redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

Parents who preach about the dangers of distracted driving are often on the other end of the phone when teenagers talk while behind the wheel, according to research presented Friday at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association (APA).

As part of the study, Petaluma, California-based cognitive psychologist Dr. Noelle LaVoie and her colleagues surveyed and interviewed over 400 drivers between the ages of 15 and 18 from 31 states and asked why they continued to use cellphones while driving despite warnings about the hazards such activity presents.

According to Sharon Jayson of USA Today, the study authors found that more than half of teenagers who said they had conducted a cellphone conversation while driving (53 percent) were talking with either their mom or dad at the time. In contrast, only 46 percent were chatting with a friend, though the opposite was true with texting.

“Teens said parents expect to be able to reach them, that parents get mad if they don’t answer their phone and they have to tell parents where they are,” Dr. LaVoie said in a statement. “Parents need to understand that this is not safe and emphasize to their children that it’s not normal or acceptable behavior. Ask the question, ‘Are you driving?’ If they are, tell them to call you back or to find a spot to pull over so they can talk.”

The researchers conducted in-person interviews with 13 teens who were between the ages of 15 and 17 and has either a learner’s permit or driver’s license, and asked them about various driving hazards, including texting or talking on the phone while driving. Every teen that said that he or she had talked on the phone while operating a motor vehicle said they had been talking to parents, while just 20 percent said that they had talked to friends.

They also had 395 people complete surveys, with 37 percent of those with permits and 50 percent of 18-year-olds with unrestricted driver’s licenses admitted that they had taken a phone call from mom or dad while driving. Sixteen percent of 18-year-olds and eight percent of the 15- or 17-year-olds said that they had texted a parent while driving, though the researchers said that teens were more likely to send messages to their friends than their folks.

“It was just very surprising to see how directly parents are involved. What we do know for sure is if parents would not call their teens while they’re (kids) driving, it would reduce teen distracted driving,” LaVoie told Jayson, noting that one of the things the teens interviewed discussed was that their parents “used their cell phone while driving.”

“A lot of parents aren’t really aware of how important it is to be a good role model and how dangerous it is for their teen to answer a cellphone while driving,” the study author added in an interview with Maureen Salamon of HealthDay. “There is certainly [prior research] showing that parents might not be modeling the best behavior for teens, and we know a lot of parents talk on the phone while driving. But this was a real shock.”

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statistics report that approximately 2,700 teens aged 16 to 19 are killed each year, and another 280,000 are treated and released from emergency departments following automobile crashes, Salamon said. Furthermore, distracted driving is responsible for 11 percent of all vehicular fatalities among teens, and 21 percent of those crashes involved cellphones, a 2013 US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) report said.

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April Flowers for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
We are inundated daily with TV, print and radio commercials that tell us losing weight will make us healthier and happier. All one needs to do to have a more fulfilling, satisfying, happy life is lose weight. But are they right? A new study, published in PLOS ONE, shows that while losing weight will make you healthier, it might not make you happier.
The study examined 1,979 overweight and obese adults in the UK, finding that people who lost five percent or more of their initial body weight over a four year time period showed significant gains in physical health markers. However, these same people were more likely to report depressed moods than those who stayed within five percent of their original weight.
The researchers suggest that their findings highlight the need for clinicians to consider mental health as well as physical when patients are losing weight. In the past, clinical trials have been shown to improve weight loss participants’ mood, however, the researchers indicate that this could be more a result of the supportive environment than the weight loss itself. The mood improvement effects are seen early in such trials and are not related to the extent of the weight loss.
Weight loss does not necessarily cause depression, the authors caution, as depression and weight loss might share a common cause. The findings do show, however, that weight loss outside of clinical trial settings cannot be assumed to improve mood. They also raise questions concerning the psychological impact of weight loss.
The researchers collected their data as part of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) – a study of adults 50 years or older. They excluded patients who had a clinical diagnosis of depression or a debilitating illness. Standard questionnaires were used to assess mood, and weight loss was measured by trained nurses.
Of the original cohort, 278 (14 percent) lost at least five percent of their starting weight with an average loss of 15 pounds per person. The team adjusted the findings for serious health issues and major life events such as bereavement, which can cause weight loss and depressed mood. Before the adjustment, the people who lost weight were 78 percent more likely to report being depressed; after the adjustment, the odds of reporting depression remained high at 52 percent.
“We do not want to discourage anyone from trying to lose weight, which has tremendous physical benefits, but people should not expect weight loss to instantly improve all aspects of life,” said Dr. Sarah Jackson of University College London’s (UCL) Epidemiology & Public Health in a recent statement. “Aspirational advertising by diet brands may give people unrealistic expectations about weight loss. They often promise instant life improvements, which may not be borne out in reality for many people. People should be realistic about weight loss and be prepared for the challenges.”
“Resisting the ever-present temptations of unhealthy food in modern society takes a mental toll, as it requires considerable willpower and may involve missing out on some enjoyable activities. Anyone who has ever been on a diet would understand how this could affect wellbeing. However, mood may improve once target weight is reached and the focus is on weight maintenance. Our data only covered a four year period so it would be interesting to see how mood changes once people settle into their lower weight,” she continued.
“Healthcare professionals should monitor patients’ mental as well as physical health when recommending or responding to weight loss, and offer support where necessary. People who are trying to lose weight should be aware of the challenges and not be afraid to seek support, whether from friends, family or healthcare professionals.”
Professor Jane Wardle, director of the Cancer Research UK Health Behavior Center at UCL, commented, “A recent UK survey found that 60 percent of overweight and obese adults in the UK are trying to lose weight. There are clear benefits in terms of physical health, which our study confirmed. People who lost weight achieved a reduction in blood pressure and serum triglycerides; significantly reducing the risk of heart disease. However, patients and doctors alike should be aware that there is no immediate psychological benefit and there may be an increased risk of depression.”
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University of Rochester Medical Center

A majority of middle-aged men and women eligible to take aspirin to prevent heart attack and stroke do not recall their doctors ever telling them to do so, according to a University of Rochester study of a national sample of more than 3,000 patients.

Published online by the Journal of General Internal Medicine, the finding illustrates a common disconnect between public health guidelines and what occurs in clinical practice. The UR study is consistent with other research showing that physicians often do not recommend aspirin as prevention therapy to the general population, despite established guidelines by the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force.

Several reasons might explain the reluctance, such as competing demands and limited time to properly assess a patient’s eligibility for aspirin, according to lead author Kevin A. Fiscella, M.D., M.P.H., professor of Family Medicine at the UR School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Uncertainty about the benefits of aspirin therapy versus potential harms like bleeding in the digestive tract, also hinder physicians’ decisions, the study said.

For the JGIM study, Fiscella’s group analyzed data from 3,439 patients included in the 2011-’12 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). None of the patients had cardiovascular disease, but all qualified for aspirin therapy based on their 10-year risk score for factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, smoking, and use of cholesterol-lowering medications.

Of the sample, 87 percent of men and 16 percent of women were eligible to take aspirin as a preventive measure. But when they were asked the question — “Doctors and other health care providers sometimes recommend that you take a low-dose aspirin each day to prevent heart attack, strokes, or cancer. Have you ever been told to do this?”  — a low rate of 34 percent of the men and 42 percent of the women said yes.

Co-author John Bisognano, M.D., Ph.D., director of outpatient cardiology services at UR Medicine, said most physicians can agree on approaches to medical care in immediately life-threatening situations, but have less enthusiasm to quickly embrace preventive guidelines, particularly when they involve wide-ranging interventions for a large segment of the population.

New studies that present conflicting data or re-interpret older data also complicate the issue and can be confusing for patients, he said. Despite the USPSTF guidelines for aspirin being published in 2009, for example, the FDA declined to approve the same recommendations as recently as last spring.

“Patients often view changes as an illustration that folks in the medical field can’t really make up their minds,” said Bisognano, professor of Medicine. “Changes can undermine a practitioner’s or patient’s enthusiasm to immediately endorse new guidelines because they wonder if it will change again in three years.”

But science and medical practice is fluid, he said, and the only way to move the field forward is to continually understand and look for ways to apply the new data and avoid assumptions of the past.

The study also noted that using expanded primary care teams of nurses, medical assistants, and health educators may help to reduce the volume of decisions that rest solely with the physician at the office visit. Sharing care can improve agreement between published guidelines, the use of risk models, and actual practice, the study said.

The authors report no conflicts, and no external funding sources.

University of Exeter

Vitamin D deficiency is associated with a substantially increased risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in older people, according to the most robust study of its kind ever conducted.

An international team, led by Dr David Llewellyn at the University of Exeter Medical School, found that study participants who were severely Vitamin D deficient were more than twice as likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

The team studied elderly Americans who took part in the Cardiovascular Health Study. They discovered that adults in the study who were moderately deficient in vitamin D had a 53 per cent increased risk of developing dementia of any kind, and the risk increased to 125 per cent in those who were severely deficient.

Similar results were recorded for Alzheimer’s disease, with the moderately deficient group 69 per cent more likely to develop this type of dementia, jumping to a 122 per cent increased risk for those severely deficient.

The study was part-funded by the Alzheimer’s Association, and is published in August 6 2014 online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. It looked at 1,658 adults aged 65 and over, who were able to walk unaided and were free from dementia, cardiovascular disease and stroke at the start of the study. The participants were then followed for six years to investigate who went on to develop Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

Dr Llewellyn said: “We expected to find an association between low Vitamin D levels and the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, but the results were surprising – we actually found that the association was twice as strong as we anticipated.

“Clinical trials are now needed to establish whether eating foods such as oily fish or taking vitamin D supplements can delay or even prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. We need to be cautious at this early stage and our latest results do not demonstrate that low vitamin D levels cause dementia. That said, our findings are very encouraging, and even if a small number of people could benefit, this would have enormous public health implications given the devastating and costly nature of dementia.”

Research collaborators included experts from Angers University Hospital, Florida International University, Columbia University, the University of Washington, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Michigan. The study was supported by the Alzheimer’s Association, the Mary Kinross Charitable Trust, the James Tudor Foundation, the Halpin Trust, the Age Related Diseases and Health Trust, the Norman Family Charitable Trust, and the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Research and Care South West Peninsula (NIHR PenCLAHRC).

Dementia is one of the greatest challenges of our time, with 44 million cases worldwide – a number expected to triple by 2050 as a result of rapid population ageing. A billion people worldwide are thought to have low vitamin D levels and many older adults may experience poorer health as a result.

The research is the first large study to investigate the relationship between vitamin D and dementia risk where the diagnosis was made by an expert multidisciplinary team, using a wide range of information including neuroimaging. Previous research established that people with low vitamin D levels are more likely to go on to experience cognitive problems, but this study confirms that this translates into a substantial increase in the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Vitamin D comes from three main sources – exposure of skin to sunlight, foods such as oily fish, and supplements. Older people’s skin can be less efficient at converting sunlight into Vitamin D, making them more likely to be deficient and reliant on other sources. In many countries the amount of UVB radiation in winter is too low to allow vitamin D production.

The study also found evidence that there is a threshold level of Vitamin D circulating in the bloodstream below which the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease increases.  The team had previously hypothesized that this might lie in the region of 25-50 nmol/L, and their new findings confirm that vitamin D levels above 50 nmol/L are most strongly associated with good brain health.

Commenting on the study, Dr Doug Brown, Director of Research and Development at Alzheimer’s Society said: “Shedding light on risk factors for dementia is one of the most important tasks facing today’s health researchers. While earlier studies have suggested that a lack of the sunshine vitamin is linked to an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease, this study found that people with very low vitamin D levels were more than twice as likely to develop any kind of dementia.

“During this hottest of summers, hitting the beach for just 15 minutes of sunshine is enough to boost your vitamin D levels. However, we’re not quite ready to say that sunlight or vitamin D supplements will reduce your risk of dementia. Large scale clinical trials are needed to determine whether increasing vitamin D levels in those with deficiencies can help prevent the dementia from developing.”

Clemson University

New discoveries about how butterflies feed could help engineers develop tiny probes that siphon liquid out of single cells for a wide range of medical tests and treatments, according to Clemson University researchers.

The National Science Foundation recently awarded the project $696,514. It was the foundation’s third grant to the project, bringing the total since 2009 to more than $3 million.

The research has brought together Clemson’s materials scientists and biologists who have been focusing on the proboscis, the mouthpart that many insects used for feeding.

For materials scientists, the goal is to develop what they call “fiber-based fluidic devices,” among them probes that could eventually allow doctors to pluck a single defective gene out of a cell and replace it with a good one, said Konstantin Kornev, a Clemson materials physics professor. “If someone were programmed to have an illness, it would be eliminated,” he said.

Researchers recently published some of their findings about the butterfly proboscis in The Journal of Experimental Biology.

They are now advancing to a new phase in their studies. Much remains unknown about how insects use tiny pores and channels in the proboscis to sample and handle fluid.

“It’s like the proverbial magic well,” said Clemson entomology professor Peter Adler. “The more we learn about the butterfly proboscis, the more it has for us to learn about it.”

Kornev said he was attracted to butterflies for their ability to draw various kinds of liquids.

“It can be very thick like nectar and honey or very thin like water,” he said. “They do that easily. That’s a challenge for engineers.”

Researchers want the probe to be able to take fluid out of a single cell, which is 10 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, Kornev said. The probe also will need to differentiate between different types of fluids, he said.

The technology could be used for medical devices, nanobioreactors that make complex materials and flying “micro-air vehicles” the size of an insect.

“It opens up a huge number of applications,” Kornev said. “We are actively seeking collaboration with cell biologists, medical doctors and other professionals who might find this research exciting and helpful in their applications.”

The study also is breaking new ground in biology. While scientists had a fundamental idea of how butterflies feed, it was less complete than it is now, Adler said.

Scientists have long known that butterflies use the proboscis to suck up fluid, similar to how humans use a drinking straw, Adler said. But the study found that the butterfly proboscis also acts as a sponge, he said.

“It’s a dual mechanism,” Adler said. “As they move the proboscis around, it can help sponge up the liquid and then facilitate the delivery of the liquid so that it can then be sucked up.”

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By Sheila G. West, Penn State

Among people with type 2 diabetes, eating pistachios may reduce the body’s response to the stresses of everyday life, according to Penn State researchers.

“In adults with diabetes, two servings of pistachios per day lowered vascular constriction during stress and improved neural control of the heart,” said Sheila G. West, professor of biobehavioral health and nutritional sciences. “Although nuts are high in fat, they contain good fats, fiber, potassium and antioxidants. Given the high risk of heart disease in people with diabetes, nuts are an important component of a heart healthy diet in this population.”

West and her colleagues investigated the effects of pistachios on responses to standardized stress tasks in patients with well-controlled Type 2 diabetes who were otherwise healthy. They used a randomized, crossover study design in which all meals were provided. Each of the diets contained the same number of calories.

After two weeks on the typical American diet — containing 36 percent fat and 12 percent saturated fats — participants were randomized to one of two test diets. During the four-week test diets, participants ate only food supplied by the study. The researchers reported the results of this study in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Test diets included a standard heart-healthy diet — 27 percent fat and 7 percent saturated fat — and a diet containing two servings per day of pistachios — about 3 ounces or 20 percent of calories from pistachio nuts. The typical research participant consumed about 150 pistachio nuts per day. The pistachio diet contained 33 percent fat and 7 percent saturated fat. Half of the nuts consumed each day were salted and half were unsalted. At the end of each four-week diet period, the researchers measured blood pressure and total peripheral vascular resistance at rest and during two stress tests — a cold water challenge and a confusing mental arithmetic test.

“After the pistachio diet, blood vessels remained more relaxed and open during the stress tests,” West said.

Although laboratory measurements of blood pressure were not affected by pistachios, real-world measures of blood pressure (measured by an automated monitor) were significantly lower after the pistachio diet. Katherine A. Sauder, former graduate student in biobehavioral health, conducted these measurements.

“We found that systolic blood pressure during sleep was particularly affected by pistachios,” she said. “Average sleep blood pressure was reduced by about 4 points and this would be expected to lower workload on the heart.”

The researchers found that the pistachio diet lowered vascular constriction during stress. When arteries are dilated, the load on the heart is reduced. The physical challenge involved immersing one hand into icy water for two minutes.

“This cold stressor produces a large vascular constriction response in most people,” said West. “In comparison with a low fat diet, the pistachio diet blunted that vascular response to stress.”

The same pattern was seen when participants engaged in a challenging and confusing mental arithmetic task.

“Our participants still felt frustrated and angry during the math test,” West noted. “The pistachio diet reduced their bodies’ responses to stress, but nuts are not a cure for the emotional distress that we feel in our daily lives.”

Sauder added: “As in our last study of pistachios, we did not see lower blood pressure in the laboratory setting with this dose of nuts. However, we were surprised and pleased to see that 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure was lower after the pistachio diet.”

The researchers also recorded improvements in heart rate variability, a measure of how well the nervous system controls heart function. These data indicate that pistachios increased the activity of the vagus nerve, an important part of the parasympathetic nervous system that can be damaged with diabetes.

“If sustained with longer term treatment, these improvements in sleep blood pressure, vascular response to stress and vagal control of the heart could reduce risk of heart disease in this high risk group,” West said.

Other researchers on this study included Cindy E. McCrea, graduate student in biobehavioral health; Jan S. Ulbrecht, endocrinologist and professor of biobehavioral health and medicine; and Penny M. Kris-Etherton, Distinguished Professor of Nutritional Sciences.

Robin Lally, Rutgers University
Rutgers study finds that positive emotions could play a role in the deadly disorder
Positive emotions – even those viewed through a distorted lens – may play an exacerbating role in fueling eating disorders like anorexia nervosa, which has a death rate 12 times higher for females between the ages of 15 and 24 than all other causes of death combined, according to a Rutgers study.
In research published in Clinical Psychological Science, Edward Selby, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences, measured over a two week period the emotional states of 118 women between the ages of 18-58 being treated for anorexia nervosa. Selby found that those in the study not only suffered from negative emotions but also felt emotionally positive, having a sense of pride over being able to maintain and exceed their weight-loss goals.
“What we think happens is that positive emotions become exaggerated and are rewarding these maladaptive behaviors,” said Selby. “Since only about one-third of women recover after treatment, what we need to do is gain a better understanding of why these positive emotions become so strongly associated with weight loss rather than with a healthy association such as family, school or relationships.”
Previous research into eating disorders has focused mainly on how negative emotions, like being sad, angry, or having a lack of control contribute to anorexia, an emotional disorder characterized by an obsessive desire to lose weight by refusing to eat. “Up until now,” Selby said, “there has been little analysis of empirical data that could help gain insight into how positive emotions are distorted by those suffering with the illness.”
In this study, Selby and his colleagues found that the women in the study who had the most difficulty understanding how to recognize when positive emotions were becoming skewed, engaged in more frequent anorexia-type behaviors like vomiting, laxative use, restricting calories, excessive exercise, checking body fat and constant weight checks.
“Women with anorexia are often in complex emotional places, that is why it is important to understand all we can about what they are getting out of this experience,” said Selby. “The more we know not only about the negative emotions, but also the positive emotions connected to this disease, the more likely we will be to treat this devastating illness.”
Much of the positive reinforcement that may lead women with anorexia to feel good about their situation could be coming from “Pro-Anorexic” websites, where it is not unusual for individuals suffering with anorexia to be applauded for their control and courage in obtaining extreme weight loss.
This link between positive emotions and weight-loss behaviors, Selby said, turns into a vicious cycle for some women suffering with eating disorders who continue to lose weight even after their goals are met.
Selby believes that more research is needed to find a way to redirect positive emotions associated with emaciation to other healthy activities, and determine how these feelings should be addressed in treating those with eating disorders.
Physical activity, for instance, might need to be looked at in a different way, Selby said. While there is debate about whether patients undergoing treatment for anorexia should be allowed to exercise, working out is an activity that makes them feel good. So instead of completely barring physical fitness, perhaps an individual who has gained pleasure from a sport like running could be steered toward a group activity like yoga, which is focused more on core strengthening and not weight loss, he said.
“Being in control is important for many of these women,” Selby said. “What we need to do is find a way to reconnect the positive emotions they feel in losing weight to other aspects of their lives that will lead to a more balanced sense of happiness.”
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Monash University

A chance discovery about the ‘wonder material’ graphene – already exciting scientists because of its potential uses in electronics, energy storage and energy generation – takes it a step closer to being used in medicine and human health.

Researchers from Monash University have discovered that graphene oxide sheets can change structure to become liquid crystal droplets spontaneously and without any specialist equipment.

With graphene droplets now easy to produce, researchers say this opens up possibilities for its use in drug delivery and disease detection.

The findings, published in the journal ChemComm, build on existing knowledge about graphene. One of the thinnest and strongest materials known to man, graphene is a 2D sheet of carbon just one atom thick. With a ‘honeycomb’ structure the ‘wonder material’ is 100 times stronger than steel, highly conductive and flexible.

Dr Mainak Majumder from the Faculty of Engineering said because graphene droplets change their structure in response to the presence of an external magnetic field, it could be used for controlled drug release applications.

“Drug delivery systems tend to use magnetic particles which are very effective but they can’t always be used because these particles can be toxic in certain physiological conditions,” Dr Majumder said.

“In contrast, graphene doesn’t contain any magnetic properties. This combined with the fact that we have proved it can be changed into liquid crystal simply and cheaply, strengthens the prospect that it may one day be used for a new kind of drug delivery system.”

Usually atomizers and mechanical equipment are needed to change graphene into a spherical form. In this case all the team did was to put the graphene sheets in a solution to process it for industrial use. Under certain pH conditions they found that graphene behaves like a polymer – changing shape by itself.

First author of the paper, Ms Rachel Tkacz from the Faculty of Engineering, said the surprise discovery happened during routine tests.

“To be able to spontaneously change the structure of graphene from single sheets to a spherical assembly is hugely significant. No one thought that was possible. We’ve proved it is,” Ms Tkacz said.

“Now we know that graphene-based assemblies can spontaneously change shape under certain conditions, we can apply this knowledge to see if it changes when exposed to toxins, potentially paving the way for new methods of disease detection as well.”

Commonly used by jewelers, the team used an advanced version of a polarized light microscope based at the Marine Biological Laboratory, USA, to detect minute changes to graphene.

Dr Majumder said collaborating with researchers internationally and accessing some of the most sophisticated equipment in the world, was instrumental to the breakthrough discovery.

“We used microscopes similar to the ones jewelers use to see the clarity of precious gems. The only difference is the ones we used are much more precise due to a sophisticated system of hardware and software. This provides us with crucial information about the organization of graphene sheets, enabling us to recognize these unique structures,” Dr Majumder said.

Dr Majumder and his team are working with graphite industry partner, Strategic Energy Resources Ltd and an expert in polarized light imaging, Dr. Rudolf Oldenbourg from the Marine Biological Laboratory, USA, to explore how this work can be translated and commercialized.

The research was made possible by an ARC Linkage grant awarded to Strategic Energy Resources Ltd and Monash University and was the first linkage grant for graphene research in Australia.

“We are so pleased to be associated with Dr Majumder’s team at Monash university. The progress they have made with our joint project has been astonishing,” he said.

The research was made possible by an ARC Linkage grant awarded to Strategic Energy Resources Ltd and Monash University and was the first linkage grant given to date for graphene research in Australia.

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redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online
In a discovery that could improve our general knowledge of biology, lead to more accurate clinical diagnoses and disease monitoring, and serve as a catalyst for new therapies for a variety of conditions, researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have discovered a way to see through tissues and organs.
The study, which appears in the July 31 edition of the journal Cell, details simple methods that can make opaque organs, bodies, and human tissue biopsies transparent without altering the cellular structures and connections. It could help scientists who study developmental problems and diseases get a better look inside an organism to pinpoint the exact biological issue.
“Large volumes of tissue are not optically transparent – you can’t see through them,” senior author Viviana Gradinaru, an assistant professor of biology at Caltech and the principal investigator in the team behind the new technique, explained in a statement.
“So, if we need to see individual cells within a large volume of tissue,” such as a tumor biopsy, “we have to slice the tissue very thin, separately image each slice with a microscope, and put all of the images back together with a computer,” she added. “It’s a very time-consuming process and it is error prone, especially if you look to map long axons or sparse cell populations such as stem cells or tumor cells.”
According to Gradinaru and her colleagues, lipids are dispersed through cells and provide structural support, but they also prevent light from passing through those cells. However, the researchers have devised a way to save time by making an organism’s entire body clear, allowing them to view it in 3D using standard optical methods such as confocal microscopy (which increases resolution and contrast by eliminating out-of-focus light).
Previously, the Caltech team created a technique known as CLARITY, in which a rodent brain was infused with a solution of lipid-dissolving detergents and a water-based polymer hydrogel (which provided structural support). This made the tissues appear to be clear, but left its 3D architecture intact for study.
Building on that method, Gradinaru and her collaborators created a transparent whole-brain specimen. The new technique, perfusion-assisted agent release in situ (PARS), uses an organism’s own network of blood vessels to quickly deliver the lipid-dissolving hydrogel and chemical solution throughout the body.
Once the target area is made transparent, researchers can use standard microscopy techniques to easily look through a thick mass of tissue to focus on specific single cells that had been genetically marked with fluorescent proteins. Even without those proteins, however, the study authors said that the PARS method can be adapted to deliver stains and dyes to specific cell types when whole-body clearing is not required.
When used on an individual organ level, the technique is known as the passive clarity technique (PACT). To ensure that stripping lipids from cells did not remove other molecules, such as RNA, DNA or proteins, Gradinaru recruited Caltech colleague and assistant professor of chemistry Long Cai to verify that strands of RNA were still present and detectable with single-molecule resolution in the cells of the transparent organisms.
“Although the idea of tissue clearing has been around for a century, to our knowledge, this is the first study to perform whole-body clearing, as opposed to first extracting and then clearing organs outside the adult body,” explained Gradinaru. “Our methodology has the potential to accelerate any scientific endeavor that would benefit from whole-organism mapping, including the study of how peripheral nerves and organs can profoundly affect cognition and mental processing, and vice versa.”
“Our easy-to-use tissue clearing protocols, which employ readily available and cost-effective reagents and equipment, will make the subcellular interrogation of large tissue samples an accessible undertaking within the broader research and clinical communities,” she added.

University of California, San Diego Health System

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report that dietary capsaicin – the active ingredient in chili peppers – produces chronic activation of a receptor on cells lining the intestines of mice, triggering a reaction that ultimately reduces the risk of colorectal tumors.

The findings are published in the August 1, 2014 issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

The receptor or ion channel, called TRPV1, was originally discovered in sensory neurons, where it acts as a sentinel for heat, acidity and spicy chemicals in the environment. “These are all potentially harmful stimuli to cells,” said Eyal Raz, MD, professor of Medicine and senior author of the study. “Thus, TRPV1 was quickly described as a molecular ‘pain receptor.’ This can be considered to be its conventional function, which all takes place in the nervous system.”

But Raz and colleagues have found that TPRV1 is also expressed by epithelial cells of the intestines, where it is activated by epidermal growth factor receptor or EGFR. EGFR is an important driver of cell proliferation in the intestines, whose epithelial lining is replaced approximately every four to six days.

“A basic level of EGFR activity is required to maintain the normal cell turnover in the gut,” said Petrus de Jong, MD, first author of the study. “However, if EGFR signaling is left unrestrained, the risk of sporadic tumor development increases.”

The scientists discovered that TRPV1, once activated by the EGFR, initiates a direct negative feedback on the EGFR, dampening the latter to reduce the risk of unwanted growth and intestinal tumor development. They found that mice genetically modified to be TRPV1-deficient suffered higher-than-normal rates of intestinal tumor growths.

“These results showed us that epithelial TRPV1 normally works as a tumor suppressor in the intestines,” said de Jong. In addition, molecular studies of human colorectal cancer samples recently uncovered multiple mutations in the TRPV1 gene, though Raz noted that currently there is no direct evidence that TRPV1 deficiency is a risk factor for colorectal cancer in humans.

“A direct association between TRPV1 function and human colorectal cancer should be addressed in future clinical studies,” he said.

But if such proves to be the case, the current study suggests one potential remedy might be spicy capsaicin, which acts as an irritant in mammals, generating a burning sensation in contact with tissue. Capsaicin is already broadly used as an analgesic in topical ointments, where its properties as an irritant overwhelm nerves, rendering them unable to report pain for extended periods of time. It’s also the active ingredient in pepper spray.

The researchers fed capsaicin to mice genetically prone to developing multiple tumors in the gastrointestinal tract. The treatment resulted in a reduced tumor burden and extended the lifespans of the mice by more than 30 percent. The treatment was even more effective when combined with celecoxib, a COX-2 non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug already approved for treating some forms of arthritis and pain.

“Our data suggest that individuals at high risk of developing recurrent intestinal tumors may benefit from chronic TRPV1 activation,” said Raz. “We have provided proof-of-principle.”

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redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online
Newly discovered chemical changes in the body could ultimately lead to a blood test to help predict whether or not a person is at risk of committing suicide, according to new research appearing in the online edition of The American Journal of Psychiatry.
The discovery, which was made by scientists from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Department of Mental Health, centers around an alteration that occurs in a single human gene linked to stress reactions.
Changes occurring in this particular gene, which plays a role in how the brain responds to stress hormones, have a significant impact in determining if an individual has an unremarkable response to the strains of day-to-day life, or if those pressures become the catalyst for suicidal thoughts and actions. If confirmed in larger studies, this finding could provide doctors with a simple blood test to reliably predict whether or not a person is at risk of killing themselves.
“We have found a gene that we think could be really important for consistently identifying a range of behaviors from suicidal thoughts to attempts to completions,” Zachary Kaminsky, the lead study author and an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a statement. “With a test like ours, we may be able to stem suicide rates by identifying those people and intervening early enough to head off a catastrophe.”
Kaminsky, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and his colleagues conducted a series of experiments focused on a genetic mutation the SKA2 gene, explained Bloomberg reporter Angela Zimm. SKA2 is expressed in the brain’s prefrontal cortex and is involved in inhibiting negative thoughts and controlling impulsive behaviors.
By analyzing brain samples of both healthy and mentally ill individuals, the authors discovered that those who had died as a result of suicide had reduced levels of SKA2, as well as elevated levels of methyl chemicals. The cause was attributed to an epigenetic modification that altered the way the SKA2 gene functioned without changing its underlying DNA sequence – an alternation which added methyl chemical groups to the gene.
In another portion of the study, Kaminsky’s team analyzed three different sets of blood samples, including one involving more than 300 participants in the Johns Hopkins Center for Prevention Research Study. That investigation revealed similar methylation increases at SKA2 in individuals with suicidal thoughts or attempts.
Using this data, the research team developed a model which successfully predicted which participants had tried to kill themselves or were experiencing suicidal thoughts. The model correctly identified 80 percent of those men and women, and predicted more severe suicide risk with 90 percent accuracy, the researchers said.
Furthermore, in the youngest data set, blood test results were 96 percent accurate in determining if a participant had attempted suicide. Kaminsky believes that a diagnostic test based on these findings could be used to predict potential suicide attempts in those who are ill, to help decide how intense potential intervention strategies should be, and to help doctors and hospitals determine if some patients should not receive medications linked to suicidal thoughts.
“Suicide is a major preventable public health problem, but we have been stymied in our prevention efforts because we have no consistent way to predict those who are at increased risk of killing themselves,” said Kaminsky. “With a test like ours, we may be able to stem suicide rates by identifying those people and intervening early enough to head off a catastrophe.”

April Flowers for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
The University of Toronto and St. Michael’s Hospital led an international team of scientists in conducting two meta-analyses involving tree nuts. Examples of tree nuts include: almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios and walnuts.
The first analysis, published online in the British Medical Journal Open examined the effects of tree nuts on metabolic syndrome (MetS) criteria. The findings revealed that the consumption of tree nuts resulted in a significant decrease in triglycerides and fasting blood glucose.
The researchers, including Dr. John Sievenpiper from the Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Center at St. Michael’s, say that two of the five risk factors for MetS are reduced by eating tree nuts. These factors raise the risk for heart disease and other health problems such as diabetes and stroke.
The research team screened 2,000 articles published in peer-reviewed journals to find 49 randomized control trials with 2,000 participants. The participants consumed approximately 50 grams, or 1.5 servings, per day. Most North Americans, according to Sievenpiper, consume less than one serving a day.
A person with MetS presents at least three of the following risk factors: low levels of “good” cholesterol; high triglycerides; high blood pressure; high blood sugar; and extra weight around the waist.
Tryglycerides and blood glucose are types of blood fats. Sievenpiper and his colleagues found the largest reduction in these fats when tree nuts replaced refined carbohydrates rather than saturated fats. Even though nuts are high in calories and have a high fat content (unsaturated), the team found no adverse impact on the other factors for MetS.
“We found that tree nut consumption of about two ounces per day was found to decrease triglycerides significantly by ~0.06 mmol/L and to decrease fasting blood glucose significantly by ~0.08 mmol/L over an average follow-up of eight weeks,” stated Cyril Kendall, Ph.D., of the University of Toronto.
The second paper, published online in PLOS ONE, found that tree nut consumption also aids in lowering and stabilizing blood sugar levels in Type 2 diabetes sufferers when compared to those on a control diet.
The researchers examined 12 clinical trials with 450 participants. The data revealed that eating approximately two servings of tree nuts a day improved the two key markers of blood sugar: the HbA1c test, which measures blood sugar levels over three months, and the fasting glucose test, where patients are not allowed to eat or drink anything but water for eight hours before their blood glucose levels are tested.
Again, Sievenpiper said that the best results were observed when tree nuts replace refined carbohydrates rather than saturated fats.
In these trials, the participants consumed 56 grams, or two servings, of tree nuts a day. Again, no adverse effects were seen in the areas of weight gain. “Tree nuts are another way people can maintain healthy blood sugar levels in the context of a healthy dietary pattern,” he said.
According to Dr. Kendall, “Both of our analyses indicate that daily tree nut consumption has an overall metabolic benefit and can improve risk factors for metabolic syndrome, and glycemic control in individuals with type 2 diabetes.”
“With MetS and diabetes on the rise worldwide, this is yet another reason to include tree nuts in your diet every day,” states Maureen Ternus, M.S., R.D., Executive Director of the International Tree Nut Council Nutrition Research & Education Foundation (INC NREF). INC NREF provided funding for the studies. “In 2003, FDA (in its qualified health claim for nuts and heart disease) recommended that people eat 1.5 ounces of nuts per day—well above current consumption levels. We need to encourage people—especially those at risk for MetS and those with diabetes—to get their handful of nuts every day.”