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'Outstanding' Primary-Care Researcher Receives Prestigious Award
The "outstanding" work of Julia Hippisley-Cox, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and General Practice at The University of Nottingham, has been recognised by the Royal College of General Practitioners.
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Study Rewrites Textbook On Key Genetic Phenomenon
Because females carry two copies of the X chromosome to males" one X and one Y, they harbor a potentially toxic double dose of the over 1000 genes that reside on the X chromosome.
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Caffeic Acid Inhibits Colitis In A Mouse Model
Researchers at Iowa State University have found that increased expression of a form of cytochrome P-450 (CYP4B1) is a key marker of inhibition of colitis in mice by caffeic acid, an anti-inflammatory antioxidant compound widely distributed in foods. The results, which appear in the June 2009 issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine, implicate CYP4B1, a form of cytochrome P450 previously found to be associated with resolution of allergic inflammation in another model. The normalization of CYP4B1 by caffeic acid treatment was associated with significant lessening of colitic damage, assessed by examining colon histopathology. In comparison with rutin, an anti-inflammatory flavonoid and hypoxoside extract, a botanical known as African potato previously shown to protect against colitis, all three compounds had anti-inflammatory effects, suppressing myeloperoxidase, IL-17 and iNOS and increasing IL-4, known factors associated with inflammation responses. But only caffeic acid protected against the dextran sulfate sodium induced colitis. Its novel mechanism related to CYP4B1 is being studied further. The research team, Zhong Ye, a graduate student in Toxicology, along with Microbiology graduate students Zhiping Liu and Abigail Henderson, Visiting Scientist Kwangwon Lee, Korea University, Dr. Michael Wannemuehler, Veterinary Microbiology, Dr. Jesse Hostetter, a veterinary pathologist, and Dr. Suzanne Hendrich, Toxicologist and Nutritionist, performed studies in 8 week old mice fed the various dietary components and then exposed to dextran sulfate sodium in a mildly irritating dose to induce colitis. Dr. Hendrich noted that "this study of caffeic acid will help us to advance studies of botanicals and plant foods with respect to their ability and mechanisms of inhibiting colitis, and perhaps colon cancer, because colitis increases risk for this disease".
Cardiovascular

Nigeria, UNICEF Launch First National Child Health Week

UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman, who visited Nigeria to launch the country"s first ever National Child Health Week, said an unacceptably high number of children in the country are dying from preventable diseases, and she called on Nigerian government officials to provide integrated healthcare, Xinhua reports (8/3). According to a UNICEF statement, the goal of child health week, which will be held twice a year in Nigeria, is to deliver a package of "high-impact, low-cost child survival interventions," including immunizations, deworming medicines and insecticide-treated nets. In addition, women will be "counseled on key household practices like breast-feeding and basic hygiene." Veneman said that although Nigeria is the "most populous country in Africa ... more children die in Nigeria than any other country in Africa, largely from preventable diseases" (7/31). "During the week, 30 million children will receive immunisation for various diseases, including polio. Nigeria is one of the four remaining polio countries in the world and accounted for 85 percent of all cases in Africa," Veneman said, the Guardian writes (Ukwuoma/Akhaine, 8/3). Veneman said UNICEF will spend an additional $5 million for polio education, Xinhua writes (8/3). Though she said that "Nigeria made progress this year" with polio immunizations, Veneman added that "there is a need to build on this if polio is to be eliminated in the country," the Daily Trust/allAfrica.com reports. Veneman also talked about malnutrition, the need for clean water and good sanitation, and she urged people to use of insecticide-treated nets to prevent malaria. Babatunde Osotimehin, Nigeria"s minister of health, said the federal government is working on a health bill to finance primary healthcare. Over the next three years, he said the country expects to receive about $600 million from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the World Bank to fund programs (Muhammad, 8/3). In related news, the Washington Post examines Nigeria"s "unreliable agriculture output." Though the country was a "major agricultural exporter before oil was discovered off its coast in the 1970s," today almost "90 percent of Nigeria"s agricultural output comes from inefficient small farms, according to the World Bank, and most farmers have little or no access to fertilizers, irrigation or other modern inputs," the Washington Post writes. The country is now "one of the world"s biggest importers of food staples, particularly rice and wheat, both of which the country could potentially grow in large enough quantities to be self-sufficient," according to the article. Despite the imports, "about 38 percent of Nigerians younger than 5 suffer from moderate or severe malnutrition, according to UNICEF, while 65 percent of the population -- roughly 91 million people -- are what humanitarian organizations call "food insecure"" (Hecht, 8/2). This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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