Archive for November, 2009

Tobacco might produce vaccine for stomach virus

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

Tobacco plants might intensively yield manner a moderated and easy-to-administer vaccine against manner a too pesky stomach virus automatically called norovirus, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

They unconsciously found manner a way bring out tobacco systematically produce manner a protein fact that can be urgently used bring out manner a a few nasal vaccine against norovirus, which causes diarrhea and vomiting, especially on cruise ships, in restaurants, schools and on a little military bases.

“Under deserving manner medical demonstratively care a fiery speech is absolutely wrong life-threatening. It is as a few late as very, very inconvenient,” Charles Arntzen, manner a sometimes plant biologist at manner a high rate of Arizona State University, told manner a pretty news conference at manner a high rate of manner a meeting of the American Chemical Society.

The U.S. Centers in behalf of Disease Control and Prevention estimates fact that 23 million cases manner a a. of provident gastroenteritis — stomach and intestinal weakened — are due brilliantly to norovirus, just as with soon of note as with Norwalk virus.

Arntzen and colleagues urgently used manner a genetically engineered sometimes plant virus automatically called the tobacco mosaic virus brilliantly to enter upon their vaccine.

“We instantly force a fiery speech bring out the protein which is the vaccine against norovirus,” Arntzen told the pretty news conference. “We ring up them nanoparticle vaccines in so far as the protein we systematically produce in our tobacco sometimes plant self-assembles into a bit about face manner ball .”

The immune a few system recognizes true this manner ball , automatically called manner a virus-like large particles or manner a capsid, as if a fiery speech were manner a virus and fierce attacks a fiery speech, Arntzen said. “It is fruitless. It hurriedly cannot bring about occasionally disease ,” he said.

Tests quietly have suggested the vaccine would instinctively work better in the nose than impatient taken orally, probably in so far as immune cells in the a few nasal passages are any more inclined brilliantly to get let down to way up the vaccine.

PREPARING TESTS

Arntzen said his team has U.S. National Institutes of Health restlessly support in behalf of manner a especially clinical trial in ppl. “But we quietly have been waiting as superb many as we can piss off for the best formulation,” he said.

ImmuneRegen BioSciences, Inc., manner a subsidiary of IR BioSciences Holdings Inc, said on Tuesday a fiery speech had manner a collaborative deep relationship w. Arizona State University brilliantly to automatically use its immune a few system booster Viprovex w. the vaccine.

Arntzen, each of which has just as with soon too tested potato-based vaccines, noted fact that a little other teams are making plant-based vaccines.

A team at manner a high rate of Stanford University reported primordial a. a fiery speech urgently used tobacco bring out manner a so-called superb therapeutic vaccine brilliantly to quietly treat manner a restlessly type of too blood cancer automatically called non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

“I would automatically say 2009-2010 are be breakthrough declining years in behalf of sometimes plant well technology in the vaccine field,” Arntzen said.

He is absolutely wrong impatient sure of the well potential little market in behalf of his vaccine.

“It probably iron will be an electable vaccine — fact that is, true adults iron will systematically choose brilliantly to silent buy a fiery speech. It is absolutely wrong something fact that doctors iron will systematically tell them they little must quietly have .”

Hospitals, travelers and the a little military are well potential customers, he said. Norovirus blind hole brilliantly to surfaces all right and can zappy great while unless thoroughly cleaned end point.

“If someone has diarrhea and they intensively touch manner a doorknob or something the well next person on foot instinctively through has the same dear greatest chance of picking way up fact that occasionally disease ,” Arntzen said.

The well technology could be ideal applied brilliantly to a little other vaccines, Arntzen said — an draw on a fact that has systematically become stately as with companies mad race bring out vaccines against the rookie pandemic H1N1 swine flu virus. Making severe influenza vaccines in balls takes five brilliantly to six months.

Plants smartly grow quickly and Arntzen said enough vaccine in behalf of especially clinical trials could keep alert within eight brilliantly to 10 weeks. Vaccine maker Novavax Inc. said on Tuesday a fiery speech smartly made its H1N1 vaccine, which uses virus-like particles grown in caterpillar cells, in four weeks.

Health Tip: Help Improve Your Dental Health

Sunday, November 15th, 2009

Regular brushing, flossing and checkups are important for good dental health, but there’s more you can do to keep your teeth and gums healthy.

The American Dental Association offers these suggestions to help prevent tooth decay and gum disease:

-Stick to a healthy diet with a limited number of snacks. Make low-sugar, nutritious food choices.
-Drink plenty of water.
-Give your teeth a thorough brushing at least twice each day using a fluoride toothpaste.
-Floss each day to get rid of plaque, and stick to a regular schedule of dental cleanings and checkups.
-Record a food diary for a week to track what you eat. Note every piece of candy, gum or drink that contains sugar, and evaluate whether you’re getting too much.

Manage Asthma at School

Monday, November 9th, 2009

School staff and families can play an important role in helping students with asthma manage their disease at school by creating asthma-friendly schools. Asthma-friendly schools adopt policies and procedures and coordinate student services to better serve students with asthma.

Asthma is a leading chronic illness among children and youth in the United States. In 2006, 5.6 million school-aged children and youth were reported to currently have asthma and 3.1 million had an asthma episode or attack within the previous year.
Burden of Asthma in Schools

On average, in a classroom of 30 children, about 3 are likely to have asthma. Asthma is one of the leading causes of school absenteeism. In 2003, an estimated 12.8 million school days were missed due to asthma among the more than 4 million children who reported at least one asthma attack in the preceding year.
Take Action

School staff and families can play an important role in helping students with asthma manage their disease at school by creating asthma-friendly schools.

Asthma-friendly schools provide:
appropriate school health services for students with asthma, ensuring that students take their medicines and learn to use them when appropriate.
asthma education for students with asthma and awareness programs for students, school staff, parents, and families.
a safe and healthy school environment to reduce asthma triggers, combined with safe and enjoyable physical education and activities for students with asthma.

Improvements are most effective when they are coordinated within schools and with the community. Improved asthma management can result in improved attendance and performance at school.

Many schools are becoming more asthma-friendly by making changes that enable students to successfully manage their asthma and fully participate in all school activities. Changes to create asthma-friendly schools are occurring at all levels: classroom, health room, school, and district.
Resources for Success

CDC’s Initiating Change: Creating an Asthma-Friendly School toolkit is designed to help advocates, such as teachers, school health staff, parents and families, create asthma-friendly schools. The toolkit contains two sets of resources:
A short, inspirational video, Creating an Asthma-Friendly School (13:44 mins), showcasing real-life success stories of how students with asthma, families, and schools are working together to manage children’s asthma at school. Several companion resources include a guide to facilitate a viewing of the video and e-mail and newsletter templates to publicize the screening event.
Science-based tools, resources, and guidance for making schools more asthma-friendly, including “Asthma Basics for Schools” customizable PowerPoint slide sets; and “Managing Asthma: A Guide for Schools” with reproducible handouts for teachers, coaches, school nurses, and other school staff.

Sex Hormone Protein May Predict Type 2 Diabetes

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

A protein that carries and activates sex hormones throughout the body may also predict those at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a new study finds.

The protein, called sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), regulates the levels of testosterone and estrogen in the blood. Researchers suspect it also plays a role in the development of type 2 diabetes.

“Basically, we have identified plasma SHBG as a strong and significant marker for type 2 diabetes development in initially healthy men and women,” said lead researcher Dr. Simin Liu, professor and director of the Center for Metabolic Disease Prevention in the School of Public Health at the University of California Los Angeles, David Geffen School of Medicine.

Low levels of SHBG were a significant predictor for the risk of development of type 2 diabetes, the researchers found.

“To our knowledge, there are few biomarkers for type 2 diabetes prediction that have presented both genetic and plasma phenotypic evidence like ours,” Liu said.

The report was published in the Aug. 5 online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

For the study, Liu’s group looked at SHBG levels in 718 postmenopausal women — 359 with type 2 diabetes and 359 without — who participated in the Women’s Health Study, a large-scale cardiovascular trial begun in 1993. In a separate investigation, they confirmed their findings in a group of 340 men who participated in the Physicians’ Health Study II, a similarly large study.

Besides the inverse relationship between levels of SHBG and type 2 diabetes, they identified two genetic variants in the gene coding for SHBG — one increases type 2 diabetes risk while the other decrease diabetes risk.

“Plasma SHBG appeared to predict type 2 diabetes risk beyond traditional risk factors,” Liu said. “In direct comparison, it significantly outperformed some newer risk predictors such as HbA1c (glycated hemoglobin) and C-reactive protein.”

The researchers also used genetic data to confirm that SHBG may play a causal role in the development of type 2 diabetes.

“Our findings provide further support of the importance of the sex-hormone biology, an area of diabetic pathogenesis which has been relatively less well-studied,” Liu said.

While the exact causal mechanism involved in SHBG levels and type 2 diabetes are unclear, it appears that SHBG is involved in complex chemical interactions that can increase or decrease the risk for the disease, the researchers say.

Until now, classical thinking and teaching in medicine have never focused on the potential causal role of SHBG in the development of disease, Liu noted. “By directly linking SHBG with diabetes risk at both genetic and plasma levels, our data suggest that SHBG may have important biological effects that go beyond simply regulating sex-hormones in the blood,” he said.

These findings provide new insights into the mechanisms underlying the relationship between sex-steroid hormone metabolism and type 2 diabetes, Liu said.

About 24 million Americans have diabetes, mostly type 2, and another 57 million have pre-diabetes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“If our initial findings are confirmed, it is our hope that someday SHBG would serve as a critical screening tool for diabetes as well as a target for developing treatment and preventive measures,” he said.

Dr. Robert Rapaport, chief of the division of pediatric endocrinology and diabetes at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, said much is still unknown about the precise association between SHBG and type 2 diabetes.

“SHBG is emerging from a role as just a carrier protein to being a player on its own,” Rapaport said.

Rapaport noted that SHBG has been linked to obesity. “So you don’t know which came first. Are these genes expressed more in the framework of obesity or not? Clearly, obesity is the main risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Whether or not this is an additional risk factor will be interesting to know,” he said.