The Great Beyond

A study in this week’s Nature shows that the H5N1 strain of bird flu seems to be developing drug resistance [wrong link fixed]. This, say the authors, means stockpiles designed to be used in a pandemic need to be made up of more than one drug.

Researchers led by Steve Gamblin, of the National Institute for Medical Research in London, used X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of mutants of H5N1. They found that the drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu) was not very useful against them, but zanamivir (Relenza) was still good. (Needless to say, Relenza’s producer Glaxo is pretty happy.)

“In order not to be outflanked by the virus, it will be necessary to have stocks of both existing drugs,” says Gamblin (BBC). “There is a huge imperative to develop further drugs and it is likely a future pandemic will need to be tackled using a three or four-pronged approach, much as we tackle HIV today.”

Continue reading "Bird flu: more drugs please" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey on May 15, 2008
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How does a history of abuse leave its mark on the brain? A grim new study from PLoS ONE finds differences lurking in the brains of people who were abused as children and then committed suicide. The differences were epigenetic, meaning that rather than finding changes in the DNA sequence, there were differences in the frequency with which a chemical group, called a methyl group, is attached to certain regions of the DNA. This chemical modification can reduce expression of genes: in this case they looked at epigenetic changes to a gene that is critical for production of proteins and found that not only were there more methyl groups, but those methyl groups correlated with reduced gene expression. The implications are that abuse as a child may have led to these epigenetic changes which, in turn, could impact a critical function in the brain.

Reuters quotes Eric Nestler (University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas) as saying that drugs and psychotherapy might be able to reverse the epigenetic changes. Interestingly, the researchers found no correlation between these epigenetic changes and psychiatric diagnoses.

The researchers (Moshe Szyf of McGill University in Montreal and colleagues) compared 18 suicide victims with a history of childhood abuse to 12 patients who died from other causes. Overall, it strikes me as a complicated question to tackle, and one that might require more than a dozen samples to really pick apart. For example, New Scientist says that Szyf is now comparing his results with suicide victims who were not abused to determine whether the epigenetic changes were the result of abuse or suicide. Seems like an important control to do, and in fact it’s interesting how we’ve all homed in on the ‘child abuse’ angle when the paper stresses the ‘pathophysiology of suicide’ rather than abuse.

But it’s an interesting start, and follows on previous work in animals, including the fascinating study from several years back showing that mouse pups neglected by their mothers showed more stress later in life and harbored epigenetic changes in their brains.

Posted by Nicola Jones on May 07, 2008
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As if China doesn't have enough to deal with ahead of the Olympics. Added to the problems of Beijing's polluted air, protests in support of Tibet, and the daft mission to take the Olympic torch up mount Everest being hampered by the weather, CNN is reporting an outbreak of the deadly enterovirus 71 in the city of Fuyang, south of the capital.

Continue reading "Paralysing virus strikes China ahead of Olympics" »

Posted by Mike Hopkin on May 07, 2008
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A man has re-grown a severed fingertip with the help of ‘pixie dust’ made from pig guts, according to some news reports. Others are suspicious.

The claims say Lee Spievak (or Spievack – there’s some disagreement), from Ohio, lost part of a finger to the propeller of a model airplane. He was told it wouldn’t grow back but thanks to miracle magic ‘pixie dust’ he now has a full finger. The dust is actually an ‘extra cellular matrix’, manufactured by a company called ACell from the insides of pigs.

In fact versions of this story said the same things in February on a CBS story. Oh, and in AP February last year, with many of the same quotes. How odd...

University of Pittsburgh researcher Stephen Badylak, who developed the matrix, is quoted as saying, “One way to think about these matrices is that we have taken out many of the stimuli for scar tissue formation and left those signals that were always there anyway for constructive remodelling,” he explains (BBC).

Rubbish, says Simon Kay, professor of hand surgery at the University of Leeds.

Continue reading "‘Miracle powder re-grows finger’" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey on May 01, 2008
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In the UK, a misconduct hearing is continuing for doctor Andrew Wakefield, who many hold responsible for the panic over the MMR vaccine and spurious links to autism. The hearing started last year and will continue until August.

Our government recently released a rather dull report on immunisation, which did however hold the interesting news that parents were slowly being convinced by the safety of MMR.

David Salisbury, the UK’s Director of Immunisation, noted: “it is imperative that we continue to do all we can to encourage take up of vaccines - particularly MMR. ... The evidence on MMR is clear. Population studies and studies in individual children show no link between the vaccine and autism.”

Sadly the message is not getting through in the United States. On Monday Barack Obama gave up his status as the last remaining heavyweight US presidential candidate who hadn’t spouted dangerous nonsense on the topic.

Continue reading "Dear presidential candidates: you’re wrong" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey on April 23, 2008
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Posted on behalf of Rachel Courtland:

Art professor Steven Kurtz was cleared of criminal charges Monday by the U.S District Court in Buffalo, NY. The decision comes four years after Kurtz discovered his wife had died of a heart attack, and police responding to the call discovered lab equipment and bacterial cultures in their home.

Kurtz, an art professor at the University at Buffalo, was using the cultures for art projects like these, which involve using biological materials to create politically-charged art, on topics like government policies on GM crops.

Initially investigated on charges of bioterrorism, Kurtz was indicted by the Department of Justice in 2004 for mail and wire fraud. The charges were hailed in some circles as an attack on civil liberties.

The Buffalo News broke the story yesterday , and other coverage has added few details. But the Chronicle of Higher Education notes the saga may not yet be over, as the justice department can appeal the ruling.

Those who want to relive some of the drama may want to rent last year’s documentary, Strange Culture, which features a cameo by Tilda Swinton as Kurtz’s wife.

Image: the international sign for biohazardous materials; via Wikimedia

Posted by Alex Witze on April 22, 2008
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A US Senate committee is to hold hearings into a controversial experiment that involved spreading sewage sludge onto lawns in poor, black neighbourhoods.

In another development, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has called for criminal prosecutions over the experiment, conducted by Johns Hopkins university and the Department of Agriculture in 2000. It was designed to test whether spreading treated sewage around houses could bind to lead in the soil.

Spreading of processed waste is widespread in the US. In addition, lead in poor neighbourhoods is a big problem

The experiment was a success in terms of reducing the availability of lead. “Compost offers great promise for people to help themselves protect their children at low cost,” says the outcome report (released in 2005).

However it’s been less of a public relations success. And after Sunday’s AP story publicised the study the Environmental and Public Works committee is getting involved.

Continue reading "Inquiry over sewage spreading experiment" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey on April 17, 2008
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We’re now in the middle of World Homeopathy Awareness Week (don’t worry if you hadn’t noticed – apparently it works better if the attention paid to it is so small as to be hardly there at all).

“Homeopathic remedies can be of use at the moment of injury as First Aid and also for long- term injuries that cause complications such as stiffening of joints and enduring pain,” says Indrani Meier, vice chair of the World Homeopathic Awareness Organization.

Sceptics of the world are being, well, sceptical about this. Strangely searching for people writing about ‘World Homeopathy Awareness Week’ throws up more sceptics than homeopathy supporters.

Round up below the fold...

Continue reading "It’s World Homeopathy Awareness Week!" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey on April 14, 2008
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A minor storm has erupted over a new paper in the Lancet detailing human to human transmission of bird flu in China. The 24 year old son died, while his 52 year old father survived.

However there’s no need to panic just yet.

“It is not normal social contact that has led to the human transmission,” Jeremy Farrar, a researcher at Vietnam’s Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology told AFP. “In this case it took extensive exposure to secretions of somebody who was very sick in hospital.”

The BBC notes that in a Lancet editorial released with the paper on the new cases Farrar seems worried about the bird flu problem in general. “Whatever the underlying determinants, if we continue to experience widespread, uncontrolled outbreaks of H5N1 in poultry, the appearance of strains well adapted to human beings might just be matter of time,” he says.

This is not the first case of suspected human to human transmission (see Bird flu may have passed between humans, Nature 2004; Large bird flu cluster emerges, Nature 2007, for example).

Continue reading "Human to human bird flu transmission" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey on April 08, 2008
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In a remarkable victory for common sense a US government funded health website is allowing users to search for articles about ‘abortion’.

Wired last week revealed that Popline had “quietly begun to block searches on the word ‘abortion,’ concealing nearly 25,000 search results”. The website claims to be “the world’s largest database on reproductive health” and is run by Johns Hopkins university’s Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Last week it appeared to be backtracking rapidly, as late on Friday consecutive searches by one of my colleagues revealed a steadily climbing number of hits for a search on ‘abortion’. It’s now up to over 26,000, still some way below PubMed’s 64,000.

Michael Klag, dean of the Bloomberg School, gave this explanation (statement):

USAID, which funds POPLINE, found two items in the database related to abortion that did not fit POPLINE criteria. The agency then made an inquiry to POPLINE administrators. Following this inquiry, the POPLINE administrators at the Center for Communication Programs made the decision to restrict abortion as a search term.

I could not disagree more strongly with this decision, and I have directed that the POPLINE administrators restore "abortion" as a search term immediately. I will also launch an inquiry to determine why this change occurred.

Image: screen grab of Popline

Posted by Daniel Cressey on April 07, 2008
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The US House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to push $50 billion into tackling AIDS, TB and malaria in the developing world over the next five years.

Reuters and the LA Times report the bill passed by 308 votes to 116. A press release from one of the bill’s backers calls it at 306 to 116. In the UK, the Guardian calls it at 308 to 166, even though there are only 435 representatives in the House. The official record goes with Reuters, or vice versa.

Anyway, it passed.

More important than this number crunching is the fact the bill would more than triple the amount currently authorized for the Bush-backed initiative. The bill would also remove the stipulation that a third of funds must be spend on abstinence education, although it contains a requirement for “balanced funding” of “abstinence, delay of sexual debut, monogamy, fidelity and partner reduction”.

In a generally positive editorial, the LA Times notes,

Now, if a program spends less than half of its budget for preventing sexual transmission on abstinence efforts, it has to send a report to Congress justifying the decision. That could have a chilling effect on programs that would rather spend the money on condoms but don't want to risk having their funds cut off by conservative lawmakers.

Not everyone backed the bill, with some representatives trying to slash the amount of money pledged to $15 billion. Other are annoyed over the continued presence of abstinence funding.

Now a similar bill has to pass in the Senate.

Reaction below the fold...

Continue reading "$50bn AIDS funding passes first hurdle" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey on April 07, 2008
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The head of the International Olympic Commission has moved to ally fears over the health of athletes competing in Beijing’s notoriously polluted air. You can exercise outside for at least an hour without ill effects, says IOC chief inspector Hein Verbruggen.

“The Chinese together with our medical commission have done an excellent job,” he told Reuters. “They have scientifically proved there is no risk for the wide majority of sports. There can be a risk, but it's not big, for endurance events that last longer than an hour.”

This follows on from a statement released by the IOC last month, which got very little attention at the time. It stated: “For outdoor endurance events that include minimum one hour continuous physical efforts at high level – urban road cycling, mountain bike, marathon, marathon swimming, triathlon and road walk - the IOC Medical Commission’s findings indicated that there may be some risk.”

Continue reading "Beijing air ‘safe for an hour’ says Olympic honcho" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey on April 02, 2008
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A surprising number of quite dramatic stories today – one big round-up post will have to do for them all.

Dextre, the Canadian space agency’s new robot, is meant to be helping construct the ISS. Instead it’s making outlandish demands:
In a surprising and potentially troubling request, the new space station robot known as Dextre demanded that astronauts refer to it in the future at ‘Dextre the Magnificent.’ Brandishing power tools that would make any handyperson blush, the mobile servicing system thanked humans for creating it and promised a glorious future where humans would retain an important role in the new robot order.

Virgin and Google are going to Mars. They want YOU to join them (if you can score highly enough on their selection questionnaire that is).

Continue reading "A chemist, a physicist, and a biologist walk into a bar" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey on April 01, 2008
Categories: Biology & Biotechnology, Chemistry, Earth, environment & ecology, Health and medicine, Neat technologies, Physics & Mathematics, Policy, Space and astronomy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Both South Korea and Japan have impounded suspect shipments of Italian mozzarella after finding high levels of dioxins in the tasty dairy product.

But Italy has hit back, with agriculture minister Paolo De Castro declaring, "It would be an error to infer anything from this and create a dangerous panic. That would turn this story into a negative campaign that unfairly compromises the image of an excellent product and which risks becoming heavily penalised in Italy and abroad.”

He even went as far as to say the cheese found in Korea wasn’t Italian but “fake” mozzarella, presumeably from an international network of cheese fraudsters. We blame the danes…

However Italy has since shut down cheese production at a number of farms after finding higher than allowed levels of dioxin. The EU is also mulling a ban on mozzarella amid concerns the problem could be linked to piles of uncollected rubbish resulting from a strike in Naples or even illegal dumping of toxic waste by the Mafia.

So the last thing Italian cheese makers need is this to be given a catch name and become another massive food safety scare. Too late! Canada’s Globe and Mail has declarded it “Mad Buffalo cheese disease”, and noted "Not only is mozzarella a dietary staple, it is a symbol of Italy's glorious food culture. Shame on mozzarella translates into shame on Italy."

Italian coverage

Image: Photo courtesy PDPhoto.org

Posted by Daniel Cressey on March 27, 2008
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Blood, like any perishable product, has a 'use by' date. But should that date be changed?

A study of 9,000 heart surgery patients in the United States now suggests that using blood older than 2 weeks for transfusion ups a patient’s chances of blood poisoning and organ failure, making him or her 64% more likely to die than those who get newer blood (New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) paper). Those given older blood had a 2.8% death rate during their stay in hospital, compared to 1.7% in those with fresher transfusions (Medical News Today).

"Blood should be classified as outdated earlier than current recommendations," lead researcher Colleen Koch told New Scientist.

The current UK regulations state that blood can be stored for 28 to 49 days depending on the method of collection, processing and storage (The Blood Safety and Quality Regulations 2005). In the United States blood can be stored for up to 6 weeks, though the median storage time is 15 days (LA Times). Reducing that time period might make for safer blood supplies, but it would also seriously reduce the amount of blood available; bad news since blood is already in limited supply. “Fresher blood? Patients take what they can get” says MSNBC.

The better solution may be to do fewer transfusions, reserving them for emergency cases only. The LA Times says such policy shifts are already underway, along with other measures to limit transfusions, such as ‘blood scavenging’ during surgery and drugs that limit operative bleeding. An accompanying editorial in the NEJM discusses these issues.

FDA officials (who regulate blood guidelines in the United States) have been variously quoted as calling the study "provocative" (MSNBC) and "narrow and non-randomized" (LA Times). Regulations are unlikely to change soon.

Posted by Nicola Jones on March 20, 2008
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The UN has issued a grim warning on the “critical” bird flu situation in Indonesia.

“I am deeply concerned that the high level of virus circulation in birds in the country could create conditions for the virus to mutate and to finally cause a human influenza pandemic,” Joseph Domenech, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s chief veterinary officer, warned yesterday (press release, news coverage from the US, Russia, India, Europe).

Indonesia has a worse H5N1 problem than any other country, with 31 out of its 33 provinces infected, and the virus endemic in Java, Sumatra, Bali and southern Sulawesi. Current vaccines may be failing to protect the 1.4 billion chickens in Indonesia from the disease

“The human mortality rate from bird flu in Indonesia is the highest in the world and there will be more human cases if we do not focus more on containing the disease at source in animals,” says Domenech.

Image: Punchstock

Posted by Daniel Cressey on March 19, 2008
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In perhaps the weirdest computer developments of the year so far, a team of US scientists have managed to hack into a pacemaker. They not only hacked in but managed to mess around in ways that you really wouldn’t want them messing if it was your heart the device was stuck in (read the research paper pdf).

Technically the device they hacked wasn’t just a pacemaker, but an ‘implantable cardioverter defibrillator’, which not only sets a beat but can shock a heart back to the right rhythm. In the US over 100,000 people have such devices (AP).

“Using our own equipment (an antenna, radio hardware, and a PC), we found that someone could also turn off or modify therapy settings stored on the ICD,” write the researchers in a series of FAQs.

“Such a person could render the ICD incapable of responding to dangerous cardiac events. A malicious person could also make the ICD deliver a shock that could induce ventricular fibrillation, a potentially lethal arrhythmia.”

The researchers however insist there is nothing to worry about, they are merely highlighting a loophole that needs to be looked at.

Continue reading "Hacking the heart" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey on March 12, 2008
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Nanoparticles from diesel fumes alter brain activity, according to the researchers behind a new study. Several sections of the media have picked this up:

Pollution ‘alters brain function’ – BBC
Diesel fumes can affect your brain, scientists say – Reuters
Pollution alters brain function: Study – Times of India

Paul Borm from Zuyd University in The Netherlands put ten volunteers in a room for an hour, where they were exposed to diesel exhaust. They were also exposed to clean air so the trial was blinded. After 30 minutes changes in the brain’s electrical activity were recorded on electroencephalographs (research paper published in Particle and Fibre Toxicology, abstract / pdf).

“We believe our findings are due to an effect nanoparticles or ‘soot’ particles that are major component of diesel exhaust,” says Borm (press release). “These may penetrate to the brain and affect brain function. We can only speculate what these effects may mean for the chronic exposure to air pollution encountered in busy cities where the levels of such soot particles can be very high.”

The EEG showed a stress response, signalling a change in the way the brain was processing information. This continued after the volunteers had left the room, although measurements were only continued for an hour so it’s not clear for how long.

It isn’t hugely surprising that your brain starts behaving differently when you’ve been doing the equivalent of sucking on a tailpipe for 30 minutes, and ten people is hardly a large study. Still, as Ken Donaldson, a respiratory expert from the University of Edinburgh, told the BBC, “... such physiological changes do warrant investigation because there could indeed be a long-term effect. It's a very interesting, and potentially important, study."

Image: Getty

Posted by Daniel Cressey on March 11, 2008
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Posted for Heidi Ledford

It’s no secret: for years now, the US National Institutes of Health has had a tough case of biobank envy. The United Kingdom has a biobank. So does Japan. And Canada, Iceland, Denmark, and Germany. But a national biobank would come with a hefty pricetag and the United States hasn’t yet committed to the project, although Francis Collins has published a commentary or two about the need for one.

Still, it never hurts to be prepared. Last Saturday, researchers held the first of five town-hall meetings to find out how the US public would feel about participating in a national biobank. The inaugural meeting was in Kansas City, Missouri, with additional meetings to come in Arizona, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Mississippi.

A national biobank would compile medical information from hundreds of thousands of participants, and would store blood and other biological samples for future analysis. Such problems inevitably raise questions about privacy protection and so, for the past few years, researchers like Joan Scott of Johns Hopkins University have been consulting the public to learn what concerns would-be biobank participants would have.

Continue reading "The traveling biobank show" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey on March 10, 2008
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Parents in the UK are fine-tuned to be suspicious of childhood vaccines, thanks mainly to massive publicity over reported links between the measles mumps rubella (MMR) jab and autism. So pushing a human papillomavirus vaccine to prevent cervical cancer was always going to be a tricky prospect, not least due to fears in some sectors that it will encourage children to go out and have sex.

Now Gardasil, one HPV vaccine, is on the market. The UK government is keen on it, but given recent history you’d think advisors would pick their words pretty carefully.

Continue reading "Vaccination and the choice agenda" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey on March 10, 2008
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If you read Brendan Maher’s Nature feature from a week or so ago you would have come across this rather arresting introduction:

In 1987 Rip Ballou taped an ice-cream carton to his arm. The young US Army doctor was doing his bit for science; inside the carton five hungry mosquitoes set about doing theirs.

Now you can undergo a similar experience. A new research facility is being set up in Seattle: the Human Challenge Centre. What they plan to ‘challenge’ volunteers with is malaria.

After being given a potential malaria vaccine, victims, sorry test subjects, will be bitten by infected mosquitoes. Then researchers from the Malaria Vaccine Initiative and the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute will see if the vaccine is any good (press release pdf).

Fox News thinks you’ll get about $2,000 for taking part, AP thinks it could be up to $4,000.

Continue reading "Get malaria, get paid" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey on March 06, 2008
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A skin secretion from a bizarre shrinking frog could one day help people with diabetes, according to Yasser Abdel-Wahab.

Abdel-Wahab, a researcher at the University of Ulster, is the lead on a team that has found a synthetic version of a peptide secreted by the paradoxical frog to prevent infection seems to stimulate insulin release (news coverage from BBC, PA, The Times, Belfast Telegraph).

The paradoxical frog, Pseudis paradoxa, is so called because it shrinks with age. While tadpoles can be nearly 30 cm long adults rarely exceed 4 cm.

It’s not clear exactly how the researchers demonstrated that the peptide stimulates release of insulin. The results will apparently be presented at this week’s Diabetes UK conference but the press release doesn’t say whether it was tested in animals or in Petri dishes.

“Now we need to take this a step further and put our work into practice to try and help people with Type 2 diabetes,” says Abdel-Wahab (Ulster press release). “More research is needed, but there is a growing body of work around natural anti-diabetic drug discovery that, as you can see, is already yielding fascinating results.”

Prize for getting the obvious pun in first goes to the Daily Mail:

The treatment of diabetes could be about to take a leap forward with the help of a South American frog.

Image: Yasser Abdel-Wahab / University of Ulster

Posted by Daniel Cressey on March 03, 2008
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China is considering scrapping its one-child policy (Reuters; Guardian report from their Beijing correspondent)

The policy, implemented in 1979 to combat overpopulation and accompanying environmental problems, has been variably enforced over the years, and extremely controversial, leading to discrimination against some sub-populations (including females).

There have been calls to scrap it before: in March 2007 some 30 delegates at the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference called on the government to abolish the one-child rule because "it creates social problems and personality disorders in young people." (AsiaNews) An aging population, increasing gender bias, and changing attitudes to family size (apparently most couples now want fewer than 2 children anyway, Reuters) have been posited as reasons for change.

The latest reports originate with comments by family planning chief Zhao Baige, who told reporters she wanted an "incremental" change in the policy (BBC). CNSNews suggests the conversation has been spurred by increased attention on Chinese human rights in the run-up to the Olympics there.

China’s media carries a related story about how the negative population growth seen in Shanghai since 1993 looks set to switch over to positive growth soon (Xinhua; Shanghai Daily). This is because the single-child generation is growing up, and now having children of their own: by the current rules, if a man and woman are both the single child in their families, they are allowed to have two babies.

Posted by Nicola Jones on February 29, 2008
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GlaxoSmithKline shares are down and the company thinks it’s our fault – we, here, being the media.

GSK saw sales of diabetes drug Avandia drop off after studies linked it to heart attacks. Now it has issued a profit warning for 2008 (details from: WSJ, NY Times, BBC, FT).

“My wish for the media is to be more sophisticated when they report scientific news. Debates now are being thrown into the public domain before scientists have given their opinion,” the Guardian quotes the company’s soon to retire CEO J P Garnier as saying at a talk this week.

A slide for the talk declares:

Media translation of scientific facts
Incidence: Less than 5 out of 10,000 patient years
As reported: “43% Increase in Heart Attacks”

Let’s have a look at this in an official Great Beyond analysis…

Continue reading "Dear Mr Garnier…" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey on February 08, 2008
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