Categories
Cardiovascular
Diagnostics
Endocrinology
Health Insurance
Medical Devices
Mental Health
Nutrition
Oncology
Public Health
Sexual Health
Popular Articles

THT's One-hour 'Fastest' Service Aims To Reduce Undiagnosed HIV In Cardiff
In a bid to reduce levels of undiagnosed HIV in Cardiff, HIV and sexual health charity Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) is encouraging people who may have been at risk to attend a local service offering one-hour HIV testing. One in four people who have HIV in the UK are undiagnosed, and there are now more people living with the condition than ever before.

House Democrats Push Their Health Reform Plan
House Democrats" health care bill draft released Friday is likely to survive relatively intact, "including a robust new Medicare-like public health plan that would compete with private companies in a national health insurance exchange," Roll Call reports.
News of the day
President Obama Picks New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden For CDC Director
President Obama on Friday appointed New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden as CDC director, according to Obama administration officials, the New York Times reports. According to the Times, Frieden, an infectious disease specialist, has "cut a high and sometimes contentious profile" in his seven years as health commissioner in New York City, during which time he has advocated for a smoking ban in restaurants and bars, made HIV testing part of routine medical exams and protected a program that distributes 35 million condoms a year. According to the Times, Frieden is expected to take office next month. The Times reports that he will "inherit a host of immediate and long-term problems," including questions surrounding a vaccine for the H1N1 influenza virus, also known as swine flu, health care reform and organizational issues at CDC.The Times reports that a potential advantage for Frieden is a positive relationship with likely FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, who also was New York City health commissioner. Frieden would work with Hamburg to combat the H1N1 flu virus and to re-evaluate the U.S. food safety system (Harris/Hartocollis, New York Times, 5/15).
Health Insurance

Yale Researchers Identify Gene's Role In Promoting Atherosclerosis

Yale University researchers have found that a single gene plays a key role in the development of atherosclerosis in mice. The research provides insight into the causes of atherosclerosis, or the hardening of the arteries caused by a buildup of plaque. The research appears in the July 8th issue of the journal Cell Metabolism. Accumulation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in the artery wall is the initial event in atherosclerosis, but the mechanism of how the LDL infiltrates vascular lining to reach the arterial wall has been unclear. The Yale team discovered that, when active, the caveolin-1 (Cav-1) gene, which is essential for orchestrating certain intracellular trafficking, promoted atherosclerotic lesions. The researchers fed mice a high-cholesterol diet for 12 weeks and found that atherosclerotic plaques were clearly visible in mice that expressed the Cav-1 gene in their endothelial linings. But they also found that in mice where the Cav-1 gene was absent, the number and size of aortic plaques were dramatically lower. According to lead author William C. Sessa, Ph.D., of the Yale School of Medicine, "This study of mice provides physiological evidence of the important role of Cav-1 expression in the endothelial lining of blood vessels and indicates that Cav-1 may regulate the entry of LDL into the vessel wall, which begins the process of atherosclerosis." How might this revealing research on mice be applied to atherosclerosis in humans? Dr. Sessa says, "Most drugs used to treat atherosclerosis do so by reducing LDL cholesterol levels. Although this approach is highly successful, it has been a mystery for decades as to how LDL gets from the blood into the vessel wall to initiate atherosclerosis. Our work strongly implicates caveolin-1 and suggests that despite the presence of elevated lipids, inhibitors of this pathway may reduce atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease". Other researchers include: Carlos Fernandez-Hernando, Jun Yu, Yajaira Suarez, Christoph Rahner and Alberto Davalos of the Vascular Biology & Therapeutics Program in the Yale School of Medicine, and Miguel A. Lasuncion of Universidad de Alcala, Madrid. This research was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association and Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia, Spain. Yale University


Add your comment:
Name:
Site address: http://
Your message:
Enter today\\\\'s date, 2 digits
(spam protection):

© Copyright 2009