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 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.
A new drug developed by scientists at the National Institutes of Health limits the progression of liver fibrosis in mice, a hopeful advance against a condition for which there is no current treatment and that often leads to serious liver disease in people with chronic alcoholism and other common diseases.
A laboratory study has revealed an entirely unexpected process for acquiring drug resistance that bypasses the need to re-establish DNA damage repair in breast cancers that have mutant BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. The findings, reported by Andre Nussenzweig, Ph.D., and Shyam Sharan, Ph.D., at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and colleagues, appeared July 21, 2016, in Nature.
Couples in which the male partner had high levels of paracetamol in his urine took longer to achieve pregnancy than couples in which the male had lower levels of the compound, according to a preliminary study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health.
NIH scientists identify molecule that may impact serious neurological diseases
With assistance from a high tech robot, National Institutes of Health researchers have identified and tested a molecule that shows promise as a possible treatment for the rare Gaucher disease and the more common Parkinson’s disease. Ellen Sidransky, M.D., a senior investigator with NIH’s National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), and her collaborators at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), published their findings June 12, 2016 in the Journal of Neuroscience.
A subgroup of women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a leading cause of infertility, may produce excess adrenal hormones, according to an early study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.
The National Institutes of Health has selected 52 innovative, research-oriented students for the 2016-2017 Medical Research Scholars Program (MRSP). A year-long residential program, the MRSP introduces medical, dental and veterinary students to cutting-edge research, and is part of NIH's goal of training the next generation of clinician-scientists and biomedical researchers. The program places students in NIH laboratories and patient care areas, including the NIH Clinical Center, to conduct basic, translational, or clinical research in areas that match their career interests and research goals.
Almost 10 million U.S. adults report misusing prescription opioids in 2012-2013.
Nonmedical use of prescription opioids more than doubled among adults in the United States from 2001-2002 to 2012-2013, based on a study from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health. Nearly 10 million Americans, or 4.1 percent of the adult population, used opioid medications in 2012-2013 a class of drugs that includes OxyContin and Vicodin, without a prescription or not as prescribed (in greater amounts, more often, or longer than prescribed) in the past year. This is up from 1.8 percent of the adult population in 2001-2002.
