Posts Tagged ‘illness’
Americans Suffering From Possibly-Imaginary Sensitivity to Wi-Fi Run for Radio-Free Zone In the Hills of Appalachia
Towns like Green Bank, West Virginia are part of the U.S. Radio Quiet Zone, 13,000 square miles of wireless free land created to keep transmissions from interfering with radio telescopes like those owned by the military and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Some of those who believe (and we keep saying "believe" because there is some controversy about the medical validity of the claims) they feel ill effects from Wi-Fi have sought refuge in these hills.
A University of Maryland physics professor quoted in the BBC piece disagrees with the self-diagnoses, saying that Wi-Fi radiation is far too weak to cause changes in body chemistry and make people sick. The World Health Organization fact sheet on EHS says that “the symptoms are certainly real,” but that “EHS is not a medical diagnosis, nor is it clear that it represents a single medical problem.” As of 2010, Sweden was the only country that recognizes EHS as a functional impairment, even paying to have sufferers' homes electronically “sanitized” by installing metal shielding.
However, a study conducted by Louisiana State University claims to prove that the effects of radiation are real, relying on the results of an experiment in which a self-diagnoses sufferer was bombarded with both real and fake rays and asked about her symptoms. But neither this study nor any other similar studies have been accepted by either the medical or or scientific communities. You can read more about this illness, or non-illness, in on the subject.
Still, the sufferers of whatever this is, or isn't, seem to find some relief in moving to the mountains of West Virginia.
[BBC]
New Drug Can Treat Almost Any Viral Infection By Killing the Body’s Infected Cells
Viruses work by inserting themselves into a cell and hijacking its machinery for its own use. The invaded cell then creates more copies of the virus, which involves creating long strings of double-stranded RNA — which contains the virus’ genetic material, like DNA contains ours.
When the virus is done copying itself, its hostage cell usually dies, from the virus bursting through its walls (lysis), changes to the cell’s outer membrane, and from apoptosis, or programmed cell death.
Human cells have plenty of defenses against viral invasion, including proteins that attach to the double-stranded RNA, preventing the virus from replicating itself after successful invasion.
This new drug therapy combines those dsRNA proteins with a protein that induces apoptosis. It’s called a DRACO, Double-stranded RNA Activated Caspase Oligomerizer.
When one end of the DRACO binds to dsRNA, it signals the other end of the DRACO to induce cell suicide, an explains. In this way, the cell is killed before the virus can take over and eventually kill it anyway. If there is no dsRNA, the healthy cells are left alone.
“In theory, it should work against all viruses,” said Todd Rider, a senior staff scientist at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory who invented the new technology.
A handful of drugs can target specific viruses by interfering with their replication process, through addition of modified DNA building blocks or the blocking of enzymes the viruses need to stimulate the replication process. But viruses are wily bugs, and they can evolve to resist these treatments.
The DRACO therapy could be effective because it targets the host cell, not just the virus.
Rider and colleagues are testing DRACO against more viruses in mice, according to MIT. Rider hopes to license the technology for trials in larger animals and for eventual human clinical trials, too.
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Science’s Favorite Self-Experimenters, Self-Endangerers, and Self-Agonizers
Science needs the fearless
Take John Paul Stapp, the pained-looking man in the photo montage above. Stapp, who died in 1999, was hailed as the fastest man on Earth, willingly hopping onto a rocket sled to test the effects of acceleration and deceleration forces on humans. When Stapp started his research in 1947, most other physicians believed humans would suffer fatal trauma around 18 g — but Stapp shattered this belief, exposing himself to more than 40 g of thrust in one test. In the image above, he's riding on a rocket sled at 421 mph.
Throughout his tests, he suffered rib fractures, retinal hemorrhages and two wrist fractures, but believed he had not reached the limit of human speed tolerance.
And there are plenty of other examples. From the man who catheterized his own heart to the doctors who died seeking cures for tropical diseases, here we pay homage to a dozen of these brave souls. (And a couple just plain crazy ones.)
Check out our gallery.
A Protein Killer Could Treat All Cancers, and Possibly All Illnesses
The biotech company Alnylam announced in June that its drug ALN-VSP cut off blood flow to 62 percent of liver-cancer tumors in those 19 patients, by triggering a rarely used defense mechanism in the body to silence cancerous genes. Whereas conventional drugs stop disease-causing proteins, ALN-VSP uses RNA interference (RNAi) therapy to stop cells from making proteins in the first place, a tactic that could work for just about any disease. “Imagine that your kitchen floods,” says biochemist and Alnylam CEO John Maraganore. “Today’s medicines mop it up. RNAi technology turns off the faucet.”
Here’s another analogy: If DNA is the blueprint for proteins, RNA is the contractor. It makes single-stranded copies of DNA’s genes, called mRNA, which tell the cell to produce proteins. In 1998, scientists identified RNAi, a mechanism that primitive organisms use to detect and destroy virus’s double-stranded RNA and any viral mRNA. Mammals’ immune systems made RNAi’s antiviral function irrelevant (although all vertebrates, including humans, still use RNAi to regulate mRNA activity), but researchers found that introducing small segments of double-stranded RNA to cells could trigger the ancient mechanism and selectively halt the production of specific proteins.
That ability makes RNAi a potential fix for many diseases, including cancer, that arise when abnormal cells produce excessive amounts of everyday proteins. In theory, manipulating RNAi to kill proteins is simple. ALN-VSP, for example, consists of synthetic double-stranded RNA designed to match tumor mRNA that codes for two proteins: VEGF, which cancers overproduce to help grow new blood vessels, and KSP, which sets off rapid cell division. The researchers send the synthetic RNA into liver cells, and the body’s RNAi system kills both the synthetic RNA and any matching tumor-grown mRNA. Knock out the mRNAs coding for those proteins—which in the liver are produced only by cancer cells—and the tumor stops growing.
“We can turn off any one of 20,000 genes with RNAi,” says Bruce Sullenger, a molecular biologist researching RNAi at Duke University. “The challenge has been to get a drug into only the desired cells and not harm others.” Researchers have worried that a drug might disrupt normal protein production in a healthy cell, or that the immune system will destroy the drug before it reaches its target.
Alnylam overcame both concerns by packaging the drug in a fatty envelope that is absorbed primarily by the liver. This allowed doctors to administer the drug through the blood, rather than by an injection to one spot, which improves results by ensuring that the entire liver receives an even dose.
The technique’s ability to attack single genes could lead to drugs for the 75 percent of cancer genes that lack any specific treatment, as well as for other illnesses. Alnylam is already testing RNAi therapy for Huntington’s disease and high cholesterol in cell cultures; other researchers are tackling macular degeneration, muscular dystrophy and HIV. The potential has driven nearly every major pharmaceutical company to start an RNAi program.
Because the approach is fundamentally simple, RNAi therapy could be ready within two years, say experts including John Rossi, a molecular geneticist at City of Hope National Medical Center in California. Alnylam plans to enroll an additional 36 patients in the ALN-VSP trial and increase the dosage, but the early results are good enough to suggest that it could be among the first RNAi therapies to hit the market. “I think RNAi could work for anything,” Rossi says. “But even if it only works for liver cancer, it would be pretty good.” For liver-cancer patients who have been failed by chemotherapy and radiation and felt their harsh side effects, that would be wonder drug enough.
Darpa’s Genetic Diagnostic Suite Will Know You’re Sick Before You Do
The sensor detects changes in gene expression that occur in people exposed to viruses like the common cold, flu, or the respiratory syncytial virus.
Led by Dr. Geoffrey Ginsburg, director of Duke's Institute for Genome Science & Policy, the team identified 30 genetic markers that are activated by viruses. In some cases, the changes occurred hours or days before symptoms started.
This approach would let doctors and public-health officials make quick diagnoses before someone even appears sick. Current tests look for presence of the actual pathogen, but that takes longer and doesn't work until a person has symptoms, Ginsburg says.
The team started human trials last year, monitoring 80 people in four studies. Healthy people were exposed to three viral strains, and their blood, urine and saliva were then tested for specific gene signatures that would characterize illness, DangerRoom reports.
The next step is to analyze an ongoing study of Duke freshmen living in dorms. Participants were asked to file daily reports about their health and provide blood and other samples as requested, according to a
Darpa provided $19.5 million to fund the study, seeing potential in a system that can evaluate military personnel before they're deployed. An early-warning system could also help quarantine troops before they can infect others.
The research could lead to public-health benefits well beyond the military, however. The team also found that genetic signatures for viral infections are different from those triggered by bacterial infections. Definitive information about a patient's ailment can make antibiotic-resistant superbugs less likely, if fewer doctors prescribe antibiotics when they're not necessary.
What's more, public health agencies could use the technology to isolate outbreaks of influenza virus, possibly stemming pandemics before they can spread.