An apple a day - Science and Health News

from the Guardian today

Quote :

Major step towards treating multiple sclerosis as trials show drug reverses effects of disease
• Treatment could be licensed as early as 2010
• Scans show brain repair in early-stage patients

Doctors yesterday hailed a major success in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, after trials revealed that a drug had halted and reversed the debilitating effects of the disease for the first time.

The unprecedented results will boost the hopes of thousands of people in Britain in the early stages of the condition, which destroys the central nervous system. Guardian

Quote :

What is MS ?

Multiple sclerosis (abbreviated MS, also known as disseminated sclerosis or encephalomyelitis disseminata) is an autoimmune condition in which the immune system attacks the central nervous system, leading to demyelination [A demyelinating disease is any disease of the nervous system in which the myelin sheath of neurons is damaged. This impairs the conduction of signals in the affected nerves, causing impairment in sensation, movement, cognition, or other functions depending on which nerves are involved.]. Disease onset usually occurs in young adults, and it is more common in women. It has a prevalence that ranges between 2 and 150 per 100,000. MS was first described in 1868 by Jean-Martin Charcot.

MS affects the areas of the brain and spinal cord known as the white matter, destroying a fatty layer called the myelin sheath, which wraps around nerve fibers and electrically insulates them. When myelin is lost, the axons of neurons can no longer effectively conduct action potentials. The name multiple sclerosis refers to the scars (scleroses – better known as plaques or lesions) in the white matter. Although much is known about the mechanisms involved in the disease process, the cause remains unknown. Theories include genetics or infections. Different environmental risk factors have also been found.wiki

At best, current treatments slow the degeneration of the nerves but this new drug has been found to repair brain tissue ...

Guardian wrote:

Doctors at Cambridge University led a three-year trial of the drug, alemtuzumab, to compare its effectiveness against the market-leading beta interferon treatment. They recruited 334 patients with MS in their 20s and 30s, all of whom had experienced their first symptoms no more than three years ago.

Patients who were given the new drug were 74% less likely to relapse and had a 71% lower risk of being disabled within three years. But most remarkably, those on the new treatment showed fewer signs of disability at the end of the trial than they began with
..
"What is unprecedented and fascinating is that patients who take beta interferon have slowly shrinking brains as the disease attacks their brain tissue. We used MRI scans to show that patients who have alemtuzumab have enlarging brains as the lost tissue is restored. Somehow the drug is promoting brain repair," Coles added.

What is alemtuzumab ?

Guardian wrote:

The drug is a synthetic antibody that was developed at Cambridge 30 years ago as a treatment for leukaemia. While it is now licensed as a treatment for chronic leukaemia, scientists suspected it might also benefit MS patients because it dampens down the immune system.

How does it work ?

Guardian wrote:

When the drug is given, it appears to suppress the immune system by reducing white blood cells called lymphocytes, which are crucial for the body to fight infections. Although the patients in the trial did not suffer from a rise in infections, some did develop new immune disorders. The most common side-effect involved the immune system attacking the thyroid gland, which affected nearly 25% on the new drug. A few patients (2.8%) suffered an immune disorder which affected platelets in their bloodstream. One patient in the trial died of the condition. "Both of these conditions can be monitored and treated providing diagnosis is made quickly enough," said Coles.

Guardian wrote:

Despite the potential for serious side-effects, the trial was lauded as a major step towards treating the disease. In Britain about 100,000 people are affected by multiple sclerosis.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/oct/23/multiple-sclerosis-treatment

Can I have some please, me! me! me!

Great for people with MS, if licensed, your Elan shares will take a battering.

Surgeons in Spain have carried out the world's first tissue-engineered whole organ transplant - using a windpipe made with the patient's own stem cells. - BBC

Quote :

The groundbreaking technology also means for the first time tissue transplants can be carried out without the need for anti-rejection drugs. Five months on the patient, 30-year-old mother-of-two Claudia Castillo, is in perfect health, The Lancet reports. She needed the transplant to save a lung after contracting tuberculosis.

How to make a new organ ...

Quote :

To make the new airway, the doctors took a donor windpipe, or trachea, from a patient who had recently died.

Then they used strong chemicals and enzymes to wash away all of the cells from the donor trachea, leaving only a tissue scaffold made of the fibrous protein collagen.

This gave them a structure to repopulate with cells from Ms Castillo herself, which could then be used in an operation to repair her damaged left bronchus - a branch of the windpipe.

By using Ms Castillo's own cells the doctors were able to trick her body into thinking the donated trachea was part of it, thus avoiding rejection.

Advanced Science
Two types of cell were taken from Ms Castillo: cells lining her windpipe, and adult stem cells - very immature cells from the bone marrow - which could be encouraged to grow into the cells that normally surround the windpipe.

After four days of growth in the lab in a special rotating bioreactor, the newly-coated donor windpipe was ready to be transplanted into Ms Castillo.

Her surgeon, Professor Paolo Macchiarini of the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona, Spain, carried out the operation in June

He said: "I was very much afraid. Before this, we had been doing this work only on pigs.

"But as soon as the donor trachea came out of the bioreactor it was a very positive surprise."

He said it looked and behaved identically to a normal human donor trachea.

Windpipe transplant breakthrough

Quote :

Meditation 'beats depression'

Group psychology involving Buddhist meditation techniques can be just as effective at combating depression as medication, a study has found.

The treatment, known as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), helps people focus on the present instead of dwelling on the past or future.

Fifteen months after an eight-week trial, 47pc of people with long-term depression who underwent the therapy relapsed, compared to 60pc taking anti-depressant drugs.

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/meditation-beats-depression-1558929.html

Auditor #9 wrote:

Quote :

Meditation 'beats depression'

Group psychology involving Buddhist meditation techniques can be just as effective at combating depression as medication, a study has found.

The treatment, known as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), helps people focus on the present instead of dwelling on the past or future.

Fifteen months after an eight-week trial, 47pc of people with long-term depression who underwent the therapy relapsed, compared to 60pc taking anti-depressant drugs.

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/meditation-beats-depression-1558929.html

I think I've heard that going for a half hour walk three times a week does it too.

I wonder how much this would save the HSE, and our sanity?

Auditor #9 wrote:

from the Guardian today

Quote :

Major step towards treating multiple sclerosis as trials show drug reverses effects of disease
• Treatment could be licensed as early as 2010
• Scans show brain repair in early-stage patients

Doctors yesterday hailed a major success in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, after trials revealed that a drug had halted and reversed the debilitating effects of the disease for the first time.

The unprecedented results will boost the hopes of thousands of people in Britain in the early stages of the condition, which destroys the central nervous system. Guardian

Quote :

What is MS ?

Multiple sclerosis (abbreviated MS, also known as disseminated sclerosis or encephalomyelitis disseminata) is an autoimmune condition in which the immune system attacks the central nervous system, leading to demyelination [A demyelinating disease is any disease of the nervous system in which the myelin sheath of neurons is damaged. This impairs the conduction of signals in the affected nerves, causing impairment in sensation, movement, cognition, or other functions depending on which nerves are involved.]. Disease onset usually occurs in young adults, and it is more common in women. It has a prevalence that ranges between 2 and 150 per 100,000. MS was first described in 1868 by Jean-Martin Charcot.

MS affects the areas of the brain and spinal cord known as the white matter, destroying a fatty layer called the myelin sheath, which wraps around nerve fibers and electrically insulates them. When myelin is lost, the axons of neurons can no longer effectively conduct action potentials. The name multiple sclerosis refers to the scars (scleroses – better known as plaques or lesions) in the white matter. Although much is known about the mechanisms involved in the disease process, the cause remains unknown. Theories include genetics or infections. Different environmental risk factors have also been found.wiki

At best, current treatments slow the degeneration of the nerves but this new drug has been found to repair brain tissue ...

Guardian wrote:

Doctors at Cambridge University led a three-year trial of the drug, alemtuzumab, to compare its effectiveness against the market-leading beta interferon treatment. They recruited 334 patients with MS in their 20s and 30s, all of whom had experienced their first symptoms no more than three years ago.

Patients who were given the new drug were 74% less likely to relapse and had a 71% lower risk of being disabled within three years. But most remarkably, those on the new treatment showed fewer signs of disability at the end of the trial than they began with
..
"What is unprecedented and fascinating is that patients who take beta interferon have slowly shrinking brains as the disease attacks their brain tissue. We used MRI scans to show that patients who have alemtuzumab have enlarging brains as the lost tissue is restored. Somehow the drug is promoting brain repair," Coles added.

What is alemtuzumab ?

Guardian wrote:

The drug is a synthetic antibody that was developed at Cambridge 30 years ago as a treatment for leukaemia. While it is now licensed as a treatment for chronic leukaemia, scientists suspected it might also benefit MS patients because it dampens down the immune system.

How does it work ?

Guardian wrote:

When the drug is given, it appears to suppress the immune system by reducing white blood cells called lymphocytes, which are crucial for the body to fight infections. Although the patients in the trial did not suffer from a rise in infections, some did develop new immune disorders. The most common side-effect involved the immune system attacking the thyroid gland, which affected nearly 25% on the new drug. A few patients (2.8%) suffered an immune disorder which affected platelets in their bloodstream. One patient in the trial died of the condition. "Both of these conditions can be monitored and treated providing diagnosis is made quickly enough," said Coles.

Guardian wrote:

Despite the potential for serious side-effects, the trial was lauded as a major step towards treating the disease. In Britain about 100,000 people are affected by multiple sclerosis.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/oct/23/multiple-sclerosis-treatment

We with experience of MS (my mum is paralysed with it) tend towards scepticism about 'wonderful advancements' in the search for an effective treatment for MS, they tend to be either less effective than hoped, only applicable in one strain of MS, or, most wonderfully of all, a scam designed to ramp up share prices. The most recent was the hype of a serum based upon antibodies extracted from goats' blood, all over Sky News, etc., turned out their trials had been inadequate, to say the least. As always, I would be open-minded about alemtuzemab, not fair not to be, but experience over 20-odd years has taught me not to break open the bubbly...

Sorry about your mum's illness, toxic. Pharmaceuticals are wonderful when they work, but as you say, it is a business and the bottom line always has its influence. The Press also likes "good news" medical advance stories - I guess they help to sell papers. The BMJ is the only thing I know worth reading on these things.

toxic avenger wrote:

Auditor #9 wrote:

from the Guardian today

Major step towards treating multiple sclerosis as trials show drug reverses effects of disease

We with experience of MS (my mum is paralysed with it) tend towards scepticism about 'wonderful advancements' in the search for an effective treatment for MS, they tend to be either less effective than hoped, only applicable in one strain of MS, or, most wonderfully of all, a scam designed to ramp up share prices. The most recent was the hype of a serum based upon antibodies extracted from goats' blood, all over Sky News, etc., turned out their trials had been inadequate, to say the least. As always, I would be open-minded about alemtuzemab, not fair not to be, but experience over 20-odd years has taught me not to break open the bubbly...

Sorry to hear that toxic - I have a relation suffering with it as well. It's hard on the whole family but this lady is a real battler.

What interested me about that piece was how it described MS - it's a disease that has the immune-system attacking parts of the brain. Some people are born without some cell covering in the brain, or the covering deteriorates with time and then the immune system begins to attack those cells that are stripped. Is that kind of thing within your knowledge of MS ?

The drug claims to combat it by suppressing the immune system so perhaps it's for people at the onset stages of the disease.

Auditor #9 wrote:

toxic avenger wrote:

Auditor #9 wrote:

from the Guardian today

Major step towards treating multiple sclerosis as trials show drug reverses effects of disease

We with experience of MS (my mum is paralysed with it) tend towards scepticism about 'wonderful advancements' in the search for an effective treatment for MS, they tend to be either less effective than hoped, only applicable in one strain of MS, or, most wonderfully of all, a scam designed to ramp up share prices. The most recent was the hype of a serum based upon antibodies extracted from goats' blood, all over Sky News, etc., turned out their trials had been inadequate, to say the least. As always, I would be open-minded about alemtuzemab, not fair not to be, but experience over 20-odd years has taught me not to break open the bubbly...

Sorry to hear that toxic - I have a relation suffering with it as well. It's hard on the whole family but this lady is a real battler.

What interested me about that piece was how it described MS - it's a disease that has the immune-system attacking parts of the brain. Some people are born without some cell covering in the brain, or the covering deteriorates with time and then the immune system begins to attack those cells that are stripped. Is that kind of thing within your knowledge of MS ?

The drug claims to combat it by suppressing the immune system so perhaps it's for people at the onset stages of the disease.

Yep the immune system basically turns against the myelin sheath around the central nervous system, preventing the conduct of electrical signals to and from the brain by eating gaps into the sheath, thus decreasing control over bodily movements and functions. It's almost unheard of near the equator, progressively much more common the further away you go...

Now a pill to stop your alcohol cravings.

http://www.independent.ie/health/latest-news/cheap-pill-is-miracle-cure-for-alcoholism-1566925.html

Quote :

An eminent French doctor believes he has found not just a treatment for compulsive drinking but a miracle cure.

..

The French government agency which tests new drugs has taken the unusual step of deciding to examine the doctor's claims -- unusual because the drug he has "discovered" is not new.

Baclofen is a cheap drug which has long been known as a cure for muscle spasms, especially among sufferers of cystic fibrosis or people who are partly or wholly paralysed.

Dr Ameisen says his own experience and that of other patients suggests it can also be used to ease and then destroy an intolerable craving for alcohol. It is so effective, he claims, that alcoholics can go back to social drinking without fear of renewed dependency.

"Mine is the first case in which a course of medicine has completely suppressed alcohol addiction," Dr Ameisen said. "Now I can have a glass and it has no effect. Above all, I no longer have that irrepressible need to drink."

Could this be the nicorette of alcoholism ?

I think this is great news for an Irish company in the Sunday Business Post. It's something that could have a very beneficial result for people ... marrying medicine and movements markets.

Quote :

Health search engine firm raises €1.25m in funding

An Irish internet firm that is developing a search engine of health services around the world has raised €1.25 million in funding.

RevaHealth.com attracted the backing from private investors and a group of Irish technology industry veterans through Mianach Venture Capital. Enterprise Ireland has also invested in the company, which was founded in 2006 by Caelen King.

The website originally focused on providing information on so-called ‘medical tourism’, attracting users who wanted to find cheaper treatments abroad. It already has information on more than 60 ,000 clinics around the world, and now plans to expand its services to become a full-scale medical search engine. King said that RevaHealth.com would develop listings and information on clinics and medical practitioners, with an initial focus on Ireland, Britain, the US and Far East. ‘‘Our ultimate aim is to help people find health clinics anywhere,” he said.

He said that Mianach and Enterprise Ireland had together invested €1 million in RevaHealth.com and the remaining €250,000 came from private investors .The Mianach team includes Paddy Holahan, founder and chief executive of Newbay Software, and Mike Fitzgerald, the chief executive of Altobridge.

They are investors in several other technology companies, including internet telephony firm Cicero Networks and Selatra Games.

RevaHealth.com is chaired by Ray Nolan, the co-founder of the accommodation booking firm Web Reservations International.

King developed the idea for RevaHealth.com after being impressed with hospital treatment he received while travelling in Thailand. The company now has 11 employees, and generates its revenue from clinics that advertise on the site to secure a higher profile.

also ....

Quote :

Guardian - Heart disease gene affects one in 100, say scientists - Mutation all but guarantees serious illness in middle age for 60m people worldwideA gene that almost guarantees serious heart disease in middle age is carried by an estimated 60 million people around the world, a team of scientists has found.

The one in 100 who inherit the mutation usually show few, if any, symptoms before their 40s, but become ill as they get older, with many later dying from heart failure.

The discovery marks the strongest link yet that scientists have made between a person's genetic make-up and their risk of succumbing to heart disease.

The risk of being born with the abnormal gene is substantially higher in people who can trace their ancestry back to the Indian subcontinent, where one in 25 inherit the mutation. "The bad news is that many of these mutation carriers have no warning that they are in danger," said Perundurai Dhandapany at Madurai Kamaraj University, a co-author of the study published in Nature Genetics.

The mutation was originally identified in two Indian families with heart disease five years ago, but only after studying almost 1,500 people from different regions of India did the importance of the abnormal gene become clear.

Researchers compared the genetic make-up of 800 patients with heart disease and 699 healthy volunteers. They found those with heart problems often carried the mutation, in which 25 letters of genetic code needed to make heart muscle proteins are missing.

"The mutation leads to the formation of an abnormal protein. Young people can degrade the abnormal protein and remain healthy, but as they get older it builds up and eventually results in the symptoms we see," said Kumarasamy Thangaraj at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, who led the study.

Chris Tyler-Smith, a co-author at the Sanger Institute near Cambridge, said the mutation probably arose in India around 30,000 years ago and was able to spread because it usually only affects people after they have had children.

With genetic screening it would be possible to identify people with the gene at an early age, though in the near term, doctors could only advise them to improve their lifestyle to reduce their risk of heart disease. In the longer term, scientists hope to develop a treatment using a drug to boost the body's ability to break down the abnormal heart protein.

"This is a genetic finding of great importance," said Sir Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust. "Heart disease is one of the world's leading killers, but now that researchers have identified this common mutation, carried by one in 25 people of Indian origin, we have hope of reducing the burden that the disease causes. This research should lead to better screening to identify those at risk and may ultimately allow the development of new treatments."

Auditor #9 wrote:

Quote :

[size=15]
The website originally focused on providing information on so-called ‘medical tourism’, attracting users who wanted to find cheaper treatments abroad. It already has information on more than 60 ,000 clinics around the world, and now plans to expand its services to become a full-scale medical search engine. King said that RevaHealth.com would develop listings and information on clinics and medical practitioners, with an initial focus on Ireland, Britain, the US and Far East. ‘‘Our ultimate aim is to help people find health clinics anywhere,” he said.

The last thing the planet needs is having to take a trip to Thailand for a few fillings, caps and an MRI scan.
The sooner a global integrated 'NHS' (GHS?) is created which provides efficient, public healthcare locally the better.

You've brought up an interesting point here Pax - is travel in itself beneficial - sort of a placebo ?

Wasn't there an EU Directive there last summer rejected by Spain at least where the Commission (?) were proposing that public services be available across all EU borders to anyone from anywhere else. What do you think of that one Pax ?

The Spanish objected to it on the grounds that it would be impossible to manage with such a diversity of languages.... a practical objection but they of all the Europeans I've met are immune to the learning of English, god love them.

Stem Cells & Stroke - Telegraph

Quote :

The controversial treatment involves taking stem cells from an aborted foetus and injecting them into the brain of stroke victims. It is hoped the cells, which can renew themselves, will regenerate areas damaged by stroke, and increase patients' movements and mental abilities.

If the trials are successful, they could replicate the achievements of scientists in Spain who in November last year announced the world's first tissue-engineered whole organ transplant using a windpipe made with the patient's own stem cells.

[* see post above *]

Quote :

However, the move has been described as "sick" by pro-life groups who say the use of aborted foetuses is unethical.

Four groups of three patients will be given the treatment over the next two years, starting with a low dose of two million foetal stem cells and rising to 20 million.

Sounds a little unsophisticated - injecting tons of cells into the brains of stroke sufferers..

Quote :

Stroke is the largest cause of disability in Britain – affecting 150,000 people a year – and the third commonest cause of death after heart disease and cancer, according to The Stroke Association.

The only current treatment is physiotherapy which aims to restore brain function.

So is this new experimental treatment going to do anything ?

Quote :

[Dr Keith Muir, the consultant surgeon leading the trial at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow, said: "If it works, as it has done in animal model systems, it may allow new nerve cells to grow or regeneration of existing cells and actual recovery of function in patients who would not otherwise be able to regain function."

Cool. But will it help superman ?

Quote :

Dr Muir said: "You can reorganise the brain, you can help that reorganisation with physiotherapy but you cannot cause new nerve cells to grow. The hope with stem cell therapy is that by putting in new cells and new tissue that you can further improve on that recovery."

Doesn't look like it from that - anyone have any ideas on that ?

Saving people's lives is always good for business - you can buy wealth but you can't buy health as they say somewhere so it must be good for business...

Quote :

The trials are being funded by ReNeuron, a stem cell research company based in Guildford, Surrey. It applied to begin trials two years ago in the United States but could not secure permission from the US Food and Drug Administration. However, the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Agency has given its approval for trials in Britain.

Dr John Sinden, ReNeuron's chief scientific officer, predicted that the decision, coupled with the recent transplant in Spain, would encourage other research firms to seek permission for trials in the UK and Europe rather than the United States. "Europe is going to be the centre in stem cells and regenerative medicine and that is very exciting," he said.

Professor Sir Christopher Evans, biotech entrepreneur and one of the founders of ReNeuron, added: "This is a hugely important milestone for stroke victims and British science."

But it involves murder of innocent beings doesn't it ?

Only once according to the bit below

Quote :

The Society for the Unborn Child described the proposal as "sick", saying it involved "cannibalising an unborn child".

Stem cells for the trial need only be taken once from a foetus because they can be copied by scientists. However Josephine Quintavalle, a director of the Christian campaign group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: "Even using just one foetus in this way is wrong. The stem cells will have been taken from a healthy foetus. Would any woman want her unborn baby have its brain used in this way?"

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Gene that ‘switches off’ cancer found
By John von Radowitz

SCIENTISTS have identified a cancer "master switch" that could open the door to revolutionary new treatments, it was revealed yesterday. Activating a specific gene common to fruit flies, mice and humans may allow cancer to be "switched off", say researchers.

Although the work is at an early stage, it has enormous implications for treating and curing cancers by snuffing out the very root of tumour formation. The discovery outlined in two scientific papers yesterday relates to eye tumours in flies and bowel cancers in mice and humans.

But other "master switches" common to different species may exist for other cancers. All belong to a gene family vital to "differentiation", whereby cells acquire specialist roles in the body.

Cancer cells, by definition, have no function and are less differentiated than normal cells. The new research, published yesterday in the online journal PLoS Biology, focuses on the ATOH1 gene in mice and humans and its fruit fly equivalent, Ato.

Both belong to the "Atonal" group of genes, conserved across a wide stretch of evolution, which are thought to be key differentiation controllers. Scientists showed that ATOH1 suppressed bowel cancer in both mice and humans, while Ato prevented eye tumours developing in fruit flies.

Switching off the gene triggered the growth of cancers in flies, mice and humans.
>>>>
More in the Irish Examiner



Next, the therapy.

More of a hygiene item than a health one but I suppose they're both related if you take the potential link between cervical cancer and the Jewish thing with more than a grain of salt.

This yoke is for cleaning your hooter.

Quote :

Recently, I’ve been won over by a simple device: the neti pot. This ceramic pot can be used to cleanse your nasal passages. The practice of Neti comes from the ancient tradition of Yoga and Ayurveda.

So how does it work? Basically, you put warm water and salt in a Neti pot. You then pour the solution in one nostril, and it comes out the other one. The flowing liquid clears your sinuses of dirt, allergens and pollutants.

Does it sting? Well, I don’t like getting water up my nose. But neti is non-irrating if you use warm water and the correct amount of salt. This saline solution matches the composition of your nasal mucus quite well. It took me a few days to get the solution and technique right.

http://www.metaefficient.com/bathroom-products/efficient-tested.html

The French and many other nations take nasal hygiene very seriously, nose hair clippers and salty douches being a must. Apparently, this really does mean that they get fewer colds than they otherwise would.

Just for the avoidance of any doubt, the device Auditor #9 displays above it NOT, I repeat NOT in any way associated with reducing levels of cervical cancer

cactus flower wrote:

The French and many other nations take nasal hygiene very seriously, nose hair clippers and salty douches being a must. Apparently, this really does mean that they get fewer colds than they otherwise would.

Just for the avoidance of any doubt, the device Auditor #9 displays above it NOT, I repeat NOT in any way associated with reducing levels of cervical cancer

Is it kind of ambiguous what a hooter is ?

"Shrón" as gaeilge - an ea?