Tag Archives: diseases

Study: Cannabis may prevent brain damage

Marijuana continues to be a paradox as it makes its way from illicit drug to wonder medicine being used to treat a number of symptoms and disorders more safely than traditional pharmaceuticals. In the latest news, cannabis, which has been associated with long-term cognitive deficits in chronic users, is now being tested as a treatment to preserve brain function after traumatic injury. Amidst the many “it-damages-your-brain” studies, some reports have shown that cannabis has neuroprotective effects. Studies have suggested that it has protective effects in neurodegenerative diseases like multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s diseases. The author of the new study, Dr. Yosef Sarne of Tel Aviv University's Adelson Center for the Biology of Addictive Diseases, theorized that ultra-low doses of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive component of marijuana, induces minor damage to the brain, which may actually “precondition” the brain to protect it against more severe damage from injuries such as lack of oxygen, seizures or toxic drug exposure. In other words, it may act as a sort of vaccine against more traumatic harm. In Dr. Sarne's animal study, published in the journals Behavioural Brain Research and Experimental Brain Research, researchers injected mice with a single, very low dose of THC — around 1,000 to 10,000 times less than what is found in a conventional “joint” — either several days before or after exposing the mice to a brain trauma. They found that the treated mice had enhanced biochemical processes, which protected brain cells and preserved cognitive function over time, compared to control mice that were not treated with THC. Specifically, when the mice were examined three to seven weeks after the brain injury, those in the THC group performed better in learning and memory tests. They also showed increased amounts of neuroprotective chemicals compared to the control group. In past laboratory experiments, Sarne’s group found that ultra-low doses of THC affected cell signaling, preventing cell death and promoting certain growth factors.   The researchers concluded that the use of low doses of THC can prevent long-term cognitive damage that results from brain injury in mice, but the drug needs to be tested in human trials. “Since we deal, in this case, in a basic process (THC is protective against a variety of insults, not just a specific condition), I personally believe it will go beyond rodents,” Sarne wrote in an email. Aside from treating patients with traumatic injury to the brain, Sarne suggested several ways of using THC preventively, before an injury occurs. One use could be for patients on cardiopulmonary heart-lung machines used in open heart surgery. These come with a risk of interrupting the blood supply to the brain. Sarne said that THC could be injected beforehand as a preventive measure in case the brain is deprived of oxygen. It could also be tested for use in patients such as those with epilepsy, who are at constant risk of brain injury, or those with a high risk of heart attack. Sarne is currently testing the ability of low doses of THC to prevent heart damage during a heart attack, to prevent the death of heart muscle cells that are deprived of oxygen.Laurie Tarkan is an award-winning health journalist whose work appears in the New York Times, among other national magazines and websites. She has authored several health books, including “Perfect Hormone Balance for Fertility.” Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/06/study-cannabis-may-prevent-brain-damage/

Women willing to delay antibiotics for UTIs

More women than previously thought may be willing to delay taking antibiotics to treat a urinary tract infection in order to reduce the potentially unneeded use of antibiotics, a new Dutch study shows. More than one-third of women in the study with UTI symptoms said they were willing to wait a week to see if the infection would improve on its own before starting antibiotics. And more than 70 percent of the women who didn't use antibiotics for a week showed improvements or had their symptoms disappear completely, according to the study published May 30 in the journal BMC Family Practice. UTIs are more common in women than men, and are caused by E. coli bacteria in 80 to 90 percent of cases. The standard treatment for UTIs is a few days of antibiotic treatment, but the increasing emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has become a serious concern, experts say. “To counteract this increasing resistance, the use of antibiotics should be limited in healthy patients who can also be cured without them,” study researcher Dr. Bart Knottnerus, from the University of Amsterdam said in an email. Studies show that when patients have UTI symptoms, most often, antibiotic treatment is started before the results of urine cultures, which look for the presence of bacteria, are known. “In fact, a culture is seldom done. Instead, the probability of a positive culture is estimated by asking questions and performing urine investigations,” Knottnerus said. “Since no test is perfect, some patients without UTI will get antibiotics, and some patients with UTI will not.” In the study, 137 patients were asked by their doctor to delay antibiotic treatment for one week. Fifty-one women were willing to wait. After one week, 28 of those women had still not used antibiotics and 20 of them reported clinical improvement. None of the participating women developed kidney infection, according to the study. Kidney infection is a serious condition that can occur if a UTI is left untreated, and needs a more aggressive antibiotic treatment. The researchers say that bladder infections seldom progress to the kidneys. “If a kidney infection occurs in a healthy woman, she can be cured by antibiotics,” Knottnerus said. “But to make sure that these antibiotics will still be effective in the future, it is important to limit their use in mild infections (like bladder infections).” It is important that women with UTI symptoms be monitored by a doctor if they choose to delay antibiotics. “If a woman gets ill (fever, shivering, flank pain), the infection may be progressing to the kidney,” Knottnerus said. Previous studies have shown that in somecases, patients recover from UTIs within a week without taking antibiotics. Knottnerus said the reason is that they either didn't have a UTI, or didn't need antibiotics to cure it. The body's defense mechanisms are often strong enough to fend off infections without any help from antibiotics, he said. Dr. Timothy Jenkins, assistant professor at the Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Colorado, said about the new study: “Progressive antibiotic resistance in bacteria is a major problem in the United States and worldwide, so it is very important that we develop novel strategies to reduce antibiotic use, such as the one proposed in this study.” Jenkins noted that antibiotic use in the Netherlands is extremely low, whereas antibiotic use in the United States is quite high. “Therefore, whether this study is applicable to women in the U.S. where the societal expectation for antibiotics is greater is not known,” he said. New guidelines published last week, from the Dutch College of General Practitioners, support the advice to delay antibiotic treatment for uncomplicated urinary tract infections, the researchers said. Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/04/women-willing-to-delay-antibiotics-for-utis/

Stench of human feet may lead to better malaria traps

For decades, health officials have battled malaria with insecticides, bed nets and drugs. Now, scientists say there might be a potent new tool to fight the deadly mosquito-borne disease: the stench of human feet. In a laboratory study, researchers found that mosquitoes infected with the tropical disease were more attracted to human odors from a dirty sock than those that didn't carry malaria. Insects carrying malaria parasites were three times more likely to be drawn to the stinky stockings. The new finding may help create traps that target only malaria-carrying mosquitoes, researchers say. “Smelly feet have a use after all,” said Dr. James Logan, who headed the research at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “Every time we identify a new part of how the malaria mosquito interacts with us, we're one step closer to controlling it better.” The sock findings were published last month in the journal, PLoS One. Malaria is estimated to kill more than 600,000 people every year, mostly children in Africa. Experts have long known that mosquitoes are drawn to human odors, but it was unclear if being infected with malaria made them even more attracted to us. Infected mosquitoes are believed to make up about 1 percent of the mosquito population. Using traps that only target malaria mosquitoes could result in fewer mosquitoes becoming resistant to the insecticides used to kill them. And it would likely be difficult for the insects to evade traps based on their sense of smell, scientists say. “The only way mosquitoes could (develop resistance) is if they were less attracted to human odors,” said Andrew Read, a professor of biology and entomology at the University of Pennsylvania, who was not part of Logan's research. “And if they did that and started feeding on something else - like cows - that would be fine.” Read said the same strategy might also work to target insects that carry other diseases such as dengue and Japanese encephalitis. In a related study, Logan and colleagues also sealed human volunteers into a foil bag to collect their body odor as they grew hot and sweaty. The odors were then piped into a tube next door, alongside another tube untainted by human odor. Afterwards, mosquitoes were released and had the option of flying into either tube. The insects buzzed in droves into the smelly tube. Logan said the next step is to identify the chemicals in human foot odor so that it can be made synthetically for mosquito traps. But given mosquitoes' highly developed sense of smell, getting that formula right will be challenging. Some smelly cheeses have the same odor as feet, Logan noted. “But mosquitoes aren't attracted to cheese because they've evolved to know the difference,” he said. “You have to get the mixture, ratios and concentrations of those chemicals exactly right otherwise the mosquito won't think it's a human.” Scientists said it's crucial to understand the subtleties of mosquito behavior. Other studies have shown mosquitoes don't become attracted to humans for about two weeks - the time it takes for the malaria parasites to become infectious for humans. “At the moment, we only have these glimpses of how parasites are manipulating the mosquitoes,” said George Christophides, chair of infectious disease and immunity at Imperial College London. “We need to exploit that information to help us control malaria.”source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/04/stench-human-feet-may-lead-to-better-malaria-traps/

Hospitals install sensors, film employees to ensure hand-washing

Many hospitals are now utilizing motion sensors, hand-washing coaches and video cameras in their facilities to monitor whether nurses and doctors are washing their hands, the New York Times reported. Hand-washing, or basic hand hygiene, is essential in the hospital industry, especially in the wake of a recent report from  the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicating that drug-resistant superbugs are on the rise. Infections acquired in hospitals cost $30 billion a year and lead to approximately 100,000 patient deaths annually. As a result, hospitals are going to great lengths to ensure proper hand-washing and sanitation. In a study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, North Shore University Hospital in Long Island, N.Y., installed motion sensors designed to power on whenever someone entered an intensive care room in the hospital. The sensors activated a video camera, which transmitted images to workers in India who monitored whether nurses and doctors washed their hands. In order to receive a passing score, workers needed to wash their hands within 10 seconds of entering a patient’s room; the quality of the washing was not monitored. Only people who remained in the room for at least 60 seconds were tracked. The sensors were developed by a company called Arrowsight, which initially used this motion sensor technology to ensure sanitary conditions in the meat industry. Initially, hospital employees were not notified they were being monitored. During the first 16-week trial period, employees washed their hands at a rate of less than 10 percent, the study revealed. However, once employees started receiving reports about their behavior, hand washing rates rose to 88 percent. The hospital still uses the system, but only in the intensive care unit due to high costs. Other hospitals throughout the country are employing hand-washing coaches, as well as offering rewards like free pizza and coupons for employees who use proper hygiene.  Some are also administering penalties when employees fail to comply with hygiene standards. Others are using radio-frequency ID chips that activate whenever a doctor passes a sink, and some hospitals are even using undercover hand-washing “monitors” who police whether or not doctors are washing their hands for the recommended 15 seconds. “This is not a quick fix; this is a war,” Dr. Bruce Farber, chief of infectious disease at North Shore, told the New York Times. Some doctors and hospital employees, who may neglect to wash their hands due to factors like stress, forgetfulness or hand dryness, have resisted the new technology. Elaine Larson, a professor in Columbia University’s school of nursing who studies hand-washing, supports the electronic systems being developed.  However, she says none are perfect yet. “People learn to game the system,” she told the New York Times. “There was one system where the monitoring was waist high, and they learned to crawl under that. Or there are people who will swipe their badges and turn on the water, but not wash their hands. It’s just amazing.” Click for more from the New York Times.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/29/hospitals-install-sensors-film-workers-to-ensure-hand-washing/

Vaccine blackjack: IL-21 critical to fight against viral infections

The results are published in the Journal of Virology. "Our findings highlight how IL-21 could be important in the development of antiviral vaccines," says research associate Ata Ur Rasheed Mohammed, PhD, the first author of the paper. The senior author is Rafi Ahmed, PhD, director of the Emory Vaccine Center and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar…

Scientists discover how rapamycin slows cell growth

"Cells normally monitor the availability of nutrients and will slow down or accelerate their growth and division accordingly. A key monitor of nutrients is a protein called the Target of Rapamycin (TOR), but we do not know the details of how this protein feeds signals downstream to control growth" says Dr. Stephen Michnick, senior author and a University of Montreal biochemistry professor…

Researchers move closer to development of universal flu vaccine

Researchers say they have made a major step towards the development of a universal flu vaccine, after a new immunotherapy approach has shown promise in animal studies, Medical News Today reported. The method involves creating a stronger immune reaction against the flu virus in the body, protecting against more viral strains than the current vaccines do. A new flu vaccine is developed each year in order to offer the most protection against the circulating viruses.  But for the developers, it is usually a race against the clock, as the data they use quickly becomes out of date once it reaches them. Also, there is always the possibility that new flu virus strains will emerge after the vaccine has been created. The development of a universal flu vaccine would eliminate the need for the development of annual flu shots. To test their new approach, researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) created a vaccine that utilized a fusion of the protein ferritin, which can assemble itself into tiny nanoparticles, and the protein hemagglutinin (HA), which is found on the surface of the influenza virus.   The protein combination ultimately produced nanoparticles with eight protruding viral spikes, which served as the basis for the vaccine’s antigen – what the immune system responds to when creating antibodies. Through a series of tests on mice and ferrets, the researchers found the vaccine was more effective at boosting immunity against a much wider range of virus strains than the current flu vaccine, including strains they were not testing for. According to the researchers, the vaccine is effective because it prompts the immune system to develop antibodies to the parts of the flu virus that stay the same from strain to strain.  They say the study’s findings, published in the journal Nature, could lead to a universal flu vaccine that protects against numerous strains of the influenza virus. Click for more from Medical News Today.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/23/researchers-move-closer-to-development-universal-flu-vaccine/

Could eating less save your brain? Study shows reducing calories delays nerve cell loss

Calorie restriction may not always be fun, but cutting back has benefits beyond even weight loss. Studies have shown that eating less can help slow aging, prolong life and even decrease the effects of diseases like Alzheimer’s in a variety of organisms. Based on this knowledge, a group of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) decided to dig further and ask: Could calorie restriction also delay nerve cell loss in the brain – and the changes in learning and memory that go along with it? “We reasoned – and other folks reasoned – that because cognitive decline and neurodegeneration are characteristics of the aging process, that calorie restriction might also work in the brain to slow neurodegeneration,” lead study author, Dr. Johannes Gräff from the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, told FoxNews.com. Gräff and his colleagues tested their theory using a group of mice engineered to experience rapid neurodegeneration. Researchers decreased half of the mice’s calorie intake by 30 percent and kept the remaining mice on a normal diet. After three months, researchers tested the learning and memory skills in each group of mice, expecting to see a decline in both cognitive areas. However, while the mice eating normally showed evidence of significant learning and memory deficits related to nerve cell loss, the calorie-restricted mice showed no defecits in their learning or memory skills. “That was one of the first experiments we did, and that was quite promising and cool that it worked,” Gräff said. In the next phase of the study, researchers took a more in-depth look at the brains of both groups of mice. “What we further did was to look through the brains to check the extent or amount of neurodegeneration, and what we found was that neurodegeneration had been slowed down by calorie restriction,” Gräff said. Researchers were curious if reduced neurodegeneration could still be achieved by utilizing proteins activated during calorie restriction – without actually restricting calories. Eventually, they targeted an enzyme called Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1). “This protein is one candidate that has been known to be more abundantly expressed as a result of calorie restriction in our tissues,” Gräff said. The scientists then gave a separate group of mice, also engineered to experience rapid neurodegeneration, a pharmacological dose of SIRT1, without restricting their calorie intake. These mice experienced the same effects as the calorie-restricted mice, showing slower rates of nerve cell loss and no learning or memory deficits after a three-month period. Graff noted that more research needed to be done in this area, and he hopes to further explore the relationship between calorie restriction, SIRT1 and neurodegeneration. “We have the choice – (to look into how) to reduce calorie intake in order to slow onset of neurodegeneration, or we look to this pharmacological activator (to do the same thing),” Gräff said. “Do you want to engage more into reducing caloric intake or revert to pharmacological means for the same effect?” This study is published in the May 22nd issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/22/could-eating-less-save-your-brain-study-shows-reducing-calorie-intake-delays/

Swine flu found in elephant seals

The H1N1 virus strain that caused a 2009 swine flu outbreak in humans was detected in northern elephant seals off the coast of central California. Scientists say this is the first time marine mammals have been found to carry the H1N1 flu strain, which originated in pigs. The seals seem to have picked up the virus while at sea, but it's unclear how this happened. “We thought we might find influenza viruses, which have been found before in marine mammals, but we did not expect to find pandemic H1N1,” Tracey Goldstein, an associate professor with the UC Davis One Health Institute and Wildlife Health Center, said in a statement. [10 Deadly Diseases That Hopped Across Species] “H1N1 was circulating in humans in 2009,” Goldstein added. “The seals on land in early 2010 tested negative before they went to sea, but when they returned from sea in spring 2010, they tested positive. So the question is where did it come from?” Contact with humans carrying the virus is unlikely when the elephant seals are at sea, because the creatures spend most of their time looking for food in a remote part of the northeast Pacific Ocean off the continental shelf. Exposure could have occurred through feces dumped out of shipping vessels passing through this area. The researchers noted in their report in the journal PLOS ONE this week that H1N1 has been detected in stool samples of hospital patients. Another possible avenue of transmission might have been contact with aquatic birds, thought to be reservoirs for other flu viruses, the researchers say. Goldstein and colleagues tested nasal swabs from more than 900 Pacific marine mammals from 10 different species from Alaska to California between 2009 and 2011. The elephant seals that were studied had been satellite tagged and tracked so that researchers could tell where they had been before and after they were tested for disease. H1N1 was detected in two northern elephant seals within days of their return to land after they went out to sea to forage for a few months. Antibodies to the virus were found in another 28 elephant seals. None of the seals had any signs of illness, which means marine mammals can be infected with zoonotic pathogens but be asymptomatic, the researchers said. The report recommends that people working with and around marine mammals need to take proper biosafety precautions to prevent exposure to diseases that could be quite harmful in humans, even if they don't cause illness in seals. The new research on marine mammals is part of an effort to understand emerging viruses in animals and people by the Centers of Excellence in Influenza Research and Surveillance program, funded by the National Institutes of Health. “The study of influenza virus infections in unusual hosts, such as elephant seals, is likely to provide us with clues to understand the ability of influenza virus to jump from one host to another and initiate pandemics,” Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, a professor of microbiology, said in a statement. Garcia-Sastre directs of the Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine, which collaborated with the team from UC Davis on the study. Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/20/swine-flu-found-in-elephant-seals/