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२४ घंटे के व्रत से उम्र संबंधी गैस्ट्रो-इनेस्टिनल और कैंसर की रोकथाम संभव
अमेरिकन संस्था MIT के वैज्ञानिकों ने प्रसिद्ध शोध पत्रिका “सेल स्टेम सेल” में प्रकाशित अपने शोध में व्रत रखने के वैज्ञानिक लाभों को दर्शाया जो सदियों पुरानी भारतीय व्रत परंपरा के दूरगामी फायदों की पुष्टि करते हैं | स्टेम कोशिकाएं हम सबके शरीर का महत्वपूर्ण हिस्सा होती हैं, जो विभिन्न अंगो की कोशिकाओं का पुनर्निमाण करती रहती हैं और उनके क्षय को बचाती हैं पर उम्र बढ़ने के साथ उनकी इस क्षमता में कमी आने लगती है जो हमे तमाम बीमारियां का शिकार बनती है। आंत की स्टेम कोशिकाएं भी उम्र बढ़ने के साथ अपनी पुनरुद्ध्भवन या पुनर्निमाण क्षमता धीरे धीरे खोने लगती हैं, जिससे उम्र दराज लोगों की गैस्ट्रो-इनेस्टिनल या अन्य आंत सम्बन्धी बिमारियों जैसे कैंसर इत्यादि से लड़ने की क्षमता कम होती जाती है। अब वैज्ञानिकों के ग्रुप ने चूहों पर किये प्रयोगों से ये सिद्ध किया है की २४ घंटों का व्रत रखने से आंत की विशिष्ट स्टेम कोशिकाओं की पूनरुद्ध्भवन क्षमता फिर से वापस पायी जा सकती है।
व्रत रखने से उम्र दराज और नवजवान दोनों ग्रुप के चूहों के स्टेम कोशाओं की पुनर्निर्माण क्षमता में आश्चर्यजनक वृद्धि देखी गयी। दरअसल ऐसी स्टेम कोशायें जिन्हे २४ घंटों तक कुछ खाद्य पदार्थ नहीं दिया गया, वे कोशायें ग्लूकोस की बजाये वसीय अम्लों को घटकों में तोड़ने लगीं, जिससे उनकी पुनर्निमाण क्षमता ज्यादा बढ़ गयी। वैज्ञानिकों ने उम्मीद जताई है की इस तरह का शोध आने वाले समय में उम्र दराज लोग जो गैस्ट्रो-इनेस्टिनल से पीड़ित हैं या जो कैंसर संबंधी कीमोथेरेपी ले रहे हैं, उन लोगों के लिए खास फायदेमंद साबित हो सकती है।
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180503142852.htm
Evolving gene responsible for alcohol digestion may stop Humans from drinking alcohol
A new study by University of Pennsylvania researchers investigating recent signals of positive selection of genes across human populations reveals the concurrent emergence of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) gene variant in various populations across the globe without direct genetic heritage. The study has been published in the journal Nature, Ecology & Evolution utilized the 1000 Genome Project data and analyzed 2500 individuals from 20 populations across four continents.
ADH is a group of enzymes normally present in humans to break down the alcohol. But the emergent gene variant of the ADH increases enzyme activity resulting into the less effective breaking down of the alcohol consequently, leading to adverse physical response to alcohol consumption.
People with this specific genetic variant may feel sick after drinking alcohol and henceforth, are unlikely to develop a taste for alcohol or become alcoholic.
New Study found Promising Compounds to cure Whipworm infection
Good news is here for around 500 million people of mostly developing countries who gets infected with the human whipworm, a potent physical and mental growth damager, now they can be hopeful for effective treatment in coming days as a new finding shows that the whipworm is killed at egg and adult stage by a new drug developed by the team from the three UK universities, Oxford, Manchester and University College London.
Currently there are no vaccines available for human whipworm and treatments are based on ages old drugs having low success rate. The team of researchers studies a class of dihydrobenzoxazepinonesm, which had never been related to regulating whipworms, found the compounds a more effective killer of the adult stages of whipworm than present drugs. Not only that, even whipworm eggs are also affected which are contagious and passed from infected faeces into healthy people by hand to mouth contact, quite often in areas where people live close together or areas with unsanitary toilets.
Generally, the whipworm eggs are highly resistant to UV radiation, extreme temperature changes and may remain viable for longer, however the newly studied compounds which are effective against the eggs could be used as a spray to stop whipworm infection at source itself.
Source:
Frederick A. Partridge, Emma A. Murphy, Nicky J. Willis, Carole J. R. Bataille, Ruth Forman, Narinder Heyer-Chauhan, Bruno Marinič, Daniel J. C. Sowood, Graham M. Wynne, Kathryn J. Else, Angela J. Russell, David B. Sattelle. Dihydrobenz[e][1,4] oxazepin-2(3H)-ones, a new anthelmintic chemotype immobilising whipworm and reducing infectivity in vivo. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2017; 11 (2): e0005359 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0005359
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170222102540.htm
Killing Caner with Genetically modified Bacteria
Researchers employ a genetically modified bacteria to eliminate tumors in mice.
The report published in February issue of the Science Translational Medicine discloses an immunological mechanism that contributes to bacteria-driven, cancer–killing activity claiming that a genetically altered Salmonella typhimurium a gastroenteritis-causing bacteria, is an effective destroyer of mouse tumors.
The reasoning behind most bacteria-driven cancer therapies is the fact that oxygen-starved and necrotic cores of tumors are attractive environments for anaerobic bacteria such as Salmonella, Clostridium, and Listeria, and an infection can lead to tumor colonization by these bugs. By means of active multiplication, the bacteria can directly kill the cancer cells and also attract the attention of the body’s immune system (which is generally suppressed within tumors), leading to further tumor destruction.
Things are not so easy and there are safety issues in implementation for patients. In a recent trial, researchers found attenuated Salmonella bacteria to be safe, but they were unable to create a strong response. To overcome the issue researchers tried to boost the potency of the Salmonella by engineering the bacteria to overexpress a protein proven to induce a strong immune response—flagellin B. As per the new report, intravenous injections of the flagellin expressing Salmonella eliminated the experimental tumors in 55 percent of mice, which then remained healthy until the end of the four-month observation period. Without overexpression of flagellin, the tumors in the mice tended to regrow after initial shrinking by the Salmonella.
Some scientist agrees that current study extends our understanding of bacterial-based cancer therapy at a molecular level but one of the problems with developing bacterial cancer treatments has been that “these bacteria are almost a black box.” They promote cancer destruction, but no one is exactly sure how.
Source: J.H. Zheng et al., “Two-step enhanced cancer immunotherapy with engineered Salmonella typhimurium secreting heterologous flagellin,” Science Translational Medicine, 9, eaak9537, 2017.
Take Vitamin D regularly to keep away from Respiratory Diseases
Next time if you suffer with acute respiratory infections, don’t ignore your Vitamin D status which plays a significantly effective role in prevention from respiratory diseases, claimed by a new research paper published online in journal the BMJ. The study confirms that daily or weekly vitamin D supplements had the utmost advantage for individuals with the maximum noteworthy vitamin D deficiency.
Generally, people comprehend that vitamin D is critical for bone and muscle health but this new research found that it also helps the body fight acute respiratory infection, which is accountable for millions of deaths globally each year. The new research is a global collaborative study comprising a participant data meta-analysis of 25 randomized controlled trials including >11,000 participants.
Many observational studies have already established the association of low vitamin D levels with greater vulnerability to acute respiratory infections, based on long time follow up of participants without providing a specific treatment. There have been discrepancies in clinical trials conducted to investigate the protective ability of vitamin D supplementation.
The new study resolves these inconsistencies and the researchers found that daily or weekly supplementation had the greatest benefit for individuals with the utmost substantial vitamin D deficiency (
Source: Adrian R Martineau, et al., “Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections: systematic review and meta-analysis of individual participant data,” BMJ 2017; 356 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i6583
Autism could be detected by smell test
Doctors may sniff out autism with a 1o minute test, says a new study.
According to researchers report of July 2 in Current Biology, children with autism inhale almost same amount of air whether smelling sour milk or roses whereas, kids without the disorder breathe in pleasant scents more deeply than stinky ones.
The findings hint that a whiff-and-sniff test could one day offer a quick and easy way to determine whether a child has autism. But the study was small, and other researchers are not convinced.
Pain Sensing’ Gene Discovered – Could Lead to Development of New Pain Treatments
Cambridge, UK (Scicasts) — A gene essential to the production of pain-sensing neurons in humans has been identified by an international team of researchers co-led by the University of Cambridge.
The discovery, reported May 25 in the journal Nature Genetics, could have implications for the development of new methods of pain relief.
Pain perception is an evolutionarily-conserved warning mechanism that alerts us to dangers in the environment and to potential tissue damage. However, rare individuals – around one in a million people in the UK – are born unable to feel pain. These people accumulate numerous self-inflicted injuries, often leading to reduced lifespan.
Using detailed genome mapping, two teams of researchers collaborated to analyse the genetic make-up of 11 families across Europe and Asia affected by an inherited condition known as congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP). This enabled them to pinpoint the cause of the condition to variants of the gene PRDM12. Family members affected by CIP carried two copies of the variant; however, if they had only inherited one copy from their parents, they were unaffected.
The team looked at nerve biopsies taken from the patients to see what had gone wrong and found that particular pain-sensing neurons were absent. From these clinical features of the disease, the team predicted that there would be a block to the production of pain-sensing neurons during the development of the embryo – they confirmed this using a combination of studies in mouse and frog models, and in human induced pluripotent stem cells (skin cells that had been reset to their ‘master state’, which enables them to develop into almost any type of cell in the body).
PRDM12 had previously been implicated in the modification of chromatin, a small molecule that attaches to our DNA and acts like a switch to turn genes on and off (an effect known as epigenetics). The researchers showed that all the genetic variants of PRDM12 in the CIP patients blocked the gene’s function. As chromatin is particularly important during formation of particular specialised cell types such as neurons, this provides a possible explanation for why pain-sensing neurons do not form properly in the CIP patients.
“The ability to sense pain is essential to our self-preservation, yet we understand far more about excessive pain than we do about lack of pain perception,” says Professor Geoff Woods from the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research at the University of Cambridge, who co-led the study. “Both are equally important to the development of new pain treatments – if we know the mechanisms that underlie pain sensation, we can then potentially control and reduce unnecessary pain.”
PRDM12 is only the fifth gene related to lack of pain perception to have been identified to date. However, two of the previously-discovered genes have already led to the development of new pain killers that are currently been tested in clinical trials.
“We are very hopeful that this new gene could be an excellent candidate for drug development, particularly given recent successes with drugs targeting chromatin regulators in human disease,” adds Dr. Ya-Chun Chen from the University of Cambridge, the study’s first author. “This could potentially benefit those who are at danger from lack of pain perception and help in the development of new treatments for pain relief.”
Article adapted from a University of Cambridge news release. The original article is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence.
Publication: Transcriptional regulator PRDM12 is essential for human pain perception. Chen, Y-C et al. Nature Genetics; (May 25, 2015)
#science #research #medical #medicalresearch #health #pain #treatment #human #huamanhealth #healthproblems #news
Vitamin D’s improtance for health in normal life
It is generally accepted (atleast in the west countries) that vitamin D deficiency is a worldwide health problem that affects not only musculoskeletal health but also a wide range of acute and chronic diseases. But, even then in South Asian countries like India and others, physicians or general public is not having full awarenes about the importance of Vit D and Vitamin profiling. Hardly doctors suggest somebody to go for Vitamin profile tests, and mostly people will not have idea that they do have very low Vitamins, specially Vitamin D which is so crucial for all critical diseases. Below is given a little details about Vitamin D, its importance and some mechanism related to.
Vitamin D deficiency has been recognized as a pandemic with a myriad of health consequences. Low vitamin D status has been associated with an increased risk of type 1 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, cognitive decline, depression, pregnancy complications, autoimmunity, allergy, and even frailty. Low prenatal and neonatal vitamin D status may also increase susceptibility to schizophrenia, type 1 diabetes, and multiple sclerosis (MS) in later life via specific target organ effects, including the immune system, or through epigenetic modification.
Vitamin D (D represents D2, D3, or both) is a secosterol produced endogenously in the skin from sun exposure or obtained from foods that naturally contain vitamin D, including cod liver oil and fatty fish (eg, salmon, mackerel, and tuna); UV-irradiated mushrooms; foods fortified with vitamin D; and supplements.
Despite the many important health benefits of vitamin D, there is controversy regarding the definition of vitamin D deficiency and what the vitamin D requirement should be. In addition, critical windows of exposure to adequate vitamin D levels during fetal maturation remain to be defined owing, in part, to the lack of well-designed controlled clinical trials with long-term follow-up.
Vitamin D (D represents D2, D3, or both) is a secosterol produced endogenously in the skin from sun exposure or obtained from foods that naturally contain vitamin D, including cod liver oil and fatty fish (eg, salmon, mackerel, and tuna); UV-irradiated mushrooms; foods fortified with vitamin D; and supplements.
During exposure to sunlight, 7-dehydrocholesterol (7-DHC) in the skin is converted to previtamin D3. The 7-DHC is present in all the layers of human skin. Approximately 65% of 7-DHC is found in the epidermis, and greater than 95% of the previtamin D3 that is produced is in the viable epidermis and, therefore, cannot be removed from the skin when it is washed. Once previtamin D3 is synthesized in the skin, it can undergo either a photoconversion to lumisterol, tachysterol, and 7-DHC or a heat-induced membrane-enhanced isomerization to vitamin D3. The cutaneous production of previtamin D3 is regulated. Solar photoproducts (tachysterol and lumisterol) inactive on calcium metabolism are produced at times of prolonged exposure to solar UVB radiation, thus preventing sun-induced vitamin D intoxication. Vitamin D3 is also sensitive to solar irradiation and is, thereby, inactivated to suprasterol 1 and 2 and to 5,6-trans-vitamin D3. Cutaneous vitamin D3 production is influenced by skin pigmentation, sunscreen use, time of day, season, latitude, altitude, and air pollution. An increase in the zenith angle of the sun during winter and early morning and late afternoon results in a longer path for the solar UVB photons to travel through the ozone layer, which efficiently absorbs them. This is the explanation for why above and below approximately 33° latitude little if any vitamin D3 is made in the skin during winter. This is also the explanation for why—whether being at the equator and in the far northern and southern regions of the world in summer, where the sun shines almost 24 hours a day—vitamin D3 synthesis occurs only between approximately 10 AM and 3 PM. Similarly, in urban areas, such as Los Angeles, California, and Mexico City, Mexico, where nitrogen dioxide and ozone levels are high, few vitamin D3-producing UVB photons reach the people living in these cities. Similarly, because glass absorbs all UVB radiation, no vitamin D3 is produced in the skin when the skin is exposed to sunlight that passes through glass.
The effect of vitamin D on fetal programming epigenetics and gene regulation could potentially explain why vitamin D has been reported to have such wide-ranging health benefits throughout life.
More details could be accessed from the link of a nicely written review article;
Sci-Facts Essential 