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er for drivers to stay in bus
said Kamal Aldomour,
for Ranger Taxi who ow
own vehicle. Stagnant cab:
rates and an increase in gasi
prices already have cut into
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have to lease a vehicle Ifomlh
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make ends meet,” he said,
vid Jini. a manager for Exec
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SCIENCE
'uesday, May 2,2000
THE BATTALION
Page 11
Doctors fight brain defect
it after
ial photo
okesperson Barney Welchln
eived legal documents show
i had accepted the district's!!
t offer, which was approve;
)l board meeting April 25.
io superintendent nor I b
ig about it on Friday ai
Welch said. “It vvasasuf
to pick up the paper andn
irdav morning that the case
.‘tiled for $150,000. As fat
land, there is nothing that is
just have to wait andsee."
BETFIESDA, Md. (AP) — About two dozen
hildren cluster around Dr. Max Muenke. Most sit in
vheelchairs, their muscles either too rigid to move or
oo floppy to hold them up. Many cannot speak.
Some faces hear signs of their illness: a misshapen
lead, cleft palate, eyes pushed together. In the worst
:ases, babies may have one centered eye.
These children have a baffling brain defect called
toloprosencephaly, and their parents brought them to
he National Institutes of Health (NIH) in desperate
ac tope that Muenke can help unlock the mystery.
Sometime during the first few weeks of fetal de-
elopment, something went terribly wrong and
topped these children’s brains from dividing into
lormal right and left sides. Now, scientists at the NIH
ind five new brain centers around the country have
iegun the first real effort to attack this defect and im-
ove these children’s lives.
The reason: A wealthy Dallas family, frustrated at
loctors’ inability to help their 4-year-old son, has
aised almost $10 million bankrolling new “Carter
Centers for Brain Research” to study 11PI and pro-
ide expert care.
Muenke’s quest is to test these children’s genes,
lunting which ones went wrong. The first question a
arent asks: Will the gene testing provide a cure?
u We need to learn first how come your child has
loloprosencephaly,” Muenke replies gently. “I feel
would he lying to you if I said I expect a cure in the
next years.”
Yet while he warns against false hope, Muenke is
:autiously excited. Already, drugs are helping some
hildren move better. Cutting-edge brain tests are re-
ealing cognitive function. Tools to help children
learn and communicate are under development. Sus
pect genes are under study.
“We’re pushing the envelope,” said Dr. Stephen
Kinsman of the HPE center at Baltimore’s Kennedy
Krieger Institute. “We’re saying, ’How is the brain
working in this child and what are the next brain
processes we need to help in this child’s development
that will give them more function?”’
And the influence of the new Carter centers
sparked the NIH to bring together about 70 neuro
scientists to share the latest research with parents.
“I want to ask how much more can 1 do for her. I
want to know if there is something more,” said Irene
Leal, who brought 4-year-old Jessica from Texas to
be examined at NIH.
Jessica can’t walk or talk, but she has proved
wrong doctors who predicted she’d have no mental
function: With a huge grin, she promptly responds
when her mom, in English or Spanish, asks her to
blow a kiss.
HPE affects an estimated one in 10,000 live
births and is believed responsible for thousands
more miscarriages.
Severe HPE can kill quickly, while some mildly
affected children may live largely normal lives. Mod
erate HPE, in turn, causes varying disabilities: prob
lems moving, seizures, inability to speak or eat solid
foods, and facial defects.
Specialists can help, yet parent after parent tells
of doctors who dismissed them.
“There is a huge amount of ignorance out there in
the physician community,” said Dr. Hal Urschel III,
who knew little about HPE until his son Chance was
born with it.
Frustrated by the hunt for care, his family’s Don
and Linda Carter Foundation recruited specialists and
established HPE centers at Krieger, Texas Scottish
Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas, Stanford Uni
versity, Rutgers University, and the Children’s Hos
pital of Philadelphia.
The centers provide HPE exams, enroll patients
in treatment studies, and guide families to medical in
formation and resources for equipment like wheel
chairs. Many services are free to families; check
http://www.stanford.edu/group/hpe for information.
What these scientists learn about IIPE could open
new insight into numerous other brain disorders, such
as cerebral palsy.
Nobody knows what causes 1 IPE. Mothers with
diabetes or abnonnally low cholesterol levels seem at
higher risk of having an HPE baby. Occasionally is it
inherited. Various drugs or chemicals are suspects.
Doctors can’t rebuild a malformed brain. Still,
“we’ve seen a lot of progress,” said Nancy Clegg of
Texas Scottish Rite, describing drugs that ease some
movement problems.
Now cutting-edge brain tests promise to deter
mine why one child fares so much worse than anoth
er, and what cognitive function patients who can’t
move or speak actually have.
How? Rutgers scientists measure IQ by tracking
a child's eye gaze. Another test measures fleeting
electrical impulses to pinpoint which brain regions
function best. Figure that out and scientists might one
day push those regions to work better, said neurosci
entist April Benasich.
Cancer treatment
may be dangerous
WASHINGTON (AP) — A com
pound that seemed like a promis
ing new weapon in the battle
against cancer may face a cloud
ed future following the discovery
that it kills human liver cells.
The agent, called TRAIL, has
been under investigation for use
against many types of cancer be
cause it causes cancerous ceils to
die. It had proven safe in mice and
, non-human primates and human
tests were on the near horizon.
A team of researchers led by
Stephen C. Strom of the Universi
ty of Pittsburgh discovered that
human liver cells exposed to the
compound in lab tests were killed.
Their findings are being published
in the May issue of the journal Na
ture Medicine.
The drug firms Immunex and
Genentech have been working to
gether on the development of
TRAIL. Officials there said they
were forging ahead with the de
velopment while also working with
Strom, who has advised them of
his findings.
“We are certainly not dismiss
ing Dr. Strom’s findings. In fact,
quite to the contrary, we are work
ing closely with him,” said Doug
Williams, chief technology officer
at Immunex.
Williams said there are ques
tions about whether the molecule
used in Strom's tests is exactly
the same as the type developed
by Immunex and Genentech and
also whether its effect in a work
ing liver would be the same as in
liver cells in a lab test.
Anger may lead
to more attacks
DALLAS (AP) — People who are
highly anger-prone are nearly
three times more likely to have a
heart attack, a study found.
The connection between anger
and heart attacks held true even
after researchers took into ac
count other major risk factors
such as high blood pressure, high
cholesterol, smoking and obesity.
“The implications of our study
are that anger could potentially
lead to heart attacks, especially
among middle-aged men and
women with normal blood pres
sure,” said Janice Williams, an epi
demiologist in Atlanta who led the
study while at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The study adds to previous re
search showing a link between
heart health and depression, hos
tility and other emotions.
Previous studies have shown
that stress hormones constrict
blood vessels and may trigger a
blockage in the arteries.
The latest findings appear in
Monday’s issue of Circulation, a
journal of the American Heart
Association.
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