October 6, 2006, 4:42 AM CT

Cola Might Increase Osteoporosis Risk

As per the National Osteoporosis Foundation, approximately 55 percent of Americans, mostly women, are at risk of developing osteoporosis, a disease of porous and brittle bones that causes higher susceptibility to bone fractures. Now, Katherine Tucker, PhD, director of the Epidemiology and Dietary Assessment Program at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, and his colleagues have reported findings in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that cola, a popular beverage for a number of Americans, may contribute to lower bone mineral density in older women, a condition which increases risk for osteoporosis.

Tucker, also a professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts, and his colleagues analyzed dietary questionnaires and bone mineral density measurements at the spine and three different hip sites of more than 2,500 people in the Framingham Osteoporosis Study whose average age was just below 60. In women, cola consumption was linked to lower bone mineral density at all three hip sites, regardless of factors such as age, menopausal status, total calcium and vitamin D intake, or use of cigarettes or alcohol.

However, cola consumption was not linked to lower bone mineral density for men at the hip sites, or the spine for either men or women. The results were similar for diet cola and, eventhough weaker, for decaffeinated cola as well.........

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October 4, 2006, 9:53 PM CT

New Drug To Blocks Influenza Virus And Bird Flu

Opening a new front in the war against flu, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have reported the discovery of a novel compound that confers broad protection against influenza viruses, including deadly avian influenza.

The new work, reported online this week in the Journal of Virology, describes the discovery of a peptide -- a small protein molecule -- that effectively blocks the influenza virus from attaching to and entering the cells of its host, thwarting its ability to replicate and infect more cells.

The new finding is important because it could make available a class of new antiviral drugs to prevent and treat influenza at a time when fear of a global pandemic is heightened and available antiviral drugs are losing their potency.

"This gives us another tool," says Stacey Schultz-Cherry, a UW-Madison professor of medical microbiology and immunology and the senior author of the new report. "We're quickly losing our antivirals".

The new drug, which was tested on cells in culture and in mice, conferred complete protection against infection and was highly effective in treating animals in the early stages of infection. Untreated infected animals typically died within a week. All of the infected animals treated with small doses of the drug at the onset of symptoms survived.........

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October 2, 2006, 9:39 PM CT

How White Blood Cells Eat Virus-infected Cells

Scientists at the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute (VGTI) at Oregon Health & Science University have demonstrated how certain white blood cells literally eat virus-infected cells while fighting disease at the microscopic level. The research not only helps provide a clearer understanding of the body's immune system, it also offers hope of a new method for gauging vaccine effectiveness. The research is reported in the current edition of the journal Nature Medicine.

CD8 T-cells are specialized white blood cells that serve an important role in the body's immune system. The cells attack and destroy disease "invaders" such as viruses in the body. Prior studies indicated that T-cells may consume parts of cells with which they interact, but this new research shows this can happen in response to a systemic viral infection.

"If you use a fluorescent dye to stain infected cells, you can literally watch T-cells consume membranes and outer surfaces of diseased cells. As they destroy and cannibalize the fluorescently labeled cells, they become labeled with the fluorescent dye themselves," explained Mark Slifka, Ph.D., a researcher in the VGTI who led the research. Slifka is also a scientist in the Division of Pathobiology and Immunology at the Oregon National Primate Research Center and holds a concurrent appointment in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology in the OHSU School of Medicine.........

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October 1, 2006, 8:35 PM CT

Tamiflu Reduces Death From Influenza

Tamiflu (oseltamivir), is effective in reducing the risk of death linked to seasonal influenza in severely ill patients,1 as per new data presented today. Treatment of infected adults was linked to a 71 per cent reduction in mortality.1 These results demonstrate the importance of the role of antivirals in the management of seasonal influenza and highlights the seriousness and risk of mortality linked to it.

"The neuraminidase class of antivirals were originally assessed during their clinical development for their ability to reduce influenza symptom severity and duration in healthy adults", comments Dr. Allison McGeer, Primary Investigator who led today's research and Microbiologist and Infection Disease Consultant at the Department of Microbiology, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, "This new analysis contributes to the accumulating evidence that oseltamivir also has a significant impact in preventing serious complications including death in older at-risk individuals".

The population-based surveillance study was conducted during the two consecutive influenza seasons on a total of 512 patients who were admitted to hospital for illness linked to a positive test for influenza in Ontario, Canada. Over half of patients, mainly those with underlying illness, had been previously vaccinated. 84% were treated with antibacterial agents and 32% with antivirals (3% amantadine; 97% oseltamivir) at time of admission/diagnosis. Of the total patients with influenza who mandatory hospital admission, 67% were diagnosed with influenza with or without pneumonia, 13% with respiratory infection (e.g. acute bronchitis) and 62% with fever/viral syndrome. 1 Of all adult patients, 6.4% patients died and these deaths were attributed to influenza.1 Treatment of adults with an antiviral was linked to more than a two third reduction in death from influenza.........

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October 1, 2006, 7:48 PM CT

Treatment For Sleeplessness In The Elderly

Insomnia or lack of sleep is a common problem among elderly people. It is a more widespread problem than we recognize. Now scientists are suggesting that a brief behavioral therapy for insomnia (BBT) could help those elderly individuals suffering from insomnia.

Brief behavioral therapy for insomnia (BBTI) appears to be a promising intervention for elderly adults who suffer from insomnia.

The study, conducted by Anne Germain, PhD, and his colleagues of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, focused on 17 elderly adults who were randomly assigned to receive BBTI, and 18 selected to receive an information-only control (IC) condition. All participants completed clinician-administered and self-report measures of sleep quality, as well as a sleep diary. Interventions were delivered in a single individual session with a booster session administered two weeks later. Postintervention assessments were completed after four weeks.

The results showed significant improvements in sleep measures and in daytime symptoms of anxiety and depression in 71 percent of those individuals who received BBTI, in comparison to 39 percent favorable response among IC participants. Furthermore, 53 percent of BBTI participants met criteria for remission, while 17 percent of those in the IC group met the same criteria.........

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October 1, 2006, 6:52 PM CT

Free Drug Samples And Physician Practice

Do you think that your doctor is prescribing for a particular brand, because he or she is getting free samples and may be some incentives?

A recent researh suggest that one in three doctors agree that free drug samples influence prescribing, finds a small but representative US survey published in the Journal of Medical Ethics.

But they also think that other doctors are more likely to be influenced by incentives than they are, the data show.

In March 2003, the research team surveyed 397 members of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists about their relationships with the pharmaceutical industry.

The members were part of a collaborative research network, representing each of the 10 districts covered by the College.

Just over half of those surveyed responded (217).

More than 90% of the respondents thought it was ethical to accept free samples of a new drug from a pharmaceutical company rep.

Similarly, just over half thought it was ethical to accept a lucrative consultancy with a company if they were a "high volume" prescriber of one of that company's drugs.

One in three agreed that their decision to prescribe a drug would probably be influenced by accepting the samples.

But respondents felt that other doctors would be significantly more likely to accept the offer of a free lunch, an anatomical model emblazoned with a drug's name, or a consultancy than they would, even if offered without free samples.........

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September 28, 2006, 9:43 PM CT

Gene Transfer Using Mutant Form Of Good Cholesterol

Transfer of a gene that produces a mutant form of good cholesterol provides significantly better anti-plaque and anti-inflammation benefits than therapy using the "normal" HDL gene, according to a mouse study conducted by cardiology researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and reported in the Oct. 3 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Apolipoprotein A-I is a naturally occurring component of normal HDL (high-density lipoprotein), the "good" cholesterol that circulates in the blood stream. Apolipoprotein A-I Milano is a mutant form, which was originally found in a small number of individuals in Italy who appear to be protected from cholesterol-related heart disease. Researchers are studying the possibility of treating vascular inflammation and plaque buildup through the transfer of protective genes.

"There has been uncertainty and controversy about whether apo A-I Milano is a better form of HDL than the "wild type" (regular) apo A-I in terms of protective effect against atherosclerosis and vascular inflammation, which are tied together," said Prediman K. Shah, M.D., director of the Division of Cardiology and the Atherosclerosis Research Center at Cedars-Sinai.

"We used a unique approach to do a head-to-head comparison, which allowed us to conclusively ascertain the differences between the two genes. Our study demonstrated that A-I Milano gene transfer is much more effective in reducing plaque and vascular inflammation than the normal (wild type) form of apo A-I," said Shah, the article's senior author.........

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September 27, 2006, 9:12 PM CT

Binge-drinking teenagers

Teenagers who drink alcohol are at higher risk of becoming victims of violence, a Cardiff University study has found.

A team from the School of Dentistry's Violence Research Group studied drinking habits in children aged 11-16 in England. They found not only a link between drink and aggression but also that children who drank were more likely to be hit, even if they weren't violent themselves.

The researchers are now calling for measures to prevent alcohol misuse to reduce injury risk. Current policy focuses on reducing aggression but this research shows that there should be equal effort to reduce victimisation.

More than 4,000 children were surveyed at 13 schools at four local authorities in the North, the Midlands, London and the South. The study found that 25% of 11-year-olds were drinking monthly and 3.6% daily, with 12.8% admitting to getting drunk three to five times a year. By the age of 16, 40% were drinking weekly and 6.2% were drinking every day. The research also showed 22.6% of 16-year-olds getting drunk more than 21 times a year.

The study, which has just been published in the Journal of Adolescence, found a strong link between frequency of drinking and frequency of hitting other people.

However, children who reported drinking monthly were also three times more likely to be hit. Adolescents who drank but didn't get into fights were more likely to be hit than those who did fight.........

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September 27, 2006, 8:41 PM CT

Inheriting a Tendency to Brain Infection

Might some infectious diseases run in families because one inherits susceptibility to them? Eventhough scientists generally agree that an individual's genetic makeup contributes in subtle ways to susceptibility to infectious disease, new findings from scientists in France support the controversial idea that an error in a single gene is enough to dramatically alter an individual's susceptibility to certain infections.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) international research scholar Jean-Laurent Casanova and Emmanuelle Jouanguy of the Necker Medical School in Paris, along with other colleagues, have identified a single gene that predisposes individuals to herpes simplex encephalitis, an infectious disease that tends to be extremely choosy about its victims. In a paper reported in the September 29, 2006, issue of the journal Science, they describe two young patients who carry mutations in this gene who are susceptible to the disease while being otherwise immunologically normal. The paper was published in advance online.

As a number of as 8 out of 10 adults are infected by the herpes simplex virus. For most, the worst symptom is a cold sore, but in some individuals, the virus causes inflammation of the brain that can lead to mental retardation, epilepsy, or death. Until now, researchers have been unable to identify any specific risk factors for the disease.........

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September 27, 2006, 8:21 PM CT

Islet Transplantation Has Potential Benefits

The results of the world's first multicenter clinical trial of islet transplantation have confirmed the technique's potential benefits in patients with difficult-to-control type 1 (or "juvenile") diabetes. Published in the September 28, 2006 issue of the New England Journal (NEJM), the international team of scientists report that the Edmonton Protocol for islet transplantation can safely and successfully promote long-term stabilization of blood sugar levels in "brittle" diabetes patients and in some cases, relieve them of the need for insulin injections altogether for at least two years.

The multicenter study, begun in 2001, studied 36 volunteers diagnosed with brittle type 1 diabetes: patients who, despite their best efforts, had wide, unpredictable fluctuations in their blood sugar levels. Using the Edmonton Protocol for type 1 diabetes, each participant received up to three infusions of donated insulin-producing islet cells at one of 9 participating clinical centers in the US, Canada and Europe. The study was sponsored by the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN), with funding and support from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). NIAID and NIDDK are both components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).........

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