Thursday, January 29, 2015
Monday, January 26, 2015
Fwd: longer telomeres
'A new procedure can quickly and efficiently increase the length of human telomeres, the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes that are linked to aging and disease, according to scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Treated cells behave as if they are much younger than untreated cells, multiplying with abandon in the laboratory dish rather than stagnating or dying.
The procedure, which involves the use of a modified type of RNA, will improve the ability of researchers to generate large numbers of cells for study or drug development, the scientists say. Skin cells with telomeres lengthened by the procedure were able to divide up to 40 more times than untreated cells. The research may point to new ways to treat diseases caused by shortened telomeres.
Telomeres are the protective caps on the ends of the strands of DNA called chromosomes, which house our genomes. In young humans, telomeres are about 8,000-10,000 nucleotides long. They shorten with each cell division, however, and when they reach a critical length the cell stops dividing or dies. This internal "clock" makes it difficult to keep most cells growing in a laboratory for more than a few cell doublings.
'Turning back the internal clock'
"Now we have found a way to lengthen human telomeres by as much as 1,000 nucleotides, turning back the internal clock in these cells by the equivalent of many years of human life," said Helen Blau, PhD, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford and director of the university's Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150123102539.htm
Fwd: Measles
'Measles could once again become native in the U.S., disease experts worry, as an outbreak in California linked to Disneyland has put a spotlight on a growing failure to vaccinate that's helping the disease to spread.
While 94 percent of California kindergarteners were fully inoculated against the virus last school year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are clusters where vaccination is much lower. In some pockets of California, as much as a quarter of children are undervaccinated -- putting them at risk of both contracting the disease and becoming a nexus of future spread.
"Children die as a result of this disease," said Greg Poland, professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and director of the Mayo Vaccine Research Group. "In 1990, 3 of every 1,000 children who got measles died from it. That wasn't the dark ages. We don't have an effective treatment for measles. The only thing we have is prevention."
Friday, January 23, 2015
Fwd: Autism
'Among the problems people with Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) struggle with are difficulties with social behavior and communication. That can translate to an inability to make friends, engage in routine conversations, or pick up on the social cues that are second nature to most people. Similarly, in a mouse model of ASD, the animals, like humans, show little interest in interacting or socializing with other mice.
Now researchers at UCLA have treated ASD mice with a neuropeptide--molecules used by neurons to communicate with each other--called oxytocin, and have found that it restores normal social behavior. In addition, the findings suggest that giving oxytocin as early as possible in the animal's life leads to more lasting effects in adults and adolescents. This suggests there may be critical times for treatment that are better than others.
The study appears in the January 21 online edition of the journal Science Translational Medicine.'
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150122154818.htm
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Friday, January 9, 2015
Fwd: Alzheimers
'Researchers around the world keep looking for ways to limit the memory damage caused by Alzheimer's disease. The latest treatment showing some promise is a nasal spray that uses a form of the insulin hormone.
For 21 days, a team of scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center monitored the effects of manufactured insulin on 60 adults with either mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or moderate Alzheimer's dementia (AD). One group was given 40 units of the nasal insulin detemir, another was given 20 units and a third group was given a placebo.
Of the three groups, short-term ability to process verbal and visual cues increased the most in those who were given 40 units of the spray. That same dosage of the spray was also able to increase memory scores for those carrying the gene that increases a person's risk for dementia the most. Carrying that particular gene usually makes the body resistant to most treatments.'
http://www.healthcentral.com/dailydose/cf/2015/01/9/insulin_nasal_spray_boosts_memory_in_study
I already forgot what the article is about.
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Fwd: Longevity
'Bowhead whales are most likely the longest-living mammals on the planet. There's evidence (some of it in the form of Victorian-era harpoons embedded in blubber) that they can live as long as 200 years. And there are humans who'd like to get a little slice of that longevity for themselves.
This week, some of them took the first step to stealing the bowhead whale's secrets: They sequenced its genome. Their results were published Tuesday in Cell.
"I think that having the genome sequence of the bowhead whale will allow researchers to study basic molecular processes and identify maintenance mechanisms that help preserve life, avoid entropy and repair molecular damage," said corresponding author Joao Pedro de Magalhaes of the University of Liverpool.'
Fwd: Antibiotic
'The decades-long drought in antibiotic discovery could be over after a breakthrough by US scientists…
The last new class of antibiotics to make it to clinic was discovered nearly three decades ago.
The study, in the journal Nature, has been described as a "game-changer" and experts believe the antibiotic haul is just the "tip of the iceberg".
The heyday of antibiotic discovery was in the 1950s and 1960s, but nothing found since 1987 has made it into doctor's hands.
Since then microbes have become incredibly resistant. Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis ignores nearly everything medicine can throw at it.
Back to soil
The researchers, at the Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, turned to the source of nearly all antibiotics - soil.
This is teeming with microbes, but only 1% can be grown in the laboratory.
The team created a "subterranean hotel" for bacteria. One bacterium was placed in each "room" and the whole device was buried in soil.
It allowed the unique chemistry of soil to permeate the room, but kept the bacteria in place for study.
'
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-30657486
Fwd: Law
'Striking a blow for the freedom to eat the bloated livers of ducks and geese force-fed grain through tubes, a federal judge invalidated California's 2012 ban of foie gras.
So California cannot ban something Federal law allows….Colorado can allow something Federal law bans….and Arizona cannot pass a law identical to federal law to ban the same thing federal law does.
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