2008’s Top 20 Medical Breakthroughs for Women

1. Obesity: Controlling appetite with leptin
The hot word in obesity this year was leptin. When a connection between this hormone and weight loss was first discovered in 1994, researchers helped fat, overfed lab mice stay slim. And they believed they could do with people what they did with mice: Inject some leptin and kiss pounds good-bye. Humans, it turned out, were more complicated. When they lost weight, their bodies became stingier with calories consumed and more efficient in retaining existing weight. Not willing to give up on leptin, scientists at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City started looking at the hormone as a possible weight-loss-maintenance drug. They discovered through scans that brain activity in areas connected to restraint and control declines after weight loss. Hike leptin levels, however, and the areas become more active. Michael Rosenbaum, PhD, and colleagues now see new possibilities for leptin in long-term weight control.

2. Infection control: Cracking the MRSA code
More Americans now die each year of the nasty staph infection MRSA (18,650) than from AIDS (15,000). Fortunately, new prevention and treatment options for the bug known officially as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus have emerged. One is a protective nasal gel (XF-73) designed to kill the microbes early on, upon contact, with every breath. (Past anti–MRSA drugs focused on preventing bacteria from spreading or stunting the bacteria’s growth.) Also, surgeons began experimenting on animals this year with MRSA–fighting stitches coated with a virus that fights the MRSA bug but doesn’t affect humans. Each tiny hole for stitches is a potential entry point for MRSA or other stubborn infections, so the idea of fortifying dozens of these sites to prevent chances of future infection is brilliant.

3. Addiction: Using the ER to help alcoholics
It’s no secret that alcoholics and drug abusers visit emergency rooms more often than the average Jane. So this year the American College of Surgeons (ACS) decided to turn that fact of ER life into something more positive. They unveiled SBI—screening and brief intervention—during which ER docs or counselors conduct brief drug or alcohol interventions right on the spot. The idea stems from the belief that emergency settings offer an ideal place to provide wake-up calls to patients who don’t yet have severe substance addictions. Such interventions have been shown to reduce a return to the trauma or ER center by 50%.

Next page: Infertility