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.
NIH study suggests our brains may use short rest periods to strengthen memories
In a study of healthy volunteers, National Institutes of Health researchers found that our brains may solidify the memories of new skills we just practiced a few seconds earlier by taking a short rest. The results highlight the critically important role rest may play in learning.
“Everyone thinks you need to ‘practice, practice, practice’ when learning something new. Instead, we found that resting, early and often, may be just as critical to learning as practice,” said Leonardo G. Cohen, M.D., Ph.D., senior investigator at NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and a senior author of the paper published in the journal Current Biology. “Our ultimate hope is that the results of our experiments will help patients recover from the paralyzing effects caused by strokes and other neurological injuries by informing the strategies they use to ‘relearn’ lost skills.”
The study was led by Marlene Bönstrup, M.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Cohen’s lab. Like many scientists, she held the general belief that our brains needed long periods of rest, such as a good night’s sleep, to strengthen the memories formed while practicing a newly learned skill. But after looking at brain waves recorded from healthy volunteers in learning and memory experiments at the NIH Clinical Center, she started to question the idea.
In a study of healthy volunteers, NIH researchers found that taking short breaks, early and often, may help our brains learn new skills.
Small-scale, NIH-led clinical study offers early hope for developing a treatment
The anti-cancer drug pembrolizumab has shown promise in slowing or stopping the progression of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a typically fatal infection of the brain caused by the JC virus (JCV). This finding comes from a small-scale study by scientists at National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health. The study appears in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Pembrolizumab blocks the interaction between two proteins, PD-1 and PD-L1. Normally, these proteins work by putting the brakes on the immune system to limit excessive inflammation. However, some tumors that have PD-L1 on their surface can exploit this “off switch,” limiting the immune system’s ability to attack the cancer. Recent studies of PML patients have suggested that this mechanism may also be involved in JCV brain infections.
“We found both PD-1 and PD-L1 proteins in the infected parts of brains of patients with PML,” said Irene Cortese, M.D., director of the NINDS Neuroimmunology Clinic and first author of the paper. “This led us to ask whether pembrolizumab could be a potential treatment for PML.”
MRI of a PML patient showing significant lesions in the brain (white signal).
A research team led by scientists from NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has determined how several antibodies induced by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a herpesvirus that causes infectious mononucleosis and is associated with certain cancers, block infection of cells grown in the laboratory. They then used this information to develop novel vaccine candidates that, in animals, elicited potent anti-EBV antibody responses that blocked infection of cell types involved in EBV-associated cancers.
Currently, there is no licensed vaccine for EBV. The virus is associated with certain cancers (nasopharyngeal and gastric) of epithelial cells, which form the lining of the body’s surfaces, as well as Burkitt and Hodgkin lymphomas, which are cancers of the immune system’s B cells. Worldwide, about 200,000 cases of EBV-associated cancers occur annually, resulting in 140,000 deaths.
Jeffrey I. Cohen, M.D., and Wei Bu, Ph.D., both of NIAID, led the investigation. Prior efforts to develop an EBV vaccine focused on a viral surface protein, gp350, that the virus uses to enter B cells. However, EBV infects not only B cells, but also epithelial cells that line the mouth and upper throat. These cells are usually infected after contact with saliva from an EBV-infected individual. The new research helps define the contributions of virus-neutralizing antibodies other than those directed at gp350 on B cells. Among other findings, the team determined that antibodies to viral proteins called the gH/gL complex play a major role in inhibiting EBV fusion with epithelial cells.
A cryo-EM image of the gH/gL/gp45 candidate vaccine construct.
Young children who live close to a major roadway are twice as likely to score lower on tests of communications skills, compared to those who live farther away from a major roadway, according to an analysis by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and the University of California, Merced. Moreover, children born to women exposed during pregnancy to higher-than-normal levels of traffic-related pollutants — ultra-fine airborne particles and ozone — had a small but significantly higher likelihood of developmental delays during infancy and early childhood. The study appears in Environmental Research.
Previous studies have linked exposure to common air pollutants in pregnancy to low birthweight, preterm birth and stillbirth. A few studies have found a higher risk of autism and of lower cognitive functioning in children living near freeways, but results of studies about how prenatal and early childhood exposure to air pollution might affect development have been inconsistent.
Small IRP clinical trial conducted in partnership with AstraZeneca
A drug approved to treat a severe form of asthma dramatically improved the health of people with rare chronic immune disorders called hypereosinophilic syndromes (HES) in whom other treatments were ineffective or intolerable. This finding comes from a small clinical trial led by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and conducted through a partnership with the global biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. The results were published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“People living with a rare disease often have few, if any, effective treatment options,” said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. “This promising treatment advance for people with hypereosinophilic syndromes is just one example of how NIH research responds to the unique medical needs of individuals with rare diseases.”
HES is caused by higher-than-normal numbers of white blood cells called eosinophils in the blood, tissues or both. While most people have 0 to 500 eosinophils per microliter (µL) of blood, people with HES typically have more than 1,500 eosinophils/µL. The symptoms of HES vary widely from one patient to the next and can affect the heart, lungs, skin, gastrointestinal tract, central nervous system and other organ systems.
Activated eosinophils in the peripheral blood of a patient with idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome.
Investigational vaccine designed to provide broad, durable protection from flu
The first clinical trial of an innovative universal influenza vaccine candidate is examining the vaccine’s safety and tolerability as well as its ability to induce an immune response in healthy volunteers. Scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, developed the experimental vaccine, known as H1ssF_3928.
H1ssF_3928 is designed to teach the body to make protective immune responses against diverse influenza subtypes by focusing the immune system on a portion of the virus that varies relatively little from strain to strain. The vaccine candidate was developed as part of a broader research agenda to create a so-called “universal” influenza vaccine that can provide long-lasting protection for all age groups from multiple influenza subtypes, including those that might cause a pandemic.
“Seasonal influenza is a perpetual public health challenge, and we continually face the possibility of an influenza pandemic resulting from the emergence and spread of novel influenza viruses,” said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. “This Phase 1 clinical trial is a step forward in our efforts to develop a durable and broadly protective universal influenza vaccine.”
A healthy volunteer receives an experimental universal influenza vaccine known as H1ssF_3928 as part of a Phase 1 clinical trial at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Scientists at NIAID’s Vaccine Research Center (VRC) developed the vaccine.
The drug colchicine, used to treat the arthritic condition gout, could potentially reduce complications accompanying metabolic syndrome, a combination of high blood pressure, high blood sugar and other conditions that increase the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health. Their study appears in Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism.
Previous studies have indicated that the system-wide inflammation that occurs in obesity plays a role in the development of type 2 diabetes. In the current study, researchers led by Jack A. Yanovski, M.D., Ph.D., of NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) randomly assigned 21 study participants to received colchicine twice a day for three months, while 19 participants received a placebo. Colchicine suppresses a multi-protein complex called NLRP3, which triggers the inflammation seen in obesity.
Researchers looked at several measures that reflect how well insulin works in the body to clear sugar from the blood (insulin resistance). There was no difference between the two groups in insulin resistance determined by one measure of insulin use (the frequently sampled, insulin-modified intravenous glucose tolerance test). However, the colchicine group showed improvement on the Homeostatic Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance test, which also estimates how much insulin is needed to keep blood sugar at a normal level while fasting. Those in the colchicine group also scored lower on a blood test of C-reactive protein and other tests that indicate inflammation. The authors concluded that larger studies are needed to determine if colchicine could prevent the development of type 2 diabetes in people with metabolic syndrome.
A new study led by scientists in the Center for Cancer Research (CCR) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) sheds light on one way tumors may continue to grow despite the presence of cancer-killing immune cells. The findings, published March 29, 2019, in Science, suggest a way to enhance the effectiveness of immunotherapies for cancer treatment. NCI is part of the National Institutes of Health.
Dying cancer cells release the chemical potassium, which can reach high levels in some tumors. The research team reported that elevated potassium causes T cells to maintain a stem-cell-like quality, or “stemness,” that is closely tied to their ability to eliminate cancer during immunotherapy. The findings suggest that increasing T cells’ exposure to potassium — or mimicking the effects of high potassium — could make cancer immunotherapies more effective.
“This study helps us better understand why cancer immunotherapy works the way it does,” said Nicholas Restifo, M.D., of NCI’s CCR, who led the research team. “It could also point the way toward generating better and more long-lasting responses to these treatments.”
National Institutes of Health scientists studying the progression of inherited and infectious eye diseases that can cause blindness have found that microglia, a type of nervous system cell suspected to cause retinal damage, surprisingly had no damaging role during prion disease in mice. In contrast, the study findings indicated that microglia might delay disease progression.
The discovery could apply to studies of inherited photoreceptor degeneration diseases in people, known as retinitis pigmentosa. In retinitis pigmentosa cases, scientists find an influx of microglia near the photoreceptors, which led to the belief that microglia contribute to retina damage.
These inherited diseases appear to damage the retina similarly to prion diseases. Prion diseases are slow degenerative diseases of the central nervous system that occur in people and various other mammals. No vaccines or treatments are available, and the diseases are almost always fatal. Prion diseases primarily involve the brain but also can affect the retina and other tissues.
Microglia have been shown to be beneficial in slowing prion disease progression in the brain, and now in retina. Microglial cells (green) are engulfing and eliminating prion-damaged photoreceptors (red), which appears to slow retinal degeneration.
Technique could aid early detection and treatment of certain eye diseases
Cells of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) form unique patterns that can be used to track changes in this important layer of tissue in the back of the eye, researchers at the National Eye Institute (NEI) have found. Using a combination of adaptive optics imaging and a fluorescent dye, the researchers used the RPE patterns to track individual cells in healthy volunteers and people with retinal disease. The new finding could provide a way to study the progression and treatment of blinding diseases that affect the RPE. The study was published today in the journal JCI Insight. NEI is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“Studying cells of the retinal pigment epithelium in the clinic is like looking into a black box. RPE cells are difficult to see, and by the time signs of disease are detectable with conventional techniques, a lot of damage has often already occurred,” said Johnny Tam, Ph.D., the lead author of the study. “This study is proof-of-concept that we can use a fluorescent dye to reveal this unique fingerprint of the RPE, and to monitor the tissue over time.”
