MUSC leads national women’s health
study
by Mary
Helen YarboroughPublic Relations
An MUSC psychiatrist is leading national research that is intended to vastly increase scientific understanding of women’s health and the difference that gender play in various health conditions, particularly addiction.
Kathleen Brady, M.D., Ph.D., is the principal investigator (PI) and co-director of the Specialized Center of Research (SCOR) on Sex and Gender Factors Affecting Women’s Health, which recently received an $11 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. One of 11 institutions selected for the five-year study, MUSC received $8 million of the grant for its role to determine how to continue a well-established, multidisciplinary, translational program of research focused on gender-related issues in substance use disorders.
In another women’s health initiative, Brady is the PI for the NIH-funded Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH), which received $7 million for 15 programs nationwide.
BIRCWH programs offer both men and women support, opportunities and mentorship for career development in scientific research in women’s health. Its goal is to increase the number of qualified researchers in the field of gender differences across disciplines; and gender disparities that currently exist in patient care could be significantly decreased.
Brady is internationally acclaimed in her research on women’s health issues, particularly in the area of alcoholism and drug addiction, and how these conditions affect males and females differently.
“Dr. Brady is among the imminent scientists in the country and is highly respected. She clearly is one of the premiere scientists in the field of neuroscience of substance abuse and addiction internationally,” said Robert Malcolm, M.D., interim chairman of MUSC’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.
“Intellectually, she is extremely keen. She is very energetic and highly engaging,” Malcolm said. “All of those attributes were obvious then, and they are illuminated just as brightly today. She is so efficient in the use of her time and work. She is a great fit for psychiatry and science.”
As the SCOR study PI, Brady leads a team of basic science and clinical investigators.
As part of its SCOR-funded research, MUSC scientists will be studying how to provide common resources to assist investigators in increasing efficiency, scientific rigor and productivity. They will seek ways to support growth of gender-based research throughout the MUSC campus, and attract and mentor young investigators and new faculty in the area of patient-oriented women’s health research.
MUSC also hopes to provide a regional education and training resource for women’s health research.
While most science has been based on the male model, women were largely ignored. The focus now on studying women’s health has opened up a new frontier in medical research. “Previously, white males did research on white males. Ethnic minorities and women were not included in health research,” Malcolm said. “Medical studies on women’s health already are resulting in critical and surprising findings. … Dr. Brady is leading important scientific research into this previously neglected area.”
Considered responsible for MUSC’s healthy K-12 research grant program, Brady also is helping to lead the institution toward the next level of NIH funding called the Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA).
“While I was well aware of Kathleen’s successful career, only recently have I had the pleasure of being able to work closely with her, by virtue of our working on the CTSA grant application,” said Perry Halushka, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the College of Graduate Studies. “Kathleen is a delight to work with. She is intelligent, intuitive, hard working and decisive. It is easy to see why she has had such a successful career. She is a role model not only for women, but also men and for those who want to have a successful and rewarding career in academic medicine.
A beacon for young scientists
At MUSC, BIRCWH and SCOR funding are working in concert to support both scientists and their research.
MUSC’s first BIRCWH scholar, Matt Feltenstein, Ph.D., is working on a SCOR grant project studying the role of progesterone in cocaine-seeking female rats throughout the estrous, or menstrual, cycle; and how drug addiction differs in males and females. (See story)
Combined, the SCOR and BIRCWH awards will bring more than $12 million to MUSC during the next five years.
“Together, these endeavors will help us to get a strong foothold in the area of multidisciplinary research in the area of women’s health at MUSC so we can come up with innovative solutions to the unique health problems and challenges faced by women,” Brady said.
Malcolm said that these grants are example of MUSC’s emerging status in national and international scientific research.
“Both of these grants are great assets to the medical school, university’s College of Medicine and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences,” Malcolm said. “It shows we have faculty members with international standing and puts us at the forefront of research in women’s health.
First BIRCWH women’s health researcher focuses on addiction
MUSC’s first scholar to be supported by a national grant aimed at recruiting and mentoring scientists into women’s health research is studying how cocaine addiction and relapse differs in males and females.
Dr. Matt FeltensteinMatt Feltenstein, Ph.D., a research assistant professor in the Department of Neuro-sciences, is the beneficiary of Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH), a program supported by a $7 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant.
Working with MUSC addic-tion expert Ronald See, Ph.D., Feltenstein is examining sex differences and hormonal influences on cocaine-taking and cocaine-seeking behaviors using an animal model of relapse. Addiction relapse is caused a number of factors, including negative mood states/stress, exposure to drug-associated environmental stimuli (such as the context where the drug was consumed or drug paraphernalia) or administration of a small amount of the drug.
“These trigger factors can also cause relapse in animals, whereby exposure to an environmental stressor, drug-paired stimuli, or an injection of the previously self-administered drug, will robustly reinstate drug-seeking after prolonged withdrawal,” Feltenstein said.
Clinical research suggests that gender differences exist in cocaine addiction in that women progress more rapidly from casual use to dependence and have shorter periods of drug abstinence. Similarly, Feltenstein’s studies have shown that female rats exhibit higher response rates during cocaine self-administration, early withdrawal and enhanced relapse to drug-seeking following re-exposure to a small amount of cocaine. These effects also appear to be inversely related to plasma progesterone levels in that females with lower levels of progesterone show enhanced cocaine-seeking, while females with high levels of progesterone exhibit less cocaine-seeking. Feltenstein’s more recent work has examined whether progesterone pretreatment can reduce cocaine-seeking behaviors with evidence suggesting that it may be a useful intervention for relapse in abstinent female cocaine users.
A Jackson, Miss., native, Feltenstein earned his doctorate from the University of Mississippi. He has been involved with sex differences drug addiction studies since 2004. “We are learning that there are differences between male and female rats in terms of their motivation for the drug,” he said. “In animal studies, female rats appear more motivated than the males for cocaine. Interestingly, they respond a lot more during self-administration, but do not necessarily take more of the drug and tend to exhibit greater drug-seeking and relapse behaviors.”
Feltenstein said he is drawn to studies about women’s health, because so many questions remain unanswered. “We are currently examining sex differences and the role of ovarian hormones in relapse behaviors following exposure to stress, which no one has done before,” he said. “In the past, research only involved males, so we were only getting half the story. You could say that we’re investigating what I consider the ‘better half’ now. …I’m interested in this area of research because it hasn’t been done. It’s been neglected for a long time.”
In addition to the BIRCWH Scholars program, these studies are supported by the MUSC Specialized Center of Research on Sex and Gender Factors affecting Women’s Health (SCOR) P50 NIH grant, of which Kathleen Brady, M.D., Ph.D. (Department of Psychiatry), and See (Department of Neurosciences) serve as co-directors.
Friday, Nov. 2, 2007
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