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

Giving lithium to those who need it

2012-09-21
(Press-News.org) Lithium is a 'gold standard' drug for treating bipolar disorder, however not everyone responds in the same way. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Biology of Mood & Anxiety Disorders finds that this is true at the levels of gene activation, especially in the activation or repression of genes which alter the level the apoptosis (programmed cell death). Most notably BCL2, known to be important for the therapeutic effects of lithium, did not increase in non-responders. This can be tested in the blood of patients within four weeks of treatment.

A research team from Yale University School of Medicine measured the changing levels of gene activity in the blood of twenty depressed adult subjects with bipolar disorder before treatment, and then fortnightly once treatment with lithium carbonate had begun.

Over the eight weeks of treatment there were definite differences in the levels of gene expression between those who responded to lithium (measured using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale) and those who failed to respond. Dr Robert Beech who led this study explained, "We found 127 genes that had different patterns of activity (turned up or down) and the most affected cellular signalling pathway was that controlled programmed cell death (apoptosis)."

For people who responded to lithium the genes which protect against apoptosis, including Bcl2 and IRS2, were up regulated, while those which promote apoptosis were down regulated, including BAD and BAK1.

The protein coded by BAK1 can open an anion channel in mitochondrial walls which leads to leakage of mitochondrial contents and activation of cell death pathways. Damage similar to this has been seen within the prefrontal cortex of the brain of patients with bipolar disorder. BAD protein is thought to promote BAK1 activity, while Bcl2 binds to BAK1 and prevents its ability to bind to the channel.

Dr Beech continued, "This positive swing in regulation of apoptosis for lithium responders was measurable as early as four weeks after the start of treatment, while in non-responders there was a measureable shift in the opposite direction. It seems then, that increased expression of BCL2 and related genes is necessary for the therapeutic effects of lithium. Understanding these differences in genes expression may lead towards personalized treatment for bipolar disorder in the future." ### Media Contact Dr Hilary Glover
Scientific Press Officer, BioMed Central
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3192 2370
Mob: +44 (0) 778 698 1967
Email: hilary.glover@biomedcentral.com

Notes to Editors

1. Increased ratio of anti-apoptotic to pro-apoptotic Bcl2 gene-family members in lithium-responders one month after treatment initiation. Lori Lowthert, Janine J Leffert, Aiping Lin, Sheila Umlauf, Kathleen Maloney, Anjana Muralidharan, Boris Lorberg, Shrikant Mane, Hongyu Zhao, Rajita Sinha, Zubin Bhagwagar and Robert D Beech Biology of Mood & Anxiety Disorders 2012, 2:15 doi:10.1186/2045-5380-2-15 http://www.biolmoodanxietydisord.com/content/2/1/15/abstract

Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.

2. Biology of Mood & Anxiety Disorders is an open access peer-reviewed journal that publishes highly innovative basic, translational, and clinical research that advances our understanding of the pathophysiology of mood and anxiety disorders. @BMADjournal

3. BioMed Central is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector. @BioMedCentral


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Diet high in total antioxidants associated with lower risk of myocardial infarction in women

2012-09-21
Philadelphia, PA, September 21, 2012 – Coronary heart disease is a major cause of death in women. A new study has found that a diet rich in antioxidants, mainly from fruits and vegetables, can significantly reduce the risk of myocardial infarction. The study is published in the October issue of The American Journal of Medicine. "Our study was the first to look at the effect of all dietary antioxidants in relation to myocardial infarction," says lead investigator Alicja Wolk, DrMedSci, Division of Nutritional Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska ...

Debt and income concerns deter medical students from primary care careers

2012-09-21
September 21, 2012 – (BRONX, NY) – Primary care physicians – America's front line healthcare practitioners – are usually the first to diagnose illness, refer patients to specialists and coordinate care. Yet, despite that critical role, primary care physicians remain among the lowest paid of all doctors at a time when there's an acute primary care shortage. A unique longitudinal study of medical students by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, and North Carolina State University ...

Bacteria's key innovation helps understand evolution

Bacterias key innovation helps understand evolution
2012-09-21
Several years ago researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) reported discovering a novel, evolutionary trait in a long-studied population of Escherichia coli, a rod-shaped bacterium commonly found in the lower intestine of mammals. The E. coli added a helping of citrate to its traditional diet of glucose, even though other E. coli can't consume citrate in the presence of oxygen. These same biologists have now analyzed this new trait's genetic origins and found that in multiple cases, the evolving E. coli population needed more than one mutational step before the ...

Denosumab reduces burden of giant-cell tumor of the bone

2012-09-21
PHILADELPHIA — Treatment with denosumab, a drug targeted against a protein that helps promote bone destruction, decreased the number of tumor giant cells in patients with giant-cell tumor of the bone, and increased new bone formation, according to the results of a phase II study published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "Giant-cell tumor of the bone is a rare tumor that affects mostly young people," said Sant P. Chawla, M.D., director of the Santa Monica Oncology Center, Santa Monica, Calif. "Radical surgery is ...

Horticultural hijacking

Horticultural hijacking
2012-09-21
It's a battleground down there — in the soil where plants and bacteria dwell. Even though beneficial root bacteria come to the rescue when a plant is being attacked by pathogens, there's a dark side to the relationship between the plant and its white knight. According to research reported by a University of Delaware scientific team in the September online edition of Plant Physiology, the most highly cited plant journal, a power struggle ensues as the plant and the "good" bacteria vie over who will control the plant's immune system. "For the brief period when the beneficial ...

Virtual boundaries: How environmental cues affect motivation and task-oriented behavior

2012-09-21
NEW YORK - September 21, 2012 - Much of our daily lives are spent completing tasks that involve a degree of waiting, such as remaining on hold while scheduling a doctor's appointment or standing in line at an ATM. Faced with a wait, some people postpone, avoid, or abandon their task. Others endure the wait but feel dissatisfied and frustrated by the experience. Are there ways to improve our outlook and mindset while waiting? A new study shows that seemingly irrelevant environmental cues—such as queue guides, or barriers commonly used in banks and airports—can serve as ...

Historian uncovers rare writings by 18th century political icon

2012-09-21
Three political essays by one of the greatest British statesmen of the last 250 years have been discovered by a historian at Queen Mary, University of London. The new finds constitute the earliest political writings by Edmund Burke (1729-97), dating from around 1757, when he was 27-years-old, a period often described as the 'missing years' of his biography. Professor Richard Bourke, from the School of History at Queen Mary, came across the early essays among a series of notebooks belonging to William Burke, a close friend and distant relation of parliamentarian, Edmund. ...

Mount Sinai researchers identify predictors for inpatient pain

2012-09-21
Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have identified reliable predictors of pain by surveying patients throughout their hospital stays about the severity of their pain and their levels of satisfaction with how their pain was managed by hospital staff. Using this data, interdisciplinary teams treating patients were able to identify patients at higher risk for pain prior to, or immediately upon, their admission to the hospital, and create and implement intervention plans resulting in patients reporting lower levels of pain and higher levels of satisfaction with ...

Documenting women's experiences with chromosome abnormalities found in new prenatal test

2012-09-21
PHILADELPHIA – We often hear that "knowledge is power." But, that isn't always the case, especially when the knowledge pertains to the health of an unborn child, with murky implications, at best. A new study, led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, begins to document this exception to the general rule. Barbara Bernhardt, MS, CGC, a genetic counselor at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues contacted a small group of women who are participating in a larger Columbia University study investigating ...

Addictive properties of drug abuse may hold key to an HIV cure

2012-09-21
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Florida State University researcher is on a mission to explore the gene-controlling effects of addictive drugs in pursuit of new HIV treatments. Working under the support of a $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Florida State biologist Jonathan Dennis is studying a unique ability shared between a promising class of HIV treatments known as histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDIs) and psychostimulant drugs such as cocaine. "Current HIV treatments do just that — they treat the disease by preventing the spread of HIV in ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Warming temperatures impact immune performance of wild monkeys, U-M study shows

Fine particulate air pollution may play a role in adverse birth outcomes

Sea anemone study shows how animals stay ‘in shape’

KIER unveils catalyst innovations for sustainable turquoise hydrogen solutions

Bacteria ditch tags to dodge antibiotics

New insights in plant response to high temperatures and drought

Strategies for safe and equitable access to water: a catalyst for global peace and security

CNIO opens up new research pathways against paediatric cancer Ewing sarcoma by discovering mechanisms that make it more aggressive

Disease severity staging system for NOTCH3-associated small vessel disease, including CADASIL

Satellite evidence bolsters case that climate change caused mass elephant die-off

Unique killer whale pod may have acquired special skills to hunt the world’s largest fish

Emory-led Lancet review highlights racial disparities in sudden cardiac arrest and death among athletes

A new approach to predicting malaria drug resistance

Coral adaptation unlikely to keep pace with global warming

Bioinspired droplet-based systems herald a new era in biocompatible devices

A fossil first: Scientists find 1.5-million-year-old footprints of two different species of human ancestors at same spot

The key to “climate smart” agriculture might be through its value chain

These hibernating squirrels could use a drink—but don’t feel the thirst

New footprints offer evidence of co-existing hominid species 1.5 million years ago

Moral outrage helps misinformation spread through social media

U-M, multinational team of scientists reveal structural link for initiation of protein synthesis in bacteria

New paper calls for harnessing agrifood value chains to help farmers be climate-smart

Preschool education: A key to supporting allophone children

CNIC scientists discover a key mechanism in fat cells that protects the body against energetic excess

Chemical replacement of TNT explosive more harmful to plants, study shows

Scientists reveal possible role of iron sulfides in creating life in terrestrial hot springs

Hormone therapy affects the metabolic health of transgender individuals

Survey of 12 European countries reveals the best and worst for smoke-free homes

First new treatment for asthma attacks in 50 years

Certain HRT tablets linked to increased heart disease and blood clot risk

[Press-News.org] Giving lithium to those who need it