Health and Medicine – Page 15

Alchemist Checks Oxy Cholesterol Levels

copper-alchemist The Alchemist this week learns how fluorine chemistry is blooming, how to melt proteins, and how cholesterol is all about the good, the bad, and the oxy. Also this week, a technique borrowed from organic LED fabrication could lead to a new way to manufacture tiny inorganic LEDs for next generation displays, while a conductive flip has been observed with clusters of atoms close to absolute zero. Finally, the American Chemical Society announces this years previously unsung chemical heroes from across the industry.

Previously on ChemWeb, we heard rumors of silicon neurons and the coming cyborg age, he discovers that a compound that leads to ovine Cyclops has now been synthesized for cancer drug research, and how chicken poop down on the shooting range could help solve the problem of lead in the soil. Also, in the news, a new type of fuel cell for truckers that reduces their emissions during rest periods and the increasing cost in water of producing bioethanol. Finally, a major award for a generic pharmacologist.

Swine Flu and Glutathione Supplements

Could a simple dietary change that increases glutathione, or indeed supplementation with this tripeptide be all you need to boost your immune system and ward of influenza?

Evidence mounted for glutathione itself in 2000, when Emory University researchers led by Dean Jones reported that a lozenge or oral spray containing glutathione might help prevent infection with influenza. Trials in humans had not been carried out but details were reported in Free Radical Biology and Medicine and elsewhere.

If glutathione is actually effective against influenza infection, and it may well not be, then it would presumably have to be present at the infection site – mouth and nose and upper respiratory tract. No definitive clinical trials have proven efficacy one way or the other yet.

FRIEL, H., & LEDERMAN, H. (2006). A nutritional supplement formula for influenza A (H5N1) infection in humans? Medical Hypotheses, 67 (3), 578-587 DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2006.02.040

Toxic Sunscreen

Toxic sunscreen testing – Regardless of the debate on whether or not you can have too little sunshine on your skin, it is important to remember that currently there is no standard tests for monitoring toxic heavy metals contained in sunscreen creams.

Now, researchers in Greece have demonstrated that a sophisticated, but relatively straightfoward technique can be used to simultaneously determine levels of the inorganic UV filter, titanium dioxide, and several trace or toxic elements, including lead and zinc, in sunscreens and cosmetics. The results from their multi-element analysis were compared successfully with standardised data from atomic absorption spectroscopy, which suggests their approach could easily be used for quality control of these products and for regulatory testing.

Keeping an eye on anticancer drug – Chemists have devised a route to the compound, cyclopamine. This substance is found in corn lilies and causes lambs born of ewes that eat the lilies to be born with a single eye in the middle of their foreheads, a condition known as cyclopia. But, the chemists aren’t out to create a race of mutant sheep, the very same compound is known to interfere with a critical cell signalling pathway and so could be used as a novel anticancer drug.

Chicken shack solution for gun-slingers – Whatever you think of gun law, people shoot, and when they shoot they leave behind toxic lead. Japanese scientists are now using an X-ray technique to test how well soil remediation works in immobilising lead residues on gun club land. They have demonstrated that growing guinea grass and fertilising the soil with chicken guano could be the way forward. That said, it’s going to make for an awfully smelly day’s shooting.

Finally, in my SpectroscopyNOW column this week – Smoke under fire: Smoking marijuana is no less harmful than smoking tobacco, according to Canadian researchers who have looked at its toxic effects on cells. They draw their conclusion from an examination of the cytotoxicity, mutagenicity and clastogenicity of mainstream and sidestream marijuana smoke as compared to tobacco smoke. Inhalers of all kinds…beware.

Yet More Summer Science Books

In Einstein’s theory of relativity, energy is equivalent to matter, they’re essentially synonymous and in his famous equation Energy (E) is proportional to mass (m), with the square of the speed of light (c²) being the proportionality constant E = mc², in other words…but why?

Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw, in the imaginatively titled why does E = mc² (and why should we care)”, attempt to explain what it all means. They describe what is meant by energy, matter, and why the speed of light relates the two in what they describe as a “little book” without resorting to simply describing the theory…again. Even Stephen Fry was impressed by Cox, asking: “Can someone this charming really be a professor?”

Sticking with a cosmic theme, JR Minkel and Scientific American feature in the second pocket book in the series of Instant Egghead Guides, this time “The Universe” is encapsulated in just 221 pages from Jupiter’s spots small black holes and from what quarks are made of to why rubber bands get hot when you stretch them.

Third summer science read in this post is GI Joe – The life and career of Dr Joseph B Kirsner by Dr James L Franklin. Kirsner is planning to celebrate his 100th birthday on September 21, 2009, by going to work, his usual routine because retirement was never a consideration for the University of Chicago gastroenterologist. In a world where youth is marketed beyond the pale it is time for some senior respect.

How Old is Your Heart?

There are lots of online health tests available, some I’ve reviewed on Sciencebase over the years, such as those that help you answer the question are you at risk of diabetes. Often they are created and publicised by a medical charity, occasionally they are marketing devices posted by companies hoping to sell more of their product.

The Flora Heart Age tool, one might say, falls into both categories, although the press release suggests that the tool created by food company Unilever and the World Heart Federation is part of a new global initiative to reduce heart disease. There’s a nice little video that goes with the heart age tool to help you get the most out of it:

The Heart Age Tool helps you to estimate your heart health and express it as an estimated heart age, which can be older, younger or the same as one’s chronological age. The basic idea is to jolt those who display the higher risk factors for cardiovascular disease into making diet and lifestyle changes to reduce their heart age.

Needless, to say, I gave the tool a try, and worryingly it tells me my heart is 6 years older than me. However, there is a question regarding medication one might be taking that is not appropriately specific given that some medication for controlling high blood pressure can apparently have a beneficial effect on the heart above and beyond lowering blood pressure. With this in mind, I contacted the expert cited in the press release and asked a few questions about my results.

Dr Mark Cobain explained that the tool is not suitable for someone with a pre-existing heart problem as the risk models on which it is based were developed to estimate risk of a “first” cardiovascular event. Well, I have marginal hypertension, but have not had a first event, so it should be okay for me to take the test.

Those models, by the way were published in the cardiology journal Circulation in January 2008. That paper describes a sex-specific multivariable risk factor algorithm that can be used to assess general cardiovascular disease risk and risk of individual events. It concludes that, “the estimated absolute CVD event rates can be used to quantify risk and to guide preventive care.”

Cobain also pointed out that, “It is well recognised that the risk associated with a given blood pressure is not equivalent for those who are on medication and those who have the same blood pressure without medication.” This has been demonstrated with observational data and in clinical trials of all types. As such, the Heart Age Tool adjusts for blood pressure medication regardless of drug type being used. Which perhaps accounts for the lack of a modulating benefit for the antihypertensive yours truly was prescribed.

There is one additional point I wanted to know about – cholesterol. “When we piloted the Heart Age Tool,” Cobain explains, “we realised that only 20% of people know their cholesterol levels and to avoid over-burden on healthcare systems we required a different CVD risk model, which does not require cholesterol.” He and his colleagues have also published details of their non-cholesterol heart age model in Circulation. Moreover, the same approach was taken in a paper published shortly after in The Lancet by a group at Harvard Medical School and also recommended by the World Health Organization.

Cobain told me that to get the most accurate assessment of Heart Age we recommend finding your cholesterol value. There could be hope for me yet, if my cholesterol turns out to be healthily low…although there is some research that looks at homocysteine levels as a risk factor too.

“On homocysteine, the jury is still out,” Cobain told me. “We have been looking at this for some time and whilst it has shown it is related to CVD, the homocysteine
lowering trials to date don’t work, so this calls into question whether it is a causative agent or a bystander.”

Indeed, none of the CVD risk scores (Framingham, Q-RISK, SCORE, PROCAM etc) use homocysteine because no convincing data is yet available as to the role of this compound in heart disease risk. “It’s a shame because B-vitamins [which could control it] are cheap and if that had an impact it would have a big public health benefit,” added Cobain.

Gratifyingly, Cobain thanked me for my probing questions and added that the team is continuing to update the tool as new data become available and based on public
responses to improve its efficacy over time. “Heart Age isn’t a diagnostic tool,” he emphasises, “but we hope that it will help people think about their own heart health and motivate continuous efforts to reduce CVD risk factors.”

D’Agostino, R., Vasan, R., Pencina, M., Wolf, P., Cobain, M., Massaro, J., & Kannel, W. (2008). General Cardiovascular Risk Profile for Use in Primary Care: The Framingham Heart Study Circulation, 117 (6), 743-753 DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.107.699579

Aviation Radiation Redux

In May, I reported that Russian scientists at the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics in Pushchino and the Institute of High-Energy Physics in Protvino, had investigated the chronic effects of the radiation to which we are exposed every time we fly in high altitude aircraft. They wanted to know if any putative damage to one’s DNA might be passed on to your future offspring. It’s an issue that girds the loins of air crew and other regular flyers alike.

At the time, the team simulated the radiation conditions in laboratory tests and reported some rather worrying results. I have now followed up with team leader Alsu Dyukina a few questions that arose.

How did you decide on what dose to use in the tests?

The dose received by our experimental mice were decided based on really date that with an annual norm of flights of 2000 h the rate of the equivalent dose of space radiation is 1.7-6 microsieverts per hour, which makes up a radiation dose of 7—50 millisieverts. Radiation doses received by pilots and flight attendants are often greater than those received by traditional radiation workers in the heavily regulated nuclear industry, but until recently, little attention was paid to occupationally exposed air crew.

According to a report of the Federal Aviation Administration, the average dose rate in the contiguous United States from cosmic and terrestrial radiation is 0.06 Î¼Sv/h. At an altitude of 10 km, which is common for domestic air travel, the dose rate from galactic cosmic radiation alone is 6 Î¼Sv/h.

What about solar activity, is that an issue?

During a solar maximum, the numbers and energies of the solar radiation particles increase enough to affect the cosmic radiation dose to air travellers.

Do you think there is cause for concern for would-be parents?

We think that we can extrapolate to possible damage to the offspring of pilots as it is known that the mice are more radio-resistant in comparison with the human. We believe that revealed by us such negative consequences as the changes in radiosensitivity and the absence of adaptive response in the progeny of parents irradiated with low doses of high-LET radiation are evidence of genetic instability, which is transmitted via the sex cells of the parents.

What can be done to protect air crews?

It is an established fact that an increase in altitude means an increase in radiation levels therefore to protect air crew and travellers should decrease the altitude of flights.

The International Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations (IFALPA) recognizes 20 mSv/yr as the cosmic radiation limit for airline flight crews as established by the National Council of Radiation of Protection and Euratom. It is further recognized that airline flight crew should be categorized as occupationally exposed radiation workers, likely to receive more than 1 mSv/y.

As cosmic radiation imposes a potential health risk to airline flight crews, it is highly recommended that national authorities make provisions for exposure assessment verification. Crew members should be made aware through extensive educational programs that high altitude flying exposes them to significantly higher ionizing radiation levels, with carcinogenic potential, than the general population and the scope of radiation protection legislation.

Crew members should be warned that radiation exposure above 1 mSv during the course of the entire pregnancy may cause an increased risk to the fetus. In addition, airlines will be required to organize the schedules of crew members with the objective of reducing the doses of highly exposed air crew, educate the crew about health risks, and give special protections to women who have declared pregnancy.

But, these are still low doses of radiation, right?

It is important to remember that little is known of the radiobiological effects of low dose ionizing radiation, much less that of low dose ionizing radiation of the type and quantity which airline pilots and cabin crew are exposed to at altitude.
What’s more in the last decade it was shown by many researchers that the damaging action of low doses is more efficiently determined when compared with the damage that might be expected at linear extrapolation of results from greater doses to low.

What is the bottom line on this study?

The studies will expand what is known about the health risks of cosmic radiation in the near future.

S. Zaichkina, O. Rozanova, G. Aptikaeva, A. Akhmadieva, H. Smirnova, S. Romanchenko, O. Vakhrusheva, S. Sorokina, A. Dyukina, & V. Peleshko (2009). Adaptive response and genetic instability induced in mice in vivo by low dose-rate radiation simulating high-altitude flight conditions Int. J. Low Radiation, 6 (1), 28-36

Cannabis Cancer, Toxic Waste, Antibiotics

The latest science news with an analytical bent from yours truly, now available in the SpectroscopyNOW ezines:

Cannabis blow back – A highly sensitive new chemical test has allowed European scientists to obtain “convincing evidence” that marijuana smoke damages DNA in ways that could increase the risk of cancer.

Toxic shock – Researchers in Spain are evaluating the “ecotoxic” properties of hazardous and toxic wastes for the aquatic environment. They suggest that the ecotoxic profile of a given waste stream can be derived from a novel battery of bioassays using statistical techniques that reveal whether dangerous levels of compounds toxic to frogs and fish are present and whether or not uber-toxins* like dioxins are at unsafe levels.

Chemical directors – Chemistry often all about activation. Now, UK chemists have found a way to control and direct the activation of important molecules used to synthesise pharmaceutical and agrochemical products. Their work also provides new insights into how bond activation works.

Enzymic activity – Researchers have obtained the first three-dimensional crystal structure of an enzyme that contains iron and helps soil microbes fend off invaders and rivals. The enzyme hydroxyethylphosphonate dioxygenase (HEPD) used by the Streptomyces soil microbe could lead to new agricultural technology, chemical catalysts, and perhaps even novel antibiotics that defeat bacterial resistance to conventional drugs.

*Yes, I know the word toxin applied only to compounds naturally derived and that attaching the uber mock prefix to this word is probably also misplaced as dioxins have a much worse reputation than they deserve, but I couldn’t help myself and they are very poisonous.

Red Hot Spectral Alchemist

spectral-alchemist This week, The Alchemist learns of encapsulated capsules that could emulate cells, a new glassy material for preventing debilitating leaks in solid oxide fuel cells, and a computer model that might help us develop a vaccine for H1N1 type A influenza. Also, under his gaze are ionic liquids developed to dissolve wood and the cancer drug that worryingly wipes away travelers’ fingerprints. Finally, a reminder that the RSC has drawn structure database Chemspider into its web.

Over on SpectroscopyNOW, I’ve got three more news topics on cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and mushroom poisoning:

Cancer-killing CNTs – Carbon nanotubes have allowed spectroscopists to track the movement of cancer cells through the blood and lymph systems. They also act as markers for subsequent laser therapy to kill the cells, pointing the way to an entirely novel diagnostic and treatment regime for cancer, and potentially metastasised cancer.

Early ID of AD – New software for the automated analysis of MRI brain scans could help specialists identify cases of mild cognitive impairment years before full-blown Alzheimer’s disease is apparent, according to US researchers.

Toxic fungal triangle – Chemical analysis has revealed the lethal toxic culprit in a spate of recent food poisoning incidents among Japanese people eating mushrooms including the species Russula subnigricans. The compound, essentially a ring of three carbon atoms with an acid group, cycloprop-2-ene carboxylic acid, is well known to synthetic organic chemists and offers new insights into a potentially lethal condition known as rhabdomyolysis. The researchers tell me that aside from helping us understand this curious condition the compound probably has no biological use, it failed anticancer and antibiotic tests, they told me.

Oh, the red hot allusion..? Well, at the time of writing, I’m working wirelessly in my back garden under a sun shade in sweltering English heat…it’s almost the weekend and we have high expectations of early-summer storms drowning our Saturday barbecue party…ever the pessimist, eh?

Swine Flu Update

swine-flu-leaflet Swine flu (H1N1) information leaflets are being delivered to households across the UK today. I suspect they do nothing but increase fear and confuse people, especially as the WHO/UN are about to lower the swine flu alert level.

In the UK, 27 people now have the virus, with 23 in England and four in Scotland and the first P2P transmission in the UK has been reported. But, what happened to the thousands, if not millions, affected we were warned of by the media and government and WHO and UN over the last few weeks? It just hasn’t happened, thankfully.

The leaflets will, of course, explain exactly what is swine flu (I wonder whether they will explain why we now have to call it H1N1 though), who is most at risk, what are the symptoms, and what people can do to reduce their risk of catching the disease.

There was a panic on Monday when the WHO was set to raise the alert level, but it didn’t happen they are maintaining it at Phase V, one below the red alert Phase VI, and may lower the panic level in coming days.

I suspect that the average person reading the government leaflet will disregard it as contradictory with what they are now hearing in the news. They may also see it as simply yet another kneejerk reaction from politicians who always to pander to the media biases rather than making their own scientifically informed decisions.

In my original swine flu article, I rather flippantly advised readers to forget avian influenza and to switch their worries to pigs. But, there was a serious thought behind my silliness because a single disease should not be the focus of fear. Emergent diseases could appear in almost any host animal at any time and cross the species barrier through random mutation.

Indeed, it’s certainly not only pigs, birds, and humans, that catch flu. Horses, and even whales and seals, get a form of the disease. But influenza is not the only virus.

If a second wave of swine flu does not evolve in the Northern autumn this year, there’s no reason to assume that some other respiratory virus, perhaps akin to SARS, perhaps avian, or something entirely different will appear. Will we be prepared for the onset of a previously unknown respiratory, or other, infection spreading from some obscure mammal in central Asia or elsewhere? Or, will the media incite mass hysteria through scaremongering once again?

How will a swine flu pamphlet look in six months time? Confusing and useless, that’s how. The scaremongering that has gone way beyond any seen at the time of SARS and certainly way beyond the avian influenza concerns, will ultimately look like a story of “cry wolf” when the next virus emerges.

The WHO told us a week or two ago that we could no longer contain swine flu, but as it turns out there really was no need to contain it in the first place. It appears (in this wave) not to be as virulent as first feared, mortality rates even in Mexico City are far lower than one would have expected of a serious illness with the number of dead from H1N1 being revised downwards several times already.

Flu experts from Cambridge, the National Institutes of Health, and The Cleveland Clinic will be talking about the science behind the news of the swine flu outbreak at a free webinar on Friday.

All that said, the UK’s chief medic Liam Donaldson, has warned against complacency because flu viruses can change character “very rapidly”. It is too early to assume the swine flu outbreak is a mild infection just because no-one in the UK has died, he says.

For years we have been warned that a lethal flu pandemic to match the Spanish Flu of 1918 was long overdue. Birds, and now pigs, have so far failed to deliver, but what’s that unidentified, flea-bitten rodent running around the market square? Is the tiny creature the harbinger of doom? Will we ever conquer infectious disease?

O’Dowd, A. (2009). Confirmation of first person to person transmission of swine flu in UK expected soon BMJ, 338 (may01 1) DOI: 10.1136/bmj.b1838

Raspberry Ripple Galaxy

galactic-rasberry-flavor Recently, an innocuous-seeming press release was released by German astronomers announcing that they had found two of the most complex molecules ever in space – n-propyl cyanide, more commonly known to chemists as butyronitrile, and ethyl formate. Now, butyronitrile is a nasty poison with a characteristic odour and I’m sure you’d get a whiff of bitter almonds as you lay dying should you breathe it in too deep or get a mouthful of the stuff. Ethyl formate is altogether different.

Ethyl formate, The Guardian’s science correspondent Ian Sample found out (I think already knew) is the fragrant ester molecule that gives raspberries their distinct flavour. It also smells vaguely of rum. Having latched on to this fact, Sample went to town on his galactic press release suggesting, in a Pythonesque manner, that your galaxy smells of raspberries.

It was a great hook for his popular science article in the paper, of course, and the idea was subsequently picked up by other outlets that had initially missed the raspberry flavour additive. With my SpectroscopyNOW deadline looming, I reasoned that the research was valid enough, ignoring the raspberries, for the news channel and set about explaining the ins and outs of the discovery and its relevance.

If complex molecules such as ethyl formate and butyronitrile can be found in space then perhaps the building blocks of proteins, amino acids, might also be present, which could lend evidence to space as being the seeding ground for the precursors to life on earth and perhaps extraterrestrial life too.

I contacted the leader of the astronomical team that had made this startling discovery to find out more details about the research. Arnaud Belloche of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) in Bonn, Germany, was unsurprisingly quick to point out that the raspberry connection was essentially a journalistic invention of The Guardian and has no bearing on the research at all.

“We did not report on the flavour of raspberry or the smell of rum,” he told me, “For us, astronomers, it is unimportant. What is important is that these two molecules are quite complex compared to the other molecules discovered in space, and that their discovery suggests that even more complex molecules are likely present in the interstellar medium.”

He did, however, concede that the reference to raspberries and rum makes the story more interesting for the lay public. “It is fine to mention it, but it should be made clear that it is astronomically irrelevant.” Of course, that much should be immediately obvious to most readers of SpectroscopyNOW.

It does raise an interesting point about science journalism. Is it stretching the truth, or dumbing down, too much to mention that the molecules found in outer space have a link with the flavour of raspberries? How far should we go to make rather technical and esoteric science appeal to a lay audience? Surely, it would have been enough that these complex molecules were found in space and may have a bearing on the origins of life on earth.

Perhaps not. A press release blankly referring to two chemicals with names obscure to non-chemists would usually have little impact. It was picked up by some outlets. However, it was only once Ian Sample had made the raspberry connection and used the Monty Python Holy Grail insult allusion (if your galaxy doesn’t smell of raspberries then your mother certainly still smells of elderberries) that more of the wider media jumped on to the idea of a galaxy smelling faintly of raspberries and rum and took it mainstream.

Indeed, we have a control to test this, because the same team use the same data lasts year to reveal that the same galactic gas cloud also contains aminoacetonitrile. This molecule is a
likely chemical precursor of the amino acid glycine, which has perhaps a much greater bearing on the origins of life than the raspberry flavouring, but unfortunately has none of the fruity allusions.

Which headline would grab you?

Scientists Spot Amino Acetonitrile in the Middle of Milky Way

Make That A Raspberry Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster

You can read my full write-up complete with overblown flavouring-enriched title in the May 1 issue of SpectroscopyNOW.

Finally, I asked Belloche for his predictions of when we might discover amino acids in space and get a true feeling for the notion of cosmic dust seeding the primordial earth.

“I guess we’ll have to wait many years…” he told me, “A simple estimate we did in
our publication on aminoacetonitrile (Belloche et al. 2008, A&A, 482, 179)
suggests that the abundance of glycine, if present in the interstellar
medium, is well below the best upper limits derived so far, by maybe one
or two orders of magnitude, so it will be hard (but not impossible!) to
find it.”

His prediction doesn’t leave a bitter taste in the mouth, but nor does it come up tasting of raspberries.