NEWS UPDATE-GENETIC THERAPY FOR ALZHEIMER DISEASE

ALZHEIMER'S-A GENETIC APPROACH

A newer treatment method to cure Alzheimer's is tested successfully. The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The research involves a treatment that delivers a virus to a gene in the brain that could be used to resolve early symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common and devastating form of dementia affecting 40 million people worldwide. It involves memory loss, mood changes, confusion, and personality changes. Currently there are no cures for this.

The Centers for Disease Control(CDC) has estimated that nearly 5 million people are suffering from Alzheimer's disease in the United States itself and in 2014 at about 93541 deaths were attributed to this disease. Alzheimer's disease becomes the sixth main cause of death in the U.S.alone.

The research conducted by scientists from the Imperial College of London. They used a modified virus that delivers a gene known as PGC1-alpha to the brain cells of the mice. They found that it cures the development of Alzheimer's Disease.

The virus is called a lentivirus vector and is commonly used in gene therapy.

On the basis of the research they found that the gene stop a protein called amyloid beta-peptide from forming cells.

Amyloid plaques are sticky clumps of protein formed mainly at the cortex and the front lobe, the hippocampus of the brain during the development of Alzheimer's Disease (Ref.Alzheimer's Disease) in this blog. These amyloid plaques are causing the death of the brain cells which leads to Alzheimer's Disease.

Prof.Nicholas Mazarakis co-author of the research study explains how they can modify the way of infection by the lentivirus on the brain cells affected by the amyloid plaques for their own advantage and yield beneficiary effects. They use a modified harmless version of the virus.

The research was already used successfully in Parkinson's Disease.

Alzheimer's is developed by starting from the cortex and slowly spread to the hippocampus. The first damage may occur in 10 to 20 years before the disease becomes outwardly visible.

The cortex of the brain is associated with long term memory, reasoning, thinking, and mood. Damage may result in depression and difficulty figuring out to do familiar tasks.

The hippocampus is associated with learning and conversion of short term memories to long term memories. Hippocampus is instrumental in mental orientation.

Damage in the hippocampus may result in forgetting recent events such as a deal on the very day morning. This the main reason why an Alzheimer patient may forget his usual route such as the way to his house.

EXERCISE HORMONE-BENEFITS DIABETICS AND OBESE

Exercise hormone sheds fat, 'helps people stay slender'

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Written by Hannah Nichols

Published: Sunday 2 October 2016 Published: Sun 2 Oct 2016

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If you are lacking in motivation to exercise this fall, some research led by a University of Florida researcher may inspire you to jump-start your fitness regimen. According to the new study, while exercising, a hormone is released that not only helps the body shed fat, but also prevents it from forming.

More regular exercise produces more irisin, which could help with fat reduction, stronger bones, and better cardiovascular health.

A professor of cell biology and a team at Harvard Medical School discovered the hormone dubbed "irisin" in 2012. They isolated the natural hormone from muscle cells that trigger some of the health-promoting properties of exercise, which, they say, could be developed into novel treatments for diabetes, obesity, and cancer.
In the previous study, the Harvard-affiliated team also found that as irisin levels rise through exercise, the hormone switches on genes that convert white fat into brown fat - the "good" fat. This conversion is beneficial, as brown fat burns off more excess calories than exercise alone.
Dr. Li-Jun Yang, a professor of hematopathology in the Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Florida College of Medicine, directed the new research.
Dr. Yang and colleagues aimed to understand the role of irisin in humans better and increase the knowledge base of how the hormone helps convert calorie-storing white fat cells into energy-burning brown fat cells.
The researchers note that they believe the research to be the first of its kind to explore irisin's effects on human fat tissue and fat cells.
According to the researchers, irisin hormone - which surges when the heart and other muscles are exerted - may also inhibit the formation of fatty tissue.
The study findings, published in the American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism, confirms previous conclusions that irisin may be a promising target to support people with obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Irisin works via a mechanism that boosts the activity of genes and a protein that is crucial to turning white fat cells into brown fat cells. The researchers also found irisin to have a role in burning fat by significantly increasing the amount of energy used by brown fat cells.
Dr. Yang and the team conducted the research by collecting fat cells donated by 28 participants who had undergone breast reduction surgery. Scientists exposed the fat samples to irisin, and as a result, saw an almost fivefold increase in cells that contain the UCP1 protein - a protein crucial to fat burning.
"We used human fat tissue cultures to prove that irisin has a positive effect by turning white fat into brown fat and that it increases the body's fat-burning ability," says Dr. Yang.

Fat cell formation significantly suppressed by irisin hormone

Among the analyzed fat tissue samples, Dr. Yang and collaborators found that irisin suppresses fat cell formation by reducing the number of mature fat cells by 20-60 percent when compared with the control group.
This finding indicates that the irisin hormone reduces fat storage in the body by hindering the process that turns undifferentiated stem cells into fat cells, while also promoting the stem cells' differentiation into bone-forming cells, the researchers say.
More than two-thirds of U.S adults are considered to be overweight or obese. While there is no single approach to prevent or treat overweight and obesity, an exercise in combination with behavioral treatment and diet can aid weight loss. The knowledge that the body produces small quantities of fat-fighting irisin emphasizes the importance of regular exercise.
Dr. Yang says that while the beneficial effects of irisin could potentially be developed into therapies in the future, the viability of an irisin-based treatment is uncertain and would not happen imminently.

"Instead of waiting for a miracle drug, you can help yourself by changing your lifestyle. Exercise produces more irisin, which has many beneficial effects including fat reduction, stronger bones, and better cardiovascular health."

Dr. Li-Jun Yang

Irisin's role in regulating fat cells sheds light on the way physical activity helps people stay slender, says Dr. Yang. "Irisin can do a lot of things. This is another piece of evidence about the mechanisms that prevent fat buildup and promote the development of strong bones when you exercise," she adds.
This study adds to increasing information regarding irisin's health benefits. Previous studies by Dr. Yang's group found that irisin improves heart function by boosting calcium levels that are critical for heart contractions. They also showed that the hormone reduced arterial plaque buildup in mouse models by preventing inflammatory cells from accumulating, thus reducing atherosclerosis.
Future work for the team will focus on irisin's effect on abdominal fat, which is associated with insulin resistance and high lipid levels.
Read about research that disputes the existence of exercise-induced muscle memory.

Written by Hannah Nichols

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Exercise hormone sheds fat, 'helps people stay slender'

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COFFEE CAN REDUCE WOMEN'S RISK OF DEMENTIA

IS COFFEE A PROPHYLACTIVE TO DEMENTIA?

The answer is delicious yes. Today is International Coffee Day and the tasty way to celebrate the day is by sharing this good news with all our readers.

A new study suggests that older women who drink coffee with two to three cups daily may be at lower risk of having dementia and other cognitive diseases.

Researches have concluded that caffeine a mild stimulant present in coffee has many cognitive benefits.

A study regarding the relationship between coffee drinking habits and improvement of long term memory has been published in The Journal Of Nature Neuroscience in 2014.

The new findings of caffeine's benefit in reducing the risk of getting dementia by women are published in The Journals Of Gerontology, Series-A. Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences.

About 6467 women aged 65 years and older were selected for Women's Health Initiative Memory Study(WHMS) which was funded by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

The lead author of this study Prof.Ira Driscoll, Ph.D., noted that 'the unique about this study is that we had an unprecedented opportunity to examine the relationship between caffeine intake and dementia incidence in a large and well defined, prospectively studied cohort of women'.

Driscoll et al examined the participants of the program study by their caffeine intake as determined through self-consumption of coffee tea and cola.

The researches found that women who consume a minimum of 64mgs of coffee (1 8-ounce cup) are more prone to get dementia than those who consume more than 260mgs of caffeine(2 to 3,8-ounce cups of coffee or 5 to 6, 8-ounce cups of black tea).

The team found this beneficiary factor overriding even after accounting the possible confounding factors such as age, race, body mass index, smoking status, alcohol intake depression hypertension, sleep quality, and history of cardiovascular diseases.

The authors of the study say that they are unable to establish a direct association between caffeine intake and dementia risk reduction nor are they able to generalize the findings to men.

NEWS UPDATE-SMOKING THICKENS HEART WALL

SMOKING AND THE PERICARDIUM

It is observed by the latest research that heavy smoking thicken the wall of the heart, the pericardium, and makes it difficult to pump the blood.

The study was published in the journal Circulation.

Smoking is the major cause of many complications in cardiovascular, pulmonary, and other regions of the body.

It has been established that smoking tobacco leads to an increased risk of heart failure even in a healthy individual.

But the mechanism by which the tobacco smoking damages the heart is not clearly established.

NEWS UPDATE-NEW GENETICAL APPROACH TO DM

A GENE THAT CAUSES DM

Type 2 diabetes the most common type of DM affecting 90% of the people in which either the beta cells of the pancreas are unable to produce insulin or the body cannot utilize or respond to the insulin.

Now a research team from the UK has discovered a gene that causes the destruction of the beta islets of Langerhans that produces insulin that contributes to producing type-2 DM.

By blocking the gene TNFR5 halted the destruction process, a discovery that leads to new hope in the treatments of Type-2 DM.

The research team was lead by Dr.Mark Tuner of the School of Science and Technology, at Nottingham University in the UK.

They say that it is certain that a long time use high fat and high sugar diet can worsen the destruction of beta islet cells in Type-2 DM people with uncleared reasons.

But, now they cleared it after research with a number of genes they found that the gene TNFR-5 had the highest sensitivity to glucose and fatty acids and overexpression of this gene in response to the high fat and sugar diet leads to the development of type 2 DM.

Hence they said blocking this gene halted he destruction according to their Laboratory tests.

NEWS UPDATE-COFFEE AND CAFFEINE

COFFEE AND CAFFEINE

It has been found out that occasional coffee drinking is riskier than regular coffee drinking. A research was carried out with a group of occasional coffee drinkers and another group of regular coffee drinkers.

The result has shown those occasional coffee drinkers because of the deep fluctuation of the concentration of caffeine in their blood are prone to have higher risks of blood pressure and other cardiovascular complications.300 ml of black coffee consumption can elevate blood pressure within two hours and last for several hours. Hence a drink of coffee may affect the blood pressure measurement results if it was consumed just before the B.P. measurements by the occasional drinkers.

Also coffee drinking by occasional drinkers may interfere with their B.P.medications, such as calcium channel blockers.

Research has shown that Felodipine a calcium channel blocker used to reduce the B.P when used along with a cup of coffee has elevated the B.P. instead of reducing it.

These are because in occasional coffee drinkers the concentration of caffeine deeply fluctuates even if they drink the coffee with a two days gap.

After a cup of coffee the caffeine concentration remains in the blood for two days only. Within two days the blood is almost cleaned off most of the caffeine content. Then by another drink of coffee at the end of the second-day caffeine reenter into the blood as a fresh candidate and may have all its effects freshly. Hence a drink of coffee on every alternate day too are considered as occasional drinks and the body cannot tolerate caffeine as with the regular drinkers.

Regular daily drinking of coffee will be tolerated by the body and the maintenance of a fixed concentration of caffeine in the blood may not complicate blood pressure and other cardiovascular irregularities.

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AUTOCOIDS AND ANTAGONISTS-PART-4

AUTOCOIDS AND THEIR ANTAGONISTS

Contd...

Ergot Alkaloids:-

1.Bromocriptine

2.Ergonovine

3.Ergotamine

These products are not endogenous substances and hence they are not true autocoids. They are alkaloids of ergot fungi. Yet they are discussed here because of their important actions on smooth muscles as similar to autocoids.

Ergot alkaloids are a group of compounds produced by the fungus Claviceps purpurea.

Ergot alkaloids are mainly acting on adrenergic, serotonergic, and dopamine receptors.

Physiology:-

1.Hallucinations and delusions on overdoses

2.Psychoses and neuro problems on higher doses

3.Vasoconstrictions

4.Uterine stimulation

Therapeutical Use

 

1. Ergotamine is used to treat migraine by reducing cerebrovascular pulsations

2. Bromocriptine is used to treat hyperprolactinemia

3. Ergotamine and Ergonovine is used to control postpartum hemorrhage

 Side Effects

1.Gangrene due to prolonged vasoconstriction which can be reversed by sodium nitroprusside.

2.Diarrhea

3.Nausea and vomiting

4.Unintentional uterine contractions

5.CNS psychoses.