�Nephrology physician-scientists at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have discovered a critical pathway of a commonly used immunosuppressant drug, cyclosporine. The finding, made by Peter Mundel, M.D., professor and director of the Miami Institute of Renal Medicine, Christian Faul, Ph.D., help professor of medicine in the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, and Jochen Reiser, M.D., Ph.D., professor of music and top dog of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, will make it possible to identify drugs that contain the benefits of cyclosporine in treating kidney disease, without its long-term ill effects.
The uncovering has been published in the September issue of the premier research daybook Nature Medicine.
The scientists, who of late left Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School to join the Miller School, have shown a completely newfangled mechanism for the reduction of urinary protein loss by cyclosporine A (CsA). Cyclosporine A is known as an immunosuppressant drug used in organ organ transplant for its ability to inhibit T cell single-valued function through the inhibition of calcineurin signal. It is also used in kidney disease to treat patients who have protein in the urine, a status that is, among others, a serious risk for cardiovascular last.
In many kidney diseases, it is common to see the dysfunction of podocytes, cells that live in the lining of the kidney which ar responsible for filtering protein. When the podocyte function breaks down, there is a massive loss of protein in the pee, a condition known as proteinuria.
For many long time, scientists believed that cyclosporine's antiproteinuric effect centered on its ability to keep out down the signaling of T cells, just as it does as an immunosuppressant. Instead, the research by the three UM scientists and nine other researchers indicates that cyclosporine works as an antiproteinuric due to its manoeuver effect on the podocyte actin cytoskeleton.
"Our inquiry shows a new mechanism," says Mundel, the study's principal investigator. "This finding has large clinical implications." He explains that scientists now have a new avenue for finding new drugs that avoid the side personal effects of long-run use of cyclosporine in treating kidney disease, which can include the deprivation of kidney function itself.
Mundel says doctors frequently don't sympathize how prescribed drugs really work on patients. "This study not only describes the mechanics of cyclosporine in the kidney," says Mundel, "it also sheds light on the pathogenesis of proteinuric diseases in general, suggesting that the immune scheme is much less important for this type of disease than anticipated." Mundel says this understanding has great potency to treat proteinuria. Most importantly, synaptopodin, a protein Mundel has been working on for more than two decades, was institute in this study to be a direct butt of cyclosporine. This discovery will allow researchers to develop novel antiproteinuric drugs that quash the serious side effects of long-term CsA discussion.
This is the second article from this new group of UM nephrologists published in Nature Medicine within eight months. In a previous study light-emitting diode by Reiser (Wei et al. Nat Med. 2008 Jan; 14(1):55-63.), they showed that functions of podocytes can be directly modified in a positive way by novel experimental drugs, a discovery that could lead to patient habit very presently.
Reiser sees these 2 studies as solid building blocks for their go ahead. "We have establish that these new discoveries will provide us to find new drugs to treat proteinuria and more effectively aid our patients in the near future," says Reiser. The Division of Nephrology and Hypertension recently constituted the Miami Institute of Renal Medicine, which houses a Drug Discovery Center that will focus on the development of kidney-specific drugs. "We are very excited to be hither," says Reiser, "working in a squad effort to turn our research into practical applications that benefit patients."
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
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Sunday 31 August 2008
Thursday 21 August 2008
Increased Sexual Education Among Black Community, Better Family Planning Policies Could Improve Reproductive Health Of Black Women, Opinion Piece
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Recent view pieces and other statements that imply racism is behind higher numbers of black women having abortions miss "the point and distrac[t] from the real offspring: the persistent health disparities faced by women, and men, in the African-American community," Melissa Gilliam, an associate prof of ob-gyn at the University of Chicago and chair of the Guttmacher Institute, writes in a Philadelphia Inquirer opinion opus. According to Gilliam, black women have higher miscarriage rates than whites because they get higher instances of unintended pregnancy. In addition, blacks often cause worse intimate and reproductive health outcomes than other groups in part because of a history of discrimination, want of access to care and other issues, she says. There is "no need to resort to far-flung cabal theories to explain the higher miscarriage rate among black women," she writes.
She adds that "those profession concern for the welfare of African-American women let an obligation to put the issue of abortion in its proper context, and to support evidence-based policies that would birth a cocksure impact." There are a "number of specific stairs policymakers can buoy take right now that could dramatically improve the sexual and reproductive health of African-Americans and Americans in general," she writes.
She calls for comprehensive sex education, help for black women to better plan their pregnancies, increasing funding for Title X family planning programs, expanding Medicaid eligibility for syndicate planning services and encouraging working parents through gainful sick go away, subsidized child care and affordable wellness insurance.
Gilliam concludes, "My challenge to antiabortion activists is to period throwing around inflammatory footing like race murder and rather channel their considerable energies and resources into supporting policies that reduce the need for abortion. Let's get serious about serving women and their families, including women in the African-American community" (Gilliam, Philadelphia Inquirer, 8/10).
Recent view pieces and other statements that imply racism is behind higher numbers of black women having abortions miss "the point and distrac[t] from the real offspring: the persistent health disparities faced by women, and men, in the African-American community," Melissa Gilliam, an associate prof of ob-gyn at the University of Chicago and chair of the Guttmacher Institute, writes in a Philadelphia Inquirer opinion opus. According to Gilliam, black women have higher miscarriage rates than whites because they get higher instances of unintended pregnancy. In addition, blacks often cause worse intimate and reproductive health outcomes than other groups in part because of a history of discrimination, want of access to care and other issues, she says. There is "no need to resort to far-flung cabal theories to explain the higher miscarriage rate among black women," she writes.
She adds that "those profession concern for the welfare of African-American women let an obligation to put the issue of abortion in its proper context, and to support evidence-based policies that would birth a cocksure impact." There are a "number of specific stairs policymakers can buoy take right now that could dramatically improve the sexual and reproductive health of African-Americans and Americans in general," she writes.
She calls for comprehensive sex education, help for black women to better plan their pregnancies, increasing funding for Title X family planning programs, expanding Medicaid eligibility for syndicate planning services and encouraging working parents through gainful sick go away, subsidized child care and affordable wellness insurance.
Gilliam concludes, "My challenge to antiabortion activists is to period throwing around inflammatory footing like race murder and rather channel their considerable energies and resources into supporting policies that reduce the need for abortion. Let's get serious about serving women and their families, including women in the African-American community" (Gilliam, Philadelphia Inquirer, 8/10).
A new Guttmacher policy analysis that finds that abortion rates among racial and heathen minorities, specially blacks and Hispanics, ar higher than rates among white women and ar directly related to to their higher rates of unintended pregnancy is available on-line.
Reprinted with kind permission from hTTP://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can eyeshot the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or polarity up for email pitch at hypertext transfer protocol://www.kaisernetwork.
Monday 11 August 2008
Funky town: Rap scene vet helps give Hub hip-hoppers a Fresh start
For 30 years, Mr. Funky Fresh has helped guide Boston�s still-growing rap scene.
When he was a teenager, the Roxbury hip-hopper born Rusty Pendleton was known by another manage: Rusti the Toejammer, a moniker he earned for his unique ability to DJ with his feet. But for the past 20 age he�s at peace by the same call as the landmark Funky Fresh Records shop he owns in Dudley Square.
Now, with the music retail business shrinking day by day, Fresh is emergent as a front-line player, in endeavors including his radio show up on Touch 106.1-FM, an ambitious management company and a series of Boston Marathon musical showcases, including one Thursday night at the Middle East in Cambridge.
�I�m not new school or old school,� Fresh said at the posh Kendall Square hQ of his new company, PSG Entertainment Management Group. �I�m all school. You have to pay attention to what�s happening in this game if you want to survive.�
Despite dwindling CD gross sales, Fresh doesn�t regret his retail experience. His record book shop effected him as a rap muse in his residential district, and gave him a perspective on the music scene that fans and artists mightiness not see from crossways the counter.
�I look at this unanimous thing from a retail perspective,� he said. �I look at what sells. This music stage business is non about the music, it�s about the business.�
What doesn�t sell at Funky Fresh?
Boston artists. So to boost local endowment, Fresh has launched a number of projects to help local rappers and producers check to deliver the goods. Last year, he hosted a workshop titled �Everything You Need to Know About the Music Business� at Hibernian Hall in Roxbury. Recently, he switched the format of his radio show; now he spins quintet straight hours of Boston-only hip-hop every Friday and Saturday night.
�There are century,000 rappers now,� Fresh said. �Every nipper who comes into my store is a rapper. Don�t let me incorrect. Some cats out here make beautiful, great music. But afterward that, once they walk out of their studio, they�re stuck.�
Fresh�s latest and largest endeavor to elevate the bar in Boston is PSG, which he operates from Cambridge with longtime associates Kirt Gaines and Steven Smith. Guiding acts such as Beantown duo Scoe & Magnum, the PSG partners hope to instil the professionalism too many local artists lack.
�We�re victimisation our department of Energy and resources to develop artists and bring them from the ground stratum all the way to record deals,� Smith said.
According to Fresh, success is as simple as hustling and sticking out.
�The problem is that when someone like Soulja Boy pops up, people think it precisely happened that minute,� he aforementioned. �Everyone thinks that you can win overnight and you can�t. It took a lot of put to work for him to get 4 trillion people doing the dumbest dance on the planet.
�I�ve been about since the New Kids on the Block were still kids,� Fresh said. �Forget the decline in track record sales. I don�t recognize anything besides music, and when this is all you know, you give birth to do it right.�
The Boston Marathon Showcase Part 2, with Scoe & Magnum, City Slickers, Usual Suspektz, Man Terror, Millyz, Sheek, Dre Robinson, Lou Armstrong & The Hitmakerz, Frankie Wainwright & Team 220, Thursday night at the Middle East, Cambridge. Tickets: $12 in bring forward, $15 day of show; 617-864-EAST.
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Wednesday 6 August 2008
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