Protein in Liver Predicts Diabetes
Why more men than women get Parkinson's disease
BLOOD TEST REVEALS DIABETES RISK
STOCKHOLM
A simple blood test can reveal whether you may be at risk of cardiovascular disease or adult-onset diabetes, according to researchers at Sweden's Karolinska Institute quoted by Swedish media.
Professor Kerstin Brismar of the institute's diabetes center said that she had developed a new blood test that would easily show whether a person suffers from low levels of a particular protein, which has been proved to be linked to heart disease and diabetes.
The protein, called IGFBP-1, is found in the liver and is controlled by the body's production of insulin.
Low levels of the protein can be a symptom of early changes to the inside of a blood vessel. If the protein level is too low, it can disturb the blood vessel's ability to expand.
"That in turn is an early, preliminary stage of arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes," Brismar said.
It has been widely established that many type 2 diabetes patients have low protein levels. But Brismar said she had found that low protein levels could be found in otherwise healthy people of normal weight and without family history of diabetes-and thereby unknowingly at risk of suffering severe health complications.
Brismar said she would like to see screenings done to identify those in the danger zone, as the protein level could easily be adjusted. "You can increase the protein and improve the situation dramatically by improving your diet, exercising and taking certain medication," she said.
Some 171 million people worldwide are estimated to suffer from diabetes, according to the World Health Organization. The disease has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, with 17 million Americans said to suffer from diabetes-16 million of them with type 2, which is most often linked to obesity and lack of exercise.
GENE SCANNING BOOSTS RESEARCH
WASHINGTON
Researchers have succeeded in detecting defects in proteins affecting genes in the pancreas and the liver that could boost research into diabetes, according to a new study published in Science magazine.
Researchers scanned the entire human genome to detect defects in the proteins causing type 2 diabetes, which appears during adulthood. The method could help assess the genetic risk of diabetes and contribute to the development of new medication, said Richard Young, lead researcher of the project and a scientist at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The key to the relationship between genes and diseases lies in gene regulators called transcription factors, "proteins that bind to specific areas of the genome and act to switch genes on and off," the research said.
"We developed an efficient gene-scanning technology so we could map genome binding sites for many transcription factors in a human organ," said Duncan Odom, a postdoctoral fellow at the institute and lead author of the research paper. "This allows us to identify the sets of genes where transcription factors act as switches and to learn how defects in these switches might cause disease," he said.
In October 2002, a team led by Young presented the technology to identify more than 100 transcription factors associated with the yeast genome. The study shows that this technology can be used to analyze the human genome. Without this new technology, it would have taken researchers several years to analyze transcription factors, the scientists said.
KILLER PROTEIN
JERUSALEM
A high level of C-Reactive Protein (CRP) in a patient's blood increases mortality following a heart attack almost eightfold, according to new Israeli research that showed 22 percent of patients with more than 22.3 milligrams per liter died following a heart attack caused by a blocked coronary artery. The protein is generally released as the result of an inflammation.
"This is the first time that the correlation between the CRP rate and mortality due to this type of illness is established," said Haifa University professor Haim Hammerman, who led a research team from the Technion and Rambam medical center. Hammerman said the findings could improve the treatment of patients with coronary illnesses. The study was carried out on 448 patients.
SAFE FOR THE HEART
CHICAGO
Viagra can be safely used to treat men with moderate heart disease, according to a study that examined the effect of the impotency drug on men with a preexisting heart condition.
The little blue pill has been prescribed to more than 16 million men since its debut in 1998, but it is not recommended for the treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED) in heart disease patients because of fears it might increase their risk for heart attack.
In addition to reports implicating Viagra in the deaths of some men who took the drug, the pill was found to induce low blood pressure in patients who were taking heart medications containing nitrogen, including some used to treat angina.
Researchers at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Canada, set out to find out whether men with heart disease who were not taking nitrates for their condition, and were able to deal with the physical demands of sex, could tolerate the drug. They gave 35 men, aged 60 and up, a daily dose of Viagra for six weeks, and they found that the men experienced fewer impotency problems and suffered less from depression.
"The major finding of this study is that sildenafil (Viagra) is safe and effective in treating ED in men with moderate heart failure who undergo appropriate screening," wrote the authors.
Erectile dysfunction affects 52 percent of men between the ages of 40 and 70 and is a common side effect of the beta blockers or ace inhibitors that are prescribed to men with congestive heart failure, according to the study which appears in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
SAFER SMALLPOX VACCINE
WASHINGTON
Tests of a new smallpox vaccine in mice and monkeys have produced encouraging results, which could lead to a vaccine that is better tolerated by people who cannot now be vaccinated against smallpox for health reasons, US researchers said.
Tests showed that an experimental mild smallpox vaccine known as modified vaccinia ankara (MVA) is almost as effective as the standard smallpox vaccine in protecting monkeys against monkeypox, according to a study by Bernard Moss published in Nature. Moss is with the US National Institutes of Alergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the National Institutes of Health.
Monkeypox is used to test the effectiveness of a smallpox vaccine because of its similarity to the smallpox virus.
The experimental vaccine was tested by the same team on mice with a weakened immune system, which reacted well to the vaccine. Other mice innoculated with the standard Dryvax smallpox vaccine died of its side effects, according to research published separately in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The new vaccine could be used on people with weakened immune systems, such as those with HIV/AIDS, who today cannot be protected against a smallpox outbreak.
The World Health Organization announced in 1980 that it had fully eradicated smallpox. However, the virus is seen as a possible terror weapon that could be used to spread panic and kill hundreds of thousands.
The current smallpox vaccine is made from a live form of vaccinia virus based on cowpox. The idea of using this virus to immunize humans dates to the 18th century and is attributed to British physician Edward Jenner.
The last US case of smallpox was in 1949, and the last case worldwide was in 1977, according to the NIH.
PARKINSON'S STRIKES MORE MEN
PARIS
Parkinson's, the disease that numbers Pope John Paul II and actor Michael J. Fox among its victims, seems to strike men far more often than women, according to a study published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry.
Men may be 50-percent more at risk than women of contracting Parkinson's, said the article, a metaanalysis of published research into the incidence of the disease.
Its authors speculate the causes may lie in exposure to toxic chemicals and head trauma, which could affect men more than women. In addition, women may enjoy enhanced protection against Parkinson's thanks to the female hormone oestrogen.
Another theoretical cause could be dysfunction by a component inside brain cells called the mitochondria. Several previous studies have also pointed to a gene in the X chromosome that causes susceptibility to Parkinson's, which under the rules of heredity would make men more at risk.
ALENDRONATE FOR OSTEOPOROSIS
WASHINGTON
A ten-year treatment for the bone-wasting osteoporosis has been found effective and without negative side effects in trials on postmenopausal women.
The New England Journal of Medicine reports how researchers administered 10 milligrams daily of the drug alendronate to a group of 247 postmenopausal women for a period of up to ten years. During treatment, bone mineral density increased by 13.7 percent in the lumbar spine, 10.3 percent at the hip, and 5.4 percent at the neck of the femur, researchers found.
"Continuous treatment with 10mg of alendronate daily for 10 years was associated with sustained therapeutic effects on bone density and remodeling, with no indication that the antifracture efficacy of the drug was diminished," wrote the team of researchers led by Dr. Henry Bone of the Bone and Mineral Clinic in Detroit, Michigan.
However, halting the use of alendronate "resulted in a gradual diminishing of effect," the researchers found.
An accompanying editorial discussed the ideal length of treatment aimed at preventing osteoporosis. "Is there an eventual point at which the benefit of treatment with regard to protection from fractures will diminish?" it asks.
"Better data regarding the relative risk of fracture associated with continued treatment as compared with the discontinuation of treatment will be required for good clinical decision making," the NEJM said.
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