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

Imaging study suggests prenatal air pollution exposure may be bad for kids' brains

2015-03-25
(Press-News.org) A small imaging study suggests prenatal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the toxic air pollution caused in part by vehicle emissions, coal burning and smoking, may be bad for children's brains and may contribute to slower processing speeds and behavioral problems, including attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder (ADHD) symptoms, according to an article published online by JAMA Psychiatry.

PAHs are caused by the incomplete combustion of organic materials. In addition to outdoor air pollution, sources of indoor air pollution caused by PAHs can be cooking, smoking and space heaters. PAHs can cross the placenta and damage fetal brains and animal experiments suggest prenatal exposure can impair behavior and learning, according to study background.

Bradley S. Peterson, M.D., of Children's Hospital Los Angeles, and coauthors conducted an imaging study that included 40 minority urban school-aged children born to Latin (Dominican) or African American women. The children were followed from the fetal period to ages 7 to 9 years old. Their mothers completed prenatal PAH monitoring and prenatal questionnaires.

The authors found an association between increased prenatal PAH exposure and reductions in brain white matter in children later in childhood that was confined almost exclusively to the left hemisphere of the brain and involved almost its entire surface. Reduced white matter surface on the left side of the brain was associated with slower processing during intelligence testing and behavioral problems, including ADHD symptoms and conduct disorder problems, according to the results. The neurodevelopmental outcomes in children were measured through intelligence testing and a behavior checklist.

The authors note the small size of their study as well as other limitations in the research. "If confirmed, our findings have important public health implications given the ubiquity of PAHs in air pollutants among the general population," the study concludes.

INFORMATION:

(JAMA Psychiatry. Published online March 25, 2015. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.57. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com.)

Editor's Note: This research was supported by grants from a variety of sources. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

Media Advisory: To contact corresponding author Bradley S. Peterson, M.D., call at Debra Kain 323 361-7628 or 323-361-1812 or email dkain@chla.usc.edu.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Variety of DBT interventions with therapists effective at reducing suicide attempts

2015-03-25
A variety of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) interventions helped to reduce suicide attempts and nonsuicidal self-injury acts in a randomized clinical trial of women with borderline personality disorder who were highly suicidal, according to an article published online by JAMA Psychiatry. DBT is a multicomponent therapy for individuals at high risk for suicide and for those with multiple severe mental disorders, particularly those who have marked impulsivity and an inability to regulate emotions. The components of DBT include individual therapy, group skills training, ...

Nanorobotic agents open the blood-brain barrier, offering hope for new brain treatments

2015-03-25
Magnetic nanoparticles can open the blood-brain barrier and deliver molecules directly to the brain, say researchers from the University of Montreal, Polytechnique Montréal, and CHU Sainte-Justine. This barrier runs inside almost all vessels in the brain and protects it from elements circulating in the blood that may be toxic to the brain. The research is important as currently 98% of therapeutic molecules are also unable to cross the blood-brain barrier. "The barrier is temporary opened at a desired location for approximately 2 hours by a small elevation of the temperature ...

ASHG and ESHG issue position statement on non-invasive prenatal screening

2015-03-25
BETHESDA, MD, USA and VIENNA, AUSTRIA - Two of the world's largest professional societies of human geneticists have issued a joint position statement on the promise and challenges of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), a new procedure to test blood drawn from pregnant mothers for Down syndrome and other chromosomal disorders in the fetus. The document addresses the current scope of and likely future improvements in NIPT technology, ways it may best fit with existing prenatal screening tools and protocols, options and priorities in its implementation, and associated social ...

Does your password pass muster?

2015-03-25
This news release is available in French. Montreal, March 25, 2015 -- "Create a password" is a prompt familiar to anyone who's tried to buy a book from Amazon or register for a Google account. Equally familiar is that red / yellow / green bar that rates the new password's strength. But when those meters give the go-ahead to passwords like Password1+, their effectiveness is called into question. New research from Concordia University exposes the weakness of password strength meters, and shows consumers should remain sceptical when the bar turns green in order to create ...

This week from AGU: Q&A with Rex Buchanan, solar storm satellite, pollution from aquifers

2015-03-25
From AGU's blogs: Q&A with journalist-turned-geologist Rex Buchanan After decades as a science reporter, interim director of the Kansas Geological Survey (KGS) Rex Buchanan now finds himself at the epicenter of a media frenzy. Read parts one and two of a three-part series featuring an interview between Buchanan and University of California, Santa Cruz, science journalism student, Kerry Klein, in The Plainspoken Scientist. From Eos.org: Changing of the Guard: Satellite Will Warn Earth of Solar Storms This summer, Earth gets a new guardian--the Deep Space Climate ...

Study finds why drug for type II diabetes makes people fat

2015-03-25
ATLANTA--Medication used to treat patients with type II diabetes activates sensors on brain cells that increase hunger, causing people taking this drug to gain more body fat, according to researchers at Georgia State University, Oregon Health and Science University, Georgia Regents University and Charlie Norwood Veterans Administration Medical Center. The study, published on March 18 in The Journal of Neuroscience, describes a new way to affect hunger in the brain and helps to explain why people taking a class of drugs for type II diabetes gain more body fat. Type II ...

Control switch that modulates cell stress response may be key to multiple diseases

2015-03-25
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered a control switch for the unfolded protein response (UPR), a cellular stress relief mechanism drawing major scientific interest because of its role in cancer, diabetes, inflammatory disorders and several neural degenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), otherwise known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The normal function of the UPR pathway is to protect cells from stress but it can also trigger their death if the ...

Team discovers link between lifestyles of indigenous communities & gut microbial ecologies

2015-03-25
An international team of researchers led by the University of Oklahoma has discovered a strong association between the lifestyles of indigenous communities and their gut microbial ecologies (gut microbiome), a study that may have implications for the health of all people. Under the direction of Cecil Lewis, co-director of the Laboratories of Molecular Anthropology and Microbiome Research in the OU College of Arts and Sciences, the team presents an in-depth analysis of the gut microbiome of the Matses, an Amazonian hunter-gatherer community, which is compared with that ...

The Lancet: Phase 1 trial of first Ebola vaccine based on 2014 virus strain shows vaccine is safe and provokes an immune response

2015-03-25
Results from the first phase 1 trial of an Ebola vaccine based on the current (2014) strain of the virus are today published in The Lancet. Until now, all tested Ebola virus vaccines have been based on the virus strain from the Zaire outbreak in 1976. The results suggest that the new vaccine is safe, and provokes an immune response in recipients, although further long-term testing will be needed to establish whether it can protect against the Ebola virus. A team of researchers, led by Professor Fengcai Zhu, from the Jiangsu provincial center for disease prevention and ...

Head injury patients show signs of faster aging in the brain

2015-03-25
People who have suffered serious head injuries show changes in brain structure resembling those seen in older people, according to a new study. Researchers at Imperial College London analysed brain scans from over 1,500 healthy people to develop a computer program that could predict a person's age from their brain scan. Then they used the program to estimate the "brain age" of 113 more healthy people and 99 patients who had suffered traumatic brain injuries. The brain injury patients were estimated to be around five years older on average than their real age. Head ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Pavlov’s dogs were conditioned to go to their treat. Why do some animals learn to interact with the bell instead?

Call for Young Editorial Board members at Current Molecular Pharmacology

MSU team develops scalable climate solutions for agricultural carbon markets

Playing an instrument may protect against cognitive aging

UNM study finds link between Grand Canyon landslide and Meteor Crater impact

Ultra-hot Jupiter’s death spiral could reveal stellar secrets

You only get one brain! The best helmet material for protecting your noggin

Neurodegeneration and stroke after GLP-1RAs in diabetes and obesity

Pediatric COVID-19 hospitalization trends by race and ethnicity, 2020-2023

Research spotlight: New genetic roadmap offers insights into obesity and diabetes

Fred Hutch leads new Vanguard Study for Cancer Screening Research Network

‘Mismatched’ transplants now safe, effective for blood cancer patients, study finds

New research helps narrow down uncertainties in near-term precipitation projections for the Asian Water Tower

AI tool accurately detects tumor location on breast MRI

Researchers use OCT imaging to uncover how the fallopian tube transports embryos

PolyU secures RGC theme-based research scheme funding to develop cost-effective and sustainable Co-GenAI model

Van Andel Institute scientists develop technique for high-resolution single cell epigenetic analysis

The Lundquist Institute wins multi-year NIH grant exceeding $11 million to transform diagnosis and treatment of deadly mucormycosis

Review suggests ending adult boosters for tetanus, diphtheria

ESMT Berlin welcomes Rebecca Schaumberg to faculty

Blocking a little-known protein may offer new hope for devastating lung disease

Medieval medicine was smarter than you think – and weirdly similar to TikTok trends

FAU receives NIH grant to investigate amphetamine addiction

Realizing on-site carbon nanotube photo-thermoelectric imaging

Most of us love memes. But are they a form of comics?

Novel biosensor allows real-time monitoring of sucrose uptake in plants

Korea University researchers reveal revealing how WEE1 drives cancer resistance to immunotherapy

Pusan National University researchers develop breakthrough deep learning model that enhances handheld 3D medical imaging

SLAS Discovery and SLAS Technology demonstrate research impact with 2024 impact factors

Disease-causing bacteria can deal with stink as long as they get a meal

[Press-News.org] Imaging study suggests prenatal air pollution exposure may be bad for kids' brains