Archives for 2010

Vitamin D Status is Not Associated with Risk for Less Common Cancers

June 18, 2010 | by

Despite hopes that higher blood levels of vitamin D might reduce cancer risk, a large study finds no protective effect against non-Hodgkin lymphoma or cancer of the endometrium, esophagus, stomach, kidney, ovary, or pancreas. In this study, carried out by researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and many other research institutions, data based on blood samples originally drawn for 10 individual studies were combined to investigate whether people with high levels of vitamin D were less likely to develop these rarer cancers. Details of these analyses appear as a set of papers in the June 18, 2010, online issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, and in print in the July 2010 issue.

“We did not see lower cancer risk in persons with high vitamin D blood concentrations compared to normal concentrations for any of these cancers,” said Demetrius Albanes, M.D., NCI, one of the study investigators. “And, at the other end of the vitamin D spectrum, we did not see higher cancer risk for participants with low levels.”

An Inside Look at NIH Peer Review

June 17, 2010 | by

Scholarly peer review is the process by which a researcher’s work — grant applications and research articles — are subjected to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the same field. This process of evaluation requires a community of experts for a given field who are both qualified and able to perform impartial review. These experts recommend scholarly work for acceptance, revision or rejection. Although impartial review may be difficult to accomplish, it is generally considered essential to academic quality and is used in most important scientific publications. Peer review encourages researchers to meet the accepted standards of their discipline and prevents the dissemination of irrelevant findings, unjustified claims, unacceptable interpretations and personal views.

Gene Linked to Alzheimers Disease Plays Key Role in Cell Survival

June 10, 2010 | by

Scientists have discovered that a gene linked to Alzheimer’s disease may play a beneficial role in cell survival by enabling neurons to clear away toxic proteins. A study funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, shows the presenilin 1 (PS1) gene is essential to the function of lysosomes, the cell component that digests and recycles unwanted proteins. However, mutations in the PS1 gene — a known risk factor for a rare, early onset form of Alzheimer’s disease – disrupt this crucial process.

Ralph Nixon, M.D., Ph.D., of the Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, N.Y., and New York University Langone Medical Center, directed the study involving researchers from the United States, Europe, Japan and Canada. Also supported in part by the Alzheimer’s Association, the study appears in the June 10, 2010, online issue of Cell.

Researchers have theorized for more than a decade that PS1 mutations linked to early-onset Alzheimer’s, a rare form of the disease that usually affects people between ages 30 and 60, may trigger abnormally high levels of beta-amyloid protein to clump together in the brain.

Amyloid deposits and tau protein tangles are hallmarks of both early-onset and the sporadic, more common form of the disease found in people aged 60 and older. These new findings, however, suggest PS1 mutations may play a more general role in the development of early-onset Alzheimer’s.

The 2010 NF Conference – Connecting the Public with the Research

June 4, 2010 | by

Neurofibromatosis (NF) encompasses a set of genetic disorders that cause benign and malignant tumors to grow along various types of nerves; it can also affect the development of bones and skin. There are three main types of NF tumors: neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) and schwannomatosis. NF1 is the most frequent of the three; one in every 3,000 children is born with the disease.

The Children’s Tumor Foundation (CTF) is the leading non-governmental funder of scientific research into neurofibromatosis and has funded NF studies for over 25 years. Their goal is to identify NF drug therapies and improve the lives of those living with the disorder. The Foundation also endeavors to increase public awareness of NF and provides resources for NF patients and their families.

2010 NF Conference

Is Junk Food Addictive?

June 3, 2010 | by
ResearchBlogging.org

In a recent paper in Nature Neuroscience, two researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida report that obese rats with extended access to what they deemed “palatable food” — bacon, sausage, cheesecake, pound cake, frosting and chocolate — exhibited compulsive like eating behavior, much like rats with extended access to cocaine or heroin [1]. This compulsive eating meant that they continued eating despite negative ramifications, in this case a flash of light signaling an oncoming electric shock administered to their foot. This lack of control over behavior with known negative consequences is a hallmark of both drug addiction and obesity. The investigators found that just like drug addicted rats, these obese rats had fewer striatal (a region of the forebrain) dopamine D2 receptors; this is responsible for the observed dampening of their neural reward responses to the food, which caused them to continue to eat, seeking that elusive high.