Day: 08/01/2014

Diabetes and intensive glycaemic control

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Intensive glycaemic control to achieve sustained, target blood sugar levels is important to help people with diabetes from developing later complications such as cardiovascular diseases or nephropathy.

Intensive glycaemic control to achieve sustained, target blood sugar levels is important to help people with diabetes from developing later complications such as cardiovascular diseases or nephropathy. But why is proper and sustained glycaemic control such an elusive goal for most diabetics?

Ignorance of how diabetes affects your body’s normal blood sugar control mechanisms, non-compliance with medications and recommended lifestyle changes, and importantly, failure to follow up with your physician regularly are the primary reasons why achieving and maintaining reasonable blood sugar levels becomes such an obscure goal, physicians say.

“Blood sugar management is not a very complex or impossible task, but the key is to keep a positive attitude and stay motivated. Most new diabetes patients sink into depression as soon as they are diagnosed and are asked to make lifestyle modifications. Regular physical activity and healthy dietary habits help everyone stay healthy, not just diabetics,” says Sreejith N. Kumar, physician.

Detecting diabetes early and managing it aggressively, especially in the initial years, is extremely important as it helps people have better control over their blood sugar levels in the later years, he says.

The first few years after diagnosis of diabetes are crucial, as the condition can be managed very well with some lifestyle modifications and may be an additional first-line medication. But these initial years are also the time when most people tend to ignore their condition.

Compliance with prescription and recommended lifestyle changes is indeed the biggest challenge to achieving sustained glycaemic levels.

Lose weight

Weight loss is an excellent strategy to bring down blood sugar levels, and even a small reduction in body weight can bring about significant improvement in the way the body manages blood sugar levels. “It would be so wrong to think that it is okay to overeat or relax the exercise regimen because you are already on diabetes medication,” says Dr. Kumar

Regular follow-up with one’s doctor is also a crucial component in managing diabetes successfully. There are many patients who do not go back to their doctor, and continue with the same prescription for a year or more, without even periodic blood sugar monitoring.

Young adults with early established diabetes would do well to invest in a glucometer – because regular self-monitoring of blood sugar values is the best way to understand and manage your body’s glycaemic behaviour.

 

Genome project will transform cancer care .

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Tens of thousands of NHS patients are to be invited to donate their DNA for research as part of a project that aims to make the use of genetic data routine in the health service.

About 40,000 patients patients with cancer and rare diseases will have their genomes sequenced during the four-year project, which David Cameron claims will transform how serious diseases are diagnosed and treated.

Cancer patients will have DNA from healthy and cancerous tissues read so that doctors can work out which mutations are driving the growth of their tumour cells. The information could help medical teams decide which drugs will be most effective in a patient, but will also identify groups for targeted trials of new therapies.

Beyond cancer, the 100,000 Genomes Project hopes to improve diagnoses of rare diseases caused by genetic mutations. Though rare individually, they take a huge collective toll on public health. More than 5,000 rare diseases, which affect more than 3 million people in the UK, have been identified.

Rare diseases are often spotted in children, but to diagnose a condition the project will read the DNA of the patient and both parents.

The project aims to have sequenced 100,000 genomes by 2017, but the Guardian understands that Cameron intends to extend the project beyond that date and to broaden its reach to other diseases.

The prime minister is expected to announce a package of deals on Friday worth £300m, including a contract with the California-based firm Illumina to provide the machines to sequence human genomes. The first few hundred patients have already donated DNA in pilot projects in London, Cambridge and Newcastle.

Pancreatic cancer cells

“This agreement will see the UK lead the world in genetic research within years,” Cameron said in a statement. “As our plan becomes a reality, I believe we will be able to transform how devastating diseases are diagnosed and treated in the NHS and across the world.”

The NHS has begun selecting a series of genomic medicine centres that will take samples from consenting patients and forward them to a laboratory to receive samples from patients from January 2015.

“This is really one of those turning points,” said Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust. “We’ll look back in 20 years’ time and the thought of blockbuster chemotherapy that gave you all those side-effects and adverse events will be a thing of the past.”

Patients who donate DNA must sign a consent form to allow academics, doctors and industry access to data. Any relevant information that comes from the sequencing is passed immediately to the patient’s doctor, but medical researchers or pharmaceutical companies must pass an ethical review and have their research approved before they can gain access. No raw genome data can be taken away from the database, and information that identifies a patient will only be made available to doctors treating the person in question.

Patients on the DNA database are not guaranteed anonymity, thoughGenomics England, the company set up by the Department of Health to run the project, said that security measures would make it easier to identify patients through other routes.

Ross Anderson, a security expert at Cambridge University, cautioned that genomic information is far more sensitive than the kinds of details people freely share on Facebook and reveal to supermarkets in their buying habits.

“Genetic data does not become less valuable over time but more valuable; we don’t really know yet what parts of it are sensitive, though we learn more over time; and finally, it’s shared with relatives,” he said. “Anybody who says they can protect the privacy of your genomic data by anonymising it is mistaken.”

Dangerous Effects of Artificial Sweeteners .

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The combination of America’s enormous appetite for sweets and its obsession with thinness has led to a flood of artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose that are used throughout the food industry, especially in products that are labeled “light” or “healthy”. This first seemed to be the silver bullet that dieters were looking for: a way to lose weight without giving up the desserts and sodas that they loved. However, if something looks too good to be true, then it’s probably time to take another look. Recent research has linked artificial sweeteners with a variety of health problems, including those listed below.

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Weight Gain

It is ironic that these artificial sweeteners, which have been marketed heavily to people trying to shed unwanted pounds, can actually promote weight gain. One piece of research from the San Antonio Heart Study which tracked participants over the course of eight years, found that weight gain and obesity were significantly higher in those who consumed diet beverages than those who did not.

Metabolic Syndrome

Another recent study found that those who consume diet soft drinks laced with artificial sweeteners have an increased risk for metabolic syndrome. This syndrome is actually a group of symptoms which all occur together and people suffering from this will generally present with high cholesterol levels, deposition of fat in the abdominal region, and increased blood sugar and blood pressure. Not surprisingly, this syndrome puts people at much greater risk for cardiovascular disease, strokes and a whole array of other health problems.

Diabetes

Medical research is also increasingly linking the consumptions of these additives with a significant increase in the risk of developing Type II diabetes. In some studies, this risk has more than doubled for those participants who consumed the highest amount of products containing artificial sweeteners. What is most disturbing in its implications is that even those who had a normal body weight and consumed these additives were at a greater risk for diabetes development.

High Blood Pressure and Heart Disease

Studies are also uncovering links between artificial sweeteners and an increased risk for high blood pressure (hypertension) and heart disease. This seems to be particularly true for women: several recent research papers have found that when women consume elevated levels of these additives, their risk for these serious conditions was significantly elevated. As heart disease remains one of the leading killers of women in America, this is certainly something to take note of.

The sad truth is that, far from being the healthy substitute to sugar that the food industry has promoted them as, artificial sweeteners actually promote obesity and can lead to the development of the conditions mentioned above. For those wanting to achieve or maintain a healthy weight, moderate amounts of natural sweeteners like honey or stevia remain the safest choice.

Largest Living Organism is Not the Blue Whale.

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The discovery of this giant Armillaria ostoyae in 1998 heralded a new record holder for the title of the world’s largest known organism, believed by most to be the 110-foot- (33.5-meter-) long, 200-ton blue whale. Based on its current growth rate, the fungus is estimated to be 2,400 years old but could be as ancient as 8,650 years, which would earn it a place among the oldest living organisms as well.

W.J.Pilsak (Walter J. Pilsak, Waldsassen)

A team of forestry scientists discovered the giant after setting out to map the population of this pathogenic fungus in eastern Oregon. The team paired fungal samples in petri dishes to see if they fused (see photo below), a sign that they were from the same genetic individual, and used DNA fingerprinting to determine where one individual fungus ended.

This one, A. ostoyae, causes Armillaria root disease, which kills swaths of conifers in many parts of the U.S. and Canada. The fungus primarily grows along tree roots via hyphae, fine filaments that mat together and excrete digestive enzymes. But Armillaria has the unique ability to extend rhizomorphs, flat shoestring like structures, that bridge gaps between food sources and expand the fungus’s sweeping perimeter ever more.

A combination of good genes and a stable environment has allowed this particularly ginormous fungus to continue its creeping existence over the past millennia. “These are very strange organisms to our anthropocentric way of thinking,” says biochemist Myron Smith of Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. An Armillaria individual consists of a network of hyphae, he explains. “Collectively, this network is called the mycelium and is of an indefinite shape and size.”

All fungi in the Armillaria genus are known as honey mushrooms, for the yellow-capped and sweet fruiting bodies they produce. Some varieties share this penchant for monstrosity but are more benign in nature. In fact the very first massive fungus discovered in 1992—a 37-acre (15-hectare) Armillaria bulbosa, which was later renamed Armillaria gallica—is annually celebrated at a “fungus fest” in the nearby town of Crystal Falls, Mich.

Myron Smith was a PhD candidate in botany at the University of Toronto when he and colleagues discovered this exclusive fungus in the hardwood forests near Crystal Falls. “This was kind of a side project,” Smith recalls. “We were looking at the boundaries of [fungal] individuals using genetic tests and the first year we didn’t find the edge.”

 

10 Ways To Connect To The Earth and Others .

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How do you feeling complete and connected to the Earth and others? It takes effort, but it is worth it. We must bring our focus outside of ourselves to allow us to reach out to people and to the world around us in positive ways. Loving, laughing, giving ourselves to others, spending time with friends and those in need to taking care of the environment or a companion animal, all promote positive interaction. Here are 10 steps to help you get connected.

1. Nature and Earth
If you think of nature as a hostile force that is separate from yourself, you will go through life unnecessarily afraid and cut off from one of the great sources of spiritual nourishment. Whether you connect with nature on wilderness trips or lunch breaks in a city park, you can always slow down and observe the infinite variety of her ways. One way to connect with nature is through plants: gardening, collecting plants from the wild, growing cactuses and flowering bulbs, and having unusual and useful plants in and around the home can all help promote connectedness with nature. Plants can enrich your daily life, bring comfort and joy, and remind you that however you think of yourself, you are also part of the natural world.

2. Animals
Research shows that people who have pets have less illness than people who do not. Pet owners also recover faster from serious illness and tend to be happier. Ex-prisoners who form relationships with pets have lower recidivism rates than those who do not. While pets can and inevitably will bring owners great joy, they are a responsibility: they demand a certain level of attention and care. However, the rewards that pets give in return are often too great to be measured. Loving and caring for a pet is a great way to learn how to love and care for other humans and nature.

3. Family and Relationships
We are not meant to be alone – we are meant to be parts of bigger families, bands, and tribes. Human beings want and need the intimate support of a real family. Unfortunately, the nuclear family of our modern society is contracted. It is hard not to look at the “extended families” of some cultures with wistful longing, if not outright envy. Where I live, in southern Arizona, the Hispanic population seems way ahead of the rest of us in providing for the needs of family. In many Hispanic families the old people, even when infirm, continue to be valued members and live at home. Don’t settle for nuclear family contraction. Extend!

4. Community
Community is the sense of living and working together for common goals. We are naturally communal beings and derive great satisfaction from the experience of belonging to a group with a common purpose. The strength and comfort of community come from the principle that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Our society often fails to provide for this need, and unless we work to create community, it does not happen, or does so in unhealthy ways. You can define community any way you want. It may be your neighborhood, your sports team, your environmental action group, your church, your social club. What makes it work is what you bring to it and the role you let it play in your life. This kind of connectedness gives us the power to improve our lives and make the world a better place.

5. Allowing
By allowing it means we don’t take control of the decisions of others, especially if they disagree with our own sensibilities. Absolute connection and freedom means freedom for all. It means giving up controlling ourselves and controlling others. When we think with a mind that is not free, when we are worried about what others will think or say about us, we try to control situations and people to prevent ourselves from being hurt. We enter a defensive mode for self preservation. We can never fully connect with others and the planet until we know peace and joy through allowing.

6. Serving
Selfless service means giving of yourself to help others with no thought of return. Many religious traditions extol the ideal of selfless service as one of the great aids to dismantling the ego cage and restructuring personality. Each day provides countless opportunities to practice putting others’ interests ahead of your own, such as giving of your time, energy and presence to reduce the suffering or increase the happiness of others. The goal is not to acquire spiritual merit, increase your chances of going to heaven, or earn the admiration of the community. Instead, service is a way of acknowledging that we are all one and that the happiness of each is connected to the happiness of all. The more you can experience the interconnectedness of all beings, the healthier you will be.

7. Loving
To love is to experience connection in its highest, purest form. Humans tend to confuse loving with other feelings that take us back into the world of separateness and fragmentation. Popular songs today seem to be mostly about the joys and pains of romantic love, not about loving as connection, which is something altogether different. Learning to love takes practice and time, especially in a culture that is focused so intensely on romantic love. In intimate relationships that work, the in-love state is replaced by mutual loving. That can happen only if both partners are mature and committed to a life together. Many people today have no idea what to do when they fall out of love with their partners; they think it means there is no possibility of continuing the relationship, which is why divorce rates are now so high. Realizing that you have within you a limitless source of love that can benefit everyone and everything will help you form the best and strongest connections of your life.

8. Laughing 
It’s no secret that laughter is good for you and, even when indulged in liberally, is gloriously free of side effects. Laughter is a simple stress reducer, a kind of natural Valium, but is also allows us to connect to other people in such unique ways, that it cannot be duplicated through any other method. Laughter helps people cope with the surprises of life. Humor is good for the body and so good for relationships. Those who laugh daily decrease tension, depression and anger.

9. Touching
Human beings need to touch and be touched. A great deal of animal and human research shows that individuals deprived of physical contact are insecure, poorly adjusted, and more prone to illness. Some cross-cultural research suggests that sexually repressed and touch-deprived societies are much more given to violence. Our own society, unfortunately, is in that category. Touching is an easy connection to make because it feels so good. Please do more of it.

10. Higher Powers
One reason the 12-step programs work as treatments for addiction is that they encourage connection to a power greater than yourself. It does not matter much how you conceive of that higher power; what matters is the sense of connection to it. You are free to choose the way you conceive of the universe and your place in it. People who experience themselves as part of and supported by something larger than themselves are less fearful and more healthy than people who view the world through the bars of an ego cage, seeing the world as separate from themselves, and as being disconnected.

Boost your iron levels with good nutrition and proper supplementation

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Iron deficiency is one of the most common nutritional deficiencies in the United States and women are among those at greatest risk. Iron is critical for producing hemoglobin, a protein that helps red blood cells deliver oxygen throughout your body. Without adequate iron, every system of the body suffers. Boost your iron levels with good nutrition and proper supplementation.

It is estimated that 9 percent of women and 2 percent of men have iron deficient anemia.(1) This is thought to be due to the menstruation process where woman bleeds during her ovulatory period. The loss of blood can range from a mild to severe loss and can lead to an anemic state.<br

Testing your iron levels

Checking for iron levels is done through a simple blood test called a serum ferritin test. The test measures the carrier molecule of iron; a protein found inside cells called ferritin, which stores the iron.

If your ferritin levels are low, it means your iron levels are also low. The healthy range of serum ferritin lies between 20 and 80 ng/ml. Below 20, you are iron deficient, and above 80, you have an iron surplus.

Ferritin levels can go really high. Levels can go over 1,000, but anything over 80 is likely going to be a problem. Anything under 20 is extremely concerning and indicative of anemia as well. The ideal range is 40-60 ng/ml. It is also important to make sure your iron levels do not get too high as it increases your risk of heart disease in men.

Best ways to increase iron levels

One could increase iron by consuming more iron in their diet and/or supplementing with a bioavailable iron source. Often times, individuals have leaky gut syndrome that is hampering their ability to effectively absorb iron. This makes iron supplementation more necessary.

Dietary iron has two main forms: heme and non-heme. Heme iron is formed when iron combines with protoporphyrin IX. This form is about 10 to 15 percent of total iron intake in Western populations. Plants contain non-heme iron only while animal foods contain both heme and non-heme iron.

From a dietary perspective, following the nutrition plan that is loaded with clean animal products from grass-fed/pasture-raised sources and lots of leafy green and cruciferous vegetables should provide ample amounts of iron.

If someone’s iron is low despite this sort of nutrition plan, than we suspect extreme leaky gut syndrome and possibly an auto-immune condition in their body. Under these circumstances it is important to supplement with a bioavailable form of iron for a period of time.

Iron supplementation

There are two general types of iron supplements which contain either the ferrous or ferric form of iron. Ferrous iron is the best absorbed form of iron supplements. Most available iron pills contain ferrous iron.

There are three types of ferrous iron supplements commonly found: ferrous sulfate, ferrous fumarate, and ferrous gluconate. All three are good forms of iron. Be careful to avoid cheap forms of iron and iron shavings. Certain co-factors such as vitamin C and betaine HCL help maximize iron absorption in the body.

Vitamin C

This anti-oxidant protects against the oxidation of the ferrous compound in the body, which is necessary for optimal absorption and hemoglobin synthesis.(2) Without anti-oxidant protection, the body oxidizes much of the supplemental iron and produces toxic byproducts that are linked to chronic disease development.

Betaine HCL

Many individuals with iron deficiency anemia have low hydrocholoric acid production in their stomach. This is related to the leaky gut syndrome that is often present and the low stomach acid is one of the major factors behind the iron deficiency. Supplementing with Betaine HCL helps optimize iron absorption.(3)

Sources for this article include:

1) http://www.aafp.org/afp/2007/0301/p671.html

2) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2507689

3) http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM196809262791302

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/046268_iron_deficiency_anemia_mineral_supplements.html#ixzz39FrUSffq

How close are we to having a drug to treat Ebola?

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Ebola is continuing to kill people across West Africa, but there is still no cure.

Available treatments only ease the symptoms of the disease. People with Ebola are given supportive care, such as intravenous fluids to combat the dehydration caused by bleeding, vomiting and diarrhoea.

Several potential drugs and vaccines are working their way through animal studies and clinical trials, but progress has been slow. On-the-ground trials are almost impossible to conduct, largely because outbreaks in Africa are sporadic and unpredictable. “It is difficult to do conventional clinical trials,” says Thomas Geisbert of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, who is developing vaccines and therapies.

Stopping replication

The only treatment to have reached human trials works through a technique called RNA interference. The approach uses RNA molecules – which can block DNA from making proteins – to stop the Ebola virus from replicating.

The drug, called TKM-Ebola, protected monkeys when it was given to them within 30 minutes of being injected with the virus. Safety studies in human volunteers have been paused, however, while the manufacturer gets more information to the US Food and Drug Administration about how the immune system responds to high doses.

Another approach is to inhibit a viral enzyme that is vital to the microbe’s survival. A compound that seems to do this, called BCX4430, is currently being tested in animals infected with Ebola.

Even better would be a vaccine against the virus. Perhaps the most promising – also still in animal studies – are those made from a relatively harmless microbe called vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). The VSV is genetically altered so that a protein on its surface is switched for one of Ebola’s proteins. This tricks the body’s immune system into thinking it has seen Ebola, and triggers the production of antibodies against the virus. The idea is that, if the immune system encounters the real virus later, it is primed and ready to attack it.

Research into vaccines and treatments for Ebola is ongoing <i>(Image: dpa picture alliance/Alamy)</i>

Vaccine as treatment

A vaccine could even be used as a treatment after someone is exposed to Ebola, in the same way that rabies vaccine is used therapeutically. That’s because these viruses are incubated for several days before they cause symptoms, so there is time for the vaccine to kick in.

Indeed, in 2009, one of the VSV-based vaccines was given to a German researcher who accidentally pricked her finger with a needle carrying the virus. She survived the incident, but there is no way to know if the virus really entered her body.

Such a strategy would need the vaccine to be given as soon as possible after exposure. “If someone comes in with the full-blown symptoms of haemorrhagic virus, they don’t have long, maybe 24 to 48 hours,” says Geisbert.

Unfortunately, none of these treatment approaches are close enough to receiving regulatory approval – or even passing the first stage of human safety trials – to be used in Africa now. They may be ready for the next epidemic, though, says Geisbert.

Scripps Research Institute Scientists Find New Calorie-Burning Switch in Brown Fat.

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Biologists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have identified a signaling pathway that switches on a powerful calorie-burning process in brown fat cells.

The study, which is reported in this week’s online Early Edition of theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, sheds light on a process known as “brown fat thermogenesis,” which is of great interest to medical researchers because it naturally stimulates weight loss and may also protect against diabetes.

“This finding offers new possibilities for the therapeutic activation of brown fat thermogenesis,” said team leader Anastasia Kralli, associate professor in TSRI’s Departments of Chemical Physiology and Cell Biology.

‘Revving the Engines’

Most fat cells in our bodies are “white fat” cells that store fat as a reserve energy supply. But we and other mammals also have depots of “brown fat” cells. These apparently evolved not to store but to burn energy—quickly, as a way of generating heat and keeping the body warm in cold conditions, as well as possibly to get rid of excess caloric intake.

Human babies as well as mammals that hibernate have relatively extensive brown fat tissues. Scientists have found in recent years that many adult humans have significant levels of brown fat, which are located mostly in the neck and shoulders, and appear to help regulate body weight and blood sugar.

Low temperatures activate the brown-fat thermogenesis process via the sympathetic nervous system: Nerve ends in brown fat tissue release the neurotransmitter norepinephrine, and that triggers a shift in metabolism within the brown fat cells, which are densely packed with tiny biological energy reactors called mitochondria.

“The mitochondria start generating heat instead of useful chemical energy; it’s like revving the engines of a lot of parked cars,” said first author Marin Gantner, who was a graduate student in the Kralli laboratory during the study.

Given the potential medical applications—about 100 million people suffer from obesity or diabetes in the US alone—researchers are eager to understand brown fat thermogenesis and how it can be boosted artificially. One clue, reported by other scientists in 1998, is that norepinephrine instructs brown fat cells to express high levels of a protein called PGC-1α, which acts as a general amplifier of energy metabolism and also activates thermogenesis. The Kralli laboratory has shown in past studies that PGC-1α works by activating a molecule called ERRα. But this pathway can’t be the only one that triggers thermogenesis, because mice lacking PGC-1α in their fat cells, or ERRα, still show most of the usual thermogenesis response to cold.

A Serendipitous Discovery

In the new study, Gantner, Kralli and their colleagues discovered another thermogenesis activation pathway that works alongside PGC-1α and ERRα.

Originally, however, they were not examining brown fat thermogenesis, but instead were looking for clues to the function of ERRβ, a protein about which little was known at the time, except that it was closely related to ERRα, appeared in brown fat cells, and also worked as a so-called nuclear receptor—a molecular switch for gene activation that can be turned on by small lipophilic molecules or a signaling protein partner.

In the hope of finding ERRβ’s signaling partner, the team screened about 18,000 different proteins to see which could biochemically activate it. After accumulating a short list of “hits,” the scientists found that one of them, GADD45γ, is normally produced in mouse brown fat cells and becomes especially abundant after exposure to cold—hinting that GADD45γ and ERRβ, much like PGC-1α and ERRα, work together to switch on brown fat thermogenesis.

The team then detailed the signaling in this pathway, from cold-induced norepinephrine release, to upregulation of GADD45γ in brown fat cells, to the activation of ERRβ and another closely related protein, ERRγ, which turned out to be also prevalent in brown fat cells and relevant to thermogenesis. “We focused on ERRγ after that,” Gantner said.

The team confirmed that the GADD45γ-mediated activation of ERRγ leads to the metabolic shift in brown fat mitochondria that is characteristic of thermogenesis. The scientists also found that transgenic mice lacking GADD45γ can’t fully switch on thermogenesis under cold conditions.

In the experiments, GADD45γ acted synergistically with PGC-1α to activate brown fat cell activity. “You have to add them together to get the full effect,” said Kralli, suggesting that ideally, one would stimulate both pathways to boost brown fat thermogenesis.

DNA project ‘to make UK world leader’

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A project aiming to revolutionise medicine by unlocking the secrets of DNA is under way in centres across England.

Prime Minister David Cameron has said it “will see the UK lead the world in genetic research within years”.

The first genetic codes of people with cancer or rare diseases, out of a target of 100,000, have been sequenced.

Experts believe it will lead to targeted therapies and could make chemotherapy “a thing of the past”.

Just one human genome contains more than three billion base pairs – the building blocks of DNA.

Unchecked growth

Breast tumour
Genetics is furthering the understanding of breast cancer

This four-year project which will look at 100,000 genomes is being run by Genomics England,.

Pilots have been set up at centres across England – including sites in Newcastle, Cambridge and London – and the first genome was sequenced on 30 May.

The project has now passed the 100 genome mark, with the aim of reaching 1,000 by the end of the year and 10,000 by the end of 2015.

The genome of a patient’s tumour will be scoured for differences with the genetic code of their healthy tissue.

People with rare diseases, usually children, will have their DNA compared with that of close relatives.

University scientists and a drug companies will be allowed to access the data for their research.

They argue that understanding DNA will soon play a role in every aspect of medicine from cancer to cardiology.

Cancer is one of the main areas the project will focus on.

Tumours are caused by mutations in DNA which lead to abnormal cells growing unchecked.

Previous genetics research has shown how different cancers can be – for example that breast cancer is not one disease but at least 10 – each with a different cause, life expectancy and needing a different treatment.

And the development of targeted drugs such as Herceptin, only given if a patient’s breast tumour has a certain mutation – has been possible because of genetics research.

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Edward Sherley-Price’s daughter has a rare genetic disease

Fifteen thousand families with rare diseases will take part in the project.

Edward Sherley-Price has first-hand experience of just how little is known about some conditions.

His 11-year-old daughter Alysia has regular seizures.

She was diagnosed with a developmental delay before her second birthday, but the cause was unknown.

It took until 2013 for genetic testing to discover what was wrong – a rare genetic mutation in a gene known as STXBP1.

The family say getting a diagnosis has given them a renewed sense of optimism.

The 100,000 Genomes Project could help people like Alysia by identifying a specific mutation, which lead to taking part in future drug trials.

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Sir John Chisholm, executive chair of Genomics England, said: “In Britain we were the discoverers of the structure of DNA, we were huge players in the human genome project and now the time has come for the next major step forward.

“One hundred thousand sequences is a very large step; it’s a huge commitment.”

Genomics England will be based at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, which is already a world-recognised centre of genetics research.

‘Every bit of medicine’

Prof Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, said: “I can see a future where genetics is going to come into every bit of medicine from cardiology to oncology to infectious diseases.”

He said there were already targeted therapies for some breast, lung, bowel and blood cancers.

“Twenty years from now there’s going to be a plethora of those, we will have a series of mutations which academics and industry will have developed therapies for, which will be targeted at you and specific for that cancer.”

He said chemotherapy, which attacks all dividing cells in the body, would be replaced with such therapies.

“We will look back in 20 years’ time and think of blockbuster chemotherapy [as] a thing of the past and we’ll think ‘Gosh, what an era that was’.”

DNA

David Cameron has announced a series of investments across government, industry and charities totalling £300m.

He said: “I am determined to do all I can to support the health and scientific sector to unlock the power of DNA, turning an important scientific breakthrough into something that will help deliver better tests, better drugs and above all better care for patients.

“I believe we will be able to transform how devastating diseases are diagnosed and treated in the NHS and across the world.”

NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said: “The NHS is now set to become one of the world’s ‘go-to’ health services for the development of innovative genomic tests and patient treatments, building on our long track record as the nation that brought humanity antibiotics, vaccines, modern nursing, hip replacements, IVF, CT scanners, and breakthrough discoveries from the circulation of blood to the existence of DNA.”

Ebola ‘spreading too fast.

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The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is spreading faster than efforts to control it, World Health Organization (WHO) head Margaret Chan has said.

Medical workers speak to families about how they can best protect themselves from the Ebola virus disease in Conakry, March 31

She told a summit of regional leaders that failure to contain Ebola could be “catastrophic” in terms of lives lost.

But she said the virus, which has claimed 728 lives in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since February, could be stopped if well managed.

Ebola kills up to 90% of those infected.

Ebola explained in 60 seconds

It spreads by contact with infected blood, bodily fluids, organs – or contaminated environments. Patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment.

Initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external haemorrhaging from the eyes and gums, and internal bleeding that can lead to organ failure.

A US relief agency says it will repatriate two of its American staff who have contracted the virus in Liberia.

They are believed to be the first Ebola patients ever to be treated in the US.

Hundreds of US Peace Corps volunteers have already been evacuated from the West African countries.

Separately, US President Barack Obama announced that delegates from affected countries attending a US-Africa conference in Washington next week would be screened.

“Folks who are coming from these countries that have even a marginal risk, or an infinitesimal risk of having been exposed in some fashion, we’re making sure we’re doing screening,” he said.

An employee of the Monrovia City Corporation sprays disinfectant inside a government building in a bid to prevent the spread of the deadly Ebola virus (1 August 2014)
Offices are being sprayed with disinfectant in the Liberian capital Monrovia to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus
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Analysis: David Shukman, BBC science editor

Friday’s summit should provide the kind of international co-operation needed to fight Ebola but the battle against the virus will be won or lost at the local level. An over-attentive family member, a careless moment while burying a victim, a slip-up by medical staff coping with stress and heat – a single small mistake in basic hygiene can allow the virus to slip from one human host to another.

The basic techniques for stopping Ebola are well known. The problem is applying them. Since the virus was first identified in 1976, there have been dozens of outbreaks and all of them have been contained. Experts point to these successes as evidence that this latest threat can be overcome too.

But working against them are suspicions among local people and the unavoidable fact that this is an extremely poor part of the world, much of it still reeling from conflict. Deploying the right equipment in properly trained hands is always going to be a struggle, one that is now extremely urgent.

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