Astrocytes: Time For Brain and Behavior

Astrocytes Keep Time For Brain and Behavior by Neuroscience News

A new study reveals astrocytes play an surprisingly important role in the body's circadian clock.

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Neuroscience News | March 25, 2017 at 1:02 pm | Tags: Baml1, WUSTL | URL: http://wp.me/p4sXNK-aik

Exercise x aging

Mayo Clinic discovers high-intensity aerobic training can reverse aging

March 24, 2017

A Mayo Clinic study says the best training for adults is high-intensity aerobic exercise, which they believe can reverse some cellular aspects of aging. Mayo researchers compared 12 weeks of high-intensity interval training (workouts in which you alternate periods of high-intensity exercise with low-intensity recovery periods), resistance training, and combined training. While all three enhanced insulin … more…

André J. Nuyten (*04/outubro/1931+17/março/2017)

André, Tatiana, Valderês e eu em Vancouver 1997

André Nuyten (+2017), Gino Bianchi (+2010), rescém chegados ao Brasil, comigo em 1954. Eram amigos que conheci maquele ano, enquanto dirigia uma casa de estudantes (Casa da JUC no.4), na rua 24 de outubro 575, em Porto Alegre. Perdemos contato em 1955, mas nos re-encontrmos 40 anos depois, em 1997. Ambos moravam próximo sem saber, junto à fronteira entre Canadá e USA: André em Belligham no Estado de Washington e Gino em Surrey na região metropolitana de Vancouver (CA). Eu os encontrei pela internet , visitei-os, e a partir de então ficamos em contato. André me chamava de irmão. Ele e Tatiana ajudaram a cuidar do Gino nos seus últimos anos de vida.

Em 1955 quando fiquei noivo da Valderês enviei esta foto ao André que já havia se mudado para o Rio de Janeiro. Ao re-encontrá-lo, quarenta anos depois, ele a guardava e me devolveu.

************************

************ Andre kept the same picture on his desk, it meant a lot to him.******** TN

Accelerating Cell Production

New Stem Cell Method Produces Millions of Human Brain and Muscle Cells in Days

NEUROSCIENCE NEWSMARCH 24, 2017

Summary: Researchers have developed a new technique that simplifies the production of human brain and muscle cells from stem cells.

Source: University of Cambridge.

Scientists at the University of Cambridge and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have created a new technique that simplifies the production of human brain and muscle cells – allowing millions of functional cells to be generated in just a few days. The results published today in Stem Cell Reports open the door to producing a diversity of new cell types that could not be made before in order to study disease.

Human pluripotent stem cells are ‘master cells’ that have the ability to develop into almost any type of tissue, including brain cells. They hold huge potential for studying human development and the impact of diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, and heart disease./.../

OPTi-OX has applications in various projects, including the possibility to generate new cell types which may be uncovered by the Human Cell Atlas. The ability to produce human cells so quickly means the new method will facilitate more research. NeuroscienceNews.com image is adapted from the Sanger Institute video.

IT Health Care

Recomendado pelo AMICOR Reginaldo Hollanda Albuquerque (Brasília)

Promises, promises

BMJ 2017; 356 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j1446 (Published 23 March 2017)Cite this as: BMJ 2017;356:j1446

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1. Elizabeth Loder, head of research

Author affiliations

1. eloder@bmj.com

It’s easy to think that there is no problem facing medicine that information technology can’t solve. Experience in the US gives little reason for optimism. Huge investments have mostly failed to solve old problems and have created new ones. US doctors report spending two hours on computer tasks for every hour with patients. Poor usability and limited interoperability of electronic health records are a major source of professional unhappiness and burnout (doi:10.7326/M16-2238).

Despite this cautionary tale, the NHS has decided to splurge on technological infrastructure. Stephen Armstrong (doi:10.1136/bmj.j1366) reports on the 12 NHS trust “exemplars” that will each receive £10m to invest in options such as “wi-fi for patients and NHS staff, real time video links between ambulances and emergency departments, and electronic detection of patient deterioration.” Somehow—and here things get vague—this will save money and “improve services and patient outcomes” (https://www.england.nhs.uk/digitaltechnology/info-revolution). Few of these benefits are likely to materialise; enhanced digital connectivity is more likely to increase both cost and demand for health services. A recent study showed that virtual doctor visits for respiratory illnesses were cheaper, but 88% of them were made by new users who didn’t clearly require care (doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2016.1130).

Electronic health records hold much more promise for medical research. Bell and colleagues (doi:10.1136/bmj.j909) used electronic records to evaluate the association between alcohol consumption and cardiovascular diseases, making it possible to study a massive sample of patients and to generate risk estimates for subgroups that could not be studied in smaller cohorts. Editorialist Kenneth Mukamal (doi:10.1136/bmj.j1340) points out that advances in information technology are needed for this “new generation of studies that adapt classic cohort designs to general practice settings by using data collected in electronic health records and large registries.” Despite their advantages, however, such studies still cannot overcome some problems, namely missing data and imperfect clinical information.

Meanwhile, other areas of healthcare go begging. Millions of pounds allocated for primary care and mental health services will instead be diverted to cover deficits caused by higher than expected hospital use during the winter (doi:10.1136/bmj.j1213). BMA Chairman Mark Porter rightly condemns this as “sticking plaster measures.” Another dubious plan to save money is for newly trained doctors to work at least five years for the NHS or repay their educational costs (doi:10.1136/bmj.j1370). This might seem reasonable, but few young doctors have that kind of money, making this solution seem coercive and distinctly unpromising.

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Pleasure brain circuit

Brain Circuit That Drives Pleasure Inducing Behavior Identified

NEUROSCIENCE NEWSMARCH 23, 2017Summary: Neurons in an area of the brain commonly associated with fear drive pleasure seeking behaviors, a new study reports.

Source: MIT.

Surprisingly, the neurons are located in a brain region thought to be linked with fear.

Scientists have long believed that the central amygdala, a structure located deep within the brain, is linked with fear and responses to unpleasant events.

However, a team of MIT neuroscientists has now discovered a circuit in this structure that responds to rewarding events. In a study of mice, activating this circuit with certain stimuli made the animals seek those stimuli further. The researchers also found a circuit that controls responses to fearful events, but most of the neurons in the central amygdala are involved in the reward circuit, they report./.../

To Reverse DNA Aging

Scientists Can Reverse DNA Aging in Mice

Alice Park Mar 23, 2017 Health For more, visit TIME Health. Researchers have found a way to protect a mouse's DNA from the damage that comes with aging, and they’re ready to test it in people. Dr. David Sinclair, from Harvard Medical School, and his colleagues reveal their new findings in the latest issue of Science. They focused on an intriguing compound with anti-aging properties called NAD+, short for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. It's been known that younger mice had more of it than older mice and back in 2013, the researchers found that when they boosted the NAD+ levels in older mice, they looked, biologically, like much younger animals./.../

Insulinas e Incretinas

Acessar versão online

Posicionamento Oficial SBD nº 01/2017 Recomendações Sobre o Tratamento Injetáveldo Diabetes: Insulinas e Incretinas         Os Posicionamentos Oficiais da SBD têm por objetivo divulgar os pareceres oficiais da SBD em relação a aspectos preventivos, diagnósticos e terapêuticos do diabetes e das doenças comumente associadas. Outro objetivo igualmente importante é o de propiciar aos associados o recebimento dos Posicionamentos Oficiais da SBD como mais uma prestação de serviços que visa atualizar continuamente os médicos e os gestores de serviços de atenção às pessoas com diabetes. Acesse aqui

Socioeconomic status: premature mortality

Socioeconomic status and the 25 × 25 risk factors as determinants of premature mortality: a multicohort study and meta-analysis of 1·7 million men and women

Dr Silvia Stringhini, PhD*,Correspondence information about the author Dr Silvia StringhiniEmail the author Dr Silvia Stringhini

, 

Cristian Carmeli, PhD*

, 

Markus Jokela, PhD*

, 

Mauricio Avendaño, PhD*

, 

Prof Peter Muennig, MD

, 

Florence Guida, PhD

, 

Fulvio Ricceri, PhD

, 

Angelo d'Errico, MD

, 

Prof Henrique Barros, PhD

, 

Prof Murielle Bochud, PhD

, 

Marc Chadeau-Hyam, PhD

, 

Françoise Clavel-Chapelon, PhD

, 

Prof Giuseppe Costa, MD

, 

Cyrille Delpierre, PhD

, 

Silvia Fraga, PhD

, 

Prof Marcel Goldberg, MD

, 

Prof Graham G Giles, PhD

, 

Vittorio Krogh, MD

, 

Michelle Kelly-Irving, PhD

, 

Richard Layte, PhD

, 

Aurélie M Lasserre, MD

, 

Prof Michael G Marmot, FRCP

, 

Prof Martin Preisig, MD

, 

Martin J Shipley, MSc

, 

Prof Peter Vollenweider, MD

, 

Marie Zins, MD

, 

Prof Ichiro Kawachi, PhD

, 

Prof Andrew Steptoe, Dsc

, 

ProfJohan P Mackenbach, PhD

, 

Prof Paolo Vineis, PhD†

, 

Prof Mika Kivimäki, PhD†

 for the 

 LIFEPATH consortium‡

 

*These authors contributed equally to this work

†Joint last authors

‡Members are listed at end of paper

Show all authors

Published: 31 January 2017

Open Access

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)32380-7

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Open access funded by Medical Research Council

Article Info

This article can be found in the following collections: Global Health (Ebola Collection); Public Health

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Summary

Jump to SectionIntroductionMethodsResultsDiscussionSupplementary MaterialReferences

Background

In 2011, WHO member states signed up to the 25 × 25 initiative, a plan to cut mortality due to non-communicable diseases by 25% by 2025. However, socioeconomic factors influencing non-communicable diseases have not been included in the plan. In this study, we aimed to compare the contribution of socioeconomic status to mortality and years-of-life-lost with that of the 25 × 25 conventional risk factors.

Methods

We did a multicohort study and meta-analysis with individual-level data from 48 independent prospective cohort studies with information about socioeconomic status, indexed by occupational position, 25 × 25 risk factors (high alcohol intake, physical inactivity, current smoking, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity), and mortality, for a total population of 1 751 479 (54% women) from seven high-income WHO member countries. We estimated the association of socioeconomic status and the 25 × 25 risk factors with all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality by calculating minimally adjusted and mutually adjusted hazard ratios [HR] and 95% CIs. We also estimated the population attributable fraction and the years of life lost due to suboptimal risk factors.

Findings

During 26·6 million person-years at risk (mean follow-up 13·3 years [SD 6·4 years]), 310 277 participants died. HR for the 25 × 25 risk factors and mortality varied between 1·04 (95% CI 0·98–1·11) for obesity in men and 2 ·17 (2·06–2·29) for current smoking in men. Participants with low socioeconomic status had greater mortality compared with those with high socioeconomic status (HR 1·42, 95% CI 1·38–1·45 for men; 1·34, 1·28–1·39 for women); this association remained significant in mutually adjusted models that included the 25 × 25 factors (HR 1·26, 1·21–1·32, men and women combined). The population attributable fraction was highest for smoking, followed by physical inactivity then socioeconomic status. Low socioeconomic status was associated with a 2·1-year reduction in life expectancy between ages 40 and 85 years, the corresponding years-of-life-lost were 0·5 years for high alcohol intake, 0·7 years for obesity, 3·9 years for diabetes, 1·6 years for hypertension, 2·4 years for physical inactivity, and 4·8 years for current smoking.

Social rank as a risk factor

Social rank: a risk factor whose time has come?

Martin TobiasEmail the author Martin Tobias

Published: 31 January 2017

Open Access

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30191-5

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56 million people died in 2015, many prematurely and most (71%) from non-communicable diseases (NCDs).1 Yet NCDs were absent from the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which expired in 2015.2 Recognising this absence, WHO has set member states a goal to reduce premature mortality from the major NCDs by 25% by 2025 (the 25 × 25 goal).3 To achieve this goal, WHO urges action on seven established NCD risk factors.3 In The Lancet Silvia Stringhini and colleagues4 argue that these risk factors are not enough. Instead, they would have us address an additional (eighth) risk factor: low socioeconomic status (social rank). Having low social rank means being powerless to determine your own destiny, deprived of material resources, and limited in the opportunities open to you, which—the authors imply—shapes both your lifestyle and your life chances.

Stringhini and colleagues4 base their argument not on political ideology but on rigorous science: an original multicohort study of 1·7 million adults followed up for mortality (all cause and by cause) for an average of 13 years. All risk factors (low occupational class, physical inactivity, high alcohol intake, current smoking, obesity, diabetes, and hypertension) were measured with the same relative precision, enabling fair comparison as predictors of mortality. Risk models were both minimally and mutually adjusted, controlling confounding and enabling attenuation (the extent of mediation of one risk factor by another) to be assessed. Finally, estimates of risk factor prevalence and effect were combined to estimate impacts (population attributable risks)—the fraction of all deaths that could potentially be prevented if exposure of the population to the risk factor of interest was reduced to the minimum risk level./.../