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| Nicotine May Accelerate Atherosclerosis, May Be As Dangerous As Tar |
It's well known that smoking cigarettes increases risk for a host of serious health problems from cancer to heart disease. Now a new study from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City looks at how they do their dirty work by contributing to atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. The evidence points to nicotine, the addictive chemical in cigarettes.
By comparing reduced-nicotine cigarettes like Quest 3 and Eclipse with regular cigarettes, researchers discovered that the extent of cigarette-smoke induced atherosclerosis in mice correlated with the levels of nicotine-the higher the nicotine, the more disease.
"Right now, the general consensus is that the problem with cigarettes is tar and that nicotine is safe. That's why you can buy nicotine gum or patches to help you stop smoking. Our study presents new evidence that nicotine may not be safe at all, especially for your heart," says Dr. Daniel F. Catanzaro, principal investigator of the study, recently published in the journal Cardiovascular Toxicology. Dr. Catanzaro is associate research professor of physiology and biophysics in the Departments of Medicine and Cardiothoracic Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College.
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| How Vitamin C Stops the Big "C" |
Nearly 30 years after Nobel laureate Linus Pauling famously and controversially suggested that vitamin C supplements can prevent cancer, a team of Johns Hopkins scientists have shown that in mice at least, vitamin C - and potentially other antioxidants - can indeed inhibit the growth of some tumors, just not in the manner suggested by years of investigation.
The conventional wisdom of how antioxidants such as vitamin C help prevent cancer growth is that they grab up volatile oxygen free radical molecules and prevent the damage they are known to do to our delicate DNA. The Hopkins study, led by Chi Dang, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine and oncology and Johns Hopkins Family Professor in Oncology Research, unexpectedly found that the antioxidants' actual role may be to destabilize a tumor's ability to grow under oxygen-starved conditions. Their work is detailed this week in Cancer Cell.
"The potential anticancer benefits of antioxidants have been the driving force for many clinical and preclinical studies," says Dang. "By uncovering the mechanism behind antioxidants, we are now better suited to maximize their therapeutic use."
"Once again, this work demonstrates the irreplaceable value of letting researchers follow their scientific noses wherever it leads them," Dang adds.
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| Methadone and Systematic Follow-Up: The Best Ssolution for Managing Chronic Pain |
Approximately 30% of Canadians suffer daily from chronic pain. Patients may be affected differently depending on the intensity, but all chronic pain is debilitating and difficult to treat. A study carried out by Louise Lamb, a clinician nurse at the Pain Centre of the Montreal University Health Centre (MUHC), and Dr. Yoram Shir, the Director of the Centre, shows that methadone in combination with innovative and high-quality case management can provide relief for many patients. The study results are published in the September issue of Pain Management Nursing.
Methadone is most often associated with drug addiction treatment, yet this opioid is regularly used in hospital settings to relieve acute pain from cancer or arthritis or following an accident.
Because the body metabolizes methadone slowly, intense monitoring is required to avoid toxicity. "As an ambulatory centre, we needed a way to monitor patients effectively after they go home with their prescriptions," explained Ms. Lamb. The centre implemented an innovative program and then measured its precise impact by following 75 patients over 9 months. Patients, with their family members, began with an education session. They received medication information and treatment guidelines, as well as a diary so they could note any related changes of the pain intensity, and its associated impact on mood and activities. "The pain diary is a very important tool as it allows us to track symptoms. Also, paying attention to bodily changes helps patients become more aware of their physical state," stated Ms. Lamb.
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| Cholesterol Byproduct Blocks Heart-Health Benefits Of Estrogen |
New findings by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers show that a byproduct of cholesterol metabolism interferes with the beneficial effects estrogen has on the cardiovascular system, providing a better understanding of the interplay between cholesterol and estrogen in heart disease.
The results of the study, available online and in the October issue of the journal Nature Medicine, also may explain why hormone replacement therapy fails to protect some postmenopausal women from heart disease, said Dr. David Mangelsdorf, chairman of pharmacology and senior author of the paper.
The researchers found that in rodents, a molecule called 27-hydroxycholesterol, or 27HC, binds to the same receptors in the blood vessels of the heart to which estrogen binds.
The normal result of this estrogen binding is that blood vessel walls remain elastic and dilated, and damage to the vasculature is repaired, among other heart-protective effects. Other research has shown that postmenopausal women - who no longer produce estrogen - lose this protective action and become more susceptible to heart disease.
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Appropriate Hospital Discharge System Can Prevent Future Cardiac Events
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Improving how healthcare providers follow proven protocols could reduce the risks of subsequent heart problems for heart disease patients, according to a study reported in a cardiovascular surgery supplement of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
A study of the American Heart Association's Get With The GuidelinesSM(GWTG) database found significant differences in how hospitals carry out many of the association's secondary prevention recommendations.
Specifically, patients who received percutaneous catheter intervention (PCI) were more likely to get the proven measures that could significantly reduce their risks for later heart attack, as compared to patients who underwent coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) or no intervention at all.
GWTG is an evidence-based, hospital quality improvement program that helps ensure patients receive quality care during treatment and discharge based on specific guidelines that will reduce the risk of secondary cardiac events," said Loren F. Hiratzka, M.D., lead author of the study and co-author of the 2006 GWTG update. "The program empowers providers to consistently treat heart and stroke patients according to the most up-to-date guidelines."
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| Manic Phase of Bipolar Disorder Benefits from Breast Cancer Medication |
The medication tamoxifen, best known as a treatment for breast cancer, dramatically reduces symptoms of the manic phase of bipolar disorder more quickly than many standard medications for the mental illness, a new study shows. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) who conducted the study also explained how: Tamoxifen blocks an enzyme called protein kinase C (PKC) that regulates activities in brain cells. The enzyme is thought to be over-active during the manic phase of bipolar disorder.
By pointing to PKC as a target for new medications, the study raises the possibility of developing faster-acting treatments for the manic phase of the illness. Current medications for the manic phase generally take more than a week to begin working, and not everyone responds to them. Tamoxifen itself might not become a treatment of choice, though, because it also blocks estrogen - the property that makes it useful as a treatment for breast cancer - and because it may cause endometrial cancer if taken over long periods of time. Currently, tamoxifen is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment of some kinds of cancer and infertility, for example. It was used experimentally in this study because it both blocks PKC and is able to enter the brain.
Results of the study were published online in the September issue of Bipolar Disorders by Husseini K. Manji, MD, Carlos A. Zarate Jr., MD, and colleagues.
Almost 6 million American adults have bipolar disorder, whose symptoms can be disabling. They include profound mood swings, from depression to vastly overblown excitement, energy, and elation, often accompanied by severe irritability. Children also can develop the illness.
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Vitamin E May Reduce Risk Of Deep Vein Blood Clots In Women
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Taking vitamin E might help women reduce their risk for life-threatening blood clots known as venous thromboembolism (VTE), researchers cautiously report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
However, authors acknowledge that the study results should be interpreted with caution until further research is done and that patients should not stop taking prescribed blood thinners.
VTE is a condition in which blood clots form in the body's veins, then dislodge and travel through the bloodstream. It becomes life-threatening if the clot blocks blood flow to the lungs, heart or brain.
The blood thinner warfarin is often prescribed to prevent VTE, but it must be monitored for side effects.
"While warfarin is quite effective for preventing VTE, we were looking for a preventive strategy that might be simple, with low side effects for this common disease," said Robert J. Glynn, Ph.D., Sc.D., lead author of the study and associate professor of medicine (biostatistics) at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass.
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Believe it or not
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Stinky? It's not his sweat, it's your nose
When it comes to a man's body odor, the fragrance -- or stench -- is in the nose of the beholder, according to U.S. researchers who suggest a single gene may determine how people perceive body odor.
The study, published online on Sunday in the journal Nature, helps explain why the same sweaty man can smell like vanilla to some, like urine to others and for about a third of adults, have no smell at all.
"This is the first time that any human odorant receptor is associated with how we experience odors," Hiroaki Matsunami of Duke University in North Carolina said in a telephone interview.
Matsunami and colleagues at Duke and Rockefeller University in New York focused on the chemical androstenone, which is created when the body breaks down the male sex hormone testosterone.
Androstenone is in the sweat of men and women, but it is more highly concentrated in men. How one perceives its smell appears to have a lot to do with variations in one odor receptor gene called OR7D4.
"It is well known that people have different perceptions to androstenone. But people didn't know what was the basis of it," Matsunami said.
To find out, researchers in Matsunami's lab tested sweat chemicals on most of the 400 known odor receptors used by the nose to sniff out smells and chemicals.
They found the OR7D4 gene reacted strongly with the sex steroid androstenone. Next, they tested whether variations in this gene had an impact on how people perceived the smell of androstenone in male sweat.
They took blood samples and sequenced the DNA of 400 people who participated in a smell perception test done in Leslie Vosshall's lab at Rockefeller.
What they found is slight genetic variations determine whether androstenone has a pungent smell, a sweet, vanilla-like smell or no smell at all.
The role of androstenone is not well understood in humans, but in pigs it sends a powerful sex signal that puts sows in the mood for love.
"It facilitates the courtship behavior in females," Matsunami said.
"There is some evidence published showing this chemical can modify the mood or hormone levels in humans," he said. "What we don't know is whether the receptor we found was in any way involved in this process."
He and colleagues will further study this aspect to understand how smelling these chemicals might affect human social and sexual behavior.
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News From MedWatch |
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