PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Arthritis drugs could help prevent memory loss after surgery

2010-11-02
(Press-News.org) Anti-inflammatory drugs currently used to treat diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis may also help prevent cognitive decline after surgery, according to a new study led by researchers at UCSF and colleagues at Imperial College, London.

The research explains for the first time why many patients experience memory loss or other forms of cognitive dysfunction after surgery or critical illness, a process the researchers traced to a specific inflammatory response in the brain.

The findings could lead directly to human clinical trials in as short as 12 months, the authors said. Their work appears in an upcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and will be online at http://www.pnas.org/papbyrecent.shtml.

For years, anesthesiologists and neurologists have struggled to explain why some patients, especially the elderly, experience confusion, learning disorders and memory loss after surgery.

While typically short-term, this delirium occurs widely in intensive care units, affecting between 28 and 92 percent of hospitalized patients, depending on their age, health status and type of surgery, the authors said. It also has been linked to poorer surgical outcomes, as well as an increased risk of mortality, inability to cope and possible permanent dementia.

Until now, no one has clearly understood what caused the disorder or how to treat it, according to senior author Mervyn Maze, MB ChB, Professor and Chair of the UCSF Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Care. The new research not only linked that response to an immune protein called tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), a cytokine, but also identified a likely drug therapy to prevent it, he said.

"Antibody therapies already are widely used against cytokines to prevent or treat inflammation, so we know that these are effective in humans," said Maze, who began the research as a member of the Imperial College faculty before joining UCSF. "This study suggests that one day we also might be able to use these therapies as a single, pre-surgical dose to prevent cognitive decline in susceptible patients."

Previous studies have linked post-operative cognitive decline with the rise in blood levels of interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), a molecule involved in inflammation. For this study, Maze and his colleagues studied a protein called tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), which is known to regulate the immune system's inflammatory response before interleukin-1 is produced.

Working with Sir Marc Feldmann, MB, PhD, FRS – a pioneer in cytokine research in inflammatory disorders and professor at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology at Imperial College, London – the team gave a single dose of anti-TNF monoclonal antibody to mice using a model of orthopedic surgery. They found that it successfully acted as a prophylaxis against this disorder, decreasing blood levels of IL-1β, while limiting inflammation in the brain and eliminating behavioral indications of cognitive decline.

The research suggests that the TNF protein acts "upstream" of IL-1 and triggers a cascade of immune responses during surgery that provokes the production of IL-1 in the brain, Maze said. That in turn contributes to cognitive decline after surgery or critical illness.

"This is an important observation, as it demonstrates that cytokines are potential therapeutic targets in a wider range of diseases, not just autoimmune disease and cancer for which they are known targets," Feldmann said. "Moreover, effective therapeutics already are available, with a known safety profile and modest cost if used short term."

INFORMATION: The lead author on the paper was Niccolò Terrando, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Maze's lab and scholar in the Department of Anesthetics, Pain Medicine and Intensive Care in the Imperial College London. Co-authors on the paper include Claudia Monaco, MD, PhD; Brian M.J. Foxwell, PhD (deceased); and Feldmann, all of the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, Imperial College London.

The study was supported by the Westminster Medical School Research Trust, in London, the Mathilda and Terence Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology Trust, and Arthritis Research United Kingdom. The authors disclose no conflicts of interest in this work.

Consistently rated amongst the world's best universities, Imperial College London is a science-based institution with a reputation for excellence in teaching and research that attracts 14,000 students and 6,000 staff of the highest international quality. Innovative research at the College explores the interface between science, medicine, engineering and business, delivering practical solutions that improve quality of life and the environment - underpinned by a dynamic enterprise culture.

In 2007, Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust formed the UK's first Academic Health Science Centre. This unique partnership aims to improve the quality of life of patients and populations by taking new discoveries and translating them into new therapies as quickly as possible. Website: www.imperial.ac.uk

UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. Please visit: www.ucsf.edu.

Follow UCSF on Twitter twitter.com/ucsf


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Peptide being tested to treat atherosclerosis inhibits ovarian cancer growth

2010-11-02
A drug in testing to treat atherosclerosis significantly inhibited growth of ovarian cancer in both human cell lines and mouse models, the first such report of a peptide being used to fight malignancies, according to a study by researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. The study follows previous discovery by the same group showing that a protein called apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) in patients may be used as a biomarker to diagnose early stage ovarian cancer, when it typically is asymptomatic and is much easier to treat. These earlier findings could be ...

Earth's first great predator wasn't

2010-11-02
Boulder, CO, USA - The meters-long, carnivorous "shrimp" from hell that once ruled the seas of Earth a half billion years ago may have been a real softy, it turns out. A new 3-D modeling of the mouth parts of the Anomalocaris, along with evidence that these parts were not hard like teeth, but flexible, shows that the famed predator could not have been munching on the hard shells of trilobites and other such creatures of the early seas. What's more, there is no evidence from fossilized stomach contents or feces that Anomalocaris' ate anything hard enough to leave a fossilized ...

How lead gets into urban vegetable gardens

2010-11-02
Boulder, CO, USA - One common mitigation approach is to build a raised bed and fill it with freshly composted, low-lead soil from elsewhere, right? Maybe not, according to researchers studying the mysterious case of the lead contamination found within raised beds in community gardens in the Boston communities of Roxbury and Dorchester. "Raised beds are surrounded by a sea of contaminated soil," said Daniel Brabander of Wellesley College. Brabander, his students and colleagues have been studying the lead in 144 backyard gardens in coordination with The Food Project, an ...

Morrison Natural History Museum discovers baby sauropod tracks

Morrison Natural History Museum discovers baby sauropod tracks
2010-11-02
Morrison, CO, USA–Staff at the Morrison Natural History Museum have again discovered infant dinosaur footprints in the foothills west of Denver, Colorado, near the town of Morrison. Dating from the Late Jurassic, some 148 million years ago, these tracks were made before the Rocky Mountains rose, when Morrison was a broad savanna full of dinosaurs. The fossil tracks represent infant sauropods, according to discoverer Matthew Mossbrucker, the museum's director. Sauropods are giant, herbivorous long-necked dinosaurs, sometimes known as "brontosaurs." The sauropod Apatosaurus ...

Scarcity of new energy minerals will trigger trade wars

2010-11-02
Boulder, CO, USA - It's not hard to argue in favor of alternatives to fossil fuels these days, but one popular argument – domestic energy security – may be standing on very shaky legs. A lot of rare metals are needed to make photovoltaic panels, rare earth magnets for wind generators, fuel cells and high-capacity batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles. But most industrialized nations, including the United States, are almost entirely dependent on foreign sources for those metals. The only way this is going to change is if there is more domestic exploration and mining. ...

UC research: Rabbit's food brings luck in decreasing estrogen levels in wastewater

UC research: Rabbits food brings luck in decreasing estrogen levels in wastewater
2010-11-02
The November 2010 issue of "Environmental Pollution" details successful experiments at the University of Cincinnati wherein rabbit's food resulted in the abiotic (non-biological) transformation and absorption of four different types of estrogen, reducing the levels of these estrogen hormones by more than 80 percent in wastewater. The research has practical implications since it could point to inexpensive treatment technologies and materials for reducing estrogens in wastewater. Currently, estrogen in wastewater represents a major conduit for the entry of the hormone, ...

Antibiotics have long-term impacts on gut flora

2010-11-02
Short courses of antibiotics can leave normal gut bacteria harbouring antibiotic resistance genes for up to two years after treatment, say scientists writing in the latest issue of Microbiology, published on 3 November. The researchers believe that this reservoir increases the chances of resistance genes being surrendered to pathogenic bacteria, aiding their survival and suggesting that the long-term effects of antibiotic therapy are more significant than previously thought. Antibiotics that are prescribed to treat pathogenic bacteria also have an impact on the normal ...

Childhood stroke study identifies the contraceptive pill and smoking as risk factors

2010-11-02
Researchers are calling for clear guidelines on childhood stroke after a study, published in the November issue of Acta Paediatrica, found wide variations in time lag to diagnosis, investigation and treatment. They are also keen to see the development of appropriate rehabilitation services, after a follow-up study found that 85% of the children who survived a stroke had neurological dysfunction or limitations. Dr Sten Christerson studied the records of all children who had experienced their first stroke over a seven-year period in the Uppsala-Orebro Health Care Region, ...

Arthritis drugs could help prevent memory loss after surgery, study suggests

2010-11-02
Anti-inflammatory drugs currently used to treat diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis may also help prevent cognitive problems after surgery, according to a new study by researchers at Imperial College London and University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). The research also reveals for the first time that a specific inflammatory response in the brain may explain why many patients experience memory loss or other forms of cognitive dysfunction after surgery or critical illness. The findings, from research in mouse models, could lead to human clinical trials within ...

Quantum computing with braids in flatland

2010-11-02
When confined to a 2-dimensional sheet, some exotic particle-like structures known as anyons appear to entwine in ways that could lead to robust quantum computing schemes, according to research appearing in the November 1 issue of the journal Physical Review B. The physicists at Bell Laboratories who performed the research are hopeful the anyons can be induced to follow paths that twist into braids that would be much more resistant to disturbances that corrupt data and calculations in quantum computers relying on individual particles. The anyons the researchers believe ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Long-sought structure of powerful anticancer natural product solved by integrated approach

World’s oldest lizard wins fossil fight

Simple secret to living a longer life

Same plant, different tactic: Habitat determines response to climate

Drinking plenty of water may actually be good for you

Men at high risk of cardiovascular disease face brain health decline 10 years earlier than women

Irregular sleep-wake cycle linked to heightened risk of major cardiovascular events

Depression can cause period pain, new study suggests

Wistar Institute scientists identify important factor in neural development

New imaging platform developed by Rice researchers revolutionizes 3D visualization of cellular structures

To catch financial rats, a better mousetrap

Mapping the world's climate danger zones

Emory heart team implants new blood-pumping device for first time in U.S.

Congenital heart defects caused by problems with placenta

Schlechter named Cancer Moonshot Scholar

Two-way water transfers can ensure reliability, save money for urban and agricultural users during drought in Western U.S., new study shows

New issue of advances in dental research explores the role of women in dental, clinical, and translational research

Team unlocks new insights on pulsar signals

Great apes visually track subject-object relationships like humans do

Recovery of testing for heart disease risk factors post-COVID remains patchy

Final data and undiscovered images from NASA’s NEOWISE

Nucleoporin93: A silent protector in vascular health

Can we avert the looming food crisis of climate change?

Alcohol use and antiobesity medication treatment

Study reveals cause of common cancer immunotherapy side effect

New era in amphibian biology

Harbor service, VAST Data provide boost for NCSA systems

New prognostic model enhances survival prediction in liver failure

China focuses on improving air quality via the coordinated control of fine particles and ozone

Machine learning reveals behaviors linked with early Alzheimer’s, points to new treatments

[Press-News.org] Arthritis drugs could help prevent memory loss after surgery