Bug drugs: bacteria-based cancer therapies are finally overcoming barriers

Lightspring/Shutterstock Justin Stebbing, Anglia Ruskin UniversityImagine a world where bacteria, typically feared for causing disease, are turned into powerful weapons against cancer. That’s exactly what some scientists are working on. And they are beginning to unravel the mechanisms for doing so, using genetically engineered bacteria to target and destroy cancer cells. Using bacteria to fight cancer dates back to the 1860s when William B. Coley, often called the father of immunotherapy, injected bacteria called streptococci into a young patient with inoperable bone cancer. Surprisingly, this unconventional approach led to the tumour shrinking, marking one of the first examples of immunotherapy. William Coley (centre), a pioneer of bug drugs. Wikimedia CommonsOver the next few decades, as head of the Bone Tumour Service at Memorial Hospital in New York, Coley injected over 1,000 cancer patients with bacteria or bacterial products. These products became known as Coley’s toxins. Despite this early promise, progress in bacteria-based cancer therapies has been slow. The development of radiation therapy and chemotherapy overshadowed Coley’s work, and his approach faced scepticism from the medical community. However, modern immunology has vindicated many of Coley’s principles, showing that some cancers are indeed very sensitive...
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Why can’t I sleep? 4 ways climate change could be keeping you up at night and what you can do about it

Marcos Mesa Sam Wordley/Shutterstock Ty Ferguson, University of South Australia and Carol Maher, University of South AustraliaTossing and turning on sweltering summer nights? You’re not alone. As temperatures rise due to climate change, our sleep is becoming shorter and more disrupted. But it’s not just the heat keeping us awake – climate change creates multiple challenges to our nightly slumber, which may be affecting our health. What happens when we don’t get enough sleep? Sleep isn’t just rest – it’s vital for our health. Adults need at least seven hours per night to maintain cognitive function, memory and emotional balance. Poor sleep immediately impacts mood and attention, while chronic sleep issues increase risk of diabetes, obesity, depression, heart disease and even premature death. So, how is climate change impacting our sleep? 1. Overnight temperatures are rising Our circadian rhythm – that internal biological clock – requires our internal body temperature to drop at night for quality sleep. The ideal room temperature for sleep is 15°C to 19°C. Rising outdoor temperatures make this body temperature increasingly difficult to maintain, especially for those without air conditioning. Paradoxically, widespread air conditioning use further contributes to climate change by using fossil-energy, which creates...
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Giving blood could be good for your health – new research

Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock Michelle Spear, University of BristolBlood donation is widely recognised as a life-saving act, replenishing hospital supplies and aiding patients. But could donating blood also benefit the donor? Frequent blood donors may experience subtle genetic changes that could lower their risk of developing blood cancers, according to new research from the Francis Crick Institute in London. Alongside this, a growing body of evidence highlights a range of health benefits associated with regular donation. As we age, our blood-forming stem cells naturally accumulate mutations, a process known as clonal haematopoiesis. Some of these mutations increase the risk of diseases such as leukaemia. However, the new Francis Crick Institute study has identified an intriguing difference in frequent blood donors. The study compared two groups of healthy male donors in their 60s. One group had donated blood three times a year for 40 years, while the other had given blood only about five times in total. Both groups had a similar number of genetic mutations, but their nature differed. Nearly 50% of frequent donors carried a particular class of mutation not typically linked to cancer, compared with 30% of the infrequent donors. It is thought that regular blood donation encourages the body to produce fresh blood cells, altering...
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Eye tests can help predict stroke risk: Study

Sydney, (IANS): Routine eye tests can accurately predict a person's risk of stroke, according to an international research team on Tuesday.The research, led by the Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA) in Melbourne, Australia identified a blood vessel "fingerprint" at the back of the eye that can be used to predict a person's stroke risk as accurately as traditional risk factors, but without the need for invasive tests, Xinhua News agency reported.The research found that the fingerprint consists of 118 indicators of vascular health and can be analyzed from fundus photography, a common tool used in routine eye tests.The team used a machine learning tool called the Retina-based Microvascular Health Assessment System (RMHAS) to analyse fundus photos of the eyes of 45,161 people in the UK with an average age of 55.During an average monitoring period of 12.5 years, 749 participants had a stroke.The researchers identified 29 of the 118 indicators as being significantly associated with first-time stroke risk.Of the 29, about 17 of the indicators were related to vascular density, the percentage of a region of tissue that is occupied by blood vessels. Low density in the retina and brain is associated with an increased risk of stroke.According to the study, each change in density indicators was associated with an increased stroke risk...
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Experts urge heart disease patients to avoid extreme weather exposures

New Delhi, (IANS): People with cardiovascular diseases and those with risk factors must avoid extreme exposures, said health experts on Wednesday."Exposure to extreme cold or heat without any pre-acculturation might lead to disturbance in cardiovascular function. Hence, patients with risk factors for cardiovascular diseases should avoid such extreme exposures," Harshal R Salve, Additional professor, centre for community medicine at AIIMS, New Delhi, told IANS.He also urged people to be "aware about one's cardiovascular health such as blood pressure, deep vein thrombosis, uncontrolled diabetes status before venturing to extreme weather events".Cardiologist Ashwani Mehta, from a city-based hospital, said many people get heart attacks in the winter.It is majorly due to the fluctuation in the temperature which can spike the blood pressure levels."It can even increase the sympathetic response to the changing blood pressure, leading to increased BP and heart rate; and the arteries can go into constriction".Various studies show that the platelet aggregability and the tendency to form clots in the arteries increase during the winter season. This can also increase the rate of heart attacks during the winter season.Exposure to extreme cold can affect the heart, the brain and other vital organs. One should keep their body warm to help reduce...
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Weight-loss drugs draw Americans back to the doctor

FILE PHOTO: Injection pens and boxes of Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss drug Wegovy are shown in this photo illustration in Oslo, Norway, November 21, 2023. REUTERS/Victoria Klesty/IllustrationBy Deena Beasley(Reuters) -Powerful weight-loss drugs are expanding use of U.S. health care as patients starting prescriptions are diagnosed with obesity-related conditions or take the drugs to become eligible for other services, health records and discussions with doctors show.An exclusive analysis of hundreds of thousands of electronic patient records by health data firm Truveta found slight, but measurable, increases in first-time diagnoses of sleep apnea, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes within 15 days of an initial prescription for a GLP-1 weight-loss drug between 2020 and 2024.In addition to obesity-related conditions, some patients are being prescribed the drugs to lose weight and become eligible for services, including organ transplants, fertility treatments or knee replacements, according to interviews with seven doctors and five other health experts.Lung transplant patient Bensabio Guajardo and the team at UChicago Medicine’s ACTNOW weight loss clinic pose for a picture at the clinic, in Chicago, March 2023. Mark Black/UChicago Medicine/Handout via REUTERS“This is a population that previously felt stigmatized by health care...
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Mentally stimulating down time activities linked to better brain health: study

Canberra, (IANS) Engaging in mentally stimulating activities during down time, such as reading, can be beneficial for brain health, according to an Australian research.In a new study, researchers from the University of South Australia (UniSA) found that some sedentary, or sitting, activities are better for cognitive function than others.The researchers assessed the 24-hour activity patterns of 397 adults aged 60 and above, and found that socially or mentally stimulating activities such as reading, playing musical instruments, crafting or talking to others are beneficial for memory and thinking abilities.Watching television or playing video games was found to be detrimental.The researchers said the findings could help reduce the risks of cognitive impairment, including from dementia."We already know that physical activity is a strong protector against dementia risk, and this should certainly be prioritised if you are trying to improve your brain health. But until now, we hadn't directly explored whether we can benefit our brain health by swapping one sedentary behavior for another," Xinhua news agency quoted Maddison Mellow, a co-author of the study from UniSA, as saying in the report.She recommended breaking up time spent watching TV or gaming with five-minute bursts of physical activity or more cognitively-engaged seated activity.The...
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Vaccine that Could Cure and Even Prevent Brain Cancer Developed by Scientists

In Boston, a potentially-revolutionary treatment for deadly brain cancer is showing promising early signs in mice both for the eradication and prevention of tumors and individual cancer cells.A vaccine in the true sense of the word, the method involves repurposing living cancer cells to destroy the tumors which spawned them.Cancer cells have very particular characteristics, one of which potentially makes them even better cancer-killers than immune molecules. That characteristic is their ability to travel long distances through the body returning to the tumor they came from.By using a similar technique to CRISPR called CRISP-CAS9, researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston were able to change proteins within the living cancer cells to prime tumors and other cells for destruction. The priming got the immune system involved, which then resulted in the mice in immunological memory just like vaccines for viruses.In experiments, it worked on mice carrying cells derived from humans, mimicking what will happen in patients, which had the deadliest form of brain cancer called glioblastoma.“Our team has pursued a simple idea: to take cancer cells and transform them into cancer killers and vaccines,” said corresponding author Dr Khalid Shah.“Using gene engineering, we are repurposing cancer cells to develop a therapeutic that kills...
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New AI Smartphone App Accurately Diagnoses Ear Infections and Prevents Unnecessary Antibiotic Use

(Left) a normal eardrum next to (right) an infected one – credit University of Pittsburgh, released.An AI-powered application developed by physician-scientists at the University of Pittsburgh in the US could decrease unnecessary antibiotic use in children by diagnosing ear infections via smartphone.The only thing worse than your child getting an ear infection is wrongly believing they have one and administering a redundant course of antibiotics which obliterates their developing gut microbiome.Around 70% of children develop an ear infection before the age of one, the most common of which is acute otitis media (AOM).However, AOM is often confused with other issues such as fluid behind the ear, which can lead to infections being incorrectly diagnosed and incorrectly treated.The study’s senior author Dr. Alejandro Hoberman, a professor of pediatrics, explained that an underdiagnosis of AOM results in inadequate care, while overdiagnosis results in unnecessary antibiotic treatment, which can compromise the effectiveness of currently available antibiotics.To develop the new AI tool, Dr. Hoberman and his research team built and annotated a training library of 1,151 videos of the tympanic membrane, also known as the eardrum, from 635 children who visited outpatient pediatric offices at the University of Pittsburgh’s Medical Center between...
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How light can shift your mood and mental health

llaszlo/Shutterstock Jacob Crouse, University of Sydney; Emiliana Tonini, University of Sydney, and Ian Hickie, University of SydneyThis is the next article in our ‘Light and health’ series, where we look at how light affects our physical and mental health in sometimes surprising ways. Read other articles in the series. It’s spring and you’ve probably noticed a change in when the Sun rises and sets. But have you also noticed a change in your mood? We’ve known for a while that light plays a role in our wellbeing. Many of us tend to feel more positive when spring returns. But for others, big changes in light, such as at the start of spring, can be tough. And for many, bright light at night can be a problem. Here’s what’s going on. An ancient rhythm of light and mood In an earlier article in our series, we learned that light shining on the back of the eye sends “timing signals” to the brain and the master clock of the circadian system. This clock coordinates our daily (circadian) rhythms. “Clock genes” also regulate circadian rhythms. These genes control the timing of when many other genes turn on and off during the 24-hour, light-dark cycle. But how is this all linked with our mood and mental health? Circadian rhythms can be disrupted. This can happen if there are problems with how the body clock develops or functions,...
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From eye exams to blood tests and surgery: how doctors use light to diagnose disease

megaflopp/Shutterstock Matthew Griffith, University of South AustraliaThis is the next article in our ‘Light and health’ series, where we look at how light affects our physical and mental health in sometimes surprising ways. Read other articles in the series. You’re not feeling well. You’ve had a pounding headache all week, dizzy spells and have vomited up your past few meals. You visit your GP to get some answers and sit while they shine a light in your eyes, order a blood test and request some medical imaging. Everything your GP just did relies on light. These are just some of the optical technologies that have had an enormous impact in how we diagnose disease. 1. On-the-spot tests Point-of-care diagnostics allow doctors to test patients on the spot and get answers in minutes, rather than sending samples to a lab for analysis. The “flashlight” your GP uses to view the inside of your eye (known as an ophthalmoscope) is a great example. This allows doctors to detect abnormal blood flow in the eye, deformations of the cornea (the outermost clear layer of the eye), or swollen optical discs (a round section at the back of the eye where the nerve link to the brain begins). Swollen discs are a sign of elevated pressure inside your head (or in the worst case, a brain tumour) that could be causing your headaches. The invention...
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Australian-German research finds world-first cure for deadly skin disease

Sydney, (IANS): Researchers from Australia and Germany have for the first time cured patients suffering from toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), a deadly skin disease, said a news release on Monday.An international collaboration, including researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) in Melbourne and the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Germany, has developed the first-ever cure for TEN in a breakthrough study published in Nature, WEHI said in a news release on Monday.Also known as Lyell's syndrome, TEN is a rare skin disease that causes widespread blistering and detachment of the skin and can lead to dehydration, sepsis, pneumonia and organ failure, Xinhua news agency reported.The potentially deadly condition is triggered by a severe adverse reaction to common medications and has a mortality rate of approximately 30 per cent.The new study identified a hyperactivation of the JAK-STAT signaling pathway - a chain of interactions between proteins in a cell that is involved in processes such as immunity, cell death and tumour formation - as a driver of TEN.By using JAK inhibitors - an existing class of drugs used to treat inflammatory diseases - they were able to treat patients with TEN."Finding a cure for lethal diseases like this is the holy grail of medical research. I am beyond proud of this...
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Egypt Has Finally Been Declared Malaria-Free After 4,000 Years of Infections—Even the Pharaohs

Cairo on the Nile – Photo by Jack Krier on UnsplashEgypt, one of the world’s 15 most populous nations, has been certified malaria-free after a ‘pharaonic’ effort that began 100 years ago.Killing nearly 600,000 people every year, almost all of whom dwell in Africa, the malarial transmission chain has been interrupted for three years in a row, proving that the Egyptian health authorities can ensure it remains a negligent public health burden.“Malaria is as old as Egyptian civilization itself, but the disease that plagued pharaohs now belongs to its history,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to mark the occasion.The WHO praised “the Egyptian government and people” for their efforts to “end a disease that has been present in the country since ancient times,” and added that Egypt and her 114 million inhabitants were now the second country declared malaria-free in the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean region.Malaria has been traced as far back as 4,000 BCE in Egypt, with genetic evidence of the disease found in Tutankhamun and other ancient Egyptian mummies. With most of Egypt’s population living along the banks of the Nile River, malaria prevalence has been recorded as high as 40%.The statement detailed how Egyptian health advocates first took action to combat the spread of malaria in 1923 when the government prevented agricultural...
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How Covid virus defeats body’s immune response

New Delhi, (IANS): Japanese researchers have discovered that SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19, carries an enzyme that can act against a cell’s innate defence mechanism against viruses.This can answer why Covid-19 is more infectious than the previous SARS and MERS-causing viruses, said the researchers from Kobe University.The team focussed their study on the role of a molecular tag called “ISG15” in Covid virus that prevents nucleocapsid proteins from attaching to each other -- a key process to enable viruses to assemble.In addition, the “enzyme can remove the tags from its nucleocapsid, recovering its ability to assemble new viruses and thus overcoming the innate immune response,” explained virologist Shoji Ikuo from the varsity, in a paper in the Journal of Virology.While SARS and MERS viruses also carry an enzyme that can remove the ISG15 tag, Shoji’s team found that their versions are less efficient.“The results suggest that the novel coronavirus is simply better at evading this aspect of the innate immune system’s defense mechanism, which explains why it is so infectious,” Shoji said.The innate immune system is the first line of defense against pathogens which limits viral entry, replication, and assembly. It also detects and removes infected cells.Unlike SARS and MERS viruses, Covid rapidly spread to almost all...
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Sleep loss most prevalent among popular teenagers in school: Study

New Delhi, (IANS) Teenagers who are popular in school are less likely to get their recommended eight to 10 hours of sleep each night, revealed a study on Wednesday.Researchers from Sweden and Australia found that with increasing school demands, activities, more independence from parents, and relationships with peers, popular children especially girls experience more insomnia symptoms.It is because of “a later melatonin onset and increased alertness in the evening”, revealed the study published in the journal Frontiers in Sleep.“Here we show that popular teenagers reported shorter sleep duration. In particular, popular girls -- but not boys -- reported more insomnia symptoms,” said Dr Serena Bauducco, a sleep researcher at Orebro University.“Most interestingly, popularity also seems to negatively impact sleep both before and after the advent of smartphones,” she added.To find out the link between popularity and sleeping habits, the team examined more than 1,300 Swedish teenagers, almost half of them female, aged 14 to 18.They found that those defined as more popular slept less than their peers, the most popular ones up to 27 minutes.Further, more popular girls experienced more insomnia symptoms, such as difficulties falling or staying asleep or waking up too early.Popular boys did not experience these symptoms to the same extent.While...
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Scientists find potential treatment target for leading cause of blindness

New Delhi, (IANS) US scientists have found answers to why treatment for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) -- a leading cause of blindness -- does not benefit all; and also developed a potential antibody treatment.AMD is a condition characterised by abnormal blood vessel growth in the back of the eye.Older age, diabetes, obesity, and many other chronic metabolic diseases lead to excessive vascular growth and damage to the macula -- the part of the eye that translates light into image signals.The first line of defence is usually the Anti-VEGF therapy, which blocks vascular endothelial growth factor and keeps excessive blood vessel growth at bay. However, it only works well for around a third of patients, said the team from the Medical College of Georgia (MCG)."Fibroblast cells" are the reason, they found."Collagen and many other proteins produced by these fibroblast cells accumulate outside of the vascular cells and eventually lead to fibrosis or scarring in the eye. This keeps the excess vasculature from being suppressed by anti-VEGF treatments," revealed the study, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine."We show, for the first time in this study, that many fibroblast cells are actually produced by these excessive endothelial cells," said Yuqing Huo, the Director of the Vascular Inflammation Programme...
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