A new class of drugs used to treat cancer might be effective at suppressing overactive immune systems in patients with autoimmune diseases like Crohn’s disease, US researchers said.
“What we would be proposing would be a therapy that would enhance the body’s own immune system’s ability to regulate itself,“ said Wayne Hancock of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, whose study appears in the journal Nature Medicine.
Hancock said drugs known as histone deacetylases inhibitors, or HDACs, which affect compounds involved in the growth and death of cancer cells, bolstered the production of cells that regulate the immune system in mice, according to Reuters.
In one study, the drug helped reverse and prevent inflammatory bowel disease. It also prevented the rejection of heart transplants in other mice. And it stopped rejection of pancreatic cell transplants in other mice.
These transplants are currently given to some type 1 diabetics, whose natural insulin-producing islet cells have been destroyed by the disease.
Islet-cell transplants often fail after a year. But Hancock thinks therapies using HDAC drugs might be able to prevent this.
“In most animals, if we gave them an HDAC inhibitor, we were able to enhance T-regulatory function and suppress rejection and induce long-term graft survival,“ he said in a telephone interview.
While many companies are working on HDACs, Hancock’s study focused on the Merck & Co Inc drug Zolinza, also known by its chemical name suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid, or SAHA.
Zolinza is approved in the United States to treat cutaneous T cell lymphoma, a type of skin cancer.
Hancock said SAHA appears to bolster the work of regulatory T-cells that suppress the immune system. “Their job is to act as police and dampen down inflammatory responses,“ he said.
The study offers evidence that a drug could be used to enhance regulatory T-cell production and function. “That hadn’t been done before,“ Hancock said.
He and colleagues are working with researchers in Minnesota to try the Merck drug Zolinza in diabetic monkeys with islet cell transplants.
Hancock said the drugs have the potential to treat other autoimmune diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis.
So far, they are mostly being studied in cancer, but that could change.
“I image a number of companies who have been developing these compounds for oncology will pick up their ears when they hear this,“ he said.

This undated photo shows the ultrasound device that is being sold initially just for imaging the heart, mostly in emergency situations.

What if your doctor could swipe a wand over your neck and reveal whether you have hidden heart disease?
That is now possible.
Miniature ultrasound machines are starting to make their way into ordinary doctors’ offices, where they may someday be as common as stethoscopes and EKGs. A pocket-sized one weighing less than 2 pounds hit the market last week.
Some of these devices can make images of neck arteries, which offer a window to heart arteries that cannot easily be seen. If the neck vessels are clogged, doctors know that those around the heart probably are, too, and that treatment or more testing is needed, AP reported.
The new ultrasound machines offer a relatively cheap, painless way to screen people with no symptoms of heart problems for signs of hidden trouble.
For one-third of heart disease sufferers, the first symptom is dropping dead of a heart attack. Finding these people early and treating them could save lives. The test may be especially good for women, who often have few traditional signs.
Lisa Rosenstock of Madison, Wis., is an example. At age 41, this trim, athletic mom had normal cholesterol and blood pressure but a troubling family history of heart attacks. Ultrasound revealed a big clog in the main artery from her heart to her head.
Her cardiologist, Dr. James Stein of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, put her on medicines to lower her risk of a heart attack or stroke. He also is leading a study aimed at making ultrasound testing more common.
“There’s a great need for a noninvasive and safe way to identify people who don’t have signs but have risk“ of heart disease, he said.
But there are potential downsides to more people doing this testing without extensive training. Suddenly, small-town family doctors could see scary-looking artery buildups and rush to treat some that might never be life-threatening.
And while patients, who see the pictures may be motivated to quit smoking, lose weight or go on cholesterol drugs, some might suffer side effects from unnecessary treatment.
Ultrasounds also are being advertised directly to consumers--the latest “peace of mind“ test like whole-body CT scans and MRIs. Some drug makers are promoting wider testing because it could boost cholesterol pill sales.
The American Heart Association says testing with traditional ultrasound machines can help certain patients, but does not endorse widespread screening with the small devices because proof of benefit is lacking.

Men diagnosed with prostate cancer in the summer and fall have a better chance of survival than those diagnosed in the spring and winter, a new study of Norwegian men suggests.
“Summer and autumn months correspond to times when vitamin D is highest (in Norway). Although the study does not prove vitamin D is the determining factor, it does suggest that this possibility should be studied further,“ study co-author Dr. Tomasz Beer, director of the prostate cancer program at the Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute, said in a prepared statement.
In the study, a team of American and Norwegian researchers analyzed data for more than 46,000 Norwegian men diagnosed with prostate cancer from 1964 to 1992, according to HealthDay.
Compared with men diagnosed in the summer and fall, those diagnosed in the winter and spring were 20 percent more likely to die within three years after diagnosis.
The researchers also examined whether survivability was affected by factors such as eating foods high in vitamin D (such as fatty fish), taking vacations in sunny southern locations, and where the men lived in Norway.
Only age seemed to have a influence--younger men had a slightly better rate of survival. The researchers noted that the capacity of skin to produce vitamin D when exposed to sunshine is about 40 percent lower in men 75 and older than in men 60 and younger.
Vitamin D, which has been shown to inhibit cancer growth, may also help maintain immune system health and help regulate cell growth and differentiation, Beer said.

The houseplant "mother of thousands" makes the tiny plantlets that drop from the edges of its leaves.

New research shows how the houseplant “mother of thousands“ (Kalanchoe diagremontiana) makes the tiny plantlets that drop from the edges of its leaves. Having lost the ability to make viable seeds, the plant has shifted some of the processes that make seeds to the leaves, said Neelima Sinha, professor of plant biology at UC Davis.
Many plants reproduce by throwing out long shoots or runners that can grow into new plants. But mother of thousands goes further: the plantlets are complete miniature plants that become disconnected from the mother plant’s circulatory system and drop off, allowing them to spread rapidly and effectively. The houseplant has lost the ability to make viable seeds and only reproduces through plantlets, according to BreitBart.com.
Helena Garc�s, a graduate student in Sinha’s laboratory, Sinha and colleagues looked at two genes, STM and LEC, in mother of thousands and close relatives, some of which make seeds instead of plantlets. STM controls shoot growth, while LEC is involved in making seeds.
Expression of STM in leaves was essential for making plantlets. In most plants LEC is expressed in seeds, but mother of thousands’ version of the gene, LEC1, was expressed in leaves as well. When the researchers transferred the LEC1 variant into other plants, they were unable to make viable seeds.
Mother of thousands appears to have lost the ability to reproduce sexually and make seeds, but transferred at least part of the embryo-making process to the leaves to make plantlets, Sinha said. The findings could be useful in manipulating plant reproduction, she said.

Even on an incline as steep as 85 degrees small drops can travel uphill if the surface vibrates strongly enough.

Gravity-defying drops of liquid can travel uphill if the surface they are sitting on is shaken up and down vigorously enough, a new study finds.
If you’ve ever looked out a window on a rainy day, you’ve probably noticed that small drops of water tend to stay where they fall, while big ones roll down the glass. Small drops stay still because the surface tension holding them up is balanced against the force of gravity pulling them down. But for bigger drops, gravity overwhelms the surface tension force and causes the drop to slide down, LiveScience.com reported.
Mathematicians at the University of Bristol have shown that not only can small drops withstand the force of gravity, they can completely defy it. Even on an incline as steep as 85 degrees (almost perpendicular to the ground), small drops can travel uphill if the surface vibrates strongly enough.
“As the shaking plate rises, the drop is compressed, while it bulges upward as the plate falls,“ explained researcher Jens Eggers. “If the shaking is vigorous enough to overcome the surface tension experienced as the drop is compressed, the drop will tend to lean forward, producing a net force which drives the drop uphill.“
Drops must be just the right size, as large drops will tend to break apart under the forces applied to them. Similarly, the liquid’s viscosity is important: Pure water droplets aren’t strong enough to hold together and would break apart, and liquids that are too thick will move too slowly. Scientists have previously used extremely hot surfaces to force water to move up an incline.
Understanding how to move these tiny droplets could help improve certain processes, like arranging pieces of DNA, said Egger’s colleague Philippe Brunet.

New research from the Howard Florey Institute in Melbourne has shown why mutation in a single gene can cause epilepsy in infants.
Infants are more susceptible to seizures because their brains are developing at a rapid rate, making their brain cells ’excitable’. Their neurons are growing and making new connections with other nerve cells, which can disrupt normal brain activity and results in epilepsy.
Infants have protective mechanisms in their brains to control this excitability, but now the Florey scientists have uncovered that a single gene mutation prevents a specific ion channel from functioning correctly, thus causing excitability which results in epilepsy, Science Daily reported.
Dr Steven Petrou and his team knew the genetic mutation existed, but did not know its impact on brain function or that it may control excitability in infants’ brains.
“This discovery is helping us to understand how and why this form of epilepsy, known as benign familial neonatal-infantile seizures, appears in these infants,“ Dr Petrou said.
“Interestingly, we also found that the ion channel which carries the mutation is itself naturally protective as it limits excitability in the infant brain by waiting to fully switch on only in the adult brain.
“The mutation accelerates this normally delayed development change, leaving the susceptible infant brain with an overly excitable channel and epilepsy.
“If this switch to a more excitable state occurs too early during brain development, it is possible that epilepsy and other neurological disorders develop.
“This highlights the complexity of the human brain and how disorders can develop if one single mechanism goes awry,“ he said.
There are more than 200 types of epilepsy, which can either be inherited or result from a range of causes including, head trauma, vascular disease or brain tumors.

Lowering the blood pressure of stroke victims with chronic kidney disease protects them from further strokes or heart attacks, an Australian study found.
According to UPI, given the high risk of cardiovascular complications in people with chronic kidney disease, the findings have significant implications for millions of people worldwide, said Dr. Vlado Perkovic of The George Institute in Sydney.
“People with chronic kidney disease are at a significantly greater risk of cardiovascular events than those without the disease,“ Perkovic said in a statement.
“We found that approximately twice as many cardiovascular events were prevented when a perindopril based blood pressure lowering regimen was used in these people, compared to people with normal kidney function.“
The findings are based on data of 1,800 patients who were part of a large clinical trial conducted on blood pressure and stroke.

People are more likely to believe findings from a neuroscience study when the report is paired with a colored image of a brain as opposed to other representational images of data such as bar graphs, according to a new Colorado State University study.
Scientists and journalists have recently suggested that brain images have a persuasive influence on the public perception of research on cognition. This idea was tested directly in a series of experiments reported by David McCabe, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Colorado State, and his colleague Alan Castel, an assistant professor at University of California-Los Angeles. The forthcoming paper, to be published in the journal Cognition, was recently published online, Science Daily said.
“We found the use of brain images to represent the level of brain activity associated with cognitive processes clearly influenced ratings of scientific merit,“ McCabe said. “This sort of visual evidence of physical systems at work is typical in areas of science like chemistry and physics, but has not traditionally been associated with research on cognition.
“We think this is the reason people find brain images compelling. The images provide a physical basis for thinking.“
In a series of three experiments, undergraduate students were either asked to read brief articles that made fictitious and unsubstantiated claims such as “watching television increases math skills,“ or they read a real article describing research showing that brain imaging can be used as a lie detector.
When the research participants were asked to rate their agreement with the conclusions reached in the article, ratings were higher when a brain image had accompanied the article, compared to when it did not include a brain image or included a bar graph representing the data.
This effect occurred regardless of whether the article described a fictitious, implausible finding or realistic research.