Link Between Influenza Outbreaks and Humidity

Jeffrey Shaman, an Oregon State University atmospheric scientist, has discovered a link between absolute humidity and influenza outbreaks. This discovery does not shock the scientific community in that scientists have long suspected a link between humidity and seasonal(epidemic) flu outbreaks.  While scientists have focused on relative humidity, absolute humidity is the actual amount of water in the air, irrespective of temperature. Researchers used thirty-one years of observed absolute humidity conditions to create a mathematical model of influenza and found that the simulations reproduced the seasonal cycle of influenza in the United States.

            Beginning observations in New York, Washington, Illinois, Arizona and Florida, then spreading to the rest of the continental U.S.  Shaman and his colleagues discovered that the start of many influenza outbreaks during the winter came after a period of weather that was drier than usual. Shaman makes it a point to clarify that a dry period is not a necessary requirement to trigger an influenza outbreak, nor can the information help predict where there will be an influenza outbreak . However, this discovery could have a major impact on the development of strategies forlimiting spread of infection.

Outbreaks Of Influenza Linked To Changes Of Ab

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Lacking Telomeres May Make You Age Faster

Lacking Telomeres May Make You

Age Faster

By Clay Walsh and Dana Berger

Scientists may have made a breakthrough in establishing the cause and speed of biological aging by researching telomeres. Telomeres are DNA pieces on the end of chromosomes which help protect the chromosomes from damage and degrading over time. They are almost padding or protection to the weak DNA inside of them. Some scientists now think that these shrinking as cells divide is the cause of biological aging. First, it is important to know the difference between biological and chronological aging. Biological aging is how your cells are physically after the splitting of these cells. Chronological age merely refers to how long you have actually lived. What these scientists are saying is that someone with smaller telomeres who has lived 45 years may actually have the body of a 55 year old individual.

Scientists from the University of Leicester led by Nilesh Samani actually examined 500,000 genetic variations to find different telomere lengths in the variations. The scientists found a certain variant inside some people that cause them to have shorter telomeres. This variant is actually genetic, and is passed from parent to child. It is like any chromosome with each parent passing one copy down to their child. Previous studies on animals showed that animals with shorter telomeres actually do have faster biological aging. According to scientists, on average, people with one copy of variant are 4-5 biological years older then someone the same chronological age without the variant. Someone with two copies, one from each parent, looks biologically 6-8 years older then someone their chronological age without the variant.

Samani says that it is actually rather common for people to have at least one copy of the variant. He has said "About 7 percent of people carried two copies of the variant, and 38 percent of people [carried] one copy. He also has said that the scientists do not know if people actually look physically older. It seems like it would be difficult to actually tell or judge if they did. Samani has also brought up concerns of early heart disease, as he works as a cardiologist at the university. He has said that shorter telomeres may lead to earlier heart disease, and that very old people chronologically may have perfect heart health, and some younger people chronologically may be at severe risk. This raises large concerns for people who may consider themselves healthy, but actually are at severe risk. It will be very interesting to see if these scientists are able to distinguish older biological people by looks. It also might be a good idea to research a way to create longer telomere transplants for people to prevent premature aging.

The white pieces on the end are telomeres.

Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=aging-telomere
Acknowledgements: Scientific American for writing the first article, and Nilesh Samani and the University of Leicester for conducting the research

Lacking Telomeres May Make You Age Faster

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Scorpion Venom Used to Cure Pain

Professor Michael Gurevitz and other scientists at the Tel Aviv University Department of Plant Science are investigating a new way for painkillers to work. They are going to use the natural compounds that can be found in scorpion venom. The research that has been conducted has proven that because the venom has evolved over time, it showed to be extremely effective on the body because there seams to be low side effects after use. This is only a theory that Prof. Gurevitz has made. The way the venom can help reduce pain, is that the venom found in scorpions have toxins called Peptides, which interacts with sodium channels in the muscular system and nervous system. The sodium channels conduct the pain. Scientists believe that if they can isolate the pain receptors in the channels, they can develop an even more effective painkiller than morphine. Along with people following scorpion venom as a painkiller, others have found that it is an efficient way to treat epilepsy.

The Israeli Yellow scorpion's venom works in the way that neurotoxin works. When the neurotoxins get inside the body, the they will almost instantly paralyze the prey preventing them from fleeing, and fighting back. The venom from the Israeli Yellow Scorpion is only affective on small prey, but when the venom is put inside a bigger animal, like a human, there is not as bad of an effect.

There are many dangerous things that need to be worked on right now in the new painkillers with venom in it. The scientists are dealing with the Israeli yellow scorpion which is one of the deadliest scorpions in the world. This scorpion is very poisonous. The Israeli yellow scorpion has 300 different peptides in its venom and only some of them have been researched. Many of the peptides' affects are unknown. There are also many dangers in the scorpion's toxins. Currently Prof. Gurevitz and other scientists are trying to produce these new painkillers with minimized problems of the venom's bad bioactive components.

Though this drug does have some side affects there are great things that can also come from this new pain killer. If the scientists were to successfully produce this painkiller it could solve one of the biggest problems in the medical world today. Aspirin does not help with extreme pain and morphine is an addictive drug. These new drugs would help with serious burns, bad cuts, would be a good thing to use in the military, and would be useful to people with bad injuries after earthquakes and other natural disasters. This new painkiller would work quickly, effectively, and there would be no addiction associated with the drug.

Ack:

- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100216163341.htm?
utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Netvibes
-www.wilsonsbiologylab.com
-google docs
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc13vSPrXNd4s1wnw70JNJqA-hGZRCQqGmIOLLlWY2pNsdZ826aACAwjtWtYm-gvh-lH9XQy7HR4Su8saA30ZMY3I-ZuQNi0q094HjWCep-qMiW38XxpMc6g4m-6IyUJZtWCn9QN9H-qXJ/s200/arizona_bark_scorpion.jpg
http://files.turbosquid.com/Preview/Content_2009_07_14__00_07_03/scorpio.jpg92B9A1A1-299D-40C6-BBEA7F68FD4402EF.jpgLarge.jpg
- http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/flight-international/scorpion.gif

By: Phillip Messineo, Lally Homans, and Gordon Spector

Dolphins May Help In Finding A Cure For D

Dolphins May Help In Finding A Cure For D

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Can dolphins help with diabetics?

New research has added to the fact that bottlenose dolphins go into a safe diabetic state during their overnight fasting. This results in maintaining high levels of glucose in their blood. On February 18th, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, more research was presented suggesting that dolphins could be a good model for studying and experimenting with for diabetes. It could provide greater understanding and results for people living with the disease as well. Carbohydrates usually give animals a large amount of glucose. What dolphins eat cause them to have a lot of protein and not so much glucose-rich carbohydrates. It is possible that dolphins have something called a "diabetic switch" which gives them food even when they do not eat. Veterinary epidemiologist Stephanie Venn-Watson said "Brains need sugar to function, but a diet of fish has no sugar". This believed in "switch" could possibly enable dolphins to control their diabetic state. A person with type 2 diabetes has high levels of glucose when they are resistant to insulin. They do not respond to the insulin, which tells their body tissues to soak up the glucose from in the blood. Dolphins, however, are a different case altogether. When a person has a high level of glucose it can prove to be hazardous, but for a dolphin it might help fuel their big brains when they are in between meal times.

Studies show that this "insulin resistance" that dolphins have can be bad. The insulin level in something is when cells in the liver, muscles, and fat tissue take glucose from the blood and keep it in the liver and muscles. From this resistance the dolphins could start to produce a "pathological form of diabetes," meaning there is no way for the diabetes to go away, and they cannot control it. For weeks scientists worked to study dolphin's insulin levels. They did this after each dolphin ate, and they studied six dolphins. They found that when dolphins fast, they "show changes in blood chemistry" and they also have changes in their glucose level, which is exactly like humans. Humans and dolphins are very different, but we both have big brains and large blood cells which can carry big amounts of glucose. Some scientists believe that humans have a similar "switch," like the dolphins, in our bodies. Scientists believe that after the ice age, humans could not eat carbs because all the foods with carbs froze. So, they believe that humans used this "insulin resistance" to keep glucose in the brain. They believe something similar to this happened to the dolphins many years ago. In conclusion, scientists think and hope that maybe they could find a diabetic "switch" in humans.

By, Raina, Irena, and Aliza

Attacking Cancer Cells With Hydrogel Nanoparticles

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have found a new way to aid chemotherapy and lessen the dramatic effects it has on the body. They are using special apoptosis causing RNA (siRNA) to kill cells in the specific area where the cancer is. Therefore, this procedure can target just the cancerours cells and not kill non-cancerous cells like chemotherapy does. This newly discovered type of siRNA does not totally do the job of chemotherapy, but it can make chemotherapy more effective and therefore lessen the time chemotherapy is actually used. This siRNA inhibits the EGFR’s (Epidermal growth factor receptors). In cancerous cells there is an overabundance of EGFR, which causes cells to go through mitosis faster and more often, and it also inhibits the cells apoptotic function. By interfering with the EGFR, siRNA allows the cell to regain its apoptotic function and also stop the constant reproduction of new mutated, cancerous cells.

The siRNA cannot survive outside of the cell very long, since it denaturalizes. However, the researchers have also found a hydrogel that keeps the siRNA intact outside the cells and therefore can be safely transported into the cancerous cells. The hydrogel does another, more important job. If the siRNA is only released at one time the cancerous cell can recover its control over the EGFR and therefore the treatment would be ineffective. However, the hydrogel releases the siRNA slowly and constantly over a period of time, which allows the cell to either go through apoptosis or for the chemotherapy to kill the cell.


Works Cited:
http://www.medgadget.com/archives/img/sirna.jpg

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100216140404.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+(ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News)&utm_content=Netvibes

http://www.odec.ca/projects/2005/thog5n0/public_html/Tumour.gif

Malaria Vaccine

Malaria is a very serious disease. It is spread by infected mosquitoes who bite a contaminated person and then pass on the disease when they bite another, uninfected person. Once bitten by an infected mosquito, the victim gets the malaria parasite in their blood stream. Once in the blood stream, the parasite begins to multiply and spread all over the body and disease and/or death soon follow. According to the World Health Organization, there are over 300 million cases or malaria each year, and every 30 seconds a child dies from malaria – that means that almost 1 million children die every year from malaria alone. Scientifically, we can treat malaria and keep the disease from being effective, but it is expensive and malaria has been eradicated in the developed world, which have prevented research into making the medication less expensive. However, in developing places like Africa, because the treatment is too expensive and there is no vaccine, the way to prevent the disease was to sleep under mosquito nets or to kill the mosquitoes. However, these are bad solutions because the only thing that is truly effective against mosquitoes is DEET, but when released upon an environment in large, blanketing quantities, it negatively affects many different parts of the ecosystems – and it is impossible to stay under a mosquito net every moment of every day. Although by adulthood most people in malaria affected nations have developed some sort of immunity, the high death rate among children has prompted a wide spread search for a vaccine.

And, it appears that one may have been found. Called FMP2.1/ASO2A, this vaccine targets the falciparum malaria strain, the most common and deadliest strain. How it works, is a protein, called AMA-1 affects the virus and causes it to be ineffective or makes it easier for the immune system to defeat – the exact mechanism was not explained. In addition to this protein, an adjuvant system, called ASO2, is utilized to increase immune system response so the immune system is more likely, and better able, to produce the antibodies that will fight of later infections. The vaccine is currently being used tested on a larger scale, from 100 children to 400 children and thus far there have been no adverse effects.

There are, however, some problems with this vaccine. First, it treats only one specific strain. While this is a big step, and researchers are hopeful it will be effective against other strains, these other strains are killing people as well and this vaccine may not help them. Also, malaria is a parasite, which means it does not behave like a disease caused by a virus or bacterium. Unlike many of these diseases, when symptoms of malaria abate, the parasite is still in the victim’s body and relapses occur. What happens to people who survive the first time, is their immune system develops an immunity to the disease which lessens the severity of these relapses. Decreasing the severity of the relapses is what this vaccine attempts to duplicate. The problem with this approach, is that if the parasite is genetically altered in anyway, it is still in the victims body and the changes will affect the victim immediately, rather than on the off chance they get bitten by a mosquito with the altered parasite.

University of Maryland Medical Center. "New Malaria Vaccine Is Safe and Protective in Children, Scientists Find." ScienceDaily 6 February 2010. 10 February 2010 .

Disease Malaria Presentation

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Health Benefits from Vitamin D?

By Jennie, Sophie, and Zoe

Original Article Here

Some scientists believe that vitamin D could be used to build bones, strengthen the immune system, and lower the risk of illnesses such as diabetes, heart and kidney disease, high blood pressure, and cancer. They think that people can achieve this by consuming more vitamin D that the body makes from sunlight, fish, and fortified milk. Vitamin D is found throughout the body and it is used to turn cells on and off.People’s vitamin D levels are influenced by whether they have light or dark skin, where they live, how much time they spend outdoors and by fish and milk consumption. To raise one's vitamin D level without taking an actual supplement, you could increase the time you get sun for 15 extra minuets. People who are older, have diabetes, kidney disease, or stay indoors are at risk of Vitamin D deficiency.The recommended amount of consumption is 400 international units a day. but for many that could be too low. Although many people don't get the recommended amount of vitamin D. The 2008 on an American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that 10% of children are very deficient of Vitamin D. Now many doctors check their patients to see if they are getting a recomended amount of vitamins and prescribe them medicine if they aren't. Although some scientists are skeptical about the idea that vitamin D can b used to help so many problems. They are not positive that it will help improve health for everyone or if it could even have negative effects on some people. Also they are afraid of people consuming high doses and having bad side effects. The type of experiment scientists would have to do to be able to test Vitamin D would involve using humans as test subjects which is morally wrong if they humans have bad side effects. Dr. Manson says that it is possible for people to have high levels of vitamin D if they exercise or stay outdoors a lot of if they have a healthy diet and don't smoke. The nationwide clinical trial is taking 2,000 adults such as men 60 years older and women 65 and older to study if high doses and amounts of vitamin D and omega 3 fatty acids from things such as fish oil can help lower the probability of heart diseases and cancer. Dr. Manson's experiment is to take the participants and divide them into four separate. 1 group will take vitamin D and fish oil pills, 1 will just take vitamin D, 1 will just take fish oil pills and the 1 will take placebo pills. the participants will take vitamin D3 and will use one-gram supplements of omega-3 fish oil. They will take it about 5-10 times of the average daily intake.

The Women's Health Initiative study tracked women taking 400 units of Vitamin D and 100 units of calcium. Although they didn't find many benefits to taking the supplements except a lower risk of hip fracture. Also many people believe that 400 units isn't enough but every person varies. Another study was for 1,200 women who took 1,500 milligrams of calcium and 1,000 units of vitamin D and they showed a lower risk of breast cancer. Although vitamin D and calcium might have a positive effect, some scientists even say that increasing the supplements can cause heart problems, diabetes, and cancer. Other scientists say its hard to predict the potential effects a person could have.

Acknowledgments:

Wilson's Biology Lab

The New York Times

Vitamin D by Jennie Nadel, Sophie Biber, and Zoe Lee-Mcdermott

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Will Genetic Juicing Replace Steroids?

Athletes are always under pressure to become stronger and faster. Some coaches take risks and drastic measures like steroids. Many athletes and coaches will be tempted to find new ways to give the athletes and advantage. Thus, many people are now turning to Gene therapy to make themselves stronger. Gene therapy is the practice of inserting different genes into the cells to improve their performance. Currently, it is only legally used for medical reasons to make patients live longer. However, gene therapy is currently risky for several reasons: firstly, the gene may be rejected by patient. Because the genes are foreign material, people's immune system may reject the gene and destroy it, causing the operation to fail. If the operation is done poorly enough, the immune system's response may be severe enough to kill the patient (i.e., shutting down organs, including the brain). Also, gene therapy does not last for a long period of time, so multiple operations are required until the therapy actually works and cures the patient.

This does not stop many athletes and coaches attempting to try it out. Many medical centers claim to have the latest "breakthrough" in genetic therapy, and they claim to be cheap and effective. One of the more popular advertised therapies is the insertion of synthetic genes into athletes, which can produce chemicals linked to muscle building. Another molecular manipulation regulates or increases the production of energy-efficient muscle fibers. In 2006, a German track and field coach tried to allow genetic juicing to his athletes for the 2008 Olympics in China, but was caught before anyone could be treated. In an attempt to stop genetic manipulation in athletics, the World Anti-Doping Agency (an organization set up by the Olympics to stop athletes from using enhancing drugs in sport) preemptively outlawed all genetic therapy in athletes. Additionally, scientists are working on ways to catch genetic enhancements by looking at and isolating suspicious genes. Sadly, these preventive methods will probably to do little to stop desperate coaches and players, and genetic enhancements in athletes may replace steroids. However, the side effects of genetic therapy are much more dangerous than steroids, and they will probably lead many players to their demise.

Sources:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=athlete-alert-is-genetic-juicing-se-2010-02-04

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_therapy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Gelsinger

Image credit:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/DNA_helix_structure.png

By Coda, Afemi, and Mason

Genetherapypres by Coda, Afemi, and Mason

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Sea slugs that are half plant, half animal

Sea Slug

A green sea slug was found that seems to be part animal, and part plant. It is the first animal to produce the plant pigment Chlorophyll. The slugs seem to have taken some of the genes from algae that they eat. With these stolen genes, they can carry out photosynthesis. The slugs can make their own energy without having to eat. This of course is very beneficial when it comes to survival. Sidney Pierce studied these green sea slugs, called Elysia Chlorotica for around 20 years. January Seventh was the first time that multicellular animals produced chlorophyll. The sea slugs live in the salt marshes in New England and Canada. They take the genes needed to make the green chlorophyll and the small cell parts called chloroplasts which are used to conduct photosynthesis. The scientists doubted this, so they designed an experiment. In the experiment, the researchers collected them, and put them in a tank without any food. As long as the sea slugs had light on them for 12 hours a day, the slugs could survive. The researchers used a radioactive tracer to make sure that the slugs were actually producing the chlorophyll and not stealing from algae. They actually pass it on to future generations. The babies of the sea slug theives can produce their own chlorophyll, but they can't produce photosynthesis until they've eaten enough algae to steal the necessary chloroplasts. Scientists aren't quite sure how the slugs can actually take the genes that they need. It is obvious that they take DNA from other organisms, but the mechanics are still unknown.

Researchers find "broad spectrum" antiviral that fights multitude of viruses

One of the reasons viruses are near impossible to combat is the fact that not only do they vary in many ways but they mutate often. Deadly viruses such as HIV are able to resist so much of what is thrown at them because of their mutating abilities. Despite the mercurial nature of viruses a group of researchers from UCLA and other universities may have found an effective way to combat them.

The compound the researchers have discovered is a rhodanine derivative that the researchers have dubbed LJ001. It is classified as a “small molecule broad spectrum antiviral”, meaning that it fights viruses by attacking them through a common feature that viruses share. LJ001 works by binding to both cellular and viral membranes and inactivating them. However LJ001 is not harmful because of the natural regenerative qualities of metabolically active cells which are able to repair the damage unlike the virus cell. Therefore the compound is able to attack viruses without serious damage to the rest of an organisms’ cells. Researchers have seen the effectiveness of LJ001 on various virus strains however the exact mechanism if viral membrane inactivation is still unknown

One of the reasons for excitement over LJ001 is the fact that the FDA has approved few broad spectrum antivvirals, and the ones that have generally less effective and very costly. Studies have shown that LJ001 has the potential to be effective against a wide range of viruses HIV-1, influenza A, filoviruses, poxviruses, arenaviruses, bunyaviruses, paramyxoviruses and flaviviruses. These viruses are the cause of some of world’s deadliest diseases such as, Nipah virus encephalitis, Ebola, hemorrhagic fever and Rift Valley fever. Since it is a broad spectrum antiviral, LJ001 may even have the properties to be effective against viruses that have yet to be discovered.

Rivero, Enrique. "Researchers find 'broad spectrum' antiviral that fights multitude of viruses."www.eurekalert.org. 01/02/2010. Eurekalert, Web. 2 Feb 2010. .

Broad Spectrum A

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-Jukie & Cyrus