Author Interviews, Mental Health Research, PLoS, University of Pennsylvania / 29.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Yuanyuan Xie, PhD Postdoctoral Researcher Department of Neuroscience University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: I joined Dr. Richard Dorsky’s lab in mid 2013 after a lab switch toward the end of the fourth year in my PhD. By then, the Dorsky lab at the University of Utah had published zebrafish lef1 mutants with a hypothalamic neurogenesis phenotype. I was asked to perform an RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) experiment to identify Lef1-dependent genes. In doing so, I also characterized the cellular phenotype in the hypothalamus of our zebrafish mutants in a greater detail. The first transition of this project happened when I proposed in late 2013 to test whether Lef1’s function was conserved in the mouse hypothalamus. Dr. Dorsky liked that idea, but told me that I could only pursue that idea if there was a Lef1-flox mouse strain available, because he did not want me to delay my graduation after a lab switch by making a new mouse line. Fortunately, a quick google search located the right mouse line published from the group of Dr. Hai-Hui Xue, who was generous enough to share some mice with us. Because the Dorsky lab was a zebrafish lab by then, we collaborated with Dr. Edward Levine to maintain our mice under his animal protocol. I was initially trained by Dr. Levine and his lab specialist Anna Clark for general mouse colony management. After Dr. Levine moved to Vanderbilt University in early 2016, we began to maintain our mice under Dr. Camille Fung’s animal protocol. Dr. Dorsky also supported me in attending a 3-week Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Course on Mouse Development, Stem Cells & Cancer in mid 2015, which made me much more confident in handling mouse work afterwards. (more…)
Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Gender Differences, Genetic Research, JAMA / 29.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Arthur W. Toga PhD Provost Professor of Ophthalmology, Neurology, Psychiatry and The Behavioral Sciences, Radiology and Engineering Ghada Irani Chair in Neuroscience Director, USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and informatics institute USC Institute for Neuroimaging and Informatics Keck School of Medicine of USC University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA  90032  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The ε4 allele of the Apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene is the main genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's disease.  This study reexamines and corrects the sex-dependent risks that white men and women with one copy of the ε4 allele face for developing Alzheimer's disease using a very large data set of 57,979 North Americans and Europeans from the Global Alzheimer's Association Interactive Network (GAAIN). The study results show that these men and women between the ages of 55 and 85 have the same odds of developing Alzheimer's disease, with the exception that women face significantly higher risks than men between the ages of 65 and 75.  Further, these women showed increased risk over men between the ages of 55 and 70 for mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which is often a transitional phase to dementia. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, HIV, JAMA / 29.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Fahad Mukhtar MD MPH Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics College of Public Health University of South Florida, Tampa MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Studies done in the 80s and 90s showed that patients with Kaposi sarcoma may be at risk of having secondary tumors. As a result of changes that have taken place in the demographics of patients affected with HIV/AIDS as well as Kaposi’s sarcoma, we hypothesized that tumors that follow Kaposi sarcoma might have also changed. We analyzed the incidence of second tumors developing after Kaposi sarcoma using the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Result (SEER) data. Our result indicated that the incidence of secondary tumors following Kaposi sarcoma have decreased after the emergence of antiretroviral therapy. However, we observed a significantly higher than expected number of cancer of the anus, liver, tongue, penis lymphomas, and acute lymphocytic leukemia developing in patients with Kaposi sarcoma in the era of antiretroviral therapy. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, JAMA, Lipids, UCLA / 28.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Gregg C. Fonarow, MD, FACC, FAHA Eliot Corday Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Science Director, Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center Co-Chief of Clinical Cardiology, UCLA Division of Cardiology Co-Director, UCLA Preventative Cardiology Program David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA Los Angeles, CA  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The study identifies the clinical and economic consequences of treating a population of patients with established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD ) at high-risk of cardiovascular (CV) events and defines the cost-effectiveness of the PCSK-9 inhibitor evolocumab under various clinical scenarios. The analysis is based on the clinical outcomes from the Repatha Outcomes Study (FOURIER) in patients with established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), such as those who have already had a heart attack or stroke who require additional therapy. This is the first cost-effectiveness assessment of evolocumab using a model based on a high-quality outcomes trial, combined with U.S. clinical practice data. The analysis identifies the types of high-risk patients for whom this therapy is both clinically beneficial and cost-effective. This study utilized cost-effectiveness and value thresholds employed by the World Health Organization and the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association. Evolocumab was found to exceed generally accepted cost-effectiveness thresholds at current list price. However, this medication could be a cost-effective treatment for patients with established ASCVD in the U.S. when the net price is at or below $9,669 per year. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Genetic Research, Heart Disease, Lipids, UCLA / 28.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Tamer Sallam, MD PhD Assistant Professor of Medicine Co-Director UCLA Center for Lipid Management Lauren B. Leichtman and Arthur E. Levine CDF Investigator Assistant Director, STAR Program Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA Los Angeles, California 90095-1679 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: This study is extension of our previous work published in Nature showing that a gene we named LeXis (Liver expressed LXR induced sequence) plays an important role in controlling cholesterol levels. What is unique about  LeXis is that it belongs to a group of newly recognized mediators known as long noncoding RNAs. These fascinating factors were largely thought to be unimportant and in fact referred to as “junk DNA” prior the human genome project but multiple lines of evidence suggest that they can be critical players in health and in disease. In this study we tested whether we can use  LeXis “gene therapy”  to lower cholesterol and  heart disease risk. This type of approach is currently approved or in testing for about 80 human diseases. Our finding was that a single injection of LeXis compared with control significantly  reduced heart disease burden in mouse subjects. Although the effect size was moderate we specifically used a model that mimics a very challenging to treat human condition known as familial hypercholesterolemia..Familial hypercholesterolemia is one of the most common genetic disorders affecting up to 2 million Americans and characterized by 20 fold  fold increase risk of early heart attacks and often suboptimal response to currently available treatments. (more…)
Author Interviews, Coffee, Weight Research / 28.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Robin Dando, PhD Assistant Professor Director, Cornell Sensory Evaluation Facility Department of Food Science Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The study arose from a previous paper I authored in the Journal of Neuroscience, where we found Adenosine receptors in taste.  We managed to prove that they were there to amplify sweet signals.  This led us to wonder, what about the foods we consume, that would come into contact with these receptors in taste buds. It just happens that a lot of us habitually consume a powerful blocker of adenosine receptors every morning.  Caffeine.  So is our coffee impairing sweet signals?  It turns out when we gave people sweetened coffee containing caffeine, they judged it as less sweet than the same coffee without the caffeine, sampled on a different day.  Interestingly, this persisted, and sweet solutions they tested afterwards were still a little less sweet. Finally, just for kicks, we asked them to rate how much caffeine they thought was in either coffee, and how much more alert it made them feel.  Turns out, there was no difference.  They couldn’t tell which was deacf, and either coffee gave them just as much of an alertness boost. (more…)
Author Interviews, Stem Cells, Technology / 25.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: John Arnone Chairman and CEO American CryoStem Corporation MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this your company American CryoStem? Response: American CryoStem Corporation (CRYO) was founded in 2008, to allow individuals, researchers and physicians to collect-process-store stem cells derived from adipose tissue (fat) to prepare for their current or future use. Over the years the Company has become a biotechnology pioneer, standardizing adipose tissue derived technologies (Adult Stem Cells) for the fields of Regenerative and Personalized Medicine. The Company operates a state-of-art, FDA-registered, clinical laboratory in New Jersey and licensed laboratories in Hong Kong, China and Tokyo, Japan, which operate on our proprietary platform, dedicated to the collection, processing, bio-banking, culturing and differentiation of adipose tissue (fat) and adipose derived stem cells (ADSCs) CRYO maintains a strategic portfolio of intellectual property, 18 patents that surround the Companies proprietary technology which supports a growing pipeline of stem cell applications and biologic products. We are leveraging our proprietary platform and our developed product portfolio to create a domestic and global footprint of licensed laboratory affiliates, physicians networks and research organizations who purchase tissue collection, processing and storage services and consumables from the Company. CRYO’s laboratory stem cell bank/line products are characterized adult human Mesenchymal Stem Cell (MSC's) derived from adipose tissue that work in conjunction with our 13 patented (non-animal) medium lines. The Company's R&D efforts are focused on university and private collaborations to discover, develop and commercialize ADSC therapies by utilizing our standardized collection-processing-storage methodology and laboratory products combined with synergistic technologies to create jointly developed regenerative medicine applications and intellectual property. (more…)
Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, BMJ / 25.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Vivian Mcalister, M.B., CCFP(C), FRCSC, FRCS(I), FACS Professor - Department of Surgery London Health Sciences Centre University Hospital London, Ontario, Canada MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: This study was performed by medical and nursing officers who were all deployed to the war zone. We were deeply concerned about the type of injuries we were seeing. They were more awful than any we had seen before. We were familiar with reviews of antipersonnel landmine injuries that were reported by Red Cross surgeons in the 1990s. The injuries that we were dealing with were from antipersonnel IEDs more than landmines. We decided to do a formal prospective study for two reasons: first was to carefully describe the pattern of injury so we could develop new medical strategies, if possible, to help victims. The second reason was to catalogue these injuries so we could impartially and scientifically report what we were witnessing. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Cost of Health Care, HPV, University Texas / 25.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: David R. Lairson, PhD Professor of health economics Department of Management, Policy, and Community Health The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The study of oropharyngeal cancer treatment cost was initiated by the Head and Neck Cancer Surgery Department at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center as part of a larger study of the economic and health consequences of human papillomavirus (HPV) related conditions in Texas.  State specific information is required for policy-makers to consider future investments in cancer prevention based on HPV immunization and cancer screening.  The cost estimates at $140,000 per case for the first two years of treatment are substantially higher than previous estimates.  They indicate the potential savings associated with cancer prevention and partially justify increased investment in immunization efforts. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease / 25.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: James A. Reiffel, M.D Professor Emeritus of Medicine Special Lecturer in Medicine Dept of Medicine Cardiology Columbia University Medical Center MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Atrial fibrillation is a common arrhythmia (multi-millions of Americans) and carries with it a risk of stroke and of heart failure (among others) if not treated preventively. In many people, atrial fibrillation comes to attention because of symptoms, but not in all. The chances of developing Atrial fibrillation are substantially increased in certain populations of patients, such as the ones we enrolled in our study.  Continuous monitoring of such patients, as we did, and as others have also done recently, though in smaller numbers of patients, can detect otherwise unsuspected atrial fibrillation, which can lead to treatment before complications arise. We found that using such monitoring, when monitored for 18 months, almost 1 in 3 patients had atrial fibrillation detected, as did 40% by 30 months. Intermittent monitoring, including by cell phones, may detect some atrial fibrillation but it is not nearly as effective as the type of monitoring we did and so many patients will be missed by lesser monitoring methods. (more…)
Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, Sexual Health / 25.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Anthony J. Rosellini, Ph.D. Research Assistant Professor Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences Boston University Boston, MA 02215 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Sexual assault among service members is a significant concern of the Department of Defense (DoD) and U.S. Army. Although the annual rate of sexual assault among soldiers is believed to be decreasing, there have also been increases in the number of victims coming forward to report their experiences. The DoD and Army have responded by creating a framework of universal prevention in which all soldiers are required to participate in relatively brief programs aimed at decreasing rates of sexual assault. More intensive preventive interventions could be required, but would only be cost-effective if targeted at a subset of soldiers who are most likely to perpetrate sexual assault. The goal of this study was to use DoD and U.S. Army administrative records that are available for all soldiers to develop prediction models for sexual assault perpetration. We used the records from all 821,807 male soldiers who served between 2004 and 2009 to develop separate models to predict assaults directed against within-family and non-family adults and minors. (more…)
Author Interviews, Genetic Research, JAMA, Pancreatic, Surgical Research / 25.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Nancy You, MD, MHSc, FACS Department of Surgical Oncology The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Houston  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: This study was motivated by the emerging promise of precision medicine and the emerging evidence that immunotherapy may have phenomenal efficacy in particular molecular subtypes of cancers.  This specific molecular subtype shows deficiency in DNA mismatch repair mechanisms and therefore is thought to be more immunogenic.  DNA mismatch repair deficiency can arise from germline defects such as in the case of patients with Lynch Syndrome, an inherited cancer syndrome, or from epigenetic inactivation DNA mismatch repair genes. Overall, pancreas cancer has seen limited success with conventional chemotherapy.  In our study, we demonstrated that there is a particular molecular subtype of pancreas cancer that is characterized by defect in DNA mismatch repair genes and by microsatelie instability that has a different prognosis than other pancreas cancers.  This subtype of pancreas cancer is suspected to also respond to immunotherapy. (more…)
Addiction, Author Interviews, JAMA, Opiods, University of Pittsburgh / 24.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Julie M. Donohue, Ph.D. Associate professor in Pitt Public Health’s Department of Health Policy and Management and Director of the Medicaid Research Center Pitt’s Health Policy Institute University of Pittsburgh  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Medicaid enrollees have three times higher risk of opioid overdose than non-enrollees, and for every fatal opioid overdose, there are about 30 nonfatal overdoses, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). My colleagues and I analyzed claims data from 2008 to 2013 for all Pennsylvania Medicaid enrollees aged 12 to 64 years with a medical record of a heroin or prescription opioid overdose and who had six months of continuous enrollment in Medicaid before and after the overdose claim. The 6,013 patients identified were divided into two groups—3,945 who overdosed on prescription opioids and 2,068 who overdosed on heroin, all of whom received treatment for overdose in a hospital or emergency department setting. We found that Pennsylvania Medicaid recipients who suffer an opioid or heroin overdose continue to be prescribed opioids at high rates, with little change in their use of medication-assisted treatment programs after the overdose. Opioid prescriptions were filled after overdose by 39.7 percent of the patients who overdosed on heroin, a decrease of 3.5 percentage points from before the overdose; and by 59.6 percent of the patients who overdosed on prescription opioids, a decrease of 6.5 percentage points. Medication-assisted treatment includes coupling prescriptions for buprenorphine, methadone or naltrexone—medications that can reduce opioid cravings—with behavioral therapy in an effort to treat the opioid use disorder. Our team found that such treatment increased modestly among the patients using heroin by 3.6 percentage points to 33 percent after the overdose, and by 1.6 percentage points to 15.1 percent for the prescription opioid overdose patients. (more…)
Author Interviews, Pediatrics, Psychological Science / 24.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dan Romer PhD Research director, Annenberg Public Policy Center Director of its Adolescent Communication Institute University of Pennsylvania MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: In recent years, findings from research in developmental neuroscience indicate that the myelination of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) extends into the third decade of life, proceeding more slowly than in other brain regions. Because subcortical and sensory brain regions appear to mature earlier, this and other findings have been taken as evidence that adolescents may have less ability to control their behavior than children do. These findings spawned theories of “imbalanced” adolescent brain development that were proposed to explain heightened vulnerability to risky behavior and adverse health outcomes during adolescence. Although there is little doubt that as adolescents enter adulthood, they are at risk for many health outcomes that can accompany the initiation of such behaviors as driving, having sex, using drugs, and playing sports. But most adolescents make it through this period of development without serious health consequences. Thus, the argument that a brain deficit is responsible for such adverse health outcomes seemed to overgeneralize effects that only occur for a minority of adolescents. Furthermore, when my colleagues and I examined the evidence in support of imbalance theories, we found it unconvincing. Indeed, it seemed that findings from neuroscience were interpreted through the lens of stereotypes about adolescents that conflate exploration with impulsivity. That is, many of the risky behaviors that attract adolescents are novel activities that reflect lack of experience rather than lack of control over behavior.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, NEJM / 23.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dan Berlowitz, MD, MPH Investigator, CHOIR Chief of Staff, Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial VA Hospital Professor, Boston University Schools of Public Health and Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The main results from the SPRINT study, published in 2015, demonstrated that intensive hypertension therapy targeting a systolic blood pressure (SBP) of 120 mm Hg results in reduced cardiovascular morbidity and mortality when compared to standard therapy targeting a SBP of 140. Yet many have expressed concerns that lowering SBP to 120 may be associated with a variety of symptoms, including dizziness, fatigue, and depression, especially in older and frailer patients. This study using SPRINT data examined patient-reported outcomes including health-related quality of life, depressive symptoms, and satisfaction. The main findings are that there were no differences in patient-reported outcomes among patients receiving intensive therapy compared to standard therapy, even among older SPRINT participants with multiple comorbidities. (more…)
Author Interviews, JNCI, Mental Health Research, Pharmacology, UT Southwestern, Weight Research / 23.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Chen Liu, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Departments of Internal Medicine and Neuroscience Division of Hypothalamic Research The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Dallas, Texas 75390-9077  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Atypical antipsychotics are second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) that have been increasingly used to treat a variety of neuropsychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, depression, and autism. Many patients taking these medications, however, are left in an agonizing dilemma. On one hand, they rely on these drugs’ psychotropic effect for normal functioning in daily life. On the other, many SGAs, including the most widely prescribed olanzapine and clozapine, can cause a metabolic syndrome that is known for excessive weight gain, dyslipidemia, and type-2 diabetes_ENREF_2. Notably, while full-blown type 2 diabetes and morbid obesity typically take years to unfold in the general population, these conditions progress at a much faster pace (within months) following second-generation antipsychotics treatment. Other factors such as ethnicity, age, and sex can also aggravate SGA-induced metabolic syndrome. Together, these peculiar features strongly suggest a distinct etiology underlying SGA-induced metabolic syndrome that has yet been fully elucidated. Currently, there is no medication specifically targeting SGA-induced metabolic syndrome. For many youths and adults taking second-generation antipsychotics, metabolic complications are difficult to manage as lifestyle changes, nutritional consulting, and commonly used anti-diabetic medications only provide limited relief. (more…)
Author Interviews, Journal Clinical Oncology, Lung Cancer / 23.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Theodore M. Brasky, PhD Research Assistant Professor The Ohio State University – James Comprehensive Cancer Center Columbus, OH 43201 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Prior literature has been suggestive of both a protective and harmful effect of certain B vitamins on lung cancer risk. We wanted to examine the association of intakes of vitamins B6, folic acid (B9), and B12 from supplements –which are typically taken at very high doses– and lung cancer risk in a large, prospective study of 77,000 men and women living in Washington State. The study is unique as it was designed specifically to examine associations of dietary supplements with cancer occurrence. We found that men who took high doses of vitamin B6 and B12 from individual supplements over a long period of time (meaning, doses much higher than the US RDA and much greater than what one would receive from taking a multivitamin over the long term) were at nearly 2-fold increased risk of lung cancer compared to men who did not have B6 or B12 intake from any supplemental source. This finding of increased risk appeared to be specific to men who were current smokers. Among them, long term high-dose supplementation was associated with 3-4 fold increases in lung cancer risk. We observed no increased risk for any of the supplements – B6, B12, or folic acid – with lung cancer risk in women or women who smoked. (more…)
Addiction, Annals Internal Medicine, Author Interviews, Social Issues / 23.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Beth Han, MD, PhD, MPH From Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Rockville, Maryland National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bethesda, Maryland and Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Washington, DC.  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Using the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), this is the first study examining the prevalence of overall prescription opioid use in addition to misuse, use disorders, and motivations for misuse in the U.S. adult population. The 2015 NSDUH collected nationally representative data on prescription opioid use, misuse, use disorder, and motivations for misuse among the U.S. civilian, noninstitutionalized population aged 12 or older. In 2015, NSDUH started to collect data on overall prescription opioid use as well as data on motivations for prescription opioid misuse. This study found that in 2015, 91.8 million (37.8%) U.S. civilian, non-institutionalized adults used prescription opioids, 11.5 million (4.7%) misused them, and 1.9 million (0.8%) had a prescription opioid use disorder. Among adults who used prescription opioids, 12.5% reported misuse and, of those reporting misuse, 16.7% reported a prescription opioid use disorder. The most common reported misuse motivation was to relieve physical pain (63.4%). Misuse and use disorders were most commonly reported in adults who were uninsured, were unemployed, had low income, or had behavioral health problems. Among adults with misuse, 59.9% reported using opioids without a prescription, and 40.8% obtained prescription opioids free from friends or relatives for their most recent misuse. (more…)
Author Interviews, OBGYNE, PLoS, Weight Research / 23.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Deborah A Lawlor MSc(Lond), MBChB, PhD(Bristol), MPH(Leeds), MRCGP, MFPHM Professor of Epidemiology MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol NIHR Bristol Biomedical Research Centre Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School Oakfield House, Oakfield Grove, Bristol MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: As the obesity epidemic has occurred there has been increasing concern about pregnant women being more adipose (having higher levels of fat) during their pregnancy. One particular concern is that women who are on average fatter will have more extreme changes in pregnancy on their lipid, fatty acid, amino acid and glucose levels. In normal ‘healthy’ pregnancy these metabolites increase during pregnancy as part of the physiological response to pregnancy which ensures that the developing fetus has sufficient fuel (nutrients – fats, proteins, sugars) for healthy growth and development. Women who are more adipose tend to have a more extreme change in these fuels and as a consequence the developing fetus is ‘overfed’. There is a linear relationship between a pregnant woman’s body mass index and her infants birth weight, such that each increment greater adiposity (body mass index) of the mother there is on average and increment greater infant birth weight. Recently, using a method that uses genetic variants (Mendelian randomization) we have shown that this association is likely to be causal (JAMA 2016). But whether there is a lasting effect on offspring health of being overfed in the uterus is unknown. There are concerns that there will be a lasting effect and that for daughters of more adipose women, this would mean that they go into their pregnancies on average fatter and with higher levels of the metabolites that could then overfeed their developing fetus. If this were the case it would mean the obesity epidemic could be accelerated across generations. There are associations of mothers body mass index with later offspring body mass index, BUT this might not be anything to do with developmental overfeeding of the feeding in the uterus – it could simply reflect shared lifestyles that offspring adopt from their mother (and father) or shared genetic effects. In this study we tried to separate out whether there was evidence for a long-term offspring effect on their lipids, fatty acids, amino acids, glucose, and an inflammatory marker, of having a mother who was on average fatter during her pregnancy that was due to overfeeding in the uterus, as opposed to shared family lifestyle and genetics. We did this by comparing associations of mothers pre-pregnancy BMI with offspring outcomes to the same associations of fathers pre-pregnancy BMI with the same outcomes. Our assumption here was that fathers BMI could not directly result in overfeeding of the fetus and so if the associations were similar this would suggest that they were largely driven by family factors. (more…)
Author Interviews, Education, JAMA, UCLA / 22.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Christian de Virgilio, MD LA BioMed lead researcher and corresponding author for the study He also is the former director of the general surgery residency program Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and the recipient of several teaching awards. MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Recent forecasts have predicted the United States will have a deficit of as many as 29,000 surgeons by 2030 because of the expected growth in the nation’s population and the aging of the Baby Boomers. This expected shortfall in surgeons has made the successful training of the next generation of surgeons even more important than it was before. Yet recent studies have shown that as many as one in five general surgery residents leave their training programs before completion to pursue other specialties. Our team of researchers studied 21 training programs for general surgeons and published our findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association Surgery (JAMA Surgery) on August 16, 2017. What we found was the attrition rate among residents training in general surgery was lower than previously determined – just 8.8% instead of 20% – in the 21 programs we surveyed. Our study also found that program directors’ attitudes and support for struggling residents and resident education were significantly different when the authors compared high- and low-attrition programs. General surgeons specialize in the most common surgical procedures, including abdominal, trauma, gastrointestinal, breast, cancer, endocrine and skin and soft tissue surgeries. General surgery residency training follows medical school and generally requires five to seven years. The programs are offered through universities, university affiliated hospitals and independent programs. In this study, the research team surveyed 12 university-based programs, three program affiliated with a university and six independent programs. In those programs, 85 of the 966 general surgery residents failed to complete their training during the five-year period the research team studied, July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2015. Of those who failed to complete their general surgery training, 15 left during the first year of training; 34 during the second year, and 36 during the third year or later. Notably, we found a nearly seven-fold difference between the training program with the lowest attrition rate, 2.2%, and the one with the highest rate, 14.3%, over the five-year period surveyed. In the programs with lower attrition rates, we found about one in five residents received some support or remediation to help ensure they would complete their https://medicalresearch.com/author-interviews/reduction_in_surgical_residents_work_hours/4475/ In the programs with higher attrition rates, the research team reported that only about one in 15 residents received such remediation. (more…)
Aging, Author Interviews, Microbiome, PNAS / 22.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Daniel Kalman, Ph.D. Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Emory University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
  1. We think a lot about living longer, but that means we will also have a longer period of frailty and infirmity, which isn't optimal. Moreover, with geriatric populations projected to expand by 350 fold over the next 40 years, healthcare costs will be unsustainable.
  2. We were interested in understanding how health span of animals is regulated, and whether the microbiota plays a role. The microbiota, which is composed of bacteria inside and on us, when dysregulated (called dysbiosis) contributes to disease; the question we asked was whether it could also contribute to healthy aging, and how.
  3. We showed that animals of widely divergent phyla and separated by hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary time, all utilize indoles to regulate how well they age; in short indoles  make older animals look younger by various metrics, including motility, and fecundity.
(more…)
Author Interviews, Education, Pediatrics, Sleep Disorders, University of Michigan / 22.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Galit Dunietz, Ph.D., MPH Epidemiologist, Sleep Disorders Center Department of Neurology University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Insufficient sleep has a negative impact on health, cognition and mood and is linked to motor vehicle accidents. However, sleep loss in adolescents has become an epidemic and arises in part from biological processes that delay sleep and wake timing at the onset of puberty. This biology does not fit well with early school start times (before 8:30 a.m.). Despite recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine to delay school start times, most schools in the U.S. have current start times before 8:30 a.m. In this nationally representative study of US parents of teens, we examined whether parents supported or opposed later school start times (after 8:30 a.m.). We also examined what may have influenced their opinions. We found that only about half of surveyed parents of teens with early school start times supported later school start times. Opinions appeared to depend in part on what challenges and benefits were expected to result from the change. For example, parents who expected an improvement in their teen’s academic performance or sleep quantity tended to support the change, whereas parents that expected negative impact on afterschool activities or transportation opposed delays in school start times.  We also found that parents had misconception about sleep needs of their adolescents, as the majority perceived 7-7.5 hours of sleep as sufficient, or possibly sufficient even at this young age when 8-10 hours are typically recommended. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, JAMA, Smoking / 22.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr.  Quinn R Pack MD Assistant Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine Baystate Northern Region Cardiology Baystate Health Springfield, MA   MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death and is very common among patients with heart disease.  Several smoking cessation medications are available and recommended in clinical guidelines to help smokers quite. However, it was unknown how often these were used and what factors make the use of pharmacotherapy more common. The main finding is that, across of broad range of hospitals, smoking cessation medications are infrequently used and the hospital where the patient was treated was the most important factor in determining if the patient was treated. (more…)
Author Interviews, Opiods, Orthopedics, Pain Research, Stanford / 21.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Tina Hernandez-Boussard, PhD MPH, MS Associate Professor of Medicine, Biomedical Data Science, and Surgery Stanford School of Medicine Stanford, CA 94305-5479 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Opioid addiction is a national crisis.  As surgery is thought to be a gateway to opioid misuse, opioid-sparing approaches for pain management following surgery are a top priority. We conducted a meta-analysis of 39 randomized clinical trials of common non-pharmalogical interventions used for postoperative pain management. We found that acupuncture and electrotherapy following total knee replacement reduced or delayed patients’ opioid use. (more…)
Author Interviews, Dermatology, Heart Disease / 21.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alexander Egeberg, MD PhD Gentofte Hospital Department of Dermatology and Allergy Kildegårdsvej 28 2900 Hellerup Denmark MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The majority cardiovascular events in psoriasis occur in patients at low risk by traditional cardiovascular risk calculators. It has been speculated that long-term exposure to systemic inflammation may increase the risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes. Therefore, clinically available historical features such as disease duration may identify those at higher risk for cardiovascular disease. Using a translational epidemiological approach, combining 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography computed tomography scanning with nationwide epidemiological data of more than four million individuals, we provide the first convincing evidence to suggest a detrimental effect of psoriasis duration on cardiovascular disease beyond traditional cardiovascular risk factors, even in patients deemed “low-risk” by conventional risk scores. We found a 1% increase in future major adverse cardiovascular event risk per additional year of disease duration. This finding has an effect size similar to smoking, a well-established cardiovascular risk factor. (more…)
Blood Pressure - Hypertension, Columbia, Technology / 21.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Gregg W. Stone MD Professor of Medicine Columbia University Director of Cardiovascular Research and Education Center for Interventional Vascular Therapy New York Presbyterian Hospital/ Columbia University Medical Center Co-Director of Medical Research and Education The Cardiovascular Research Foundation New York, NY MedicalResearch.com: How does the MobiusHD system work? Response: The MobiusHD System is a thin stent-like device which is implanted during a minimally invasive procedure into the carotid artery. The MobiusHD modifies the activity of baroreceptors located in the carotid artery, increasing arterial vasodilation to reduce blood pressure. (more…)
Author Interviews, BMJ, Pediatrics / 21.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Andrei Morgan and Dr.Veronique Pierrat Obstetrical, Perinatal, and Pediatric Epidemiology Team, Epidemiology and Biostatistics Sorbonne Cité Research Center INSERM, Paris France Descartes University, Paris, France Department of Neonatal Medicine, Jeanne de Flandre Hospital, Lille, France.  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The risk of neurodevelopmental and behavioural disabilities remains high in children and adults born preterm. In the 2000s, outcomes of neonates born extremely preterm was described in several settings, but the outcome of neonates born very and moderately preterm was rarely reported. However, in absolute numbers, these infants represent a larger proportion of preterm births and account for more children with long-term deficits and learning disabilities. EPIPAGE-2 is a national study which aims to study short and long term outcomes of children born at 22-26 weeks’gestation, 27-31 weeks’gestation and 32-34 weeks’gestation in France in 2011. We also compared results from this study with the first EPIPAGE study, carried out in 1997. At two years of age, neuro motor and sensory impairment, as well as overall development, were investigated by sending questionnaires to the attending physician and the parents. (more…)
Author Interviews, CMAJ, Exercise - Fitness, Frailty, Geriatrics, Lifestyle & Health / 21.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Olga Theou, MSc PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Dalhousie University Affiliated Scientist, Geriatric Medicine, Nova Scotia Health Authority Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Medicine, University of Adelaide Halifax, Nova Scotia  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: We already know that moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity, such as time accumulated during exercise, is associated with numerous health benefits. More recent studies also have shown that sedentary time, such as time accumulated during prolonged sitting at work, transportation, and leisure, can also increase the risk of adverse outcomes. What was not known was whether prolonged sitting affects people across different levels of frailty similarly. This is what we examined in our study. We found that there were differences. Low frailty levels (people who are extremely healthy; frailty index score < 0.1) seemed to eliminate the increased risk of mortality associated with prolonged sitting, even among people who did not meet recommended physical activity guidelines. Among people with higher frailty levels, sedentary time was associated with mortality but only among those who did not meet recommended physical activity guidelines (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Gastrointestinal Disease, Infections, Nature, Stem Cells / 20.08.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michael Sigal PhD Clinical scientist of the Charité -- Universitätsmedizin Berlin Investigator at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: We have previously found that H. pylori can colonize gastric glands and that in colonized glands the epithelial turnover was increased. We wanted to characterize the mechanisms that control the gland turnover in the stomach. We found that Axin2, a classic Wnt target gene, marks two different subpopulations of cells with stem cell properties, one of which is Lgr5-positive and the other one Lgr5-negative. Both populations are affected by Rspondin 3, that is produced in myofibroblasts right beneath the stem cell compartment. Rspondin is crucial for stem cell signaling and knockout of Rspondin 3 in myofibroblasts results in loss of Lgr5 and Axin2 expression. Once we increased the bioavailability of Rspondin, that now could also interact with cells outside of the stem cell compartment, we noticed that the number of Axin2 positive stem cells dramatically increased. Of interest, only Lgr5-negative cells expanded in number and proliferate more, while the Lgr5-positive cells remained silenced. Infection with Helicobacter pylori leads to an expansion of Axin2-positive cells which is driven by increased expression of Rspondin3. Expansion of the long lived stem cell pool could be an explanation for how H. pylori infection increases the risk for gastric cancer. (more…)