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Senate Dems Eye August Timeline, Search For Savings
Despite some roadblocks, Senate Democrats are trying to hold true to their pledge to pass health care reform legislation by the August recess, Roll Call reports.
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As Reform Stalls, Senators Scramble To Scale Back Or Cut Costs
"The high cost of securing health insurance for all Americans, the top domestic priority of President Obama, has Congressional Democrats scrambling to scale back their proposals or find ways to trim tens of billions of dollars a year from existing health programs," the New York Times reports. Early estimates for the cost of the Senate Finance Committee"s reform proposal are far higher than anticipated, forcing leading senators in charge of shaping the legislation into a holding pattern as they seek lower-cost alternatives. Among the items being considered: ""an automatic mechanism" to reduce the growth of Medicare under an expedited procedure like the one used to close military bases" and a requirement that some employers contribute to the cost of Medicaid or private health insurance for low-wage workers.
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Looking At Leisure To Promote Mental Illness Recovery
It"s well known that those who suffer from mental illness can benefit greatly from an active lifestyle. But most of the existing research focuses almost solely on physical activity, and while exercise is certainly important for mind and body, Temple researcher Yoshitaka Iwasaki says it"s not the only aspect of an active lifestyle.
Cardiovascular

Repeated Stress Signals Made In Cells With Metabolism-Associated Disease Encourage The Growth Of Invading Bacteria

Mitochondrial diseases disrupt the power generating machinery within cells and increase a person"s susceptibility to bacterial infection, particularly in the lungs or respiratory tract. A new study published in Disease Models & Mechanisms (DMM), shows that infection with the pneumonia causing bacteria Legionella, is facilitated by an increased amount of a signaling protein that is associated with mitochondrial disease. Patients with mitochondrial disease exhibit a wide range of symptoms including diabetes, blindness, deafness, stroke-like episodes, epilepsy, ataxia, muscle weakness and kidney disease. The metabolic abnormalities that cause these effects also induce a stress signal intended to help the body overcome its energy deficit. The stress-signal induces the production of more mitochondria, the energy generating "powerplants" of the body, in the hopes that more mitochondria will result in a better power supply. Researchers now show that the stress-signal associated with mitochondrial disease facilitates the growth and reproduction of the lung-infecting bacteria, Legionella. Cells with mitochondrial disease increase their production of a signaling protein called AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), to promote the generation of more energy producing mitochondria. Infectious bacteria, like Legionella, target the mitochondria and might use them to supplement their own needs and survival requirements. By manipulating AMPK levels, scientists were able to directly influence the ability of bacteria to replicate inside of the single-celled organism, Dictyostelium. Striking similarities that exist between simple organisms like Dictyostelium and humans allow scientists to use them to understand human disease. Dictyostelium is a free-living amoeba whose rapid movements make it useful to study motility and energy regulation, and in this case, the association between energy regulation and susceptibility to infection. Like humans, Dictyostelium can be infected by Legionella and quickly responds by producing a host of metabolism-associated proteins. Another similarity between humans and Dictyostelium is that both use AMPK as an internal sensor to coordinate energy synthesis with energy needs. However, unlike humans, researchers can infect Dictyostelium with germs like Legionella in a controlled environment and determine the influence of various parameters on the course of infection. The report titled "Legionella pneumophila multiplication is enhanced by chronic AMPK signalling in mitochondrially diseased cells" was written by Lisa Francione, Paige K. Smith, Sandra L. Accari, Paul B. Bokko and Paul Fisher at La Trobe Univeristy in Australia, Salvatore Bozzaro at University of Turin in Italy and Phillip E Taylor and Peter L. Beech at Deakin University in Australia. The study is published in the September/October 2009 issue of the new research journal, Disease Models & Mechanisms (DMM), published by The Company of Biologists, a non-profit based in Cambridge, UK. Kristy Kain The Company of Biologists


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