Science news, Anthropology, Physics, Agriculture - Scicornwall

Nicotine Has Some Neuroscience Benefits - Study

A team of London scientists have found clues for the potentially therapeutic benefits of nicotine on learning, memory and attention while minimising the risk of addiction. The research announced in Geneva today will assist the search for new drugs for dementia.

The pharmaceutical industry has striven to discover nicotine-like substances for conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. Nicotine itself is difficult to administer by conventional means. The differences between doses that produce cognitive and toxic effects are small and, most significantly, there is also high risk of addiction. The balance, however, between costs and benefits is much more favourable for people with serious illnesses such as dementia.

“Nicotine, like many other drugs, has multiple effects some of which are harmful whereas others may be beneficial,” said Professor Ian Stolerman from the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. Previous research has revealed these cognitive effects in humans and in laboratory animals. “They are small effects and,” he warned, “for healthy people they do not outweigh the harmful effects.”

Speaking at Europe’s biggest neuroscience conference, Professor Stolerman explained that newer substances are based upon the chemical structure of the nicotine molecule. Research in rats has shown a nicotine-induced improvement in sustained attention to visual stimuli.

The King’s College team studied the underlying mechanisms that produced this change and have helped to identify the roles of nicotinic receptors – the proteins on cells that respond to nicotine - as well as the involvement of several chemicals in the brain, including dopamine, noradrenaline, glutamate and serotonin.

“We found several similarities and only small differences between the cognitive mechanisms and those involved in the addictive effects of nicotine,” said Professor Stolerman. “The cognitive ‘boost’ that many smokers experience from nicotine probably contributes to the reason people smoke cigarettes, so it may not be possible to totally prevent addiction. Nevertheless, the potential for abuse of a medicine based on a pure nicotine-like substance is likely to be very small.”

The new knowledge about mechanisms of nicotine action may speed the discovery of agents that are more effective as cognitive enhancers than nicotine itself, with longer-lasting effects. “This is a promising stage in the years of research that have endeavoured to separate the beneficial from the harmful effects of nicotine,” Professor Stolerman concluded.

Slow exercise (not fast) is better for menopausal women

It's an inevitable truth: as we get older, our muscles deteriorate and we become weaker. Not only can this be an immensely frustrating change, but it can also have many other, more serious implications. We become clumsier and begin to have more falls, often resulting in broken bones or even more severe injuries. There is wide interest in this phenomenon, but to date, the majority of research has focussed on therapies for older patients with advanced symptoms. Now one study, led by Dr Alexandra Sänger from the University of Salzburg, is taking a new approach: scientists are examining the effects of different exercise regimes in menopausal women, with the aim of developing new strategies for delaying and reducing the initial onset of age related muscle deterioration. Results will be presented on Monday 7th July at the Society for Experimental Biology's Annual Meeting in Marseille [Poster Session A5].

Dr Sänger's research group has investigated two particular methods of physical training. Hypertrophy resistance training is a traditional approach designed to induce muscle growth whereas 'SuperSlow®' is a more recently devised system which involves much slower movement and fewer repetitions of exercises, and was originally introduced especially for beginners and for rehabilitation. "Our results indicate that both methods increase muscle mass at the expense of connective and fatty tissue, but contrary to expectations, the SuperSlow® method appears to have the greatest effect," reveals Dr Sänger. "These findings will be used to design specific exercise programmes for everyday use to reduce the risk of injury and thus significantly contribute to a better quality of life in old age."

The study focussed on groups of menopausal women aged 45-55 years, the age group in which muscle deterioration first starts to become apparent. Groups undertook supervised regimes over 12 weeks, based on each of the training methods. To see what effect the exercise had, thigh muscle biopsies were taken at the beginning and end of the regimes, and microscopically analysed to look for changes in the ratio of muscle to fatty and connective tissue, the blood supply to the muscle, and particularly for differences in the muscle cells themselves. "The results of our experiments have significantly improved our understanding of how muscles respond to different forms of exercise," asserts Dr Sänger. "We believe that the changes that this new insight can bring to current training systems will have a considerable effect on the lives of both menopausal and older women," she concludes.

Source

Tree-Killing Fungus Officially Named by Scientists

The USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) today announced that an SRS scientist and other researchers have officially named the fungus responsible for killing redbay and other trees in the coastal plains of northeastern Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.

Lead author and Iowa State University Plant Pathologist Tom Harrington, co-author and SRS Plant Pathologist Stephen Fraedrich, and Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences Researcher D.N. Aghayeva unveiled the name, Raffaelea lauricola, in an article published in the April-June 2008 issue of Mycotaxon, the international journal of fungal taxonomy and nomenclature.

“Until now, the fungus was known as ‘the laurel wilt pathogen’ because of the devastating disease it causes in redbay trees and other laurel species like sassafras and avocado trees in the Southeast,” said Fraedrich, based in Athens, GA. “Now arborists, foresters, researchers, and regulatory officials have a formal, scientific name and description of the fungus, as well as a detailed explanation of how the pathogen compares to similar fungi."

Raffaelea lauricola is one of many species of fungi carried by ambrosia beetles, a group of highly specialized wood-boring insects that feed on symbiotic fungi, which they carry from tree to tree in specialized sacs. The beetles feed on their own special ambrosia fungi, much as the Greek gods were believed to exist on their "ambrosia." R. lauricola is the principle ambrosia fungus of an invasive species from Asia, the redbay ambrosia beetle. R. lauricola is the only known tree pathogen among the ambrosia fungi and differs from other Raffaelea species in its DNA sequence and spore sizes. The fungus also grows faster than similar fungi.

Ambrosia beetles introduce the fungus into redbay or other laurel tree species by burrowing into the trees and laying eggs. The fungus serves as a food source for beetle larvae. The pathogen moves through a tree’s vessels causing a vascular wilt disease similar to Dutch elm disease.

In an April 3 press release, SRS announced the first description of the fungus and its association with the redbay ambrosia beetle and laurel wilt. The press release, posted online at http://www.srs.fs.fed.us/news/153, provides more information about the fungus and the threat it poses to the laurel family.

Source

Cancer 'cure' in mice to be tested in humans

Scientists at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center are about to embark on a human trial to test whether a new cancer treatment will be as effective at eradicating cancer in humans as it has proven to be in mice.

The treatment will involve transfusing specific white blood cells, called granulocytes, from select donors, into patients with advanced forms of cancer. A similar treatment using white blood cells from cancer-resistant mice has previously been highly successful, curing 100 percent of lab mice afflicted with advanced malignancies.

Zheng Cui, Ph.D., lead researcher and associate professor of pathology, will be announcing the study June 28 at the Understanding Aging conference in Los Angeles.

The study, given the go-ahead by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, will involve treating human cancer patients with white blood cells from healthy young people whose immune systems produce cells with high levels of cancer-fighting activity.

The basis of the study is the scientists' discovery, published five years ago, of a cancer-resistant mouse and their subsequent finding that white blood cells from that mouse and its offspring cured advanced cancers in ordinary laboratory mice. They have since identified similar cancer-killing activity in the white blood cells of some healthy humans.

"In mice, we've been able to eradicate even highly aggressive forms of malignancy with extremely large tumors," Cui said. "Hopefully, we will see the same results in humans. Our laboratory studies indicate that this cancer-fighting ability is even stronger in healthy humans."

The team has tested human cancer-fighting cells from healthy donors against human cervical, prostate and breast cancer cells in the laboratory – with surprisingly good results. The scientists say the anti-tumor response primarily involves granulocytes of the innate immune system, a system known for fighting off infections.

Granulocytes are the most abundant type of white blood cells and can account for as much as 60 percent of total circulating white blood cells in healthy humans. Donors can give granulocytes specifically without losing other components of blood through a process called apheresis that separates granulocytes and returns other blood components back to donors.

In a small study of human volunteers, the scientists found that cancer-killing activity in the granulocytes was highest in people under age 50. They also found that this activity can be lowered by factors such as winter or emotional stress. They said the key to the success for the new therapy is to transfuse sufficient granulocytes from healthy donors while their cancer-killing activities are at their peak level.

For the upcoming study, the researchers are currently recruiting 500 local potential donors who are 50 years old or younger and in good health to have their blood tested. Of those, 100 volunteers with high cancer-killing activity will be asked to donate white blood cells for the study. Cell recipients will include 22 cancer patients who have solid tumors that either didn't respond originally, or no longer respond, to conventional therapies. The study will cost $100,000 per patient receiving therapy, and for many patients (those living in 22 states, including North Carolina) the costs may be covered by their insurance company. There is no cost to donate blood. For general information about insurance coverage of clinical trials, go to the American Cancer Society's web site at www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/content/ETO_6_2x_State_Laws_Regarding_Clinical_Trials.asp.)

For more information about qualifications for donors and participants, go to www.wfubmc.edu/LIFT (Web site will be available the evening of 6/27.) Cancer-killing ability in these cells is highest during the summer, so researchers are hoping to find volunteers who can afford the therapy quickly.

"If the study is effective, it would be another arrow in the quiver of treatments aimed at cancer," said Mark Willingham, M.D., a co-researcher and professor of pathology. "It is based on 10 years of work since the cancer-resistant mouse was first discovered."

Volunteers who are selected as donors – based on the observed potential cancer-fighting activity of their white cells – will complete the apheresis, a two- to three-hour process similar to platelet donation, to collect their granulocytes. The cancer patients will then receive the granulocytes through a transfusion – a safe process that has been used for more than 30 years. Normally, the treatment is used for patients who have antibiotic-resistant infectious diseases. The treatment will be given for three to four consecutive days on an outpatient basis. Up to three donors may be necessary to collect enough blood product for one study participant.

"The difference between our study and the traditional white cell therapy is that we're selecting the healthy donors based on the cancer-killing ability of their white blood cells," said Cui. The scientists are calling the therapy Leukocyte InFusion Therapy (LIFT).

The goal of the phase II study is to determine whether patients can tolerate a sufficient amount of transfused granulocytes for the treatment. Participants will be monitored on a regular basis, and after three months scientists will evaluate whether the treatment results in clear clinical benefits for the patients. If this phase of the study is successful, scientists will expand the study to determine if the treatment is best suited to certain types of cancer.

Source

Marijuana Has Anti-Inflammatory That Won't Get You High

A compound in marijuana may be a potent anti-inflammatory agent that won't get people high, scientists say.

The finding could be a boon to sufferers of arthritis, cirrhosis, and other diseases. Existing drugs can be less effective for some people and can carry side effects, from stomach ulcers to increased risk of heart attacks.

Marijuana supporters have long argued that the plant's active ingredients, known as cannabinoids, are safe and effective treatments for pain, nausea, and other ailments. y 2015.

The most active cannabinoid—delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC—is known to have anti-inflammatory properties. But it is also responsible for the plant's psychotropic effects.

Now researchers say that another cannabinoid, called beta-caryophyllene, or (E)-BCP, helps combat inflammation without affecting the brain. (E)-BCP is already part of many people's daily diets, the researchers note. Foods that are particularly high in the compound include black pepper, oregano, basil, lime, cinnamon, carrots, and celery.

Essential oils from cannabis plants whose leaves and flowers are used to make the marijuana drug contain up to 35 percent (E)-BCP.

But even after decades of cannabis research, scientists hadn't previously known that the compound had anti-inflammatory properties. Jürg Gertsch of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology said "This is because the focus was on the classical cannabinoids [rather than (E)-BCP],"

Lone Receptor
Cannabinoids in marijuana are known to primarily affect two of the many molecular receptors in the human body. The CB1 receptor is found in the brain and central nervous system and is responsible for the high people experience when they smoke pot.

The other receptor, called CB2, is found in tissues in the rest of the body and triggers a cascade of biochemical reactions that can help combat inflammation.

"Our interest is to exploit the pharmacological nature of the CB2 receptor," because it does not have psychotropic side effects, Gertsch explained in an email.

"Targeting the CB2 receptor could be a therapeutic strategy to prevent or treat diseases like Crohn's disease (inflammation of the intestinal tract), liver cirrhosis, osteoarthritis, and therosclerosis."

THC activates both receptors, so it won't alleviate inflammation without also making people high.

But (E)-BCP affects only the CB2 receptor, according to the new study, which appeard in yesterday's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

As part of their research, the scientists engineered a strain of mice that lacked the CB2 receptor. The team then fed the modified mice and normal mice a diet rich in (E)-BCP. When the scientists induced inflammation with chemicals, normal mice experienced an anti-inflammatory effect while the genetically engineered mice did not.

"This experiment shows that the anti-inflammatory effects are mediated via the CB2 receptor," Gertsch said.

Drug Building Block?
Stephen Safe, director of the Texas A&M University's Center for Environmental and Genetic medicine, said he is impressed by the team's results both in mouse cells and in live mice.

"They did a good study," said Safe, who was not involved in the research.

He also noted that a lot of other studies have been finding that fat-soluble chemicals from plants activate many receptors in the body.

"A lot of these [come from plants that] have been used in traditional medicine," he said. "This is another example of that—but a bit of a sexy one."

In this case, he noted, Gertsch's team has identified some "petty good" activators of the CB2 receptor.

"Can they be further developed and modified into better anti-inflammatory drugs?" he asked. "Maybe. [(E)-BCP] could be a new model [compound] for drug design."

National Geographic

Can Monkeys really be using primative writing - Susan Rumbaugh believes they are!

I was browsing the web for something that would interest me and came across the following video on www.ted.com (click link to view video). This intrigued me into looking more closely at the part of evolution that humans could well have been at this stage, however we did not have the interaction from more advanced species as the bonobo have had.

In this 17 minute long video Susan"Savage" Rumbaugh asks whether uniquely human traits, and other animals' behaviors, are hardwired by species. Then she rolls footage out that will make you think again: maybe not.

The bonobo apes she works with understand spoken English. One follows her instructions to take a cigarette lighter from her pocket and use it to start a fire. Bonobos are shown making tools, drawing symbols to communicate, and playing Pac-Man -- all tasks learned just by watching. Maybe it's not always biology that causes a species to act as it does, she suggests. Maybe it's cultural exposure to how things are done.

Having us "humans" interact with the bonobo could have been the breaking point for a new cultural community that should be viewed and studied, from a distance. This could answer some questions have only had suggestive answers to in the past.

In more recent articles on chimps, It has shown that they have an incredibly memory and other than the need to breed, the male chimp must impress or overpower the female before the mating can begin. Isnt this what humans used to do with big clubs during our part of evolution?

Unfortunately i will have to end this post here but ill re edit this with more links to information later tonight.

Scicornwall.com

Join The Team - Folding@Home

I have finally started a team with the Folding@Home group.

My team number is: 93572
if you put this number into the team number box in the configuration you can join me in helping to find the mysteries of protein folding.
  I am still reading into the subject fully and i am finding it very interesting. Plus there is a nice graphical version of the software that works as a screensaver while your away from the computer.

When i finish my first task as being the creater of the team you should be able to view statistics and member counts at this URL

folding at Home

In the coming weeks i will be making a series of posts regarding the research that folding@home software has been doing over the past years.

I will create a team aswell so that viewers of my blog can join the team and help towards the fight to find cures for diseases like alzhimers and BSE (Mad cow)