Month: September 2013

Learning and memory disorders could soon become history

 Researchers have created new, specific memories by direct manipulation of the brain that could help understand and potentially resolve learning and memory disorders.

Research led by senior author Norman M. Weinberger, a research professor of neurobiology and behaviour at UC Irvine, and colleagues has shown that specific memories can be made by directly altering brain cells in the cerebral cortex, which produces the predicted specific memory.

The researchers say this is the first evidence that memories can be created by direct cortical manipulation.

During the research, Weinberger and colleagues played a specific tone to test rodents then stimulated the nucleus basalis deep within their brains, releasing acetylcholine (ACh), a chemical involved in memory formation. This procedure increased the number of brain cells responding to the specific tone.

The following day, the scientists played many sounds to the animals and found that their respiration spiked when they recognized the particular tone, showing that specific memory content was created by brain changes directly induced during the experiment. Created memories have the same features as natural memories including long-term retention.

The study has been published in Neuroscience.

Autoimmune diseases may soon become history

An immunologist has said that with some prompting, the protein STING can turn down the immune response or even block its attack on healthy body constituents like collagen, insulin and the protective covering of neurons – targets of the debilitating diseases.

Medical College of Georgia researchers saw STING’s critical role play out after they injected into the bloodstream submicroscopic DNA nanoparticles, engineered carriers for delivering drugs or genes into cells.

They learned that the magic is in STING, which recognizes the molecule that senses the DNA then prompts release of IDO, or indoleomine 2,3-dioxyegenase.

Dr. Andrew L. Mellor, immunologist at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University said that the fact that STING is actually part of the DNA-sensing pathway tells us something we did not know before.

DNA nanoparticles apparently look to the body a lot like the debris that results when dying cells release DNA from their nucleus.

Researchers already knew there was a link between STING and immunity: the food-borne bacterium listeria releases cyclic dinucleotides to activate STING in cells it has infected.

When MCG researchers put the STING stimulus into the bloodstream, it results in suppression. Other scientists have generated the exact opposite effect by injecting STING stimulating reagents under the skin.

In the bloodstream, there are a lot of immune cells called phagocytes that ingest the submicroscopic particles that wind up in the fluid portion of the cell, called the cytoplasm, where most cellular activity happens.

There, sensors detect the DNA and trigger signaling that leads to expression of IDO. In this complex interplay, STING appears essential to recognizing the molecule that recognizes the DNA.

The study has been published in the Journal of Immunology.

Copper can destroy highly infectious norovirus

      Copper and copper alloys can rapidly           destroy norovirus – the highly-                       infectious sickness bug, scientists have       discovered.

Worldwide, norovirus is responsible             for more than 267 million cases of                 acute gastroenteritis every year,                     researchers said.

The virus, for which there is no specific treatment or vaccine, can be contracted from contaminated food or water, person-to-person contact, and contact with contaminated surfaces, meaning surfaces made from copper could effectively shut down one avenue of infection.

The study, which was designed to simulate fingertip-touch contamination of surfaces, showed norovirus was rapidly destroyed on copper and its alloys, with those containing more than 60 per cent copper proving particularly effective.

Copper alloys have previously been shown to be effective antimicrobial surfaces against a range of bacteria and fungi.

The research reported rapid inactivation of murine norovirus on alloys, containing over 60 per cent copper, at room temperature but no reduction of infectivity on stainless steel dry surfaces in simulated wet fomite and dry touch contamination.

The rate of inactivation was initially very rapid and proportional to the copper content of alloy tested. Viral inactivation was not as rapid on brass as previously observed for bacteria but copper-nickel alloy was very effective.

One of the targets of copper toxicity was the viral genome and a reduced number of the gene for a viral encoded protein, VPg (viral-protein-genome-linked), which is essential for infectivity, was observed following contact with copper and brass dry surfaces.

“The use of antimicrobial surfaces containing copper in clinical and community environments, such as cruise ships and care facilities, could help to reduce the spread of this highly infectious and costly pathogen,” lead author Sarah Warnes, from the Centre for Biological Sciences at the University of Southampton, said.

“Copper alloys, although they provide a constant killing surface, should always be used in conjunction with regular and efficient cleaning and decontamination regimes using non-chelating reagents that could inhibit the copper ion activity,” said Warnes.

“Although the virus was identified over 40 years ago, the lack of methods to assess infectivity has hampered the study of the human pathogen,” Co-author Professor Bill Keevil, from the University`s Institute for Life Sciences, added.

“The virus can remain infectious on solid surfaces and is also resistant to many cleaning solutions. That means it can spread to people who touch these surfaces, causing further infections and maintaining the cycle of infection. Copper surfaces, like door handles and taps, can disrupt the cycle and lower the risk of outbreaks,” Keevil said.

The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Cinnamon may help diabetics

Cinnamon, a common kitchen spice, may improve blood sugar levels for patients with type 2 diabetes, new research has found.

In a review study, researchers looked at data collected from 10 randomised control led trials involving 543 patients with type 2 diabetes.

These studies compared people who took cinnamon in a pill form, in doses ranging from 120 milligrammes to 6 grams a day, for a period of four to 18 weeks, to people who did not take cinnamon.

They found that people with type 2 diabetes who took cinnamon supplements had lower fasting plasma glucose levels compared with people who didn`t take them.
The most popular form of the supplement, which was used in six out of 10 trials, was Cinnamomum cassia, which participants were advised to take before, during or after their meals, `LiveScience` reported.

The review also found that cinnamon benefited several important measures of heart health: It reduced total cholesterol, LDL “bad” cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and increased HDL “good” cholesterol.

“When we combined the results of all the trials, we found that in patients with type 2 diabetes, there was a benefit on blood glucose and cholesterol levels,” said study researcher Olivia Phung, an assistant professor of pharmacy practice at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California.

Preliminary studies have suggested that the compound, cinnamaldehydein, is responsible for cinnamon`s health effects.

Researchers suspect this substance may stimulate the release and effect of insulin, providing cinnamon its power to improve blood sugar.

“By enhancing insulin activity, it`s assumed there`d be better control of blood glucose,” Phung told the website.

The researchers have not yet determined the exact dose of cinnamon that may be helpful for people with type 2 diabetes, or the length of time or frequency the supplement should be taken.

The study was published in the journal The Annals of Family Medicine.

Quitting every 28 days adds 1 week to a smoker’s life

Former smokers can gain an extra seven days of life for every 28 days they refrain from tobacco, a new study has suggested.

People wanting to quit smoking are being urged to join the ‘Stoptober challenge,’ which starts on October 1, the Independent reported.

According to a government campaign from Public Health England, someone who quits for a month and does not start again could gain an extra seven days of life every 28 days for the rest of their life.

Source: zee news/health

New health monitor makes calorie counting easier

Researchers from University of Pittsburgh have created a health monitor that in addition to documenting what a person eats, can also accurately match those images against a geometric-shape library, providing a much easier method for counting calories.

The study demonstrates a new computational tool that has been added to the prototype—a device that fastens to the shirt like a pin. Using its newly built comprehensive food-shape library, the eButton can now extract food from 2D and 3D images and, using a camera coordinate system, evaluate that food based on shape, color, and size.

The researchers, who are trying to remove the guess work from the dieting process, said that visually gauging the size of a food based on an imaginary measurement unit is very subjective, and some individuals don’t want to track what they consume.

eButton now includes a library of foods with nine common shapes: cuboid, wedge, cylinder, sphere, top and bottom half spheres, ellipse, half ellipse, and tunnel.

The device snaps a series of photos while a person is eating, and its new formula goes to work: removing the background image, zeroing in on the food, and measuring its volume by projecting and fitting the selected 3D shape to the 2D photograph using a series of mathematical equations.

The study is published in Measurement Science and Technology.

India gets WHO praise on polio front, no case in 30 months

WHO today lauded India`s efforts in eradicating polio and said the country has not reported a single case of polio in the last 30 months.

“You did it. For 30 months you have not got a single case of polio,” WHO Director General Margaret Chan said while addressing the meeting of Health Ministers of South-East Asia Region in the presence of President Pranab Mukherjee.

She said India achieved the feat even as 194 countries in the world were speculating whether it can interrupt the transmission of polio.

She also urged nations of the region to adopt universal healthcare access for all.
“I want to urge countries in this region. Please continue to champion universal access to healthcare. That is the platform to deliver healthy human capital that is important for sustainable development in the future,” she said.

The WHO DG complimented India`s health-care initiatives in improving the health of its mothers and children and said, “This country is moving in a big way to promote better health to their women and to their children.”

She also lauded the role of Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad saying, “This country is very fortunate to have a minister totally dedicated to health.”

She also expressed concern over the growing incidence of heart disease which saw 9.4 million deaths every year and said high blood pressure has contributed to it.

“The scale of the problem is a challenge,” she said, adding that more than one in three adults across the world are suffering from high blood pressure.

Chan was here to attend the 31st Health Ministers` meeting of South-East Asia region which comprises of almost 1.8 billion people.

 

What leads to caffeine addiction?

Caffeine users can become dependent on or addicted to caffeine and may have difficulty reducing their consumption.

Researchers have now described the prevalence of caffeine dependence, clinically relevant indicators of functional impairment among caffeine users, and the criteria for making a diagnosis of caffeine use disorder.

Steven Meredith and Roland Griffiths, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Baltimore, MD), Laura Juliano, American University (Washington, DC), and John Hughes, University of Vermont (Burlington), reviewed the published research on caffeine dependence. In the article “Caffeine Use Disorder: A Comprehensive Review and Research Agenda.”

They posed an agenda for future research that would include clinical, epidemiologic, and genetic investigations to lead to a better understanding of the clinical signs and the prevalence of caffeine dependence, as well as the risk factors and best approaches for treating caffeine addiction.

The study is published in Journal of Caffeine Research.

Men more prone to fall ill than women

mental illness increases the risk of developing a physical illness by 10 times in both men and women.

A new study has revealed that men are more likely to develop physical illness than women.

The research conducted by St. Michael’s Hospital over a period of 10-years found that having a mental illness increases the risk of developing a physical illness by 10 times in both men and women.

However, women with mental illness tend to develop a physical illness a year earlier than men, according to the study by Dr. Flora Matheson, a scientist in hospital’s Centre for Research on Inner City Health.

Women were at a 14 percent reduced risk, compared to men, of developing physical illness; meaning that men are disadvantaged from a health perspective.

The study, which used data from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, was conducted to see whether gender also had an impact on the relationship between mental illness and onset of physical illnesses.

There is growing interest in studying the link between physical and mental illness as new studies indicate people with serious mental illness have higher rates of physical ailments such as metabolic syndrome, hypertension and cardiovascular, viral and respiratory diseases.

The study is published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Cell transplants could help treat schizophrenia

Researchers have suggested that the cell transplants could be used to treat schizophrenia.

Senior author Daniel Lodge, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmacology in the School of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, said that since these cells are not functioning properly, our idea is to replace them.

Lodge and lead author Stephanie Perez, graduate student in his laboratory, biopsied tissue from rat fetuses, isolated cells from the tissue and injected the cells into a brain center called the hippocampus.

This center regulates the dopamine system and plays a role in learning, memory and executive functions such as decision making. Rats treated with the transplanted cells have restored hippocampal and dopamine function.

Lodge said that they put in a lot of cells and not all survived, but a significant portion did and restored hippocampal and dopamine function back to normal.

The study has been published in Molecular Psychiatry.