disease-resistant varieties of riceas Earth's human population marches toward 9 billion the need for hardy new varieties of grain crops has never been greater.
In an era of climate change pollution and the global spread of pathogens these new grains must also be able to handle stress.
The scientists looked at the genes'response to five abiotic stresses--drought heavy metal contamination salt cold and nutrient deprivation--and five biotic stresses--bacteria fungus insect predation weed
New therapies possibleresearchers at Mcmaster University have discovered a key molecule that could lead to new therapies for people with celiac disease an often painful and currently untreatable autoimmune disorder.
Celiac disease is a food sensitivity to dietary gluten contained in cereals. In people who are predisposed genetically gluten containing food will trigger an immune response that leads to destruction of the intestinal lining abdominal pain changes in bowel habits malnutrition
and many other symptoms that include anemia and neurological problems. People with this disease cannot eat food containing wheat rye or barley
which is a main source of protein intake in the western diet. Researchers in the Farncombe Family Digestive Health Research Institute at Mcmaster University have discovered that a molecule elafin
which is present in the intestine of healthy individuals is decreased significantly in patients with celiac disease.
When people with celiac disease eat food containing gluten the digestive enzymes cannot digest it and left over peptides from digestion induce inflammation.
School of medicine. â#oethere is need a great for a therapy that will protect patients with celiac disease from these accidental contaminations. â#Verdu says the results raise the possibility of elafin administration
and increase patientsâ##quality of life and potentially accelerate the healing of celiac lesions. â#The research has implications beyond celiac disease.
Recently gluten intolerance has been reported in patients who do not have celiac disease (non-celiac gluten sensitivity.
Development of new therapies such as this one could help in the management of common gastrointestinal disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome that could be triggered also by wheat containing food.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Mcmaster University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length
Eating seven or more portions reduces the specific risks of death by cancer and heart disease by 25%and 31%respectively.
and vegetable consumption with all-cause cancer and heart disease deaths in a nationally-representative population the first to quantify health benefits per-portion
years old according to a new study by Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center. In research published on March 31 2014 in JAMA Pediatrics Dartmouth researchers found that one-half to one-third of children did not identify milk
http://youtu. be/Tl9uhuewztyburger King's depiction of apple slices as'Fresh Apple Fries'was misleading to children in the target age range said principal investigator James Sargent MD co-director Cancer
Control Research Program at Norris Cotton Cancer Center. The advertisement would be deceptive by industry standards yet their self-regulation bodies took no action to address the misleading depiction.
The above story is provided based on materials by Norris Cotton Cancer Centerdartmouth-Hitchcock Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
#Urban gardeners may be unaware of how best to manage contaminants in soilconsuming foods grown in urban gardens may offer a variety of health benefits
and challenges related to the perceived risk of soil contamination among urban community gardeners and found a need for clear and concise information on how best to prevent
and manage soil contamination. The results are featured online in PLOS ONE. While the benefits are far-reaching gardening in urban settings can also create opportunities for exposure to contaminants such as heavy metals petroleum products and asbestos
which may be present in urban soils said Keeve Nachman Phd senior author of the study and director of the Food Production and Public health Program with CLF.
and expertise to determine accurately the prior use of their garden site and potential contaminants in the soil.
or gaps in knowledge about how best to minimize their risk of exposure to contaminants that may be in urban soil.
As a result many soil contaminants have been found at higher concentrations in urban centers. To characterize urban community gardeners'knowledge
and perceptions of soil contamination risks and reducing exposure researchers conducted surveys among urban community gardeners and semi-structured interviews with key informants in the gardening community in Baltimore Maryland.
or organizational affiliation makes them knowledgeable about Baltimore City community gardening and soil contamination. People may come into contact with these contaminants
if they work or play in contaminated soil or eat food that was grown in it.
In some cases exposure to soil contaminants can increase disease risks especially for young children said Brent Kim MHS lead author of the paper and a program officer with CLF.
Even though tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the U s. clinicians often donâ##t ask about smoking during patient exams.
and smokers are advised on how to quit less than 20 percent of the time according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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.
whether that is through breeding more disease-resistant animals or finding ways to increase dairy or beef production.
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.
which is evaluating how heart disease develops throughout adulthood. CARDIA began in the mid-1980s with a group of men
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
Plant-based diets in general have also been linked to greater longevity less cancer lower cholesterol lower blood pressure
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.
#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
and even fatal disease and currently there is no cure or drug treatment against West Nile virus
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.
A couple of years ago his team demonstrated that their first candidate phu-E16 could neutralize West Nile infection
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
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
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.
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:
However excessive consumption of sugars (simple carbohydrates) can cause life-style-related diseases such as obesity and diabetes.
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
A bacterium called Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLAS) vectored by the Asian citrus psyllid is presumed the causal agent of the disease.
#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
and plum polyphenols selectively killed aggressive breast cancer cells and not the normal ones Cisneros-Zavallos said.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
and because those maladies are linked often to bacteria he said. The UF researchers did their experiments in labs
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
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.
Scientists can use the UF study's findings to begin to develop better drugs that target bad pathogens
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.
#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
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
and neural tube defects such as spina bifida in unborn babies. The NHMRC recommends pregnant women or those planning a pregnancy take 500 micrograms a day.
Emerging Infectious diseases 18: 1508-1511 2012. This is the first wild Anopheles population to display such complete multiple resistance
The genome also revealed the location of genes that may be involved in fighting off pathogens which will help scientists understand more about disease resistance in pines.
The megagenomes of conifers are a challenge to sequence. Thanks to the important innovations described in these articles the draft genome of the loblolly pine is not only the largest ever assembled its quality is impressive.
and their diseases and minimal human disturbance said Benjamin Wilder a Ph d. graduate student in UC Riverside's Department of Botany
and fungi that decompose plant matter in healthy ecosystems are hindered by radioactive contamination. They showed a smaller effect for small invertebrates such as termites that also contribute to decomposition of plant biomass.
It's another facet of the impacts of low-dose-rate radioactive contaminants on the broader ecosystem Mousseau says.
and redistribute the radioactive contamination that is in the trees and the plant biomass Mousseau says.
That would end up moving radio-cesium and other contaminants via smoke into populated areas. This litter accumulation that we measured
The fungal disease commonly known as scab not only dramatically shrinks yields but produces toxins that make the grain dangerous for human or animal consumption.
Two decades later the U s. Department of agriculture still ranks head blight as the worst plant disease to hit the U s. since the rust epidemics in the 1950s.
and Barley Scab Initiative scientists admit that efforts to control this devastating disease have met with limited success. This is an extraordinary disease that requires extraordinary means to combat it says Yen who began working on head blight in 1997.
Multiple hosts and pathogens Head blight can be caused by multiple pathogens and these pathogens can attack multiple hosts including grasses
and corn Yen explains. This makes the disease tougher to combat. Researchers are working to develop resistant types of grain alter tillage practices
and apply fungicides to fight the disease. This disease is not new Yen says. It was reported first in England in 1884 and in North america in 1890.
Over the last century serious outbreaks have occurred in Asia Canada Europe and South america. If this disease could be controlled through breeding Yen believes that scientists would have done so by now.
Varieties of wheat with some resistance to blight were collected in China during the 1950s and breeding for better resistance has been done since.
The most resistant variety of wheat Sumai 3 was released in China in the 1960s Yen explains
but it still gets the disease. Fusarium spores exist during winter in the plant debris. Even plowing the stubble under does not eliminate the problem
While diseases such as stem rust want the host to survive Yen says fusarium attacks the wheat
Sumai 3 successfully delays the development of the disease. Though the kernel on which the spore has landed will be empty it won't affect the rest of the head he explains.
Gene expression Yen has undertaken a molecular study of the disease investigating how the fungal infection impacts wheat gene expression.
How they respond to regulations triggered by the fungal infection makes the difference he says. That's why normal gene cloning didn't work.
Resistance to the disease is controlled by the chemical pathways of two growth hormones jasmonate and ethylene Yen explains.
because suppressing its function in the first eight to 60 hours after the infection causes the disease development.
Disease development Essentially Yen hypothesizes that the fungus softens the host cell wall during infection and triggers a chain of host resistance responses.
In the resistant wheat the key resistance gene may delay this chain of reactions until the host tissue is too hard for the disease to develop Yen explains.
In the susceptible wheat the disease makes the plant drop this gene expression so the fungus can get established.
Only then can the researcher figure out how to prevent the disease from becoming an epidemic.
and identify which step is the easiest to manipulate to control the disease he explains.
and can cause gas bloating diarrhea and constipation. These include some Clostridia and some E coli.
As an economist Baylis said that she studies how policy can create headaches for farmers and on the consumer end of the supply chain.
#Study fingers chickens, quail in spread of H7n9 influenza virusamong the copious species of poultry in China quail and chickens are the likely sources of infection of H7n9 influenza virus
Knowing the likely poultry species lets us target our interventions better to prevent human infections says corresponding author David Suarez of the United states Department of agriculture.
The H7n9 avian influenza virus was reported first in humans in March 2013 in China. Since then over 375 human cases have been confirmed
According to the World health organization most known human infections have resulted from direct or indirect contact with poultry.
This work supports the need for better surveillance in animal species for avian influenza says Suarez.
The Chinese correctly closed the live bird markets where they had human infections and that reduced the number of cases for a while.
and is an academic research tool that has many of the same features as powerful learning aids that are currently on the market.
These tools which are called sometimes digital tutors can be used as study aids or as platforms for administering homework
but it could play a larger role in fighting infections the researchers predicted. The unique property of honey lies in its ability to fight infection on multiple levels making it more difficult for bacteria to develop resistance said study leader Susan M. Meschwitz Ph d. That is it uses a combination of weapons including hydrogen peroxide
acidity osmotic effect high sugar concentration and polyphenols--all of which actively kill bacterial cells she explained.
or communities of slimy disease-causing bacteria she said. Honey may also disrupt quorum sensing
which affects the bacteria's pathogenicity or their ability to cause disease. Meschwitz who is with Salve Regina University in Newport R i. said another advantage of honey is that unlike conventional antibiotics it doesn't target the essential growth processes of bacteria.
and Ruth Nussinov a researcher at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick Md. and a professor at the Sackler School of medicine at Tel aviv University pulls together current thinking on how an explosion of data combined with ever more powerful computers is bringing about a second
Ultimately understanding these machines will help researchers design drugs to treat diseases like cancer the focus of Rice's Center for Theoretical Biological Physics.
and the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Onuchic is the Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Chair of Physics and Professor of Physics and Astronomy.
and treat human waste result in serious health problems and death--food and water tainted with pathogens from fecal matter results in the deaths of roughly 700000 children each year.
Linden's team is one of 16 around the world funded by the Gates Reinvent the Toilet Challenge since 2011.
and transferred to the fiber-optic cable system--similar in some ways to a data transmission line--can heat up the reaction chamber to over 600 degrees Fahrenheit to treat the waste material disinfect pathogens in both feces and urine and produce char.
E-cigarettes are used both as cessation aids and as safer alternatives to combustible tobacco: ultimately it depends not on how we classify these new products
Loss of natural habitat changes in land use pesticides the potential for bird diseases and even climate change have all been mentioned
For example the systems biology approach could be applied in research to develop sweeter citrus fruit disease-resistant rice or drought-resistant trees.
if there are shrub diseases. We're also interested in knowing if the shrubs have changed these microbes
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011