My Magic Screen Came Up With These 2 Likely Biotech Winners

I wanted to find what might be sure biotech winners today, so I tried this quick screen. I selected:

Industry and SectorZero Debt (mrq)Price greater than $5Volume greater than 1,000,000 shares per daySignificantly positive Institutional buying in the prior quarter to this one.Low if any Insider selling in the last six months.

My logic was that a biotech company with "great science and great ideas" would have no trouble getting money. Therefore it should have little or no debt. This screen condition rules out virtually all of the more mature biotech stocks; but that is what I intended to do. A price greater than $5 ensures that the stock as a financial entity is at least mildly successful. Volume greater than 1,000,000 shares per day selects stocks that have a lot of investor interest. Significantly positive Institutional buying in the prior quarter to this one shows that institutions have discovered the stock. This effectively tells me that at least some institutions' analysts think highly of the stock. Naturally I verified this by looking at the average analyst recommendation for the stock on Yahoo Finance. Not surprisingly both stocks had average recommendations under 2.0 (1.2 and 1.6 for CLDX and KERX respectively). The low, if any, insider selling just confirms that insiders are also enthralled with the stock's prospects.

Some might ask why I didn't just select highly rated, growth stage biotech companies? The reason is, I wanted to "follow the money". Often Wall Street analysts will hype growth stage biotech stocks. Therefore they will have great recommendation numbers. However, if they have "no debt", they are having no trouble getting the "money people" to fund them. Their science is so exciting that people rush to fund them. This counts a lot more than just hype. Good institutional buying tends to confirm this.

The two stocks I identified this way are:

Celldex Therapeutics Inc. (CLDX) -- average analysts' recommendation of 1.2 (a strong buy).Keryx Biopharmaceuticals Inc. (KERX) -- average analysts' recommendation of 1.6 (a strongish buy).

Neither of the above stocks has a PE. Neither is profitable yet; but this is what I would expect from a growth stage biotech stock. However, both have exciting looking charts (see below).

The two year chart of CLDX is below:

(click to enlarge)

CLDX is overbought on the slow stochastic sub chart; but it is merely in a strong uptrend on the main chart. I might wait for this to cycle down a bit; but technically it is buyable at its current price. This is an extremely strong chart; and it indicates a semi-mature company. It tells an investor that CLDX's future success is virtually assured.

The two year chart of KERX is below:

(click to enlarge)

KERX is overbought on the slow stochastic sub chart; but it is only in an uptrend on the main chart. Technically I might wait for KERX to pull back a bit more; but it is buyable in the current situation.

The above charts all tend to confirm that I (as an investor) should be interested in these two stocks.

However, no one wants to buy a biotech stock without having some idea of what it does. The paragraphs below try to give a brief description of each company's science.

CLDX:

Celldex Therapeutics Inc. is a US biopharmaceutical company based in Needham, MA (in the greater Boston Area). This means it has access to the top talent from top biotech universities such as Harvard, MIT, Tufts, etc. The company has a pipeline of drug candidates for treating cancer and other difficult to treat diseases based on its antibody focused precision targeted immunotherapy platform. Its pipeline is comprised of therapeutic antibodies, antibody drug conjugates, immune system modulators, and vaccines that they believe have a high probability of success because they diseases express specific markers and the therapies address unmet needs.

The above means that CLDX may produce a number of lucrative orphan drugs in the near future. For an orphan drug it is easier to gain marketing approval (FDA approval) in the US and the EU. Orphan drugs also get tax incentives, enhanced patent protection, often government clinical research financial subsidization. If approved by the FDA the company also has the right to sell it without competition for seven years. This can make a revenue stream much more sure than might otherwise be the case. CLDX's two furthest along candidates are a brain cancer therapy and a breast cancer therapy. The table below shows a more complete list of candidates with their statuses. I note such tables are often slightly out of date.

(click to enlarge)

Aside from all of the above, CLDX has research collaboration agreements with Medarex Inc -- now a subsidiary of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMY), Rockefeller University, Duke University Brain Tumor Cancer Center, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Thomas Jefferson University, University of Southampton, Amgen Inc. (AMGN), and Seattle Genetics (SGEN). This is an impressive list. It means CLDX will easily keep abreast of the latest developments in the areas of its research. It will be able to collaborate with some of the finest researchers in its research areas, and it will likely receive all of the funding it needs through its collaboration agreements with the likes of AMGN and SGEN. Further it may get some government monies and some tax benefits. This is a clear position of power, and the company should do well. However, the above is also just a start at an analysis of its research and financial prospects. Serious investors should pursue this analysis further. CLDX has a market cap of $1.88B. CLDX looks to be a stock that is well worth pursuing as a significant investment.

KERX:

Keryx Biopharmaceuticals Inc. is a US biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the acquisition, development, and commercialization of pharmaceutical products for the treatment of renal disease. It is headquartered in New York, New York. This means it can easily draw top talent from Yale University, Princeton University, Columbia University, NYU, Cornell University, etc. Its two pipeline drugs are both Zerenex (ferric citrate) for two different targets. The table below from the Zerenex web site shows their statuses. I note such tables are often slightly out of date.

(click to enlarge)

This table seems far less impressive than that of CLDX. Of course, KERX has a market cap of only $734.7 million versus CLDX's $1.88B. KERX has a strategic alliance with Panion & BF Biotech Inc. It has a Japanese partner, Japan Tobacco Inc. and Torii Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. Its partner has filed its new Drug Application for marketing approval of ferric citrate in Japan for the treatment of Hyperphosphatemia in patients with chronic kidney disease. KERX announced an NDA submission to the FDA on August 8, 2013. The Marketing Authorization Application filing with the European Medicines Agency is pending submission. KERX could push significantly higher both on the news of the final submission of the MAA for the EMA and on one or both approvals that are forthcoming from the FDA and the EMA. These will likely be six months to one year later if no further tests are requested. One year is a more typical time frame. My inclination is to think the price of the stock may fall backward from here until KERX gets closer to the expected approval dates from the FDA and the EMA. Then investors may see KERX begin to rise again. I would keep KERX on my radar, but I would probably not invest at this time.

NOTE: Some of the above information is from Yahoo Finance.

Good Luck Trading.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, but may initiate a long position in CLDX over the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. (More...)

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Rehospitalization less likely for psychiatric patients given smoking-cessation treatment

Main Category: Mental Health
Also Included In: Smoking / Quit Smoking;  Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 18 Aug 2013 - 0:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Rehospitalization less likely for psychiatric patients given smoking-cessation treatment

Patients who participated in a smoking-cessation program during hospitalization for mental illness were able to quit smoking and were less likely to be hospitalized again for their psychiatric conditions, according to a new study led by a Stanford University School of Medicine scientist.

The findings counter a longstanding assumption, held by many mental-health experts, that smoking serves as a useful tool in treating some psychiatric patients.

Smoking among such patients has been embedded in the culture for decades, with cigarettes used as part of a reward system. Indeed, clinicians sometimes smoke alongside patients as a way of creating a rapport with them, said Judith Prochaska, PhD, MPH, associate professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and lead author of the study.

The result is that psychiatric patients are among the country's most prolific smokers and among those most likely to die of smoking-related ailments, Prochaska said. Nearly half of the cigarettes sold in the United States are to people with psychiatric or addictive disorders, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The average life expectancy for people with severe mental illness is 25 years less than that of the general population, and their leading cause of death is chronic illness, mostly tobacco-related.

Prochaska said it has long been thought that if these patients quit smoking, it would be detrimental to their recovery - that they would lose a critical crutch for coping with stress. However, she pointed out that the daily cycle of nicotine withdrawal a smoker experiences creates a great deal of stress, and that mental-health providers are well-equipped to assist patients with developing healthier forms of coping.

The new study showed that a simple intervention that included periodic contact with a counselor, written and computerized materials, and the use of nicotine patches could support, rather than harm, the patients' mental health, she said.

"This is a very low-cost, brief intervention that helped patients quit smoking and offers evidence that it may have helped their mental health recovery," said Prochaska, who focuses on developing interventions to treat tobacco dependence in people with mental illness or addictive disorders.

She said the study, done in collaboration with researchers at UC-San Francisco, is the first to examine the impact of a stop-smoking intervention in adult psychiatric patients. It will be published online Aug. 15 in the American Journal of Public Health.

Michael Fiore, MD, MPH, director of the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention and a leader in national policy for tobacco treatment who was not involved in the study, said the paper "provides powerful evidence that evidence-based tobacco dependence treatments can substantially increase quit rates among psychiatric inpatients. We know that psychiatric patients smoke at very high rates and are at tremendous risk from their smoking. Thus, the findings hold promise to make an important, real-world contribution to the health of these patients."

Since 1993, tobacco use in U.S. hospitals has been banned, with the exception of inpatient psychiatry units, which can and often do permit smoking, and where staff may smoke with patients. Prochaska regularly gives talks in which she documents the long history of tobacco in psychiatry, sharing excerpts from a 1951 psychotherapy handbook that encourages practitioners to smoke during treatment sessions. Her work also has highlighted how the tobacco industry has sponsored research to promote the self-medication hypothesis - that patients with psychiatric disorders need to smoke to function - and marketed their products to patients with psychiatric disorders.

Tobacco use has been thought to help calm patients and enable them to focus in therapy, she said. Certainly, a cigarette will calm someone who is in a state of nicotine withdrawal, and in hospitals that structure smoking breaks every four hours, the patients are being thrown into repeated withdrawal states that are uncomfortable and stressful. When hospitals adopt smoke-free policies, along with using nicotine-replacement products, the therapeutic environment is more balanced, she said. The challenges mental health clinicians have feared when banning smoking have not been borne out by studies.

Smoking also can interfere with treatment, affecting the metabolism of some psychiatric medications, Prochaska said. For instance, it increases the body's elimination of olanzepine, a drug used for psychosis or psychotic depression, by more than 90 percent, and of Haldol, a common schizophrenia drug, by 44 percent. Some patients may appear more alert and attentive simply because the tobacco smoke is reducing the sedating side effects of their psychiatric medications, she said.

To test the effects of treating tobacco use among hospitalized psychiatric patients, the researchers initiated an intervention among 224 patients at the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, a smoke-free, locked mental hospital for acute care at UCSF. All patients who smoked at least five cigarettes daily prior to hospitalization were invited to participate. Few were ready to quit smoking, yet 79 percent agreed to participate. The patients had a range of psychiatric diagnoses, including depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia; three in four were actively suicidal. Half were randomly assigned to a treatment group, and the other half received the usual care.

All patients were offered nicotine patches or gum during their smoke-free hospitalization. Patients in the control group received a pamphlet about the hazards of smoking, with information on how to quit.

Participants in the treatment group completed a computer-assisted program with tailored feedback, received a print manual, met for 15-30 minutes with a counselor, and were offered a 10-week supply of nicotine patches, available when the participant became ready to quit. All of the materials were tailored to patients' readiness to quit, and the computer-assisted intervention was repeated at three and six months post-hospitalization to support participants through the process of quitting smoking. A copy of the computer printout was mailed to patients' outpatient providers.

"A key aspect of the intervention is that we did not assume all patients were ready to quit," Prochaska said. "We met them where they were at and worked with them over time. When they became ready to quit, we were there for them, and they could get the patches to help with withdrawals."

Only a small number of patients - 16 percent - initially said they were prepared to quit when they enrolled in the study, though over time they became progressively more committed to the process, which is typical in these types of interventions, Prochaska said.

The participants all were contacted following hospital discharge at one week and at three-, six-, 12- and 18-month follow-ups. Quit rates were confirmed with breath samples or by a third party who knew the participant.

At the end of the 18 months, 20 percent of those in the treatment group had quit smoking, compared to just 7.7 percent in the control group, the researchers found. Moreover, there were fewer hospital readmissions among those in the treatment group - 44 percent, compared to 56 percent in the control group.

This is the first finding of its kind, and Prochaska said it needs to be replicated. But at a minimum, she added, treating patients' smoking did not harm their mental health recovery and may have even enhanced it.

"I think some of the therapeutic contact that addressed participants' tobacco dependence, and supported them with this major health goal, may have generalized to them feeling better about their mental health condition," she said.

The patients' diagnoses and the severity of their symptoms had no impact on intervention outcomes, the researchers found. "Assumptions we have made in the field - that these patients don't want to quit, are too ill to quit or that quitting will hurt their mental health recovery - none of that held up," she said.

What did influence outcomes were patients' perceptions at the study start of how successful they would be with quitting and how difficult it would be to not relapse, as well as their level of nicotine dependence - the same factors that affect smoking-cessation results in the general population.

Prochaska said reaction from the psychiatric community thus far has been positive. "I received a call from a clinician asking to make a referral - saying this is a great program. She then asked, 'Should we stop giving out cigarettes at our clinic?' I thanked her for the call and encouraged, 'Yes, please do.' The work is raising consciousness and has the potential to change practices. If we wonder in our field why our patients smoke at such high rates, we have to start by looking at how we've addressed tobacco. This is the one group that has been encouraged to smoke and discouraged from quitting by their providers. The tide is changing, and this is a very exciting time for the field."

Prochaska and her colleagues are now following up with a larger trial involving more than 900 patients at Stanford Hospital & Clinics, Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley, and UCSF's Langley Porter.

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
Visit our mental health section for the latest news on this subject.

The study was funded by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Efficacy of Initiating Tobacco Dependence Treatment in Inpatient Psychiatry: A Randomized Controlled Trial

The other co-authors of the study are Stephen Hall, MD, Kevin Delucchi, PhD, and Sharon Hall, PhD, all of UCSF. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2013.301403

Stanford University Medical Center

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Predicting which viral species are most likely to jump from animals to humans

Main Category: Flu / Cold / SARS
Also Included In: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses;  Respiratory / Asthma
Article Date: 14 Aug 2013 - 1:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Predicting which viral species are most likely to jump from animals to humans

Outbreaks such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS) have afflicted people around the world, yet many people think these trends are on the decline.

Quite the opposite is true.

The efforts to combat this epidemic are being spearheaded by a team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists. Led by Monica Borucki of LLNL's Biosciences and Biotechnology Division, the Lab researchers have made promising new discoveries that provide insight into the emergence of inter-species transmittable viruses.

They discovered that the genetic diversity of a viral population within a host animal could allow a virus to adapt to certain conditions, which could help it reach a human host. This discovery advances the scientific understanding of how new viruses produced from animal reservoirs can infect people. An animal reservoir is an animal species that harbors an infectious agent, which then goes on to potentially infect humans or other species. Borucki's team is investigating viruses related to SARS and MERS, but not the actual viruses themselves.

"The team's findings are the first steps in developing methods for predicting which viral species are most likely to jump from animals to humans and potentially cause outbreaks of diseases," Borucki said.

Borucki's LLNL multidisciplinary research team includes Jonathan Allen, Tom Slezak, Clinton Torres and Adam Zemla from the Computation Directorate; Haiyin Chen from the Engineering Directorate; and Pam Hullinger, Gilda Vanier and Shalini Mabery from the Physical and Life Sciences Directorate.

Coronaviruses are one of the groups of viruses that most commonly jump to new host species as evidenced by SARS and MERS, according to Borucki. These viruses appear to have jumped from animals to humans and are capable of causing severe diseases in humans.

"Our discoveries indicate that the next generation of genetic sequencing technology, combined with advance computational analysis, can be used to characterize the dynamics of certain viral populations," she said.

The team's work on coronaviruses received funding from LLNL's Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).

In June, a research paper published in the Journal of General Virology by other scientists cited the Borucki team's findings as pioneering, and it recommended their methodology for studying viral evolution.

Borucki said her team's research findings eventually could be used to influence how vaccines and antivirals are designed and tested.

"Deep Illumina sequencing (a type of genetic sequencing that involves sequencing reads in parallel) is already being used extensively to understand HIV and hepatitis C resistance to antivirals," she said. "We plan to follow up our findings by examining how animal host traits such as nutritional status (being malnourished or obese) influence how viruses evolve."

This latest discovery is part of a string of achievements for Borucki's team.

In 2010, they secured a three-year, $1.4 million contract from DTRA to fund a research project to study how to better determine the origins of a virus.

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
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Study identifies characteristics of heart failure patients more likely to benefit from implantation of cardiac resynchronization device

Main Category: Cardiovascular / Cardiology
Also Included In: Medical Devices / Diagnostics
Article Date: 13 Aug 2013 - 13:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Study identifies characteristics of heart failure patients more likely to benefit from implantation of cardiac resynchronization device

In a large population of Medicare beneficiaries with heart failure who underwent implantation of a cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator, patients who had the cardiac characteristics of left bundle-branch block and longer QRS duration had the lowest risks of death and all-cause, cardiovascular, and heart failure readmission, according to a study in the August 14 issue of JAMA.

"Clinical trials have shown that cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) improves symptoms and reduces mortality and readmission among selected patients with heart failure and left ventricular systolic dysfunction. Following broad implementation of CRT, it was recognized that one-third to one-half of patients receiving the therapy for heart failure do not improve. Identification of patients likely to benefit from CRT is particularly important, because CRT defibrillator (CRT-D) implantation is expensive, invasive, and associated with important procedural risks. A primary question regarding optimal patient selection for CRT is whether patients with longer QRS duration or left bundle-branch block (LBBB) morphology derive greater benefit than others," according to background information in the article. QRS duration is a measurement of the electrical conducting time of the heart on an electrocardiogram. Left bundle-branch block is a cardiac conduction abnormality.

Pamela N. Peterson, M.D., M.S.P.H., of Denver Health Medical Center, Denver, and colleagues conducted a study to determine the long-term outcomes of patients undergoing CRT-D implantation and associations between combinations of QRS duration and presence of LBBB and outcomes, including all-cause mortality; all-cause, cardiovascular, and heart failure readmission; and complications. The study included Medicare beneficiaries in the National Cardiovascular Data Registry's ICD Registry between 2006 and 2009 who underwent CRT-D implantation. Patients were stratified according to whether they were admitted for CRT-D implantation or for another reason, then categorized as having either LBBB or no LBBB and QRS duration of either 150 ms or greater or 120 to 149 ms. Patients underwent follow-up for up to 3 years, through December 2011.

Mortality rates in the primary overall study cohort were 0.8 percent at 30 days, 9.2 percent at 1 year, and 25.9 percent at 3 years. Rates of all-cause readmission were 10.2 percent at 30 days and 43.3 percent at 1 year. The researchers found that after adjustment for demographic and clinical factors, compared with patients with LBBB and QRS duration of 150 ms or greater, the other 3 groups had significantly higher risks of mortality and all-cause, cardiovascular, and heart failure readmission. The adjusted risk of 3-year mortality was lowest among patients with LBBB and QRS duration of 150 ms or greater (20.9 percent), compared with LBBB and QRS duration of 120 to 149 ms (26.5 percent), no LBBB and QRS duration of 150 ms or greater (30.7 percent), and no LBBB and QRS duration of 120 to 149 ms (32.3 percent). The adjusted risk of l-year all-cause readmission were also lowest among patients with LBBB and QRS duration of 150 ms or greater (38.6 percent), compared with LBBB and QRS duration of 120 to 149 ms (44.8 percent), no LBBB and QRS duration of 150 ms or greater (45.7 percent), and no LBBB and QRS duration of 120 to 149 ms (49.6 percent).

There were no observed associations with complications.

"Although prior data regarding the effects of CRT as a function of QRS duration are largely limited to meta-analyses of clinical trials, this study provides an important perspective on the role of QRS duration in outcomes after CRT implantation in clinical practice," the authors write.

"These findings support the use of QRS morphology and duration to help identify patients who will have the greatest benefit from CRT-D implantation."

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
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Southerners are less trusting, but people who trust are more likely to cooperate to save the environment, baylor study shows

Main Category: Water - Air Quality / Agriculture
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 03 Aug 2013 - 0:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Southerners are less trusting, but people who trust are more likely to cooperate to save the environment, baylor study shows

Southerners are generally not as trusting as people who live in other parts of the country, but trusting people are more likely to cooperate in recycling, buying green products and conserving water, a new Baylor University study on environmental protection shows.

"A lot of researchers have reported trust as kind of a cure-all for protecting the environment through cooperation. Southerners are just as willing, but less trusting," said lead author Kyle Irwin, Ph.D., an assistant professor in Baylor's College of Arts & Sciences.

"The question our study raised was that if trust isn't a catalyst for environmental cooperation for Southerners, what is?"

The study, published in The Sociological Quarterly, was based on analysis of a data sample of 650 respondents - 238 of them Southerners - from the 2010 General Social Survey, Irwin said. "The South" as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau includes 16 states (listed below) and Washington D.C.

Previous studies by other researchers have shown that trust is important in working together to protect the environment, but the study by Irwin and co-researcher Nick Berigan, Ph.D., a visiting assistant professor at East Tennessee State University, is the first to look at cultural factors, Irwin said.

"Southerners are relatively close-knit and interact within small and dense networks," he said. "Social spheres often overlap: People that work together may go to church together, attend sports events for their kids. This type of network often produces a lot of solidarity and trust within the 'in group,' but distrust toward outsiders."

Compared to Southerners, non-Southerners have a large number of weak and transient friendships. Social networks in the non-South are considered individualistic, and that promotes trust of people who might be considered outsiders, he said.

"There's been a slew of research on the relationship between trust and environmental protection," Irwin said. "The more trust people have, the more willing they are to make sacrifices to hold up their end to solve problems."

But Southerners' cooperation in pro-environment efforts does not hinge on trust as much as non-Southerners' cooperation does.

The new study measured trust with the question of "Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted, or that you can't be too careful in dealing with people?" Among Southern respondents, 24.9 percent of respondents trusted others; 38.7 of non-Southern respondents did so.

The study shows that political views and education are associated with cooperation in the South, with Democrats more willing to make cuts in living standards and more educated people more willing to pay higher taxes to help protect the environment. Also in the South, confidence in the government was associated with greater willingness to pay higher taxes.

Irwin said that further study is needed to draw firm conclusions, but the research suggests that pro-environmental efforts in the South might target Republicans by assuring them that long-term benefits of conservation outweigh short-term costs and are consistent with their values, rather than mandated by those with liberal political views.

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
Visit our water - air quality / agriculture section for the latest news on this subject.

*States listed as Southern by the U.S. Census Bureau include Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Washington, D.C. also is included.

Baylor University

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Evolution is likely responsible for menopause

Main Category: Menopause
Article Date: 31 Jul 2013 - 1:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Evolution is likely responsible for menopause

A study of mortality and fertility patterns among seven species of wild apes and monkeys and their relatives, compared with similar data from hunter-gatherer humans, shows that menopause sets humans apart from other primates.

Nonhuman primates aren't immune to the fading female fertility that comes with age, the researchers say. But human females are unique in living well beyond their childbearing years.

"Unlike other primates women tend to have a long post-reproductive life. Even before modern medicine, many women lived for 30 to 35 years after their last child was born," said co-author Susan Alberts of Duke University and the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center.

In a study appearing the week of July 29 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Alberts and colleagues compared mortality and fertility data for seven species of wild primates to similar data for the !Kung people of Southern Africa, a human population of hunter-gatherers with limited access to modern medicine or birth control.

The nonhuman primate data were based on long-term observations of 700 adult females, including capuchins in Costa Rica, muriqui monkeys in Brazil, baboons and blue monkeys in Kenya, chimpanzees in Tanzania, gorillas in Rwanda and sifakas in Madagascar.

This is the first study to compare humans with multiple primate species living in the wild.

For each species, the researchers estimated the pace of reproductive decline - measured as the probability, at each age, that a female's childbirth will be her last - and compared it with the rate of decline in overall health, measured as the odds of dying with each passing birthday. "This way we were able to compare the rate of aging in the reproductive system with the rate of aging in the rest of the body,' Alberts said.

The results suggest that in nonhuman primates, reproductive decline is surpassed by declines in survival, so that very few females run out of reproductive steam before they die. A female baboon, for example, may live to age 19, and continues to reproduce to the end.

But in human females the reproductive system shuts down much more rapidly than the rest of the body. "Half of women experience menopause by the age of 50, and fertility starts to decline about two decades before that," Alberts said.

What distinguishes a human female from her primate cousins is not that the human biological clock ticks faster, but that mortality is so much lower in humans than in other primates, according to work done by University of Utah anthropologist Kristen Hawkes, who was not an author of this study.

This study supports that idea, the researchers say. In both humans and chimpanzees, for example, female fertility starts to decline in the late 30s and early 40s. "[But] even in human populations with little access to modern medicine, like the !Kung [hunter-gatherers in this study], most women survive for decades after their last child is born. Nonhuman primates rarely do that," Alberts said.

If evolution has given us longer lifespans than our primate cousins, why hasn't female reproduction kept pace? And in a world where individuals with more offspring tend to win the evolutionary contest, why shut down reproduction with decades of survival still ahead?

It may be that older females who forego future breeding to invest in the survival of their existing children and grandchildren gain a greater evolutionary edge than those who continue to reproduce. Once a baby chimp is weaned it can forage for itself, whereas human infants are nutritionally dependent long after they leave the breast.

"[Human children] can benefit greatly from having mothers and grandmothers who are still alive and not tied up with helpless infants," Alberts explained.

Another possibility is that mammalian eggs simply have a limited shelf life. According to this idea, we've extended our lives to the point where we've outlived our egg supply. A woman is born with all the eggs she will ever have - in contrast to sperm, which men produce throughout their lives.

"Female African elephants seem to give birth into their 50s and occasionally into their 60s, so at least one mammal species appears to have surpassed the typical lifespan for mammalian eggs," Alberts said. "Female killer whales are the opposite - like humans their fertility peters out in their 30s and 40s, while they often live into their 70s. But there just aren't enough long-term data on other mammals to address the shelf-life hypothesis conclusively."

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Alberts' co-authors are Jeanne Altmann of Princeton University, Diane Brockman of the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, Marina Cords of Columbia University, Linda Fedigan of the University of Calgary, Anne Pusey of Duke University, Tara Stoinski of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International and Zoo Atlanta, Karen Strier of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, William Morris of Uppsala University and Duke University, and Anne Bronikowski of Iowa State University.

CITATION: "Reproductive aging patterns in primates reveal that humans are distinct,' Alberts, S. C. et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1311857110

Duke University

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Female deaths much less likely to be reported to coroner in England and Wales, UK

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 30 Jul 2013 - 0:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Female deaths much less likely to be reported to coroner in England and Wales, UK

Doctors in England and Wales are much less likely to report a woman's death to a coroner than they are a man's, reveals research published online in the Journal of Clinical Pathology.

Furthermore, women's deaths are less likely to proceed to an inquest, and those that do are less likely to result in a verdict of "unnatural" death than men's, with some coroners particularly likely to favour a verdict according to the sex of the deceased, the research shows.

The authors analysed figures from the Ministry of Justice on the numbers and proportions of deaths reported to all 98 coroners, in each of the 114 jurisdictions in England and Wales, between 2001 and 2010.

These figures were then set in the context of official national statistics on the number of deaths registered in England and Wales over the same period.

Doctors are not obliged to report a death to a coroner, and the legal duty to hold an inquest resides with the coroner, usually prompted by a death in unnatural or violent circumstances, or when the death is sudden, of unknown cause, or happens in prison.

The analysis of the figures showed that coroner reporting rates varied widely across England and Wales.

Plymouth and South West Devon topped the league table, with 87% of registered deaths reported to the coroner between 2001 and 2010, while Stamford in Lincolnshire came bottom, with only 12% of deaths reported to the coroner.

There were no obvious explanations to account for such wide differences, which remained stable throughout the decade, suggesting that local demographics or medico-legal practice had a part to play, say the authors.

Similarly, coroners varied widely in their use of verdicts, which again remained consistent over time, the analysis showed. This is likely to reflect the personal decision making style of the coroner rather than any local patterns in deaths, say the authors.

But when they looked at reporting rates according to the sex of the dead person, a striking gender divide emerged.

While jurisdictions with high reporting rates for men also had high reporting rates for women, and vice versa, male deaths were 26% more likely to be reported to the coroner than female deaths.

Higher reporting rates for men were common across all jurisdictions in England and Wales, and in some areas male deaths were 48% more likely to be reported.

Not only were female deaths less likely to be reported, but they were also less likely to proceed to an inquest.

Female deaths were half as likely to proceed to an inquest as men's, with just 8% going to this stage compared with 16% of all male deaths. And even when female deaths did get an inquest, they were more likely to be given a verdict of natural causes than men (28% compared with 22%).

Among verdicts of unnatural deaths, men were overrepresented in occupational diseases and suicide while women were overrepresented in narrative verdicts - where cause of death is given in the form of a narrative rather than as a single "short form" definition - and accidents, implying that sex of the deceased influences the verdict, say the authors.

Furthermore, some coroners were "gendered," in their approach to inquest verdicts, and more likely to favour a particular verdict when dealing with a death, according to the gender of the deceased.

The government is currently reforming the death certification process in a bid to strengthen arrangements and improve the quality and accuracy of causes of death, but there are some concerns that the move will prompt a fall in deaths reported to the coroner from the present national average of 46% to around 35%, say the authors.

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Teens' kidney transplants more likely to fail

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Academic Journal
Main Category: Transplants / Organ Donations
Article Date: 30 Jul 2013 - 0:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Teens' kidney transplants more likely to fail

Adolescents who have their first kidney transplant between 14 and 16 years of age could have a higher risk of transplant failure, according to a study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

Researchers from the University of Florida, Gainesville, analyzed 168,809 patients between 1987 and 2010. All participants had their first kidney transplant and their ages ranged up to 55.

Data was analyzed from the Organ Procurement Transplantation Network Standard Transplant Analysis and Research Database.

The study population characteristics analyzed in the study included the recipients' sex, race and insurance type, and the donors' living vs deceased status, sex, health and their combined Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA) match information.

Results of the study showed that patients aged between 14 and 16 years had the highest risk of graft loss of all age groups.

The researchers found that graft loss started at 1 year after the transplant was carried out, and increased at 3-, 5- and 10-year points.

The study also revealed that black adolescents have an even higher risk of graft failure, compared with non-black adolescents.

The study authors say that using age at transplant as the risk factor, there was a decreasing relative hazard of graft failure in different insurance groups.

The researchers found the following range, in order of highest to lowest, for graft failure risk:

Deceased donor - government insurance groupDeceased donor - private insurance groupLiving donor - government insurance groupLiving donor - private insurance group

They add that in the death-censored analysis, this order of risk was consistent from infancy to 55 years of age.

Additionally, the results showed that among 14-year-old patients, there was an increased death risk of 175% in the deceased donor-government insurance group, compared with the living donor-private insurance group.

The researchers conclude that comprehensive programs are needed for adolescent transplant recipients, as current medical literature "does not adequately describe the risks of graft failure among kidney transplant recipients by age."

They say: "The realization that this age group is at an increased risk of graft loss as they are becoming young adults should prompt providers to give specialized care and attention to these adolescents in the transition from pediatric to adult-focused care."

The researchers conclude:

"Implementing a structured health care transition preparation program from pediatric to adult-centered care in transplant centers may improve outcomes."

Written by Honor Whiteman

Copyright: Medical News Today
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"Age-related kidney transplant outcomes health disparities amplified in adolescence," JAMA Internal Medicine, July 29, 2013.

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Treatments for tuberculosis, cancer will likely improve following breakthrough in detecting DNA mutations

Main Category: Tuberculosis
Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology;  Genetics
Article Date: 30 Jul 2013 - 0:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Treatments for tuberculosis, cancer will likely improve following breakthrough in detecting DNA mutations

The slightest variation in a sequence of DNA can have profound effects. Modern genomics has shown that just one mutation can be the difference between successfully treating a disease and having it spread rampantly throughout the body.

Now, researchers have developed a new method that can look at a specific segment of DNA and pinpoint a single mutation, which could help diagnose and treat diseases such as cancer and tuberculosis. These small changes can be the root of a disease or the reason some infectious diseases resist certain antibiotics. The findings were published online in the journal Nature Chemistry.

"We've really improved on previous approaches because our solution doesn't require any complicated reactions or added enzymes, it just uses DNA," said lead author Georg Seelig, a University of Washington assistant professor of electrical engineering and of computer science and engineering. "This means that the method is robust to changes in temperature and other environmental variables, making it well-suited for diagnostic applications in low-resource settings."

DNA is a type of nucleic acid, the biological molecule that gives all living things their unique genetic signatures. In a double strand of DNA, known as a double helix, a series of base pairs bond and encode our genetic information. As genomics research has progressed, it's clear that a change of just one base pair - a sequence mutation, an insertion or a deletion - is enough to trigger major biological consequences. This could explain the onset of disease, or the reason some diseases don't respond to usual antibiotic treatment.

Take, for example, tuberculosis ?" a disease that's known to have drug-resistant strains. Its resistance to antibiotics often is due to a small number of mutations in a specific gene. If a person with tuberculosis isn't responding to treatment, it's likely because there is a mutation, Seelig said.

Now, researchers have the ability to check for that mutation preventatively.

Seelig, along with David Zhang of Rice University and Sherry Chen, a UW doctoral student in electrical engineering, designed probes that can pick out mutations in a single base pair in a target stretch of DNA. The probes allow researchers to look in much more detail for variations in long sequences - up to 200 base pairs ?" while current methods can detect mutations in stretches of up to only 20.

"In terms of specificity, our research suggests that we can do quadratically better, meaning that whatever the best level of specificity, our best will be that number squared," said Zhang, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Rice University.

The testing probes are designed to bind with a sequence of DNA that is suspected of having a mutation. The researchers do this by creating a complimentary sequence of DNA to the double-helix strand in question. Then, they allow molecules containing both sequences to mix in a test tube in salt water, where they naturally will match up to one another if the base pairs are intact. Unlike previous technologies, the probe molecule checks both strands of the target double helix for mutations rather than just one, which explains the increased specificity.

The probe is engineered to emit a fluorescent glow if there's a perfect match between it and the target. If it doesn't illuminate, that means the strands didn't match and there was in fact a mutation in the target strand of DNA.

The researchers have filed a patent on the technology and are working with the UW Center for Commercialization. They hope to integrate it into a paper-based diagnostic test for diseases that could be used in parts of the world with few medical resources.

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The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency.

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Binge eating with bipolar disorder likely increases psychiatric issues including suicidal thoughts, anxiety

Main Category: Bipolar
Also Included In: Eating Disorders;  Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Article Date: 29 Jul 2013 - 1:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Binge eating with bipolar disorder likely increases psychiatric issues including suicidal thoughts, anxiety

Bipolar disorder evolves differently in patients who also binge eat, a study by Mayo Clinic, the Lindner Center of HOPE and the University of Minnesota found. Binge eating and obesity often are present among bipolar patients, but the mood disorder appears to take a different path in those who binge eat than it does in obese bipolar patients who do not, the researchers discovered. The findings are published online in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Up to 4 percent of Americans have some form of bipolar illness, and of those, just under 10 percent also have binge eating disorder - a higher rate of binge eating than seen in the general population, says co-author Mark Frye, M.D., a psychiatrist and chair of the Department of Psychiatry/Psychology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) update released this spring recognizes binge eating disorder as a distinct condition, he noted.

Bipolar patients who binge eat are more likely to have other mental health issues such as suicidal thoughts, psychosis, anxiety disorders and substance abuse, the study found. People with bipolar disorder who are obese but do not binge eat are more likely to have serious physical problems such as arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.

It was more common for women than men with bipolar disorder to binge eat or to be obese, the study showed.

"The illness is more complicated, and then by definition how you would conceptualize how best to individualize treatment is more complicated," Dr. Frye says. "It really underscores the importance of trying to stabilize mood, because we know when people are symptomatic of their bipolar illness their binge frequency is likely to increase. We want to work with treatments that can be helpful but not have weight gain as a significant side effect."

The researchers used the Mayo Clinic Bipolar Biobank, a collaborative effort by Mayo Clinic, the Lindner Center of HOPE, University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic Health System. More research is planned to see whether there is a genetic link to binge eating disorder in bipolar disease.

"Patients with bipolar disorder and binge eating disorder appear to represent a more severely ill population of bipolar patients. Identification of this subgroup of patients will help determine the underlying causes of bipolar disorder and lead to more effective and personalized treatments," says co-author Susan McElroy, M.D., chief research officer at the Lindner Center of HOPE.

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The study was funded by the Marriott family. Co-authors also include Scott Crow, M.D., University of Minnesota Medical School; Nicole Mori of the Lindner Center of HOPE; and Joanna Biernacka, Ph.D., Stacey Winham, Ph.D., Jennifer Geske, Alfredo Cuellar Barboza, M.D., Mikel Prieto, M.D., Mohit Chauhan, M.D., and Lisa Seymour of Mayo Clinic.

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Gender gap in stroke treatment likely due to delay by women seeking care

Main Category: Stroke
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 29 Jul 2013 - 0:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Gender gap in stroke treatment likely due to delay by women seeking care

Women with clot-caused strokes are less likely than men to arrive at the hospital in time to receive the best treatment, according to a European study reported in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.

In the study, 11 percent of women with acute ischemic strokes were treated with the clot-dissolving medication alteplase, compared with 14 percent of men. Study participants included 5,515 patients at 12 hospitals in the Netherlands.

Researchers found no gender gap when they looked only at patients who arrived at the hospital within four hours of the onset of symptoms in this study. Forty-two percent of men and women arriving within the four-hour window received alteplase.

"Our study showed that women in the Netherlands were treated just as often with thrombolytic agents as men once they arrived in time for treatment," said Inger de Ridder, M.D., lead author of the study and AIOS Resident of Neurology at Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

The gender gap in treatment may be due to delays in getting to the hospital, researchers said. Women arrived at the hospital an average 27 minutes later than men, and a smaller percentage of women (27 percent) than men (33 percent) arrived at the hospital within the four-hour window.

Furthermore, women in the study were an average four years older and may consequently have been more likely to live alone, which would make it more difficult to summon help. Stroke severity was similar for men and women.

"More education about stroke symptoms is needed, and also more research to find out why women arrive later at the hospital," de Ridder said.

The findings may also apply to patients in the United States, researchers said.

Stroke symptoms include: drooping or numbness in the face; weakness or numbness in the arms; and speech difficulty. Stroke is the No. 4 cause of death and the leading preventable cause of disability in the United States.

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Unequal Access to Treatment With Intravenous Alteplase for Women With Acute Ischemic Stroke, Inger de Ridder, MD, Maaike Dirks, MD, PhD, Louis Niessen, MD, PhD, Diederik Dippel, MD, PhD and on behalf of the PRACTISE Investigators, Published online before print July 25, 2013, doi: 10.1161/?STROKEAHA.113.002263

Author disclosures are on the manuscript.

The Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development funded the study.

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People likely to safeguard common goods when they trust in leaders, have a sense of belonging

Main Category: Psychology / Psychiatry
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 28 Jul 2013 - 0:00 PDT Current ratings for:
People likely to safeguard common goods when they trust in leaders, have a sense of belonging

Every day, people donate to charities, volunteer to clean up city parks, or scale back their driving to curb air pollution. But some take these public goods for granted and ride free on the efforts of others. They watch public television but never make a donation to fund it. Or they run their lawn sprinklers during a drought while their neighbors follow government pleas to limit water consumption.

A new report in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, examines more than 25 years' worth of studies on the use and support of public goods ranging from radio broadcasts to drinking water. Psychological researcher Craig Parks (Washington State University, Pullman) and his co-authors emphasize the urgent need to broaden thoughtful use of public goods, noting that charitable contributions are at historic lows, fossil fuel reserves are shrinking, and climate change threatens the planet's future.

In the report, the researchers discuss a variety of scientific findings on conditions that foster cooperative use of common resources, including:

Strong group identity

People are more likely to act cooperatively when they have a strong sense of belonging to a collective. A 2003 European study showed that fishermen who were strongly connected in their communities were more judicious with fishing stocks than were their counterparts in more loosely connected communities.

Smaller community size

Cooperation is likely to be stronger in smaller groups, particularly when one's contribution is easily identified. Psychological research suggests that cooperation decreases in large groups because people feel less influential, less identifiable, and less responsible for the group's welfare.

High trust in leaders

Citizens are more willing to help out in urgent situations when their government leaders act in transparent and trustworthy ways. A study of people's behavior during a 1991 water shortage in California showed that residents exercised more constraint on their water consumption if they felt local authorities were rationing water fairly.

The article also cites factors that lead to incongruous use of resources, including:

Intergroup conflicts

People often try to prevent those in an opposing group from benefiting from a good or resource in order to advance their own groups' interests. Parks and his co-authors cite as an example the 2011 debate in the U.S. Congress over the nation's debt ceiling. The Obama administration wanted to raise the debt ceiling to support such public goods as Social Security and the military. Republicans who fought the increase drew anger from many Americans, but in doing so helped enhance the GOP's reputation as a party of fiscal watchdogs.

Ideology/values

Individuals may withhold support for a public good that they see as useless or objectionable. Examples of this are environmentalists who fight a highway expansion, or political conservatives who reject public radio as too left-leaning.

Cognitive disconnection

Threats to some common resources are so vast or abstract that people struggle to comprehend the consequences. The most salient example is people's struggle to envision the impact that climate change will have on future generations.

Parks and his colleagues propose some policy steps that could promote better care of public resources. Research shows, for example, that people tend to act for the benefit of those who are powerless or helpless. Framing future generations in that light (e.g., talking about the more-hostile climate that we stand to leave for our great-grandchildren) can spark people today to be more diligent about reducing their carbon footprint, they suggest.

The researchers also argue that policymakers, in promoting optimal use of public goods, must concentrate on building the public's trust in order to garner cooperation.

"Sincere and concerted attempts to collect public input and a general 'let's work together' approach will do much to enhance group identity," they write. "Toleration of a certain amount of deviation from policy, at least in the early stages of implementation, will show that policy makers are forgiving. And last, a policy that gives citizens more than they might have expected - a more well-developed public good and broader access to it - will convey an image of generosity."

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Co-authors on the article are Jeff Joireman of Washington State University, Pullman, and Paul A.M. Van Lange of Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.

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People who carry a particular gene allele APOE4 can be over 10 times more likely to develop late-onset Alzheimer's disease

Main Category: Alzheimer's / Dementia
Also Included In: Neurology / Neuroscience
Article Date: 24 Jul 2013 - 10:00 PDT Current ratings for:
People who carry a particular gene allele APOE4 can be over 10 times more likely to develop late-onset Alzheimer's disease

The molecular pathway linking a genetic variant to the common, non-familial form of Alzheimer's disease is revealed in Nature this week. The study boosts our knowledge of the pathology of this neurodegenerative disease, and hints at new directions for therapy.

People who carry a particular gene allele APOE4 can be over 10 times more likely to develop late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD). Asa Abeliovich and colleagues now show that the pattern of gene expression in the brains of APOE4 carriers has similarities to the patterns of gene expression in LOAD patients, and suggest that this altered profile might be an early hallmark of the disease. They identify a handful of genes thought to regulate this unusual transcription profile, including novel and previously known regulators of the amyloid precursor protein (APP), a molecule that has long been implicated in Alzheimer's disease. Genetic variants found at two of the genes may even affect the age when LOAD may set in.

Finally, the team tested a possible therapy, the drug levetiracetam, which inhibits one of the genes identified, and is currently used clinically to treat seizures. The drug suppresses APP processing in cells cultured from APOE4 carriers, making it a molecule worthy of further study.

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Nature. "People who carry a particular gene allele APOE4 can be over 10 times more likely to develop late-onset Alzheimer's disease." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 24 Jul. 2013. Web.
26 Jul. 2013. APA

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'People who carry a particular gene allele APOE4 can be over 10 times more likely to develop late-onset Alzheimer's disease'

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