Aquaporin related to obesity
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Dr. Gema Fruhbeck, director of the Metabolic Research Laboratory of the University Hospital of the University of Navarra, has published a commentary in the latest issue of Nature. The article presents aquaporin as a new modulator of the biology of the adipocyte. It is a new concept concerning how the permeability of glycerol in fat cells is able to modulate the size of the adipocyte and, as a result, can contribute to the development of obesity.
Aquaporins are related to the transport of water through cell membranes, but only recently has they been linked to weight control and adiposity. There is a subfamily, the aquaglyceroporins, which transport water as well as smaller solutes, such as glycerol. It has been shown that if one eliminates the specific aquaporin of the adipose tissue, aquaporin-7, glycerol is no longer able to leave the fat cell and instead accumulates in the cell interior.
Discovery reveals how malaria infects humans
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Researchers at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in India and a unit of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in France have made a key discovery about a molecule that helps the malaria parasite infect human cells. India is one of the countries most affected by this disease, which has infected 300 million people across the world and leads to over one million fatalities per year. The breakthrough, which was achieved at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, may represent an important step towards finding new therapies. The study appears in this week’s online edition of Nature (December 21).
Malaria is caused by a one-celled organism called Plasmodium, which is passed to humans through the bite of Anopheles mosquitoes.
Mice breathing bad air suffer heart disease
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Breathing polluted air found in urban areas promotes heart disease, especially when accompanied by a fatty diet, researchers who tested the theory on mice said on Tuesday.
The animal study was aimed at determining how air pollution—specifically small airborne particles spewed by car exhaust and power plants—combined with a high-fat diet sped up the deterioration of the body’s cardiovascular system.
“We established a causal link between air pollution and atherosclerosis,” said the study’s lead author, Lung Chi Chen of New York University’s School of Medicine.
Diabetes Guidelines Should Change - Lower Blood Sugar Needed
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A Pennington Biomedical Research Center researcher and diabetes expert believes that physicians with diabetic patients should aim for much lower levels of blood glucose than current guidelines suggest. He believes the current recommendations for blood-sugar levels are not low enough to avoid a major complication of diabetes: heart disease.
Citing research published in this month’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), PBRC researcher William Cefalu, M.D., says that if the medical community believes long-term control of blood sugar levels can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, then “a reassessment of our clinical goals may be in order.”
The work, to be published December 22, shows that more aggressive control of blood sugar levels, by use of a more intensive insulin regimen, appears to help avoid long-term cardiovascular disease. Cefalu made his remarks in an editorial in the same issue of the NEJM.
Prostate cancer hormone therapy triggers bone loss
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Men with advanced prostate cancer may be given therapy to stop their production of testosterone, which may drive tumor growth. However, androgen deprivation therapy, or ADT, appears to trigger a rapid loss of bone mineral density (BMD), researchers report.
Dr. Susan L. Greenspan of the University of Pittsburgh and colleagues note in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism that although bone loss is associated with ADT, little is known about when this may occur.
Roche says US OKs Tamiflu for prevention in young
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U.S. regulators approved Roche AG’s request to market antiviral drug Tamiflu for preventing influenza in children ages 1 through 12, the company said on Wednesday.
Tamiflu is being stockpiled by countries in case of an avian flu pandemic in people. The drug previously was approved for preventing infection in adults and adolescents age 13 and older and for treating the flu in anyone 1 year old or older.
Canadians can have group sex in clubs
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Group sex between consenting adults is neither prostitution nor a threat to society, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Wednesday, dismissing arguments that the sometimes raucous activities of so-called “swingers” clubs were dangerous.
In a ruling that radically changes the way Canadian courts determine what poses a threat to the population, the court threw out the conviction of a Montreal man who ran a club where members could have group sex in a private room behind locked doors.
UK docs urged to fight heart disease aggressively
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Britain’s generalist doctors (GPs) on Wednesday were given tougher targets to help prevent the nation’s biggest killer—heart disease—including prescribing more drugs for at-risk groups as well as some seemingly healthy people.
Issuing new guidelines, the Joint British Societies - a group of six medical bodies, said: “For all high risk people a number of drugs from different classes will reduce the risk of recurrent disease and increase life expectancy.”
Less coronary disease seen in black diabetics
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Compared to whites with type 2 diabetes, blacks with type 2 diabetes suffer more heart attacks, strokes, and end-stage renal disease, but African Americans appear to have significantly lower rates of clinical coronary artery disease than whites.
Dr. Barry I. Freedman and colleagues from Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina report the finding in the December issue of Diabetologia.
Light at the end of the tunnel for arthritis sufferers
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There is at last a light at the end of the tunnel for Arthritis sufferers.
The disease which can cause severe pain, leaves many incapacitated with a reduced quality of life.
Osteoarthritis is a form of rheumatic disease, and it affects as many 2 million people in the UK alone.
Early hope seen for green tea in fighting leukemia
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Green tea may help treat a form of adulthood leukemia, if the cases of four patients are any indication, according to a new report.
Doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, found that of four patients who started drinking green tea or taking green tea extracts, three showed clear improvements in their condition in the following months.
High homocysteine tied to memory loss
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A population-based, prospective study of elderly British individuals shows that risk of memory loss increases over time with increasing levels of total blood homocysteine and decreasing folate levels.
Homocysteine is an amino acid in the blood. Too much of it ups the risk for coronary heart disease, stroke and fatty deposits in peripheral arteries. High circulating levels of homocysteine, especially with advancing age, have also been associated with cognitive impairment. Homocysteine levels in the blood are strongly influenced by diet and genetics.
New use for tobacco could save lives
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One acre of genetically engineered tobacco plants can produce enough anthrax vaccine to inoculate the entire U.S. population safely and inexpensively, a molecular biologist at the University of Central Florida said on Tuesday.
Professor Henry Daniell said his method, applied to other vaccines and scarce medicines, can eliminate shortages, reduce costs by as much as 80 percent and curb incidents of contamination, which is a problem in the traditional, fermentation production of vaccines.
Experts unsurprised by level of alcohol abuse
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In response to figures on alcohol abuse released this week, Dr Peter Rice, a leading consultant psychiatrist with the NHS Tayside Alcohol Problem Service, said he is not surprised as alcohol-related problems were having a detrimental effect on the lives of too many people across Tayside and Scotland.
According to the newly released figures by the Information Statistics Division of the NHS in Scotland, alcohol related conditions accounted for more than 2000 hospital discharges in Tayside in 2004/05.
Brits all set to do full-face transplant
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A British team has been given the green light to perform the world’s first full-face transplant.
The transplant may be carried out within months after surgeons at the Royal Free Hospital, in London, were cleared by the ethics committee to evaluate candidates for the operation, and determine physical and psychological suitability.
