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.
In a Federal Register notice on Nov. 25, 2015, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published safeguards and criteria for research to assess the safety and effectiveness of solid organ transplantation from donors with HIV infection to recipients with HIV infection. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), led the development of the criteria, which provide the framework for clinical studies on transplantation of HIV-infected organs to begin in the United States as early as 2016.
The HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act, signed into law on Nov. 21, 2013, allows scientists to carry out research into organ donations from one person with HIV infection to another and mandates development of safeguards and criteria for the conduct of such research. Prior to passage of this law, transplantation of organs from people with HIV infection was illegal in the United States.
In the United States, and throughout the world, men drink more alcohol than women. But a recent analysis by scientists at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health, indicates that longstanding differences between men and women in alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harms might be narrowing in the United States.
Researchers led by Aaron White, Ph.D., NIAAA’s senior scientific advisor to the director, examined data from yearly national surveys conducted between 2002 and 2012.
A newly discovered link between order in the activity of neurons in the brain and excitability—how likely it is that individual neurons will “fire”—may provide a means for monitoring treatment of conditions like epilepsy that would be less invasive and thus more versatile than current methods. This new approach, developed by NIMH scientists, has implications beyond conditions like epilepsy; the findings support an emerging picture of how the brain balances flexibility and order during wakefulness and sleep.
An analysis by National Institutes of Health researchers has shown that people with sickle cell anemia who took the drug hydroxyurea at the recommended dose had higher survival rates than those who took less than the recommended dose. The findings appear in the journal PLOS ONE.
Researchers at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases reviewed data from 383 people who came to NIH for treatment or evaluation for sickle cell anemia between 2001 and 2010. The study found that 66 percent of people were taking hydroxyurea. Of the group taking hydroxyurea, only two-thirds (or 44 percent of all patients) were using doses high enough to fall within the recommended range. People taking the recommended dose were 64 percent less likely to die from sickle cell anemia compared to those not taking hydroxyurea. This survival benefit was not observed in those taking less than the recommended dose of hydroxyurea. Hydroxyurea is the only FDA-approved drug to treat sickle cell anemia, a rare blood disorder.
Study sheds light on preventing or reversing certain obesity-associated diseases
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health have identified a potential molecular target for reducing obesity-related inflammation. Researchers have known that overeating (that is, excess calorie consumption) by individuals with obesity often triggers inflammation, which has been linked to such diseases as asthma and Type 2 diabetes. In their study, published recently in The Journal of Clinical Investigation (Nov. 3, 2015, online version), the investigators found that a protein called SIRT3 provides resistance to this inflammatory response and could potentially prevent or reverse obesity-associated diseases of inflammation.
Lead researcher Michael N. Sack, M.D., Ph.D., a senior investigator at NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, explained that he and his team identified the role of SIRT3 through an investigation involving 19 healthy volunteers who fasted for a 24-hour period.
NIH analysis allays concerns raised by previous study
The recommendation to delay delivery of otherwise healthy infants until at least the 39th week of pregnancy does not appear to have increased stillbirths in the United States, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions. These findings contradict an earlier study that raised the concern that waiting until 39 weeks could lead to more stillbirths.
Research has shown that foregoing delivery before 39 weeks, either by induced labor or via cesarean, when there is no medical reason to deliver early lowers the chances of newborn illness and death. Yet one study linked a policy in a large hospital group of avoiding such optional, or elective, deliveries before 39 weeks to an increase in stillbirths in its patients.
Deficit in intracellular trafficking underlies speech disorder
A defect in intracellular trafficking, the process that cells use to move proteins to their correct locations, causes an inherited form of persistent stuttering, according to a new study led by scientists at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health. The findings extend previous studies, providing new insights into the molecular underpinnings of the disorder and reinforcing the notion that persistent stuttering is a neurological (brain) disorder. The results may contribute to a foundation for the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for stuttering. The study was published November 5 in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
Stuttering is a speech disorder in which a person repeats or prolongs sounds, syllables, or words, disrupting the normal flow of speech. The disorder affects people of all ages and begins most frequently in young children between the ages of 2 and 6, as they are developing their language skills. Most children outgrow stuttering but many do not. Researchers estimate that as many as 1 percent of Americans, roughly 3 million people, live with persistent stuttering. While the exact causes of stuttering are unknown, scientists believe that it stems from problems with the circuits in the brain that control speech.
Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and colleagues at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and MedImmune, LLC, have developed a vaccine candidate to protect infants and young children against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) that appears to elicit a stronger protective immune response than the previous lead vaccine candidate. RSV is the most common cause of lower respiratory tract infections—including pneumonia and bronchiolitis—among young children worldwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Each year in the United States, RSV leads to an average of about 55,000 hospitalizations among children younger than 5 years, with most hospitalizations occurring among infants younger than 6 months. There is currently no approved vaccine to prevent RSV infection.
Analysis reveals reasons for use of yoga, supplements, and spinal manipulation
People who practiced yoga or took natural products (dietary supplements other than vitamins and minerals) were more likely to do so for wellness reasons than to treat a specific health condition, according to analysis of data from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Yoga users reported the most positive health benefits, compared to users of natural products and spinal manipulation. The analysis by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) was published in a National Health Statistics Report by the National Center for Health Statistics.
A National Institutes of Health study found that non-invasive brain stimulation decreased calorie consumption and increased weight loss in adults who are obese. The findings suggest a possible intervention for obesity, when combined with healthy eating and exercise. Results were published in Obesity concurrent with a presentation at the 2015 Obesity Society meeting.
