Italian researchers found how to stop low back pain
Discovered the molecular mechanism responsible for vertebral column degeneration
2012-03-14
(Press-News.org) Italian researchers at the Catholic University of Sacred Heart in Rome found an important molecular mechanism responsible for low back pain and other acute vertebral problems like cervical axial pain, all due to aging and degeneration of the vertebral column.
The team led by Dr. Luigi Aurelio Nasto and Enrico Pola also developed an experimental drug to inhibit this degenerative mechanism, by blocking its principal culprit, the molecule, "NF-kB" and tested it successfully in mice. The study was carried out in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh research team led by Paul Robbins, James Kang and Nam Vo (e-mail: von@upmc.edu).
Researchers reported their findings in the February 16 online edition of the journal Spine.
Nasto and Pola found that high concentration of NF-kB causes the degeneration of intervertebral discs (the structures that separate and damp the vertebrae), a degenerative process that could affect also young adults (30 year old), especially if they adopt a sedentary lifestyle. In other words when NF-kB becomes overactive, it triggers a series of deleterious reactions that ultimately affect the physiological structure of the vertebral column.
Due to aging, obesity and sedentary lifestyle, intervertebral discs degenerate, leading to the progressive stiffening of the column. The intervertebral disc degeneration is responsible for syndromes such as chronic low back pain or neck pain that affects a large proportion of the adult population.
Back pain and neck pain are ranked among the leading causes of lost working hours and disability in adults Italian scientists found the mechanism behind the degenerative processes of the column. They studied mice that are genetically programmed to age rapidly (progeroid mice). The average lifespan of normal mice is 2 years. The progeroid mice age more quickly and have a lifespan of 8 months. The progeroid mice perfectly mimic the process of spine degeneration that occur in old people and young adults who suffer from low back pain.
The researchers found that NF-kB plays a role in the degeneration of the spine. NF-kB is a transcription factor, it modulates the activation of specific target genes. Researchers found that NF-kB activates many genes related to inflammation and turn off anti-inflammatory protective genes. Moreover in many studies NF-kB was found hyperactive in both the spines of old mice and old people.
The results of the Italian research suggest that NF-kB induces the onset of deleterious inflammatory processes and inhibit anti-inflammatory mechanisms. Moreover "our study shows that by inhibiting NF-kB, we can stop spine degeneration", Dr. Nasto says. "Drugs that turn off or even only partially inactivate NF-kB could be used to prevent the degeneration of intervertebral discs in patients."
"In our study, we developed a specific drug, called NBD peptide, able to specifically inhibit the deleterious action of NF-kB – dr Pola explains. NBD has been already successfully tested by a US team in Pittsburgh to slow the course of muscular dystrophy in an animal model (NF-kB is also involved in this disease). This peptide will be soon tested in a clinical trial (phase I) to study its therapeutic effects on Duchenne muscular dystrophy".
According to Nasto and Pola, NBD may also be used to counteract the aging of the vertebral column. "We hope to develop other selective inhibitors of NF-kB to slow the degeneration of intervertebral discs" and cure low back pain, Pola concludes.
INFORMATION:
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2012-03-14
WASHINGTON, March 13—Ultrafast lasers, lasers that emit light pulses that are as short as a few femtoseconds, have enabled a wide-range of fundamental science and applications over the past two decades. To highlight recent state-of-the-art developments in femtosecond lasers, the Optical Society (OSA) today published a series of papers as part of an upcoming special Focus Issue on Modular Ultrafast Lasers in its open-access journal Optics Express. The issue is organized and edited by Wilson Sibbett and Tom Brown of the University of St Andrews in the United Kingdom, and ...
2012-03-14
The study, appears this week in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, with Andrés J. López-Contreras and Paula Gutiérrez Martínez as first authors, focuses on the activity of Chk1, a gene known for its tumour suppressing effect. It is what Fernández-Capetillo calls "a genome guardian, a gene that keeps our genome free of mutations and, therefore, protects against the development of tumours".
The team wished to ascertain whether the tumour-protective effect of Chk1 was magnified in organisms with a larger quantity of the protein it codes for, ...
2012-03-14
COLUMBIA, Mo. ¬— For years, doctors have been able to treat defects in joint cartilage by grafting cartilage donated from cadavers into patients' bad joints. Using current methods, donated cartilage can be stored for 28 days for a transplant before the tissue becomes too degraded to transplant into a patient. Now, researchers from the University of Missouri have found a way to store donated cartilage more than twice as long.
"Currently, nearly 80 percent of all donated tissue has to be discarded because it deteriorates before a transplant bank can find a match with a ...
2012-03-14
Is the gambling industry recession-proof? The answer isn't as obvious today as it may have been in previous years. In the early days of gambling, the only legal options available in most countries were horse and dog racing. Until 1976, when gambling was legalized in Atlantic City, the only state that allowed players to gamble legally was Las Vegas. Casino games like slots and blackjack only made their way to the rest of the country in the late 1980's by way of riverboat and Indian casinos.
Nowadays, with the exception of Utah and Hawaii, some form of legal gambling exists ...
2012-03-14
WEST ORANGE, N.J. -- Warm weather may hinder cognitive performance in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to results of a Kessler Foundation study e-published online ahead of print by Neurology. An accompanying editorial by Meier & Christodoulou, MS and heat: The smoke and the fire, details the study's unique aspects, ie, longitudinal followup in a cohort with apparently quiescent disease.
Victoria M. Leavitt, Ph.D., research scientist at Kessler Foundation, is principal investigator for the study, which for the first time, shows a link between warm weather ...
2012-03-14
DETROIT — A team of neuroscientists led by a Wayne State University School of Medicine professor has discovered stark developmental differences in brain network function in children of parents with schizophrenia when compared to those with no family history of mental illness.
The study, led by Vaibhav Diwadkar, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences and co-director of the Division of Brain Research and Imaging Neuroscience, was published in the March 2012 issue of the American Medical Association journal Archives of General Psychiatry and ...
2012-03-14
For every individual who's a victim of Alzheimer's — some 5.4 million persons in the United States alone — there's a related victim: the caregiver. Spouse, son, daughter, other relative or friend, the loneliness, exhaustion, fear and most of all stress and depression takes a toll
While care for the caregivers is difficult to find, a new study out of UCLA suggests that using yoga to engage in very brief, simple daily meditation can lead to improved cognitive functioning and lower levels of depression for caregivers.
Dr. Helen Lavretsky, professor of psychiatry at ...
2012-03-14
Overweight people who shed pounds, especially belly fat, can improve the function of their blood vessels no matter whether they are on a low-carb or a low-fat diet, according to a study being presented by Johns Hopkins researchers at an American Heart Association scientific meeting in San Diego on March 13 that is focused on cardiovascular disease prevention.
In the six-month weight-loss study, Hopkins researchers found that the more belly fat the participants lost, the better their arteries were able to expand when needed, allowing more blood to flow more freely. The ...
2012-03-14
Northern Australia is dealing with two tropical systems today, and both were close enough to be captured on one satellite image. One of them has strengthened enough to be named Tropical Cyclone Lua, while the other is still getting organized and is a tropical low pressure area. The unnamed storm is currently close enough to the coast to generate warnings, while Lua is not.
When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over northern Australia on March 12 at 1711 UTC and March 13 at 0539 UTC it captured the two tropical disturbances close enough to appear on one image. Tropical Cyclone ...
2012-03-14
Many patients desire an improved smile, but may need that extra push to follow through with their procedure. To build patients' confidence, Dr. Hugh Allen, dentist in Pembroke Pines, is pleased to offer patients a before and after gallery to showcase previous smile makeovers that have been completed at Allen Dental.
A smile makeover is the process of improving the appearance of a patient's smile through one or more cosmetic dentistry procedures, such as dental veneers, composite bonding, tooth implants and teeth whitening in Pembroke Pines. Patients choose to have a ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Italian researchers found how to stop low back pain
Discovered the molecular mechanism responsible for vertebral column degeneration
