The Future of Aging · Research Highlights

An innovative model enhances delivery of dementia care
Malaz Boustani, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine and a 2005 Scholar, is one of several researchers, healthcare professionals, and community advocates working to enhance dementia care in Indianapolis, the nation’s twelfth largest city. A year ago, the team launched the Indianapolis Discovery Network for Dementia (IDND) and has followed up this program with RAPID-PC (Recognizing and Assessing the Progression of Cognitive Impairment and Dementia in Primary Care). You can read more about these innovative programs here.

Falls Prevention in the News
2003 Beeson scholar Elizabeth Phelan, MD, director of the Fall Prevention Clinic at Harborview Medical Center and a University of Washington assistant professor of medicine, was quoted in an article on falls prevention in the September 10, 2007 issue of The Seattle Times. The article emphasized the preventive measures that older adults can take to avoid falls. To read the article, click here.

New Insights Into Role of Wnt Proteins
The work of Thomas Rando, MD, PhD, a 1999 Beeson scholar, was featured in a recent issue of Science. In studying the process of cellular aging and cell injury, Rando has discovered that adult stem cells, and particularly Wnt proteins, play an important role in the healing process. To read more, click here. Dr. Rando, associate professor of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine, received a 2005 Pioneer Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his research into enhancing the potential of stem cells to repair damaged tissue in the elderly. The goal of his research is to find ways to compensate for the age-related decline in the body's repair capability. His work also has the potential to help sufferers of degenerative diseases such as muscular dystrophy. For more information about Dr. Rando’s work and the Pioneer Award, go to: http://mednews.stanford.edu/releases/2005/september/pioneer-award.htm. Dr. Rando’s work was also included in the February 17, 2005 issue of Nature. To read more about the study, go to: http://med.stanford.edu/research/spotlight/archive/young_blood.html.

Health and Retirement Study Co-authored by Beeson Scholar
"Geriatric Conditions and Disability: The Health and Retirement Study," co-authored by 2003 Beeson Kenneth Langa, was published in the August 7, 2007 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study found that geriatric conditions are similar in prevalence to chronic diseases in older adults and in some cases are as strongly associated with disability. For more information about the study, click here.

Home Visits from Researchers May Increase Clinical Trial Participation
Jason Karlawish, a 2000 Beeson Scholar, recently received news coverage in the Washington Post and Forbes.com for his work on Alzheimer's disease patients' participation in clinical trials. Karlawish's study found that including home visits by researchers may help increase the number of caregivers who are willing to enroll Alzheimer's disease patients in clinical trials and may also increase the number of patients who stay enrolled in trials. You can read more about the study here.

Beeson Research Leads to Blood Test for Heart Attack Risk
2001 Beeson Scholar Mary Whooley and her colleagues at the University of California have published findings from a recent study indicating that a simple blood test may help doctors identify heart patients who are at high risk for having heart attacks, strokes, and heart failure. The test measures blood levels of the protein NT-proBNP and to be highly predictive cardiovascular risk. Read more about the study, published in the January 10, 2007 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, here.

Longevity and Cognitive Function Associated with Cholesterol-regulating Gene
The work of 1997 Beeson Nir Barzilai was published in the December issue of Neurology. Barzilai's research examined whether a variant of the CETP gene, called the V type, played a role in preserving cognitive function in 158 Ashkenazi Jews with exceptional longevity. Read more about this research at:
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2007/01/02/eline/links/20070102elin036.html and http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/67/12/2170. Read more about Dr. Barzilai's work in "Can we Tweak the Aging Process? Studies conducted with centenarians may hold the answer.."

Blood Transfusion Research Yields Important News for Female Heart Surgery Patients
The December issue of the American Heart Journal included a paper co-authored by 2003 Beeson Kenneth Langa on the risks of infection and death resulting from blood transfusions during heart surgery. The study suggests that patients who receive transfusions during heart bypass surgery have a higher risk of developing potentially dangerous infections, and dying, after their operation. This is particularly true for women. To learn more, go to: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-12/uomh-btr121906.php You can also read a feature article on Dr. Langa and his work at infoaging.org: http://websites.afar.org/site/PageServer?pagename=IA_feat48

Beeson Scholar Uses Innovative 3-D Brain Imaging to Track the Spread of Alzheimer's Disease
2005 Beeson Liana Apostolova and her team at the University of California, Los Angeles, have tracked the progress of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the living human brain using an innovative 3-dimensional imaging technique. This technique offers investigators a promising research tool that could facilitate intervention studies to determine the efficacy of traditional and novel therapeutic agents in slowing or halting disease progression. The research was published in the November issue of Brain. To read more about this exciting work, read the Medscape article here.

PBT2, A Novel Small Molecule, Shows Promise in Treating Alzheimer’s Disease in Mice
For years, clinicians and physicians have had little to offer Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients in the way of effective therapies. Current drug treatments can help manage symptoms and can even delay progression of symptoms for approximately six months, but these drugs have had no observable effect on the underlying pathology of AD. That could change if a new drug, known as PBT2, shows as much promise in humans that it has shown in mice. PBT2 is a second-generation chemical designed by a team of scientists led by Ashley Bush, MD, PhD. A 1995 Beeson scholar, Bush focused on PBT2 after studies revealed that PBT1 could reduce beta-amyloid plaques in mouse models of AD. To read about this exciting work click here.

Beeson Scholar Sparks Identification of Gene That Links Aging and Cancer
Beeson alumnus Norman E. Sharpless, MD, University of North Carolina (2003), along with colleagues Sean J. Morrison, Ph.D., University of Michigan, and David T. Scadden, MD, of Harvard Medical School, recently discovered that the tumor suppressor gene p16-Ink4a is linked to life span. Published online in the journal Nature on September 6, 2006, the researchers’ three independent articles suggest that efforts to prolong life span may have the unwanted side effect of increasing susceptibility to cancer. For more information about this discovery, read an interview with Dr. Sharpless here or visit http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2006/09/07/studies_find_general_mechanism_of_cellular_aging.html.

2002 Beeson Receives Honor from U.S. Government
Veterans Affairs researcher David Casarett, MD, MA, received a 2005 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from President Bush at the White House on July 26, 2006. The PECASE is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers. Established in 1996, these annual awards recognize top young scientists and engineers for their innovative research and their “exceptional potential to shape the future through intellectual and inspired leadership.”

Dr. Casarett's major research interest is understanding and improving the way that patients near the end of life and their families make medical decisions. His work in this area has included epidemiological studies of referral to hospice and utilization of alternatives to hospice, studies of decision-making about end of life care, and a randomized controlled trial of an intervention to promote earlier hospice referrals in nursing homes. Dr. Casarett is also the PI of federally funded studies to assess the quality of end-of-life care in the VA health care system, and to improve access to high-quality end of life care for patients with cancer.

Drink to your health?
According to Dr. Alison Moore, men with certain conditions or on certain medications might want to reconsider
After two major studies published in the late 1990s suggested that moderate consumption of alcohol in middle and old age reduced deaths from vascular disease by one-third, many older Americans felt a certain freedom to enjoy one or two drinks a day. But a recent study led by 1998 Beeson Scholar Alison Moore, M.D., associate professor of geriatric medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, has found that older men who drink as few as two drinks twice a week, and also have certain comorbidities, have higher death rates than men who drink less or don’t have similar comorbidities. Who’s most at risk? Men who have diseases that could be worsened by alcohol or who take medications that could interact with alcohol. For the full article, click here.

An ounce of prevention: Todd Golde uses monoclonal antibody therapy to prevent amyloid deposition in a mouse model
According to Todd Golde, MD, PhD, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, enough is known about the mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) to know this: Preventing the devastating neurodegenerative disease is likely to be far easier than finding a cure for it. In a recent study in which monoclonal antibodies were given to mice predisposed to AD, Golde, who is a recipient of the Paul B. Beeson Award, took a great leap forward in understanding just how it might be done. For the full article, click here.

Exciting New Research from Lee Goldstein: Optical Tests to Detect Alzheimer's in Early Stages
Lee Goldstein, MD, PhD, a 2004 Beeson scholar, presented his latest research at the 89th Annual Meeting of the Optical Society of America in October. Dr. Goldstein, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and his colleagues showed that the amyloid beta proteins that are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease are also found in the eye’s lens and its surrounding fluid. In those portions of the eye, the proteins form amyloid deposits similar to those in the brain. Dr. Goldstein and his colleagues developed two optical tests for detecting these proteins, and are envision them to be a two-step process for screening and then confirming an Alzheimer's diagnosis. Click here to learn more about these exciting developments.

Alzheimer Disease and the Blood Brain Barrier
The December 21, 2005, online edition of the Annals of Neurology includes research by 1995 Beeson scholar David Holtzman, MD, and colleagues from Washington University and the University of Pittsburgh. The study, which is the first to examine the relationship between levels of amyloid plaque deposits in the brain and different forms of beta-amyloid in cerebrospinal fluid in living humans, found that greater amounts of beta-amyloid containing plaques in the brain were associated with lower levels of a specific protein fragment, amyloid-beta 1-42, in CSF. Prior research indicates that amyloid-beta 1-42 is central to AD development. For more information about this study, go to: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-12/nioa-nsd122005.php.

The November 2005 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation features Dr. Holtzman's work demonstrating that P-glycoprotein is required for Abeta transport across the BBB and that ablation of this transporter at the BBB increases Abeta deposition in a mouse model of AD. For more information, go to: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-10/joci-ada100605.php.

Dr. Holtzman's research was also published in the February 2005 issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation. In that study, Dr. Holtzman found evidence that altering amyloid plaques in the brains of mice can not only halt nerve damage in the brain, but can actually reverse some if it. To read more visit: http://www.jci.org/cgi/reprint/115/2/428.pdf.

Alzheimer's Prevention Easier Than Cure?
1997 Beeson scholar Todd Golde, MD, PhD, and colleagues from the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, report evidence to suggest that prevention of amyloid deposition may be easier than curing established Alzheimer's disease. Their results appeared online on December 8, 2005, in advance of print publication in the January 2006 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. To read more, go to: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-12/joci-adp113005.php.

Expectations for Aging
A new study led by 2004 Beeson scholar Catherine Sarkisian, MD, assistant professor of medicine, geriatrics division, at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, found that seniors with the lowest expectations for aging—that is, for what one can do at an advanced age—were the most likely to lead sedentary lifestyles. Seniors with the lowest age expectations were more than twice as likely to report engaging in less than 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity during the previous week than those with higher age expectations. The study was based on the survey responses of 636 seniors recruited from 14 Los Angeles-area community-based senior centers. For more information about the study, which appears in the October 2005 issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine, go to: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2005.0204.x.

Blood Vessels Engineered from Human Cells
The pioneering work of Laura Niklason, MD, PhD, was featured in news outlets around the world in June, including The Washington Post, The News & Observer (NC) and BBC News Online. Dr. Niklason, an associate professor of surgery, anesthesiology, and biomedical engineering at Duke University in North Carolina, announced that she had grown new human blood vessels from an individual’s own older cells, a finding that represents a major step toward combating atherosclerosis, a disease of aging. Dr. Niklason's research under her 2001 AFAR Research Grant and 2002 Beeson Award focused on extending the lifespan of vascular cells and the engineering of vascular tissue. Results of her research appeared in the June 18, 2005 issue of The Lancet.

"Mirror-Image Pain" Research Yields Fascinating Results
Anne Louise Oaklander, MD, PhD, a 1999 Beeson scholar, and her colleagues at the Nerve Injury Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, have discovered that the so-called "mirror-image pain" patients sometimes experience in an uninjured arm or leg after suffering an injury to their opposite limb, can't simply be explained away by overuse of the uninjured limb, or as psychological. These findings were published in the May 2004 issue of Annals of Neurology. For the abstract, go to: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/107639615/ABSTRACT. For the article that appeared on ScienCentralNews in May 2005, go to: http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?type=article&article_id=218392543.

Treating Depression in Older Adults
A new study by Christopher Callahan, MD, a 1996 Beeson scholar, and his colleagues at the Indiana University School of Medicine, found that treatment for depression in older adults can be effective, and that when successful, may help slow physical decline and extend independent living. The study was published in the March 2005 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. For the full news release, go to: http://www.medicine.indiana.edu/news_releases/index.php4?year=2005.

For other Beeson scholars conducting research on depression, click here.

Human Stem Cells Can Develop Into Functional Vascularized Muscle Tissue
Jay Edelberg, MD, a 2001 Beeson scholar, and his colleagues Dr. Shahin Rafii and Dr. Barbara Hempstead at Weill Medical College at Cornell University, have discovered that a specific type of human fetal stem cell can co-differentiate simultaneously into both muscle and blood vessel cells, which may unlock the door to therapies that replace damaged tissue in the heart and other organs. These findings were published in the March 2005 issue of Circulation. For the full news release about this research, go to: http://global.med.cornell.edu/news/wcmc/wcmc_2005/03_22_05.shtml.

For other Beeson scholars conducting research on cardiovascular diseases, click here.

Alcohol Consumption & Aging
In February 2005, the UCLA News reported on a recent study by 1998 Beeson scholar Alison Moore. Dr. Moore's study "Longitudinal Patterns and Predictors of Alcohol Consumption in the United States," looked at the relationship between alcohol consumption and aging, using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of 1971-75 and from follow-ups conducted between 1982 and 1992. The study was published in the March 2005 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. To view the abstract, go to: http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/abstract/95/3/458. Click here for the UCLA article.

Osteoporosis Diagnosis
The December 15, 2004 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association featured the work 2004 Beeson scholar Cathleen Colon-Emeric. The objective of Dr. Colon-Emeric's study was to review the accuracy and precision of physical examination findings for the diagnosis of osteopenia, osteoporosis, and spinal fracture. Her study, which included literature review and interviews, showed that patients who do not meet current bone mineral density screening criteria may have physical signs, such as low weight, that suggest the need for earlier screening. To view the abstract, go to: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/292/23/2890. For an update on Dr. Colon-Emeric's work, read this 2007 article.

For other Beeson scholars conducting research on osteoporosis, click here.

New Discoveries in Alzheimer's Research
The December 15, 2004 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association also featured the work 2003 Beeson scholar Kenneth M. Langa. Dr. Langa's research provides an overview of the diagnosis, pathophysiology and interaction of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia in mixed dementia, and provides a systematic literature review of the current evidence for the pharmacologic therapy of mixed dementia. To view the abstract, go to: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/292/23/2901.

For other Beeson scholars conducting research on Alzheimer's disease, click here.

Cognitive Decline in Older Adults
2001 Beeson scholar Kristine Yaffe and her work in the area of cognitive decline in older adults was featured in UCSF Magazine in April 2004. Click here for the full article.

Dementia & Voting
The Fall/Winter 2004 issue of PennMedicine featured 2000 Beeson scholar Jason Karlawish and his study of the relationship between dementia and voting. Click here for the full article.