGS, we did not see a significant increase in digestibility because the digestibility was already very high. And the same was true for HP DDG, said Stein. What this tells us is that the effect of phytase depends on the particular ingredient. If it's an ingredient that has a lot of phosphorus bound to phytate, we see a nice response, but if it doesn't have much phosphorus bound to phytate, we don't see nearly as much of a response.

The second finding was that the response to phytase is not linear. The response to the initial 500 units of phytase is much greater than if we add another 500 units or another 500 units after that, said Stein. It's a curvilinear response, even for the ingredients where a good response is obtained.

The researchers developed equations to predict the response to every level of phytase supplementation up to 1,500 units.

This research will help producers and feed companies to increase the digestibility of phosphorus in ingredients they are already feeding, thus avoiding the expense of adding dicalcium phosphate or monocalcium phosphate to swine diets.

With current prices, it's less expensive to use phytase than it is to use dicalcium phosphate or monocalcium phosphate, Stein pointed out. Use of phytase to improve phosphorus digestibility also reduces the amount of phosphorus excreted in feces, which in turn reduces the environmental impact of swine production.

Stein's lab is continuing its research into phytase supplementation and is currently testing different sources of canola meal and soybean meal. He and his team plan to conduct similar research for all major feed ingredients used in U.S. swine diets.

The study was published in a recent issue of the

Rising carbon dioxide in atmosphere also speeds carbon loss from forest soils, IU-led research finds

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide accelerate carbon cycling and soil carbon loss in forests, new research led by an Indiana University biologist has found.

The new evidence supports an emerging view that although forests remove a substantial amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, much of the carbon is being stored in living woody biomass rather than as dead organic matter in soils.

Richard P. Phillips, lead author on the paper and an assistant professor of biology in the IU College of Arts and Sciences, said that after nearly two decades of research on forest ecosystem responses to global change, some of the uncertainty has been lifted about how forests are storing carbon in the wake of rising carbon dioxide levels.

It's been suggested that as trees take up more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, a greater amount of carbon will go to roots and fungi to acquire nutrients, but our results show that little of this carbon accumulates in soil because the decomposition of root and fungal detritus is also increased, he said.

Carbon stored in soils, as opposed to in the wood of trees, is desirable from a management perspective in that soils are more stable over time, so carbon can be locked away for hundreds to thousands of years and not contribute to atmospheric carbon dioxide increases.

The research was conducted at the Duke Forest Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment site in North Carolina. At this site, mature loblolly pine trees were exposed to increased levels of carbon dioxide for 14 years, making it one of the longest-running carbon dioxide enrichment experiments in the world. Researchers were able to calculate the age of the carbon cycling through the soil by growing roots and fungi into mesh bags that contained uniquely labeled soils. The soils were then analyzed for their organic composition.

The authors also report that nitrogen cycled faster in this forest as the demand for nutrients by trees and microbes became greater under elevated CO2.

The growth of trees is limited by the availability of nitrogen at this site, so it makes sense that trees are using the 'extra' carbon taken up under elevated CO2 to prime microbes to release nitrogen bound up in organic matter, Phillips said. What is surprising is that the trees seem to be getting much of their nitrogen by decomposing root and fungal detritus that is less than a year old.

The two-fold effects of microbial priming, where microbes are stimulated to decompose old soil organic matter via an increase in new carbon and other energy sources, and the faster turnover of recently fixed root and fungal carbon, are enough to explain the rapid carbon and nitrogen cycling that is occurring at the Duke Forest FACE site.

We call it the RAMP hypothesis -- Rhizo-Accelerated Mineralization and Priming -- and it states that root-induced changes in the rates of microbial processing of carbon and nitrogen are key mediators of long-term ecosystem responses to global change, Phillips added.

Most ecosystem models have limited representations of roots, and none of them include processes such as priming. Our results demonstrate that interactions between roots and soil microbes play an underappreciated role in determining how much carbon is stored and how fast nitrogen is cycled. So including these processes in models should lead to improved projections of long-term carbon storage in forests in response to global environmental change' he said.

Long-term calcium and vitamin D supplement use may be linked to increased risk of kidney stones

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Calcium and vitamin D supplements are associated with high calcium levels in the blood and urine, which could increase the risk of kidney stones, a new study finds. The results will be presented Tuesday at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston.

The use of calcium and vitamin D supplementation may not be as benign as previously thought, said principal investigator J. Christopher Gallagher, M.D., professor and director of the Bone Metabolism Unit at Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, NE. Pending further information, people should not exceed the guidelines suggested by the Institute of Medicine, which are 800 international units of vitamin D, and 800-1,200 milligrams per day of calcium.

Taking vitamin supplements has become a widespread practice throughout many parts of the world. In the United States alone, it is estimated that nearly two-thirds of women take vitamin supplements, with calcium and vitamin D among the most commonly used. Despite their popularity, the precise health effects of long-term calcium and vitamin D supplementation remain unclear.

Previous research has indicated that high levels of calcium in the urine, or hypercalciuria, may increase the risk of kidney stones. Elevated calcium in the blood, or hypercalcemia, is associated with many complications, including bone and kidney problems.

Gallagher and study lead author Vinod Yalamanchili, M.D., research fellow in Creighton University's Bone Metabolism Unit, studied 163 healthy, postmenopausal women between the ages of 57 and 85 years. All participants were randomly assigned to receive a vitamin D supplement of 400, 800, 1600, 2400, 3200, 4000, or 4800 international units a day, or placebo. Then, their calcium intake was increased from an initial intake of 691 to 1,200-1,400 milligrams per day. Investigators measured blood and urinary calcium levels at the beginning of the study, and then every three months for one year.

They found that approximately 48 participants, or 33 percent, developed high urinary levels of calcium at some time in the study. These participants had 88 episodes of high urinary calcium. Hypercalciuria has been linked to an increased risk of kidney stones identified in previous studies. No incidents of kidney stones were reported during this one-year study, which was funded by The National Institute on Aging.

Additionally, about 10 percent of study subjects developed high blood levels of calcium. This translates into 25 episodes among 16 participants. In both cases, the increases were unrelated to the dosage of vitamin D.

Because of the unpredictable response, it is not clear whether it is the extra calcium, the vitamin D or both together that cause these problems, Gallagher said. However, it is possible that long-term use of supplements causes hypercalciuria and hypercalcemia, and this can contribute to kidney stones. For these reasons, it is important to monitor blood and urine calcium levels in people who take these supplements on a long-term basis. This is rarely done in clinical practice.

Treating vitamin D deficiency may improve depression

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Women with moderate to severe depression had substantial improvement in their symptoms of depression after they received treatment for their vitamin D deficiency, a new study finds. The case report series will be presented Saturday at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston.

Because the women did not change their antidepressant medications or other environmental factors that relate to depression, the authors concluded that correction of the patients' underlying shortage of vitamin D might be responsible for the beneficial effect on depression.

Vitamin D may have an as-yet-unproven effect on mood, and its deficiency may exacerbate depression, said Sonal Pathak, MD, an endocrinologist at Bayhealth Medical Center in Dover, Del. If this association is confirmed, it may improve how we treat depression.

Pathak presented the research findings in three women, who ranged in age from 42 to 66. All had previously diagnosed major depressive disorder, also called clinical depression, and were receiving antidepressant therapy. The patients also were being treated for either Type 2 diabetes or an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism).

Because the women had risk factors for vitamin D deficiency, such as low vitamin D intake and poor sun exposure, they each underwent a 25-hydroxyvitamin D blood test. For all three women, the test found low levels of vitamin D, ranging from 8.9 to 14.5 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL), Pathak reported. Levels below 21 ng/mL are considered vitamin D deficiency, and normal vitamin D levels are above 30 ng/mL, according to The Endocrine Society.

Over eight to 12 weeks, oral vitamin D replacement therapy restored the women's vitamin D status to normal. Their levels after treatment ranged from 32 to 38 ng/mL according to the study abstract.

After treatment, all three women reported significant improvement in their depression, as found using the Beck Depression Inventory. This 21-item questionnaire scores the severity of sadness and other symptoms of depression. A score of 0 to 9 indicates minimal depression; 10 to 18, mild depression; 19 to 29, moderate depression; and 30 to 63, severe depression.

One woman's depression score improved from 32 before vitamin D therapy to 12, a change from severe to mild depression. Another woman's score fell from 26 to 8, indicating she now had minimal symptoms of depression. The third patient's score of 21 improved after vitamin D treatment to 16, also in the mild range.

Other studies have suggested that vitamin D has an effect on mood and depression, but there is a need for large, good-quality, randomized controlled clinical trials to prove whether there is a real causal relationship, Dr Pathak said.

Screening at-risk depressed patients for vitamin D deficiency and treating it appropriately may be an easy and cost-effective adjunct to mainstream therapies for depression, she said.

Low vitamin D level is linked to greater chance of risk factors for Type 2 diabetes

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A new study presents more evidence of a possible link between low vitamin D levels and a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. The results will be presented Saturday at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston.

The study found an inverse relationship between the level of vitamin D in the blood and the presence of the metabolic syndrome, which is a group of risk factors that increases the risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. People with the highest blood levels of vitamin D had a 48 percent lower risk of having the metabolic syndrome than did those with the lowest vitamin D levels, the authors reported.

This association has been documented before, but our study expands the association to people of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, said the lead author, Joanna Mitri, MD, a research fellow at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. These include minority groups that are already at higher risk of diabetes.

Furthermore, all study participants were at risk of developing diabetes because they had prediabetes, abnormally high blood sugar levels that are not yet high enough to be classified as diabetes. Prediabetes affects an estimated 79 million Americans ages 20 or older, according to 2010 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Mitri and her co-investigators conducted the study using data from participants of the Diabetes Prevention Program, a large, now-completed study funded by the National Institutes of Health. They divided study subjects into three groups based on plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D level, which is the most common way used to measure vitamin D status in the body, according to Mitri. The Institute of Medicine recommends a 25-hydroxyvitamin D level of 20 to 30 ng/mL as adequate for healthy people.

In the new study, the group with the highest levels of vitamin D had a median vitamin D concentration of 30.6 nanograms per milliliter, or ng/mL, and those in the lowest group had a median vitamin D concentration of 12.1 ng/mL. The risk of having the metabolic syndrome with a high vitamin D level was about one half the risk with a low vitamin D level, Mitri said.

The researchers also found an association between vitamin D status and some of the individual components of the metabolic syndrome, which includes a large waist size, low HDL (good) cholesterol, high triglycerides (fats in the blood), high blood pressure and high blood glucose (sugar). Study participants with the best vitamin D status had a smaller waist circumference, higher HDL cholesterol and lower blood sugar.

Mitri cautioned that their research does not prove that vitamin D deficiency causes Type 2 diabetes, or even that there is a link between the two conditions.

However, the metabolic syndrome is common, and progression to Type 2 diabetes is high, she said. If a causal relationship can be established in ongoing and planned studies of vitamin D, this link will be of public health importance, because vitamin D supplementation is easy and inexpensive.

Finding ways to feed pigs for less

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Results of a preliminary experiment conducted at the University of Illinois indicate that it may be possible to select pigs that can make efficient use of energy in less expensive feed ingredients, thus reducing diet costs.

Less expensive feed is usually higher in fiber than the corn-soy diets typically used in U.S. swine production, explained Hans H. Stein, professor of animal sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. However, the white breeds that are used in commercial pork production use only about 40 percent of the insoluble fiber. If you can increase that number to 50 or 60 or 70 percent, then of course, you would get a much better use of the energy in those ingredients, Stein explained.

The white breeds have been selected for high efficiency and rapid gain for many, many generations, Stein continued. But that's all based on corn-soy diets. However, there are also indigenous breeds of pigs that have not been selected for commercial production, and these breeds have, therefore, not been fed the corn-soybean meal diets for as many generations as the white breeds.

Among those indigenous breeds are Meishan pigs, which have been raised in China for many centuries. Stein's hypothesis was that these pigs, which have not been selected for efficiency and rapid weight gain, would use fiber more efficiently than the white breeds.

Stein and his team compared the fiber digestion of Meishan pigs with that of two groups of Yorkshire pigs. They tested four diets that used high-fiber ingredients: distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), soybean hulls, sugar beet pulp, and pectin. When fed DDGS, the values for apparent total tract energy digestibility were higher for the Meishan pigs (83.5%) than for either weight-matched (77.3%) or age-matched (78.8%) Yorkshire pigs. Researchers observed no significant difference in energy digestibility for the other ingredients.

What we observed was that, particularly for the DDGS diets, the Meishans were quite a bit more effective at using that fiber, Stein said. That diet is high in insoluble dietary fiber. When we looked at more soluble fibers, there was no difference.

Although Meishan pigs would never be used for commercial pork production in the United States, the results indicate that differences exist among breeds of pigs. Thus, it is possible that differences also exist among the white breeds and that some may use fibers more efficiently than others.

Stein stressed that this study was preliminary and said that determining if white breeds can be bred to use insoluble fiber more efficiently will be quite costly because it requires selecting pigs for multiple generations. Stein said that he and colleagues at the University of Illinois' Institute for Genomic Biology are pursuing funding for further research.

I think it is exciting that there are some pigs that can use fiber better than we have thought in the past, and I think this will open up opportunities to think in different ways about how we can feed pigs economically, he said.

The study was published in a recent issue of the

UCSF researchers identify a potential new HIV vaccine/therapy target

Wed, 30 May 2012 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) After being infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) in a laboratory study, rhesus macaques that had more of a certain type of immune cell in their gut than others had much lower levels of the virus in their blood, and for six months after infection were better able to control the virus.

SIV is a retrovirus that infects primates. Strains of SIV that crossed over to humans resulted in the evolution of HIV. In rhesus macaques, SIV causes simian AIDS (though in many primates it is harmless) and studying the virus in these animals offers crucial insights into how HIV acts in humans, the researchers said.

The discovery by researchers at UCSF may shed light on the mystery of why some people infected with HIV are better able to control the virus, live longer and have fewer associated health problems than others who have been infected as long, they said. It also provides a potential new target for developing therapies or vaccines.

The cells that have the protective effect, called Th17 (T helper 17) cells, are a subset of the type of disease-fighting immune cell targeted and killed by HIV and found in the gut of both primates and humans.

A prior study from the same UCSF team found that SIV infection causes a normally protective immune response to infection to go awry, leading to reduction in the protective activity in the gut of these Th17 cells and weakening of mucosal defenses against bacteria. Interestingly, in that study, Th17 cells were not affected by SIV in another primate, African green monkeys, in which SIV infection is harmless and does not cause disease.

Animals with more of these Th17 cells were better able to control SIV and this was due in part to macaques developing a more effective immune response by producing more SIV-specific CD4-positive T-cells to fight the infection. Our next step is to see if we can augment the Th17 effect, perhaps by looking at interleukin 17 (IL-17), the cytokine released by these cells, and testing to see if it has an effect, said the study's primary investigator, Dennis Hartigan-O'Connor, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at the UCSF Division of Experimental Medicine.

Further, if a treatment can be developed to increase Th17 cells in the gut, it may allow for a more effective immune response after exposure to an HIV vaccine or the virus itself, he added.

The findings are being published in the May 30, 2012 issue of

A*STAR scientists discover 'switch' to boost anti-viral response to fight infectious diseases

Fri, 11 May 2012 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Singapore scientists from Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI) under the Agency of Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) have for the first time, identified the molecular 'switch' that directly triggers the body's first line of defence against pathogens, more accurately known as the body's innate immunity. The scientists found that this 'switch' called Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) when turned on, activates the production of interferons - a potent class of virus killers that enables the body to fight harmful pathogens such as dengue and influenza viruses.

While there are anti-viral drugs to treat influenza, the high rates of mutation that are characteristic of the influenza [1] virus have made it difficult to treat with one universal drug or vaccine. As for dengue [2], there are currently no clinically approved vaccines or cures either. This discovery of BTK's role as a critical 'switch' that boosts the body's anti-viral response, paves the way for developing anti-viral drugs that target the BTK 'switch' to fight infectious diseases.

To investigate the role of BTK in innate immunity, the research team from BTI extracted a class of innate immune cells known as macrophages [3] from both normal mice and from mice deficient in BTK and challenged them with the dengue virus. They found that the BTK-deficient immune cells were unable to produce interferons, and hence had much higher viral counts compared to the healthy immune cells that had high-levels of interferons to fight the virus effectively.

To further demonstrate the critical role of BTK in anti-viral response, the team focussed on BTK's role in Toll-like Receptor 3 (TLR3) signaling. TLR3 is needed for cells to activate the interferon response when cells are infected by viruses. The team examined the effect of having a perpetually-on or -off BTK 'switch' in TLR3 signaling. They uncovered that a constitutively active or on BTK 'switch' enhanced the production of interferon, resulting in a stronger and more lasting anti-viral response with significant reduction in Dengue viral counts. In contrast, a perpetually off BTK 'switch' led to a poor anti-viral response with very low levels of inteferons produced, and little protection against Dengue virus infection.

Previously, scientists have always thought that BTK is important primarily in antibody production due to observations made of an inherited genetic disorder in humans called X-linked Agammaglobulinemia (XLA). These patients do not have a functional BTK 'switch', and are unable to produce antibodies because defects in BTK cripple maturation of B cells, a type of white blood cell that produces antibodies.

We are very excited because this is the first time that the link between BTK and its critical role in the immediate anti-viral responses of the immune system, triggered in response to invading viruses like Dengue, is definitively demonstrated, said Dr. Koon-Guan Lee, the first author of this paper.

Said Professor Kong-Peng Lam, Acting Executive Director of BTI and the Head of the Immunology Group that conducted the research, This study adds new insights to the understanding of how the body's innate immunity is triggered to create an effective immune response. It is a prime example of how better understanding in basic biological systems brings us a step closer to understanding the mechanism of human diseases, and enables us to find more effective treatment strategies to combat deadly viral diseases, which we have yet to find cures for.

Turmeric lowers post operative risk of a heart attack

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:40:02 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Turmeric may help lower heart attack risk in people post bypass surgery, thanks to curcumin, the yellow pigment present in the spice which has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

Bypass surgery improves blood supply to the heart muscle. However, during the surgery that is usually performed with the heart stopped, the organ can be damaged by prolonged lack of blood flow, increasing the patient's risk of heart attack.

The new findings suggest that curcumins may reduce such risks when added to traditional drug treatments.

The results need to be confirmed through further research, said Wanwarang Wongcharoen from Chiang Mai University in Thailand, who led the study, the American Journal of Cardiology reported.

Researchers at the Thai university studied 121 patients who had non-emergency bypass surgery between 2009 and 2011. Half the patients were given one-gram curcumin capsules to take four times a day, starting three days before their surgery and continuing for five days afterwards. The other half took the same number of drug-free placebo capsules.

The researchers found that during their post-bypass hospital stays, 13 percent of the patients who'd been taking curcumins had a heart attack, compared to 30 percent in the placebo group.

After accounting for any initial pre-surgery differences, Wongcharoen and his colleagues calculated that people on curcumins had a 65 percent lower chance of heart attack.

It's very, very encouraging, said Bharat Aggarwal of the study. Aggarwal works with the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, which studies the use of curcumins in cancer therapy, according to the Daily Mail.

According to researchers, it is likely that the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of curcumin may have helped limit heart damage in the patients.

Approach to diabetes self-management too narrow, study suggests

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A new study from researchers at Queen Mary, University of London reveals the many difficulties faced by people with diabetes in self-managing their disease.

People with diabetes have to invest a great deal of time and effort to manage their condition. This includes not only monitoring the level of sugar in their blood, organising their medication and following a restrictive diet but also social challenges such as negotiating relatives' input and gaining access to doctors when they need to.

In Britain the primary strategy for helping patients is a short educational course on how to self-manage the condition. The new research suggests that this approach is unlikely to succeed in isolation because it ignores the many factors that are outside the patients' control such as food labelling in restaurants, local availability of healthy foods and the expectations and behaviour of other people within family members, at school and at work.

Diabetes is an incurable disease which can have serious complications such as heart disease, kidney failure and blindness. It affects 2.6 million people in the UK and this figure is predicted to rise to four million by 2025.

Only around one per cent of a diabetic person's time is spent in the company of health professionals. The remaining 99 per cent of the time, the patient is managing their own diabetes.

The research was an 'ethnographic' study which looked in depth at a small group of 30 people with diabetes. Their ages ranged from 5 to 88 and they included different ethnic groups to reflect the fact that diabetes is particularly common in South Asians. Researchers shadowed the people for several periods of between two and five hours while they were going about their daily lives, noting how they managed their condition and the challenges they faced.

Trisha Greenhalgh, Professor of Primary Health Care at Queen Mary, University of London, led the study. She said: Until now there has been very little research on what people with diabetes do and how they cope when health professionals aren't around. We have shown that self-management of diabetes is hard work both practically and emotionally, and that many but not all people with diabetes are skilful at undertaking and co-ordinating all the different tasks involved.

The research showed that people with diabetes and their families devoted a lot of time and hard work to managing their disease. For those who were not managing well, the reasons tended to be that they were overstretched by family responsibilities, had other illnesses, were struggling financially or a combination of these. Many had other medical conditions, some very serious for example paralysis following a stroke, visual impairment or heart failure. These factors severely limited people's opportunities to manage their condition, meaning that those who would benefit most from self-management were also those least able to achieve it.

Lack of food labelling in cafes and restaurants also proved challenging because it made calculating the correct dose of insulin difficult.

Some but not all health professionals were enthusiastic about people acquiring advanced knowledge about their diabetes and learning how to self-manage.

Professor Greenhalgh added: There is a trend towards encouraging individuals to look after their own health. This study highlights that whilst many people with diabetes are ready and able to do this, health professionals and wider society could be doing more to support them. Sadly there is still a great deal of ignorance, stigma and stereotyping.

We need to know a lot more about how patients manage their disease outside of the clinic. In the meantime, doctors should be aware of the work their patients put in to self-management and understand that many factors will influence how successful they are at controlling their diabetes.

The research is published in

A*STAR scientists discover special class of natural fats stimulates immune cells to fight diseases

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) An international research team led by scientists from Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN) under the Agency of Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) discovered that a special class of fatty molecules is essential for activating a unique group of early-responding immune cells. This study sheds light on how recognition of fatty molecules by immune cells could protect from infection, allergic reactions, autoimmune diseases and cancer. More importantly, it offers new opportunities to exploit the use of these stimulatory fatty molecules in therapeutic interventions, such as the development of new vaccines and drugs targetted for autoimmune diseases.

The early-responding immune cells investigated in this study, called the invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells, are important as first line of defence against infectious and foreign agents. When stimulated, iNKT cells secrete large amounts of biological chemicals, and are capable of influencing the responses of other immune cells in the body.

It is well established that iNKT cells recognise and are activated by fatty molecules from various sources, including those from diseases-causing bacteria and those that are naturally produced in the thymus [1]. This study identifies for the first time, the actual type of fatty molecules that stimulates the development of iNKT cells in the thymus. This discovery came about through systematic biochemical and structural analysis of fatty molecules extracted from the thymus.

The team, co-led by Professor Gennaro De Libero and Dr Lucia Mori, Senior Principal Investigators at SIgN, found that the fatty molecules produced in the thymus which were able to stimulate iNKT cells all have the chemical linkage called ether bonds.

To validate the stimulatory activity of these special class of self-generated fatty molecules, the scientists artificially manufactured ether-bonded fatty molecules through synthetic chemistry, and found that they were similarly able to activate iNKT cells, promoting their development in the thymus.

In addition, the scientists uncovered that these ether-bonded fats were the same type of fatty molecules which are produced by the peroxisome, a sub-compartment that specialises in fat metabolism, found within all cells of the body. Using a mouse strain that is lacking in the peroxisomal enzyme, and hence unable to make ether-bonded fatty molecules, the scientists found that such mice could not produce the complete repertoire of fully functional iNKT cells.

Dr Mori said, We are very excited to have identified the type of fatty self-molecules that stimulates T cells [2]. This discovery sets a new paradigm for understanding the rules that govern development and activation of frontline immune cells of the body.

Professor De Libero added, With fresh insights from this study, we now have new tools to explore novel therapeutic strategies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases where such fatty molecules are key to disease development.

Scientific Director of SIgN, Professor Paola Castagnoli said, Our focus and mission at SIgN has always been to study human immunology, in particular the underlying mechanisms of inflammatory responses in human diseases. This discovery is a breakthrough for the field of lipid immunity, a new niche area in immunology that SIgN has recently been developing. I would like to congratulate Gennaro and Lucia for this excellent piece of work that has done SIgN, A*STAR proud at the international scientific level. I am confident that with more in-depth understanding of the role of lipid [3] immunity in human diseases, we will find novel ways to cure many types of immune diseases, from autoimmune to infectious diseases, for the benefit of patients in the future

Tuberculosis international conference: April 13-14 at Emory University

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Leading international experts in tuberculosis and related diseases from at least 10 countries will gather at a Human Immunity to Tuberculosis conference April 13-14 in Atlanta. The meeting will take place at the Emory Conference Center, 1615 Clifton Rd., Atlanta, GA 30329.

This first international conference devoted to human immunity to tuberculosis will advance the study of human immunity to Mycobacterium tuberculosis and determine critical areas of focus in TB research. Participants will identify important knowledge gaps and roadblocks to understanding the mechanisms of human immunity to TB and their limitations.

Organizers include Drs. Jyothi Rengarajan (Emory Vaccine Center), Joel Ernst (NYU School of Medicine), Willem Hanekom (South African TB Vaccine Initiative and University of Cape Town), Tom Hawn (University of Washington), and Beate Kampmann (Imperial College and Medical Research Council Laboratories, the Gambia).

Tuberculosis is a serious global health problem that causes about two million deaths each year, says Rengarajan. TB is particularly deadly in combination with HIV and is the leading cause of death in people infected with HIV. Developing an effective vaccine to prevent TB is clearly an important goal but in order to do that we need to better understand the protective and pathological immune responses against the causative agent in humans, Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

One-third of the world's population is infected with TB, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and each year nine million people become sick with the disease, resulting in nearly two million related deaths. In 2010 more than 11,000 cases of TB were reported in the United States.

Tuberculosis is an important area of research at the Emory Vaccine Center, where Rengarajan and her group work to understand how M. tuberculosis causes disease as well as how the immune system responds to infection. In collaboration with Susan Ray, MD, associate professor of medicine in Emory University School of Medicine and an infectious disease clinician at Grady Memorial Hospital and the Fulton County Health Departments, they are studying how the immune response is regulated in patients with TB disease and in healthy individuals with latent TB infection.

Many people are surprised to learn that Atlanta has approximately new 150 TB cases per year and that the TB rates in Georgia are among the highest in the country, notes Rengarajan. Emory Vaccine Center scientists also will be increasing their research focus on human immunity to TB through international collaborations in South Africa and India.

Our Atlanta conference is very timely in light of rapid growth in interest, facilities, and systems for specific studies of human immune responses to TB, says Rengarajan. By bringing together investigators with experience in developing and applying novel approaches to studying human immune responses and investigators from regions of high TB incidence, we will promote interactions and enable future collaborations that should have a significant impact on this important field.

Conference sponsors include Emory University, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, BD Biosciences, GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, The Potts Memorial Foundation, Cellestis, the Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative, Biologend, Oxford Immunotec and the European Respiratory Society.

New research could significantly reduce the need for clinical animal testing

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) University of Southampton researchers are investigating innovative methods of testing drugs that will reduce the need for involving animals.

Drugs based on biological proteins can cause adverse immune reactions in humans.

Scientists from the University of Southampton will start a new study in June to develop a laboratory-based system, known as assays, which will accurately predict immune responses to these drugs. These assays would be used to pre-screen candidate drugs and reduce the need for testing on animals.

It is hoped that the assays will help avoid incidents such as the TGN1412 trials in London six years ago, which saw six healthy volunteers experience severe adverse reactions to a clinical drug that had been tested on animals with no effects.

Martin Glennie, Professor of Immunochemistry and Head of Cancer Sciences at the University, says: Animal testing remains the industry standard for predicting patient toxicity but it can underestimate or even miss the levels of toxicity observed in the first-in-human trials, as we saw with the TGN1412 trials in 2006. Predicting toxicity using in vitro human assays would reduce the risk of incidents like this and also refine pre-clinical animal testing.

The study is funded by the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) under its CRACK IT scheme, a ground-breaking open innovation programme to fund projects that accelerate the application of the 3Rs.

Professor Glennie, together with Dr Tony Williams, Reader in Clinical Immunology and Allergy at the University of Southampton will work with a team of researchers, which includes Dr Mark Coles of the Centre for Immunology and Infection at the University of York, to test a range of drugs called monoclonal antibodies to see if they can find a way of predicting their toxicity in patients.

It is known that most of the toxicity seen when using monoclonal antibodies comes from blood cells called lymphocytes. When these cells become activated patients feel ill, with symptoms ranging from a mild cold, to life-threatening swelling of vital organs. These activated lymphocytes make important 'messenger' molecules called cytokines and it is these messengers which cause the toxicity during a so-called 'cytokine storm'.

Drug testing in animals does not always predict how a monoclonal antibody will behave in patients. Southampton scientists will develop laboratory-based tests that will reliably predict cytokine release when a monoclonal antibody is given to patients.

Worldwide more than 30 monoclonal antibodies, such as Herceptin and Remicade, have now been approved for human use, and they are rapidly changing the way we control and treat diseases ranging from cancer to rheumatoid arthritis, adds Professor Glennie. The success of this class of drugs is such that hundreds more are under development. We have a long and distinguished history of making and using monoclonal antibodies in Southampton and so we feel ideally placed to undertake this important research and hopefully reduce the need for pre-clinical testing in animals.

HIV/AIDS vaccine shows long-term protection against multiple exposures in non-human primates

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) An Atlanta research collaboration may be one step closer to finding a vaccine that will provide long-lasting protection against repeated exposures to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Scientists at Emory University and GeoVax Labs, Inc. developed a vaccine that has protected nonhuman primates against multiple exposures to simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) given in three clusters over more than three years. SIV is the nonhuman primate version of HIV.

Harriet L. Robinson, PhD, chief scientific officer at GeoVax Labs, Inc., and former director of the division of microbiology and immunology at Yerkes National Primate Research Center, has been leading the research team with Rama Rao Amara, PhD, associate professor of microbiology and immunology, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and the Emory Vaccine Center.

The research was presented Wednesday at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Seattle, Wash.

The vaccine regimen included a DNA prime vaccine that co-expressed HIV proteins and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF). GM-CSF is a normal protein that promotes the initiation of immune responses and thus enhances the ability of the vaccine to elicit blocking antibodies for the SIV virus before it enters cells.

Vaccination consisted of two DNA inoculations at months 0 and 2 to prime the vaccine response and then two booster inoculations at months 4 and 6. The booster vaccine was MVA, an attenuated poxvirus expressing HIV proteins. Six months after the last vaccination, both vaccinated and unvaccinated animals were exposed to SIV through 12 weekly exposures, resulting in an 87 percent per exposure efficacy and 70 percent overall protection. Over the next two years uninfected animals were exposed multiple times in two more series, resulting in an 82 percent per exposure efficacy during the second series and an 84 percent per exposure efficacy during the third series.

Repeated challenges in animals are used to mimic sexual transmission, says Robinson. The hope is that the results in the nonhuman primate models will translate into vaccine-induced prevention in humans.

It is impressive to note that protection could be observed against both neutralization sensitive and neutralization resistant viruses, says Amara.

Neutralization is the process by which some antibodies can block virus infection.

A first generation GeoVax DNA/MVA vaccine that does not co-express GM-CSF has shown excellent safety and reproducible vaccine responses in Phase 1 and 2a clinical trials in more than 400 uninfected people. These trials, supported and conducted by the National Institutes of Health HIV Vaccine Trials Network, have set the stage for the second-generation GM-CSF co-expressing vaccine to move from its initial Phase 1 safety testing slated to start in March of this year to a Phase 2b efficacy trial in participants who are at high risk of exposure to HIV. The vaccine is designed for a version of the virus prevalent in the Americas.

University of Alberta researcher to announce 'signifcant step' towards Hep C vaccine

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Edmonton -- A University of Alberta researcher and Canada Excellence Research Chair in Virology has made the discovery of a vaccine that will potentially help combat hepatitis C. Michael Houghton, who led the team that discovered the hepatitis C virus in 1989, announced his findings at the Canada Excellence Research Chairs Summit in Vancouver this afternoon. Currently, there are no vaccines against the disease available.

Houghton, also the Li Ka Shing Chair in Virology at the University of Alberta, says the vaccine, developed from a single strain, has shown to be effective against all known strains of the virus. It took more than 10 years to develop and started while he was working for the drug company Novartis. Following previous vaccine tests funded by the National Institutes of Health that yielded promising results, he said there remained two critical questions.

Did the recipients actually produce antibodies that could neutralize the actual infectious virus, he said, and if they could, how broad was the neutralizing response?

The challenge, Houghton said, was that hepatitis C is more virulent than HIV, thus coming up with a vaccine that would neutralize the different strains around the world was believed to be impossible. Using a vaccine developed and tested on humans in his University of Alberta lab, Houghton and his co-investigator John Law discovered that the vaccine was capable of eliciting broad cross-neutralising antibodies against all the different major strains. Houghton says that this finding bodes good news for those with hep C and those who live or travel to areas where the disease is prevalent.

This tells us that a vaccine made from a single strain can indeed neutralize all the viruses out there, says Houghton. It really encourages the further development of that vaccine. This is a really a big step forward for the field of HCV vaccinology.

With hundreds of thousands of people being infected with hepatitis C annually, and with between 20 to 30 per cent of those developing some form liver disease, this announcement brings hope. However, Houghton cautions that further testing is required, meaning that it may be five to seven years before the vaccine receives approval. And while it may make some difference in those currently suffering from hepatitis C, it is mainly a preventative measure against acquiring the disease.

The discovery of the vaccine by a University of Alberta researcher, and one of the first appointed Canada Excellence Research Chairs is proud news for both organizations.

A breakthrough such as this one is exactly the kind of advance we believed would happen here when we created the Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology and recruited internationally renowned researchers such as Michael Houghton and his colleagues, said U of A President Indira Samarasekera.

Chad Gaffield, chair of the steering committee for Canada Excellence Research Chairs program said one of the ambitions of the program was to attract world-class talent to Canada, those whose research would be foremost in making the breakthroughs needed in the 21st century. While it may not be obvious when or where such breakthroughs will occur first, Houghton`s discovery illustrates the impact of this program on a national and international scale.

The premise of the CERC program is that if you support top minds internationally, good things will happen, he says. This is a wonderful illustration of how a key problem in the world today becomes much more understandable and solutions are much closer thanks to the work of Michael Houghton.

The breakthrough underscores the benefit of the U of A's Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology.

This demonstrates that the Li Ka Shing Institute is internationally competitive in important areas of virology research, said Lorne Tyrrell, director of the institute and a leading virologist in his own right. We are working on topics that are important to patients, and we want to translate discoveries from the lab to patient care. That has been our philosophy since day one. We have a long way to go, but this is a great step.

Best time for a coffee break? There's an app for that

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Caffeinated drinks such as coffee and soda are the pick-me-ups of choice for many people, but too much caffeine can cause nervousness and sleep problems.

Caffeine Zone software app developed by Penn State researchers, can help people determine when caffeine may give them a mental boost and when it could hurt their sleep patterns. The software takes information on caffeine use and integrates it with information on the effects of caffeine to produce a graph of how the caffeine will affect the users over time.

Many people don't understand how caffeine levels in their bloodstream go up and how they go down, said Frank Ritter, professor of information sciences and technology, psychology, and computer science and engineering. It's important to understand the effect that caffeine can have at these various levels.

Ritter, who worked with Kuo-Chuan (Martin) Yeh, assistant professor of computer science and engineering, said that if a person drinks a cup of coffee rapidly, they will experience a spike in mental alertness, but enough of the drug can linger in the bloodstream to cause sleep problems hours later.

The researchers used peer-reviewed studies as input data to determine that caffeine drinkers with between 200 and 400 milligrams of caffeine in their blood stream are in an optimal mental alertness zone. For sleep, the researchers set a lower threshold of 100 milligrams. Drinkers may have sleep problems if they remain above this.

The researchers, who reported their findings at the 2011 Augmented Cognition International Conference, said people who drink too much caffeine, too quickly, may face other problems. A spike of caffeine above the optimal level can cause nausea and nervousness.

Maintaining proper caffeine balance is important for many workers. For example, sailors on submarines must carefully watch their sleep patterns because their sleeping and waking patterns vary each day, Ritter said.

If they, and others who drink coffee to stay awake, drink too much coffee on one shift, they may have trouble sleeping, said Ritter. So, the next day, they'll drink even more coffee and have even more trouble sleeping.

To plot caffeine's effect with the app, drinkers type in information about how much caffeine they drank, or plan to drink, and when they plan to have a caffeinated beverage. They also can add how fast they drink the beverage.

The app can also help people determine when to modify their caffeine habits, so that they might choose to drink a decaffeinated beverage, or mix a blend of caffeinated and decaffeinated coffees.

The app is available on iTunes for free with advertisements and for purchase without ads. It only works on Apple devices -- the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Gene related to fat preferences in humans found

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A preference for fatty foods has a genetic basis, according to researchers, who discovered that people with certain forms of the CD36 gene may like high-fat foods more than those who have other forms of this gene.

The results help explain why some people struggle when placed on a low-fat diet and may one day assist people in selecting diets that are easier for them to follow. The results also may help food developers create new low-fat foods that taste better.

Fat is universally palatable to humans, said Kathleen Keller, assistant professor of nutritional sciences, Penn State. Yet we have demonstrated for the first time that people who have particular forms of the CD36 gene tend to like higher fat foods more and may be at greater risk for obesity compared to those who do not have this form of the gene. In animals, CD36 is a necessary gene for the ability to both detect and develop preferences for fat. Our study is one of the first to show this relationship in humans.

Keller and a tem of scientists from Penn State, Columbia University, Cornell University and Rutgers University examined 317 African-American males and females because individuals in this ethnic group are highly vulnerable to obesity and thus are at greatest risk for obesity-related diseases.

The team gave the participants Italian salad dressings prepared with varying amounts of canola oil, which is rich in long-chain fatty acids. The participants were then asked to rate their perceptions of the dressings' oiliness, fat content and creaminess on a scale anchored on the ends with extremely low and extremely high.

The team also gave participants questionnaires aimed at understanding their food preferences. Participants rated how much they liked each food on a scale anchored with dislike extremely and like extremely. Foods included on the questionnaire were associated with poor dietary intake and health outcomes, such as half-and-half, sour cream, mayonnaise, bacon, fried chicken, hot dogs, French fries, cheese, chips, cake, cookies and doughnuts. The researchers collected saliva samples from the participants to determine which forms of CD36 they had. From the saliva samples, they extracted DNA fragments and examined differences in the CD36 gene contained within the fragments.

They found that participants who had the AA form of the gene -- present in 21 percent of the population -- rated the salad dressings as creamier than individuals who had other forms of the gene. These individuals reported that the salad dressings were creamier regardless of how much fat was actually in them. The researchers also found that AA individuals liked salad dressings, half-and-half, olive oil and other cooking oils more than those who had other forms of the gene. The results are published in a recent issue of the journal

Eating smart: Researcher studies foods, dietary supplements that may reduce risk of prostate cancer

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) MANHATTAN, KAN. -- A Kansas State University professor is turning to nutrition to tackle prostate cancer.

Brian Lindshield, assistant professor of human nutrition, is helping men make more informed diet decisions by studying foods and dietary supplements that may reduce the risk of prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer among men in the United States.

I'm interested in researching ways to prevent prostate cancer rather than how to treat it after a person has been diagnosed with cancer, Lindshield said.

The goal of Lindshield's research is twofold: He is performing basic studies that examine specific drugs as well as dietary supplements. His research has been supported by grants from the Johnson Cancer Research Center and the National Institute of Health Center of Biomedical Research Excellence, or COBRE, for epithelial function in health and disease.

One project focuses specifically on two drugs -- finasteride and dutasteride -- that are used to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH, which is an enlargement of the prostate. Both drugs inhibit enzymes that convert the male hormone testosterone to a more potent form, called dihydrotestosterone, or DHT. Finasteride inhibits one of these enzymes, while dutasteride inhibits both of these enzymes.

Because these drugs inhibit DHT production, they may also prevent the development of prostate cancer. Several clinical trials have shown that both drugs decrease prostate cancer incidence, but at a cost.

Among the men who took these drugs and still got prostate cancer, more of them had a high-grade or more aggressive prostate cancer, Lindshield said. It's kind of a double-edged sword. These drugs can lower the risk of developing prostate cancer, but they also might lead to worse outcomes for men who do develop the disease.

That's where Lindshield's research fits in: He is comparing finasteride and dutasteride to see if one is better than the other.

Our hypothesis is that dutasteride is a better option because it inhibits both enzymes while finasteride only inhibits one, Lindshield said.

For a second project, Lindshield is studying different dietary supplements that affect prostate cancer risk. He is focusing on extract from saw palmetto, a type of shrub that looks similar to a palm tree. Many men take saw palmetto extract because it is believed to benefit prostatic health and inhibit the same enzymes as finasteride and dutasteride. But a lack of regulation and research surrounding saw palmetto has not provided clear insight into whether taking the extract is beneficial.

The supplement market is kind of the wild world of whatever goes, Lindshield said. It is not regulated in the United States, so many different kinds of saw palmetto extracts exist.

Lindshield wants to determine the composition of different saw palmetto extracts and determine which ones may be most effective. So far the researchers have collected various saw palmetto extracts -- from small liquids to capsules. They are beginning to measure the active components of each of the extracts and then will look at different extracts to see if they are effective in decreasing prostate cancer.

We want to look at how they affect growth of prostate cancer cells and inhibit the enzymes that produce DHT, Lindshield said.

While both projects are in the early stages, Lindshield hopes that they can provide insight into ways that men can reduce their risk of prostate cancer.

Continuing uncertainties surround anti-influenza drug

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Incomplete availability of data has hampered a thorough assessment of the evidence for using the anti-influenza drug oseltamivir, a Cochrane Review has found. However, after piecing together information from over 16,000 pages of clinical trial data and documents used in the process of licensing oseltamivir (Tamiflu) by national authorities, a team of researchers has raised critical questions about how well the drug works and about its reported safety profile. The new analysis shows inconsistencies with published reports, and describes possible under-reporting of drug-related side-effects in some published trial reports. While the drug did reduce the time to first alleviation of symptoms by an average of 21 hours, it did not reduce the number of people who went on to need hospital treatment. Results from the reanalysis of data also raise questions about how the drug works as an influenza virus inhibitor.

These finding are published in The Cochrane Library by an international team of researchers from Italy, Australia, USA, UK and Japan. It was funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) programme.

In line with World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations made in 2002, governments around the world have spent billions of dollars stockpiling neuraminidase inhibitors such as oseltamivir and zanamivir (Relenza). The agents' proposed mode of action is to limit the proliferation of viruses within an infected person, which in turn reduce the duration of a person's symptoms, and consequently reduce the chances of passing the disease to another person.

Led by Dr Tom Jefferson, a Cochrane review author and independent epidemiologist based in Rome, Italy, a team of researchers have obtained and analysed data on antiviral drugs, much of which has never been published, and evaluated the evidence that lay behind some of the statements. This latest Cochrane review focused primarily on oseltamivir because it is a commonly used and stockpiled drug and is on the list of WHO essential drugs. The Cochrane team were reluctant to base their research on the trials that have been published in scientific journals, because while many trials have been conducted around the world, only a few have been published.

We identified that a large number of studies, including data from 60% of the people who have been involved in randomised, placebo-controlled phase III treatment trials of oseltamivir have never been published. This includes the biggest treatment trial ever undertaken on oseltamivir that on its own included just over 1,400 people of all ages, says Jefferson. We are concerned that these data remain unavailable for scrutiny by the scientific community.

Although the team were able to access thousands of pages of data provided to national regulatory agencies and other bodies, they were only able to access a proportion of the data they needed to evaluate fully the effects of oseltamivir, despite requests to the drug's manufacturer, Roche.

When the team compared published data with the more complete unpublished trial records, they found inconsistencies in the published record of the trials. For example, while unpublished trial reports mentioned serious adverse events (some even classified as possibly related to oseltamivir), one of the two most cited publications makes no mention of such effects, and the other states ... there were no drug-related serious adverse events.

Jefferson and colleagues also found disparities in the numbers of influenza-infected people reported to be present in the treatment versus control groups of oseltamivir trials. The researchers believe that this imbalance may be caused by oseltamivir affecting antibody production. The disparity is important because in oseltamivir trials, primary efficacy outcomes were analyzed on the influenza infected subpopulation, but it is not clear that these groups were in fact comparable, says Jefferson.

The researchers conclude that there is an urgent need for independent research on both of these drugs. There is continuing uncertainty about their effects beyond the initial reduction in symptoms, mainly because full access to the data needed has still not been provided. We believe that until more is known about the mode of action of neuraminidase inhibitors health professionals, patients and other decision makers need to reflect on the findings of this review before making any decision about the use of the drug, concluded Jefferson.

Also published in this issue of The Cochrane Library is an updated systematic review of neuraminidase inhibitors for children only ('Neuraminidase inhibitors for preventing and treating influenza in children' by Wang et al). Dr David Tovey, Editor in Chief of The Cochrane Library notes that This review uses more standard review methods and only evaluates published studies. The two reviews therefore use different methods and this leads to differences regarding their findings, but some results are broadly similar to those presented in the review by Jefferson et al.

Best way to boost adult immunizations is through office-based action, study finds

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Promoting immunizations as a part of routine office-based medical practice is needed to improve adult vaccination rates, a highly effective way to curb the spread of diseases across communities, prevent needless illness and deaths, and lower health care costs, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Increasingly, vaccinations are being offered outside of physician offices at pharmacies, workplaces and retail medical clinics. Even so, office-based medical practice continues to be central to the delivery of recommended vaccinations to adults.

Regardless of where vaccines are actually administered, office-based providers are uniquely positioned to identify patients who need vaccination, to communicate credibly about the benefits and risks of vaccination, and to ensure that vaccination histories are properly maintained, said Katherine Harris, the study's lead author and a senior economist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization.

The RAND study outlines improvements needed to strengthen the role of office-based medical providers to promote vaccination to adult patients. These include creating tools to improve communications between patients and providers about vaccinations, and stronger incentives to encourage health providers to refer patients to community sites that administer vaccinations if they do not offer them.

Diseases that can be readily prevented by vaccines take a heavy toll on adults in the United States despite the wide-spread availability of this generally safe and effective preventive care. The yearly health care and productivity costs blamed on influenza -- a common illness that can be prevented by vaccination -- is as high as $90 billion, depending on the severity of the annual outbreak.

In contrast to childhood vaccination rates, which are generally high, adult vaccination rates remain disappointingly low. Even in the case of influenza, inoculation rates for even those at the highest risk of death do not exceed 70 percent. Vaccines recommended for adults can prevent influenza, pneumococcal sepsis, shingles, hepatitis A and B, pertussis (whooping cough) and the human papillomavirus -- the leading cause of cervical cancer.

Researchers say recent changes in the policy and practice environments provide a unique window of opportunity to improve the delivery of vaccinations to adults. Health care reform legislation promotes preventive care and improves financial access to adult vaccinations.

RAND researchers identified bottlenecks that have stalled delivery of adult vaccinations and propose strategies to overcome these shortcomings. Their effort included a review of past research about adult vaccination, a stakeholder workshop, interviews with experts, and a short telephone survey of adults to learn about the relationship between influenza vaccination and public beliefs and misperceptions about its safety.

The study reports that while medical offices are the location where most adults receive vaccinations, only about one-fourth of physician offices stock all recommended vaccines for adults. Reasons include the fact that some vaccines have a short shelf life and insurance payments for administering adult vaccines may not cover the doctor's costs.

Researchers say one priority is to collect better national information about the patterns of office-based vaccination of adults to pinpoint gaps in practice, which could then be targeted for improvement efforts.

Better guidance should be developed to help health providers effectively promote and administer vaccines, including structured vaccination counseling protocols. Providers also need tools to help them evaluate whether to administer vaccines onsite or refer their patients to community resources such as pharmacies and flu vaccine clinics, according to the study.

Systems also must be developed to credit primary care providers for providing vaccine counseling, whether their patients receive the vaccination on-site or go elsewhere to get it.

'Pep talk' can revive immune cells exhausted by chronic viral infection

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Chronic infections by viruses such as HIV or hepatitis C eventually take hold because they wear the immune system out, a phenomenon immunologists describe as exhaustion.

Yet exhausted immune cells can be revived after the introduction of fresh cells that act like coaches giving a pep talk, researchers at Emory Vaccine Center have found. Their findings provide support for an emerging strategy for treating chronic infections: infusing immune cells back into patients after a period of conditioning.

The results are published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition.

The first author of the paper is Rachael Aubert, a student in Emory's Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis program who completed her doctorate in 2009. Senior author Rafi Ahmed, PhD, is director of the Emory Vaccine Center and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar.

Ahmed's laboratory has extensive experience studying mice infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV). Immune responses against LCMV are driven by CD8 or killer T cells, which destroy virus-infected cells in the body. But a few weeks after exposure to LCMV, the mice develop a chronic infection that their immune systems cannot shake off, similar to when humans are infected by viruses like HIV and hepatitis C.

Aubert and her co-workers examined what happened to mice chronically infected with LCMV when they infused CD4 or helper T cells from uninfected mice. After the infusion, the CD8 cells in the infected mice revived and the levels of virus in their bodies decreased by a factor of four after a month. Like coaches encouraging a tired athlete, the helper cells drove the killer cells that were already in the infected mice to emerge from exhaustion and re-engage.

The cell-based treatment was especially effective when combined with an antibody that blocks the molecule PD-1, which appears on exhausted T cells and inhibits their functioning. The antibody against PD-1 helps the exhausted T cells to revive, and enhances the function of the helper cells as well: the combination reduced viral levels by roughly ten-fold, and made the virus undetectable in some mice.

We have not seen this sharp of a reduction in viral levels in this system before, says co-author Alice Kamphorst, a postdoctoral fellow.

The helper cells were all genetically engineered to recognize LCMV, a difference between mouse experiments and potential clinical application. However, it may be possible to remove helper T cells from a human patient and stimulate them so that all the cells that recognize a given virus grow, Kamphorst says.

This is an active area of research and several laboratories are looking at how best to stimulate T cells and re-introduce them, she says.

In addition, she and her co-workers are examining what types of hormones or signaling molecules the helper cells provide the killer cells. That way, that molecule could be provided directly, instead of cell therapy, she says.

The molecule PD-1 was previously identified by Ahmed and colleagues as a target for therapy designed to re-activate exhausted immune cells. Antibodies against PD-1 have been undergoing tests in clinical studies against hepatitis C and several forms of cancer.

Burning more sugar drives super athleticism

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:54:14 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Washington, Dec 1 - Muscle fitness drives super athleticism, especially when their cells efficiently utilise sugar as a fuel source, a study reveals.

Conversely, exercising improves the muscle's ability to take up sugar from the bloodstream and burn it for energy.

On the flip side, conditions that reduce physical activity, such as obesity or chronic disease, reduce the muscle's capacity to burn sugar.

A new study from Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute - unravels a mechanism that re-programmes metabolic genes in muscles to boost their capacity to use sugar, the journal Genes & Development reported.

When activated in mice, this metabolic re-programming dramatically improves exercise performance, according to a university statement.

'Essentially, these transgenic mice are capable of storing and burning sugars at rates usually only seen in the trained athlete,' said researcher Daniel P. Kelly.

Kelly's mice are special because they're engineered to produce the protein PPARB/d in their muscle tissue. Previous studies have shown that mice with high PPARB/d levels in their muscles have increased exercise capacity.

Kelly and his team discovered why that is -- the muscles of PPARB/d mice are better than normal mice at taking up sugar from the bloodstream, storing it and burning it for energy.

Research aims to prevent obesity by reaching parents, young children through child care

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) MANHATTAN, KAN. -- A Kansas State University research group is jumping ahead to improve nutrition and physical activity among young children and prevent childhood obesity.

The researchers -- led by David Dzewaltowski, professor and kinesiology department head -- have developed a program called HOP'N Home, which stands for Healthy Opportunities for Physical Activity and Nutrition at Home. The researchers have been working on obesity prevention for more than 15 years. The latest segment of the program partners with the Butler County Health Department and K-State Research and Extension to reach 3- to 5-year-olds and their parents through activities conducted at child care facilities.

Our research has moved to younger and younger age groups because we have found through the public health literature and surveillance that you need to start as young as possible, Dzewaltowski said.

The project works with child care centers to build the capacity of staff to help children and their parents offer more physical activity and more nutritious food options as well as understand the impact of advertising on their food and physical activity choices. The project has been supported by the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund.

The project is divided into four phases. The first phase evaluated a 12-week program with the university's Stone House Early Childhood Education Center. The second phase occurred last spring, when the researchers partnered with Butler County Research and Extension to work with four child care providers.

The researchers are currently in the third phase of the project and are working with the Butler County Health Department to develop a training model that helps child care providers deliver the 12-week program. For the final phase, the researchers will partner with agencies such as Child Care Aware of Kansas to make the training model available to child care providers statewide.

We've done rigorous evaluation of the program and we're finding preliminary evidence that some parents are improving the home environment, Dzewaltowski said. The parents are providing more fresh fruits and reporting that they are eating fast food fewer times per week. They are also increasing visits to parks and reporting that their children are asking to play outside more and asking for few cakes, doughnut and muffins.

The project's 12-week program reaches young children through elements such as adult-led activities, dramatic play and snack time. It uses a traffic light, which helps children understand healthy eating through green and yellow foods, called go and slow foods. The program also uses a traffic light to understand physical activity versus sedentary activity as well as media that promote healthy or unhealthy options.

The researchers focus on two types of traffic foods with the 3- to 5-year-olds: healthy go foods that can be eaten all the time and slow foods that should be eaten in moderation. The children learn about these foods by singing a song composed by Teri Holmberg, a Kansas State University instructor of music and certified music therapist.

Daily activities focus on go and slow foods to help children start thinking about healthy eating. For instance, during dramatic play, children use a toy stove to cook pretend fruits and vegetables. At snack time, child care providers prompt the children to think if they are eating a go or slow food. The children also learn the difference between active and sedentary toys.

Literature has suggested that the food industry has been very effective in marketing to young kids to nag their parents, Dzewaltowski said. What we are focusing on is positive nagging, or positive pestering, where kids start to think about asking their parents for healthy foods.

The project also includes a home connection, where the child care providers inform parents through weekly activities and newsletters to help them encourage children to make healthy choices at home.

I am excited about this age group because I think the children are receptive to the programs, but the parents are as well, Dzewaltowski said. Parents of this age group are at a time period where they are aware of the problems, they are hearing the media and they are looking for help.

AMD-like lesions delayed in mice fed lower glycemic index diet

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) BOSTON (November 14, 2011) -- Feeding older mice a lower glycemic index (GI) diet consisting of slowly-digested carbohydrates delays the onset of age-related, sight-threatening retinal lesions, according to a new study from the Laboratory for Nutrition and Vision Research at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University.

The researchers studied middle-aged and older mice that consumed either a higher or lower GI diet. Mice fed the lower GI diet developed fewer and less-severe age-related lesions in the retina than the mice fed the higher GI diet. The lesions included basal laminar deposits, which typically develop after age 60 in the human retina and are the earliest warning sign of Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD).

To our knowledge, we have established the first mature, mammalian model indicating a delay in the development of AMD-like lesions as the result of a lower GI diet, says Allen Taylor, PhD, director of the Laboratory for Nutrition and Vision Research at the USDA HNRCA. The only difference between the two groups of mice we studied is the GI of their meals, which suggests that diet alone is enough to accelerate or delay the formation of lesions. These results, coupled with similar observations made by our laboratory in earlier human epidemiologic studies imply that lower GI diets hold potential as an early intervention for preventing onset and progress of AMD.

The dietary glycemic index (DGI) measures the rate at which glucose is delivered to the bloodstream after consuming carbohydrates. Higher GI foods including white bread and white potatoes trigger a rapid delivery of glucose that pushes the body to work overtime to absorb, whereas lower GI foods, like whole grain bread and fruits and vegetables, initiate a slower release of glucose that is more easily processed by cells.

Compared to the mice on the lower GI diet, mice on the higher GI diet demonstrated elevated accumulations of debris known as advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in the whole retina, particularly in the cells of the RPE. The RPE plays a crucial role in maintaining vision and its dysfunction results in the gradual central vision loss that is the hallmark of AMD. AGE accumulation has also been linked to tissue damage in other age-related diseases such as Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

We presume the elevated accumulation of AGEs we saw in the retina of the higher GI group is associated with toxicity. The AGEs result from the modification of proteins by excess glucose and this compounds the normal protein damage that happens as we age, says Karen Weikel, first author and a PhD candidate at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts. While previous research has linked higher GI diets to AGE accumulation in the blood, ours appears to be the first to show diet-related AGE presence in tissue, such as the retina, which becomes the site of the eye disease.

The research, published online in October in the journal

Sugar-sweetened beverages may increase cardiovascular risk in women

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Drinking two or more sugar-sweetened beverages a day may expand a woman's waistline and increase her risk of heart disease and diabetes, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2011.

In this study, researchers compared middle-aged and older women who drank two or more sugar-sweetened beverages a day, such as carbonated sodas or flavored waters with added sugar, to women who drank one or less daily. Women consuming two or more beverages per day were nearly four times as likely to develop high triglycerides, and were significantly more likely to increase their waist sizes and to develop impaired fasting glucose levels. The same associations were not observed in men.

Women who drank more than two sugar-sweetened drinks a day had increasing waist sizes, but weren't necessarily gaining weight, said Christina Shay, Ph.D., lead author of the study and assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. These women also developed high triglycerides and women with normal blood glucose levels more frequently went from having a low risk to a high risk of developing diabetes over time.

The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) included food frequency surveys in 4,166 African-American, Caucasian, Chinese-Americans and Hispanic adults 45 to 84 years old. At the beginning of the study the participants didn't have cardiovascular disease.

Researchers assessed risk factors in three follow-up exams spanning five years starting in 2002. Participants were monitored for weight gain, increases in waist circumference, low levels of high density lipoproteins (HDL good cholesterol), high levels of low density lipoproteins (LDL bad cholesterol), high triglycerides, impaired fasting glucose levels, and type 2 diabetes.

Most people assume that individuals who consume a lot of sugar-sweetened drinks have an increase in obesity, which in turn, increases their risk for heart disease and diabetes, said Shay, formerly of Northwestern University's Department of Preventive Medicine in Chicago, where the study was conducted. Although this does occur, this study showed that risk factors for heart disease and stroke developed even when the women didn't gain weight.

Women may have a greater chance for developing cardiovascular disease risk factors from sugar-sweetened drinks because they require fewer calories than men which makes each calorie count more towards cardiovascular risk in women, Shay said.

Researchers have yet to determine exactly how sugar-sweetened beverages influence cardiovascular risk factors such as high triglycerides in individuals who do not gain weight, Shay said, but further work is planned to try and figure that out.

Low vitamin C levels may raise heart failure patients' risk

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Low levels of vitamin C were associated with higher levels of high sensitivity C-Reactive protein (hsCRP) and shorter intervals without major cardiac issues or death for heart failure patients, in research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2011.

Compared to those with high vitamin C intake from food, heart failure patients in the study who had low vitamin C intake were 2.4 times more likely to have higher levels of hsCRP, a marker for inflammation and a risk factor for heart disease.

The study is the first to demonstrate that low vitamin C intake is associated with worse outcomes for heart failure patients.

Study participants with low vitamin C intake and hsCRP over 3 milligrams per liter (mg/L) were also nearly twice as likely to die from cardiovascular disease within one year of follow-up.

We found that adequate intake of vitamin C was associated with longer survival in patients with heart failure, said Eun Kyeung Song, Ph.D., R.N., lead author of the study and assistant professor at the Department of Nursing, College of Medicine, in the University of Ulsan in Korea.

The average age among the 212 patients in the study was 61, and about one-third were women. Approximately 45 percent of the participants had moderate to severe heart failure.

Participants completed a four-day food diary verified by a registered dietitian and a software program calculated their vitamin C intake. Bloods tests measured hsCRP.

Researchers divided participants into one group with levels over 3 mg/L of hsCRP and another with lower levels. Patients were followed for one year to determine the length of time to their first visit to the emergency department due to cardiac problems or death.

Researchers found that 82 patients (39 percent) had inadequate vitamin C intake, according to criteria set by the Institute of Medicine. These criteria allowed the researchers to estimate the likelihood that the patient's diet was habitually deficient in vitamin C based on a four day food diary. After a year follow-up, 61 patients (29 percent) had cardiac events, which included an emergency department visit or hospitalization due to cardiac problems, or cardiac death.

The researchers found that 98 patients (46 percent) had hsCRP over 3 mg/L, according to Song.

Inflammatory pathways in heart failure patients may be why vitamin C deficiency contributed to poor health outcomes, the data suggests.

Increased levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein means a worsening of heart failure, Song said. An adequate level of vitamin C is associated with lower levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein. This results in a longer cardiac event-free survival in patients.

The use of diuretics may also play a role because vitamin C is water soluble and diuretics increase the amount of water excreted from the kidneys, said Terry Lennie, Ph.D., R.N., study author and associate dean of Ph.D. studies in the College of Nursing at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky.

Diet is the best source of vitamin C, Lennie said. Eating the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables a day provides an adequate amount.

More randomized controlled trials and longitudinal prospective studies are needed to determine the impact of other micronutrients on survival or rehospitalization, Song said.

Study finds shifting disease burden following universal Hib vaccination

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) [EMBARGOED FOR NOV. 11, 2011] Vaccination against Haemophilus influenzae type b, or Hib, once the most common cause of bacterial meningitis in children, has dramatically reduced the incidence of Hib disease in young children over the past 20 years, according to a study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and available online (

The Hib vaccine was successful in reducing disease among children 5 years and younger, and now the epidemiology has changed, said lead author Jessica MacNeil, MPH, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who, with colleagues, analyzed data for the current epidemiology and past trends in the invasive disease over the past two decades following the introduction of the Hib vaccine in the mid-1980s. Most H. influenzae disease in the United States is now caused by other, non-type b strains of the bacteria.

The study authors warn that the highest rates of disease from non-b type strains are in the oldest and youngest age groups, those 65 and older and infants less than a year old. Among children younger than 5 years old, young infants are the most likely to be diagnosed with the disease. Many of these cases occur during the first month of life, and among those, premature and low-birthweight babies are the most vulnerable.

The number of adults 65 and older who become ill due to H. influenzae is also high compared to the rest of the population, according to the study authors. Among those in this group who become sick, nearly 25 percent of the cases are fatal. Risk factors for this age group are harder to interpret, the authors note, as clinical outcomes may be due to underlying medical conditions.

American Indian and Alaska Native children continue to have a disproportionately large burden of both Hib and non-b type disease compared to others, the study found, but the reasons behind this are not fully understood. Why these groups continue to be at a higher risk than other populations should be the focus of future studies, MacNeil said. Understanding risk factors for H. influenzae disease in this population, such as household crowding, poverty, and poor air quality, could potentially help prevent transmission.

The study authors found that no substantial serotype replacement has been observed among young children in the U.S., which suggests the current Hib vaccine has been effective in preventing H. influenzae illness in this age group. However, the authors note, the burden of disease seen in older adults is an opportunity that could be addressed in the future with an H. influenzae vaccine for adults.

Dirt prevents allergy

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Oversensitivity diseases, or allergies, now affect 25 per cent of the population of Denmark. The figure has been on the increase in recent decades and now researchers at the Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood (COPSAC), University of Copenhagen, are at last able to partly explain the reasons.

In our study of over 400 children we observed a direct link between the number of different bacteria in their rectums and the risk of development of allergic disease later in life, says Professor Hans Bisgaard, consultant at Gentofte Hospital, head of the Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood, and professor of children's diseases at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen.

Reduced diversity of the intestinal microbiota during infancy was associated with increased risk of allergic disease at school age, he continues. But if there was considerable diversity, the risk was reduced, and the greater the variation, the lower the risk.

So it makes a difference if the baby is born vaginally, encountering the first bacteria from its mother's rectum, or by caesarean section, which exposes the new-born baby to a completely different, reduced variety of bacteria. This may be why far more children born by caesarean section develop allergies.

In the womb and during the first six months of life, the mother's immune defences protect the infant. Bacteria flora in infants are therefore probably affected by any antibiotics the mother has taken and any artificial substances she has been exposed to.

I must emphasise that there is not one single allergy bacteria, Professor Bisgaard points out.

We have studied staphylococci and coli bacteria thoroughly, and there is no relation. What matters is to encounter a large number of different bacteria early in life when the immune system is developing and 'learning'. The window during which the infant is immunologically immature and can be influenced by bacteria is brief, and closes a few months after birth.

Our new findings match the large number of discoveries we have also made in the fields of asthma and hay fever, Professor Bisgaard explains. Like allergies, they are triggered by various factors early in life.

The researchers gathered their data from a unique material consisting of 411 children whose mothers have asthma. This cohort was monitored, interviewed and tested continually from when the children were born 12 years ago, and the COPSAC group has published articles at regular intervals with new knowledge about allergy and asthma ever since.

Professor Bisgaard acknowledges the irony of something that used to be perceived as a threat to public health, namely bacteria, now turning out to be a fundamental part of a healthy life. He also points out that there may be other couplings, such as between intestinal flora and diabetes or obesity and other lifestyle diseases affecting modern man in the West.

I think that a mechanism that affects the immune system will affect more than just allergies, he concludes. It would surprise me if diseases such as obesity and diabetes are not also laid down very early in life and depend on how our immune defences are primed by encountering the bacterial cultures surrounding us.

UT study: Climate change affects ants and biodiversity

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Some people may consider them pests, but ants are key to many plants' survival.

In the eastern US, ants are integral to plant biodiversity because they help disperse seeds. But ants' ability to perform this vital function, and others, may be jeopardized by climate change, according to Nate Sanders, Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Sanders and his collaborators have received a grant for nearly $2 million from the National Science Foundation to examine the cascading effects of climate change on ant communities and the ecosystem functions they provide.

Ants are critically important to most ecosystems, Sanders said. They eat other insects, circulate nutrients, increase turnover in the soil, and move seeds around.

Sanders and his colleagues are testing the effects of climate change on ants by heating up patches of forest and tracking how the ants respond. Inside Duke Forest in North Carolina and Harvard Forest in Massachusetts lie 12 five-meter wide, open-top chambers. Air temperature is incrementally increased by half a degree Celsius in each chamber for a total of a six-degree changes and ant behavior observed.

The researchers, led by Katie Stuble from UT and Shannon Pelini at Harvard Forest, noticed dramatic changes in the ants' daily activity in each chamber.

If the temperature increases by just a half a degree Celsius, the most important seed-dispersing ants basically shut down, said Sanders. They do not go out and forage and do the things they normally do.

Stuble observed that, on average, the ants foraged for about 10 hours a day at normal temperatures. When temperatures were raised just a half a degree, the ants stayed in their nests underground and foraged just an hour.

The absence of ants' seed dispersal and nutrient cycling could have profound influence on biodiversity. For instance, it is believed that more than half of the plants in the forest understory of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park rely on ants for seed dispersal. Ants are found in ecosystems everywhere but in Antarctica and Iceland.

The researchers' goal is to provide information about the effects of climate change on biodiversity and ecosystems.

We know that climate change is happening, Sanders said. Lots of models make predictions about how biodiversity is going to respond. It will either respond by adapting, moving or going extinct. If you can't keep up with climate change, you will go extinct.

Sanders and his team will collect data through 2015. He is collaborating with colleagues from Harvard University, North Carolina State University, and University of Vermont. The project began in 2007, with funding from the Department of Energy. The team's papers can be read at

On the menu: Research helps future restaurant managers reach out to customers with food allergies

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) MANHATTAN, KAN. -- A Kansas State University research team is serving up improved food allergy education for future restaurant managers and staff.

Junehee Kwon, associate professor of hospitality management and dietetics, and Kevin Sauer, assistant professor of hospitality management and dietetics, are co-principal investigators on a project recently funded by a United States Department of Agriculture Higher Education Challenge Grant for more than $140,000.

We are developing food allergy education materials that educators in hospitality management and dietetics can use to supplement the education of future food service managers, Kwon said.

A recent national study showed that more than 40 percent of people who have a seafood allergy -- one of the most common allergies in the United States -- have experienced an allergic reaction from eating in a restaurant.

This high percentage of allergic reactions may be from hidden allergens in sauces or from mixed dishes coming in contact with a safe food item, Kwon said. Knowing that such cross-contact has occurred may be difficult to determine and declare to the customer. Additionally, restaurant employees may not often understand the true risks of food allergies for their customers.

Consumers with allergies are frustrated, Kwon said. They are actually putting their lives in danger by buying and consuming food prepared by someone else. There is a need for consumer education to make sure the customer clearly communicates what his or her specific needs are to the restaurant staff. But even with that communication, people are still frustrated by the apparent inability of food service operations to assure allergen-free food.

The researchers will use the grant to improve food allergy training for future restaurant and food service managers. They will develop educational materials to assist students in hospitality management and dietetics to be more proactive in working with customers who have food allergies.

However, we realize that just having knowledge about food allergies is not enough, Kwon said. Learning more about how food allergies can really impact someone's life can motivate these future managers to take food allergy precautions more seriously.

To motivate students, the researchers plan to use storytelling methods that feature video testimonials from individuals who have food allergies. These videos are meant to appeal to the students' emotions and show how food allergies have affected someone's life.

For preliminary data collection, we created a short storytelling video and measured students' attitudes toward food allergies before and after watching it, Kwon said. We saw an increase in how the students perceived the severity of the risks associated with food allergies and their motivation to learn more increased.

With the newly funded grant, the researchers will collect more testimonials, record them and incorporate them into new food allergy education curricula. In the future, they hope to expand their scope to work directly with employees and managers currently working in the food service industry.

Kwon and Sauer will also recruit undergraduate researchers for the project, particularly undergraduates involved in the Kansas Bridges to the Future program, the Developing Scholars Program and the Summer Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program.

USDA Higher Education Challenge Grants support projects that address an educational need through a creative or nontraditional approach. Projects have the potential for regional or national influence and can serve as a model for other institutions.

Frequently used weight-loss method is light on evidence

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Although the transtheoretical model stages of change (TTM SOC) method is frequently used to help obese and overweight people lose weight, a newly published Cochrane systematic review indicates there is little evidence that it is effective. The use of TTM SOC only resulted in 2kg or less weight loss, and there was no conclusive evidence that this loss was sustained, says study leader Nik Tuah, who works at Imperial College London.

The transtheoretical model describes a step-by-step way in which individuals move from unhealthy behaviours to healthy ones. The model helps clinicians and patients by showing the sorts of benefits that can be expected for each step in the sequence. The five stages of change that the model anticipates are pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance.

A key assumption underlying this model is that people do not start off by being ready to change their behaviours, so any intervention that starts by asking for change is unlikely to be taken up, says Tuah. TTM SOC tries to overcome this by introducing stages that lead people to the place where they can see the need to change their behaviour and are willing to give it a go. Only then do you introduce the active interventions.

Leading a team of researchers, Tuah looked for studies that had investigated the effectiveness of TTM SOC. They identified five appropriate studies involving 1834 people who received an intervention and 2076 people who were placed in control groups. The trials varied in length from six weeks to 2 years. Drawing all the findings together showed that there was no convincing evidence that the intervention produced any significant sustainable weight loss. There was, however, some indication that when TTM SOC was combined with exercise and dieting, people's physical activity or eating habits did change a little.

One of the adverse outcomes noted by a single trial was that some people gained weight while using TTM SOC. None of the trials asked whether TTM SOC improved a person's health-related quality of life, or whether it reduced the risk of them getting ill. Also, none looked at the cost of taking patients through TTM SOC.

Given that obesity and overweight are such important issues, and that TTM SOC is so widely used, it is really important that we do more high quality randomised control trials, preferably with large numbers of people, and follow them for many years. Then we may get a better indication of how well it really works, says Tuah. This review does not necessarily challenge the notion that diet and exercise are effective weight loss strategies, but instead raises questions about how to approach lifestyle changes for individuals who want to adopt them.

NIH modifies 'VOICE' HIV prevention study in women

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A large-scale clinical trial evaluating whether daily use of an oral tablet or vaginal gel containing antiretroviral drugs can prevent HIV infection in women is being modified because an interim review found that the study cannot show that one of the study products, oral tenofovir, marketed under the trade name Viread, is effective.

An independent data and safety monitoring board (DSMB) recommended that the Vaginal and Oral Interventions to Control the Epidemic (VOICE) study discontinue evaluating tenofovir tablets because the study will be unable to show a difference in effect between tenofovir tablets and placebo tablets. The DSMB found no safety concerns with oral tenofovir, which is currently used to treat HIV, or with the other products that will continue to be investigated as the VOICE study proceeds.

As the trial's primary sponsor, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, concurred with the DSMB's recommendation and will modify the study. Because the trial is continuing, the study data remain confidential and restricted to DSMB analysis. Given that data are unavailable, NIAID cannot speculate about why oral tenofovir did not show an effect among VOICE study participants.

Begun in September 2009, the VOICE study, or MTN-003, involves more than 5,000 HIV-uninfected women in South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The trial was designed to test the safety, effectiveness and acceptability of two different HIV prevention strategies: an investigational microbicide gel containing tenofovir, and oral tablets containing tenofovir either alone or co-formulated with the drug emtricitabine. The tablets, known by the brand names Viread (tenofovir) and Truvada (tenofovir plus emtricitabine), have been taken daily in an approach known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP.

After its routine review of the study data on Sept. 16, the DSMB recommended that the investigators stop evaluating oral tenofovir because the study would be unable to show that tenofovir tablets have a different effect than placebo tablets at preventing HIV infection among the study participants. The DSMB therefore recommended that the roughly 1,000 women in the oral tenofovir group stop taking the study product. Further, the DSMB recommended that the VOICE study continue as designed to evaluate tenofovir gel and oral Truvada.

The study team will immediately begin to inform all VOICE participants of this new development and will soon begin the orderly discontinuation of the tenofovir tablets. Participants who were taking oral tenofovir will stop using the product at their next scheduled clinical site visit. They will then return eight weeks later for a final set of tests and procedures before exiting the study. At that visit, they will be provided information about where they can continue to receive HIV testing and counseling, contraception and other medical and support services.

NIAID is pleased that the trial will continue to examine the question of whether tenofovir gel and oral Truvada are safe and effective HIV prevention measures for women and thanks all participants in the VOICE study for their significant contribution to furthering HIV prevention research. This study is an important component of NIH's comprehensive HIV prevention research program articulated in the HHS National HIV/AIDS Strategy Operational Plan.

NIAID remains committed to supporting research to develop HIV prevention tools that women can implement. Slightly more than half of all new HIV infections globally occur in women, mostly through unprotected sex with HIV-infected men. A safe and effective microbicide or oral PrEP regimen would be particularly helpful to women when it is difficult or impossible for them to refuse sex or negotiate condom use with their male partners.

Scientists disarm HIV in step towards vaccine

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Researchers have found a way to prevent HIV from damaging the immune system, in a new lab-based study published in the journal Blood. The research, led by scientists at Imperial College London and Johns Hopkins University, could have important implications for the development of HIV vaccines.

HIV/AIDS is the third biggest cause of death in low income countries, killing around 1.8 million people a year worldwide. An estimated 2.6 million people became infected with HIV in 2009.

The research shows that HIV is unable to damage the immune system if cholesterol is removed from the virus's membrane. Usually, when a person becomes infected, the body's innate immune response provides an immediate defence. However, some researchers believe that HIV causes the innate immune system to overreact and that this weakens the immune system's next line of defence, known as the adaptive immune response.

In the new study, the researchers removed cholesterol from the membrane surrounding the virus and found that this stopped HIV from triggering the innate immune response. This led to a stronger adaptive response, orchestrated by immune cells called T cells. These results support the idea that HIV overstimulates the innate response and that this weakens the immune system.

Dr Adriano Boasso, first author of the study, from Imperial College London, said: HIV is very sneaky. It evades the host's defences by triggering overblown responses that damage the immune system. It's like revving your car in first gear for too long. Eventually the engine blows out.

This may be one reason why developing a vaccine has proven so difficult. Most vaccines prime the adaptive response to recognise the invader, but it's hard for this to work if the virus triggers other mechanisms that weaken the adaptive response.

HIV takes its membrane from the cell that it infects. This membrane contains cholesterol, which helps to keep it fluid. The fluidity of the membrane enables the virus to interact with particular types of cell. Cholesterol in the cell membrane is not connected to cholesterol in the blood, which is a risk factor for heart disease but is not linked to HIV.

Normally, a subset of immune cells called plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) recognise HIV quickly and react by producing signalling molecules called interferons. These signals activate various processes which are initially helpful, but which damage the immune system if switched on for too long.

In collaboration with researchers at Johns Hopkins University, the University of Milan and Innsbruck University, Dr Boasso's group at Imperial have discovered that if cholesterol is removed from HIV's envelope, it can no longer activate pDCs. As a consequence, T cells, which orchestrate the adaptive response, can fight the virus more effectively.

The researchers removed cholesterol using varying concentrations of beta-cyclodextrin (bCD), a derivative of starch that binds cholesterol. Using high levels of bCD they produced a virus with a large hole in its envelope. This permeabilised virus was not infectious and could not activate pDCs, but was still recognised by T cells. Dr Boasso and his colleagues are now looking to investigate whether this inactivated virus could be developed into a vaccine.

It's like an army that has lost its weapons but still has flags, so another army can recognise it and attack it, he said.

Plant compound reduces breast cancer mortality

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Phytoestrogens are plant compounds which, in the human body, can attach to the receptors for the female sexual hormone estrogen and which are taken in with our daily diet. A number of findings have attributed a cancer protective effect to these plant hormones. At DKFZ, a team headed by Prof. Dr. Jenny Chang-Claude summarized the results of several studies in a meta-analysis last year and showed that a diet rich in phytoestrogens lowers the risk of developing breast cancer after menopause. Now the Heidelberg researchers wanted to find out whether phytoestrogens also have an influence on the course of breast cancer. Prior investigations on this topic had provided contradictory results.

The most important type of phytoestrogens in our Western diet are lignans, which are contained in seeds, particularly flaxseeds, as well as in wheat and vegetables. In the bowel, these substances are turned into enterolactone, which is absorbed by the mucous tissue and which was determined by the Heidelberg researchers as a biomarker in the patients' blood.

From 2002 to 2005, the DKFZ researchers used the MARIE study to take blood samples of 1,140 women who had been diagnosed with postmenopausal breast cancer. After a mean observation time of six years, they related enterolactone levels to clinical disease progression.

The result: Compared to the study subjects with the lowest enterolactone levels, the women with the highest blood levels of this biomarker had an approximately 40 percent lower mortality risk. When the scientists additionally took account of the incidence of metastasis and secondary tumors, they obtained a similar result: Women with the highest enterolactone levels also had a lower risk for such an unfavorable disease progression.

We now have first clear evidence showing that lignans lower not only the risk of developing postmenopausal breast cancer, but also the mortality risk, says Jenny Chang-Claude. There had been prior studies to determine the lignan intake by means of dietary surveys. But the results of such surveys are often unreliable and, in addition, there are big differences in the way individuals actually process the plant substances into effective metabolic products. Therefore, the Heidelberg team chose the more reliable measurement of biomarkers.

However, Chang-Claude narrowed down the result: The result was significant only for the group of tumors that have no receptor for the estrogen hormone (ER-negative tumors). This gives reason to suspect that enterolactone protects from cancer not only by its hormone-like effect. Indeed, studies of cells and animals had already provided evidence suggesting that the substance also has an influence on cancer growth irrespective of estrogen. Thus, it promotes cell death and inhibits sprouting of new blood vessels.

In order to find out whether enterolactone also inhibits the aggressiveness of estrogen receptors in estrogen-positive tumors, we would need to expand this study to include much larger groups of women, said Jenny Chang-Claude. Moreover, the scientist firmly emphasized: By eating a diet that is rich in wholemeal products, seeds and vegetables, which is considered to be health-promoting anyway, everybody can take in enough lignans. At the present time, we can only discourage people from taking any food supplements.

Phytoestrogens have been the subject of intense scientific debates in past years. On the one hand, the results of several studies of cells as well as epidemiological findings suggest that they have a cancer protective effect. Another observation that may be interpreted in this direction is that Asian women are less frequently affected by breast cancer. Their soy-rich diet contains large amounts of another type of phytoestrogens, isoflavones. On the other hand, scientists fear that isoflavones might imitate the growth-promoting properties of real hormones and, thus, accelerate hormone-dependent tumors such as breast cancer and prostate cancer. It has not yet been finally determined whether lignans in the body imitate the hormone effect or, on the contrary, counteract it, says Jenny Chang-Claude. Our studies will help achieve more clarity in this important question, which also concerns our daily diet.

South Asians more prone to knee arthritis: Expert

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 19:08:12 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Panaji, Sep 10 - Senior citizens in the Indian sub-continent suffer a 15 percent more severe attack of osteo-arthritis in their knee joints as compared to their counterpart Caucasians from Europe or northern America, a specialist orthopaedic surgeon said here Saturday.

Speaking to reporters while announcing the merger of Ahmedabad-based Shalby Hospitals with Goa's Vrundavan Hospital and Research Centre -, chairman and managing director of Shalby Hospitals, Vikram Shah, also said that the new post-merger entity -- Shalby Vrundavan Hospital -- would focus on knee replacement surgeries in the first phase.

'There is scientific explanation for this, but south Asian elders suffer 15 percent more severe osteo-arthritis attacks in the knee joints than their Caucasian counterparts from Europe and north America,' Shah said.

'Unlike us, Caucasians are more vulnerable to osteo-arthritis of the hip,' Shah added.

Shah further said that the merger, where Shalby Hospitals picked up a 55 percent stake in VHRC, will help the tremendous potential of medical tourism in Goa, as thousands of foreign tourists flock to the state for their summer vacations annually.

'We are certainly looking at that market,' said Shah, who has conducted over 22,000 knee replacement surgeries.

The Shalby Hospital is a 230-bed facility in Ahmedabad employing over 100 doctors and has several other medical establishments in other cities of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Kenya.

VHRC, located at Mapusa, 15 km north of here, is a 115-bed facility.

Micronutrient powders reduce anemia and iron deficiency in infants in low-income countries

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Adding a powder that contains several vitamins and minerals, including iron, zinc and vitamin A, to the semi-solid foods taken by infants and children between six months and two years of age, can reduce their risk of anaemia and iron deficiency. This is the conclusion of a new Cochrane Systematic Review.

Vitamin and mineral deficiencies, particularly those of iron, vitamin A and zinc, affect more than two billion people worldwide. Infants and young children are highly vulnerable because they grow rapidly and often have diets low in these nutrients. Micronutrient powders are single-dose packets containing multiple vitamins and minerals in powder form that can be sprinkled onto any semi-solid food immediately before eating at home or at any other place. Thus, this intervention is known as home or point of use fortification.

Led by Luz Maria De-Regil, a team of researchers set out to see whether using micronutrient powders could improve the health of young children. They found eight relevant trials that together involved 3748 children living in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, where anaemia is a public health problem. The studies lasted between two and 12 months and the powder formulations contained between five and 15 nutrients.

Overall, home fortification with the micronutrient powders reduced the risk of having anaemia by 31% and iron deficiency by 51% when compared with no intervention or placebo. The team found, however, that there was little or no evidence that this intervention has an effect on growth, survival or overall developmental outcomes. We still need to know more about possible positive and adverse side effects as only a few trials reported on this, says De-Regil, who is an Epidemiologist at the Department of Nutrition for Health and Development of the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.

The researchers also found that these powders had a very similar effect to daily iron supplements. However, as they report, We need to treat this result with caution, however, because there was much less data for this comparison.

It seems that micronutrient powders can be helpful for infants and young children aged six to 23 months and living in places that have different amounts of anaemia and malaria, regardless of whether the intervention lasts two, six or 12 months or whether recipients are girls or boys.. Nonetheless, the authors add a word of caution: This intervention involves mixing the powders with homemade food as a vehicle, so it is important to assure that basic sanitation is available and food hygiene and handling is done properly with safe water.

The team believes that we now need more information about the best combination of vitamins and minerals to include in the mix, whether to give it daily or intermittently and for how long to give it to ensure that children receive the maximum benefits.

Pharmacists need to provide better information to teenagers on risks and benefits of medicines

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Hyderabad, India: A large proportion of teenagers regularly and frequently take some form of medication without receiving targeted information about the risks and benefits, according to a review of current research, to be presented at the annual congress of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) tomorrow (Tuesday).

Dr Priya Bahri will tell delegates that 35% of boys and 45% of girls in Europe and the USA take painkillers for headaches every month. In addition, they take a variety of other medicines for things like stomach aches, sleeping disorders, nervousness, asthma, infectious diseases and for pregnancy prevention. Most teenagers take their medicines appropriately, but there is evidence of accidental or intentional inappropriate use or misuse, she says.

At a time when young people want to be independent of their parents and make their own decisions about their bodies and medications, they feel misunderstood by healthcare professionals, have concerns over side effects and may be confused by information coming from a variety of sources such as their friends, their family, the internet, the news, and the healthcare professionals they encounter, says Dr Bahri, who is the pharmacovigilance lead for guidelines and risk communication at the European Medicines Agency (London, UK), but who was speaking in a personal capacity. [1]

Part of teenage life is starting to make your own health choices. The medicines that teenagers use most frequently and largely autonomously include those for asthma, and painkillers such as paracetamol and ibuprofen. Every month in Europe and the USA, about 35% of boys and 45% of girls use painkillers for headaches. Teenagers also use other medicines: every month 32% use them for stomach aches, 6% for sleeping disorders and 6% for nervousness. The prevalence of asthma, one of the most frequent chronic disorders worldwide, is around 10% in teenagers, so most of those with this condition will be taking medication for it, and it is estimated from worldwide data that around a quarter of teenage girls will be taking some form of contraceptive, including hormonal ones. In addition, girls may be invited to receive the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine to protect them against cervical cancer. However, public discussions in the media over the usefulness and safety of these measures make some feel anxious and confused, she says.

Dr Bahri is investigating how well information about medications are communicated to teenagers, and has found that not only is there very little research into this area, but what there is indicates that healthcare professionals, including pharmacists, need to improve the way they talk to young people and communicate the risks and benefits of medicines.

The HPV vaccination programme is a good example of where healthcare professionals could be better prepared for communication with teenagers, she says. There were several incidents in Europe of HPV vaccination-related anxiety attacks among girls receiving the vaccine. In addition, in many countries in the world, older children and adolescents, rather than young children receive various vaccinations, and may develop concerns over them.

Research has found that although pharmacists know about the importance of talking to teenagers about their medications, they tend not to. This was shown in The Netherlands with the example of isotretinoin, which is sometimes prescribed for teenage acne. Isotretinoin causes birth defects and so can only be taken in conjunction with effective contraception, requiring the physician and pharmacist to initiate a conversation with teenage girls. The study showed that the pharmacists knew they should talk to the girls, but it didn't reveal why the majority of them did not comply fully with their role in the country's pregnancy prevention programme when dispensing isotretinoin. Obstacles to communication is an area where much more research needs to be done, says Dr Bahri.

As a pharmacist myself, I know how difficult these conversations can be, but I would advocate that pharmacists should be looking into their communication behaviour and identifying opportunities and successful methods for initiating caring and non-judgemental dialogue. It is vital that pharmacists overcome our own hesitation to talk; we should start the dialogue and listen to questions and concerns. It is important to help teenagers to care for their health, while being aware of their vulnerabilities as well as their capabilities.

She will tell the congress that pharmacists also need to be aware that increasingly medicines are being advertised on the internet to improve school performance, and they need to monitor this and inform teenagers about the risks.

Good communications with teenagers could also be vital for the well-being of the whole family in some circumstances. This can be the case in developing countries and among disadvantaged groups in the developed world, such as those who have migrated and have poor language skills.

Sometimes, in places where teenagers are the only literate person in the family, they may even bear the responsibility of the health of their siblings and the older members of their families, she says.

Dr Bahri concludes: Effective communications with teenagers at the individual and population level is vital, and pharmacists should consider investigating the use of text messages, social media and other web-based forms of communication with this age group, in addition to more traditional methods. We need to bear in mind that some research in different regions of the world has shown that teenagers still expect most information to come directly from their healthcare providers, but not necessarily from pharmacists.

As pharmacists, we should be prepared to handle the needs and feelings of young people in a sensitive manner, taking into account the fact that they are in a vulnerable phase where a bad experience could influence their current and future health behaviour.

CWRU School of Dental Medicine receives $2.6 million in grants

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is supporting pre- and post-doctoral training programs in dental public health at Case Western Reserve University in an effort to combat disparities in oral health.

Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine received two, five-year grants, totaling nearly $2.6 million. The funding will support efforts to close the gap between those with and those without dental care.

The dental school is located near 10 Cleveland neighborhoods identified by HRSA as having fewer than one dentist for every 5,000 people.

The problem of limited access to dental care isn't going away, says Sena Narendran, associate professor of community dentistry and principal investigator of the new grants.

The first grant received focuses on pre-doctoral training programs and awarded $1.281 million for the school's Family First Program and soon-to-be-established dual degree in Doctor of Dental Medicine and Masters of Public Health. Family First is a collaborative effort of the Departments of Family Medicine and Nutrition, and the school is collaborating with Case Western Reserve School of Medicine's Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics to implement the dual degree program.

The second grant focuses on a post-doctoral training program in dental public health and awards $1.29 million to support a residency program at the School of Dental Medicine. Dental public health residents will have placement in community health centers and public health agencies.

Addressing oral health disparities starts early in Case Western Reserve dental students' education. After their first-year cornerstone experience in the Healthy Smiles Sealant Program that provides free dental exams to the public, as well as cleanings and sealants for second and sixth graders in the Cleveland Municipal School District, second-year dental students engage in an experiential learning program called Family First.

Family First focuses on assessing risk for dental diseases from a whole-family and multigenerational perspective. Students look at factors from eating habits to general health problems in the family. Family First integrates family medicine and nutrition with dental care.

Most members of a family seek care from one dentist, Narendran said.

The Family First learning experience was formalized last year and is a win for both students and families in need of dental care.

Currently 18 families from Cleveland, most with three generations and one with five generations, are being assessed for their dental needs. Student teams from the sophomore dental school class are seeing a total of 72 family members.

Both grants also include partial faculty and administrative support to the programs. The post-doctoral grant will also offer a stipend, tuition, and travel.

Researchers on the trail of a treatment for cancer of the immune system

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Infection with Epstein Barr means that the B cells, which are the primary memory cells of the immune system, are hi-jacked.

When the virus has penetrated, researchers observe an excess of a special bio-antenna, a receptor known as EB12, suddenly sprouting from the surface of the B cells. But why they do so remains a mystery.

The receptors are a vital component of the way cells communicate with their surroundings via hormones and other bio-molecules, for example, but in a body consisting of millions of cells and transmitters it can be hard to determine the part each molecule plays.

It is possible that the large numbers of EB12 receptors could actually be the B cells response to the virus and an attempt to combat the infection. Another possibility is that the EB virus reprogrammes the cell for this explosive growth in the number of EB12 receptors. What we know for certain is that more EB12 receptors assist the B cell infected by the EB virus to multiply more rapidly thus spreading the infection faster, says postdoc Tau Benned-Jensen from the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen.

No fewer than 95 per cent of us carry the Epstein Barr Herpes virus.

We often encounter it as kids and it is normally harmless. Are we infected later in life EB virus may cause mononucleosis, and it seems to play a part in some forms of cancer, just as HPV affects the risk of cervical cancer. But we have no drugs to combat the Epstein Barr virus, and no vaccines for it.

Under normal circumstances our immune systems can keep the EB virus infection in a latent state and a truce or stand-off may arise between the immune system and the virus, explains Mette Rosenkilde, professor of pharmacology at the Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology, University of Copenhagen.

We cannot dispense with the infection and we carry it all life long, but to most of us it is harmless. For people whose immune systems do not function due to disease or because they are suppressed by drugs in conjunction with organ transplants it is a very different matter. Now the Epstein Barr virus is suddenly free to reproduce so uninhibitedly and dramatically that it may lead to cancer, says Mette Rosenkilde.

While researchers know that the B cell EB12 receptors play a part when the cell visits the lymph glands, the immune system's Central Station, we have not yet explained the exact role of the receptor.

So the Danish researchers started by mapping the bio-antenna molecule by molecule and then, as the first in the world, they made a blueprint of a tiny molecule they thought could bind to the B cell EB12 receptor.

When we know what receptors react to, it tells us more about the part they play, Mette Rosenkilde explains, and our tiny molecule, a ligand, blocks the EB12 receptor, preventing it from doing its job.

In time this block may be able to help transplant patients. If we can restrain EB virus reproduction when the immune system is being medically suppressed, we may well be able to avoid cancer, Tau Benned-Jensen says.

On the other hand the EP virus also appears to play a part in other immune diseases such as autoimmune disease, where the ability to adjust the immune system would be beneficial, says Mette Rosenkilde.

And shortly after the Danish researchers published their article on their ligand, the first articles appeared about natural substances in the body, which activate the EB12 receptor and direct the B cell to specific areas in the lymph glands.

Our molecule can inhibit the activation of the new substances, and the next step in our research will be experiments to identify even more biochemical dials to twiddle and to help us develop new drugs, Tau-Benned says.

The discovery has just been published in the

Mount Sinai receives $3.4 million for largest study of personalized medicine in the clinical setting

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Mount Sinai School of Medicine has been awarded a $3.4 million grant over four years from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to begin the largest study of its kind, in which a patient's genomic risk for disease is revealed in a lab, and then entered into an electronic medical record for use in determining treatment in the clinical care setting.

Using DNA and plasma samples provided by patients, Mount Sinai researchers from the Charles R. Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine (IPM) will identify genetic markers of disease for each patient enrolled in the study and input them into Mount Sinai's new electronic medical records system in a safe and secure way. Physicians who are treating these patients in the clinical setting may then electronically access this genomic information and determine susceptibility for heart disease, responsiveness to certain medications, and a personalized course of treatment.

Discovering genetic disease risk markers of major diseases such as heart disease through genome-wide genotyping was a major advance toward personalized medicine, but thus far the genomic information of individual patients has been limited to the laboratory and research setting, said Erwin Bottinger, MD, Director of the Charles R. Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine, and the Irene and Dr. Arthur M. Fishberg Professor of Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. This will allow us for the first time to bring that critical individual genetic-disease risk information to the patient setting, which we believe will eventually have a tremendous impact on the practice of medicine.

The study, called the Biorepository for Genomic Medicine in Diverse Communities, is part of a consortium of seven leading genomic medicine institutions called Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE). As a member of the consortium, the IPM team hopes to have enrolled up to 20,000 patients from the Mount Sinai Biobank, which consists of consented patients representing the diverse communities surrounding The Mount Sinai Medical Center.

This grant is a significant achievement for Mount Sinai, propelling us to the forefront of personalized medicine and its application in the clinical setting, said Dennis. S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs of The Mount Sinai Medical Center. The future of medicine lies in genomics research and translating it into a patient-care setting. Mount Sinai's commitment to translational research makes us uniquely poised to lead that revolution.

Mount Sinai Biobank patients have provided DNA and plasma samples to aid in genomic and personalized medicine research, allowing Dr. Bottinger's team to validate and customize 288 previously-reported single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as genetic risk markers of major diseases, including heart, kidney, and liver disease, for Mount Sinai's racially and ethnically diverse patient populations. The IPM team is committed to ensuring that this information is made available in culturally appropriate, easy to understand formats, and will have the potential to benefit all patients.

Scientists highlight link between stress and appetite

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Researchers in the Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI) at the University of Calgary's Faculty of Medicine have uncovered a mechanism by which stress increases food drive in rats. This new discovery, published online this week in the journal Neuron, could provide important insight into why stress is thought to be one of the underlying contributors to obesity.

Normally, the brain produces neurotransmitters (chemicals responsible for how cells communicate in the brain) called endocannabinoids that send signals to control appetite. In this study, the researchers found that when food is not present, a stress response occurs that temporarily causes a functional re-wiring in the brain. This re-wiring may impair the endocannabinoids' ability to regulate food intake and could contribute to enhanced food drive.

The researchers also discovered that when they blocked the effects of stress hormones in the brain, the absence of food caused no change in the neural circuitry.

Researchers Jaideep Bains, Ph.D. and Quentin Pittman, Ph.D., looked specifically at nerve cells (neurons) in the region of the brain called the hypothalamus. This structure is known to have an important role in the control of appetite and metabolism and has been identified as the primary region responsible for the brain's response to stress.

Bains explains, These findings could help explain how the cellular communication in our brains may be overridden in the absence of food. Interestingly, these changes are driven not necessarily by the lack of nutrients, but rather by the stress induced by the lack of food.

If similar changes occur in the human brain, these findings might have several implications for human health.

For example, if we elect to pass over a meal, the brain appears to simply increase the drive in pathways leading to increased appetite, explains Pittman. Furthermore, the fact that the lack of food causes activation of the stress response might help explain the relationship between stress and obesity.

These results lay the foundation for future studies to investigate the use of therapies that affect these systems in order to manipulate food intake. They also open the door to studies looking at whether or not the stress brought about by lack of food affects other systems where endocannabinoids are known to play a role.

One thing we can say for sure, is that this research highlights the importance of food availability to our nervous system. The absence of food clearly brings about dramatic changes in the way our neurons communicate with each other, says Pittman.

Scientist urges government ruling on genetically engineered salmon

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- A Purdue University scientist is urging federal officials to decide whether genetically engineered salmon would be allowed for U.S. consumption and arguing that not doing so may set back scientific efforts to increase food production.

William Muir, a professor of animal sciences, said that based on data made available by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, AquAdvantage (AA) salmon poses little real risk to the environment or human health. AA salmon were given a gene from Chinook salmon that speeds growth and improves feed efficiency in farm-raised fish. Developed by AquaBounty Technologies, the fish would be spawned in Canada and grown to full size in Panama, both of which are land-based, contained facilities.

We realize that any new technology can have risks, and those risks need to be assessed in a thorough and convincing manner, Muir said. However, once the assessment has been completed and the agency concludes from the weight of evidence that risks of harm, either to the environment or to consumers, is negligible, the next step, which is to allow production and sale of the product, needs to be taken.

Muir and Alison L. Van Eenennaam, an animal genomics and biotechnology Extension specialist at the University of California Davis, made the call for FDA approval in a peer-reviewed commentary in the early online version of the journal Nature Biotechnology.

The salmon would be the first genetically engineered animal used as a food in the United States, but it has been tied up in FDA regulatory proceedings since 1995. Muir said that becomes a disincentive for those working to increase food supplies for a growing world population.

This tells us that no entrepreneur is going to invest in these new projects because they can't get them approved, Muir said.

Muir has not received any funding or support from AquaBounty Technologies.

Alan Mathew, head of Purdue's Department of Animal Sciences, served on the FDA's Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee, which did not find any significant concerns for AA salmon. He said after considering the issues, he was convinced that the genetically engineered salmon is safe.

We determined there was not added risk. This is generally the same food as farm-raised and wild salmon, Mathew said.

Mathew said crops and animals have been selected for favorable traits for centuries, keeping the value-added genes and eliminating unfavorable ones. He said genetic engineering simply shortens the time it takes to gain those favorable traits.

Our methods are doing it more strategically rather than randomly, Mathew said.

The commentary goes point by point to refute concerns raised by special interest groups over genetically engineered salmon.

One of the most significant environmental concerns about genetically engineered salmon is that if they were introduced into the wild salmon population, they would cause its extinction. This is a theoretical scenario discovered earlier by Muir, which he termed the Trojan gene effect. However, Muir examined fitness data and concluded that AA salmon are less fit than their native counterparts, meaning that natural selection would simply purge them from the wild population.

The Trojan gene effect does not apply in this case, and there is no evidence to support concern for an extinction event, Muir said.

Muir also points out that AquaBounty has developed multiple redundant safeguards to prevent the fish from entering natural populations.

Mannan oligosaccharides offer health benefits to pigs

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Feeding mannan oligosaccharides (MOS) can fine-tune the immune system of pigs, suggests a new University of Illinois study.

When it comes to keeping pigs healthy, there are some potentially powerful tools we can use in the diet besides antibiotics, said James Pettigrew, U of I professor of animal science. We have a tendency to think that we can administer health through a needle, by giving pigs antibiotics, and even through systems like all-in/all-out pig flow. These are important, but there are also many health benefits we can realize through the diet.

MOS is a product made from the cell wall of yeast. It contains carbohydrates that may provide special benefits, Pettigrew said. Previous research showed that it increased the growth rate in newly weaned pigs and changed the microbial populations in the digestive tract.

Tung Che, a postdoctoral research associate in Pettigrew's laboratory, led two studies looking at MOS and its effect on pigs experimentally infected with porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV).

In these studies, researchers evaluated how feeding MOS can modulate immune responses in pigs infected with PRRSV.

We found MOS can enhance immune responses in pigs, but it can also alleviate the overstimulation of the immune system, Che said. MOS increases the total number of immune cells such as leukocytes and lymphocytes in the blood at the early stage of infection.

This could be quite a benefit for producers fighting PRRSV, a respiratory disease that causes a reduction of immune cells.

This is important because the increase in leukocytes and lymphocytes can help the animal to fight not only PRRSV, but also secondary bacterial co-infections that are common with PRRSV, Che said.

Seven days after this PRRSV inoculation, pigs experienced a reduction of fever and had a better feed efficiency, indicating a reduction of ongoing inflammation.

We wanted to find out why MOS enhances the immune system, but at the same time alleviates the overstimulation of the immune system as observed by reduced fever, Che said. So we collected white blood cells and measured gene expression by using a broad microarray technique followed by the more specific quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR).

The results were consistent with the clinical signs and showed that in non-challenged pigs, MOS increased the expression of genes for cell receptors and those involved in immunity.However, in the PRRSV-infected pigs, MOS reduced the expression of cytokine and chemokine genes involved in inflammatory responses. This combination of responses explains the enhanced immune response and the reduction of fever, Che said.

MOS stimulates the immune system and enhances the immune response, except when the immune system is already challenged, Pettigrew explained. MOS actually reduces the inflammatory response in pigs with challenged immune systems. This may be how the product improves growth performance because it redirects nutrients to growth rather than the immune system.

Che said MOS also improves feed efficiency from Day 7 to 14 after inoculation with PRRSV.

PRRSV interferes with the immune response and makes pigs more susceptible to bacterial infections, Pettigrew said. This product seems to counteract this effect. It may even reduce bacterial infections associated with PRRSV, although we did not test that specifically.

This team of researchers is also repeating this experiment with a second generation of MOS-like products to learn more about how this mechanism in MOS works.

We are increasingly concerned about the importance of keeping pigs healthy, so we direct much of our research program to looking at things we can do in the diet to improve the health of pigs, Pettigrew said.

Mannan oligosaccharide modulates gene expression profile in pigs experimentally infected with porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus and Mannan oligosaccharide improves immune responses and growth efficiency of nursery pigs experimentally infected with porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus were both published in the

Dopamine also vital for kidney health, lifespan

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 11:34:35 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Washington, July 20 - Dopamine, a key neurotransmitter active in the brain, is best known for triggering feel good emotions.

Now investigators have shown how dopamine produced outside the brain, in the kidneys, is important for renal function, blood pressure regulation and lifespan.

Neurotransmitters are chemicals which help transmit signals from one neuron to another across synapses or junctions of such brain cells.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre suggest that the kidney-specific dopamine system may be a therapeutic target for treating hypertension and kidney diseases, the Journal of Clinical Investigation reports.

Previous studies had suggested a role for dopamine in regulating kidney function and total body fluid volume, 'but how that mechanism works was not clear,' said Raymond Harris, chief of nephrology and hypertension at Vanderbilt, according to its statement.

Harris and Ming-Zhi Zhang, assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt, eliminated kidney-specific dopamine production in mice by knocking out a dopamine-generating enzyme only in the kidney, and studied the outcome.

They found that mice lacking kidney dopamine had high blood pressure at baseline and became more hypertensive when they consumed a high-salt diet, suggesting they may be a good model of salt-sensitive - hypertension, Harris said.

Alterations in the kidney dopamine system may predispose individuals to hypertension -, he noted.

'These animals retain salt and water when they don't have sufficient dopamine production in the kidney,' Harris said.

--Indo-Asian News service

st/sak/vt

NIH funds Emory-led consortium to advance AIDS vaccine research

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A consortium of leading vaccine researchers at Emory University and partner institutions has received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant aimed at developing an effective HIV/AIDS vaccine.

The five-year program project grant of more than $26 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH, will fund the Emory Consortium for AIDS Vaccine Research in Nonhuman Primates. The research will be conducted primarily at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory.

Developing a safe and effective preventive HIV/AIDS vaccine is still a critical part of the fight against this challenging disease that affects more than 30 million people worldwide, says Eric Hunter, PhD, who will lead the consortium.

With the vast experience of Emory's vaccine researchers and our partners, I'm confident we can make significant strides in developing a better HIV vaccine. Hunter is a member of the Emory Vaccine Center, a co-director of the Emory Center for AIDS Research, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar.

The researchers will study how to develop a vaccine that can prevent the earliest stages of mucosal infection from simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) in nonhuman primate models. SIV is similar to HIV in humans. The series of research projects is expected to provide a better understanding of how SIV is transmitted sexually and the specific immune responses HIV vaccines must generate in humans to block infection at mucosal sites, prevent the establishment of systemic infection, or dramatically reduce the pathogenic effects of infection.

The consortium's work will build on recent significant discoveries in the AIDS vaccine field. A vaccine trial in Thailand (RV144) completed in 2009 showed a modest degree of protection against HIV in humans. The results gave the vaccine research community hope that a vaccine could elicit antibodies that could at least moderately protect against HIV infection. In order to develop a more effective vaccine, however, researchers need to further explore the specific aspects of the immune response (referred to as correlates of immunity) in animal models as well as in human clinical trials, Hunter explains.

More than 90 percent of all HIV infections worldwide occur via mucous membranes, predominantly through sexual contact. In order to develop an effective vaccine, scientists must understand the viral-host interaction during the initial time of mucosal infection.

By the time HIV-infected individuals begin experiencing the symptoms of acute HIV infection, this critical time of opportunity has passed, says Rama Amara, PhD, co-principal investigator of the consortium and a researcher at the Emory Vaccine Center and Yerkes Research Center. Rhesus macaque monkeys provide an effective model for studying mucosal viral infection and ways to stimulate an early protective immune response.

Researchers agree that a successful HIV vaccine will likely need to elicit both effective T-cell and antibody responses. The Emory consortium will work to enhance the quality of antibody responses to HIV infection, building on recent Emory discoveries led by Amara and consortium member Bali Pulendran, PhD, using adjuvants to successfully enhance the effectiveness of vaccines against SIV infection.

Important follow-up questions the team will address include what kind of antigens and delivery system are needed to elicit protective antibodies, where should vaccines be delivered in the body, and how do adjuvants convert a poorly protective vaccine into one that fully protects against infection by the virus?

Your shampoo could be making you fat

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 17:11:28 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Eating healthy and exercising regularly are good enough for sloughing off the pounds. But what if your body acts otherwise? Doctors have found that chemical compounds in cosmetics disrupt the body's natural weight control system.

Emerging evidence suggests that a more sinister reason than food and activity could be behind obesity. They are the so-called 'chemical calories' lurking in beauty products, including innocuous looking shampoo, body lotions and soap.

Doctors at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York claim that phthalates, chemical ingredients in 70 percent of cosmetics and household cleaning products, have been shown to disrupt the body's natural weight control system.

Exposure to phthalates through daily use may be linked to childhood obesity and weight problems in adults, the scientists warned, reports the Daily Mail.

In their long-term study on girls living in the inner city area of East Harlem, New York, Mount Sinai team measured exposure to phthalates by analysing the children's urine.

'The heaviest girls have the highest levels of phthalates in their urine,' says Prof Philip Landrigan, paediatrician and study author from Mount Sinai. 'It goes up as the children get heavier, but it's most evident in the heaviest kids.'

Phthalates have been widely used as gelling agents in cosmetics, cleaning products and to make plastic bottles for more than half a century, but it has only just come to light that there may be possible health risks.

Another substance, Bisphenol-A -, also present in containers and bottles, has also been found to be rich in 'chemical calories.'

Billed as 'endocrine disruptors,' they are absorbed into the body affecting the glands and hormones that regulate numerous bodily functions.

It's not just girls who seem susceptible to the phthalate effect. In 2007, researchers at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, US, found the same class of chemicals were contributing to abdominal obesity and insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes, in men.

Rochester scientists analysed the urine, blood samples and other data of 1,451 men. They found that those with the highest level of phthalates in their urine had more belly fat and insulin resistance.

They suggested that depressed testosterone levels due to chemicals was the underlying cause of their weight gain.

--Indo-Asian News service

St/rn/vt

Lack of clarity about HPV vaccine and the need for cervical cancer screening

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) The research will be presented today [Thursday 7 July] at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society of Academic Primary Care, hosted this year by the Academic Unit of Primary Health Care, University of Bristol.

The HPV vaccination programme, introduced in the UK in 2008, uses HPV vaccine that is effective against the two most common high risk HPV types (16 and 18), and offers 70 per cent protection against cervical cancer. However, vaccinated girls will still need to attend cervical screening in the future to ensure protection against cervical cancer caused by high risk HPV types not included in the vaccine.

Dr Alison Clements and colleagues interviewed parents and vaccination-aged girls about their understanding of the HPV vaccination in relation to vaccine acceptance, and potential future cervical cancer screening behaviour.

They found a lack of clarity amongst both parents and girls about the link between the HPV vaccine and the need for future cervical screening. In some cases parental consent for their daughters to receive the vaccine was based on the false belief that cervical screening would not be necessary. There was also a profound lack of awareness about cervical screening amongst girls of vaccination age.

Dr Clements said: For informed decisions about HPV vaccination to be made, the provision of information about the ongoing need to attend cervical screening is imperative. Our findings have the potential to improve information and educational materials for parents, eligible girls and health professionals. To ensure the uptake of cervical screening is not adversely affected, future invitations for screening will need to stress the importance of attendance regardless of whether the individual has had the HPV vaccination or not.

Hazel Nunn, Cancer Research UK's senior health information manager, said: This is a helpful reminder that renewed efforts are needed to inform girls and their families about the importance of cervical screening in those who have had the HPV vaccination. While the vaccine is very effective at protecting against the two strains of virus which cause most cases of cervical cancer, and one of the biggest steps forward in public health in recent years, it does not protect against all the other strains so the disease can still develop.

Cervical screening can prevent around 34 per cent of cervical cancers in women in their 30s, rising to 75 per cent in women in their 50s and 60s. Women should be reminded of the crucial role of screening in the fight against cervical cancer.

Can soda tax curb obesity?

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) EVANSTON, Ill. --- To many, a tax on soda is a no-brainer in advancing the nation's war on obesity. Advocates point to a number of studies in recent years that conclude that sugary drinks have a lot to do with why Americans are getting fatter.

But obese people tend to drink diet sodas, and therefore taxing soft drinks with added sugar or other sweeteners is not a good weapon in combating obesity, according to a new Northwestern University study.

An amendment to Illinois Senate Bill 396 would add a penny an ounce to the cost of most soft drinks with added sugar or sweeteners, including soda, sweet iced tea and coffee drinks. Related to the purpose of the tax, the legislation excludes artificially sweetened and diet sodas.

After doing the analysis, it really turns out to be the case that obese people like diet soda so much more than regular soda that you can do whatever you want to the price, said Ketan Patel, a fourth-year doctoral student in economics. You're not going to get that much change in obese people's weight because they already drink diet soda.

Patel, who recently presented his paper The Effectiveness of Food Taxes at Affecting Consumption in the Obese: Evaluating Soda Taxes at a U.S. Department of Agriculture conference on food policy in Washington, D.C., said he initially didn't know if the diet soda preference was going to be a large factor in evaluating the effectiveness of the soda tax.

The concern I had was that maybe obese people are less price sensitive, Patel said. So if obese people are less price sensitive, then raising the price through a tax will affect their behavior less.

But that concern became irrelevant since diet drinks are not being considered in the proposed obesity tax.

Beyond its ineffectiveness in reducing obesity, such a tax also would punish consumers that are not overweight or obese, Patel said.

Is there a scenario in which increasing the tax would have an effect on weight? Patel said that could depend on whether people are at a stable weight or whether people are already eating too many calories and therefore their weight will continue to increase. If increasing weights are the status quo, then a tax could prevent people who are currently overweight or normal weight from becoming obese. More research needs to be done on this aspect, however, Patel said.

For this study, Patel used a large data set of sodas price and sales data with individual level data on demographic characteristics and body mass index (BMI) to estimate consumer preferences while allowing for substantial diversity in those preferences. After obtaining estimates of consumer preferences, Patel simulated how a tax would change the choices that consumers make and used the results of the simulation to estimate changes in weight using a weight change model from existing nutrition literature.

In the meantime, however, lawmakers say it does not look likely that the tax will be imposed anytime soon as there is little support for the measure after a recent income tax hike in Illinois.

New male infertility test could 'bring hope to millions'

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 15:24:14 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A groundbreaking new test for male infertility, which will save time, money and heartache for couples around the world, has been developed by Northern Ireland's Queen's University Belfast.

The medical breakthrough, known as the SpermComet, has resulted from more than a decade's research by Professor Sheena Lewis, who leads the Reproductive Medicine research group at Queen's.

The SpermComet provides unique information that no other test offers.

By measuring damaged DNA in individual sperm, it can predict the success of infertility treatments and fast-track couples to the treatment most likely to succeed, leading to significantly reduced waiting times and improved chances of conception.

Lewis said according to a Belfast statement: 'One in six couples has difficulty in having a family. In 40 percent of cases, the problems are related to the man. Until now, there have been few accurate ways of measuring a man's fertility.'

'Traditionally, the diagnosis of male infertility has relied on semen analysis. This provides the basic information on which fertility specialists base their initial diagnosis.'

'However, its clinical value in predicting male fertility or success with infertility treatment is limited, particularly if the semen analysis results are normal,' he added.

'The SpermComet test is so called because it looks just like a comet in the sky. The head of the 'Comet' is undamaged DNA and the tail is damaged DNA.

'Good quality sperm DNA is closely associated with getting pregnant and having a healthy baby, and the SpermComet Test is the most sensitive test available for sperm DNA testing,' concluded Lewis.

Lewis, in partnership with Queen's venture spinout company, QUBIS, has now set up a new company to market the test, which is already available through a number of fertility clinics in Britain.

Sport doctors say non-alcoholic wheat beer boosts athletes' health

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Many amateur athletes have long suspected what research scientists for the Department of Preventative and Rehabilitative Sports Medicine of the Technische Universitaet Muenchen at Klinikum rechts der Isar have now made official: Documented proof, gathered during the world's largest study of marathons, Be-MaGIC (beer, marathons, genetics, inflammation and the cardiovascular system), that the consumption of non-alcoholic weissbier, or wheat beer, has a positive effect on athletes' health. Under the direction of Dr. Johannes Scherr, physicians examined 277 test subjects three weeks before and two weeks after the 2009 Munich Marathon.

The study focuses on the health risks for marathon runners and the potential positive effects of polyphenols. These aromatic compounds occur naturally in plants as pigment, flavor, or tannins, many of which have been credited with health-promoting and cancer-preventative properties. Unique to this study was the combination of different polyphenols that were tested on the large pool of participants. The research team met the scientific requirements of the study by conducting a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Non-alcoholic Erdinger wheat beer was selected as the test beverage, chosen for its rich and varied polyphenol content and its popularity with marathoners and tri-athletes. The active group drank up to 1.5 liters of the test beverage per day, while a second group consumed an equal amount of an otherwise indistinguishable placebo beverage that contained no polyphenols and was especially produced for the study.

One result from the study was the discovery that, after running a marathon race, athletes experience intensified inflammatory reactions. The immune system is thrown off balance and runners are much more likely to suffer from upper respiratory infections. This heightened susceptibility to illness following strenuous sport activity has been identified as an open window. Furthermore it was shown that non-alcoholic wheat beer containing polyphenols has a positive, health promoting effect on the human body: inflammation parameters in the blood were significantly reduced, and there was a lower frequency of infection with milder symptoms.

Reduced Inflammatory Reaction: Dr. Scherr, who also serves as physician to the German National Ski Team, explains: The analysis of the leukocytes, or white blood cells, which constitute one of the most important parameters for inflammation, revealed values in the active group that were 20% lower than in the placebo group.

Support for the Immune System: Compounds in the test drink had a compensatory or balancing effect on the immune system. Dr Scherr: We were able to prove that it strengthens an immune system that has been weakened by physical stress. It also prevents the system from over-performing.

Prevents Colds: Runners who drank the non-alcoholic wheat beer were up to three times less susceptible to infection than those in the placebo group. Dr. Scherr: Drinking the non-alcoholic test beverage reduces your risk of developing a cold by one third.

Improvement with Upper Respiratory Infections: People in the active group who did succumb to a cold experienced a milder or briefer infection than those in the placebo group. Dr. Scherr: Results showed a Number Needed to Treat (NNT) of eight. That means that for every eight people who had the test drink, one of them was prevented from succumbing to a cold.

In summary, Dr. Scherr explains: The potential for foods containing polyphenols to have a positive effect on athletes' health has already been suggested in several articles. Nevertheless we were ourselves sometimes surprised at how clearly evident this was in the results. We now have scientific confirmation of those assumptions for this test beverage, with its particular combination of polyphenols, vitamins and minerals.

Dr. Scherr presented this study to the approximately 5,000 scientists, physicians, and trainers attending the world's largest congress for sports medicine in Denver (USA) hosted by the American College of Sports (ACSM) at the beginning of June 2011. The study will be published in the January printed edition of the professional journal

Adjuvant combo shows potential for universal influenza vaccine

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Researchers at National Jewish Health have discovered how to prime a second arm of the immune system to potentially boost influenza vaccine effectiveness. A combination of two adjuvants, chemicals used to boost the effectiveness of some vaccines, induced CD8, or killer, T cells to join antibodies in response to influenza infection. Since the killer T cells targeted a highly conserved protein that does not change from year to year, the adjuvant strategy suggests potential for a universal flu vaccine.

Most vaccines protect against disease by boosting antibody protection, said lead author post-doctoral fellow Megan MacLeod, PhD. We have shown that the two adjuvants work in concert to generate memory CD8 T cells, which can kill infected cells. We believe that this strategy of stimulating both the cellular and humoral immune responses holds promise for better vaccines.

Vaccines prepare the immune system to respond quickly to an infection with antibodies, Y-shaped molecules that neutralize or otherwise inactivate pathogens.

Aluminum salts, or alum, have been used for nearly a century as an adjuvant to boost the effectiveness of many vaccines. Surprisingly no one is sure even today exactly how it works. The only other adjuvant approved for use in the United States, monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL), is used by GlaxoSmithKline to boost the antibody response of some of its vaccines.

Dr. MacLeod, senior author Philippa Marrack, PhD, and their colleagues evaluated the responses of mice immunized with influenza vaccines containing no adjuvant, each adjuvant alone and both together. They engineered the vaccine so that any immune defense would be provided by killer T cells, not antibodies. Several weeks after the immunization, they infected the mice with influenza A virus.

They found that unvaccinated mice lost about 15 percent of their body weight in the first eight days after infection, then regained some of that weight by 20 days after infection. Mice whose vaccines contained either alum or MPL adjuvants lost less weight but did not fully regain their original weight. Mice whose vaccines contained both adjuvants together lost about 5 percent of their original weight and regained it all back rapidly.

The researchers also found that mice receiving vaccines with both adjuvants had the fewest viral particles in their lungs four days after infection.

Further experiments revealed that alum promoted long-lived CD8 memory cells, but that MPL was required to produce activated cells, ready and able to kill. The findings were published in the May 10, 2011, issue of the

Researchers discover biochemical weakness of malaria parasite -- vaccine to be developed

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Every year, 10,000 pregnant women and up to 200,000 newborn babies are killed by the malaria parasite. Doctors all around the globe have for years been looking in vain for a medical protection, and now researchers from the University of Copenhagen have found the biochemically weakness of the lethal malaria parasite, and will now start developing a vaccine to combat pregnancy related malaria.

The malaria parasite travels via the spit of an infected mosquito to the liver of the new host, where it spreads to the red blood corpuscles and starts to reproduce itself.

Pregnant women and children below the age of five years are particularly vulnerable to malaria because of the parasite's survival mechanisms. The parasite has a protein hook designed to attach it to the placenta and this leads to amnesia of the mother who in worst case can die or deliver prematurely. This increases the maternal mortality - and infant mortality, explains Associate Professor Ali Salanti from the University of Copenhagen's Centre for Medical Parasitology who manages the project.

The body's immune system normally attacks any foreign body but since our spleen constantly filters our blood and removes ruined or deform blood cells, the body's natural defense does not need to check the blood. And the malaria parasite exploits this fact.

An infected red blood corpuscle is more stiff than in its normal state and this would usually trigger the spleen to destroy the cell and parasite, but the malaria parasite has an advanced arsenal of protein hooks. With these hooks the parasite attaches itself to the inner side of the blood vessel and even if our immune system succeeds in defeating one hook, the parasite has 60 different hooks, which again differ from one malaria parasite to another.

Researchers have for years been looking for a vaccine which can attack the malaria parasite's specific placenta hook. This is tricky not least due to the fact that the parasite's hooks are long proteins which are difficult to produce artificially in the lab when developing of a vaccine.

After intensive research efforts, the researchers have now succeeded in identifying a fragment of the placenta hook (VAR2CSA) which not only is crucial for the parasite's ability to attach itself to the placenta, but also is possible to produce artificially for a vaccine.

A vaccine must stimulate the immune system to quickly attack something foreign in the body. Therefore, it was a matter of finding the part of the placenta hook, which the parasite cannot manage without and which we could target a vaccine against, says Associate Professor Ali Salanti.

With a grant of 15 million DKK (approximately 3 million USD) from the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation and close corporation with two Danish biotech companies, the researchers can now start developing the vaccine and take it through the first trials to test its safety.

Ali Salanti and his colleagues will collaborate with the biotech companies ExpreS2ion Biotechnologies and CMC Biologics A/S to develop a method for mass production of the vaccine.

Once this has fallen into place, the researchers can start up the clinical trials on animals and human beings. If the trials are successful the parasistologists from the University of Copenhagen and their partners will make a significant contribution in reaching the UN's Millennium Development goal number 4 and 5. These two goals encourage every country in the world to work on lowering global child mortality with two thirds and maternal mortality with three quarters.

Sleep loss can cause testosterone levels to plummet

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 17:25:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Cutting back on sleep can be quite disastrous for healthy young men - it sends their testosterone levels plummeting, says a study.

Men who slept less than five hours a night for one week in a lab had significantly lower levels of testosterone than when they had a full night's sleep, according to the study.

Significantly, skipping sleep was found to reduce a young man's testosterone levels by the same amount as aging 10 to 15 years, or 10 percent to 15 percent.

Low testosterone has a host of negative consequences for young men, and not just in sexual behaviour and reproduction. It is critical in building strength, muscle mass and bone density.

'Low testosterone levels are associated with reduced well being and vigour, which may also occur as a consequence of sleep loss,' said Eve Van Cauter, professor in medicine, University of Chicago Medical Centre, the US, who led the study, according to a Chicago statement.

At least 15 percent of the adult working population in the US gets less than five hours of sleep a night, and suffers many adverse health effects because of it. Low testosterone is also linked with low energy, reduced libido, poor concentration and fatigue.

The group of young men recruited for the study passed a rigorous battery of tests to screen for endocrine or psychiatric disorders and sleep problems. They were an average of 24 years old, lean and in good health.

They spent three nights in the lab sleeping for up to 10 hours, and then eight nights sleeping less than five hours. Their blood was sampled every 15 to 30 minutes for 24 hours during the last day of the 10-hour sleep phase and the last day of the five-hour sleep phase.

The effects of sleep loss on testosterone levels were apparent after just one week of short sleep. Five hours of sleep decreased their testosterone levels by 10 percent to 15 percent.

The young men had the lowest testosterone levels in the afternoons on their sleep restricted days.

They reported a decline in their sense of well-being as their blood testosterone levels declined. Their mood and vigour fell more every day as the sleep restriction part of the study progressed.

BUSM names Deborah Frank, M.D., inaugural professors in child health and well-being

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) announces the establishment of an endowed Professorship in Child Health and Well-Being in the department of Pediatrics. This anonymously donated endowment reinforces the importance of supporting clinical practice focusing on public policies related to ending hunger and hardship in young children.

The inaugural incumbent of this professorship is Deborah A. Frank, MD. Frank serves as BUSM professor of Pediatrics; director, Grow Clinic for Children at Boston Medical Center (BMC); and founder and principal investigator of Children's HealthWatch, a network of pediatric and public health researchers working to improve child health. A highly respected national authority, she has testified before both the United States and Massachusetts legislatures on the growing national problem of hunger and its effects on children. Frank also leads research funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse on the effects of intrauterine exposure to cocaine and other substances on children's long term development. She advocates at hearings and in the media against criminalizing addicted mothers or stigmatizing their children.

Frank has served on numerous committees and advisory boards including the Mayor's Hunger Commission, the Massachusetts Child Hunger Initiative and the Physicians Task Force on Childhood Hunger in Massachusetts. She has received awards in recognition for her work including the 2004 Standing Ovation Award, Massachusetts Human Services Coalition; 2007 Woman of Valor Award, Jewish Funds for Justice; 2008 Woman of Justice Award, Boston Lawyer's Weekly, and more recently in 2010 Dr. Frank received the Massachusetts Health Council Outstanding Leadership Award and the Physician Advocacy Merit Award from the Institute on Medicine as a Profession at Columbia University. Frank is the author of more than 50 papers and articles.

An endowed professorship is one of the most significant means by which BUSM can honor its highly esteemed teachers and researchers. They are important to the mission of BUSM because they offer our school the opportunity to attract highly distinguished faculty, said BUSM Dean Karen H. Antman, MD. Dr. Frank's long-standing commitment to caring for and training others to care for children and to understanding and preventing child hunger makes her a deserving candidate to be the first to hold this professorship. By selecting Dr. Frank for this important honor we show continued commitment to serving the most basic needs of the youngest and most vulnerable members of our society.

A summa cum laude graduate of Radcliffe College and Harvard Medical School, Frank did her residency at Children's Orthopedic Hospital in Seattle and completed a fellowship in Child Development with T. Berry Brazelton at Children's Hospital in Boston. She joined BUSM as a clinical assistant professor of Pediatrics in 1981 when she also established the Failure to Thrive Program at Boston City Hospital, now known as the Grow Clinic for Children at Boston Medical Center (BMC). Frank was named BUSM professor of Pediatrics in 2001.

Clinical trial of malaria vaccine begins in Africa

Wed, 25 May 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) The vaccine, RTS,S, developed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Biologicals and PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), is currently in phase III clinical trials and has previously reduced episodes of malaria in infants and young children by more than 50%. The Liverpool team, in collaboration with the University College of Medicine, Malawi, are working in Blantyre over the next three years to investigate how to maximise its effectiveness when delivered through the childhood immunisation programme.

Malaria is a life-threatening parasitic infection, resulting in more than 200 million reported cases each year and approximately 800,000 deaths. In Africa a child dies of malaria every 45 seconds and the disease accounts for 20% of all childhood deaths. Scientists will assess the possible benefits of providing the vaccine to newborn babies, similar to the routine programme currently used for other vaccines, such as BCG for tuberculosis, Hepatitis-B and oral polio vaccines.

The team will examine the performance of the vaccine as it is administered to infants at different stages between birth and nine months of age, alongside the standard set of immunisations used in national programmes for young children. Studies have so far suggested that the vaccine could be safely integrated with other vaccines in the World Health Organisation's Expanded Programme for Immunisation (EPI) schedule.

Leading the study from Malawi, Dr Desiree Witte, from the University's Institute of Infection and Global Health, said: Young children are particularly susceptible to infection with malaria and it is important that vaccines are introduced into the immunisation programme as early as possible. There is no licensed vaccine available against malaria and currently the candidate vaccine developed by GSK and MVI, is the most clinically advanced malaria vaccine in the world. The evaluation of different immunisation schedules will help define the programme needed for the vaccine to be administered successfully.

Professor Nigel Cunliffe, also from the University's Institute of Infection and Global Health, added: Over the past few years there have been encouraging results from studies of vaccines aimed at tackling some of the major diseases common to children living in Africa, including diarrhoea, pneumonia and malaria. It is hoped that in the near future vaccines against these diseases will become a standard part of the immunisation schedule across the region. It will therefore become increasingly important for us to understand how the vaccines will work when administered alongside each other.

Professor Tom Heikens, Head of the University College of Medicine's Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Malawi, said: As well as developing this important area of research, the work is allowing postgraduate students at the College to gain valuable insight into child health and the medical challenges Malawi faces. Collaborations such as this contribute greatly to identifying the next generation of researchers to take this important area of study forward.

The research is funded by GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, Belgium.

Rigorous study confirms video game playing increases food intake in teens

Tue, 17 May 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that almost 18% of US teens are obese. Although most experts agree that our growing obesity epidemic is driven by both inadequate physical activity and excessive caloric intake, implementing solutions is extraordinarily difficult. One area that has caught the attention of health researchers is the observation that trends in video game playing parallel obesity rates on a population basis. Furthermore, several studies have documented a positive association between how much time a child plays video games and his or her chance of being obese. However, correlation does not necessarily imply causality, and controlled intervention studies are required to test whether playing video games causes children to increase their food intake and/or decrease their energy expenditure. In the first such study of this kind, Canadian and Danish researchers tested their hypothesis that video game playing is accompanied by increased spontaneous food intake.

This study is an especially important piece of the scientific puzzle in this arena because it went beyond simply simultaneously documenting the relationship between video game playing and food intake in kids, said Shelley McGuire, PhD, American Society for Nutrition spokesperson. Instead, it actually studied the same group of children during two separate, experimentally-administered periods of rest and video-game play, and then used gold-standard methods to measure important outcomes such as food intake, energy expenditure, and feelings of hunger and appetite. Consequently, the results can be used with a high degree of confidence to suggest that playing virtual soccer can affect food intake. Very interesting! Given our current obesity crisis in kids, I will be curious to follow the results of follow-up studies. For instance, do violent games or educational games have the same effect as sports-related games?

Healthy, normal-weight male teens (mean age: ~17 y) were studied in this crossover intervention trial consisting of two 1-h periods. In one period, subjects rested (control period); in the other, they played video games. For both study periods (which occurred at 10:30 AM), the youth reported to a research laboratory after an overnight fast and were provided with a standardized breakfast (8:00 AM). During the intervention periods, blood samples were collected every 10 min, and energy expenditure was assessed by using indirect calorimetry. Immediately thereafter, each participant was offered full access to a spaghetti lunch. Food intake and measurements of hunger, satiety, fullness, and appetite were assessed.

Blood glucose concentrations increased more when playing video games than during the control period, but there was no differential effect on insulin or ghrelin (a hormone thought to signal the sensation of hunger to the brain). Energy expenditure was 21 kcal/h higher during video game play than during the resting condition. However, subjects ate 80 more kilocalories after playing the video games than they did after the control period. This resulted in a net positive energy of 163 kcal during the entire day when video games were played compared with when subjects rested, despite the fact that the subjects reported similar appetite ratings during these periods.

The authors concluded that their results provide preliminary evidence that male teens playing video games for 1 h consume more calories in the short-term than they do after 1 h of rest. Moreover, overconsumption of food after playing video games occurs without changes in perceived hunger and appetite. Additional studies are needed to determine the long-term effects on weight gain and health.

Egyptian princess was first person with diagnosed coronary artery disease

Tue, 17 May 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Embargo: 17 May 2011 18:00 CET-- The coronary arteries of Princess Ahmose-Meryet-Amon - as visualised by whole body computerised tomography (CT) scanning - will feature in two presentations at the International Conference of Non-Invasive Cardiovascular Imaging (ICNC) this week in Amsterdam (15-18 May). ICNC is now one of the world's major scientific event in nuclear cardiology and cardiac CT imaging.

The Egyptian princess Ahmose-Meryet-Amon, who lived in Thebes (Luxor) between 1580 and 1550 BC and who is now known to be first person in human history with diagnosed coronary artery disease, lived on a diet rich in vegetables, fruit and a limited amount of meat from domesticated (but not fattened) animals. Wheat and barley were grown along the banks of the Nile, making bread and beer the dietary staples of this period of ancient Egypt. Tobacco and trans-fats were unknown, and lifestyle was likely to have been active.

The coronary arteries of Princess Ahmose-Meryet-Amon - as visualised by whole body computerised tomography (CT) scanning - will feature in two presentations at the International Conference of Non-Invasive Cardiovascular Imaging (ICNC) currently taking place in Amsterdam (15-18 May). ICNC is now one of the world's major scientific event in nuclear cardiology and cardiac CT imaging.

Both presentations will be based on findings from the Horus study, in which arterial atherosclerosis was investigated in 52 ancient Egyptian mummies. Results have shown that recognisable arteries were present in 44 of the mummies, with an identifiable heart present in 16. Arterial calcification (as a marker of atherosclerosis) was evident at a variety of sites in almost half the mummies scanned, prompting the investigators to note that the condition was common in this group of middle aged or older ancient Egyptians; the 20 mummies with definite atherosclerosis were older (mean 45.years) than those with intact vascular tissue but no atherosclerosis (34.5 years).

Although relatively common at other vascular sites, atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries was evident in only three of the mummies investigated, but was clearly visualised in Princess Ahmose-Meryet-Amon (in whom calcification was present in every vascular bed visualised).

The CT scan image below shows that the princess, who died in her 40s, had atherosclerosis in two of her three main coronary arteries. Today, said Dr Gregory S Thomas, director of Nuclear Cardiology Education at the University of California, Irvine, USA, and co-principal investigator of the Horus study, she would have needed by-pass surgery.

Overall, it was striking how much atherosclerosis we found, said Dr Thomas. We think of atherosclerosis as a disease of modern lifestyle, but it's clear that it also existed 3500 years ago. Our findings certainly call into question the perception of atherosclerosis as a modern disease.

If, however, the princess enjoyed a diet deemed to be healthy and pursued a lifestyle probably active, how could this disease of modern life affect her so visibly? Dr Thomas and his co-principal investigator Dr Adel Allam of Al Azhar University, Cairo, suggest three possibilities.

First, that there is still some unknown risk factor for cardiovascular disease, or at least a missing link in our understanding of it. Dr Allam noted a likely effect of genetic inheritance, pointing out that much of the human predisposition to atherosclerosis could be secondary to their genes. He similarly raised the possibility that an inflammatory response to the frequent parasitic infections common to ancient Egyptians might predispose to coronary disease - in much the same way that immunocompromised HIV cases seem also predisposed to early coronary disease. Nor can a dietary effect be excluded, despite what we know of life in ancient Egypt. Princess Ahmose-Meryet-Amon was from a noble family, her father, Seqenenre Tao II, the last pharaoh of the 17th Dynasty.

So it's likely that her diet was not that of the common Egyptian. As a royal, she would have eaten more luxury foods - more meat, butter and cheese. Moreover, foods were preserved in salt, which may also have had an adverse effect.

Despite the suggestion of a genetic, inflammatory or unknown effect, Drs Thomas and Allam were keen not to discount those risk factors for heart disease which we do know about. Indeed, even in the study's apparent association of atheroma with increasing age, there was a pattern of prevalence consistent with our own epidemiology today. Recent studies have shown that by not smoking, having a lower blood pressure and a lower cholesterol level, calcification of our arteries is delayed, said co-investigator Dr Randall C Thompson of the St Luke's Mid-America Heart Institute in Kansas City, USA. On the other hand, from what we can tell from this study, humans are predisposed to atherosclerosis, so it behoves us to take the proper measures necessary to delay it as long as we can.

Hosagunda, India joins the international Sacred Seeds project

Fri, 13 May 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) (ST. LOUIS, MO. USA): Sacred Seeds, a non-profit organization committed to preserving both sacred medicinal plant species and the ancient wisdom about their therapeutic and sustainable use, is pleased to announce that Sri Uma Maheshwara Seva Trust (Hosagunda), in the state of Karnataka, India, has become a foundational garden in the international Sacred Seeds movement. Developed to help stem the loss of biodiversity and health practices that depend on biodiversity, Sacred Seeds is helping local communities and institutions create gardens around the world that contain plants traditionally used for primary health care as well as nutritionally important species to improve local diets. These gardens serve as living genetic repositories helping to preserve the diversity of healing plants used by humankind. Sacred Seeds foundational gardens serve as vanguards of integrative ethnobotanical conservation and models for other communities across the globe.

It was also announced that Semillas Sagradas at Finca Luna Nueva in Costa Rica and Hosagunda have become sister gardens in the family of Sacred Seeds Sanctuaries. They, along with all of the Sacred Seeds gardens, are united in a shared devotion to the highest principles of plant conservation and traditional botanical wisdom.

Tom Newmark, chairman of Sacred Seeds and co-founder of Semillas Sagradas in Costa Rica, welcomed Hosagunda to our international family of medicinal plant sanctuaries. He further noted that the great Ayurvedic and Sidha medical systems of India have brilliantly appreciated the healing power of medicinal plants for thousands of years, and Sacred Seeds is delighted that Hosagunda will represent those healing traditions in our family of plant sanctuaries.

CMN Shastry, managing trustee of Hosagunda, expressed his hope that Hosagunda's programs will inspire similar projects around the world. Hosagunda, he observed, is a Sacred Forest rich with archeological relics of religious and cultural significance. We are reintroducing native herbal species of sacred and medicinal uses to create a living expression of ancient traditional medicine. By joining the international Sacred Seeds movement, we will study best practices from other sanctuaries and we hope inspire other cultures to integrate medicinal gardens with archeological restoration.

The Sacred Seeds Project is administered by the William L. Brown Center at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Dr. Rainer Bussmann, director and William L. Brown Curator of Economic Botany, expressed his enthusiasm about the addition of Hosagunda to the Sacred Seeds Project. Hosagunda is one of the few remaining fragments of forest in the densely populated agricultural landscape of Karnataka. With its 600 acres of sacred forest and temples, Hosagunda forms a real Eco-Spiritual Center, and is a wonderful example of conservation by revitalizing local traditions. We are thrilled to have it as part of Sacred Seeds.

Antibodies help protect monkeys from HIV-like virus, NIH scientists show

Thu, 05 May 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) WHAT: Using a monkey model of AIDS, scientists have identified a vaccine-generated immune-system response that correlates with protection against infection by the monkey version of HIV, called simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). The researchers found that neutralizing antibodies generated by immunization were associated with protection against SIV infection. This finding marks an important step toward understanding how an effective HIV vaccine could work, according to scientists who led the study at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

Scientists administered the SIV vaccine to half of the 129 monkeys in this study and a placebo vaccine to the other half. The scientists then gave each monkey up to 12 doses of one of two forms of SIV through rectal injection to simulate sexual exposure to the virus. The vaccine regimen did not protect the monkeys that received one form of SIV, but it reduced the rate of infection by 50 percent in the monkeys that received the other form of the virus.

To learn how the vaccine worked, the study team examined a variety of immune responses and certain genetic factors in the monkeys that the vaccine protected. The scientists found that SIV neutralizing antibodies and the activation of white blood cells known as helper CD4+ T cells correlated with the protective effect. Also, monkeys that expressed two copies of a gene known to help limit SIV replication were better protected by the vaccine than monkeys that did not, demonstrating that genetic factors can contribute to protection.

This study provides evidence that neutralizing antibodies are an important part of the immune response needed to prevent HIV infection. The ability of the vaccine regimen to protect monkeys from SIV infection is comparable to the results seen in the RV144 trial with 16,000 adult volunteers in Thailand; RV144 was the first HIV vaccine study to demonstrate a modest protective effect, reducing the rate of HIV infection by 31 percent. The new research also provides an animal model to better understand the immune basis for vaccine protection against lentiviruses, a subclass of viruses that includes HIV and SIV. This knowledge will help guide strategies for the future development of AIDS vaccines.

The SIV vaccine regimen used in this study was similar to an HIV vaccine regimen currently being tested in humans in the NIAID-funded clinical trial known as HVTN 505. Both vaccine regimens consist of priming with a vaccine made from DNA that encodes immunodeficiency virus proteins, followed by boosting with an inactivated cold virus (adenovirus) that contains immunodeficiency virus proteins.

Systematic effort helps hospital raise employee flu vaccination rates

Wed, 04 May 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A systematic effort to improve flu vaccination rates for healthcare workers has increased flu vaccinations rates from 59 percent to 77 percent at the University Health System (UHS) in San Antonio. A report detailing their interventions to increase vaccination was published in the June issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

UHS raised its healthcare worker vaccination rate from 59 percent in 2009 to 77 percent in 2010 through quality improvement tools including vaccine kits to individual units, Grand Round presentations, enhanced staff awareness and a dashboard of vaccination rates of each program was promoted on the staff intranet. The increase places the UHS well above national average for healthcare worker vaccination, which tends to hover below 50 percent.

The vaccination push was spearheaded by a quality improvement team with a goal of reaching a vaccination rate of 80 percent. The team developed a list of possible reasons for low immunization rates, and created a set of interventions to combat them.

Under the improvement program, a vaccination kit was provided to each hospital unit so workers could take it without leaving their work area. Multiple educational conferences on the importance of vaccination were held, and a flu information website and blog were added to the health system's website. Hospital newsletters featured articles about immunization, including photographs of hospital leaders being vaccinated. The vaccination campaign was also promoted on telephone hold messages and computer screen savers. To monitor progress, vaccination rates by unit were sent to unit directors weekly and were available to all employees on the website.

The quality improvement tools and techniques the team used led to a significant improvement of the vaccination rate, said Dr. Jose Cadena, a member of the team and an author of the journal report. Our methodology allowed us to adapt and modify interventions over time, adjusting to challenges and opportunities for improvement that emerged.

Making sure healthcare workers are vaccinated is a major public health initiative. Vaccination of healthcare workers helps save patients' lives and reduces the spread of influenza in healthcare settings. It also protects the individual worker from falling ill during influenza outbreaks and from missing work, which further impacts patient care.

Mathematical models have shown that [healthcare worker] influenza vaccination could lead to a 40 percent decreased risk of patients acquiring influenza in the healthcare setting, which makes influenza vaccination a patient safety issue, Dr. Cadena and his colleagues write.

While the vaccination effort was successful in raising immunization rates substantially, it still fell short of its 80 percent goal. Making vaccination a condition of employment, as recommended recently by several professional societies including the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, may be required to achieve higher rates of vaccination, Dr. Cadena said.

Vitamin E can fight fatty liver disease in kids

Sat, 30 Apr 2011 14:17:57 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A specific form of Vitamin E can improve the most severe form of fatty liver disease in some children.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease - is the most common chronic liver disease among US children. It ranges in severity from steatosis - to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis or NASH -.

The symptoms of NAFLD and NASH are identical. They are very bland and non-specific. They can occur at any adult age and, in children, usually appear after 10 years of age.

Fatty liver increases a child's risk of developing heart disease and liver cirrhosis. The only way to distinguish NASH from other forms of fatty liver disease is with a liver biopsy.

Using liver biopsies, researchers found that after 96 weeks of treatment, 58 percent of the children on Vitamin E no longer had NASH, compared to 41 percent of the children on metformin -, and 28 percent on placebo.

Vitamin E was better than placebo because it significantly reduced enlargement and death of liver cells, reports the Journal of the American Medical Association.

'These results suggest that Vitamin E improves or resolves NASH in at least half of children, which we previously showed to be true in adults,' said Stephen P. James, director of the digestive diseases at National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases -, which funded the study.

Weight loss may reverse the disease in some children, but other than dietary advice, there are no specific treatments. Excess fat in the liver is believed to cause injury by increasing levels of oxidants, compounds that damage cells, according to an NIDDK statement.

The Treatment of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Children - trial studied whether Vitamin E - or metformin could improve fatty liver disease.

Most children with fatty liver disease are overweight and resistant to insulin, a critical hormone that regulates energy. Boys are more likely to be affected than girls.

Nasal spray vaccines more effective against flu

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Nasal vaccines that effectively protect against flu, pneumonia and even bioterrorism agents such as Yersinia pestis that causes the plague, could soon be a possibility, according to research presented at the Society for General Microbiology's Spring Conference in Harrogate. Professor Dennis Metzger describes how including a natural immune chemical with standard vaccines can boost their protective effect when delivered through the nose.

The respiratory tract is a major entry site for various viral and bacterial pathogens. However there are few approved vaccines that can provide optimal protection against them due to the low immune response at muscosal surfaces such as the nasal passage.

Combining standard vaccines for respiratory pathogens with the immune chemical, interleukin-12 (IL-12) and delivering them intranasally to mice has been shown to induce high levels of protection. Vaccines against various respiratory pathogens were tested, including influenza virus, pneumococcal bacteria and Yersinia pestis - a Category A Biothreat. IL-12 is a natural immune chemical, known as a cytokine. It is a powerful stimulator of the immune response through its interactions with other immune chemicals and the white blood cells that produce them.

Professor Metzger from Albany Medical College, New York explains the significance of the findings. Infectious agents still account for around 25% of deaths worldwide and the major killers are acute respiratory infections. However, it is difficult to induce immunity at the site of entry and so standard vaccines are only partially protective, he said. Intranasal vaccination gets around this problem by inducing immunity in the pulmonary passage. This prevents initial infection as well as systemic complications. Up until now, nasal vaccination has only resulted in sufficient immune responses for very specific types of vaccine. We now have evidence that this method could work for a wide range of vaccines when IL-12 is included in formulation, said Professor Metzger.

Nasal vaccines could have a number of other advantages over vaccines that must be injected. Vaccination via a nasal spray is a non-invasive procedure that is easier than administering vaccines by injection. In addition our results have shown that antibodies induced by intranasal vaccination are effective not only in preventing infection but can also protect the pulmonary tract in a therapeutic manner after pathogen exposure, explained Professor Metzger. In the case of a bioterrorism threat or an influenza pandemic, this is significant. The next step is to perform clinical trials to determine whether including IL-12 with intranasal vaccines are effective in the human population.

Working 11 hours can up heart attack risk by 67 percent

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:58:04 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) London, April 5 - People who spend more than 11 hours a day at work increase their chances of having a heart attack by 67 percent, a study has found.

A team from University College London looked at more than 7,000 civil servants over a period of 11 years and established how many hours they worked on an average a day.

They also collected information, including the condition of their heart, from medical records and health checks. Over the period, 192 had suffered a heart attack, reports the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

The study found that those who worked more than 11 hours a day were 67 percent more likely to have a heart attack than those who had a 'nine to five' job, according to the Daily Mail.

Said Mika Kivimaki, who led the study: 'We have shown that working long days is associated with a remarkable increase in the risk of heart disease.'

The researchers say their findings could potentially prevent thousands of heart attacks a year as they would help physicians get a better idea of how likely a patient was to have one.

Patients already at high risk - by being obese or smoking, for example - could be encouraged to cut down on their working hours.

Around 2.6 million in Britain alone have heart disease, in which the organ's blood supply is blocked by the build-up of fatty deposits in the coronary arteries. It claims 101,000 lives every year in the country.

Study shows hunger hitting closer to home

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A new study on hunger entitled Map the Meal Gap is the first study to identify the county-level distribution of over 50 million food-insecure Americans.

Until now, we could only compare the data by state, said Craig Gundersen, University of Illinois associate professor of agricultural and consumer economics and executive director of the National Soybean Research Laboratory who led the data analysis on the project. Having this data by county has the potential to redefine the way service providers and policy makers address areas of need.

Gundersen explained that the term meal gap refers to the additional number of meals the food insecure population in the selected area requires to meet their food needs. On the national level, the average cost of a meal is $2.54. The study shows this shortfall represents an estimated $21.3 billion on an annual basis.

Per person this is only about $56 more each month on average to address the shortages in their food budget, Gundersen said.

Among the key findings of the study is that there are 44 counties in the United States that fall into the top 10 percent categories for both food insecurity and food prices. These counties struggle with multiple stressors, including high food insecurity, high poverty, high unemployment and above-average food costs, Gundersen said. At the time the most recent data were collected, on average, one in every four persons in these counties was food insecure and 27 percent lived at or below poverty. The counties are typically rural and one-third are majority African American.

This study also demonstrates the distribution of food-insecure persons who are not eligible for food assistance programs. In Illinois, for example, 41 percent of the almost 2 million people who are identified as being food insecure are also ineligible to receive federal assistance from SNAP, which is limited to people with incomes up to the 130 percent level of federal poverty. (SNAP, The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, was formerly known as the Food Stamp Program.)

A summary of the findings, an interactive map of the United States showing data for each county, and the full report are available on Feeding America's website at www.feedingamerica.org. The study was funded by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the Nielsen Co.

The executive summary of the report features additional information that describes how Latinos and American Indians are disproportionately affected by high rates of hunger and high food prices.

Gundersen is also working with James Ziliak of the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research to coordinate a research program on childhood hunger with $5.5 million from the USDA.

In order to address the problem of hunger in our communities, we have to understand it, Gundersen said. The results from Map the Meal Gap will help researchers to better identify the populations and develop strategies to reach those who are most in need of food assistance.

Religious young adults become obese by middle age

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) CHICAGO --- Could it be the potato salad? Young adults who frequently attend religious activities are 50 percent more likely to become obese by middle age as young adults with no religious involvement, according to new Northwestern Medicine research. This is the first longitudinal study to examine the development of obesity in people with various degrees of religious involvement.

We don't know why frequent religious participation is associated with development of obesity, but the upshot is these findings highlight a group that could benefit from targeted efforts at obesity prevention, said Matthew Feinstein, the study's lead investigator and a fourth-year student at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. It'spossible that getting together once a week and associating good works and happiness with eating unhealthy foods could lead to the development of habits that are associated with greater body weight and obesity.

Previous Northwestern Medicine research established a correlation between religious involvement and obesity in middle-age and older adults at a single point in time. By tracking participants' weight gain over time, the new study makes it clear that normal weight younger adults with high religious involvement became obese, rather than obese adults becoming more religious.

The research is being presented at the American Heart Association's Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism/Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention Scientific Sessions 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia.

The study, which tracked 2,433 men and women for 18 years, found normal weight young adults ages 20 to 32 years with a high frequency of religious participation were 50 percent more likely to be obese by middle age after adjusting for differences in age, race, sex, education, income and baseline body mass index. High frequency of religious participation was defined as attending a religious function at least once a week.

Obesity is defined as having a body mass index of 30 or higher. A woman who is 5'5 and 180 pounds has a BMI of 30, for example.

The men and women in the study were part of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) multi-center study, supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Obesity is the major epidemic that is facing the U.S. population right now, said senior study author Donald Lloyd-Jones, M.D., chair of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a cardiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. We know that people with obesity have substantial risks for developing diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancer, and of dying much younger. So, we need to use all of the tools at our disposal to identify groups at risk and to provide education and support to prevent the development of obesity in the first place. Once the weight is on, it is much harder to lose it.

The authors caution that their findings should only be taken to mean people with frequent religious involvement are more likely to become obese, and not that they have worse overall health status than those who are non-religious. In fact, previous studies have shown religious people tend to live longer than those who aren't religious in part because they tend to smoke less.

Here's an opportunity for religious organizations to initiate programs to help their congregations live even longer, Feinstein said. The organizations already have groups of people getting together and infrastructures in place that could be leveraged to initiate programs that prevent people from becoming obese and treat existing obesity.

Feinstein noted Northwestern is leading such an educational intervention in a church on Chicago's West Side where members are taught how dietary changes and increased physical activity can lower cardiovascular disease risk factors such as obesity, cholesterol and high blood pressure. Church-based interventions have shown promising results, he said.

Load up on fiber now, avoid heart disease later

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) CHICAGO --- A new study from Northwestern Medicine shows a high-fiber diet could be a critical heart-healthy lifestyle change young and middle-aged adults can make. The study found adults between 20 and 59 years old with the highest fiber intake had a significantly lower estimated lifetime risk for cardiovascular disease compared to those with the lowest fiber intake.

The study will be presented March 23 at the American Heart Association's Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism/Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention Scientific Sessions 2011 in Atlanta, Ga. This is the first known study to show the influence of fiber consumption on the lifetime risk for cardiovascular disease.

It's long been known that high-fiber diets can help people lose weight, lower cholesterol and improve hypertension, said Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, corresponding author of the study and chair of the department of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a cardiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The results of this study make a lot of sense because weight, cholesterol and hypertension are major determinants of your long-term risk for cardiovascular disease.

A high-fiber diet falls into the American Heart Association's recommendation of 25 grams of dietary fiber or more a day. Lloyd-Jones said you should strive to get this daily fiber intake from whole foods, not processed fiber bars, supplements and drinks.

A processed food may be high in fiber, but it also tends to be pretty high in sodium and likely higher in calories than an apple, for example, which provides the same amount of fiber, Lloyd-Jones said.

For the study, Hongyan Ning, M.D., lead author and a statistical analyst in the department of preventive medicine at Feinberg, examined data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a nationally representative sample of about 11,000 adults.

Ning considered diet, blood pressure, total cholesterol, smoking status and history of diabetes in survey participants and then used a formula to predict lifetime risk for cardiovascular disease.

The results are pretty amazing, Ning said. Younger (20 to 39 years) and middle-aged (40 to 59 years) adults with the highest fiber intake, compared to those with the lowest fiber intake, showed a statistically significant lower lifetime risk for cardiovascular disease.

In adults 60 to 79 years, dietary fiber intake was not significantly associated with a reduction in lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease. It's possible that the beneficial effect of dietary fiber may require a long period of time to achieve, and older adults may have already developed significant risk for heart disease before starting a high-fiber diet, Ning said.

As for young and middle-aged adults, now is the time to start making fiber a big part of your daily diet, Ning said.

The study suggests that starting a high-fiber diet now may help improve your long-term risk, Ning said.

Allergy vaccine is nothing to sneeze at

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Monash University researchers are working on a vaccine that could completely cure asthma brought on by house dust mite allergies.

If successful, the vaccine would have the potential to cure sufferers in two to three doses.

Allergies to house dust mites is a leading cause of asthma and the respiratory condition affects more than 2 million Australians and costs more than $600 million in health expenditure each year.

Currently, people allergic to house dust mites must continually clean their environments to remove the microscopic creatures from soft furnishings to avoid an allergic attack. Medications can bring relief for some sufferers, but must be taken regularly. Others respond less well to medications.

Professor El Meeusen, who is working with Professor Robyn O'Hehir, both from the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Services, believes that a vaccine for people with house dust mite allergies will have a range of health and financial benefits for patients and the government.

We are aiming to develop a vaccine that can be completely delivered in two to three doses. That means a person suffering from a house dust mite allergy will be able to breathe easily from their final dose, Professor Meeusen said.

Allergies cost the Australian economy approximately seven billion dollars every year. The potential reduction in cost to the patient and to the government by eradicating a common allergy such as this is immense.

Professor O'Hehir has also made significant gains in developing a vaccine for people with peanut allergies. Currently there is no specific treatment for peanut allergy with avoidance and emergency treatment of anaphylaxis with adrenaline as the only options. Allergen immunotherapy is available for selected patients with house dust mite allergy but typically injections need to be given regularly for three to five years.

This method of immunisation is quite precarious, because modern medicine still isn't entirely sure how it really works, Professor Meeusen said.

The immunisation is administered in small doses. Too much can cause anaphylactic shock. It's a very fine line.

Laboratory testing has shown that a genetic predisposition exists to be allergic to more than one allergen.

We have already found that being allergic to peanuts also represents the likelihood of developing an allergy to house dust mites, Dr Meeusen said.

In humans it is difficult to look at how the very early stages of allergy occur, because you don't get to see the patient until it is well developed in their allergic response. Our testing enables us to look at the very first time that our models are exposed to the allergen.

From there, the scientists can see which models are going to develop an allergy and which are not, to determine the difference between them.

This research involves using the scientist's knowledge of normal vaccines for infectious diseases to better understand how allergy vaccines work in order to develop more effective and safer products.

Sea grant awards more than $1.1 million for research under EPA's Long Island Sound study

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) STONY BROOK, NY, March 8, 2011 - The Sea Grant programs of Connecticut and New York have awarded Long Island Sound Study research grants valued at $1,130,832 to six projects that will look into some of the most serious threats to the ecological health of Long Island Sound, a water body designated by the Environmental Protection Agency as an Estuary of National Significance.

Research results from five two-year projects and a one-year pilot project are expected to provide valuable information to resource managers throughout the Long Island Sound watershed. Most projects involve nitrogen, known to be the biggest driver of low oxygen conditions in the Sound. The research also addresses emerging issues of red tide and the effects of climate change on the Sound's ecosystem.

The focus of many of the projects is on nitrogen-- its sources, impacts, and removal processes-- with the overall goal of improving the water quality of Long Island Sound for the benefit of its coastal communities and businesses, said Dr. James Ammerman, director of New York Sea Grant.

A study by Shimon Anisfeld and Gaboury Benoit at Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies will examine characteristics of constructed wetlands and wet ponds (manmade retention basins) to find out if and under what conditions they are effective at reducing the amount of nitrogen that enters Long Island Sound via stormwater. The results will help in future Best Management Practice designs to improve water quality.

Two geoscientists at Stony Brook University (SBU), Gilbert Hanson and Teng-Fong Wong, will examine the source, transformation, and fate of nitrogen as it travels from shallow groundwater aquifers to two harbors on Long Island's north shore. The information will be important to municipalities evaluating the potential impacts of on-site wastewater disposal systems. In another project, University of Connecticut (UConn) marine scientists Jamie Vaudrey and Charles Yarish will look at the impacts of nitrogen on habitats in some of the many small embayments that surround the Sound in Connecticut and New York. They will assess the uncertain ability of these habitats to support eelgrass under conditions of eutrophication and changing climate. Eelgrass is ecologically and economically valuable, particularly as bay scallop habitat.

A project led by Darcy Lonsdale and Christopher Gobler at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at SBU will look at how increasing populations of gelatinous zooplankton, such as comb jellies and jellyfish, might affect hypoxia and food webs in the Sound.

Harmful algal blooms, increasing globally, have negative effects on fisheries and economies. In a separate project, SBU's Gobler will determine possible anthropogenic causes of fundamental changes in the Sound that may encourage toxin-producing algal bloom events. The blooms can cause PSP and DSP, two different types of shellfish poisoning that impact human health.

Finally, in a small-scale pilot project, Craig R. Tobias, UConn Department of Marine Sciences, and Bongkuen Song, University of North Carolina at Wilmington Biology Department, will team up to quantify seasonal removal rates of nitrogen in tidal reaches of a Connecticut estuary. The results will be mapped and provide clues to whether hot spots for these processes persist over time and space or are transient. This information will help inform future management choices.

Nitrogen plays an invaluable role in society as fertilizer, but we know that too much nitrogen in coastal waters such as Long Island Sound can degrade water quality and contribute to harmful algal blooms, said Mark Tedesco, director of the EPA Long Island Sound Office which manages the Long Island Sound Study partnership, and provided the funds for the Sea Grant- administered research projects.

Since 2000, the Long Island Sound grant program has awarded 26 grants to scientists whose work helps meet the needs of decision-makers to improve the management of Long Island Sound, for a total of 32 projects.

The range of projects we are funding reflects the complexity of the problems we are facing, and will contribute to providing a strong scientific basis in support of management decisions for healthy ecosystems, said Dr. Sylvain De Guise, director of Connecticut Sea Grant. The results will help to conserve the Sound for current and future generations.

Research sheds light on fat digestibility in pigs

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Producers and feed companies add fat to swine diets to increase energy, but recent research from the University of Illinois suggests that measurements currently used for fat digestibility need to be updated.

It's critical that we gain a better understanding of the energy value of fat, said Hans H. Stein, U of I professor in the Department of Animal Sciences. If we don't know the true energy value of fat, we can't determine if it's economical to add to the diet.

In a recent experiment, Stein and his team of researchers studied how different types of diets affect endogenous losses of fat (fat excreted from pigs that did not originate from the diet). They measured endogenous losses of fat to determine the true digestibility of both intact and extracted corn oil. The intact corn oil was provided in the form of corn germ, and the extracted fat was provided as liquid corn oil.

Endogenous losses differed depending on the type of fat in the diet, he said. The intact fat was less digestible than extracted fat.

We believe that the main reason intact fat is less digestible than extracted fat is that it is easy for the enzymes to gain access to the fat in corn oil. In contrast, the corn germ is encased in the feed ingredient among the fiber complexes, which makes it difficult for enzymes to access and digest it, Stein said.

His team also discovered that measuring fat digestibility at the end of the ileum results in a more accurate value than measuring the total tract digestibility of fat.

The microbes in the hindgut can synthesize fat, Stein explained. This fat is not absorbed in the hindgut; it's just excreted in the feces. Because of this, it's easy to underestimate the amount of fat that was absorbed in the small intestine by the pig.

Stein said this research has opened new doors for swine nutrition.

We knew that the concentration of fat in the diet affects the value that is determined for apparent digestibility, Stein said. However, by correcting these values for the endogenous losses, we can calculate the true digestibility of fat fed to pigs.

Results of the research indicate that more information on fat digestibility is needed to ensure that diets are formulated economically.

We now know that fat digestibility should be determined as ileal digestibility rather than total tract digestibility to avoid the influence of the microbes in the hindgut of pigs, he said. We also know that for practical feed formulation, it is more accurate to use values for true ileal digestibility than for apparent ileal digestibility because these values are not influenced by the level of fat in the diet.

However, Stein said we still don't know many of the factors that influence fat digestibility in different feed ingredients and we do not have good data for the true ileal digestibility of fat in most of our feed ingredients. A better understanding of how fat is utilized by the pig after absorption is also needed. Stein believes follow-up research should focus on addressing these questions and determining the energy value of the different sources of fat used in swine diets.

New vaccine technology protects mice from hepatitis C virus

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Immunology: Three percent of the world's population is currently infected by hepatitis C. The virus hides in the liver and can cause cirrhosis and liver cancer, and it's the most frequent cause of liver transplants in Denmark. Since the virus mutates strongly, we have no traditional vaccine, but researchers at the University of Copenhagen are now the first to succeed in developing a vaccine, which provides future hope for medical protection from this type of hepatitis.

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) has the same infection pathways as HIV, says Jan Pravsgaard Christensen, Associate Professor of Infection Immunology at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen.

Approximately one newly infected patient in five has an immune system capable of defeating an acute HCV infection in the first six months. But most cases do not present any symptoms at all and the virus becomes a chronic infection of the liver.

Poorly treated donor blood and dirty needles are sinners

Every year three or four million more people become infected and the most frequent path of infection is needle sharing among drug addicts or tattoo artists with poor hygiene, such as tribal tattoo artists in Africa and Asia. Fifteen percent of new infections are sexually transmitted, while ten percent come from unscreened blood transfusions.

According to Allan Randrup Thomsen, Professor of Experimental Virology, Egypt is one country with a high incidence of HCV. This is particularly due to lack of caution in the past with regards to screening donated blood for the presence of this virus, he says.

China, Brazil, South East Asia and African states south of the Sahara also have a high incidence, while the disease is also spreading through Eastern Europe, especially Romania and Moldova.

HCV mutates too fast for traditional vaccines

The new vaccine technology was developed by Peter J. Holst, a former PhD student now a postdoc with the Experimental Virology group, which also includes Professor Allan Randrup Thomsen and Associate Professor Jan Pravsgaard Christensen.

The technology works by stimulating and accelerating the immune system, and showing the body's defence mechanisms of the parts of the virus that are more conserved and do not mutate as fast and as often, such as the molecules on the surface of the HCV.

Basically, traditional vaccines work by showing the immune defences an identikit image of the virus for which protection is desired. Antibodies then patrol all entrances with a copy of this image and are able to respond rapidly if the virus attempts to penetrate. But the influenza virus mutates its surface molecules and in the course of a single season it takes on a new guise so that it no longer resembles the original identikit image and the vaccine loses its efficacy.

Professor Randrup explains, Mutations of the surface are Darwin at work, so to speak. The virus tries to outwit the immune defences and if it succeeds we get ill, and our response is new vaccines.

Associate Professor Pravsgaard Christensen says, Viruses like HCV mutate so rapidly that classical vaccine technology hasn't a chance of keeping up. But the molecules inside the virus do not mutate that rapidly, because the survival of the virus does not depend on it.

New vaccine technology gives immune system information about virus' stable parts

According to Professor Randrup, the body's natural defences usually don't see these internal virus molecules until the virus has taken residence in the body.

Our cells constantly show random samples of their contents to the immune defence patrols, and if there are enough foreign bodies among them, the alarm is triggered, says Professor Randrup.

The cells display fragments of the surface molecules and internal genes from the virus, and if you show the immune defences a kind of X-ray of the inner genes, they will respond. Actually, the response is extremely potent, and one of the things it does is summon the specialised CD8 killer cells.

We took a dead common cold virus, an adenovirus that is completely harmless and which many of us have met in childhood, Associate Professor Pravsgaard Christensen explains.

We hid the gene for one of the HCV's internal molecules inside it. At the same time we attached a special molecule on the internal molecule so that when the cells of the mouse body tried to take a sample, they would extract a more extensive section. The immune defences would then be presented with a larger section of the molecule concerned. You may say that the immune defences were given an entire palm print of the internal genes instead of just a single fingerprint.

This strategy resulted in two discoveries from the team. Firstly, the mice were vaccinated for HCV in a way that meant that protection was independent of variations in the surface molecules of the virus. Secondly, the immune defences of the mice saw such an extensive section of the internal molecule that even though some aspects of it changed, there were still a couple of impressions the immune defences could recognise and respond to.

The new technology to be tested in monkeys

Another virus that mutates its surface molecules with extreme rapidity is HIV. It changes skin in the space of 24 hours, and like HCV, we do not yet have a cure or a vaccine. The researchers think that HIV originally migrated to man from monkeys in the 1930s, when it was the simian Immunodeficiency virus that still circulates among a number of species of wild African monkeys.

The Danish Medical Research Council (DMRC) has given postdoc Peter Holst a grant to test our technology for a SIV vaccine for macaque monkeys in the US, says Associate Professor Pravsgaard Christensen.

The University of Copenhagen is also currently negotiating the sale of the patent for the process so that the technology can be developed for use in human vaccines.

The discovery of an effective HCV vaccine has just been published in the

Hershey scientists improve methods for analysis of healthful cocoa compounds

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Two scientific publications report on improved methods for determining the amounts of flavanol antioxidants in cocoa and chocolate. The research, sponsored by The Hershey Center for Health and Nutrition, was a collaboration between scientists at The Hershey Company and other scientific laboratories.

Scientists at Planta Analytica (Danbury, CT) isolated and separated cocoa flavanol antioxidants on a large scale. The Hershey scientists and collaborating scientists at the Pennsylvania State University-M.S. Hershey Medical Center (Hershey, PA) teamed up to determine the purity of these flavanols by HPLC and by Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Time of Flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectroscopy. The isolated compounds were then used as standards in the determination of flavanol cocoa antioxidants in a cocoa powder and a dark chocolate.

We believe this represents the first large scale purification of standards for flavanol antioxidant determination said Dr. Jeffrey Hurst of the Hershey Center for Health and Nutrition. Prior to this, only dimers were commercially available. With a full series of standards, our flavanol determinations are not only more accurate, but the values are much higher, between 40% to 100% higher, than previously published methods using proprietary standards. This also means that standards are commercially available to various laboratories. This collaborative work was published in the online journal

In other research published in the Journal Association of Official Analytical Chemists, scientists from The Hershey Company and Brunswick Laboratories (Newton, MA) reported on the development of a new method for determining total procyanidins. This method is a colorimetric test based on the specific reaction of dimethylaminocinnamaldehyde (DMAC) with flavanols. The method measures flavanol monomers, including EGCG, as well as higher flavanol polymers. The method which is standardized using a commercially available flavanol dimer, was validated at two Brunswick Laboratories facilities and at Hershey with all three laboratories providing comparable results at the 95% confidence level. The specific reaction of DMAC with the flavanols has been known since the 1950s. This method is a simple and quick way to measure total procyanidins in cocoa and chocolate said Dr. Mark Payne of the Hershey Center for Health and Nutrition. Compared to the HPLC method, which separates individual compounds, this method gives one number, which importantly includes polymers of flavanols beyond ten.

These reports are part of an ongoing series of publications, by Hershey and its collaborators, designed to improve upon the methods to determine flavanol antioxidants from cocoa and chocolate, said Dr. David Stuart, of the Hershey Center for Health and Nutrition. We want to make these methods generally available to the chocolate industry initially, with the intent of having uniformly agreed upon methods of determining the level of these important molecules.

These new methods can be used in research and other applications involving dietary intake of cocoa and chocolate, clinical interventions and food standardization.

Saint Louis University findings: Don't pitch stockpiled avian flu vaccine

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) ST. LOUIS -- A stockpiled vaccine designed to fight a strain of avian flu that circulated in 2004 can be combined with a vaccine that matches the current strain of bird flu to protect against a potential pandemic, researchers from Saint Louis University's Center for Vaccine Development have found.

The findings suggest public health officials can get a jump on fighting a pandemic caused by avian flu virus because they won't have to wait for a vaccine that exactly matches the current strain of bird flu to be manufactured. They can begin immunizing against the bird flu by giving an injection of a vaccine made from a related, yet mismatched strain of flu to prime the body for a second shot of a vaccine that matches the current strain.

A cornerstone of pandemic planning is the development of effective vaccines against avian influenza infection, said Robert Belshe, M.D., director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Saint Louis University and the lead author of the paper.

The results of the present study confirm the usefulness of vaccination with an H5 strain that isn't the current dominant strain.

Avian flu -- or H5N1 -- is a highly infectious and deadly virus that circulates in birds and has the potential to genetically mutate and jump between species to infect humans. Because people lack immunity to the virus, public health officials are concerned that the virus can spread quickly to become a pandemic outbreak.

In anticipation of a bird flu pandemic, in 2004 the U.S. government stockpiled 20 million doses of vaccine against the Vietnam strain of avian influenza, which then was the dominant strain of the virus. But the avian flu changes quickly and since then, a different strain of bird flu, known as the Indonesia strain, has replaced the Vietnam strain as the prominent circulating avian flu.

Researchers studied both the vaccine against the Vietnam strain and an investigational vaccine designed to protect against the Indonesia strain in 491 healthy adults. They measured the body's immune response to different combinations of the two avian flu vaccines. They also looked at how long to wait between giving the first and second doses of vaccine.

They found that two doses of vaccine are needed to provide protection against the avian flu. Giving the stockpiled Vietnam avian flu vaccine as the first dose primed the body's system so that a follow up dose of the investigational Indonesia avian flu vaccine triggered a heighten immune response. The immune response to both strains of avian influenza became more robust as the injections of vaccine were spaced further apart.

The longer 180-day interval between priming and boosting vaccine doses gave the best antibody responses, although in a fast-moving pandemic, this is unlikely to be an option, Belshe said.

The most surprising thing we discovered was the value of time. It's incredible how much stronger response you get at six months. There's something going on there that we know nothing about and is a very interesting area for future research.

Other areas of future of research include studying the vaccines in children and adults and examining the use of adjuvants, substances that stimulate the immune response to produce more antibodies so less vaccine is needed, Belshe added.

Public health officials might consider immunizing those who are at risk of serious side effects from influenza with the stockpiled avian flu vaccine, he said.

The vaccine could prime the body's immune system to mount a defense if the person is exposed to the avian flu virus and could be a powerful weapon in the fight against a pandemic, Belshe said.