AlumniBulletin - The University of Alabama at Birmingham

News Briefs
exposed during pregnancy and to people with
suppressed immune systems.
UAB Tests Vaccine for HPV
UAB researchers are joining the effort to test a
vaccine that they hope will keep women from
contracting human papillomavirus (HPV), a
common infection that is known to cause genital
warts and virtually all cases of cervical cancer.
In a study reported last fall in The New England
Journal of Medicine, investigators showed that the
vaccine prevented the most common type of
HPV in 100 percent of women who took it,
whereas 3.8 percent of those who were not vaccinated
developed HPV.
“We have high hopes that this vaccine will continue
to prove effective against more types of HPV
during this next phase of trials,” says Edward
Partridge, M.D., who heads UAB’s gynecological
cancer program. “The reason this is important is
that we know HPV infects up to 20 percent of all
women and is linked to more than 200,000 cases
of cervical cancer every year worldwide.”
Sharmila Makhija, M.D., a co-investigator in
UAB’s arm of this international study, says,
“While relatively few women who have HPV go
on to develop cervical cancer, practically all cervical
cancers that do occur are the result of longterm
HPV infection. If this vaccine proves to be
effective, it could be the first human vaccine with
the specific purpose of preventing cancer.”
A New Piece of the HIV Puzzle
Scientists at UAB have discovered how the
building blocks of HIV join to form new virus in
host cells. The finding opens the door for new
HIV therapies aimed at preventing the virus from
developing and reproducing.
“Work on a potential new drug design is
already under way in the lab,” says Peter Prevelige,
Ph.D., professor of microbiology and lead investigator
of the study. Details of the finding were
published in the January 24 issue of the Journal of
Molecular Biology.
Prevelige likens the assembly of HIV to building
a house. “When a virus enters a cell, it contains
a blueprint, all the instructions necessary to create
new virus,” he says. “During the building process,
strands of virus protein, like lumber used to construct
a house, must be cut and adjoined to create
new virus. In our study, we learned how the pieces
of the virus connect together.”
HIV therapies work by targeting and interfering
with different steps in the life cycle of the virus.
“Some drugs may prevent it from entering the cell,
while others may interfere with its ability to make
new virus once inside the cell,” Prevelige says. “The
problem with these drugs is that for most patients
on HIV therapies, the drugs tend to become less
effective over time. New drugs aimed at new targets
would add to the stockpile of HIV ammunition.”
Researchers used high-resolution mass spectrometry
to analyze and measure the properties of
particles that compose the virus’s structure. “The
technology isn’t new, but its use in analyzing protein
structures is relatively new,” Prevelige says.
“This is the first time the technology has been used
to analyze HIV, which is by far the largest, most
complex protein structure ever studied this way.”
Study Yields New Findings
about Disparity in Infant Mortality
Black twins are 20 percent more likely to die
during infancy than white twins, according to a
recent study by researchers at UAB. Details of the
study are published in the April 2003 issue of the
Journal of Reproductive Medicine.
“Infant mortality is one of the most important
measures of a nation’s health status and overall
improvement in health over time,” says Hamisu
Salihu, M.D., assistant professor of public health
with the Department of Maternal and Child
Health at UAB. “This result is especially disturbing
because it seems to confirm other investigators’
findings that the black-white disparity in
infant mortality is persisting in this country.”
UAB researchers observed that the disparity
occurs exclusively during the infants’ first 28 days
of life rather than throughout infancy. The study
also found that black infants tend to be smaller
for their gestational age, which is most likely the
reason for the disparity.
The reason for the significant difference in black
infants’ size relative to gestational age is not clear,
but findings suggest that anemia among black
moms during pregnancy may play a role. “A host of
factors may influence an infant’s size at birth—
prenatal care and the nutritional health of the mom
during pregnancy, and environmental factors such
as lead exposure during pregnancy, and other pregnancy
complications. But we did find that a significant
number of black moms were anemic, which
certainly is one reason,” says Salihu.
The study analyzed data collected between 1995
and 1997 from twins born to teenage mothers in the
United States. While further research is needed to
fully understand and determine how to tackle the
problem, researchers say the message is clear: Not
enough is being done. “More money must be spent to
improve the health status of pregnant black women,”
Salihu says. “Better prenatal care, community outreach
programs, and improved postnatal care, especially
during the first 28 days of life, are needed to significantly
address and impact the problem.”
Researchers Find Bizarre Behaviors
among Binge Eaters
A study published in the most recent issue of
the journal Behavioral Medicine finds that some
people who suffer from what is known as bingeeating
disorder (BED) engage in chaotic or
bizarre eating behaviors, such as gorging on food
straight out of cans, on food taken from trash,
and even on chewable medicines. In addition,
researchers found that negative emotions rather
than hunger from dieting were the strongest contributing
factor to chaotic eating behaviors.
UAB research psychologist Mary Hagan,
Ph.D., directed the study to detail the nature of
binge-eating practices in BED sufferers. It is the
first clinical study to explore these behaviors in
people seeking treatment for BED.
Unlike bulimics, who binge and purge, BED sufferers
do not vomit or take laxatives. BED has only
been recognized as an eating disorder in the last few
years. An estimated 4 million adults suffer from
BED, characterized by recurrent binging and severe
distress over binging. It is estimated that nearly a
third of all obese persons have BED, Hagan says.
The researchers found that the strongest contributing
factors toward bizarre eating behaviors
were not extreme dieting, but negative emotions—such
as depression, guilt, and shame.
“We found this surprising,” Hagan says. “We
knew people who were forced into a state of semistarvation
showed these chaotic eating behaviors,
but negative emotions are apparently enough to
send BED sufferers—who are nowhere near starvation—into
these behaviors.”
FACULTY NEWS
McDonald Named Editor-in-Chief,
American Journal of Pathology
Chair of Pathology Jay M. McDonald, M.D.,
took over the reins of the nation’s premier pathology
professional journal, The American Journal of
Pathology (AJP), on July 1. The journal is in its
107th year of publication.
Specializing in high-quality, original papers on the
cellular and molecular mechanisms of disease, the
journal focuses on disease pathogenesis and basic biological
mechanisms relating to disease. AJP’s publisher,
the American Society for Investigative Pathology
(ASIP), is an association of biomedical scientists
investigating mechanisms of disease. With more than
1,708 members from 27 nations, ASIP advocates
investigative pathology through professional career
development, educational programs, and publications,
most notably AJP. Investigative pathology is an
integrative discipline that links the presentation of
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