ScienceCache

Vol. 223
March 2, 2006

ROCHESTER IS NATION’S LEADING ALZHEIMER’S STUDY SITE
More people have taken part in Alzheimer’s studies at the Medical Center than at any other site in the nation, according to figures from the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study group, the premier collection of scientists nationwide who work together to test new treatments for the disease. During the last five years, 130 people in the Rochester area took part in the group’s studies, a number nearly double the next-highest institution’s total of 68. Rochester’s numbers are even more significant when the size of the metropolitan area is compared to other cities like New York and Los Angeles, which also have study sites. In the past 20 years, the University’s physicians and their patients have taken part in virtually every large study of a potential Alzheimer’s medication. Their work has spanned a time when there were no medications approved to treat the disease, to today when an array of drugs is available to help fight symptoms such as memory loss, thanks in part to people who volunteered for early studies of the medications. Overall more than 1,500 people from the Rochester area have taken part in dozens of Alzheimer’s studies that have helped advance treatment for millions of patients around the globe. The University is the leading site for Alzheimer’s treatment throughout western New York, with about 2,500 patients.
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WEIGHT, SMOKING DRUG TAKES AIM AT HEART DISEASE
Researchers have launched a study to determine whether an experimental drug, rimonabant, can slow atherosclerosis, the fatty build-up in arteries that creates heart attack risk. In recent studies, rimonabant has been shown to decrease body weight, improve abnormal levels of blood sugars and fats (cholesterol), and to help willing patients quit smoking. Now researchers hope to add coronary artery disease (CAD), atherosclerosis within the arteries of the heart, to the list of maladies addressed. A decision on whether rimonabant is safe and effective and if so, for which uses, is expected from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration later this year. Unlike previous cholesterol drugs that treat some aspect of blood or blood vessel walls, rimonabant exerts its effect in parts of the brain that control appetite and addictive behaviors. Results of previous studies show that rimonabant reduces triglycerides and increases HDL-C, or “good” cholesterol, independent of weight loss. The new study explores whether these effects will have an impact on the progression of atherosclerosis. “Obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol and coronary artery disease have all reached epidemic proportions to become leading causes of death despite being largely preventable,” says Frederick S. Ling, lead investigator and director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory. “These risk factors, called metabolic syndrome when combined in one person, feed off each other and are made much worse by smoking. New approaches are urgently needed, and our lab has the tools to measure accurately whether new treatments actually slow the progression of coronary artery disease.”
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CHILDREN’S ASTHMA CARE IMPROVES WITH STATE HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM
Children with asthma had fewer asthma-related attacks and medical visits after enrolling in the state children’s health insurance program (SCHIP), according to a recent Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong study in Pediatrics. Since 1997, the national program known as the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) has provided health insurance to low-income children who are not eligible for Medicaid and do not have private coverage. Under the Federal law, states received grants of Federal dollars to help with costs of insurance expansions, and had several options for how to use those dollars to expand coverage for children. New York received approval to use Child Health Plus. Parents said their children’s asthma improved after enrolling in SCHIP. Unmet needs for prescriptions, and specialty, preventative and acute care also dropped dramatically after enrollment. Parents reported that they had an easier time getting a medical professional on the phone for advice and in scheduling appointments, and travel times to appointments decreased. “Children had less scattering of care, meaning that they saw the same health care providers over time. At the same time, children did not require more high-cost specialty, emergency or hospital services,” says pediatrician Peter Szilagyi, the lead author. “In fact, rates for those expensive services dropped, perhaps because they were now receiving better healthcare at their primary care provider’s office.”
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BIOLOGIST’S TALK TO KICK OFF NEW LECTURE SERIES
Evolutionary biologist H. Allen Orr will give the first talk in a new interdepartmental lecture series highlighting biological and biomedical research at the University. The new seminar series, dubbed the “Second Friday Science Social,” is geared mainly to faculty, staff and students at the University, though the general public is welcome as well. After each seminar, light refreshments will be available while faculty and staff mingle, discuss the presentation, and update each other about research and other developments throughout the University. Orr will speak about his research at 4 p.m. Friday, March 10, in the Case Methods Room at the Medical Center; subsequent lectures will be held at the same time on the second Friday of each month. “We want a forum that makes it easy for everybody to hear about the cool science that is going on in the various departments throughout the Medical Center and River Campus, and at the same time provide an opportunity to get together with colleagues, post-docs, and students in a relaxed atmosphere,” says Dirk Bohmann, professor of genetics in the Department of Biomedical Genetics and one of the series’ organizers. Orr, a professor in the Department of Biology, is an evolutionary geneticist who has used fruit flies to explore several areas in the realm of evolutionary biology. Most of his research focuses on the genetics of speciation – how one species branches off to become a separate species – and the genetics of adaptation, the evolutionary process by which organisms become best suited to their environments.
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