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Sex counselling during drug addiction program may help cut HIV transmission
12.07.2008 03:25
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A study conducted by experts from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC) suggests that sexual behaviour counselling during drug addiction treatment may help cut risky sexual behaviour among people who are at risk of being infected by HIV. Appearing in the journal Addiction, the researcher focussed on Russian substance-dependent individuals because alcohol use is highly pervasive in Russia, and has been associated with sexual HIV risk-taking behaviour. "A behavioural intervention to reduce unsafe sex is an essential component to HIV prevention, and is critical in the absence of a cure or vaccine," said lead author Dr. Jeffrey Samet, chief of the Section of General Internal Medicine at BMC and BUSM. During the study, the current method used to decrease unsafe sexual behaviour was compared with the Russian Partnership to Reduce the Epidemic Via Engagement in Narcology Treatment (PREVENT) intervention program. People participating in the study were HIV-positive and negative, and were assigned to either the PREVENT program or the standard addiction treatment. PREVENT sessions took place at the hospital, and involved obtaining HIV test results, discussion of personal risk and creation of a behavioural change plan. The participants were explained the risk reduction plan to promote safe sex that included using condoms, building sexual-negotiation skills, developing positive attitudes regarding safe sex, and emphasizing alcohol and drugs role in impairing judgment. Telephone updates were carried out for three months after the subjects were discharged from the hospital, to assess their personal long-term risk reduction goals and plans. People assigned to the standard addiction treatment program received the usual addiction treatment at the hospital, including HIV testing. They, however, did not receive any sexual behaviour counselling. Those already infected with HIV, and those who tested positive, received a 20-minute HIV post-test counselling session that included creating risk reduction goals and a referral to an HIV care program. The subjects were contacted for study check ups, but not counselled. Both participants of the standard addiction treatment and PREVENT program were given condoms when they left the hospital. Upon comparing the two forms of intervention, the researchers found that participants of the PREVENT program had a higher percentage of safe sex than did the standard addiction participants at the six month follow-up visits. "Both control and intervention groups had improvements in the percentage of safe sex occurrences, restraining from unprotected sex and increasing condom use between baseline and the three month follow-up. While the intervention group maintained or improved their safe sex behaviors at the six month follow-up, the standard addiction treatment group worsened," said Samet. The researchers say that their study’s results suggest that an HIV intervention program targeting the sexual behaviours of alcohol and drug users is feasible in inpatient substance abuse treatment settings, and is effective in increasing safe sex. (ANI)
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Study holds promise for early Alzheimer’s diagnosis, treatment
12.07.2008 03:25
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Canadian scientists have unearthed clear evidence that increases in the size of the ventricles, fluid-filled cavities in the brain, are directly linked with cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. Robert Bartha and his colleagues at Robarts Research Institute at The University of Western Ontario have found that the volume of the brain ventricles expands as surrounding tissue dies. Writing about their findings in the journal Brian, the researchers say that ventricle size increases with mild cognitive impairment before a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, and continues to increase with the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease after only six months. “These findings mean that, in the future, by using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure changes in brain ventricle size, we may be able to provide earlier and more definitive diagnosis,” said Bartha, who is also an Associate Professor in the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry in Medical Biophysics. “In addition, as new treatments for Alzheimer’s are developed, the measurement of brain ventricle changes can also be used to quickly determine the effectiveness of the treatment,” the researcher added. According to the researchers, their study also revealed that Alzheimer’s patients with a genetic marker for Alzheimer’s disease exhibited faster expansion in ventricle volume. The researchers used MRI scans from individuals from across North America for their study, and examined 500 data sets of individuals at baseline and six months later. The images were obtained from the Alzheimer''s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), a large multi-site trial sponsored by the National Institutes of Health in the United States and the pharmaceutical industry. The images included MRIs of individuals with no cognitive impairment, those with mild cognitive impairment, and people with Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers examined the MRIs using software developed by Cedara Software, the OEM division of Merge Healthcare, which enabled them to process large volumes of data very quickly. "This is one of the first major research studies published using data from ADNI, but there will be many more neuroimaging and biomarker discoveries to arise from the ADNI project. It is a tremendous opportunity for researchers anywhere in the world to use the ADNI databases, to collaborate and share their findings in a new way that will move Alzheimer''s disease research forward more quickly, objectively and effectively. Already we are building new international collaborations, arising from ADNI, that we could not have even imagined," said Dr. Michael Borrie, a co-investigator on the research. (ANI)
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Radiation therapy may prevent rare breast cancer recurrence
12.07.2008 03:25
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A new study from City of Hope National Medical Centre in Duarte, California has revealed that radiation therapy can help lower cancer recurrence of a rare type of breast cancer in patients. Phyllodes tumours are rare breast tumours that develop in the connective tissue of the breast, as opposed to more common carcinomas, which develop in the ducts or lobules of the breast Presently, patients with the rare tumours are treated either with a lumpectomy or mastectomy, with only a small fraction receiving radiation therapy. The adjuvant radiation therapy is recommended for cancer patients with local recurrence risks of 15 percent or greater but the effect have never been studied for phyllodes tumors because they are so rare. Researchers reviewed the records of 478 patients with malignant phyllodes tumors who were treated between March 1964 and August 2005 and found that the risk of local recurrence for phyllodes tumors was related to tumour size and the type of surgery received. "Typically these tumours are treated well by surgery alone. However, local recurrences are not uncommon," said Richard Pezner, M.D., lead author of the study and a radiation oncologist at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif. They determined that adjuvant radiation therapy should be evaluated for phyllodes tumor patients who received lumpectomies for tumours at least 2 centimeters in size or a mastectomy for tumours at least 10 centimetres in size to reduce the risk of recurrence. The study appears in the July issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, the official journal of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology. (ANI)
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Protein that underpins prostate cancer cells to cause disease in bones unveiled
12.07.2008 03:25
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Researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, have gained fresh insights into the mechanisms by which prostate cancer cells spread to the bones. The researchers point out that death mainly occurs as a result of the tumour spreading to the bones, where it is known as an osteoblastic bone metastasis. According to them, treatments that deprive the tumour of male sex hormones (androgens) are usually effective, but only briefly as the tumours typically develop the ability to grow in the absence of androgens and the diseases progresses. Now, Nora Navone and colleagues from the university have generated new data using two prostate cancer cell lines that lack expression of androgen receptors, and that were derived from the bones of an individual with osteoblastic bone metastases. The data sheds light into the mechanisms by which prostate cancer osteoblastic bone metastases progress. The androgen receptor, negative prostate cancer cell lines generated by the researchers grew when transplanted into immunocompromised mice and generated osteoblastic bone metastases. The researchers found a protein known as FGF9 that expressed at higher levels in these cells lines than in other bone-derived prostate cancer cells, and induced bone formation in an in vitro organ culture assay. They also observed that blocking FGF9 reduced the osteoblastic bone metastases in mice transplanted with the cell lines. Given that FGF9 was found to be expressed in all human prostate cancer osteoblastic bone metastases analysed during the study, the researchers believe that FGF9 plays a significant role in prostate cancer progression to osteoblastic bone metastases. The cells lines generated are also likely to be an important preclinical model for researchers developing therapeutics for osteoblastic bone metastases in individuals with prostate cancer. (ANI)
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How the brain contributes to insulin resistance
12.07.2008 03:25
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A new study from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York has shed light on how the brain contributes to the development of insulin resistance in body. Insulin resistance refers to the inability of cells in the body to respond appropriately to the hormone insulin. Among the cells in the body that normally respond to insulin are nerves in a region of the brain known as the hypothalamus. In the new study conducted over rats, Hiraku Ono and colleagues found that when rodents were fed a high-fat diet for a short period of time, the ability of insulin to prevent liver cells releasing stored glucose was reduced. This in turn reduced insulin-induced signalling and increased activation of a protein known as SK6 in the hypothalamus, which suppressed the ability of insulin to prevent glucose release These data lead the authors to speculate that the earliest stages of diet-induced insulin resistance might be prevented by inhibition of S6K in the hypothalamus. (ANI)
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