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Female gender provides an advantage in renal diseases

08-08-2007 · EurekAlert!

In these studies, researchers either added supplemental levels of estrogen/testosterone to rats or castrated/performed ovariectomies in males and females rats, respectively. The studies found that estrogen helped to protect against kidney disease while testosterone proved to be detrimental to kidney health.

Keywords: female, gender, provides, advantage, renal, diseases, provide, disease

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Advance in understanding of blood pressure gene could lead to new treatments
02-04-2007 · EurekAlert!
Research by scientists at UCL (University College London) has clearly demonstrated for the first time the structure and function of a gene crucial to the regulation of blood pressure. The discovery could be important in the search for new treatments for illnesses such as heart disease, the UK's biggest killer. In a paper published online today in Nature Medicine, the team, led by Professor Patrick Vallance and Dr James Leiper, UCL Department of Medicine, reveal the role of the human gene dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH), showing that loss of DDAH activity disrupts nitric oxide (NO) production. NO is critical in the regulation of blood pressure, nervous system functions and the immune system. The role of DDAH is to break down modified amino acids (Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and monomethyl arginine (L-NMMA)) that are produced by the body and have been shown to inhibit NO synthase. These molecules accumulate in various disease states including diabetes, renal failure and pulmonary and systemic hypertension, and their concentration in plasma (the fluid component of blood) is strongly predicative of cardiovascular disease and death. In a healthy human body, the majority of ADMA is eliminated through active metabolism by DDAH. Scientists have hypothesised that if DDAH function is impaired, NO production is reduced, and that this could be an important feature of increased cardiovascular risk. To examine this pathway in more detail, the researchers deleted the DDAH gene in mice. These mice went on to develop hypertension, or high blood pressure. They also designed specific inhibitors (small molecules) which bind to the active site of human DDAH. These small molecule inhibitors also induced hypertension in mice, confirming the importance of DDAH in the regulation of blood pressure. Dr Leiper, UCL Medicine, said: “These genetic and chemical approaches to disrupt DDAH showed remarkably consistent results, and provide compelling evidence that loss of DDAH function increases the concentration of ADMA and thereby disrupts vascular NO signalling. “There has been considerable scientific interest in this pathway and the role of ADMA as a novel risk factor, but so far there's been little evidence to support the idea that it's a cause of disease, rather than just a marker. Genes and their pathways are crucial to our understanding of cardiovascular disease and a better understanding of DDAH-1 could lead to important new treatments. “It could help us to establish if genetic variation predisposes certain people to these diseases, or whether environmental factors exert some of their effects through modulation of DDAH activity. “Our research also shows that this pathway could be harnessed therapeutically to limit production of NO in certain situations where too much nitric oxide is a bad thing; for example, hypotension and septic shock. These are some of the biggest problems in intensive care medicine and there is a huge unmet need for drug treatments.” The study, which was carried out at UCL's Rayne Institute, was funded by grants from the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation, said: "The unexpected finding in the 1980s that a simple gas, nitric oxide (NO), is made by cells in the blood vessel wall and is a powerful control of blood vessel relaxation led to the award of the Nobel Prize in 1998 to its discoverers. "More recently, there has been increasing evidence that impairment of NO production is likely to be an important factor in the development of heart and circulatory disease, but the mechanisms responsible are not fully understood. "This study suggests for the first time that the loss of the activity of the enzyme DDAH-1 leads to reduced NO production and may cause heart and circulatory disease. These findings are likely to be important in the search for new ways to optimise the health of our blood vessels." ### Notes for Editors 1. For more information, please contact Ruth Metcalfe in the UCL Media Relations Office on tel: +44 (0)20 7679 9739, mobile: +44 (0)7990 675 947, out of hours: +44 (0)7917 271 364, e-mail: r.metcalfe@ucl.ac.uk2. 'Disruption of methylarginine metabolism impairs vascular homeostasis' is published in the February issue of the journal Nature Medicine. Advance online publication is embargoed to 18.00 GMT (13.00 US Eastern) Sunday 4 February 2007. Journalists can obtain copies of the paper by contacting the UCL Media Relations Office.3. The study was funded by the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. About UCL Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. In the government's most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 59 UCL departments achieved top ratings of 5* and 5, indicating research quality of international excellence. UCL is the fourth-ranked UK university in the 2006 league table of the top 500 world universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. UCL alumni include Mahatma Gandhi (Laws 1889, Indian political and spiritual leader); Jonathan Dimbleby (Philosophy 1969, writer and television presenter); Junichiro Koizumi (Economics 1969, Prime Minister of Japan); Lord Woolf (Laws 1954, Lord Chief Justice of England & Wales); Alexander Graham Bell (Phonetics 1860s, inventor of the telephone), and members of the band Coldplay.
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Dragonfly's metabolic disease provides clues about human obesity
11-20-2006 · EurekAlert!
Parasite-infected dragonflies suffer the same metabolic disorders that have led to an epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes in humans, according to research to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. The discovery expands the known taxonomic breadth of metabolic disease and suggests that the study of microbes found in human intestines may provide a greater understanding of the root causes of human metabolic dysfunction.
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New cause identified for necrotic enteritis in chicken
02-07-2008 · EurekAlert!
Researchers from Monash University and CSIRO Livestock Industries have demonstrated for the first time that alpha-toxin protein, long thought to be required for necrotic enteritis to develop, is not the main cause of the chicken disease. The study, published Feb. 8 in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens, provides insight into one of the world's most common and financially crippling poultry diseases.
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'GreeneChip' -- New diagnostic tool that rapidly and accurately identifies multiple pathogens
12-06-2006 · EurekAlert!
Researchers in the Greene Infectious Disease Laboratory at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and their colleagues in the WHO Global Laboratory Network have developed a new tool for pathogen surveillance and discovery -- the GreeneChip System. The GreeneChip is the first tool to provide comprehensive, differential diagnosis of infectious diseases, including those caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi or parasites.
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The 'female advantage' in kidney disease does not extend to diabetic women
08-08-2007 · EurekAlert!
Studies suggest kidney disease in diabetic women may be result of imbalances in hormonal ratios, not an absolute level of estrogen
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'Diabetes gene' may be linked to polycystic ovary syndrome
12-06-2006 · EurekAlert!
A study of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) provides further evidence that calpain-10, the "diabetes gene," is related to PCOS susceptibility. PCOS affects up to five percent of the female population, and those diagnosed with the disease have a 2- to 7-fold risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus. The data suggest that one area of the gene, the SNP ins/del-19, may be related to both PCOS and type 2 diabetes.
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New study reveals gender disparity in anti-TNF treatment for rheumatoid arthritis
06-14-2007 · EurekAlert!
Findings reported today at EULAR 2007, the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology in Barcelona, Spain, reveal a treatment disparity between female and male patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Data from a study at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, show that women receive anti-TNFs -- very effective but expensive modern medications against this disease -- at a higher perceived level of disease activity, and when they are reporting more severe pain than their male counterparts.
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Enzyme structure reveals new drug targets for cancer and other diseases
02-14-2008 · EurekAlert!
Researchers now have a clearer understanding of how a key protein controls gene activity and how mutations in the protein may cause disease. The work could provide new avenues to design drugs aimed at cancer, diabetes, HIV, and heart disease.
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Implicit stereotypes and gender identification may affect female math performance
01-24-2007 · EurekAlert!
New research may provide insight as to why, despite progress over the last few decades, women remain underrepresented in math-heavy majors and professions.
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New nanoparticle could provide simple early diagnosis of many diseases
08-20-2007 · EurekAlert!
Georgia Tech and Emory University researchers have created a new nanoparticle that could someday act as a virtually all-purpose diagnostic tool to detect many inflammatory diseases in their earliest stages, including heart disease, Alzheimer's, heart disease and arthritis. The specially-designed nanoparticles seek out hydrogen peroxide (thought to be overproduced in trace amounts in the early stages of most diseases that involve some sort of chronic inflammation in the body), and emit light when they encounter it.
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