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July 2008 - Posts
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Hyperthermia is the name given to a variety of heat-related illnesses that can include heat stroke, heat fatigue, heat syncope (sudden dizziness after exercising in the heat), heat cramps and heat exhaustion. Older adults are particularly at risk for developing heat-related illness because the ability to adequately respond to summer heat can become less efficient with age. The National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has some advice for helping older people avoid heat problems during the summer months.
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Drug addiction dramatically shifts a person's attention, priorities, and behaviors towards a focus almost entirely on seeking out and taking drugs. Now, an animal study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health, has identified some of the specific long-term adaptations in the brain’s reward system that may contribute to this shift. These long-lasting brain changes may underlie the maladaptive learning that contributes to addiction and to the propensity for relapse, even after years of abstinence from the drug. The study was published in "Neuron" on July 30, 2008.
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Researchers have pinpointed a mechanism in the brains of mice that could explain why some human mothers become depressed following childbirth. The discovery could lead to improved treatment for postpartum depression. Supported in part by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health, the study used genetically engineered mice lacking a protein critical for adapting to the sex hormone fluctuations of pregnancy and the postpartum period.
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A new study by researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health, shows that pregnant women who binge drink early in their pregnancy increase the likelihood that their babies will be born with oral clefts.
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In recent years, a class of small molecules known as microRNAs have been found to play an important role in regulating gene products in most animal and plant species. A new study now indicates that microRNA may influence the development of alcohol tolerance, a hallmark of alcohol abuse and dependence. Researchers supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health, report the findings in the July 31, 2008 issue of the journal "Neuron."
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People with schizophrenia bear an "increased burden" of rare deletions and duplications of genetic material, genome-wide, say researchers supported in part by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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The use of advanced imaging techniques has allowed researchers to visualize how a key part of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) changes shape after binding to immune system cells or to infection-fighting antibodies. Although scientists had been able to visualize individual components of this part of the virus, called the HIV spike, the new research characterizes, for the first time, the structure of the intact spike on virus particles, which is a crucial piece of knowledge that may aid the design of new vaccines or drugs to fight HIV infection. The research was conducted by scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health. The results were published online July 30, 2008, in "Nature."
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Using laboratory and mouse models of human breast cancer, researchers have found that a small molecule capable of targeting specific proteins on the surface of breast cancer cells can inhibit the growth of breast cancer cells that migrate to the brain. The small molecule used in the studies was the drug lapatinib (Tykerb), which disrupts an important breast cancer metabolic process called the Her2/neu signaling pathway. Lapatinib inhibits the activation of growth signaling proteins and their signaling pathways as well as cell migration and proliferation. Using the mouse model, the drug reduced the number of brain lesions that resulted from the injection of human cells. The study, which appeared online July 29, 2008, in the "Journal of the National Cancer Institute," was conducted by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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A promising new drug therapy used to treat abnormal swelling in the eye -- a condition called diabetic macular edema -- proved less effective than traditional laser treatments in a study funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study, published online in July in the journal "Ophthalmology," demonstrates that laser therapy is not only more effective than corticosteroids in the long term treatment of diabetic macular edema, but also has far fewer side effects.
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The Fogarty International Center, the global arm of the National Institutes of Health, today launched a $1.5 million-a-year grant program to fund domestic and overseas training of researchers to fight chronic diseases in developing nations.
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For the first time, a strategic plan for research into benign prostate disease, based on the latest scientific knowledge, has been published by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIDDK Prostate Research Strategic Plan is the culmination of discussions and meetings among experts over the past two years in an effort to outline a strategic vision for research into these elusive and multi-faceted diseases.
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A consortium of researchers from the United States, Canada, and Europe has identified 21 new genes for Crohn’s disease, a chronic disease of the large and small intestines. This discovery, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), brings the total number of known genes associated with Crohn's disease to more than 30 and advances understanding of causes and potential avenues to develop new treatments.
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After soliciting and considering broad input from the scientific and HIV advocacy communities, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has determined that it will not conduct the HIV vaccine study known as PAVE 100. However, NIAID believes the vaccine developed by its Vaccine Research Center (VRC) is scientifically intriguing and sufficiently different from previously tested HIV vaccines to consider testing it in a smaller, more focused clinical study.
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The National Human Genome Research Institute, one of the National Institutes of Health, today announced grants expected to total about $31 million over the next four years for research aimed at gaining a better understanding of how specific genetic variants act to influence the risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer and other common diseases.
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The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced today that it will provide $33.3 million for 20 High-End Instrumentation (HEI) grants to fund the latest generation of advanced research equipment.
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The activity level of a large group of American children dropped sharply between age 9 and age 15, when most failed to reach the daily recommended activity level, according to the latest findings from a long-term study by the National Institutes of Health.
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The senses of smell and taste may have greater bearing on health than is generally accepted by both doctors and patients. Recent research suggests that these senses and their influence on behavior have implications for nutrition, aging, mental health, obesity, diabetes and safety. Researchers supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health, will be presenting their work at the International Symposium on Olfaction and Taste.
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In an effort to advance talented women in leadership positions, including those from underrepresented backgrounds, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) published today a Request for Applications (RFA) to support research on causal factors and interventions that promote and support the careers of women in biomedical and behavioral science and engineering. The initiative will provide $2 to $3 million to fund up to eight R01 awards in fiscal year 2009.
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As we mark the occasion of the opening of the National Kidney Foundation's United States Transplant Games, we honor the courageous athletes preparing to compete in Pittsburgh. Not only have they shown skill and stamina in preparing themselves for athletic competition, they have accomplished this while overcoming significant challenges. Each of these athletes has received an organ or bone marrow transplant and is a living testament to the indomitable human spirit, the scientific progress that has been achieved in transplantation research, and the generosity and compassion of thousands of organ and bone marrow donors and their families. We at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), all parts of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), are committed to improving the quality of life of transplant patients through our extensive research programs and innovative clinical trials.
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The nation's fourth and eighth graders scored higher in reading and mathematics than they did during their last national assessment, according to the federal government's latest annual statistical report on the well-being of the nation's children. Not all the report's findings were positive; there also were increases in the adolescent birth rate and the proportion of infants born at low birthweight.
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Many of the seemingly disparate mutations recently discovered in autism may share common underlying mechanisms, say researchers supported in part by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The mutations may disrupt specific genes that are vital to the developing brain, and which are turned on and off by experience-triggered neuronal activity.
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A new study, supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), aims to learn more about the secrets to long healthy life, and investigators are seeking long-lived families to help study this important question.
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Using mouse embryonic stem cells, researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, have developed a new method to evaluate which mutations, or changes, in a gene known to increase breast cancer susceptibility, may lead to cancer.
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Scientists have found that the compound resveratrol slows age-related deterioration and functional decline of mice on a standard diet, but does not increase longevity when started at middle age. This study, conducted and supported in part by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, is a follow-up to 2006 findings that resveratrol improves health and longevity of overweight, aged mice.
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Scientists have found that vaccination with a heat-killed, non-toxic yeast that is genetically engineered to manufacture a common tumor protein can induce specific and repeated anti-tumor immune responses in mice. Vaccination extends overall survival and reduces tumor size in mice that have been injected with cancer cells displaying the same protein that was engineered into the yeast. Results of this research by scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, can be found in the July 1, 2008 issue of "Clinical Cancer Research".
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A survey conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) research consortium found that the United States had among the highest lifetime rates of tobacco and alcohol use and led in the proportion of participants reporting cannabis (marijuana) or cocaine use at least once during their lifetime. The study, led by Dr. Louisa Degenhardt of the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia and colleagues, looked at patterns in the use of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis and cocaine in 17 countries representing all six WHO regions (the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania). The study, funded in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is published in the July 1, 2008 issue of the open access journal "PLoS Medicine".
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Grant Information
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This Web site was made possible in part by NIH Grant Number R43 DK70418
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