JAMA features mice, chinchilla studies to teach docs about basic science

Wednesday, April 3rd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

CHICAGO (AP) _ Hoping to underscore the importance of basic research, the Journal of the American Medical Association has devoted an entire issue to promising but preliminary studies _ including experiments on mice and chinchillas _ that could lead to advances against everything from ear infections to cancer.

It is the first time the journal's editors have devoted an issue to basic research that has no immediate applications for treating humans.

Dr. Catherine DeAngelis, the journal's editor, acknowledged that the science in Wednesday's issue is very preliminary and ``may go over some of our readers' heads.'' But she said every article ``has a potential substantial clinical implication.''

The issue includes a University of Michigan study involving mice that found that high levels of leptin, a hormone produced in fat cells, could explain why obese people are prone to dangerous blood clots.

Another animal study features red-and-green microscopic pictures of mucus from the middle ear of chinchillas with ear infections. The researchers, from Pittsburgh's Allegheny Singer Research Institute, said they found evidence that bacteria that cause ear infections form a protective barrier called a biofilm.

If the same thing happens in humans, that could explain why children's ear infections often do not respond to antibiotics, which may be unable to penetrate the biofilm, DeAngelis said.

``What we've got to figure out now is, how do you break up that biofilm?'' she said.

Much of this basic science research is government-funded, and DeAngelis praised President Bush's proposed budget of more than $27 billion for the National Institutes of Health next year. It would be the largest increase ever for the NIH _ a $3.7 billion gain, almost half of which would go to bioterrorism research.

Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said in a JAMA editorial that funding for basic research should remain a priority even as the government is forced to redirect resources to the battle against terrorism.

Frist, the only physician in the Senate, said policymakers must work with scientists and doctors to ``improve the ability to translate research advancements into improved patient care.''

The latest journal also includes ``translational studies,'' the middle step between basic science and clinical studies involving humans.

Publishing more preliminary research in JAMA is important because it ``makes a lot of this molecular work seem more clinically relevant to people who might not be used to looking'' at it, said Dr. Mark Rubin of the University of Michigan, whose prostate cancer study is featured in the journal.

Rubin and colleagues identified a gene that triggers production of a protein that is overabundant in prostate cancer cells _ a discovery they say could lead to a more accurate blood test for the disease.

Other JAMA highlights include human DNA research suggesting that elevated levels of a protein called osteopontin could signal ovarian cancer, which could potentially lead to a blood test to detect the disease at an early stage, said cancer researcher Samuel Mok of Harvard University's Brigham and Women's Hospital.