According to studies conducted by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, a drug that is used to treat metastatic cancer, aflibercept, could be useful in treating diabetes. Studies in rats have shown a link between hypoxia (lack of oxygen) and the ability of liver cells to respond to insulin and it seems that this molecular pathway can be modulated by aflibercept.

Aflibercept is a VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor, inhibitor, which means is a drug that blocks the proliferation of blood vessels and deprives them of oxygen. So far studies have shown that aflibercept is effective in treating wet macular degeneration and metastatic colorectal cancer; undergoing clinical trials will tell if it can be used to treat metastatic prostate cancer and pulmonary cancer. Dr. Calvin Kuo , MD , PhD, professor of medicine, and his team found that there is a series of protein interactions linking glucose with VEGF inhibitors. He said he was surprised to see that a drug currently used to treat cancer is effective in the management of diabetes in mice and possibly in humans.

The link between VEGF inhibitors and blood glucose level was found several years ago by Dr. Kuo and his team of researchers when they discovered that aflibercept lowered blood sugar levels. Although there are indications that these drugs could have the same effect in humans , no studies have been conducted so far to prove this.

After each meal, glucose passes from blood into cells with the aid of insulin and is stored in the liver as glycogen. When we are hungry again, glycogen is degraded into glucose to meet the needs of the body. There are situations when blood glucose levels rise too high ( hyperglycemia ), and hyperglycemia can occur either when the pancreas does not produce enough insuline (diabetes type 1 ) or when, although there is enough insulin, the body becomes resistant to it ( diabetes type 2 ). For the liver to convert glucose into glycogen, cells must have enough oxygen. Hypoxic cells (ie those that are deprived of oxygen ) produce certain proteins that help them survive in such conditions.

Now researchers have found that one of these proteins, HIF- 2alpha, stimulates the expression of IRS2, insulin receptor substrate 2, which increases the ability of cells to respond to insulin. “Much work remains to translate these mouse studies to human patients, but it will be interesting to explore VEGF inhibitors or drugs that can stabilize HIF-2alpha, such as prolyl hydroxylase inhibitors, for diabetes treatment“, explained Kuo.

According to a systematic review, exercise may help people suffering from depression. Though further studies are needed to confirm this, the researchers believe that depression can be treated by exercise.

Depression is a mental disorder characterized by low self-esteem, low mood and lack of interest from daily activities. It seems that in depression there are involved several neurotransmitters in the brain: serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine. Depression may be associated with a number of other problems such as anxiety, insomnia, pain, appetite disorders, digestive disorders and even heart disease. It is estimated that worldwide there are approximately 300 million people suffering from depression; even though it is not known why, it seems that depression is the second most common in women than in men ( probably due to a hormonal disorder ).

Drug therapy consists of antidepressant drugs and psychological therapies; however drugs have many side effects, which has led researchers to look for other methods to treat depression. There are several reasons to think that exercise can relieve depression because exercise is a way to distract from negative thoughts and in addition it seems that regulates the level of certain hormones in the body.

To see the role of exercise in treating depression, researchers analyzed 39 trials involving over 2,000 people diagnosed with depression. In 35 of these clinical trials, they focused on the comparison between this treatment and control treatment or no treatment, and they found that exercise has many benefits for people suffering from depression. It was demonstrated (even though in few studies ) that exercise is as effective as antidepressant drugs or psychotherapy.

One of the authors of the review, Gillian Mead of the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh, UK, stressed that the review that was carried out suggested that exercise may have a moderate effect on depression. She added that the studies cited cannot tell what exercise regimen is better for patients with depression or whether the benefits will be on the long term. “We can’t tell from currently available evidence which kinds of exercise regimes are most effective or whether the benefits continue after a patient stops their exercise programme,” Gillian said.

However , conducting high quality clinical trials to investigate the role of exercise in treating depression is not easy. It is difficult to conceive what patients were assigned to treatment groups, control groups or no treatment groups. Therefore, researchers have focused on other high quality studies and it was showed that the effect of exercise in treating depression was weaker.

The American Diabetes Association estimates that in the United States are about 26 million people suffering from diabetes and 79 million people that have prediabetes. There is increasingly more evidence that highlight that the brain of patients with diabetes is at risk as much as any other organ in the body.

Gail Musen, an  HMS assistant professor of psychiatry and assistant investigator in the Section on Clinical, Behavioral and Outcomes Research at Joslin Diabetes Center, said that unlike other certain diseases, the researchers did not know where to look in the brain to see the effects of diabetes. She added that they know how much diabetes can affect other organs, this is why they want to see what is the effect on the brain.

The first study led by Musen 10 years ago brought to the attention of the scientific community a better understanding of the mechanisms by which diabetes, especially type 1 diabetes, affects the brain. In 2006, Musen conducted a study published in the journal Diabetes, which highlighted that the gray matter density changes due to diabetes type 1. Results showed that both high levels of blood glucose (hyperglycemia) and low blood glucose levels (hypoglycemia) affect the brain. Although gray matter reductions are small and not necessarily led to cognitive dysfunction, though the brain regions involved are those related to memory, attention and language.

Now recent studies conducted by Musen and her colleagues showed that patients with long-standing type 1 diabetes have certain brain changes: it seems that the integrity of white matter and cortical thickness are affected. Musen said she is not sure whether these changes will have a greater impact with age. Even though, in terms of cognitive function, patients with diabetes have normal performance, their brain activity may differ from that of people without diabetes. According to Musen, such changes may precede cognitive dysfunction such as memory loss or mild cognitive impairment, a condition that may lead to Alzheimer disease.

Neurophysiologist Vera Novak, an HMS associate professor of medicine and a neurophysiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, led another study that revealed a mechanism by which type 2 diabetes leads to depression, memory loss and other cognitive disorders. It seems that the brain tissue is damaged by a chronic inflammatory process involving two molecules : sVCAM and sICAM: “It appears that chronic hyperglycemia and insulin resistance”the hallmarks of diabetes” trigger the release of these adhesion molecules and set off a cascade of events leading to the development of chronic inflammation,” pointed out Novak.

According to a study presented at the European Respiratory Society ( ERS ) Annual Congress in Barcelona, patients suffering from severe asthma are less responsive to treatment than those with moderate asthma. Investigators hope to better understand the pathology of this respiratory disorder and discover new therapies.

Asthma is one of the most common respiratory diseases; it affects more than 300 million people worldwide. Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease with symptoms such as dyspnea, cough and wheezing;  asthma attacks can be triggered by various factors such as cold, effort , pollen, dust , emotions etc. Although there is no cure, there is treatment to relieve symptoms, which consists of bronchodilators, oral corticosteroids, oral leukotriene antagonists and mast cell stabilizers; it must be said that these drugs are classified into fast -acting and long -acting categories, depending on the time of action. A common asthma attacks can be stopped using a drug called salbutamol, which is a short -acting beta2- adrenoceptor agonists ( SABA ). People with moderate or severe asthma require long-term treatment that consists of long -acting beta- adrenoceptor agonists ( LABA ) such as salmeterol, oral or inhaled corticosteroids ( beclomethasone ), leukotriene antagonists, mast cell stabilizers ( such as cromolyn ), etc.

It is not known why some people are affected by mild asthma while others suffer by moderate asthma or severe asthma. Therefore, researchers at the European Lung Foundation conducted a project (EU- Funded U- BIOPRED ) to investigate why severe asthma differs from one person to another. They also want to classify this disease into several subgroups and develop a personalized treatment for patients with asthma.

The results of the study conducted showed that there are some common characteristics among children and adults with severe asthma. Thus the investigators found that 55 % of adults with severe asthma take oral corticosteroids but still have greater airway obstruction than those with moderate asthma / easy. Also, it was found that patients with severe asthma have exacerbations and severe symptoms despite high doses of corticosteroids. David Gibeon , lead author of this study from Imperial College, London , said that they want to understand why people with severe asthma are less responsive to the effects of corticosteroids.

According to Gibeon, asthmatics may become less responsive to treatment with steroids through different molecular pathways. If scientists understand the molecular pathways they will be able to develop in the future more effective, personalized therapies for patients with asthma. “In order for us to help improve the lives of these people, we need to make a full biological and clinical “fingerprint” of each patient, by embarking on a huge analysis of data including a wide-range of samples from CT scans, to sputum samples, analysis of a person’s genetics and results from bronchoscopies”, explained Peter Sterk, project lead for U-BIOPRED.

According to a recent article published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, sustained physical activity not only helps us to lead a healthy life but also prolongs life. This is the conclusion reached after Australian researchers have conducted a long-term study that included 12,000 elderly Western Australian men.

The study, which was conducted over a 13-year period showed that 150 minutes of sustained physical activity a week can extend life by 3 years. It was also shown that those who remained physically active during the study aged more successfully than the participants who were inactive. It should be noted that researchers have defined successful aging ageing without loss of memory, functional disabilities or depression: physical activity was defined as 150 minutes of exercise that made participants gasp. “In other words they were able to move about and do their business without significant assistance – looking after their finances, looking after themselves, looking after their house etc, and they did not have any evidence of mental illness.”

Lead author Professor Osvaldo Almeida said that the study showed that not only active people were more likely to live longer than inactive people, but those who were active, when they grew in old, they were in good shape, without having functional or cognitive problems. This means that active people who have reached old age could take care of themselves without requiring assistance.

Another conclusion of the researchers from University of  Western Australia was that it is never too late to start physical activity. Professor Almeida, Winthrop Chair of Geriatric Psychiatry at UWA ‘s School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, noted that the study proved that it’s never too late to start doing sustained physical activity. It seems that people who were inactive at baseline but start doing sport during the study were able to enjoy the same benefits during the period of follow up. It is true that the benefits were not as great as the ones of those who were active from the beginning.

In addition, those who were active but dropped out during the 13 years of follow up have lost health benefits of physical activity. Professor Almeida pointed out that it is better to take up physical activity than being active and quitting. He added that it is never too late to do sport and that regular physical activity not only helps you  live longer but also increases the chance of successful aging.

Researchers have developed a new non-invasive method of detecting early-stage colon cancer. According to statistics, in the United States colon cancer is the third leading cause of cancer -related death. It should be noted that these numbers have declined significantly in recent decades due to screening methods and due to advances made regarding the treatment of this cancer.

Bettina Scholtka , Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Nutritional Toxicology at the University of Potsdam in Nuthetal, Germany, explained that in stools there can be found tumor cells detached from the surface of tumor or precancerous lesions, but this is very difficult when there is a large amount of normal DNA from other cells. She said that they were able to create a test with high sensitivity by combining two techniques locked nucleic acid -based, wild -type blocking polymerase chain reaction and high -resolution melting. Scholtka specified that the high sensitivity of this test allows to detect even small amounts of different types of mutations that initiate cancer.

Genetic variations in APC and KRAS genes are present in approximately 60% and 40 % of patients with colorectal cancer. These genetic variations are also present in precancerous lesions, which means that methods that detect these variations can detect cancer in early stages. The new technique developed by researchers at the University of Potsdam in Nuthetal , is 5000-fold more sensitive than other non-invasive techniques: it can detect a single cancer – specific gene variation among 10,000 times the amount of normal DNA.

Scholtka said that a multicenter study must be done in order to validate the sensitivity and specificity of this technique to compare it with other screening methods such as colonoscopy. Therefore, the researchers analyzed 80 human colon tissue samples ( colon cancer and precancer ) using two techniques : locked nucleic acid ( LNA ) -based , wild -type blocking ( WTB ) polymerase chain reaction and high -resolution melting ( HRM ). The first technique destroys normal DNA while the second technique detects the possible genetic variations found in stools.

The researchers were able to find variations in the APC gene in 41 of the 80 samples. It should be noted that these methods were able to detect APC gene variations that have not been previously discovered with other methods. Direct sequencing  had a much lower sensitivity as genetic variations were detected in only 28 samples. Then when researchers investigated 22 stool samples from patients who had APC variations and 9 control cases, the APC variations were detected in 21 of 22 samples.

According to an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers have made significant progress in schizophrenia research. Schizophrenia is a debilitating mental disorder associated with paranoia and disorganized thinking and speech, as well as social and occupational dysfunction. Although there is a treatment that relieves symptoms, drugs used to treat schizophrenia have many side effects. Statistics show that because of this, schizophrenia is among the top ten causes of disability in developed countries. In addition , the chances of full recovery are only 30%, as shown by studies.

Thomas Albright and Ricardo Gil -da -Costa, of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, developed a model system that integrates cellular and human studies of schizophrenia. They hope that with the new model, which involves monitoring the brain activity, to accelerate research on schizophrenia and other neurological diseases. Albright said that one of the issues of schizophrenia is that it cannot integrate sensory information, so they created a model to test the ability to make sensory integration. Schizophrenia is a mental condition usually associated with hallucinations, paranoia, disorganized speech etc. It is not clear why the disease occurs, but it is believed that one possible cause is due to an excess of dopamine, a neurotransmitter. Although drugs that block dopamine are effective in treating this disease , they have many severe side effects, which raised the question of whether other mechanisms are involved.

Significant progress in understanding schizophrenia was made in 1956 , with the development of phencyclidine . This drug was given to patients during surgery, but when they woke up they had symptoms similar to those patients with schizophrenia have, that is disorientation and hallucinations. These side effects made phencyclidine be abandoned, and 10 years later the drug was replaced with ketamine, a derivative. At high doses, ketamine is an effective anesthetic, but in low doses, ketamine has the same effects phencyclidine has ( hallucinations , disorientation , etc).

The two drugs are N -methyl -D- aspartate receptor antagonists, and interfere with the mechanism by which glutamate (excitatory neurotransmitter ) enters the cells of the brain. Albright pointed out that any dysfunction in glutamate may be associated with symptoms that we see in schizophrenia or schizophrenia-related diseases.  He added that it is not known which of these neurotransmitters , glutamate and dopamine, was primary to these disorders. According to statistics, schizophrenia affects about 1 % of the world population, and in the United States there are about 3 million people diagnosed with schizophrenia. The costs are enormous : it seems that in 2002 in America there were spent about 63 million dollars for the treatment and care of people with schizophrenia.

Thanks to researchers at the University of Twente, patients suffering from diabetic neuropathy can now benefit from a new treatment : spinal cord stimulation. Diabetic neuropathy, a frequent complication of diabetes mellitus, seriously affects the quality of life of patients and does not respond to common analgesics. Cecile de Vos, PhD student at the University of Twente and the medical physicist working at Medisch Spectrum Twente Hospital, noted that this new method is promising for patients with diabetes.

Statistics show that in the Netherlands about one million people suffer from diabetes and 15% of them have diabetic neuropathy, that is chronic pain. Diabetic neuropathy, the most common complication of diabetes, is described by patients as a stinging or burning pain. There are several mechanisms that cause diabetic neuropathy: chronic hyperglycemia, poor circulation of blood in peripheral tissues, growth factors deficit, etc.

Diabetic neuropaty usually occurs in the legs and is manifested throughout the day but especially in the evening and at night. There are several classes of drugs for pain : analgesics, NSAIDs, anticonvulsants, but usually this pain is resistant to treatment. De Vos said that spinal cord stimulation may relieve pain in patients with diabetic neuropathy. Studies have shown that the new therapy decreases pain intensity from an average of 8 to 2 and that pain is now manageable. De Vos added that spinal cord stimulation significantly improves the quality of life of patients with diabetic neuropathy; they can now return to their normal daily activities.

Spinal cord stimulation reduces pain by stimulating with electrical impulses the spinal nerves. The system is similar to a pacemaker as it  involves implanting a stimulation electrode in the epidural space. Stimulation of spinal nerves causes the pain signals (that are transmitted from the leg)  be felt less or not at all. De Vos noted that spinal cord stimulation is a therapy used in the Netherlands for many years to relieve pain in patients who underwent back surgery, but it was never used to treat pain from diabetes.

Patients enrolled in the study were divided into two groups: a group of patients who received spinal cord stimulation and a control group that received medical treatment. Patients with spinal cord stimulation had less pain after one month: pain intensity decreased from an average of 8 to 2, compared with those who received medical treatment and who had no decrease in pain intensity. Moreover, it seems that the effect of spinal cord stimulation is a long term effect as pain relief was maintained for 6 months.

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