September 18, 2008, 10:44 PM CT

Probiotic intervention and lipid profile change?

The new global metabolic profiling techniques, like lipidomics as a branch of metabolomics, have made it possible to measure large numbers of different metabolites, and are currently being applied to increase our understanding of the health and disease continuum.

A Finland research group investigated the effect of a three weeks intervention of a probiotic LGG intervention on serum global lipidomics profiles in healthy adults. This will be published on 28 May 2008, in the World Journal of Gastroenterology The result showed that there were decreases in the levels of lysophosphatidylcholines (LysoGPCho), sphingomyelins (SM) and several glycerophosphatidylcholines (GPCho), and increases in triacylglycerols (TAG) in the probiotic LGG group. These changes may contribute, for example, to the metabolic events behind the beneficial effects of LGG on gut barrier function seen in prior studies.

This study, done in collaboration with research groups of Associate Professor Riitta Korpela and Professor Matej Oreič, was the first to characterise the effect of probiotics on global lipidomics profiles. There were indications that probiotic LGG intervention may lead to changes in global lipidomics profiles reflected in decreased LysoGPCho and SM, mainly decreased GPCho and mainly elevated TAG. In addition, among the inflammatory variables, IL-6 was moderately associated by changes in global lipidomics profiles, while there was only a weak association between the lipidomics profiles and the two other inflammatory markers, TNF-αand CRP......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

September 18, 2008, 10:40 PM CT

Gastric cancer with 3 pathological features

Primary carcinoma of the stomach is almost always adenocarcinoma or signet ring cell carcinoma and there are few reports of choriocarcinoma or neuroendocrine cell carcinoma. We report a patient with adenocarcinoma of the stomach combined with choriocarcinoma and neuroendocrine cell carcinoma. This is the first reported case of gastric cancer with these three pathological features.

A case article would be published on 28 May 2008 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this report. The research team led by Prof. Yasumitsu Hirano from Kanazawa University Graduate school of Medical Science described a patient with adenocarcinoma of the stomach combined with choriocarcinoma and neuroendocrine cell carcinoma.

They reported that a 85-year-old man presented to the hospital because of appetite loss. Gastric fiberscopy revealed a large tumor occupying the cardial region and anterior wall of the gastric body. The patient underwent total gastrectomy with lymphnode dissection and partial resection of the liver. In the gastric tumor, choriocarcinoma, small cell carcinoma and tubular adenocarcinoma were existed. The choriocarcinomatous foci contained cells positive for beta-subunit of human chorionic gonadotropin (B-hCG) and human placental lactogen mainly in syncytiotrophoblastic cells. The small cell carcinomatous foci contained cells positive for synaptophysin, neuron-specific enolase (NSE), and chromogranin A......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

September 18, 2008, 10:39 PM CT

Breakthrough in spinal injury treatment

Manipulating embryo-derived stem cells before transplanting them may hold the key to optimizing stem cell technologies for repairing spinal cord injuries in humans. Research published in BioMed Central's open access Journal of Biology, may lead to cell based therapies for victims of paralysis to recover the use of their bodies without the risk of transplant induced pain syndromes.

Dr. Stephen Davies, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, reported that in collaboration with scientists at the University of Rochester, NY his research team has transplanted two types of the major support cells of the brain and spinal cord, cells called astrocytes. These two types of astrocytes, which are both made from the same embryo-derived stem cell-like precursor cell, have remarkably different effects on the spinal repair process.

Using signal molecules known to be involved in the generation of embryonic astrocytes during spinal cord development, the scientists were able to make pure cultures of two different types of astrocytes from the GRP cells.

When Dr. Davies and his team transplanted these two types of astrocytes into the injured spinal cord, they had dramatically different effects. One type of astrocyte called GDAsBMP was remarkably effective at promoting nerve regeneration and recovery of limb motion when transplanted into spinal cord injuries. However, the other type of astrocyte cell generated called GDAsCNTF, not only failed to promote nerve fiber regeneration or functional recovery but also caused neuropathic pain, a severe side effect that was not seen in rats treated with GDAsBMP......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

September 18, 2008, 9:03 PM CT

Work together or face 'disastrous consequences'

Faced with the prospect of more variable and changing climates increasing Africa's already intolerable disease burden, researchers must begin to reach out to colleagues in other fields and to the people they want to help if they hope to avert an expected "continental disaster," as per leading climate, health, and information technology experts, who met in Nairobi last week.

Climate change will further increase the already high variability of Africa's climate, fostering the emergence, resurgence and spread of infectious diseases. "A warmer world will generally be a sicker world," said Prof. Onesmo ole-MoiYoi, a Tanzania medical, veterinary and vector expert. "We researchers need to adopt a new way of working, one that makes African communities bearing the burden of disease part of the solution rather than part of the problem." The separate fields of human health, animal health, climate, vectors and environment must come together to avert a "continental disaster," as per leading experts who attended the meeting.

Patti Kristjanson of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), which hosted the meeting, agreed. "We need to do things differently than we have in the past. The impact of disease will increase if we continue to operate in silos. Our only chance at reducing the impact of deadly diseases in Africa is to increase collaboration across the disciplines of environment and health, and in a way that involves local communities. Failure to do so could lead to disastrous consequences"......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

September 17, 2008, 5:15 PM CT

Physical Therapy Treatment Resolves Symptoms Of Urinary Incontinence In Women

In response to a new study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association showing that pelvic floor disorders, such as urinary incontinence, affect up to one-quarter of American women, the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) is urging women who suffer from this widespread disorder to consider therapy from a physical therapist.

Recent research has demonstrated physical treatment's effectiveness at treating the symptoms of urinary incontinence. A study reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine (March 18, 2008) reports that pelvic floor muscle training, in conjunction with bladder training, resolved the symptoms of urinary incontinence in women. As per APTA, proper preventive measures and therapy by a physical therapist can help patients manage, if not alleviate, this often debilitating condition.

The study, which included 96 randomized controlled trials and 3 systematic reviews from 1990 through 2007, concluded that pelvic floor muscles training and bladder training resolved urinary incontinence in women, as in comparison to drug treatment, electrostimulation, medical devices, injectable bulking agents, and local estrogen treatment.

"The Annals of Internal Medicine study is significant for a number of reasons, none more so than because it provides the highest levels of evidence to support the importance of intervention by a physical therapist who specializes in treating urinary incontinence," says Cynthia E Neville, PT, BCIA-PMDB, director of Women's Health Rehabilitation at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

September 17, 2008, 5:08 PM CT

Pelvic disorders affect large number of women

Nearly one-quarter of all women suffer from pelvic-floor disorders, such as incontinence, at some point in their lives, a national study, including scientists from UT Southwestern Medical Center, has found.

The study of nearly 2,000 women in seven U.S. cities observed that 23.7 percent of participants had experienced at least one pelvic-floor disorder, and the risk increased with age.

"This study is the first nationwide study to confirm what we consider a high prevalence of pelvic-floor disorders in the U.S.," said Dr. Joseph Schaffer, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UT Southwestern and an author of the study, which appears in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"Nearly a quarter of all women suffer from at least one pelvic-floor disorder, and, with the aging of the population, this will become more prevalent," he said.

The national rate of pelvic-floor disorders has not been well-studied, eventhough several regional studies have observed that almost 10 percent of women go through surgery for such conditions at some point in their lives, while one-third of those women have two or more surgeries.

The current study was designed to assess the national rate of such disorders. The participating women were interviewed in 2005 and 2006 at their homes or at a mobile interview center and did not undergo physical examination. The questions were part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

September 16, 2008, 10:26 PM CT

Emotions are key in the study of face recognition

Recognizing the faces of family and friends is commonly an effortless process. However, a minority of people have difficulties identifying the person they are meeting or remembering people they have met before. These problems can be quite dramatic, to the point where those affected fail to recognize the face of their spouse or child or even their own face. New research on face blindness demonstrates the importance of using naturalistic emotional faces and bodies for a better understanding of developmental face disorders.

The study, which is reported in the open-access journal PLoS ONE this week, by scientists in the Netherlands and at Massachusetts General Hospital, led by Beatrice de Gelder, shows that the presence of emotional information in the face increases neural activity in the area of the brain linked to face recognition (the fusiform face area, or FFA), a finding that could be used to design novel assessment and training programs. The study also provides evidence that body and face sensitive processes are less categorically segregated in people with face blindness and points to a possible cause of face blindness in cortical specialisation.

Recent research has shown that as much as 2% of the population suffers from face recognition difficulties. On analogy with developmental dyslexia, these cases are usually referred to as developmental prosopagnosia, referring to the possible origin of the adult face recognition deficit in anomalous development of the full face recognition skills......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

September 16, 2008, 10:21 PM CT

Colds and flu cut by one-third in vaccinated seniors

A winter free from colds and flu? Not yet. But a new study offers new evidence that Canada's top cold and flu-fighting product provides significant help. The three-year study showed that trial participants who took COLD-FX were about one-third less likely to get a "Jackson" cold or flu. The very sensitive Jackson scoring method is a well-accepted scientific approach for judging clinical symptoms, which include coughing, sneezing, runny noses and others. COLD-FX is a unique extract of North American ginseng discovered by 25 Canadian scientists. The multi-center study also revealed that COLD-FX gave trial participants added protection on top of the flu shot's benefit.

The multi-centre study confirmed the results of prior clinical trials evaluated by Health Canada, the federal government's regulatory body. One study reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal showed that for trial participants who regularly suffer two colds a year, COLD-FX reduced their chance of getting a second one by 56%. Health Canada approved strong claims for the product last year.

The multi-centre trial involved 780 healthy seniors in four major Canadian cities who took the flu shot just previous to their six-month therapy phase as part of the study. Participants were given either the standard dose of two capsules a day or double the standard dose or a placebo. The study was led by Dr. Gerald Predy, Medical Officer of Health for Alberta Health Services, in collaboration with various leading Canadian researchers. Neither the participants nor the researchers were aware of who was receiving what in this double-blind, placebo controlled trial......... Posted by: Mark      Read more         Source

September 16, 2008, 10:14 PM CT

Pazopanib shrinks lung cancers before surgery

Pazopanib, a new oral angiogenesis inhibitor, has demonstrated interesting activity in difficult to treat non-small-cell lung cancer, US scientists report.

In a phase II trial, 30 out of 35 patients treated with preoperative pazopanib for a minimum of two weeks saw their tumor size shrink by up to 85%.

"This is a positive result that will be explored further," said Prof. Nasser Altorki from Weil Medical College of Cornell University in New York.

"To my knowledge, no other results on the effect of angiogenesis inhibitors in early stage operable lung cancer have been published.

The results presented here with pazopanib indicate a highly active drug in this setting and further development in lung cancer is underway to fully understand the value of this drug in this disease"......... Posted by: Scott      Read more         Source

September 16, 2008, 10:07 PM CT

New drug substantially extends survival in pancreatic cancer

A new form of chemotherapy that destroys new blood vessels that grow around tumors has produced excellent results in a phase II trial of patients with inoperable pancreas cancer, scientists report at the 33rd Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Stockholm.

European researchers led by Prof. Matthias Lhr from the Karolinska Institute reviewed the efficacy and safety of three different doses of cationic lipid complexed paclitaxel (EndoTAG-1) administered twice weekly, in combination with weekly infusions of gemcitabine, in comparison to gemcitabine alone, in 200 patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

"EndoTAG consists of charged particles that bind preferentially to the fast-growing endothelial cells in new blood vessels being formed by tumors," Prof. Lhr explained. "The drug, paclitaxel, is then released and thus directly reaches an important target in tumors, i.e. the vessels. Paclitaxel itself is not very efficient in pancreratic cancer".

After following patients for a year, the scientists observed that therapy with such combination led to a substantially extended median survival time in comparison to standard treatment. Patients given gemcitabine alone survived on average 7.2 months, in comparison to up to 13.6 months for patients who received repeated doses of the combination (EndoTAG plus gemcitabine)......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source