This blog provides video, audio and graphic resources to journalists working on news stories. It also gives patients and consumers who are interested in learning more about stories in the news direct access to additional information and video featuring Mayo Clinic physicians and scientists. For a complete explanation of why posts are sometimes password protected for a brief time before being made available to everyone, see the FAQ page.
Mayo Clinic researchers have developed a method to reduce the production of alpha-synuclein in the brain. Alpha-synuclein is a protein that is believed to be central to the cause of Parkinson’s disease. All patients with Parkinson’s disease have abnormal accumulations of alpha-synuclein protein in the brain.
The new method involves the delivery of RNA interference compounds directly to selected areas of the brain via injection. The RNA interference compounds silence the gene that produces alpha-synuclein, according to the Mayo researchers at the Jacksonville, Fla. and Rochester, Minn. campuses.
“While our research has not yet been tested on humans, we expect that these findings will lead to an effective treatment for slowing or even halting the progression of Parkinson’s disease,” says Demetrius Maraganore, M.D., a Mayo Clinic neurologist.
Previous studies conducted by Dr. Maraganore and Matthew Farrer, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic neuroscientist, found that variations in the alpha-synuclein gene result in increased protein production and are sufficient to cause Parkinson’s disease in some families, or otherwise increase the risk for Parkinson’s disease across populations worldwide. Drs. Maraganore and Farrer invented a method to treat Parkinson’s disease by reducing alpha-synuclein expression. Mayo Clinic patented and licensed their invention to Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Alnylam is leading the effort to commercialize the Mayo invention using Alnylam RNA interference compounds.
“For this study, we developed a lead compound of small interfering RNAs,” says Heather Melrose, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic neuroscientist and a lead author of this study. “By infusing this into the brains of mice we were able to effectively reduce the production of alpha-synuclein in the brain. The therapy produced gene silencing that lasted up to three weeks after treatment, and the mice exhibited no ill effects. These are desirable characteristics of a drug therapy ultimately intended to treat disease in humans.”
The study was published this month in Molecular Neurodegeneration. The full news release can be viewed at: http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2008-rst/5087.html.
Image of a mouse brain. The shaded portions represent the 'genetic message' for the alpha-synuclein gene. The right side of the brain was infused with the RNA interference compound and the gene has been effectively silenced.
Drs. Maraganore and Farrer describe this research.
Journalists: For links to web-video and audio files, see the bottom of this post.
People who survive a heart attack face the greatest risk of dying from sudden cardiac death (SCD) during the first month after leaving the hospital, according to a long-term community study by Mayo Clinic researchers of nearly 3,000 heart attack survivors.
Sudden cardiac death can happen when the heart’s electrical system malfunctions; if treatment — cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation –— does not happen fast, a person dies.
After that first month, the risk of sudden cardiac death drops significantly — but rises again if a person experiences signs of heart failure. The research results appear in the Nov. 5 edition of Journal of the American Medical Association.
This study emphasizes the need for physicians to stay in close contact with their heart attack patients, forming a partnership to recognize symptoms, says Veronique Roger, M.D., M.P.H., a Mayo Clinic cardiologist and lead author of the study. Physicians and patients — and their family members —need to be keenly alert for the symptoms of heart failure, as described by the American Heart Association, Dr. Roger says.
Journalists: The following web-video and audio clips are available for download for use in your stories.
Here are links to a radio actuality on the study and the accompanying script: MP3 Script
Dr. Roger discusses the study findings: WMV MP3
Dr. Roger addresses the need for close follow-up: WMV MP3
Dr. Roger on the symptoms of heart failure to watch for: WMV MP3
Below is a link to an edited a youtube video with Dr. Roger that you can embed with your stories.
Update: Here is the story as it appeared on MedPage Today.
A new study shows that an imaging technology developed by Mayo Clinic researchers can identify liver fibrosis with high accuracy and help eliminate the need for liver biopsies. Liver fibrosis is a common condition that can lead to incurable cirrhosis if not treated in time. The study, which included 113 patients, was presented Nov. 3 at The Liver Meeting, an annual gathering of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease, in San Francisco.
The technology, called magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), produces color-coded images known as elastograms that indicate how internal organs, muscles and tissues would feel to the touch. Red is the stiffest; purple, the softest. Other imaging techniques do not provide this information.
“Knowing the liver’s elasticity or stiffness is invaluable in diagnosing liver disease,” says Jayant Talwalkar, M.D., M.P.H., a Mayo Clinic hepatologist and co-investigator on the study. “A healthy liver is very soft, while a liver with early disease begins to stiffen. A liver with cirrhosis, advanced liver disease, can be rock hard.”
For more information, please watch our Medical Edge Story on MRE.
That’s the topic of a post earlier this week from Maggie Mahar at Taking Note. Here’s an excerpt:
After working at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for nine years, Dr. Marc Patterson decided to change his life. In 2001, he moved to New York City to take a job as chief of pediatric neurology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH).
This year, Patterson returned to the Big House on the Prairie. “Sometimes I miss New York,” he acknowledges, “but working in a system that actually functions is worth it.”
Let me be clear: Patterson has many good things to say about NYPH and Columbia University Medical Center, the uptown campus where the worked. “I had a great experience, and fabulous colleagues,” Patterson told me. “Moreover, one of the reasons I moved back to Minnesota is because my family is there.”
Nevertheless, Patterson says: “There is a fundamental systemic difference between Columbia and the Mayo Clinic: Columbia is a traditional academic medical center; [research] that came through the med school provided the money to pay us. The hospital is a separate entity. By contrast, at Mayo, the hospital and the medical school are one. It’s an integrated organization.”
You can read the rest of the article here. Here also is a video from Dr. Patterson on our Mayo Clinic Podcast Blog, relating to his research and clinical practice interests.
As the World Series begins Wednesday in Tampa, an interesting story with a medical angle is the rise of Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Jayson Werth.
Werth was seriously injured during spring training in 2005 as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers when he was struck on the wrist by a pitch. After one unsuccessful operation he was examined during the summer of 2006 by Richard Berger, M.D., a Mayo Clinic orthopedic surgeon, who diagnosed a split tear of the UT ligament. Dr. Berger had discovered this type of injury and how it can successfully be treated through his research, and published research findings last year.
Following his successful operation, Werth signed a contract with the Phillies in December 2006. The Philadelphia Inquirer chronicles his rise to everyday player status in 2008 after a productive 2007.
This UT split tear injury affects many younger, active individuals who suffer trauma to their wrist. Here is a Mayo Clinic Medical Edge TV story describing the condition and its treatment.
Here is an audio podcast about the injury and its treatment featuring an extended interview with Dr. Berger.
Update 10/22/08 at 11 p.m.: Jayson Werth had two doubles and scored a run in the Phillies 3-2 win over the Rays in Game 1 of the 2008 World Series.
Update 10/26/08 at 10:40 p.m.: Jayson Werth is now hitting nearly .400 in the World Series, after a double and a two-run homer that put the Phillies ahead 8-2 in Game 4, a game they eventually won 10-2.
For more than ten years, Mayo Clinic neurosurgeon Robert Spinner, M.D., has been on a quest to identify the cause and best treatment of intraneural ganglion cysts. These rare cysts form within nerves, causing symptoms such as motor loss, sensory abnormality or pain.
“These cysts have been considered a curiosity in the medical community and many people thought they just formed – de novo,” says Dr. Spinner. “But in my research and clinical practice, I’ve noticed that they have very stereotypical types of patterns.”
Dr. Spinner studied more than 300 medical papers and identified that the earliest documented case of an intraneural ganglion cyst was frequently referenced to Duchenne in 1810. However, further research uncovered that this attribution was incorrect and should instead have referenced Beauchêne in 1810. This discovery enabled Dr. Spinner both to locate and examine first hand that 200-year-old specimen in a Paris museum.
“The ability to study all documented intraneural ganglion cysts, including the oldest known specimen, was very satisfying and allowed us to make some important conclusions,” says Dr. Spinner. “We now know that these cysts are joint-related problems. So, radical surgical approaches that remove the entire cyst are unnecessary. By simply fixing the joint problem, the cyst will go away. ”
This study is published in the October 2008 issue of Clinical Anatomy.
Dr. Spinner provides an overview of his research.
The first generation of a stool DNA test to identify early colorectal cancer has limitations, according to a Mayo Clinic-led study published in the Oct. 7, 2008, issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. Results did not corroborate findings of an earlier multicenter study that showed stool DNA testing was more accurate than fecal blood testing for colorectal cancer detection.
“But the concerns we identified with stool DNA testing are all solvable,” says David Ahlquist, M.D., lead researcher in the study that included 4,482 participants and 22 academic medical centers. Researchers have hoped that stool DNA testing could be the user-friendly and accurate screening tool that would increase screening numbers.
This blinded study, conducted from 2001 to 2007, compared screening effectiveness of two widely used fecal blood tests (Hemoccult and HemoccultSensa) with a stool DNA test in average-risk patients, ages 50 to 80. The DNA test used was the prototype for PreGenPlus, the first commercially-used stool DNA test, and was performed on samples sent to EXACT Sciences in Marlborough, Mass. All participants underwent a colonoscopy, the gold standard in current screening. Researchers used colonoscopy as the benchmark to detect cancer or precancerous polyps.
A study led by Mayo Clinic has found that infliximab (Remicade®) administered alone (monotherapy) or in combination with azathioprine is a more effective treatment for patients with moderate to severe Crohn’s disease than azathioprine alone. The findings were presented Oct. 6 at the 2008 American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) Annual Meeting.
Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract that affects an estimated 500,000 people in the United States. Symptoms include abdominal pain, fever, nausea, vomiting, weight loss and diarrhea. Crohn’s disease has no known medical cure.
“Historically, patients with Crohn’s disease have been treated sequentially with steroids, then azathioprine, then monoclonal antibodies such as infliximab. The study definitively demonstrates that infliximab-based strategies are more effective than azathioprine,” says William Sandborn, M.D., the lead author and a gastroenterologist at Mayo Clinic. “Clinicians should consider a shift in practice to incorporate this new data.”
The study, conducted at more than 130 sites, included 508 patients who have moderate to severe Crohn’s disease. Researchers found that 57 percent of patients who received combination therapy with infliximab and azathioprine achieved steroid-free remission after 26 weeks. This is compared to 44 percent of patients who achieved remission with infliximab monotherapy and 30 percent with azathioprine alone. Both the infliximab combination therapy and infliximab monotherapy groups were statistically superior to the azathioprine group. In addition, 61 percent of patients who received the combination therapy of infliximab and azathioprine also experienced healing of the bowel demonstrated by colonoscopy (mucosal healing).
Dr. William Sandborn, a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist and the lead researcher on the study, provides background on the disease and describes the study purpose and findings below.
