Monthly Archives: July 2012

Could the Naked Mole Rat Hold Secrets to Longevity?

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THURSDAY, July 5 (HealthDay News) -- Your garden-variety rat lives about three years -- plenty long enough to become a nuisance or get a starring role in a Disney film, but not much in the big scheme of things. The naked mole rat, however, a native of East Africa, lives as long as three decades.

Even the naked mole rat's golden years aren't bad, as the rodent doesn't deteriorate much in terms of activity, bone health, sex and brainpower.

What's going on? It may have nothing to do with a lack of hair. (Sorry, bald people.) Instead, a team of researchers from Tel Aviv University in Israel, the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio and the City College of New York report that a brain-protecting protein called NRG-1 could be an important factor.

The good news: Our genetic makeup is similar to that of rodents -- we share about 85 percent of our genes -- and perhaps more knowledge about this protein could help us live longer and better too, study co-author Dorothee Huchon at Tel Aviv University's department of zoology, suggested in a university news release.

The researchers found that the naked mole rat has the most and longest-lasting supply of the protein of the rodents studied. And their levels of the protein stuck around whether they were one day old or 26 years.

The protein appears to protect neurons in the brain.

Scientists note, however, that research with animals often fails to provide similar results in humans.

The study was published in a recent issue of the journal Aging Cell.

-- Randy Dotinga

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Could the Naked Mole Rat Hold Secrets to Longevity?

DNA tests prompt investigations of possible wrongful convictions

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RICHMOND, Va. --

Prompted by DNA testing in recent years, authorities in Norfolk and Carroll County are investigating several possible wrongful convictions from decades ago.

The Virginia Department of Forensic Science has disclosed DNA test results for more than 70 people in which testing of biological evidence discovered in forensic case files from 1973 to 1988 failed to identify the convicted person.

The test reports were released in response to Freedom of Information Act requests from the news media and the Innocence Project made possible as of July 1 by special legislation passed by the General Assembly this year.

Failure to identify a convicted person's DNA in evidence, primarily blood and semen, can be consistent with and even prove innocence, or it may mean nothing.

As permitted by the legislation, two commonwealth's attorneys are withholding four DNA reports involving five people four in Norfolk and one in Carroll County deemed critical to ongoing criminal investigations, the department said.

But Amanda M. Howie, a spokeswoman for Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney Gregory D. Underwood, said that of 11 DNA reports sent to Norfolk for consideration, they objected to the release of four concerning three individuals and two cases.

"Our objection is appropriate as our legal review of the original circumstances of each case associated with the (reports) is still ongoing," Howie wrote in an email.

She said that in every case sent to her office, "a thorough, routine process is followed to determine what, if any, legal impact the testing and resulting (report) has on the case."

The Commonwealth's Attorney's Office in Carroll did not return calls for comment Friday. Other investigations in the roughly three dozen jurisdictions with exclusion cases may be in progress as well.

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DNA tests prompt investigations of possible wrongful convictions

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Special issue of Botany showcases CANPOLIN research

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A special issue of the journal Botany is set to showcase to the world the multipronged-approach that Canadian researchers are bringing to the study of pollination biology. The journal's July issue features seven articles from NSERC-CANPOLIN researchers, examining topics that range from the effect of flower structure on pollinator activity to the impacts of recent climate change on pollinator ranges. The issue also includes two review papers, one exploring pollen limitation and pollinator diversity, and the other assessing the value of network biology studies in pollinator conservation.

"Pollination biology is a somewhat unique field of study, because there are so many different ways to approach the interactions between plants and pollinators," says Jana Vamosi of the University of Calgary and guest editor of the special issue. "It can be studied at the level of a single plant or pollinator species, or at a community level, where the entire complex web of plant and pollinator interactions are considered. At the landscape level, pollination takes place against a backdrop of wide-ranging and sometimes extreme environments, which adds further to the complexity of interactions."

The special issue presents findings from studies conducted in a variety of ecosystems, including agricultural, forest and alpine. Many of these studies have revealed important information about the pollination biology and/or evolution of several Canadian plant species, while a study that took place in Quebec is one of the first to examine the impact of agricultural monocultures on pollinator nutrition and reproduction. At the macro-scale, a country-wide study of 81 butterfly species looks at how the ranges of these relatively mobile pollinators are keeping pace with latitudinal shifts in climatic gradients.

Nine CANPOLIN ecologists collaborated on a review examining pollinator biodiversity and its role in pollen limitation, a scenario in which a plant's reproduction is limited because not enough pollen is transferred. Although traditional wisdom predicts that there will be less pollen limitation when pollinator diversity is high, the group found that this link is actually somewhat weak. The authors encourage other researchers investigating the phenomenon of pollen limitation to measure pollinator diversity more explicitly, so that it is easier to identify what makes a plant-pollinator relationship stable.

A second review makes the case that pollinator network analyses are an important tool for understanding pollination systems at the community level. Rather than traditional measurements that focus simply on what species are present, pollinator networks provide information on what each flower visitor is actually doing. "Network analyses are considered by many to be the next frontier in pollinator biology" says Elizabeth Elle of Simon Fraser, senior author of the review and co-leader of CANPOLIN's Ecosystems Working Group with Vamosi. "They provide a functional understanding of pollination systems as opposed to just an inventory. As such, they are likely to become an essential part of developing conservation strategies for pollinators."

The idea for the special issue took hold during a pollination symposium at last year's Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution annual meeting in Banff, AB, an event that was co-organized by Elle and fellow CANPOLIN member Risa Sargent of University of Ottawa. The symposium brought together researchers from four different working groups in CANPOLIN (Taxonomy, Plant reproduction, Ecology and Prediction) to explore pollinator biodiversity and pollination services in Canada. "The symposium was a great success and generated quite a lot of interest. With the help of NRC Research Press, we have been able to capture many of the ideas presented and make them available to the wider research community through this special issue," says Vamosi.

More information: For a full overview of the July 2012 issue see the introductory article by Vamosi et al: "Pollination biology research in Canada: perspectives on a mutualism at different scales" (Botany, 90(7): v-vi, doi: 10.1139/b2012-051).

The full issue is now available online http://www.nrcresearchpre toc/cjb/90/7

Journal reference: Botany

Provided by Canadian Science Publishing (NRC Research Press)

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Special issue of Botany showcases CANPOLIN research

Stem cell therapy 'turns back clock'

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MANILA, Philippines Stem cell therapy, aside from being a potential cure for a wide range of illnesses, can also make a patient look and feel younger, a stem cell therapist said.

Dr. Ricardo Quiones, a cosmetic surgeon and dermatologist, has trained to conduct stem cell therapy, which he describes as the future of medicine.

Quiones said stem cell therapy has become popular for its ability to regenerate and heal properties of adult stem cells.

As we grow old, our stem cells dramatically decline. When we were children, we had 80 million stem cells. As we reach the age of 40, our stem cells decline to 35 million, he told Mornings@ANC on Friday.

Quiones explained that the procedure is similar to turning back the clock because it can increase a persons stem cells to 100 million.

Ive done two patients from Zamboanga City. I called them up after the procedure and they told me they look younger. They have the stamina, the vigor and they have felt an increase in short-term memory, powers of attention and concentration, he said.

Quiones also said the procedure has the potential to cure diabetes, heart damage, brain damage such as Parkinsons and Alzheimers, osteoarthritis, stroke, baldness and even sports injuries.

3-hour procedure

Quiones said any patient, except those diagnosed with cancer, can undergo the procedure, which he said will only last for about 3 to 4 hours.

After receiving clearance from a physician and passing medical and laboratory tests, anesthesia will be administered to a patient before stem cells are harvested.

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Stem cell therapy 'turns back clock'

Muhammad Ali given 2012 Liberty Medal

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Boxing legend Muhammad Ali was awarded the 2012 Liberty Medal, the Philadelphia-based National Constitution Center announced. March 24 file photo. UPI/Art Foxall

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PHILADELPHIA, July 6 (UPI) -- Boxing legend Muhammad Ali was awarded the 2012 Liberty Medal, the Philadelphia-based National Constitution Center announced.

The Liberty Medal is awarded annually to a person or organization that is working toward ensuring liberty for people worldwide.

Ali's selection for the award was made public Thursday by the center. Officials from the center said Ali has been an champion of constitutional principles while working to expand the concept of "We the people," the Philadelphia Inquirer reported

Center president David Eisner said Ali "will be the face of the Constitution's 225th anniversary."

"Muhammad Ali symbolizes all that makes America great, while pushing us as a people and as a nation to be better," he said.

A formal award ceremony to honor Ali will be held in Philadelphia in September. Because Ali's movement and speech have been deteriorating due to Parkinson's disease, his wife, Yolanda, will speak at the ceremony on his behalf, the report said.

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Muhammad Ali given 2012 Liberty Medal

Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson asks Tampa supporters to help him get on presidential polls

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TAMPA Gary Johnson is still the longest of long shots to become president.

But now that the former two-term Republican governor is running as a Libertarian, he says success starts with just one number: 15.

If Johnson can snag 15 percent in national polls, the man known as New Mexico's "Governor Veto" can appear in debates alongside President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

So he took the somewhat strange step of urging a group of 30 people Friday in Ybor City to support him simply by calling polling companies.

"Just ask them to include my name," he said from the stage of Gaspar's Grotto.

Johnson's party affiliation has changed, but his positions haven't. As he describes it, he's "pro-choice with regard to everything."

What hurts his chances is that Americans really have become accustomed to just two choices for president. Libertarian Party candidates have surpassed 1 percent of the vote in national elections just once. If Johnson gets 5 percent of the vote in November, though, the party gets public funding in 2016.

Johnson's name was included in a Gallup poll, taken June 7 to 10, along with Obama, Romney and two other lesser-known candidates. He polled at 3 percent.

Johnson says "entrenched interests" are to blame for the dominance of the two-party system. Then there's the media, and particularly CNN, which he blames for arbitrarily shutting him out of GOP debates last year and cutting audio of an endorsement from independent politician Jesse Ventura. His supporters plan to protest at CNN's Atlanta headquarters this month.

For his third-party platform to survive, Johnson will need the grass roots people who are proud to tell their family and friends that they voted for someone out of the norm.

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Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson asks Tampa supporters to help him get on presidential polls

Libertarian prez candidate Gary Johnson in Tampa: Help me get on the polls!

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Republican-turned-Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson says his campaign comes down to one figure: 15.

If he gets 15 percent in the national polls, the two-time Republican governor of New Mexico can appear in debates alongside President Barack Obama and all-but-settled Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

Without that, he said Friday inTampa, he's toast.

He encouraged the group of about 30 people -- some Libertarians, some Democrats, some just curious -- gathered for lunch at Gaspar'sGrotto in Ybor City to call national polling companies and push them to include his name in their samples.

"Just ask them to include my name," he said. "That does not seem like such an onerous request."

Johnson became the Libertarian nominee in May. He's polling anywhere between 6 percent and 15 percent in some states, he said.

"I am but a spokesman for the liberty movement," he said. "If I had a button it would be, I am pro-choice with regard to everything."

His campaign will target some states for commercials, but Florida won't be one of them, Johnson said. Too expensive.

He was eager to point out his differences with Romney and Obama. He does not and has never supported an individual mandate for health insurance, he wants to repeal the Patriot Act, and he wants to abolish the Internal Revenue Service, corporate tax, income tax and other holdings in favor of a fair tax, to name a few.

"The base themselves, neither one of them are very excited about their candidate,"said Alex Snitker, the Libertarian Party candidate for U.S. Senate in 2010. "Gary's taking 'em from both sides."

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Libertarian prez candidate Gary Johnson in Tampa: Help me get on the polls!

A Reverend, a Comedian, and John Fugelsang take on health care reform – Video

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06-07-2012 12:18 Rev. Sandie Richards of the First United Methodist Church in Los Angeles speaks with Talking Liberally guest host John Fugelsang about the results of health care reform. She says woman and children are going to " benefit greatly" from health care reform. Rev. Richards says "it's too bad this (health care reform) has become a political punching bag." Comedian Travon Free says, "Romney keeps preaching repeal and replace, but he has not replacement plan." Every weekday morning on Current TV at 9e/6p

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A Reverend, a Comedian, and John Fugelsang take on health care reform - Video

What Happened to Health Care Provider Stocks?

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Leading up to and immediately following the Obamacare Supreme Court decision, most health care stocks and funds were in focus. Companies and ETFs in this space saw outsized trading volumes as a result, while many slumped as soon as the final decision was revealed.

Most of the health care firms have since rebounded with many segments of the important industry seeing their stocks rise by a few percentage points over the past week. However, one corner of the industry has stuck out as a big loser, unable to recoup its losses after the announcement; health care plans/HMOs (read Health Care ETFs in Focus On Obamacare Supreme Court Decision).

Overall, this has easily been the worst performing segment over the past week in the broad health care space as all of the biggest companies in the industry are in the red. This is in sharp contrast to the pharma, biotech, and medical device/instrument firms, which have all managed to start July on a strong note.

This trend is especially puzzling because of what the Obamacare ruling could do for the HMO space. Many analysts believe that the controversial individual mandate would be a boon for HMO providers as it would add millions to their rolls, with many being very healthy and younger individuals.

Seemingly, investors have instead focused in on the fact that children will get to stay on the parents plans and the new stipulations regarding a lack of lifetime care caps and rules regarding pre-existing conditions. These changes could potentially cancel out any benefits from the millions of fresh new clients and could possibly be the reason for health care plan companies slump after the Supreme Court decision.

Thanks to this negative sentiment, all six of the health care plan providers in the S&P 500 are down significantly over the past week. This includes a near 11.6% loss for WellPoint (WLP), 7.6% slump for Aetna (AET), a 7.1% slide in Coventry Health Care (CVH), and a nearly 6% loss for the biggest of the bunch, UnitedHealth Care (UNH).

To me, this seems a bit overdone, particularly considering the solid performances that investors have seen in the rest of the health care space. After all, over the past week, the Health Care Select Sector SPDR (XLV) is actually up about 1%, demonstrating that the sickness in health care stocks is pretty much only afflicting health care plans/HMOs at this time (see The Five Best ETFs over the Past Five Years).

Another factor to consider for the HMO space is the current Zacks Industry Rank. At time of writing, the HMO segment was currently rankedadmittedly in a rather large tiefor 106 out of 265 from this metric. This includes a few firms that are Ranked 2 or Buy while it should also be noted that the segment has surged by about 50 places in the past week, suggesting that the underlying fundamentals for the space arent as bad as investors have experienced over the past few days.

While it should be noted that all this could change as we approach the summer earnings season, the space could still be an intriguing choice for investors looking for a beaten down sector in todays market environment.

What do you think? Is now the time to get in on health plan providers/HMOs? Or should investors continue to hold out and put their cash to work in other corners of the health care market?

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What Happened to Health Care Provider Stocks?

How The Health Care Ruling Might Affect Civil Rights

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Enlarge David Goldman/AP

People gather outside the Supreme Court on June 28, the morning the health care ruling was announced. Lawyers say they're still teasing out the consequences for other key areas of the law including civil rights.

People gather outside the Supreme Court on June 28, the morning the health care ruling was announced. Lawyers say they're still teasing out the consequences for other key areas of the law including civil rights.

There's been lots of talk about how the Supreme Court's landmark decision to uphold the health care law could affect the federal Medicaid program and President Obama's political standing. But days after the historic ruling, lawyers say they're still teasing out the consequences for other key areas of the law including civil rights.

At first blush, it might seem odd that a case about the Affordable Care Act would send civil rights experts scrambling back to their law books.

But the Supreme Court's ruling in the health care case involves the Commerce Clause and Congress' spending power, which happen to be the backbone of most civil rights legislation.

"The Commerce Clause and the impact on interstate commerce of various types of discrimination has traditionally formed the basis for many civil rights statutes," says Washington lawyer Robert Driscoll, who worked on civil rights in the George W. Bush Justice Department. "And unlike the health care case, civil rights statutes generally would not have a taxing provision which could provide the kind of save of the statute that happened for the health care case."

Concern About Coercion

In last week's health care decision, five justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts, put important limits on the Commerce Clause for the first time in decades, raising questions about the implications for federal civil rights legislation.

But it's the second area of the ruling the one that talks about new limits to the Spending Clause that's really got the attention of civil rights lawyers.

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How The Health Care Ruling Might Affect Civil Rights

What Happened to Health Care Provider Stocks? – Real Time Insight

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Referenced Stocks: AET, CVH, UNH, WLP, XLV

Leading up to and immediately following the Obamacare Supreme Court decision, most health care stocks and funds were in focus. Companies and ETFs in this space saw outsized trading volumes as a result, while many slumped as soon as the final decision was revealed.

Most of the health care firms have since rebounded with many segments of the important industry seeing their stocks rise by a few percentage points over the past week. However, one corner of the industry has stuck out as a big loser, unable to recoup its losses after the announcement; health care plans/HMOs (read Health Care ETFs in Focus On Obamacare Supreme Court Decision ).

Overall, this has easily been the worst performing segment over the past week in the broad health care space as all of the biggest companies in the industry are in the red. This is in sharp contrast to the pharma, biotech, and medical device/instrument firms, which have all managed to start July on a strong note.

This trend is especially puzzling because of what the Obamacare ruling could do for the HMO space. Many analysts believe that the controversial individual mandate would be a boon for HMO providers as it would add millions to their rolls, with many being very healthy and younger individuals.

Seemingly, investors have instead focused in on the fact that children will get to stay on the parent's plans and the new stipulations regarding a lack of lifetime care caps and rules regarding pre-existing conditions. These changes could potentially cancel out any benefits from the millions of fresh new clients and could possibly be the reason for health care plan companies' slump after the Supreme Court decision.

Thanks to this negative sentiment, all six of the health care plan providers in the S&P 500 are down significantly over the past week. This includes a near 11.6% loss for WellPoint ( WLP ) , 7.6% slump for Aetna ( AET ) , a 7.1% slide in Coventry Health Care ( CVH ) , and a nearly 6% loss for the biggest of the bunch, UnitedHealth Care ( UNH ) .

To me, this seems a bit overdone, particularly considering the solid performances that investors have seen in the rest of the health care space. After all, over the past week, the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ( XLV ) is actually up about 1%, demonstrating that the 'sickness' in health care stocks is pretty much only afflicting health care plans/HMOs at this time (see The Five Best ETFs over the Past Five Years ).

Another factor to consider for the HMO space is the current Zacks Industry Rank . At time of writing, the HMO segment was currently ranked-admittedly in a rather large tie-for 106 out of 265 from this metric. This includes a few firms that are Ranked 2 or 'Buy' while it should also be noted that the segment has surged by about 50 places in the past week, suggesting that the underlying fundamentals for the space aren't as bad as investors have experienced over the past few days.

While it should be noted that all this could change as we approach the summer earnings season, the space could still be an intriguing choice for investors looking for a beaten down sector in today's market environment.

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What Happened to Health Care Provider Stocks? - Real Time Insight

WebMD Survey: Sharp Split Over Health Care Ruling

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Court's Ruling on Health Reform Divides Consumers and Doctors Alike

By Brenda Goodman, MA WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

July 5, 2012 -- A WebMD survey of nearly 8,000 Americans reveals that people are divided over last week's Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act -- with 40% supporting it and 36% disagreeing with the highly anticipated decision.

A corresponding survey of health care professionals on Medscape/WebMD showed that health professionals disagreed just as sharply as consumers.

WebMD and Medscape conducted the surveys immediately following the court's ruling that upheld the health care reform law.

Many people indicated that they were worried that the law might drive up their health care costs (36%) or felt unsure how it might impact them personally (32%).

When asked what should happen to health reform in the future, most said they'd like to see the law either completely or partially repealed. But there was also surprising support for a single-payer, government-sponsored option.

Men were significantly more likely than women to disagree with the 5-4 decision, which upheld key parts of the health reform law but also let states opt out of a major expansion of the Medicaid program. Men were also significantly more likely to say they want to see the entire law repealed.

Age also seemed to shade the results. Compared to older adults, those under age 35 were more likely to voice uncertainty about the health reform and its future. They were more likely to say, for example, that they didn't know whether or not they agreed with the Supreme Court's decision. They were also more likely than older adults to admit that they weren't sure how they would be personally impacted by the law. They also said they felt unsure about what should happen next.

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WebMD Survey: Sharp Split Over Health Care Ruling

An economical, effective and biocompatible gene therapy strategy promotes cardiac repair

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ScienceDaily (July 6, 2012) Dr Changfa Guo, Professor Chunsheng Wang and their co-investigators from Zhongshan hospital Fudan University, Shanghai, China have established a novel hyperbranched poly(amidoamine) (hPAMAM) nanoparticle based hypoxia regulated vascular endothelial growth factor (HRE-VEGF) gene therapy strategy which is an excellent substitute for the current expensive and uncontrollable VEGF gene delivery system.

This discovery, reported in the June 2012 issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine, provides an economical, feasible and biocompatible gene therapy strategy for cardiac repair.

Transplantation of VEGF gene manipulated mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) has been proposed as a promising therapeutic method for cardiac repair after myocardium infarction. However, the gene delivery system, including the VEGF gene and delivery vehicle, needs to be optimized. On one hand, long-term and uncontrollable VEGF over-expression in vivo has been observed to lead to hemangioma formation instead of functional vessels in animal models. On the other hand, though non-viral gene vector can circumvent the limitations of virus, drawbacks of the current non-viral vectors, such as complex synthesis procedure, limited transfection efficiency and high cytotoxicity, still needs to be overcome.

Co-investigators, Drs. Kai Zhu and Hao Lai, said "Hypoxia response elements were inserted into the promoter region of VEGF gene to form HRE-VEGF, which provided a safer alternative to the conventionally available VEGF gene." "The HRE-VEGF up-regulates gene expression under hypoxic conditions caused by ischemic myocardium and turns it off under normoxia condition when the regional oxygen supply is adequate."

The hPAMAM nanoparticles, which exhibit high gene transfection efficiency and low cytotoxicity during the gene delivery process, can be synthesized by a simpler and more economical one-step/pot polymerization technique. Drs. Zhu and Lai, said "Using the hPAMAM based gene delivery approach, our published and unpublished results explicitly demonstrated that it was an economical, effective and biocompatible gene delivery vehicle."

Dr Guo concluded that "Treatment with hPAMAM-HRE-VEGF transfected MSCs after myocardium infarction improved the myocardial VEGF level, which improved graft MSC survival, increased neovascularization and ultimately improved heart function. And this novel VEGF gene delivery system may have clinical relevance for tissue repair in other ischemic diseases."

Dr. Steve Goodman, Editor-in-Chief of Experimental Biology and Medicine said "Guo and colleagues have provided an exciting new nanoparticle based gene therapy for cardiac repair. This novel approach has great promise for repair of the heart after myocardial infarction."

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An economical, effective and biocompatible gene therapy strategy promotes cardiac repair