The findings may help identify adolescents who are at risk for dangerous behaviors

The findings may help identify adolescents who are at risk for dangerous behaviors - future

According to the CDC, unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death teens. Compared to the two major causes of death for all Americans, heart disease and cancer, model making questionable decision in dire situations comes to light in mortality among adolescents. New research from the Center for BrainHealth at the University of Texas at Dallas investigation brain differences associated with teenagers take risks found connections between certain brain regions are amplified in adolescents more prone to risks.

"Our brains have an emotional regulation network that exists to regulate emotions and influences decision making," says lead study author, Sam Dewitt. "Antisocial behavior or risk-search can be associated with an imbalance in the network. "

The study, published in the June 30 Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging , looked at 36 teens 12-17; eighteen teens to take risks were age and sex matched with a group of 18 teenagers at risk of not taking. Participants were selected for risk taking behaviors, such as drug and alcohol use, sexual promiscuity, and physical violence and underwent functional MRI (fMRI) scans to examine the communication between regions brain associated with emotional regulation network. Interestingly, the risk-taking group showed a significantly lower income compared to the group taking no risk.

"Most fMRI scans used to in conjunction with special visual task. In recent years, however, it was demonstrated that achieving an fMRI brain analysis during a state 'wandering mind "is just as valuable," said Sina Aslan, Ph.D., president of Advance MRI and adjunct associate professor at BrainHealth Center at University of Texas at Dallas. "In this case, the brain regions associated with centers of emotion and reward show the same connection when they are not explicitly involved have increased."

The study shows that teens who take risks have Hyperconnectivity between the amygdala, a center responsible for the emotional reactivity and specific areas of the prefrontal cortex associated with emotion regulation and critical thinking. The researchers also found increased activity between the regions of the prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens, a center for the reward sensitivity that is often involved in research on addiction.

"Our findings are critical in that they help to identify brain potential biomarkers that, when taken in context with behavioral differences, may help identify adolescents at risk behaviors dangerous and disease in the future, "said Dewitt.

He also stressed that although the risk-taking group involved in risk behaviors, none met the clinical criteria for use of behavioral or substance disorders.

by identifying these factors early on, the researchers hope to have a better chance to provide effective cognitive strategies to help at-risk teenagers looking regulate their emotions and avoid behavioral risk taking and substance abuse .

Exposure to infections in early life not related to a higher risk of mortality in adulthood

Exposure to infections in early life not related to a higher risk of mortality in adulthood -

A new biological study from the University of Stirling found that exposure to infections in early life will have lasting consequences for the survival later life and reproduction

in the UK there are 150 years, 20 years, could expect to live to 60 years. today, at age 20, should live to over 80. Why is the life of adults increased so much over the past 150 years?

Previous research has suggested that diseases that were common in childhood, such as smallpox, measles and whooping cough caused inflammation of long duration, which subsequently increased the risk of cardiovascular disease adulthood and resulted in early death.

experts believe that since the introduction of vaccines and the eradication of these diseases, children rarely get these diseases more and does not undergo inflammation long term, and therefore live longer .

However, if that were the case, we expect to infections in childhood to be linked to the early death of heart disease, stroke and cancer.

now evolutionary ecologist at the University of Stirling and the University of Turku, Finland, has not found support for the idea that exposure to infections in early life can lead higher risk of mortality in adulthood.

lead researcher Adam Hayward, impact Research Fellow at the University of Stirling, said:

"Our analyzes are important because they show that early exposure diseases of living n has not been linked to an increased risk of death in later life. It did not involve a risk of specifically heart disease death, stroke and cancer and was not related to age at first birth, number of children born, or child survival rates in men or women.

"Overall, we found no support for the idea that exposure to infections in early life can have long term consequences for the survival later life and reproduction. instead, it seems more likely that the improvement of conditions in adulthood, such as health and nutrition, are responsible for the recent increases adult lifetime. "

the researchers used data from the parish registers of births, marriages and deaths collected in seven parishes in Finland. The 7.283 men and women studied were born between 1751 and 1850, a period before the introduction of effective medicine and contraception.

Each person was marked on their likely exposure to life early in disease based on the deaths of children against infections that occurred during their childhood. If a child is born at a time when a high proportion of children died of infectious diseases, it was assumed that they themselves had a higher exposure to the disease. The researchers analyzed how early exposure of an individual's disease is linked to their survival, deaths from cardiovascular disease, and fertility.

high expressing PD-L1 linked to reduced survival in NSCLC

high expressing PD-L1 linked to reduced survival in NSCLC -

By Laura Cowen, medwireNews Reporter

Overexpression of programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) is independently associated with the presence of the receptor for epidermal growth factor ( EGFR ) genetic mutations and poor prognosis in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), of Japanese researchers report.

Isamu Okamoto (Kyushu University Hospital, Fukuoka) and colleagues explain that the binding of PD-L1 with its corresponding PD1 protein induces apoptosis in activated T cells, but blocking this interaction can improve the antitumor activity of T lymphocytes

Indeed, recent clinical trials have shown that blocking of the PD1-PD-L1 interaction with specific antibodies provides a clinical response in a subset of individuals with advanced NSCLC.

To investigate the clinical relevance of expression PD-L1, Okamoto and colleagues analyzed tumor samples completely resected from 164 patients with NSCLC by immunohistochemistry.

They report in Annals of Oncology that the expression of PD-L1 was significantly higher in women with tumor samples that men never smokers than smokers in patients with adenocarcinoma than squamous cell carcinoma and those positive for EGFR mutations versus wild-type EGFR .

In multivariate analysis, the presence of EGFR mutations and adenocarcinoma histology were significantly and independently associated with increased expression PD-L1.

According to these results, Okamoto and the team has also shown that PD-L1 expression detected by flow cytometry, was significantly higher in NSCLC cell lines positive for EGFR mutations than in wild-type EGFR .

Moreover, inhibition of EGFR signaling with erlotinib resulted in downregulation of expression in PD-L1 EGFR NSCLC mutation positive cells but not in those of wild-type EGFR "indicating that the expression of PD-L1 is probably dependent on EGFR signaling conferred by activating EGFR mutations," the researchers note.

in terms of prognosis, the investigators found that patients with high (above median) PD-L1 tumor phrase had significantly shorter overall survival than those with low expression, at a median of 55 9 compared to 72.6 months.

and Cox regression analysis confirmed that high expression PD-L1 and advanced stage (II or III) was significantly and independently associated a shorter overall survival.

Taken together, "[t] are data suggest that the therapeutic blocking of the PD1-PD-L1 pathway may improve the effectiveness of treatment EGFR mutation positive NSCLC, "say Okamoto et al.

They conclude that, despite the relatively small sample size and retrospective nature of the study, their results "provide a rationale for future clinical investigations of the PD1-PD-L1 axis as a target for adjuvant chemotherapy in individuals with NSCLC whose resected tumors are found to have a high expression score for PD-L1. "

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The expert human genetics wins 2014 World price Basser for research related BRCA -

The expert human genetics wins 2014 World price Basser for research related BRCA - -

Twenty years after the first identification of the BRCA1 gene, the University of Pennsylvania Basser Research Center for BRCA will honor the geneticist credited with its founding with the second annual World Basser price. The prize will be awarded to the researcher human genetics and expert Mary-Claire King, PhD, American Cancer Society genetic research professor of medicine at the University of Washington. King was a pioneer in the development of experimental tools of genomics and bioinformatics to study common complex human diseases and health conditions.

The Global Price Basser provides $ 0,000 to support without restriction innovative winner BRCA1 / 2 related research efforts. As part of the award, the king will give the opening speech at the annual Basser Research Center for BRCA Symposium scheduled for May 11 to 12, 2015, when she will receive the Basser Trophy and $ 10,000 in personal money.

"We are very pleased to honor the achievements of Martin Luther King in the BRCA-related research, especially as this year marks twenty years since the initial cloning of the BRCA1 gene," said Susan Domchek, MD, executive director of the Basser research Center and professor of medicine in Basser Penn Abramson cancer Center. "the identification of BRCA1 was the first crucial step in the work to improve outcomes for people with hereditary predisposition to breast cancer . Support research projects are also devoted to the prevention and treatment of BRCA-related cancer is a primary mission of Basser Centre. "

in 190, Mary-Claire King has shown that a single gene on chromosome 17q21 (she called BRCA1) was responsible for breast and ovarian cancer in many families. Its discovery BRCA1 has revolutionized the study of many other common hereditary diseases current research of Dr. King focuses on the identification and characterization of critical genes -. and their interaction with environmental influences. - that play a role in the development of conditions such as breast cancer and ovarian cancer, schizophrenia, and hearing loss

in 2012, the center Basser was created through a gift of $ 25 million former Penn Jon and Mindy Gray memory sister Mindy gray Faith Basser, who died of ovarian cancer at 44. global Price Basser, marquee component age center, was created by Shari Potter and Leonard Basser Potter to honor a visionary scientist a BRCA1 / 2 conceptually advanced research leading to improvements in clinical care. Professor Alan Ashworth FRS, CEO of the Institute for Research on Cancer in London and head of the Gene Function in team Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre at the ICR, was named the first recipient of the Global Basser Price in 2013.

earlier this year, Mindy and Jon gray made an additional donation of $ 5 million grant to launch the program of external research Basser, a single funding program for research projects on cancer translational strong impact to advance the care of people living with BRCA1 and BRCA2. Abramson Cancer Center Penn Medicine will steward the grant of $ 5 million to four research teams that demonstrate the potential for translation into clinical practice. Basser The Centre also provides funding to Penn investigators whose efforts are making progress in research related BRCA. Recipients of the first external financing Basser Research Grant Program, and the third year of funding of the domestic subsidy will be announced in the coming weeks.

Researchers develop 3-D tiny tissue models to study how ovarian cancer develops in women

Researchers develop 3-D tiny tissue models to study how ovarian cancer develops in women -

With a unique approach based on printing technologies 3-D, a team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers is developing new tools for understanding how ovarian cancer develops in women.

Approximately 1.5 percent of American women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer, but most of them will not be diagnosed until the end of the progression of the disease - after the spread of cancer to other body parts. This is reflected in the gloomy outlook for most women. The survival rate at five years for ovarian cancer is about 25 percent

Paul Campagnola, a professor of biomedical engineering and medical physics at UW-Madison, led a group of researchers to improve prospects that by understanding how cancer cells of the ovary interact with body tissues nearby, and developing new tools for imaging and detection of disease. With a grant of $ 2 million National Institutes of Health, they will use the technology they have developed on the UW-Madison campus to develop images of tissue from surgical patients. The first target is collagen, a common protein that gives a large part of the body maintaining the bone structure, ligaments and muscles together.

"In most cancers, including ovarian, there are wide variations in the structure of collagen which is associated with the disease," said Campagnola. "It may happen first. It could be later. It is actually not known."

Campagnola and his colleagues, including Kevin Eliceiri, director of the UW-Madison Laboratory for optical instrumentation and informatics, and Manish Patankar, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, the hope of eliminate the unknown by printing tiny models, 3-D collagen samples

models will biomimetic -. synthetic, but imitating biological materials, such as Velcro mimics a plant strawberries - and extremely small. Because after sowing, the models of ovarian cancer cells, researchers in the implanted mice.

Why not just injected mice with cancer cells and skip the detailed imaging and 3-D printing process

? Mice do not get ovarian cancer -. A partial answer to why we still do not understand ovarian cancer and many other cancers

"The current way people study ovarian cancer in a mouse is very poor," Campagnola says. "They just take human cell lines, and injected into a mouse. Then some of them will form a tumor, but most do not."

By implementing a model of 3-D tissue inoculated with ovarian cancer in mice, Campagnola hopes to more closely mimic the conditions of metastatic ovarian cancer in humans.

"What's different is our tissues are already 3-D structured," said Campagnola. "A problem when people study the cancer is sometimes they put the cells in a dish. The cells in a dish do not behave like cells in tissues. So we try to give them the structure of the fabric cancer cells have in a native environment. "

there, they study how tumors develop implanted inside the mouse, and we hope to begin to learn about the clues and the processes involved in the progression and spread of the disease.

It is an approach that nobody has ever tried, one that will also help improve the way doctors make ovaries images inside body.

"There is an integrated approach to improve our imaging capabilities, but also the use of our imaging capabilities make these models so that we can study biology," says Campagnola .

Ultimately, the long-term goal of the team is to improve the detection, diagnosis and treatment of ovarian cancer. One of the most effective ways to improve the outlook for women with ovarian cancer is to develop a simple method for screening women at risk of the disease. Women with a mutation in a gene called BRCA - a mutation also involved in a higher risk of breast cancer - have a chance to develop ovarian cancer in their life 40 percent

" These are the women we really want. follow, "said Campagnola. "You can imagine - we are far from it. - Screening women for several years with a minimally invasive device through a laparoscope or through the fallopian tubes"

But to get to this point, Campagnola said, researchers need to know much more about the way the ovarian cancer.

"you must know what you want," he said. "That's why we've got more basic work to do to get to this point. That's why we need better imaging tools and we need better models for understanding the biology of the disease."

New gene therapy shows promising results for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders

New gene therapy shows promising results for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders -

A new gene therapy approach to replace the enzyme that is deficient in patients with inherited neurodegenerative disorders Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff diseases successfully delivered the therapeutic gene to the brain of treated mice, the restored enzyme function, and prolonged survival of about 2.5 times. The implications of these promising results for the development of similar gene therapies for use in hu-mans and to target additional brain disorders are discussed in two articles published in Human Gene Therapy , a peer review Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The articles are part of a special issue on disorders of the central nervous system and are available for free download on the Human Gene Therapy site until August 28, 2016.

Both studies demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of gene transfer in preclinical models. The articles are titled "Novel Vector Design and hexosaminidase Varieant Enable Virus adeno-associated self-complementary for the treatment of Tay-Sachs disease," by Karumuthil-Melethil, et al. and "Gene Transfer of systemic Using a variant of hexosaminidase scAAV9.47 Vector Corrects Gangliosidosis in GM2 Sandhoff mice" by Osmon et al.

Steven Gray, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Jagdeep Walia, Queen University (Kingston, Canada), led a team of researchers from SickKids and University of Toronto (Canada), the New Hope Research Foundation (North Oaks, MN), and the University of Mannitoba (Winnipeg, Canada), in the successful development of a company specialized adeno-associated virus (AAV) designed to deliver a gene encoding portions alpha and beta subunits of the enzyme that are defective in mice Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff, respectively. The gene transfer vector novel, administered intravenously, was able to deliver the therapeutic gene in the brain and spinal cord, the target site of action.

"This is an important proof of concept study provides important information about the optimal design value of rAAV vectors for this class of disorders," says the editor Terence R. Flotte, MD, Professor Celia and Isaac Haidak of medical education and Dean, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, University of Massachusetts medical School, Worcester, MA.

Cancer Research UK is funding projects to a new study on the cancer

Cancer Research UK is funding projects to a new study on the cancer -

A NEW financing scheme launched by Cancer Research UK today (Thursday) seems to bring a new overview of some of the greatest challenges of cancer.

multidisciplinary UK Award research project on cancer * will fund projects that encourage collaboration among cancer researchers and scientists in the engineering and the physical sciences.

projects could cover anything from finding innovative ways to detect and treat the disease to new techniques to understand cancer. The new scheme will fund about 10 projects per year; each project will provide four-year funding of up to a total of £ 500,000.

The increased interaction between the different disciplines has the potential to make a real impact in the fight against cancer. The combination of new technologies and different perspectives will speed breakthroughs that will result in more people survive cancer.

Such collaborations are already making a difference. Cancer Research UK scientists at Cambridge have worked with their astronomy colleagues use techniques originally developed to identify the most distant stars, to find markers to predict the aggressiveness of breast cancer. This could mean that pathologists must no longer look down the microscope to identify key differences in each tumor sample, which could speed up testing to guide treatment decisions.

Professor Sir Mike Brady, an engineer by training who worked in cancer research over the past 20 years at the University of Oxford will be chairman of the expert committee that will review applications.

Professor Sir Brady said :. "Enormous progress has been made in understanding, diagnosing and treating cancer and has been based largely on research in fundamental biology But the important contributions of the physical sciences, detection and imaging through nanotechnology for large data analysis based on machine learning, are increasingly recognized as fundamental factors in cancer research. We now want to bring these different groups as well as from the beginning of a research project to see . that the discoveries they can work closely "

Dr. David Scott, director of science funding at cancer Research UK, said:" Taking truly innovative approaches to the fight against cancer will bring together researchers from different disciplines. The new multidisciplinary project price will stimulate collaborations between biomedical research and engineering and the physical sciences. We are looking for applications that will address cancer from a number of areas, including better detection, drug delivery and imaging technologies. "

Breast cancer patients who use social media express more satisfaction with the treatment decisions

Breast cancer patients who use social media express more satisfaction with the treatment decisions -

Women who are committed to social media after a diagnosis breast cancer expressed more reflection on their treatment decision and satisfaction with the way they have chosen, a new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive cancer Center found.

But the researchers found significant barriers to social media for some women, especially older women, the less educated and minorities.

"Our findings show an unmet need among patients for decision support when they go through breast cancer treatment," says lead study author Lauren P. Wallner, Ph.D. .D., MPH, assistant professor of general medicine at the University of Michigan medical School.

"But at this stage, leveraging social media and online communication in clinical practice will not achieve all the patients. There are obstacles that need to be considered, "she added.

The researchers surveyed 2,460 women newly diagnosed with breast cancer about their use of email, SMS, social media and Web-based support groups after their diagnosis. women were identified by the database monitoring, Epidemiology and End Results. the study is published in JAMA oncology.

overall, 41 percent of women reported some or frequent use of online communication. Texting and email were the most frequent, with 35 percent of women use. Twelve percent of women reported using Facebook, Twitter or other social media sites, and 12 percent of web-based support groups used.

"women have different reasons for using each of these methods. Email and SMS were mainly to let people know they were diagnosed. They tend to use support groups, social media sites and the web to interact on treatment options and physician recommendations, "says Wallner.

" The women also reported using the all these outlets to deal with negative emotions and stress around the breast cancer diagnosis. They use these communications to meet, "she said.

The online communication was more common in younger women and more educated. Use also varied by race, with 46 percent of white women and 43 percent of Asian women reporting use frequently, compared to 35 percent of black women and 33 percent of Latinas.

the researchers also found that women who have online communication frequently used had more positive feelings about their treatment decision. They were more likely to report a deliberate decision and more likely to be very satisfied with their decision.

despite these advantages, the authors the study called for caution.

"for some women, social media can be a useful resource. But there are still questions to answer before we can rely on it as a routine part of patient care, "says Wallner." We do not know a lot about the type of information to them to find online. what they share and what is the quality of this information? We must understand that before we can really exploit the potential of social media to better support patients through their cancer treatment and care "

Research results call for clinical trials of appropriate medicines to prevent NASH

Research results call for clinical trials of appropriate medicines to prevent NASH -

non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common condition, affecting nearly 30 percent of Americans, with a significant number of suffering its most severe form, called NASH or NASH, which can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer. In recent years, NASH has become the leading cause of liver transplantation.

Development of new effective therapies for preventing or treating NASH has been stymied by limited small animal models for the disease. In an article published online in Cancer Cell , the University of California scientists, San Diego School of Medicine describe a new mouse model that closely resembles human NASH and use it to demonstrate that interference with a key inflammatory protein inhibits both the development of NASH and its progression to liver cancer.

"These results strongly call for clinical trials of drugs relevant human NASH and its complications," said lead author Michael Karin, Ph.D., professor emeritus of pharmacology in the Laboratory of UC San Diego of Gene Regulation and signal transduction. "Our research has shown that, at least in this mouse model, chemical compounds that already include clinically approved drugs that inhibit the aggregation of proteins can also be used to prevent NASH caused by a high fat diet. "

The increasing prevalence of NAFLD is linked to being the nation's obesity epidemic. In the last decade, the rate of obesity has doubled in adults and tripled in children, largely due to a common diet rich in simple carbohydrates and saturated fats. NASH is characterized by inflammation and fibrosis, which can damage the liver and lead to cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the main form of liver cancer, and loss of function. Often, the only cure is the transplantation of organs.

"The development of new strategies for NASH that block successful progression to cirrhosis or HCC necessary for the creation of appropriate small animal models that are amenable to genetic analysis and therapeutic intervention," said said first author Hayato Nakagawa, PhD, member of the Karin lab who led the research effort and is currently Assistant Professor at the University of Tokyo school of medicine.

new model mouse resulting advantage of an existing strain of mice called MUP-uPA that develops hepatic lesions similar to humans when fed a diet high in fat (60 percent of calories are derived from the fat) similar to the so-called "American cafeteria plan." The mice show clinical signs characteristic of NASH in 24 weeks and full HCC after 40 weeks. "The pathological characteristics of these tumors are almost identical to those of human HCC," Nakagawa said.

By using the new mouse model, Nakagawa and colleagues showed that a factor called tumor necrosis of the protein (TNF), involved in the body's inflammatory response plays an essential role in both NASH pathogenesis and progression of fibrosis and HCC. by interfering with the synthesis of TNF, or of its binding to its receptor using genetic tools or anti-psoriasis drug against rheumatoid arthritis called Enbrel, the researchers inhibited both the development of NASH and its progression to HCC in the mouse model.

"given the dramatic rise and persistent incidence of obesity and its consequences in the United States and elsewhere, these studies have a high impact on a major public health problem. in addition to developing a more appropriate model for the study of NASH, this new work suggests some immediate targets for prevention and therapeutic intervention, "said Karin, who is a research professor of American Cancer Society and holder of the Chair and Ben Wanda Hildyard for mitochondrial and metabolic diseases.

drugs against erectile dysfunction do not play the role in the prevention of prostate cancer, the study shows

drugs against erectile dysfunction do not play the role in the prevention of prostate cancer, the study shows -

Although some previous studies have shown that taking erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs can reduce the likelihood of developing prostate cancer, a new study published in the Journal of Urology® found that these drugs do not play a role in cancer prevention prostate.

ED is a common problem with a prevalence of 20% to 40% in the sixth decade of life and approaching 75% in the seventh decade. Drugs such as tadalafil, sildenafil, vardenafil and are inhibitors of phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE-5) commonly used to treat erectile dysfunction. Since PDE-5's were introduced in 1998, their durability, safety and efficacy for the treatment of ED have been clearly demonstrated.

"The in vitro mouse studies have suggested that these drugs might have anticancer activity, but the evidence in humans is mixed," said principal investigator Stephen J. Freedland, MD, Division Urology, Department of surgery at the Institute of cancer Samuel Oschin complete at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, CA. "Given the systematic use of PDE-5i and the possibility that these agents may have anticancer activity, we wanted to test the association between their use and the risk of developing prostate cancer."

using rEDUCE data, -Year four, test the effect of dutasteride daily to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia risk of prostate cancer in men multicenter study, the authors analyzed whether ED drug use by over 6,500 patients may have an impact on cancer risk of overall prostate and quality of disease (Gleason 2-6 and 7-10). All participants in the REDUCE trial were undergo biopsies two and four years after registration, which facilitated the evaluation of cancer uniform throughout the group. in this way, the basic science linking PDE-5i and anticancer activity could be explored .

Among the 6,501 men in the study 364 (5.6%) used PDE-5i out. During the study, prostate cancer was diagnosed in 71 of the men (19.5%) compared to 1391 of 6137 (22.7%) of men who do not take PDE-5i, which was not significantly different. An analysis of prostate cancer quality also showed no correlation between PDE-5i use and low or high grade cancer. Because the use of PDE-5i was significantly higher among North American men, the authors sought a regional effect. They found a correlation between the use of ED and under diagnosis of prostate cancer in North American men, but this did not reach statistical significance.

"Future studies with more follow-up and larger populations are needed to determine the association between PDE-5i and prostate cancer," said Juzar Jamnagerwalla, MD, urology resident at Cedars-Sinai and first author of the study.