Inserm Newsroom - Press room of the French national institute of health and medical research

New pediatric reference growth curves for France

Thanks to work coordinated by Inserm and its researchers at the Center of Research in Epidemiology and Statistics Sorbonne Paris Cité (CRESS), French child health and immunization record booklets (carnets de santé) distributed from April 1, 2018 will contain new reference growth curves. These curves were devised according to a totally innovative method in which over 5 million measurements collected from children aged 0 to 18 years were analyzed. As expected, the new curves for height, weight and head circumference are situated above the old ones. Numerous innovations in their presentation will help parents and doctors to monitor children’s growth.

Compensation mechanisms in subjects with Alzheimer’s disease lesions to preserve their intellectual and memory performance

The INSIGHT-preAD study, directed by Prof. Bruno Dubois, is being carried out by teams from Inserm, CNRS and Université Sorbonne at the Brain and Spine Institute (ICM) and the Memory and Alzheimer’s Disease Institute (IM2A) at AP-HP Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, in collaboration with the MEMENTO cohort. It aims at identifying factors underlying Alzheimer’s disease development in healthy subjects over 70 with no existing cognitive disorders.
Sponsored by Inserm, this study shows that after 30 months of follow-up, amyloid lesions (also called Alzheimer’s lesions) did not impact cognition or behavior in affected subjects.
Its results, published on February 27, 2018, in The Lancet Neurology, point to the existence of compensatory mechanisms in subjects with these lesions.

Repurposing Drugs to Fight the Flu: a Phase 2 Clinical Trial for FLUNEXT

The VirPath team from the International Center for Infectiology Research (CIRI, Inserm Unit 1111 – CNRS Joint Research Unit 5308  – ENS Lyon – UCBL1), in collaboration with the laboratory of Dr. Guy Boivin (Canada Research Chair in Emerging Viruses, Infectious Diseases Research Center of the University Hospital of Quebec – Université Laval), has developed […]

Alcoholism and dementia risk

Excessive alcohol consumption is linked to a threefold increase in overall dementia risk and a twofold increase in that of developing Alzheimer’s disease, making it a major modifiable risk factor for these conditions. This is the conclusion of an Inserm study performed in collaboration with Canadian researchers via the QalyDays Study Group . Using exhaustive data on hospitalizations in France between 2008 and 2013, the researchers studied the link between alcoholism and dementia. Their findings, published in The Lancet Public Health, confirm the importance of reinforcing measures to prevent the misuse of alcohol.

Flunarizine: a New Drug Candidate in the Treatment of Spinal Muscular Atrophy

A team of researchers from Inserm (“Toxicology, pharmacology and cell signaling” JRU 1124) and the universities of Paris Descartes and Paris Diderot have recently discovered that flunarizine – a drug already used to treat migraine and epilepsy – enables the repair of a molecular defect related to spinal muscular atrophy, a severe and incurable disease. This discovery is the culmination of research efforts ongoing since 1995, when the Inserm team – comprising Suzie Lefebvre, leader of the current research projects – identified the gene responsible for infantile spinal muscular atrophy. The results of the initial animal tests, published in Scientific Reports, demonstrate a marked improvement in health. These extremely promising findings must now be confirmed in humans.

Rare Disease Day 2018: Show Your Rare. Show You Care.

February 28, 2018, marks the eleventh annual world Rare Disease Day, which carries the slogan “Show your rare. Show you care.” and the #ShowYourRare hashtag. World Rare Disease Day was created in 2008 by EURORDIS and the Council of National Alliances. Ninety countries will be participating in 2018. Orphanet: a Portal for Rare Diseases and […]

Rare Disease Day 2018: Show Your Rare. Show You Care.

February 28, 2018, marks the eleventh annual world Rare Disease Day, which carries the slogan “Show your rare. Show you care.” and the #ShowYourRare hashtag. World Rare Disease Day was created in 2008 by EURORDIS and the Council of National Alliances. Ninety countries will be participating in 2018. Orphanet: a Portal for Rare Diseases and […]

A new gene implicated in hypertension

A team of researchers led by Maria-Christina Zennaro, Inserm research Director at the Paris Cardiovascular Research Center (Inserm/ Paris-Descartes University), in collaboration with German colleagues , has identified a new gene implicated in hypertension. This study has been published in Nature Genetics.

These new findings highlight the role of genetic predisposition in the onset of common diseases and the importance of the French Plan for Genomic Medicine 2025. A plan in which one objective is to enable access to genetic screening, even for common diseases, in order to provide personalized medical care.

Type 1 diabetes: the role of the thymus is not what we thought!

A small revolution has taken place in the world of type 1 diabetes research. A study conducted by an Inserm team led by Roberto Mallone at the Cochin Institute (Inserm, CNRS, Paris Descartes University) is calling into question the role long attributed to the thymus in selecting and eliminating white blood cells associated with type 1 diabetes and reveals that we are all auto-immune. Discoveries which change our understanding of the mechanisms of type 1 diabetes and point to new therapeutic strategies in fighting this disease. 

This research has been published in Science Immunology. 

Consumption of ultra-processed food and risk of cancer

A new study bringing together researchers from Inserm, Inra and University of Paris 13 (Center of Research in Epidemiology and Statistics Sorbonne Paris Cité, EREN team) suggests a link between the consumption of ultra-processed food and the additional risk of developing cancer. In total, 104,980 participants from the French NutriNet-Santé cohort were included. During the follow-up period (8 years), 2,228 cases of cancer were diagnosed and validated. A 10% increase in the proportion of ultra-processed foods in the diet was associated with a greater than 10% increase in the risk of overall cancer and, more specifically, breast cancer. Out of the various hypotheses which could explain these findings, the generally poorer nutritional quality of ultra-processed food may not be the only contributing factor, thereby pointing to mechanisms involving other compounds (additives, substances formed during industrial processes, materials in contact with food, etc.). These findings, which must therefore be considered as an initial avenue of investigation in this area, need to be confirmed in other study populations. The causal relationship in particular remains to be proven. This study was published on February 15, 2018 in the British Medical Journal.