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Preventing brain damage in newborns
Complications in late pregnancy or a difficult birth can choke off
the brain’s blood and oxygen supplies, causing chemical changes
that over-excite cells in the baby’s developing, immature
brain. This excitotoxicity, as it is called, causes brain cells
to die and puts newborns at risk for long-term brain damage. Frances
Jensen, MD, and colleagues in the Department
of Neurology and Program in Neuroscience, have found that topiramate,
an existing anticonvulsant drug approved for use in older children
and adults, may prevent future neurologic problems by blocking excitotoxicity.
In the May 5 issue of The
Journal of Neuroscience, they reported that topiramate
prevented further damage in oxygen-deprived immature rats that had
a pattern of brain injury resembling periventricular leukomalacia,
a condition in premature babies that underlies cerebral
palsy. A second study, in the June Epilepsia,
found that newborn rats with seizures
caused by oxygen deprivation (also a common cause of seizures in
term newborns) were less seizure-prone later in life if treated
with topiramate after the injury occurred. Jensen thinks her group's
results may warrant clinical trials in newborns.
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| (l-r) Bekir Cinar, PhD, Michael Fannon, PhD,
and George Naumov, PhD |
Children’s awarded half a million for
prostate cancer research
The Department of Defense has awarded Children’s three grants
for prostate cancer research. Totaling more than $500,000, the awards
target innovative proposals from emerging scientists. A portion
of each researcher’s work will take place in mice. George
Naumov, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Vascular Biology
Program, will study why some prostate tumors and tumor metastases
remain small and dormant, while others grow aggressively. Michael
Fannon, PhD, also in Vascular Biology, will test a two-drug
treatment for prostate cancer that targets both the tumor cell and
the blood vessels that support it. Bekir Cinar, PhD,
a postdoctoral fellow in the Urological Diseases Research Center,
will explore the interplay between the male hormone androgen and
cellular growth factors in promoting or suppressing prostate tumor
growth.
••••••
Beaker bytes will be a
monthly column in Children’s News,
and we’d love to hear about your research! If you have received
a
grant, launched a new study or have a paper accepted for
publication, contact Nancy Fliesler at ext. 5-2426 or via
email at nancy.fliesler@childrens.harvard.edu.
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