Clipmarks | pokkets's 'disease' clips

Contact lenses could save your vision

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:58:40 GMT

clipped by: pokkets

Eric Bland

Soon contact lenses won't just correct eyesight, they could save your vision.

Researchers in the US have developed a contact lens containing antibiotic nanosilver particles that can continuously map the pressure inside a human eye and administer medication.

The new lenses promise to advance understanding of diseases like glaucoma, the second leading cause of blindness worldwide, and could save the eyesight of millions, say the researchers.

"It would be really helpful to measure the pressure inside the eye continuously," says Professor Tingrui Pan from University of California, Davis, and co-author of a paper describing the lenses in Advanced Functional Materials.

Pressure inside the eye, the leading indication of glaucoma, can vary widely from day to day, even minute to minute.

Currently, doctors only measure pressure every few months (depending on the patient), says Dr James Brandt, who is also involved in the research.

"Compare that to another chronic disease like diabetes

Spider helps track disease outbreaks

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 05:19:50 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: A 'Spider' being "The Web-walking part of a search engine that collects pages for indexing in the search engine's database. Also called a bot.":answers.com
I thought I'd better put that in, because when I first saw the title, I had visions of biologists, out in the wild, catching spiders to be tested for disease.
Now if you want to find out about disease outbreaks, you can just google them before the WHO Centres of disease control have any idea.
Maybe WHO should google not yahoo.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

A new website is helping scientists track viruses and disease outbreaks by searching within the virtual world.

"We were originally thinking about how we could expand disease surveillance and pick up outbreaks earlier than traditional methods," says Dr John Brownstein of Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston, who created HealthMap in September of 2006 with Clark Friefeld, a software developer at Harvard Medical School.

HealthMap gathers information from the Internet and filters it, removing, for example, duplicated or irrelevant information

program identifies about 95% of all disease outbreaks, sometimes days before the World Health Organization or the Centres of Disease Control announce them

"This will definitely save lives," said Dr Larry Madoff, editor of ProMED, an infectious disease monitoring website run by the International Society for Infectious Disease.

"This is a good step forward," says Madoff. "[HealthMap] helps us predict how disease outbreaks will happen."

Researchers close on chlamidia vaccine

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:22:10 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: For the Australian native koala. When combined with habitat destruction, chlamydial disease continues to be a major threat to koalas.
The disease is similar to the strain suffered by humans, and the research could help develop a vaccine in humans.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

A vaccine designed to protect koalas from the infectious disease chlamydia has shown positive results in an early trial, researchers say.

Professors Peter Timms and Ken Beagley from Queensland University of Technology's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation vaccinated 18 female koalas at Brisbane's Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary with the experimental vaccine.

"It seems to be going well," says Timms. "We are genuinely excited about the results we've seen so far."

Chlamydia infection is a major problem for Australia's koala population, causing a kind of conjunctivitis that can lead to blindness, and infections that render female animals sterile.

"As many as 25% to 50% of koalas coming into care in both Queensland and New South Wales are showing clinical signs of the disease and it seems to be getting worse," Timms says.

In the long-term, the results of the koala studies could also help in the development of an effective Chlamydia vaccine for humans, he added.

Ancient bones may hold clues to TB

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 03:49:37 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: They think there is enough Tuberculosis DNA to give clues to how it has evolved.(And where it's going?), and find new ways to fight it

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Ori Lewis

A team of German, Israeli and Palestinian researchers is studying ancient bones found in the biblical city of Jericho for clues that could help scientists combat tuberculosis.

"We see a re-emerging wave of tuberculosis all over the world and ... perhaps learning from the past will help us understand the present," says Professor Andreas Nerlich from Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich.

Nerlich and other researchers in the team have begun studying 6000-year-old bones unearthed in Jericho more than a half-century ago by British anthropologist Dr Kathleen Kenyon, in what is now the occupied West Bank.

Tuberculosis, also known as TB, is a deadly infectious bacterial disease that usually attacks the lungs. Acknowledged as a disease of crowds, it is transmitted from human to human living in close contact.

Many of the bones show signs of tuberculosis, suggesting the disease afflicted a significant proportion of the population of the ancient world.

Tasmanian devils breed younger to defy disease

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 03:42:23 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Seems like nature is plugging the gap, while we're still running around wondering what to do.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Dani Cooper

Tasmanian devils are mating and breeding much younger in response to the fatal facial cancer that threatens to wipe out the iconic Australian marsupial, researchers say.

In today's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, a team of Australian researchers report what they believe to be the first known case of an infectious disease leading to increased early reproduction in a mammal.

Lead author Dr Menna Jones, of the University of Tasmania's School of Zoology, says the move to early mating may help buy enough time for research to beat the fatal devil facial tumour disease (DFTD).

She says the devil is showing its capacity to respond to the disease-induced increased adult mortality with a 16-fold rise in the proportion of females showing early sexual maturity.

"The disease is still going to overwhelm the devil, but it will slow it down," she says. "It gives us more time."

Areas where the disease is present have experienced a loss of up to 95% in devil population

Scientists find malaria's 'sticky' genes

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 05:45:05 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: The understanding of the malaria parasite, which seems to behave in a similar way to a virus, can help the development of new treatment methods, both in the stage that causes the disease in humans, and the phase in which it is carried by the intermediate host, the Anopheles mosquito. Research is also continuing into the genes behind the immune system of the mosquito, which actively fights against the malaria parasite.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Stephen Pincock

Australian scientists have identified a potential new way of combating the global scourge of malaria, by pinpointing eight genes that help the disease-causing parasite remodel our red blood cells.

Malaria kills up to three million people every year, mostly in tropical parts of the world. The disease is spread by mosquitoes that inject victims with microscopic parasites that infect healthy red blood cells

parasites cause radical changes to the structure of the blood cells, hijacking them to produce scores of offspring that go on to infect other cells

"It's like remodeling a house so you can live in it and raise a family," said researcher Professor Alan Cowman from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research

His group's research will be published this week in the journal Cell.

When the team disrupted just one of the genes, they showed that the infected cells no longer stuck to the walls of blood vessels

"It really is a big step in understanding the parasite itself,"

Older men told to 'use it or lose it'

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:31:23 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Other factors that contribute to erectile dysfunction that were taken into account include include age diabetes, and heart disease. Blood is retained by a muscle that stops blood from being returned to the body during arousal. Perhaps without regular exercise it is more inclined to lose its grip on the blood vessels.
How being caught by surprise affected function, was not mentioned

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

There's new advice for older men who want to preserve their sexual function: have sex, and have it often,

The study, published in the American Journal of Medicine, followed nearly 1000 older Finnish men for five years, and reports that those who were regularly having sex at the start of the study were at lower risk of developing erectile dysfunction (ED)

Dr Juha Koskimaki and colleagues at the University of Tampere in Finland studied 989 men who were between the ages of 55 and 75

8% of men who had reported having sexual intercourse less than once per week had ED

3.2% of men who had intercourse once per week

ED among men

having sexual intercourse three or more times per week was 1.6%.

ED occurs when there are problems with blood flow to the penis. Regular sexual activity

may help maintain healthy blood vessel function in the erectile tissue.

A number of factors contribute to ED development

after taking account of those factors, sexual activity itself remained linked to ED risk

'Devil-proof' fences to save Tassie icon

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:17:46 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: The cancer affecting Tasmanian devils is infectious. In areas where the disease is present, up to 95% of the population of devils have been killed.
According to the Save the Tasmanian Devil program the disease is now present across more than 60% of Tasmania.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Dani Cooper

The Tasmanian devil could be living in fenced off areas of Tasmania and mainland Australia in a bid to halt the spread of a deadly cancer currently decimating its numbers.

proposals

came out of a four-day international workshop aimed at looking at ways of saving the world's largest carnivorous marsupial from extinction

Dr Rebecca Spindler, of the Taronga Conservation Society Australia, the sponsors of the Hobart workshop, says intensive management is needed to secure disease-free populations

Recommendations include: captive breeding programs in zoos; translocating the dog-sized mammal to free-range enclosures in the wild on mainland Australia; and erecting secure fencing around disease-free populations in the west of Tasmania

The Tasmanian devil is being affected by a cancer known as the devil facial tumour disease. It causes large unsightly tumours to grow on the animal's face and mouth, leaving them unable to feed.

They die from starvation and a breakdown in bodily functions.

How to fold Proteins

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 09:51:44 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Proteins are complex molecules, and understanding the way they can fold using distributed computing, in the unused cpu load of home computers, can spread the load and research in more detail , both the way proteins fold, and the effects of incorrect folding. A prime example of such an instance in in the proteins known as prions, which with a wrong fold can be one of the contributing factors in Alzheimer's disease. The foldingathome network is the biggest computer in the world, with calculations done by the petaflop

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Clip Source: folding.stanford.edu

Our goal: to understand protein folding, misfolding, and related diseases

What is protein folding and how is folding linked to disease?
Proteins are biology's workhorses -- its "nanomachines." Before proteins can carry out these important functions, they assemble themselves, or "fold." The process of protein folding, while critical and fundamental to virtually all of biology, in many ways remains a mystery.

Clip Source: folding.stanford.edu

Folding@home Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Index

Clip Source: fahwiki.net

How does FAH work?

"To install or not to install..."

Convincing (a large institution) to run the FAH client

FAH & Cancer research

FAH, the GDP, and Tax Deductible Contributions.

Results of all this

The Future of Folding@Home

Scientists put cocoa under the microscope

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:20:27 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: 70% of the world's cocoa is grown in Africa, and it has remarkable resistance to drought and disease. I wonder however if the study will help the African farmers, or the chocolate manufacturers, due to the the tendency to pay a pittance for the beans, then mark up the price substantially after manufacture. Often the cacao industry is the equivalent of slavery.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Matt Sedensky

Scientists are launching a five-year project aimed at safeguarding the world's chocolate supply by dissecting the genome of the cocoa bean.

The team of scientists from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), will analyse the more than 400 million parts of the cocoa genome. It hopes the process will lead to better-tasting chocolate and help battle crippling crop diseases - estimated to cost cocoa farmers an estimated US$700 million annually.

"Once we have the whole genome, (manufacturers) will be able to go in and look at all the genes they're interested in," says Dr Ray Schnell, a research geneticist with the USDA. "They'll all be interested in flavour genes."

The project's backers say the work stands to be a boon to farmers, largely in Africa, who produce about 70% of the world's cocoa.

By determining which breeds of cacao trees are most appropriate for a specific locale and most able to fend off disease and drought, farmers could increase crop yields.

Overworked Hospitals spread hardy germs

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 07:23:31 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Hospitals are one of the easiest places to catch a disease.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Hospitals that try to cope with growing patient loads by churning them through more quickly may be helping the spread of drug-resistant germs, Australian researchers report.

As populations grow, and as people live longer lives, this problem will only worsen, say the authors, whose report appears in the current edition of Lancet Infectious Diseases.

The authors warn that "the drive towards greater efficiency by reducing the number of hospital beds and increasing patient throughput has led to highly stressed healthcare systems with unwelcome side-effects."

Hospitals filled to capacity are more likely to have outbreaks of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and other infections, they say.

They add that many studies have shown that doctors, nurses and other health care workers do not wash their hands as well and as frequently as recommended, and this problem worsens during times of understaffing and high workload.

THIS is the news I've been waiting for

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:29:10 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Coffee Drinkers Have Slightly Lower Death Rates, Study Finds

A new study has good news for coffee drinkers: Regular coffee drinking (up to 6 cups per day) is not associated with increased deaths in either men or women. In fact, both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee consumption is associated with a somewhat smaller rate of death from heart disease.

"Coffee consumption was not associated with a higher risk of mortality in middle-aged men and women. The possibility of a modest benefit of coffee consumption on heart disease, cancer, and other causes of death needs to be further investigated."

Scans show Huntington's toll on brain

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:50:30 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: It wasn't known how much degeneration there was before the disease was diagnosed.
This study helps fill in that gap

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Tuesday, 17 June 2008 Dani Cooper
ABC

Australian researchers are using new imaging technology to provide an insight into the degenerative effect of Huntington's disease on the brain.

Mapping change: these scans of the brain using diffusion magnetic resonance imaging show white matter tracts that degenerate in people with Huntington's disease (Source: India Bohanna/Howard Florey Institute)

Doctoral student India Bohanna, from the Howard Florey Institute in Melbourne, used diffusion magnetic resonance imaging technology to track the breakdown in structural connections within the brain.

The research was presented at the Organisation for Human Brain Mapping conference being held this week in Melbourne.

The researchers used diffusion MRI, which maps the brain's white matter tracts by measuring the movement of water molecules in the brain.

Bohanna says a breakdown in these structural connections disrupts the brain's communication.

Becoming immortal

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:12:30 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: A very interesting read! Of course, what are we going to do with eternity is not a medical question but rather philosophical and emotional. At least we will have time enough for love... For the quasi immortal humans of the future, nothing in this existence will look even remotely similar to the way we see things today.

Clip Source: www.cosmosmagazine.com

Within a few decades, we might reasonably expect to have extended life to 150 years or more – the first human to live to 1,000 may have already been born. But, does death give meaning to our lives? Where do we go from here?

Developments in a number of scientific disciplines suggest that we may soon be able to increase life expectancies from the 70- to 80-year range already seen in the richest countries to well over 100 and, perhaps, to over 1,000. We shall, in one sense, have made ourselves immortal.

We shall not be immortal in the sense that we cannot die; plainly we could still be killed in a car accident or by a cosmic event such as an asteroid striking the Earth. But we could not be killed by disease or age, our bodies would be immune to infection, dysfunction or the ravages of time. We would be medically immortal.

Some say this will happen quickly within, perhaps, 30 years with the first clear signs that we are on the right track appearing within the next decade.

Tags: aging, life extension, immortality

Brain drug abuse on the radar

Thu, 22 May 2008 05:28:51 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: They restrict the damage that is caused by this kind of drug, in a similar way to the way they have restricted the damage caused by addictive drugs in the present, and the past.
One dangerous side effect of 'stay alert' or 'thought accelerators' is that often they can be taken at the expense of the minimum required amount of sleep (which can vary from person to person.) Sleep is necessary for our brains to operate properly, and they've yet been able to find any cases where it can be compromised to any great extent. Sleep deprivation can lead to delusion and psychosis, poor concentration, and performance, and both short and long term memory loss. A bad combination. Where too many 'flashes of brilliance' are really just flashes.
By the way. Who is going to test these drugs. Perhaps we'll have some smart monkeys that will unify Einstein's 'Grand Universal Theory' for us. I'm sure they'd find it much easier to be objective. (Douglas Adams told us what happens when you have smart mice

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Michael Kahn

Authorities need to prepare for the possible abuse of "brain-boosting" drugs set to flood the market in coming decades, says a new UK report.

The Academy of Medical Sciences reports says drugs for diseases like Alzheimer's could potentially be misused for non-medical purposes, such as helping students cram for exams.

"The use of psychoactive drugs by patients and health individuals will become an increasing feature in all our lives," says Professor Gabriel Horn from the University of Cambridge,

The study says there will be a likely increase of "brain-boosting" drugs that may improve short-term memory or speed of thought.

While the drugs might help people with neurodegenerative diseases and mental illness, such treatments could also prove popular

for non-medical purposes, such

staying alert at work

"We must act now to harness the opportunities offered by advances in brain science to treat and prevent disease, but also to reduce the harms associated with drug misuse and addiction