School of Medicine

Warfarin, also known by the brand name Coumadin, is often given to patients with atrial fibrillation, irregular contractions of the upper chambers of the heart.

Surgeons once treated blockages with a carotid bypass, which reroutes a scalp artery to restore normal brain blood flow and pressure.

“We’re analyzing the genes active in breast tumors to characterize the biological behaviors of each breast-cancer subtype,” says lead investigator Matthew Ellis.

Photo by Tim ParkerMedical students in the Ballroom Dance Club learn dances for the School of Medicine’s 10th annual Faculty/Student Med Ball, to be held March 11.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Warfarin increases risk of fractures (week of Feb. 1) • Older adults can control health (week of Feb. 8) • New cancer strategy (week of Feb. 15) • Enzyme affects aging process (week of Feb. 22)

Bright areas in this image highlight the junctions between heart muscle cells.Failing hearts develop interference in their communication channels, according to research conducted at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The problem involves a subtle change in the pores that connect heart muscle cells. When the scientists duplicated this change in mice, the mice became susceptible to ventricular tachycardia, a dangerous heart rhythm disorder that can lead to sudden cardiac death.

Mice with Tax-induced leukemia/lymphoma develop large tumors and many areas of bone destruction, as shown in this X-ray.Defeating cancerous tumors by attacking healthy cells seems like an unusual strategy, but researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown the strategy to be effective against leukemia/lymphoma in mice. The research group found that inhibiting normal bone-maintenance cells called osteoclasts not only prevented the mice’s cancer from spreading to their bones, it also slowed the growth of tumors in the body’s soft tissues.

Sustiva is the brand name for efavirenz.The largest detailed, prospective clinical study of the mental side effects of a potent anti-AIDS drug, efavirenz, has revealed that the anxiety, dizziness, “funny feelings” and vivid dreams triggered by the drug fade away within a month, possibly clearing the way for more widespread use. Efavirenz is the first drug from its class that lasts long enough to be taken once a day, and that makes it a potentially valuable drug for AIDS treatment, according to scientists at the AIDS Clinical Trials Unit (ACTU) at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

WUSM scientists have identified a protein that helps keep internal “clocks” in sync.Scientists have identified a receptor protein that helps the fruit fly know when to start and shut down its day. Neuroscientists from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis identified a receptor for pigment-dispersing factor (PDF) protein, which scientists previously recognized as a molecule that helps keep different internal “clocks” synchronized. Because these timekeeping processes have been highly conserved through evolution, what the scientists learn from flies and other organisms may help them better understand the same systems in humans.

Current treatments for asthma and chronic bronchitis aren’t able to address the ultimate source of the problem — they can only alleviate symptoms. But researchers at the School of Medicine have gone to the root of these disorders and found a two-drug treatment that could potentially restore patients’ troubled airways to healthy function.