(Press-News.org) LEXINGTON, Ky (Sept. 17, 2014) -- Two independent groups of researchers led by Sidney (Wally) Whiteheart, PhD, of the University of Kentucky, and Charles Lowenstein, MD, of the University of Rochester, have published important studies exploring the role that a gene called STXBP5 plays in the development of cardiovascular disease.
According to Whiteheart, previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) identified a gene called STXBP5 as a factor that regulates a protein called Von Willebrand factor (VWF).
VWF is an important contributor to normal blood clotting. When the endothelial cells that line a blood vessel are injured, VWF is released into the bloodstream, where it "collects" blood platelets and groups them into bunches as part of the clotting process. VWF abnormalities have been linked to the development of blood clots and other vascular diseases that can cause heart attack and stroke.
"We basically went a step further and looked into how STXBP5 influences blood clotting as a w hole," Whiteheart said. "And what we found has the potential for profound impact down the road in identifying genetic risk factors for cardiovascular disease."
Dr. Lowenstein's group focused on the role of STXBP5 in the endothelial cells that line blood vessel walls and release VWF when damaged.
"This group showed that mice lacking the STXBP5 gene had increased VWF levels in their bloodstream, which would imply that a defective STXBP5 gene is a risk factor for the development of blood clots that cause heart attack and stroke," Whiteheart said. "However, Dr. Lowenstein's group was surprised to see that these STXBP5-knockout mice had increased bleeding, not increased clotting."
Whiteheart's group was able to explain the contradiction with its own research. Their results demonstrated that blood platelets, lacking STXBP5, failed to function correctly, causing the increased bleeding in the STXBP5 deficient mice. The group further showed that SXTBP5 was required for the process whereby platelets assist in normal clot formation, suggesting that STXBP5 plays distinctly different roles in secretion from endothelial cells than from platelets.
"Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in developed countries and is particularly problematic in Kentucky," says Susan Smyth, MD, PhD, director of the Gill Heart Institute at the University of Kentucky. "Researchers at UK are internationally recognized for their work to understand thrombosis and inflammation in cardiovascular disease. Wally's findings on STXBP5 and its effect on VWF add considerably to that body of knowledge and may eventually have important ramifications for how we prevent blood clotting and bleeding."
INFORMATION:
Whiteheart and Lowenstein's work will be published in the October 2014 edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
University of Kentucky research explores STXBP5 gene and its role in blood clotting
2014-09-18
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
UT Dallas study uncovers factors in students' reporting of weapons at school
2014-09-18
As a result of outbreaks of violence in the nation's schools, concerns have grown about school safety and the overall well-being of students.
In a new study, UT Dallas criminology researchers have found that certain factors affect students' willingness to report weapons at school.
"A big part of adolescent development is figuring out your identity, and that does not always mean talking to grown-ups about what is going on," said Dr. Nadine Connell, assistant professor of criminology in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences. "We can't stop students from ...
Improving medicines for children in Canada
2014-09-18
Ottawa (September 18, 2014) – A new expert panel report, Improving Medicines for Children in Canada, released today by the Council of Canadian Academies, addresses the importance of developing safe and effective medicines for children. Each year about half of Canada's seven million children use at least one prescription drug. Much of this prescribing is done off-label (i.e. the prescription differs from the authorized use), creating potential health risks.
Children have historically been excluded in drug research and development, including clinical trials. As a result, ...
Rosuvastatin treatments particularly effective among prediabetic patients
2014-09-18
Los Angeles, CA (September 18, 2014) Cardiovascular disease is the leading causes of death worldwide and high cholesterol plays a major role in accelerating its progression. Medical practitioners have turned to statins as a treatment to decrease cholesterol-carrying lipoproteins such as small dense lipoproteins (sdLDL), considered to be especially harmful. A new study, out today in the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Therapeutics finds that rosuvastatin may be more effective among prediabetic patients than patients with normal glucose levels.
Study author ...
Middle school dilemma: Girls' body image affected by older peers
2014-09-18
Los Angeles, CA (September 18, 2014) The media is highly criticized for contributing to body image issues in adolescents. However, a study out today in Psychology of Women Quarterly finds a different source for body dissatisfaction among young girls: older girls at school.
A research team led by Jaine Strauss, Professor of Psychology at Macalester College, surveyed 1,536 5th through 8th-grade female students attending schools with different grade groupings. Some 5th and 6th graders attended school with older students (i.e. in districts that follow the "middle school" ...
How stress tears us apart
2014-09-18
Why is it that when people are too stressed they are often grouchy, grumpy, nasty, distracted or forgetful? Researchers from the Brain Mind Institute (BMI) at EPFL have just highlighted a fundamental synaptic mechanism that explains the relationship between chronic stress and the loss of social skills and cognitive impairment. When triggered by stress, an enzyme attacks a synaptic regulatory molecule in the brain. This was revealed by a work published in Nature Communications.
Carmen Sandi's team went to look for answers in a region of the hippocampus known for its involvement ...
Scientists pioneer microscopy technique that yields fresh data on muscular dystrophy
2014-09-18
Scientists at USC have developed a new microscopy technology that allows them to view single molecules in living animals at higher-than-ever resolution.
Dubbed "Complementation Activated Light Microscopy" (CALM), the new technology allows imaging resolutions that are an order of magnitude finer than conventional optical microscopy, providing new insights into the behavior of biomolecules at the nanometer scale.
In a paper published on Sept. 18 by Nature Communications, the researchers behind CALM used it to study dystrophin – a key structural protein of muscle cells ...
In mice, vaccine stops urinary tract infections linked to catheters
2014-09-18
The most common type of hospital-associated infection may be preventable with a vaccine, new research in mice suggests.
The experimental vaccine, developed by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, prevented urinary tract infections associated with catheters, the tubes used in hospitals and other care facilities to drain urine from a patient's bladder.
Each day a catheter is present in the urethra and the bladder, the risk of urinary tract infection increases. Nearly every patient who has a catheter for more than 30 days acquires a urinary ...
Migraine in middle age linked to increased risk of Parkinson's, movement disorders later
2014-09-17
MINNEAPOLIS – A new study suggests that people who experience migraine in middle age may be more likely to develop Parkinson's disease, or other movement disorders later in life. Those who have migraine with aura may be at double the risk of developing Parkinson's, according to the study published in the September 17, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
"Migraine is the most common brain disorder in both men and women," said study author Ann I. Scher, PhD, with Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, MD, and ...
For some lung cancer patients, surgery may yield better long-term results
2014-09-17
(September 17, 2014, San Francisco) – Patients with early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who are otherwise healthy fare better over time if they undergo conventional surgery versus less-invasive radiosurgery to remove their cancer, according to a Yale study. The findings are scheduled to be presented at the 56th annual conference of the American Society for Radiation Oncology in San Francisco. (Abstract # 302; Comparative Effectiveness of Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy versus Surgery for Stage I Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer.)
The study used Medicare billing records ...
Brain imaging research pinpoints neurobiological basis for key symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder like listlessness and emotional detachment in trauma victims
2014-09-17
NEW YORK, NY, September 17, 2014 - In a novel brain-imaging study among trauma victims, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have linked an opioid receptor in the brain -- associated with emotions -- to a narrow cluster of trauma symptoms, including sadness, emotional detachment and listlessness. The study, published online today in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, holds important implications for targeted, personalized treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, a psychiatric condition affecting more than 8 million Americans that can cause a wide range of debilitating ...