Can tomatoes carry the cure for Alzheimer's?

Can tomatoes carry the cure for Alzheimer's?

The humble tomato could be a suitable carrier for an oral vaccine against Alzheimer's disease, according to HyunSoon Kim from the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) in Korea and colleagues from Digital Biotech Inc. and the Department of Biological Science at Wonkwang University. Although their research (1), just published online in Springer's journal Biotechnology Letters, is still in the early stages, it is a promising first step towards finding an edible vaccine against the neurodegenerative disease.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia and it progresses over a long period of time. It is thought to be caused by the accumulation of human beta-amyloid, a toxic insoluble fibrous protein in the brain, which leads to the death of neurons. Reducing the accumulation of beta-amyloid may inhibit the degeneration of the nervous system and therefore prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease. One approach is to stimulate the immune system to reduce beta-amyloid in the brain.

Kim and colleagues' aim was to develop a plant-derived vaccine against Alzheimer's disease, since beta-amyloid is toxic to animal cells. Tomatoes are an attractive candidate as a vaccine carrier because they can be eaten without heat treatment, which reduces the risk of destroying the immune stimulation potential of the foreign protein. The researchers inserted the beta-amyloid gene into the tomato genome and measured the immune responses to the tomato-derived toxic protein in a group of 15-month-old mice.

They immunized the mice orally with the transgenic tomato plants once a week for three weeks, and also gave the mice a booster seven weeks after the first tomato feed. Blood analyses showed a strong immune response after the booster, with the production of antibodies to the human foreign protein. The authors conclude: "Although we did not reveal a reduction of existing plaques in the brain of mice challenged with tomato-derived beta-amyloid…this study represents a unique approach in which transgenic plants expressing beta-amyloid protein are used to produce a vaccine." The team is currently looking at strategies to increase the potency of the tomato-based vaccine, because fresh tomatoes contain only 0.7% protein and levels of foreign protein are even lower.

    

caffeine consumption may protect against ALZHIMER"S DISEASE!!!!

Coffee reduces brain plaques in animal study

Scientists in the US have discovered that coffee added to the drinking water of mice  improves their memory and reverses changes in the brain linked to Alzheimers disease.  Previous research has suggested that coffee may provide a protective effect against Alzheimers. 

A Portuguese study found that people with Alzheimer's consumed less caffeine over the last 

20 years than people without the neurodegenerative disease. 

 Other studies have found that moderate caffeine consumption may  protect against memory loss during normal ageing. In this study, scientists from the University of South Florida (USF) looked at the  effect of caffeine on mice which had been genetically altered to develop symptoms  mimicking Alzheimer's disease.

 Half the mice, aged 18 to 19 months - equivalent to a 70 year old human - were given caffeine in their

drinking water, and the other half given just water.

After two months, scientists found that the mice taking caffeine performed much better in mental

 tests designed to measure memory and thinking ability,  compared with mice given water alone

 

 In fact, the Alzheimer's mice given caffeine showed the same mental skills as normal aged mice without dementia. 

This suggests the caffeine both stopped and reversed the mental decline  showed by the mice at the start of the study. The researchers found that the brains of the mice had changed. 

 Mice given caffeine had an almost 50% reduction in beta amyloid,  a protein linked to plaque formation in the brain in Alzheimer's disease.

"These are some of the most promising Alzheimer's mouse experiments ever done showingthat

caffeine rapidly reduces beta amyloid protein in the blood, an effect that is mirrored in the brain,"

 said Dr. Huntington Potter, director of the Florida Alzheimer's Disease Research Centre.

The mice were given the equivalent of five 8 ounce (227 grams) cups of coffee a day.   This equates to the same amount of caffeine - 500 milligrams - contained in two cups of   "specialty" coffee from a coffee shop, 14 cups of tea, or 20 soft drinks, say the researchers.

The scientists also investigated whether caffeine would boost the memory of normal mice, 

without neurodegenerative disease. No improvement was found.

"This suggests that caffeine will not improve memory performance above normal levels. 

 

Rather, it appears to benefit those destined to develop Alzheimer's disease,"   USF neuroscientist Gary Arendash commented.

The research team now want to conduct clinical trials   to find out if the same results can be found in humans

coffee and tea being good for diabetes!!!!!

New report of coffee and tea being good for diabetes

A recent study that examined data from half a million people around the world  has found that drinking coffee can bring down the risk of type 2 diabetes, compared to non-coffee drinkers. 

The report, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, revealed that people who drink  three or four cups of decaffeinated coffee every day have a 33 per cent decreased risk of type 2 diabetes,  while the same amount of tea brought the risk of type 2 diabetes down by 20 per cent.

This follows on from another piece of research from the Harvard School of Public Health,  which investigated the results of 15 different studies of coffee and type 2 diabetes involving  nearly 200,000 people across the US and Europe. 

That study found that people who drank the most coffee  about four to six cups daily –had a 28 per cent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those who drank the least coffee.

However, another important factor for diabetics is the levels of insulin in the body, so the use of milk,  cream or sugar in coffee can increase the ease at which insulin enters cells to control the level of blood sugar .

A Swedish study found that it was more difficult for insulin to enter cells when sugar was added,  but that milk and cream had no effect on the entry of insulin.

Research has also shown that only 35 per cent of people drink their coffee black, and the current popularity for specialty coffees such as java is not great news for diabetics,  as it sometimes contain as much as 500 calories .

Antibiotic resistance in India high: survey

Evidence from studies of antibiotics prescribing patterns suggests that medicines are often used in inappropriate ways and often sold without prescriptions.

Antibiotic consumption in India has increased between six and seven per cent annually in the past 5 years. The rise is substantial in the retail sector where antibiotics are mostly sold without a prescription, according to a paper published in the September edition of the Indian Journal of Medical Journal.

Between 2005 and 2009, the units of antibiotics sold in the country increased by about 40 per cent, points out the paper contributed by the Indian working group of the Global Antibiotic Resistance Partnership (GARP), chaired by N.K. Ganguly. Increasing antibiotics use is not, in itself, indicative of a problem. But studies of prescribing patterns suggest that these are often used inappropriately, and many a time, without a prescription.

Presented on the second day here of the ongoing First Global Forum on Bacterial Infections: Balancing Treatment Access and Antibiotic Resistance, the paper, referring to last year's controversy over the New Delhi mettalo-B-lactamase (NDM-1), said it may be the most widely known form of antibiotic resistance in India, but a number of studies in the recent years have documented significant rates of resistance to a wide range of antibiotics. Many of hospital-acquired Gram negative infections suggest that whenever studies have been conducted, the resistance levels have been alarmingly high. The GARP-India research estimates that of the approximately 190, 000 neonatal deaths in India each year due to sepsis, a bacterial infection that overwhelms the bloodstream, over 30 per cent are attributable to antibiotic resistance.

Dr. Ganguly said hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are a particular concern indicating the low level of infection control in a hospital, since many such infections can be prevented through better hygiene. A study was conducted by the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (conducted in 12 intensive care units in seven hospitals in seven Indian cities), which followed 10,835 patients hospitalised for a total of 52,518 days. The observed patients acquired 476 infections in the hospital of which 46 per cent were Enterobacteriacease, 27 per cent Pseudomonas and 3 per cent S.aureus.

Similarly, a prospective study of 71 burn patients at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh revealed that up to 59 of them (83 per cent) had hospital acquired infections, 35 per cent of pathogens isolated from wounds and blood were S.aureaus, 24 per cent were P.aeruginosa, and 16 per cent were Beta-haemolytic streptococci.

A six month study conducted in the intensive care units of AIIMS Delhi found 140 of 1,253 patients (11 per cent) had 152 hospital acquired infections, P. aeruginosa made up 21 per cent isolated, 23 per cent were S.aureus, 16 per cent were Klebsiella, 15 per cent were Acinetobacter baumannii and 8 per cent E.coli. Another study of 493 hospitals in a tertiary teaching hospital in Goa found that 103 people (21 per cent) developed 169 infections.

A few hospitals and city-based studies of antibiotic use suggest that antibiotics are often prescribed in irrational or inappropriate ways in India. They are overprescribed and overused in all settings, whether in public or private hospitals, clinics or in pharmacies. Why this overuse persists is not so easily determined but much of this use can be curtailed without harmful results. In fact, reductions in use could actually improve people's health, the paper says.

Antibiotics are not only used to treat human illnesses but have also been used in livestock and poultry for more than half a century to control and treat diseases and in low doses in animal feed to promote growth and improve production of animal products. The precise effect of agricultural antibiotic use on resistance levels in the general population is not known, but the evidence suggests otherwise.

Keeping in mind the serious threat of antibiotic resistance, the international meet has called for action to extend access to effective antibiotics to those who would otherwise be ill or be dying from severe bacterial infections, to prevent as many infections as possible through vaccines, infection control and other proven measures, achieving a balance domestically between access to effective antibiotics and interventions to reduce unnecessary use.

The Global Antibiotic Resistance partnership was established to develop actionable policy recommendations specifically relevant to low and middle income countries where suboptimal access to antibiotics is not a major concern of high-income countries and is possibly as severe a problem as is the spread of resistant organisms.

Keywords: antibiotics, resistance to antibiotics

Now, a fruit pill to prevent hair going grey!

A L'Oreal cosmetic collection during a event at ULTA in Arlington. After more than a decade of trials, the daily drug -- developed by a team at global cosmetics giant L’Oreal --is expected to go on sale within four years. File photo

Grey hair could soon be a passe, thanks to scientists who claim to have created a pill from a fruit extract that prevents the inevitable, and most apparent, sign of ageing.

After more than a decade of trials, the daily drug -- developed by a team at global cosmetics giant L’Oreal -- is expected to go on sale within four years, a newspaper reported.

L’Oreal hopes it will lead it to victory in the race for the world’s eight billion pounds hair colour market, in which both sexes reach for bottles of dye.

Bruno Bernard, head of hair biology at the company, said: “We think it will have a market among men as well as women. We intend people to take it in the same way as a dietary supplement. It won’t be expensive.”

The drug uses a compound from an unidentified fruit that mimics tyrosinase-related protein 2, an enzyme that protects pigmentation production; it aims to prevent a process called oxidative stress, when hair cells succumb to harmful anti-oxidants and go grey, say the scientists.

Bernard added: “Ideally you would take it for your whole life but realistically we would encourage people to start using it before their hair goes grey because we don’t think it can reverse the process once it has started.”

Hundreds of volunteers have been helping to test the safety of the pill. But, the team says it will only be able to demonstrate its true effectiveness after it has been on the market for at least a decade.

The formula is expected to be unveiled at a science conference in May 2013 but it is already sparking interest among experts.

Prof Mike Philpott of the Centre for Cutaneous Research at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, said there was “a very strong market for new ways to stop hair greying” but he was unsure if this drug would prove popular.

Prof Des Tobin of Bradford University’s Centre for Skin Science, who was the first to grow human hair pigment cells in a laboratory, said: “It’s not clear if replacing the enzyme really is the answer. But Bernard’s team are one of the largest groups in the world looking at this and they have a very good knowledge of how the hair follicle works.”

Keywords: grey hair, L'Oreal product, fruit pill

Now, a fruit pill to prevent hair going grey!

A L'Oreal cosmetic collection during a event at ULTA in Arlington. After more than a decade of trials, the daily drug -- developed by a team at global cosmetics giant L’Oreal --is expected to go on sale within four years. File photo

Grey hair could soon be a passe, thanks to scientists who claim to have created a pill from a fruit extract that prevents the inevitable, and most apparent, sign of ageing.

After more than a decade of trials, the daily drug -- developed by a team at global cosmetics giant L’Oreal -- is expected to go on sale within four years, a newspaper reported.

L’Oreal hopes it will lead it to victory in the race for the world’s eight billion pounds hair colour market, in which both sexes reach for bottles of dye.

Bruno Bernard, head of hair biology at the company, said: “We think it will have a market among men as well as women. We intend people to take it in the same way as a dietary supplement. It won’t be expensive.”

The drug uses a compound from an unidentified fruit that mimics tyrosinase-related protein 2, an enzyme that protects pigmentation production; it aims to prevent a process called oxidative stress, when hair cells succumb to harmful anti-oxidants and go grey, say the scientists.

Bernard added: “Ideally you would take it for your whole life but realistically we would encourage people to start using it before their hair goes grey because we don’t think it can reverse the process once it has started.”

Hundreds of volunteers have been helping to test the safety of the pill. But, the team says it will only be able to demonstrate its true effectiveness after it has been on the market for at least a decade.

The formula is expected to be unveiled at a science conference in May 2013 but it is already sparking interest among experts.

Prof Mike Philpott of the Centre for Cutaneous Research at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, said there was “a very strong market for new ways to stop hair greying” but he was unsure if this drug would prove popular.

Prof Des Tobin of Bradford University’s Centre for Skin Science, who was the first to grow human hair pigment cells in a laboratory, said: “It’s not clear if replacing the enzyme really is the answer. But Bernard’s team are one of the largest groups in the world looking at this and they have a very good knowledge of how the hair follicle works.”

Keywords: grey hair, L'Oreal product, fruit pill

'Ozone-related deaths to increase in next 60 years'

Climate change may be worse for the lungs, as ozone pollution-related deaths are likely to increase in certain regions in the next 60 years, scientists have warned.

Researchers have predicted that certain countries such as Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal may witness an increase in ozone pollution deaths between 10 and 14 per cent during the period.

However, Nordic and Baltic countries are expected to see a drop in such deaths, they said at the European Respiratory Society's Annual Congress in Amsterdam, LiveScience reported.

Ozone is a two-faced gas. High in the stratosphere, it forms a protective layer that blocks ultraviolet radiation, which is potentially harmful to life, keeping it from reaching the surface of the planet.

This happens at roughly 12.4 miles (20 km) above the Earth's surface. Closer to the surface of the planet, ozone is a pollutant that can act as a greenhouse gas, trapping energy and warming the planet.

Breathing ozone can also cause health problems, including chest pain, coughing, throat irritation and congestion, said the researchers. It can aggravate conditions like bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma, as well as reduce lung function and inflame the linings of the lungs, and repeated exposure to ozone may permanently scar lung tissue, they said.

The researchers led by Bertil Forsberg at Umea University of Sweden made the ozone-related death projections as part of work the Climate-TRAP project to prepare for the changing public health needs expected to accompany human-caused climate change.

They used two emissions scenarios, one for high growth, the other moderate and two climate models to simulate how future ozone levels would be affected by climate change.

Scientists worried as Arctic has record ozone loss

Image released by NASA shows Ozone at about 20 km altitude, near the peak of the ozone layer in the lower stratosphere - AFP

An ozone hole five times the size of California opened over the Arctic this spring, matching ozone loss over Antarctica for the first time on record, scientists said on Sunday.

Formed by a deep chill over the North Pole, the unprecedented hole at one point shifted over eastern Europe, Russia and Mongolia, exposing populations to higher, but unsustained, levels of ultra-violet light.

Ozone, a molecule of oxygen, forms in the stratosphere, filtering out ultraviolet rays that damage vegetation and can cause skin cancer and cataracts.

The shield comes under seasonal attack in both polar regions in the local winter-spring.

Part of the source comes from man-made chlorine-based compounds, once widely used in refrigerants and consumer aerosols, that are being phased out under the UN's Montreal Protocol.

But the loss itself is driven by deep cold, which causes water vapour and molecules of nitric acid to condense into clouds in the lower stratosphere.

These clouds in turn become a ‘bed’ where atmospheric chlorine molecules convert into reactive compounds that gobble up ozone.

Ozone loss over the Antarctic is traditionally much bigger than over the Arctic because of the far colder temperatures there.

In the Arctic, records have until now suggested that the loss, while variable, is far more limited.

Satellite measurements conducted in the 2010-2011 Arctic winter-spring found ozone badly depleted at a height of between 15 and 23 kilometres (9.3 and 14.3 miles).

The biggest loss of more than 80 per cent occurred between 18 and 20 kms (11.25 and 12.5 miles).

"For the first time, sufficient loss occurred to be reasonably be described as an Arctic ozone hole," says the study, appearing in the British science journal Nature.

The trigger was the polar vortex, a large-scale cyclone that forms every winter in the Arctic stratosphere but which last winter was born in extremely cold conditions, Gloria Manney, of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, told the media in email.

"The ozone destruction began in January, then accelerated in late February and March, so that ozone values in the polar vortex region were much lower than usual from early March through late April, after which the polar vortex dissipated.

"Especially low total column ozone values (below 250 Dobson Units) were observed for about 27 days in March and early April.

"The maximum area with values below 250 Dobson Units was about two million square kilometres (772,000 square miles), roughly five times the area of Germany or California."

This was similar in size to ozone loss in Antarctica in the mid-1980s.

In April, the vortex shifted over more densely populated parts of Russia, Mongolia and eastern Europe for about two weeks.

Measurements on the ground showed ‘unusually high values’ of ultra-violet, although human exposure was not constant as the vortex shifted location daily before eventually fading, said Manney.

The study, published by the journal Nature, challenges conventional thinking about the Arctic's susceptibility to ozone holes. This thinking is based on only a few decades of satellite observations.

Stratospheric temperatures in the Arctic have been extraordinarily varied in the past decade, the paper notes. Four out of the last 10 years have been amongst the warmest in the past 32 years, and two are the coldest.

In the stratosphere, ozone is protective. At ground level, where it is produced in a reaction between traffic exhaust and sunlight, it is a dangerous irritant for the airways.

Regular aspirin users ‘twice as likely to suffer vision loss later in life’

A new study has suggested that people who take a daily dose of aspirin are twice as likely to suffer blindness in later life.

Researchers who tested more than 4,000 elderly people across Europe found that those who took the drug every day were twice as likely to be diagnosed with late stage age related macular degeneration as those who did not, the Telegraph reported.

While not painful, the AMD sufferer can find it hard to focus directly on an object, making it hard to read, drive or watch television.

While the study provided no evidence of a causal link between aspirin and the condition, experts are now examining whether a regular dose somehow exacerbates the disease.

One theory that has been put forward is that AMD could be linked to heart disease and so is therefore found in aspirin users who are trying to combat their coronary condition.

But lead researcher, Paulus de Jong from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and Academic Medical Centre said his team had analysed as ‘meticulously as possible’ whether cardiovascular disease might have influenced the results.

He said the results still suggested aspirin users, regardless of their heart health are at a greater risk of the of suffering late stage AMD.

However he added that for those who were suffering from heart disease, the benefits of taking aspirin outweighed the risks posed to their vision.

Faculty position - Microbiology/Life Science at Assam University

Applications in prescribed form are invited from Indian nationals for filling up the following Teaching & Non-teaching positions at Silchar & Diphu Campus with UGC pay scale in the University. The vacancy positions (reservation) are shown against each department / post within bracket.

Faculty position at : Silchar CampusDepartment in vacancy for : Microbiology / Life Science

Faculty position at : Diphu campusDepartment in vacancy for : Life Science

Details of eligibility, qualification, experience, specialization etc and application form can be obtained at http:// www.aus.ac.in” or from the “Section Officer (Academic Coordination-II)” Assam University, Raja Rammohan Roy Administrative Building, Silchar– 788 011” during office hours on all working days in person. Cost of application form: Rs.50.00. Application fee: Teaching positions Rs.400.00 including OBC and for Non Teaching Positions including OBC Rs 300  (SC/ST/PWD candidates shall not have to pay application fees, however Rs.50.00 from SC/ST/PWD will be charged as postal expenses only,) .Applicants downloading application form from website will have to pay Rs.450.00 for Teaching posts and Rs 350 for Non Teaching posts  as application fee including OBC (SC/ST/PWD candidates shall not have to pay application fees however Rs 50  from SC/ST/PWD will be charged as postal expenses only). The filled in application form is to be submitted in a sealed cover super scribed with “Post applied for” with Advertisement no. etc to The  Registrar, Assam University, Raja Rammohan Roy Administrative Building, Silchar–788 011.  Mode of Payment: Cost of application form and application fee has  to be submitted through demand draft only drawn in favour of Finance Officer, Assam University, Silchar payable at UCO Bank, Silchar (Branch Code 2005) or State Bank of India, Silchar (Branch Code 7061). Fee paid other than Bank draft shall not be accepted.

Deadline : 25.10.2011

http://www.aus.ac.in/EmploymentNotification7201117.09.2011.pdf

Walk in Interview for RA & SRF post at Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Varanasi

Posts : Research AssociateProject title : National initiative on climate resilient agriculture (NICRA)
Number of vacancy : One 
Essential Qualification : Ph.D. in Plant Breeding/Genetics/Plant Physiology/ Biotechnology. OR M.Sc. / M.Sc. (Ag.) in Plant Breeding/ Genetics/Plant Physiology/ Biotechnology with 2 years of working experience in relevant field.
Emoluments : Rs. 23000/- p.m. fixed + HRA for M.Sc. & Rs. 24000/- p.m. fixed + HRA for Ph.D. as per rules for Research Associate.
Age : Research Associate - Below 40 years for Men & 45 years for Women (Relaxable to SC/ST/OBC/ PH candidate as per rules).

Posts : Senior Research FellowProject title : Network project or transgenic crops
Number of vacancy : One
Essential Qualification : M.Sc./M.Sc. (Ag.) in Genetics/Plant Breeding/Biotechnology.
Desirable Qualifications : Working experience in relevant fields.
Emoluments : Rs. 16000/- p.m. fixed + HRA for lst & IN year & Rs. 18000/- p.m. for Ilird year fixed + HRA as per rules for Senior Research Fellow.
Age : Senior Research Fellow - Below 35 years for Men and 40 years for Women (Relaxable to SC/ST/ OBC/PH candidate as per rules)

Deadline : 18.10.2011


http://www.iivr.org.in/Job%20Oppurtunities/Walk-in-interview%2018.10.11.pdf