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Study Shows Even Moderately Elevated Cholesterol Level Boosts Dementia Risk
Elevated cholesterol levels in midlife - even levels considered only borderline elevated - significantly increase the risk of Alzheimer"s disease and vascular dementia later in life, according to a new study by researchers at Kaiser Permanente"s Division of Research and the University of Kuopio in Finland. The study appears in the journal Dementia & Geriatric Cognitive Disorders.
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Cancer Therapies: How Much Is Life Worth? The $440 Billion Question
The decision to use expensive cancer therapies that typically produce only a relatively short extension of survival is a serious ethical dilemma in the U.S. that needs to be addressed by the oncology community, according to a commentary published online June 29 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
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GOP Leader McConnell Says 'Too Early To Know' About Sotomayor Filibuster
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Friday said it is "way too early to know" whether Senate Republicans will attempt to filibuster the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama"s nominee for the Supreme Court, the AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. Although other Senate Republicans have said that they do not plan to filibuster a vote on Sotomayor, McConnell said that Senate Democrats established a precedent of filibustering former President George W. Bush"s nominees. However, he added that he believes blocking votes on judges is generally a "bad idea." Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) has said a filibuster is unlikely, and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) has said that Republicans do not have the votes or the desire to mount a filibuster against Sotomayor. Senate Democrats hope to have confirmation hearings for Sotomayor in July, followed by a full Senate vote before the August recess. Senate Republicans are hoping to push back the hearings until September to give them more time to review her judicial record.Antiabortion Groups Circulate 1998 Legal Brief Abortion-rights opponents on Friday circulated a 1998 legal brief supporting abortion rights that the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund joined while Sotomayor was on the fund"s board. The brief -- which was submitted to the Supreme Court to support a challenge to a Missouri law that made it illegal to use public facilities for abortion services -- warned of "the danger of tampering with the core framework of Roe v. Wade." The brief added that the law would disproportionately affect poor women of color. According to the AP/Star Tribune, there is nothing to indicate that Sotomayor had any role in drafting the brief.PRLDEF President Cesar Perales said that although its board helps determine which legal issues the organization should focus on, it is not involved with deciding which cases to take on. Charmaine Yoest of Americans United for Life said, "That specific case makes it very difficult for [Sotomayor] to say that she doesn"t have a position" on abortion rights (Hirschfeld Davis, AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune, 6/5).Senate Judiciary Committee Approves Two Federal Judges In related news, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted to approve two of Obama"s federal judge nominees, Roll Call reports. The committee voted 12-7 to approve David Hamilton to fill a vacancy in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and voted 16-3 to approve Andre Davis to fill a vacancy on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. The votes were delayed two weeks because of requests from panel Republicans. This week, the committee will consider the nomination of Judge Gerard Lynch to fill a vacancy on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (Brady, Roll Call, 6/4).
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How Genetics Influences Humans When Choosing A Mate

New light has been thrown on how humans choose their partners, a scientist told the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics on May 25. Professor Maria da GraÃýa Bicalho, head of the Immunogenetics and Histocompatibility Laboratory at the University of Parana, Brazil, says that her research had shown that people with diverse major histocompatibility complexes (MHCs) were more likely to choose each other as mates than those whose MHCs were similar, and that this was likely to be an evolutionary strategy to ensure healthy reproduction. Females" preference for MHC dissimilar mates has been shown in many vertebrate species, including humans, and it is also known that MHC influences mating selection by preferences for particular body odours. The Brazilian team has been working in this field since 1998, and decided to investigate mate selection in the Brazilian population, while trying to uncover the biological significance of MHC diversity. The scientists studied MHC data from 90 married couples, and compared them with 152 randomly-generated control couples. They counted the number of MHC dissimilarities among those who were real couples, and compared them with those in the randomly-generated "virtual couples". "If MHC genes did not influence mate selection", says Professor Bicalho, "we would have expected to see similar results from both sets of couples. But we found that the real partners had significantly more MHC dissimilarities than we could have expected to find simply by chance." Within MHC-dissimilar couples the partners will be genetically different, and such a pattern of mate choice decreases the danger of endogamy (mating among relatives) and increases the genetic variability of offspring. Genetic variability is known to be an advantage for offspring, and the MHC effect could be an evolutionary strategy underlying incest avoidance in humans and also improving the efficiency of the immune system, the scientists say. The MHC is a large genetic region situated on chromosome 6, and found in most vertebrates. It plays an important role in the immune system and also in reproductive success. Apart from being a large region, it is also an extraordinarily diverse one. "Although it may be tempting to think that humans choose their partners because of their similarities", says Professor Bicalho, "our research has shown clearly that it is differences that make for successful reproduction, and that the subconscious drive to have healthy children is important when choosing a mate." The scientists believe that their findings will help understanding of conception, fertility, and gestational failures. Research has already shown that couples with similar MHC genes had longer intervals between births, which could imply early, unperceived miscarriages. "We intend to follow up this work by looking at social and cultural influences as well as biological ones in mate choice, and relating these to the genetic diversity of the extended MHC region", says Professor Bicalho. "We expect to find that cultural aspects play an important role in mate choice, and certainly do not subscribe to the theory that if a person bears a particular genetic variant it will determine his or her behaviour. But we also think that the unconscious evolutionary aspect of partner choice should not be overlooked. We believe our research shows that this has an important role to play in ensuring healthy reproduction, by helping to ensure that children are born with a strong immune system better able to cope with infection." Mary Rice European Society of Human Genetics


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