Medicine & Health

“An Impending Influenza Pandemic? What has been learned from 1918” is the focus of a St. Louis community forum from 7:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. Nov. 9 in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom, Anheuser-Busch Hall, Washington University in St. Louis.

HammermanIn a new study with an eye on curing diabetes, senior investigator Marc Hammerman and a group of WUSM scientists successfully transplanted embryonic pig pancreatic cells destined to produce insulin into diabetic macaque monkeys – all without the need for risky immune suppression drugs that prevent rejection. The transplanted cells, known as primordia, are in the earliest stages of developing into pancreatic tissues. Within several weeks of the transplants, the cells became engrafted, or established, within the three rhesus macaque monkeys that received them. The cells also released pig insulin in response to rising blood glucose levels, as would be expected in healthy animals and humans.

Scientists believe they have found an explanation for a puzzling and serious complication of West Nile virus infection. Researchers showed that the virus can enter a nerve cell, replicate and move on to infect other nearby nerve cells. Viruses traveling this infectious pathway can break into the central nervous system, triggering a condition known as acute flaccid paralysis that leaves one or more limbs limp and unresponsive.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Bright tumors, dim prospects (week of Oct. 3) • New drugs for Parkinson’s (week of Oct. 10) • Heart disease in the mentally ill (week of Oct. 17) • Preventing plaque buildup (week of Oct. 24) • Helping children lose weight (week of Oct. 31)

Children who are obese or who are at risk for obesity show early signs of heart disease similar to obese adults with heart disease, a study by researchers at the School of Medicine has found. “Based on this study, these subtle markers can help us predict who could be at risk for heart disease and heart attacks,” said Angela Sharkey, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine and a pediatric cardiologist at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

A psychiatrist at the School of Medicine writes in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that although mortality from cardiovascular disease has declined in the United States over the past several decades, patients with severe psychiatric illness are not enjoying the benefits of that progress.

Scientists have shown how developing brain tumors can turn an encounter with a signaling molecule from a fatal experience for the tumor cells into a cue for their own growth and multiplication. Researchers at the School of Medicine found the transformation relies on at least two other molecules that can be modified with existing drugs, opening the possibility that they may be able to use the established drugs to treat brain tumors.

ShawAndrey Shaw, the Emil R. Unanue Professor of Immunobiology in the Department of Pathology and Immunology at the School of Medicine, has been named an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Shaw was one of 15 researchers selected nationwide.

MackinnonSusan Mackinnon has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors medical scientists in the United States can receive. Mackinnon was honored for her professional achievement in the health sciences.

Studying efforts to combat obesity in children, a research team led by investigators at the School of Medicine has found that children who lose weight are able to keep it off more effectively if they participate in a maintenance-targeted treatment program, although the effectiveness of the maintenance program lessens over time. The researchers report their findings in the Oct. 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.