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Bengal gram - Reduces diabetes risk!!

The chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is a legumeof the family Fabaceae, subfamily Fabiodeae . Its seeds are high in Protein. It is one of the earliest cultivated legumes: 7,500-year-old remains have been found in the Middle East.

Other common names for the species include garbanzo bean, ceci bean, sanagalu, chana and Bengal gram.

Bengal gram reduces diabetes risk, finds study:

Consumption of Bengal gram prior to a meal could lower your risk of diabetes, according to a new study.

A team of scientists from the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) compared the effectiveness of three commonly consumed legumes - Bengal gram, green gram and another variant of chickpea, Kabuli Channa in regulating carbohydrate digestion.

The study found that Bengal gram showed consistent results in terms of reducing sugar spikes after a starchy meal. Eating about 50 grams of sprouted raw Bengal gram before a meal will rein in blood glucose levels which usually witness a jump due to the rapid absorption of carbohydrates after a meal, the study headed by scientist A K Tiwari, concluded.

Tiwari said the study was aimed at finding the varieties of sprouts which are most beneficial for improving the health of diabetics. "The benefits of sprouts are well-known. But our study specifically shows how diabetics can prevent sugar spikes to delay the onset or in some cases, even prevent the disease," he said.

Tiwari highlighted the importance of high amount of protein and presence of digestion-resistant carbohydrate in Bengal gram.

" A protein-rich diet takes longer to be absorbed by our system. The presence of digestion-resistant carbohydrates further reduces the rate of absorption of carbohydrates into our bloodstream," he said adding that the Bengal Gram should ideally be consumed raw after germination. 

Tiwari conducted similar studies in the past.

The findings of the latest study were published in the Journal of Pharmacy and Bio-Allied Sciences.

Source: Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT)

Cow urine cure gets scientific stamp!

FROM  "TIMES OF INDIA"
Study Proves Cow Urine Removes Kidney Stones 

Vijaysinh Parmar | TNN 

Rajkot: Most would cringe at the thought of drinking cow urine,even if given in a distilled form that is tasteless and odourless.However,ancient scriptures that often proclaim its disease-fighting properties have finally got scientific backing.

A recent study by Bhavnagar Medical College has proved that distilled cow urine is indeed effective in curing kidney stones.The research conducted by the colleges pharmacology department is touted to be first-ever scientific evidence suggesting beneficial properties of cow urine in treating renal disorders.

It must be noted that major part of Saurashtra,mostly coastal areas,is considered to be a renal stone belt with nearly 30% suffering from kidney stones.

Cow urine was given to albino rats after inducing renal stones in them using ethylene glycol.The results are very encouraging as we found significant reduction in urinary oxalate level and calcium oxalate crystals formation in kidney, said Dr Apexa Shukla,a student of MD (pharmacology),who led the team conducting the study.

Distilled cow urine is tasteless and free from contamination,she added.
The research paper titled Anti-Urolithiatic Effect of Cow Urine Ark on Ethylene Glycol-Induced Renal Calculi has also been accepted for publication in the International Brazil Journal of Urology,the official journal of Brazilian Society of Urology.

Cow urine is known to have diuretic and nephroprotective effect.However,there was never a scientific backing for this agesold claim, said Dr C B Tripathi,associate professor,pharmacology department.

The college is now in talks with Government Ayurvedic College to carry out trials on humans.

Remembering Rosalind Franklin

Rosalind Franklin

( July 25, 1920-April 16, 1958)

There is probably no other woman scientist with as much controversy surrounding her life and work as Rosalind Franklin. Franklin was responsible for much of the research and discovery work that led to the understanding of the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA. The story of DNA is a tale of competition and intrigue, told one way in James Watson's book The Double Helix, and quite another in Anne Sayre's study, Rosalind Franklin and DNA. James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins received a Nobel Prize for the double-helix model of DNA in 1962, four years after Franklin's death at age 37 from ovarian cancer.

Franklin excelled at science and attended one of the few girls' schools in London that taught physics and chemistry. When she was 15, she decided to become a scientist. Her father was decidedly against higher education for women and wanted Rosalind to be a social worker. Ultimately he relented, and in 1938 she enrolled at Newnham College, Cambridge, graduating in 1941. She held a graduate fellowship for a year, but quit in 1942 to work at the British Coal Utilization Research Association, where she made fundamental studies of carbon and graphite microstructures. This work was the basis of her doctorate in physical chemistry, which she earned from Cambridge University in 1945.

After Cambridge, she spent three productive years (1947-1950) in Paris at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de L'Etat, where she learned X-ray diffraction techniques. In 1951, she returned to England as a research associate in John Randall's laboratory at King's College, London.

It was in Randall's lab that she crossed paths with Maurice Wilkins. She and Wilkins led separate research groups and had separate projects, although both were concerned with DNA. When Randall gave Franklin responsibility for her DNA project, no one had worked on it for months. Wilkins was away at the time, and when he returned he misunderstood her role, behaving as though she were a technical assistant. Both scientists were actually peers. His mistake, acknowledged but never overcome, was not surprising given the climate for women at the university then. Only males were allowed in the university dining rooms, and after hours Franklin's colleagues went to men-only pubs.

But Franklin persisted on the DNA project. J. D. Bernal called her X-ray photographs of DNA, "the most beautiful X-ray photographs of any substance ever taken." Between 1951 and 1953 Rosalind Franklin came very close to solving the DNA structure. She was beaten to publication by Crick and Watson in part because of the friction between Wilkins and herself. At one point, Wilkins showed Watson one of Franklin's crystallographic portraits of DNA. When he saw the picture, the solution became apparent to him, and the results went into an article in Nature almost immediately. Franklin's work did appear as a supporting article in the same issue of the journal.

A debate about the amount of credit due to Franklin continues. What is clear is that she did have a meaningful role in learning the structure of DNA and that she was a scientist of the first rank. Franklin moved to J. D. Bernal's lab at Birkbeck College, where she did very fruitful work on the tobacco mosaic virus. She also began work on the polio virus. In the summer of 1956, Rosalind Franklin became ill with cancer. She died less than two years later.

Thanks to Rosalind Franklin on her 93rd Birthday

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HIV/AIDS patients “cured” by bone marrow transplants

Could bone marrow transplants cure HIV? Two men who had procedure stop taking medication after virus 'disappears' from their blood

• Last year scientists announced that the two unnamed men no longer seemed to have the virus but they were still taking antiretroviral medication
• 
  
• The men have now come off medication - one for 15 weeks and the other for seven - and still show no signs of having HIV virus
• 
  
• Experts say it is too early to say that the men had been cured but that their progress was very encouraging
• 
  
• Warned that virus may be hiding in other organs such as the liver, spleen or brain and could return months later, he warned.

Two men with HIV have been able to stop taking their medication after receiving bone marrow transplants.

Experts say it is too early to describe them as ‘cured’ – but the Aids virus shows no signs of returning in either patient.

The men, who had HIV for about 30 years, received transplants to treat blood cancer several years ago. One stopped taking anti-HIV drugs four months ago, while the other stopped seven weeks ago.

Both men had suffered with blood cancer and had undergone bone marrow transplants (marrow being prepared pictured) to treat that disease. No one expected the procedure to have such a dramatic and beneficial side effect

Their US doctors say keeping them on the drugs after their transplants first took place prevented their new supplies of healthy blood cells from becoming infected by HIV. The patients’ old, diseased cells were then attacked by the new ones.

The International Aids Society conference in Malaysia heard that now, even though the patients have stopped taking antiretroviral drugs, the virus cannot be detected in their blood. Normally, the disease can only be kept under control with lifelong treatment.

Working out why the bone marrow transplants had such a strong effect could lead to new treatments for the 34million living with Aids. An estimated 100,000 Britons have HIV, including 20,000 who have not been formally diagnosed.

Timothy Henrich, of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said the men ‘are doing very well’, but warned: ‘While these results are exciting, they do not yet indicate the men have been cured. Only time will tell.’

Experts say it is too early to say that the men are cured as virus (pictured) could be hiding in organs

One possibility is that the virus is ‘hiding’ in another part of the body, such as the liver or brain, and could re-emerge in the coming weeks.

Dr Michael Brady of the Terrence Higgins Trust stressed that bone marrow transplants are ‘complex and expensive’, and could be more dangerous than daily medication.

However, he added: ‘While this is by no means a workable cure, it does give researchers another sign-post in the direction of one.’

The first person reported to be cured of HIV, American Timothy Ray Brown, underwent a stem cell transplant in 2007 to treat his leukemia. He was reported by his German doctors to have been cured of HIV two years later.

Brown's doctors used a donor who had a rare genetic mutation that provides resistance against HIV. So far, no one has observed similar results using ordinary donor cells such as those given to the two Boston patients.

Kuritzkes said the patients will be put back on the drugs if there is a viral rebound.

A rebound will show that other sites are important reservoirs of infectious virus and new approaches to measuring these reservoirs will be needed in developing a cure, Henrich said.

‘These findings clearly provide important new information that might well alter the current thinking about HIV and gene therapy,’ Kevin Robert Frost, chief executive of The Foundation of AIDS Research, said in a statement. 

'While stem cell transplantation is not a viable option for people with HIV on a broad scale because of its costs and complexity, these new cases could lead us to new approaches to treating, and ultimately even eradicating, HIV.'

Carrots were originally PURPLE!

Carrots Used to Be Purple Before the 17th Century

The modern day orange carrot wasn’t cultivated until Dutch growers in the late 16th century took mutant strains of the purple carrot and gradually developed them into the sweet, plump, orange variety we have today.  Before this, pretty much all carrots were purple with mutated versions occasionally popping up including yellow and white carrots.  These were rarely cultivated and lacked the purple pigment anthocyanin.

It is thought that the modern day orange carrot was developed by crossing the mutated yellow and white rooted carrots as well as varieties of wild carrots, which are quite distinct from cultivated varieties.

Some think that the reason the orange carrot became so popular in the Netherlands was in tribute to the emblem of the House of Orange and the struggle for Dutch independence.  This could be, but it also might just be that the orange carrots that the Dutch developed were sweeter tasting and more fleshy than their purple counterparts, thus providing more food per plant and being better tasting.

Facts:

• It is actually possible to turn your skin a shade of orange by massively over consuming orange carrots.
• Orange carrots get their bright orange color from beta-carotene.  Beta-carotene metabolizes in the human gut from bile salts into Vitamin A.
• The origins of the cultivated carrot is rooted in the purple carrot in the region around modern day Afghanistan.
• When cultivation of the garden style orange carrot lapses for a few generations, the carrots revert back to their ancestral carrot types, which are very different from the current garden variety.
• In ancient times, the root part of the carrot plant that we eat today was not typically used.  The carrot plant however was highly valued due to the medicinal value of its seeds and leaves.   For instance, Mithridates VI, King of Pontius (around 100BC) had a recipe for counteracting certain poisons with the principle ingredient being carrot seeds.  It has since been proven that this concoction actually works.
• The Romans believed carrots and their seeds were aphrodisiacs.  As such, carrots were a common plant found in Roman gardens.  After the fall of Rome however, carrot cultivation in Europe more or less stopped until around the 10th century when Arabs reintroduced them to Europe.
• British gunners in WWII were able to locate and shoot down German planes at night due to the invention of radar, which the Germans knew nothing about.  To cover up the invention and extreme effectiveness of radar, the British spread about an urban legend that said that they massively increased the night vision of their pilots by having them consume large amounts of carrots.  This lie not only convinced the Germans, but also had a bonus effect of causing many British people to start planting their own vegetable gardens, including planting carrots.  This urban legend has persisted even to this day.
• The largest carrot every grown was 19 pounds; grown by John Evans in 1998 in Palmer, Alaska.
• The Vegetable Improvement Center at Texas A&M recently developed a purple-skinned, orange fleshed carrot called the Beta Sweet.  This carrot is specialized to include substances that prevent cancer.  It also has extremely high beta-carotene content.
• Almost one third of all carrots distributed throughout the world come from China, which is the largest distributor of carrots in the world.  Following them on gross production is Russia and then the United States.
• Although the orange carrot was not cultivated before the 16th and 17th centuries, there is a reference in a Byzantine manuscript around 512AD which depicts an orange rooted carrot, suggesting that at least this mutant variety of carrot could be found at this time.

Read more at http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/04/carrots-used-to-be-purple-before-the-17th-century/#G00rSlWvTs8KoUVR.99 

Pollution-fighting algae: Algae species holds potential for dual role as pollution reducer, biofuel source

A hardy algae species is showing promise in both reducing power plant pollution and making biofuel, based on new research at the University of Delaware.

The microscopic algae Heterosigma akashiwo grows rapidly on a gas mixture that has the same carbon dioxide and nitric oxide content as emissions released from a power plant.

"The algae thrive on the gas," said Kathryn Coyne, associate professor of marine biosciences in UD's College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment. "They grow twice as fast and the cells are much larger in size compared to when growing without gas treatment."

The algae also make large amounts of carbohydrates, which can be converted into bioethanol to fuel vehicles. The findings could have industrial applications as a cost-effective way to cut greenhouse gas pollution when paired with biofuel production.

Heterosigma akashiwo is found worldwide in the natural environment. Coyne, an expert in algal blooms, discovered that the species may have a special ability to neutralize nitric oxide—a harmful gas that poses threats to environmental and human health.

That characteristic prompted Coyne and her team to investigate whether the algae could grow on carbon dioxide without getting killed off by the high nitric oxide content in power plants' flue gas, which had foiled similar attempts by other scientists using different types of algae.

A yearlong laboratory experiment shows that Heterosigma akashiwo not only tolerates flue gas, but flourishes in its presence. The algae also do not need any additional nitrogen sources beyond nitric oxide to grow, which could reduce costs for raising algae for biofuel production.
"This alone could save up to 45 percent of the required energy input to grow algae for biofuels," Coyne said.

Funded by the Delaware Sea Grant College Program, Coyne and her collaborator, Jennifer Stewart, plan to further study how changes in conditions can enhance the growth of Heterosigma akashiwo. So far, they found a large increase in carbohydrates when grown on flue gas compared to air. They also see correlations between the levels of light given to the algae and the quantity of carbohydrates and lipids present in the organisms.

The researchers are exploring opportunities for partnerships with companies to scale up the growth process and more closely examine Heterosigma akashiwo as a biofuel producer.
The prospects could support a national focus on carbon pollution reduction following President Barack Obama's major speech this week on climate change.

"Our approach to the issue is to not just produce biofuels, but to also use this species for bioremediation of industrial flue gas to reduce harmful effects even further," Coyne said.

Source: University of Delaware

New understanding of tiny RNA molecules could have far-ranging medical applications

A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has identified a family of tiny RNA molecules that work as powerful regulators of the immune response in mammals

Mice who lack these RNA molecules lose their normal infection-fighting ability, whereas mice that overproduce them develop a fatal autoimmune syndrome.

"This finding gives us insights into immune regulation that could be very helpful in a range of medical applications, from viral vaccines to treatments for autoimmune diseases," said Changchun Xiao, assistant professor in TSRI's Department of Immunology and Microbial Science and senior investigator for the study, which appears in the June 30, 2013 issue of Nature Immunology.

Unraveling a Crucial Process
The finding concerns a key interaction between T cells and B cells, the allied lymphocyte armies that make up most of the adaptive immune system of mammals. B cells, which produce antibodies, usually lie in wait for pathogens in special zones called follicles within lymph nodes and the spleen. But to start proliferating normally and pumping out antibodies to fight an infection, these B cells have to be assisted, in effect, by T cells known as "follicular helper" T cells (TFH cells). "The TFH cells have to migrate into the B cell follicles and physically contact the B cells in order to provide help to them," said Xiao. "However, the molecular pathways that control TFH cell differentiation and migration have not been well understood."

In 2009, other researchers proposed that this crucial process requires the suppression of the miR-17~92 family of RNA molecules. These are among the thousands of short RNA molecules (often known as micro-RNAs, miRs, or miRNAs) that are made by mammalian cells and are meant to do their jobs while in RNA form. Typically an miRNA works inside the cell as a basic regulator or "dimmer switch" for the activity of tens to hundreds of genes—it binds to transcripts of those genes and slows down their translation into proteins.

Xiao, who had been studying the miR-17~92 family since 2005, decided to examine their role in TFH differentiation. His team began by measuring the levels of these miRNAs in young, "naïve" T cells and in the TFH cells to which these T cells gave birth after exposure to foreign antigens.

Surprising Finding
To the researchers' surprise, the miR-17~92s showed the opposite pattern of expression than expected: their levels jumped as the naïve T cells began differentiating into TFH cells, but fell back by the time the process was finished. The finding suggested that, far from acting as a brake on TFH differentiation, miR-17~92s work as enablers of the process.

To confirm their suspicion, team members developed mutant mouse lines in which some or all of the miR-17~92 miRNAs were knocked out of T cells. These miR-17~92-deficient T cells turned out to be much less able to differentiate into TFH cells. As a result, the follicle-dwelling B cells that depend on TFH assistance also lost much of their ability to respond to an immune challenge. "These mutant mice showed a deficient antibody response to a standard immune-provoking protein," said Seung Goo Kang, a postdoctoral research associate in the Xiao laboratory who was the leading author of the study.

Collaborating TSRI scientists led by John Teijaro, a senior research associate in the laboratory of Michael B. A. Oldstone, professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbial Science, showed further that these transgenic mice—unlike ordinary lab mice—could not clear a chronic virus infection that is used as a standard challenge in immunological experiments.

By contrast, when the team raised transgenic mice whose T cells produced four to six times the normal amount of miR-17~92s, these T cells differentiated into TFH cells spontaneously—that is, without an immune-stimulating inoculation.

These mice developed antibody responses to their own tissues, and died young, with swollen spleen and lymph nodes. "The accumulation of autoantibodies is also seen in lupus and other autoimmune diseases in humans," said Wen-Hsien Liu, another postdoctoral research associate in the Xiao laboratory and a co-first author of the paper.

Important Targets
Liu and Kang were able to track down a key target gene of miR-17~92s, which the miRNAs suppress to enable TFH cell differentiation. The targeted gene codes for Phlpp2, a recently discovered signaling inhibitor. "Lowering Phlpp2 protein levels in our miR-17~92-knockout T cells restored much of their ability to become TFH cells," Kang said.

"Phlpp2 is one important target, but we believe there are others too, and we are now looking for those," Xiao said. He and his colleagues also plan to investigate methods for manipulating miR-17~92s and their TFH cell-related pathways, in order to boost antibody responses – to vaccines for example—or alternatively to lower autoantibody productions in people with autoimmune diseases.

Source: The Scripps Research Institute

Protein in Blood Exerts Natural Anti-Cancer Protection

The study, published June 24 online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests it may be possible to harness the power of this naturally occurring anticancer agent as a way to treat cancer, including metastases.

In several different publications it has been described the ability of decorin to affect a number of biological processes including inflammatory responses, wound healing, and angiogenesis.

In this new article, the study's senior investigator, Renato Iozzo, M.D., Ph.D., has labeled decorin a "soluble tumor repressor" -- the first to be found that specifically targets new blood vessels, which are pushed to grow by the cancer, and forces the vessel cells to "eat" their internal components. This reduces their potential to feed the cancer overall causing an inhibition of tumor progression.

"The tumor suppressors we all know are genes inside tumors that a cancer deletes or silences in order to continue growing. I call decorin a tumor repressor because its anti-tumor activity comes from the body, outside the cancer," says Dr. Iozzo, Professor of Pathology & Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at Kimmel Cancer Center.

"Decorin is a soluble compound that we found has a powerful, natural protective effect against cancer -- an exciting finding that we believe will open up a new avenue for both basic research and clinical application," Dr. Iozzo says. "Acting from the outside of the cells, decorin is able to modify the behavior of the cancer cells and of the normal cells in order to slow down the progression of the tumor. For this reason, decorin acts as a guardian of the matrix, the complicated structure built around the cells in our body."

Absence of decorin promotes tumor growth

Decorin has long been known to be involved in human development. It is so named because deposits of decorin "decorate" collagen fibrils after the human body forms.

A second pool of decorin has been found circulating in blood after production by connective tissue throughout the body. This connective tissue is part of the extracellular matrix, which provides both structural support and biological regulation of tissue cells.

But no one has understood the biological function of this second pool of decorin, according to Dr. Iozzo.

The research team, including the two co-first authors, Simone Buraschi, Ph.D., and Thomas Neill, a graduate student, who work in the laboratory of Dr. Iozzo, decoded the function of soluble decorin. They found that addition of exogenous decorin to the tumor microenvironment induces autophagy, a mechanism by which cells discard unnecessary or damaged intracellular structures. "This process regulates a lot of cellular activities," says Dr. Iozzo.

The researchers specifically found that decorin evoked autophagy in both microvascular and macrovascular endothelial cells -- cells that line the interior surface of blood vessels.

"This matters because autophagy can exert a potential oncosupressive function by acting to discard critical cell components that would otherwise be involved in promotion of tumor growth through angiogenesis, the production of new blood vessels that can provide nutrition to the tumor," Dr. Iozzo says. "In contrast, absence of decorin permits tumor growth."

Therefore, the presence of decorin in the surroundings of the tumor is essential to control tumorigenesis and formation of new blood vessels, he says. Moreover, Dr. Iozzo's laboratory has characterized for the first time Peg3, a known tumor-suppressor gene, as a master player in the autophagy process induced by decorin. "This discovery is important as it opens up to the study of new unexplored genes and signaling pathways in the field of autophagy," he says.

"Circulating decorin represents a fundamental cellular process that acts to combat tumor angiogenesis," Dr. Iozzo says. "Treatment based on systemic delivery of decorin may represent a genuine advance in our ongoing war against cancer."

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health grants R01 CA39481, R01 CA47282, and R01 CA120975.

Collaborating researchers from LifeCell Corporation, in Branchburg, New Jersey, and Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, also contributed to the study.

Link Between Telomeres and Obesity Discovered

New Gene Involved in Obesity

The discovery of an unexpected function for a gene that was associated to another process in the organism might be a solution in search of a problem, a clue to unsuspected connections. That is what has happened with RAP1, a gene that protects telomeres -- the ends of chromosomes -- after researchers from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) surprisingly discovered its key role in obesity."We still don't know what evolutionary significance to attach to it, but it is at the very least interesting that a telomere gene is related to obesity," says Maria Blasco, CNIO director and co-author of the study published today in the journal

RAP1 forms part of the shelterin complex, a group of proteins that make up the protective hood of telomeres -- the DNA sequence at the ends of chromosomes that shortens with each cellular division and thus measures the ageing of the organism. There are six shelterins, and CNIO's Telomeres & Telomerase Group, which studies them in-depth, has discovered that RAP1, contrary to the rest, is not essential for the survival of the organism; but that does not mean RAP1 is not important. The reverse is rather the case: when comparing the genomes of different species, it can be observed that RAP1 is the most conserved shelterin of all. Despite the long history of evolutionary changes, RAP1 has not changed; it is present even in yeast. This normally implies an important role in the organism, but which one?

CNIO researchers had discovered that RAP1, in addition to being located in telomeres, is also present in the rest of the chromosome; they supposed it acts regulating the action of other genes. In order to analyse this other potential function, and its importance in the organism, CNIO researchers created a lineage of mice without RAP1 and, to their surprise, discovered a model for obesity.

MICE LACKING RAP1 GAIN MORE WEIGHT

"Mice -- especially female mice -- without RAP1 do not eat more, but do gain weight. They suffer from metabolic syndrome, accumulate abdominal fat and present high glucose and cholesterol levels, amongst other symptoms," says Paula Martínez, first-author of the study.

The reason is that RAP1 plays an important role in the regulation of genes involved in metabolism. In particular, researchers have discovered that it acts on the same signalling pathway mediated by another protein: PPAR- gamma (PPAR-γ). In fact, PPAR-γ deficient mice suffer from a type of obesity "surprisingly similar" to that seen in mice without RAP1.

The next step in the research will be to study if RAP1 also plays a role in human obesity. "This discovery adds an element to the obesity equation, and opens up a possible new link between metabolic dysfunction and ageing, via a protein present in telomeres," says Blasco.

Potential of papaya leaf

Papaya Leaves – A Cure For Low Platelet Count?

Papaya. Just the right fruit if you are looking for a glowing, clear skin, a healthy bowel and a strong immune system. However, few of us know that Papaya leaves are packed with health benefits that may help save many a lives by supporting platelet production.

Papaya leaf extract has recently become the subject of several studies owing to its therapeutic value and scientists are intrigued by its potential benefit in supporting blood platelet count.

What Does Reduced Platelet Count Mean?

Platelets are tiny blood cells that have a very important job in your body. Whenever you get a cut or a bruise, platelets rush to the area, club together and form a clot that stops bleeding from the damaged blood vessel.

Thrombocytopenia or a reduced platelet count can decrease the body’s ability to clot blood in case of an injury and can lead to excessive bleeding. Certain viral infections, dengue, vitamin B12 and folic acid deficiencies and chemotherapy can cause a dip in platelets. Some painkillers and anti-inflammatory medicines can also affect platelet production. A platelet count of less than 150,000 platelets per microlitre of blood is considered lower than normal.

Conventional treatment includes blood transfusion and medicines to improve platelet count, however recent research has shown promise in the use of papaya leaves in treating this condition.

Have We Found A Cure For Dengue-induced Low Platelet Count?

The Dengue virus affects the bone marrow, the flexible, soft tissue that fills up the hollow insides of our bones. Since platelets are produced in the bone marrow, dengue leads to a decrease in platelet count.

Recent studies have shown that papaya leaves contain complex substances that may support the release and production of platelets by the bone marrow. A breakthrough study by Dr. Sanath Hettige of Srilanka indicates that papaya leaf extract helps to "normalize clotting and repair liver damage caused by dengue".

Dr Hettige’s controlled clinical trials of about 70 dengue patients found that the patients who were given papaya leaf extract recovered fully within two days without hospital admission. In an interview to Srilanka's leading newspaper, The Sunday Observer, Dr. Hettige added that it is important to take papaya leaf juice at the early stages of dengue, before the disease progresses and damages vital organs.

Dr. Hettige is said to have submitted an application for patent rights for the use of papaya leaf extract as a cure for dengue.

Clinical trials done in Malaysia and India have come up with evidence to prove the efficacy of Carica papaya leaf in augmenting platelet count in patients with dengue fever.

In March this year, a Malaysian team comprising researchers from the Institute for Medical Research, Kuala Lumpur, and the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital, Klang, published a paper showing that Carica papaya leaf juice was capable of significantly increasing platelet count in patients with dengue fever and dengue haemorrhagic fever.

Led by Soobitha Subenthiran, the clinical trial covered 228 patients from the dengue ward of the hospital, with half of them administered 50 gm of fresh papaya juice for three consecutive days and the other half receiving standard management.

Blood count

Their blood count was monitored for 48 hours and gene expression studies conducted.

The paper published in Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, an open access journal, showed a significant increase in mean platelet count in the intervention group but not in the control group, 40 hours after the first dose of the juice.

The ALOX 12 and PTAFR genes influencing platelet production and activation were strongly expressed in patients on the juice. Toxicity studies carried out by the team also showed that the juice was safe for human consumption.

A study conducted by a team from the K.M. Kundnani College of Pharmacy, Mumbai, and Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals, Chennai, found that Carica papaya leaf extract was capable of increasing the platelet count in rats administered a synthetic agent for low platelet count.

Other Benefits:

Cancer Prevention

Clinical trials have given light to the abilities papaya leaf tea has in reducing the risk of certain cancers. This is because components in the papaya leaf can help inhibit the cellular growth of tumors, and may actually cut off the blood supply to these types of cells. Evidence has shown that the juice from the leaf prevents abnormal cell growth and can interfere with the growth of tumors. In addition, trials are underway which study the use of papaya leaf extract with those undergoing chemotherapy in order to enhance the cancer fighting properties. This is wonderful news for those looking for alternative solutions for these troublesome illnesses.

Relieves Indigestion

Papaya leaf tea is a great method of relief for digestive discomforts and pains. If you are one of many who suffer from common digestive disorders, whether it is IBS or heartburn, you can buy papaya leaf tea to help you work your way back to optimum health. The active component in the papaya leaf tea is comprised of an enzyme called Papain. Papain is found in large quantities in the papaya leaf, and is used to tenderize meat, and it can also help your digestive system break down fibers from meat or wheat, and can aid digestion. As papain works to break down wheat fibers, it has been a great remedy for those with gluten intolerance or celiac disease. Traditionally, the papaya leaf has also been used to treat parasites, ringworm, and new studies show that it can help those suffering from gluten intolerance. Papaya leaf tea also works as a cleanser and pain reliever for the digestive system by using the soothing action of proteolytic enzymes to reduce the inflammation of the stomach lining. This wonderful tea may also be useful in relieving symptoms of ulcers caused by H. pylori bacteria within the stomach. Furthermore, this tea has also been used to boost a poor appetite since it can aid metabolism and help induce hunger.

Alleviates Skin Problems

Surprisingly, papaya leaf tea benefits are not only for internal use. It isn’t uncommon for people to use the heated papaya leaf bags as an effective treatment for skin problems as well. Using papaya leaf tea topically can help with a variety of problems such as warts, scars, unwanted freckles, fungal infections on the skin, and even can be used to treat certain skin cancers. This is because the papaya leaf contains a compound known as acetogenins. These compounds are suspected to be able to inhibit the growth of certain tumors and cancers. Since this tea holds many antiviral and antibacterial properties it has the potential to help those who suffer from cold sores or even herpes.

Preparation

To prepare papaya leaf tea steep one bag in a cup of hot water for 3 to 4 minutes or until the desired strength of tea is achieved. If preferred, sweeten this delightful tea with a bit of sugar or honey or add a little slice of lemon for a more zesty taste.

These are only a few of the many benefits to be found in using papaya leaf tea. It is important for those suffering from serious medical conditions or taking heart medications to always see a doctor before beginning any herbal regimen. For those who do not have issues, you can enjoy a natural way to improve digestive health, and it can be used to improve many kinds of skin conditions. Women that are pregnant should avoid papaya leaf tea since it can stimulate the uterus and cause early and unwanted contractions.

When you look for a place to buy papaya leaf tea, it is important that you get a quality product that will use the best ingredients and careful packaging. Buddha Teas is a producer of organic and natural teas, and offers a wide variety of medicinal and soothing herbal ingredients in their teas. You can buy papaya leaf tea from this reputable source, and feel confident that you are getting a properly processed and packaged product.

Papaya tea is not only a tasty treat, but also has many medical qualities. By using a good source to buy your tea, such as Buddha Teas, you are providing yourself with a safe and effective remedy against fever, sore throat, indigestion, skin disorders, bloating, menstrual cramps, intestinal cramps, fungal infection, constipation, and anti-parasitic. The tea can be drunk for its internal medicinal values or it can be used externally on the skin. This tropical plant is one of Mother Nature’s best kept secrets; meant to be used for your own good health.

Pain causing protein may hold key to better treatment of arthritis

A new study by researchers at McGill University adds to a growing body of evidence that the nervous system and nerve-growth factor (NGF) play a major role in arthritis. The findings also support the idea that reducing elevated levels of NGF - a protein that promotes the growth and survival of nerves, but also causes pain — may be an important strategy for developing treatment of arthritis pain.

Using an approach established by arthritis researchers elsewhere, the McGill scientists examined inflammatory arthritis in the ankle joint of rats. In particular, they investigated changes in the nerves and tissues around the arthritic joint, by using specific markers to label the different types of nerve fibres and allow them to be visualized with a fluorescence microscope.

Normally, sympathetic nerve fibres regulate blood flow in blood vessels. Following the onset of arthritis in the rats, however, these fibres began to sprout into the inflamed skin over the joint and wrap around the pain-sensing nerve fibres instead. More sympathetic fibres were detected in the arthritic joint tissues, as well.

The results also showed a higher level in the inflamed skin of NGF - mirroring the findings of human studies that have shown considerable increases in NGF levels in arthritis patients.

The study is published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Bee venom kills HIV cells (NaturalNews) An ancient Chinese medicine protocol known as "apitherapy" appears to be making a resurgence in modern times, as scientists continue to uncover the many amazing healing powers of bees and the substances they produce. And a new study recently published in the journal Antiviral Therapy affirms this, having found that bee venom, which is released during a bee sting, may hold the key to targeting and destroying HIV. As reported by U.S. News & World Report, scientists from the Washington University (WU) School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, identified the presence of a compound known as melittin that they say exhibits powerful anti-HIV effects. The bee venom toxin was visibly observed to destroy the viral components of HIV while leaving healthy cells unharmed. For their research, Joshua Hood and his colleagues from WU attached melittin to nanoparticles that are smaller than HIV. They then applied the resulting substance to HIV itself, where it was clearly observed to "rip holes" in the outer layer of the virus, effectively destroying it. But because of the particles' size, they did not harm healthy cells in the body. According to ScienceNews.org, the team also applied the solution to healthy human cells obtained from vaginal walls. They observed that the substance did not visibly affect these healthy cells at all, illustrating the unique nature of the bee venom in differentiating between the cells it is supposed to attack, and the cells it is supposed to leave unharmed. "Based on this finding, we propose that melittin-loaded nanoparticles are well-suited for use as topical vaginal HIV virucidal agents," wrote the authors in their paper. "Out hope is that in places where HIV is running rampant, people could use this as a preventative measure to stop the initial infections." As far as HIV potentially growing resistance to the treatment later on down the road, researchers believe such a scenario will never materialize due to the nature of the mechanistic action. Because bee venom specifically destroys the outer layer of the virus, which results in the virus itself dying, there is little or no chance of resistance ever developing. "Theoretically, melittin nanoparticles are not susceptible to HIV mutational resistance seen with standard HIV therapies," added the research team. "By disintegrating the [virus'] lipid envelope, [it's] less likely to develop resistance to the melittin nanoparticles." Propolis, royal jelly, bee pollen, and raw honey may also target HIV However, the use of nanoparticles, which have never been proven safe, is not actually necessary for bee venom to do its work. A patent issued to Vespa Laboratories, Inc. back in 1989 reveals that the use of melittin as a natural antiretroviral treatment was known long before nanoparticles were even invented (or discovered), which means the substance itself, without modification, possesses anti-HIV properties. And besides bee venom, many other bee products may also target HIV naturally without the need for deadly antiretroviral drugs and therapies. Numerous scientific studies have shown that bee propolis, for instance, is loaded with biologically-active substances that stimulate immunity and prevent HIV replication. And royal jelly, which is considered by many to be a "perfect food," contains all sorts of beneficial hormones, vitamins, and other nutrients that naturally promote strong immunity and the proliferation of healthy cells. "Five bee products are involved in apitherapy protocol for the treatment of HIV/AIDS," explains an article posted on ProNutrition.org. "These are honey, pollen, royal jelly, propolis, and bee venom. The first four can be used as food supplements and [medications], while bee venom is only applicable as medicine for HIV/AIDS and other disease conditions." Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/039595_bee_venom_HIV_apitherapy.html#ixzz2ONKiiZsf

DNA as an information storage device

DNA double helix. Computer artwork of a double- stranded DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) helix. Each strand is composed of a sequence of nucleotide units

Scientists have been able to store 2.2 petabytes in one gram of DNA

Since time immemorial, mankind has wanted to share and use information for later use. First, it was through the caveman paintings and symbols. Then we invented the alphabets, ideograms, numbers and other symbols. Using these, books were written and stored for future generations, in palm leaves, papyrus sheets or paper. The invention of printing brought the Gutenberg revolution, making multiple copies easily and spreading education to millions of people.

Printed books occupy space. Libraries and archives are bursting at the seams. Enter the computer age and digitization using the binary code of combining zeros and ones (0,1) for alphabets and other such symbols, and reading them using the on-off electrical signals, which has made electronic storage possible, cutting down the size and space for ‘hard copies’. Integrated circuits, processors and related electronic wizardry have shrunk the size of computers and storage devices from room-size to finger nail size.

But even so, the amount of information storable in a given ‘hard drive’ (from a printed book to an Amazon or Kindle e-book, or the Encyclopaedia Britannica to Google) is growing exponentially. “That means the cost of storage is rising but our budgets are not”, as Dr. Nick Goldman of the European Bioinformatics Institute at Hinxton, UK told The Economist (in its January 26, 2013 issue). Goldman (together with 4 colleagues at Hinxton and 2 from Agilent Technologies, California, U.S.) decided to use DNA (yes, the molecule which stores the code to make life possible) as the information storage device, rather than electronics. Their paper titled “Towards practical, high-capacity, low maintenance information storage in synthesized DNA” has just been published in the journal Nature two weeks ago (doi:10.1038/nature 11875).

Why DNA? Indeed the question should be ‘why not DNA”. It is a long chain, consisting of 4 alphabets (chemical units called bases and referred to as A, G, C and T) put together in a string of sequence — similar to what the English language does with its 26 alphabets and punctuation marks, or digital computers with the combination of zeros and ones in chosen sequences. DNA has been used since life was born over 2 billion years ago to store and transfer information right through evolution. It is small in size — the entire information content of a human is stored in a 3 billion long sequence of A, G, C and T, and packed into the nucleus of a cell smaller than a micron (thousandth of a millimetre). It is stable and has an admirable shelf life. People have isolated DNA from the bones of dinosaurs dead about 65 millions ago, read the sequence of bases in it and understood much information about the animal. The animal (shall we say the ‘host’ of the DNA) is long since dead but the information lives on.

DNA is thus a long-lived, stable and easily synthesized storage hard drive. While the current electronic storage devices require active and continued maintenance and regular transferring between storage media (punched cards to magnetic tapes to floppy disks to CD...), DNA based storage needs no active maintenance. Just store in a cool, dark and dry place!

The Goldman group is not the first one to think of DNA as a storage device. Dr E.B. Baum tried building an associative memory vastly larger than the brain in 1995, Dr C.T. Clelland and others ‘hid’ messages in DNA microdots in 1999, JPL Cox wrote in 2001 on long-term data storage in DNA, Allenberg and Rotstein came up with a coding method for archiving text, images and music characters in DNA, and in 2012 Church, Gao and Kosuri have discussed the next-generation digital information storage in DNA.

What is novel in the Hinxton method is that they moved away from the conventional binary (0 and 1) code and used a ternary code system (three numerals 0, 1 and 2 using combinations of the bases A, G, C and T) and encode the information into DNA. This novelty avoids any reading errors, particularly when encountering repetitive base sequences. Also, rather than synthesize one long string of DNA to code for an entire item of information, they broke the file down to smaller chunks, so that no errors occur during synthesis or read-out. These chunks are then read in an appropriate manner or protocol, providing for 100 per cent accuracy.

How much information can be stored in DNA? Goldman and co have been able to store 2.2 petabytes (a peta is a million billion or 10 raised to power 15) in one gram of DNA (and as The Economist says “enough, in other words, to fit all of the world’s digital information into the back of a lorry”). What about the speed? And how does one read the files?

Today, the speed is slow and the reading using DNA sequencers is expensive, but in time both the speed will improve and the cost come down considerably. Recall that it took $3 billion to read out the entire human genome a decade ago, and months to do so. Today, the speed has improved, and it is predicted that in a couple of years, the human genome can be read for $1000. But even today, DNA–based information storage is a realistic option to archive long-term, infrequently accessed material.

What did Goldman and group store in DNA? For starters, they stored all 154 sonnets of Shakespeare (in ASCII text), the 1953 Watson-Crick paper on the DNA double helix (in PDF format), a colour photograph of Hinxton (in JPEG) and a clip from the “I have a Dream” speech of Martin Luther King (in MP3 format).

Natural selection and evolution have used DNA to store and read out to make our bodies. And we are now using DNA to store and archive the products of our brains. What a twist!