(Press-News.org) Contact information: Catherine Kolf
ckolf@jhmi.edu
443-287-2251
Johns Hopkins Medicine
New testing strategy detects population-wide vitamin and mineral deficiencies
Could speed mass intervention in developing countries
Johns Hopkins researchers have demonstrated that levels of certain proteins in the bloodstream may be used to estimate levels of essential vitamins and minerals without directly testing for each nutritional factor. The team's use of a new strategy allowed them to indirectly measure amounts of multiple nutrients in multiple people at the same time, an advance that should make it possible in the future to rapidly detect nutritional deficiencies of an entire population, apply remediation efforts and test their worth within months instead of years.
A summary of the study, which analyzed the levels of five vitamins and minerals in 500 undernourished Nepalese children, was published in the October issue of The Journal of Nutrition.
"Currently, levels of each vitamin or mineral are measured by different tests which are often performed in different labs, so the whole process can take three or four years to detect widespread deficiencies," says Keith West, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., the George G. Graham Professor of Infant and Child Nutrition. "That's too long to wait when the proper growth and cognitive development of children are on the line."
According to West, over 30 vitamins and minerals are essential to human health, and conventional methods for measuring their levels rely on running multiple different tests for each person. The time and cost involved are high enough to be entirely prohibitive at the population level (several hundreds of thousands of dollars), especially in developing countries, he says.
To overcome this barrier, the team focused on what all vitamins and minerals have in common: that each does its job by interacting with proteins throughout the body. Because methods already exist for simultaneously identifying the relative amounts of hundreds of proteins in a single sample of blood, the team wondered if some of those protein levels could be correlated with the levels of their associated nutrients, and thus act as "proxies" for the nutrients.
Using blood samples taken from 500 6- to 8-year-old Nepalese children, the researchers first analyzed the levels of vitamins and minerals according to conventional methods, and then they used a method called mass spectrometry to identify and quantify proteins levels in the same samples. They focused on five nutrients (vitamins A, D and E, and copper and selenium) and five proteins that were already known to be closely related to them. However, instead of performing a separate test for each nutrient's protein, they analyzed all five proteins, plus many others in the samples, in a single experiment.
"Mass spectrometry allows us to measure the quantities of 500 to 1,000 proteins in the blood at one time," says Robert Cole, Ph.D., director of the Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics Facility. "Not only that, we can mark all of the proteins from a single sample with a chemical tag that identifies them in the resulting data," he adds, and "because there are eight different tags available, we could tag eight different samples and then mix them together and analyze the eight samples at the same time, directly comparing the samples and saving a lot of time."
At the heart of their experiment, says West, lies the assumption that there are proteins in the bloodstream whose quantities reliably change with the levels of certain nutrients. For example, retinol binding protein (RBP) binds to vitamin A and carries it through the bloodstream to every part of the body, so the researchers theorized that levels of RBP in the children's blood would be a good proxy for their vitamin A levels. To test this assumption, they compared their mass spectrometry results with those of conventional methods for measuring nutrient levels, and found that, for each nutrient, there were often not just one but several proteins whose levels were significantly correlated with the nutrient levels obtained by conventional means.
According to West, there is reason to believe that other vitamins and minerals will also have good proxy proteins. Their goal is to create a simple, portable test kit that would measure many proxy proteins from a single sample in a single test for under $100 per sample. "That would allow us to determine the level of nutrient deficiencies in a whole population within a few months," says West. "Then we could implement a remedy, like fortifying foods with particular nutrients -- something tailored to the needs and habits of the particular population -- and then follow up with more tests later to make sure the remedy is working."
The lure of easily and cheaply monitoring many nutrient-related proteins at once also opens the possibility that the new method could be used to monitor nutritional changes in a population over time. The team expects this technique could also be used to measure natural changes, like hormone levels, in healthy subjects and to track changes in protein levels that occur due to the progression of difficult-to-define diseases like Alzheimer's.
###
Other authors of the report include Tatiana Boronina, Lauren DeVine and Robert O'Meally of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Ingo Ruczinski, Kerry Schulze, Parul Christian, Shelley Herbrich, Lee Wu, James Yager and John Groopman of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
This work was supported by grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (GH 5241, GH 614), the Sight and Life Research Institute and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
On the Web:
Link to article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3945/jn.113.175018
Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics Facility: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/msf/
Dr. West: http://www.jhsph.edu/faculty/directory/profile/1155/West,_Jr./Keith
Media Contacts:
Catherine Kolf
443-287-2251
ckolf@jhmi.edu
Tim Parsons
410-955-7619
tmparson@jhsph.edu
Vanessa McMains
410-502-9410
vmcmain1@jhmi.edu
New testing strategy detects population-wide vitamin and mineral deficiencies
Could speed mass intervention in developing countries
2013-10-24
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Molecular biology: Designer of protein factories exposed
2013-10-24
Molecular biology: Designer of protein factories exposed
For 10 years, Patrick Cramer and his colleagues at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich have probed the structure of RNA polymerase I, a crucial cog in the machinery of all cells. ...
Obesity may increase the risk of Clostridium difficile infection
2013-10-24
Obesity may increase the risk of Clostridium difficile infection
(Boston)--Researchers from Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have identified obesity as a possible risk factor for clostridium difficile infection ...
Copious community-associated MRSA in nursing homes
2013-10-24
Copious community-associated MRSA in nursing homes
More than one quarter of residents of 26 nursing homes in Orange County, California carry community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which spread more easily, and may cause more ...
NASA analyzes Hurricane Raymond's copious rainfall
2013-10-24
NASA analyzes Hurricane Raymond's copious rainfall
Powerful hurricane Raymond, located off Mexico's south-central Pacific coast, weakened to a tropical storm and has dropped a lot of rain over central western Mexico's coast. NASA's TRMM satellite measured rainfall ...
Finding psychiatric drugs in the movements of mice
2013-10-24
Finding psychiatric drugs in the movements of mice
Research from Tel Aviv University unlocks the secrets of mouse behavior to help identify promising new drugs
Developing psychiatric medications is a long and complex process. Candidate drugs are evaluated ...
Dry air and cooler waters weakening Tropical Depression Lorenzo
2013-10-24
Dry air and cooler waters weakening Tropical Depression Lorenzo
NOAA's GOES-East satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Depression Lorenzo that showed very little convection happening throughout the system because of two environmental factors: dry air and ...
'Anklebot' helps determine ankle stiffness
2013-10-24
'Anklebot' helps determine ankle stiffness
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- For most healthy bipeds, the act of walking is seldom given a second thought: One foot follows the other, and the rest of the body falls in line, supported by a system of muscle, tendon, and ...
Researcher is optimistic about meeting 'Grand Challenge' of global prosperity
2013-10-24
Researcher is optimistic about meeting 'Grand Challenge' of global prosperity
ITHACA, N.Y. – With ecological viability threatened, world resources draining, population burgeoning and despair running rampant, the end is nigh.
Or not, says Lawrence M. Cathles, Cornell ...
Just 2 weeks in orbit causes changes in eyes
2013-10-24
Just 2 weeks in orbit causes changes in eyes
HOUSTON -- ( Oct. 24, 2013 ) -- Just 13 days in space may be enough to cause profound changes in eye structure and gene expression, report researchers from Houston Methodist, NASA Johnson Space Center, and two other ...
King of beasts losing ground in Uganda's paradise
2013-10-24
King of beasts losing ground in Uganda's paradise
Conservationists from the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of St. Andrews warn that Uganda's African lions—a mainstay of the country's tourism industry and a symbol of Africa—are on the verge of ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Are lifetimes of big appliances really shrinking?
Pink skies
Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research
Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered
% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?
An app can change how you see yourself at work
NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals
New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China
Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds
Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea
New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea
Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes
Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others
Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke
Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition
Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life
Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy
Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming
Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly
Alcohol makes male flies sexy
TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income
Study links teen girls’ screen time to sleep disruptions and depression
Scientists unveil starfish-inspired wearable tech for heart monitoring
Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs
AI effectively predicts dementia risk in American Indian/Alaska Native elders
First guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis calls for changes in practice to improve outcomes
Existing international law can help secure peace and security in outer space, study shows
Pinning down the process of West Nile virus transmission
UTA-backed research tackles health challenges across ages
In pancreatic cancer, a race against time
[Press-News.org] New testing strategy detects population-wide vitamin and mineral deficienciesCould speed mass intervention in developing countries