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Extending The Life Of An Appetite-Suppressing Peptide
The peptide alpha-MSH works in a region of the brain known as the hypothalamus to suppress appetite. A team of researchers, at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, and the University of California Davis, has provided new insight into the way in which levels of the active form of alpha-MSH are regulated in mice. Specifically, genetic and biochemical analysis performed by the team, led by Sabrina Diano and Craig Warden, indicated that the protein PRCP is expressed in the hypothalamus and breaks down the active form of alpha-MSH, generating a slightly smaller peptide that does not suppress food intake. Importantly, administration of PRCP inhibitors to both normal and obese mice reduced their food intake. Further, mice lacking PRCP had increased levels of the active form of alpha-MSH in the hypothalamus and were leaner and shorter than normal mice; they also did not get obese when fed a high-fat diet. The authors suggest that these data are the first step in identifying PRCP as a candidate drug target for the treatment of obesity and obesity-related disorders. Although Richard Palmiter, at the University of Washington, Seattle, also raises this intriguing possibility, he cautions that any drug would need to penetrate the brain.
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Review Of Brazil's HIV/AIDS Treatment Programs Shows Importance Of Generic Drugs, Researchers Say
"Brazil has been successful in its nearly 20-year effort to treat people living with" HIV/AIDS, and generic medicines have been "a large part of the solution," according to a recent Health Affairs review, UPI reports (UPI, 7/14). The review examines Brazil"s passing of "a law in the 1990s that guaranteed citizens free and universal access to drugs for HIV and AIDS treatment" as well as the country"s production of generic HIV/AIDS medicines in public factories, AHN reports. "The [Brazilian] government also prompted drug companies to lower their prices by threatening to make generic versions of [patented] HIV and AIDS drugs in the public factories," writes AHN (Goodhue, 7/14).
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Tennessee General Assembly Advances Bill To Restrict Abortion Access
The Tennessee House on Monday voted 76-22 to approve a resolution (S.J.R. 127) to amend the state constitution to allow the Legislature to impose stricter limits on abortion, the AP/Memphis Commercial Appeal reports. The resolution, which aims to void a 2000 Tennessee Supreme Court ruling, was passed by the state Senate in March, but it still has hurdles to overcome. In order to change the state constitution, the measure will have to be approved by a two-thirds majority of both houses in the next General Assembly, either in 2011 or 2012, before it could go to voters in 2014.The 2000 court decision declared that the state constitution provides stronger protections than the U.S. Constitution for abortion rights. The decision nullified a number restrictions the Tennessee Legislature previously had adopted, including requirements that clinics provide women with specific information about abortion procedures, a 48-hour waiting period and a requirement that all but first trimester abortions take place in hospitals.The measure would add a provision to the state constitution declaring that, "Nothing in this constitution secures or protects a right to abortion, or requires the funding of an abortion. The people retain the right through their elected state representatives and state senators to enact, amend or repeal statutes regarding abortion, including but not limited to circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest or when necessary to save the life of the mother." An amendment to the resolution failed on Monday that would have allowed abortions in "cases involving rape or incest or in cases where the procedure is medically necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman." Rep. Debra Maggart (R), sponsor of the resolution, said that it "just returns the constitution of the state of Tennessee to neutral on the subject of abortion."Rep. Henry Fincher (D) said, "Assuming there"s no change in the makeup of the General Assembly, there"s a good chance that it will pass then and go to the ballot." Rep. Jeanne Richardson (D) said, "I have a feeling that in this country if a majority of women tried to tell men what to do in their sex lives and what to do with their own bodies, it would fail utterly and miserably" (Johnson, AP/Memphis Commercial Appeal, 5/19).
Public Health

Less Than One Drop Of Blood Needed By New Device To Detect Heart Disease

Testing people for heart disease might be just a finger prick away thanks to a new credit card-sized device created by a team of researchers from Harvard and Northeastern universities in Boston. In a research report published online in The FASEB Journal, they describe how this device can measure and collect a type of cells needed to build vascular tissue, called endothelial progenitor cells, using only 200 microliters of blood. The development is also significant because it allows scientists to collect these cells much more easily than current techniques allow, bringing laboratory-created tissue for vascular bypass surgeries another step closer to reality. "This simple device is a promising tool for the pediatric and adult population in detecting, diagnosing, monitoring, and providing the option of treating cardiovascular disease by utilizing a small quantity of blood," said lead researcher Shashi K. Murthy of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Northeastern University in Boston. To collect the cells, the device works similar to Velcro™ or a magnet. Specifically, the inside is coated with antibodies that only bind to endothelial progenitor cells. Blood flows through the device through a funnel-like opening (except the blood enters through the narrow end and exits through the wide end), passes over the antibodies, and endothelial progenitor cells are "picked up" in the process. In addition to allowing researchers to collect cells from a very small amount of blood, the device"s design also provides researchers with a new model to study the effects that blood flow in the body has on cell binding (like clots form in arteries). "Most immediately, this is could be a new tool to assess cardiovascular health that cuts the amount of blood needed down to a pin prick. Its compact size might make it an excellent tool for use in developing countries where access to medical laboratories does not exist," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "In addition, this moves much closer to a future where new blood vessels, veins and arteries for transplants no longer need to be grafted from patient"s bodies. The amount of pain and recovery times for bypass surgeries would be reduced significantly." Cody Mooneyhan Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology


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