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Helping Youth Avoid Risky Behavior: Family-Based Program
Children"s behavior is determined, in part, by their genes and by the settings in which they develop. A new longitudinal study describes how a family-based prevention program helped rural African American teens avoid engaging in risky behaviors, even if some of them may have had a genetic risk to do so.
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Vigils Held Worldwide To Protest Jailing Of Iranian Physicians Who Addressed HIV/AIDS
Health professionals on Tuesday held vigils in several cities worldwide to protest the imprisonment of Iranian brothers Kamiar and Arash Alaei -- physicians and leading HIV/AIDS advocates in the country -- following the release of Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, the Albany Times Union reports. Vigils were held in cities such as New York City and Washington, D.C., as a day of global protest against the brothers" imprisonment. Vigils also were held in cities across Africa, Asia, Europe and South America, according to the Times Union.Jonathan Hutson -- a spokesperson for Physicians for Human Rights, which is leading a campaign for the brothers" release -- said, "The release of Ms. Saberi has shifted the world"s attention to the plight of others who are likewise jailed in Iran on trumped-up charges." He added, "This is not an issue of politics, but of global health. The only battle they were engaged in is the public health battle to prevent and treat the deadly epidemic of AIDS. They need to be allowed to return to their lifesaving work" (Grondahl, Albany Times Union, 5/13). Related Editorials
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American Optometric Association Supports New Federal Health Report Findings: Vision Screening Methods For Seniors Are Lacking
A report released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ) indicates that vision screenings, using standard methods of assessing visual acuity in older adults, a practice common in the primary care setting, is insufficient for use as a secondary prevention or screening method. The American Optometric Association (AOA) highlights the significance of the report as an important, evidence-based analysis that health care providers and aging Americans should carefully consider.
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Hemophilia A Mice Benefit From Gene Therapy

Hemophilia A is an inherited bleeding disease caused by a lack of the blood clotting protein Factor VIII. It had been hoped that gene therapy would provide a breakthrough in treatment, but the most common gene therapy approach has had little clinical success. However, a team of researchers, at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, has now developed a new approach to target genes specifically to mouse liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (the cells that are the main of Factor VIII) and used it to provide long-term expression of Factor VIII in hemophilia A mice, markedly reducing their disease. They hope that their data might prove to be a step toward successful human clinical trials in individuals with hemophilia A. The team, led by Betsy Kren and Clifford Steer, coated nanoparticles with hyaluron so that they targeted liver sinusoidal endothelial cells. To test the efficacy of gene delivery, the hyaluron-coated nanoparticles were engineered to contain a therapeutic gene (Factor VIII) together with a genetic element known as Sleeping Beauty, which helps the therapeutic gene insert into the genome of the targeted cells (i.e, the liver sinusoidal endothelial cells). Even 50 weeks after hemophilia A mice were injected with these nanoparticles, levels of Factor VIII in the blood were the same as in the blood of normal mice and bleeding times were also similar to those of normal mice. The authors hope that this combination of technologies, the cell-specific nanocapsule delivery system and the Sleeping Beauty genetic element, will prove to be a viable gene therapy. TITLE: Nanocapsule-delivered Sleeping Beauty mediates therapeutic Factor VIII expression in liver sinusoidal endothelial cells of hemophilia A mice http://https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=34332 Karen Honey Journal of Clinical Investigation


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