News Releases - November 2013 Archives

ROCHESTER, Minn. — The public is invited to enjoy three Rosemary and Meredith Willson Harmony for Mayo Program concerts in December. Performances will be on Mondays from 12:10 to 1 p.m. in Barbara Woodward Lips Atrium, subway level, Rochester Methodist Hospital, Charlton Building, 10 Third Ave. NW. The schedule is: Dec. 2: John Gorka will perform in Lips Atrium. This world-renowned singer-songwriter has toured across the globe sharing his soulful baritone and original songs. His 11 albums, collector's box set and greatest hits collection have garnered popular and critical acclaim. Gorka lives in Minnesota and continues to tour North America and Europe. Dec. 9: Minnesota natives Sally Barris and Jon Vezner will perform a holiday concert in Lips Atrium. Barris is an expressive soprano and Grammy-nominated songwriter. Vezner received a Grammy for Best Country Song in 1990 and is a talented singer and bassist.

Two-year study of Plavix and Brilinta to include approximately 5,300 patients from 15 hospitals worldwide; participant DNA biobank to help elucidate genomics of coronary artery ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Research has shown that the intestinal microbiome plays a large role in the development of Type 1 diabetes. Now, researchers at Mayo Clinic have demonstrated that gluten in the diet may modify the intestinal microbiome, increasing incidences of Type 1 diabetes. The research was published Nov. 13, in the journal PLOS ONE. MULTIMEDIA ALERT: Click here to retrieve video and photography from the Mayo Clinic News Network. These researchers demonstrated that mice fed a gluten-free diet had a dramatically reduced incidence of Type 1 diabetes. These mice were non-obese diabetic mice, or mice that grow to develop Type 1 diabetes. The gluten-free diet worked to protect the mice against Type 1 diabetes. When the researchers added gluten back into the diets of mice it reversed the protective effect the gluten free diet had provided. There also was a measurable impact of the gluten on the bacterial flora of the mice that might be one way in which gluten could affect the risk for diabetes. "These changes suggest that the presence of gluten is directly responsible for the diabetes-creating effects of diet and determines the gut microflora," says Govindarajan Rajagopalan, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic immunologist and study author.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Patients with rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and other chronic forms of inflammatory arthritis can face life-threatening complications, and heart disease tops the list. People with such rheumatic diseases are twice as likely as the average person to develop heart problems. Catching heart disease early is critical. Mayo cardiologists and rheumatologists have joined forces to create the Mayo Clinic Cardio-Rheumatology Clinic to pioneer new diagnostic tools and break this dangerous disease connection. MULTIMEDIA ALERT: Video of Dr. Matteson is available for download from the Mayo Clinic News Network. Mayo Clinic has found that the traditional methods used to pinpoint heart disease risk, such as the Framingham Risk Score, do not work very well in rheumatic disease patients, because their heart disease may manifest itself in a different and more subtle way. To prevent, detect and treat heart problems as early as possible, the Cardio-Rheumatology Clinic examines a broader spectrum of risk factors. "We offer patients a more detailed assessment of their cardiovascular status and a more detailed examination of risk factors besides the usual conventional risk factors such as lipids, cholesterol and smoking," says Eric Matteson, M.D., Mayo Clinic rheumatology chair, who is moderating a presentation Saturday on "cardio rheumatology" during an American Heart Association scientific meeting in Dallas. "We also are taking into account the rheumatic disease burden, the disease activity and the treatment of the rheumatic disease as a factor for mitigating cardiovascular risk." In part based on Mayo Clinic research, Cardio-Rheumatology Clinic physicians are employing new ultrasound techniques to evaluate blood vessels for the earliest signs of heart disease. "By evaluating and educating our patients early on in their rheumatic disease processes, we hope to be able to understand the mechanisms and make a difference in the development and severity of their atherosclerotic complications," says Sharon Mulvagh, M.D., a cardiologist and director of the Mayo Clinic's Women's Heart Clinic, noting heart attack and stroke risk in particular. Because women are more commonly affected by autoimmune disorders, the Cardio-Rheumatology Clinic will be located within the Women's Heart Clinic. Physicians plan to publish their findings from the clinic as part of a long-standing Mayo Clinic effort to identify the factors driving heart disease in rheumatic disease patients, reduce risk and slow the progression of heart disease. There is some evidence that moderating inflammation through treatment reduces the risk of heart disease in patients with rheumatic diseases, Dr. Matteson says. But, physicians do not really know why there is this connection between heart problems and rheumatic diseases, he adds. "We think it must have to do with the inflammatory burden of the rheumatic disease; that is, the same process that leads to inflammation in the joints, for instance in rheumatoid arthritis, may also affect the lining of the blood vessels," Dr. Matteson says.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida, the University of Florida in Gainesville, and the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle have received a $7.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to take a new and more expanded approach to identifying drug targets to treat and possibly prevent Alzheimer's disease. VIDEO ALERT: Video resources including an interview with Dr. Ertekin-Taner describing the study can be found on the Mayo Clinic News Network. The investigators are working together to understand the role that innate immunity — the body's defense system — plays in Alzheimer's disease, a disorder of dementia that is rapidly increasing as the population ages. The teams are focused on uncovering and manipulating the key molecular players in innate immunity with an ultimate goal of developing novel therapies for Alzheimer's disease, says neurologist and neuroscientist Nilufer Ertekin-Taner, M.D., Ph.D., one of the grant's two principal investigators from Mayo Clinic in Florida. The other is Steven Younkin, M.D., Ph.D. "When activated, human innate immunity results in inflammation, and previous research on this response to development of Alzheimer's disease has been contradictory because no one has yet looked at the whole picture of this effect over time," says Dr. Ertekin-Taner. "It may be that an initial inflammatory response is beneficial, perhaps even protective, but a lengthy response to toxic proteins acts to kill healthy neurons. "Our goal is to understand exactly if and when an innate immune response is good, and when it is bad, and to identify drug targets that enhance this protective effect and shut down the destructive side of this inflammation."

ROCHESTER, Minn. — The list of complications from type 2 diabetes is long: vascular and heart disease, eye problems, nerve damage, kidney disease, hearing problems and Alzheimer's disease. Physicians have long thought of osteoporosis as another outcome. Based on a Mayo Clinic study published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, that's confirmed: You can definitely add skeletal problems to that list. MULTIMEDIA ALERT: : Video of Dr. Khosla is available for download on the Mayo Clinic News Network. "This is the first demonstration — using direct measurement of bone strength in the body — of compromised bone material in patients with type 2 diabetes," says Sundeep Khosla, M.D. , Mayo Clinic endocrinologist and senior author of the study. "Clearly, the skeleton needs to be recognized as another important target of diabetes complications." Previous studies in the field showed that patients with diabetes experienced fractures at levels of bone density above that of the regular population, hinting that something was different about the "quality" of their bone. The Mayo researchers validated that assumption in a clinical study of 60 postmenopausal women, 30 of whom had type 2 diabetes. Using a new tool (OsteoProbe®), the researchers performed micro indentation testing of the tibia (actually causing a microscopic crack) to measure bone material strength. Compared to the control group of women, aged 50 to 80, the group with type 2 diabetes had significantly lower bone material strength. There was no difference between the microarchitecture of the bone or bone density between the two groups. The study showed that diabetic women with lower bone material strength had also experienced higher levels of hyperglycemia over the previous 10 years, suggesting potential detrimental effects of poor glucose control on bone quality.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Richard Sharp, Ph.D., joins Mayo Clinic as director of the newly-formed Mayo Clinic Biomedical Ethics Program. Dr. Sharp and his team help researchers, physicians ...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees welcomed Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, as a new member during a meeting today. The trustees also elected Shirley ...

EDA will lead the process to establish DMC development plan ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic announced today the appointment of six members to ...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Nov. 7, 2013 — Use of a minimally invasive endoscopic procedure to remove superficial, early stage esophageal cancer is as effective as surgery that takes out and rebuilds the esophagus, according to a study by researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida. The research, published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, examined national outcomes from endoscopic treatment compared to esophagectomy, surgical removal of the esophagus. VIDEO ALERT: Video resources including an interview with Dr. Wallace describing the study can be found on the Mayo Clinic News Network. It found that endoscopic therapy offered long-term survival rates similar to those for esophagectomy, says lead author, Michael B. Wallace, M.D., a gastroenterologist at Mayo Clinic in Florida.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — New research from Mayo Clinic finds that half of elderly patients who start dialysis after age 75 will die within one year. The findings are being presented this week at the American Society of Nephrology's Kidney Week 2013 in Atlanta. JOURNALISTS: For multimedia resources and membership, visit the Mayo Clinic News Network. "Many elderly patients and their families feel that they have no choice but to start dialysis, with several expressing regret from having initiated therapy," says primary care physician Bjorg Thorsteinsdottir, M.D., lead study author and a health care delivery scholar with the Mayo Clinic Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery. "The goal of our study was to develop evidence about dialysis outcomes to help guide shared decision-making among the patient, family members and care team." Researchers reviewed four years of medical records for 379 patients who were at least 75 years old when they began dialysis treatment at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. The majority (76 percent) started dialysis while in the hospital for a chronic illness or sudden medical event such as pneumonia. Mortality was very high, with 40 percent of patients dying within six months. The highest mortality rates were seen in patients who started dialysis in the intensive care unit. Only 27 percent were alive after six months. Patients who started dialysis in the hospital often were not able to return home. Of the patients admitted to the hospital from home, 28 percent died while in the hospital or were discharged to hospice, 28 percent were discharged to a nursing home, and only 37 percent were able to return home to independent living.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic researchers have shown that a molecule called Cul4 helps to deposit DNA-packaging histone proteins onto DNA, an integral step in cramming yards of genetic code into compact coils that can fit into each cell. When DNA isn't packaged correctly, it can lead to the genomic instability characteristic of many forms of cancer. MULTIMEDIA ALERT: Images are available on the Mayo Clinic News Network. The research is published in the Nov. 7 issue of the journal Cell. The results explain on a molecular level how Cul4 enables the handoff of histones from the proteins escorting them from their birthplace in the cell to their workplace on the DNA, where they can begin wrapping DNA up into tidy units called nucleosomes. "We suggest that cancer cells may have evolved a mechanism to disrupt proper nucleosome assembly by altering Cul4 and other factors, which in turn could affect the stability of the genome and promote the formation of tumors," says senior study author Zhiguo Zhang, Ph.D., a molecular biologist at Mayo Clinic. To protect the integrity of the genome, DNA is packaged tightly, first around spools of histone to form nucleosomes, then stacked on top of each other to form chromatin and finally looped and coiled to form chromosomes. Depending on whether and how histones interact with a given genetic sequence, the DNA is either closed up tightly within this package or lies open so that the underlying genes can be read and become active. Researchers have long known that special proteins — called histone chaperones — escort histones around the cell, but how they finally let go of the histones to deposit them onto DNA was unclear. Dr. Zhang wondered if Cul4, which is altered in a number of human cancers, including breast cancer, squamous cell carcinomas, adrenocortical carcinomas, and malignant mesotheliomas, might be involved. So he and his colleagues developed a series of cellular assays in yeast and in human cells to investigate the role of Cul4 in nucleosome assembly. They found that Cul4 modifies the chemical entities on the surface of the histones, weakening the interaction between them and the histone chaperones charged with their care. They noticed that the same observations held true in the yeast indicating that the role of Cul4 in nucleosome assembly and genome stability is likely conserved between yeast and human cells. "We uncovered a novel molecular mechanism whereby Cul4 regulates nucleosome assembly," says Dr. Zhang. "Our finding underscores the fact that proper regulation of the nucleosome assembly pathway is a key step in maintaining genome stability and epigenetic information."