Monday, October 19, 2009
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NEW RESEARCH TO PREVENT EYE DISEASES OU professionals team up to study nanoparticles that could thwart blindness JARED RADER Daily Staff Writer
Blindness and other eye diseases could be prevented using nanoparticles, a professor from the OU College of Medicine and a team of researchers have discovered. James McGinnis has been testing nanoparticles, called Nanoceria, on the vision of rats with good results. McGinnis, professor of cell biology and ophthalmology at the OU College of Medicine and the Dean A. McGee Eye Institute, has been working with scientists from the OU Health Sciences Center and the University of Central Florida to study the nanoparticles. McGinnis stated in an e-mail Nanoceria could reverse the condition of a blind person as long as the visual cells of the person’s eye were still present. He said OU has a patent on the use of Nanoceria, and he has a goal of bringing the Nanoceria to clinical testing in humans within three years.
“We think the Nanoceria will work as well in humans as they do in our animal models,” McGinnis stated in an e-mail. He said he and his team are working to generate data so the FDA will approve human testing. McGinnis said Nanoceria is made up of cerium oxide nanoparticles that reinforce the normal defenses of the eye against toxic molecules. The Nanoceria have the ability to destroy these toxic molecules, which are produced in response to mutations, chemicals and diseases. “We think that most degenerative diseases proceed through a common node – an increase in [reactive oxygen species] – and that this node represents an ‘Achilles’ heel’ for these diseases,” McGinnis said. He said if the reactive oxygen species were destroyed, then all degenerative events, such as blindness, would not occur. McGinnis and his team published the results of a study with rodents in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. The results show a single injection of less than a billionth of a gram of Nanoceria completely protected photoreceptor cells of the eye and preserved vision. McGinnis also said recent data using a mouse model demonstrated Nanoceria
prevented symptoms similar to those found in humans with eye diseases. Federal stimulus money recently boosted funding for McGinnis’ research. The National Institute of Health, the National Eye Institute, the National Science Fou n d at i o n , t h e Foundation Fighting Blindness, and the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Te chnology also PHOTO PROVIDED provided funding. The Research to James F. McGinnis, professor of cell biology and opthalmology, works at Prevent Blindness or- the Dean A. McGee Eye Institute in Oklahoma City. ganization awarded “Because blindness is such a devastatMcGinnis the Senior Scientific Investigator ing disease, and because I thought basic reAward in 2009. search would especially benefit people with McGinnis said he became interested in inherited retinal degeneration, I changed the eye research because of the benefits it could focus of my research to degenerative eye dishave on the millions of people affected with ease,” McGinnis said. vision-impairing diseases.
Medical school enrollment predicted to increase STEPHEN BEAM Contributing Writer
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of stories addressing health care reform. Students concerned about getting into medical school and how the proposed federal health care plan may affect their admission, can breathe a little easier. The American Association of Medical Colleges predicts a five-year increase in first-year medical school enrollment until the year 2013, with a projected total of about 19,946 students. Health care professionals do not anticipate a drastic change in first-year medical school enrollment through the proposed changes in health care from the Barack Obama administration. However, they do see a greater need for general physicians over those with specialties due to a variety of factors, including the increasing number of physicians retiring from the profession. This leaves a void, which in turn leaves a smaller number of physicians to care for a growing population. “ There definitely is a shortage of
physicians around the country, and in the proposals Congress is considering right now, there is some additional funding to increase that number,” said Craig Jones, chairman of the Oklahoma Hospital Association. Jones said the 1990s strategy of the medical profession to limit the number of medical school graduates has backfired because of the aging population. He points out that with a shortage of physicians and the aging population, there is clearly going to have to be an increase in enrollment. According to the American Medical Association, there are 2.4 physicians to care for every 1,000 persons today. Jones said this is a situation that needs to be improved. A way to solve the problem is to supplement the number of non-physician types of health professionals. These non-physician professionals are nurses, nurses’ aides, and physician assistants. Jones stressed there have to be new ways for non-physician health care workers to perform the tasks physicians once took on because the colleges cannot churn out the graduates soon enough.
“All of the proposals for the most part are seeking to cover 94 to 97 percent of Americans, although that would be ramped up over four to six years, but clearly you are going to have more investment in both physicians, nurses and allied health professionals to accomplish that,” Jones said. The tendency to go into specialty care over primary care is a trend Norman physician Dr. Chris Seik sees continuing as long as Medicare pays more money to the specialized areas of medicine. He also said that as long as the medical profession is financially lucrative, it should always have its share of employees. “It is still a pretty good job and enrollment should not be affected by the proposed plans,” Seik said. Seik said the only change he sees is if the physicians become government employees, then the enrollment numbers could change. The figures “seem to ebb and flow” with certain trends, but probably will not change with President Obama’s proposed plan. He said he thinks the perceived prestige in a certain job is a bigger factor in affecting enrollment figures.
“It changes more to perception than to policy. If they decide engineering is more lucrative, then they go that way,” Seik said. Another factor of an increasing enrollment in medical schools is the need to supplement the training staff, which would need to grow and improve along with the larger numbers students. “Training staffs are slow to change, with a lot of the medical school training is subsidized in the state,” Seik said. He said schools garner some money off Medicare, but the bulk of the funding comes from the university itself. Jones said he thinks help is on the way with the proposed health care plan. “The key is do you have enough funds to increase the faculty and to increase the clinical sites,” he said. The biggest problem in providing enough staffing for health care is not the lack of interest of people wanting to break into the profession, but the lack of faculty and clinical sites to provide the proper training. “It will be better, but maybe not enough for what they need,” Jones said.
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