Researchers have developed a faster, more reliable test for identifying mad cow disease, possibly even in living animals, according to a report at the 226th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in New York City. The new test, called the conformation-dependent immunoassay can detect prions with 100% accuracy at much smaller levels than conventional tests and takes only about five hours to produce results, according to researchers at the University of California in San Francisco. When the new test was compared to standard immunoassays performed on the brains of 11,000 slaughtered cows in Spain, the United Kingdom, and Germany, there were no discrepancies between the tests, the investigators reported. Additionally, the conformation-dependent immunoassay was able to detect prions in the muscles of living mice, raising the hope that the test could be used to identify infected livestock prior to whole-herd slaughter, and perhaps even to screen patients for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, they said.

Patients with gliomas have a more favorable outcome following surgical resection rather than biopsy, according to a study by researchers at the University of Virginia Health System that was published in the September Journal of Neurosurgery. Patients in the study had Grade III or Grade IV glioblastomas. Patients who underwent craniotomy and resection fared better than patients who had biopsy only. For patients with a Grade III glioblastoma, median survival was 87 weeks postresection, compared to 52.1 weeks postbiopsy. For patients with resection for Grade IV tumors, median survival was 45.3 weeks, compared to 21 weeks for patients with biopsy. The researchers noted that early detection and treatment of gliomas is critical for survivability. Age, tumor grade, and overall physical health and activity level are important factors for survival with good quality of life, they added.

The FDA has approved zolmitriptan nasal spray for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura. The formulation may provide rapid onset of action and a convenient alternative for patients who experience nausea or vomiting in conjunction with their migraine attacks. The approval was based on the results of a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, double-dummy, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study conducted at 42 centers in 11 countries. A total of 1,547 patients were randomized to receive either zolmitriptan 5.0 mg nasal spray, zolmitriptan 2.5 mg tablets, or placebo. Results showed that 11% of migraines treated with either form of zolmitriptan demonstrated significant treatment response, compared to 5% of migraines treated with placebo. Additionally, a significantly greater headache response was achieved at two hours and 24 hours for the zolmitriptan nasal spray as compared to placebo.

The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development have funded three new cooperative research centers for the muscular dystrophies. The three institutes will fund the centers—the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Washington in Seattle, and the University of Rochester in New York—at up to $1 million in direct costs per center for five years. The NIH expect to fund up to two additional centers in the future.

Northwestern University has received a $5.5 million award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to establish a Morris K. Udall Center of Excellence for Parkinson’s Disease Research. The center, which will focus on the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the motor and cognitive symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, will be headed by D. James Surmeier, PhD. The central goal of the Northwestern University Udall Center is to determine how neural activity in basal ganglia circuits is altered in Parkinson’s disease, with the ultimate goal of developing new therapies to normalize this activity and alleviate the symptoms of the disease.

Avis Rent a Car System, Inc, has announced the nation’s first comprehensive accessibility program for travelers with disabilities. The program, dubbed AVIS ACCESS, provides a 24-hour, toll-free number for customers with special travel needs, along with TTY/TDD access for customers with impaired hearing. Other service offerings for drivers and passengers with disabilities include transfer boards to ease wheelchair-bound customers into the car seat, a swivel seat, a spinner knob to allow a full turning radius of the steering wheel while using only one hand, panoramic mirrors, hand controls allowing persons with limited leg function to accelerate or brake, accessible bus service, and a waiver of the additional driver fee for the designated driver of customers with visual impairments. The initiative was introduced at the annual World Congress on Disabilities in Orlando.

An old drug may have found a new role—treating glioblastoma. According to researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine, arsenic trioxide increases the effectiveness of radiation therapy in mice with glioblastoma. The researchers presented their findings at the annual meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology. Arsenic trioxide, which is FDA approved for treating a rare form of leukemia, works in part by releasing reactive oxygen species (ROS) that destroy cancer cells. The researchers theorized that the drug would release even higher levels of ROS when coupled with radiation. They then tested the theory in a lab dish and in mice. In both cases, exposing glioblastoma cells to radiation within two hours of receiving arsenic trioxide amplified the effects of radiation treatment alone. “Based on these results we think the data are compelling enough to move forward with human trials,” lead investigator Susan Knox, MD, PhD, reported.

Fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) plays a critical role in the brain’s ability to make new cells following traumatic brain injury, according to research published in the October 15 Journal of Clinical Investigation. Researchers from Harvard Medical School demonstrated that administration of FGF-2 boosts production of new brain cells and protects existing neurons from degeneration following injury. The findings suggest that FGF-2 supplementation may improve the outcome of persons who suffer traumatic brain injury. The researchers examined the role of FGF-2 in the regulation of neurogenesis and neuron loss in the hippocampal dentate gyrus in an animal model of traumatic brain injury. Mice lacking FGF-2 showed a decreased ability to protect existing neurons and generate new neurons following brain injury, when compared to controls, indicating that FGF-2 plays a critical role in stabilizing cell loss following injury. FGF-2 administration by gene delivery limited the loss of existing neurons while simultaneously increasing the proliferation of new neurons.

High pollution levels may make people more susceptible to stroke, according to a report in the October 10 rapid access issue of Stroke. Researchers collected data on 23,179 hospital stroke admissions from 1997 to 2000 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, a large, heavily industrialized city. They compared air pollution levels on the dates of admissions with air pollution levels one week before and one week after admissions. They found an association between exposure to increasing levels of two common pollutants—particulate matter (PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2)—and hospital admissions for stroke, particularly on warm days (68°F or warmer). For each interquartile change —66.33 µg per cubic meter change for PM10 and 7.08 parts per billion change for NO2—the risk of hospital admission for primary intracerebral hemorrhage increased by 54%. The risk of hospital admission for ischemic stroke increased by 46% for PM10 per interquartile change and 55% for NO2 per interquartile change.

A new study by researchers at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center confirms the lasting benefits of hemispherectomy. Results of the study, published in the October 14 Neurology, show that 86% of the 111 children who underwent hemispherectomy at the Children’s Center between 1975 and 2001 are either seizure free or have nondisabling seizures that do not require medication. These results are slightly improved over a 1997 study of 58 Johns Hopkins hemispherectomy patients, which found the 78% of the children were either seizure free or had mild seizures. The findings should help parents who are still contemplating whether their child would benefit from the surgery, said lead author Eric Kossoff, MD.

A caregiver’s assessment of an Alzheimer’s patient’s quality of life is the key factor in determining if and why some caregivers decline to use a treatment that slows progression of the patient’s disease, according to a study in the October Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Investigators reported that caregivers are most likely to decline medications slowing Alzheimer’s disease if the caregiver assesses the patient’s overall quality of life as fair or poor. When there is risk to the medication, the number of caregivers who decline treatment rises substantially. The two-year study evaluated 102 caregivers of patients with mild to severe Alzheimer’s disease. Seventeen percent of the caregivers did not want their relatives to take a risk-free drug that could slow the disease and half of the caregivers did not want their relatives to take a medication with a risk of side effects (a small risk of gastrointestinal bleeding).

Researchers have uncovered the genetic defect responsible for motor neuron degeneration 2 (mnd2) in mice. Their results may provide insights into the molecular origins of other such diseases in humans, including Parkinson’s disease. In a report in the October 16 Nature, investigators demonstrated that a mutation in a single amino acid in the protein Omi/HtrA2 is enough to cause the disabling neuromuscular disease. In mnd2 mice, the amino acid serine is changed to cysteine. To identify the guilty gene, the researchers used positional cloning, eventually narrowing the mutation to a small region containing six candidate genes on chromosome 6. To find the specific genetic defect, they determined the nucleotide sequence of these candidate genes and discovered that the mnd2 defect was caused by a point mutation in the Omi gene.

NR

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