Benefits of statin therapy may extend beyond lowering lipids

ScienceDaily (Jan. 4, 2012) ? People with high cholesterol are at risk of heart attack and stroke because atherosclerotic plaques within their arteries can rupture triggering the formation of a blood clot called an occlusive thrombus that cuts off the blood supply to their heart or brain.

For years, scientists have studied the cause of this abnormal clotting. Now, a study led by researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine has identified a molecular pathway that leads to this abnormal blood clotting. The researchers then turned off the pathway by using a popular class of cholesterol-lowering drugs, statins.

The research was performed using humans, monkeys and mice with highly elevated blood lipid levels. It indicated that elevated levels of oxidized low density lipoprotein (LDL) induces a molecule called "tissue factor" that triggers clotting. The study appears online in the January 3, 2012 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

"Statins have been shown to have antithrombotic activity in several previous studies. However, I believe our study is the first to elucidate how statins reduce the activation of the blood clotting process independently of their lipid lowering activity, said senior study author Nigel Mackman, PhD, FAHA. Mackman is the John C. Parker Distinguished Professor of Hematology in the Department of Medicine and Director of the UNC McAllister Heart Institute.

Additionally, Mackman noted that statins "only target the 'bad and inducible tissue factor', not the good one used in normal clotting, and therefore should not be associated with the increased bleeding risk that is a typical side effect of anticoagulant drugs currently on the market."

Mackman has spent the last twenty-five years studying tissue factor, the number one initiator of clotting in the body. Tissue factor normally resides outside the blood vessels, only coming into contact with blood after an injury, such as cutting your finger. However, it is expressed at high levels under certain abnormal conditions, such as inside atherosclerotic plaques, and gets turned on in a special subset of blood cells called monocytes. Mackman wondered if this was the cause for the abnormal clotting seen in patients with high cholesterol.

To test his hypothesis, Mackman and his colleagues analyzed humans, monkeys and mice with high cholesterol. They found that all three groups have elevated levels of tissue factor in the circulation.

Then the researchers treated the mice and monkeys with simvastatin, a drug widely used to treat high blood cholesterol levels. They showed that simvastatin reduced levels of oxidized low density lipoprotein and circulating tissue factor which normalized coagulation without altering plasma cholesterol levels. These results suggest that oxidized low density lipoproteins induce tissue factor expression on monocytes and this contributes to formation of an occlusive thrombus after plaque rupture.

"Though statin therapy is primarily prescribed to lower cholesterol, some added benefits are its anti-inflammatory and antithrombotic activities," said Mackman. "In terms of drug development, I think we should be trying to better understand the antithrombotic activities of statins so we can develop safer antithrombotic drugs that target the expression of inducible tissue factor."

The research was funded largely by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, a component of the National Institutes of Health. The majority of this work was performed by A. Phillip Owens III, PhD. Other study co-authors from Dr. Mackman's lab at UNC were Silvio Antoniak, PhD; Julie C. Williams; and Jianguo Wang, PhD.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. A. Phillip Owens, Freda H. Passam, Silvio Antoniak, Stephanie M. Marshall, Allison L. McDaniel, Lawrence Rudel, Julie C. Williams, Brian K. Hubbard, Julie-Ann Dutton, Jianguo Wang, Peter S. Tobias, Linda K. Curtiss, Alan Daugherty, Daniel Kirchhofer, James P. Luyendyk, Patrick M. Moriarty, Shanmugam Nagarajan, Barbara C. Furie, Bruce Furie, Douglas G. Johns, Ryan E. Temel, Nigel Mackman. Monocyte tissue factor?dependent activation of coagulation in hypercholesterolemic mice and monkeys is inhibited by simvastatin. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2012; DOI: 10.1172/JCI58969

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120104153743.htm

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Casio?s New G-SHOCK Connects To Smartphones, Shows Incoming Calls, Emails, SMS

Casio Japan is planning [JP] to roll out the G-SHOCK GB-6900 on March 16 next year, a wristwatch that connects to certain smartphones via Bluetooth LE (LE=low-energy, a standard that's baked into Bluetooth 4.0). The device will be compatible with the Medias LTE N-04D Android phone from NEC (to be released next year) and NEC's Medias PP N-01D. Casio says that the G-SHOCK not only synchronizes the time with the phones but also shows incoming calls, emails, or SMS on its display. Users can also switch their handsets to vibration mode by pushing a button on the watch or set alarms.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/lSn26Bw9D0w/

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In a first, gas and other fuels are top US export (AP)

NEW YORK ? For the first time, the top export of the United States, the world's biggest gas guzzler, is ? wait for it ? fuel.

Measured in dollars, the nation is on pace this year to ship more gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel than any other single export, according to U.S. Census data going back to 1990. It will also be the first year in more than 60 that America has been a net exporter of these fuels.

Just how big of a shift is this? A decade ago, fuel wasn't even among the top 25 exports. And for the last five years, America's top export was aircraft.

The trend is significant because for decades the U.S. has relied on huge imports of fuel from Europe in order to meet demand. It only reinforced the image of America as an energy hog. And up until a few years ago, whenever gasoline prices climbed, there were complaints in Congress that U.S. refiners were not growing quickly enough to satisfy domestic demand; that controversy would appear to be over.

Still, the U.S. is nowhere close to energy independence. America is still the world's largest importer of crude oil. From January to October, the country imported 2.7 billion barrels of oil worth roughly $280 billion.

Fuel exports, worth an estimated $88 billion in 2011, have surged for two reasons:

? Crude oil, the raw material from which gasoline and other refined products are made, is a lot more expensive. Oil prices averaged $95 a barrel in 2011, while gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon ? a record. A decade ago oil averaged $26 a barrel, while gasoline averaged $1.44 a gallon.

? The volume of fuel exports is rising. The U.S. is using less fuel because of a weak economy and more efficient cars and trucks. That allows refiners to sell more fuel to rapidly growing economies in Latin America, for example. In 2011, U.S. refiners exported 117 million gallons per day of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other petroleum products, up from 40 million gallons per day a decade earlier.

There's at least one domestic downside to America's growing role as a fuel exporter. Experts say the trend helps explain why U.S. motorists are paying more for gasoline. The more fuel that's sent overseas, the less of a supply cushion there is at home.

Gasoline supplies are being exported to the highest bidder, says Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service. "It's a world market," he says.

Refining companies won't say how much they make by selling fuel overseas. But analysts say those sales are likely generating higher profits per gallon than the fuel sold in the U.S. Otherwise, they wouldn't occur.

The value of U.S. fuel exports has grown steadily over the past decade, coinciding with rising oil prices and increased demand around the globe.

Developing countries in Latin America and Asia have been burning more gasoline and diesel as their people buy more cars and build more roads and factories. Europe also has been buying more U.S. fuel to make up for its lack of refineries.

And there's a simple reason why America's refiners have been eager to export to these markets: gasoline demand in the U.S. has been falling every year since 2007. It dropped by another 2.5 percent in 2011. With the economy struggling, motorists cut back. Also, cars and trucks have become more fuel-efficient and the government mandates the use of more corn-based ethanol fuel.

The last time the U.S. was a net exporter of fuels was 1949, when Harry Truman was president. That year, the U.S. exported 86 million barrels and imported 82 million barrels. In the first nine months of 2011, the nation exported 753 million barrels and imported 689 million barrels.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111230/ap_on_bi_ge/us_america_s_biggest_export

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Nigerian Christmas bomb death toll rises to 37 (Reuters)

ABUJA (Reuters) ? The death toll from a bomb attack on a church just outside Nigeria's capital Abuja on Christmas Day has risen to 37, with 57 people wounded, a source at the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said on Friday.

The bombing at St. Theresa's Catholic church in Madalla on Abuja's outskirts during a packed Christmas mass was the deadliest of a series of Christmas attacks on Nigerian churches and other targets by the militant Islamist sect Boko Haram.

"As of just now, the latest death toll from the bombing of St. Theresa's church is at 37. Wounded, we have 57," a senior NEMA official said. The initial death toll had been 27.

The official asked not to be identified because the victims were now in the hands of hospitals and morgues.

President Goodluck Jonathan's office put out a statement late on Friday pledging that "the government will fight Boko Haram, the group of evil-minded people who want to cause anarchy, to the end."

Jonathan held talks on Friday with Mohame Bazoum, Deputy Prime Minister of Niger. Security officials suspect the countries' porous common border is a gathering point for militants, and that Boko Haram may have made contact there with al Qaeda's north African wing.

"The perpetrators pass through borders at will and we have to ensure that there are no safe havens for them in the sub-region," Jonathan said.

He had summoned his security chiefs for an emergency meeting on Thursday to discuss the growing Islamist militant threat and how to deal with it.

National Security Adviser General Owoye Andrew Azazi told Reuters that Nigerian security services were considering making contact with moderate members of Boko Haram via "back channels," even though explicit talks are officially ruled out.

EXPLOSIONS, SHOOTINGS IN NORTHEAST

This year was the second in a row that Boko Haram has attacked churches at Christmas. Its strikes are becoming deadlier and more sophisticated, and suggest that it is trying to ignite sectarian strife in a country historically prone to conflicts between a largely Muslim north and Christian south.

Three explosions struck the northeastern city of Maiduguri shortly after Muslim Friday prayers, but caused no casualties, the military said. In a separate incident, gunmen shot dead three members of a cleric's family.

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sinful" in the northern Hausa language, has been blamed for a campaign of shootings and bombings against security forces and authorities in the north.

Attacks in and around the capital - including one on the U.N. headquarters in August that killed at least 24 people - suggest the group is trying to raise its profile and radiate out from its heartland in the northeast.

On Tuesday night, unidentified attackers threw a homemade bomb into an Islamic school in the southern Delta state, an apparent sectarian reprisal that wounded seven people, six of them young children.

On Wednesday night, an explosion in a local bar in the northern city of Gombe wounded one person, police said.

(Reporting by Tim Cocks)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111230/wl_nm/us_nigeria_violence

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Rick Perry Joins the Heartless Anti-Choice Fanatics (Little green footballs)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/180192286?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Make a "Walking Taco" in a Bag of Fritos for an Easy, Portable Snack [Food Hacks]

This crazy, ingenious food hack turns a bag of corn chips into a filling Mexican meal or snack. Your bag of Fritos (or Tostito tortilla chips, perhaps) serves as a bowl for the mixture of taco fillings.

Just take a single-size serving bag, add your ingredients, and go.

The comments on the Craft blog where this recipe is found note that this is actually a traditional Mexican snack or street food known as "tostilocos" (which I think means crazy toast).

Tutorial: Walking Taco | Craft

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/rb69KjQMgpE/make-a-walking-taco-in-a-bag-of-fritos-for-an-easy-portable-snack

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Coach left twisting in Brees

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Police identify woman in fatal Glenburn crash

Police say 22-year-old Kristie Collins of Hudson was driving north at about 1 p.m. on Monday when she lost control and crossed the center line, where her car was struck by a pickup truck.

Source: http://www.pressherald.com/r?19=961&43=582577&44=136298048&32=10367&7=606317&40=http://www.pressherald.com/sports/coach-left-twisting-in-brees_2011-12-28.html

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