Probable cause for Parkinson’s found
Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Lou Gehrig’s disease and other brain disorders are among a growing list of maladies attributed to oxidative stress, the cell damage caused during metabolism when the oxygen in the body assumes ever more chemically reactive forms.
But the precise connection between oxidation and neurodegenerative diseases has eluded researchers. Now, a study by the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine reveals that damage is linked to a natural byproduct of oxidation called nitration.
“We looked at a healthy brain and found nitration of proteins that are implicated in neurodegenerative disease,” said Colette Sacksteder, PNNL scientist and lead author of the study, published in the July issue of the journal Biochemistry. PNNL scientist Wei-Jun Qian was co-lead author.
Australian team test new bird flu vaccine
Australian researchers have begun a trial to test the effectiveness of a new vaccine to protect against the potentially deadly bird flu.
The Vaccine Trials Group at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research and Princess Margaret Hospital for Children is recruiting 150 adult volunteers to participate in the study.
Study leader, Dr Peter Richmond, said the Australian-developed vaccine has shown encouraging results in early trials.
Researchers discover new cell structures
Carnegie Mellon University researchers Kris Noel Dahl and Mohammad F. Islam have made a new breakthrough for children suffering from an extremely rare disease that accelerates the aging process by about seven times the normal rate.
Dahl, an assistant professor of chemical and biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon, said her work with researchers at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the John Hopkins University School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania reveals that children suffering from Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS) have an excessively stiff shell of proteins.
The nucleus in all three trillion cells of the human body contains the DNA genome, which is wrapped with a stiff protein shell called the nuclear lamina. Children with HGPS have a mutation in one of the proteins of the lamina shell. For years, experts have thought this mutation made their nuclei much softer and more likely to be ruptured when cells were under stress.
Magnetic stimulation helps with stroke rehab
As a rehabilitation technique for stroke, repetitive magnetic stimulation of the brain, or “rTMS,” can improve patient movement on the side of the body affected by the stroke.
With rTMS, a magnet is used to slow nerve activity on the side of the brain not affected by the stroke. Previous research has suggested that after a stroke, the unaffected side becomes hyperactive, sending signals to the affected side that actually impair the patient’s ability to move the arms and legs.
The findings, from a study reported in the journal Stroke, indicate that the magnitude and duration of movement benefits can be safely increased after more than one rTMS session. With five consecutive sessions, sustained improvements in movement in stroke patients were noted over the 2-week study period.
Europe may have delay and shortage of flu vaccine
The UK’s general practitioners (GPs) were warned on Thursday to expect delays and possible shortages of the seasonal influenza vaccine as manufacturers struggle to produce one of the strains needed for this year’s product.
In a letter sent to GPs today, England’s Chief Medical Officer, Liam Donaldson congratulates them on vaccinating a record number of people in 2005, but warns that problems lie ahead this year.
The Department of Health (DoH) said: “The letter also informs GPs of the latest situation on vaccine supply for the forthcoming flu season. This follows advice from the UK Vaccine Industry Group (UVIG) that there are likely to be Europe-wide delays in deliveries of influenza vaccine and that there may be shortages, as manufacturers are encountering problems growing one of the vaccine virus strains recommended for this year’s seasonal flu vaccine.”
HPV testing improves cervical cancer screening
Testing for human papillomavirus (HPV) may be a useful first step for cervical cancer screening in women younger than 35 years, preliminary findings indicate.
Testing for HPV is better than standard cell testing at picking up pre-cancerous changes, but it is also more likely to yield false results. This is particularly true among young women, where there is a higher rate of infection, Dr. Guglielmo Ronco explained in comments to Reuters Health.
Using the strategy of HPV testing first, followed by cervical cell examination if needed, “we showed that it is possible to have a relevant increase” in pre-cancer detection without increasing the false results, even among young women, said Ronco, from the Centre for Cancer Prevention in Turin, Italy.
Babies to be tested after London hospital worker is stricken with TB
Following the discovery that a London hospital health worker has been found to have tuberculosis (TB), more than 200 babies are to be tested for the disease.
The health worker who was diagnosed with TB in March may have been ill since last December and it is very unlikely that the person has infected others at the hospital.
However the families of 213 babies treated on a postnatal ward at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Obstetric Hospital in London have been advised to have their babies screened.
Rich folks get more sleep - blacks and men get less
In a study of sleep characteristics in 669 adults in Chicago who were compared by sex and race, investigators found that blacks got less sleep than whites, while men got less sleep than women.
Furthermore, the wealthier you are, the more sleep you’re likely to get, Dr. Diane S. Lauderdale of the University of Chicago and her colleagues found.
“There was an expectation that people with very demanding jobs in terms of high status, high income, would be getting less sleep, and that was not true,” Lauderdale told Reuters Health in an interview. The findings could help explain why blacks suffer from more health problems than whites, she added.
