Medicine & Health

A group of children who have sickle cell disease and who experience silent strokes showed some relief from the silent strokes with blood transfusion therapy, researchers at the School of Medicine have found. The study’s results will appear in a future issue of Pediatric Blood and Cancer but are available for review in its advance online publication.

Researchers concentrated on large-scale connections between frontal and posterior brain regions that are associated with high-level cognitive functions such as learning and remembering.Comparisons of the brains of young and old people have revealed that normal aging may cause cognitive decline due to deterioration of the connections among large-scale brain systems, including a decrease in the integrity of the brain’s “white matter,” the tissue containing nerve cells that carry information, according to a new study co-authored by several researchers from Washington University in St. Louis.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Protein increases average lifespan (week of Dec. 5) • Alcohol’s link to sex partners (week of Dec. 12) • Tantrum season (week of Dec. 19) • Antidepressants for Parkinson’s (week of Dec. 26)

Courtesy Edward LifesciencesIn a nationwide clinical trial, physicians are testing an investigational device that allows them to insert replacement aortic valves without opening the chest or using a heart-lung machine, making the procedure available to high-risk and formerly inoperable patients. The School of Medicine has been selected as a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigative site in the trial evaluating this technique, which uses a far less invasive procedure than the standard open-heart surgery.

The executive faculty of the School of Medicine unanimously approved changing the name of the Department of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology to the Department of Developmental Biology. The change reflects a shift that has already occurred in the department’s research focus and coincides with the search for a department head.

Metabolism researchers at the School of Medicine have found that although it does not extend maximum lifespan in mice, activating a protein in muscle tissue increases average lifespan and prevents some age-related diseases. The researchers believe a similar approach may someday help people avoid age-related problems such as atherosclerosis, diabetes, hypertension and even some cancers.

Pratim Biswas has a method that controls the size of the nanoparticles he makes, opening up possibilities for new nanotechnology applications and different techniques.In a world that constantly strives for bigger and bigger things, WUSTL’s Pratim Biswas, Ph.D., the Stifel and Quinette Jens Professor and chair of the Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, is working to make things smaller and smaller. Biswas conducts research on nanoparticles, which are the building blocks for nanotechnology. For the first time, Biswas has shown that he can independently control the size of the nanoparticles that he makes, keeping their other properties the same. He’s also shown with his technique that the nanoparticles can be made in large quantities in scalable systems, opening up the possibility for more applications and different techniques.

Psychiatry researchers at the School of Medicine have found that a clinical diagnosis of alcohol dependence in young adults is associated with having a high number of sex partners. Their study, published in the December issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, also found links between a conduct disorder diagnosis and high numbers of sexual partners as well as between problem drinking and more partners.

Children born with Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder involving the connective tissue, have a variety of physical signs – disproportionately long arms, legs, fingers and toes; scoliosis or other spinal curvature; nearsightedness; unusually large lungs; and stretch marks on the skin. But one of the most dangerous effects of the disease is the development of an enlarged aorta, which can lead to rupture of the heart’s largest artery and to sudden death.

In these PET images, a cervical tumor glows brightly before therapy (left), but is no longer visible after therapy.Whole-body PET (positron emission tomography) scans done three months after completion of cervical cancer therapy can ensure that patients are disease-free or warn that further interventions are needed, according to a study at the School of Medicine. “This is the first time we can say that we have a reliable test to follow cervical cancer patients after therapy,” says Julie Schwarz, a Barnes-Jewish Hospital resident in the Department of Radiation Oncology.