Honey bees on cocaine dance more, changing ideas about the insect brain
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In a study that challenges current ideas about the insect brain, researchers have found that honey bees on cocaine tend to exaggerate.
Normally, foraging honey bees alert their comrades to potential food sources only when they’ve found high quality nectar or pollen, and only when the hive is in need. They do this by performing a dance, called a “round” or “waggle” dance, on a specialized “dance floor” in the hive. The dance gives specific instructions that help the other bees find the food.
Foraging honey bees on cocaine are more likely to dance, regardless of the quality of the food they’ve found or the status of the hive, the authors of the study report.
Hormones increase frequency of inherited form of migraine in women
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Familial hemiplegic migraine (FHM) is an inherited form of severe migraine that is accompanied by visual disturbances known as aura. As with other types of migraine, it affects women more frequently than men. Most cases of FHM are caused by mutations in the CACNA1A gene, but whether these lead to spreading depression, the event in the brain that suppresses nerve cell activity and that has been linked to nongenetic forms of migraine with aura, has not been determined. However, Cenk Ayata and colleagues, at Massachusetts General Hospital, have now generated data in mice that address this issue as well as provide insight into the reasons why FHM affects women more frequently than men.
In the study, mice expressing either one of two different CACNA1A mutations that lead to FHM in humans were found to have an increased susceptibility to spreading depression. Interestingly, the mutation linked to more severe FHM caused a greater increase in susceptibility to spreading depression than the mutation linked to a milder form of FHM. As with humans, female mice were more susceptible to spreading depression than male mice. This difference was reversed if the female mice had their ovaries removed, and then partially restored by replacement of the hormone estrogen. The authors therefore conclude that both genetic and hormonal factors modulate an individual’s susceptibility to migraines with aura.
Nail biters to be treated in a special treatment centre in the Netherlands
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The world’s first treatment centre for nail biters is to open in the Netherlands next month.
Nail biters to be treated in a special treatment centre in the NetherlandsDirector of the new centre in Venlo, Alain-Raymond van Abbe of the Institute for Pathological Onychophagy (IPO) says he and his team have invented an aid to make nail-biting impossible.
“This is the first place ever to tackle this very serious problem,” he explained. “We are expecting clients from all over the world.”
Newly identified gene powerful predictor of colon cancer metastasis
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Cancer Researchers at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch and the Charité – Universitäts Medizin Berlin (Germany) have identified a gene which enables them to predict for the first time with high probability if colon cancer is going to metastasize. Assistant Professor Dr. Ulrike Stein, Professor Peter M. Schlag, and Professor Walter Birchmeier were able to demonstrate that the gene MACC1 (Metastasis-Associated in Colon Cancer 1) not only promotes tumor growth but also the development of metastasis.When MACC1 gene activity is low, the life expectancy of patients with colon cancer is longer in comparison to patients with high MACC1 levels. (Nature Medicine, doi: 10.1038/nm.1889)*.
According to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, more than 108,000 people developed colon cancer in the US in 2008. Despite surgery, chemo- and radiotherapy, only 50 percent of patients can be cured because 20 percent of the patients have already developed metastasis by the time their colon cancer is diagnosed. In addition, one-third of patients whose treatment of the original colon cancer was successful will, nevertheless, go on to develop metastasis.
The MDC and Charité researchers are convinced that the identification of the MACC1 gene will aid medical doctors in identifying those patients as early as possible who are at high risk of developing life-threatening metastasis in the liver and the lungs. As a result, more intensive treatment and follow-up care could be offered to high risk patients.
Who are you kidding?
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The research was carried out by a team of researchers led by Sharon Herring, MD, MPH, an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Public Health at Temple University. She said, “Compared to normal weight women who accurately assessed their pre-pregnancy weight status, the odds of gaining excessively during pregnancy were increased seven-fold among overweight and obese women who thought they weighed less than they really did. Normal weight women who thought they were overweight had twice the odds of excessive gestational weight gain.”
The authors studied 1537 women enrolled in Project Viva, a US birth cohort, who were normal weight, overweight or obese at the beginning of their pregnancies. Underweight women were not included. Of the 1029 normal weight participants, 898 (87%) correctly reported that they were normal weight just prior to pregnancy, while 131 (13%) incorrectly thought they were overweight or obese. Of the remaining women who were overweight or obese, 438 (86%) accurately perceived their body weight status, while 70 (14%) under-assessed their size before pregnancy.
Augsburg: Weight issues in children starting school
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Immigrant children have a greater risk of suffering from overweight and obesity. This is the result of a study from Augsburg with 2306 children examined on starting school. Elisabeth Weber and her coauthors present the results in the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztbl Int 2008; 105 [51-52]: 883-9). The doctors recorded not only the age, sex, weight, and height of the children, but also their mother tongue. Their parents had to answer a questionnaire covering sporting activity, amount of television watched, and eating behavior.
German was the mother tongue of 1398 of the children examined. Turkish was the most frequent foreign language (395 children), followed by Russian (183 children). Other languages were subsumed under “other” (419 children). In all, 302 children (13.1%) suffered from overweight and 133 children (4.9%) were obese.
More exercise may prevent diabetes in black women
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Taking a walk instead of turning on the TV may help African-American women lower their risk of type 2 diabetes, a large study suggests.
Researchers found that among more than 45,000 African-American women they followed for a decade, those who said they walked for exercise at least five hours per week were one-third less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than non-walkers.
Furthermore, women who watched five or more hours of television a day were 86 percent more likely to develop diabetes than those who watched less than one hour per day.
Drop in second-hand smoke deaths predicted
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The number of deaths and heart attacks due to second-hand smoke exposure may fall by as much as 30 percent if current downward trends in passive smoking exposure continue, according to a new report.
“Exposure to passive smoking has been reduced by 25 percent to 40 percent, and its burden has been reduced by 25 percent and 30 percent over the last 8-10 years, but the burden remains substantial,” Dr. James M. Lightwood and colleagues write in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Lightwood of the University of California San Francisco and his team used the Coronary Heart Disease Policy Model to gauge the health and cost burden of passive smoking on US residents over 35. The model is a computer simulation of the impact of heart disease caused by smoking, blood pressure, cholesterol levels and other factors.
Botulinum Toxin Provides New Treatment Option
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For patients with an uncommon condition causing a swollen appearance of the lower face, treatment with botulinum toxin type A (Botox) provides an effective alternative to plastic surgery, according to a study in the November Journal of Craniofacial Surgery. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading provider of information and business intelligence for students, professionals, and institutions in medicine, nursing, allied health, pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry.
Dr. Gianpaolo Tartaro and colleagues of Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli, Italy, report on the use of botulinum toxin type A to treat patients with masseteric muscle hypertrophy (MMH). Patients with MMH have painless enlargement of the masseter (cheek) muscles, causing a swollen or “square-faced” appearance. The cause of MMH is unknown. In the past, the only treatment option was plastic surgery to remove part of the masseter muscle and/or jawbone.
Botulinum Toxin Provides New Treatment Option
Dr. Tartaro and colleagues used botulinum toxin type A to treat MMH in five patients—three women and two men, aged 46 to 56 years. Known by the brand name Botox, botulinum toxin is commonly used for cosmetic plastic surgery, including treatment of forehead wrinkles. Injected into muscles, the toxin blocks nerve transmission, causing those muscles to relax.
New study shows that a cough medicine ingredient could effectively treat prostate cancer
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A study published today in the December issue of the European medical journal Anticancer Research demonstrates that an ingredient used in a common cough suppressant may be useful in treating advanced prostate cancer. Researchers found that noscapine, which has been used in cough medication for nearly 50 years, reduced tumor growth in mice by 60% and limited the spread of tumors by 65% without causing harmful side effects.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in the United States. The American Cancer Society estimates that 186,320 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2008 and 28,660 will die from it. One man in 6 will get prostate cancer during his lifetime. Although slow-growing in most men, the cancer is considered advanced when it spreads beyond the prostate. There is no known cure.
The laboratory study was a joint effort by Dr. Israel Barken of the Prostate Cancer Research and Educational Foundation, Moshe Rogosnitzky of MedInsight Research Institute, and Dr. Jack Geller of The University of California San Diego. Noscapine has previously been studied as a treatment for breast, ovarian, colon, lung and brain cancer and for various lymphomas, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and melanoma. This study, however, is the first to demonstrate its effectiveness in treating prostate cancer.
Common Treatment for Chronic Prostatitis Fails to Reduce Symptoms
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Alfuzosin, a drug commonly prescribed for men with chronic prostatitis, a painful disorder of the prostate and surrounding pelvic area, failed to significantly reduce symptoms in recently diagnosed men who had not been previously treated with this drug, according to a clinical trial sponsored by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study is to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“Although these results are disappointing, it is just as important to find out what doesn’t work as it is to know what does,” said NIDDK Director Griffin P. Rodgers, M.D. “We have conclusively shown that a drug commonly prescribed for men with chronic prostatitis did not significantly reduce symptoms compared to a placebo.”
Chronic prostatitis, which has no known cause and no uniformly effective therapy, is the most common type of prostatitis seen by physicians. Men with this condition experience pain in the genital and urinary tract areas, lower urinary tract symptoms such as pain in the bladder area and during urination, and sexual problems that can severely affect their quality of life. Population-based surveys estimate that 6 percent to 12 percent of men have prostatitis-like symptoms.
High-dose supplements may improve stroke rehab
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People who are undernourished after suffering a stroke benefit from intensive dietary supplementation during rehabilitation, according to results of a pilot study conducted at the Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in New York.
Dr. M. H. Rabadi, currently at the VA Medical Center in Oklahoma City, and associates compared intensive and routine nutritional supplementation in 102 undernourished patients admitted within 4 weeks of having a stroke. All had unintentionally lost at least 2.5 percent of their body weight.
The “standard” supplement was Resource Standard, containing 127 calories, 5 grams of protein, and 36 milligrams of vitamin C per dose; the “intensive” supplement was Novasource 2.0 containing 240 calories, 11 grams of protein, and 90 milligrams of vitamin C per dose. Both supplements, made by Novartis Pharmaceuticals, were given every 8 hours along with multivitamins with minerals, in addition to the normal diet.
Right help key to quit success for women smokers
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Female smokers who want to kick the habit face different challenges than men, but with the right help they can be just as successful, according to experts from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
“The problem is that there are specialists or interventionists who deal with everyone in the same manner,” Dr. Ivana T. Croghan, research program coordinator at the clinic’s Nicotine Dependence Center, told Reuters Health.
While research suggests women may be more likely than men to relapse after quitting, Croghan added, her own analysis of 3,000 people treated at the Mayo Clinic center found no difference between men and women in the ability to stay smoke free six months later.
Living with extended family hard on women’s hearts
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Having multiple generations living under one roof may take a toll on women’s heart health, a large study of Japanese adults suggests.
The study, which started following nearly 91,000 middle-aged and older adults in 1990, found that women who lived with their spouse, children and parents or parents-in-law were at elevated risk of developing heart disease.
Compared with their counterparts who lived with a husband only, these women were about three times more likely to be diagnosed with coronary heart disease by 2004.
U.S. blacks lag whites in colorectal cancer progress
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Colorectal cancer diagnoses and deaths have fallen in the United States this decade, but the gap in progress between whites and blacks is widening, the American Cancer Society said on Monday.
Improvement has come about chiefly due to prevention and early detection through colonoscopy and other screening methods recommended starting at age 50, the group said in a report.
Colorectal cancer, which includes cancer of the colon and rectum, ranks third among all types of cancer in the United States both in the number of people who get it and in the number who die, but rates have been falling since the 1980s.
