Diseases & Condition

30,000-year-old virus comes to life

Scientsts have successfully revived a 30,000 year old giant virus frozen in ice. They say the virus is a type never before seen – and warn that global warming could lead to more being uncovered.

The researchers say the find could reveal viruses are far more diverse than previously thought – and warn the ancient viruses could affect humans.

The authors of the new paper, a mix of French and Russian researchers, identified the virus by taking a culture of amoebas found in the permafrost, and adding some of the permafrost.

Dubbed Pithovirus sibericum, the virus was found i

 

n a 30-metre (98-foot) -deep sample of permanently frozen soil taken from coastal tundra in Chukotka, near the East Siberia Sea, where the average annual temperature is minus 13.4 degrees Celsius (7.8 degrees Fahrenheit).

The team thawed the virus and watched it replicate in a culture in a petri dish, where it infected a simple single-cell organism called an amoeba.
Radiocarbon dating of the soil sample found that vegetation grew there more than 30,000 years ago, a time when mammoths and Neanderthals walked the Earth, according to a paper published in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

They found the cells exploded, and when examined under a microscope, showed the presence of a giant virus particle known as a pandovirus.

‘While initiating a survey of the Siberian permafrost, we isolated a third type of giant virus combining the Pandoravirus morphology with a gene content more similar to that of icosahedral DNA viruses,’ the team wrote.

P. sibericum is, on the scale of viruses, a giant — it has 500 genes, whereas the influenza virus has only eight.
It is the first in a new category of viral whoppers, a family known as Megaviridae, for which two other categories already exist.
The virus gets its name from “pithos,” the ancient Greek word for a jar, as it comes in an amphora shape.

It is so big (1.5 millionths of a metre) that it can be seen through an optical microscope, rather than the more powerful electron microscope.
Unlike the flu virus, though, P. sibericum is harmless to humans and animals, for it only infects a type of amoeba called Acanthamoeba, the researchers said.

The work shows that viruses can survive being locked up in the permafrost for extremely long periods, France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) said in a press statement.

‘It has important implications for public-health risks in connection with exploiting mineral or energy resources in Arctic Circle regions that are becoming more and more accessible through global warming,’ it said.

‘The revival of viruses that are considered to have been eradicated, such as the smallpox virus, whose replication process is similar to that of Pithovirus, is no longer limited to science fiction. ‘The risk that this scenario could happen in real life has to be viewed realistically.’

They believe the finding could mean there are far more diverse types of virus than previously thought.

‘This suggests that pandoravirus-like particles may correspond to an unexplored diversity of unconventional DNA virus families.’

The virus was was found frozen in ice close to the East Siberian Sea. The team say the find was unusual because fo the size of the virus. ‘Giant DNA viruses are visible under a light microscope and their genomes encode more proteins than some bacteria or intracellular parasitic eukaryotes.’

They want that global warming could lead to potential health threats.
‘The revival of such an ancestral amoeba-infecting virus used as a safe indicator of the possible presence of pathogenic DNA viruses, suggests that the thawing of permafrost either from global warming or industrial exploitation of circumpolar regions might not be exempt from future threats to human or animal health.’

Source: Daily Mail

Eating barbecued, fried food linked to Alzheimer’s

A new study has revealed that eating a meat-rich diet, which has been fried, barbecued or grilled, can trigger Alzheimer’s disease and accelerate ageing.

Scientists have discovered that harmful ‘Ages’ compounds in the “Western diet” cause a build-up of a dangerous protein that forms toxic deposits which ravage the brain, the Daily Express reported.

Researchers found that the high levels of these compounds suppress a protective enzyme concerned in conditions related to brain, metabolic disease, ageing and diabetes.

The study has also found that fatty and sugary foods, like cheese, eggs, white bread, pasta and sugary pastries, cakes and biscuits could also play a part in Alzheimer’s by boosting Ages levels.

Dr Simon Ridley, head of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said that diabetes has previously been linked to an increased risk of dementia, and this new study provides fresh insight into some of the possible molecular processes that may link the two conditions.

Ridley added that eating a balanced diet can help lower the risk of Alzheimer’s and following a healthy lifestyle, which includes regular exercise, not smoking, and keeping blood pressure and weight in check can also be helpful.

The study was published in the journal Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences.

Source:l Business standard

 

An adult in the pediatric ward: What the littlest Cancer Avengers taught me

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Three years ago, I was diagnosed with a rare pediatric bone cancer called osteosarcoma. In my case, it was super-rare, because I was 43.

I went to see Dr. Paul Meyers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, six hours away from our home in upstate New York. At the hospital, my husband and I followed instructions to the B elevators and got off on the eighth floor.

The doors opened to a brightly colored playroom, funky lounge chairs and really big fish tanks.

Meyers is a pediatric oncologist, and because I had a pediatric cancer (age not withstanding), I would be treated where he worked: in the pediatric cancer center.

Meyers explained, sans sugar-coating, that my cancer was particularly aggressive, and so the treatment would be, too. I explained that I loved my job and my life, and am one tough chick, so I planned on working through it all.

Meyers pressed on. I would endure nine rounds of three types of chemotherapy in a not-so-delicious-chemo cocktail. After three rounds, there would be limb-salvage surgery where they remove my cancerous bones and replace them with titanium. Or amputate.

I should expect to be fully debilitated by this treatment, Meyers said — to be in a wheelchair for more than a year, to stop working at my job that I loved, and to close my company that I had worked hard to build. Long-term damage to my hearing, heart, bladder and extremities because of high doses of chemo were to be expected.

At the time, I was unsure of almost everything, including how I felt about being in the Pediatric Day Hospital as a patient.

We learned the hospital would be my home away from home during my nearly yearlong treatment. I spent at least one week of every month with the sickest people you can imagine. Little people with no hair, missing limbs and treacherous looking scars; it was harrowing at first.

Then I became one of them: No hair. Giant, treacherous scar. Wheelchair. Ever-present IV pole, and dusty-rose colored kidney-shaped bowl to throw up in. These were all outward signs of a fraternity of warriors that no one wants to belong to. They all were enduring the same grueling treatment I was — only they were, on average, 10 years old.

This fraternity of Cancer Avengers was wise in ways beyond their years. When faced with the courage and bravery of these little superheroes, I had to give myself the “Put your big girl pants on” speech more than once.

On my first day of treatment, while I was scrolling through my Facebook feed by the fish tank, two boys next to me started discussing their Make-A-Wish requests. Adam, about 12 years old, had just returned from a rainforest trip and asked what Sam’s wish was going to be. Sam said they couldn’t give him what he wished for. Adam disagreed, enthusiastically conveying that any wish could be granted. Sam stood firm: It was not possible.

Well, what is it that you want anyway? Adam wanted to know. By now, I also wanted to know.

“I want normal,” was Sam’s answer. “I want to go to school and basketball practice, complain about my parents and homework and turn 12.”

Silence from Adam. Silence all around. Even a superhero knows when he is defeated.
I looked down at my phone, trying to distract myself and read through my tears. A Facebook friend was complaining about turning 44. In the moment, it was like complaining about being too rich or having too much food to eat. My friend had been granted 32 more years than this kid dared dream of living. So had I.

Source: BBC

Camels Linked to Spread of MERS Virus in People

A new study suggests that camels are the major source of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, a viral disease that has sickened 182 people and killed 79 of them since it was first detected in Saudi Arabia in 2012.

The animals are most likely to infect people through respiratory secretions — from coughing, sneezing, snorting or spitting — that travel through the air or cling to surfaces.

People with chronic illnesses like diabetes, lung disease or kidney failure, or other conditions that weaken their immunity, seem to be most susceptible, and should avoid close contact with camels, researchers say.

Saudi Arabia has had the most cases, other Middle Eastern countries have had a few and a handful of travelers from that region have taken the disease to Europe. There have been no cases in the United States. Although people have infected one another, the disease is not highly transmissible among humans, so researchers say that unless the virus changes to become more contagious in people, the risk of global spread does not seem high.

The new study provides the first evidence that the virus is widespread in dromedary camels (the kind with one hump) in Saudi Arabia, and has been for at least 20 years.

Younger animals are more likely than older ones to be infected and contagious. The virus invades the camels’ nose and respiratory tract, but does not kill them. It is not known whether it even makes them sick.

“It would be very difficult to know if they were ill, since these are creatures that slobber a great deal,” said Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, the senior author of the study and a virus expert at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in New York.

Genetically, the virus found in camels matches samples from infected humans.

The disease was not detected in people until 2012. It is not known whether the cases in humans are a new phenomenon, or whether they have been occurring but were not recognized. Some people develop mild respiratory infections, but in others the disease turns deadly, with worsening fever, cough and shortness of breath.

In some cases, patients were known to have been around camels, but until recently it was not clear whether the animals might be the source. Other cases have been complete mysteries, with no known exposure to animals or ill humans. Sick people have infected family members, health workers and nearby patients in the hospital, but the virus is not considered highly contagious among humans.

Researchers do not know how camels become infected, but they suspect that the virus may have originally come from bats. MERS belongs to the coronavirus family, like SARS, the deadly and more contagious respiratory infection that began in China and caused a global outbreak in 2003. Bats are a host for SARS and other coronaviruses, and studies have found evidence linking MERS to bats.

Source: The New York Times

Giving blood pressure medications right after stroke not beneficial

A major study has found that giving patients medications to lower their blood pressure during the first 48 hours after a stroke does not reduce the likelihood of death or major disability.

The study is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

At least 25 per cent of the population has high blood pressure, which greatly increases the risk of stroke. Lowering blood pressure has been shown to reduce the risk of stroke. The study investigated whether there also would be a benefit to lowering blood pressure immediately after a stroke.

The study included more than 4,000 stroke patients in 26 hospitals across China who were randomly assigned to receive or discontinue blood pressure medications. At 14 days or upon hospital discharge, there were no statistically significant differences between the groups in mortality or disability.

Blood pressure often is elevated following a stroke.

“But in most cases, treatment is unnecessary because the blood pressure declines naturally over time, and lowering blood pressure may be contraindicated,” said stroke specialist Dr Jose Biller, chair of the department of neurology of Loyola University Medical Centre. “It is important not to over treat and cause low blood pressure because the most important objective is to maintain adequate blood flow to the brain.”

Dr Biller was a member of the study’s Data and Safety Monitoring Board. Dr Paul K Whelton, former president and CEO of Loyola University Health System, was chair of the monitoring board.

First author of the study is Dr Jiang He of Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

The study is called the China Antihypertensive Trial in Acute Ischemic Stroke (CATIS). It involved patients who had suffered ischemic strokes, which account for about 85 per cent of all strokes. Such strokes are caused by blood clots that block blood flow to a part of the brain.

Source: India Medical Times

IMS-BHU researchers identify novel drug target for treating Alzheimer’s disease

Researchers at the Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University (IMS-BHU) have identified RhoA as a novel drug target in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. The study has been published in the FASEB Journal.

Dr Debabrata Dash, professor and head, department of biochemistry, IMS-BHU, said, “We have discovered a novel drug target of amyloid beta toxicity and Alzheimer’s disease in platelet model. We have found that amyloid beta exercises its activity on a cell through activation of a small GTP-binding protein known as RhoA. When we inhibit RhoA activity by employing pharmacological inhibitors, the toxic effects of amyloid beta are prevented. This information would have significant implications in drug development against Alzheimer’s disease.”

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of cognitive decline and memory loss in the elderly. Although local deposit of a small peptide called ‘amyloid-beta’ is known to be responsible for Alzheimer pathology, the underlying molecular mechanism remains largely obscure. This is the reason why there is no effective therapy against this highly debilitating condition.

Platelets are blood cells that are responsible for stoppage of bleeding at the site of injury. Interestingly, platelets are a major source of amyloid-precursor protein in blood.

Dr Dash and co-workers (Vijay Sonkar and Paresh Kulkarni) at Banaras Hindu University have identified target molecules of amyloid-beta in cells using platelets as peripheral model of neurons.

Their study showed that amyloid-beta was able to strongly stimulate platelets leading to aggregate formation. Intravenous administration of the peptide in mouse accelerated thrombus formation in pulmonary vessels.

The effect of amyloid-beta on platelets was found to be mediated through activation of RhoA, a small GTP-binding protein responsible for cytoskeletal reorganization in cells, and that inhibition of RhoA by a specific pharmacological agent reversed the effects of amyloid-beta on platelets.

In order to understand molecular underpinnings amyloid action, researchers went further to demonstrate phosphorylation of downstream effectors of RhoA, namely MYPT1 and myosin light chain, when the cells were exposed to amyloid-beta.

According to the researchers, patients of Alzheimer’s also have clotting abnormalities, which could be explained by amyloid-beta-induced activation of platelets.

“The findings of this study thus identify RhoA as a novel drug target in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, and unravel the possible cause of clotting abnormalities seen in these patients,” said Dr Dash.

Sourrce: India Medical Times

 

Malaria: High risk focused in 10 African countries

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Gains in fighting malaria in sub-Saharan Africa have left the highest risk for the disease concentrated in 10 countries, according to a study published by The Lancet medical journal.

Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Guinea and Togo together account for 87 percent of areas that have the highest prevalence of malaria, it said.

The study assessed the effectiveness of the battle against malaria, which went into higher gear with the launch of the Roll Back Malaria initiative in 2000.

Since then, financial support has risen from $100 million (73 million euros) annually to about $2 billion (1.46 billion euros).

The researchers drew up a map of the changing face of malaria from thousands of surveys of prevalence of the disease among children in 44 countries.

They set down three categories of risk: high, meaning places where more than 50 percent of the population were likely to be infected by the Plasmodium falciparum parasite; moderate (10 to 50 percent of the population infected); and low (less than 10 percent).

From 2000 to 2010, the number of people living in areas of high-risk infection fell from 219 million to 184 million, a decline of 16 percent.

But the numbers living in moderate-risk locations rose from 179 million to 280 million, a rise of 57 percent.

The good news was that the tally of people living in low-risk areas rose from 131 million to 219 million.

Four countries — Cape Verde, Eritrea, South Africa and Ethiopia — joined Swaziland, Djibouti and Mayotte in the elite club of countries where transmission levels are so low that elimination of malaria is a realistic goal.

The researchers said the overall picture was mixed, and important gains had been partly offset by population increase — over the decade, an extra 200 million people were born in places with malaria.

“Substantial reductions in malaria transmission have been achieved in endemic countries in Africa over the period 2000-2010,” the paper said.

“However, 57 percent of the population in 2010 continued to live in areas where transmission remains moderate to intense and global support to sustain and accelerate the reduction of transmission must remain a priority.”

In its 2013 report on malaria, the World Health Organisation (WHO) last December said 3.3 million lives had been saved worldwide since 2000.

Even so, the mosquito-borne disease still killed 627,000 people last year, mainly children in Africa and Southeast Asia.

The agency pointed to a shortage of funding and a lack of access to artemisinin malarial medicines and basic remedies such as bednets remained a serious problem, it said.

Source: New vision

AbbVie drug shows promise against difficult type of breast cancer

Patients with so-called triple negative breast cancer appeared to have double the response rate to the regimen containing AbbVie’s veliparib in a new type of study

Women with an especially deadly type of breast cancer who received a treatment regimen containing an experimental AbbVie Inc drug prior to surgery are likely to have a significantly better response than those who get a standard chemotherapy regimen, according to data from a clinical trial.

Patients with so-called triple negative breast cancer, who tend to be younger and have a very poor prognosis, appeared to have double the response rate to the regimen containing AbbVie’s veliparib in a new type of study that exploits advances in molecular understanding of the disease, researchers found.

The trial dubbed I-SPY 2 is another step toward developing more personalised treatments. Its design allows researchers to continuously monitor how patients respond as the trial progresses and move patients into arms of the study testing drugs from which they are more likely to gain benefit.

This type of trial should help companies select the right group of patients to enroll into larger, more traditional late stage clinical trials, potentially cutting the cost of bringing new medicines to market.

Drugmakers are under increasing pressure to cut the cost of new medicines that put a huge burden on healthcare systems. One way to do that would be through more efficient, alternative testing methods that lead to fewer trial failures.

“It’s a very nimble trial design that allows you to enroll a fairly small number of patients and come to a fairly high certainty of success (in later larger trials) in a specific subset of patients,” explained Dr. Hope Rugo, who presented the data at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium on Friday.

If a drug combination starts to look like it is working better on patients with one type of breast cancer, the trial design allows for more patients with that type of cancer to move into that arm of the study, said Rugo, director of breast oncology and clinical trials education at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center in San Francisco.

The US Food and Drug Administration, which signed off on the trial design, has said that if a study drug helps cure significantly more cancers, it could be given a provisional type of accelerated approval.

Faster development, reduced cost

“If we can get a better idea of who benefits early, it’s going to be an enormous change in the way we test new agents, and not just for breast cancer but for other malignancies as well,” Rugo said.

“You could avoid doing a 3,500 patient trial in a group of patients who you thought might benefit but don’t,” she said. “We’ll be able to get the drugs to the patients who need them much more quickly and at reduced cost.”

The I-SPY program is testing a variety of experimental medicines from several drugmakers in the neoadjuvant, or pre-surgery, setting in high-risk patients. Rugo was presenting the portion of the trial that involved the AbbVie drug.

In that arm of the study involving 71 high risk patients, the researchers were testing to see whether the treatment, given before surgery, could eliminate any evidence of invasive cancer in breast tissue and lymph nodes removed during subsequent surgery – a measurement known as pathologic complete response (PCR).

They found an estimated PCR in 52 per cent of women who were treated with AbbVie’s veliparib plus the chemotherapies carboplatin and paclitaxel. That compared with a 26 percent PCR rate in those who just got standard paclitaxel. Both groups also received anthracycline-based chemotherapy prior to surgery.

“If we can increase the number of patients who have no invasive cancer, we expect that this will translate into better survival,” Rugo said.

Most breast cancer tumors are estrogen-receptor positive, fueled by the hormone estrogen. About 20 per cent are HER2-positive, meaning a protein called HER2 is prevalent. A third type is driven by the hormone progesterone. All of these have potentially effective treatment options even after recurrence.

Triple-negative tumors – about 15 per cent of breast cancers – lack estrogen, progesterone or HER2 receptors needed for most drugs to work. If the tumor does not respond to chemotherapy, there are currently no alternatives and the typical survival rate after recurrence is less than two years.

More women treated with veliparib and carboplatin dropped out of the study due to side effects, whereas discontinuations in the control arm were primarily due to disease progression.

Rugo said she looked forward to further study of the AbbVie drug, noting that the trial design did not separate which effects were due to veliparib and which to carboplatin.

However, she said, the doubling of response rates was “very encouraging to us and suggests that veliparib is playing an important role in the enhanced response that we’re seeing.”

Source: Khaleej times

1 in 8 people around the world go hungry, UN finds

A report from U.N. food agencies shows about 842 million people, or 12 percent of the world's population, were suffering from chronic hunger.

A report from U.N. food agencies shows about 842 million people, or 12 percent of the world’s population, were suffering from chronic hunger.

MILAN — One in eight people around the world is chronically undernourished, the United Nations’ food agencies said Tuesday, warning world leaders that some regions would fail in halving the number of hungry by 2015.

In their latest report on food insecurity, the U.N. agencies estimated that 842 million people were suffering chronic hunger in 2011-13, or 12 percent of the world’s population, down 17 percent from 1990-92.

The new figure was lower than the last estimate of 868 million in 2010-12 and 1.02 billion in 2009, but the report said progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goal to halve the prevalence of hunger in the world by 2015 was uneven.

Many countries were unlikely to meet the goal adopted by world leaders at the United Nations in 2000, said the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Program (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

“Those (countries) that have experienced conflict during the past two decades are more likely to have seen significant setbacks in reducing hunger,” the report said.

“Landlocked countries face persistent challenges in accessing world markets, while countries with poor infrastructure and weak institutions face additional constraints.”

FAO, WFP and IFAD define undernourishment, or hunger, in the State of Food Insecurity in the World 2013 report as “not having enough food for an active and healthy life” and an inability to “meet dietary energy requirements.”

Policies aimed at boosting agricultural productivity and food availability were crucial in reducing hunger even where poverty was widespread, the agencies said.

“When they are combined with social protection and other measures that increase the incomes of poor families to buy food, they can have an even more positive (effect) and spur rural development,” they said.

Remittances, three times larger than official development assistance, have had a significant impact on food security by leading to better diets and reduced hunger, they said.

The vast majority of people suffering hunger, or 827 million, live in developing countries, where the prevalence of undernourishment is estimated at 14.3 percent, the report found.

Africa remains the region with the highest prevalence of undernourishment, with more than one in five people estimated to be undernourished, while most of the undernourished people are in southern Asia.

Source: http://news.msn.com

Multiple sclerosis cases hit 2.3 million worldwide

The number of people living with multiple sclerosis around the world has increased by 10 percent in the past five years to 2.3 million, according to the most extensive survey of the disease to date.

The debilitating neurological condition, which affects twice as many women as men, is found in every region of the world, although prevalence rates vary widely.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is most common in North America and Europe, at 140 and 108 cases per 100,000 respectively, while in sub-Saharan Africa the rate is just 2.1 per 100,000, the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation’s Atlas of MS 2013 showed on Wednesday.

The atlas also confirmed that MS occurs significantly more in countries at high latitude, with Sweden having the highest rate in Europe and Argentina having more cases than countries further north in Latin America.

The reason for the link to high latitudes is unclear but some scientists have suggested that exposure to sunlight may reduce the incidence of the disease.

The survey found big increases in the number of medical experts trained to diagnose MS and help patients with treatment, while the number of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines available to carry out scans has doubled in emerging countries.

But huge disparities remain when it comes to access to modern disease-modifying drugs.

MS medicine has seen a number of advances in recent years, particularly with the introduction of a new generation of oral therapies such as Novartis’ Gilenya, Biogen Idec’s Tecfidera and Sanofi’s Aubagio.

These medicines offer an effective alternative to older disease-modifying treatments that are given by injection.

The survey found that injectable drugs like Biogen’s Avonex and Teva’s Copaxone were partly or fully funded in 96 percent of high-income countries, while Gilenya was available in 76 percent.

However, none of these drugs was available under government programs in low-income countries.

Source: www.foxnews.com