Labslink Research News

Lower blood pressure increases the risk of death in patients with diabetes

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 19:29:23 PDT

British researchers found that strict control of TLR1 blood pressure can not make the newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes patients with a survival benefit, and low levels of blood pressure and may even increase the risk of death. The study was published in the British Medical Journal. The research team, said: "Although there is no direct causal relationship implied these links, but our results show that 'lower is better' approach may not be applicable to blood pressure control exceeds the critical level of high-risk patients."There is no strong evidence to prove that Tlr3 diabetics lower blood pressure to 130 / 80mmHg benefits, so the patient's blood pressure is preferably maintained between 130 - 139/80 - 85mmHg and supplemented by other treatment and lifestyle intervention, in order to improve the cardiovascular outcomes of patients with diabetes. "Review of 126,092 cases of adult data from the UK General Practice Research Database between 1990-2005 was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Imperial College Matthew Harris and his colleagues found that 9.8% of the Tlr4 examples previously been diagnosed with a history of cardiovascular disease.In which a 3.5-year average follow-up period, 25,495 (20.2%) patients died, the incident rate of 48.3 per 1,000 patient-years. The mortality rate was 28.6% of patients with cardiovascular disease and patients with cardiovascular disease was 19.3%.After controlling for age, gender, practice, hierarchical clustering, deprivation score, the condition of the body mass index, smoking, glycosylated hemoglobin, cholesterol levels, Tlr6 blood pressure and other factors, the proportional hazards model analysis showed that strict control of blood pressure (defined as systolic blood pressure (SBP) less than 130mmHg, diastolic blood pressure (DBP) less than 80mmHg), did not reduce the risk of all-cause mortality, in addition to those DBP 75 - 79mmHg and TM2D1 cardiovascular disease in patients in the study, about 13% relative risk reduction.In addition, lower levels of systolic and diastolic blood pressure on the risk of all-cause mortality, and in fact it increased. Specifically, the team found that patients with cardiovascular disease, relative to conventional control level, systolic blood pressure below 110mmHg patients with all-cause mortality hazard ratio was 2.79, diastolic blood pressure 70-74mmHg hazard ratio 1.32, diastolic blood pressure low at 70mmHg hazard ratio was 1.89. (Systolic blood pressure 130 - 139mmHg, diastolic blood pressure 80-84mmHg).For patients who do not have cardiovascular disease, systolic blood pressure of 110-119mmHg patients with all-cause mortality hazard ratio was 1.58, systolic blood pressure below 110mmHg patients was 2.42, diastolic blood pressure of 70-74mmHg hazard ratio 1.17, diastolic blood pressure low at 70mmHg hazard ratio of 1.54.Interestingly, multivariate analysis results show that the uncontrolled systolic and diastolic blood pressure did not significantly associated with increased mortality, whether suffering from cardiovascular disease.News by Springer Medical Limited is authorized to promote and copy; Springer Health Care Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Parties of any commercial product, service or equipment endorsement or recommendation. origin :creativebiobart Visit http://www.creativebiomart.net for details.

great tool to find conference and courses

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 02:36:59 PDT

Hey guys

Some people working at the NKI (Netherlands Cancer Institute) have setup a
search engine for scientific meetings. check the description and the website
as well, if interested...
This website, called biomeeter (www.biomeeter.com) is really well done as it
gives a nice overview of the upcoming meetings organized, and the search can
be done by field or keyword, or even by location (as it's always possible to
combine business with pleasure ;-)).
Another great characteristic of Biomeeter is that you can add yourself
meetings to the website and share the info. And last but not least: you can
get informed with an email alert about upcoming meetings in your field.
So, check it out and if you like it, spread the word in your lab and
institute!

Gene information predicts survival time, possible new treatment options for lung-cancer patients

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 03:26:24 PDT

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered sets of genes active in cancer cells and normal tissue that predict survival time and potential new treatments for patients with non-small cell lung cancer. "Patient responses to cancer treatment vary widely and often depend on subtle biological differences among tumors," said Dr. David Mangelsdorf, chairman of pharmacology at UT Southwestern and co-lead author of the study, published Dec. 14 by PLoS Medicine. "These findings are important because the ability to determine which genes are being expressed in each person's tumor, as well as a patient's likely survival time, can guide physicians to the most effective and appropriate personalized treatments," he said. Researchers involved in the study at UT Southwestern and UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center carefully microdissected lung tumors and adjacent healthy lung tissue from 30 patients. To determine which genes were active, they examined each sample for the presence of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) associated with the 48 known genes for molecules called nuclear hormone receptors. The research team then compared the set of active genes, also called a gene expression profile or gene signature, with the actual clinical outcome of each study patient. They found that the expression of genes for specific nuclear hormone receptors was an excellent predictor of which patients were likely to survive the longest. They validated their test by screening more than 500 additional lung-tumor samples and accurately predicting those patients' outcomes. In particular, the presence of two nuclear receptors – the short heterodimer partner (SHP) and the progesterone receptor (PR) – in tumor tissue was predictive of a good prognosis. Patients with those so-called biomarkers in their cancer cells lived the longest. In normal lung tissue, a good prognosis was associated with the presence of nuclear receptors called nerve growth factor induced gene B3 (NGFIB3) and mineralocorticoid receptor (MR). Dr. Mangelsdorf, a National Academy of Sciences member who is a leading expert on nuclear receptors, said the investigators focused on screening for the activity of these 48 nuclear receptor genes because several of them are known to be involved in promoting or inhibiting cancer. In addition, drugs that target certain nuclear receptors already are being used as front-line therapy in humans against breast cancer, prostate cancer and acute leukemia. "The goal of identifying these genetic signatures in lung cancer is not just to determine how long a cancer patient will live, but also to home in on the most relevant drug or therapy targets that act specifically on these particular gene products," said Dr. Mangelsdorf, who also is an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The results are a significant step toward personalized medicine, said Dr. John Minna, director of the Nancy B. and Jake L. Hamon Center for Therapeutic Oncology Research and the W.A. "Tex" and Deborah Moncrief Jr. Center for Cancer Genetics who has been investigating the biology of lung cancer for more than 30 years. "Our long-term goal is to be able to sample a patient's lung cancer and perform molecular tests that can predict both how a patient will do and, more importantly, the best treatment for that individual," said Dr. Minna, co-lead author of the study. "We were amazed to find that the pattern of expression of nuclear receptors in both lung cancers and normal lung tissue were so predictive of a patient's outcome. Because available drugs already target so many of these receptors, our next step is to find out which drugs will kill lung cancer cells expressing these specific receptors."

Researchers open the door to biological computers

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 03:19:20 PDT

Genetically modified cells can be made to communicate with each other as if they were electronic circuits. Using yeast cells, a group of researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, has taken a groundbreaking step towards being able to build complex systems in the future where the body's own cells help to keep us healthy. The study was presented recently in an article in the scientific journal Nature. "Even though engineered cells can't do the same job as a real computer, our study paves the way for building complex constructions from these cells," says Kentaro Furukawa at the University of Gothenburg's Department of Cell- and Molecular Biology, one of the researchers behind the study. "In the future we expect that it will be possible to use similar cell-to-cell communication systems in the human body to detect changes in the state of health, to help fight illness at an early stage, or to act as biosensors to detect pollutants in connection with our ability to break down toxic substances in the environment." Combining biology and technology Synthetic biology is a relatively new area of research. One application is the design of biological systems that are not found in nature. For example, researchers have successfully constructed a number of different artificial connections within genetically modified cells, such as circuit breakers, oscillators and sensors. Some of these artificial networks could be used for industrial or medical applications. Despite the huge potential for these artificial connections, there have been many technical limitations to date, mainly because the artificial systems in individual cells rarely work as expected, which has a major impact on the results. Biotechnology challenges the world of computers Using yeast cells, the research team at the University of Gothenburg has now produced synthetic circuits based on gene-regulated communication between cells. The yeast cells have been modified genetically so that they sense their surroundings on the basis of set criteria and then send signals to other yeast cells by secreting molecules. The various cells can thus be combined like bricks of Lego to produce more complicated circuits. Using a construction of yeast cells with different genetic modifications, it is possible to carry out more complicated "electronic" functions than would be the case with just one type of cells.

A thirst for excitement is hidden in your genes

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 03:16:29 PDT

Sensation seeking—the urge to do exciting things—has been linked to dopamine, a chemical that carries messages in your brain. For a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, scientists analyzed genes in the dopamine system and found a group of mutations that help predict whether someone is inclined toward sensation seeking. Sensation seeking has been linked to a range of behavior disorders, such as drug addiction. It isn't all bad, though. "Not everyone who's high on sensation seeking becomes a drug addict. They may become an Army Ranger or an artist. It's all in how you channel it," says Jaime Derringer, a PhD student at the University of Minnesota and the first author of the study. She wanted to use a new technique to find out more about the genetics of sensation seeking. Most obvious connections with genes, like the BRCA gene that increases the risk for breast cancer, have already been found, Derringer says. Now new methods are letting scientists look for more subtle associations between genes and all kinds of traits, including behavior and personality. Derringer used a kind of mutation in DNA called a single-nucleotide polymorphism, or SNP. A SNP is a change in just one "letter" of the DNA. She started by picking eight genes with various roles related to the neurotransmitter dopamine, which has been linked to sensation seeking in other studies. She looked at group of 635 people who were part of a study on addiction. For each one, she had genetic information on 273 SNPs known to appear in those 8 genes and a score for how much they were inclined to sensation seeking. Using that data, she was able to narrow down the 273 SNPs to 12 potentially important ones. When she combined these 12 SNPs, they explained just under 4 percent of the difference between people in sensation seeking. This may not seem like a lot, but it's "quite large for a genetic study," Derringer says. It's too soon to go out and start screening people for these mutations; not enough is known about how genes affect behavior. "One of the things we think is most exciting about this isn't necessarily the story about dopamine and sensation seeking," says Derringer. "It's rather the method that we're using. We used a sample of 635 people, which is extremely small, and we were still able to detect a significant effect. That's actually quite rare in these studies." She said the same method could be used to look at the link between biology and other behaviors—dopamine and cocaine dependence, for example, or serotonin and depression. Eventually these methods could lead to tests that might help predict whether someone is likely to have problems later, and whether there should be early intervention to guide them down a healthier path.

Using own skin cells to repair hearts on horizon

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:44:25 PDT

A heart patient's own skin cells soon could be used to repair damaged cardiac tissue thanks to pioneering stem cell research of the University of Houston's newest biomedical scientist, Robert Schwartz. His new technique for reprogramming human skin cells puts him at the forefront of a revolution in medicine that could one day lead to treatments for Alzheimer's, diabetes, muscular dystrophy and many other diseases. Schwartz brings his ground-breaking research to UH as the Cullen Distinguished Professor of Biology and Biochemistry and head of UH's new Center for Gene Regulation and Molecular Therapeutics. He also is affiliated with the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in the Texas Medical Center, where he is director of stem cell engineering.......> Full story

Reaching the summit of protein dynamics

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:08:06 PDT

Understanding the incredibly speedy atomic mechanisms at work when a protein transitions from one shape to another has been an elusive scientific goal for years, but an essential one for elucidating the full panoply of protein function. How do proteins transition, or interconvert, between distinct shapes without unfolding in the process? Until now, this question has been a hypothetical one, approached by computation only rather than experimentation......> Full story

'Hobbits' are a new human species -- according to the statistical analysis of fossils

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:25:44 PDT

Researchers from Stony Brook University Medical Center in New York have confirmed that Homo floresiensis is a genuine ancient human species and not a descendant of healthy humans dwarfed by disease. Using statistical analysis on skeletal remains of a well-preserved female specimen, researchers determined the "hobbit" to be a distinct species and not a genetically flawed version of modern humans. Details of the study appear in the December issue of Significance, the magazine of the Royal Statistical Society, published by Wiley-Blackwell.......> Full story

U Of T Researchers Create Microchip That Can Detect Type And Severity Of Cancer

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:01:45 PDT

U of T researchers have used nanomaterials to develop an inexpensive microchip sensitive enough to quickly determine the type and severity of a patient's cancer so that the disease can be detected earlier for more effective treatment. Their groundbreaking work, reported Sept. 27 in Nature Nanotechnology, heralds an era when sophisticated molecular diagnostics will become commonplace. "This remarkable innovation is an indication that the age of nanomedicine is dawning," said Professor David Naylor, president of the University of Toronto and a professor of medicine. "Thanks to the breadth of expertise here at U of T, cross-disciplinary collaborations of this nature make such landmark advances possible.".....> full story