Bee sting therapy no help in multiple sclerosis
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Bee sting therapy is not effective in treating the symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS), and does not improve quality of life, according to the first controlled study to investigate the alternative treatment in MS patients.
Patients with MS should not undergo bee venom therapy “unless better evidence to justify its use becomes available,” warn Dr. Jacques De Keyser of the University Medical Center Groningen in The Netherlands and colleagues in the journal Neurology this month.
French experts reduce possible bird flu death toll
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The arrival of a bird flu pandemic in France might cause up to 80,000 deaths, a third less than what was estimated in an initial governmental study released in January 2004, a spokeswoman from France’s Health Watch Institute (INVS) said on Tuesday.
“The reduction is due to the current level of anti-viral treatments acquired by the French government,” Isabelle Bonmarin, epidemiologist at the INVS told a bird flu conference, organised by the French High Civil Defense Committee.
New Findings About Birth Defects
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New findings presented this past week by UAB researchers at the Cell Biology Conference in San Francisco challenge a widely held belief among scientists that cilia – small hair-like projections on the surface of cells – serve no purpose.
“Our study demonstrates cilia play an essential role in the proper formation of certain tissues, such as limbs and digits,” said Bradley Yoder, Ph.D., UAB cell biologist. The study focused on a protein called Tg737/polaris, required for cilia formation.
UK reviews controversial curbs on Alzheimer drugs
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British healthcare experts meet on Tuesday to review a planned ban on the new use of Alzheimer’s drugs within the state health service, which has outraged both patients and drug companies.
The deliberations of the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) committee will resonate with governments around the world, who increasingly have to weigh up the benefits of modern medicines against their price.
Popular Antidepressants Boost Brain Growth
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The beneficial effects of a widely used class of antidepressants might be the result of increased nerve-fiber growth in key parts of the brain, according to a Johns Hopkins study being published in the January 2006 issue of the Journal of Neurochemistry.
The study on rats, led by Vassilis E. Koliatsos, M.D., a neuropathologist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, found that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) increase the density of nerve-impulse-carrying axons in the frontal and parietal lobes of the neocortex and part of the limbic brain which control the sense of smell, emotions, motivation, and organs that work reflexively such as the heart, intestines and stomach. “It appears that SSRI antidepressants rewire areas of the brain that are important for thinking and feeling, as well as operating the autonomic nervous system,” said Koliatsos.
Ancient Chinese Remedy Shows Potential in Preventing Breast Cancer
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A derivative of the sweet wormwood plant used since ancient times to fight malaria and shown to precisely target and kill cancer cells may someday aid in stopping breast cancer before it gets a toehold.
In a new study, two University of Washington bioengineers found that the substance, artemisinin, appeared to prevent the onset of breast cancer in rats that had been given a cancer-causing agent. The study appears in the latest issue of the journal Cancer Letters.
Genes influence risk from second-hand smoke
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Children harboring a particular variant in the TNF gene who are exposed to second-hand smoke are at increased risk of frequent respiratory-related absences from school, researchers at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, report.
In a study of more than 1,300 fourth graders, Dr. Frank D. Gilliland and colleagues found the effect of passive smoke exposure on illness differed according to TNF genotype.
Cocaine’s heart-damaging effects likely immediate
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California researchers have found no link between cocaine use and hardening of the arteries in a study of more than 3,000 adults. The findings suggest that the drug’s heart-damaging effects likely occur immediately after use, and do not result from any long-term effects, Dr. Mark Pletcher of the University of California at San Francisco, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health.
Cocaine use is known to boost heart rate and blood pressure, and has been firmly linked to heart attacks and sudden death, Pletcher and his colleagues write in the American Heart Journal.
Radiologists use lights, films to soothe children
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Three-year old Jack Law used to be so nervous when he went to hospital for regular scans he had to be sedated, only coming round several hours later. This time it was different, and a lot quicker.
He was the first patient in the world’s first “ambient experience” radiology suite, a special room designed to soothe children that opened in August at the Advocate Lutheran General Children’s Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois in the United States.
Gene Variation Affects Tamoxifen’s Benefit for Breast Cancer
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One of the most commonly prescribed drugs for breast cancer, tamoxifen, may not be as effective for women who inherit a common genetic variation, according to researchers at the University of Michigan and the Mayo Clinic. The genetic variation affects the level of a crucial enzyme that activates tamoxifen to fight breast cancer.
The study, co-led by researcher James Rae, Ph.D., at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center and Matthew Goetz, M.D., an oncologist at the Mayo Clinic, tested the most common genetic variant responsible for lowering the CYP2D6 enzyme, and found that women with this genetic variant were almost twice as likely to see their breast cancer return. Up to 10 percent of women inherit this genetic trait.
Six Reasons Not to Scrimp on Sleep
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A recent survey found that more people are sleeping less than six hours a night, and sleep difficulties visit 75% of us at least a few nights per week. A short-lived bout of insomnia is generally nothing to worry about. The bigger concern is chronic sleep loss, which can contribute to health problems such as weight gain, high blood pressure, and a decrease in the immune system’s power, reports the Harvard Women’s Health Watch.
While more research is needed to explore the links between chronic sleep loss and health, it’s safe to say that sleep is too important to shortchange. The Harvard Women’s Health Watch suggests six reasons to get enough sleep:
Kids with specific gene variant more at risk from passive smoking
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When U.S. children who possess a variant gene are exposed to second-hand smoke in their homes, they are at a substantially greater risk for developing respiratory illnesses that lead to school absences.
The findings are reported in the second issue of the December 2005 American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.
Gene therapy tackles hereditary spastic paraplegia
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Elena Rugarli and colleagues from the National Neurological Institute in Milan have used gene therapy to save sensory and skeletal muscle nerve fibers from degeneration in mice with hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP).
This strategy, reported online on December 15 in advance of print publication in the January 2006 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, holds promise for many other disorders characterized by nerve degeneration due to loss of function of a known gene.
Two Key Players in Cancer Prevention and How They Work
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Mayo Clinic researchers have challenged the conventional teaching about a common cancer trait and in doing so, discovered how cells are naturally “cancer proofed.” Their findings appear in today’s early online edition of the Dec. 15 issue of the journal Nature (http://www.nature.com/nature ).
The researchers investigated aneuploidy (AN-u-ploy-dee), the state in which a cell has an abnormal number of chromosomes that creates cellular instability, giving rise to tumors. They discovered two key proteins that help prevent aneuploidy, and also found how the proteins work to “cancer proof” a cell: by preventing premature segregation of duplicated chromosomes during (nuclear) cell division.
Gene Mutation Found That Increases Severity of Multisystem Syndrome
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Johns Hopkins scientists studying a rare inherited syndrome marked by eye and kidney problems, learning disabilities and obesity have discovered a genetic mutation that makes the syndrome more severe but that alone doesn’t cause it. Their report appears in the advance online edition of Nature (Dec. 4).
The new discovery about Bardet-Beidl syndrome (BBS) came from a panoply of studies—starting with comparative genomics and experiments with yeast, and moving to experiments with zebrafish and genetic analysis of families with the syndrome—and mirrors what experts expect for the genetically complex common diseases that kill most Americans, like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
