Someone please make the cold vaccine already!
November 19, 2008 on 4:59 pm | In genes | Comments Off
For all of man’s scientific prowess and evolutionary advancement, we are the helpless victims of this sneaky little villain. Cold viruses have very few genes, so they have one purpose and one alone - to make our lives miserable!
So we hack, snort, sneeze and feel awful until this prokaryote decides it has enough of us. There is no cure. We can treat the symptoms, sure, but we’re not fighting the virus. We’re simply "letting it run its course" and that really sucks, right? Here is man, the mighty Goliath, and this puny David of a virus swings at us and down we go, crying for our mommies.
The latest research found that it’s not the rhinovirus that causes the cold symptoms. Rather our immune response goes into "overdrive" because this viral infection. Great. The scientists believe the ideal treatment should "maintain body’s natural antiviral response while normalizing the inflammatory response."
Cool. Meantime, excuse me for the infrequent posting while my body goes into overdrive as the cold virus continues to taunt and bring havoc to my existence.
image: Wikimedia
Tags: common cold, Genes, immune system response, rhinovirus, RNA
Genetically modified corn lowers fertility in mice, study
November 18, 2008 on 8:47 am | In Genetically Modified Food | Comments OffGenetically modified corn was found to lower the fertility and body weight in mice, reports an study (translated in English) commissioned by the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety.
Austrian scientist found that mice who were fed for over 20 weeks with GM corn developed by Monsanto decreased their liter size around the third-fourth generation compared to the control group.
The Institute for Responsible Technology immediately issued a "moratorium" on the distribution of GM food products until their "safety are undeniably established". Monsanto responded to the news and statements made by Greenpeace about their products, and I quote:
Tags: austria, genetics and health, GM products, monsantoThe Greenpeace press statement is inconsistent with over a decade of reputable, peer-reviewed, scientific studies, including multi-generational studies, which demonstrate and confirm the safety of GM crops.
“These products have been proven to be safe. This report does not provide any basis to conclude otherwise,” said Jerry Hjelle, Ph.D., Vice President of Monsanto’s regulatory group.
Smoking heightens aortic rupture risk for women
November 17, 2008 on 1:14 pm | In Uncategorized | Comments Off Washington -- Add another strong incentive to the list of reasons for women smokers to quit: abdominal aortic aneurysms.A study posted online Oct. 14 in the British Medical Journal found that women who smoke were four times more likely to have an abdominal aortic aneurysm repair or rupture than women who had stopped. Women smokers also were eight times more likely to have the serious medical emergency occur than were women who had never smoked.
Most studies of AAA have focused on men. This study is believed to be the largest conducted on women.
"We've known that smoking confers a very high risk of AAA," said the study's lead author, Frank Lederle, MD, professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota and an internist at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. The study's aim was to reach a better understanding of factors associated with AAA in women, the authors write.
"This study does provide another reason to quit smoking," he said.
Aortic aneurysms cause 15,000 deaths a year in the U.S.The ballooning of the artery wall is more common in men older than 60 but may be more deadly for women, possibly rupturing at a smaller diameter. Aortic aneurysms cause about 15,000 deaths a year in the United States, with most originating in the abdomen. About 40% of the deaths occur in women.
"Women may not be getting the attention they should, especially women with a family history for AAA and who are smokers. They should be considered for screening," said David Neschis, MD, a vascular surgeon and associate professor of surgery at the University of Maryland's School of Medicine. Dr. Neschis was not involved with the study.
AAA has a high risk of mortality. Only a small number of people make it to the hospital alive, and those who do have about a 50-50 chance of death, Dr. Neschis said. "So the best way to treat these patients is to identify them before rupture and fix them." The bulging arteries are difficult to detect in a physical exam, so ultrasound scans of the abdomen are recommended.
"A screening ultrasound of the belly takes minutes, has no risk, is inexpensive in medical terms and is available at even the smallest community hospital," Dr. Neschis said.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality recommends against routine screening in women but does recommend a one-time screening for men ages 65 to 75 who have ever smoked.
Reinforcing old warnings
The study's authors used data collected on 161,808 postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative, a clinical trial that studied the effects of estrogen therapy, diet and vitamin D on heart disease, fractures, breast and cervical cancer. The main study ended in 2005.
During 7.8 years of follow-up, Dr. Lederle and colleagues found that 184 abdominal aneurysm repairs or ruptures were reported. The AAA's were strongly linked to age and smoking. Women in their late 60s were more likely to have been affected than were younger women.
Women smokers are 8 times more likely to have an abdominal aortic aneurysm than those who never smoked.The principal messages for physicians are not new, said Janet Powell, MD, PhD, a professor of vascular surgery at the Imperial College in London and an author of an accompanying editorial. "More efforts must be made to stop women from smoking, and AAA must be high on the list of differential diagnoses in older women smokers who present with collapse and abdominal or back pain."
The connection between smoking and the entire world of heart disease isn't a surprise, said Vincent Bufalino, MD, an American Heart Assn. spokesman and president and CEO of Midwest Heart Specialists in Naperville, Ill. "Of the women I see with heart disease, far and away the majority are smokers. Either diabetes or smoking are the two biggest predictors of coronary heart disease."
Joel Dunnington, MD, a consultant on smoking issues for the Texas Medical Assn., would like physicians to counsel patients about the many risks of smoking, including AAA. And patients should be told that if they quit smoking at age 40, 50 or even 60, their risk levels quickly decline, he said. Dr. Dunnington is also an associate professor of radiology at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas in Houston.
The study also turned up a couple of other findings, Dr. Lederle said. For example, it was determined that hormone therapy provided protection from AAA events. This conclusion was in contrast to previous smaller studies, which found that estrogen alone may increase risk.
"That was a surprise," Dr. Lederle said. "It hadn't been shown before and needs to be confirmed. We certainly aren't suggesting that people go out and take hormones, but it does suggest there is a role for female hormones in providing protection from AAA, which might explain why there are fewer in women."
In another finding, diabetes also conveyed protection to women. Although this has been seen in previous studies among men, whether it occurred among women had been uncertain, the researchers write. But why this negative association occurs has yet to be explained.
XDR-TB prevention starts with TB treatment
November 17, 2008 on 1:14 pm | In Uncategorized | Comments Off Washington -- The outlook for treating extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis turned gloomier with a new study that confirms earlier reports of the poor prognosis associated with the disease.The study, the largest to date on the most lethal form of TB, determined that patients with XDR-TB are four times more likely to fail treatment and three times more likely to die than are patients with other strains of multidrug-resistant TB. The study was in the Nov. 15 American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, a journal of the American Thoracic Society.
Despite efforts to control all forms of TB, the disease remains the worldwide leading cause of death from an infectious agent. An estimated 8 million to 9 million new cases develop annually and 2 million patients die, the study authors noted.
As drug-resistant cases increase, physicians find treatment options limited. An editorial in the same journal issue raised a related concern. Does the rise of XDR-TB portend the reversal of progress made at combating TB? The high mortality rate for XDR-TB mirrors TB deaths of decades ago, before there were any drugs, said editorial co-author D'Arcy Richardson, RN, technical director for TB programs at PATH, a nonprofit, international global health organization. "We are looking at, more or less, the natural history of TB."
For their study, "Treatment Outcomes and Long-term Survival in Patients with Extensively Drug-resistant Tuberculosis," researchers reviewed medical records of 1,407 patients in South Korea who were diagnosed with resistant forms of TB between 2000 and 2002, and 75 patients who had XDR strains.
Researchers monitored patients for up to seven years after treatment began. Among the findings: XDR-TB patients were older than MDR-TB patients, more likely to have a history of treatment with second-line TB drugs and more likely to have a history of being treated for TB two or more times.
"One of the most important take-away messages ... is to treat TB carefully the first time around so you don't end up with multidrug-resistant or extensively drug-resistant TB," Richardson said.
The genetic disorder that kept her from dancing
November 16, 2008 on 2:28 pm | In Genetics of Disease | Comments Off
(Continuing Genetics and Health Series on Living with genetic disorder:
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome)
Beth Hopkins danced before she walked, and sang before she talked. Her mom said she was one of those little kids who just knew what she wanted. Beth was dancing until two years ago, when her condition worsened and her joints were dislocating everywhere.
Beth Hopkins has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), a group of rare and life-threatening genetic disorders that affect connective tissues. There are six major types in the syndrome, and all affect the joints and skin. Symptoms include easy bruising, loose joints, weakness of tissues and skin that stretches easily. Beth has experienced all these growing up.
Beth’s jaws would dislocate while sleeping, and it must be pushed back in again. Sometimes, her fingers or toes would slip out of joint. Once while traveling to Vancouver, her sternum dislocated. Beth’s knees would dislocate after warming up for ballet, a dance she has enjoyed since she was young. Two years ago, she had to give that up as the condition worsened. These days, Beth is in a wheelchair.
For more information about Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), visit the EDS support site.
Tags: , eds, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, hyperelasticity, joints, laxity, loose joints
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