Key Protein Limits Damage of Heart Attack
(Published 3-28-08, Washingtonpost.com) A signaling protein called Gi plays a critical role in protecting the heart during
a heart attack, say researchers at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
It was already known that Gi increased activity in a failing heart, but it wasn't clear whether the protein was helping the
heart adapt to damage or if it actually caused more heart cells to die.
In this study, published in the March 18 issue of Circulation, the researchers created mice that lacked a working Gi gene,
simulated a heart attack, and then restored blood flow to the heart. These mice suffered more heart damage than mice with
a normally functioning Gi gene.
"It appears that in this setting, Gi is an important protective mechanism," said Walter Koch, Ph.D., professor of medicine
and director of the Center for Translational Medicine at Jefferson.
"The heart wants to activate Gi and attempt to protect cardiac myocytes from dying. We found that in this acute setting, heart
attacks are bigger when Gi is blocked."
Department of Medicine
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Radiation Beams Hit Hard-to-Reach Brain, Spine Tumors
(Published 3-27-08, Courier-Post) Advanced radiation technology is helping doctors cure tumors they couldn't treat before,
usually because the tumors were in hard-to-reach locations such as the brain and spine.
This technology, called shaped beam surgery, molds radiation beams to fit the exact size and shape of a tumor. Doctors can
program the device to target a very specific location in the body. Shaped beam surgery was updated and ready for use in 2004,
but is still only available at a handful of medical centers and hospitals nationwide including Thomas Jefferson University
Hospital in Philadelphia.
"We can sterilize tumors without affecting the normal tissues next to it," says David Andrews, neurosurgeon and director of
the division of Neuro-oncologic Neurosurgery and Stereotactic Radiosurgery at Jefferson. "It increases the therapeutical index.
Usually, to keep the normal tissue happy, the tumor isn't getting enough radiation, but with shaped beam surgery we can use
a much higher dose of radiation because it is targeting a very precise location."
Department of Neurological Surgery
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Courier-Post
Had an Aneurysm? Stop Smoking
(Published: 3-24-08, Philadelphia Inquirer) A history of smoking raises the chance that an aneurysm can recur.
Smoking is a known risk factor for the development and rupture of a cerebral brain aneurysm - a weak, ballooning spot in a
blood vessel in the brain. Now, researchers from Thomas Jefferson Hospital, Drexel University and elsewhere have found that
a history of smoking increases the chance an aneurysm will reoccur after the treatment they examined.
The study looked at records of 110 patients who underwent coil embolization, in which a tiny coil implanted at the weak spot
becomes covered by a blood clot, thus blocking off the aneurysm. After an average of 24 months, tests showed that the aneurysm
was again bulging in 14 men and 32 women. Of these 46 patients, 35 - 76 percent - had a history of smoking. The study, which
appears in the April issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery, was too small to detect whether patients who quit smoking after
coil embolization reduced their risk of aneurysm recurrence.
Department of Neurological Surgery
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How much savings in daylight saving?
(Published 3-8-08, Philadelphia Inquirer) It’s the second year of a national experiment to save energy with an earlier start
for daylight saving time. The theory: If we're awake for more of the daylight, we’ll have the lights on for less time. So
if we start it sooner - four weeks earlier this year - we might save even more.
One thing researchers do know, on the other hand, is how the time shift affects one of our most primal regulatory systems:
the body clock. There’s an impact whether we “spring forward” on the first Sunday in April or, as we do this year, on the
second Sunday in March, said George Brainard, a professor of neurology at Jefferson Medical College.
The annual switch has the potential to affect our bodies in two ways, said Brainard, a leading expert on the impacts of light
on the body's daily rhythms. First, many people, rather than curtailing their waking activities, will simply lose an hour
of sleep tonight, he said.
Second, some people may experience mild forms of the sort of malaise that comes with jet lag, Brainard said. That’s because
our physiological clocks take their cues from sunlight, via special cells in the eye. These cells relay messages to the brain
about when to adjust hormone levels and rev up the body for the day's activity. “Light is such a powerful stimulus, even though
it's often below our level of consciousness,” Brainard said.
Department of Neurology
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Philadelphia Inquirer
Better Test for Colon Cancer Spread
(2-29-08, 6ABC) The nation’s colon cancer experts met today at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson to exchange information
on the latest advances in therapy and imaging. One major step forward discussed today is a new test being developed to determine
how far colon cancer has spread.
Dr. Scott Waldman, a clinical pharmacologist and one of the developers, says the test looks for a protein called GCC that
is a marker for colon cancer. If GCC shows up in lymph nodes at the cancer site, doctors know whether chemotherapy is needed
or not.
“If you have disease that’s confined to the intestine, typically you don’t need treatment with chemotherapy.”
Dr. Waldman says this new test is much more sensitive than what’s used now. He notes, “While a pathologist's eye can detect
1 cancer cell in 200 normal cells, this test can detect as little as 1 cancer cell in 1 to 10 million normal cells.”
Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
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Migraine Relief
(Published: 2-19-08, CBS 3) Migraine sufferers know how debilitating the pain can be. For some, the pain is almost never ending.
But now there is hope as new devices are hitting a nerve and putting a stop to the agony.
"We now have a new treatment for somebody whom nothing has ever helped in the past," said Dr. Stephen Silberstein, Director
of Thomas Jefferson University's Headache Center. He is overseeing a study looking at using nerve stimulators to end migraines.
Jefferson Headache Center
Department of Neurology
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CBS 3
Weighty Evidence
(Published: 02-16-2008, Science News) Obesity’s link to cancer should come as no surprise. Signs of that relationship began
to emerge two decades ago. In the late 1980s, laboratory researchers found connections between cancer and insulin—one of the
major hormones that responds to obesity. While the findings got little attention then, today at least a half-dozen companies
are developing cancer drugs that interfere with the hormone's cousin—insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1).
If clinical trials find that dampening IGF-1 shrinks tumors in cancer patients, scientists will have not only a new kind of
cancer drug but also a new source of insight into the interplay between body weight, metabolism, and cancer.
In the late 1980s, laboratory researchers demonstrated that IGF-1 might have a role in cancer. Tumor cells were found to contain
the IGF-1 receptor. In 1989, experiments with mice showed that blocking the receptor with an antibody could stop tumor growth.
“A cancer cell has to have the IGF-1 receptor,” says Renato Baserga of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University
in Philadelphia, one of the field’s pioneers. “If not, it cannot grow.”
Department of Cancer Biology
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Science News
Environmentally Friendly Headache
(Published: 2-7-08, CBS 3) We depend on lighting, it's everywhere. Now new age, energy efficient light is all the rage.
It helps the environment and can save you money. Being green is in.But light is a known migraine trigger, and the new energy
efficient light bulbs emit a different kind of light. "I'm beginning to hear more people complain. Everybody has a different
sensitivity," said Dr. Stephen Silberstein, a headache specialist at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
Jefferson Headache Center
Department of Neurology
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CBS3
Grow Your Own Replacement Parts
(Published: 2-6-08, CBS News) About 98,000 people are on a waiting list for transplants right now. Many of them will die
before they get one. Now, a new generation of researchers is changing that, one cell at a time. CBS News, in the first in
a two-part series on the innovative field of regenerative medicine, reports on a clinical trial at Thomas Jefferson University
Hospital in Philadelphia, a patient got a bladder transplant -with a new bladder grown from her own cells.
Department of Urology
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Sinus Buster
(Published: 2-1-08, CBS 3) Dr. William Young of Jefferson University Hospital's Headache Center, discusses how a sinus
spray containing peppermint and capsacin, may help stop migraines.
Jefferson Headache Center
Department of Neurology
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