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Tuesday, Mar 19, 2024
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UCI Researchers Link Early Stress to Brain Disorders

High stress levels in babies and young children could play a role in conditions such as autism, depression and mental retardation, according to researchers at the University of California, Irvine College of Medicine.

The researchers found that early stress could cause poor development of the brain’s communication zones. The findings could point to potential treatments for certain mental disorders.

UCI neurology professor Tallie Baram and her colleagues found that high amounts of corticotropin-releasing hormone, or CRH, a substance found in the part of the brain where learning and memory occur, stunt the growth of dendrites. Those are branch-like protrusions of neurons,brain cells that send and receive messages.

Communication among brain cells is critical for learning and memory. In brain disorders where learning and other thought processes are disrupted, dendrites have been found to be small or poorly developed, thanks to higher levels of CRH.

“The activation of stress hormones and molecules seems to initiate a complex cascade of brain effects that is related to depression and dementia,” Baram said in a release. “This study reveals a novel role of CRH in this cascade.”

Researchers from Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. of San Diego and the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich joined Baram and her colleagues in the study.

Full results of the study appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a professional journal.

The National Institutes of Health provided funding.


PacifiCare in Heart Study


Cypress-based PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. and its Prescription Solutions have signed on as administrators in a congestive heart failure study on Medicare beneficiaries in California and Arizona. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is sponsoring the study.

The study is set to last three years and look at prescription drugs, access to nursing advice, daily weight and symptom monitoring and cardiologist consultations with participants’ personal doctors. It is based on a program that cut hospitalizations by 50% for people with the disease.

Congestive heart failure occurs when any of the heart’s chambers loses its ability to keep up with the amount of the heart’s blood flow and usually comes about as a result of other conditions like coronary artery disease and hypertension. An estimated 157,000 Californians and 27,000 Arizonans have the condition.

Besides PacifiCare and Prescription Solutions, Reno, Nev.-based Alere Medical Inc. and Q-Med Inc. of Eatontown, N.J., also have signed on as study administrators.


Insurance Broker Expands


Word & Brown, an Orange-based healthcare insurance brokerage, came out with CaliforniaChoice 51+, a health plan for companies with 51 to 199 workers.

Under the plan, from Word & Brown’s Choice Administrators unit, businesses budget monthly contributions for each eligible worker’s healthcare. CaliforniaChoice 51+ includes three health plans and provider networks and six types of benefits.

Philadelphia-based Cigna Corp., Health Net Inc. of Woodland Hills and Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente are the insurers behind CaliforniaChoice 51+.

One specific offering is Flex Net, a Health Net plan designed for California employers who have workers residing outside Health Net service areas. Another is Salud con Health Net, which provides members’ dependents with cross-border medical care.

The CaliforniaChoice 51+ is set to be available through brokers and consultants with a simplified commission structure and faster quotes. The mid-market plan was developed in response to market demand for a health product similar to Choice Administrators’ original CaliforniaChoice plan, which was established in 1996 and was designed for groups with two to 50 workers.

CaliforniaChoice has more than 10,000 employer groups and more than 150,000 members statewide, according to Word & Brown.


Bits and Pieces:


A U.S. District Court judge upheld a $43.5 million jury verdict in favor of Applied Medical Resources Corp., Rancho Santa Margarita, in a patent infringement case against U.S. Surgical Corp., a unit of Tyco International Ltd. The court added almost $11 million in extra damages. The case involved patents for trocars, which are small sealed tubes that create working space for doctors within a patient’s body during surgeries Bright Now! Dental Inc., Santa Ana, opened an office in Corona. Bright Now and its subsidiaries provide business support services to around 300 dental offices in 19 states Patient Care Technology Systems, Aliso Viejo, signed a deal with Christiana Care Health System of Delaware to install its EDTracker emergency room tracking software Trimedyne Inc., Irvine, said the U.S. Patent Office allowed its patent application for a laser angioplasty device Costa Mesa-based Lindora Inc., operator of Lindora Medical Clinics, said it signed a research pact with Altura LLC, Aliso Viejo. Lindora said Altura’s role would include working on clinical trials and other research endeavors.

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