Author: Jim Dryden

WUSTL professors David N. Harris and John C. Morris were among experts commenting in a recent St. Louis Post-Dispatch story on public health implications of the discovery of mad cow disease at a Washington state dairy farm. Harris, who conducts research on prion brain proteins associated with the disease, said that no one yet knows what the protein’s regular function is. Morris, a neurology specialist, said that Great Britain’s experience with the disease suggests that most people who were exposed to tainted meat did not get sick. “It’s undeniable that there is this link (with BSE), and it’s such a scary illness that it overshadows the fact that the individual risk is quite small,” Morris said.

The mind and the body are intimately linked, but although more and more research is demonstrating that the mind plays a role in sickness and in health, little is understood about how a person’s mental health affects physical health. A Washington University team of investigators led by Ray E. Clouse, M.D, professor of medicine and psychiatry, and Patrick J. Lustman, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry, hopes to change that by launching a new Center for Mind/Body Research that will focus specifically on ways that mental health affects heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other illnesses. New research has shown, for example, that although women are at a lower risk for heart attacks than men, the risk for women with diabetes and depression is virtually identical to what’s seen in men. The investigators believe that depression is the main cause of that increased risk, but they hope that by focusing more closely on mind/body interactions they will be able to understand more about the relationship between mental health and physical well being.

December/January Medical Science & Health Tip Sheet

Courtesy photoSome blind patients, as well as some blind animals, still show pupil constriction in response to light.We use our eyes to see, but a good deal of recent research has demonstrated that the eyes are responsible for other functions, too. Russell N. Van Gelder, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences and of molecular biology and pharmacology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has teamed with researchers at several other institutions to learn more about the eye’s second, non-visual system that is important to the body’s internal clock, as well as to other functions such as hormone release. Studying mice, the research team found that even in blind animals, it is important for the eye’s non-visual system to continue working. They believe damage to this system in the eye may contribute to several health problems in humans, even in people with normal vision.

Glucocorticoid receptors on steroids.Doctors have used steroids for decades to control autoimmune and inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and inflammatory bowel disease, but their potentially serious side effects — including bone loss, obesity, diabetes and growth impairment — have made it difficult to keep patients on the drugs for prolonged periods of time. Endocrinologist Louis Muglia, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of molecular biology and pharmacology and of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and colleagues have recently identified a key component of steroids’ effects on the immune system, a possible first step toward developing new drugs that can offer the same benefits as steroids without the many potentially serious side effects.

Red blood cells damaged by inflammation caused by food poisoning.A protein that helps keep immune system cells from mistakenly swallowing and destroying healthy cells has been linked to an inherited disorder with symptoms similar to severe food poisoning, according to researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine and the University of Newcastle in the United Kingdom. John Atkinson, M.D., the Samuel Grant Professor of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, says the results make it possible to genetically screen patients for one form of atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a rare but potentially life-threatening condition linked to excessive cell damage, blood clots and kidney failure. Normal HUS, often in the headlines because of food-related outbreaks, is caused by consumption of a toxic form of the bacteria E. coli.

November Medical science & Health Tip Sheet

The following incidents were reported to University Police Oct. 1-7. Readers with information that could assist in investigating these incidents are urged to call 935-5555. This information is provided as a public service to promote safety awareness and is available on the University Police Web site at police.wustl.edu. Oct. 3 4:54 p.m. — A student […]

A major factor contributing to Americans’ increasing body sizes appears to be increasing portion sizes.Obesity puts people at risk for heart disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure and cancer. It also decreases quality of life. But that’s not stopping Americans from eating and drinking more than ever before. Almost two-thirds of Americans are either overweight or obese, and a major factor contributing to increasing body sizes appears to be increasing portion sizes. Obesity researcher Samuel Klein, M.D., the Danforth Professor of Medicine and Nutritional Science at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, says the obesity epidemic continues to get worse in spite of a great deal of research about the dangers of being overweight and increasing numbers of people who are trying to lose weight. Part of the problem is that many people tend to eat what is put in front of them, and serving sizes are larger than ever before.

Patients treated in the GM-CSF pilot study showed a decrease in inflammation: an inflamed colon before treatment (top) and after, showing no pathologic abnormality.Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis continue to make progress in finding a potential treatment for Crohn’s disease, a chronic and serious inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract that affects about half a million people in the United States. Later this month, the research team of Joshua Korzenik, M.D., assistant professor of medicine, and Brian Dieckgraefe, M.D., Ph.D., also an assistant professor of medicine in the division of gastroenterology, will present preliminary data from patients with moderate to severe Crohn’s disease who were treated at 33 centers around the United States. Patients who received daily injections of a drug called GM-CSF (granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor), which stimulates the activity of certain cells in the immune system, tended improve. And although the data have not yet been presented, the results from the placebo-controlled phase II treatment study were positive.