Alzheimer's dementia is a devastating disease characterized by loss of normal thought parameters and memory that will strike one in ten over the age of 65 and nearly half by the time they reach 85. These scary statistics mean that virtually everyone will be touched in some way by this insidious illness at some point in their lives. A rapidly growing library of scientific evidence continues to emerge that demonstrates there are a number of lifestyle changes that we can make as young and middle-aged adults that can significantly lower our risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers from the Barcelona Biomedical Research Institute in Spain publishing in the journal, Neurobiology of Aging have found that the combination of two neuroprotective therapies, voluntary physical exercise, and the daily intake of melatonin have been shown to have a synergistic effect against brain deterioration in several common variants of Alzheimer's disease.

The study's authors found that regular, voluntary exercise and daily intake of melatonin, both of which are known for the effects they have in regulating circadian rhythm, show a synergistic effect against brain deterioration that leads to the memory-robbing disease in a mouse model predisposed to develop the illness. Lead author, Dr. Coral Sanfeliu commented "For years we have known that the combination of different anti-aging therapies such as physical exercise, a Mediterranean diet, and not smoking adds years to one's life... now it seems that melatonin, the sleep hormone, also has important anti-aging effects."

Physical activity and melatonin dramatically lower the risk of Alzheimer's disease progression

To determine the effect of physical activity and melatonin supplementation on developing Alzheimer's dementia, researchers divided the genetically-predisposed mice into three control groups, and compared them to animals that had no known inclination to develop dementia. The animals were designated to undergo different treatment protocols including exercise by allowing unrestricted use of a running wheel, melatonin supplementation with a dose equivalent to 10 mg per kg of body weight, and a combination of melatonin and voluntary physical exercise.

After a period of six months, the study's authors concluded "The state of the mice undergoing treatment was closer to that of the mice with no mutations than to their own initial pathological state. From this we can say that the disease has significantly regressed." The genetically predisposed mice demonstrated a general improvement in behavior, learning, and memory with the three treatments. It should be noted that mice are commonly used for this type of research as they share similar neurobiology characteristics with humans.

Numerous prior studies have highlighted the importance of supplementation with melatonin (one to five milligrams, 30 minutes before bedtime) to encourage natural sleep rhythms, and to help lower risks from cancer and cardiovascular disease. We can now add the combination of regular physical activity and melatonin supplementation to the growing list of health benefits, as the therapy is shown to provide another potent tool in the battle to prevent Alzheimer's disease.

Sources:

http://www.neurobiologyofaging.org
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120926110110.htm
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/250741.php
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-09/f-sf-mae092612.php

 The tests were more likely to identify mutations in a subgroup of children with certain physical anomalies, making clinical examination an important way of selecting those children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who could benefit most from genetic testing.

"It is incontrovertible that precise diagnoses pave the way to better medical care, improved surveillance, better functional outcomes, and informed genetic counseling, often with the possibility of prenatal or preimplantation diagnosis," says an editorial in the same issue of the journal.

Stephen Scherer, PhD, of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, and colleagues used the two newer technologies - chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) and whole-exome sequencing (WES) - to determine the percentage of 258 unrelated children with ASD who possessed a genetic mutation that may contribute to their autistic features.

A molecular diagnosis from CMA was received by 24 (9.3%) of the children, and from WES by 8 of 95 (8.4%) of them. Among the children who underwent both CMA and WES testing, the estimated proportion with an identifiable genetic cause was 15.8%.

The proportion with a genetic mutation was much higher (37.5%) for children who had more complex ASD based on physical examination.

In the linked editorial, Dr. Judith Miles, of University of Missouri Health Care in Columbia, says:

"For ASD, as well as for other behaviorally defined disorders, the results [...] provide clear guidance."

Dr. Miles adds:

    "Foremost, the data indicate that physicians responsible for children with ASD should arrange access to a genetic evaluation using techniques that have the best chance of determining an etiologic diagnosis."

Parents interested in genetic testing

The authors conclude that their study gives a demonstration of genetic differences related to subgroups of ASD children based on clinical examination.

"Our data suggest that medical evaluation of ASD children may help identify populations more likely to achieve a molecular diagnosis with genetic testing," they note, adding:

"It seems likely that genetic testing of children with ASD will continue to increase. In a survey of parental interest in ASD genetic testing, 80% of parents indicated that they would want a sibling younger than 2 years tested to identify ASD-risk mutations even if the test could not confirm or rule out the diagnosis."

"For some children with positive genetic test results," they continue, "treatment plans targeting ASD-associated medical conditions can be offered."

The researchers conclude that if "replicated in additional populations, these findings may inform appropriate selection of molecular diagnostic testing for children affected by ASD."

The editorial points out that karyotyping - profiling the chromosomes - is much less informative than the new methods yet are tests for ASD recommended by geneticists.

Dr. Miles believes "it seems possible that it will not be too long before the evidence presented" by the study "will prompt a similar recommendation to include whole-exome DNA sequencing as a first-tier ASD test, if not for all ASD diagnoses, certainly for children with physical dysmorphology."

n a new study published in The American Journal of Pathology, scientists say they have identified a biomarker in patients with stomach cancer that starves tumors of their blood supply and reduces the ability of cancer cells to spread to other parts of the body.
[stomach cancer]
In the US, around 24,590 cases of stomach cancer will be diagnosed in 2015.

The new research from China shows that stomach cancer patients whose cancer lesions show high levels of the biomarker microRNA 506 (miR-506) have far longer survival times compared with stomach cancer patients with lower levels of miR-506. Thus, miR-506 is a valuable biomarker to predict stomach cancer survival.

Other benefits of miR-506 include its ability to suppress tumor growth, blood vessel formation and the spread of cancer cells to other parts of the body.

Lead investigator Dr. Xin Song, of the Cancer Research Institute of Southern Medical University and the Cancer Biotherapy Center of The Third Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University - both in China - says that "these findings indicate that miR-506 is necessary and sufficient for angiogenesis suppression during gastric cancer progression."



By way of introducing their research into stomach cancer, the authors begin by explaining that Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in cancer cells is associated with an increased capacity to invade into surrounding tissue and migrate to distant sites.


Learn more about stomach cancer

EMT is a key step during normal embryo formation (embryogenesis), but EMT is now also recognized to be involved in processes within the body that result in functional changes associated with cancer (cancer pathophysiology).

While tumor-specific factors that drive EMT are not completely understood, it is known that various biochemical changes take place through EMT to produce "healing-type cells" called mesenchymal cells (MSCs).

In turn, it is MSCs that play an important role both in normal tissue repair as well as disease-causing processes, including tumor growth and the spread of cancer cells.

These transformed cells have the ability to migrate away from the tissues that line the cavities and surfaces of blood vessels and organs throughout the body, invade other tissues and stave off normal programmed cell death (PCD).

One of the several mechanisms that may initiate an EMT is the change in the expression of a specific class of small noncoding RNAs that regulate gene expression. It was one of these - miR-506 - that was identified by the researchers as a useful marker that enabled them to organize the patients they were studying in order of the severity of their stomach cancer.

Dr. Song says the research team considered the hypothesis that miR-506 acts as a suppressor of how cancer cells spread using a system level and integrative approach.
Tumor samples taken from people who had undergone cancer surgery

In a blind test, the researchers used a form of genetic analysis called polymerone chain reaction (PCR) to detect miR-506 in human gastric samples taken from 84 people who had undergone cancer surgery. The researchers analyzed the miR-506 levels in each of these samples, and patients were allocated to different groups based on whether they were above or below the mean miR-506 level.

This is when the team found that survival among patients with signs of high miR-506 was significantly longer.

At 60 months, for example, cumulative survival was approximately 30% in the low-miR-506 expression group, compared with 80% in the high-expression group.

The research team then looked at signs of miR-506 in seven stomach cancer cell lines. Here, it was found that stomach cancer cells had lower levels of miR-506 than normal stomach tissue.

Analysis of cells grown in vitro then showed that miR-506 levels were lowest in the cell lines that had the highest invasive activity, and the highest levels were seen in cell lines with the lowest invasive activity.

Further research and experiments strengthened the hypothesis that miR-506 acts as a suppressor of how cancer cells spread.