Fetal-Brain Protein Sparks in Old Age to Fight Dementia
Scientists have discovered that a gene-regulating protein that guards the developing brain of a fetus reboots in old age and may protect against dementia, a finding that could open a new path in Alzheimers research.
The research by Harvard University scientists published today in the journal Nature, showed the protein, dubbed REST, is depleted in brains of people with Alzheimers. It was found at a level three times higher in those who didnt become demented even when they had brain markings of the disease. Until now, REST wasnt known to have a role in the adult brain.
Experimental drugs to reduce proteins such as amyloid or tau that form the hallmark brain clumps of Alzheimers have failed to stem cognitive decline. Todays finding adds support to the idea that targeting those proteins isnt enough fight the disease. It also may explain why some people develop dementia as they age while others live long lives, lucid into their 90s or 100s, said Bruce Yankner, the studys lead researcher.
Theres a longstanding puzzle in neurology why a large percentage of the aging population when they die have enough abnormalities in the brain to classify as Alzheimers, though they dont develop the dementia, said Yankner, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School in Boston. In addition to trying to remove toxic proteins, which many clinical trials do with limited success, we may need to augment the brains natural defense.
Until now, the REST protein was thought to be active only in fetal development and switched off in the brain after birth. A series of experiments by Yankners team found that the protein suppresses genes involved in cell death and Alzheimers progression, while turning on those that protect neurons from stress.
More than 5 million Americans have Alzheimers disease, the most common type of dementia, a number projected to triple by 2050, according to the Alzheimers Association. The disease is the sixth-leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A March 6 study published in Neurology found the disease may be under-reported as a reason for a persons death and could be the third-leading cause of mortality.
Experimental treatments, including drugs from Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson and Eli Lilly & Co. that have focused on reducing amyloid havent slowed the debilitating loss of mental functioning that characterizes Alzheimers. Since 1998, there have been more than 100 attempts to develop an Alzheimers drug and all failed.
The discovery of RESTs potential role in the aging brain highlights the need for pursuing new directions in Alzheimers research, said Maria Carrillo, vice president for medical and scientific relations at the Chicago-based Alzheimers Association. The idea that the brain may harbor pathways, such as REST, to protect against cognitive decline is one of them. Still, any potential drug based on the todays findings is years away.
Its a fascinating take on the concept thats been around, she said. Theres not as much research in the neuroprotective aspects of aging. That is the most interesting aspect of this study and its important to pursue and continue research in this area.
The Alzheimers Association is a sponsor of a clinical trial, called LEARN, designed to look at individual variation in disease progression. One objective of LEARN is to find causes of cognitive decline besides amyloid buildup.
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Humans Wiped Out Giant New Zealand Bird
Nine species of giant, flightless birds, known as moas, suddenly went extinct within two centuries of humans first arrival to New Zealand. Coincidence? No, a team of geneticists, biologists and archeologists recently wrote. The scientists found evidence that moas thrived before Polynesians colonized the islands in the 13th century.
The scientists analyzed genetic remains from 281 individual birds from four species of moa. The researchers looked for signs of dwindling moa populations in the 4,000 years before humans arrived. When animal populations shrink dramatically, their genetic diversity also decreases. Instead, the moa had a healthy variety of DNA, which suggested strong populations.
CSI Fossils: Ancient Killers Caught in the Act
For example, the 3.6 meter (12 ft.) tall South Island giant moa (Dinornis robustus) had an estimated population of 9,200 individuals that may have been growing. Although another species, the 1.5 to 1.8 meter (4.95.9 ft.) tall eastern moa (Euryapteryx crassus), showed signs of a major historical die-off, that reduction in numbers likely occurred more than 17,900 years ago, thousands of years before humans arrived. Euryapteryx crassus had recovered and seemed to be thriving in the eastern lowland forests of New Zealand by the time humans arrived.
BLOG: Humans Acquitted of Mammoth Murder
These findings point strongly toward human contact as the only factor responsible for the extinction, wrote the scientists in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Elsewhere the situation may be more complex, but in the case of New Zealand the evidence provided by ancient DNA is now clear: The megafaunal extinctions were the result of human factors, said lead author Mike Bunce of Curtin University in Australia in a press release. We need to be more aware of the impacts we are having on the environment today and what we, as a species, are responsible for in the past.
Illustration: Polynesians Hunting Giant Moa, by Heinrich Harder. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
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Internists must play a larger role in managing menopausal symptoms
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
19-Mar-2014
Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
New Rochelle, NY, March 19, 2014The number of menopausal women is projected to reach 50 million by 2020. With changing views on appropriate therapies to control symptoms and new treatments available and on the horizon, most internists lack the core competencies and experience to meet the needs of women entering menopause, according to a provocative Commentary published in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Women's Health website at http://www.liebertpub.com/jwh.
The article "Competency in Menopause Management: Whither Goest the Internist?" by Richard Santen, MD, University of Virginia Health Sciences System (Charlottesville), Cynthia Stuenkel, MD, University of California at San Diego, Henry Burger, MD, Monash University (Melbourne, Australia), and JoAnn Manson, MD, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA), describes the changing landscape of menopausal symptom management, with renewed use of hormone therapy among recently menopausal women at low risk of breast cancer and heart disease. The emergence of new non-hormonal treatments and other approaches may be unfamiliar to internists who are often ill-prepared to manage symptoms in women who have completed their reproductive years and are approaching or beginning menopause.
"It is essential that new curricula be developed to train internists in the core competencies needed to manage menopausal symptoms," says Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Women's Health, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women's Health, Richmond, VA, and President of the Academy of Women's Health.
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About the Journal
Journal of Women's Health, published monthly, is a core multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the diseases and conditions that hold greater risk for or are more prevalent among women, as well as diseases that present differently in women. The Journal covers the latest advances and clinical applications of new diagnostic procedures and therapeutic protocols for the prevention and management of women's healthcare issues. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Women's Health website at http://www.liebertpub.com/jwh. Journal of Women's Health is the official journal of the Academy of Women's Health and the Society for Women's Health Research.
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New DNA-editing technology spawns novel strategies for gene therapy
11 hours ago by Robert Sanders Human cardiac myocytes (muscle cells) stained green for proteins encoded by edited genes using the new CRISPR/Cas9 technology.
The University of California, Berkeley, and UC San Francisco are launching the Innovative Genomics Initiative (IGI) to lead a revolution in genetic engineering based on a new technology already generating novel strategies for gene therapy and the genetic study of disease.
The Li Ka Shing Foundation has provided a $10 million gift to support the initiative, establishing the Li Ka Shing Center for Genomic Engineering and an affiliated faculty chair at UC Berkeley. The two universities also will provide $2 million in start-up funds.
At the core of the initiative is a revolutionary technology discovered two years ago at UC Berkeley by Jennifer A. Doudna, executive director of the initiative and the new faculty chair. The technology, precision "DNA scissors" referred to as CRISPR/Cas9, has exploded in popularity since it was first published in June 2012 and is at the heart of at least three start-ups and several heavily-attended international meetings. Scientists have referred to it as the "holy grail" of genetic engineering and a "jaw-dropping" breakthrough in the fight against genetic disease. In honor of her discovery and earlier work on RNA, Doudna received last month the Lurie Prize of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health.
"Professor Doudna's breakthrough discovery in genomic editing is leading us into a new era of possibilities that we could have never before imagined," said Li Ka-shing, chairman of the Li Ka Shing Foundation. "It is a great privilege for my foundation to engage with two world-class public institutions to launch the Innovative Genomics Initiative in this quest for the holy grail to fight genetic diseases."
In the 18 months since the discovery of this technology was announced, more than 125 papers have been published based on the technique. Worldwide, researchers are using Cas9 to investigate the genetic roots of problems as diverse as sickle cell anemia, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, AIDS and depression in hopes of finding new drug targets. Others are adapting the technology to reengineer yeast to produce biofuels and wheat to resist pests and drought.
"We now have a very easy, very fast and very efficient technique for rewriting the genome, which allows us to do experiments that have been impossible before," said Doudna, a professor of molecular and cell biology in the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) and an investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at UC Berkeley. "We are grateful to Mr. Li Ka-shing for his support of our initiative, which will propel ground-breaking advances in genomic engineering."
Transforming genetic research
The new genomic engineering technology significantly cuts down the time it takes researchers to test new therapies. CRISPR/Cas 9 allows the creation in weeks rather than years of animal strains that mimic a human disease, allowing researchers to test new therapies. The technique also makes it quick and easy to knock out genes in human cells or in animals to determine their function, which will speed the identification of new drug targets for diseases.
"The CRISPR/Cas9 technology is a complete game changer," said Jonathan Weissman, codirector of the initiative and professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology in the UCSF School of Medicine. "With CRISPR, we can now turn genes off or on at will. I am particularly interested in using CRISPR to understand the normal functions of genes as well as how disease-causing mutations alter these functions."
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Genetic, Non-Invasive Test Could Improve Colon Cancer Screening
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Newswise A non-invasive test that includes detection of the genetic abnormalities related to cancer could significantly improve the effectiveness of colon cancer screening, according to research published by a team of scientists including David Ransohoff, MD, professor of medicine at the UNC School of Medicine and UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member. The large-scale, cross-sectional study was published online today in The New England Journal of Medicine.
The study compared two different types of tests used for screening colorectal cancer: a non-invasive, multitarget stool test that includes DNA markers related to colon cancer along with a test that detects stool blood, versus a commercial fecal immunochemical test (FIT). While the FIT test detects hidden blood in the stool, a potential signal for cancer, the multitarget test also includes genetic mutations in the stool that are related to cancer. In the study of nearly 10,000 participants, the DNA test detected 92 percent of colon cancer, significantly more cancers compared to the 72 percent for the FIT test in asymptomatic participants at average risk for colorectal cancer.
The results from this study could impact screening rates, which remain frustratingly low in the U.S. despite the evidence of their effectiveness.
Detection of 92 percent of colon cancer is extremely high for a non-invasive test, so that a negative test result means that no further evaluation, like colonoscopy, is needed at that time, said Ransohoff. Having such a sensitive, non-invasive option could have an important effect on screening rates for colorectal cancer.
While the DNA test appears to be more sensitive than the FIT test, it did produce more false positive results, which would lead to colonoscopy. Further, the study did not address the question of how frequently non-invasive testing might be needed. Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States and is expected to cause over 50,000 deaths in 2014, according to the American Cancer Society.
In addition to the University of North Carolina, additional institutions involved in the study include Indiana University School of Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, and the Boston Biostatistics Research Foundation. The study was funded by Exact Sciences.
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Genetic test could improve colon cancer screening
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
19-Mar-2014
Contact: Katy Jones katy_jones@unc.edu 919-962-3405 University of North Carolina Health Care
A non-invasive test that includes detection of the genetic abnormalities related to cancer could significantly improve the effectiveness of colon cancer screening, according to research published by a team of scientists including David Ransohoff, MD, professor of medicine at the UNC School of Medicine and UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member. The large-scale, cross-sectional study was published online today in The New England Journal of Medicine.
The study compared two different types of tests used for screening colorectal cancer: a non-invasive, multitarget stool test that includes DNA markers related to colon cancer along with a test that detects stool blood, versus a commercial fecal immunochemical test (FIT). While the FIT test detects hidden blood in the stool, a potential signal for cancer, the multitarget test also includes genetic mutations in the stool that are related to cancer. In the study of nearly 10,000 participants, the DNA test detected 92 percent of colon cancer, significantly more cancers compared to the 72 percent for the FIT test in asymptomatic participants at average risk for colorectal cancer.
The results from this study could impact screening rates, which remain frustratingly low in the U.S. despite the evidence of their effectiveness.
"Detection of 92 percent of colon cancer is extremely high for a non-invasive test, so that a negative test result means that no further evaluation, like colonoscopy, is needed at that time," said Ransohoff. "Having such a sensitive, non-invasive option could have an important effect on screening rates for colorectal cancer."
While the DNA test appears to be more sensitive than the FIT test, it did produce more false positive results, which would lead to colonoscopy. Further, the study did not address the question of how frequently non-invasive testing might be needed.
Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States and is expected to cause over 50,000 deaths in 2014, according to the American Cancer Society.
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Miscarriage Clues Identified in New DNA Test According to Researchers at Montefiore and Einstein
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Newswise NEW YORK (March 19, 2014) New research shows an alternative DNA test offers clinically relevant genetic information to identify why a miscarriage may have occurred years earlier. Researchers were able to identify chromosomal variants and abnormalities in nearly 50 percent of the samples. This first-of-its-kind study was conducted by researchers from Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. The results were published in the March issue of Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology.
The technique used in this study, called rescue karyotyping, allows physicians to obtain important genetic information from tissue that had not been tested at the time of the miscarriage. As part of standard hospital protocol, tissue from miscarriages is embedded in paraffin for archival use and the karyotyping test is performed on DNA extracted from this tissue.
In this retrospective study of 20 samples from 17 women, genetic testing was successfully performed on 16 samples that had been archived for as long as four years. Of those samples, eight showed chromosomal variants and abnormalities. This is an important alternative when conventional karyotyping is not available or cannot be used for a specific sample.
Given the ease of obtaining results, even if a delay in testing occurs, this new test may provide a useful technique to gain a better understanding as to why miscarriage occurs in some women, said Zev Williams, M.D., Ph.D., director, Program for Early and Recurrent Pregnancy Loss (PEARL), Montefiore and Einstein, assistant professor of obstetrics & gynecology and womens health and of genetics at Einstein, and corresponding author of the study. I have seen women in tears because testing was not done at the time of the miscarriage and they feared they would never learn why it happened. Now we are able to go back and often get the answers we need.
One in five pregnancies ends in miscarriage, with the vast majority occurring in the first trimester. Recurrent miscarriage, which is defined as two or more miscarriages, occurs in up to 5 percent of couples attempting to conceive. Led by Dr. Williams, PEARL is comprised of a team of expert physicians, scientists, genetic counselors, nurses, technicians and staff members who work together to help these women maintain their pregnancies.
Montefiore and Einstein have worked together to develop an innovative model based on research, which allows us to develop novel diagnostic and treatment options and, in parallel, to quickly bring new advances to the clinic, said Dr. Williams. This represents a new and emerging model in medicine where the lab and clinic are brought closer in order to speed the pace of discovery and treatment.
Most miscarriages are caused by an abnormal number of chromosomes in the embryo, accounting for up to 75 percent of first trimester losses, continued Dr. Williams. This new test can help guide future treatment options but, importantly, can also help alleviate some of the guilt and self-blame often associated with unexplained miscarriage and can close a door or a painful chapter in a womans and couples life.
Dr. Williams is a board certified obstetrician gynecologist with specialty training in reproductive endocrinology and infertility. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and trained in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Harvard Medical Schools Brigham and Womens Hospital and the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Williams completed a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Weill-Cornell Medical Center.
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Miscarriage Clues Identified in New DNA Test According to Researchers at Montefiore and Einstein
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Attack of the B-Team #018 – Advanced Genetics [German / HD] – Let’s Play – Video
Attack of the B-Team #018 - Advanced Genetics [German / HD] - Let #39;s Play
Ich hoffe euch gefllt mein erstes Let #39;s Play. Wenn ja schaut euch doch noch etwas auf meinem Kanal um. Weitere Let #39;s Plays und mehr: http://www.youtube.com/...
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DeathCraft Monster UHC SMP – S2 Ep 33 – Not So Advanced, Genetics! – Video
DeathCraft Monster UHC SMP - S2 Ep 33 - Not So Advanced, Genetics!
Enjoy the Video? Consider leaving a "Like", it helps more than you know. 😀 DeathCraft is a whitelist, invite only server. We are not accepting applications....
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Understanding Cancer Genetics – Video
Understanding Cancer Genetics
Memorial Sloan Kettering experts say the discovery of genetic mutations linked to certain cancers has changed cancer prevention and care.
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Genetics – by Wideo.co – Video
Genetics - by Wideo.co
This online video was created and exported from http://www.wideo.co ********************...
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Genetics :Mendelian extensions – Video
Genetics :Mendelian extensions
What are other types of inheritance patterns such as incomplete dominance, codominace, polygenic, sex-linked. How do you predict phenotypic and genotypic rat...
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Genes may influence weight gain from fried foods
By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, March 19, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Genetics help determine whether a frequent diet of fried food will make you fat, according to a new Harvard study.
Eating fried food more than four times a week had twice as big an effect on body size for people at high genetic risk of obesity compared with people at low risk, researchers found after analyzing data from three U.S. trials.
Moreover, the more pro-obesity genes you carry, the bigger you'll get chowing down on fried chicken and such, the researcher said.
Such findings help explain why Americans' overall bad health habits don't affect everyone equally, said Claude Bouchard, chairman of genetics and nutrition at the Human Genomics Laboratory of Pennington Biomedical Research Center, in Baton Rouge, La.
"Our dietary habits and our lack of physical activity is driving the obesity epidemic, but the force of the behavioral driver is not the same in everyone," Bouchard said.
"We also have a biology driver, and that driver for some people is very minor," he said. "For others, it's a powerful agent enhancing the risk of behavior."
Other studies have noted similar interactions between these genetic risks and other environmental risk factors for obesity, including physical activity and total calorie intake, Bouchard said. People who are more sedentary or eat more are more likely to gain weight if they carry these genetic risks.
In the future, genetic testing could help reveal who is at higher risk of obesity, so they can take preventive measures, Bouchard said.
"It's not a sentence for obesity, but rather an increased susceptibility to obesity," he said. "Your peers can afford to have an extra serving or be sedentary and they will be OK, but for you it won't happen. That's important to know."
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Genetics And Obesity – Fried Foods Can Sometimes Raise Risk Factors
March 19, 2014
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online
New research in the British Medical Journal has uncovered a link between an elevated genetic risk of obesity and the consumption of fried foods.
Conducted by a team of American researchers, the new study found that consuming fried food over four times a week had double the effect on body mass index (BMI) for those with the highest levels of known genetic risk factors compared with those who showed lower amounts of these genetic markers.
Our study shows that a higher genetic risk of obesity may amplify the adverse effects of fried food consumption on body weight, and high intakes of fried food may also exacerbate the deleterious genetic effects, said study author Lu Qi, an assistant professor of nutrition at Harvard Medical School.
The authors of an editorial published alongside the new study put it more simply: bad genetics can inflate the negative effects of a poor diet.
To reach their conclusion, the study team analyzed information from over 9,600 women in the Nurses Health Study, nearly 6,400 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study and more than 21,000 women in the Womens Genome Health Study. Volunteers completed food frequency surveys that asked how frequently they ate fried foods they either made at home or had bought from a restaurant. The researchers identified three categories of fried food consumption: less than once a week, one to three times a week, and four or more times a week.
Height and body weight, used to figure BMI, were determined at the start of the trials, and weight was asked for at each follow-up. Lifestyle factors, such as levels of physical exercise, were also evaluated. Genetic risk scores, which ranged from 0 to 64, were based on the presence of 32 genetic variants connected with BMI.
Among volunteers in the highest third of the genetic risk score, the differences in BMI between people who ate fried foods four or more times a week and people who ate them less than once a week were 1.0 in women and 0.7 in men. For volunteers in the lowest third of the genetic risk score, the differences were 0.5 in women and 0.4 in men.
The authors emphasized that their outcomes could have been impacted by unmeasured or unidentified factors, despite the fact that they carefully adjusted for quite a number of diet and lifestyle variables.
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Effect of receptor activity-modifying protein-1 on vascular smooth muscle cells
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
18-Mar-2014
Contact: Bei Shi shi_bei2147@126.com Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine
Bei Shi, Xianping Long, Ranzun Zhao, Zhijiang Liu, Dongmei Wang and Guanxue Xu, researchers at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical College within the Guizhou Province of China, have reported an approach for improving the use of stem cells for improvement of infarcted heart function and damage to the arteries in the March 2013 issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine. They have discovered that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) transfected with a recombinant adenovirus containing the human receptor activity-modifying protein 1 (hRAMP1) gene (EGFP-hRAMP1-MSCs) when transplanted into rabbit models for both Myocardial infarction (MI) and carotid artery injury inhibit vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) proliferation within the neointima, and greatly improved both infarcted heart function and endothelial recovery from artery injury more efficiently than the control EGFP-MSCs.
MSCs have good applicability for cell transplantation because they possess self-renewal and multiple differentiation potential. With addition of either environmental or chemical substances, MSCs can differentiate into a variety of cell types. Numerous animal experiments and small clinical trials have shown that MSC transplantation can promote the formation of new blood vessels and reduce myocardial infarct size, and diminish the formation of scar tissue and ventricular remodeling, and improve cardiac functions. Nevertheless, MSCs have the potential to differentiate into VSMCs and may be the source of proliferating VSMCs during neointima formation after vascular injury. Recently, genetically modified MSCs, such as heme oxygenase-1(HO-1), granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) over-expressing MSCs, have proven to be more efficient at ameliorating infarcted myocardium than administering MSCs alone.
Calcitonin gene related protein (CGRP) is one of the most well-known potent vasodilators and can regulate vascular tone and other aspects of vascular function. The receptors for CGRP include the calcitonin receptor-like receptor (CRLR), RAMP1, and the receptor component protein. RAMP1 confers ligand specificity for CGRP. The relaxation of the artery in response to CGRP is dependent on RAMP1 expression. The response to CGRP is augmented after the increased expression of RAMP1 in VSMCs in culture.
RAMP1 over-expression increased CGRP-induced vasodilation and protected against angiotensin II-induced endothelial dysfunction as well as prevented VSMCs proliferation. In this study, we tested the effects of human RAMP1-over-expressing MSCs on infarcted heart function and intimal hyperplasia by means of cell transplantation in rabbit models for MI reperfusion and carotid artery injury. Bei Shi said "Our data has shown that hRAMP1 over-expression in MSCs through genetic modification significantly inhibits neointimal proliferation and improves infarcted heart function."
Dr. Steven R. Goodman, Editor-in-Chief of Experimental Biology and Medicine said "The effect of stem cell therapy with the RAMP1 expressing MSCs has been shown, by Bei Shi and colleagues, to reduce neointimal proliferation in the carotid angioplasty and myocardial infarction animal models. This approach could be important for the treatment of damaged vessels and the infracted heart".
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Okyanos Heart Institute Announces Completion of Investment Funding
Freeport, Bahamas (PRWEB) March 18, 2014
Okyanos Heart Institute, whose mission it is to bring a new standard of care and a better quality of life to patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) using adult stem cell therapy, announced today it has raised $8.9 million in its Series B offering. Passion Group founder Ali Shawkat led the round and is a visionary entrepreneur-investor with success in a diverse set of industries including cellular services, telecom, media and healthcare.
Okyanos has the vision, medical leadership, adult stem cell technology and business model to better the lives of millions of patients, their families and society, said Shawkat. Cell therapy promises to be a new pillar of medicine as it is based on the natural biology of the body.
"This funding brings Okyanos' total funding to $14.2 million. Financial strength is integral to our commitment to treat patients with cardiac cell therapy at the highest standards of safety and care, stated Matthew Feshbach, co-founder and CEO of Okyanos.
Okyanos' cardiac cell therapy utilizes cells known as adipose-derived stem and regenerative cells (ADRCs), processed by Cytori Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CYTX) Celution system, a technology which has been approved and is commercially available in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and other international jurisdictions for various indications of use.
The company has procured a state-of-the-art Philips cath lab and is building out a center of excellence capable of treating over 1000 patients per year in Freeport, The Bahamas. Based on the recommendations of the Bahamas Stem Cell Task Force, which thoroughly studied the safety and efficacy of adult stem cell therapy, the Bahamas passed stem cell legislation in August, 2013.
Feshbach further stated, We have a sophisticated, entrepreneurial group of investors who are like-minded in our purpose to safely improve the quality of life of patients suffering from illnesses such as CAD, using adult stem cells derived from adipose (fat) tissue, added Feshbach. We appreciate the significant leadership and support of Mr. Shawkat who shares the Okyanos commitment.
The company will begin treating patients with coronary artery disease using their own stem cells in the summer of 2014.
About Okyanos Heart Institute: (Oh key AH nos) Based in Freeport, The Bahamas, Okyanos Heart Institutes mission is to bring a new standard of care and a better quality of life to patients with coronary artery disease using cardiac stem cell therapy. Okyanos adheres to U.S. surgical center standards and is led by Chief Medical Officer Howard T. Walpole Jr., M.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.C., F.S.C.A.I. Okyanos Treatment utilizes a unique blend of stem and regenerative cells derived from ones own adipose (fat) tissue. The cells, when placed into the heart via a minimally-invasive procedure, can stimulate the growth of new blood vessels, a process known as angiogenesis. Angiogenesis facilitates blood flow in the heart, which supports intake and use of oxygen (as demonstrated in rigorous clinical trials such as the PRECISE trial). The literary name Okyanos, the Greek god of rivers, symbolizes restoration of blood flow. For more information, go to http://www.okyanos.com.
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Major Breakthrough in Developing New Cancer Drugs: Capturing Leukemic Stem Cells
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Newswise The Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) at the Universit de Montral (UdeM), in collaboration with the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospitals Quebec Leukemia Cell Bank, recently achieved a significant breakthrough thanks to the laboratory growth of leukemic stem cells, which will speed up the development of new cancer drugs.
In a recent study published in Nature Methods, the scientists involved describe how they succeeded in identifying two new chemical compounds that allow to maintain leukemic stem cells in culture when these are grown outside the body.
This important advance opens the way to the identification of new cancer drugs to fight acute myeloid leukemia, one of the most aggressive forms of blood cancer.
The ability to grow leukemic stem cells in culture is a major breakthrough. The next step is to study the molecular mechanisms that regulate the survival and proliferation of leukemic cells as well as the resistance to cancer drugs.
This study is the work of the Leucgne research group. This group is co-directed by Dr. Guy Sauvageau, chief executive officer and principal investigator at IRIC as well as professor in the Department of Medicine at the UdeM; by Dr. Jose Hbert, director of the Quebec Leukemia Cell Bank, hematologist at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital and professor in the Department of Medicine at the UdeM; and by Sbastien Lemieux, principal investigator at IRIC. The first author of the study is Caroline Pabst, a postdoctoral fellow at IRIC and associate of the Leucgne research group.
This research breakthrough demonstrates the advantage of working in a multidisciplinary team like the Leucgne research group, stated Drs. Sauvageau and Hbert. Access to cells of leukemia patients and to IRICs state-of-the-art facilities are also key factors in pursuing ground-breaking research.
Background to the study Stem cells located in the bone marrow are responsible for the production of blood cells. Unfortunately, deregulation of those cells often produces disastrous consequences when one of them develops mutations that transform it into a malignant cell called leukemic. The result is an abnormal proliferation of blood cells and the development of leukemia. Leukemic stem cells are also one of the likely causes of patient relapse because they are especially resistant to cancer treatments.
The major obstacle before this discovery was growing stem cells and keeping them intact in vitro, because they quickly lost their cancer stem cell character. As a result, it was very difficult to effectively study the multiplication of cells that cause leukemia.
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Major Breakthrough in Developing New Cancer Drugs: Capturing Leukemic Stem Cells
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Best Local Orthopedic Specialist Bronx – Video
Best Local Orthopedic Specialist Bronx
Looking for an Orthopedic Specialist? Watch Informative Medical Advice Segments, Doctor Reviews Doctor Ratings in Your Search to Find the BestLocal Physici...
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Best Local Orthopedic Specialist Bronx - Video
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Cpl Hanes to travel to China for stem-cell therapy – Video
Cpl Hanes to travel to China for stem-cell therapy
A year after returning home a combat wounded veteran, Matthew Hanes is traveling to China for stem-cell therapy.
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Cpl Hanes to travel to China for stem-cell therapy - Video
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Autism – Video
Autism
By: Stem Cell Therapy Center EMCELL
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Autism - Video
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New DNA-editing technology spawns bold UC initiative
BERKELEY
The University of California, Berkeley, and UC San Francisco are launching the Innovative Genomics Initiative (IGI) to lead a revolution in genetic engineering based on a new technology already generating novel strategies for gene therapy and the genetic study of disease.
The Li Ka Shing Foundation has provided a $10 million gift to support the initiative, establishing the Li Ka Shing Center for Genomic Engineering and an affiliated faculty chair at UC Berkeley. The two universities also will provide $2 million in start-up funds.
Jennifer Doudna, executive director of the new Innovative Genomics Initiative and the new Li Ka Shing Chancellors Chair in Biomedical and Health Sciences.
At the core of the initiative is a revolutionary technology discovered two years ago at UC Berkeley by Jennifer A. Doudna, executive director of the initiative and the new faculty chair. The technology, precision DNA scissors referred to as CRISPR/Cas9, has exploded in popularity since it was first published in June 2012 and is at the heart of at least three start-ups and several heavily-attended international meetings. Scientists have referred to it as the holy grail of genetic engineering and a jaw-dropping breakthrough in the fight against genetic disease. In honor of her discovery and earlier work on RNA, Doudna received last month the Lurie Prize of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health.
Professor Doudnas breakthrough discovery in genomic editing is leading us into a new era of possibilities that we could have never before imagined, said Li Ka-shing, chairman of the Li Ka Shing Foundation. It is a great privilege for my foundation to engage with two world-class public institutions to launch the Innovative Genomics Initiative in this quest for the holy grail to fight genetic diseases.
In the 18 months since the discovery of this technology was announced, more than 125 papers have been published based on the technique. Worldwide, researchers are using Cas9 to investigate the genetic roots of problems as diverse as sickle cell anemia, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, AIDS and depression in hopes of finding new drug targets. Others are adapting the technology to reengineer yeast to produce biofuels and wheat to resist pests and drought.
We now have a very easy, very fast and very efficient technique for rewriting the genome, which allows us to do experiments that have been impossible before, said Doudna, a professor of molecular and cell biology in the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) and an investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at UC Berkeley. We are grateful to Mr. Li Ka-shing for his support of our initiative, which will propel ground-breaking advances in genomic engineering.
Transforming genetic research The new genomic engineering technology significantly cuts down the time it takes researchers to test new therapies. CRISPR/Cas 9 allows the creation in weeks rather than years of animal strains that mimic a human disease, allowing researchers to test new therapies. The technique also makes it quick and easy to knock out genes in human cells or in animals to determine their function, which will speed the identification of new drug targets for diseases.
The CRISPR/Cas9 technology is a complete game changer, said Jonathan Weissman, codirector of the initiative and professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology in the UCSF School of Medicine. With CRISPR, we can now turn genes off or on at will. I am particularly interested in using CRISPR to understand the normal functions of genes as well as how disease-causing mutations alter these functions.
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New DNA-editing technology spawns bold UC initiative
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Will health care reform require new population health management strategies?
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
17-Mar-2014
Contact: Kathryn Ruehle kruehle@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
New Rochelle, NY, March 17, 2014In response to the 2010 Affordable Care Act, employers may no long offer traditional employee health care benefits as they protect themselves from rising health care costs and seek to minimize their risk. How the shifting landscape of health care coverage will impact population health management providers, employers, and employees is the focus of a commentary in Population Health Management, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Population Health Management website at http://www.liebertpub.com/pop.
Bruce Sherman, MD, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (Cleveland, OH), and Chris Behling, AXA (New York, NY), explore many potential scenarios and conclude that employees and their families may be most impacted by these changes. In the article "Beyond Incentives: The Impact of Health Care Reform on Employer Population Health Management Strategies", they propose the need for new models of population health management services delivery.
"Sherman and Behling have done a great job outlining the challenges faced by every employer in our nation under health reform," says Editor-in-Chief David B. Nash, MD, MBA, Dean and Dr. Raymond C. and Doris N. Grandon Professor, Jefferson School of Population Health, Philadelphia, PA. "The success of Obamacare rests, in no small part, on following their advice!"
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About the Journal
Population Health Management is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published bimonthly in print and online that reflects the expanding scope of health care management and quality. The Journal delivers a comprehensive, integrated approach to the field of population health and provides information designed to improve the systems and policies that affect health care quality, access, and outcomes. Comprised of peer-reviewed original research papers, clinical research, and case studies, the content encompasses a broad range of chronic diseases (such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic pain, diabetes, depression, and obesity) in addition to focusing on various aspects of prevention and wellness. Tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Population Health Management website at http://www.liebertpub.com/pop. Population Health Management is the official journal of the Population Health Alliance.
About the Publisher
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Will health care reform require new population health management strategies?
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What factors contribute to sexual assault in the military and what can be done to prevent it?
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
18-Mar-2014
Contact: Kathryn Ruehle kruehle@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
New Rochelle, NY, March 18, 2014Recent high-profile cases have drawn attention to the problem of sexual assault in the U.S. military, the effects on survivors, and the actions and response of military leadership. Issues such as why there is more sexual assault in the military than in the general population, why it is under-reported, and what preventive approaches should the military adopt are explored in a provocative Roundtable Discussion published in the preview issue of Violence and Gender, a new peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Violence and Gender website at http://www.liebertpub.com/vio.
Roundtable participants Mary Ellen O'Toole, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Violence and Gender and Senior FBI Profiler/Criminal Investigator Analyst (ret.), Christopher Kilmartin, United States Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs), and Colonel Jeffery Peterson, Center for Naval Analyses (Alexandria, VA), discuss specific factors that likely contribute to the sexual assault problem, including the acceptance of bullying in American culture, and an overall greater risk for sexual assault among people who join the military due to more previous experience with sexual assault than the general population, both as offenders and as survivors.
"From the battlefield to Congress, sexual assault in the military is viewed as one of the most concerning criminal problems we face today," says Dr. O'Toole. "Sexual offenders in the military wear the same uniform but victimize innocent men and women who work alongside them to serve their country. As a society we should be outraged at this behavior and want answers. I think we give you some of those answers in this Roundtable Discussion."
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About the Journal
Violence and Gender is the only peer-reviewed journal focusing on the understanding, prediction, and prevention of acts of violence. Through research papers, roundtable discussions, case studies, and other original content, the Journal critically examines biological, genetic, behavioral, psychological, racial, ethnic, and cultural factors as they relate to the gender of perpetrators of violence. Led by Editor-in-Chief Mary Ellen O'Toole, PhD, Forensic Behavioral Consultant and Senior FBI Profiler/Criminal Investigative Analyst (ret.), Violence and Gender explores the difficult issues that are vital to threat assessment and prevention of the epidemic of violence. Violence and Gender is published quarterly online with Open Access options and in print, and is the official journal of The Avielle Foundation.
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What factors contribute to sexual assault in the military and what can be done to prevent it?
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Anti-psychotic drug could help treat brain cancer
A gene-by-gene examination of cells from one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer may have uncovered a new treatment option.
Neurosurgeon Clark Chen and his colleagues at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine decided to use a form of genetic engineering in which individuals genes in a cell are, in effect, turned off to see what impact this has on the cell.
In this case, Chen and his teams were applying this gene-silencing technique on cells from glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive and hard-to-treat malignant brain tumors. They were trying to find which genes played a key role in helping the cancerous brain cells grow and survive.
After compiling their list of genetic suspects, the U.C. San Diego researchers made an interesting discovery: Many of the genes involved in glioblastoma growth help regulate the effect of the neurochemical dopamine, they reported recently online in the journal Oncotarget.
Chen and his team made their discovery by using shRNA in a molecular engineering technique known as RNA interference. Called short-hairpin RNA by some and small-hairpin RNA by others, shRNA can keep a gene from turning the genetic blueprint encoded in its DNA into a specific protein molecule. Scientists use viruses to insert the shRNA into a target gene and block its role in the production of the protein.
ShRNAs are invaluable tools in the study of what genes do. They function like molecular erasers, said Chen, the vice chairman of the division of neurosurgery at the U.C. San Diego School of Medicine. We can design these erasers against every gene in the human genome.
Because of the similarities in the lists of genes involved in glioblastoma growth and dopamine regulation, the researchers decided to see what effect dopamine antagonist drugs would have on the brain cancer cells. They discovered these drugs have significant anti-tumor effects on glioblastoma cells grown in laboratory dishes and in lab mice.
The anti-glioblastoma effects of these drugs are completely unexpected and were only uncovered because we carried out an unbiased genetic screen, said Chen.
In addition to psychosis, dopamine antagonists are used to treat other disorders, including anxiety-panic and Parkinsons disease and to control nausea and vomiting and already have a stamp of approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
First, these drugs are already FDA-cleared for human use in the treatment of other diseases, so it is possible these drugs may be re-purposed for glioblastoma treatment, thereby bypassing years of pre-clinical testing, said Bob Carter, chairman of the U.C. San Diego School of Medicine division of neurosurgery.
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Anti-psychotic drug could help treat brain cancer
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Vivek Wadhwa: The triumph of genomic medicine is just beginning
"A Decade Later, Genetic Map Yields Few New Cures," said a New York Times headline in June 2010. It declared the failure of the $3 billion Human Genome Project and claimed that medicine had seen none of the benefits that President Bill Clinton had promised in announcing the first draft of the human-genome sequence in 2000. According to the article, geneticists were "almost back to square one in knowing where to look for the roots of common disease."
The New York Times judged the project too soon.
The cost of sequencing a human genome had fallen from about $100 million in 2001 to $30,000 when the article was written; today, it can be done for nearly $1,000. And the promise is coming true.
Hardly a week passes without the announcement of a major scientific breakthrough in genomics. The March 6 edition of The New England Journal of Medicine detailed how human cells can be genetically engineered to make them resistant to the virus that causes AIDS. A week earlier, the journal published a finding that analyzing fetal DNA in a pregnant woman's blood was a more accurate -- and less intrusive -- way of screening for Down syndrome and other chromosomal disorders than methods such as ultrasound imaging and blood tests.
Genome analysis is already being used to guide the treatment of cancers of the brain and the breast. Eric Green, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, explains that cancer is essentially a genomic disease: "Instead of classifying cancers by the tissue where they are first detected -- colon, breast or brain, doctors are beginning to categorize cancer by its genomic characteristics and select treatments based on the signature of different mutations. This approach promises to treat patients with the most effective medicines while minimizing undesirable side effects, especially when chemotherapy is unlikely to help."
Green says that the end of the Human Genome Project was the starting point on the path to genomic medicine. He predicts that before long, doctors will tailor treatment for many diseases on the basis of an individual's genomic information.
The early triumphs are being seen with rare inherited diseases -- which together afflict more than 25 million Americans. Genomic strategies, driven by the plummeting cost of genome sequencing, have led to the identification of the genomic defects for more than 5,000 of the inherited diseases caused by mutations in a protein-encoding gene. An intense four-year, more than $400 million, research program, the Centers for Mendelian Genomics, is working to find the genomic cause of the remaining 2,000 to 4,000 rare genetic diseases.
We may be predisposed to certain diseases because of our genes, but it is not only genes that determine our health. It is also our lifestyle, habits and environment. These may cause genes to be switched on and off and even altered. There is also still a lot to be understood about what was once-called "junk DNA" -- which is now known to contain important control mechanisms over the bits we recognize as genes. And then there is the microbiome -- an ecosystem of microorganisms that live on and in the human body. So a lot more data are needed and much more research and analysis still needs to be done.
The good news is that other technologies are also rapidly progressing that will facilitate this. With the cost of genome sequencing dropping to affordable levels, genome data soon will be available for millions of people. Additionally, our smartphones are capturing information about our lifestyle and habits, location and activity levels. Wearable medical devices, which many companies are developing, will record vital signs such as temperature, blood oxygenation and heart rhythm. When you combine these data, you gain the ability to rapidly analyze the correlation between our genome, habits and disease -- exactly what is needed to develop individualized treatments for disease.
This is the same type of data analysis that is done of social media streams and shopping and online-browsing data by Silicon Valley start-ups and marketers.In other words, we human beings have become data and software -- and entrepreneurs can now do the work of pharmaceutical companies and medical research labs.
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Vivek Wadhwa: The triumph of genomic medicine is just beginning
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