News in brief - Nov. 13, 2000

New drunken driving standard - Increasing blood folate levels could reduce congenital anomalies - Gene therapy offers promise for preventing, treating Parkinson's - ACS reports a reversal in cancer trends among African-Americans

New drunken driving standard

President Clinton signed legislation last month setting the national blood-alcohol content level -- the standard for drunken driving -- at .08. This step is consistent with AMA policy, which calls for an even lower national BAC level.

At 0.08% BAC, a 170-pound man could consume four drinks in one hour before reaching the limit, while a 137-pound woman could have three drinks. Currently, 31 states set the drunken driving limit at .10. The remaining 19 states and the District of Columbia, already have the 0.08% BAC on the books. Based on the new law, the 31 states without the .08 laws will lose a significant amount of federal highway funds if they fail to implement the new standard by 2003. Supporters of the new standard say it will save an estimated 500 lives a year and prevent thousands of injuries.

Increasing blood folate levels could reduce congenital anomalies

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released findings last month indicating that the folate levels of American women of childbearing age are on the rise.

According to the CDC's 1999 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the average level of folic acid in the blood almost tripled from 6.3 ng/mL to 16.2 ng/mL. Red blood cell folate concentrations, a better measure of long-term folate status, show an average increase from 181 to 315 ng/mL RBC.

To prevent neural tube defects, the U.S. Public Health Service recommended in 1992 that women of childbearing age increase daily consumption of folic acid.

Since then, national efforts have been implemented to increase the use of dietary supplements containing folic acid. In 1996, the Food and Drug Administration mandated that all enriched cereal grain products be fortified with folic acid by January 1998.

Food fortification was determined to be the best strategy for increasing blood folate levels since the critical period of adequate folic acid intake is in the first weeks of pregnancy, before most women know they are pregnant and begin taking prenatal vitamins.

Gene therapy offers promise for preventing, treating Parkinson's

Researchers from Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago and Lausanne University Medical School in Switzerland are offering hope for the future treatment and prevention of Parkinson's disease. According to findings published in the Oct. 27 Science, a form of gene therapy may not only stop the destruction of dopamine-producing nerve cells but also aid the control of body movement.

The therapy was used on monkeys with a syndrome similar to Parkinson's. Specifically, researchers created a harmless virus to carry a gene for the brain chemical called glial-derived neurotrophic factor. This chemical prompts the production of dopamine. The monkeys had brain scans before and three months after the treatment. The gene appeared to not only halt the destruction of dopamine-producing nerves but also allowed dopamine production to return to near-normal levels.

According to the study's authors, the therapy could be studied in humans within five years. However, questions about its safety still need to be addressed more thoroughly.

Over the long term, the approach may offer promise in treating a range of other central nervous disorders.

ACS reports a reversal in cancer trends among African-Americans

An Oct. 30 report by the American Cancer Society found encouraging signs regarding cancer among African-Americans.

Overall, cancer rates among African-Americans dropped in recent years, though still remained higher than among whites.

The rate of newly diagnosed cancer cases among African-Americans dropped between 1993 and 1997, reversing a 20-year trend. In addition, cancer-related deaths for this population fell between 1991 and 1997. The data from 1997 are the most recent available.

"There are some promising trends regarding cancer for African-Americans, but there are still areas in which a lot of work remains to be done," said Robert Greenlee, PhD, MPH, program director of cancer surveillance for the ACS, in a statement. For instance, more African-American women are getting mammograms. But still too few men and women in this population are being screened for colorectal cancer. In addition, fewer blacks than whites survive for five or more years after diagnosis of the four most common cancers: lung, colorectal, breast and prostate.

African-American men still develop cancer 27% more frequently than white men. Their death rates from all cancers combined are still 45% higher than those among white men.

Among African-American women, death from cancer is 22% more common than among white women.