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Discoveries
Research Briefs
Risk assessment
Many female reproductive factors—such as
taking oral contraceptives, having children
at a given age, or receiving estrogen replacement
therapy (ERT)—do not seem to affect
a woman's risk of developing pancreatic
cancer, says a study by DMS's Eric Duell,
Ph.D. But the findings, published in
the American Journal of Epidemiology, did
suggest that women who reach menopause at
age 45 or older may be more likely to get
pancreatic cancer, as well as that oral contraceptives
and ERT may lower the risk for
current and former smokers.
Oh, oxygen
Many preemies need respirators because their
lungs can't process enough oxygen from the
air. But high concentrations of oxygen inhibit
lung-cell growth and, a new DMS study
shows, protein synthesis. In the American
Journal of Physiology, a team led by Jeffrey
Shenberger, M.D., revealed the mechanisms
by which hyperoxia—too much oxygen—hinders the creation of proteins
that are essential for lung development.
"Whereas a great deal has been
learned regarding the activation of cell cycle
checkpoints and DNA repair pathways
by hyperoxia," the paper said, "little attention
has been paid to the process whereby hyperoxia
impairs translation." Until now.
Protein of pain
DMS researchers recently demonstrated how
a receptor protein in the central nervous system,
dubbed TLR4, contributes to neuropathic
pain—a debilitating condition resulting
from damaged or dysfunctional nerves.
The finding, published in the Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences, reveals
new therapeutic possibilities for
treating chronic pain. "The results
of this study are significant because
they demonstrate the potential for
very novel drug targets," says the lead
researcher, Joyce DeLeo, Ph.D., director of
the Neuroscience Center at Dartmouth.
Modeling disease
Human autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP)—a
rare and poorly understood disease—may become
less mysterious and more treatable
thanks to a DMS study published in the
American Journal of Pathology. The research
team, led by pathologists Daniel Longnecker,
M.D., and William Hickey, M.D.,
figured out how to induce a disease
analogous to AIP in rats,
thereby creating "an immunologically
intact animal model to dissect basic
immunological mechanisms" of the disease.
"Furthermore," they wrote in the paper, "this
model represents a novel means for the study
of organ-specific autoimmunity in general."
Sedation scale
A new tool for assessing pediatric sedation
practices has been developed and validated
by a team of Dartmouth anesthesiologists. In
a recent issue of Anesthesia and Analgesia, the
researchers, led by Joseph Cravero, M.D.,
explained that the Dartmouth Operative
Conditions Scale (DOCS) "will allow
a more detailed analysis of sedation
techniques." For example, they wrote,
"two techniques for bone marrow biopsy . . .
could be compared not only for 'was the procedure
completed?' but also for what the
child's behavior, degree of movement, and
pain was like during the procedure."
Burden of proof
Two researchers who headed a recent international
clinical trial on a vaccine that could
prevent 70% of cervical cancers are cautioning
policy-makers "to avoid scaling back" the
use of Pap smears. In a paper published in
Vaccine, Dartmouth's Diane Harper,
M.D., M.P.H., and her coauthor detailed
the cervical cancer burden
worldwide—especially in developing
countries—as well as the potential
of the vaccine. "Any premature relaxation
of cervical cancer control measures already
in place," they concluded, "will bring
a resurgence of the disease to the unacceptable
levels of the not-too-distant past."
TB or not TB
Current tuberculosis screening guidelines for
HIV patients in the developing world may
not be adequate, according to new findings
from a Dartmouth-Tanzania research collaborative
known as DARDAR. Publishing in
the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases,
the authors of the study point
out that "tuberculosis is the leading
cause of death among persons with HIV
infection in the developing world," but a substantial
number of TB cases may go undetected.
"Some cases can only be identified by
sputum culture," they said, a technique not
available in many resource-poor settings.
Beer pressure
Adolescents who own t-shirts, backpacks,
and other items with alcohol brand names or
logos are more likely to drink alcohol than
their peers, according to a study led by DMS
pediatrician Auden McClure, M.D. In a survey
of 2,400 Vermont and New Hampshire
middle-schoolers, McClure and her
colleagues found a strong correlation
between owning branded paraphernalia
and alcohol use. The authors of the
study, which was presented at the annual
meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies,
are urging alcohol companies to voluntarily
stop producing such goods—as the
tobacco industry did in 1998.
According the the latest data available from the Association of American Medical Colleges, DMS is 21st among the nation's 125 medical schools in grant income per basic-science faculty member.
DMS geneticist Victor Ambros, Ph.D., presented data at a meeting in Europe on the use of a new assay for profiling microRNA in samples of the human brain cancer glioblastoma multiforme.
DMS pediatrician David Goodman, M.D., in a Web exclusive for the journal Health Affairs, concluded that the evidence supporting claims of a physician workforce shortage is questionable.
A team led by Dartmouth cognitive neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga, Ph.D., received a $22-million grant from the National Science Foundation to study brain mechanisms involved in learning.
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