Health Meaning

- deCODE Genetics, the Icelandic genomics company that declared bankruptcy in November, has made a comeback. Today it has reappeared as "the New deCODE," a renamed version of the craft heart of the previous deCODE built on mining the DNA of the Icelandic population for disease genes. The founder of deCODE neuroscientist Kari Stefansson, is to remain as co-lead manager.

during the last decade deCODE genetics Inc. has not turned a profit, but it has scientific sensation by finding the risk of disease markers using a genetic database, medical and genealogical about 140,000 Icelanders. last week, a court in Delaware bankruptcy approved the sale of the subsidiary of deCODE Inc. Islensk Erfdagreining, who runs the biobank Saga Investments LLC. Saga's investors include two companies that have invested in the original deCODE and Illumina, corporate sequencing machines in San Diego, Calif. the CEO of the new private company called deCODE genetics ehf Earl "Duke" Collier, a former executive vice president at Genzyme; Stefansson will be executive chairman and president of research. The parent company is still selling out discovery and drug development components of deCODE Genetics Inc., Stefansson said.

The new deCODE will always focus on human genetics, including the sale of diagnostic tests and personal genome analysis service, deCODEme. "The plan is to continue to lead the world in terms of human genetics," said Stefansson. It will partner with pharmaceutical companies instead of developing its own drugs of its gene discovery, Collier said. Stefansson said it does not raise privacy concerns because data confidentiality and ethics laws in Iceland deCODE will "to work on problems" for business. "We can not give people a unlimited data access, "said Stefansson.

to deepen its research disease genes, the company plans to begin sequencing the entire genome of 2,500 DNA samples from its database. It will not be necessary to recontact these people to consent because their original consent agreements cover the whole genome sequencing, Stefansson said.

Stefansson rejected claims by dissatisfied investors that he and Collier, a former member of the board of the old deCODE, helped engineer the sale to Saga to advance their own interests. This argument is made in a complaint filed in Delaware court in December by creditors that burden Stefansson, Collier, and others discouraged other parties to bid for the company and "maybe collude to create an agreement that will guarantee their profit more ... free entitlements [deCODE's] unsecured creditors of the debtor. " the bankruptcy judge in Delaware approved the deal, Stefansson points out, and "everything was done according to law."

First Lady Michelle Obama launched a major initiative on childhood obesity, one of his signature issues. The carefully orchestrated deployment, Obama was foreshadowing his plan for over a month now, talking to the mayors conference, a local YMCA, and also includes a new non-profit foundation and a range of approaches to solve the problem.

The purpose of what she called Let Move: "Addressing the epidemic of childhood obesity in a generation." It is a challenge for a problem that has grown dramatically. More than 12% of 2 to 5 years are overweight compared to 5% around 1980; 6 to 11 years, the number has increased by just over 6% to 17%.

The Obama strategy seeks to develop many approaches that have been tried before, often at a national or local level

These include teaching doctors to monitor index body weight of their young patients. building standards for foods served in schools; encourage children to exercise more often (recommended amount is 60 minutes per day); and make them more accessible healthy food. Some of these methods are supported by additional funds, such as $ 400 million in the budget of the President 2011, unveiled last week, to bring grocery stores and farmers markets to areas that do not have them now.

Although a number of studies have shown that the fight against the only cause of the exercise of insufficient obesity, for example, often do not help much, there is evidence that multifaceted approaches may be more such successful.One is a pilot program targeting childhood obesity African American children in Mississippi with diet and exercise. randomized different weight loss strategies behavioral trials are ongoing, including a study of preschool children in Australia.

an intriguing element of Obama's plan is the partnership for a healthier America, a foundation announced today that is backed by some big names in the work of childhood obesity, including the Foundation Robert Wood Johnson. The objectives of the foundation, has posted on its website, are still vague. It aims to develop a network of membership of groups, including businesses, academic institutions and local governments to act in terms of obesity Obama

Peter Orszag, the high energy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, recently shared some good news with political . No, it did not solve the economic problems of the country. But he learned that his genetics will not crimp a caffeine habit workweeks fuel 80 hours spent trying to erase a trillion dollar deficit.

While attending a conference, Orszag biologist Craig Venter learned that it could be tested for a genetic marker that can increase the risk of heart disease as much caffeine is consumed. Orszag, drinking large amounts of Diet Coke, went ahead with the test. Fortunately for him, it is clear. "If this test had gone the wrong way, you would not have wanted to be around me after because to give up caffeine would have been very painful," Orszag said Politico reporter Mike Allen.

The Office of Budget and Management Ltd. said Orszag was traveling today and could not provide further details, including whether there was something about her genetic predisposition to other diseases learned. But Science Insider guess he was referring to a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs762551 called that modulate a caffeine-metabolizing enzyme in the liver. Those with a "slow" version metabolize who drink several cups of coffee a day are at a higher risk of heart attacks.

23andme, the company genetic testing for consumption in Mountainview, California, rs76255 of tests as well as many other SNPs. And not just for policy wonks. National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, University psychologist Steven Pinker of Harvard, and DNA discoverer James Watson have all had a part of their genomes decoded.

Stem cell researchers fear that they will have to stop working with some of their favorite cell lines, NPR reported yesterday. Geneticist Julie Baker of Stanford University, said she faced a "huge setback." tough new administrative requirements to get a line inscribed in the National Institutes of Health registry stem-cell researchers lines only federally funded can use-have delayed the announcement of several lines derived from the University of Wisconsin. One problem is that some embryos whose lines were derived from a fertility clinic in Israel. A spokesman WiCell, a nonprofit group affiliated with the university said: "Without direct access to the records of these lines ourselves, we work to overseas clinic for additional documentation"

Two genetic studies involving thousands of participants suggest that macular degeneration, a common eye disease the elderly, is linked to a gene that helps regulate "good" cholesterol. The studies present the first genetic evidence of a link between cholesterol and disease, and may lead scientists to identify new targets for therapy.

macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in the elderly in the United States. Lesions form behind the retina, preventing the center of the field of view of an individual. A link between cholesterol and eye disease may seem strange, but scientists have known for years that cholesterol can accumulate in the back of the eye in the context of aging. Furthermore, cholesterol is a major component of macular lesions. What is the role cholesterol plays in the eye, however, remains uncertain.

In the new work, the researchers compared the genomes of people who have macular degeneration with the genomes of healthy individuals looking for genetic variants that occur more frequently in one or another group.

In the first study, Johanna Seddon, genetic epidemiologist at Tufts University in Boston and colleagues scanned the genomes of 979 people with advanced degeneration and 1709 healthy people. The researchers found a strong association with a gene variant hepatic lipase ( LIPC ). LIPC encodes an enzyme involved in the metabolism of HDL, or "good" cholesterol. People with this variant have a reduced risk of getting the disease by 18%. An analysis of 4337 and 2077 other cases, controls yielded the same result. The researchers also found weaker associations with three other genes involved in HDL pathway: ABCA1 CETP and LPL . These weaker associations did not meet the strict criteria required in this type of study to reach statistical significance.

In the second study, a team led by Anand Swaroop, a molecular geneticist at the National Eye Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, confirmed the same link between macular degeneration and LIPC . The researchers also connected independently disease ABCA1 , CETP and LPL when scanned genomes 2157 people with macular degeneration and 1150 controls. Both studies appear online today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .

These results indicate a relationship between HDL pathway and the risk of macular degeneration, but they do not explain this connection. An idea, Seddon said, is that HDL can act as a transport system for the eye, conveying in nutrients that protect the retina from the bloodstream.

There is a plausible mechanism, said Christine Curcio, a pathologist at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, who was not involved in the work. "If there is a variant that causes [that nutrition system] to be less effective," she said, "which could have a long term effect on susceptibility to disease of the eyes."

provides Curcio these documents will require more research to understand the role of cholesterol in the eye, which could help scientists identify potential drug targets. pharmaceutical companies can not necessarily develop new drugs, however. Curcio said existing cholesterol drugs delivered locally to the eye may benefit patients. "We can piggyback on decades of hard work in the service of understanding of heart disease," she said.

Lawmakers today began discussing the details of a newly created drug development program at the National Institutes of Health ( NIH). The NIH Director Francis Collins told a panel of the Senate he is eager to begin, once the program has a budget.

The Cures Acceleration Network (CAN) was proposed last year by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), the champion of biomedical funding stuffed with $ 10.4 billion in stimulus money the budget of the NIH last year. He also helped to insert CAN without any funding in the health reform bill. Located within the office of the NIH, CAN help researchers bridge the "valley of death", the difference between a discovery laboratory and the steps needed to get a loan drug to be tested in clinical trials. The law allows a budget of CAN $ 500 million, which disburse grants of up to $ 15 million.

Collins held a retreat all day last Thursday to discuss the network with its 27 institutes and centers managers. "There was great enthusiasm," said a Senate Appropriations Committee subcommittee today. "Not that the NIH would become a drug development company," he added, but would build "partnerships" with the private sector "are really exciting and unprecedented."

The 500 million $ 20 would be enough to support drug development projects "soup to nuts", and 20 other projects using compounds that companies had abandoned by "repurposing" them, Collins said. But it's not just money. He said the law allows the program to be "DARPA-like," comparing it to a Defense Department program known for financing distant research ideas. NIH would have the flexibility it does not have now "to manage means very forward-looking projects" with a "quick recovery."

First, the committee will give CAN a budget, however. The money can not come out of the increase of $ 1 billion that President Barack Obama has proposed to NIH in 2011 because the agency is facing historically low grant-funding rate next year when the stimulus runs out , Collins said. Specter, a member of the committee, seemed discouraged. "We could make a billion dollars" or even $ 2 billion, he suggested. But chairman of the subcommittee, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), noting that his subcommittee also funds education programs, replied: "you tell me where you get the money ... and we'll remove"

said Collins Science Insider that "love to start. with a completely aggressive program "for the CAN and that waiting a year would be" frustrating. " NIH can not even hire staff to run the program until Congress approves a budget. "Everything depends on what these guys and their friends in the House [of Representatives Appropriations Committee] decide," he said.

In football, "We need to start monitoring more than the appearance of concussions," said Constantine Lyketsos, a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, speaking to the press yesterday after a meeting of head injuries in sports. He and other experts in a closed program in Washington, sponsored by the national Football League examined the risk and frequency of brain damage. "We are concerned that they are underestimated," said Lyketsos, who led the session one day.

The event, entitled "Traumatic Brain Injury in Professional Football. An Evidence-Based Perspective," was primarily continuing education for doctors of the NFL team defense clinicians Department also attended the hearing on topics such as brain damage biomarkers and potential long-term effects, including depression, dementia, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disease of dementia as first identified in boxers.

Lyketsos described to reporters a video presented earlier in the day. in the middle of a game, a load of barrels football player in an opponent on his helmet an accelerometer measures a whopping 100 billion, enough for him give a concussion. But he continues to play. it was a powerful illustration, Lyketsos said, the way players are adversely affected without symptoms for the flag to doctors.

Lyketsos said researchers were "worried" that an injury to the relatively soft head, repeated hundreds of times, could add up to a serious injury over time. He cited research in 07 by Kevin Guskiewicz, a sports concussion researcher at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where Guskiewicz helmets Tarheel players with accelerometers and recorded impacts equipped five seasons. Lyketsos said that an average player 950 visits per season "could be cause for concern," while the "vast majority [resulted in] any symptoms."

Get a handle on these invisible wounds is possible using electroencephalography and imaging, said Robert Stevens, a doctor of intensive care at Johns Hopkins. "[In] many people who appear clinically normal when we make batteries extensive neuropsychological and cognitive tests when we use these biomarker tests, we see brain damage," he said. But the most sensitive techniques, such as diffusion tensor imaging, which measures the directional preference of the water molecules in the white matter, "are very complex and require technical expertise," he said. Team doctors need a simple but powerful test such as checking blood for specific proteins in brain injury --- they can "to implement bedside or the key."

Curiously, Lyketsos downplayed the link between head injuries on several occasions and the long-term effects such as depression, drug use, and dementia, a position reiterated in the program brochure and recently criticized by the president of the NFL concussion committee. "There have been a handful of evidence, but it is not very strong," said Lyketsos. an earlier study commissioned by the NFL and conducted by researchers from the University of Michigan found that former NFL players proportion who had been diagnosed with dementia-related disorder (according to their own accounts) was five times higher than in the general population for players aged 50 and more, and 19 times higher for players aged between 30 and 49 (for an overview of research on dementia and NFL players, see this recent article science ).

However, larger samples and more studies are needed, Lyketsos said, adding that among the doctors in the NFL, "there is a strong will to achieve ongoing studies."

Some observers of biomedical feel taken aback by a decision of the federal appeals court last week that toppled rejection a lower court a lawsuit challenging the stem cell of the Obama administration policy. The decision could have implications well beyond research on stem cells. It seems to invite disaffected scientists whose proposals to the National Institutes of Health are not funded to argue in court that NIH is at fault for the funding of a new research field.

The complaint was filed last August by Christian groups who argued that guidelines on stem cells NIH violate a federal ban on the use of federal funds to create or destroy human embryos. A US District Court dismissed the complaint for several reasons, including that none of the plaintiffs had the legal capacity to prosecute. But on Friday, the Court of Appeal of the United States of Washington, found (pdf) that two doctors were standing on the suit.

The doctors, who include James Sherley, a researcher on adult stem cells in biomedical research institute Boston, argued that opening federal funding for research on human embryonic stem cells ( SESC), the NIH guidelines have made them less likely to get funding to study adult stem cells (ACSS). The court accepted:

Because the Guidelines have intensified competition for a share of a fixed amount of money, applicants will have to invest more time and resources to develop an application for successful grant. That's real, here and now injury.

The doctors will suffer a further injury whenever a project involving CES receives funding, but the expanded eligibility in the guidelines, would have gone to fund a project of theirs. They are more likely to lose funding for projects involving CES that researchers are not working with stem cells because ASCs and ESCs are substitutes in certain uses. Doctors illustrated this point in a post-argument letter which they report Dr. Sherley recently submitted a grant for a project in which ASCs will be used to create a substitute for a human liver and propose its "main competitor" is a company that "engaged in similar research using [ESCs]." Although no one can say exactly how likely that doctors are losing the funding for projects involving CES, after being in competition with projects, doctors face a fair chance to consider the harm to imminent.

the decision "seems to challenge the basic principles of prioritization, allocation of funds, and competition "NIH said Anthony Mazzaschi of the Association of American Medical Colleges in Washington, DC that is, if expands NIH funding of any new field, or creates a new type of grant program, a researcher could claim the agency takes money away from his related field Mazzaschi suggests. But he is not sure the reasoning of the court should have weight in cases involving other projects that stem cells.

The suit now goes back to the lower court, which should reconsider its rejection of the plaintiffs' request for a motion to block federal funding of ESC research. The federal government appears ready to counter the appeal court's reasoning. In response to Friday's decision, spokesman John Burklow said NIH NIH does not set fixed amounts of money aside for the study of adult or embryonic stem cells, but rather makes allocation decisions based on scientific merit and relevance of the priorities the NIH. "As a result, adults and [ESCs] projects are not in direct competition for funding," Burklow said in a statement.

For couples who have difficulty conceiving, in vitro fertilization (IVF) is often the last resort. The procedure is expensive, emotionally wrenching and often takes several rounds to succeed, if it does at all. Now, researchers say they have developed a way to better estimate the chances of having a baby through IVF a couple. The work is a step towards giving more choices with their limited resources patients, says reproductive endocrinologist Alan Penzias of Harvard Medical School in Boston, who was not affiliated with the study.

Many factors determine whether a couple will become pregnant, but the age of a woman is near the top of the list. At 21, when a woman is at the peak of fertility and 0% of eggs are normal, her chances of conceiving in any given cycle is 24%. It is 15% to 35% 10 to 40 years, and 2% to 42.

Given these long odds, many older women are turning to IVF. It is an expensive proposition. In addition to tag $ 10,000 or more price per cycle, a woman must be injected with hormones, consult a doctor more than once a week, and her eggs harvested and replanted. And even then the statistics are not in his favor. IVF is only successful about 45% of women in their mid-30s and only about 25% of women in their 40s.

When IVF patients ask about their chance of conceiving, doctors usually cite the success rate in their center for patients of a similar age group. But these are only averages approximate and do not reflect the specific situation of a patient, said IVF researcher Mylene Yao of Stanford School of Medicine of the University in Palo Alto, California. "Clinicians know that clinical factors besides age affect IVF results, but there is no way for them to quantify this," she said.

In an attempt to provide precise figures in IVF forecasts, Yao and colleagues collected data on more than 50 variables that influence the success of treatment. These included figures known before the start of IVF, such as age , the number of previous pregnancies, and the number of sperm, and the known digit after completion of the first IVF cycle, as if there were fertilization, endometrial thickness, and the average number of cells by embryo. in total, the researchers fed data on over 1,0 IVF procedures in the first round of the patients treated at Stanford Hospital and Clinics University.

When the researchers compared the model's predictive powers with a model based on age, they found that it was about 1000 times more accurate measure success in the second round of IVF. Because clinicians often use a variety of qualitative assessments to estimate the chances of success of IVF for a woman, there is no way to directly compare the accuracy of Yao model with the precision of a given clinician . But based on the accuracy of this first attempt, this type of statistical modeling may be a useful tool to help clinicians better predict the chances of success of IVF from a patient, the team announced today line in the Proceedings of the national Academy of sciences . Yao and a colleague co-founded a company to further develop the technology.

reproductive endocrinologist Alan Copperman of Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York is encouraged by the results. He believes that the research may eventually help clinicians better estimate the number of embryos to transfer without increasing the likelihood of a woman carrying more than one fetus at a time. Penzias rents "intelligent method," the authors noted some limitations but with model: how clinicians manipulated embryos in the laboratory has not been quantified, for example. Still, he said, a robust way to predict the success of IVF would be a boon to couples, even though it offers some bad news. "If a couple has little or no chance of conceiving," said Penzias, "the sooner we can tell them this and the sooner they can mourn and move on."

Research on embryonic stem cells funded by the US government must cease immediately ordered for a review by the court, the judge Royce Lamberth of the US district court for the district of Columbia ruled today.

Lamberth granted a preliminary injunction on this research after hearing a petition from a group of lawyers who argued that, contrary to the opinion of the US government, research on embryonic stem cells actually destroy embryos action that is prohibited by the legislation known as the "Dickey-Wicker Amendment" to the bill that funds the Department of Health and Human services. The suit to stop research on embryonic stem cells was filed by James Sherley, Theresa Deisher, Nightlight Christian Adoptions, the Christian Medical Association, and others.

For more information on the prohibition of stem cells, see our full coverage.

Babies born too early often struggle to survive. But doctors can have a telling of the difficulty that preemies are developing serious health problems such as respiratory failure, and those who are well. Now researchers have developed a model that can predict the results of preemie with over 0% accuracy, an advance that could help doctors identify the sickest babies and save billions of dollars in health care costs.

Fifty years, physician Virginia Apgar of Columbia University has developed a rating system for evaluating the health of a newborn. Apgar score still the standard-method takes into account factors such as whether a baby flexes his arms and legs or is still, breathing well or not at all, and if the skin is healthy and pink or blue. Regarding the prediction of serious diseases such as bleeding in the lungs, however, the Apgar score is just only about 70% of the time. New models that take into account the number of white blood cells and blood pH do better, but "they require a lot of invasive tests," says Anna Penn, a neonatologist at the Children's Hospital Lucile Packard (LPCH) in Palo Alto, in California.

The researchers, including Penn and co-lead author Daphne Koller, a computer scientist at Stanford University, has undertaken to develop an even more precise noninvasive tool to predict major complications in newborns smaller. The researchers selected 138 children born LPCH who spent less than 35 weeks in the womb and weighs less than 2 kg. The team classified the preemies as high or low risk based on the diseases they have developed. Babies in the high-risk group died or developed serious complications such as infections, bleeding and lung and heart problems. Infants in the low risk group suffered only minor ailments, such as mild respiratory distress.

Next, the researchers examined the physiological data collected regularly in the first 3 hours of life by bedside monitors such as heart rate, respiratory rate, and the amount of oxygen in the blood. When they modeled these data, they observed signatures in sick babies were different from those they have observed in healthy ones. They used these differences to develop a mathematical algorithm that integrates physiological data monitors, birth weight, and length of time spent in the womb to predict the likelihood that a preemie will develop severe illness. "These are very simple things," says Penn. "But when combined with sophisticated tools that come from the computer, we can make sense of these in a way that doctors are not normally."

The output of the model is a number between 0 and 1, the researchers call "PhysiScore." A higher score indicates a higher risk of complications. For example, a child with a score of 0.8 would have a risk of developing a serious disease by 80%.

PhysiScore outperformed not only the Apgar scale but also three models based on invasive laboratory tests, reports online today in Science Translational Medicine team . Using PhysiScore, the researchers were able to predict severe complications with an accuracy of between 91% and 98%. The accuracy of the Apgar score ranged from 70% to 74%, and other models have accuracies of 82% to 91%.

The researchers plan monitors that could calculate and display PhysiScore a baby automatically 3 hours after birth. That number could help doctors decide whether the baby should receive more aggressive care or be transferred to a better equipped hospital. "[The monitors] are already measuring these signals," says Suchi Saria, a computer scientist at Stanford University, who led the work. So it would be a way to "use existing resources to make better use data that has already collected, "she said.

" This is a huge progress in the field, "said Rosemary Higgins, a neonatologist at the National Institute of child health and human development in Rockville , Maryland. "Predicting the outcome of premature babies is a major challenge for physicians." Still, she would see how the prices of models in the smallest preemies-those weighing less than 1 kg. "This is really the group at high risk for major development problems," she said.

Namasivayam Ambalavanan, neonatologist at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, said doctors often use their judgment to identify preterm FARE wrong. He would like to see a study that pits PhysiScore against clinical judgment.

Penn said the same techniques used to create PhysiScore could also work to identify high-risk surgical patients or adults the most likely to suffer complications following a heart attack. "One of the most interesting things will be to see if we can apply this model to other parameters," she said.

This article identified Suchi Saria Stanford University as co-author of the study. She led the research. the text has been amended accordingly.

Sixty-four years after a US-funded scientist conducted an experiment that infected his patients with syphilis in Guatemala, the US government today issued a formal apology to the Central American nation. The scandal, which had been buried in the files of an American researcher of public health services, is documented in the work published by a historian at Wellesley College, Susan Reverby.

National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins called the research described in the report Reverby "deeply disturbing" and "a terrible example of a dark chapter in the history of medicine." He added that US regulations today "would absolutely prohibit this type of study"

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also called Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom last night to express his regret. She presented joint apology with Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius this morning.

the results of the Guatemalan research, which Clinton described as "reprehensible" -were never published. the only case came to light when Reverby found records of John Cutler, a former scientist of the public health Service of the United States, hidden in the archives of the University of Pittsburgh. They told the story of a man who devoted his life to conquer sexually transmitted diseases and led an effort of 2 years in Guatemala to monitor and treat syphilis and gonorrhea. In the 1940s, when it seemed that penicillin was successfully rooting syphilis in the United States, Cutler feared that simply rely on the pill after the disease was diagnosed was not enough. He wanted to test various others chemicals could be applied right after sex would prevent the disease entirely. To do this, of course, he needed the newly infected patients.

Between 1946 and 1948, Cutler performs research on Guatemalans in a national prison, a military barracks, only psychiatric hospital in the country, and national orphanage. He relied on syphilis- prostitutes and gonorrhea infected to transmit the disease to prisoners. A Asylum and army barracks, he and his team also have patients infected with infectious syphilis bacteria taken from humans and animals, mixed with broth of beef heart, distilled water or cerebrospinal fluid. One method involved inserting scrape the skin off the penis of her patients and drops of solution on the flayed flesh for an hour or two, according to the letters cited by Reverby. The children in the orphanage are not infected with syphilis, but Cutler have used in blood tests. Reverby said she found no evidence that patients were informed about what was happening to them. Instead Cutler has won the consent of institutions, often in exchange for shower supplies. Patients were treated with penicillin after infection was confirmed.

ethically, the Guatemala experience can be a step below where infamous Tuskegee, an experiment in which Cutler also participated. In Macon County, Alabama, scientists have made hundreds of African American men with syphilis were not treated so they can monitor the progress of the disease.

In addition to an apology, the US government asked the Institute of Medicine to launch an investigation of the facts in the Guatemala study. An international team of experts organized by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical issues will also explore the best ways to ensure the raw ethical violations do not occur in medical research in any part of the world.

In the summer of 1849 a mass epidemic of cholera invades the City of London, leaving more than 13,000 dead. It was not the first or the last to terrorize the city before the disease disappeared in 101; major outbreaks occurred in 1832, 1854 and 1866. Now, new evidence suggests that the epidemic in 1849, and two of the worst epidemics of the city, may have come with a warning-a prequel that could alert authorities health epidemics pending today.

These prequels, called herald wave, killed hundreds, not thousands, said Joseph Tien, a mathematical biologist at Ohio State University in Columbus. His team detected three of them-each happening months before one of the four "major" cholera years in London.

It was the season that gave them away. Tien and his colleagues examined the records of weekly cholera deaths in London stretching 1824-101, when the last death from cholera recorded in the city. They found that cholera outbreaks ever been hit, with only three exceptions: spring 1832, autumn 1848 and winter 1853. All three thugs homes was followed by a particularly severe outbreak that summer

"They kind of jumped from the cholera data," said Tien, whose team publishes its results online today in Royal Society Interface . Researchers believe that the invasion of a new cholera strain could trigger prequels. A new bacterium could do damage to a vulnerable population not immune, but if it happened during the off-season, the weather does keep it in check. That is, until the summer, when warmer temperatures could allow it to resurface with a vengeance. A mathematical simulation confirms this idea, but the authors admit that the new strain hypothesis needs to genetic or biological data to back up the

One potential key in the event of the team took place in 1866 :. A cholera epidemic that has killed more than 5,000 people and came with no apparent herald wave. The researchers suggest that this could be a new strain happened to arrive just as the cholera season began. But Tien recognizes other environmental factors might also be involved.

"I'm impressed and a little excited about this product," says Donald Olson, an epidemiologist at the International Society for Disease Surveillance Boston who was not involved in the research. Olson has studied a wave similar to herald the 1918 influenza epidemic in New York City, part of the great "Spanish flu", but he said that this is the first time someone recorded for cholera.

Justin Lessler, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, agrees that this would be a first. But Lessler said not be surprised that cholera outbreaks could preludes. "people who do modeling expect this for all seasons based epidemic."

the biggest challenge, according Lessler, is to find where the cholera season occurs in various places. In temperate climates, such as London that it says it is reasonable to expect the strike of cholera in the hot summer months. But in the tropics, such as Bangladesh, one of the key strongholds of cholera in the 21st century, the disease may depend more on local factors such as the timing of the rainy season. And Haiti, where cholera has not been seen for at least a century, it is even less clear when the season begins. Because the Haitian population has virtually no immunity, cholera could be devastating no matter when it hit.

However, for regions where researchers know the season when cholera usually occurs Lessler said an epidemic out of season could be an invaluable warning to prepare for more serious in the near future. "You do not want to be too happy when this off-season epidemic started declining."

German National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Elias Zerhouni finally a full-time job: Head of Research and Development Sanofi-Aventis, the french pharmaceutical giant.

Zerhouni is a radiologist and inventor who has spent most of his career as a researcher and director at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where he is still on the faculty. As director of the NIH from 02 to October 08, he dealt with tightening budgets and programs launched to accelerate the translation of basic laboratory discoveries into drugs. Responding to congressional concerns, it has also prohibited the paid consulting for pharmaceutical companies by scientists from the NIH campus.

Since leaving government, Zerhouni served as the science of the US envoy to the Middle East and a senior fellow at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and ran a consulting company. It was also a scientific advisor to Sanofi-Aventis CEO Chris Viehbacher since February 09.

Viehbacher said in a statement that Zerhouni, who will be based at the headquarters of the company in Paris, helped the company reshape its research efforts. "I am delighted that the world renowned figure such as Elias is onboard to direct and drive our R & D organization," said Viehbacker. Originally from Algeria, Zerhouni speaks French. It begins on January 1st.

According to The Wall Street Journal , Sanofi-Aventis is struggling to find ways to compensate for the revenue that will be lost when several of its drugs lose patent protection over the next years. The company tries to buy Genzyme Corp. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that specializes in drugs for rare diseases.

the World health Organization (WHO) released a plan to deal with a threat that could jeopardize the recent successes in malaria control: the emerging resistance against the drug artemisinin, which are the cornerstone of treatment of malaria worldwide. WHO hopes that donors help pay the cost, estimated at $ 175 million annually, including $ 60 million for new research.

In recent years, researchers have seen resistance against artemisinin derivatives, which are combined with other drugs in supposedly based therapies artemisinin-emerge in Cambodia, in the area along the border with Thailand. There are indications that resistance may occur along the border between Thailand and Myanmar and Vietnam, as well ( Science , 14 May 2010, p. 844).

At present, no other class of drugs is available to replace artemisinin, and none are near the end of the development pipeline. Scientists fear that if the resistant parasites make their way to Africa, where the vast majority of malaria cases occur, mortality will soar. "It is no exaggeration to say that the consequences of widespread artemisinin resistance would be catastrophic," said the Director-General Margaret Chan today at a launch event of the plan.

The Global Plan for Artemisinin Resistance (GPARC) does not contain detailed strategies; it is presented as a "call to action and a plan of attack high level." The idea is to mobilize governments, international agencies, nongovernmental organizations, donors, scientists and industry in a multidimensional approach. Among other things, GPARC calls to stop the spread of resistant parasites in Cambodia by strengthening control of malaria at the local level, the rise of surveillance and monitoring to detect resistance, and investing in new research. On the scientific agenda is the identification of molecular markers for resistance, simplifying testing; accelerate the development of alternative drugs; and the study of the effectiveness of screening and mass treatment to eradicate malaria in areas where resistance occurs.

Most of the $ 175 million needed has not yet been found, said Robert Newman, Director of WHO's Global Programme against Malaria. But donors such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Presidential Initiative against malaria in the United States, and the Wellcome Trust, who were all present at the launch were interested, he said. The U.K. Department for International Development has agreed to fund a major project to improve monitoring and mapping the exact extent of the problem. Part of the money can also be "fought on existing programs," such as the Global Fund, Newman adds. Given the high stakes, the price tag is "small enough", he said.

"It's a good plan," said Christopher Plowe, a malaria expert at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore and one of more than 100 scientific WHO consulted during the creation of GPARC . "What they propose to do is generally sound," he said. But Plowe says he is still "anxious" that the funding can not come together or that the implementation moves too slowly to contain resistance.

In the past, some scientists have criticized the WHO for not doing enough to fight against the problem. Newman disagrees but admits it was hard to get international attention to the problem. "The activities have been ongoing for years, but there was not a world political traction," he said. "The plan is also an effort to raise the profile a very important question. ... I wanted to bring up on the radar screen. "

- molded blood vessels that surgeons could take off the shelf and implant in patients may not be as exaggerated as they sound. Researchers report today Science Translational Medicine a new way to use human cells to produce blood vessels that can operate in people without asking an immune reaction. Unlike other engineering vessels, they can be stored up to 12 months, which could allow hospitals to keep on hand for immediate use in patients who need them.

Doctors perform transplants of blood vessels in heart bypass surgery and in dialysis patients. They often take the veins of a specific patient's legs or elsewhere in the body. But sometimes doctors can not find suitable containers and transplant tissue donors or even animals are not proven safe or effective. To meet the need in such cases, some researchers are increasingly sheets own cells of a patient in the laboratory and wrap to a ship. But the process is expensive and can take nine months or more, which is often too long for patients to wait.

Shannon Dahl several techniques, a tissue engineer at Humacyte, a biotechnology company in Morrisville, North Carolina, and colleagues combined to explore another way to produce blood vessels replacement. The strategy is to inoculate human smooth muscle cells, taken from corpses given on a tubular scaffold of biodegradable polymer called glycolic acid. As the cells grow to cover the scaffold, they produce collagen and other extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins that replace the scaffold degradation. The researchers then use a detergent to remove cells, leaving a blood vessel cell-free, the researchers speculated that could be stored for months and trigger an immune reaction in the recipient.

The researchers compared the vessels of a corpse seed cells given with those made from the cells pooled from several donors. The pooled cells produced ships as strong as those of individual donors. That's good news, Dahl said, because the pooling of these seed cells, it would be possible to grow more ships in a single batch, by lowering the cost of ships.

The researchers then transplanted blood vessels engineering in the arms of eight baboons. They remained functional and free of clots up to 6 months and do not appear to generate an immune response despite being composed of human collagen and ECM. Dahl and his colleagues also smaller-suitable vessels for bypass from coronary dog ​​cells and transplanted them into five dogs, where they stayed clear blockages to one year. In both models, the new vessels were soon populated by several types of cells present in normal blood vessels, suggesting that the bodies of animals tolerate transplants.

Although the number of laboratory animals in the Dahl study was small, said Robert Nerem, a bioengineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, the results are encouraging. The fact that engineering vessels can be easily stored suggests that surgeons could keep a supply on hand. "If you have to make bypass surgery, often it is not an elective procedure where you sit around waiting for weeks. You really want this to work on the shelf," he said.

Dahl said she and her colleagues are now "lay the foundation" for how they could start safely to test the vessels in human patients. Although the results are preliminary animal, she said they are encouraging enough that "it is interesting to assess our energy technology into the clinic."

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could get a budget boost this year with President requesting $ 4.3 billion , more than a third of it from regulatory fees paid by companies. This total is more than $ 1 billion more than the amount of the 2010 FDA budget provided a number of new initiatives and knows the enlarged authority in areas such as food safety and tobacco control. But despite an image outward pink, the agency has not the money in hand, it must fulfill an expanded mandate.

2012 may or may not be the year that the FDA gets to flex some new muscles. Among other things, the President requested $ 324 million for a new food security initiative to allow the FDA to implement the Law on the modernization of the recently adopted food safety, to reduce foodborne illness. FDA also wants $ 49 million in strengthening regulatory science, for example finding better ways to understand the toxicity of drugs.

A continuing resolution just passed by appropriators in the House of Representatives only provides $ 3.3 billion for its 2011 budget, far from the FDA goal Administration 2012-suggesting that it may be difficult to find common ground.

See our complete coverage of the 2012 budget

Today, the US government launched what is billed as the largest ever study how an oil spill to affect human health. Gulf study long-term monitoring will probe Gulf residents who have contributed to cleaner Deepwater Horizon last year's oil spill and monitor for at least 5 years.

The study of $ 19 million by the National Institute of Sciences Environmental Health (NIEHS) communicate with people known to have been involved in the Gulf cleanup efforts and ask them to submit physical examinations and complete questionnaires on their health. This direct approach is broader than simply relying on the existing medical records, lead researcher Dale Sandler, chief of the branch of epidemiology at NIEHS, said in a conference call today. "People could not complain, they could just feel lousy and not report," she said.

The study team plans to contact 100,000 people in order to register 55 000 in the study. the first letters go out today, and efforts will rise in April. the questionnaire and the results will also be available on the study website. "We try to set an example for do research in the light of day, "said Sandler.

The National Institutes of Health will take about $ 19 million, including $ 8 million for a special fund for cross-cutting initiatives managed by the NIH Director Francis Collins, and $ 6 million from BP, which has played no role in the study design and will not be involved in the analysis of results.

An objective of the study is to determine how people were exposed to oil, including pollution of air from controlled burns, direct contact with oil or dispersants , or eating contaminated seafood. NIEHS group works with toxicologists and local health authorities to identify biomarkers for these and other sources of contamination which can cause difficulty breathing, rash, chemicals in the blood, and, in the longer term, the increased risk of cancer among cleaning crew. Sandler said his team will also look at the anecdotal accounts of the spill-related illnesses have been reported.

Sandler said his team will not be able to blame the oil spill for any particular health problem reported by residents, many of whom have little access to health care and are regularly exposed to other health risks. Still, all the recurring units of the disease could be used as the basis for individual lawsuits against BP.

Readers ask :? Is the drug Rad-X army being made available to the people of Japan

science responses government health clinics in Japan distribute potassium iodide pills can help prevent thyroid cancer in nursing mothers and children exposed to radioiodine. But along with these pills, there are no drugs currently available to fight against the negative health effects of radiation exposure.

"Rad-X" exists only in the world of Fallout video game; However, there is a drug called Ex-RAD, developed by Onconova Therapeutics Inc., currently the prophylactic test that could be given to first responders during a nuclear attack or to people who are preparing to enter a radioactive site. It is the only drug however be tried out CBLB502 has been shown to be effective in mice and monkeys. It may be some time before these drugs go through all the steps required to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

For a complete list of quake questions and answers, see our Quake Questions page. For our complete coverage of the crisis in Japan, see our Japan Earthquake.

For the first time in 27 years, researchers have published new criteria for the diagnosis of disease Alzheimer. With tests to pick up not ready for widespread use of the early stages of the disease, the new guidelines will have little immediate impact on patients, but they are intended to provide a framework for research and planning, hopefully clinicians the day the effective treatments become available.

guidelines, issued today by the Alzheimer's Association and the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and published online in of Alzheimer's disease and dementia reflect the growing understanding that the neurological damage of Alzheimer's disease starts years, even decades, before symptoms appear and future treatments probably work best when started early. They broaden the definition of Alzheimer's to include two new stages that precede dementia in their own right: a presymptomatic phase and a phase marked by mild cognitive impairment.

The new guidelines are the revised recommendations made last year.

At a press conference yesterday, Creighton Phelps NIA explained that a major revision was to clarify what recommendations relate to researchers and which relate to clinicians. In particular, the expert working groups that drafted the guidelines say that biomarker tests for Alzheimer's disease, which capture biological early signs of the disease are not yet ready for widespread clinical use. (Because the newly proposed presymptomatic stage of the disease can be detected by biomarker tests, this designation may be used by researchers at this time.)

In recent years, researchers have made considerable progress on biomarkers, including scans that detect changes in brain anatomy and physiology and tests that measure the levels of β-amyloid peptide thought to be a significant player in the disease in the brain and cerebrospinal fluid. These tests can pick up signs of Alzheimer's disease in people before memory problems appear, and they are already used in clinical trials. Many researchers believe that so many clinical trials, due to potential Alzheimer's treatments have failed in recent years is that the patients included in the trials were too far in the course of the disease. Biomarkers that can pick up early signs of the disease may enable doctors to begin treatment before too much irreversible brain damage has occurred. For now, it is only in clinical trials.

The working groups concluded that although the biomarkers are invaluable for research, more work is needed before it can be widely used by physicians. For example, the methods should be standardized so that they are used consistently from one hospital to another, and researchers need to reach a consensus on values ​​delimit the boundary between health and disease.

PARIS -After two decades of legal wrangling, a French appeals court aujourd 'hui threw excluding charges of manslaughter and other crimes against two scientists involved in a scandal of growth hormone, which led to the death of 125 children of the Creutzfeldt-Jakob (CJD) disease fatal brain. But lawyers for the victims' families say Science Insider who intend to take the case to the Court of Cassation, the highest court of appeal in France.

The verdict was a deep disappointment for the victims' families, as well as a surprise, because they felt they had an audience much fairer judges than they did at the first trial to lower court. "This time, the judges listen to us, and had a much better understanding of the case. It was a trial worthy of the name," said Jeanne Goerrian, a member of the Association for the Victims of growth hormone (AVHC ).

from 1959 to 1698 France treats children with growth disorders with hormone derived from pituitary glands taken from human corpses, a practice that has been linked to the transmission of CJD ., a prion disease prosecutors said the scientists involved should have done more to prevent infections; they also blamed the accused for the transition to the much safer hormone synthetic growth only in 1988, three years after the country as the US and the UK have done.

But the court of Appeals upheld the 09 decision of a lower court that "no fault" had been committed by biochemist Fernand Dray , who was in charge of purifying the material at the Pasteur Institute, and pediatrician Elisabeth Mugnier, in charge of collecting the pituitary glands and treatment monitoring. Dray "can not be blamed for not having the intuition of a risk of contamination no professional could have detected the moment," said the verdict. Mugnier "has no power to intervene in the management of the collection" Human glands, said the president of the court Didier Wacogne.

The case has been dragging on since the early 190s, French wheels of justice grind very slowly and two other scientists from the dock at the first trial died. Dray, 88, did not appear in court because he is weak and hospitalized.

On appeal, the prosecutor had asked for suspended sentences of 3 years and 1 year against Dray against Mugnier. It was less than four years required in the first trial for Dray, who was also accused of corruption on foreign purchases of human growth hormone. (These charges were dropped because the statute of limitations had expired.)

Today's verdict was "worse" than that of the lower court, said Toby Caroline, one of the lawyers AVHC because the court of appeal not only laid criminal charges, but said none of the defendants or their employers had any civil liability. Jean-Marc Viala, another lawyer for the victims' families, said he does not rule out continuing the French government to let the disaster happen. "This should have been done long ago," says Viala. The state has already paid € 36 million in compensation to the families of 125 CJD patients who died.

The Pasteur Institute contributed more than € 0,000 in civil damages to two families. But the institute should also have taken its scientific responsibility for young adults now living with the threat of CJD, French virologist and Nobel laureate Luc Montagnier . recently said Science Insider CJD may appear decades after infection, and more cases are expected to occur; Pasteur could fund research on the prevention, early diagnosis and treatment, Montagnier said rather. of that, "the only gesture was cash handouts from the government." During the trial, Montagnier, who could not be reached today, testified that Shepherd did not act on early indications that human growth hormone could be dangerous.

But Yves Agid, previously in charge of CJD surveillance in France and is director of the brain and spinal Institute here, welcomed the decision: "As I said in my testimony in two trials, it could not have known at the time that the material could be contaminated and transmit the disease. There were many unpredictable factors that led to this disaster. "

BERLIN- German scientists are scrambling to find the source of an outbreak of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC), a dangerous intestinal pathogen That hAS Hundreds of people sent to the hospital with bloody diarrhea and killed at least one. The investigation is complicated by the fact que la outbreak HAS beens Apparently Caused by a very rare EHEC serotype O104 called Expired.

"I Hope that more patient samples will be APPROBATION today, aim it Certainly looks as if an E. Coli O104 is the case of These infections," says Klaus Stark, head of the division of gastrointestinal infections, zoonoses, and tropical infections at Robert Koch Institute (RKI) here, the German center for disease prevention and control.

RKI Researchers first Took notice last Thursday, When a clinic in Hamburg em Enable notifications of a host of Patients Suffering from hemolytic uremic-syndrome (HUS). The syndrome-caractérisé by a destruction of red blood cells and severe kidney problems-is The Most severe complication of EHEC infection year.

Selon RKI, Nearly 140 patients in Germany-have HUS Developed since the second week of May, Compared with only about 60 cases in an average year. "This is one of the biggest EHEC outbreaks in the world, the biggest one Certainly we-have ever had in Germany," says Stark.

Scientists-have-been baffled not only by the outbreak's size and rapid spread in northern Germany aussi goal by the fact That It affects mostly adults and females, an odd pattern Because EHEC usually sickens children. Of the 65 HUS cases in Germany in 2010, only six patients Were more than 18 years old.

While E. coli bacteria are hand of the human gut flora and usually not pathogenic, strains classed together as the EHEC Produce a dangerous Shiga toxin That Enters the cells in the gut and Inhibits protein synthesis by cleaving ribosomal RNA. The destruction of cells lining the gut leads to abdominal cramping, watery diarrhea, and bloody diarrhea Eventually. In about 10% of cases, the toxin attacks the kidneys aussi, leading to the Potentially fatal HUS. EHEC has-been confirmed as the causes of death in year 83-year-old woman Who HAD beens admis to a hospital in Bremen on 15 May and Who died on Saturday; Reviews another potential EHEC fatality is still under investigation.

Most EHEC infections are Caused by a notorious called Expired serotype O157: H7; Researchers Refer To That serotype and four others frequently found in Europe as the "gang of five." Aim the German reference laboratory for EHEC in Wernigerode HAS so far APPROBATION the serotype of EHEC in stool samples from five patients as O104.

That Makes the highly unusual outbreak, says Helge Karch, head of the National Consulting Laboratory on Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome in Münster. Among Karch's E. coli 588 isolates from HUS patients file Managed over the past 20 years, only two are O104. In Reviews another unusual twist, Karch HAS found the strain to be eae-negative. The gene eae codes for the protein intimin, qui the bacteria uses to attach to the intestinal wall. Most pathogenic EHEC serogroups are eae-positive.

It is still unclear whether the serotype might explain the strange pattern of infections. E. coli O104 first Emerged as a pathogen in a small outbreak in Helena in early 1994. Four people Developed abdominal cramps and bloody diarrhea. Experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta has APPROBATION serotype called Expired O104: H21 as the culprit. A CDC investigation later found up to 18 patients; MOST of Them Were women and the median age Was 36 years.

The source of infection in Germany is still unclear, and the uncommon serotype Could make it harder for autorités to find it. "O104 is very hard to Distinguish from normal, non-pathogenic E. Coli ," says Lothar Beutin, head of the National Reference Laboratory for E. coli at the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment here. He and --other Researchers are now try trying to Develop a more rapid and specific test for the unusual serotype.

The natural tank of EHEC bacteria are ruminants Such as cows and sheep, qui carry the pathogens In Their guts and spread Them With Their feces. It is Transmitted to humans through consumption of contaminated Primarily foods.

"When we first Interviewed patients, a lot of 'em MENTIONED eating raw vegetables, purpose That Does not mean That vegetables are the source," Stark says. RKI is using a detailed questionnaires to ask patients what They Have eaten in the days before falling ill and Comparing Their answers with Those Who of healthy controls match the characteristics in patients Such as age and sex, a common method in epidemiology.

In order to save time, HOWEVER, the Epidemiologists are not searching public records to find the matching controls. Instead, a team of 15 experts Went door to door yesterday in the areas in Hamburg Where Some patients live, looking for matching Roughly controls. "If we get a clear signal, something That 0% of the boxes purpose only 10% of the controls ate, Then We Can Be very sour That We-have found the source," says Stark.

But a first statistical analysis this morning Did not yield clear results Any. Indeed, because of the smaller MOST of the EHEC outbreaks in recent years HAS never beens Established definitely. Scientists are Hopping que le current outbreak will turn out to be unusual fait que respect as well.

Craving a snack in the afternoon? Take a drag on a cigarette, and your hunger will probably disappear. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States and other developed countries, which causes lung cancer, heart disease, and chronic bronchitis. But smokers are, on average, thinner than nonsmokers. A new study reveals how nicotine, the active ingredient in cigarettes, works in the brain to suppress appetite smokers. The discovery also highlights a new therapeutic target for nicotine withdrawal and loss of weight.

The nicotine receptor in the brain has 15 subunits; they can be combined in a multitude of ways to form different receivers with different jobs. Nicotine can bind to each combination and stimulate a cascade of individual events; some lead to the addictive properties of cigarettes, others an increase in blood pressure or a feeling of relaxation. It has long been known that nicotine causes a drop in appetite, and scientists suspect that it worked through receptors associated with reward and reinforcement of behavior. After all, the brain considers both cigarettes and food for rewards. But the new finding suggests that appetite has its own way.

Behavioral neuroscientist Marina Picciotto of Yale University began to study whether the activation of a particular nicotine receptor, α3β4 nicknamed, had antidepressant effects in mice. But as Yale colleague Picciotto, Neurogeneticist behavioral Yann Mineur cured the mice given drugs designed to stimulate only α3β4 receptors, he noticed a side effect: mice ate less.

"Before this study, we really do not think this type of receptor would have such an important role in brain food intake," said Picciotto. She Minor and then showed that nicotine is actually binding to α3β4 receptors, which then send a signal through the rest of the brain, signaling satiety. It is impossible to distinguish the signal from the brain spreads after eating a large meal. The mice that received the drug binding to the α3β4 receptor ate half the amount of food than untreated mice within 2 hours following administration of the drug. Their body fat dropped from 15% to 20% over 30 days, the team reports online today in Science .

Because the weight gain that comes with smoking cessation is often a deterrent to smokers to quit, Picciotto suggests that the new route could be targeted by drugs to suppress appetite during the early stages of smoking cessation. In addition, such a drug could have wider application as an appetite suppressant to help in losing weight without risk to cigarette smoke-related health.

Neil Grunberg, a behavioral neuroscientist at the Uniformed University of Health Sciences Services in Bethesda, Maryland, was the first to prove by rat studies in 1982 that nicotine causes a decrease appetite. He says the new study is a step forward in understanding the phenomenon it was first observed.

"Most people have accepted that decreased appetite was caused by a dopamine reward pathway and left at that," says Grunberg. "So I think that the most important contribution of this article is to prove that there is another way that the entire nicotine works through. "

Grunberg notes, however, that the study relates only to male mice. in his previous work, he found differences in the effects of nicotine on weight between males and females. women, he said, the biggest weight loss experience when they start smoking and increased weight gain if they quit. that means the nicotine works by an additional lane, the hormone regulated in the female brain is yet to be determined.

Picciotto said his group repeated the experiments with female mice. "We are also always try back to that original question we had, "she said," is it also has antidepressant actions "

* this article has been corrected to reflect the accurate title of Yann Mineur.

Life for people with a genetic condition called Prader-Willi syndrome, which affects about one in 15,000 people can be difficult for both the patient and family. Patients have an insatiable hunger that can lead to obesity in life-threatening if access to food is not limited. And worse, they have similar behavioral problems in autism. Tantrums and tears are common because these patients have difficulty understanding the motivations of others and control their own emotions. But the treatment of brain hormone oxytocin can help bring the two emotions and eating balance, according to a new study.

Several indicators have highlighted the potential of oxytocin, often considered the "hormone of trust." Research on the brain tissue donated after death in patients with Prader-Willi showed that the hypothalamus (the thermostat of the body) shows abnormalities in nerve cells that produce the hormone. in addition, the hypothalamus releases oxytocin in response to social interaction touching, relaxation and confidence-all the things that people with Prader-Willi syndrome have problems with. And oxytocin treatments improved social skills of autistic patients. Finally, the hormone is thought to contribute to a feeling of fullness after eating, "satiety" in the language scientific.

to see if oxytocin could benefit people with Prader-Willi syndrome, endocrinologist Maïthé Tauber of the Children's Hospital of Toulouse, France, and colleagues injected oxytocin or placebo in 24 adult patients nose. The researchers monitored the patients' behavior; they also used cartoon stories to test understanding of social interactions and patients face images to see how they could recognize emotions.

For the two days that patients were studied after treatment, that were given oxytocin were significantly more confident and less sad. They were less disruptive and had fewer conflicts with others. They also had higher scores on tests assessing social understanding, compared to placebo group.

The study, which appears online today in the Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases , focused on behavioral issues, which says Tauber "are more difficult to control than the food intake. " However, patients ate less after treatment with oxytocin, and five do not finish everything on their plates, which says Tauber is unusual in Prader-Willi syndrome.

"The search for Tauber and his colleagues is meticulous and very exciting," says Daniel Driscoll, a geneticist at the University of Florida in Gainesville. There is currently no cure for the disease except behavior modification and diet control. Driscoll said a better understanding of the role of brain chemicals like oxytocin may lead to better treatments for various stages of this complex disorder.

the authors write that although the longer-term, larger studies are needed, this work opens new perspectives for patients with Prader-Willi syndrome. "Because previous research shows abnormal secretion of oxytocin, we hope that the treatment can not only improve mood and behavior of the patient, but also help correct the underlying problem, "says Tauber.

Y are afraid of the dark penguins? Foreign moons might harbor life? And LSD may help treat painful headaches? Science Online News Editor David Grimm chats about these stories and more with Science Editor 's online Stewart Wills.

( Listen to the full Science podcast and podcasts.)

This week, the World Health Organization (WHO) criticized the use of blood tests not reliable commonly used to diagnose active TB, as well as aggressive marketing used to promote them. The first recommendation "negative" policy, the agency urged countries to ban these serological tests. "They are a waste of time, and they are a waste of money, and most importantly, they have endangered people who suffer from tuberculosis," Mario Raviglione, Director of the Stop TB Department of WHO, has said at a press conference Wednesday.

instead, WHO recommends that countries use standard microscopy or molecular test a new system called GeneXpert.

tests blood used on at least 2 million people a year are wrong 50% of the time, says the wHO, giving either positive or false negative results, both of which are dangerous.

wHO began studying in 05 blood tests after getting questions from governments and doctors who were concerned about their increasing prevalence. the tests are mainly manufactured in Europe and North America, but they are mainly used in countries where regulations is more lax but the burden of TB is the biggest development.

"It is a profitable business. It is a multi-million, which is centered on selling substandard tests with unreliable results, and we feel this must change, "Karin Weyer, Coordinator of TB diagnosis and laboratory strengthening to Stop TB Department of WHO, said at the press conference.

in a 07 assessment, WHO, with UNICEF, the United Nations development Program, and the World Bank concluded that 19 blood tests commercially available were very inaccurate and insensitive. But since then, the use of serological tests for TB has increased, prompting the wHO to make an updated review of proof. the final review, conducted by WHO and then evaluated by a panel of external experts, was delayed until yesterday Weyer said, because after the 07 report, many companies simply changed the names of their products and remarketing, which makes them difficult to track. Moreover, Weyer said, given the powerful nature of their recommendation, "we must ensure that the science behind this policy could be defended at all challenging."

The consequences of these misdiagnoses were significant. when TB is untreated, individuals are not only in danger, but also unknowingly transmit the disease to others. and when people are not properly diagnosed with tuberculosis, the underlying cause disease goes untreated and the unnecessary use of TB drugs contributes to drug resistance.

These blood tests are inaccurate because they are based on the detection of antigen-antibody produced by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), the organism that causes tuberculosis. the immune response is a poor indicator, however, because different types of actions antigens mycobacteria, and other infections raise similar antibody responses . Accordingly, blood tests may be detecting the presence of other mycobacterial infections; they can also produce false positives when antibodies remain high after the TB levels were treated.

Despite these shortcomings, manufacturers make claims of great accuracy, Weyer said, citing the instructions for a drug that said the test was 100%, although the study included only 10 topics. She also mentioned the reports of doctors who receive economic incentives to manufacturers of these tests.

Since December 2010, WHO approved / RIF test Xpert MTB, a new molecular diagnostics manufactured by Cepheid, a company based in Sunnyvale, California. The test runs on the GeneXpert system, which uses real-time polymerase chain reaction for rapid detection of MTB and rifampicin resistance, identification of patients infected with drug-resistant strains.

"The advantage of GeneXpert is that you can immediately diagnose TB [determine] if TB is drug resistant," says Weyer. It provides results in 2 hours compared to weeks required to establish a diagnosis of the cultivation of traditional TB. Unlike microscopy, instrument size to the coffee machine does not require a laboratory or trained personnel, she said. The downside is that it costs $ 20,000, expensive compared to $ 1,000 for the purchase of a microscope, although the individual test costs are similar. GeneXpert also requires constant and uninterrupted flow of electricity, lack of many developing countries, although Weyer says studies are underway to try to feed the machines with batteries and solar energy.

Several studies published in PLoS Medicine this week concluded that the MTB test / RIF is very effective in the diagnosis of tuberculosis in HIV-infected patients for HIV, which is particularly difficult, because they often have negative smear results because their disseminated or extrapulmonary tuberculosis. One study showed a 45% increase in case detection for patients with HIV using Xpert MTB / RIF test compared to smear microscopy. Last week, in
a document The Lancet , the researchers reported that GeneXpert is also effective for the diagnosis of TB in children, another population at high risk of dying tuberculosis. = "#article_upsell">

WHO still hopes a "point of care" diagnosis that will work at the bedside, but for now, Weyer says "there are many basic science still lacks image ".

Bernadine Healy, a cardiologist who was the first woman to head the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 1991 to 1993, died Saturday in brain cancer.

Appointed by President George H. W. Bush, was a director of Healy franc NIH during a tumultuous period. She proposed initiative on women's health, $ 625 million a study that followed more than 140,000 women in part to learn more about the health effects of estrogen replacement therapy. Although some researchers questioned the cost management and top-down initiative, it proved its value a decade later, showing that taking estrogen increases the risk of stroke, heart disease and cancer of the womb of a woman.

Healy fought a powerful member of Congress, Representative John Dingell (D-MI), the scientific misconduct investigations involving laboratory of David Baltimore Nobel laureate and the role of Robert Gallo in the discovery of the AIDS virus. James Watson, the first director of the Human Genome Project, quit after clashes with Healy. But she made a smart hire by replacing it with Francis Collins, who is now director of the NIH.

Healy designed the first Strategic Plan for NIH, which went nowhere, meeting resistance. She also oversaw the transfer of mental health, alcoholism and drug addiction institutes of another NIH agency. And she became caught in a battle on fetal tissue research; as a person appointed by the administration, it supported the banning of Bush before Congress.

"She was very talented very intelligent, energetic woman, who rubbed some people the wrong way, but when she believed in something she was extremely helpful to get implemented" said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of allergy and infectious diseases.

David Korn of Harvard medical School, who was dean of the Stanford medical school at the time, said Healy was " in a difficult situation, "as one of the few women in management positions at NIH. His experience as a cardiologist and the desire to "societies" NIH has attracted "hostility" basic scientists who worried their funding, said Korn. However, the strategic plan was an "overview" of the NIH director on, Elias Zerhouni, did when he created an office to analyze the NIH portfolio, said Korn. "I think he was very attentive and forethinking her," said Korn.

President Bill Clinton did not accept Healy, who later became the dean of the medical faculty of Ohio State University. She also ran unsuccessfully for the Senate and led the Red Cross during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. She worked as an editor and columnist of health US News and World Report until last year when a brain tumor that was removed in 1999 reappeared. She was 67 when she died.

PARIS -Servier, the pharmaceutical company at the heart of a massive medical scandal in France, suffered several fresh blows to its credibility this week. Yesterday, a newspaper revealed that the company is under fire from Europe's guard dog medicine for the way she studied the side effects of her medication after reaching the market. court testimony Meanwhile, leaked by two company scientists suggests that ancient Servier deleted unfavorable information from the files with which it requested regulatory approval for mediator, its drug against diabetes, in the 1970s .

the name of the Mediator, Servier brand of a drug called benfluorex-was banned in November 09 after 33 years on the french market. Although marketed as a drug against diabetes, doctors widely prescribed for people who wanted to lose weight as well. was shown mediator to cause serious heart valve problems, however, and it is now estimated to have caused up to 2,000 deaths. A French court investigating the case, and the French government announced that it will tighten regulatory oversight of drug response.

Yesterday, the French newspaper Libération reported that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in London has set his sights on Servier as well first for problems around ranelate strontium, a drug against osteoporosis, marketed by Servier in France under the name Protelos. 30,000 French women is estimated that in France took the drug during the last 4 years.

Maraninchi Dominique, director of the French regulatory agency AFSSAPS, confirmed the EMA concerns in a telephone interview with Science Insider. In November 07, Pharmacovigilance Working Party of the EMA issued a warning that Protelos could cause serious and potentially fatal skin rash known as adverse drug with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms, and Servier ordered to correct "flaws" in his system to keep track of these adverse events, Maraninchi said.

EMA asked Afssaps carry out an inspection in December 09 to ensure Servier had followed. This inspection revealed other "critical and major findings," this time with Servier manufacturing process, and raised concerns about all drug company, said Maraninchi. Consequently, Servier was ordered to submit information about all of its drugs to the EMA, whether authorized for marketing by EMA itself or by national agencies.

EMA eventually concluded that the benefit-risk balance remains positive for Servier drug, but it instructed the company to provide additional product information for some of them, a spokesman said EMA. AFSSAPS conducted a second inspection in July this year and will present its findings at the end of this month.

Tuesday, reports in newspapers Le Figaro and Libération also expressed doubts about the integrity of Servier when regulatory application for mediator in 1973. the documents referred to the testimony of retired neurosurgeon Jean Charpentier, now 81, who prepared the regulatory file at court. Charpentier, who began working for Servier in 1968, told the judges that clinical trials have shown mediator to be a powerful appetite suppressant, but it has been minimized in its report for approved mediator as antidiabetic drug. (Diabetes was "infinitely more profitable choice" that weight loss for pharmaceutical companies, said Charpentier.)

The report did not mention that Mediator is an amphetamine derivative, Charpentier said in his testimony. "The word was amphetamine to avoid," he said.

Duhault Jacques, 78, a pharmacist who led the diabetes and obesity of the company's laboratory in the 1960s, told the judges he regretted that Servier did not shoot mediator as a precautionary measure in 1999 Libération reported. His studies have described the drug as a "powerful appetite suppressant." in January 1969, said the drug, then known under its code name S992, "causes the almost complete anorexia from day one."

Servier has denied all allegations. in press statements, the company condemned the violation of judicial secrecy on mediators testimony, reiterated that he had "deceived neither health authorities nor the patients," and denied that Carpenter studies had been falsified.

A charity family hopes to restart the search for a cause of the mysterious disease known as chronic fatigue syndrome (SFC) by funding around $ 10 million in studies by high-level research groups.

The CFS patients suffer from long-term fatigue and other symptoms such as muscle pain and cognitive problems; the cause is unknown. The New York City-based chronic fatigue Initiative (CFI), funded by the Foundation of the private Hutchins family, announced last Thursday a search for causes and treatments. The initiative plans to spend "the stadium" of $ 10 million over 3-4 years, said Executive Director of the FCI Scott Carlson. That's almost 50% of the $ 6 million per year that the National Institutes of Health ( NIH) spends CFS.

An epidemiological study funded by CFI already underway will draw on the study of health famous nurses and two health professionals study followed for 20 to 30 years Harvard School of Public Health. researchers will identify participants in these studies with CFS files and research their environmental exposures and archived blood samples for risk factors for disease. another CFI program will fund grants CFS exploring possible mechanisms based on assumptions that will be determined by scientific advisors.

the initiative will also launch a new cohort study of 0 patients and 0 controls recruited in centers across the country. Biological samples of the volunteers will be kept at Duke University and Harvard connected to a clinical database. As part of this study, Columbia University hunter Ian Lipkin of viruses and other fetch the samples for at least 20 viruses and other pathogens in the hope of finding a related to CFS.

Carlson Hutchins said the family was interested in CFS research because it is "orphaned" in relation to diseases such as Parkinson's disease, which, like CFS, affects about 1 million Americans. The family has several friends with the disease, he said.

Several characteristics are different initiative previous CFS studies, Carlson said Lipkin-the technology used, the size and the careful characterization of the cohort, the researchers involved, and approach operations. "I do not think anyone has ever taken such a comprehensive approach," he said. If the studies show promising results, the family hope the major foundations will launch in more funding.

A pathogen the study will not be tested is a mouse retrovirus called XMRV. There are two years, a report Science proposed such a link between XMRV and CFS but other groups have been unable finding the virus in CFS patients. Lipkin conducting a large study funded by NIH putative link CFS-XMRV. But that work and studies CFI "are not related in any way," says Carlson. After talking to experts, he said, "the consensus seems to be that the issue of XMRV will be completely covered."