School of Medicine

The prostate cancer screening tests that have become an annual ritual for many men don’t appear to reduce deaths from the disease, at least among those with a limited life-expectancy, according to early results of a major U.S. study involving 75,000 men.

Exposure to a chemotherapeutic drug makes the branches of a normal nerve cell degenerate (left).Scientists have identified the first gene that pulls the plug on ailing nerve cell branches from within the nerve cell, possibly helping to trigger the painful condition known as neuropathy. The condition is a side effect of some forms of chemotherapy and can also afflict patients with cancer, diabetes, kidney failure, viral infections, neurodegenerative disorders and other ailments.

An enzyme researchers have studied for years because of its potential connections to cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and stroke appears to have yet another major role to play: helping create and maintain the brain. When scientists at the School of Medicine selectively disabled the enzyme AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) in mouse embryos, overall brain size was reduced by 50 percent, the cerebrum and cerebellum were shrunken, and the mice died within three weeks of birth.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have linked a potential indicator of Alzheimer’s disease to brain damage in humans with no signs of mental impairment. Although their cognitive and neurological assessments were normal, study participants with lower levels of a substance known as amyloid beta 42 (A-beta 42) in their cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) had reduced whole brain volumes, suggesting that Alzheimer’s changes might already be damaging their brains.

SandellLinda J. Sandell, Ph.D., has been named the Mildred B. Simon Research Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the School of Medicine. “Linda Sandell is a very talented scientist who has contributed a great deal to Washington University and to our understanding of the basic cellular mechanisms behind diseases of the connective tissues,” said Washington University Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton.

A $4 million Era of Hope Scholar Award has been given to Jason Weber, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Oncology at the School of Medicine. Weber will study potential new ways to control breast cancer cell growth. Surprisingly, that’s an area of research that has been relatively neglected.

Blue shows normal brain function, while other colors show overactivity due to depression.Neuroscientists at the School of Medicine have identified a key difference in the way the brain functions in people who are depressed compared to those who are not. The study demonstrates that brain regions, collectively known as the default mode network, behave differently in depressed people. The default network typically is active when the mind wanders. It shuts down when an individual focuses on the job at hand. But the researchers found the network stays active in people who are depressed, even when they are concentrating on specific tasks.

A history of major depression increases the risk of heart disease over and above any genetic risks common to depression and heart disease, according to researchers at the School of Medicine and the VA. The findings are reported this week at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society this week in Chicago.

New findings may significantly improve the safety of methadone, a drug widely used to treat cancer pain and addiction to heroin and other opioid drugs, according to researchers at the School of Medicine and the University of Washington in Seattle. The researchers discovered that the body processes methadone differently than previously believed.

Scientists have long known that cells in the retina called photoreceptors are involved in how vision can adapt to darkness, but a study from investigators at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Boston University School of Medicine has uncovered a new pathway in the retina that allows the cells to adapt following exposure to bright light. The discovery could help scientists better understand human diseases that affect the retina, including age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in Americans over the age of 50.