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Spice
That Stems Liver Disease Caused by Liquor (Go
To Top) WASHINGTON: A new study has found that curcumin, an essential ingredient of curry, prevents alcohol-related liver damage. The study on rats has found that the substance that gives the spice turmeric its distinctive yellow colour, stopped the changes caused by excessive alcohol consumption that lead to liver disease. The research, published in American Journal of Physiology - Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, adds to the repertoire of benefits already shown by curcumin, which include anti-oxidant properties and anti-cancer activity. However, it does not mean that people eating curries can safely drink more alcohol, warns Kalle Jokelainen, one of the team of Finnish and American researchers. "Curcumin is not harmful, and it may protect your liver from liver disease if you have very high amounts - but this has only been seen in rats," he says. Jokelainen, at Helsinki University Central Hospital, said that curcumin somehow blocks the activation of a key molecule called nuclear factor kappa B (NFkB). This molecule directs the chain of events that leads to inflammation and death of tissue. It is activated by many stimuli including radiation, heat shock and endotoxins - the toxins associated with bacteria. "If you drink too much, that leads to leaky gut syndrome," Jokelainen told New Scientist. "Somehow endotoxins from the gut reach the blood and are carried to the liver. The liver is a filter and inactivates the endotoxin, but the price paid is that NFkB is activated." Twin Dangers
of Calcium Build-ups in Heart Valve (Go
To Top) WASHINGTON: A new study has found that a heart condition called mitral annular calcification (MAC) increases the risk of heart attack or death by 10 per cent for every millimetre of calcification. MAC is a build-up of calcium in the fibrous ring that supports the mitral valve. This valve controls blood flow from the heart's upper left chamber (left atrium) to the lower left chamber (left ventricle), said lead author Caroline S Fox, a medical officer with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study. After adjusting for known heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, physical inactivity and smoking, MAC was independently associated with increased risk of heart attack or death. The researchers say it is unclear what causes MAC, but atherosclerosis is a likely contributor. Way to Rebuild
Damaged Heart Muscle (Go
To Top) WASHINGTON: For the first time Mayo Clinic researchers have proved that cells produced by the bone marrow can form new heart-muscles in adults. The study, published in the latest issue of Circulation, provides an important boost to research that could enable the body to replace heart muscle damaged by heart attack. "Until recently, the heart has been seen as an organ that cannot be healed. Heart-attack damage to the myocardium, or heart muscle, was considered irreversible. This study points the way to a process that could lead to heart repair", said Noel Caplice, the Mayo Clinic cardiologist who led the study. The study is important because it is the first confirmation that progenitor cells from outside the heart are capable of forming new heart muscle cells. "These progenitor cells are produced by the bone marrow and circulate in the blood. They are like stem cells in that they have potential to develop into various kinds of cells. Given the right biological signals, we have now shown they can become heart cells", explained Dr Caplice. He said that the study has significant implications for future research. "Under normal conditions, with less than one per cent of heart-muscle cells originating from these progenitor cells, they obviously are not adding much to the heart's pumping strength. But if we can determine the signaling mechanism that causes progenitor cells to develop into cardiomyocytes, we may be able to boost the response and induce more of them to proceed in that direction", Dr Caplice added. Antarctica's
Melting Glaciers Falling into Ocean (Go
To Top) WASHINGTON: A vast portion of Antarctica glaciers are collapsing into the sea, increasing fears of rise in sea level. Ice shelves - tongues of ice hanging over the ocean at the edges of Antarctica - are under intense scrutiny following the break-up of the Larsen B shelf early last year. The Rhode Island-sized sheet of ice shocked researchers by shattering into countless icebergs in just five weeks. Glacier melting has speeded up, report Hernan de Angelis and Pedro Skvarca of the Argentinean Antarctic Institute in Buenos Aires, in Nature. They compared satellite and aerial images of glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula, not far from the lost Larsen B shelf, taken before and after shelf break-ups. "This is the first time we have seen a surge following an ice-shelf collapse," says de Angelis. The duo spotted the hallmark of a rapid advance of ice towards the sea: stranded ice blocks, called ice terraces, on the walls of glacial valleys. Summers in the peninsula are now around 2 C warmer than they were 40 years ago. This is thought to explain the shelves' collapse, but was thought to be insufficient to alter the flow of the bulk of Antarctica's glaciers into the ocean. The new findings "raise the likelihood that rapid sea-level rise could be initiated by climate warming", says ice-shelf researcher Ted Scambos at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Boulder, Colorado. But there is not enough ice on the Antarctic Peninsula, he points out, to change the world's sea level. Bacteria
in Fermented Soya Kills Cancer Cells: Researcher (Go
To Top) SINGAPORE: Scientists have long suspected a link between eating soya products and lowered cancer risks. A Chinese researcher has discovered that bacteria found in fermented soya can help to kill cancer cells. Professor Yang Zhen Hua who is positive about the discovery now wants to hold clinical trials on cancer patients here. Prof Yang, 58, who has a United States patent and three international patents pending for her discovery, said many scientists believe that isoflavanoids - plant hormones in soya products - act as a cancer inhibitor. The discovery, which was made five years ago, proved that a group of compounds in fermented soya beans caused cancer cells to commit suicide, while normal cells remained unmolested, says a report in the Straits Times. She told the Straits Times that she had found 88 anti-cancer compounds in fermented soya beans, and produced drugs from the three top performers. Yang, who runs her own health supplement company in Fujian, China, has had her work published in various international journals and presented at the prestigious annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. Pre-clinical trials have been completed in China, and are ongoing in the US. Breast
Implants Likely to Provoke Suicides: Study (Go
To Top) LONDON: A new study has found that women who opt for cosmetic breast implants are more likely to commit suicide than those who don't precisely because they have low-self esteem. For the study, published in British Medical Journal, the researchers analysed the medical records of 3500 Swedish women who had breast implants. They considered only cosmetic operations, excluding women who received implants after breast cancer surgery. The 3500 women ranged from teenagers to pensioners and had the implant operation between 1965 and 1993. In an average group of the same size and age, 59 deaths would be expected, but the researchers found that 85 women had died. Fifteen had taken their own lives, three times the number expected, and a higher number of deaths from smoking-related diseases like lung cancer were also seen. "Women who ask for breast implants may have low self-esteem," suggests Veronica Koot at the University Medical Centre, Utrecht, Netherlands, who led the study. "Similarly, women who smoke may also have low self-esteem." Michael Beary, a consultant psychiatrist at the Priory Hospital, London, agrees that women with low-self esteem are more body conscious and more likely to have breast implants. "Quite a lot of women who become depressed will seek plastic surgery as a treatment for depression," he says. "However, quite often operations go wrong, leading to unsightly scarring, unequal breasts or numb areas, and this can make the depression worse. I have certainly seen suicide attempts in women after surgery who were depressed beforehand." Similarly, Beary says teenage girls with low-self esteem about their bodies can take up smoking believing it will help them lose weight, making it more likely that women who have breast implants are also smokers. Aspirin,
Taken Daily, Reduces Colon Cancer Risk (Go
To Top) NICOSIA: A daily dose of aspirin can help reduce the risk of colon adenomas (polyps), benign tumours that can later develop into cancer. The study, conducted jointly by doctors and researchers from Norris Cotton Cancer Centre at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Centre in Lebanon and at several other institutions across North America, confirms indications from non-randomized studies that low-dose aspirin may protect against cancers of the colon and rectum. Dr John Baron, lead author of the study noted that the findings of the two studies, published in New England Journal of Medicine, showed that low doses of aspirin do protect against the pre-cancerous polyps, and so there is good reason to believe that aspirin probably reduces rates of colorectal cancer itself. This will be particularly valuable for people who are at increased risk for cancer because they have had colon adenomas (polyps) or because they have previously been treated for colorectal cancer. The randomized, double-blind study, conducted between 1994 and 2001, looked at over 1100 patients with previously diagnosed colorectal adenomas. Some patients received aspirin - either 81 mg or 325 mg - while others received a placebo. Interestingly, the group receiving the smaller dose of aspirin - 81-mg, or the equivalent of one baby aspirin - showed a lower incidence of recurring polyps than did those treated with the larger dose of aspirin - 325 mg or the equivalent of a standard adult aspirin. Overall, those treated with a daily dose of baby aspirin found their risk of polyps reduced 19 per cent and their risk of advanced lesions reduced by more than 40 per cent. The other study, conducted among patients with a history of cancer of the colon or rectum, tested a regular aspirin tablet (325 mg) against placebo. It showed even larger reductions in the occurrence of adenoma - about a 35 per cent reduction. Although aspirin is generally a safe drug, Baron noted that it could have adverse effects for some individuals. Before people embark on a daily aspirin regimen, they should check with their doctor, he said. And, he stressed that just taking aspirin is not enough to assure freedom from colon cancer. "Aspirin is not a magic bullet," he concluded. Osteoporosis:
Cause Detected, Remedy Suggested (Go
To Top) WASHINGTON: Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that the defects in a protein called alphaV beta3 integrin appear to contribute to the development of osteoporosis, and these effects can be reversed by enhancing a protein called macrophage-colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF). "Because of our previous research with these proteins, new drugs already are in clinical trials. But we still do not understand how these proteins interact to affect bone-cell development. "This study brings us significantly closer to determining that mechanism", said lead investigator Steven L Teitelbaum, the Wilma and Roswell Messing Professor of Pathology and Immunology. Osteoporosis, a condition that results in weakened, brittle bones, afflicts about 50 per cent of Caucasian and Asian women after age 65. It develops when bone is broken down at a faster rate than it is synthesized. Therefore, curing the disease depends on understanding osteoclasts - cells responsible for eroding bone - and determining why they sometimes become overly active. Cancer-spreading
Gene Identified (Go To Top)
WASHINGTON: A breakthrough research on cancer has identified a gene responsible for the spread of deadly tumour cells through the body. Researchers at Georgetown University's Lombardi Cancer Centre say this new understanding of how cancer metastasizes, linking a gene product and migration of cancer cells, may lead to therapies to stop this spread. The results of the study are published in the May 2003 issue of the journal, Molecular Biology of the Cell. Richard G Pestell and his research team have been studying the cyclin D1 gene and the protein it produces for the past decade. Now they have found that by "knocking out" this gene, the migration of cells can be halted. The migration of cancer cells through the body is a major reason why cancer is deadly. "Patients who do not survive their cancer, often don't die from their primary cancer, usually they die from the spread of the disease through the body. If we can understand what causes the metastasis, then we can pinpoint new targets to block the spread of disease," said Dr Pestell, director of the Lombardi Cancer Centre. -ANI |
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