Heart of the Matter

              The Times
shreveporttimes.com
LIVING
CONTACT
KATHIE ROWELL
459-3258 or
krowell@gannett.com
MONDAY, MARCH-30, 2009
Jim Hudelson/The Times
Mike Nealy, a graduate student at LSUHSC-Shreveport, works on research funded by an American Heart Association grant. Nealy has received $43,540 in grant funding to
research how to detect cells that carry gammaherpesvirus, which is linked to blood vessel inflammation. Heart of the
mNearlya $1tM tiner
grants allow
doctors to .
participate in
clinical trials
to improve
treatment
Go Red for Women
The American Heart Association's
Northwest Louisiana Go Red for
Women luncheon will be from 11
a.m.-l p.m. Thursday at Eldorado
Resort Casino, 451 Clyde Fant
Memorial Parkway, Shreveport.
Dietician Shelly Marie Redmond
will speak about being healthy
at any weight before the
luncheon. Featured luncheon
speakers include Supriya Jindal,
wife of Louisiana Gov. Bobby
Jindal, and stroke survivor Jana
Lucky, director of recruiting for
Northwestern State University.
Heart disease survivor Jean
Simpson, founder of Jean
Simpson Personnel Services, will
be recognized.
Participants will have a chance
to bid on silent auction items,
examine medical devices used
to treat heart disease, talk to
local doctors participating in
clinical trials and take the Go Red
Checkup, a free 10-year heart
disease risk assessment.
Tickets are $35 per person.
Call (318) 677-2613 for more
information.
By Melody Brumbte
mbrumble@gannett.coiT!
Researchers at LSU Health Sciences Center-Shreve-port
lead the state in American Heart Association
grants to study heart disease.
In 2008, the organization gave nearly $1 million to
local researchers. The local heart association affiliate
will spotlight some of the studies at its Go Red For
Women luncheon this week.
"If we didn't have research, we couldn't continue to
save lives," said Nichole Smith, regional director for
die local American Heart Association affiliate. "There
wouldn't be stents, there wouldn't be defibrillators,
there wouldn't be clot-busting drugs. If it weren't for
stents, my dad wouldn't be here, or he would have had
major open heart surgery."
The local research goes on at the cellular level. It
offers clues to the causes of inflammation, which leads
to clogged or hardened arteries and heart attacks.
"There is a growing body of evidence linking viral
and bacterial infections to the development of heart
disease," said Mike Nealy, one of five local grant recip-ients.
A doctoral candidate at LSU Health Sciences Center-
Shreveport, Nealy is studying how
human gammaherpesviruses like
Epstein-Barr virus and Kaposi's sar-coma-
associated herpesvirus can
remain dormant, avoid a person's
immune system, then reactivate to
cause illnesses.
Those viruses have been implicated
as potential causes of artheroscle-rosis,
a chronic inflammation in the
walls of arteries, Nealy said.
"While there are not any immediate clinical applica-tions,
the fundamental knowledge about how latency
is established and how the virus is able to evade the
host immune system will be helpful in developing
treatments for clironic gammaheipesvirus infection,"
Nealy said.
• See HEART 2C
Jim Hudelson/The Times
Nealy is reflected in the glass of a laboratory ventilation hood while working on
research.
Local heart grants
LSU Health Sciences Center-Shreveport led the state in the amount of American Heart
Association grants received for the 2008-09 funding year.
Grant
Researcher amount Research
Nealy
Karen Stokes,
Ph.D.
Michael
Nealy, BS
Li-Ru Zhao,
MD, PhD
Guohong Li,
M.D., Ph.D.
Anthony Orr,
Ph.D.
Total
$260,000
$43,540
$132,000
$260,000
$260,000
$955,540
How cytomegaiovirus affects inflammation of blood
vessels.
How to detect cells that carry gammaherpesvirus,
which is linked to blood vessel inflammation.
Substances that help the brain repair itself after
chronic stroke.
How CD40L, an immune system substance, affects
inflammation after coronary or carotid artery
angioplasty.
Enzymes that regulate the function of cells lining
blood vessels.
Source: American Heart Association The Times
/LINKS TO AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION,
LSU HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER-SHREVEPORT,
CARDIOVASCULAR CONSULTANTS.
C
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