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Senate GOP Escalates Criticism Of Supreme Court Nominee Sotomayor In Speeches
Senate Republicans on Tuesday in the first in a series of floor addresses launched more strongly worded criticism of Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor"s judicial record and previous speeches, Politico reports. Although the floor speeches are not likely to undermine the Democratic majority"s support for Sotomayor or block her confirmation, they indicate a shift in strategy for the GOP as it tries to generate more opposition to the nomination, according to Politico. As senators approach the weeklong July 4 recess, Republicans are attempting to show that they have "no intention of lying down in the face of what appears to be an increasingly inevitable confirmation," Politico reports. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Judiciary Committee ranking Republican Jeff Sessions (Ala.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) used their time on the Senate floor to attempt to portray Sotomayor as a "judicial activist" and to attack President Obama"s previous statements that he would like to appoint a judge who displays "empathy" (Isenstadt, Politico, 6/24). Republicans also reiterated they will attempt to delay Sotomayor"s confirmation hearing, scheduled to begin July 13, if they do not feel they have enough time to review her judicial record, Roll Call reports. They also questioned Sotomayor"s involvement with the civil rights group LatinoJustice PRLDEF, which they labeled "far left," taking up a line of criticism that other conservatives have pushed. Sotomayor served as a board member for the group from 1980 to 1992. Democrats and White House officials are aggressively defending Sotomayor"s record, arguing that her lengthy judicial career supersedes any public statements or speeches she made in the past, according to Roll Call. Both said that their strategy is to avoid a point-counterpoint argument with Republicans. A White House official said there is "no reason to speculate on her record," which includes more than 3,000 panel decisions. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said that he has been "struck by her extraordinary career and how she"s excelled at everything she"s done." Leahy said that he is not convinced that Republicans need more time, noting that the Senate is using the same confirmation timetable as it used for Chief Justice John Roberts. Although Leahy said that he might be willing to discuss a schedule change if Republicans agreed not to filibuster or delay the nomination, he added that Republicans have not suggested such a deal at this point (Stanton, Roll Call, 6/24).

Significant Health Benefits Demonstrated By A Red-Wine Polyphenol Called Resveratrol
The benefits of alcohol are all about moderation. Low to moderate drinking - especially of red wine - appears to reduce all causes of mortality, while too much drinking causes multiple organ damage. A mini-review of recent findings on red wine"s polyphenols, particularly one called resveratrol, will be published in the September issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research; the review is also available at Early View.
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Deworming Drug Could Help Reduce Spread Of HIV In Africa, Study Finds
Providing girls in rural Africa with a deworming drug could help reduce the spread of HIV, according to a study recently published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, the New York Times reports. The drug, called praziquantel, costs about 32 cents per pediatric dose and prevents schistosomiasis, a worm disease that starts as a urinary tract infection. If untreated, schistosomiasis can lead to female genital sores that can facilitate HIV infection. Because the drug can kill the worms but cannot cure genital sores, girls should be protected before they reach sexual maturity, according to the Times. "For this relatively small investment, the reproductive health of young women would be improved," the authors from the Sabin Vaccine Institute, Imperial College London and Oslo University wrote, adding that "there is a reasonable chance that HIV/AIDS transmission can be reduced." There are about 207 million schistosomiasis cases worldwide, 90% of which occur in Africa, where humans are exposed usually through snail-infested water. According to a pilot program conducted in Burkina Faso, all 70 million cases among young children in Africa could be treated for $22 million, and repeating universal treatment every two years for 10 years would cost $112 million (McNeil, New York Times, 5/26).
Endocrinology

Childhood Asthma Worsened By Stress And Depression, UB Researchers Show

Young people with asthma have nearly twice the incidence of depression compared to their peers without asthma, and studies have shown that depression is associated with increased asthma symptoms and, in some cases, death. How stress and depression play upon one another to worsen asthma is a lingering question. A new study by researchers at the University at Buffalo has shown that depressed children with asthma exhibit a dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system along with increased airway compromise. It is thought to be the first study to examine pathways linking emotional stress, depressive symptoms, autonomic nervous system dysregulation and airway function in childhood asthma. The study appears in the July 2009 issue of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Bruce D. Miller, M.D., and Beatrice L. Wood, Ph.D., professors of psychiatry and pediatrics in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, designed and carried out the study in collaboration with other UB researchers. "The autonomic nervous system, or ANS, is composed of two opposing divisions -- the sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves, which check one another and thus control critical body functions outside of conscious awareness," explained Miller, chief of the UB Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and senior staff psychiatrist at Women & Children"s Hospital of Buffalo, a UB-affiliated teaching hospital. "The ANS is influenced by stress and emotions." "Children with asthma and high depression symptoms showed a preponderance of parasympathetic over sympathetic nervous system reactivity in the ANS," he continued. "This imbalance within the ANS could explain the increased airway resistance that we found in depressed asthmatic children in our study." The study involved 90 children with asthma, aged 7-17. Forty-five asthmatic children with symptoms of depression were compared with 45 asthmatic children without symptoms of depression. Both groups viewed scary, sad (death) and happy scenes from the movie E.T.: The Extraterrestrial. All children wore electrodes to collect data on heart and respiratory function, which showed the level of activation and reactivity of the sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions. The researchers assessed airway function before the movie, after the death scene and after the movie. "The depressed group consistently showed greater parasympathetic activation along with decreased sympathetic activation in response to the emotional provocations - a pattern that would have a detrimental effect on the airways," said Miller. "In contrast, the group without symptoms of depression showed consistent activation of the sympathetic pathway, which would support better airway function under stress. To our knowledge, this is the first report in the literature to demonstrate an association linking stress, depression and increased airway resistance in asthmatic children." Results also showed that bias toward parasympathetic reactivity was most pronounced in the children during scenes portraying family distress or loss, death and dying. "These findings reinforce previous results from our laboratory that associated relational stress within the family with child depression and increased asthma activity," said Wood. "Although these findings are promising and support our hypotheses," she continued, "we need further studies to replicate and extend these findings, and to examine whether treatment for depression reduces shift to the parasympathetic and improves lung function in children with asthma." The authors believe these findings indicate the importance of screening children with asthma for depressive symptoms, of following these children closely and referring them for psychosocial counseling when indicated. Co-authors on the study were Mark Ballow, M.D., an asthma specialist from the UB Department of Pediatrics; ChiunYu Hsu, a student in the UB Neuroscience Graduate Program, and JungHa Lim, Ph.D, formerly a UB post-doctoral student, and currently on the faculty at Korea University. The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health. Lois Baker University at Buffalo


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