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Week 32
Bcl6 gene sculpts helper T cell to
boost antibody production
Expression of a single gene programs an immune system helper T cell that fuels rapid
growth and diversification of antibodies in a cellular structure implicated in autoimmune
diseases and development of B cell lymphoma, scientists at The University of Texas M. D.
Anderson Cancer Center reported today in Science Express, the advance online publication
of the journal Science. The gene is Bcl6, which the team found plays the crucial role in
differentiating a naïve T cell into a T follicular helper cell (Tfh). "Tfh cells
were first noticed in structures called germinal centers found in the lymphoid system - in
lymph nodes and the spleen," said senior author Chen Dong, Ph.D., professor in M. D.
Anderson's Department of Immunology. Germinal centers are powerful machines that churn out
lots of antibodies. In the adaptive immune system, B cells present an antigen - a
distinctive piece of an invading bacterium or virus - to T cells. The bound antigen
converts a naïve T cell to a helper T cell that secretes cytokines which help the B cells
expand and produce a large volume of antibodies to destroy an intruder. Tfh cells are
concentrated with B cells in germinal centers, where they play a helper T cell's
traditional role in B cell proliferation and antibody development. "In germinal
centers, the B cells not only proliferate but they also undergo hypermutation in their
immunoglobulin genes so they can produce a diverse class of antibodies," Dong said.
"These mutations also allow production of antibodies with stronger affinity for their
target antigens." There are pitfalls to this process. Tfh cells and germinal centers
have been implicated in antibody-mediated autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid
arthritis, Dong noted. In these diseases, the germinal centers are likely producing the
wrong type of antibody at great volume. Genetic hypermutation among B cells in germinal
centers creates a hotbed of genomic instability, which gives rise to some types of B cell
lymphoma, Dong said.
Bone from Blood - Circulating Cells
Form Bone Outside the Normal Skeleton, Penn Study Finds
The accepted dogma has been that bone-forming cells, derived from the body’s
connective tissue, are the only cells able to form the skeleton. However, new research
shows that specialized cells in the blood share a common origin with white blood cells
derived from the bone marrow and that these bloodstream cells are capable of forming bone
at sites distant from the original skeleton. This work, published online this month in the
journal Stem Cells, represents the first example of how circulating cells may contribute
to abnormal bone formation.
Human cells secrete cancer-killing
protein, UK study finds
Human cells are able to secrete a cancer-killing protein, scientists at the University of
Kentucky's Markey Cancer Center have found. Researchers led by Vivek Rangnekar, UK
professor of radiation medicine, have determined that the tumor-suppressor protein Par-4,
initially thought to be active only within cells expressing the Par-4 gene, is in fact
secreted by most human and rodent cells and can target large numbers of cancer cells by
binding to receptors on the cell surface. This discovery, published today in the leading
journal Cell, makes Par-4 a very attractive molecule for future research aimed at
developing new cancer treatments. "It was a pleasant surprise, when we noticed that
Par-4 protein is secreted by cells," Rangnekar said. "This new finding means it
is not necessary to make genetic modifications, or to employ recombinant viruses, to
deliver the Par-4 gene to cancer cells, and it significantly expands the potential
applications of Par-4 to selectively kill cancer cells." Funded by several grants
from the National Institutes of Health, Rangnekar's study found that when the Par-4
molecule binds to its receptor GRP78 on the surface of a tumor cell, it triggers a
biological process called apoptosis or "cell suicide." Consistent with previous
research by Rangnekar's laboratory with intracellular Par-4, the newly discovered secreted
Par-4 acts selectively against cancer cells, leaving healthy cells unharmed. Few other
molecules are known to exhibit such selectivity.
Sticky protein helps reinforce
fragile muscle membranes
A new study by scientists at the University of Iowa shows why muscle membranes don't
rupture when healthy people exercise. The findings shed light on a mechanism that appears
to protect cells from mechanical stress. The study, which appears online July 20-24 in
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Early Edition, also helps explain
why muscle damage is so severe when this mechanism is disrupted, which occurs in certain
congenital and limb-girdle muscular dystrophies. Specifically, the team identified a
protein called alpha dystroglycan as the "glue" that binds muscle membranes to a
tough layer of extracellular proteins called the basal lamina. Just as a piece of sticky
tape can prevent a pin from bursting a balloon, the sturdy basal lamina reinforces muscle
cell membranes and keeps small tears from bursting open -- but only if the dystroglycan
"glue" affixing the basal lamina to the membrane is working. "This study
helps us understand how membrane structure is designed to protect cells, which is a
universally important process," said senior study author Kevin Campbell, Ph.D.,
professor and head of molecular physiology and biophysics at the UI Roy J. and Lucille A.
Carver College of Medicine and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. "The
findings may also have clinical implications for muscular dystrophies that are caused by
abnormal dystroglycan." These congenital muscular dystrophies include Fukuyama
Congenital Muscular Dystrophy, Walker-Warburg Syndrome and Muscle-Eye-Brain disease and
limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 2I. In these so-called dystroglycanopathies, too few sugar
groups are added to alpha dystroglycan, leading to a version of the protein that does not
attach properly to the basal lamina. Detachment of the basal lamina from the muscle
membrane appears to be a common feature of these conditions, and patients develop a very
severe muscular dystrophy. Working with a mouse model of these diseases, the researchers,
including Renzhi Han, Ph.D., a UI research scientist and the first author of the study,
found that injecting functional dystroglycan into muscle that lacks this component
restored muscle membrane integrity and protected the muscles from damage.
The Alzheimer's Project: Momentum
in Science
Council On Foreign Relations - One
World Government
Although the Council doesn´t seem to admit
what it´s final goal is, the truth behind it is becoming more obvious, when we see who´s
participating, and how the council gains more and more control over the media, when a man
like Rupert Murdoch, who is a valuable member, is in control of mainstream media in the
USA and beyond. Media is crucial to influence public opinion in order to protect the very
interests of the organization, which would be more influence and power, of course.
Percy Schmeiser in Salzburg,
Austria
Monsanto Harassing and Sueing
Farmers Over Seed Patents
Protein excreted in urine may be
help in diagnosing kidney disease caused by HIV
New data collected at Columbia University Medical Center and by the Mount Sinai School of
Medicine are helping researchers understand the extent to which a certain protein –
NGAL – can play a significant role in marking chronic kidney disease resulting from
HIV while at the same time distinguishing nephropathy from more common causes such as
diabetes and hypertension. It's well-known that Human Immunodeficiency Virus-associated
nephropathy (HIVAN) is an important cause of kidney disease in HIV-infected patients.
Antiretroviral therapy plays an important role in the treatment of HIVAN, yet despite
advances in understanding HIVAN, current recommendations for treatment have largely been
based on observational data and can only definitively made after a kidney biopsy. The
current study, spearheaded by Columbia University's Jonathan Barasch, M.D., Ph.D., along
with Ali Gharavi M.D., Ph.D., Neal Paragas M.S., Thomas Nickolas M.D., M.S., and Vivette
D'Agati M.D., together with Paul Klotman, M.D., Christina Wyatt M.D., and Susan Morgello
M.D., of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Landino Allegri in Parma, Italy, and
Prasad Devarajan in Cincinnati Childrens Hospital, represents the examination of data from
human cohorts in New York and Parma, and from mouse models created by Dr. Klotman. The
team noted that NGAL, or Neutrophil Gelatinase Associated Lipocalin, a protein they
previously discovered in damaged kidneys, was prominently expressed in kidney tissue and
in the urine of humans and in mouse models of HIVAN. The high levels of the urine protein
were out of proportion to the degree of chronic renal failure, for example that typifies
patients with other types of chronic glomerular diseases of both mice and humans. Most
strikingly, Paragas, Barasch, and Gharavi noticed that the rise in urinary NGAL levels was
in conjunction with the development of a specific type of lesion, namely tubular cysts
that typify HIVAN. The association with these cysts consequently may justify their biopsy
or an aggressive treatment with antiretroviral drugs when high levels of urine NGAL are
discovered. "From what we can tell, NGAL is unexpectedly expressed in great abundance
by kidney cysts allowing the clinician to potentially identify HIVAN among other types of
chronic kidney diseases and hopefully to intervene to prevent a kidney from ultimately
dying from what physicians refer to as ESRD, or 'end-stage renal disease,'" Dr.
Barasch says. Dr. Barasch cautions that studying a much larger human cohort would be
needed in order to determine the precise relationship of NGAL to HIVAN and whether the
protein is a good enough predictor of tubular cysts, but he finds the results of the study
unexpected and intriguing.
Leukemia cells evade immune system
by mimicking normal cells, Stanford studies show
Human leukemia stem cells escape detection by co-opting a protective molecular badge used
by normal blood stem cells to migrate safely within the body, according to a pair of
studies by researchers at Stanford University Medical School."We call it the 'Don't
eat me signal,'" said Ravindra Majeti, MD, PhD, assistant professor of hematology at
the medical school and the co-first author of one of the studies, which focused on acute
myeloid leukemia. Patients whose cancer stem cells express higher levels of the molecule
have a poorer prognosis than those whose cells express lower levels, and masking its
presence makes the human cancer cells less deadly and more vulnerable to destruction when
injected into mice. The results indicate that the molecule may serve both as a prognostic
factor and a valuable therapeutic target for patients with the cancer. "When we
blocked this signal in mice with established human leukemia, the cancer cells were more
easily removed by the body's natural defenses," Majeti said. The researchers are now
moving ahead with plans to test a similar treatment in humans and have filed for a patent
for the potential therapy. Irving Weissman, MD, the Virginia & D.K. Ludwig Professor
for Clinical Investigation in Cancer Research at the medical school, is the senior author
of both studies, which will be published together in the July 24 issue of the journal
Cell. Majeti shares his first authorship with Mark Chao, an MD and PhD student in the
cancer biology program at the medical school. Both Majeti and Weissman are members of
Stanford's Cance Center.Together, the researchers of the studies found that the molecule,
CD47, protects the leukemia stem cells from macrophages — part of a roving cellular
army tasked with finding and engulfing diseased or dying cells — by binding to a
molecule on the macrophage's surface. The interaction between the two proteins inhibits
the macrophage's killing instinct and allows the marauding cancer cells to escape
unscathed. The current research sprang from an earlier study in Weissman's lab that showed
CD47 expression was expressed at significantly higher levels in mouse leukemia cells.
"At the time, we didn't know what role CD47 played in leukemia," said Siddhartha
Jaiswal, an MD and PhD student at the medical school who is the first author of the second
study. "But it was clearly important." It all fell into place, according to
Weissman, when another group showed that red blood cells expressing CD47 were bypassed by
macrophages, but those without CD47 were eaten. "Our discovery that leukemia cells in
mice also expressed CD47 led us to propose that this signal might be appropriated by the
leukemia stem cells as part of their leukemic progression," said Weissman.
New breast pumping approach helps
preemies' moms to improve milk supply, says Packard/Stanford study
Mothers of premature infants shouldn’t rely solely on breast pumps to establish and
maintain their breast milk supply, researchers at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital
and the Stanford University School of Medicine have found. Moms already have a simple,
safe and free tool for assisting breast milk production: their own hands. In the study, 67
new mothers of premature infants learned how to combine an electric breast pump with
hand-expression techniques to extract milk. Unlike prior research showing poor milk
production in preemies’ moms, the subjects who used both hands and pump established
plentiful milk supplies. By the end of the eight-week study, their average milk production
exceeded the amount needed to feed a healthy 3-month-old, even though none of the women
studied could nurse when their babies were born. The findings could have implications for
women who have full-term infants, too. “When I saw the data, I realized, oh, my gosh,
this is impressive,” said Jane Morton, MD, who led the study. Morton was the director
of the breast-feeding medicine program at Packard Children’s when the study, which
appeared online July 2 in the Journal of Perinatology, was conducted. “We were
worried about mothers of preterm babies establishing any milk supply, much less an
average-or-better supply,” said William Rhine, MD, a neonatologist at Packard
Children’s and the study’s senior author. The findings contradict widely held
assumptions that premature delivery lessens the hormone signals needed to establish
breast-feeding.
New lab test helps predict kidney
damage
'Urine NGAL' gives clues to kidney injury in ICU patients and HIV-related kidney disease.
Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a frequent complication in patients in intensive care. A new
laboratory test called urine neutrophil gelatinase associated lipocalin (NGAL) helps
predict if patients will develop acute kidney injury, reports an upcoming study in the
Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). "As a stand-alone marker, urine
NGAL performed moderately well in predicting ongoing and subsequent AKI," comments T.
Alp Ikizler, MD (Vanderbilt University). Another study, also in JASN, indicates that urine
NGAL may also help in diagnosing HIV-related kidney disease affecting African Americans
and black Africans. "NGAL was very specifically expressed in renal
cysts—generating the new idea that NGAL may control the development of cysts in
HIV-associated nephropathy," says Jonathan Barasch, MD, PhD (Columbia University, New
York). He adds, "We and Prasad Devarajan, MD, identified NGAL in the kidney 10 years
ago and its translation into a clinical entity in such a short time is quite a story.
Almost every paper is positive for the association of NGAL and renal
dysfunction/disease." In the ICU study, patients with higher urine NGAL levels were
more likely to develop acute kidney injury, even after adjustment for other factors. The
rise in NGAL was present before any change in the standard test for AKI (serum creatinine
level). Without other information, however, urine NGAL was no more effective in predicting
AKI than clinical risk factors. Ikizler notes the study was limited by a lack of
information on incidence of death or the need for dialysis, and by a lack of information
on the patients' initial kidney function level. In the HIV study, levels of urine NGAL
were much higher in patients with HIV-associated nephropathy (HIVAN) than in patients with
other forms of kidney disease, with or without HIV. HIVAN is an important complication of
HIV, occurring mainly in patients of African descent. Studies in mice suggested that NGAL
may play an important role in the development of tubular disease and microcysts, which are
specific features of HIVAN. Barasch notes that the human component of their study was
limited by its small size but highlights the need for larger studies that definitively
measure the NGAL monomer. He adds, "If our results are confirmed, measuring urine
NGAL might help triage patients into different risk categories."
What Your Doctor Doesn't Know
Here are 3 simple secrets that are unknown
(or ignored) by the medical profession and bitterly disputed by Big Pharma that routinely
publishes phony research and
myths against them.
1. Plain cheap vitamin C takes all minerals
out of the blood by combining with them metabolically. It's cheaper and safer than any
other method.
2. The same vitamin C kills viruses - also by combining with them metabolically.
3. The ONLY bad side effect possible using vitamin C is diarrhea.
Few MD's know this because they get little
or no vitamin information in med school, and med journals depend on drug advertising for
their existence. Any journal that told the truth would go out of business. As the only PhD
in the Orthomolecular Medical Society, I could not use EDTA or other chelation drugs to
get toxic minerals out of a patient. In 1981, I had my first case of schizophrenia from a
high copper/zinc cause. I asked Carl Pfeiffer what to do in such a case. He told me that
he thought vitamin C could be used, and referred me to Linus Pauling. Linus spent a half
hour of his time mentoring me in the use of vitamin C for this.
After using vitamin C for many years to
"cure" mineral toxicity in many cases of schizophrenia (copper/zinc ratio) and
depression (mercury toxicity), I KNOW that vitamin C works! I have personally been taking
4000 mg (4 grams) per day for years. And all my mineral analysis results for years have
shown either very low levels of all toxic minerals, or actually immeasurable amounts. I
know that this safe and cheap method works personally. (A copy of my recent hair analysis
is available showing this "proof".) I recently cured the what I believe was the
swine flu in myself and my wife in 24 hours using only vitamin C. For the flu, it took 48
grams per day (6 each 1000mg pills every 3 hours) for both my wife and I to beat it.
The RDA of only 75 mg per day allows people to think that this is healthy, not
realizing that this small amount is the MINIMUM just to prevent scurvy. Talk to a vet in
the zoo who takes care of primates (primates are apes, monkeys and us), and you'll find
out that the RDA to keep a 150 pound ape healthy is 4 grams per day for good health. This
is the same for you and I - I take 2 grams AM and PM.
The first two FACTS listed above about
vitamin C lead to two different therapies related to Autism, and a very important one for
virus curing.
1.. That first fact makes for a simple,
safe therapy to Prevent Autism by taking toxic minerals (mostly mercury) out of the
pregnant woman prior to birth. This leads
to the tiny infant liver being able to handle mercury in toxic amounts, not only from
vaccines, but from environmental sources such as mothers milk, and mercury from
every coal burning power plant around. Basically, this simple system has the expectant
mother taking at least 2 grams of vitamin C at breakfast and dinner, leaving
other vitamins and minerals for lunch. Increase to 3 grams each time if mother has 6
months or less remaining. Remember that vitamin C takes out good minerals along
with the toxic ones, so it's necessary to put back the good ones. (Details on
http://drbate.com)
2. This same fact helps persons with autism
remove mercury, lead, and aluminum from the blood, safely, effectively, and cheap! These
all can do damage to the
brain. Doing this is essential to any autism "cure". (A complete article on this
therapy was featured in the August issue of this magazine, and may be found at
http://drbate.com.)
3. The other fact dictates the use of
vitamin C in huge amounts immediately when any sign of a cold or flu shows up. Start
taking at least 6 grams of vitamin C pills
every three hours until diarrhea starts. At that point. drop to 6 every 4-5 hours. The
idea is to keep high in vitamin C, but not high enough to cause diarrhea. Diarrhea
shows that the bloodstream is finally "saturated", and "overflowing".
Until that point, virus cells are increasing by doubling every 20 minutes or so.
See now why phony research about vitamin C
and virus using 500 mg to 1 gram is useless? If it even kills off half of the virus cells,
in 20 minutes after it's used up, the virus is back to full strength. As one researcher
put it, "the only mistake is not using enough vitamin C. For more information, go to
http://drbate.com. On the "navigation" section, there are many articles on
vitamin C, and using it for the above therapies. Please help me get this Prevent Autism
simple safe and cheap information out to pregnant women everywhere. We can stop this
epidemic or at least slow it down easily without a lot of cost (a bottle of 500 one gram
pills costs less than $20 at Costco or even WalMart.) This is a case of not using Big
Pharma's pet phrase "ask your doctor". They simply don't know.
Nanodiamonds deliver insulin for
wound healing
Bacterial infection is a major health threat to patients with severe burns and other kinds
of serious wounds such as traumatic bone fractures. Recent studies have identified an
important new weapon for fighting infection and healing wounds: insulin. Now, using tiny
nanodiamonds, researchers at Northwestern University have demonstrated an innovative
method for delivering and releasing the curative hormone at a specific location over a
period of time. The nanodiamond-insulin clusters hold promise for wound-healing
applications and could be integrated into gels, ointments, bandages or suture materials.
Localized release of a therapeutic is a major challenge in biomedicine. The Northwestern
method takes advantage of a condition typically found at a wound site -- skin pH levels
can reach very basic levels during the repair and healing process. The researchers found
that the insulin, bound firmly to the tiny carbon-based nanodiamonds, is released when it
encounters basic pH levels, similar to those commonly observed in bacterially infected
wounds. These basic pH levels are significantly greater than the physiological pH level of
7.4. The results of the study were published online July 26 by the journal Biomaterials.
Blood flow in Alzheimer's disease
Researchers have discovered that the enzyme, endothelin converting enzyme-2 (ECE-2), may
cause the decrease in blood flow in the brain seen in Alzheimer's disease and contribute
to progression of the disease. The study by Jennifer Palmer, BRACE/Reverend Williams PhD
Scholar and colleagues at the University of Bristol's Dementia Research Group is published
in the current issue [July 2009] of the American Journal of Pathology. Alzheimer's disease
is the most common form of dementia, affecting over half a million people in the UK - a
figure expected to double in the next 20 years. A? peptide, which accumulates in the brain
of Alzheimer's disease patients, is thought to lead to narrowing of the blood vessels and
reduction of blood flood in the brain. ECE-2 may contribute to the disease by converting
an inactive precursor to endothelin-1, which constricts blood vessels and further reduces
blood flow.
New predictions for sea level rise
Fossil coral data and temperature records derived from ice-core measurements have been
used to place better constraints on future sea level rise, and to test sea level
projections. The results are published today in Nature Geoscience and predict that the
amount of sea level rise by the end of this century will be between 7- 82 cm –
depending on the amount of warming that occurs – a figure similar to that projected
by the IPCC report of 2007. Placing limits on the amount of sea level rise over the next
century is one of the most pressing challenges for climate scientists. The uncertainties
around different methods to achieve accurate predictions are highly contentious because
the response of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets to warming is not well
understood.Dr Mark Siddall from the Earth Sciences Department at the University of
Bristol, together with colleagues from Switzerland and the US, used fossil coral data and
temperature records derived from ice-core measurements to reconstruct sea level
fluctuations in response to changing climate for the past 22,000 years, a period that
covers the transition from glacial maximum to the warm Holocene interglacial period.
Researchers capture bacterial
infection on film
Researchers have developed a new technique that allows them to make a movie of bacteria
infecting their living host. Whilst most studies of bacterial infection are done after the
death of the infected organism, this system developed by scientists at the University of
Bath and University of Exeter is the first to follow the progress of infection in
real-time with living organisms. The researchers used developing fruit fly embryos as a
model organism, injecting fluorescently tagged bacteria into the embryos and observing
their interaction with the insect’s immune system using time-lapse confocal
microscopy. The researchers can also tag individual bacterial proteins to follow their
movement and determine their specific roles in the infection process. The scientists are
hoping to use this system in the future with human pathogens such as Listeria and
Trypanosomes. By observing how these bacteria interact with the immune system, researchers
will gain a better understanding of how they cause an infection and could eventually lead
to better antibacterial treatments.
Scientists track impact of DNA
damage in the developing brain
Switching off a key DNA repair system in the developing nervous system is linked to
smaller brain size as well as problems in brain structures vital to movement, memory and
emotion, according to new research led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
scientists. The work, published in the August issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience,
also provides the first evidence that cells known as cerebellar interneurons are targeted
for DNA damage and are a likely source of neurological problems in humans. The cerebellum
coordinates movement and balance. The cerebellar interneurons fine tune motor control.
"These data will be important for understanding the role the DNA damage response
plays in preventing neurological disease," the investigators wrote. The study also
marks the first time researchers have switched off a pathway for repairing damaged single
DNA strands in an organ system, in this case the mouse brain and nervous system. While the
results suggest certain brain cells are particularly vulnerable, investigators report that
with time DNA damage accumulates throughout the nervous system. Some mice in the study
eventually develop seizures and difficulty walking. Peter J. McKinnon, Ph.D., a member of
St. Jude Genetics and Tumor Cell Biology, said the work provides a new model for
understanding how single-strand DNA damage affects the nervous system and offers a new
focus for tracking the origins of neurological disease.
Percy Schmeiser - David Gegen
Monsanto
Bijlmer escape
A group of students project an escape on
Bijlmer prison in Amsterdam.
The Omen (movie connection) -
You've Got Monsanto In Your Food
We Are What We Eat
Monsanto is killing our bee
population with pesticides
Animal mating rituals of giant
cuttle fish in the blue Australian ocean waters
Genetic Testing May Be Valuable in
Treating Colorectal Cancer
For the 29,000 patients in the United States with metastatic colorectal cancer,
chemotherapy with irinotecan is a standard treatment that has been shown to improve
survival. But for more than one in 10 of these patients, a variation in their DNA means
that this treatment could result in a severe reduction in their white blood cell count,
leading to a high risk of bacterial infection and possible subsequent death. A new genetic
test can identify those with the variation in order to lower the treatment dose —
however, it has been unclear whether the testing is worthwhile. A new cost-effectiveness
study led by scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College has determined that so-called
pretreatment pharmacogenetic testing is only beneficial if dose-reduced treatment is shown
to be nearly as effective as the full dose. If the lower dose is as effective, the test
could prevent many cases of severe neutropenia, an abnormally low count of an important
type of white blood cells known as neutrophils. It would also mean better life expectancy
and lower cost of care. The study appears online in the journal Cancer and is expected in
print in the Sept. 1 issue.
Colon capsule endoscopy diagnoses
64% of total polyps detected by conventional colonoscopy
Capsule endoscopy for exploring the colon in a minimally invasive manner diagnoses 64% of
all lesions located by means of conventional colonoscopy. According to a study published
in The New England Journal of Medicine – the specialised medical journal with
greatest international impact -, the new device would need technical improvements to
achieve similar efficacy to the conventional procedure undertaken with a colonoscopy and
to date considered a “gold standard” technique for this medical discipline,
given that this is what currently provides the most reliable results. It has to be added
that, moreover, conventional colonoscopy enables the undertaking of a diagnosis of the
colon as well as practicing therapeutic procedures, such as the in situ extirpation of
polyps during exploration or the obtaining of a biopsy when required. Capsule endoscopy of
the colon explores the large intestine in a minimally invasive manner, not being necessary
to admit patients to hospital, nor to sedate or anaesthesise them; neither is any tube or
air needed nor radiation. A total of eight European hospitals took part in the research,
amongst these being the University Hospital of Navarra, the only hospital throughout Spain
involved and the one contributing most patients for the study – 63 from a total of
328.
Altered gene expression in the
placenta of mice may help explain links between assisted reproductive techniques and
metabolism of offspring.
Research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive
Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking
behavior, finds that assisted reproductive techniques alter the expression of genes that
are important for metabolism and the transport of nutrients in the placenta of mice. The
results underscore the need for greater understanding of the long-term effects of new
assisted reproductive techniques in humans. Millions of children, comprising roughly 1-2%
of all births in the U.S. and Europe, have been born to couples experiencing fertility
problems through the use of assisted reproductive techniques such as in vitro
fertilization (IVF). However, relatively little research has been conducted to evaluate
the long term effects of assisted reproductive techniques. It is suggested that children
born following some assisted reproductive techniques have increased incidence of metabolic
problems, such as increased blood pressure, higher fasting glucose level and more body
fat. Mice generated through IVF show similar problems, and new research suggests that this
may be linked to altered expression of genes in the placenta that are important for fetal
growth and development before birth. “Our preliminary data suggest that transfer of
nutrients or growth factors from mother to fetus may be changed by assisted reproductive
techniques, and this change may contribute to increased body weight and decreased glucose
tolerance in the adult offspring”, said the lead author of the study, Kellie
Tamashiro.
U of T team helps to
"barcode" the world's plants
An international team of scientists, including botanists from the University of Toronto,
have identified a pair of genes which can be used to catalogue the world's plants using a
technique known as DNA barcoding — a rapid and automated classification method that
uses a short genetic marker in an organism's DNA to identify it as belonging to a
particular species. "Barcoding provides an efficient means by which we can discover
the many undescribed species that exist on earth," says Spencer Barrett, a professor
of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto and the head of the
Canadian plant barcoding working group. "This discovery is important because
understanding biodiversity is crucial to long-term human existence on the planet."
DNA barcoding has been widely used to identify animal species since its invention five
years ago. But its use for plants was delayed because of the complex nature of plant
genetics and disagreements over the appropriate DNA regions to use.
Study finds significant number of
kids experience family homelessness
A new multisite study by UCLA and RAND Corp. researchers and colleagues has found that 7
percent of fifth-graders and their families have experienced homelessness at some point in
their lives and that the occurrence is even higher — 11 percent — for African
American children and those from the poorest households. The study also found that
children who had experienced homelessness at some point during their lives were
significantly more likely to have an emotional, behavioral or developmental problem; were
more likely to have witnessed serious violence with a knife or a gun; and were more likely
to have received mental health care. The research is the first population-based study to
describe the lifetime prevalence of family homelessness among children and its association
with health and health care. The findings will be published in the August issue of the
American Journal of Public Health and are currently available online by subscription.
ISU researchers find possible
treatment for Spinal Muscular Atrophy
Spinal Muscular Atrophy is the second-leading cause of infant mortality in the world.
Ravindra Singh, associate professor in biomedical sciences at Iowa State University's
College of Veterinary Medicine, would like to see Spinal Muscular Atrophy lose its high
ranking and even slide off the list altogether. Most Spinal Muscular Atrophy sufferers --
more than 95 percent -- have a mutated or deleted gene called Survival Motor Neuron 1
(SMN1) that doesn't correctly do its job of creating functional SMN proteins. Singh's
solution is to replace that poor-performing gene with another gene. Humans need a certain
level of SMN protein to ward off Spinal Muscular Atrophy. When SMN1 fails to create
functioning proteins, Spinal Muscular Atrophy is the result.
Researchers Develop
“Brain-Reading” Methods To Uncover A Person’s Mental State
It is widely known that the brain perceives information before it reaches a person’s
awareness. But until now, there was little way to determine what specific mental tasks
were taking place prior to the point of conscious awareness. That has changed with the
findings of scientists at Rutgers University in Newark and the University of California,
Los Angeles who have developed a highly accurate way to peer into the brain to uncover a
person’s mental state and what sort of information is being processed before it
reaches awareness. With this new window into the brain, scientists now also are provided
with the means of developing a more accurate model of the inner functions of the brain. As
reported in a forthcoming (Oct. 2009) issue of Psychological Science, the findings
obtained by Stephen José Hanson, psychology professor at Rutgers; Russell A. Poldrack,
professor at UCLA, and Yaroslav Halchenko, (now a post-doctoral student at Dartmouth
College), have provided direct evidence that a person’s mental state can be predicted
with a high degree of accuracy through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The
research also suggests that a more comprehensive approach is needed for mapping brain
activity and that the widely held belief that localized areas of the brain are responsible
for specific mental functions is misleading and incorrect. The research was funded with
grants from the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the James S. McDonnell Foundation and
National Science Foundation. The McDonnell Foundation recently awarded Hanson another $1
million for ongoing studies in this area.
Molecule Plays Early Role In
Nonsmoking Lung Cancer
The cause of lung cancer in never-smokers is poorly understood, but a study led by
investigators at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center and at the National
Cancer Institute has identified a molecule believed to play an early and important role in
its development. The findings, published online recently in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, may lead to improved therapy for lung cancer in both
never-smokers and smokers, including those with tumors resistant to targeted drugs such as
gefitinib. The study examined lung tumors from people who had never smoked and found high
levels of a molecule called miR-21. The levels were even higher in tumors that had
mutations in a gene called EGFR, a common feature of lung cancer in never-smokers.
“Several important lung cancer drugs target EGFR mutations, but these agents are
ineffective in about 30 percent of cases in which the mutation is present,” says
co-principal investigator Dr. Carlo M. Croce, professor of molecular virology, immunology
and medical genetics at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - James
Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute. “Our study suggests that developing
agents to inhibit miR-21 might improve these anti-EGFR therapies.”
Where is the money?
"Cognitive Dysfunction in
Disease" (HD) at DMM2008, Karolinska
This is a High Definition version of the
video which chronicles the presentations made by Prof.Trevor Marshall, Director Meg Mangin
RN, and Bacteriality.com 's Amy Proal during the 'Days of Molecular Medicine' conference,
April 2008, at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. The conference theme was
"Cognitive Dysfunction in Disease."
'MP Study Results,' Cpt. Tom
Perez's Porto Presentation
This is the HD video of Cpt. Tom Perez's
presentation at the 6th International Congress on Autoimmunity, in Porto, Portugal, Sept
10-14, 2008, titled: "Bacteria Induced Vitamin D Receptor Dysfunction in
Autoimmune Disease: Theoretical and practical Implications for Interpretation of Serum
Vitamin D Metabolite Levels"
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Maternal, paternal genes'
tug-of-war may last well into childhood
An analysis of rare genetic disorders in which children lack some genes from one parent
suggests that maternal and paternal genes engage in a subtle tug-of-war well into
childhood, and possibly as late as the onset of puberty.This striking new variety of
intra-family conflict, described this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, is the latest wrinkle in the two-decades-old theory known as genomic imprinting,
which holds that each parent contributes genes that seek to nudge his or her children's
development in a direction most favorable, and least costly, to that parent.
"Compared to other primates, human babies are weaned quite early, yet take a very
long time to reach full nutritional independence and sexual maturity," says author
David Haig, George Putnam Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology in Harvard
University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. "Human mothers are also unusual among
primates in that they often care for more than one child at a time. Evidence from
disorders of genomic imprinting suggests that maternal and paternal genes may skirmish
over the pace of human development." Previous research has offered evidence of a
genetic struggle for supremacy only during fetal development: In the womb, some genes of
paternal origin have been shown to promote increased demands on mothers, leading to fetal
overgrowth, while genes of maternal origin tend to have the opposite effect. This new work
suggests maternal and paternal genes continue to engage in internal genetic conflict past
childbirth. "This analysis suggests that human life history, and especially humans'
unusual extended childhood, may reflect a compromise between what's best for mothers,
fathers, and the offspring themselves," Haig says.
Common household pesticides linked
to childhood cancer cases in Washington area
A new study by researchers at the Georgetown's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center finds
a higher level of common household pesticides in the urine of children with acute
lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a cancer that develops most commonly between three and seven
years of age. The findings are published in the August issue of the journal Therapeutic
Drug Monitoring. Researchers caution that these findings should not be seen as
cause-and-effect, only that the study suggests an association between pesticide exposure
and development of childhood ALL. "In our study, we compared urine samples from
children with ALL and their mothers with healthy children and their moms. We found
elevated levels of common household pesticides more often in the mother-child pairs
affected by cancer," says the study's lead investigator, Offie Soldin, PhD, an
epidemiologist at Lombardi. Soldin cautions, "We shouldn't assume that pesticides
caused these cancers, but our findings certainly support the need for more robust research
in this area." The study was conducted between January 2005 and January 2008 with
volunteer participants from Lombardi and Children's National Medical Center who live in
the Washington metropolitan area. It included 41 pairs of children with ALL and their
mothers (cases), and 41 pairs of healthy children and their mothers (controls). For
comparison purposes, the case pairs were matched with control pairs by age, sex and county
of residence. Previous studies in agricultural areas of the country have suggested a
relationship between pesticides and childhood cancers, but researchers say this is the
first study conducted in a large, metropolitan area.
Chicago team uses artificial
intelligence to diagnose metastatic cancer
When doctors are managing care for women with breast cancer, the information available to
them profoundly influences the type of care they recommend. Knowing whether a woman's
cancer has metastasized, for instance, directly affects how her doctors will approach
treatment -- which may in turn influence the outcome of that treatment. Determining
whether a tumor has metastasized is not always straightforward, however. Radiologists
often start by using diagnostic ultrasound to non-invasively probe the nearby lymph nodes
-- tissues where cancer cells first migrate once they metastasize. But in the early stages
of cancer, lymph nodes often appear completely normal even if the cancer has metastasized.
Now a team of researchers at the University of Chicago has designed a computer program
that uses artificial intelligence to analyze the features of ultrasound images in order to
help doctors predict earlier whether a woman's cancer has metastasized. The team will
discuss the first preclinical results obtained using this program at the upcoming meeting
of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), which takes place from July
26 - 30, 2009 in Anaheim, California. Currently there are no automated methods approved by
the Food and Drug Administration for diagnosing cancer, but on Wednesday the team will
report the results of a preliminary pilot study that retrospectively reanalyzed the
diagnostic ultrasounds of 50 women with suspected breast cancer who all had lymph nodes
that appeared normal in the ultrasound -- suggesting that their cancers had not
metastasized.
Research shows rates of severe
childhood obesity have tripled
Rates of severe childhood obesity have tripled in the last 25 years, putting many children
at risk for diabetes and heart disease, according to a report in Academic Pediatrics by an
obesity expert at Brenner Children's Hospital, part of Wake Forest University Baptist
Medical Center. "Children are not only becoming obese, but becoming severely obese,
which impacts their overall health," said Joseph Skelton, M.D., lead author and
director of the Brenner FIT (Families in Training) Program. "These findings reinforce
the fact that medically-based programs to treat obesity are needed throughout the United
States and insurance companies should be encouraged to cover this care." The research
was published on-line and will appear in the September print edition. Skelton and
colleagues compared data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
(NHANES). They looked at the prevalence of obesity and severe obesity in a study
population of 12,384 children, representing approximately 71 million U.S. children ages 2
to 19 years. Severe childhood obesity is a new classification for children and describes
those with a body mass index (BMI) that is equal to or greater than the 99th percentile
for age and gender. For example, a 10-year-old child with a BMI of 24 would be considered
severely obese, Skelton said, whereas in an adult, that is considered a normal BMI. An
expert committee convened by the American Medical Association, the Centers for Disease
Control and the Department of Health and Human Services proposed the new classification in
2007. The research by Skelton and colleagues is the first of its kind to use the new
classification and detail the severity of the problem. They found that the prevalence of
severe obesity tripled (from 0.8 percent to 3.8 percent) in the period from 1976-80 to
1999-2004. Based on the data, there are 2.7 million children in the U.S. who are
considered severely obese. Increases in severe obesity were highest among blacks and
Mexican-Americans and among those below the poverty level. For example, the percentage of
Mexican-American children in the severely obese category was 0.9 percent in 1976-80 and
5.2 percent in 1999-2004.
NIST scientists study how to stack
the deck for organic solar power
A new class of economically viable solar power cells—cheap, flexible and easy to
make—has come a step closer to reality as a result of recent work* at the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where scientists have deepened their
understanding of the complex organic films at the heart of the devices. Organic
photovoltaics, which rely on organic molecules to capture sunlight and convert it into
electricity, are a hot research area because in principle they have significant advantages
over traditional rigid silicon cells. Organic photovoltaics start out as a kind of ink
that can be applied to flexible surfaces to create solar cell modules that can be spread
over large areas as easily as unrolling a carpet. They'd be much cheaper to make and
easier to adapt to a wide variety of power applications, but their market share will be
limited until the technology improves. Even the best organic photovoltaics convert less
than 6 percent of light into electricity and last only a few thousand hours. "The
industry believes that if these cells can exceed 10 percent efficiency and 10,000 hours of
life, technology adoption will really accelerate," says NIST's David Germack.
"But to improve them, there is critical need to identify what's happening in the
material, and at this point, we're only at the beginning." The NIST team has advanced
that understanding with their latest effort, which provides a powerful new measurement
strategy for organic photovoltaics that reveals ways to control how they form. In the most
common class of organic photovoltaics, the "ink" is a blend of a polymer that
absorbs sunlight, enabling it to give up its electrons, and ball-shaped carbon molecules
called fullerenes that collect electrons. When the ink is applied to a surface, the blend
hardens into a film that contains a haphazard network of polymers intermixed with
fullerene channels. In conventional devices, the polymer network should ideally all reach
the bottom of the film while the fullerene channels should ideally all reach the top, so
that electricity can flow in the correct direction out of the device. However, if barriers
of fullerenes form between the polymers and the bottom edge of the film, the cell's
efficiency will be reduced.
Little-known protein found to be
key player
- Italian and U.S. biologists this week report that a little-understood protein previously
implicated in a rare genetic disorder plays an unexpected and critical role in building
and maintaining healthy cells. Even more surprising, their report in the journal Nature
shows that the protein, called "atlastin," does its work by fusing intracellular
membranes in a previously undocumented way. "If you'd asked me a year ago whether
this was possible, I would have said, 'No,'" said study co-author James McNew,
associate professor of biochemistry and cell biology at Rice University. "In fact,
that's exactly what I told (co-author) Andrea Daga when we first spoke about the idea a
year ago." McNew has spent the past 15 years studying SNARE proteins, a specialized
family of proteins that carries out membrane fusion. It's a vital process that happens
thousands of times a second in every cell of our bodies. "It is fitting that the
discovery of a new protein capable of fusing membranes comes 10 years after the
demonstration that SNAREs can fuse lipid bilayers," said Daga, a researcher at the
Eugenio Medea Scientific Institute in Conegliano, Italy. In the new study, Daga's and
McNew's research teams used fruit flies to study how atlastin functions. The atlastin in
fruit flies is very similar to the human version of the protein and serves the same
function. "Prior to this, there were only two defined ways in which you could take
biological membranes and put them together in a specific way," said McNew, a faculty
investigator at Rice's BioScience Resesarch Collaborative. "Atlastin is the third,
and it's the only one that requires enzymatic activity, so it's distinctly
different." Using a range of tests on purified proteins, live fruit flies and cell
cultures, the Italian and U.S. teams examined the effect of both an overabundance and a
scarcity of atlastin on cell function and on fruit fly development. They also created
mutant versions of the protein to see how it functioned -- or failed to function -- when
some parts were disabled.
Diabetes gene raises odds of lower
birth weight
Pediatric researchers have found that a gene previously shown to be involved in the
development of type 2 diabetes also predisposes children to having a lower birth weight.
The finding sheds light on a possible genetic influence on how prenatal events may set the
stage for developing diabetes in later childhood or adulthood. Researchers from The
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
published the study July 10 in the online version of the journal Diabetes. "It's a
bit unusual to find a gene linked to both prenatal events and to a disease that occurs
later in life," said study leader Struan F.A. Grant, Ph.D., a researcher at the
Center for Applied Genomics of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "This gene
variant carries a double whammy, in raising the risk of both lower birth weight and the
development of type 2 diabetes in later life." Type 2 diabetes occurs either when the
pancreas produces too little insulin or when the body cannot efficiently use the insulin
that is produced. Formerly called adult-onset diabetes and still most common in adults,
type 2 diabetes has been increasing sharply among children.
Freshly crushed garlic better for
the heart than processed
A new study reports what scientists term the first scientific evidence that freshly
crushed garlic has more potent heart-healthy effects than dried garlic. Scheduled for the
Aug. 12 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, it also challenges the
widespread belief that most of garlic's benefits are due to its rich array of
antioxidants. Instead, garlic's heart-healthy effects seem to result mainly from hydrogen
sulfide, a chemical signaling substance that forms after garlic is cut or crushed and
relaxes blood vessels when eaten. In the study, Dipak K. Das and colleagues point out that
raw, crushed garlic generates hydrogen sulfide through a chemical reaction. Although best
known as the stuff that gives rotten eggs their distinctive odor, hydrogen sulfide also
acts as a chemical messenger in the body, relaxing blood vessels and allowing more blood
to pass through. Processed and cooked garlic, however, loses its ability to generate
hydrogen sulfide. The scientists gave freshly crushed garlic and processed garlic to two
groups of lab rats, and then studied how well the animals' hearts recovered from simulated
heart attacks. "Both crushed and processed garlic reduced damage from lack of oxygen,
but the fresh garlic group had a significantly greater effect on restoring good blood flow
in the aorta and increased pressure in the left ventricle of the heart," Das said.
Experimental treatment halts
hypoxic-ischemic brain injury in newborns
Inhibiting an enzyme in the brains of newborns suffering from oxygen and blood flow
deprivation stops a type of brain damage that is a leading cause of cerebral palsy, mental
retardation and death, according to researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical
Center. Reporting their results in the Journal of Neuroscience, the scientists show
blocking the brain enzyme, tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA), prevents progressive
brain damage triggered by the lack of oxygen and blood supply. The experimental
pre-clinical treatment involved putting a naturally occurring substance called plasminogen
activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) into the brains of newborn rats, said Chia-Yi Kuan, M.D.
PhD, senior investigator on the study and a researcher in the divisions of Developmental
Biology and Neurology at Cincinnati Children's. Besides demonstrating the brain's
plasminogen activator system plays a pivotal role in neonatal cerebral hypoxic-ischemic
brain injury, Dr. Kuan said the study also shows this system may be a promising
therapeutic target in infants suffering hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE).
Identification of a treatment target is a vital step to finding better ways to treat
newborns with HIE. "Not only is hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy an important cause of
perinatal mortality and permanent neurological morbidities, but there are no specific
medications against HIE in current medical practice," explained Ton J. DeGrauw, M.D.,
Ph.D., director of Neurology at Cincinnati Children's. "This is why the findings of
this study may have important clinical implications because, in a rodent model of HIE,
they that show inhibiting plasminogen activators in functional areas of the brain is
powerful strategy for brain protection." Earlier studies have pointed to the role
certain brain proteases, or enzymes, play in adult brain injury following stroke, but very
little has been known about what these enzymes do in neonatal cerebral hypoxic-ischemia,
according to the researchers. The enzyme in this case, tPA, normally breaks down proteins
and other molecules to eliminate blood clots.
Childhood adversities have a
predictive role in peptic ulcer
Helicobacter pylori, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug use and smoking are the most
important risk factors for peptic ulcer. Alcohol intake may also play a role in the
development of gastric ulcers. Psychological stress may also have an impact on the onset
and course of ulcer disease. However, very little is known as to whether childhood
adversities involving financial problems, conflicts in the family, problems with alcohol,
and matters of personal security are associated with peptic ulcer. A research article to
be published on July 21,2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this
question. Dr. Markku Sumanen and his colleagues of the Health and Social Support Study
(HeSSup) investigated this subject in a nationwide sample of working-aged people in
Finland. The participants were asked whether or not a doctor had told them that they have
or have had a peptic ulcer. They were also asked to think about their childhood
adversities in terms of the following questions: 1) "Did your parents divorce?"
2) "Did your family have long-lasting financial difficulties?" 3) "Did
serious conflicts arise in your family?" 4) "Were you often afraid of some
member of your family?" 5) "Was someone in the family seriously or chronically
ill?" 6) "Did someone in the family have problems with alcohol?" The most
common childhood adversities to emerge were long-lasting financial difficulties in the
family, serious conflicts in the family and someone in the family having been seriously or
chronically ill. All adversities reported were more common among peptic ulcer patients
than among other respondents. Alcohol problems in the family and fear of some member of
the family were also more common among peptic ulcer patients than among other respondents.
With regard to parental divorce there was no statistically significant difference between
the two groups. Age- and sex-adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of childhood adversities for
peptic ulcer were statistically significant, indicating that participants with childhood
adversities had a higher proportional risk of developing peptic ulcer. Adjusting also for
smoking, heavy drinking, stress and current NSAID use had no further influence.
Long-lasting financial difficulties in the family had the greatest influence.According to
the findings there is reason to believe that stress factors during childhood maintain a
connection with the development of peptic ulcers. Childhood adversities are not
necessarily true risk factors for peptic ulcer, but may play a predictive role in the
development of the disease. A more comprehensive understanding of peptic ulcer patients is
worth aspiring to.
Humans "damaging the
oceans"
Mounting evidence that human activity is changing the world’s oceans in profound and
damaging ways is outlined in a new scientific discussion paper released today. Man-made
carbon emissions “are affecting marine biological processes from genes to ecosystems
over scales from rock pools to ocean basins, impacting ecosystem services and threatening
human food security,” the study by Professor Mike Kingsford of the ARC Centre of
Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University and colleague Dr Andrew
Brierley of St Andrews University, Scotland, warns. Their review, published in the latest
issue of the journal Current Biology, says that rates of physical change in the oceans are
unprecedented in some cases, and change in ocean life is likely to be equally quick. These
include changes in the areas fish and other sea species can inhabit, invasions,
extinctions and major shifts in marine ecosystems. “In the past, the boundaries
between geological ages are marked by sudden losses of species. We may now be entering a
new age in which climate change and other human-caused factors such as fishing are the
major threats for the oceans and their life,” Andrew and Mike say. “Given how
essential the oceans are to how our entire planet functions it is vital that we intervene
before more tipping points are passed and the oceans go down the sort of spiral of decline
we have seen in the world’s tropical forests and rangelands, for example.”
Duke scientists create airway
spheres to study lung diseases
Using both animal and human cells, Duke University Medical Center scientists have
demonstrated that a single lung cell can become one of two very different types of airway
cells, which could lead to a better understanding of lung diseases. From this single
"basal" cell, a small, squat stem cell that divides to replenish the lung lining
layer, scientists created 3-D hollow spheres that were lined inside with both ciliary and
secretory cells. This 3-D model can be used to study dynamic processes underlying lung
diseases, including cancer, said Brigid Hogan, Ph.D., chair of the Duke Department of Cell
Biology and senior researcher of the study, which was published in PNAS Early Edition.
"Now that we have this 3-D model and information about the gene expression
'signature' of basal cells, we are in a strong position to see what happens when lung-cell
behavior goes awry," Hogan said. "We might, for example, be able to activate an
oncogene (a cancer-causing gene) or other factors to see how lung cancer might develop in
the airways. Amazingly, almost nothing is known about lung basal cells, which are so
important to health and make up nearly a third of the cells in the human
airways."Normally, basal stem cells maintain the airways by turning over slowly into
new ciliated cells and secretory cells. Ciliated cells resemble waving brooms that sweep
along particles and distribute secretions that are needed in the airways, and secretory
cells provide the antibacterial and lubricating secretions. These two types of cells are
neatly arranged in equal proportions in healthy lung airways. However, when lungs are
affected by maladies like cancer, chemical damage, cystic fibrosis or asthma, the balance
of these cells can be thrown off. By learning the role these basal cells play in
maintaining the airway tissue, the scientists were able to create an entirely new way to
study them.
Risø DTU develops magnetic Curie
valve that does not require power!
Christian Bahl is a Senior Scientist in the Fuel Cells and Solid State Chemistry Division
and works mainly with magnetic refrigeration. Magnetic refrigeration is an
energy-efficient cooling technique that could help save substantially on electricity
consumption in the long term. Through this, Christian Bahl has knowledge of the Curie
temperature of different substances. At the Curie temperature the material switches
between being magnetic and non magnetic. And precisely this property inspired the group to
create a shunt valve controlled by magnets. "If you imagine in your house at home
that you had one of our valves connected to the hot water circulation, running through
your radiators, then the valve would be able to lead the water through the radiators
again, provided the water is hot enough. The rest would go to reheating, "explains
Dan Eriksen who was employed on this project as a Development Engineer in July 2008. The
idea behind this new type of valve is that the liquid flows past a material with a certain
Curie temperature. When the liquid temperature falls below this temperature, the material
is attracted by a magnet outside the valve. If the temperature rises again, the material
is less attracted to the magnet, and is pushed back to its starting position by a spring.
This movement is used to activate the valve.
Stress signals link pre-existing
sickness with susceptibility to bacterial infection
Mitochondrial diseases disrupt the power generating machinery within cells and increase a
person's susceptibility to bacterial infection, particularly in the lungs or respiratory
tract. A new study published in Disease Models & Mechanisms (DMM), shows that
infection with the pneumonia causing bacteria Legionella, is facilitated by an increased
amount of a signaling protein that is associated with mitochondrial disease. Patients with
mitochondrial disease exhibit a wide range of symptoms including diabetes, blindness,
deafness, stroke-like episodes, epilepsy, ataxia, muscle weakness and kidney disease. The
metabolic abnormalities that cause these effects also induce a stress signal intended to
help the body overcome its energy deficit. The stress-signal induces the production of
more mitochondria, the energy generating 'powerplants' of the body, in the hopes that more
mitochondria will result in a better power supply. Researchers now show that the
stress-signal associated with mitochondrial disease facilitates the growth and
reproduction of the lung-infecting bacteria, Legionella. Cells with mitochondrial disease
increase their production of a signaling protein called AMP-activated protein kinase
(AMPK), to promote the generation of more energy producing mitochondria. Infectious
bacteria, like Legionella, target the mitochondria and might use them to supplement their
own needs and survival requirements. By manipulating AMPK levels, scientists were able to
directly influence the ability of bacteria to replicate inside of the single-celled
organism, Dictyostelium.
High calcium level in arteries may
signal serious heart attack risk
Researchers may be able to predict future severe cardiac events in patients with known,
stable coronary artery disease (CAD) using coronary calcium scoring, according to a study
published in the online edition of Radiology."The amount of calcium in the coronary
vessels, as measured by CT, is of high predictive value for subsequent serious or fatal
heart attack in these patients, independent of the patient's age, sex and other coronary
risk factors," said the study's lead author, Marcus Hacker, M.D., resident physician
in the Department of Nuclear Medicine, leader of the research unit for nuclear cardiology
and assistant medical director at Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, Germany. CAD is
the most common type of heart disease. According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood
Institute, it is the leading cause of death in the U.S. for both men and women, killing
more than 500,000 Americans each year. CAD is a condition in which plaque, consisting of
cholesterol, calcium, fat and other substances, builds up inside the arteries that supply
blood to the heart. When plaque builds up in the coronary arteries, blood flow to the
heart is reduced and may lead to arrhythmia, heart attack or heart failure. Single photon
emission computed tomography (SPECT) myocardial perfusion imaging is a nuclear medicine
diagnostic procedure that provides excellent three-dimensional images of the coronary
arteries to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of CAD. Currently, calcium
scoring—measuring the amount of calcium in the arteries—is used as a screening
exam and in cases of suspected CAD, but not in cases of known CAD.
Shark Alert! Species Struggle
Psychiatry Industry Of Death
8 Foot Alien on CCTV Cameras 3
Police Cars Trapped in Reverse BigBrother Surveillance
Scientists Question Mass
Vaccinations SwineFlu
Stand By Me / Beautiful Girls - The
Choir
Life-saving research in to stem
cells
A look at life-saving research scientists
are doing in to stem cell therapy. Interesting video from BBC show Life Blood. Watch more
high quality videos on the Explore YouTube channel from BBC Worldwide here: http://www.youtube.com/bbcexplore
Wild Herbs - What to Eat Now
Preview
Discovery to aid in future
treatments of third-world parasites
Schistosomiasis, one of the most important of the neglected tropical diseases, is caused
by infection with parasitic helminths of the genus Schistosoma. These parasites are long
lived (>10 years) and dwell within blood vessels, where they produce eggs that become
the focus of intense, chronic inflammatory responses. In severe cases, this inflammation
is associated with life-threatening liver disease. No vaccine is currently available to
prevent schistosomiasis. Options for treating the disease are largely limited to one drug,
Praziquantel. Rates of re-infection in drug-treated individuals are high, and it is feared
that widespread use may foster the emergence of drug-resistant variants, such as has seen
with drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis. The body's immune response to schistosome
infection, as with all immune responses, is coordinated by cytokines, small proteins
secreted by immune cells. Due to their fundamental importance, cytokine research is a
significant focus of research at the Trudeau Institute. Because cytokines travel through
the body to relay critical information, it is difficult to identify the cells that produce
them and to learn about their role. Trudeau investigators have devised cytokine
"reporter mice" for tracking cells that produce the signature cytokine of the
so-called "Th2" immune response mounted against infections with parasitic worms,
interleukin-4 (IL-4). While it was previously known that the complex mixture of proteins
released by schistosome eggs induce Th2 responses and the production of IL-4, the specific
molecule(s) responsible for these effects were unknown. Research from the laboratories of
Markus Mohrs of the Trudeau Institute and Gabriele Schramm of the Research Centre Borstel
in Germany had previously shown that a protein called alpha-1 can support Th2 responses
but is unable to initiate them.
Placenta-derived stem cells may
help sufferers of lung diseases
An Italian research team, publishing in the current issue of Cell Transplantation (18:4),
which is now available on-line without charge at
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct, has found that stem cells derived from human
placenta may ultimately play a role in the treatment of lung diseases, such as pulmonary
fibrosis and fibrotic diseases caused by tuberculosis, chemical exposure, radiation or
pathogens. These diseases can ultimately lead to loss of normal lung tissue and organ
failure. No known therapy effectively reverses or stops the fibrotic process.
Placenta-derived stem cells are known to be able to engraft in solid organs, including the
lungs. Human term placenta stem cells also demonstrate characteristics of high plasticity
and low immunogenicity. "The potential application of fetal membrane-derived cells as
a therapeutic tool for disorders characterized by inflammation and fibrosis is supported
in previous studies," says Dr. Ornella Parolini, the study's lead author. "In
line with the hypothesis that cells derived from the amniotic membrane have
immunomodulatory properties and have been used as an anti-inflammatory agent, we set out
to evaluate the effects of fetal membrane-derived cell transplantation in
chemically-treated (bleomycin) mice." According to Dr. Parolini, cells delivered via
intra-peritoneal transplant, regardless of the cells being allogenic or xenogenic (host's
own cells or from another individual respectively), the procedure resulted in a
significant anti-fibrotic effect on the lab animals. A "consistent" reduction in
lung fibrosis, says Dr. Parolini, "provides convincing proof" that
placenta-derived cells do confer benefits for bleomycin-induced lung injury. While the
severity of inflammation did not show an overall reduction, there was a marked reduction
in neutrophil (white blood cell) infiltration after both xeno-and-allo-transplantation.
"It is worth noting," says Dr. Parolini," that the presence of neutrophils
is associated with poor prognosis for several lung diseases. However, the mechanism by
which placenta-derived cells might affect infiltration by neutrophils is not known."
The researchers speculated that these cells may produce soluble factors that induce
anti-inflammatory effects.
Mines could provide geothermal
energy
Mine shafts on the point of being closed down could be used to provide geothermal energy
to local towns. This is the conclusion of two engineers from the University of Oviedo,
whose research is being published this month in the journal Renewable Energy. The method
they have developed makes it possible to estimate the amount of heat that a tunnel could
potentially provide. "One way of making use of low-intensity geothermal energy is to
convert mine shafts into geothermal boilers, which could provide heating and hot water for
people living nearby", Rafael Rodríguez, from the Oviedo Higher Technical School of
Mining Engineering, tells SINC. This type of energy, which is hardly used in Spain, is
obtained from the internal heat of the Earth. The engineer and his colleague María
Belarmina Díaz have developed a "semi-empirical" method (part mathematical and
part experimental) to calculate the amount of heat that could be produced by a mine tunnel
that is due to be abandoned, based on studies carried out while it is still in use.
"When the mine is still active one can access the tunnels easily in order to gather
data about ventilation and the properties of the rocks, as well as to take samples and
design better circuits, and even programme the closure of some sections in order to use
them for geothermal energy production", says the engineer, who stresses that,
although geothermal energy can be made use of once the mine is closed, "it is no
longer possible by that stage to make any modifications, or to gather any useful data to
evaluate and improve the system".
Dopamine-related activity of food
reward circuits in the brain and weight gain
Research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive
Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking
behavior, finds that women who possess genetic modifications associated with low activity
of the reward neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain when they imagine eating appetizing
foods are more prone to weight gain. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scans of
brain activity revealed that women who had lower activity in food reward regions of the
brain and who had genetic modifications associated with lower dopamine activity showed the
greatest weight gain after one year. Eric Stice from the Oregon Research Institute says,
“These findings provide some of the first prospective evidence that people who
experience blunted reward from food may compensate by overeating, increasing risk for
unhealthy weight gain.” Overconsumption of appetizing foods may occur in an attempt
to increase brain reward in less responsive systems. The results of this study highlight
the need for further research into the role that neural reward systems play in the
development of obesity. “It may be useful for individuals who show low food-related
reward to increase their physical activity, which not only promotes activity the same
reward circuitry but also reduces unhealthy weight gain from overeating” says Stice.
Weight loss improves mood in
depressed people
Research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive
Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking
behavior, finds that after a 6-month behavioral weight loss program, depressed patients
not only lost 8% of their initial weight but also reported significant improvements in
their symptoms of depression, as well as reductions in triglycerides, which are a risk
factor for heart disease and stroke. The results of this study highlight the need for
further research into the effects of weight loss in individuals suffering from psychiatric
disorders. “This research is novel because clinically depressed individuals are not
usually included in weight loss trials due to concerns that weight loss could worsen their
depression,” said Dr. Lucy Faulconbridge, lead author of the study. “These
concerns, however, are not based on empirical evidence, and the practice of excluding
depressed individuals from clinical weight loss trials means that we are learning nothing
about this high-risk population.” The latest findings suggest that depressed, obese
individuals can indeed lose clinically significant amounts of weight, and that weight loss
can actually reduce symptoms of depression. Fifty-one depressed and non-depressed subjects
were recruited into the study to follow a supervised weight loss program that included
lifestyle modification and meal replacements. Both depressed and non-depressed subjects
lost significant amounts of weight, with depressed individuals losing 8% of their initial
body weight, compared with 11% loss by non-depressed individuals. After 6 months on the
weight loss program, depressed subjects also showed significant improvement of their
depressive symptoms, based on a questionnaire. Additional significant improvements in
glucose, insulin and high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol were observed in both
depressed and non-depressed subjects, and depressed individuals showed reduced levels of
triglycerides in the blood, which have been linked to risk of heart disease and stroke.
“Depression and obesity are independently associated with increased risk of heart
disease and stroke, and so reductions in both body weight and symptoms of depression are
likely to improve long-term health outcomes” said Faulconbridge.
Just expecting a tasty food
activates brain reward systems
Research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive
Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking
behavior, shows that exposing rats to a context associated with eating chocolate activates
a part of the brain’s reward system known as the orexin system. This finding helps
explain why eating can be triggered by environmental cues even in the absence of hunger.
The results have implications for the development of new drug treatments for overeating.
The rate of obesity continues to rise within the United States and abroad, and
overconsumption of tasty food is an obvious culprit. Little is known regarding how
palatable foods affect the brain, but it seems that especially tasty foods elicit brain
responses similar to those elicited by drugs of abuse such as cocaine and nicotine,
pointing to a general involvement of the brain’s “reward” system. A common
factor may be activation of orexin neurons in the brain, which are recruited during of
rewards such as a tasty food or a dose of cocaine. “Our research program is focused
on identifying brain systems that are activated by palatable food intake. The hypothalamic
orexin system is known to promote wakefulness and arousal; however, it is now clear that
this system also participates in the regulation of reward-related behaviors, including
overconsumption of palatable foods,” says Derrick Choi, lead author. Because reward
anticipation is a contributing factor to relapse to drug use, Choi hypothesizes that
orexin is an ideal candidate system that may underlie the rewarding aspects of eating
highly palatable foods, which clearly can lead to obesity. In their current study, the
researchers trained rats to expect a piece of Hershey’s milk chocolate in a unique
environment. After training, rats were placed into the same environment, where no
chocolate was present. The researchers found that the expectation of chocolate alone
activated brain orexin systems. The results could explain why individuals tend to overeat
in contexts associated with prior experiences of eating good food. “It entirely
possible that future treatments for obesity will involve a combination of lifestyle
changes as well as pharmacological therapies aimed at orexin and other brain systems, to
regulate food reward-related behaviors,” said Choi.
High fat, high sugar foods alters
brain receptors
Overconsumption of fatty, sugary foods leads to changes in brain receptors, according to
new animal research at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The new research
results are being presented at the 2009 annual meeting of the Society for the Study of
Ingestive Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating
and drinking behavior. The results have implications for understanding bulimia and other
binge eating disorders. Dr. Bello and colleagues report that either continuous eating or
binge eating a high fat, high sugar diet alters opioid receptor levels in an area of the
brain that controls food intake. Opioids are a family of chemicals with actions similar to
those of morphine; however, opioids exist naturally in the brain and have been linked to
feelings of pleasure and euphoria. “These results are interesting because we saw
changes in opioid receptor gene expression in a brain area that controls how much we eat
during a meal”, said Bello. The new findings suggest that overconsumption of highly
palatable foods maintains bingeing by enhancing opioids in the brain, and that increased
opioids could be a factor involved in binge eating disorders. These findings may help to
understand the biological basis of eating disorders.
Cancer's distinctive pattern of
gene expression could aid early screening and prevention
Distinctive patterns of genes turned off – or left on – in healthy versus
cancerous cells could enable early screening for many common cancers and maybe help avoid
them, Medical College of Georgia scientists say. Researchers are comparing chemical
alterations, called DNA methylation, in the body's basic building block in healthy colon,
breast, brain and lymphatic cells and their cancerous counterpart to find telltale
patterns that could one day be detected in the blood, urine or feces. The patterns could
give patients a heads up that lifestyle changes, or more severe intervention, is in order,
says Dr. Kapil Bhalla, director of the MCG Cancer Center, Cecil F. Whitaker Jr.,
M.D./Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Cancer and Georgia Cancer Coalition
Scholar. DNA methylation is a piece of a relatively new research field called epigenetics
that looks more globally at which genes are turned off and on with an eye on early
identification of some of the aberrant adjustments that enable cancer cells to thrive.
Epigenetic changes actually are more common than the genetic mutations long known to put
people at risk for cancer and other diseases and they are probably inherited as well, Dr.
Bhalla says. The early and apparently significant role of epigenetics in cancer has made
the field a focal point for centers such as the MCG Cancer Center, which recently
recruited two new epigenetics researchers with the help of the Georgia Cancer Coalition.
The second floor of the three-year-old Cancer Research Center building, which is being
finished with the help of $3.5 million from the Georgia Research Alliance, will house the
Georgia Genomics/Epigenomics Center. In early 2008, the National Institutes of Health
established an epigenomics program to coordinate such efforts to better understand how
this method of gene regulation fits into normal development, aging, learning and memory as
well as its role in cancer, obesity, depression and other disease. DNA methylation
inhibitors already are under study at MCG and other centers for a variety of cancers and
blood disorders. Because tumor cells that result from aberrant changes shed their DNA into
bodily fluids, non-invasive screening for a wide range of cancers could result be another
result of this initiative, Dr. Bhalla says.
Teasing apart T helper cells
The cytokine IL-9 promotes a multiple sclerosis-like disease in mice, according to a new
study by Nowak et al. published online on July 13th in the Journal of Experimental
Medicine. In a related Commentary, Richard Locksley discusses the molecular and genetic
regulation of cytokine production by CD4+ T helper (Th) cells and the plasticity among
different Th subsets. The Commentary will be published online in the Journal of
Experimental Medicine on Monday, July 27th. Since the late 1980s, when the concept of Th1
and -2 were first introduced, several new subsets have arisen, including Th17 cells and
regulatory T (T reg) cells. Recent attention has focused on a putative new Th cell subset
with the propensity to secrete IL-9. But whether these "Th9" cells are truly a
unique subset or whether many Th cell subsets can produce IL-9 under the right
circumstances has been a matter of debate. Nowak and colleagues now show that a
Th17-driven CNS disease was blunted in mice lacking IL-9. In vitro studies showed that
IL-9 was produced primarily by Th17 and T reg cells—subsets that depend on TGF-beta
for their differentiation. Thus IL-9 production may go hand-in-hand with the presence of
TGF-beta rather than with a defined Th cell subset.
Study finds acceptable levels of
anxiety among men living with early, untreated prostate cancer
Men with early stages of prostate cancer who delay radical treatment in favor of an
approach of "expectant management" do not have high levels of anxiety and
distress. That is the conclusion of a new study published in the September 1, 2009 issue
of Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The study's results
suggest that living with untreated cancer is not upsetting for many patients with early
prostate cancer. The rapid increase in the use of screening using prostate specific
antigen (PSA) testing has led to a large number of men diagnosed with prostate cancer,
many of who do not require treatment. In these cases, close clinical monitoring—or
active surveillance—is often recommended. If progression of the cancer occurs during
active surveillance, patients may undergo radical therapy. While active surveillance may
delay or even avoid the possible adverse side effects of radical treatment, it could also
cause psychological harm in patients because they must live with untreated cancer. Data on
the levels of such potentially negative emotions among men on active surveillance are
lacking, however. Roderick van den Bergh, (MD), of the Erasmus Medical Center, in
Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and colleagues assessed levels of anxiety and distress in a
group of recently diagnosed prostate cancer patients on active surveillance. They sent 150
men questionnaires to gauge uncertainty about their treatment decision, as well as levels
of depression and anxiety among these men. A total of 129 questionnaires were completed
and returned an average of 2.7 months after diagnosis. More than 80 percent of the 129
respondents scored favorably low on the parameters measured. Patients' scores were
comparable or favorable to scores of men (reported in other studies) who underwent
treatment for early prostate cancer. Certain men in the study—such as men with
neurotic personalities and those who were in poor physical health—exhibited more
anxiety and distress than others. These findings indicate that besides cancer-specific
factors, mental and physical patient-specific factors are important aspects to take into
account when selecting men for active surveillance. The results also suggest that
psychological support may be indicated in certain patients undergoing active surveillance.
While this study's findings are useful, Dr. van den Bergh noted that longer-term analyses
are needed on the psychological effects of active surveillance in men with early prostate
cancer. His research team is currently conducting such a study.
E-Cigarettes Contain Toxins, FDA
Analysis Shows
Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, contain carcinogens and toxic chemicals, according
to a new analysis by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). One sample even included
diethylene glycol, a toxic ingredient found in antifreeze. E-cigarettes are often sold as
a way to quit smoking or to get nicotine in places where smoking isn't allowed, but they
aren't currently regulated by the FDA. "The FDA is concerned about the safety of
these products and how they are marketed to the public,” said Margaret A. Hamburg,
M.D., commissioner of food and drugs. E-cigarettes, first produced in China in 2004, are
battery-operated devices designed to look and feel like cigarettes, right down to the
glowing tip. They contain cartridges which are filled with chemicals and varying doses of
nicotine, from high doses to no nicotine at all. They’re available in different
flavors, such as chocolate and mint, which make them appealing to kids and teens. These
products are also easy for kids and teens to buy – they’re readily available
online and in shopping malls. And at this time, e-cigarettes do not contain any health
warnings, such as those on FDA-approved nicotine replacement products or conventional
cigarettes. The FDA looked at 18 samples of cartridges from 2 leading e-cigarette brands.
Half the samples contained cancer-causing substances. They found other impurities, as
well, including diethylene glycol.
Researchers rapidly turn bacteria
into biotech factories
High-throughput sequencing has turned biologists into voracious genome readers, enabling
them to scan millions of DNA letters, or bases, per hour. When revising a genome, however,
they struggle, suffering from serious writer's block, exacerbated by outdated cell
programming technology. Labs get bogged down with particular DNA sentences, tinkering at
times with subsections of a single gene ad nauseam before moving along to the next one.A
team has finally overcome this obstacle by developing a new cell programming method called
Multiplex Automated Genome Engineering (MAGE). Published online in Nature on July 26, the
platform promises to give biotechnology, in particular synthetic biology, a powerful
boost. Led by a pair of researchers in the lab of Harvard Medical School Professor of
Genetics George Church, the team rapidly refined the design of a bacterium by editing
multiple genes in parallel instead of targeting one gene at a time. They transformed
self-serving E. coli cells into efficient factories that produce a desired compound,
accomplishing in just three days a feat that would take most biotech companies months or
years."We initiated the project to close the gap between DNA sequencing technology
and cell programming technology," explains graduate student Harris Wang, the paper's
co-first author. "The goal was to use information gleaned from genetics and genomics
to rapidly engineer new functions and improve existing functions in cells," adds
postdoctoral researcher Farren Isaacs, the other first author. "We wanted to develop
a new tool and demonstrate how to apply it; we were determined to hand labs a hammer and a
nail."
An 'eye catching' vision discovery
Nearly all species have some ability to detect light. At least three types of cells in the
retina allow us to see images or distinguish between night and day. Now, researchers at
the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have discovered in fish yet another type of cell that
can sense light and contribute to vision. Reporting in this week's Nature, the team of
neuroscientists shows that retinal horizontal cells, which are nerve cells once thought
only to talk to neighboring nerve cells and not even to the brain, are light sensitive
themselves. "This is mind-boggling," says King-Wai Yau, Ph.D., a professor of
neuroscience at the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins.
"For more than 100 years, it's been known that rod cells and cone cells are
responsible for sensing light, and therefore, vision," says Yau. "Then, about
seven years ago, another light sensor was discovered in the retina, revealing a third type
of light-sensitive cells in mammals, so we set out to look at whether this was true in
other vertebrates as well." Focusing their efforts on the melanopsin light sensor,
which is responsible for sensing day and night but barely involved — in mammals, at
least — in seeing images, Yau's team looked for melanopsin-containing cells in other
vertebrates, and found some in the retinal horizontal cells in goldfish and catfish.
Fluoride can Harm Kidney Patients
The National Kidney Foundation withdrew its support of water fluoridation citing the 2006
National Research Council (NRC) fluoride report (A) indicating that kidney patients are
more susceptible to fluoride’s bone and teeth-damaging effects forcing the American
Dental Association (ADA) to admit on its web site that fluoride is a concern to kidney
patients. The kidney-impaired may retain and store more fluoride in their bones. High
bone-fluoride-levels are linked to skeletal fluorosis (a bone weakening disease),
fractures and severe tooth damage (enamel fluorosis) which can increase the risk of dental
decay, reports the NRC. Chronic kidney disease and bone fracture is already a growing
concern. Fluoride is added to US water supplies ostensibly to reduce tooth decay. Fluoride
is also in foods, beverages, (1) common antibiotics and dental products. The National
Kidney Foundation’s (NKF) (2) former fluoridation position statement also carried
surprising cautions. The NKF advised monitoring children’s fluoride intake along with
patients with chronic kidney impairment, those with excessive fluoride intake, and those
with prolonged disease. But NKF now admits, “exposure from food and beverages is
difficult to monitor, since FDA food labels do not quantify fluoride content.”
LSUHSC research shows for 1st time
infant inhalation of ultrafine air pollution linked to adult lung disease
Stephania Cormier, PhD, Associate Professor of Pharmacology at LSU Health Sciences Center
New Orleans, has shown for the first time that early exposure to environmentally
persistent free radicals (present in airborne ultrafine particulate matter) affects
long-term lung function. She recently presented her latest research data at the 11th
International Congress on Combustion By-Products and Their Health Effects at the
Environmental Protection Agency Conference Center in Research Triangle Park, N.C.Dr.
Cormier, a 2006 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Outstanding New
Environmental Scientist awardee, is conducting research to determine how inhalation
exposure to environmental factors such as allergens, pollutants, and respiratory viruses
during infancy leads to pulmonary inflammatory diseases, such as chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma later in life. Using protein profiling techniques, Dr.
Cormier’s lab was able to determine that early exposure to these ultrafine pollutants
caused genes to produce a number of proteins, including one associated with COPD and
steroid-resistant asthma, and also caused proteins to misfold, rendering them
dysfunctional. These genetic defects are linked to structural changes in the lung, airflow
limitations, and permanent changes in immune responses. “It is no surprise that
elevations in airborne particulate matter (PM) are associated with increased hospital
admissions for respiratory symptoms including asthma exacerbations,” notes Dr.
Cormier. “What has come as a surprise is that early exposure to elevated levels of PM
elicits long-term effects on lung function and lung development in children.” These
results could be especially important because the US Environmental Protection Agency does
not currently regulate ultrafine PM emissions.
Fresh meats often contain additives
harmful to kidney disease patients
Uncooked meat products enhanced with food additives may contain high levels of phosphorous
and potassium that are not discernable from inspection of food labels, according to a
study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society
Nephrology (CJASN). This can make it difficult for people to limit dietary phosphorous and
potassium that at high levels are harmful to kidney disease patients. Kidney disease
patients on dialysis must watch their intake of dietary phosphate so that their blood
phosphate levels do not rise. This is important because high blood phosphate levels may
cause premature death in dialysis patients. Kidney disease patients also must limit their
intake of potassium, because high blood potassium levels can cause sudden death. One
growing source of dietary phosphorous and potassium is through "enhanced" fresh
meat and poultry products. These foods are injected with a solution of water with sodium
and potassium salts (particularly phosphates) as well as antioxidants and flavorings.
While ingesting phosphates and potassium can be dangerous for dialysis patients, there is
no requirement that these ingredients be included in nutrition labels. There also have
been no studies on the levels of phosphates and potassium contained in fresh meat and
poultry products that have been "enhanced."
HIV infection and chronic drinking
have a synergistic, damaging effect on the brain
More than half of clinic patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
report they also drink heavily. While highly active antiretroviral therapy has helped to
reduce HIV-related cognitive and motor deficits, neuropsychological deficits may continue
and even be exacerbated by alcohol. A study of memory deficits has found that HIV
infection and chronic alcoholism have synergistic, damaging effects on brain function.
Results will be published in the October issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental
Research and are currently available at Early View. "It has been consistently
documented that chronic heavy drinking results in cognitive and motor deficits,
particularly impairments in component processes of executive functions, memory,
visuospatial abilities, and speed of cognitive processing and motor movements," said
Edith V. Sullivan, professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at
Stanford University School of Medicine and corresponding author for the study.
"Chronic heavy drinking co-occurring with HIV infection is highly prevalent, and the
separate and combined untoward effects on the brain and its processes can be significant
and disruptive of activities of daily living." This prevalence exists despite
considerable educational and prevention programs regarding both HIV and alcoholism, added
Sara Jo Nixon, a professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Florida.
"Furthermore, their comorbidity constitutes an even greater health concern with
implications for treatment adherence, work and interpersonal skill maintenance."
Sullivan and her colleagues examined working and episodic memory in four groups (n=164)
– 40 individuals with HIV (28 men, 12 women), 38 with chronic alcoholism (24 men, 14
women), 47 with both HIV and chronic alcoholism (38 men; 9 women), and 39
"normal" controls (22 men, 17 women) – at baseline and then again at a
one-year follow-up. Measures included accuracy scores, response times, and rate of
information processing. "Individuals who are both positive for HIV and have a history
of chronic heavy drinking are at greater risk than individuals with only one of these
conditions to have trouble learning new information," said Sullivan. "This
difficulty in new learning can affect an individual's ability to use information important
to the successful completion of personal and work-related activities."
UTMB study identifies women at risk
of gaining excessive weight with injectable birth control
Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have identified women
who are likely to gain weight while using depot medroxyprogesterone acetate, more commonly
known as Depo-Provera or the birth control shot. These findings dispel the myth that all
women who use DMPA will gain weight and will help physicians to counsel patients
appropriately. DMPA users whose weight increased by 5 percent within the first six months
of use, called “early gainers,” are at risk of continued, excessive weight gain.
While 75 percent of users gained little or no weight, the early gainers averaged weight
gain of 24 pounds over three years. “DMPA-related weight gain is linked to increased
abdominal fat, a known component of metabolic syndrome, which raises the risk of
obesity-related conditions such as cardiovascular disease, stroke and diabetes,” said
corresponding author Dr. Abbey Berenson, professor in UTMB’s department of obstetrics
and gynecology.
Airway cells use 'tasting'
mechanism to detect and clear harmful substances
The same mechanism that helps you detect bad-tasting and potentially poisonous foods may
also play a role in protecting your airway from harmful substances, according to a study
by scientists at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine.
The findings could help explain why injured lungs are susceptible to further damage. The
study, published online July 23 in Science Express, shows that receptors for bitter
compounds that are found in taste buds on the tongue also are found in hair-like
protrusions on airway cells. In addition, the scientists showed that, unlike taste cells
on the tongue, these airway cells do not need help from the nervous system to translate
detection of bitter taste into an action that expels the harmful substance. The hair-like
protrusions, called motile cilia, were already known to beat in a wave-like motion to
sweep away mucus, bacteria and other foreign particles from the lungs. The study is the
first to show that motile cilia on airway cells not only have this "clearing"
function, but also use the receptors to play a sensory role. The researchers also found
that when the receptors detect bitter compounds, the cilia beat faster, suggesting that
the sensing and the motion capabilities of these cellular structures are linked.
Protein That Promotes Cancer Cell
Growth Identified
Scientists at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have found that the
Caspase-8 protein, long known to play a major role in promoting programmed cell death
(apoptosis), helps relay signals that can cause cancer cells to proliferate, migrate and
invade surrounding tissues. The study was published in the journal Cancer Research on June
15. The team of scientists, led by Kristiina Vuori, M.D., Ph.D., professor and director of
the Cancer Center at Burnham, showed that Caspase-8 caused neuroblastoma cancer cells to
proliferate and migrate. For the first time, Caspase-8 was shown to play a key role in
relaying the growth signals from epidermal growth factor (EGF) that cause cell division
and invasion. The researchers also identified an RXDLL amino acid motif that controls the
signaling from the EGF receptor through the protein kinase Src to the master cell
proliferation regulator protein, MAPK. This same signaling pathway stimulates
neuroblastoma cells to migrate and invade neighboring tissues--a critical process in
cancer metastasis. “Caspase-8 has a well defined role in promoting apoptosis,
especially in response to activation of the so-called death receptors on the outside of
cells,” said Darren Finlay, Ph.D., first author on the paper. “Although
Caspase-8 is involved in apoptosis, it is rarely deleted or silenced in tumors, suggesting
that it was giving cancer cells a leg up in some other way. Our studies suggest that
Caspase-8 does so by activating the MAPK pathway through Src.” Using immuno-blot
assays, the scientists showed that EGF signaling was absent in a cancer cell line that is
deficient in Caspase-8 and that EGF signaling can be restored by reconstituting the cells
with wildtype Caspase-8. Sequence homology studies helped to identify a RXDLL motif in the
protein, a sequence that has been shown in other proteins to function in cell signaling.
The researchers also used immune-blot assays to demonstrate that reconstituting the
Caspase-8 deficient cells with Caspase-8 with mutations in the RXDLL domain did not result
in EGF signaling. This suggests that Caspase-8 mediates signaling through the RXDLL
domain. The scientists had previously shown in another study that Caspase-8 associates
with Src, a protein known to be involved in cancer cell proliferation. In this study they
showed that interruption in this association disrupts EGF signaling indicating that
Caspase-8 exerts EGF signaling through Src.
Nigel Farage Second Lisbon Treaty
vote Conning the Irish
The Union
A very well built documentary about
cannabis and drug prohibition. Does the drug prohibition work? Have a look and think for
yourself.
War Vaccine Illnesses
Gulf War veterans advocate Joyce Riley
discussed soldiers being sickened by vaccines. Ms. Riley is a graduate of the University
of Kansas with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Her nursing career includes clinical
positions of Staff Nurse, Patient Care Systems Analyst, Utilization Review, Nursing
Instructor and Director of Nursing of an acute care hospital, long term care facility and
home care agency. Her areas of nursing specialty are nursing administration,
medical-surgical nursing and organ transplantation. She has presented at the National
Institutes of Health, medical legal conferences such as the American Trail Lawyers
Association, was host of her own radio talk show "Nurse Talk Radio-The Truth in
Health Care", and has guested on over 1500 radio and television shows, including Art
Bell, Chuck Harder and Michael Reagan. While employed at Bexar Count Hospital, San
Antonio, Ms. Riley became involved in nursing medical malpractice issues after learning
that Nurse Genene Jones was responsible for deaths of many babies in the well publicized
"Baby Death" case. She has served as consultant and testifying expert for both
plaintiff and defense medical malpractice cases for the last ten years. Ms. Riley served
as a Captain in the United States Air Force and flew on C-130 missions in support of
Operation Desert Storm. She now serves as spokesperson for the American Gulf War Veterans
Association who's purpose is to provide education and information for the Gulf War
veterans and their families and to seek treatment for the illnesses that thousands of Gulf
War veterans now suffer from. The Dept. of Defense is covertly using soldiers as
"experimental guinea pigs," for unproven and dangerous vaccines, she declared.
Hemp oil is not the same as "hemp seed
oil". Although hemp seed oil is extremely nutritious, it does not contain the high
concentrations of THC needed to cure cancers. The true story of hemp, as told by Rick
Simpson, the man who cured cancer with hemp oil.
The Hells Angels illicit drug trade has
reached every corner of the city of Vancouver. This organised crime has successfully
become a multi billion-dollar business based on their fierce reputation. Local communities
are lacking faith in their government, blaming them for allowing these thugs to become so
powerful. Why is it that the most open, known, brazen criminal gangs can't be put away?
With no dedicated policing, the families of victims feel that the criminals are
prioritised over them, a feeling fuelled by claims that these thugs- turned-police
informants have made deals with the law. We have promises for secret deals says former
drug dealer Jim Boivine. Journalist and activist Julian Sher has followed the rise of the
Angels for over 10 years and believes a tougher more direct approach should be used: You
can't strut around wearing your biker vests and your bikie patches and think you control
our cities. Over 100 members of the Hells Angels gang are now behind bars.
As all hell broke loose in Gaza in January
a brave production team was on the ground recording for a documentary. Today it has become
the definitive account of the dark and deadly days that followed. Combining quality camera
work with brave and unshrinking journalism, this is the powerful film that resulted
Knee injuries may start with strain
on the brain, not the muscles
New research shows that training your brain may be just as effective as training your
muscles in preventing ACL knee injuries, and suggests a shift from performance-based to
prevention-based athletic training programs. The ACL, or anterior cruciate ligament, is
one of the four major ligaments of the knee, and ACL injuries pose a rising public health
problem as well as an economic strain on the medical system. University of Michigan
researchers studying ACL injuries had subjects perform one-legged squats to fatigue, then
tested the reactions to various jumping and movement commands. Researchers found that both
legs—not just the fatigued leg—showed equally dangerous and potentially
injurious responses, said Scott McLean, assistant professor with the U-M School of
Kinesiology. The fatigued subjects showed significant potentially harmful changes in lower
body movements that, when preformed improperly, can cause ACL tears. "These findings
suggest that training the central control process—the brain and reflexive
responses—may be necessary to counter the fatigue induced ACL injury risk," said
McLean, who also has an appointment with the U-M Bone & Joint Injury Prevention
Center.
Emphysema severity directly linked
to coal dust exposure
Coal dust exposure is directly linked to severity of emphysema in smokers and nonsmokers
alike, according to new research from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health (NIOSH). "In this study we have shown that coal mine dust exposure is a
significant predictor of emphysema severity," said Eileen Kuempel, Ph.D., a senior
scientist at NIOSH and lead author of the study. The findings, which were reported in the
August 1 issue of the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and
Critical Care Medicine (AJRCCM), highlight a health problem related to a growing industry.
In the past 25 years, coal production has nearly doubled worldwide. Dr. Kuempel and
colleagues compared lung autopsy results from 722 individuals, including 616 coal miners
from West Virginia and 106 non-miners from West Virginia and Vermont. Those from West
Virginia were collected from consecutive autopsies from 1957 and 1973 at the Beckley
Southern Appalachian Regional Hospital as part of a black lung study. Those from Vermont
were taken from consecutive autopsies performed at the University of Vermont between 1972
and 1978. Age at death, race, miner/non-miner status and smoking history were established
where possible, and individual exposure to coal dust was estimated using work history data
and job-specific dust exposure estimates. Pathologists Francis Green, M.D., and Val
Vallyathan, Ph.D., two of the coauthors on this study, examined sections of the lungs to
determine the presence and extent of emphysema. A smaller subset of the study group had
their lung tissue analyzed for dust content. Emphysema was graded for type and severity.
Limited data suggest possible
association between Agent Orange exposure
A new report from the Institute of Medicine finds suggestive but limited evidence that
exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides used during the Vietnam War is associated
with an increased chance of developing ischemic heart disease and Parkinson's disease for
Vietnam veterans. The report is the latest in a congressionally mandated series by the IOM
that every two years reviews the evidence about the health effects of these herbicides and
a type of dioxin -- TCDD -- that contaminated some of the defoliants. A finding of
"limited or suggestive evidence of an association" means that the evidence
indicates there could be a link between exposure to a chemical and increased risk for a
particular health effect, though conflicting results from studies, problems with how the
studies were conducted, or other confounding factors limit the certainty of the evidence.
Until now, the cumulative evidence had been inadequate to draw conclusions about whether
these two conditions may be associated with veterans' exposures to herbicides or TCDD.
Ischemic heart disease -- a condition characterized by reduced blood supply to the heart,
which can lead to heart attack and stroke -- is the foremost cause of death among people
in industrialized countries. Major risk factors include buildup of cholesterol in the
arteries, age, smoking, high blood pressure, and diabetes. The committee that wrote the
report reviewed several studies investigating TCDD exposure and heart disease, many of
which showed that higher TCDD exposure correlated with greater incidence of disease. The
studies had weaknesses; for instance, it is difficult to adjust entirely for the impact of
smoking, age, weight, and other common risk factors. But based on the preponderance of the
evidence as well as biologic data beginning to show how TCDD can cause this toxic effect,
the committee concluded
Scientists discover gene mutation
responsible for hereditary neuroendocrine tumor
University of Utah researchers and their colleagues have identified the gene that is
mutated in a hereditary form of a rare neuroendocrine tumor called paraganglioma (PGL).
The gene, called hSDH5, is required for activation of an enzyme complex that plays a
critical role in the chemical reactions that take place within cells to convert
biochemical energy into usable energy. This study will be published in the journal
Science, to be released online in Science Express on July 23, 2009. Paragangliomas are
rare, generally benign tumors that arise from cells called glomus cells, which are located
along blood vessels and play a role in regulating blood pressure and blood flow.
Approximately 25 percent of paragangliomas are hereditary. Of the four familial PGL
syndromes, three forms have previously been associated with mutations in genes of the
succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) complex, an enzyme complex involved in the ability of cells
to extract energy from nutrients.
Newly Discovered Gene Fusion May
Lead to Improved Prostate Cancer Diagnosis
Researchers from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center have
discovered a new gene fusion that is highly expressed in a subset of prostate cancers. The
results may lead to more accurate prostate cancer testing and new targets for potential
treatments. Experts believe that gene fusions — a hybrid gene formed from two
previously separated genes — may be at the root of what causes cancer cells to grow
more quickly than normal cells. The new findings, published in the August issue of the
journal Neoplasia, are exciting, because unlike two previous fusions co-discovered by the
same Weill Cornell Medical College laboratory group, this fusion, called NDRG1-ERG,
produces a protein that may be a potential target for drug therapies. "The prostate
cancer gene fusions, and proteins they produce, are important because they serve as a
cancer-specific marker," says Dr. Mark A. Rubin, the Homer T. Hirst Professor of
Oncology in Pathology, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, and vice chair for
experimental pathology at Weill Cornell Medical College. "Currently, PSA testing is
the standard of care, yet it is not accurate enough to predict prostate cancer, because
many men may have an elevated PSA level, but have benign conditions such as inflammation
of the prostate." It is important to distinguish harmful cancer from non-lethal
diseases, such as benign prostatic hyperplasia, or enlarged prostate disease that exhibits
similar symptoms to prostate cancer, in order to provide effective care, explains Dr.
Rubin. Gen-Probe, a biotechnology diagnostics company, has licensed this technology and is
currently working with Dr. Rubin, and his collaborator Dr. Arul Chinnaiyan at the
University of Michigan, to develop urine tests to screen for gene fusions as a means of
improving upon the current standard PSA test.
Short Stressful Events May Improve
Working Memory
Experiencing chronic stress day after day can produce wear and tear on the body physically
and mentally, and can have a detrimental effect on learning and emotion. However, acute
stress -- a short stressful incident -- may enhance learning and memory.Researchers at the
University at Buffalo have shown, in trials using rodents as an animal model, that acute
stress can produce a beneficial effect on learning and memory, through the effect of the
stress hormone corticosterone (cortisol in humans) on the brain's prefrontal cortex, a key
region that controls learning and emotion. Specifically, they demonstrated that acute
stress increases transmission of the neurotransmitter glutamate and improves working
memory.
Injection reverses heart-attack
damage
Injured heart tissue normally can't regrow, but researchers at Children's Hospital Boston
have now laid the groundwork for regenerating heart tissue after a heart attack, in
patients with heart failure, or in children with congenital heart defects. In the July 24
issue of Cell, they show that a growth factor called neuregulin1 (NRG1), which is involved
in the initial development of the heart and nervous system, can spur heart-muscle growth
and recovery of cardiac function when injected systemically into animals after a heart
attack. After birth, heart-muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) normally withdraw from the cell
cycle – meaning they stop dividing and proliferating. But the researchers, led by
Bernhard Kühn, MD, and Kevin Bersell of the Department of Cardiology at Children's, were
able to restart the cell cycle with NRG1, stimulating cardiomyocytes to divide and make
copies of themselves -- even though they are not stem cells. "Although many efforts
have focused on stem-cell based strategies, our work suggests that stem cells aren't
required and that stimulating differentiated cardiomyocytes to proliferate may be a viable
alternative," says Kühn, the study's senior investigator and a practicing pediatric
cardiologist at Children's since 2007. When the team injected NRG1 into the peritoneal
cavity of live mice after a heart attack, once daily for 12 weeks, heart regeneration was
increased and pumping function (ejection fraction, assessed on echocardiograms) improved
as compared with untreated controls. The NRG1-injected mice also lacked the
left-ventricular dilation and cardiac hypertrophy that typify heart failure; both were
seen in the controls. When the researchers also stimulated production of a cellular
receptor for NRG1, known as ErbB4, cardiomyocyte proliferation was further enhanced,
demonstrating that NRG1 works by stimulating this receptor. They also identified the
specific kinds of cardiomyocytes (mononucleated) that are most likely to respond to
treatment.
The 'see food' diet
Current research suggests that a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids may help prevent one of
the leading causes of legal blindness among the elderly. The related report by Tuo et al,
"A high omega-3 fatty acid diet reduces retinal lesions in a murine model of macular
degeneration," appears in the August 2009 issue of the American Journal of
Pathology.Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), loss of vision in the center of the
visual field (macula) due to retinal damage, is one of the leading causes of legal
blindness among the elderly. Approximately 10% of people from 66 to 74 years of age will
develop some level of macular degeneration, making it difficult for them to read or even
recognize faces.A diet high in omega-3 fatty acids has been found to protect against a
variety of diseases including atherosclerosis and Alzheimer's disease. Retrospective
studies have suggested that diets high in fish oil or omega-3 fatty acids may also
contribute to protection against AMD. A group led by Dr. Chi-Chao Chan at the National Eye
Institute in Bethesda, MD examined the direct effect of omega-3 fatty acids on a mouse
model of AMD. A diet with high levels of omega-3 fatty acids resulted in slower lesion
progression, with improvement in some lesions. These mice had lower levels of inflammatory
molecules and higher levels of anti-inflammatory molecules, which may explain this
protective effect.
Some blood pressure drugs may help
protect against dementia, study shows
A particular class of medication used to treat high blood pressure could protect older
adults against memory decline and other impairments in cognitive function, according to a
newly published study from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Research suggests
that some of the drugs classified as angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors,
specifically those types of ACE inhibitors that affect the brain by crossing the
blood-brain barrier, may reduce inflammation that could contribute to the development of
Alzheimer's disease, a major cause of dementia. The study appears in the current issue of
Archives of Internal Medicine. "High blood pressure is an important risk factor for
Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia," said Kaycee Sink, M.D., M.A.S., lead
author of the study, geriatrician and an assistant professor of internal medicine –
gerontology. "Our study found that all blood pressure medications may not be equal
when it comes to reducing the risk of dementia in patients with hypertension."
Dementia is the broad term used to describe conditions in the brain that cause loss of
brain function. There are several different causes of dementia, but Alzheimer's disease
and strokes are two of the most common. People with dementia begin to lose their memory
and may not be able to think well enough to do normal activities, such as getting dressed
or eating, may lose their ability to solve problems or control their emotions, may
experience personality changes and/or may become agitated or see things that are not
there. While memory loss is the hallmark of dementia, it does not, by itself, mean an
individual has dementia. People with dementia have serious problems with two or more brain
functions, such as memory and problem solving. Someone is diagnosed with dementia every 70
seconds. It is estimated that the number of people in the United States living with
dementia will increase to about 13 million by the year 2050. Therefore, delaying the onset
of dementia, even by one year, would have a substantial impact on public health.
