Hold the Gas? Inhaled Nitric Oxide of No Benefit to Most Premature Babies
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A new Johns Hopkins Children’s Center study challenges the widespread practice of treating premature babies with nitric oxide gas to prevent lung problems, neurological damage and death. The research, based on analysis of 22 major studies of the effect of nitric oxide in babies born before 34 weeks of age, found no evidence of benefit in most infants.
Overall, the Hopkins review found that babies who received nitric oxide in the neonatal intensive care unit didn’t fare any better than those who didn’t. The babies who received the treatment were no less likely to die, develop chronic lung disease of prematurity, suffer cerebral palsy or have neurological or cognitive impairments, the researchers found.
The findings, to appear in the February issue of the journal Pediatrics, point against the routine use of inhaled nitric oxide in all premature babies and call for careful, case-by-case evaluation of each baby’s degree of brain and lung maturation to determine if nitric oxide would help, hurt or do nothing for a patient, the researchers say.
Device Promising for Detecting Metastatic Breast Cancer Cells
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Research by engineers and cancer biologists at Virginia Tech indicate that using specific silicon microdevices might provide a new way to screen breast cancer cells’ ability to metastasize.
An image of their work provided to Biomaterials was selected as one of the 12 best biomaterials-related images published in the journal’s 2010 catalogue. http://www.elsevierscitech.com/pdfs/Biomaterials_2010.pdf
The Virginia Tech researchers are: Masoud Agah, director of Virginia Tech’s Microelectromechanical Systems Laboratory (MEMS) Laboratory in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Jeannine Strobl, a research professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Mehdi Nikkhah of mechanical engineering; and Raffaella DeVita of engineering science and mechanics and the director of the soft biological systems laboratory. Nikkhah was Virginia Tech’s Outstanding Doctoral Student in the College of Engineering for 2009.
Researchers visualize herpes virus’ tactical maneuver
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For the first time, researchers have developed a 3D picture of a herpes virus protein interacting with a key part of the human cellular machinery, enhancing our understanding of how it hijacks human cells to spread infection and opening up new possibilities for stepping in to prevent or treat infection. This discovery uncovers one of the many tactical manoeuvres employed by the virus.
The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)-funded team, led by The University of Manchester, have used NMR - a technique related to the one used in MRI body scanners and capable of visualising molecules at the smallest scales – to produce images of a herpes virus protein interacting with a mouse cellular protein. These images were then used to develop a 3D model of this herpes virus protein interacting with human protein. The research is published this evening (06 January) in PLoS Pathogens.
Lead researcher Dr Alexander Golovanov from Manchester’s Interdisciplinary Biocentre and Faculty of Life Sciences said “There are quite a few types of herpes viruses that cause problems as mild as cold sores through to some quite serious illnesses, such as shingles or even cancer. Viruses cannot survive or replicate on their own – they need the resources and apparatus within a human cell to do so. To prevent or treat diseases caused by viruses we need to know as much as possible about how they do this so that we can spot weak points or take out key tactical manoeuvres.”
Parents demand answers in China lead poisoning
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Parents of children poisoned by lead in eastern China are demanding answers and compensation from the government after the country’s latest incident of heavy metal pollution made more than 200 sick.
Authorities in Gaohe in eastern Anhui province have closed two battery plants blamed for the poisoning just a stone’s throw from residences in contravention of planning laws, according to state media.
Some of the children affected are just a few months old.
Q&A: What is the future of healthcare law?
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The future of President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform will be at stake after Republicans take charge of the House of Representatives on Wednesday following their gains at midterm elections last year.
Here are some questions and answers about the political and legal challenge to healthcare reform.
WILL CONGRESS REPEAL THE WHOLE LAW?
Republicans will be in control of the House but not the Senate, limiting their power to overturn the healthcare law. House Republicans will hold a vote on repeal on Jan 12, before Obama’s State of the Union address, and are set to win it.
Hepatitis C: In 2011, a predictive marker for response to therapy
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Scientists at Inserm and Institut Pasteur have performed biomarker discovery on patients being treated for chronic hepatitis C infection. Their work, published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, demonstrates that the plasma levels of the protein IP-10 predict, prior to treatment initiation, the efficacy of treatment with pegylated-interferon and ribavirin. Based on these results, the scientists have developed a prognostic test. Commercialization is anticipated in 2011, and will help inform physicians of the chances that patients will respond to standard treatment or if instead they will require new therapeutic cocktails (e.g., inclusion of protease inhibitors).
Importantly, hepatitis C is the leading cause of primary liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma) and it remains an important cause of liver failure due to fibrosis and cirrhosis. This infectious disease represents a major public health problem, with greater than 170 million cases worldwide. The World Health Organization estimates 3 to 4 million new cases per year and considers the virus a ” viral time bomb” due to the long term sequella of infection.
Currently, there is no approved vaccine available and approximately 80% of individuals infected by the virus develop chronic disease, a risk factor for cirrhosis, liver failure, liver cancer as well as other medical complications (e.g., diabetes).
Helicopter Transport Increases Survival for Seriously Injured Patients
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Severely injured patients transported by helicopter from the scene of an accident are more likely to survive than patients brought to trauma centers by ground ambulance, according to a new study published in The Journal of Trauma: Injury, Infection, and Critical Care. The study is the first to examine the role of helicopter transport on a national level and includes the largest number of helicopter-transport patients in a single analysis.
The finding that helicopter transport positively impacts patient survival comes amid an ongoing debate surrounding the role of helicopter transport in civilian trauma care in the United States, with advocates citing the benefits of fast transport times and critics pointing to safety, utilization and cost concerns.
The new national data shows that patients selected for helicopter transport to trauma centers are more severely injured, come from greater distances and require more hospital resources, including admission to the intensive care unit, the use of a ventilator to assist breathing and urgent surgery, compared to patients transported by ground ambulance. Despite this, helicopter-transport patients are more likely than ground-transport patients to survive and be sent home following treatment.
Organic onions, carrots and potatoes do not have higher levels of healthful antioxidants
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With the demand for organically produced food increasing, scientists are reporting new evidence that organically grown onions, carrots, and potatoes generally do not have higher levels of healthful antioxidants and related substances than vegetables grown with traditional fertilizers and pesticides. Their study appears in ACS’ bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
In the study, Pia Knuthsen and colleagues point out that there are many reasons to pay a premium for organic food products. The most important reasons for the popularity of organic food products include improved animal welfare, environmental protection, better taste, and possible health benefits. However, the health benefits of organic food consumption are still controversial and not considered scientifically well documented.
The scientists describe experiments in which they analyzed antioxidants termed “polyphenols” from onions, carrots and potatoes grown using conventional and organic methods. They found no differences in polyphenol content for organic vs. traditional methods of growth.
Accurate interpretation of antinuclear antibodies test key to confirming autoimmune disease
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The presence of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) indicates the possibility of autoimmunity and the indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) assay on HEp-2 cells is the standard blood test (ANA-HEp-2) used to detect ANA. However, studies have shown that a “false-positive” ANA test occurs in up to 13% of healthy individuals. In such cases the test detects the presence of autoantibodies that apparently are not associated with autoimmunity. Researchers from Brazil have now uncovered distinguishing characteristics of the ANA test in healthy individuals and patients with autoimmune disease, reducing the likelihood of an erroneous autoimmune disorder diagnosis. Their findings are published in the January 2011 issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR).
The immune system is responsible for protecting the body against foreign invaders and infection, but in some individuals the immune system repeatedly attacks healthy cells in the body resulting in an autoimmune disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) autoimmune diseases - which include rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren’s syndrome, and systemic lupus erythematosus - affect up to 8% (22 million individuals) of the U.S. population.
The Brazilian research team, led by Luis Andrade, MD, PhD, from the Federal University of São Paulo, recruited 918 healthy individuals (634 females and 284 males) between the ages of 18 and 66 years for this study. In the control group were 153 patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases that included lupus (87), systemic sclerosis (45), Sjögren’s syndrome (11) and idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (10). To determine the concentration of ANA in the blood, ANA-HEp-2 tests were run on all participants and considered positive if a well defined IIF pattern was identified.
Republicans seek to bleed Obama’s health reform
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Republicans armed with new power will pounce on one of their top targets, President Barack Obama’s hard-fought healthcare reforms, when the House of Representatives reopens for business on Wednesday.
Although Obama’s Democrats, who still control the Senate, can probably rebuff any attempt to repeal the overhaul, House Republicans say they will try to choke off its funding and delay its implementation.
The reforms, passed early last year as the legislative high point of Obama’s first two years, were aimed at addressing the huge cost of healthcare and eventually extending health insurance to all Americans.
Protein wields phosphate group to inhibit cancer metastasis
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By sticking a chemical group to it at a specific site, a protein arrests an enzyme that may worsen and spread cancer, an international research team led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reports in the January issue of Nature Cell Biology.
In addition to highlighting a novel anti-cancer pathway, the team found that the same deactivation of the enzyme called EZH2 is necessary for the formation of bone-forming cells from the stem cells that make them and other tissues.
“EZH2 is overexpressed in aggressive solid tumors and tied to cancer progression and metastasis,” said the paper’s senior author, Mien-Chie Hung, Ph.D., professor and chair of MD Anderson’s Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology. “We have found that another protein, CDK1, deactivates EZH2.”
New test announced for major killer of lung transplant patients
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A lung transplant can mean a new chance at life. But many who receive one develop a debilitating, fatal condition that causes scar tissue to build up in the lungs and chokes off the ability to breathe.
University of Michigan researchers hope a new diagnostic tool they developed to predict bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS) will allow doctors to intervene earlier and, ultimately, to provide life-saving treatments.
BOS is the leading cause of death for those who survive one year after lung transplantation and more than half of recipients will develop BOS within five years. There is currently no cure.
Structure of Key Molecule in Immune System Provides Clues for Designing Drugs, According to Penn Study
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PHILADELPHIA - A team from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Utrecht University has deciphered a key step in an evolutionarily old branch of the immune response. This system, called complement, comprises a network of proteins that “complement” the work of antibodies in destroying foreign invaders. It serves as a rapid defense mechanism in most species from primitive sponges to humans.
In a study published in the December 24 issue of Science, the groups of John Lambris, PhD, the Dr. Ralph and Sally Weaver Professor of Research Medicine at Penn, and Piet Gros at Utrecht, detail the atomic structure of two key transient enzyme complexes in the human complement system.
Complement proteins mark both bacterial and dying host cells for elimination by the body’s cellular cleanup services and have been implicated in at least 30 diseases, including stroke, myocardial infarction, and age-related macular degeneration. The findings, Lambris says, provide a molecular scaffold for designing novel drug therapeutics.
Study on effects of resveratrol and quercetin on inflammation and insulin resistance
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A study was carried out to examine the extent to which quercetin and trans-resveratrol (RSV) prevented inflammation or insulin resistance in primary cultures of human adipocytes treated with tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a)—an inflammatory cytokine elevated in the plasma and adipose tissue of obese, diabetic individuals. Cultures of human adipocytes were pretreated with quercetin and trans-RSV followed by treatment with TNF-a. Subsequently, gene and protein markers of inflammation and insulin resistance were measured. The authors report that quercetin, and to a lesser extent trans-RSV, attenuated the TNF-a–induced expression of inflammatory genes such as interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1b, IL-8, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and the secretion of IL-6, IL-8, and MCP-1.
Forum members were concerned about certain aspects of the study, especially the extrapolation of in vitro results to in vivo situations. The in vitro conditions the authors describe are minimally representative of an in vivo condition. In vivo, after consumption of quercetin or resveratrol, these compounds undergo extensive metabolism, leading to glucuronidated, sulphated or methylated compounds. In a previous study, quercetin 3-glucoside was transformed to 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid, acetate and butyrate in cells from human gut; only 3’-methylquercetin has been detected in human plasma, present at a concentration of 0.1 to 0.2 µM after 3 h. The authors of the current paper are using concentrations up to 60 µM, concentrations which have not been found in vivo.
There were also concerns with the work on cell uptake of quercetin and resveratrol. Primary adipocytes were incubated with the polyphenols, but it is not clear whether or not the concentrations used were subtoxic. Our current knowledge is limited about local concentration of the molecules we are studying in subcellular compartments, their interaction with alternative targets, and eventually their transformation into products that could be more or less active on a given specific pathway.
Rituximab Maintenance Significantly Improves Progression-Free Survival In Patients With Follicular Lymphoma
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Patients with follicular lymphoma, a slow-growing common type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, who are given 2 years of rituximab-maintenance therapy after immunochemotherapy, have significantly better progression-free survival (PFS) and higher response rates compared with patients who do not receive this intervention. These findings from the largest randomised trial of follicular lymphoma to date, published Online First in The Lancet, support rituximab-maintenance therapy as a first-line treatment option for these patients.
Most patients with follicular lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system, respond well to initial treatment, but relapse is common. Over the past decade, the monoclonal antibody rituximab has shown considerable benefit in patients with the disease. Rituximab plus chemotherapy induction regimens have improved overall survival and have become the standard first-line treatment for follicular lymphoma. But the potential benefit of continuing rituximab treatment after completion of chemotherapy is not known.
The PRIMA study was designed to assess the effect of 2 years of rituximab-maintenance therapy on the outcome of patients with follicular lymphoma. 1217 patients with previously untreated follicular lymphoma were enrolled from 223 centres across 25 countries and given an induction regimen of rituximab plus chemotherapy. After induction, 1019 eligible patients who achieved a complete or partial response were then randomly assigned to 2 years of rituximab maintenance (505 patients) or no treatment (513).
