#Goats milk with antimicrobial lysozyme speeds recovery from diarrheamilk from goats that were modified genetically to produce higher levels of a human antimicrobial protein has proved effective in treating diarrhea in young pigs demonstrating the potential for food products from transgenic animals to one
day also benefit human health report researchers at the University of California Davis. The study is the first on record to show that goats'milk carrying elevated levels of the antimicrobial lysozyme a protein found in human breast milk can successfully treat diarrhea
caused by bacterial infection in the gastrointestinal tract. The findings slated to appear March 13 in the online scientific journal PLOS ONE offer hope that such milk may eventually help prevent human diarrheal diseases that each year claim the lives of 1. 8 million children around the world
and impair the physical and mental development of millions more. Many developing parts of the world rely on livestock as a main source of food said James Murray a UC Davis animal science professor and lead researcher on the study.
These results provide just one example that through genetic engineering we can provide agriculturally relevant animals with novel traits targeted at solving some of the health-related problems facing these developing communities.
Because lysozyme limits the growth of some bacteria that cause intestinal infections and diarrhea and also encourages the growth of other beneficial intestinal bacteria it is considered to be one of the main components of human milk that contribute to the health and well-being of breast-fed infants.
Pigs were chosen for this study as a research model because their gastrointestinal physiology is quite similar to humans
although both groups of pigs recovered from the infection and resulting diarrhea the young pigs fed the lysozyme-rich milk recovered much more quickly than did the young pigs that received goats'milk without enhanced levels of lysozyme.
#Bat disease: More accurate, sensitive DNA test allows early identification of fungus causing white nose syndromeeven after researchers studying White Nose Syndrome (WNS) established that a fungus called Geomyces destructans is at the heart
of the devastating disease detecting it depended largely on finding dead or dying bats. This month the journal Mycologia will publish research by a team of U s. Forest Service scientists
and partners identifying additional species of Geomyces and describing development of a highly sensitive DNA-based technique for early identification of Geomyces destructans on bats as well as in soils and on cave walls.
Daniel Lindner a research plant pathologist with the Forest Service's Northern Research Station led research that identified 35 species of Geomyces more than doubling the number of known species. Lindner
White Nose Syndrome was identified first in Upstate New york in 2006. Since then it has spread to caves throughout the East Coast
White Nose Syndrome is arguably the most devastating wildlife disease we've faced said Michael T. Rains Director of the Forest Service's Northern Research Station.
Forest Service scientists are conducting research to halt this disease and save bats which are so important to agriculture and forest ecosystems.
researcher saysthe immune system's T cells while coordinating responses to diseases and vaccines act like honey bees sharing information about the best honey sources according to a new study by scientists at UC
and does a dance in front of the other bees describing the location of what it's found which helps the hive decide collectively where the best source is said senior scientist Matthew Krummel Phd a UCSF professor of pathology.
and communicate essential information to each other in a similar way Krummel said thereby helping to coordinate immune responses directed against invading pathogens.
This discovery might lead to useful therapeutic interventions to fight disease according to Krummel. Results of the study were published online March 10 in Nature Immunology.
and sample foreign matter such as vaccines bacteria or viruses they come together as a group during what he and his team call the critical differentiation period.
what they've discovered about the new pathogen or vaccine which in turn helps the immune system mount a coordinated response to the foreign matter Krummel said The discovery is said important Krummel
because it sheds light on an aspect of medicine that has long been obscure: how vaccines work.
We know that they are effective for years after a vaccination but we don't know why.
It seems that T-cell aggregation is a profound part of the reason. Krummel's team found that the critical differentiation period is essential to the formation of
which the immune system recognizes a pathogen to which it had been exposed months or years previously. Without that long-term memory vaccines would be said useless Krummel.
The body wouldn't remember that it had been exposed to a particular pathogen such as measles or diphtheria and would not know how to successfully fight it off.
In experiments with a mouse model of human immune function the scientists vaccinated mice for listeria a common bacterium that causes food-borne illness
and then exposed the animals to the bacteria. Mice in which the critical differentiation period was allowed to occur unimpeded remained healthy protected from a potentially lethal infection.
In mice in which T-cell differentiation was blocked said Krummel it was as if the mice had never been vaccinated at all.
Krummel said the work also opens up new paths of research in immunology which his laboratory is currently pursuing.
Now that we know that there is a nexus at which the cells are integrating their responses we might be able to design cells that will join that nexus
in order to get the cells to do things we want them to do--push immune response in a particular direction
in case of autoimmune disorders such as diabetes or lupus it might be possible to attenuate the immune response by blocking the formation of a memory pool.
which is what much of the immune response is reacting to in diabetes he said. But if you can tweak the immune cells in the right way then
while the mouse model of human immune response is robust and very well-grounded research will ultimately have to take place in humans
As the most diverged wild relative of O. sativa (rice) O. Brachyantha has resistance against many rice pathogens and various stress environments.
#New approaches for controlling pesticide exposure in childrennew research on household pesticide contamination emphasizes the need for less reliance on pesticides
Families in Boston public housing developments for instance rank pest infestation pesticide use and pest allergies second only to crime as matters of concern.
The authors acknowledge funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by American Chemical Society.
#Bitter melon juice prevents pancreatic cancer in mouse modelsa University of Colorado Cancer study published this week in the journal Carcinogenesis shows that bitter melon juice restricts the ability of pancreatic cancer cells to metabolize glucose
Three years ago researchers showed the effect of bitter melon extract on breast cancer cells only in a Petri dish.
and kill pancreatic cancer cells says Rajesh Agarwal Phd co-program leader of Cancer Prevention and Control at the CU Cancer Center and professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical
Diabetes tends to presage pancreatic cancer and bitter melon has been shown to effect TYPE II-DIABETES diabetes and has been used for centuries against diabetes in the folk medicines of China and India.
Following this line of thinking Agarwal and colleagues wondered what would happen if they closed out the middle man of diabetes
and directly explored the link between bitter melon and pancreatic cancer. The result Agarwal says is Alteration in metabolic events in pancreatic cancer cells
and an activation of the AMP-activated protein kinase an enzyme that indicates low energy levels in the cells.
Perhaps not coincidentally bitter melon also regulates insulin secretion by pancreatic beta cells. After studies in cell cultures the group showed that mouse models of pancreatic cancer that were fed bitter melon juice were 60 percent less likely to develop the disease than controls.
It's a very exciting finding Agarwal says. Many researchers are engineering new drugs to target cancer cells'ability to supply themselves with energy
and here we have a naturally-occurring compound that may do just that. The Agarwal Lab is now applying for grants that will allow them to move the study of bitter melon into further chemoprevention trials in mouse models of pancreatic cancer.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Colorado Denver. The original article was written by Garth Sundem.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Heat-stressed cows spend more time standinga new study by researchers at the University of Arizona
and Northwest Missouri State university shows that standing and lying behavior can predict heat stress in cows.
In a presentation at the 2013 ADSA Midwest Branch/ASAS Midwestern Section Meeting Dr. Jamison Allen explained that predicting heat stress is vital for keeping cows healthy and productive.
The all-natural products the creation of which can take less than 5 days have no allergy concerns
We manipulate one strain in various ways to see if we can make versions of the fungus to suit certain applications the company has in mind Horton said.
Perhaps more importantly the researchers say that additional studies may help them better understand the origins of nicotine addiction and the human management geographic range extension and cultivation of tobacco.
and diarrhea and the number of affected cases is growing. Currently there is no cure; sufferers have to let the virus run its course for a few days.
The consumption of fresh produce is associated frequently with outbreaks of hnov but it remains difficult to identify where in the supply chain the virus first enters production.
A new study published in the International Journal of Food Microbiology investigated whether contaminated water used to dilute pesticides could be a source of hnov.
both having consequences on public health. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Elsevier.
#Fertilizers could help tackle nutritional deficiency in African countryenriching crops by adding a naturally-occurring soil mineral to fertilisers could potentially help to reduce disease
--which plays a vital role in keeping the immune system healthy and fighting illness--is likely to be endemic among the Malawi population.
Leading the study was Dr Martin Broadley of the University's School of Biosciences he said:
Selenium is a naturally occurring mineral of fundamental importance to human health with critical roles in immunity.
People with low dietary selenium intakes are increased at risk of suffering from a variety of diseases.
and so selenium is transferred not into crops in sufficient amounts for optimal human health. We urgently need to assess strategies to address this problem in Malawi
and the wider Southern African region in the context of wider mineral malnutrition (for example iron zinc and iodine deficiencies) often referred to as the'hidden hunger'.
and Natural resources and the Ministry of Health in Malawi spent time in the homes of the volunteers collecting duplicate samples of what they ate
Dr Broadley added: It is of course feasible for people to diversity their diets to increase the consumption of other selenium-rich foods such as meat poultry fish
and vegetables in school meals may give a small boost to the amount of these foods in adolescents'diets according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive medicine.
and Mississippi said Daniel Taber Ph d. MPH research scientist with the Institute for Health Research
The above story is provided based on materials by Health Behavior News Service part of the Center for Advancing Health.
The above story is provided based on materials by BMJ-British Medical Journal. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Dr. Susanne Renner one of the authors of the article comments: Updating and summarising the available information on Indian Cucurbitaceae and linking it to molecular data
Protein misfolding has been linked with diseases such as Alzheimer's. Caetano-Anoll s said however that this research makes an important contribution to understanding how molecules work.
and tropical ecologists from the UK USA Australia and Brazil and was led by Dr Chris Huntingford from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology in the UK.
Dr Huntingford and colleagues used computer simulations with 22 climate models to explore the response of tropical forests in The americas Africa and Asia to greenhouse-gas-induced climate change.
Lead author Dr Chris Huntingford from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology in the UK said The big surprise in our analysis is that uncertainties in ecological models of the rainforest are significantly larger than uncertainties from differences in climate projections.
Co-author Dr David Galbraith from the University of Leeds said This study highlights why we must improve our understanding of how tropical forests respond to increasing temperature and drought.
Co-author Dr Lina Mercado from the University of Exeter and the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology said Building on this study one of the big challenges that remains is to include in Earth system models a full representation of thermal acclimation and adaptation of the rainforest to warming.
which is roughly about the area of the USA--resembling the vegetation that occurs further to the south says Dr. Compton Tucker Senior Scientist NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt Maryland.
and availability of food and all food on land comes first from plants says Dr. Scott Goetz Deputy Director
Dr Emma Boyland from the Institute of Psychology Health and Society who led the research said:
The research is to be published in The Journal of Pediatrics. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Liverpool.
Study leader Dr Geraldine Wright Reader in Neuroethology at Newcastle University explained that the effect of caffeine benefits both the honeybee and the plant:
Dr Wright added: This work helps us understand the basic mechanisms of how caffeine affects our brains.
Dr Julie Mustard a contributor to the study from Arizona State university explains further: Although human and honeybee brains obviously have lots of differences
and functions in a similar fashion to that of phytase included in the diet said Dr. Cecil Forsberg Professor Emeritus Department of Molecular
#Secondhand smoke exposure linked to signs of heart disease: Exposure to tobacco smoke may be more dangerous than previously thoughtnonsmokers beware.
or as an adult at work or at home--the more likely you are to develop early signs of heart disease according to research being presented at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session.
The new data also shows that people who report higher levels of secondhand tobacco smoke exposure also have the greatest evidence of coronary artery calcification a build up of calcium in the artery walls as seen on a low-dose computed tomography scan.
and the earliest detectable signs of heart disease. This research provides additional evidence that secondhand smoke is harmful
and may be even more dangerous than we previously thought said Harvey Hecht MD associate director of cardiac imaging and professor of medicine at Mount sinai Medical center and study author.
We actually found the risk of secondhand smoke exposure to be an equivalent or stronger risk factor for CAC than other well-established ones such as high cholesterol hypertension and diabetes.
The apparent health effects of secondhand smoke on CAC remained regardless of whether the exposure was during childhood or adulthood.
Dr. Hecht said these results further underscore the need for enforceable public smoking bans and other measures to reduce passive inhalation of cigarette smoke.
and then to heart attacks so this lends more credence to enforcing smoking bans Dr. Hecht said.
We know heart disease is accelerated significantly by secondhand smoke exposure so it should be included as a routine part of medical exams
and discussions about heart disease and try to prevent it as best we can. This study included 3098 healthy people between 40 and 80 years old who had smoked never (defined as having smoked fewer than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime)
and who were enrolled already in the Flight attendant Medical Research Institute (FAMRI)- International Early Lung cancer Action Program CT screening program from 2005-2012.
Each provided detailed health information and had a single low-dose non-gated CT scan as part of the FAMRI program.
A questionnaire was administered to gauge personal exposures to secondhand smoke. Researchers then assigned a total secondhand tobacco smoke exposure score based on a how long they were exposed (years) daily intensity (packs per day)
and more likely to have diabetes high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Although his team did not use the standard Agatston score to assess CAC Dr. Hecht said this study further validates the utility of low-dose non-gated CT scans to measure the amount of plaque in the coronary arteries in nonsmokers exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke.
By using this imaging/approach people who have been exposed to tobacco smoke can be evaluated for lung cancer emphysema
and coronary artery disease in a single low-dose scan he said. As a general rule people should limit secondhand smoke exposure as much as possible.
Future research directions will include how to determine if decreasing exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke can reduce new plaque formation and/or cardiac events in this group.
This study was funded by the Flight attendants Medical Research Institute. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by American College of Cardiology.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
#Pancakes with a side of math: A physiological model for sap exudation in maple treesfor many of us maple syrup is an essential part of breakfast--a staple accompaniment to pancakes
The team hopes to next extend the system to detect the signs of disease bruising
Lead researcher Dr Paul Dolman from UEA's school of Environmental sciences said: Deer management is often based on guesswork.
Dr Kristin Wäber who conducted the study while a Phd student at UEA said:
Trying to control deer without a robust understanding of their true numbers can be like sleepwalking into disaster.
They also carry diseases such as Lymes and if numbers are managed not properly they can cause damage to crops as well as road traffic accidents.
The U s. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service recently implemented a formal methodology for evaluation of weediness
#Stressed proteins can cause blood clots for hoursnew research from Rice university Baylor College of Medicine (BCM)
A team led by Rice physicist Ching-Hwa Kiang found that shear forces like those found in small arteries of patients with atherosclerosis cause snippets of nonclotting VWF to change into a clot-forming shape for hours at a time.
When I first heard what Dr. Kiang's team had found I was shocked said blood platelet expert Dr. Joel Moake a study co-author who holds joint appointments at Rice and BCM.
Moake whose research group was the first to describe how high shear stress could cause platelets to stick to VWF said I had thought that the condition might last for such a short time that it would be unmeasurable.
No one expected to find that this condition would persist for hours. This has profound clinical implications.
Kiang associate professor of physics and astronomy and of bioengineering studies the forces involved in protein folding.
Moake a senior research scientist in bioengineering at Rice and professor of medicine at BCM said the work is vitally important
and it's stored there until the cells get signals that the vessels are in danger of injury Moake said.
which prevents people from bleeding to death when blood vessels are damaged by cuts and wounds. The body recognizes
when clotting must stop --when there are too many strings too much sticking too many platelet clumps
However previous research had shown that a type of physical stress called shear --which can arise in partially occluded arterial blood vessels with high flow rates--could cause PVWF to become sticky to platelets.
That is why Dr. Kiang's research is so important and makes it more likely that therapeutic interventions can be designed more rationally.
To study the problem Kiang's lab worked closely with Moake's team at Rice's Bioscience Research Collaborative
Moake's and Dong's groups prepared samples of PVWF subjecting some to the shear stresses known to induce clot formation.
which portion of PVWF changed its conformation during shear stress. They also determined how long the protein remained partially unfurled before relaxing into its natural shape.
and provide more clues about potential therapies. The research was supported by the National institutes of health the National Science Foundation the Alliance for Nanohealth the Welch Foundation the Mary R. Gibson Foundation and the Everett Hinkson Fund.
Study co-authors include Rice graduate students Sithara Wijeratne and Eric Frey former Rice graduate student Eric Botello BCM researchers Hui-Chun Yeh and Angela Bergeron Rice
Sometimes as in SD flies there are no apparent ill effects but when the selfish genes come in the form of viruses
the rapid trend towards extinction--potentially within the next decade--of the forest elephant says Dr. Samantha Strindberg of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) one of the lead authors of the study.
We don't have much time before elephants are gone says the other lead author Dr. Fiona Maisels also of WCS.
Co-author Dr. John Hart of the Lukuru Foundation says: Historically elephants ranged right across the forests of this vast region of over 2 million square kilometers (over 772000 square miles)
Dr. George Wittemyer of Save the Elephants and Colorado State university says: This study provides unequivocal evidence of the rapid demise of one of the planet's most charismatic and intelligent species. The world must wake up to stem this destruction of species due to conspicuous consumption.
Dr. Stephen Blake of the Max Planck Institute says: Forest elephants need two things: they need adequate space in
and governance as was witnessed during the 2003 SARS threat. Similar action focused on curbing ivory demand is key
Assure every sector of a nation including health trade and finance officials work collectively to protect
not only health but the harm tobacco places on their economy by passing laws to reduce use;
Place health as the centerpiece of any decision on a trade treaty that includes tobacco;
Those were among the key recommendations to come out of an international gathering last week at Harvard university of public health officials academics
and public health advocates from more 40 nations and such international organizations as the European union the African Union the World Trade union and the World health organization.
Control at the Harvard School of Public health (HSPH. Harvard School of Public health. All other industries producing good products
and services will suffer not benefit and the same is true for the economies of poor nations
And Dr. Douglas Webb of United nations Development Program warned that tobacco use poses a major health and human development threat.
Avoidable and unnecessary tobacco-linked illnesses strike people in their prime hit the poorest hardest inhibit country productivity burden already weak healthcare systems
Sponsors of the unusual two-day conference on Governance of Tobacco in the 21st Century at Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies included WHO the Harvard Global Health Institute the American
Cancer Society and the Institute of Global Tobacco Control at Johns hopkins university. Meeting attendees were warned by speaker after speaker that
unless there is a concerted international effort now the plague of tobacco smoking that has claimed 100 million lives in the Developed Nations will claim a billion in the Developing Nations where smoking has yet to take hold as it did during the last century in the U s. and other Developed nations.
Other sponsors of the meeting included the American Legacy Foundation the World health organization the International Development Research Centre the Medical University of South carolina the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project
at the University of Waterloo the O'neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University the Framework Convention Alliance of Action on Smoking and Health the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
mysterious disease syndrome as key factors in bee colony deathsa new long-term study of honey bee health has found that a little-understood disease study authors are calling idiopathic
brood disease syndrome (IBDS) which kills off bee larvae is the largest risk factor for predicting the death of a bee colony.
Historically we've seen symptoms similar to IBDS associated with viruses spread by large-scale infestations of parasitic mites says Dr. David Tarpy an associate professor of entomology at North carolina State university
The study evaluated the health of 80 commercial colonies of honey bees (Apis mellifera) in the eastern United states on an almost monthly basis over the course of 10 months
The goal of the study was to track changes in bee colony health and for those colonies that died off to determine what factors earlier in the year may have contributed to colony death.
We found that colonies affected by IBDS had a risk factor of 3. 2 says Dr. Dennis vanenglesdorp of the University of Maryland who was lead author on the paper.
The occurrence of a queen event had a risk factor of 3. 1. This is the first time anyone has done an epidemiological study to repeatedly evaluate the health of the same commercial honey bee colonies over the course of a season Tarpy says.
Hopefully this will give us insights into other health problems including colony collapse disorder. The paper Idiopathic brood disease syndrome and queen events as precursors of colony mortality in migratory beekeeping operations in the eastern United states is published in the February issue of Preventive Veterinary medicine.
Co-authors of the study include Dr. Eugene Lengerich of Penn State and Dr. Jeffery Pettis of USDA.
The work was supported by USDA and the National Honey Board. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by North carolina State university.
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011