Category Archives: Issues in science

It’s in the Blood

Posted on March 10, 2014 by | 7 comments

Breakthrough research was published on March 9th 2014 by Dr. Howard Federoff and a team of researchers in Washington DC. They developed a blood test that identifies 10 biological markers which has been shown to determine if healthy individuals will develop Alzheimer’s Disease within two or three years. This amazing stepping stone could help individuals receive treatment before developing symptoms of this horrible neurodegenerative disease.

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35 million people all over the world have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, and this number is rising rapidly. The ripple effect of this disease touches many family members by having to care for them or put them in care-homes. Individuals with onset Alzheimer’s disease become confused, frustrated, and forgetful and eventually progress to where they cannot talk, feed, or even dress themselves. Alzheimer’s is a horrible disease affecting many innocent elderly people and hopefully in the near future, there will be tremendous progress in the treatment of Alzheimer’s; it may just start before symptoms even begin.

Visual representation of Alzheimer’s (Shuttershock)

“This is a very exciting time,” says Federoff, who leads the team. He states that the test could help patients at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and perhaps delay or even stop the progression. “We don’t really know the source of the ten molecules,” admits Federoff, but he suggests that they reflect the destruction of neurons in the brain, which ultimately leads to cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. When neurons are destroyed in the brain, they cannot come back online or be built again.

Simon Lovestone, a University of Oxford neuroscientist is also excited about the findings in this study. “We desperately need biomarkers which would allow patients to be identified – and recruited into trials – before their symptoms begin”, says Lovestone, who is also a coordinator of a European public-private partnership that searchers for new biomarkers for Alzheimer’s.

Blood Vials (Flickr: loscheiner)

Previous studies have emphasized treatment after diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, but no one has ever been completely cured. This new and important research uses blood that is easily accessible, and it has the ability to identify potential risk factors before any symptoms arise. Stopping the disease before it even happens could be an incredible advancement in this field.

Federoff highlights that larger studies must be done exploring a more diverse range of individuals including different races and ages. When these large-scale studies show positive results, perhaps early diagnoses can prevent the disease from becoming aggressive and debilitating to controlled and stable. Overall, this is very promising research that I see possibly flooding the medical field.

By Danielle Marcoux

Sources:

  • http://www.nature.com/news/biomarkers-could-predict-alzheimer-s-before-it-starts-1.14834
  • http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nm.3466.html
  • http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_what_is_alzheimers.asp
  • http://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/publication/alzheimers-disease-medications-fact-sheet
  • http://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/guide/treatment-overview

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Posted in Biological sciences, Issues in science, Science in the news, Uncategorized

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What’s my title again?

Posted on March 10, 2014 by | 2 comments

A new study by Howard J. Federoff and his team of researchers has been released, and they have discovered a new way of identifying people who are at risk of having Alzheimer or other mental brain impairments within three years. This five year study took place at Georgetown University Medical center,  and the study states that their discovery is capable of predicting the presence of the disease with 90% accuracy, by identifying ten specific  lipids (fats) in your blood that are believed to present disease onset.

Alzheimer is a life altering degenerative disease that is one of the more common types of dementia, a loss of cognitive ability, and it is affecting an estimated 40 million people worldwide, with the World Health Organization stating that the number will double every 20 years.  By 2050, the numbers are expected to rise to over 115 million, a staggering number for something with no cure.

But our current way of predicting Alzheimer is not useful in preventing or treating the disease. At this time, Alzheimer is typically diagnosed when the various symptoms of Alzheimer starts showing up, such as memory loss. However, this comes at a time where there is already irreversible damage to the brain, and as there is presently no cure, the damage is already done.  Although there are various drugs presently available to try and combat these effects, they have all failed and Federoff believes this is due to the drugs being used far too late into the disease timeline.

Comparison of a normal brain and one with Alzheimer’s.
Photo by: National Institutes of Health (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

However, this study gives us a cheap and effective basis for diagnosing the disease, so while it only predicts with 90% accuracy, this is an improvement over the previous method of waiting for the first stages of the disease. Howard J. Federoff explained “We consider our results a major step towards the commercialization of a preclinical disease biomarker test that could be useful for large-scale screening to identify at risk individuals”.

Although this method is not clinically ready yet, this study is a step in the right direction of finding an effective way to combat Alzheimer.

Here is a link to the original study:

http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nm.3466.html

-Jeffrey Chen

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Posted in Biological sciences, Issues in science, Uncategorized

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Global Warming… and Smallpox?

Posted on March 4, 2014 by | 3 comments

    Heatwaves, droughts, freaky weather, and rising sea levels are just some of the extreme consequences we can expect as global temperatures continue to rise over the next few years. However, according to some scientists, we can add another potential disaster to that list: the introduction of new diseases.

    Researchers based in France and Russia retrieved and analyzed a 30,000 year-old permafrost core, in which was contained a sample of giant DNA viruses. These are viruses that are so big that some are visible underneath light microscopes. This giant DNA virus, which the researchers named Pithovirus sibericum, is believed to have been last active during the previous Ice Age.

The Chukotka region of Sibera, where the permafrost core was taken from. (Source: Wikipedia)

    Researchers were able to bring the sample “back to life” in the lab and believe that its protein coat was a factor in protecting it and ensuring that it could tolerate 30,000 years of being encased in permafrost.

 

    Although this virus only infects amoebas and is therefore harmless to humans, this does have grave implications for people: as permafrost begins to melt across the globe, more viruses with the same protective coating could be introduced again. Some of these viruses may in fact be able to infect humans and we may likely immunity to them (seeing as some have disappeared into the ground before Homo sapiens eventually came about).

Microscopic image of Pithovirus sibericum. (Source: Julia Bartolia and Chantal Abergel of UGS and CNRS-AMU)

    One concern expressed in the comments section is smallpox: although the last case of smallpox was in 1977, many smallpox victims of the 1800’s were buried in northern Canada, where they are encased in permafrost. As temperatures continue to rise and ice continues to melt, many of these bodies may be exposed to the surface. Could smallpox survive? Hopefully not. But in a worst-case scenario, we could see the re-emergence of smallpox and although it would be relatively brief (because of our access to vaccines), it would still be devastating to many.

    However, people must be wary of these alarmist attitudes. For example, we don’t know how likely it is that smallpox could survive. Even if it could, could it be re-animated? Pithovirus sibericum needed the help of a lab to start functioning again. So even if these viruses were exposed to the surrounding environment, could they function and infect people? The ability to infect people is an adaptation: many of these viruses would be older than us, so how would they have to ability to infect humans?

   Global warming is a frightening thought, but we don’t need to scare ourselves silly thinking about things that may be more suited for the script of a science fiction movie.

 – Nicholas MacDonald

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Posted in Biological sciences, Issues in science, Science in the news

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Sharing a bed is always risky for infants

Posted on March 3, 2014 by | 3 comments

Sharing beds with infants is one of the leading causes of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). SIDS is an infant unexpected death, which cannot be predicted by scientific history. The syndrome is known to have a higher risk during an infant’s sleep. SIDS was the third primary cause of infant mortality in the United States in 2011. Even though the cause of SIDS is unidentified, some factors such as bottle feeding and the mother’s intake of illegal drugs and alcohol have been known to increase the risk of the fatal syndrome. When sharing a bed with parents, the risk of SIDS increases by five fold, especially babies younger than three months.

Co-sleeping increases the risk of SIDS
photo credit:CBC

   Sleeping with parents for infants is a significant risk source during the first 15 weeks even without any other danger factors such as being exposed to second hand smoking. But this risk is increased to a great extent if either parent is a smoker. Other possible suggested risks may occur when the adult accidentally roll over onto a sleeping infant and the parents’ body heat may not be the suitable temperature for the baby. On the other hand, there is a benefit of an infant sleeping with their parents. It promotes breathing control and enhances mutual awareness between parents and infants. Nonetheless, when infants are put to sleep in the same bed as their parents, there is a great amount of risk and there should be a high level of precaution. Parents or parents to be should possess a sufficient amount of knowledge regarding this syndrome.

 

Some researchers recommend sleeping in a crib for an infant. Photo Credit:CBC

References

Hoyert DL, Xu JQ (2012). “Deaths: Preliminary data for 2011”.National vital statistics reports. (National Center for Health Statistics) 61(6): 8.

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Posted in Biological sciences, Issues in science, Science in the news

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The Chinese Nuclear Apocalypse

Posted on March 2, 2014 by | 2 comments

As far as Chinese farmers in regions neighboring Beijing are considered,  the nuclear apocalypse has already begun. It is becoming common knowledge that smog in many of China’s major cities is growing rapidly out of control. However, the severity of the situation is so great that the effects on China’s agriculture is resembling that of a nuclear winter. Due to the thick smog cover, plant growth has started to become drastically hindered. When seeds of the same plant were grown in a lab under artificial lighting and in a greenhouse farm, the lab-grown seeds took 20 days to grow whilst the latter group of seeds took over two months. Such light-deprived is unsustainable for growth, and a further degradation of the conditions could lead to dire consequences for an agricultural industry constituting 10% of the GDP of a nation home to over 1.6 billion people.

Wheat farmer in fog-covered field. Photo Credit: Xinhua

China is one of the world’s largest export manufacturers; 65% of its energy is fueled by coal. It is not surprising, then, that a combination of massive energy use and lack of significant government action that the conditions have become so toxic. In fact, the smog has even begun drifting to other countries, most notably settling into Japan a week ago, as well as Korea and as far as Los Angeles. Although fairly weak relative to the smog levels experienced in Beijing, the smog that reached Japan still contained 50% more airborne particulate matter than is considered safe by the World Health Organization; levels in China have reached as much as 15 times the safe level. Whilst questionable policy enforcement on its own soil is already a major issue, spreading smog may add fuel to already-tense Sino-Japanese relations, worsening the situation further.

Chinese smog as seen from satellite. Photo Credit: NASA Goddard Photo and Video

As I noted in my presentation in class several weeks ago, one of the proposed solutions in combating the smog issue was the implementation of super-sized sprinklers on top of all major skyscrapers and high-rises so as to physically wash the smog away; this is theorized to be able to reduce the amount of smog to safe levels in a matter of days or weeks. Another, more outlandish proposal involves the creation of massive, inflatable bubble-like structures to encompass parks and gardens and form a refuge for citizens seeking a reprieve from the increasingly toxic air. However, such a method would cost substantially more money, would not address the amount of smog, and, given the extreme rich/poor divide in China, potentially lead to an Elyisum-reminiscent situation.

The Eden Project in the UK, similar to the proposed structures in China. Photo Credit: Jack Two

Regardless of the path down which China decides to tackle its ever-increasing problem, it is imperative that they act swiftly. As their agriculture is more and more affected, other aspects of their economy will likely falter as well and, given the intertwined nature of the global economy, a relatively simply pollution problem may soon have worldwide consequences.

-Helon Law.

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Posted in Issues in science, Science in the news

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