NewsScan #62 is a compilation of research studies that address such issues as hepatitis C and HIV infections in drug users, HIV prevalence at the U.S.-Mexico border, the effect of varenicline on learning deficits caused by nicotine withdrawal in mice as well as the effect of denicotinized cigarettes on smokers' brains, how family-based intervention helps male children of drug users, computerized cognitive-behavioral therapy and its effect on drug use, and how vigabatrin prevents relapse to methamphetamine use in an animal addiction model.
Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Share Genetic Roots
A trio of genome-wide studies -- collectively the largest to date -- have pinpointed a vast array of genetic variation that cumulatively may account for at least one third of the genetic risk for schizophrenia. One of the studies traced schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, in part, to the same chromosomal neighborhoods.
Imaging Technique Allows Researchers to Monitor Protein Changes in Mouse Tumors
A new imaging technique can monitor, in living mice, the HER2 protein found in above-normal amounts in many cases of breast cancer as well as some ovarian, prostate and lung cancers. This new approach, once validated in mice and pending further experiments, could provide a real-time noninvasive method for identifying tumors in humans who express HER2 and who would be candidates for targeted therapy directed against this protein. It may also provide real-time information that will help clinicians optimize treatment for individual patients. The study, published in the July 2009 issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, was conducted by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, both parts of the National Institutes of Health.