Monthly Archives: May 2017

Folate, a B vitamin found naturally in fruits and vegetables and available in vitamin supplements is usually recommended for women who plan to become pregnant to ensure proper neurodevelopment of their babies. On the contrary, a new research from Johns Hopkins suggests too much folate during pregnancy increases the risk of autism spectrum disorder in their offsprings.

The study further elaborates that a new mother with blood levels of 4 times the adequate amount of folate would double the risk of autism in her child. Very high vitamin B12 levels also triple the risk of autism. The study included 1391 mothers at the time of their children’s birth between 1998 and 2013 and followed for several years. The mother’s blood folate levels were checked once within 1-3 days of delivery. One in 10 of the women had an excess amount of folate and 6% had an excess amount of vitamin B12. Majority of the mothers in the study reported having taken multivitamins -which would include folic acid and vitamin B12-throughout pregnancy.

The study’s lead author Ramkripa Raghavan infers from the study the need to figure out the optimal dose of this important nutrient throughout pregnancy.

An investigation performed at John Hopkins University depicts new data on how low-oxygen conditions stimulate breast cancer stem cell progression. The study lead by Gregg Semenza was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It’s known that poor oxygen environments affect cancer growth, however its vice-versa in case of advanced tumors.

In aggressive cancer, the tumor cells flourish more in low-oxygen state, resist chemotherapy; and cause metastasis, relapse and eventual death. Working on breast cancer cell lines and mice, Semenza observed that breast cancer stem cells proliferate through the same biochemical mechanism as embryonic stem cells. During embryogenesis, healthy stem cells (immature cells) multiply and develop into mature specific cell types. Chemotherapy wipes out 99% of cancer cells missing about 1% cancer stem cells. These cancer stem cells mimic the same mechanism to preserve cancer progression. It is thus crucial to identify such cells and abandon their stem cell state.

According to recent studies, of the 21% oxygen we breathe, 9% resides in healthy human breast tissue while only 1.4% in breast tumors. Low-oxygen conditions trigger production of a family of proteins–HIFs (hypoxia-inducible factors) which turn on various genes including NANOG that instructs cells to become stem cells. In embryonic stem cells, NANOG protein synthesis may be dropped by methylating NANOG’s mRNA and thereby aborting their stem cell state.

In the present study, exposure of human breast cancer cell lines to low-oxygen state induced production of protein ALKBH5 (which removed methyl groups from NANOG mRNAs) and subsequent cancer stem cell proliferation. Even in zero NANOG levels, low-oxygen state prompted HIFs production which turned on genes for NANOG and ALKBH5. Genetic manipulation of cells to spur ALKBH5 levels without low-oxygen exposure also showed similar results, whereas averting ALKBH5 synthesis lowered NANOG levels and number of cancer stem cells.

Experimentation on live mice also produced similar findings concluding that ALKBH5 protein retains cancer stem cells and their tumor-forming skills.

A recent study published in the Neurology demonstrated that rituximab immunotherapy meaningfully improved modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores in 76.3% of autoimmune limbic encephalitis (ALE) patients whereas 68.8% of them attained a favorable mRS score (0-2), a median of 22.5 months later. Kon Chu and colleagues chose ALE patients who already underwent first-line immunotherapy after symptom onset of a median of 6.8 months (mRS score of 3).

However, symptoms worsened even in 31.3% patients who responded partially to the treatment with mRS score extending to 4, when rituximab was started 12.1 months after symptom onset. The authors found that ALE patients delivered excellent response with mRS score of 2 at the end of a median rituximab treatment cycle of 5 weeks compared to those who did not receive rituximab treatment after first-line immunotherapy. Thus rituximab can be a good choice to treat ALE patients with poor response to first-line immunotherapy since it works efficiently and is well-tolerated regardless of the patient’s autoantibody status.

According to the authors, patients who responded partially to first-line therapy showed greater favorable effects while those receiving and not receiving rituximab, at 88.0% and 83.3%, respectively. In multivariate analysis, the authors found 9.5-fold uplift in mRS improvement associated with partial response to first-line immunotherapy. They believe that first-line immunomodulators and rituximab share some common mechanisms in alleviating autoimmunity. On the other hand, patients who received rituximab after nonresponsive first-line treatment experienced superior outcomes (60%) than those who did not receive rituximab (22.2%).

These findings propelled the authors to propose that rituximab may be considered as a first-line immunotherapy for ALE.

Consuming fish during pregnancy have proved to be profitable for both mother and baby in numerous ways including overall health improvement of mother and boosting brain growth in babies. A recent Southampton University study has found more health benefits with fish intake during pregnancy. Professor Philip Calder, a Danone International Prize for Nutrition awardee, reported that women eating salmon fish during pregnancy may guard their unborn child from becoming asthmatic. Salmon is rich in protein, vitamin B and omega-3 fatty acids.

Omega-3 fatty acids increment neurological and visual development in babies and reduce risk of premature delivery in pregnant women. Professor Philip Calder along with his colleagues trailed 123 pregnant women and their babies. Pregnant women were divided into two groups–half of them were instructed to eat salmon twice/week from week 19 of pregnancy until delivery while the other half were prescribed to refrain from fish consumption. The study found that children born to women who ate salmon were 5 times less probable to suffer from asthma at the age of 2-3 years than those whom mothers didn’t take salmon at all. However, no difference was found in children at the age of six months.

“Women undertaking hormonal therapy during their early post-menopausal phase tend to carry lesser rate of subclinical atherosclerosis”, say researchers from the University of Southern California, US. The study results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Subclinical atherosclerosis forms the fundamental mechanism in development of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack, stroke, etc. Several studies have noted that the perks of hormone therapy against vascular degeneration count on the timing of initiation of the intervention.

Based on this hypothesis, Howard N. Hodis and colleagues carried out Early versus Late Intervention Trial with Estradiol (ELITE) in 600 post-menopausal women with no history of cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Two sets of women were selected–women within 6 years of menopause (early post-menopause); and women with 10 year or more beyond menopause (late post-menopause). Each set randomly received either oral estradiol (progesterone vaginal gel in those with uterus) or placebo.

The authors reported that early post-menopausal group women taking estradiol demonstrated fewer rate of blocked arteries than those taking placebo after a median of 5 years of hormone therapy. This study is the first to imply that to achieve good prevention of atherosclerosis progression, timing of hormonal therapy initiation in post-menopausal women is crucial.