Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS or progeria) is a rare genetic disease that causes young children to develop symptoms associated with advanced age, such as baldness, wrinkles, osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease. Now, a study published by Cell Press in the September 14th issue of the journal Developmental Cell uses a mouse model to shed light on progeria, and perhaps also on the normal aging process. Progeria is caused by a mutation in the gene for lamin A that leads to production of "progerin", a truncated form of the lamin A protein that causes the cell ...

African Americans with muscular dystrophy die 10 to 12 years younger than their white counterparts, according to research published in the Sept. 14 issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The black-white mortality gap, which was calculated on the basis of 20 years of data, is among the largest ever observed in the annals of research into racial disparities in health care, say Dr. Nicte Mejia and Dr. Rachel Nardin, co-authors of the editorial. "Furthermore," they write, "white patients with MD [muscular dystrophy] enjoy increasing ...

Smokeless tobacco products should not be used as an alternative to cigarettes or for smoking cessation due to the risk of addiction and return to smoking, according to an American Heart Association policy statement. Smokeless tobacco products such as dry and moist snuff as well as chewing tobacco may also increase the risk of fatal heart attack, fatal stroke and certain cancers, according to the statement published online in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. "No tobacco product is safe to consume," said Mariann Piano, Ph.D., lead writer of the ...

Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD) is a common genetic disease that results in chronic kidney failure. Although the genes responsible for ADPKD have been identified (PKD1, PKD2), relatively little is known about how mutations in these genes promote cyst growth molecularly. In this paper, scientists at Children's Hospital in Boston, lead by Jordon Kreidberg, investigated the signaling pathways that go awry in the disease using mouse kidney epithelial cells in which Pkd1 was genetically deleted. They found that the protein c-Met was hyperactive in Pkd1-deficient ...

Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) comprise a family of blood cancers characterized by clonal expansion of a single blood cell type. Untreated, these cancers can progress to bone marrow failure and acute myeloid leukemia. Several groups have identified activating mutations in the JAK2 gene as associated with MPN; JAK2 inhibition has therefore emerged as approach to MPN therapy. Thus far, however, JAK2 inhibition strategies have had limited efficacy and have been accompanied by significant toxicity. In this paper, Ross Levine and his group at the Memorial Sloane Kettering ...

EDITOR'S PICK Hi-JAK-ing Cancer by Inhibiting Jak2 Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) comprise a family of blood cancers characterized by clonal expansion of a single blood cell type. Untreated, these cancers can progress to bone marrow failure and acute myeloid leukemia. Several groups have identified activating mutations in the JAK2 gene as associated with MPN; JAK2 inhibition has therefore emerged as approach to MPN therapy. Thus far, however, JAK2 inhibition strategies have had limited efficacy and have been accompanied by significant toxicity. In this paper, Ross ...

Researchers reveal a new way in which cells restrain beta-catenin and potentially suppress tumor metastasis: the protein can be ejected from cells in small vesicles called exosomes. The study appears online on September 13 in the Journal of Cell Biology (www.jcb.org). Beta-catenin is a central component of the Wnt signaling pathway that controls cell proliferation and differentiation. Activation of the Wnt pathway stabilizes beta-catenin, allowing it to move into the cell nucleus and control the expression of many different genes. Michael Caplan's group at Yale University ...

Heart enlargement caused by narrowed aortic valves regresses faster in elderly women than in men after aortic valve replacement, according to research reported in a surgical supplement of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. Men's slower heart-size regression times may be attributable to genetic differences that cause the heart to develop more fibrous tissue after surgery because of narrowed heart valves, a condition known as aortic stenosis. "We show for the first time that elderly women and men differ in their gene expression related to fibrous ...

An international team of scientists and physicians used a combination of sophisticated emerging technologies and data analysis to detect 14 simple metabolites with high accuracy to predict in early pregnancy which women are at risk of developing preeclampsia in later pregnancy, according to a study reported in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association. Currently there is no predictive test for the condition and no cure other than delivery of the baby. Preeclampsia is a life-threatening condition characterized by high blood pressure and high levels of protein ...

Publicly available information about board certification, education and malpractice claims appear to provide consumers with little information about the quality of care individual physicians provide, according to a report in the September 13 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "To improve the quality of care received by their beneficiaries, some health plans use physician report cards and tiered physician networks to steer their members toward physicians who provide high-quality care. However, most patients do not have access to ...

A lifestyle intervention incorporating exercise training and diet counseling in primary health care settings appears to improve quality of life among adults at moderate to high risk for heart disease and appears cost-effective compared to standard care, according to a report in the September 13 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Most individuals in developed countries do not reach recommended levels of physical activity, and are thus at higher risk of illness and death, according to background information in the article. "Extensive ...

An initial analysis suggests that biomarkers in blood serum can be combined with clinical information to accurately classify patients with Alzheimer's disease, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "There is clearly a need for reliable and valid diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease, and in recent years, there has been an explosive increase of effort aimed at identifying such markers," the authors write as background information in the article. "It has been previously argued that, ...

Adding albuterol, a compound commonly used to treat asthma and other respiratory diseases, to an existing treatment for patients with multiple sclerosis appears to improve clinical outcomes, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by the degeneration of myelin, which coats nerve cells in the white matter of the central nervous system. Patients with the condition have been found to have elevated levels of interleukin-12, a biological ...

A pilot study suggests the diabetes medication pioglitazone is generally well tolerated and may warrant further study as a treatment for patients with Alzheimer's disease, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the January 2011 print issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "Alzheimer's disease is an immense and growing public health problem," the authors write as background information in the article. "Although prescription drug therapy for the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease has been available since 1993, these agents ...

Taking oral antiviral medications following infection with the herpes simplex virus may be associated with a reduced risk of recurring eye-related manifestations of the disease, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "Herpes simplex virus (HSV) is a common cause of corneal disease and is the leading infectious cause of corneal blindness among developed nations," the authors write as background information in the article. After the initial exposure to the virus and the resulting systemic infection, ...

STANFORD, Calif. - Repeated use of an antibiotic that is considered generally benign, because users seldom incur obvious side effects, induces cumulative and persistent changes in the composition of the beneficial microbial species inhabiting the human gut, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found. By a conservative estimate, something like 1,000 different varieties of microbes coexist harmoniously within a typical healthy person's gut, said David Relman, MD, professor of medicine and of microbiology and immunology at the medical school and ...

Unlike adults, children are able to keep information from their senses separate and may therefore perceive the visual world differently, according to research published today. Scientists at UCL (University College London) and Birkbeck, University of London have found that children younger than 12 do not combine different sensory information to make sense of the world as adults do. This does not only apply to combining different senses, such as vision and sound, but also to the different information the brain receives when looking at a scene with one eye compared to both ...

In work suggesting a new approach to treating polycystic kidney disease (PKD), a leading cause of kidney failure, researchers at Children's Hospital Boston were able to block the formation of fluid-filled cysts, the hallmark of the disease, in a mouse model. Their findings, using a compound that inhibits a receptor known as c-Met, will be published in the September 13th online edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. PKD is the most common fatal genetic disease affecting Caucasians in the U.S. Currently, there is no approved treatment to halt cyst growth, which ...

Cognitive scientists from the University of Rochester have discovered that playing action video games trains people to make the right decisions faster. The researchers found that video game players develop a heightened sensitivity to what is going on around them, and this benefit doesn't just make them better at playing video games, but improves a wide variety of general skills that can help with everyday activities like multitasking, driving, reading small print, keeping track of friends in a crowd, and navigating around town. In an upcoming study in the journal Current ...

(New York, NY) Nearly half the surgeons who made at least $1 million in payments from orthopedic device companies did not have that relationship published in their scientific articles, according to a study released today in the on-line edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine. The study shows that readers are not being adequately informed about conflicts of interest even when the funds involved are significant. The study, conducted by researchers at the New York-based Institute on Medicine as a Profession (IMAP), is the first of its kind to use company records ...

New York (September 13, 2010) - According to a new study a protein crucial for the immune response appears to be a key player in the progression of a devastating form of childhood leukemia called T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). Suppressing the activity of the protein kills the leukemic cells, the study shows, opening a potential avenue to new drugs that could prevent progression of the disease. Led by Iannis Aifantis, PhD, associate professor of pathology and director of the Cancer Stem Cell Program at the NYU Cancer Institute at NYU Langone Medical Center, ...

DALLAS – Sept. 13, 2010 – A tiny molecule that spurs the progression of non-small-cell lung cancer could become a player in fighting the disease, say researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center, who published a study on how the molecule behaves in mice in the Sept. 14 issue of Cancer Cell. Scientists have known that the molecule microRNA-21, or miR-21, is present in overabundant quantities in human tumors, including non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Until now, however, it was unclear whether miR-21 contributed to the development of lung cancer, or whether it was simply ...

DAVIS--A research team from the University of California, Davis and Peking University, China, has discovered a novel mechanism as to why the long-term, high-dosage use of the well-known arthritis pain medication, Vioxx, led to heart attacks and strokes. Their groundbreaking research may pave the way for a safer drug for millions of arthritis patients who suffer acute and chronic pain. Using metabolomic profiling to analyze murine (rodent) plasma, the scientists discovered that Vioxx causes a dramatic increase in a regulatory lipid that could be a major contributor to ...

A study led by researchers at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) at St. Paul's Hospital and the University of British Columbia has found that supervised injection facilities such as Vancouver's Insite connect clients with addiction treatment, which in turn resulted in greater likelihood of stopping injection drug use for at least six months. The study, recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, is the first ever to examine the link between a supervised injection facility and injection cessation. "Extensive research has ...

Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have discovered key plant enzymes that normally make the energy stored in wood, straw, and other non-edible parts of plants difficult to extract. The findings, published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, can be used to improve the viability of sustainable biofuels that do not adversely affect the food chain. The team based at the University of Cambridge, and now part of the BBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy Centre (BSBEC), has identified and studied the genes for ...