Posts Tagged ‘NIH’

Scientists are reporting in the current New England Journal of Medicine the surprising finding of genes associated with stuttering. The study, lead by researchers at the National Institutes of Health, identified three gene mutations as sources of stuttering. “This is the first study to pinpoint specific gene mutations as the potential cause of stuttering, a disorder that affects 3 million Americans, and by doing so, might lead to a dramatic expansion in our options for treatment,” said Dr. James Battey, director of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Stuttering tends to run in families, but this is the first study to demonstrate a genetic component, which was found in study volunteers from the US, Pakistan, and England. [via StutteringHelp.org]

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The National Institute on Drug Abuse is announcing a scientific first – a vaccine for treating addiction. A study published in the current issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry shows that vaccination with an experimental anti-cocaine vaccine resulted in a 38% reduction in cocaine use among study patients with a history of drug abuse. Similar to vaccines against infectious diseases, the anti-cocaine vaccine stimulates the immune system to produce antibodies. However, unlike antibodies against infectious diseases which destroy or deactivate disease-causing agents, anti-cocaine antibodies bind to cocaine molecules in the blood, rendering them incapable of passing through the blood-brain barrier, thus inhibiting or blocking cocaine’s effects on the body. [via NIH News]

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Scientists have discovered a potential retroviral link to chronic fatigue syndrome, known as CFS, a debilitating disease that affects millions of people in the United States. Researchers from the Whittemore Peterson Institute (WPI), located at the University of Nevada, Reno, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and the Cleveland Clinic, report this finding online Oct. 8, 2009, issue of Science. “We now have evidence that a retrovirus named XMRV is frequently present in the blood of patients with CFS. This discovery could be a major step in the discovery of vital treatment options for millions of patients,” said Judy Mikovits, Ph.D., director of research for WPI and leader of the team that discovered this association. Researchers cautioned however, that this finding shows there is an association between XMRV and CFS but does not prove that XMRV causes CFS. [Continue reading at National Institutes of Health]

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