Immunology
Our immune system does not shut down with age, says a new study published in PLOS Pathogens today. T cells can respond to virus infections in an older person with the same vigor as T cells from a young person.
Researchers examined individuals, younger than 40, between 41 to 59 years of age and older than 60, infected with three different viruses, including West Nile, and found the older group demonstrated perfectly normal immune responses.
Both the number of virus-fighting T cells and the functionality of the T cells were equivalent in all three groups.
"For a long time, it was thought the…
A flu vaccine that also helps prevent heart disease?Two researchers presented studies at the 2012 Canadian Cardiovascular Congress saying that the influenza vaccine could also help maintain heart health and ward off strokes and heart attacks.
An Ipsos Reid survey conducted by B.C. and Quebec Lung Associations this year found that 36 percent of Canadians reported having received a flu shot in 2011. Low, but younger people are not as at-risk and non-institutionalized seniors aged 65 and older have higher coverage, at 66 percent. The Public Health Agency of Canada's National…
New research findings show that immune system development is affected by gravity changes when astronauts are exposed to stresses during launch and landing which disrupts their body’s natural defenses against infection. Changes to the immune system need to be investigated before astronauts undergo longer space missions.
Researchers looked at how antibody production is affected when animal development occurs on board a space station and which part of space travel has the greatest impact on antibodies, which are the proteins that the immune system uses to protect us from diseases.
To do…
Sub-Saharan Africa has problems. A cow in France makes twice as much money as the average human in Sub-Saharan Africa and the region is beset by problems that stem from post-colonial corruption and inclement conditions.
Now, a new study reveals that the emergence and spread of a rapidly evolving invasive intestinal disease that has a significant mortality rate (up to 45%) in infected people there. Researchers found that invasive non-Typhoidal Salmonella (iNTS) disease is caused by a new form of the bacteria Salmonella Typhimurium that has spread from two different focal hubs in…
Hank |
A study in Food and Chemical Toxicology into the health effect of a GM-tolerant maize crop and the herbicide Roundup suggested lab rats developed mammary tumors and were more likely to die prematurely. Science Media Centre issued a press release with some of the concerns by other scientists. Only a few are included, for the full list and quotes go here.
I parsed out the ones I thought most insightful but I am biased toward, you know, science, so calibrate accordingly. And calibrate the French researchers behind this too, since they take being anti-science Europeans to the extreme.
Citation:…
A natural product secreted by a soil bacterium may lead to a new drug to treat tuberculosis, report scientists in a new study. Pyridomycin, a natural antibiotic produced by the bacterium Dactylosporangium fulvum, has been shown to be active against many of the drug-resistant types of the tuberculosis bacterium that no longer respond to treatment with the front-line drug isoniazid.
Tuberculosis causes up to two million deaths annually and there is a significant need for new drugs since the effectiveness of current antibiotics is compromised by the increasing prevalence of drug-resistant…
According to WHO, "Although it is a vaccine-preventable disease, rabies still poses a significant public health problem in many countries in Asia and Africa where 95% of human deaths occur even though safe, effective vaccines for both human and veterinary use exist." Here in the United States, rabies is something to be thought of mostly in terms of the routine vaccines that our pets get or in remembering the Walt Disney film Old Yeller. For most of us, it isn't a disease we've ever had personal exposure to, and yet it still has the ability to terrify, especially since it essentially…
Researchers have found that a human monoclonal antibody developed by MassBiologics of the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) protected chimpanzees from hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in a dose-dependent manner.
The study was conducted at Texas Biomed's Southwest National Primate Research Center. Chimpanzees are the only species other than humans that can be infected by HCV and therefore the results from this study were critical in the development of the monoclonal antibody. HCV damages the liver and is the leading indication for liver transplantation, diagnosed…
I am white. I am liberal. I went to a good college, but some might argue that I didn't get a good education. Certainly I like to study science to this day. Let me tell a medical story I went through which might be germane to a blog by Hank, "Celiac: The Trendy Disease For Rich White People".
I have always been liberal about eating, as in I eat anything. I was skeptical about all food allergies. I also have insulin dependent diabetes. That is a disease that can kill you any day, but I am approaching my thirtieth year.
Three summers ago, my energy levels were dropping. That can sound…
Hank |
Are you white and a little resentful that black people get their own cool disease, sickle cell anemia? There is good news for you. Celiac disease is all the latest rage and you can be any color at all and claim it.
How do you know if you are gluten intolerant? Elaborate assays? DNA? At least a blood sample? Nope, you just have to give up wheat and say you feel better and you are allowed to claim you have it. And proponents have even scarier numbers - they claim 97 percent of the people who have Celiac disease don't know they have it, so their ranks are really much…