ScienceCache

Vol. 226
April 24, 2006

MAGNETIC FIELD RESEARCH A LURE TO SWAZILAND
IN HUNT FOR ANCIENT ROCKS
Geophysicist John A. Tarduno, an expert on Earth’s magnetic field and how it has changed in the past, has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to travel to South Africa and Swaziland to collect rocks from the Archean age, 3.5 billion years ago, when life first began. Since these rocks are some of the oldest on the planet, they hold information on the strength and nature of the magnetic field of the early Earth. Tarduno will bring the rocks back to Rochester and use a new technique he has developed to study the intensity of the Earth's magnetic field in ancient rocks. The technique uses silicate crystals just a few millimeters long that are excellent recorders of prehistoric field strength. Tarduno, chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, also will focus on understanding how the magnetic field has shielded the Earth from much of the Sun's harmful radiation over the planet's lifetime. Over the last 150 years, the strength of Earth's magnetic field has weakened measurably, possibly heralding a pole-reversal when compasses would point south instead of north. Tarduno will apply what is known about the present-day decay of the magnetic field and its effect on Earth’s magnetic shielding, to the distant past, in order to better understand what effect lesser shielding may have had on developing life.
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STUDY IN SCIENCE HOLDS PROMISE FOR A NEW APPROACH TO DRUG THERAPY
Researchers believe they have found a way to change the action of 60 percent of currently available medications, in some cases making them many times more effective, according to an article published Friday in the journal Science. The discovery has the potential to improve treatments for diseases including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, depression and arthritis. The study describes a new way to manipulate perhaps the most important signaling mechanism in human cells, G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). Such receptors are targeted by 12 of the top 20 selling drugs, including Coreg for congestive heart failure, Cozaar for high blood pressure, Zoladex for breast cancer, Buspar for anxiety and Clozaril for schizophrenia, as well as by Zantac and Claritin. Together the drug class accounts for $200 billion in annual sales. Authors of the current study, led by Alan V. Smrcka of the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, believe they have found a new way to regulate the same GPCR pathways, but at different points. Where most drugs change the behavior of GPCRs on the outside of cells, the new class of drugs seeks to influence related signaling on the inside. Early studies suggest that the newly discovered “drug candidates” can provide better control of pathways involved in pain relief, inflammation and heart disease, while leaving healthy functions in place. “We believe we have discovered a new class of drugs that could make current drugs more effective, but that also represents a completely new, independent way of treating the same diseases,” says Smrcka, who adds that the new drugs face many hurdles before they can be used in the clinic.
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STUDY FINDS LESSER CONDITIONS A STEPPING STONE TO MAJOR DEPRESSION
Elderly patients with lesser versions of depression, a group many times larger than those with major depression, are more than five times as likely as healthy patients to descend into major depression within one year, according to a study published recently in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study’s authors believe that perhaps millions of elderly patients who do not meet the criteria for a diagnosis of major depression are indeed depressed, suffering, and not being treated for it. Fully one third of people age 65 and older are expected to struggle with a mental disorder at some point. While major depression among the elderly is an important problem, it has overshadowed related disorders that are less serious, but that leave many more people with suffering from painful emotions, disinterest in their surroundings, and thoughts of worthlessness. As a result, this group is more functionally disabled, less able to feed and groom themselves, or to go shopping. “Our study makes the point that the lines drawn between major and minor depression, while useful in some ways, are arbitrary, and may need to be redrawn to put an end to a great deal of suffering in this country,” says Jeffrey M. Lyness, director of the Program in Geriatrics and Neuropsychiatry. “The less severe the depression, the less it has been studied, regardless of how significant its impact might be.”
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