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Study Shows Relationship Between Atrial Fibrillation And Development Of Alzheimer's Disease
Researchers at Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City believe that they have made a breakthrough connection between atrial fibrillation, a fairly common heart rhythm disorder, and Alzheimer"s disease, the leading form of dementia among Americans.
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Drop In U.S. Births Began Before Recession, Census Data Show
Newly released Census Bureau data show that even before the current economic recession began in September 2008, population growth among children younger than age one began to decline, the AP/Kansas City Star reports. Between July 2007 and July 2008, the number of children younger than age one in the U.S. increased 0.9%, compared with a record 2.7% increase the previous year. Although births tend to drop during economic downturns as more people decide that they cannot afford to support children, experts said it is not clear why the recent drop began months before the current recession emerged. Stephanie Ventura, a demographer for the National Center for Health Statistics, said that it will be impossible to know what factors contributed to the change until demographic breakdowns are available later this year. The AP/Star reports that increases in teenage births had been driving up birth rates in recent years.Historically, birth rates have declined during poor economic times -- including the recessions of 1973, 1982 and 2001 -- and births dropped nearly 26% during the Great Depression. Mark Mather, an associate vice president at the Population Research Bureau, said, "The economy does matter. If prospects look worse for families, they"re going to be very likely to have fewer kids" (Yen/Wagster Pettus, AP/Kansas City Star, 5/19).
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Exercise Programs Focusing On Muscle Density Could Reduce Disability And Hospitalization Of The Elderly
Older adults who have less strength, poor physical function and low muscle density are at higher risk of being hospitalized compared to adults with more strength and better function. That"s the finding of a new study in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society.
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Researchers Identify Gene That Regulates Tumors In Neuroblastoma

Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have identified a gene that may play a key role in regulating tumor progression in neuroblastoma, a form of cancer usually found in young children. Scientists hope the finding could lead to an effective therapy to inhibit the expression of this gene. According to Paul B. Fisher, M.Ph., Ph.D., who is the first incumbent of the Thelma Newmeyer Corman Endowed Chair in Cancer Research with the VCU Massey Cancer Center, and Seok-Geun Lee, Ph.D., assistant professor in the VCU Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, co-lead investigators of the study, the team has shown that astrocyte elevated gene-1, AEG-1, a cancer promoting gene, is frequently activated in neuroblastoma. In the study published online in the May issue of the journal Oncogene, Fisher, Lee and their team found that the elevated expression of AEG-1 makes cancer cells highly aggressive and resistant to factors that may influence cell suicide, and that loss of AEG-1 reduces the tumor-causing properties of highly aggressive neuroblastoma cells. Additionally, the expression of AEG-1 was significantly elevated in six of 10 neuroblastoma patient-derived samples compared to normal peripheral nerve tissues. Furthermore, they have shown the potential correlation between AEG-1 and MYCN in neuroblastoma. MYCN is a known genetic determinant of neuroblastoma and elevated levels have been observed in one third of neuroblastoma patients. MYCN is linked to aggressive tumor formation and poor clinical outcome. "We believe that activation of AEG-1 in addition to MYCN is critical to the development and progression of neuroblastoma. This works shows that AEG-1 plays a crucial role in the development and progression of neuroblastoma through activating important signaling pathway and induction of MYCN," said Fisher, who also is professor and chair of the Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, and director of the VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine in the VCU School of Medicine. "In addition, we have shown that AEG-1 could be a potential prognostic marker for neuroblastoma and a potential target for novel therapeutic strategies for neuroblastoma patients," he said. The team has already begun analyzing the expression of AEG-1 and its relationship with MYCN status in neuroblastoma patient samples. Through collaboration with John Maris, M.D., chair of neuroblastoma research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, the team will acquire data from approximately 2,000 neuroblastoma patient tissues. They will also test if inactivation of AEG-1 using small interfering RNA could be a therapeutic intervention for neuroblastoma through second collaborative effort with Bill Weiss, M.D., associate professor of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation, the Dana Foundation, and the Goldhirsh Foundation. Fisher worked with a team that included VCU School of Medicine researchers Zaozhong Su, Ph.D., associate professor in the VCU Department of Human and Molecular Genetics; Devanand Sarkar, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., assistant professor and Harrison Endowed Scholar in Cancer Research at the VCU Massey Cancer Center, the VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine and the Department of Human and Molecular Genetics; H-Y Jeon, J.E. Richards, and N. Vozhilla, D.V.M., with the VCU Department of Human and Molecular Genetics; and T Van Maerken, M.D., with the Center for Medical Genetics at the Ghent University Hospital in Ghent, Belgium. Sathya Achia Abraham Virginia Commonwealth University


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