Germ Culprits in Moldy, Water-Damaged Buildings Identified

HealthDay – 1 hr 22 mins ago FRIDAY, June 22 (HealthDay News) -- Two specific strains of bacteria that appear linked to indoor mold caused by water damage have been identified by researchers.

Bacterial contamination in water-damaged buildings can cause health problems such as infection and respiratory conditions such as asthma. But until now, no specific bacteria that contribute to these problems have been pinpointed, making it difficult for public health officials to find ways to tackle the problem.

In a new study, University of Cincinnati researchers found evidence linking two types of bacteria -- Stenotrophomonas and Mycobacterium -- to indoor mold from water damage.

The team made their findings after analyzing samples collected from 42 homes participating in the Cincinnati Childhood Allergy and Air Pollution Study, a federal government-funded project examining the long-term effects of environmental exposures on children's respiratory health and allergy development.

The study was presented Monday at the American Society for Microbiology meeting in San Francisco.

"If we are going to understand the role of indoor bacteria in human health, we must be able to identify and quantify the relevant bacterial species contributing to the health problems," principal investigator Atin Adhikari, an assistant professor of environmental health at the UC College of Medicine, said in a university news release.

"The association between bacterial contamination and respiratory health has lagged behind mold studies because it is difficult to determine which species of bacteria are growing in homes, and most of the bacterial species are non-culturable and not identified yet," Adhikari explained.

"These new data will help us more accurately target and combat the bacteria and to explore synergistic health effects of bacteria and molds growing in water damaged homes," he said.

Data and conclusions presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

More information

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has more about moisture and mold in your home.

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Diabetes drug target identified

ScienceDaily (May 21, 2012) — New research from the University of Cincinnati (UC) points to the naturally produced protein apolipoprotein A-IV (apoA-IV) as a potential target for a new diabetes therapeutic.

See Also:Health & MedicineDiabetesDiet and Weight LossObesityHormone DisordersGastrointestinal ProblemsEpilepsy ResearchReferenceBlood sugarDiabetic dietHyperglycemiaDiabetes mellitus type 2

Patrick Tso, PhD, professor in the UC Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, has published research on the ability of apoA-IV to reduce blood sugar levels and enhance insulin secretion.

The results appear the week of May 21, 2012, in the online early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

ApoA-IV is secreted by the small intestine in response to fat absorption. Previous studies have shown apoA-IV to be elevated in humans following gastric bypass -- coinciding with improvement in symptoms for diabetes.

The Tso team found that mice deficient in apoA-IV had impaired glucose tolerance (insulin was not secreted to move glucose from the blood stream). These mice also developed diabetes when continuously fed a high-fat diet. When injected with apoA-IV, these same mice showed improved insulin response to glucose, despite a diet high in fat.

Tso's team also tested the response to injected apoA-IV in diabetic mice and found it reduced glucose levels among that group as well.

Tso says their research shows apoA-IV to behave similar to an incretin -- a gastrointestinal hormone causing an increased release of insulin after eating to combat the onset of elevated blood glucose. Two well-known incretins that have been used in the development of existing diabetes medications include gastric inhibitory peptide (GIP) and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1).

"The problem with both of these incretins is that they are short-lived -- lasting only for minutes -- and are quickly inactivated by an enzyme," says Tso. "They have also been linked to hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, when administered when the body has a low glucose concentration. The challenge is to find something safer with a longer half-life."

Tso says apoA-IV has a long half-life (between seven and eight hours) and that tests in his lab showed it to have no effect on glucose levels when administered at low glucose concentrations. Instead, he says, it seems to function to normalize glucose.

The University of Cincinnati has licensed this research finding to a startup biotech company, Apofore Corporation, formed by HealthCare Ventures of Cambridge, Mass. Apofore will further study apoA-IV in humans in an effort to develop a novel diabetes therapeutic.

Tso's research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.

Co-authors include Sean Davidson, PhD, Tammy Kindel, Alison Kohan, Silvana Obici, PhD, Fei Wang and Stephen Woods, PhD, all from the University of Cincinnati; and Kathryn Corbin and Craig Nunemaker of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

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New Lupus Genes Identified

HealthDay – 2 hrs 26 mins ago WEDNESDAY, April 4 (HealthDay News) -- Three new genes linked to the chronic autoimmune disease lupus have been identified by an international team of researchers.

The analysis of more than 17,000 genetic samples from people of several ethnic groups also pinpointed another 11 genetic regions that may be related to lupus and require further study.

The researchers found that the genes IRF8 and TMEM39a are associated with lupus in European-American, African-American, Gullah (a distinctive group of African-Americans in Georgia and South Carolina) and Asian patients. The gene IKZF3 is only significantly associated with lupus in African-Americans and European-Americans.

The researchers said their findings, which appear in the April 6 issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics, show that the genes that cause lupus aren't always universal.

The next step is to study the three genes to find out exactly what role they play in lupus, said lead author Christopher Lessard, a scientist at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation in Oklahoma City.

Lupus affects about 1.5 million Americans, and about 90 percent of patients are women. The disease causes the immune system to become overactive and attack the body's own cells. Symptoms include fatigue, fever, rashes and joint pain.

A combination of environmental and genetic factors cause lupus. Learning more about genetic risk factors may lead to improved diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases has more about lupus.

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