(Press-News.org) New York, NY (February 20, 2013) — Triglyceride lipid emulsions rich in an omega-3 fatty acid injected within a few hours of an ischemic stroke can decrease the amount of damaged brain tissue by 50 percent or more in mice, reports a new study by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center.
The results suggest that the emulsions may be able to reduce some of the long-term neurological and behavioral problems seen in human survivors of neonatal stroke and possibly of adult stroke, as well. The findings were published today in the journal PLoS One.
Currently, clot-busting tPA (recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator) is the only treatment shown to improve recovery from ischemic stroke. If administered soon after stroke onset, the drug can restore blood flow to the brain but may not prevent injured, but potentially salvageable, neurons from dying.
Drugs with neuroprotective qualities that can prevent the death of brain cells damaged by stroke are needed, but even after 30 years of research and more than 1000 agents tested in animals, no neuroprotectant has been found effective in people.
Omega-3 fatty acids may have more potential as neuroprotectants because they affect multiple biochemical processes in the brain that are disturbed by stroke, said the study's senior author, Richard Deckelbaum, MD, director of the Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia's College of Physicians & Surgeons. "The findings also may be applicable to other causes of ischemic brain injury in newborns and adults," added co-investigator Vadim S. Ten, MD, PhD, an associate professor of pediatrics from the Department of Pediatrics at Columbia.
The effects of the omega-3 fatty acids include increasing the production of natural neuroprotectants in the brain, reducing inflammation and cell death, and activating genes that may protect brain cells. Omega-3 fatty acids also markedly reduce the release of harmful oxidants into the brain after stroke. "In most clinical trials in the past, the compounds tested affected only one pathway. Omega-3 fatty acids, in contrast, are very bioactive molecules that target multiple mechanisms involved in brain death after stroke," Dr. Deckelbaum said.
The study revealed that an emulsion containing only DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), but not EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), in a triglyceride molecule reduced the area of dead brain tissue by about 50 percent or more even when administered up to two hours after the stroke. Dr. Deckelbaum noted, "Since mice have a much faster metabolism than humans, longer windows of time for therapeutic effect after stroke are likely in humans." Eight weeks after the stroke, much of the "saved" mouse brain tissue was still healthy, and no toxic effects were detected.
Studies are currently under way to test the emulsion in older mice and in mice with different types of stroke. The researchers are also conducting additional studies to identify more precisely how the omega-3 emulsion works and to optimize the emulsion in order to improve functional recovery after stroke.
After animal studies on dosages and timing, and if the emulsions continue to show promising results, Dr. Deckelbaum said, clinical trials could begin quickly, as such emulsions have already been shown to be safe in people. Similar emulsions are used in European ICUs for nutrition support, and in the US they have been found to be safe when tested in babies for their nutritive and anti-inflammatory effects.
###
The title of the paper is "n-3 Fatty Acid Rich Triglyceride Emulsions are Neuroprotective after Cerebral Hypoxic-Ischemic Injury in Neonatal Mice." The other contributors are Jill J. Williams, Korapat Mayurasakorn, Susan J. Vannucci (Weill Cornell); Christopher Mastropietro (Wayne State); Nicolas G. Bazan (Louisiana State); and Vadim S. Ten CUMC).
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (RO1 HL040404, RO1 NS056146, and RO1 NS046741).
A U.S. patent application filed by Columbia University and naming RD as an inventor, for the therapeutic use of omega-3 diglyceride emulsions, has been allowed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The other authors declare no financial or other conflicts of interest.
Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, pre-clinical, and clinical research; medical and health sciences education; and patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Established in 1767, Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons was the first institution in the country to grant the MD degree and is among the most selective medical schools in the country. Columbia University Medical Center is home to the largest medical research enterprise in New York City and State and one of the largest in the United States. Its physicians treat patients at multiple locations throughout the tri-state area, including the NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia campus in Washington Heights, the new ColumbiaDoctors Midtown location at 51 W. 51st St. in Manhattan, and the new ColumbiaDoctors Riverdale practice. For more information, visit www.cumc.columbia.edu or columbiadoctors.org.
Omega-3 lipid emulsions markedly protect brain after stroke in mouse study
2013-02-21
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Creeping epidemic of obesity hits Asia Pacific region
2013-02-21
Sophia Antipolis, 21 February 2013: Over eating, sedentary lifestyles, cultural attitudes, and lack of prevention programmes are to blame for the rising epidemic of obesity in the Asia Pacific region. Overweight and obesity has quadrupled in China and societies still label people of healthy weight as poor.
Prevention will be an important theme at the 19th Asian Pacific Congress of Cardiology held 21-24 February 2013 in Pattaya, Thailand. Experts from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) will lead a one day collaborative programme on 23 February.
Professor Kui-Hian ...
Organic tomatoes accumulate more vitamin C, sugars than conventionally grown fruit
2013-02-21
Tomatoes grown on organic farms accumulate higher concentrations of sugars, vitamin C and compounds associated with oxidative stress compared to those grown on conventional farms, according to research published February 20 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Maria Raquel Alcantara Miranda and colleagues from the Federal University of Ceara, Brazil.
In their study, the researchers compared the weights and biochemical properties of tomatoes from organic and conventional farms. They found that tomatoes grown on organic farms were approximately 40% smaller than those ...
People with disabilities at greater risk of violence and subsequent mental ill-health
2013-02-21
People with disabilities are at a greater risk of being the victims of violence and of suffering mental ill health when victimized, according to research published February 20 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Hind Khalifeh and colleagues from University College London and King's College London.
A recent World Report on Disability highlighted violence as a leading cause of morbidity among disabled people. The research published today is the first to assess the extent to which people with disabilities experience different kinds of violence and the associated health ...
Mosquitoes exposed to DEET once are less repelled by it a few hours later
2013-02-21
Mosquitoes are able to ignore the smell of the insect repellent DEET within a few hours of being exposed to it, according to research published February 20 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by James Logan, Nina Stanczyk and colleagues from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK.
Though most insects are strongly repelled by the smell of DEET, previous studies by Logan's research group have shown that some flies and mosquitoes carry a genetic change in their odor receptors that makes them insensitive to this smell. The new results reported in the PLOS ONE ...
Does bariatric surgery impact medical costs associated with obesity?
2013-02-21
Bariatric surgery is a well-documented treatment for obesity that leads to considerable weight loss and health improvement, but is the surgery successful in the long run in reducing costs associated with medical care for obesity? A team of researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and School of Medicine recently undertook a multi-year analysis of health insurance claims data to examine this question and found that although the procedure's success rate is well documented, it does not have a similar impact on health care costs. The findings were ...
New injectable hydrogel encourages regeneration and improves functionality after a heart attack
2013-02-21
University of California, San Diego bioengineers have demonstrated in a study in pigs that a new injectable hydrogel can repair damage from heart attacks, help the heart grow new tissue and blood vessels, and get the heart moving closer to how a healthy heart should. The results of the study were published Feb. 20 in Science Translational Medicine and clear the way for clinical trials to begin this year in Europe. The gel is injected through a catheter without requiring surgery or general anesthesia -- a less invasive procedure for patients.
There are an estimated 785,000 ...
Researchers find multiple tests needed to detect infection in low birth-weight newborns
2013-02-21
New research by Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine and Yale University School of Medicine finds that cultures commonly used to detect bacterial infections in low birth-weight newborns with early onset sepsis may actually overlook some germs.
The research done at Case Western Reserve supports the need for multiple detection methods, such as DNA genomic analyses and other independent culture technologies, to identify bacteria that culturing may miss, said Yiping Han, professor of Periodontics and Reproductive Biology at the Case Western Reserve dental ...
Digital processing system avoids 17.4 million drug errors in US in 1 year
2013-02-21
Processing a prescription through an electronic ordering system can halve the likelihood of a drug error, and avert more than 17 million such incidents in US hospitals in one year alone, indicates research published online in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
And if much more widely adopted than at present, the system has the potential to cut out 50 million drug errors a year, calculate the researchers.
The US Institute of Medicine estimates that, on average, at least one mistake will be made with a hospital patient's medication every day.
Computerised ...
Myth that UK supply of innovative new pharma drugs is drying up
2013-02-21
The widely held belief that the UK supply of innovative new medicines has conspicuously dwindled in recent decades, is not borne out by the evidence, reveals research published in the online journal BMJ Open.
In fact, the reverse may be true, the figures suggest.
The prevailing view is that pharmaceutical industry innovation has been in decline, with fewer new drugs launched in recent decades than before—despite more cash being pumped into research and development—prompting a good deal of hand-wringing, say the authors.
They wanted to find out whether this view was ...
Bullied children can suffer lasting psychological harm as adults
2013-02-21
DURHAM, NC – Bullied children grow into adults who are at increased risk of developing anxiety disorders, depression and suicidal thoughts, according to a study led by researchers at Duke Medicine.
The findings, based on more than 20 years of data from a large group of participants initially enrolled as adolescents, are the most definitive to date in establishing the long-term psychological effects of bullying.
Published online Feb. 20, 2013, in JAMA Psychiatry, the study belies a common perception that bullying, while hurtful, inflicts a fleeting injury that victims ...