Medical Tip Sheet - November 1, 1998
...ng hopes that a vital key to cancerdevelopment and progression may have been unmasked. Julia Y. Ljubimova, M.D.,Ph.D., a cancer researcher in the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute atCedars-Sinai Medical Center, announced the discovery of a novel humanmalignancy-associated gene (MAG) in the October issue of ...Calcium Channel Blocker Slows Hardening Of Arteries In Some Key Arteries, But Not Others
...erosclerosis, hardening of the arteries, or on the progression ofpreexisting coronary artery atherosclerosis. How.... However, amlodipine appeared to slow the progression of carotid arteryatherosclerosis, as measured by ultrasound. That study involved 376 of the 825patie...New Evidence Points To Role For Free Radicals In Alzheimer's Disease
...e processes,independently or in concert, drive the progression of the disease. And whichclass of drugs -- anti-inflammatories or antioxidants -- offers the greatestpotential benefit to patients? "People debate the initiating cause of Alzheimer's disease, but there'sgeneral agreement that there is an infl...Clues To Molecular Cancer Switches Probed
...er clues to molecular switches that control cancer progression andprovide tools for cancer detection and treatment. The study, headed by Dr. Constance Brinckerhoff, Nathan Smith Professor ofMedicine and of Biochemistry, was reported in the Dec. 1 issue of CancerResearch. The work builds on Brinckerhoff's stud......sterol and cigarette smoking in the initiation and progression of cardiovascular disease. At the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions in November, researchers reported that cigarette smokers have elevated levels of C-reactive protein in their blood. Scientists also presented research results show...Master Switch May Help Cancer Cells Hide From Immune System
...s the four genes, and how that correlates with the progression of cancer in human tumors. Zheng is also determining how frequently the PML gene goes awry in human tumors. MHC-I down-regulation is already known to occur in 80 percent of human prostate cancers, theresearchers said. The PML malfunction may also con...... most colorectal cancers and can be removed before progression toinvasive cancer. Colon and rectal cancers (together often referred to ascolorectal cancer) are the second-leading cause of cancer death in the U.S.,according to Baron. The study followed 832 patients over a four-year period. Patients wererandomiz...Heart Disease Symptoms Worsen When Body Tries To Adapt
...to these mutations may be equally important in the progression ofdisease. "Continuing studies will need to determine the exact nature of theseadaptations and the extent to which inhibiting the responses can modify diseaseprogression. These insights may help us design new therapies." More than ha......ake amore proactive stance in hopes of slowing the progression of his condition. Aswith other patients, he was al...e -- lifestyle changes, drug therapy -- haltedthe progression of the disease, and the only thing left was genetic testing," heremembered. "Surprisingly, it was th......p better ways to monitor and hopefully prevent the progression of thisprocess. This work was supported, in part, by grants from the National Institutes ofHealth (NIAMS and NINDS) and the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). Additional support was provided by the Department of Surgery and the Instituteof Human G...Role Of Protein Linked To Colon Cancer Identified, Offering Potential Target For Therapy
... contribution that this makes to the initiationand progression of the disease. This should help us assess the potential oftherapies based on our discovery."...Jefferson Scientists Find Further Proof Of Damage To The FHIT Gene In Breast Cancers
...out if FHIT'sfragility is involved in the start or progression of cancers. They believe thegene plays a role in a number of cancers, such as esophageal, gastric, kidney,breast and lung. "We knew this [FHIT] site was prone to damage by carcinogens," Dr.Huebner says, though "we don't know what those car...Dietary Carotenoid Lutein Reduces Atherosclerotic Lesion Formation In Mice
...or not the intake of foods rich in luteinslows the progression of the disease that leads to most heart attacks andstrokes." Researchers from the USC Department of Preventive Medicine and theAtherosclerosis Research Unit, University of California at Los Angeles studiedthe effect of inclusion of the antioxidant lu...Dietary Lutein Inhibits Mammary Tumor Growth And Normalizes Immune Balance In Tumor-Bearing Mice
...tumors than the mice on regular chow. While tumor progression suppressed thenumber of immune cells lutein prevented this suppression. Also, luteinincreased the production of interferon gamma (IFNg) and interleukin-2. Researchers concluded that lutein normalized the immune balance in thetumor-bearing mice and i...Key Peptides Found That Stop -- Even Reverse -- Kidney Disease In Lupus
... kidneydisease prolonged survival and even stopped progression of their disease. Remarkably, one of the peptides, called H4 16-39, not only arrested butreversed kidney disease in the mice and allowed them to live almost a normallifespan. Datta's group used a special method of administering th...Researchers Find Protein Abnormality Associated With Alzheimer's Disease
... early and later stages of the development and progression of Alzheimer's disease," said Edward Stopa, M.D., one of the study authors and anassociate professor of pathology. The study appears in the current Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Alzheimer's disease is...Roundworm studies yield new insight into organ formation
...nd them, ask whether these inhibitors affectcancer progression in mouse cells," said Kimble. The scientists also plan to insert the worm gene into other tissues in theworm itself in order to determine whether and how the enzyme affects organgrowth in those very different tissues. Such experiments may give furth...New study finds link between decline in the city's TB rates and intensified control programs
...t of recently acquired infection followed by rapid progression to activedisease. TB cases due to recently acquired infection--or clusteredcases--indicate the amount of transmission that is occurring within thepopulation, while non-clustered cases provide an index of TB resulting fromreactivation of latent infec...Breast cancer cells shown to migrate toward hormone source - novel mechanism for metastasis seen
..., have indicated that prolactinalso stimulates the progression of breast cancer, although precise details ofits action have been elusive. The current study describes a novelprolactin-mediated mechanism that may be a significant driver behindbreast-cancer metastasis and suggests new directions for the development......nternalization of a key receptor. During disease progression ofHIV infection, clathrin-coated vesicles are subverted by a viral protein tocause down-regulation of the viral receptor CD4 in an important but not fullyunderstood step. These molecules, and a wide range of others, are selectivelytrapped in the cla...