Tag: University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC)

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UTHSC Professor Receives $500,000 Grant to Research Prostate Cancer

Dr. Subhash Chauhan

An estimated 233,000 men in the U.S. will have been diagnosed with prostate cancer by the end of the year, according to the American Cancer Society. More than 29,000 of them will die from the disease.

A new research grant awarded to University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) professor Subhash Chauhan could help lessen the amount of men impacted by prostate cancer in the future.

Chauhan, a professor in UTHSC’s department of pharmaceutical sciences, has received a three-year grant worth $562,500 to research new therapies for advanced-stage prostate cancer. 

The grant, provided by the U.S. Department of Defense, is titled the DOD Idea Development Award. 

Chauhan will use the grant to investigate whether Ormeloxifene, which is currently used as an oral contraceptive, can help treat prostate tumor growth and development.

Along with a team of researchers, Chauhan will study if Ormeloxifene can be repurposed and inhibit the pathways that signal metastasis and block the estrogen and progesterone that trigger the abnormal cell growth.

Ormeloxifene has never been investigated for use as an anti-cancer drug, but if research proves its effectiveness, clinical translation could be rapid.

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men, but it’s not a guaranteed death sentence. About one in seven men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime. However, most men diagnosed with the disease do not succumb to it.

According to the American Cancer Society, African-American men are more than twice as likely to die of prostate cancer as white men.

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UTHSC Students Giving Free Flu Vaccinations to Low-Income, Homeless

flu_shot.jpg

With the flu season approaching, it’s important for Memphians to get their vaccinations, which significantly reduces chances of contracting the respiratory illness.

In light of this, students at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) will be providing free flu vaccinations to the city’s low-income and homeless this Thursday. The students are a part of the Operation Immunization Committee of the American Pharmacists Association Academy of Student Pharmacists chapter at UTHSC.

Last year, the chapter was awarded a $3,000 grant to vaccinate Memphis’ low-income population. And the group will use the grant to provide flu vaccinations to 150 impoverished locals. All people have to do to receive the vaccinations is attend Idlewild Presbyterian Church’s “More Than a Meal” gathering.

The event, which will take place Thursday, October 23rd from 5:30 to 7 p.m., will give the city’s homeless and low-income a chance to enjoy a free meal and fellowship with church members. During the dinner, UTHSC College of Pharmacy students who are certified to give immunizations will administer vaccinations.

Over a period of 31 seasons between 1976 and 2007, estimated flu-associated deaths in the United States ranged from a low of about 3,000 to a high of about 49,000 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During a regular flu season, about 90 percent of deaths occur in people 65 years and older.

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UTHSC Chair Awarded $1.85 Million Grant to Continue Research of Alcohol Effects on the Brain

Dr. Alex Dopico

  • Dr. Alex Dopico

Enjoying a cocktail or two won’t kill you, but over-consumption of alcoholic beverages isn’t good for one’s health.

For more than 20 years, Dr. Alex Dopico, professor and chair of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s (UTHSC) Department of Pharmacology, has researched alcohol’s effects on ion channel proteins in the central nervous system and brain circulation.

In 2009, Dopico was awarded a $3.6 million Method to Extend Research in Time (MERIT) Award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Dopico was permitted to use the award over a 10-year period for his alcohol studies, which involves him researching the effects of alcohol on BK channels in excitable cells, such as central neurons and brain arterial smooth muscle.

The first half of Dopico’s MERIT Award expired this past June. He was recently awarded a $1.85 million extension to fund the remaining five years of his research. With the additional funding, Dopico seeks to develop drugs that target the proteins within cells that control the physiological and behavioral changes associated with alcohol intoxication in order to prevent or reverse those effects, according to a UTHSC press release.

“My job is to find molecular sites and mechanisms by which alcohol affects excitable tissue physiology, and thus agents that fight the consequences of alcohol intoxication in the brain,” Dopico said in a statement. “To do that, you need to find the protein sites where alcohol docks or interacts, and we had a very critical breakthrough in the BK channel protein.”

Excessive alcohol use led to approximately 88,000 deaths and 2.5 million years of potential life lost each year in the United States from 2006 to 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Also, excessive drinking was responsible for one in 10 deaths among adults aged 20 — 64 years. The economic costs of excessive alcohol consumption in 2006 were estimated at $223.5 billion, or $1.90 a drink.

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UTHSC Professor Receives $1.6 Million Grant For Obesity Research

Dr. Kristen O’Connell

  • Dr. Kristen O’Connell

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a cheeseburger and fries or cold milkshake on a hot summer day, but over-indulging in delights like these can lead to an undesirable outcome: obesity. And unfortunately, this medical condition affects one in three adults in America.

A University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) professor has been awarded a million dollar grant to research the causes of obesity.

Kristen O’Connell, assistant professor for UTHSC’s Department of Physiology, along with her research team, received a $1.6 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, a subsidiary of the National Institutes of Health.

O’Connell will use the grant, which will be distributed over a five-year period, to support a project titled, “Modulation of AgRP Neuronal Excitability: Role of Diet and Body Weight.” The goal of the project is to identify the changes that high-calorie diets have on the neural circuits that control appetite and food intake.

“We hope to better understand the molecular basis of these changes, as well as how quickly they occur and whether they are reversible,” said Dr. O’Connell in a statement. “Our results will hopefully lead to better, safer therapies for obesity and appetite control. In addition, we would like to learn how environmental factors, such as diet, influence flexibility in these key areas of the brain that control appetite, and ultimately identify ways to restore appropriate control of hunger and food intake.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than one-third (or 78.6 million) of U.S. adults are obese. And 17 percent of children and adolescents aged 2 to 19 years old are obese.

Obesity is associated with dramatic changes in the parts of the brain that control appetite, according to the UTHSC. These changes may compound the difficulty that many people have in losing weight and keeping it off, since the brain is effectively telling them they are hungry, even if there is no reason to be.

Obesity-related conditions (also the leading causes of preventable death) include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer, according to the CDC. The estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the U.S. was $147 billion in 2008. The medical costs for people who are obese were $1,429 higher than those of normal weight.