Los hombres sufren más problemas de memoria que las mujeres

Un nuevo estudio demuestra que los varones son más susceptibles a los problemas de memoria que las féminas. La investigación, publicada por la revista médica de la Academia Americana de Neurología, concluye que las probabilidades de que un hombre sufra deterioro cognitivo leve, que en muchos casos es el estado previo al Alzheimer, es 1,5 veces mayor que en una mujer.
Además, mientras los hombres experimentan problemas de memoria más jóvenes pero de forma más gradual, en las mujeres el deterioro cognitivo leve llega en edades avanzadas pero es más rápido. «Si estos resultados se confirman en otros estudios, se puede sugerir que los factores relacionados con el género juegan un papel en la enfermedad», asegura el autor del estudio, Ronald Petersen, de la Clínica Mayo en Rochester, Minnesota.

Para el estudio, se testó la memoria y habilidades de pensamiento de 2.050 personas de 70 a 89 años. Los investigadores encontraron que casi el 14 por ciento de los participantes tenían deterioro cognitivo leve, un 10 por ciento tenían demencia y 76 por ciento de los examinados presentaban una memoria y habilidades de pensamiento normales. Del total, el 19 por ciento de los hombres tenían deterioro cognitivo leve, en comparación con el 14 por ciento de las mujeres.
Pero no sólo el género condicionó los resultados. Las tasas de deterioro congnitivo leve fueron mayores si el nivel de educación del participante era bajo o si nunca se había casado.
Para el doctor Petersen, principal autor de la investigación, los resultados del estudio son claves para la detección precoz y los tratamientos en los problemas de memoria.

**Publicado en ABC

Un estudio comprueba que aún las empresas farmacéuticas españolas no confían en las redes sociales

La industria farmacéutica en España apenas usa las redes sociales de Internet pese a que algunas plataformas como 'Facebook' son de las más utilizadas por los internautas para ponerse en contacto con estas compañías, según se desprende de un estudio realizado por la Editorial Médica Panamericana.

Dicho informe ha analizado la presencia de 22 empresas del sector en tres de las redes sociales más visitadas en la web --'Facebook', 'Twitter' y 'Youtube'-- y, según reconoce su autor, José Galán, los resultados demuestran que las farmacéuticas están "en pañales" en lo que respecta a su actividad en estas plataformas.

De este modo, 'Facebook' es la red más utilizada para ponerse en contacto con las compañías farmacéuticas y las líderes en este campo son la empresa Dentaid, con casi 1.000 de seguidores (977), seguida del laboratorio español DHU Ibérica (956), Pfizer (343) y Boehringer Ingelheim (118). Otras como Abbott, Lilly, Novartis, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Bristol-Myers Squibb, Bayer o Sanofi Aventis, también analizadas en este estudio, no contaban con ningún seguidor.

Por otro lado, la plataforma 'Twitter' ha demostrado tener bastante aceptación en algunos laboratorios, aunque según los autores del estudio, podemos afirmar "aún no se ha posicionado con fuerza" en el sector de la comunicación farmacéutica. Destaca el caso de los Laboratorios Menarini, que aunque no tiene perfil en 'Facebook', cuenta con más de 800 seguidores de su microblog en 'Twitter'. Pfizer España y su microblog aparece en segunda posición en el portal de mensajes cortos con algo más de 100 seguidores y, en lo que respecta al resto de laboratorios analizados, los autores aseguran que "la lista deja mucho que desear".

Finalmente, en la plataforma de videos 'Youtube' el líder es el canal de Boehringer Ingelheim, que es el único laboratorio que supera el centenar de seguidores. "Parece que aún no sabemos lo importante e interesante que puede ser para nuestras marcas la presencia en las redes sociales, cosa que muchas multinacionales de este sector están aprovechando con resultados excepcionales", recuerda Galán, director del departamento digital de Editorial Médica.

Effect of celiprolol on prevention of cardiovascular events in vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome

--Background
Vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a rare severe disease that causes arterial dissections and ruptures that can lead to early death. No preventive treatment has yet been validated. Our aim was to assess the ability of celiprolol, a β1-adrenoceptor antagonist with a β2-adrenoceptor agonist action, to prevent arterial dissections and ruptures in vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.

--Methods
Our study was a multicentre, randomised, open trial with blinded assessment of clinical events in eight centres in France and one in Belgium. Patients with clinical vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome were randomly assigned to 5 years of treatment with celiprolol or to no treatment. Randomisation was done from a centralised, previously established list of sealed envelopes with stratification by patients' age (≤32 years or >32 years). 33 patients were positive for mutation of collagen 3A1 (COL3A1). Celiprolol was uptitrated every 6 months by steps of 100 mg to a maximum of 400 mg twice daily. The primary endpoints were arterial events (rupture or dissection, fatal or not). This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00190411.

--Findings
53 patients were randomly assigned to celiprolol (25 patients) or control groups (28). Mean duration of follow-up was 47 (SD 5) months, with the trial stopped early for treatment benefit. The primary endpoints were reached by five (20%) in the celiprolol group and by 14 (50%) controls (hazard ratio [HR] 0·36; 95% CI 0·15—0·88; p=0·040). Adverse events were severe fatigue in one patient after starting 100 mg celiprolol and mild fatigue in two patients related to dose uptitration.

--Interpretation
We suggest that celiprolol might be the treatment of choice for physicians aiming to prevent major complications in patients with vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Whether patients with similar clinical presentations and no mutation are also protected remains to be established.

--Funding
French Ministry of Health, Programme Hospitalier de Recherche Clinique 2001.
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**Published in "The Lancet"

US blog questions drug company funding of continuing education for journalists

A US blog has questioned whether journalists might be influenced by accepting “all expenses paid” fellowships to attend an educational conference on cancer organised by the US National Press Foundation but sponsored by Pfizer.
Pfizer is providing unrestricted funding of $80 000 (£52 000; €62 000) to the US National Press Foundation, a non-profit charitable organisation that provides continuing educational programmes for journalists, to sponsor 15 US journalists to attend the foundation’s four day educational programme on cancer being held in Washington, DC, from 17 to 20 October (http://nationalpress.org/programs-and-resources/program/cancer-issues-2010/).
In his recent Pharmalot blog Ed Silverman, a journalist, asked whether journalists might be influenced by a drug company sponsored but apparently independent educational programme in the way that doctors might be (http://www.pharmalot.com/). “The arrangement is generating a bit of heat in some circles, given sensitivities over perceptions of conflicts of interest,” he said.
Gary Schwitzer, a former professor of journalism at the University of Minnesota, who publishes http://www.healthnewsreview.org/, said he saw the issue in the context of erosion of public confidence in journalists. As for sponsored seminars he said, “Who is paying the bill? This is swept under the carpet.” He recommended that journalists indicate in stories they write that they had attended an all expenses paid seminar sponsored by a drug company.
Charles Ornstein, president of the US Association of Health Care Journalists (http://www.healthjournalism.org/), said that to avoid sponsored programmes journalists could learn from each other through networking and by attending seminars organised by non-profit institutions or universities, such as the US National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
He said that healthcare journalists have covered issues of conflict of interest between doctors and drug companies for years and “may have been on the alert when the issue touched them.” He added that the association does not accept funding from commercial organisations with a financial interest in health care.
The association’s rule is stricter than that of the US Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (http://www.accme.org/), which approves continuing medical education for doctors. The council would allow a drug company to fund continuing medical education through an independent organisation if the drug company did not influence the choice of topic or speakers.
Linda Topping Streitfield, director of programmes at the National Press Foundation, said that Pfizer had no role in organising the programme for the cancer meeting, in selecting the topics or speakers, or in selecting the journalists who attend, in line with the foundation’s rules. “We’re proud of the programme and gratified at the reaction of journalists who have attended previous programmes,” she said.
The foundation receives funding from corporate donors, among them major drug companies. Ms Streitfield explained that the same rules applied to all its sponsored programmes: the sponsors are identified and may address journalists at the beginning of the programme, but the foundation controls all aspects of every programme, which will be balanced, fair, and on the record. Journalists invited to participate are selected by the foundation, she said.
Raymond Kerins, vice president for external affairs and communications for Pfizer, told the BMJ that the company wanted to “engage and educate” journalists so they understood the issues. “We want to be part of the solution,” he said. He acknowledged that Pfizer had a major interest in cancer drugs but insisted that the National Press Foundation received an unrestricted educational grant and that Pfizer had “zero impact” on the agenda, focus, choice of speakers, or selection of journalists.
He noted that as newspapers and magazines cut staff, general reporters may cover health and medical news previously covered by specialist reporters, while science reporting is becoming increasingly complex.
Jenny Song, a journalist who participated in a previous conference on cancer organised by the National Press Foundation when working as an editor for a cancer research magazine and who is now with the Waxman Cancer Organization, said, “Never was there any effort to bias me about Pfizer or its products. I never saw any brochures from Pfizer or received anything from them before or after the seminar. No one from Pfizer ever contacted me before or after the seminar either . . . The NPF [National Press Foundation] president, Bob Meyers, spoke openly and frankly with us about Pfizer sponsoring [that] programme.”

**Published in "BMJ"

Roche, reMYND sign 500 million euro Alzheimer, Parkinson pact

Roche has linked up with Belgium's reMYND to develop therapeutics that could slow down neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s patients.
Specifically, the collaboration will focus on two of reMYND’s pre-clinical small molecule programmes targeting alpha-synuclein and tau related pathologies. The companies say that the compounds are unique because they inhibit α-synuclein and tau neurotoxicity in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, respectively and as such they are considered disease-modifying, "whilst most currently available treatments only treat the symptoms of the disease".
Cashwise, reMYND, which is a spin-off company of Leuven University, could receive over half a billion euros in milestone payments, as well as double-digit royalties.
Commenting on the agreement, Luca Santarelli, head of Roche CNS said the addition of these programmes "strengthens and complements our existing research". He added: "We believe that they offer a unique approach to combat Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease".
Koen De Witte, managing director of reMYND said that the Alzheimer’s tau programme "represents perhaps a greater potential as it addresses one of the most fundamental aspects of the disease". He added that there is a strong fit between both companies "because we both have a strong biology-driven approach and aim for first-in-class treatments".
Mr De Witte concluded by saying that "Roche’s expertise in diagnostics will be crucial for maximising the chances of success along the long path of clinical development”.

Links:

http://www.roche.com/

http://www.remynd.be/

**Published in "Pharma Times"

NIH awards grants to support biomedical research in space

The National Institutes of Health announced today that it has awarded the first new grants under the Biomedical Research on the International Space Station (BioMed-ISS) initiative, a collaborative effort between NIH and NASA. Using a special microgravity environment that Earth-based laboratories cannot replicate, researchers will explore fundamental questions about important health issues, such as how bones and the immune system get weak.
"Through this initiative, the NIH is proud to continue its longstanding partnership with NASA," said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. "We look forward to working with our NASA colleagues and other members of the ISS team to implement these unique experiments."
The National Laboratory at the ISS provides a virtually gravity-free — or microgravity — environment where the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie human diseases can be explored.
Scientists will conduct their experiments under a two-stage mechanism. The first is a ground-based preparatory phase to allow investigators to meet select milestones and technical requirements. The second is an ISS experimental phase that will include preparing the experiments for launch, working with astronauts to conduct them on the ISS, and performing subsequent data analyses on Earth.
"BioMed-ISS offers a novel opportunity for gaining scientific insights that would not otherwise be possible through ground-based means," said Stephen I. Katz, M.D., Ph.D., director of the NIH's National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, and NIH liaison to NASA. "The beauty of this initiative is that it offers an unprecedented opportunity for benefitting human health on earth, while leveraging the American public’s investment in the ISS."
NIH is hosting three rounds of competition for the BioMed-ISS initiative. The first round of grants for the ground-based phase — totaling an estimated $1,323,000 — has been awarded as follows:
Paola Divieti, M.D., Ph.D., Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston: Weight-bearing activities contribute to the development and maintenance of bone mass, while weightlessness and immobility — as experienced by the astronauts and bedridden and immobilized patients — can result in bone loss and a weakened skeleton. Osteocytes, the most common type of bone cell, are believed to have gravity-sensing abilities. These cells play a key role in bone remodeling, a process that is vital to skeletal health. In studying osteocytes in a gravity-free environment, Divieti aims to uncover new therapeutic targets for osteoporosis and related bone diseases.
Millie Hughes-Fulford, Ph.D., Northern California Institute for Research and Education, San Francisco: The immune system, which protects the body against foreign substances, is suppressed in space. A reduction in the immune response also occurs in the elderly, who, like the astronauts, are at increased risk for infection. As a former astronaut, Hughes-Fulford aims to apply lessons learned from studies of immune cells in microgravity to a new model for investigating the loss of immune response in older women and men.
Declan McCole, Ph.D., University of California, San Diego: Excessive alcohol use is a leading lifestyle-related cause of death in the United States. A major factor in alcohol-related disease stems from the ability of alcohol to compromise the natural barrier function of cells in the gastrointestinal tract, increasing the movement of toxins from the intestines to other organs in the body. Using microgravity three-dimensional cell culture models, McCole plans to generate insights regarding the barrier properties of the intestines, and to explore how the absence of gravity affects alcohol's ability to diminish this barrier.
The NIH Institutes and Centers participating in BioMed-ISS include the National Cancer Institute, the National Center for Research Resources, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
Information NIH and NASA activities can be found at http://www.niams.nih.gov/News_and_Events/NIH_NASA_Activities/default.asp.

**Published in "NIH News"

NIH study shows how insulin stimulates fat cells to take in glucose

Using high-resolution microscopy, researchers at the National Institutes of Health have shown how insulin prompts fat cells to take in glucose in a rat model. The findings were reported in the Sept. 8 issue of the journal Cell Metabolism.
By studying the surface of healthy, live fat cells in rats, researchers were able to understand the process by which cells take in glucose. Next, they plan to observe the fat cells of people with varying degrees of insulin sensitivity, including insulin resistance — considered a precursor to type 2 diabetes (http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov). These observations may help identify the interval when someone becomes at risk for developing diabetes.
"What we're doing here is actually trying to understand how glucose transporter proteins called GLUT4 work in normal, insulin-sensitive cells," said Karin G. Stenkula, Ph.D., a researcher at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) and a lead author of the paper. "With an understanding of how these transporters in fat cells respond to insulin, we could detect the differences between an insulin-sensitive cell and an insulin-resistant cell, to learn how the response becomes impaired. We hope to identify when a person becomes pre-diabetic, before they go on to develop diabetes."
Glucose, a simple sugar, provides energy for cell functions. After food is digested, glucose is released into the bloodstream. In response, the pancreas secretes insulin, which directs the muscle and fat cells to take in glucose. Cells obtain energy from glucose or convert it to fat for long-term storage.
Like a key fits into a lock, insulin binds to receptors on the cell's surface, causing GLUT4 molecules to come to the cell's surface. As their name implies, glucose transporter proteins act as vehicles to ferry glucose inside the cell.
To get detailed images of how GLUT4 is transported and moves through the cell membrane, the researchers used high-resolution imaging to observe GLUT4 that had been tagged with a fluorescent dye.
The researchers then observed fat cells suspended in a neutral liquid and later soaked the cells in an insulin solution, to determine the activity of GLUT4 in the absence of insulin and in its presence.
In the neutral liquid, the researchers found that individual molecules of GLUT4 as well as GLUT4 clusters were distributed across the cell membrane in equal numbers. Inside the cell, GLUT4 was contained in balloon-like structures known as vesicles. The vesicles transported GLUT4 to the cell membrane and merged with the membrane, a process known as fusion.
After fusion, the individual molecules of GLUT4 are the first to enter the cell membrane, moving at a continuous but relatively infrequent rate. The researchers termed this process fusion with release.
When exposed to insulin, however, the rate of total GLUT4 entry into the cell membrane peaked, quadrupling within three minutes. The researchers saw a dramatic rise in fusion with release — 60 times more often on cells exposed to insulin than on cells not exposed to insulin.
After exposure to insulin, a complex sequence occurred, with GLUT4 shifting from clusters to individual GLUT4 molecules. Based on the total amount of glucose the cells took in, the researchers deduced that glucose was taken into the cell by individual GLUT4 molecules as well as by clustered GLUT4. The researchers also noted that after four minutes, entry of GLUT4 into the cell membrane started to decrease, dropping to levels observed in the neutral liquid in 10 to 15 minutes.
"The magnitude of this change shows just how important the regulation of this process is for the survival of the cell and for the normal function of the whole body," said Joshua Zimmerberg, Ph.D., M.D., the paper's senior author and director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Program in Physical Biology.
The research team next plans to examine the activity of glucose transporters in human fat cells, Zimmerberg said. "Understanding how insulin prepares the cell for glucose uptake may lead to ideas for stimulating this activity when the cells become resistant to insulin."
Stenkula and Samuel W. Cushman, Ph.D., of NIDDK worked with NICHD investigators Vladimir A. Lizunov, Ph.D. and Zimmerberg to complete the research.

**Published in "NIH News"