194CNO21NOV2014

CNO Report 194

Release Date 22 NOV 2014

Draft Report Compiled by

Ralph Turchiano

http://www.clinicalnews.org

 

 

 

In This Issue:

1. New natural supplement relieves canine arthritis
2. Low Levels of the DHEA Prohormone Predict Coronary Heart Disease
3. Moderate coffee consumption may reduce risk of type 2 diabetes by 25 percent
4. Britain’s obese in denial about their weight
5. Chemical in coffee may help prevent obesity-related disease
6. Risk of death may be higher if heart attack occurs in a hospital
7. 80 million bacteria sealed with a kiss
8. The dirty side of soap
9. Women’s fertility linked to detox element in diet
10. Nothing fishy about health benefits of plant-based omega-3 fatty acid
11. Trans fat consumption is linked to diminished memory in working-aged adults
12. High-fructose diet in adolescence may exacerbate depressive-like behavior
13. Research provides new insight into gluten intolerance
14. Gut microbiota influences blood-brain barrier permeability
15. Chemical in coffee may help prevent obesity-related disease
16. Healthy diets are good for the kidneys
17. Running really can keep you young, says CU-Boulder-Humboldt State study
18. A CNIO team discovers that a derivative of vitamin B3 prevents liver cancer in mice

 

New natural supplement relieves canine arthritis

Arthritis pain in dogs can be relieved, with no side effects, by a new product based on medicinal plants and dietary supplements that was developed at the University of Montreal’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. “While acupuncture and electrical stimulation are two approaches that have been shown to have positive effects on dogs, until now a few studies have investigated a plant-based approach to therapy,” explained Professor Éric Troncy, senior author of the study. His findings were published in Research in Veterinary Science.

Troncy and his team worked with 32 dogs (and their owners!) who had been diagnosed with arthritis by X-ray and orthopaedic exam, and who all weighed more than 20 kilograms. By drawing on existing rodent studies and working with Pierre Haddad of the university’s Department of Pharmacology, Troncy developed two formulas for his trial. These formulas are not currently commercially available.

The first formula, composed of curcumin, devil’s claw, black current, Indian frankincense (Salai), willow bark, pineapple bromelaine and camomile, was developed to treat arthritis-induced inflammation. The second included the same ingredients, plus dietary supplements such as omega 3, chondroitin sulfate and glutamine, and was formulated in the hope that it would promote the regeneration of articulations.

Half the dogs received the first formula for four weeks and then the second formula for another four weeks. The other half, acting as the control, received a placebo. The outcomes were tested using three methods. Firstly, the dogs were filmed as they walked at a consistent speed over a special platform that captures the strength of each paw. Secondly, a special electronic collar recorded the dogs’ daily activities. And finally, the owners were asked to provide their own evaluations of their dog’s behaviour.

The researchers were able to identify an improvement by the fourth week of the trial.

“After the eight week course, on average, the strength of the dogs receiving treatment had improved to the equivalent of a kilo of extra strength per paw, which is moreover. None of these dogs saw their health decline, unlike 35.8% of the dogs who were given the placebo,” said Maxim Moreau, who was first author of the study.

The improvements were also reflected in the dogs’ daily lives. The collars revealed that the dogs receiving treatment maintained their physical activity, and in fact the group average increased from six hours of daily activity to eight. Meanwhile, the dogs receiving the placebo were progressively less active. “In some cases, we recorded the dogs to ensure that the collar was recording actual physical activity rather than movements such as scratching,” Troncy explained.

Nonetheless, the ratings from the owners were more mixed. “This third evaluation was more subjective and the contrast between the test group and the control group less stark,” Troncy said. “We suspect that the owner may have forgotten what the animal’s behaviour was like before it developed arthritis.”

The findings raise the possibility of offering a new form of treatment to human beings. “The model of evaluation that we have used is the best for predicting the efficacy of anti-arthritis treatments. We can therefore consider that clinical trials on humans would have a good chance of having positive outcomes,” Troncy said.

Low Levels of the DHEA Prohormone Predict Coronary Heart Disease

News: Nov 06, 2014

Men with low levels of DHEA in the blood run an increased risk of developing coronary heart disease events. The Sahlgrenska Academy study has been published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The term prohormone refers to the precursor of a hormone. DHEA is a prohormone that is produced by the adrenal glands and can be converted to active sex hormones. While the tendency of DHEA levels to fall with age was discovered long ago, the biological role of the prohormone is largely unknown.

Researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, have now shown that elderly men with low levels of DHEA in the blood run an increased risk of developing coronary heart disease events.

Lower level – greater risk

The study—which monitored 2,614 men age 69-80 in Gothenburg, Uppsala and Malmö for five years—assessed DHEA levels. The findings demonstrated that the lower the DHEA level at the study start, the greater the risk of coronary heart disease events during the five-year follow-up.

“Endogenous production of DHEA appears to be a protective factor against coronary heart disease,” says Åsa Tivesten, who coordinated the study. “High DHEA levels may also be a biomarker of generally good health in elderly men.”

Clear correlation

According to Professor Claes Ohlsson, “While the study establishes a clear correlation between DHEA in the blood and coronary heart disease, the discovery does not indicate whether or not treatment with DHEA will reduce the risk in individual patients.”

“Dehydroepiandrosterone and its Sulfate Predict the 5-Year Risk of Coronary Heart Disease Events in Elderly Men” was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology on October 28.

Moderate coffee consumption may reduce risk of type 2 diabetes by 25 percent

The Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee highlights the latest research on coffee consumption and the reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes

To mark World Diabetes Day, the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee (ISIC) has published its annual diabetes report outlining the latest research on coffee and type 2 diabetes. More than 380 million people worldwide have diabetes, with an economic burden of $548 billion, making it one of the most significant global health problems.

The research round up report concludes that regular, moderate consumption of coffee may decrease an individual’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Key research findings include:

• Epidemiological evidence shows that drinking three to four cups of coffee per day is associated with an approximate 25% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, compared to consuming none to less than two cups per day.
• Research has also suggested an inverse (i.e. favourable) association, with each additional cup of coffee reducing the relative risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 7-8 per cent.
• Research indicates that caffeine is unlikely to be responsible for this effect. A recent meta-analysis suggested that consumption of both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee is associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
• Recent work5 suggests that the type of coffee may also affect the strength of the inverse (i.e. favourable) association, with filtered coffee exhibiting a greater protective effect than boiled coffee, and decaffeinated coffee exhibiting a greater protective effect than caffeinated coffee.

Britain’s obese in denial about their weight

A majority of obese people in Britain would not describe themselves as “obese”, and many would not even describe themselves as “very overweight”, according to a Cancer Research UK study* published in BMJ Open today (Friday).

In one of the first studies of its kind to examine British perceptions of obesity, fewer than 10 per cent of those who are clinically obese accept they have a serious weight problem.

In a 2012 survey** of around 2000 adults, only 11 per cent of obese women accurately acknowledged they were “obese”, with most describing themselves as “very overweight” or “just right”.

And among men, only seven per cent correctly described themselves as being “obese” and another 16 per cent as “very overweight”.

Approximately 10 per cent of people in the survey knew the BMI*** threshold for obesity and those who did were more likely to define themselves as “obese”.

Researchers suggest that as bigger sizes become the new “normal”, people are less likely to recognise the health problems associated with their weight.

Professor Jane Wardle, co-author and director of the Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Centre at UCL, said: “It’s a real worry that people don’t recognise that their weight places them in the obese category, because it means they aren’t aware they are at increased risk of a number of health problems including cancer.

“This is despite increased media coverage of obesity, and public health campaigns aimed at improving public awareness.

“The term ‘obese’ is often considered derogatory, which may be why so many people reject it. Mass media often illustrate obesity in a way that people find offensive, with pictures of bulging beer bellies and huge behinds, so people shy away from these images.

“But we also asked people whether they felt they were “very overweight” and the majority of those who were obese did not accept this term either. This is a real problem, as it means they are unlikely to identify with health messages on the subject of weight.

“We need to establish better ways for health professionals to address this sensitive subject and communicate with people whose health would benefit from positive lifestyle changes.”

Around 18,000 cases of cancer in the UK each year are linked to being overweight or obese. Excess weight is known to increase the risk of several types of cancer including cancers of the breast in post-menopausal women, bowel, womb, oesophagus, pancreas, kidney and gallbladder.

Dr Julie Sharp, Cancer Research UK’s head of health information, said: “This study provides an interesting insight into how people who are overweight view themselves. Carrying those extra pounds can have serious health implications. Fat cells are active, releasing hormones and other chemicals that affect many parts of the body, and increase the risk of cancer.

“Maintaining a healthy body weight is one of the most important ways of reducing the risk of cancer, for both men and women. It’s so important that health messaging and awareness campaigns are as effective as possible in supporting people of all shapes and sizes to make healthy choices.”

Chemical in coffee may help prevent obesity-related disease

November 10, 2014

Athens, Ga. – Researchers at the University of Georgia have discovered that a chemical compound commonly found in coffee may help prevent some of the damaging effects of obesity.

In a paper published recently in Pharmaceutical Research, scientists found that chlorogenic acid, or CGA, significantly reduced insulin resistance and accumulation of fat in the livers of mice who were fed a high-fat diet.

“Previous studies have shown that coffee consumption may lower the risk for chronic diseases like Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease,” said Yongjie Ma, a postdoctoral research associate in UGA’s College of Pharmacy and lead author of the paper. “Our study expands on this research by looking at the benefits associated with this specific compound, which is found in great abundance in coffee, but also in other fruits and vegetables like apples, pears, tomatoes and blueberries.”

During the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States. More than one-third of U.S. adults and approximately 17 percent of children are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the annual medical cost of obesity is more than $147 billion.

Aside from weight gain, two common side effects of obesity are increased insulin resistance and the accumulation of fat in the liver. Left untreated, these disorders can lead to diabetes and poor liver function.

To test the therapeutic effects of CGA, researchers fed a group of mice a high-fat diet for 15 weeks while also injecting them with a CGA solution twice per week.

They found that CGA was not only effective in preventing weight gain, but it also helped maintain normal blood sugar levels and healthy liver composition.

“CGA is a powerful antioxidant that reduces inflammation,” said Ma, who works in the laboratory of professor Dexi Liu in the department of pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences. “A lot of evidence suggests that obesity-related diseases are caused by chronic inflammation, so if we can control that, we can hopefully offset some of the negative effects of excessive weight gain.”

But the authors are quick to point out that CGA is not a cure-all. Proper diet and regular exercise are still the best methods to reduce the risks associated with obesity.

The mice in this study received a high dose of CGA, much higher than what a human would absorb through regular coffee consumption or a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.

However, the researchers do believe that CGA may form the foundation of a treatment for those who need extra help. They plan to conduct more research to develop an improved CGA formulation specifically for human consumption.

“We’re not suggesting that people start drinking a lot of coffee to protect themselves from an unhealthy lifestyle,” said Ma, who is also a member of UGA’s Obesity Initiative. “But we do think that we might be able to create a useful therapeutic using CGA that will help those at risk for obesity-related disease as they make positive lifestyle changes.”

Risk of death may be higher if heart attack occurs in a hospital

Prashant Kaul, M.D., of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and colleagues conducted a study to define the incidence and treatment and outcomes of patients who experience a certain type of heart attack during hospitalization for conditions other than acute coronary syndromes. The study appears in the November 19 issue of JAMA, a cardiovascular disease theme issue.

Early restoration of blood flow with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI; a procedure such as stent placement used to open narrowed coronary arteries) or administration of medication to dissolve a clot remains the primary goal in the initial treatment of eligible patients presenting to a hospital with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI; a certain pattern on an electrocardiogram following a heart attack). Over the last decade, recognition that this strategy is of critical importance has prompted the development of a number of regional and national initiatives to facilitate and improve systems of care for STEMI. These initiatives have focused exclusively on patients who develop STEMI outside of a hospital setting (outpatient-onset STEMI), and little is known about the incidence and outcomes of STEMI in patients hospitalized for non-acute coronary syndrome (ACS) conditions (inpatient­onset STEMI), according to background information in the article.

This study included an analysis of STEMIs occurring between 2008 and 2011 as identified in the California State Inpatient Database. Models were used to evaluate associations among location of onset of STEMI, resource utilization and outcomes. A total of 62,021 STEMIs were identified in 303 hospitals, of which 3,068 (4.9 percent) occurred in patients hospitalized for non-ACS indications.

The researchers found that patients developing inpatient-onset STEMI had more than 3-fold greater in-hospital mortality than those with outpatient-onset STEMI (33.6 percent vs 9.2 percent). Patients with inpatient-onset STEMI were less likely to be discharged home (33.7 percent vs 69.4 percent), and were less likely to undergo cardiac catheterization (33.8 percent vs 77.8 percent) or PCI (21.6 percent vs 65 percent). Average length of stay (13 days vs 5 days) and inpatient charges ($245,000 vs $129,000) were higher for inpatient-onset STEMI. Patients with inpatient-onset STEMI were older and more frequently female.

“The question of how to improve outcomes and define optimum treatment in hospitalized patients who experience a STEMI is an area that merits more attention and concern. Although there have been improvements in treatment times and clinical outcomes in outpatients who have onset of STEMI, few initiatives have focused on optimizing care of hospitalized patients with onset of STEMI after admission,” the authors write.

80 million bacteria sealed with a kiss

Partners who kiss each other at least 9 times a day share similar communities of oral bacteria

As many as 80 million bacteria are transferred during a 10 second kiss, according to research published in the open access journal Microbiome. The study also found that partners who kiss each other at least nine times a day share similar communities of oral bacteria.

The ecosystem of more than 100 trillion microorganisms that live in our bodies – the microbiome – is essential for the digestion of food, synthesizing nutrients, and preventing disease. It is shaped by genetics, diet, and age, but also the individuals with whom we interact. With the mouth playing host to more than 700 varieties of bacteria, the oral microbiota also appear to be influenced by those closest to us.

Researchers from Micropia and TNO in the Netherlands studied 21 couples, asking them to fill out questionnaires on their kissing behaviour including their average intimate kiss frequency. They then took swab samples to investigate the composition of their oral microbiota on the tongue and in their saliva.

The results showed that when couples intimately kiss at relatively high frequencies their salivary microbiota become similar. On average it was found that at least nine intimate kisses per day led to couples having significantly shared salivary microbiota.

Lead author Remco Kort, from TNO’s Microbiology and Systems Biology department and adviser to the Micropia museum of microbes, said: “Intimate kissing involving full tongue contact and saliva exchange appears to be a courtship behavior unique to humans and is common in over 90% of known cultures. Interestingly, the current explanations for the function of intimate kissing in humans include an important role for the microbiota present in the oral cavity, although to our knowledge, the exact effects of intimate kissing on the oral microbiota have never been studied. We wanted to find out the extent to which partners share their oral microbiota, and it turns out, the more a couple kiss, the more similar they are.”

In a controlled kissing experiment to quantify the transfer of bacteria, a member of each of the couples had a probiotic drink containing specific varieties of bacteria including Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria. After an intimate kiss, the researchers found that the quantity of probiotic bacteria in the receiver’s saliva rose threefold, and calculated that in total 80 million bacteria would have been transferred during a 10 second kiss.

The study also suggests an important role for other mechanisms that select oral microbiota, resulting from a shared lifestyle, dietary and personal care habits, and this is especially the case for microbiota on the tongue. The researchers found that while tongue microbiota were more similar among partners than unrelated individuals, their similarity did not change with more frequent kissing, in contrast to the findings on the saliva microbiota.

Commenting on the kissing questionnaire results, the researchers say that an interesting but separate finding was that 74% of the men reported higher intimate kiss frequencies than the women of the same couple. This resulted in a reported average of ten kisses per day from the males, twice that of the female reported average of five per day.

To calculate the number of bacteria transferred in a kiss, the authors relied on average transfer values and a number of assumptions related to bacterial transfer, the kiss contact surface, and the value for average saliva volume.

The dirty side of soap

Triclosan, a common antimicrobial in personal hygiene products, causes liver fibrosis and cancer in mice

Triclosan is an antimicrobial commonly found in soaps, shampoos, toothpastes and many other household items. Despite its widespread use, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report potentially serious consequences of long-term exposure to the chemical. The study, published Nov. 17 by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that triclosan causes liver fibrosis and cancer in laboratory mice through molecular mechanisms that are also relevant in humans.

“Triclosan’s increasing detection in environmental samples and its increasingly broad use in consumer products may overcome its moderate benefit and present a very real risk of liver toxicity for people, as it does in mice, particularly when combined with other compounds with similar action,” said Robert H. Tukey, PhD, professor in the departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Pharmacology. Tukey led the study, together with Bruce D. Hammock, PhD, professor at University of California, Davis. Both Tukey and Hammock are directors of National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Superfund Programs at their respective campuses.

Tukey, Hammock and their teams, including Mei-Fei Yueh, PhD, found that triclosan disrupted liver integrity and compromised liver function in mouse models. Mice exposed to triclosan for six months (roughly equivalent to 18 human years) were more susceptible to chemical-induced liver tumors. Their tumors were also larger and more frequent than in mice not exposed to triclosan.

The study suggests triclosan may do its damage by interfering with the constitutive androstane receptor, a protein responsible for detoxifying (clearing away) foreign chemicals in the body. To compensate for this stress, liver cells proliferate and turn fibrotic over time. Repeated triclosan exposure and continued liver fibrosis eventually promote tumor formation.

Triclosan is perhaps the most ubiquitous consumer antibacterial. Studies have found traces in 97 percent of breast milk samples from lactating women and in the urine of nearly 75 percent of people tested. Triclosan is also common in the environment: It is one of the seven most frequently detected compounds in streams across the United States.

“We could reduce most human and environmental exposures by eliminating uses of triclosan that are high volume, but of low benefit, such as inclusion in liquid hand soaps,” Hammock said. “Yet we could also for now retain uses shown to have health value — as in toothpaste, where the amount used is small.”

Triclosan is already under scrutiny by the FDA, thanks to its widespread use and recent reports that it can disrupt hormones and impair muscle contraction.

Women’s fertility linked to detox element in diet

University of Adelaide research has for the first time shown how much of a critical role the natural antioxidant selenium plays at the earliest stages of a woman’s fertility.

The discovery has been made in joint research involving the University’s School of Chemistry and Physics and the Robinson Research Institute.

For her PhD in Chemistry at the University of Adelaide, Melanie Ceko investigated the role and location of selenium in the ovary, and a specific protein that includes selenium. The results of her study show how important selenium is to the development of healthy ovarian follicles, which are responsible for the production of eggs in women.

“Selenium is an essential trace element found in protein-rich foods like red meat, seafood and nuts. It is important for many biological functions, such as immune response, thyroid hormone production, and acts as an antioxidant, helping to detoxify damaging chemicals in the body,” Ms Ceko says.

“We’ve known for some time that selenium is important to men’s fertility, but until now no-one has researched how this element could be involved in healthy reproduction in women.”

Thanks to the use of facilities at the Australian Synchrotron in Victoria, the research team, led by Associate Professor Hugh Harris and Professor Ray Rodgers, was able to pinpoint exactly where selenium is located in the ovary. They then turned their attention to the selenoprotein known as GPX1.

“Our findings are important, because they show that selenium and selenoproteins are at elevated levels in large, healthy ovarian follicles. We suspect they play a critical role as an antioxidant during the late stages of follicle development, helping to lead to a healthy environment for the egg,” Ms Ceko says.

“We found that gene expression of GPX1 was significantly higher – in some cases double – in egg cells that yielded a pregnancy.”

Selenium deficiency is not usually a problem in Western diets, although people who avoid certain food groups or eat food mainly grown on selenium-deficient soils are at risk.

“Infertility is a significant problem in our society, with one in six couples in Australia being infertile. Further research is needed to better understand how selenium levels could be optimized, helping to improve women’s chances of conceiving. Too much selenium can also be toxic, so it isn’t just a case of taking multiple supplements,” Ms Ceko says.

This research, published in the international journal Metallomics, has been supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

Nothing fishy about health benefits of plant-based omega-3 fatty acid

Increasing the amount of omega-3s in your diet, whether from fish or flax, will likely decrease your risk of getting heart disease, according to Penn State nutritionists.

A substantial amount of evidence exists supporting the heart-health benefits of eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid (EPA and DHA), marine-derived omega-3 fatty acids. However, much less evidence exists to demonstrate the positive effects of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a plant-based omega-3 fatty acid.

“The benefits reported for EPA and DHA are stronger because supplements of EPA and DHA were tested, and EPA and DHA was the only difference between the treatment and control groups,” said Jennifer Fleming, instructor and clinical research coordinator in nutritional sciences. “In contrast, in the ALA studies, there were diet differences beyond ALA between the treatment and control groups.”

EPA and DHA can be found in seafood and fish oil, and are often consumed in the form of dietary supplements. ALA is found in flaxseed and its oil, vegetable oils, and some nuts, and is now available in supplement form. EPA and DHA have been available for much longer. Other sources of ALA, EPA and DHA are fortified foods such as orange juice, eggs, peanut butter, margarine and bread, among others. While there are many other omega-3 fortified foods in the market place, most are relatively low in omega-3 fatty acids.

Omega-3 fatty acids are considered essential for human health, but the body does not produce them — therefore they must be consumed in order to maintain appropriate levels.

In reviewing existing literature on the subject, the researchers have come to the conclusion that ALA is likely just as effective in preventing cardiovascular disease as EPA and DHA have proven to be, as they report on the current issue of Advances in Nutrition.

“Our understanding of the cardiovascular disease benefits of ALA has advanced markedly during the past decade,” said Penny Kris-Etherton, Distinguished Professor of Nutrition. “Based on the current evidence, ALA decreases CVD risk.”

Fleming and Kris-Etherton believe that dietary recommendations should be amended to increase the amount of ALA consumed, but note that randomized controlled clinical trials need to be conducted in order to determine the amount recommended.

“Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the country,” said Fleming. “Learning what you can do to prevent heart disease is important and relevant for everybody.”

 

Trans fat consumption is linked to diminished memory in working-aged adults

American Heart Association Meeting Report Abstract 15572

High trans fat consumption is linked to worse memory among working-age men, according to research presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2014.

In a recent study of approximately 1,000 healthy men, those who consumed the most trans fats showed notably worse performance on a word memory test. The strength of the association remained even after taking into consideration things like age, education, ethnicity and depression.

“Trans fats were most strongly linked to worse memory, in young and middle-aged men, during their working and career-building years,” said Beatrice A. Golomb, M.D., Ph.D., lead author and professor of medicine at the University of California-San Diego. “From a health standpoint, trans fat consumption has been linked to higher body weight, more aggression and heart disease. As I tell patients, while trans fats increase the shelf life of foods, they reduce the shelf life of people.”

Golomb and her coauthor studied adults who had not been diagnosed with heart disease, including men age 20 or older and postmenopausal women. Participants completed a dietary questionnaire, from which the researchers estimated participants’ trans fat consumption. To assess memory, researchers presented participants with a series of 104 cards showing words. Participants had to state whether each word was new or a word duplicated from a prior card.

They found:

• Among men under age 45, those who ate more trans fats showed notably worse performance on the word memory test. The strength of the association remained even after taking into consideration things like age, education, ethnicity and depression.
• Each additional gram a day of trans fats consumed was associated with an estimated 0.76 fewer words correctly recalled.
• For those eating the highest amounts of trans fats, this translated to an estimated 11 fewer words (a more than 10 percent reduction in words remembered), compared to adults who ate the least trans fat. (The average number of words correctly recalled was 86.)

“Foods have different effects on oxidative stress and cell energy,” Golomb said. In a previous study, we found chocolate, which is rich in antioxidants and positively impacts cell energy, is linked to better word memory in young to middle-aged adults. In this study, we looked at whether trans fats, which are prooxidant and linked adversely to cell energy, might show the opposite effect. And they did.”

Oxidative stress is associated with the development of diseases such as heart disease and cancer.

Industrial trans fats are artificially produced to turn liquid oils into solids at room temperature and extend food shelf life. They can be found in margarines, fast foods, baked goods, snack foods, frozen pizza, coffee creamers and some refrigerated doughs. The Food and Drug Administration is taking further steps to reduce the amount of artificial trans fats in the U.S. food supply.

Analyses in younger women are needed to determine whether effects extend to this group, Golomb said.

High-fructose diet in adolescence may exacerbate depressive-like behavior

Animal study shows that diet alters important pathways associated with brain’s response to stress

The consumption of a diet high in fructose throughout adolescence can worsen depressive- and anxiety-like behavior and alter how the brain responds to stress, according to new animal research scheduled for presentation at Neuroscience 2014, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world’s largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.

“Our results offer new insights into the ways in which diet can alter brain health and may lead to important implications for adolescent nutrition and development,” said lead author Constance Harrell of Emory University in Atlanta.

Harrell is presenting her work Saturday, Nov. 15, Halls A-C, 3-4 pm and participating in an “Unhealthy diet, unhealthy mind”-themed press conference on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 12:30 pm.

Harrell is a graduate student working with Gretchen Neigh, PhD, assistant professor of physiology, psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University School of Medicine.

Fructose, a sugar found naturally in fruits and vegetables but also added to many processed foods and beverages, can promote negative cardiovascular effects. It also stimulates neural pathways that affect how the brain responds to stress, which can have important behavioral effects, including the worsening of symptoms related to depression and anxiety. Such effects are of particular concern during the teen years, which is a critical time for the development of the brain’s stress response.

To determine whether fructose consumption has the potential to create long-term changes in metabolism and behavior during adolescence, Harrell and her colleagues gave both adolescent and adult rats either a standard or a high-fructose diet. After 10 weeks, the adolescent but not adult rats on the high-fructose diet had a different stress hormone response to an acute stressor, which was consistent with their depressed-like behavior. A genetic pathway in the brain that plays a key role in regulating the way the brain responds to stress was also altered. These findings indicate that consuming a diet high in fructose throughout adolescence may exacerbate depressive behaviors and affect the way the body and the brain respond to stress.

Research provides new insight into gluten intolerance

 

Celiac disease patients suffer from gluten intolerance and must adjust to a life without gluten from food sources like wheat, rye and barley. There is no treatment of the disease except lifelong gluten-free diet, but now a Danish/Norwegian research team publishes new research, that may lead to the development of a drug against the disease.

Gluten intolerance is often caused by celiac disease, which makes the human organism sensitive to gluten proteins from certain cereals. No known drug can cure the disease or make the patient able to eat gluten again, and therefore the patients have to completely refrain from eating gluten-containing foods.

Now a Danish/Norwegian research team from the University of Southern Denmark and the University of Oslo/Oslo University Hospital has managed to retrieve hitherto unknown details about what is happening in the body of a celiac patient who eats gluten.

“We’ve got a new fundamental understanding of the pathological mechanisms in celiac disease, and it opens the possibility to develop new drugs against this disease”, says head of research, associate professor and ph.d., Thomas J. D. Jørgensen, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Southern Denmark.

The research team published their results in the journal PNAS.

The first authors are former ph.d. student Simon Mysling from University of Southern Denmark and postdoc Rasmus Iversen from the University of Oslo. Thomas J. D. Jørgensen and Professor Ludvig M. Sollid from the University of Oslo/Oslo University Hospital led the research.

Antibodies attack the intestine

Doctors know that celiac disease is a so-called autoimmune disease. This means that gluten activates the body’s immune system so that it starts to attack the body itself. In particular the immune system attacks the mucosa of the small intestine, so it weakens and loses its capability to absorb nutrients properly.

When the immune system is activated, it produces antibodies that attack a particular enzyme in the body. Exactly how this interaction between antibodies and enzyme plays out has until now been unclear, but now the research team presents new details about how the antibodies are formed and behave as well as how the enzyme reacts to different stimuli.

“We now have an insight into how the antibodies react when they encounter the enzyme. We also know how the enzyme changes shape when exposed to different environmental impacts, such as the concentration of calcium ions changes “, explains Thomas J.D. Jørgensen.

Gut microbiota influences blood-brain barrier permeability

A new study in mice, conducted by researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet together with colleagues in Singapore and the United States, shows that our natural gut-residing microbes can influence the integrity of the blood-brain barrier, which protects the brain from harmful substances in the blood. According to the authors, the findings provide experimental evidence that our indigenous microbes contribute to the mechanism that closes the blood-brain barrier before birth. The results also support previous observations that gut microbiota can impact brain development and function.

The blood-brain barrier is a highly selective barrier that prevents unwanted molecules and cells from entering the brain from the bloodstream. In the current study, being published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the international interdisciplinary research team demonstrates that the transport of molecules across the blood-brain barrier can be modulated by gut microbes – which therefore play an important role in the protection of the brain.

The investigators reached this conclusion by comparing the integrity and development of the blood-brain barrier between two groups of mice: the first group was raised in an environment where they were exposed to normal bacteria, and the second (called germ-free mice) was kept in a sterile environment without any bacteria.

“We showed that the presence of the maternal gut microbiota during late pregnancy blocked the passage of labeled antibodies from the circulation into the brain parenchyma of the growing fetus”, says first author Dr. Viorica Braniste at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology at Karolinska Institutet. “In contrast, in age-matched fetuses from germ-free mothers, these labeled antibodies easily crossed the blood-brain barrier and was detected within the brain parenchyma”.

The team also showed that the increased ‘leakiness’ of the blood-brain barrier, observed in germ-free mice from early life, was maintained into adulthood. Interestingly, this ‘leakiness’ could be abrogated if the mice were exposed to fecal transplantation of normal gut microbes. The precise molecular mechanisms remain to be identified. However, the team was able to show that so-called tight junction proteins, which are known to be important for the blood-brain barrier permeability, did undergo structural changes and had altered levels of expression in the absence of bacteria.

According to the researchers, the findings provide experimental evidence that alterations of our indigenous microbiota may have far-reaching consequences for the blood-brain barrier function throughout life.

“These findings further underscore the importance of the maternal microbes during early life and that our bacteria are an integrated component of our body physiology”, says Professor Sven Pettersson, the principal investigator at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology. “Given that the microbiome composition and diversity change over time, it is tempting to speculate that the blood-brain barrier integrity also may fluctuate depending on the microbiome. This knowledge may be used to develop new ways for opening the blood-brain-barrier to increase the efficacy of the brain cancer drugs and for the design of treatment regimes that strengthens the integrity of the blood-brain barrier”.

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The study was funded with grants from the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Brain Foundation, the research consortium TORNADO within the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme, Merieux Foundation, Wenner-Gren Foundation, Singapore Millenium foundation, and the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Professor Sven Pettersson is also affiliated to the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, The National Cancer Centre in Singapore and the Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering at NTU.

Publication: ‘The gut microbiota influences the blood brain barrier permeability in mice’, Viorica Braniste, Maha Al-Asmakh, Czeslawa Kowa, Farhana Anuar, Afrouz Abbaspour, Miklos Toth, Agata Korecka, Nadja Bakocevic, Ng Lai Guan, Parag Kundu, Balazs Gulyas, Christer Halldin, Kjell Hultenby, Harriet Nilsson, Hans Hebert, Bruce T. Volpe, Betty Diamond, Sven Pettersson, Science Translational Medicine, online 19th November 2014.

Chemical in coffee may help prevent obesity-related disease

Athens, Ga. – Researchers at the University of Georgia have discovered that a chemical compound commonly found in coffee may help prevent some of the damaging effects of obesity.

In a paper published recently in Pharmaceutical Research, scientists found that chlorogenic acid, or CGA, significantly reduced insulin resistance and accumulation of fat in the livers of mice who were fed a high-fat diet.

“Previous studies have shown that coffee consumption may lower the risk for chronic diseases like Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease,” said Yongjie Ma, a postdoctoral research associate in UGA’s College of Pharmacy and lead author of the paper. “Our study expands on this research by looking at the benefits associated with this specific compound, which is found in great abundance in coffee, but also in other fruits and vegetables like apples, pears, tomatoes and blueberries.”

During the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States. More than one-third of U.S. adults and approximately 17 percent of children are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the annual medical cost of obesity is more than $147 billion.

Aside from weight gain, two common side effects of obesity are increased insulin resistance and the accumulation of fat in the liver. Left untreated, these disorders can lead to diabetes and poor liver function.

To test the therapeutic effects of CGA, researchers fed a group of mice a high-fat diet for 15 weeks while also injecting them with a CGA solution twice per week.

They found that CGA was not only effective in preventing weight gain, but it also helped maintain normal blood sugar levels and healthy liver composition.

“CGA is a powerful antioxidant that reduces inflammation,” said Ma, who works in the laboratory of professor Dexi Liu in the department of pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences. “A lot of evidence suggests that obesity-related diseases are caused by chronic inflammation, so if we can control that, we can hopefully offset some of the negative effects of excessive weight gain.”

But the authors are quick to point out that CGA is not a cure-all. Proper diet and regular exercise are still the best methods to reduce the risks associated with obesity.

The mice in this study received a high dose of CGA, much higher than what a human would absorb through regular coffee consumption or a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.

However, the researchers do believe that CGA may form the foundation of a treatment for those who need extra help. They plan to conduct more research to develop an improved CGA formulation specifically for human consumption.

“We’re not suggesting that people start drinking a lot of coffee to protect themselves from an unhealthy lifestyle,” said Ma, who is also a member of UGA’s Obesity Initiative. “But we do think that we might be able to create a useful therapeutic using CGA that will help those at risk for obesity-related disease as they make positive lifestyle changes.”

Healthy diets are good for the kidneys

Philadelphia, PA (November 15, 2014) — A healthy diet may help protect the kidneys, according to two studies that will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2014 November 11¬-16 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA.

Dietary modifications may be a low-cost, simple intervention to reduce the burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD). To test this hypothesis, Andrew Smyth, MD (National University of Ireland Galway) and his colleagues analyzed questionnaires completed by 544,635 participants of the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study that assessed diet quality, as well as sodium and potassium intake.

A higher-quality diet, as measured using 3 different scoring systems for dietary qualities known to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, was associated with a 16% to 23% reduced risk of needing dialysis or dying from kidney problems. Higher-quality diets included those high in fruits, vegetables, and unsaturated fats. The researchers also found that high sodium intake (average of 4.7g g/day) was linked with an increased risk of needing dialysis or dying from kidney problems, but no benefit was seen for low sodium intake (average 2.0 g/day) compared with moderate intake. In contrast, high potassium intake was associated with a reduced future risk.

“Our findings extend the known benefits of healthy eating and show that the consumption of a healthy diet may protect from future major renal events,” said Dr. Smyth. “As dietary modification is a low-cost, simple intervention, it offers the potential to significantly reduce the burden from chronic kidney disease, while also protecting from cardiovascular disease.”

In another study, Meg Jardine, MBBS, PhD (The George Institute for International Health, in Australia) and her colleagues found that reducing salt intake reduces albuminuria, or excess protein in the urine, which is a hallmark of kidney dysfunction. For the study, 120 rural villages in China were randomized to no intervention or an 18-month sodium reduction program, including education and access to a reduced-sodium salt substitute with added potassium.

Individuals in villages that received the sodium reduction intervention had a 33% decreased likelihood of having albuminuria compared with individuals in the control villages.

“The fundamental question now is whether dietary salt reduction will also protect against progressive kidney damage,” said Dr. Jardine. “If it does, community dietary interventions would present a new method for improving kidney health with efficient uptake and relatively low cost, which would supplement current pharmaceutical-based approaches.”

Running really can keep you young, says CU-Boulder-Humboldt State study

Seniors who run regularly can walk as efficiently as 20-somethings

If you are an active senior who wants to stay younger, keep on running.

A new study involving the University of Colorado Boulder and Humboldt State University shows that senior citizens who run several times a week for exercise expend about the same amount of energy walking as a typical 20-year-old.

But older people who walk for exercise rather than jog expend about the same amount of energy walking as older, sedentary adults, and expend up to 22 percent more energy walking than the 20-something crowd. The study, led by Humboldt State Professor Justus Ortega, was published online Nov. 20 in the journal PLOS ONE.

“The bottom line is that running keeps you younger, at least in terms of energy efficiency,” said CU-Boulder Associate Professor Rodger Kram of the Department of Integrative Physiology, a co-author on the new study.

The PLOS ONE study involved 30 healthy older volunteer adults (15 males and 15 females) with an average age of 69 who either regularly ran or walked for exercise. The volunteers all had been either walking or running at least three times a week for a minimum of 30 minutes per workout for at least six months. Boulder was an ideal place for the study, said Kram, in part because it has been an international running mecca since the 1970s and there are a relatively large number of senior runners.

“What we found is that older adults who regularly participate in highly aerobic activities – running in particular – have a lower metabolic cost of walking than older, sedentary adults and also lower than seniors who regularly walk for exercise,” said Ortega, who earned his doctorate at CU-Boulder.

“It’s been known for a long time that as people age their maximum aerobic capacity, or ‘horsepower,’ declines, and that is true for runners as well,” said Ortega. “What’s new here is we found that old runners maintain their fuel economy.”

All study participants underwent preliminary health screenings at the CU-Boulder Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTRC), which is funded primarily by the National Institutes of Health.

The test subjects walked on a force-measuring treadmill at three speeds in Kram’s Locomotion Laboratory at CU-Boulder: 1.6 mph, 2.8 mph, and 3.9 mph. The researchers measured each participant’s oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production during the testing sessions. For the new study, the team also used data gathered as part of Ortega’s dissertation on the energy expended by younger and older sedentary adults during similar walking treadmill tests for comparison.

Other co-authors of the new study are CU-Boulder graduate student Owen Beck, Jaclyn Roby, now a student in the Physical Therapy Program at CU’s Anschutz Medical Campus in Denver, and former Humboldt State undergraduate Aria Turney.

“It was surprising to find that older adults who regularly run for exercise are better walkers than older adults who regularly walk for exercise,” said Beck. “The take-home message of the study is that consistently running for exercise seems to slow down the aging process and allows older individuals to move more easily, improving their independence and quality of life,” he said.

“Walking for exercise has many positive health effects, like fending off heart disease, diabetes, weight gain and depression – it’s just that walking efficiency does not seem to be one of them,” said Kram. “Because we found no external biomechanical differences between the older walkers and runners, we suspect the higher efficiency of senior runners is coming from their muscle cells.”

Specifically, Kram believes that mitochondria — small bodies found inside individual cells known as the cell “powerhouses” — are involved. Mitochondria generate chemical energy known as adenosine triphosphate (ATP) that powers our muscle fibers to help us move about, lift objects, and, in this case, run. People who work out regularly generally have more mitochondria in their cells, providing more energy to power larger muscles.

Kram said further research is needed to determine the role mitochondria play in the energy efficiency exhibited by running seniors.

A CNIO team discovers that a derivative of vitamin B3 prevents liver cancer in mice

Dietary supplements of nicotinamide riboside, a derivative of vitamin B3, prevent the development of liver tumors and induce tumor regression in mice

Liver cancer is one of the most frequent cancers in the world, and with the worst prognosis; according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), in 2012, 745,000 deaths were registered worldwide due to this cause, a figure only surpassed by lung cancer. The most aggressive and frequent form of liver cancer is hepato-cellular carcinoma (HCC); little is known about it and there are relatively few treatment options.

Researchers from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), have produced the first mouse model that faithfully reproduces the steps of human HCC development, from the appearance of the first lesions in the liver to the development of metastasis. The results, published in the prestigious journal Cancer Cell, indicate that diets rich in nicotinamide riboside, a derivative of vitamin B3, protect these mice from developing HCC in its most initial stage, when genotoxic stress is damaging cellular DNA. They also show a curative effect of the diet in those mice that had previously developed the disease.

A MOUSE MODEL FOR HUMAN HEPATIC CANCER

One obstacle to the study of human HCC is the absence of mouse models that replicate the disease, which could be used to investigate molecular pathways or new therapies. Given that human HCC is associated to alterations in hepatocytes survival, and that the URI oncogene plays a role in this process, the researchers genetically engineered mice that contained high levels of URI only in the liver, in a controlled manner over time.

At 30 weeks, the mice with high levels of URI generated sporadic tumours in the liver and even metastasis when the induction lasted longer. The study details how deficiency in nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+), a universal compound found in living organisms that is needed to burn calories via cell metabolism, orchestrates the development of the disease.

“An increase in URI reduces cellular NAD+ and as a consequence produces genotoxic stress and DNA damage”, says Nabil Djouder, leader of the study and Head of the Growth Factors, Nutrients and Cancer Group in the BBVA Foundation-CNIO Cancer Cell Biology Programme. “It is still not totally clear, however, why the deficit in NAD+ causes these lesions,” he adds.

ENERGY METABOLISM AND CANCER

The appearance of DNA damage is the first link in the chain of events that activate the carcinogenic process in the liver, even before apoptosis or cell death, as has been described in the literature. “We normally say that oncogenes induce DNA damage. Now we may be able to say, more appropriately, that oncogenes induce NAD+ depletion [or deficits in NAD+] which causes DNA damage,” says Djouder.

The inverse relationship between NAD+ and cancer awakened the curiosity of the researchers: could an increase in NAD+ have beneficial effects on the disease? When the scientists supplemented the diet in genetically modified mice with nicotinamide riboside, a derivative of vitamin B3 that increases intracellular levels of NAD+, they did not observe tumour development. Surprisingly, when they gave this diet to mice that had already developed the disease, the size of the tumours was reduced and they eventually disappeared.

The results have been reproduced in other types of cancer such as pancreatic cancer. “We observed the same results in mice with pancreatic adenocarcinoma with regards to DNA damage, so we could conclude that this treatment is effective on tumours caused by oncogene-induced DNA damage and thus, deficit in NAD+,” says Krishna Tummala, first author of the study.

In addition to working with the mouse model, the authors have collated the results of nearly a hundred human samples. “Those from patients with HCC contain URI levels that double those of healthy samples,” according to the article. The data, which also associates URI with a worse prognosis or evolution of the illness, suggests that the gene could be a possible new HCC marker, and nicotinamide riboside boosting NAD+ levels may have a human relevance.