Clinical Research posts
- September 9, 2010
- 06:09 PM
- 9 views
Could dieting pollute us?
by Melinda Moyer in Body Politic
I just stumbled across a thought-provoking study that I have to share. Korean researchers publishing in the International Journal of Obesity have found that weight loss is associated with higher blood levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs)—chemicals used to make pesticides and solvents that are notorious for accumulating in our bodies and in the environment. The researchers believe that POPs, which typically build up in fat, get released into the bloodstream when fat is burned. There, ........ Read more »
Lim JS, Son HK, Park SK, Jacobs DR Jr, & Lee DH. (2010) Inverse associations between long-term weight change and serum concentrations of persistent organic pollutants. International journal of obesity (2005). PMID: 20820170
Chevrier, J., Dewailly, �., Ayotte, P., Mauriège, P., Després, J., & Tremblay, A. (2000) Body weight loss increases plasma and adipose tissue concentrations of potentially toxic pollutants in obese individuals. International Journal of Obesity, 24(10), 1272-1278. DOI: 10.1038/sj.ijo.0801380
Hue, O., Marcotte, J., Berrigan, F., Simoneau, M., Doré, J., Marceau, P., Marceau, S., Tremblay, A., & Teasdale, N. (2006) Increased Plasma Levels of Toxic Pollutants Accompanying Weight Loss Induced by Hypocaloric Diet or by Bariatric Surgery. Obesity Surgery, 16(9), 1145-1154. DOI: 10.1381/096089206778392356
Sørensen, T., Rissanen, A., Korkeila, M., & Kaprio, J. (2005) Intention to Lose Weight, Weight Changes, and 18-y Mortality in Overweight Individuals without Co-Morbidities. PLoS Medicine, 2(6). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0020171
Drøyvold WB, Lund Nilsen TI, Lydersen S, Midthjell K, Nilsson PM, Nilsson JA, Holmen J, & Nord-Trøndelag Health Study. (2005) Weight change and mortality: the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study. Journal of internal medicine, 257(4), 338-45. PMID: 15788003
- September 9, 2010
- 10:36 AM
- 25 views
Vitamin B and Brain Atrophy in Alzheimer's Disease
by Bill Yates in Brain Posts
Disclosure: I am not a big supporter of vitamin therapy for clinical neuroscience disorders. Of my previous 131posts, I have only referenced on study related to vitamin therapy---that was a study that found no improvement in treating dementia with vitamin E. Nevertheless, today's post focusses on a new study of B vitamins in mild cognitive impairment. I ran across a randomized controlled trial using B vitamins in a controlled study of brain atrophy (Hat tip to BBC news). ........ Read more »
Smith, A., Smith, S., de Jager, C., Whitbread, P., Johnston, C., Agacinski, G., Oulhaj, A., Bradley, K., Jacoby, R., & Refsum, H. (2010) Homocysteine-Lowering by B Vitamins Slows the Rate of Accelerated Brain Atrophy in Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Randomized Controlled Trial. PLoS ONE, 5(9). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012244
- September 9, 2010
- 08:23 AM
- 20 views
Selective cell death mediated by small conditional RNAs
by Sally Church in Pharma Strategy Blog
Cancer cells are characterized by genetic mutations that deregulate cell proliferation and suppress cell death. To arrest the uncontrolled replication of malignant cells, conventional chemotherapies systemically disrupt cell division, causing diverse and often severe side effects as a result of...... Read more »
Venkataraman, S., Dirks, R., Ueda, C., & Pierce, N. (2010) Selective cell death mediated by small conditional RNAs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1006377107
- September 9, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 18 views
World Congress on Pain throws up a few gems
by Lorimer Moseley in BodyInMind
I have just been in Montreal for the World Congress on Pain – numerous presentations and about 1600 posters. It is the posters I really like – can be intimidating but there are always a few gems. Here is some preliminary work that I thought was interesting and which is relevant to work that our [...]... Read more »
Van Damme S, Gallace A, Spence C, Crombez G, & Moseley GL. (2009) Does the sight of physical threat induce a tactile processing bias? Modality-specific attentional facilitation induced by viewing threatening pictures. Brain research, 100-6. PMID: 19094970
- September 8, 2010
- 09:58 AM
- 21 views
Wnt signaling and cancer
by Sally Church in Pharma Strategy Blog
In April at the AACR annual meeting, Bert Vogelstein talked about 12 critically aberrant pathways in cancer and we have talked about a few of these on this blog this year. Today, I want to take a look at another...... Read more »
Morris JP 4th, Wang SC, & Hebrok M. (2010) KRAS, Hedgehog, Wnt and the twisted developmental biology of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Nature reviews. Cancer. PMID: 20814421
Giuliani, N., Morandi, F., Tagliaferri, S., Lazzaretti, M., Donofrio, G., Bonomini, S., Sala, R., Mangoni, M., & Rizzoli, V. (2007) Production of Wnt Inhibitors by Myeloma Cells: Potential Effects on Canonical Wnt Pathway in the Bone Microenvironment. Cancer Research, 67(16), 7665-7674. DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-06-4666
Hezel, A. (2006) Genetics and biology of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Genes , 20(10), 1218-1249. DOI: 10.1101/gad.1415606
Huang, S., Mishina, Y., Liu, S., Cheung, A., Stegmeier, F., Michaud, G., Charlat, O., Wiellette, E., Zhang, Y., Wiessner, S.... (2009) Tankyrase inhibition stabilizes axin and antagonizes Wnt signalling. Nature, 461(7264), 614-620. DOI: 10.1038/nature08356
- September 8, 2010
- 06:03 AM
- 20 views
Is Jesus making you overeat?
by Peter Janiszewski, Ph.D. in Obesity Panacea
Well, in fairness, Jesus’ twelve Apostles should also share in the blame.
An incredibly quirky and yet fascinating study was published in the International Journal of Obesity which investigated the size of the food and plates that have been depicted in paintings of Jesus’ Last Supper over the last 1000 years.
The trend of gradually increasing portion sizes is well documented; just go to your local McDonalds and order a large drink and fries and drive yourself directly to the nearby ........ Read more »
Wansink, B., & Wansink, C. (2010) The largest Last Supper: depictions of food portions and plate size increased over the millennium. International Journal of Obesity. DOI: 10.1038/ijo.2010.37
- September 7, 2010
- 03:29 PM
- 40 views
Perfectionism as a Risk Factor for Anorexia Nervosa
by Bill Yates in Brain Posts
Temperament is generally defined as innate early emotional and behavioral characteristics that precede puberty and adult development. Felt to have significant genetic components, temperament is also potentially influenced by environmental factors. There are a variety of temperament domains that have received significant attention in childhood, adolescent and adult populations. Some of the most commonly studied domains include:neuroticismharm avoidancenovelty seekingreward depend........ Read more »
Wade TD, Tiggemann M, Bulik CM, Fairburn CG, Wray NR, & Martin NG. (2008) Shared temperament risk factors for anorexia nervosa: a twin study. Psychosomatic medicine, 70(2), 239-44. PMID: 18158375
- September 7, 2010
- 01:07 PM
- 41 views
Do the Health Benefits of Cycling Outweigh the Risks?
by Travis Saunders, MSc, CEP in Obesity Panacea
Regular readers of Obesity Panacea will know that I am a huge fan of active transportation, which entails commuting via active means (e.g. walking, cycling, or taking public transit rather than driving). But when I talk with my friends about the many health and societal benefits of active commuting by bicycle, they almost always bring up the fact that they value their lives too much to risk cycling on busy city streets. This is obviously not a trivial concern – here in Ottawa there were thre........ Read more »
Johan de Hartog J, Boogaard H, Nijland H, & Hoek G. (2010) Do the health benefits of cycling outweigh the risks?. Environmental health perspectives, 118(8), 1109-16. PMID: 20587380
- September 7, 2010
- 10:27 AM
- 25 views
MET, HGF and EGFR inhibition in cancer
by Sally Church in Pharma Strategy Blog
Hepatocellular Growth Factor (HGF) and MET receptor tyrosine kinase signalling play important roles in development as well tumorigenesis. In a Nature review article, Comoglio noted: "Signals generated by the tyrosine kinase receptor Met elicit a complex biological response including cell...... Read more »
Buchanan SG, Hendle J, Lee PS, Smith CR, Bounaud PY, Jessen KA, Tang CM, Huser NH, Felce JD, Froning KJ.... (2009) SGX523 is an exquisitely selective, ATP-competitive inhibitor of the MET receptor tyrosine kinase with antitumor activity in vivo. Molecular cancer therapeutics, 8(12), 3181-90. PMID: 19934279
Comoglio PM. (2001) Pathway specificity for Met signalling. Nature cell biology, 3(7). PMID: 11433311
Huh CG, Factor VM, Sánchez A, Uchida K, Conner EA, & Thorgeirsson SS. (2004) Hepatocyte growth factor/c-met signaling pathway is required for efficient liver regeneration and repair. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 101(13), 4477-82. PMID: 15070743
Comoglio PM, Giordano S, & Trusolino L. (2008) Drug development of MET inhibitors: targeting oncogene addiction and expedience. Nature reviews. Drug discovery, 7(6), 504-16. PMID: 18511928
Eder JP, Vande Woude GF, Boerner SA, & LoRusso PM. (2009) Novel therapeutic inhibitors of the c-Met signaling pathway in cancer. Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, 15(7), 2207-14. PMID: 19318488
- September 7, 2010
- 09:13 AM
- 31 views
Disease detector
by David Bradley in SciScoop Science Forum
A while back my doctor did some routine tests for some vague symptoms I reported (all came back negative thankfully) and yes, I know you can get drugs to treat hypochondria. Anyway, of those tests was an ESR (erthythrocyte sedimentation rate, also known as sed rate). A test for patients with wide-ranging symptoms that may [...]... Read more »
Brigden ML. (1999) Clinical utility of the erythrocyte sedimentation rate. American family physician, 60(5), 1443-50. PMID: 10524488
- September 7, 2010
- 04:51 AM
- 33 views
Commonalities in Risk Factors for Age-Related Disease
by Reason in Fight Aging!
A great deal of medical research into aging is built upon a foundation of correlation studies: what can we identify as more often occurring for patients who suffer from a particular age-related condition? Are there environmental factors, lifestyle choices, or genetic differences that are statistically linked to the occurrence of this condition? The next step that follows from the identification of such correlations is to pick them apart looking for commonalities. Why do these many correlations e........ Read more »
Nicole M. Probst-Hensch. (2010) Chronic age-related diseases share risk factors: do they share pathophysiological mechanisms and why does that matter?. Swiss Medical Weekly. DOI: 10.4414/smw.2010.13072
- September 6, 2010
- 07:02 PM
- 21 views
Radiotherapy can cure cancer – but UK patients might be missing out
by Cancer Research UK in Cancer Research UK - Science Update
There’s an important cancer treatment, which is widely available in the rest of Europe, that isn’t being offered to nearly as many patients in the UK as it should be. But this isn’t an expensive new drug. We’re talking about radiotherapy – a cost-effective treatment that actually cures more patients than all the new drugs [...]... Read more »
Bentzen SM, Heeren G, Cottier B, Slotman B, Glimelius B, Lievens Y, & van den Bogaert W. (2005) Towards evidence-based guidelines for radiotherapy infrastructure and staffing needs in Europe: the ESTRO QUARTS project. Radiotherapy and oncology : journal of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, 75(3), 355-65. PMID: 16086915
Williams MV, & Drinkwater KJ. (2009) Radiotherapy in England in 2007: modelled demand and audited activity. Clinical oncology (Royal College of Radiologists (Great Britain)), 21(8), 575-90. PMID: 19651499
Delaney G, Jacob S, Featherstone C, & Barton M. (2005) The role of radiotherapy in cancer treatment: estimating optimal utilization from a review of evidence-based clinical guidelines. Cancer, 104(6), 1129-37. PMID: 16080176
Williams MV, Summers ET, Drinkwater K, & Barrett A. (2007) Radiotherapy dose fractionation, access and waiting times in the countries of the UK in 2005. Clinical oncology (Royal College of Radiologists (Great Britain)), 19(5), 273-86. PMID: 17517327
- September 6, 2010
- 04:57 PM
- 25 views
Giving way to the right – the Brits could be onto something
by Lorimer Moseley in BodyInMind
Some time ago we posted an article that showed that a unicellular organism called slimeball could solve the planning of the British rail network better than the Brits did. Now it might be time to smirk on the other side of our face because, as Sarah Wallwork, the tireless Honours student who had the misfortune [...]... Read more »
Groeppel-Klein, A . (2008) Anti-Clockwise or Clockwise? The Impact of Store Layout on the Process of Orientation in a Discount Store. European Advances in Consumer Research, 415. info:/
Zimmerberg, B., Glick, S., & Jerussi, T. (1974) Neurochemical Correlate of a Spatial Preference in Rats. Science, 185(4151), 623-625. DOI: 10.1126/science.185.4151.623
- September 6, 2010
- 12:52 PM
- 87 views
Mechanisms of castration resistance in prostate cancer
by Sally Church in Pharma Strategy Blog
Over the last few weeks I've received quite a few questions relating to castration resistance and how it happens. After all, while we have several therapies now approved once androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) fails, if we could keep men hormone...... Read more »
Yamaoka M, Hara T, & Kusaka M. (2010) Overcoming persistent dependency on androgen signaling after progression to castration-resistant prostate cancer. Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, 16(17), 4319-24. PMID: 20647476
Harris, William P, Mostaghel, Elahe A, Nelson, Peter S, & Montgomery, Bruce. (2009) Androgen deprivation therapy: progress in understanding mechanisms of resistance and optimizing androgen depletion. nature clinical practice UROLOGY, 6(2), 76-85. DOI: 10.1038/ncpuro1296
Tomlins, SA, Rhodes, DR, & Perner, S. (2005) Recurrent fusion of TMPRSS2 and ETS transcription factor genes in prostate cancer. Science, 644-648. DOI: 10.1126/science.1117679
- September 6, 2010
- 11:02 AM
- 325 views
Nintendo Wii – Is It Really Physical Activity?
by Travis Saunders, MSc, CEP in Obesity Panacea
http://www.flickr.com/photos/abbynormy/ / CC BY 2.0
Earlier this year, Peter wrote a post about Wii-related injuries which generated some interesting discussion. Essentially, some readers felt that we were being too hard on the Wii, with one commenter going so far as to suggest that the post was “anti-Wii” (hard to dispute, given that the post was focused on Wii-related injuries!). Although we’ve mentioned the Wii in passing on Obesity Panacea before, we’ve never ........ Read more »
Graves, L., Stratton, G., Ridgers, N., & Cable, N. (2007) Comparison of energy expenditure in adolescents when playing new generation and sedentary computer games: cross sectional study. BMJ, 335(7633), 1282-1284. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.39415.632951.80
Daley, A. (2009) Can Exergaming Contribute to Improving Physical Activity Levels and Health Outcomes in Children?. PEDIATRICS, 124(2), 763-771. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2008-2357
- September 6, 2010
- 10:08 AM
- 428 views
THIS Is Why I Love the Mediterranean Diet
by Steve Parker, M.D. in Advanced Mediterranean Diet Blog
Italian researchers reviewed the medical/nutrition literature of the last three years and confirmed that the Mediterranean diet 1) reduces the risk of death, 2) reduces heart disease illness and death, 3) cuts the risk of getting or dying from cancer, and 4) diminishes the odds of developing dementia, Parkinsons disease, stroke, and mild cognitive impairment.
These same [...]... Read more »
Sofi F, Abbate R, Gensini GF, & Casini A. (2010) Accruing evidence about benefits of adherence to the Mediterranean diet on health: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis. The American journal of clinical nutrition. PMID: 20810976
- September 6, 2010
- 04:23 AM
- 39 views
Limbaugh/Palin "death panels" extend the lives of terminally ill patients
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
What is palliative care? Until quite recently, it's something I haven't given much thought. Although there was a highly regarded article on hospice and palliative care by Atul Gawande in last month's New Yorker, I didn't read it or think it applied to my life. All that changed less than two weeks ago, when my father was hospitalized in critical condition after collapsing. First he went to the ER, then the transitional ICU, and finally he was placed in the palliative care unit by the time I arriv........ Read more »
J.S. Temel et al. (2010) Early Palliative Care for Patients with Metastatic Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer. N Engl J Med, 733-742. info:/10.1056/NEJMoa1000678
- September 3, 2010
- 11:28 PM
- 72 views
Investigating Metformin's Mechanisms
by Reason in Fight Aging!
Metformin is one of the known calorie restriction mimetics amongst drugs presently in use by the medical establishment. A calorie restriction mimetic is a drug that can reproduce some of the beneficial changes to metabolism exhibited during the practice of calorie restriction, which hopefully in turn leads to improved health and extended healthy life span. Metformin has been shown to modestly increase maximum life span in mice, though by much less than is possible through calorie restriction: ch........ Read more »
Kane DA, Anderson EJ, Price JW 3rd, Woodlief TL, Lin CT, Bikman BT, Cortright RN, & Neufer PD. (2010) Metformin selectively attenuates mitochondrial H2O2 emission without affecting respiratory capacity in skeletal muscle of obese rats. Free radical biology , 49(6), 1082-7. PMID: 20600832
- September 3, 2010
- 11:13 AM
- 131 views
Are "Antipsychotics" Antipsychotics?
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
This is the question asked by Tilman Steinert & Martin Jandl in a letter to the journal Psychopharmacology.They point out that in the past 20 years, the word "antipsychotic" has exploded in popularity. Less than 100 academic papers were published with that word in the title in 1990, but now it's over 600.The older term for the same drugs was "neuroleptics". This terminology, however, has slowly but surely fallen into disuse over the same time period.To illustrate this they have a nice graph ........ Read more »
Tilman Steinert and Martin Jandl. (2010) Are antipsychotics antipsychotics? . Psychopharmacology. DOI: 10.1007/s00213-010-1927-3
- September 3, 2010
- 10:43 AM
- 55 views
My E. coli brother's keeper
by The Curious Wavefunction in The Curious Wavefunction
Would an anti-indole work?Antibiotic resistance is one of the best examples of evolution in real-time and it’s also one of the most serious medical problems of our time. Emerging resistance in bacteria like MRSA threatens to bring on a wave of epidemics that may remind us of past, more unseemly times.Given the threat that antibiotic resistance poses, it is paramount to understand the mechanisms behind this process. While considerable progress has been made in understanding the genetic basis of........ Read more »
Lee HH, Molla MN, Cantor CR, & Collins JJ. (2010) Bacterial charity work leads to population-wide resistance. Nature, 467(7311), 82-5. PMID: 20811456
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