Thursday, December 4, 2008

Tracing Evolution in Genes

Conditions such as cardiovascular disease and autism have resisted useful genetic analysis because they are likely caused by multiple, interacting genetic components. Nielsen's techniques, which make statistical associations between multiple genes, are ideal for the job. Once a suite of genes is linked with a disease, scientists can make far more rapid progress developing cures that could someday benefit human and chimpanzee alike.




http://sciencematters.berkeley.edu/archives/volume5/issue38/story3.php




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Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Exercise and HDL Cholesterol - How Exercise Affects HDL Cholesterol

This meta-study shows that forty minutes of exercise four times per week is very effective

Investigators from Tokyo published results in the May 28 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine from a meta-analysis they performed to evaluate the effect of exercise on HDL levels. Their meta-analysis included data from 35 randomized trials assessing the effect of exercise on HDL levels in adults. While exercise regimens varied among these studies, on average patients in these studies exercised for 40 minutes, three to four times per week, and the effect on HDL was measured after eight to 27 weeks.

Across the studies, participants had increases in HDL cholesterol averaging about 2.5 mg/dL. This increase in HDL cholesterol was only modest, but was statistically significant. Furthermore, since cardiac risk is thought to drop by two to three percent for each 1 mg/dL increase in HDL, a 2.5 mg/dL rise in HDL amounts to a substantial reduction in risk.

Perhaps the most interesting finding from this study is the observation that the duration of exercise sessions - and not the frequency or intensity of exercise - correlated the best with rises in HDL levels. The investigators report that in research subjects exercising for at least 20 minutes, each additional 10-minute increase in exercise duration increased HDL levels by an additional 1.4 mg/dL.

Exercise and HDL Cholesterol - How Exercise Affects HDL Cholesterol

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Coronary Artery Disease - The New Way of Thinking About Coronary Artery Disease

Since Health Plus is no longer allowing nuclear stress test, this summary is very interesting to my case.

What are the implications of the new way?

While actual blockages can and do cause angina and heart attacks and while treating specific blockages is often important, therapy aimed at these blockages within the coronary arteries is often neither necessary nor sufficient to adequately treat CAD. Evidence is building that with intensive medical therapy -- largely based on statins but also including aggressive risk-factor modification -- CAD can be halted or even reversed, and plaques can be "stabilized" to reduce the odds that they will rupture. In these individuals, exercise, smoking cessation, weight loss, blood pressure control and cholesterol control (aiming for LDL cholesterol levels of 100 mg/dL and HDL levels of at least 40 mg/dl) is especially important.

The key, then, is to decide whether an individual is likely to have active CAD, that is, whether plaques are likely to be present, and then direct therapy accordingly. To a large extent, deciding whether plaques are likely to be present can be accomplished noninvasively. Begin with a simple assessment of risk to decide whether your risk is low, intermediate or high. ( Here's how to assess your risk simply and easily.) People in the low-risk categories probably need no further intervention. People in the high-risk categories should be treated aggressively (with statins and risk-factor modification), as they are very likely to have plaques. People in the intermediate risk category should consider noninvasive testing with EBT scanning (calcium scans): if calcium deposits are present on the coronary arteries, then they have plaques and should be treated aggressively.

When should blockages be looked for?

Blockages in the coronary arteries are still important. Most experts think that people in the high-risk category should have a stress thallium test. If this test is suggestive of a major blockage, cardiac catheterization should be considered. A stress test or cardiac catheterization should also be strongly considered in anybody (whatever their apparent level of risk) who has symptoms of angina. Relieving blockages by surgery or stenting can be extremely effective in treating angina and, in some circumstances, can improve survival.

Summary

Our thinking about CAD has changed significantly over the past decade or so. It is not simply a disease of blockages that ought to be treated with stents. Treatment aimed at halting or reversing chronic CAD and at stabilizing plaques to reduce the odds that they will rupture, is very important, whether "significant" blockages are present or not.

Coronary Artery Disease - The New Way of Thinking About Coronary Artery Disease

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Sunday, April 27, 2008

Newswise Medical News | ‘Mutant’ Proteins Could Lead to New Treatment for Heart Disease

 

Obstructed blood vessels and clogged or blocked arteries typically are treated through angioplasty, the mechanical widening of a vessel, or bypass surgery. Some patients, however, have numerous small blockages that cannot be treated through traditional approaches. In most cases, they are sent home with a predicted life expectancy that, no matter how it’s phrased, sounds like a death sentence.

A new approach to the problem called therapeutic coronary angiogenesis is creating hope through the injection of human fibroblast growth factor protein into affected areas. Improvements with the procedure may arise from the use of mutant forms with increased stability.

Blaber and his research team are creating artificial “mutant’’ proteins in their College of Medicine laboratory that mimic the human proteins used in angiogenic therapy, and with enhanced stability properties. So far, the mutant proteins engineered at the College of Medicine have exhibited potency in stimulating cell growth while simultaneously maintaining greater stability under conditions common to angiogenic therapy.

Newswise Medical News | ‘Mutant’ Proteins Could Lead to New Treatment for Heart Disease

Newswise Medical News | The Missing Link Between Belly Fat and Heart Disease?

 

Description

Overweight people have a higher risk of heart attacks, strokes and other problems that arise from clogged, hardened arteries. Now, a new study in mice gives the first direct evidence of why this link might exist – and a tantalizing look at how it might be broken.

Newswise Medical News | The Missing Link Between Belly Fat and Heart Disease?

Monday, March 31, 2008

No Good News For Vytorin or Zetia

 

Today the official results of the ENHANCE trial were finally presented, simultaneously, at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions in Chicago, and in print in the New England Journal of Medicine. While some were half expecting the sponsors to pull a rabbit out of the hat at the last minute, and show that Vytorin actually does provide some measurable benefit to patients with high cholesterol levels, that did not happen.

There were no surprises of note.

As I have previously described, despite the significant reduction in LDL cholesterol in study patients who took Vytorin (a combination of ezetimibe and simvastatin) as compared to patients who took generic simvastatin alone, there was no benefit in the endpoint measured. (That endpoint, a measure of wall thickness in the carotid artery, generally reflects the amount of coronary artery disease that is present.) There appears to be no benefit to taking Vytorin (or its cousin, Zetia, which consists of just ezetimibe) instead of a statin alone.

Indeed, the fact that carotid artery wall thickness actually increased more in patients taking Vytorin than those taking simvastatin alone (though the difference was not statistically significant) raises at least the possibility that Vytorin and Zetia ought to be avoided unless they are really necessary to achieve target cholesterol levels.

No Good News For Vytorin or Zetia

 

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Friday, February 29, 2008

Anti-cholesterol drugs may damage cellular power station

Certain cholesterol-reducing drugs appear to damage mitochondria, the tiny power stations inside living cells.


Aches and cramps


When the researchers tested various statins, which are widely prescribed for lowering cholesterol levels in the blood by inhibiting a key enzyme involved in cholesterol synthesis, they found that three of them - fluvastatin, lovastatin and simvastatin - were toxic towards mitochondria. 'Patients have reported muscle aches and cramps as a side effect of some statins and this could be one reason,' Mootha told Chemistry World. 'This clinical hypothesis could have huge implications worldwide.' 



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Sunday, February 24, 2008

Blue Gene: Omega-3 fatty acids and cholesterol

IBM Research

Blue Gene: Omega-3 fatty acids and cholesterol

Blue Gene: Omega-3 fatty acids and cholesterol
Omega-3 Fatty acids and cholesterol
Omega-3 fatty acids and cholesterol are as important to diet and health as they are for understanding disease. They play essential roles in many of the most critical processes in biology. To better enable studies of how membrane proteins are affected by the membrane environment, the Blue Gene science team investigated a mixture of cholesterol and omega-3 fatty acids via atomic-level simulation with Blue Matter. These studies could provide new insights into understanding why cholesterol has a stiffening effect on cell membranes.

http://domino.watson.ibm.com/comm/pr.nsf/pages/rscd.bluegene-picac.html/$FILE/omega.jpg

Monday, February 11, 2008

The "Plavix Rebound" Phenomenon

 

In monitoring 3137 patients who received Plavix after being treated for ACS, the authors of this new study say that the patients' chance of having a heart attack or dying was nearly twice as high during the 90 days after Plavix was stopped, than it was after this 90-day interval. They speculate that perhaps tapering Plavix instead of stopping it abruptly, or perhaps increasing the dose of aspirin during the first 90 days after stopping Plavix, may help to reduce this rebound effect - but of course, more studies will need to be done to see whether either of these strategies are effective

The "Plavix Rebound" Phenomenon

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Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Cardiovascular disease to become leading cause of death worldwide by 2020 - Pharmaceutical Business Review

 

While the mortality from atherosclerotic conditions, such as coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke has declined by approximately 60% over the past 30 years, CHD remains the single largest killer of Americans. When considered separate from other cardiovascular diseases, heart disease and stroke still represent the first and third leading causes of death, respectively, among men and women in the US. In developed countries, cardiovascular disease (CVD) accounts for nearly 50% of all deaths, and within the next 15-20 years, cardiovascular disease is projected to surpass infectious diseases to become the leading cause of death worldwide

Cardiovascular disease to become leading cause of death worldwide by 2020 - Pharmaceutical Business Review

Zocor, Simvastatin Found to Disrupt Sleep Due to Fat Soluble Characteristic of Lipophilic Statins

 

“The results showed that simvastatin use was associated with significantly worse sleep quality. A significantly greater number of individuals taking simvastatin reported sleep problems than those taking either pravastain or the placebo,” Golomb said.

Zocor, Simvastatin Found to Disrupt Sleep Due to Fat Soluble Characteristic of Lipophilic Statins

The Daily Bruin - Ultrafine particles in emissions found to cause heart disease

 

Air pollution has been suggested as a risk factor for developing heart disease for several years, but a new UCLA study has found ultrafine particles from vehicle emissions that may lead to heart attack or stroke.

The Daily Bruin - Ultrafine particles in emissions found to cause heart disease

 

Mark’s Daily Apple » Blog Archive » The Definitive Guide to Cholesterol

The link below gives one of the best summaries of what causes heart disease that I have seen.  Check it out.

Mark’s Daily Apple » Blog Archive » The Definitive Guide to Cholesterol

Monday, January 28, 2008

Rat Heart Created

link 

This video shows the process of creating a rat heart from cells.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Researchers grow beating heart in lab - CNN.com

 

They took the hearts from eight newborn rats and removed all the cells. Left behind was a gelatin-like matrix shaped like a heart and containing conduits where the blood vessels had been. Scientists then injected cells back into this scaffold -- muscle cells and endothelial cells, which line blood vessels. Watch more on rebuilding hearts from scratch Video

The muscle cells covered the matrix walls and lined up together, while the endothelial cells found their way inside to coat the blood vessels, she said. Then the hearts were stimulated electrically.

"By two days we saw tiny, microscopic contractions, and by seven to eight days there were contractions large enough to see with the naked eye," she said. The tiny hearts could pump liquid at about one-fourth the rate of a normal fetal rat's heart.

Researchers grow beating heart in lab - CNN.com

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Framingham Heart Study expanding into genetics

Framingham SHARe, seeks to link data from the study to ongoing research into disease.



Scientists know just a small proportion of the genes most strongly linked with certain diseases. DNA and 60 years of clinical information from people in the Framingham study will strengthen the ability to identify new associations, and help scientists narrow down which genes go with which diseases. That can pave the way for huge advances in prevention and treatment, they say.



The Framingham Study is moving in new directions.  Genetics will be a major focus.
Link


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