NIH AND VA ANNOUNCE $7 MILLION PARTNERSHIP FOR SUBSTANCE ABUSE RESEARCH AMONG MILITARY PERSONNEL, VETERANS AND THEIR FAMILIES

More research for Dr. Drew.... and everyone needing to know more about substance abuse.

NIH AND VA ANNOUNCE $7 MILLION PARTNERSHIP FOR SUBSTANCE ABUSE RESEARCH AMONG MILITARY PERSONNEL, VETERANS AND THEIR FAMILIES

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NIH News
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
For Immediate Release: Thursday, July 30, 2009

MEDIA CONTACT: Stephanie Older, 301-443-6245,

NIH AND VA ANNOUNCE $7 MILLION PARTNERSHIP FOR SUBSTANCE ABUSE RESEARCH AMONG MILITARY PERSONNEL, VETERANS AND THEIR FAMILIES
Research will focus on war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan

Washington, D.C. - Two federal departments have joined forces to create a first-time collaborative funding project to support research on substance abuse and associated problems among U.S. military personnel, veterans and their families. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, in partnership with two other NIH Institutes -- the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) -- are jointly collaborating with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), on a seven million dollar funding opportunity announcement for research in this area. NIH is the leading scientific agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

There is a growing awareness that returning military personnel -- whatever their overseas role -- need help confronting a variety of war related problems including traumatic brain injury, post traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances, and substance abuse, including tobacco, alcohol and other drugs. Many of these problems are interconnected, and contribute to individual health and family relationship crises, yet there has been little research on how to prevent and treat the unique characteristics of wartime related substance abuse issues. The funding opportunity announcement will focus on the causes, screening and identification, prevention and treatment of substance use and abuse--including alcohol, tobacco and other drugs--and associated problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Active duty military personnel and the community of veterans have sacrificed so much for our country that we owe them nothing less than the best that research can offer," said Acting NIH Director Raynard S. Kington, M.D., Ph.D.

This funding opportunity announcement was prompted by a meeting held in January to gain a better understanding of the substance abuse intervention needs of military personnel, veterans, and their families and develop recommendations for prevention and treatment research priorities in this area. This is the first post-meeting announcement and is specific to those serving, or who have served, in Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) and/or Operation Iraqi Freedom.


"Working in collaboration with key federal agencies, we hope to learn more about how to address the array of social and emotional problems caused by the trauma of war that bring so much pain to soldiers and their families," said NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow. "Even though they are no longer in combat, many of these brave men and women are now fighting substance addiction -- another dangerous enemy."

"The transition period as soldiers withdraw from battlefield stress and face the rigors of re-adjusting to life at home can be a critical turning point," said NIAAA Acting Director Kenneth Warren. "This partnership will enhance our efforts to find solutions to the complex alcohol and substance abuse problems that plague our soldiers and their families."

The grant applications submitted will be reviewed by an NIH review panel that includes scientific expertise regarding substance abuse and associated conditions. Each agency will fund grants relevant to its mission. NIDA will fund $2 million, NIAAA $2 million, NCI $1 million and the VA $2 million.

As the research evolves, the VA will look for new tools to confront a complex cascade of problems which increasingly threaten the medical and physical health of its patients.

Dr. Joel Kupersmith, the VA's chief research and development officer, comments, "VA has long supported a strong research program for veterans, and this request for applications provides the opportunity to clearly focus on essential issues encountered by the newest generation of veterans in conjunction with federal partners."

Research questions related to all phases of the deployment cycle (i.e., pre-deployment, deployment, re-integration, and separation) and all branches of the military (e.g., Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard, U.S. Military Reserves, National Guard) and veterans are of interest. The deadline for grant applications is December 22, 2009.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) -- VA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) aspires to discover knowledge, develop VA researchers and health care leaders, and create innovations that advance health care for our veterans and the nation. For more information about VA Research: .

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the NIH, is the primary U.S. agency for conducting and supporting research on the causes, consequences, prevention, and treatment of alcohol abuse, alcoholism, and alcohol problems, and disseminates research findings to general, professional, and academic audiences. Additional alcohol research information and publications are available at .

NCI leads the National Cancer Program and the NIH effort to dramatically reduce the burden of cancer and improve the lives of cancer patients and their families, through research into prevention and cancer biology, the development of new interventions, and the training and mentoring of new researchers. For more information about cancer, please visit the NCI Web site at or call NCI's Cancer Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).

The National Institute on Drug Abuse is a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIDA supports most of the world's research on the health aspects of drug abuse and addiction. The Institute carries out a large variety of programs to inform policy and improve practice. Fact sheets on the health effects of drugs of abuse and information on NIDA research and other activities can be found on the NIDA home page at . To order publications in English or Spanish, call NIDA's new DrugPubs research dissemination center at 1-877-NIDA-NIH or 240-645-0228 (TDD) or fax or email requests to 240-645-0227 or drugpubs@nida.nih.gov. Online ordering is available at .

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- The Nation's Medical Research Agency -- includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit .

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Blood Pressure Genetic Variants

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NIH News
National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) <http://www.nhgri.nih.gov/>
Embargoed for Release: Thursday, July 16, 2009, 8:01 p.m. EDT

CONTACT: Raymond MacDougall, 301-402-0911, e-mail: macdougallr@mail.nih.gov

RESEARCHERS UNCOVER GENETIC VARIANTS LINKED TO BLOOD PRESSURE IN AFRICAN-AMERICANS
Findings May Point to New Avenues for Treatment, Prevention

A team led by researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) today reported the discovery of five genetic variants related to blood pressure in African-Americans, findings that may provide new clues to treating and preventing hypertension. The effort marks the first time that a relatively new research approach, called a genome-wide association study, has focused on blood pressure and hypertension in an African-American population.

Hypertension, or chronic high blood pressure, underlies an array of life-threatening conditions, including heart disease, stroke and kidney disease. Diet, physical activity and obesity all contribute to risk of hypertension, but researchers also think genetics plays an important role.

About one-third of U.S. adults suffer from hypertension. The burden is considerably greater in the African-American community, in which the condition affects 39 percent of men and 43 percent of women.

"This work underscores the value of using genomic tools to untangle the complex genetic factors that influence the risk for hypertension and other common diseases," said Eric Green, M.D., Ph.D., scientific director for the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of NIH. "We hope these findings eventually will translate into better ways of helping the millions of African-Americans at risk for hypertension, as well as improved treatment options for other populations."

In addition to NHGRI researchers, scientists from the Coriell Institute for Medical Research in Camden, N.J.; Boston University; and Howard University, in Washington, D.C., collaborated on the study, which was published in the July 17 online issue of PLoS Genetics.

To produce their findings, researchers analyzed DNA samples from 1,017 participants in the Howard University Family Study, a multigenerational study of families from the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area who identified themselves as African-American. Half of the volunteers had hypertension and half did not. To see if there were any genetic differences between the two groups, researchers scanned the volunteers' DNA, or genomes, analyzing more than 800,000 genetic markers called single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).

The researchers found five genetic variants significantly more often in people with hypertension than in those without the condition. The variants were associated with high systolic blood pressure, but not with diastolic blood pressure or combined systolic/diastolic blood pressure.

Blood pressure is measured in millimeters of mercury (mm Hg), and expressed with two numbers; for example, 120/80 mm Hg. The first number (systolic pressure) is the pressure when the heart beats while pumping blood. The second number (diastolic pressure) is the pressure in large arteries when the heart is at rest between beats.

"This is the first genome-wide association study for hypertension and blood pressure solely focused on a population with majority African ancestry," said the study's senior author, Charles Rotimi, Ph.D., NHGRI senior investigator and director of the trans-NIH Center for Research on Genomics and Global Health (CRGGH). "Although the effect of each individual genetic variant was modest, our findings extend the scope of what is known generally about the genetics of human hypertension."

In a genome-wide association study, researchers identify strategically selected markers of genetic variation. If disease status differs for individuals with certain genetic variants, this indicates that something in that chromosomal neighborhood likely influences the disease. Variants detected using this approach can accurately point to the region of the genome involved, but may not themselves directly influence the trait.

In May, two major international studies used the genome-wide association approach to identify 13 genetic variants associated with blood pressure and hypertension in people with primarily European and South Asian ancestry. While each variant was associated with only a slight increase in blood pressure, that work found that the more variants an individual had, the greater his or her risk of hypertension. Two genes identified by one of those studies were also associated with blood pressure in the new study.

In their pioneering study of African-Americans, Dr. Rotimi and his colleagues found that all of the five genetic variants associated with blood pressure were located in or near genes that code for proteins thought to be biologically important in hypertension and blood pressure. Previous research had implicated two of those genes in blood pressure regulation, and additional analyses by Dr. Rotimi's group revealed that all of the variants are likely involved in biological pathways and networks related to blood pressure and hypertension.

An existing class of anti-hypertension drugs, called calcium channel blockers, already targets one of the genes, CACNA1H. However, the additional genes may point to new avenues for treatment and prevention.

To follow up and expand upon their findings in African-Americans, the researchers scanned DNA from 980 West Africans with and without hypertension. The work confirmed that some of the genetic variants detected in African-Americans were also associated with blood pressure in West Africans. "The Western African population is of particular significance since it is the ancestral population of many African-Americans," said lead author Adebowale Adeyemo, M.D., CRGGH staff scientist.

This study was supported by the NHGRI, CRGGH, and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, all part of NIH; and by a W.W. Smith Foundation grant to the Coriell Institute. The Howard University General Clinical Research Center carried out the enrollment of study participants.

For more information about hypertension, visit <http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/Hbp/HBP_WhatIs.html>.

To learn more about the genome-wide association approach, visit <http://www.genome.gov/20019523>.
NHGRI is one of the 27 institutes and centers at the NIH, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The NHGRI Division of Intramural Research develops and implements technology to understand, diagnose and treat genomic and genetic diseases. Additional information about NHGRI can be found at its Web site, <www.genome.gov>.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- The Nation's Medical Research Agency -- includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit <www.nih.gov>.

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