Archive for the ‘Medicare Providers’ Category
Volunteers are being sought for a clinical study examining the subtle changes that may take place in the brains of older people many years before overt symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease appear. Researchers are looking for people with the very earliest complaints of memory problems that affect their daily activities.
The study will follow participants over time, using imaging techniques developed to advance research into changes taking place in the structure and function of the living brain, as well as biomarker measures found in blood and cerebrospinal fluid.
With the rapid and continuous advances in biotechnology, scientists are better able to see inside the nucleus of a cell to unlock the secrets of its genetic material. However, what happens outside of the nucleus has, in many ways, remained a mystery. Now, researchers with the National Institutes of Health are closer to understanding how activity outside of the nucleus determines a cell’s behavior.
They looked at mouse immune cells and examined the types, amount, and activity of microRNAs, genetic components that help regulate the production of proteins. Their study provides a map to the variety of microRNAs contained within mouse immune cells and reveals the complexity of cellular protein regulation. The study appears online in the journal Immunity.
In a major study, investigators have compared how individuals with Parkinson’s disease respond to deep brain stimulation (DBS) at two different sites in the brain. Contrary to current belief, patients who received DBS at either site in the brain experienced comparable benefits for the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s.
Infants born with a severely underdeveloped heart who undergo a newer surgical procedure are more likely to survive their first year and not require a heart transplant than those who have a more traditional surgical procedure, according to a report by researchers supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), which is part of the National Institutes of Health. The study of 549 newborns, however, suggests that after the first year, the two surgical procedures for the relatively rare condition yield similar results.
A team of scientists from government, academia and private industry has developed a novel treatment that protects mice from infection with the bacterium that causes tularemia, a highly infectious disease of rodents, sometimes transmitted to people, and also known as rabbit fever. In additional experiments with human immune cells, the treatment also demonstrated protection against three other types of disease-causing bacteria that, like the tularemia bacteria, occur naturally, can be highly virulent, and are considered possible agents of bioterrorism. The experimental therapeutic works by stimulating the host immune system to destroy invading microbes. In contrast, antibiotics work by directly attacking invading bacteria, which often develop resistance to these medications. The therapeutic has the potential to enhance the action of antibiotics and provide an alternative to them.
Researchers have identified a distinct pattern of gene expression in the largest reported group of kidney transplant recipients who have not rejected the transplant kidneys even though they stopped taking anti-rejection drugs. This finding may help identify other transplant recipients who could safely reduce or end use of immunosuppressive therapy. In 2008, more than 80,000 people in the United States were living with a kidney transplant.
The Human Microbiome Project (HMP) today published an analysis of 178 genomes from microbes that live in or on the human body. The researchers discovered novel genes and proteins that serve functions in human health and disease, adding a new level of understanding to what is known about the complexity and diversity of these organisms.
Visit USA.gov’s overview of Marine Oil Spills to learn about cleanup and wildlife rescue following oil spills that affect oceans, lakes, and/or rivers.
Partnerships between NIH-funded researchers and industry are often essential to the process of moving discoveries from the bench to the bedside. However, managing Financial Conflicts of Interest (FCOI) can be a major challenge because of the complex relationships among government, academia, and industry. A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which is open for public comment for the next 60 days, proposes a general revision to the existing regulations.
Participants in a workshop sponsored by the National Institutes of Health have developed guidelines on designing and evaluating clinical research studies investigating soy, representing the first guidelines of their kind in the field of soy research. The guidelines are published in the June 2010 issue of The Journal of Nutrition.
Dr. Harold Varmus brings a vast wealth of expertise to this key leadership position at the Department. Among his many professional distinctions, he is a Nobel laureate in cancer genetics; has been president of one of the premier cancer research and treatment institutions for the past decade; and previously has served the public as NIH director in the 1990s.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has appointed four new members to the National Advisory Council for Nursing Research (NACNR), the principal advisory board for the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR). Members of the council are drawn from the scientific and lay communities, embodying a diverse perspective from the fields of nursing, public and health policy, law, and economics.
An important role of the council is to conduct a second level of review of grant applications that have been scored by scientific review groups. The council meets three times a year on the campus of the National Institutes of Health to provide recommendations on the direction and support of the nursing, biomedical, social, and behavioral research that forms the evidence base for nursing practice.
A genetic variant of a receptor in the brain’s reward circuitry plays an important role in determining whether the neurotransmitter dopamine is released in the brain following alcohol intake, according to a study led by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health. Dopamine is involved in transmitting the euphoria and other positive subjective effects produced by alcohol.
Two common operations for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) help women achieve similar levels of dryness, according to a team of urologists and urogynecologists who compared the treatments in a large U.S. trial supported by the National Institutes of Health. The study is being released online May 17, 2010, by the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with a presentation at the annual meeting of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Results will appear in the June 3 print edition.
See the most popular pages and search terms on USA.gov last month.
Two findings from an NIH research network study provide new information on how much oxygen very preterm infants should receive starting on the first day of life and the most effective means to deliver it to them.
Scientists have identified a group of surface markers on cells linked to an aggressive type of breast cancer called estrogen receptor-negative cancer. In this preliminary study, estrogen-negative breast cancer developed when three markers, CD44+, CD49fhi, and CD133hi were present simultaneously on the surface of human cells taken from breast cancer patients and transplanted into a mouse;
this is called a xenograft model. The scientists named these human cells with tumor-forming ability in mice, xenograft-initiating cells, or XIC. The research, conducted by scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, appeared online May 18, 2010, and in print June 1, 2010, in Cancer Research.