RESEARCH UPDATES

July 12, 2007

Double-Duty Drug. Patients with type 2 diabetes soon may be able to control their glucose and their cholesterol levels with a single drug, according to a study led by Vivian A. Fonseca, professor of medicine and pharmacology at Tulane University School of Medicine and chief of the Tulane University Health Sciences Center Diabetes Program.

Vivian A. Fonseca

"People with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol face a number of challenges in keeping their glucose levels and cholesterol in check. This study demonstrated the potential to improve two important metabolic parameters with one drug," says Fonseca.

The multi-center clinical trial monitored the response of 461 patients with type 2 diabetes to several diabetes drugs in various combinations, or a placebo, during a period of three months.

Patients who received the compound colesevelam HCI were shown in the study to have significant reductions in blood sugar levels. Furthermore, participants' low density lipid, or "bad cholesterol," profiles in the colesevelam HCI group also showed substantial improvement over those taking a placebo.

Fonseca presented his study results at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists' 16th Annual Meeting and Clinical Congress. An application for the commercial production and sale of this new drug currently is being assessed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

 

June 28, 2007

A new report released by the Berkeley-Tulane Initiative on Vulnerable Populations details the use of forced conscription by the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group operating in northern Uganda that has been accused of kidnapping tens of thousands of women and children to serve as soldiers, servants and "wives."

The research is a joint project of the University of California-Berkeley Human Rights Center and the Payson Center for International Development at Tulane University.

Authors Phuong Pham and Patrick Vinck, who are adjunct assistant professors at Tulane, and Berkeley's Eric Stover released the report, entitled "Abducted: The Lord's Resistance Army and Forced Conscription in Northern Uganda."

"Our research shows that LRA leader Joseph Kony and his henchmen abducted as many as 38,000 children and 37,000 adults into his rebel army over the past 11 years," said Stover.

"One of our most alarming findings is that young women between the age of 19 and 30 were held the longest in rebel captivity, averaging about four-and-a-half years," said Pham.

The complete report is available from the Payson Center and the Berkeley Human Rights Center.

The researchers recommended that the United Nations and other organizations develop programs to improve the well-being of all children, including former child soldiers, in northern Uganda and other countries.

 

June 4, 2007

Chocolate toothpaste. For a healthy smile, brush between meals, floss regularly and eat plenty of chocolate?

According to Tulane University alumnus Arman Sadeghpour, an extract of cocoa powder that occurs naturally in chocolates, teas and other products might be an effective natural alternative to fluoride in toothpaste. In fact, his research revealed that the cocoa extract was even more effective than fluoride in fighting cavities.

The extract, a white crystalline powder whose chemical makeup is similar to caffeine, helps harden teeth enamel, making users less susceptible to tooth decay. An extract from cocoa beans (pictured) could offer the first major innovation to toothpaste since manufacturers began adding fluoride to toothpaste in 1914.

The extract has been proven effective in animal research, but it could be another two to four years before the product is approved for human use and available for sale, says Sadeghpour, who earned his PhD from the Tulane School of Science and Engineering last month. His doctoral thesis research compared the extract side by side to fluoride on the enamel surface of human teeth.

Sadeghpour's research group included scientists from Tulane, the University of New Orleans and Louisiana State University's School of Dentistry.

 

May 3, 2007

Higher Ground. The Tulane/Xavier Center for Bioenvironmental Research has released its final report on the elevation of New Orleans after extensive research by Richard Campanella, geographer and CBR associate director, and Douglas J. Meffert, CBR director and Eugenie Schwartz Professor for River and Coastal Studies at Tulane.

The white paper is entitled, "Above Sea-Level New Orleans: The Residential Capacity of Orleans Parish’s Higher Ground." The research discovered that contrary to popular perceptions, half of New Orleans is at or above sea level.

"Elevated areas, while not immune to flooding, constitute a valuable natural resource for which residential use, whenever practical, should be prioritized," the report says. "Despite its value, above-sea-level New Orleans is replete with open parcels and other underutilized space. Nearly 2,000 such lots have been identified in this study, covering 1.21 square miles (three times the size of the French Quarter)."

Campanella and Meffert received funding for the research from the Coypu Foundation of Baton Rouge, La.