Research advances from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Intramural Research Program (IRP) often make headlines. Read the news releases that describe our most recent findings:
The act of cooking offers the chance to unwind and create something special, whether you’re planning to feed a crowd or just yourself. And while you may have noticed feeling good after whipping up that perfect pie or braise, there’s actually a lot of scientific data to suggest that cooking can have a positive impact on mental health.
One meta-analysis (a report of pre-existing research) from the National Institutes of Health looked at 11 studies and found that “cooking interventions” — encouraging people to follow certain recipes or giving people cooking classes — can improve a person’s mental well-being. It specifically found that people who participated in cooking interventions reported having better self-esteem and quality of life, as well as a more positive emotional state after the fact. Another study even discovered that baking can help raise a person’s confidence level.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has elected four IRP investigators as AAAS Fellows this year. These incredibly accomplished individuals are among 443 scientists chosen as 2019 AAAS Fellows in recognition of their extraordinary achievements in advancing science:
John A. Beutler, Ph.D., of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) identifies and studies natural products that have the potential to be used as cancer treatments. He also builds and maintains a library of chemicals used to support high-throughput screening of compounds for molecularly-targeted cancer drug discovery.
Francesco DeMayo, Ph.D., of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) studies the molecular mechanisms that regulate the functioning of the female reproductive system and the lungs, as well as how environmental factors contribute to diseases like endometriosis, endometrial cancer, and lung cancer.
Children of first-time mothers, those in home-based childcare log most screen time
Children’s average daily time spent watching television or using a computer or mobile device increased from 53 minutes at age 12 months to more than 150 minutes at 3 years, according to an analysis by researchers at the National Institutes of Health, the University at Albany and the New York University Langone Medical Center. By age 8, children were more likely to log the highest amount of screen time if they had been in home-based childcare or were born to first-time mothers. The study appears in JAMA Pediatrics.
NICHD researchers and their colleagues analyzed data from the Upstate KIDS Study, originally undertaken to follow the development of children conceived after infertility treatments and born in New York State from 2008 to 2010. Mothers of nearly 4,000 children who took part in the study responded to questions on their kids’ media habits when they were 12, 18, 24, 30, and 36 months of age. They also responded to similar questions when the children were 7 and 8 years old. The study compiled additional demographic information on the mothers and children from birth records and other surveys.
Among Asian/Pacific Islander women living in the United States, those who reside in ethnic enclaves — areas with a high concentration of residents of a similar ancestry — are less likely to have pregnancy or birth complications than those living in other areas, suggests a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions. The findings appear in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.
Women in enclaves were less likely to have gestational diabetes, to deliver preterm, or to have an infant who was small for gestational age (a possible indicator of failure to grow adequately in the uterus). The researchers theorize that living in ethnic enclaves may improve health by offering easier access to health professionals of similar ancestry, access to traditional diets that are healthier than typical U.S. diets, and less incentive to engage in unhealthy habits like smoking and alcohol abuse.
Studies in cell and animal models reveal insights into cancer cells’ vulnerability that could lead to new strategies against brain cancers
Researchers have devised a new plan of attack against a group of deadly childhood brain cancers collectively called diffuse midline gliomas (DMG), including diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), thalamic glioma and spinal cord glioma. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health, Stanford University, California, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, identified a drug pair that worked together to both kill cancer cells and counter the effects of a genetic mutation that causes the diseases.
The researchers showed that combining the two drugs – panobinostat and marizomib – was more effective than either drug by itself in killing DMG patient cells grown in the laboratory and in animal models. Their studies also uncovered a previously unrecognized vulnerability in the cancer cells that scientists may be able to exploit to develop new strategies against the cancer and related diseases. The results were published Nov. 20 in Science Translational Medicine.
DIPG is a rare, deadly childhood brain cancer. Here, a confocal micrograph shows DIPG cells, grown from patient cells, in culture.
Safety data analyzed from five NIH inpatient clinical trials
National Institutes of Health researchers found that a single, low-dose ketamine infusion was relatively free of side effects for patients with treatment-resistant depression. Elia Acevedo-Diaz, M.D., Carlos Zarate, M.D., and colleagues at the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) report their findings in the Journal of Affective Disorders.
Studies have shown that a single, subanesthetic-dose (a lower dose than would cause anesthesia) ketamine infusion can often rapidly relieve depressive symptoms within hours in people who have not responded to conventional antidepressants, which typically take weeks or months to work. However, widespread off-label use of intravenous subanesthetic-dose ketamine for treatment-resistant depression has raised concerns about side effects, especially given its history as a drug of abuse.
“The most common short-term side effect was feeling strange or loopy,” said Acevedo-Diaz, of the Section on the Neurobiology and Treatment of Mood Disorders, part of the NIMH Intramural Research Program (IRP) in Bethesda, Maryland. “Most side effects peaked within an hour of ketamine administration and were gone within two hours. We did not see any serious, drug-related adverse events or increased ketamine cravings with a single-administration.”
Technique key to scale up manufacturing of therapies from induced pluripotent stem cells
Researchers used artificial intelligence (AI) to evaluate stem cell-derived “patches” of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) tissue for implanting into the eyes of patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness.
The proof-of-principle study helps pave the way for AI-based quality control of therapeutic cells and tissues. The method was developed by researchers at the National Eye Institute (NEI) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and is described in a report appearing online today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. NEI is part of the National Institutes of Health.
“This AI-based method of validating stem cell-derived tissues is a significant improvement over conventional assays, which are low-yield, expensive, and require a trained user,” said Kapil Bharti, Ph.D., a senior investigator in the NEI Ocular and Stem Cell Translational Research Section.
“Our approach will help scale up manufacturing and will speed delivery of tissues to the clinic,” added Bharti, who led the research along with Carl Simon Jr., Ph.D., and Peter Bajcsy, Ph.D., of NIST.
Scanning electron micrograph showing iPS cell-derived RPE tissue (gray) cultured on a fiber-based scaffold (blue).
Exceptional early stage scientists mark NIH’s commitment to build the next generation of biomedical researchers
The National Institutes of Health has selected five scientists as Lasker Clinical Research Scholars, part of a joint initiative with the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, to continue building a pipeline of exemplary clinical scientists. This highly competitive program provides talented, early stage researchers the opportunity to carry out independent clinical and translational research for five to seven years at NIH. The researchers also have the possibility of additional years of financial support, at NIH or an NIH-funded research institution, upon project review. The new researchers join 23 Lasker Scholars hired since 2012.
“The addition of these five creative minds to the Lasker Clinical Research Scholars program builds upon a remarkable foundation of clinician-scientists who will lead the NIH in producing innovative biomedical discoveries,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.
Lasker Scholars have access to the NIH Clinical Center, the largest hospital in the world devoted to clinical research. The Lasker Foundation will provide additional developmental support to the scholars while they are working at NIH by funding travel to scientific meetings and providing the opportunity to participate in selected foundation activities, including the Lasker Award ceremonies.
Investigators at the National Institutes of Health have found that sesame allergy is common among children with other food allergies, occurring in an estimated 17% of this population. In addition, the scientists have found that sesame antibody testing — whose utility has been controversial — accurately predicts whether a child with food allergy is allergic to sesame. The research was published on Oct. 28 in the journal Pediatric Allergy and Immunology.
“It has been a challenge for clinicians and parents to determine if a child is truly allergic to sesame,” said Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of NIH. “Given how frequently sesame allergy occurs among children who are allergic to other foods, it is important to use caution to the extent possible when exposing these children to sesame.”
Sesame is among the 10 most common childhood food allergies. Only an estimated 20% to 30% of children with sesame allergy outgrow it. Severe reactions to sesame are common among sesame-allergic children. About 1.1 million people in the United States, or an estimated 0.23% of the U.S. population, have sesame allergy, according to a recently published study funded by NIAID. These factors underscore the need to optimize recognition and diagnosis of this allergy. The Food and Drug Administration is currently considering whether to include sesame in the list of allergens that must be disclosed on food labels.
Scientists hope findings mean vaccine supplies could stretch farther
A single dose of a highly diluted VSV-Ebola virus (EBOV) vaccine — approximately one-millionth of what is in the vaccine being used to help control the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) — remains fully protective against disease in experimentally infected monkeys, according to National Institutes of Health scientists. The NIH investigators completed the vaccine dosage study using cynomolgus macaques and an updated vaccine component to match the EBOV Makona strain that circulated in West Africa from 2014-16. The study appears in Lancet’s EBioMedicine.
Nearly 250,000 people have received the investigational VSV-EBOV vaccine since August 2018 as part of a “ring vaccination” program to help stem the outbreak. The vaccine appears to be safe and highly effective. The manufacturer has announced that it has submitted a biologics license application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. VSV-EBOV is based on a live-attenuated vesicular stomatitis virus and delivers an EBOV protein to elicit protective immune responses. With the continued need to vaccinate individuals in the DRC and surrounding countries, a potential shortage of VSV-EBOV vaccine is a concern and further dose adjustment is a possible solution.
Scientists from NIH’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML), part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, tested several dosage strengths, including one with 10 million plaque-forming units (PFU). They determined that a vaccine with 10 PFUs was just as effective as the highest dose tested (a dose which was still lower than the one currently in use in the DRC). They vaccinated macaques 28 days prior to infecting them with a lethal dose of EBOV and then monitored the animals for 42 days after infection. Even the macaques given the lowest dose appeared completely protected from disease due to EBOV.
Samples of cerebrospinal fluid used to detect tauopathies
National Institutes of Health scientists have developed an ultrasensitive new test to detect abnormal forms of the protein tau associated with uncommon types of neurodegenerative diseases called tauopathies. As they describe in Acta Neuropathologica, this advance gives them hope of using cerebrospinal fluid, or CSF — an accessible patient sample — to diagnose these and perhaps other, more common neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Scientists have linked the abnormal deposition of tau in the brain to at least 25 different neurodegenerative diseases. However, to accurately diagnose these diseases, brain tissue often must be analyzed after the patient has died.
For their study, the researchers used the same test concept they developed when using post-mortem brain tissue samples to detect the abnormal tau types associated with Pick disease, Alzheimer’s disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). They adapted the test to use CSF for the detection of abnormal tau of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), corticobasal degeneration (CBD), and other less common tauopathies.
Representative negative-stained transmission electron microscopy images of 4R RT-QuIC products seeded with brain homogenates from individuals with the designated diseases –frontotemporal dementia and Parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17; corticobasal degeneration; and progressive supranuclear palsy.
