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HealthWrap: Novel Treatment for Stroke

Posted on: Friday, 29 December 2006, 18:00 CST

By ALEX CUKAN

Researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center say a novel treatment -- reducing blood flow -- may help prevent brain damage caused by stroke.

In the study, rats' brains were subjected to ischemia -- severely reduced blood flow -- for two hours in a model of stroke. Researchers then administered nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide immediately after reperfusion, or resumption of blood flow. Reperfusion is the time when stroke damage actually occurs because brain cells are suddenly exposed to highly reactive and unstable oxygen molecules, which are toxic, according to lead author Weihei Ying of the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California-San Francisco.

The researchers found that those given the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide had reduced brain cell death from reperfusion by 70 percent to 86 percent compared with rats not given the treatment, according to the study published in the journal Frontiers in Bioscience.

Basically, we replenish the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, Ying explains. The protective effect is profound.

-- Purdue University's College of Science researchers have used a new technique to rapidly detect and precisely identify bacteria, including dangerous food pathogens such as E. coli and Salmonella typhimurium, that could result in safer food.

The technique, desorption electrospray ionization, known as DESI, could be used to create a new class of fast, accurate detectors for applications ranging from food safety to homeland security, according R. Graham Cooks of Purdue University's College of Science.

Using a mass spectrometer to analyze bacteria and other microorganisms ordinarily takes several hours and requires samples to be specially treated and prepared. DESI eliminates the pretreatment steps, enabling researchers to take fingerprints of bacteria in less than a minute using a mass spectrometer.

Purdue researchers used the method to detect E. coli and Salmonella typhimurium, both of which cause potentially fatal infections in humans, according to the paper scheduled to be published in the Jan. 7 issue of Chemical Communications.

-- Researchers have succeeded in imaging, in unprecedented detail, the virus that causes influenza, a breakthrough that has the potential to identify particular features of highly virulent strains, and to provide insight into how antibodies inactivate the virus and how viruses recognize susceptible cells and enter them in the act of infection.

Researchers at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases in Bethesda, Md., and colleagues at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville worked with a version of the seasonal H3N2 strain of influenza A virus.

Being able to visualize influenza virus particles should boost our efforts to prepare for a possible pandemic flu attack, says Dr. Stephen I. Katz, director of NIAMS. This work will allow us to 'know our enemy' much better.

-- Contrary to conventional wisdom and quite a few previous studies, a Finnish study found that pet owners smoked slightly more often and exercised less often than those who did not have a pet.

Dog owners did exercise more than those without pets, but it did not appear to have an effect on the Body Mass Index, according to researchers at the University of Turku.

The association of pet ownership and the health of working Finns ages 20 to 54 was studied at the University of Turku as part of the large research project entitled Health and Social Support.

At the total population level, pet ownership was most common among those 40 years of age or older and those whose lives are established and who are settled down, as well as among those who live in single-family houses and who have couple relationships. The findings are published in PLoS ONE.

-- One-half of U.S. drivers subjected to aggressive driving on the road respond with aggression of their own, risking confrontation, a survey found.

The survey, by car insurer Response, found that when a driver is the target of an obscene gesture, is cut off or is tailgated: 34 percent of drivers say they honk their horn at the aggressor, 27 percent yell, 19 percent return the same gesture, 17 percent flash their headlights, and 7 percent mimic the initial aggressive driving behavior. Two percent of drivers admit to trying to run the aggressor off the road.

Road rage is a two-way street, noted Ray Palermo, director of public relations for Response Insurance. It takes two people to fight. So, if you are subjected to aggressive driving, often the best way to ensure it does not get any worse is to just ignore it.

Source: United Press International

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