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.
New research published online August 10 in the journal Nature Genetics found that a mutation-causing enzyme known as APOBEC3A (A3A) may be the main cause of mutations in certain cancers. Previous work from other groups implicated another APOBEC enzyme, known as APOBEC3B (A3B).
VSV-EBOV Appears to Trigger Innate and Adaptive Immunity
National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists report that a single dose of an experimental Ebola virus (EBOV) vaccine completely protects cynomolgus macaques against the current EBOV outbreak strain, EBOV-Makona, when given at least seven days before exposure, and partially protects them if given three days prior. The live-attenuated vaccine, VSV-EBOV, uses genetically engineered vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) to carry an EBOV gene that has safely induced protective immunity in macaques. The experimental vaccine is currently undergoing testing in a global clinical trial in humans. VSV, an animal virus that primarily affects cattle, has been successfully tested as an experimental vaccine platform against several viruses.
Scientists now report a new way to assess cholesterol that shows promise for evaluating the increased heart attack risk observed in patients with psoriasis, a common inflammatory skin disease. The new technique measures the function of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), known as “good” cholesterol, rather than HDL cholesterol concentration. The study, conducted by researchers from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), could broaden the use of the technique. The study appears in the online issue of the European Heart Journal.
NIH-study shows protein found at higher levels in military members who have suffered multiple TBIs
A protein previously linked to acute symptoms following a traumatic brain injury (TBI), may also be responsible for long-term complications that can result from TBI, according to research from the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), a component of the National Institutes of Health.
NIH researchers gain better understanding of how neuropeptide hormones trigger chemical reactions in cells
Many hormones and neurotransmitters work by binding to receptors on a cell’s exterior surface. This activates receptors causing them to twist, turn and spark chemical reactions inside cells. NIH scientists used atomic level images to show how the neuropeptide hormone neurotensin might activate its receptors. Their description is the first of its kind for a neuropeptide-binding G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), a class of receptors involved in a wide range of disorders and the target of many drugs.
NIH-Supported Study Explores Why Candidate HIV Vaccine Was Not Protective
A study by researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Duke University helps explain why the candidate vaccine used in the HVTN 505 clinical trial was not protective against HIV infection despite robustly inducing anti-HIV antibodies: the vaccine stimulated antibodies that recognized HIV as well as microbes commonly found in the intestinal tract, part of the body’s microbiome. The researchers suggest that these antibodies arose because the vaccine boosted an existing antibody response to the intestinal microbiome, which may explain why the HVTN 505 vaccine candidate did not perform well. Understanding why the candidate vaccine did not protect against HIV infection will inform ongoing vaccine research efforts against HIV and other infectious diseases.
A two-step regimen of experimental vaccines against Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) prompted immune responses in mice and rhesus macaques, report National Institutes of Health scientists who designed the vaccines. Vaccinated mice produced broadly neutralizing antibodies against multiple strains of the MERS coronavirus (MERS-CoV), while vaccinated macaques were protected from severe lung damage when later exposed to MERS-CoV. The findings suggest that the current approach, in which vaccine design is guided by an understanding of structure of viral components and their interactions with host cells, holds promise for developing a similar human MERS vaccine regimen.
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have discovered a protein that plays a vital role in healthy egg-sperm union in mice. The protein RGS2 can delay an egg’s development into an embryo in order to allow time for sperm to arrive and merge with the egg in a healthy fertilization process. The embryo cannot survive without the male chromosomes.
Reduces Fluctuations in Attention Toward and Away from Threat
A computerized attention-control training program significantly reduced combat veterans’ preoccupation with – or avoidance of – threat and attendant PTSD symptoms. By contrast, another type of computerized training, called attention bias modification – which has proven helpful in treating anxiety disorders – did not reduce PTSD symptoms. NIMH and Israeli researchers conducted parallel trials in which the two treatments were tested in US and Israeli combat veterans.
NIAID Scientists and Colleagues Determine Disorder’s Cause
Researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center report on a promising therapy for people with LRBA deficiency, a rare immune disorder that lacks effective treatments and is caused by mutations in the LRBA gene. The researchers found that the drug abatacept, which is FDA-approved for treating rheumatoid arthritis, may be an effective long-term therapy for LRBA deficiency. Furthermore, the team has discovered that LRBA protein plays a role in limiting the activity of immune cells.
