#Meeting climate targets may require reducing meat, dairy consumptiongreenhouse gas emissions from food production may threaten the UN climate target of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius according to research at Chalmers University of Technology Sweden.
On Monday 31 march the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) presents their report on the impacts of climate change.
#Health costs of air pollution from agriculture clarifiedammonia pollution from agricultural sources poses larger health costs than previously estimated according to NASA-funded research.
The improved simulation helped the scientists narrow in on the estimated health costs from air pollution associated with food produced for export--a growing sector of agriculture and a source of trade surplus.
The new research by Paulot and Jacob calculate the health cost associated with the ammonia emissions from agriculture exports to be $36 billion a year--equal to about half of the revenue generated by those same exports--or $100 per kilogram of ammonia.
The particulates that pose the greatest health risk are those that measure no more than 2. 5 micrometers across or about 1/30 the width of a human hair
Long-term exposure has been linked to heart and lung diseases and even death. As such the particles are on the list of six common air pollutants regulated by EPA's National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
For this reason the largest health costs are carried most often by the more populated states in the Northeast and Great lakes region.
whether that is through breeding more disease-resistant animals or finding ways to increase dairy or beef production.
and vegetables as young adults were much less likely to have plaque build up in their arteries 20 years later compared with those who consumed lower amounts of these foods according to research to be presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session.
and vegetables are less likely to have a heart attack or stroke but the relationship between fruit and vegetable consumption during young adulthood and heart disease later in life was less clear.
To study this concept researchers evaluated the association between dietary intake of fruits and vegetables in young adults and the presence of coronary artery calcification (CAC) 20 years later.
and we need to know what dietary components are said most important Michael D. Miedema M d. M p h. a cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute and the lead investigator of the study.
which is evaluating how heart disease develops throughout adulthood. CARDIA began in the mid-1980s with a group of men
and women 18-30 years of age and has collected extensive data on medical socioeconomic psychosocial and behavioral characteristics.
CAC was measured at year 20 (2005-2006) using electron-beam computed tomography. The average age at baseline and the 20-year follow-up was 25 and 45 years respectively.
CAC scoring is currently the best predictor we have for future heart attacks Miedema said. Calcium build up in the walls of the coronary arteries is an early sign of heart disease
and the presence of CAC substantially raises an individual's risk for a future heart attack.
In their analysis researchers controlled for smoking exercise consumption of red meat sugar-sweetened beverages and other dietary and cardiovascular risk factors that correlate with atherosclerosis.
Participants with extreme high or low caloric intake/day or those missing CAC scores were excluded from the analysis. The current findings are in line with the 2011 U s. Department of agriculture Dietary Guidelines that advise Americans to fill half of their plates
and other things that are known to promote good health. Plant-based diets in general have also been linked to greater longevity less cancer lower cholesterol lower blood pressure
and healthier body weight Miedema emphasized that more studies are needed to further define the relationship between fruits vegetables
and cardiovascular disease in men and women in addition to determining the best ways to increase compliance with a diet high in fruits and vegetables in the U s. population.
The above story is provided based on materials by American College of Cardiology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
#Using tobacco to thwart infectious disease? An international research group led by Arizona State university professor Qiang Shawn Chen has developed a new generation of potentially safer and more cost-effective therapeutics against West Nile virus and other pathogens.
The therapeutics known as monoclonal antibodies (MABS) and their derivatives were shown to neutralize and protect mice against a lethal dose challenge of West Nile virus--even as late as 4 days after the initial infection.
The overarching goal of our research is to create an innovative yet sustainable and accessible low cost solution to combat the global threat of West Nile virus said Chen a researcher at Arizona State university's Biodesign Institute and professor in the Department
of TEIM. West Nile virus is spread by infected mosquitoes and targets the central nervous system. It can be a serious life-altering
and even fatal disease and currently there is no cure or drug treatment against West Nile virus
First we wanted to show proof-of-concept demonstrating that tobacco plants can be used to manufacture large and complex MAB-based therapeutics.
Secondly we've wanted to improve the delivery of the therapeutic into the brain to combat West Nile virus at the place where it does the greatest harm.
Chen's group has been a pioneer in producing MABS as therapeutic candidates in plants including tobacco and lettuce plants.
A couple of years ago his team demonstrated that their first candidate phu-E16 could neutralize West Nile infection
. However this antibody was not to be able to accumulate at high levels in the brain.
One approach to tackle this challenge is to program into the therapeutic antibodies the capability of binding to receptors that can help the MABS to cross into the brain.
and increasing amounts of a MAB therapeutic were delivered as a single dose the same day of infection.
whether the therapeutic called Tetra phu-E16 could be effective after infection. In this case the therapeutic was administered 4 days after West Nile virus infection
when the virus has already spread to the brain. In each case they protected up to 90 percent of the mice from lethal infection.
This is the first instance of such an effect and makes possible neutralizing West Nile virus even after infection by a tetravalent MAB.
The tetravalent MABS design will offer the researchers greater flexibility toward selection of disease tissue and antigen targets.
For Chen this also gives promise to his team developing a plant-based system to dramatically reduce the costs of commercial manufacturing of MABS.
and highly competitive research field having been shown to effectively target cancer autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Now a $60 billion market for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors growth of the market has been hampered by high development costs of producing these in animal cell systems
which when factoring in a long period for manufacturing R&d and clinical trials may reach around $1 billion per each therapeutic candidate.
Therapeutic MABS are made typically in animal host cells and assembled into Y-shaped complexes. Until now tetravalent MABS had never been made in a plant system before.
To make the potential therapeutics the group is able to use young tobacco plants and a protein expression system to make
and harvest the proteins in the leaves. For the study MABS were produced rapidly in tobacco plants in as little as ten days giving promise to change the image of scourged product that causes lung cancer into a manufacturing system for societal benefits against infectious diseases.
It is our hope that these results may usher in new age of cost-effective MABS therapeutics against WNV
and other neurological diseases said Chen. Our next step is to move this forward with the development of bifunctional MABS that can target to the brain with the ultimate goal of entering human clinical trials.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Arizona State university. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
The project was led by University of Southampton Professor of Geography Peter Atkinson who worked with his colleague Dr Jadunandan Dash and in collaboration with Professor Jeganathan Chockalingam from the Department of Remote Sensing at the Birla Institute of technology in India.
Preventing obesity-related diseases is an urgent issue. Professor Hidetoshi Saze of the OIST Plant Epigenetics Unit is leading a new research project to develop a new strain of rice that produces digestion-resistant starch to prevent these diseases.
The project fostered by the Okinawan government involves three activities by the medical agricultural and food industries:
development of the new rice strain nutritional and physiological analyses and processing and sales. Nanshoka-Mai or rice with digestion-resistant starch is breed a new of rice rich in starch that does not as readily break down into glucose.
However excessive consumption of sugars (simple carbohydrates) can cause life-style-related diseases such as obesity and diabetes.
This new strain of rice is expected to serve as an alternative preventative measure. In addition to its anti-obesity effect gathering evidence suggests that the rice with digestion-resistant starch may also provide other benefits such as lower blood sugar levels reduced neutral fat and harmful cholesterol levels and prevention
Despite its great promise when researchers planted the original strain of resistant-starch rice in Okinawa the yield per hectare was about half that achieved in mainland Japan.
Saze and his team then started hybridizing the resistant-starch rice with local strains to genetically design a new strain of rice suited to Okinawa's climate.
Saze is analyzing genomes of these rice strains. He is also using plant incubators in his unit to shorten the vegetation period of the new rice.
It is important to obtain the support of rice producers in Okinawa by demonstrating a clear economic as well as health benefits of the resistant-starch rice.
I hope that our project will improve people's health said Prof. Saze. In order to assess the effects of the resistant-starch rice the project also involves medical and physiological studies by the University of the Ryukyus Osaka Prefectural University and Ishikawa Prefectural University.
Moreover some local companies are working together to develop processed foods with rice powder produced from the resistant-starch rice.
whether'Honeycrisp'apples were controlled susceptible to-atmosphere injury to determine the relative influence of O2
In the second phase the scientists evaluated options for avoiding injury to'Honeycrisp'during controlled-atmosphere storage.
We found that the controlled-atmospheres used induced injuries typical of those associated with CO2
(i e. small brown lesions and associated lens-shaped cavities) and also larger dark brown lesions with often irregular margins the authors said.
The extent of the injury was higher for those fruit in an atmosphere with elevated CO2 for each level of O2.
which the researchers reproduced the controlled-atmosphere (CA) injury from the preliminary study with varied intensity.
Although the researchers observed high variability between orchards and years they found two treatments that effectively controlled the CA injury.
We found that the brown lesions in the cortex were suppressed completely by DPA application even
For instance although the 7-day prestorage conditioning treatments provided some protection against the development of CA injury shorter durations should be investigated to prevent quality loss resulting from excessive ripening
#Phloem production in Huanglongbing-affected citrus treescitrus Huanglongbing (citrus greening disease) is highly destructive and fast-spreading contributing to a reduction in crop yields in Florida
and there currently is no cure although proper nutrient and water management appear to slow tree decline in some situations.
A bacterium called Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLAS) vectored by the Asian citrus psyllid is presumed the causal agent of the disease.
The speed at which the goats completed the task at 10 months compared to how long it took them to learn indicates excellent long-term memory said co-author Dr Elodie Briefer now based at ETH Zurich.
Dr Briefer added: We found that those without a demonstrator were just as fast at learning as those that had seen demonstrations.
Co-author Dr Alan Mcelligott from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical sciences commented: Our results challenge the common misconception that goats aren't intelligent animals--they have the ability to learn complex tasks
#Peaches inhibit breast cancer metastasis in micelab tests at Texas A&m Agrilife Research have shown that treatments with peach extract inhibit breast cancer metastasis in mice.
Cancer cells were implanted under the skin of mice with an aggressive type of breast cancer cells the MDA-MB-435 and
when the mice were consuming the peach extract said Dr. Luis Cisneros-Zevallos a food scientist for Agrilife Research in College Station.
and plum polyphenols selectively killed aggressive breast cancer cells and not the normal ones Cisneros-Zavallos said.
The previous work as well as the present one was conducted by Cisneros-Zevallos Dr. David Byrne both with Agrilife Research;
Dr. Weston Porter Texas A&m University department of veterinary physiology and pharmacology; and then-graduate student Giuliana Noratto who is now on the faculty at Washington state University.
In the western hemisphere breast cancer is the most common malignant disease for women he said. In the U s. last year the American Cancer Society estimated about 232340 new cases of invasive breast cancer among women.
Most of the complications and high mortality associated with breast cancer are due to metastasis Cisneros-Zevallos pointed out.
The importance of our findings are very relevant because it shows in vivo the effect that natural compounds in this case the phenolic compounds in peach have against breast cancer
and metastasis. It gives opportunity to include in the diet an additional tool to prevent
and fight this terrible disease that affects so many people he said. The study was conducted using the peach variety Rich Lady.
and compounds in different types of cancer as well as in diabetes studies in vitro and in vivo to understand the molecular mechanisms involved.
Dong and his team will build miniature greenhouses that precisely control light intensity humidity temperature carbon dioxide chemicals and even pathogens.
and Madan Bhattacharyya who's studying how fungal pathogens interact with soybean seeds at different moisture levels.
and the fruits sustained significantly more injury than tomato fruits grown in gardens without traps.
and it appears that the addition of traps to gardens may increase injury to tomato fruits.
Vegetable gardens with traps may sustain more injury than those without traps. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Entomological Society of America.
In the laboratory the researchers could see how the fungicide-exposed worms adapted to the toxic environment.
and protein contents increased suggesting a detoxification mechanism. They also increased their feeding activity possibly to compensate for the increase in energy demand the researchers said.
Future of early-stage breast cancer drugsone of every eight women in the United states will develop breast cancer.
Though the incidence of breast cancer began decreasing in 2000 it is still the second-leading cause of cancer death in women.
Better screening techniques increased awareness and improved treatments have increased the 5-year survival rate to nearly 100 percent for women with early-stage cancer.
In 2013 an estimated 65000 women were diagnosed with carcinoma in situ a noninvasive breast cancer that affects the milk ducts and lobules of the breast according to the American Cancer Society.
While nearly everyone diagnosed at this stage can be cured professor Om Perumal head of the South dakota State university Pharmaceutical Sciences Department points out that the side effects from the drugs used to combat this disease are pretty significant.
He and doctoral student Kaushalkumar Dave are developing a new method to deliver cancer-fighting drugs directly to the milk ducts where more than 95 percent of breast cancer originates.
and to deliver large doses of medication directly to the affected tissues. The research has been supported by the Translational Cancer Research center a state-funded center
which provides seed money for high-risk high-reward research. Delivering drugs through milk ductsanti-cancer drugs such as tamoxifen are administered normally through an oral tablet so the medication must travel through the bloodstream before reaching the breast tissue explains Perumal.
Side effects of tamoxifen for example include increased risk of uterine cancer cataracts stroke and cardiovascular disease. Patients diagnosed with precancerous cells
or lesions may take tamoxifen anywhere from three months to five years. These significant side effects may be mitigated through a more direct localized drug delivery method according to Perumal.
The researcher proposes applying a medication-containing gel or lotion to the nipple. The drug will then be absorbed through openings in the nipples directly into the milk ducts.
When the project began Perumal thought that breast anatomy was understood well but it's not he explains.
The number of openings in the nipple varies based on the individual but the range is usually 10 to 15 openings per nipple.
The number of openings gives the scientists an indication of how much drug can be delivered. Next the researchers looked at
which molecules could be delivered. To do this they used pig breast tissue. Surprisingly they found that even large molecules such as proteins can be transported through these openings making a wide range of medications deliverable.
Validating the modelfeedback from a proposal submitted to the National institute of health confirmed that the researchers needed to use human breast tissue to prove the feasibility of the pig model.
Animal skin is usually thinner and more permeable than human tissue Perumal explains. We need repeatability.
Pigs have on average six to seven pairs of mammary glands so the team needed at least three pairs of human breasts--at a cost of more than $700 per set-to validate the model.
Fortunately Perumal was able to obtain the human breast tissue he needed free of charge through the Lions Eye
and Tissue Bank in Sioux falls. Director Marcy Dimond says her organization provides tissue to qualified South dakota programs conducting medical research.
We have a progressive medical community and being able to contribute to research programs that have the potential to be far-reaching is a wonderful opportunity says Dimond.
Not everyone can be a transplant donor so this is a way those patients who truly want to be donors can contribute to research.
Documenting similar trendscomparing the absorption rate of the nipple with the surrounding breast skin twice the amount of drug can be delivered through the nipple Perumal explains.
Plus the medication does not enter the bloodstream. Though different drug quantities are absorbed pig and human breast tissue show similar trends Perumal explains.
As a result the researchers can now use pig tissue to optimize and test various drug formulations.
Dave has begun already some animal studies. A variety of compounds show promise in fighting the many types of breast cancer.
Perumal points to a natural compound developed by former colleague and Distinguished Professor Emeritus Chandradhar Dwivedi to prevent skin cancer--as having the potential to prevent breast cancer.
Additional methods are also being used in Perumal's lab to increase the penetration of the compounds through the nipple.
The successful studies in animals may lead to clinical testing in humans. If this approach is successful the impact will be huge in terms of reducing side effects. says Perumal.
since 1996 but the declines have been driven by a relatively small share of counties across the US according to new research from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.
1996-2012 was published March 24 in the open-access peer-reviewed journal Population Health Metrics. Total cigarette smoking prevalence--the percentage of the population that smokes--has decreased not significantly in all counties
It's advertising bans among other measures said IHME Director Dr. Christopher Murray. We now need to understand what is happening on the ground in these counties that is leading to such great success in parts of New york Iowa and Texas and near total stagnation in parts of Montana Oklahoma and Mississippi.
what we have seen with gaps in life expectancy between counties said Dr. Ali Mokdad Professor of Global Health at IHME and one of the study authors.
According to the most recent figures from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study coordinated by IHME tobacco smoking was linked to 465000 deaths and 12%of total health loss in the US.
Globally tobacco led to 5. 7 million deaths and 5. 5%of total health loss.
since the first US Surgeon general's report on the negative health impact of smoking some counties in the US have higher smoking rates than certain countries around the world.
and people's health said the study's lead author Laura Dwyer-Lindgren. We need to better understand how to break that connection between poverty and health outcomes not only with smoking but with a range of risk factors.
Which counties had the highest and lowest total cigarette smoking prevalence for men in 2012?
http://www. healthmetricsandevaluation. org/tools/data-visualization/us-health-mapstory Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Reducing E coli in cows, improving food safetya new biological treatment could help dairy cattle stave off uterine diseases
and eventually may help improve food safety for humans a University of Florida study shows. Kwang Cheol Jeong an assistant professor in animal sciences and UF's Emerging Pathogens Institute examined cattle uterine illnesses
because they can make cows infertile lower milk production and because those maladies are linked often to bacteria he said.
The UF researchers did their experiments in labs and at the Dairy Unit on the Gainesville campus. Jeong and his research team infused chitosan microparticles â an antimicrobial material derived from dissolved shrimp shells â into diseased cow uteri.
When bought in stores chitosan can be used to treat many ailments from obesity to anemia. On its own chitosan only works at acidic ph levels Jeong said.
For cattle Jeong's team developed chitosan microparticles which work in acidic and neutral ph
Jeong said it may someday be possible for chitosan microparticles to be used to help humans who have become ill from consuming E coli-contaminated food
Developing a new antimicrobial agent is critical to human and animal health said Jeong a member of UF's Institute of food and agricultural sciences.
Dangerous infections are diminishing the role of some antibiotics making them less able to treat infections as pathogens are developing resistance to the drugs he said adding that about 23000 people die in the U s. annually because of exposure to pathogens that don't respond to antibiotics.
whether on farms hospitals or in the environment they can infect humans through water food
Further some antibiotics used to treat humans and animals kill good and bad bacteria. Scientists can use the UF study's findings to begin to develop better drugs that target bad pathogens
but leave beneficial bacteria Jeong said. E coli are everywhere including the human gut but can contaminate beef unpasteurized milk soft cheeses made from raw milk
and raw fruits and vegetables that haven't been washed properly The most recent outbreak of meat-traced E coli was in 2010 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That year 21 people in 16 states fell ill from the pathogen including one in Florida the agency reported.
when two or more people get the same illness from the same contaminated food or drink the CDC says.
The recent work is led by Phd student Philippa Gullett and Dr Karl Evans from Sheffield in collaboration with Rob Robinson from The british Trust for Ornithology.
We're not saying that birds never die in winter--in harsh years there are bound to be explained some fatalities Dr Karl Evans
Dr Evans added: Looking ahead to the future our data suggests that every single plausible climate change scenario will lead to a further increase in long-tailed survival rates.
#Pathogens in cheese: Case study on Austrian curd cheeseif food products are produced not in a hygienic environment consumers can face the threat of dangerous pathogens.
This is exactly what happened in 2009 and 2010 when two different strains of Listeria monocytogenes were found in the traditional Austrian curd cheese known as Quargel. 34 people were infected
and a total of 8 patients died. Experts from the University of Veterinary medicine Vienna analysed the genomes of the outbreak strains
and were able to show that the strains displayed distinct properties and entered the food chain independently.
The results were published in the journal PLOS ONE and will increase the understanding of outbreaks and their prevention.
Listeria is a rod-shaped bacterium highly prevalent in the environment and generally not a threat to human health.
One species however Listeria monocytogenes can cause listeriosis a very dangerous disease. This pathogen can be present in raw milk
and soft cheeses smoked fish raw meat and ready-to-eat products. In Austria health care providers are required to report all cases of listeriosis which can be fatal particularly for patients with weakened immune systems.
In 2009 and 2010 a dairy in Hartberg (Styria Austria) produced Quargel cheese contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes leading to a multinational listeriosis outbreak in Austria Germany
When an outbreak occurs though the disease has among the highest mortality rate of all food-borne illnesses explains lead author Kathrin Rychli from the Institute for Milk Hygiene Milk Technology and Food Science at the University of Veterinary medicine Vienna.
two distinct bacterial strains which had evolved not recently from a common ancestor and therefore entered the food chain independently.
and analysed the genomes of both strains and assessed their virulence the ability to infect cells.
The samples were taken from listeriosis patients from the outbreak. The first contamination event from June 2009 to January 2010 was attributed to one L. monocytogenes strain very effective at infecting epithelial cells of the intestine and liver cells.
It contained additional four virulence genes making it extremely invasive and ultimately caused 14 cases resulting in 5 deaths.
The average age of those taken ill was 70. Highest level of operational hygiene essential Listeria expert and co-author Stephan Schmitz-Esser emphasizes the importance of cleanliness in production:
It is absolutely essential that appropriate disinfectants are used properly lots of salt and that possible food for the bacteria be limited.
Listeriosis generally manifests in healthy people with diarrhea and stomach cramps whereas the elderly newborns and people with weakened immune systems are more susceptible.
Listeriosis can result in septicaemia and meningitis. In pregnant women it can lead to miscarriage or stillbirth.
Therefore experts recommend pregnant women to avoid raw milk raw meat and raw fish products. Story Source:
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