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:
Whether you’re shedding pounds with the help of effective new medicines, slimming down after weight loss surgery or cutting calories and adding exercise, there will come a day when the numbers on the scale stop going down, and you hit the dreaded weight loss plateau.
In a recent study, Kevin Hall, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health who specializes in measuring metabolism and weight change, looked at when weight loss typically stops depending on the method people were using todrop pounds. He broke down the plateau into mathematical models using data from high-quality clinical trials of different ways to lose weight to understand why people stop losing when they do. The study published Monday in the journal Obesity.
A new analysis by researchers at the National Institutes of Health has provided the strongest evidence to date that nausea and vomiting during pregnancy is associated with a lower risk of miscarriage in pregnant women. The study, appearing in JAMA Internal Medicine, was conducted by researchers at NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and other institutions.
NIH study of rare genetic disorder reveals importance of touch and body awareness.
With the help of two young patients with a unique neurological disorder, an initial study by scientists at the National Institutes of Health suggests that a gene called PIEZO2 controls specific aspects of human touch and proprioception, a “sixth sense” describing awareness of one’s body in space. Mutations in the gene caused the two to have movement and balance problems and the loss of some forms of touch. Despite their difficulties, they both appeared to cope with these challenges by relying heavily on vision and other senses.
Women with gestational diabetes at risk for postpartum depression.
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have discovered a two-way link between depression and gestational diabetes. Women who reported feeling depressed during the first two trimesters of pregnancy were nearly twice as likely to develop gestational diabetes, according to an analysis of pregnancy records. Conversely, a separate analysis found that women who developed gestational diabetes were more likely to report postpartum depression six weeks after giving birth, compared to a similar group of women who did not develop gestational diabetes.
NIH researchers find more preterm births among women exposed to extremes of hot and cold.
Extreme hot or cold temperatures during pregnancy may increase the risk of preterm birth, according to study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. The study authors found that extremes of hot and cold during the first seven weeks of pregnancy were associated with early delivery. Women exposed to extreme heat for the majority of their pregnancies also were more likely to deliver early.
Researchers at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) recently identified compounds that potentially can be used to inhibit Zika virus replication and reduce its ability to kill brain cells. These compounds now can be studied by the broader research community to help combat the Zika public health crisis. NCATS is part of the National Institutes of Health.
NCATS researcher dispenses Zika virus into trays for compound screening.
Researchers have identified a mechanism in mice by which anticancer immune responses are inhibited within the lungs, a common site of metastasis for many cancers. This mechanism involves oxygen inhibition of the anticancer activity of T cells. Inhibiting the oxygen-sensing capability of immune cells, either genetically or pharmacologically, prevented lung metastasis. This research was conducted by Nicholas Restifo, M.D., Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute (NCI) and others at NCI as well as colleagues at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), both parts of the National Institutes of Health. The findings appeared Aug. 25, 2016, in the journal Cell.
Rare and sometimes lethal disease affects young children
National Institutes of Health researchers have discovered a rare and sometimes lethal inflammatory disease — otulipenia — that primarily affects young children. They have also identified anti-inflammatory treatments that ease some of the patients’ symptoms: fever, skin rashes, diarrhea, joint pain and overall failure to grow or thrive.
Otulipenia is caused by the malfunction of OTULIN, a single gene on chromosome 5. When functioning properly, OTULIN regulates the development of new blood vessels and mobilization of cells and proteins to fight infection. NIH researchers published their findings Aug. 22, 2016, in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has launched a clinical trial of a vaccine candidate intended to prevent Zika virus infection. The early-stage study will evaluate the experimental vaccine’s safety and ability to generate an immune system response in participants. At least 80 healthy volunteers ages 18-35 years at three study sites in the United States, including the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, are expected to participate in the trial. Scientists at NIAID’s Vaccine Research Center (VRC) developed the investigational vaccine — called the NIAID Zika virus investigational DNA vaccine — earlier this year.
NIH mouse study identifies the mechanism responsible for a rare form of pediatric neuropathy.
Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and their colleagues identified the genetic cause and a possible therapeutic target for a rare form of pediatric progressive neuropathy. Neuropathy, damage or disease affecting the peripheral nervous system, can range from rare conditions linked to a patient’s exome to more common causes like diabetes and viral infections. Neuropathies can affect both motor and sensory neurons, producing muscle weakness, numbness, pain, and a wide range of symptoms. The study was published in the journal Science Signaling and was a collaboration between the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS); Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee; and Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.
A team of researchers led by a National Institutes of Health investigator, Teresa Przytycka, Ph.D., has developed a new software tool called AptaTRACE that could be an important advance for drug developers and other scientists who want to identify molecules that bind with high precision to targets of interest.
“This research is an excellent example of how the benefits of ‘big data’ critically depend upon the existence of algorithms that are capable of transforming such data into information,” said Dr. Przytycka, a senior investigator at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), a division of the NIH’s National Library of Medicine.
