U.S. National Institutes of Health

NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit the http://www.nih.gov.

Detecting the Genes That Contribute to Transplant Rejection

A group of physicians and scientists led by Associate Professor Daniel Salomon, M.D., of the Department of Molecular and Experimental Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute, has been awarded a new federal research grant of more than $12 million over five years to apply cutting-edge genomic technologies to advance our understanding of kidney transplantation. The grant was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Smokers With Psychiatric Disorders Consume Most U.S. Cigarettes

Adults with nicotine dependence and/or psychiatric disorders consume 70 percent of all cigarettes smoked in the United States, according to results of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study reported in the November issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry (Volume 61). Based on the 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), the article provides the first national estimates among U.S. adults of the prevalence and co-occurrence of nicotine dependence and a broad array of other psychiatric disorders including alcohol and drug abuse and dependence, mood and anxiety disorders, and personality disorders as defined by the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition (DSM-IV).

Stress impairs thinking via mania-linked enzyme

An errant enzyme linked to bipolar disorder, in the brain’s prefrontal cortex, impairs cognition under stress, an animal study shows. The disturbed thinking, impaired judgment, impulsivity, and distractibility seen in mania, a destructive phase of bipolar disorder, may be traceable to overactivity of protein kinase C, suggests the study. It explains how even mild stress can worsen cognitive symptoms, as occurs in bipolar disoder, which affects two million Americans.

Scare Tactics for Violence Prevention are Harmful

Programs that rely on ”scare tactics” to prevent children and adolescents from engaging in violent behavior are not only ineffective, but may actually make the problem worse, according to an independent state-of-the-science panel convened this week by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The panel, charged with assessing the available evidence on preventing violence and other health-risking behaviors in adolescents, announced today its assessment of the current research.

Scientists detect two decision-making pathways in human brain

In a classic Aesop fable, the Ant diligently stores food for the upcoming winter, while the Grasshopper lounges in the summer sun oblivious to the impeding change of season. Like the characters in this tale, people are often torn between impulsively choosing immediate rewards or more deliberatively planning for the future. And now new research suggests why: human decision-making is influenced by the interactions of two distinct systems in the brain which– like the Ant and Grasshopper–are often at odds.

Breathing problems during sleep may affect mental development

Children who have problems breathing during sleep tend to score lower on tests of mental development and intelligence than do other children their age, according to two studies funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The first study found that at one year of age, infants who have multiple, brief breathing pauses (apnea) or slow heart rates during sleep scored lower on mental development tests than did other infants of the same age. The second study showed that 5-year-old children who had frequent snoring, loud or noisy breathing during sleep, or sleep apneas observed by parents scored lower on intelligence, memory, and other standard cognitive tests than other children their age. They were also more likely to have behavioral problems.

Artificial Neural Networks Can Predict Clinical Outcomes

Government researchers have used artificial neural networks and DNA microarrays to successfully predict the clinical outcome of patients diagnosed with neuroblastoma. The ANNs also identified a minimal set of 19 genes whose expression levels were closely associated with this clinical outcome. Currently, physicians stratify patients with neuroblastoma into high-, intermediate- and low-risk groups based on several factors. However, while stratification can guide patient treatment, it is not a predictor of survival. Now, the predictive power of microarray gene expression analysis coupled with ANNs could assist physicians in the treatment of individual patients.

Inhaled Nitrite May Help Babies in Low-Oxygen State

Scientists have found that use of an inhaled nitrite spray may help babies diagnosed with persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn. Premature newborns and those with pneumonia or heart problems often develop PPHN. This often-fatal disease causes high blood pressure in an infant’s lungs and places the baby in a low-oxygen state. Nitrite, a simple salt in the blood that dilates the blood vessels in the lungs, reacts with de-oxygenated hemoglobin (the respiratory protein of the blood) and is converted to nitric oxide when the human body is in a low-oxygen state. Nitric oxide or NO is a short-lived gas produced by cells lining the blood vessels and has an important role in regulating blood flow.

Schizophrenia Gene Variant Linked to Risk Traits

Researchers at the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have identified a relationship between a small section of one gene, the brain chemical messenger glutamate, and a collection of traits known to be associated with schizophrenia. The finding confirms the gene responsible for management of glutamate is a promising candidate in determining risk for schizophrenia. Glutamate is a key neurotransmitter long thought to play a role in schizophrenia.

US Latinos have high rates of eye disease and visual impairment

Latinos living in the United States have high rates of eye disease and visual impairment, according to a research study, and a significant number may be unaware of their eye disease. This study, called the Los Angeles Latino Eye Study (LALES), is the largest, most comprehensive epidemiological analysis of visual impairment in Latinos conducted in the U.S.

Better hepatitis C treatment for people with HIV

The preferred treatment for hepatitis C, peg-interferon and ribavirin, is safe for people who are also infected with HIV, according to a new study in the July 29 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. Moreover, this treatment proved superior for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in HIV-coinfected persons when compared with the previously accepted treatment, standard interferon and ribavirin.

Location of potential familial lung cancer gene discovered

Researchers have discovered a possible inherited component for lung cancer, a disease normally associated with external causes, such as cigarette smoking. An interdisciplinary consortium consisting of 12 research institutions and universities, including the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), both part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), identified a major lung cancer susceptibility region on a segment of chromosome 6.

Fact Sheet–Project Bioshield

President Bush today signed into law Project BioShield, which provides new tools to improve medical countermeasures protecting Americans against a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) attack. The President first proposed Project BioShield in his 2003 State of the Union address and Congress approved it last week. Project BioShield is a comprehensive effort overseen jointly by Secretary Thompson and Secretary Ridge, and involving other Federal agencies as appropriate, to develop and make available modern, effective drugs and vaccines to protect against attack by CBRN weapons.