Month: February 2014

Are you tea or coffee addict? Check for caffeine use disorder

If you can’t live without your cup of coffee early morning or that tea to prevent the after-lunch slump, you may be suffering from caffeine use disorder.

Researchers at American University in Washington, DC, indicate that more people are dependent on caffeine to the point that they suffer withdrawal symptoms.

“They are unable to reduce caffeine consumption even if they have another condition that may be impacted by caffeine – such as a pregnancy, a heart condition or a bleeding disorder,” said psychology professor Laura Juliano at American University.

The negative effects of caffeine are often not recognised as such because its consumption is socially acceptable and is well integrated into our customs and routines.

“While many people can consume caffeine without harm, for some it produces negative effects, physical dependence, interferes with daily functioning, and can be difficult to give up, which are signs of problematic use,” Juliano added.

The study, published in the Journal of Caffeine Research, shows how widespread the caffeine dependence is and the significant physical and psychological symptoms experienced by habitual caffeine users.

Caffeine is found in everything from coffee, tea and soda to OTC pain relievers, chocolate, and now a whole host of food and beverage products branded with some form of the word ‘energy’.

“Genetics research may help us to better understand the effects of caffeine on health and pregnancy as well as individual differences in caffeine consumption and sensitivity,” Juliano contended.

Based on current research, Juliano advises that healthy adults should limit caffeine consumption to no more than two to three cups.

Pregnant women and people who regularly experience anxiety or insomnia – as well as those with high blood pressure, heart problems, or urinary incontinence – should also limit caffeine.

Source: khaleej times

Neurons in spinal cord send Cc of commands back to brain

Research group led by Professor Silvia Arber at the University of Basel’s Biozentrum and the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research has now discovered, that many neurons in the spinal cord send their instructions not only towards the musculature, but at the same time also back to the brain via an exquisitely organized network.
This dual information stream provides the neural basis for accurate control of arm and hand movements.

Movements of our arms and hands, in particular, call for extremely precise coordination.
The brain sends a constant stream of commands via the spinal cord to our muscles to execute a wide variety of movements.

This stream of information from the brain reaches interneurons in the spinal cord, which then transmit the commands via further circuits to motor neurons innervating muscles.

The research group led by Silvia Arber at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel and the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research has now elucidated the organization of a second information pathway taken by these commands.
The scientists showed that many interneurons in the mouse spinal cord not only transmit their signals via motor neurons to the target muscle, but also simultaneously send a copy of this information back to the brain.

“The motor command to the muscle is sent in two different directions – in one direction, to trigger the desired muscular contraction and in the other, to inform the brain that the command has actually been passed on to the musculature,” Chiara Pivetta, first author of the publication, said.

In analogy to e mail transmission, the information is thus not only sent to the recipient but also to the original requester.
What happens to the information sent by spinal interneurons to the brain? As Arber’s group discovered, this input is segregated by function and spatially organized within a brainstem nucleus.

Information from different types of interneurons thus flows to different areas of the nucleus. For example, spinal information that will influence left-right coordination of a movement is collected at a different site than information affecting the speed of a movement.

The findings are published in the journal Cell.

Source: Yahoo news

New drug target for Alzheimer’s identified

Researchers have identified abnormal expression of genes, resulting from DNA relaxation, that can be detected in the brain and blood of Alzheimer’s patients.

The protein tau is involved in a number of neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease.

Previous studies have implicated DNA damage as a cause of neuron, or cell, death in Alzheimer’s patients.

Given that DNA damage can change the structure of DNA within cells, the researchers led by Bess Frost examined changes in DNA structure in tau-induced neurodegeneration.

They used transgenic flies and mice expressing human tau to show that DNA is more relaxed in tauopathy.

They then identified that the relaxation of tightly wound DNA and resulting abnormal gene expression are central events that cause neurons to die in Alzheimer’s disease.

“Our work suggests that drugs that modify DNA structure may be beneficial for treating Alzheimer’s Disease,” they wrote.

The study is published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Source: Business Standard

5 reasons why strawberries are good for you

If you’re not already a fan of strawberries, you should be because they have immense health benefits. The red, juicy, delicious strawberries are one of the healthiest fruits to be included in your diet. The fruit originated in France.

Here are a few health benefits of strawberries:

Strawberries are an excellent source of vitamin C and hence boost immunity.

The phenols in strawberries fight against many inflammatory disorders.

Strawberries act as an anti-cancer agent as they are a combination of antioxidants and anti-infammatory agents that gut against the onset of many different forms of cancer.

It is a superfood for healthy eyes as studies suggest that it can decrease the possibility of contracting age-related macular degeneration.

Being a rich and natural source of Vitamin C, which is vital to the production of collagen, strawberries help improve skin’s elasticity and resilience, and keep wrinkles at bay.

Source: Zee news

Promising class of antibiotics discovered for drug-resistant TB

St Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have discovered a promising new class of antibiotics that could aid efforts to overcome drug-resistance in tuberculosis (TB). The drugs increased survival of mice infected with TB and were effective against drug-resistant strains of TB. St Jude led the international research effort, results of which appear in the journal Nature Medicine.

The antibiotics, called spectinamides, were created by changing the chemical structure of an existing antibiotic, spectinomycin, which does not work against TB.

In multiple trials of mice with both active and chronic TB infections, researchers report that one version of the new drug—an analogue known as 1599—was as good as or better than current TB drugs at reducing levels of the bacteria in the lungs of mice. In addition, 1599 caused no serious side effects.

“This study demonstrates how classic antibiotics derived from natural products can be redesigned to create semi-synthetic compounds to overcome drug resistance,” said corresponding author Richard Lee, a member of the St Jude Department of Chemical Biology and Therapeutics. “I hope the result will be drugs that are more effective against tuberculosis and offer a faster route to a cure with fewer side effects.”

TB remains a leading cause of global illness and death. The latest data from the World Health Organization estimates that TB kills 1.3 million persons annually and sickens 8.6 million worldwide. Current treatment requires months of multi-drug therapy to eradicate the slow-growing bacterium, which can lie dormant for years without causing symptoms and results in hard to treat chronic or latent infections. The rise of multi-drug resistant TB, including strains reportedly resistant to all available medications, has further complicated treatment.

This new class of antibiotics works against TB by disrupting the function of a part of the cell known as the ribosome, which is responsible for protein synthesis. To do that, the spectinamides bind to a particular site on ribosomes that is not shared by other TB drugs. That allows the drug to be used in combination with other medications.

For this study, researchers used an approach called structure-based design to re-engineer how spectinomycin binds to the ribosome. To guide their design efforts, scientists used a 3-D model that provided an atomic-level view of spectinomycin bound to the tuberculosis ribosome. The study reinforces the potential of structure-based design as a tool for designing other new agents to block mechanisms TB and other bacteria use to resist current antibiotics, Lee said.

The research reports on the first 20 of the more than 120 spectinomycin derivatives that have resulted from the effort. The list includes 1599 and two other analogues tested against TB in mice.

The three analogues not only bound the ribosome tightly, but they were more successful at avoiding a TB resistance mechanism called efflux. The TB bacteria use efflux pumps as a strategy to remove drugs and other threats from the cell before they can work against the bacteria. Efflux pumps, however, did not protect TB against spectinamides.

The drugs were also effective against multi-drug-resistant strains of TB growing in the laboratory. The strains had been isolated from patients with the disease.

Researchers also found no evidence that 1599 or the two other analogues tested interfered with normal functioning of human cells. Preliminary safety testing on cells grown in the laboratory showed the drugs were not toxic to mammalian cells because they only inhibit the bacterial ribosomes and not mammalian ribosomes.

Work is underway now in mice combining 1599 with new or existing TB drugs. The goal is to identify multi-drug therapy to try in a clinical trial of patients with drug-resistant TB.

Source: India medical Times

10 things that happen during a heart attack

The number of people who suffer from heart disease is constantly on the rise. Many die due to heart attacks and doctors tirelessly tell you about the classic symptoms of the condition. But do you know what exactly happens inside your body and to your heart during a heart attack? Well, here is a look at a heart attack from your body’s perspective.

1. Most heart attacks happen because of a blockage in the blood vessels that supply the muscles of the heart. This blockage happens because of plaque (a sticky substance that is made of fats, cholesterol and white blood cells) buildup on the arterial walls of the heart

2. When this plaque gets disturbed it breaks up into a number of tiny pieces that then go an lodge themselves in various places.

3. Thinking that there is a threat to your blood vessel, your red blood cells and white blood cells go an attach themselves to the plaque (just like the would in the case of a wound). While this is a repair mechanism, these cells end up blocking the blood vessel.

4. Once blocked the blood flowing through the heart stops and can no more reach the other parts of the heart muscle. Because of lack of oxygen those parts of the heart muscle start to die.

5. Your body then realizing that the heart is not working properly goes into the ‘fight or flight’ mode. It sends signal to the spinal cord that the heart in trouble.

6. The spinal cord in turn sends a message to your brain which it interprets as pain in the jaw, left hand and chest – also known as referred pain

7. In an attempt to survive your body starts to sweat profusely (this is actually a very useful mechanism since it makes you look ill and people are more likely to take you to the hospital).

8. Your breathing also becomes labored as your heart can no longer supply your lungs with blood and oxygen, so it also stops functioning optimally.

9. Apart from the lungs the brain also gets affected and one starts feeling dizzy. This is when you are likely to collapse from lack of oxygen to the essential organs of your body.

10. The muscles of your heart that have been deprived of oxygen die. The sad part is that once a part of the heart muscle dies it can never be regenerated.

Incidentally when you suffer a heart attack, the first one hour from onset is the most crucial time and your life could be saved if you are given adequate medical care within that time. Doctors call this the ‘golden hour’ as it is the only time that dying muscle fibers, the rest of the heart and other organs can be salvaged.

Source: Health India

Woman donates kidney to stranger online

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Most kidney donations come from folks who’ve just died or from living family members or close friends. Not many come from living strangers, just looking to do a good deed but that’s what happened Thursday morning.

Priscilla Naccarelli spent her morning at the hospital, a nervous wreck. Her 28-year-old daughter Lauren had just undergone surgery to surrender a perfectly healthy kidney to someone she doesn’t know and may never meet.

“It was very nerve-racking. I’m very proud of my daughter. I’m not so nervous and scared anymore. Right now, I just want to be with her and make sure she’s getting better,” Naccarelli said.

Lauren first raised the idea of donating to a stranger on her Facebook page last summer. The idea, she said, was simple: “I have a strong desire to help people.”

The thought that she could save somebody’s life is just very important to her. Nearly six months of tests and interviews and hospital visits later, she landed on the operating table for the two hour procedure. Shortly after noon, Lauren reported via
Facebook, “Totally tired and confused but I’m out of surgery and doing okay. Thanks everybody.”

Source: Fox news