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Tomatoes may harbour Alzheimers cure
09.07.2008 02:28
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Besides making pastas curry tangy, the plump and red tomato has far more serious benefits the humble fruit can be a suitable carrier for an oral vaccine against Alzheimers disease, says a group of researchers. The study, conducted by HyunSoon Kim from the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) in Korea and colleagues from Digital Biotech Inc. and the Department of Biological Science at Wonkwang University, is currently in the early stages. However, it is a promising first step towards finding an edible vaccine against the neurodegenerative disease. Alzheimers disease is the most common cause of dementia and it progresses over a long period of time. It is thought to be caused by the accumulation of human beta-amyloid, a toxic insoluble fibrous protein in the brain, which leads to the death of neurons. Reducing the accumulation of beta-amyloid may inhibit the degeneration of the nervous system and therefore prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimers disease. One approach is to stimulate the immune system to reduce beta-amyloid in the brain. In the study, the researchers aim was to develop a plant-derived vaccine against Alzheimers disease, since beta-amyloid is toxic to animal cells. Tomatoes are an attractive candidate as a vaccine carrier because they can be eaten without heat treatment, which reduces the risk of destroying the immune stimulation potential of the foreign protein. In the study, the scientists inserted the beta-amyloid gene into the tomato genome and measured the immune responses to the tomato-derived toxic protein in a group of 15-month-old mice. They immunized the mice orally with the transgenic tomato plants once a week for three weeks, and also gave the mice a booster seven weeks after the first tomato feed. Blood analyses showed a strong immune response after the booster, with the production of antibodies to the human foreign protein. The authors conclude: Although we did not reveal a reduction of existing plaques in the brain of mice challenged with tomato-derived beta-amyloidthis study represents a unique approach in which transgenic plants expressing beta-amyloid protein are used to produce a vaccine. The study is published online in Springers journal Biotechnology Letters. (ANI)
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Ending moderate drinking may lead to depression
09.07.2008 02:27
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Here’s another reason to keep drinking moderate amounts of alcohol – without it you might end up in depression. According to a new research, stopping drinking, especially at moderate level, may lead to health problems including depression and a reduced capacity of the brain to produce new neurons, a process called neurogenesis. “Our research in an animal model establishes a causal link between abstinence from alcohol drinking and depression,” said study senior author Clyde W. Hodge, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and pharmacology in the UNC School of Medicine. “In mice that voluntarily drank alcohol for 28 days, depression-like behavior was evident 14 days after termination of alcohol drinking. This suggests that people who stop drinking may experience negative mood states days or weeks after the alcohol has cleared their systems,” Hodge added. In the study, mice were tested for depression-like behavior using a widely recognized method called the Porsolt Swim Test. The mice are placed inside a beaker filled with water and allowed to swim for six minutes. Mice are good swimmers and have no problem completing this task. The amount of time they spend immobile (floating and not swimming) is measured as an index of despair or depression-like behavior. The more time a mouse spends immobile, the more "depressed" it is thought to be. "This research provides the first evidence that long-term abstinence from moderate alcohol drinking – rather than drinking per se – leads to a negative mood state, depression," Hodge said. The study also found that the emergence of depression was associated with a profound reduction in the number of neural stem cells, i.e. the cells that will become neurons, and in the number of new neurons in a brain region known as the hippocampus. This brain region is critical for normal learning and memory, and recent studies show that the development of neurons in the hippocampus may regulate mood, Hodge said. According to Hodge, the negative mood state in mice may represent depression in humans and appears to be linked to a diminished capacity of the brain to form new neurons. "Thus, people who drink moderate alcohol socially, or for potential health benefits, may experience negative mood or diminished cognitive abilities due to a loss of the brain''s ability to form new neurons," he said. But the study also found that treatment with an antidepressant drug during 14 days of abstinence prevented the development of depression and restored the capability of the brain to produce new cells. The study has been published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology. (ANI)
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Scientists uncover protein biomarker for schizophrenia risk
09.07.2008 02:27
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Neuroscientists at the UK-based University of Cambridge say that a protein found in immune cells may be a reliable marker for schizophrenia risk. Sabine Bahn of the Institute of Biotechnology, affiliated to the University of Cambridge, and her colleagues sought to find a "protein fingerprint" in the blood considering that a biomarker for schizophrenia risk might offer a solution to the existing problem of delayed diagnosis and treatment. The researchers compared protein profiles of schizophrenia patients as well as control subjects with the help of mass spectrometry. They identified two peaks highlighting a significant change—alpha defensins, proteins responsible for killing microbes, and viruses in the innate immune response. Sabine’s team then confirmed the findings by examining alpha defensin levels in the blood of 21 twin pairs, where one sibling manifested the disease while the other did not. It was observed that, in the twin sets, both siblings had significantly elevated alpha defensins as compared with a group of control twins. Changes were also found in patients who were investigated soon after diagnosis, which means that higher levels of alpha defensins were not caused by medication or progression of the disease. Since both discordant twins had elevated alpha defensins, say the researchers, these proteins do not indicate disease onset. They, however, add that they could be a useful and simple marker for evaluating schizophrenia risk. The researchers, however, also believe that more markers will be needed in order to develop a sensitive and specific schizophrenia blood test. A research article on the study appears in the July issue of Molecular and Cellular proteomics. (ANI)
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Sausage feather fossils may reveal true colours of dinosaurs
09.07.2008 02:27
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Palaeobiologists have found that 100-million-year-old fossilized bird feathers preserve microscopic colour-containing pouches, which when decoded, could reveal realistic colour patterns of the dinosaurs. According to a report in New Scientist, Jakob Vinther, and colleagues Derek Briggs and Richard Prum, from Yale University in the UK, fired electron beams onto an unidentified bird feather fossil from Brazil to reveal precisely-arranged packets that colour plumage brown, black and grey. “They look like small sausages, they’re elongated and rounded at the edges,” said Vinther. “We are quite confident that they aren’t bacteria,” he added. The packets resemble similar structures on modern birds. More rounded pouches make red and yellow plumage, while certain orientations create iridescent feathers. By analysing the shapes, orientations and density of these packets – called melanosomes – researchers may be able to colour fossilised feathers and even fur. “We might able to get a palette of colours that we could assign to the fossils,” said Vinther. Working with Yale paleontologist Derek E. G. Briggs and Yale ornithologist Richard O. Prum, Vinther analyzed a striped feather found in 100 million-year-old rocks from the Lower Cretaceous Period in Brazil. The team used a scanning electron microscope to show that dark bands of the feather preserved the arrangement of the pigment-bearing structures as a carbon residue — organized much as the structures are in a modern feather. In another fossil of a bird from the Eocene Epoch — 55 million years ago — in Denmark there were similar traces in the feathers surrounding the skull. That fossil also preserved an organic imprint of the eye and showed structures similar to the melanosomes found in eyes of modern birds. “Of course, some dinosaurs boasted plumage, and their fossilised feathers have been discovered in China,” said Kevin Padian, a palaeontologist at the University of California, Berkeley. “If these could be tested for the presence of melanosomes, it would be interesting,” he said. David Martill, a palaeontologist at the University of Portsmouth, UK, who discovered the fossilised bird feathers in Brazil and assumed bacteria made the stripes, agreed that the findings could lead to accurate colourings of ancient birds and even dinosaurs. “Now that we have demonstrated that melanin can be preserved in fossils, scientists have a way to reliably predict, for example, the original colors of feathered dinosaurs,” said Prum. Knowing the colour of dinosaur plumage could reveal something about their daily lives and ecology, according to Vinther. “We might also be able to tell whether they have sexual dimorphisms – whether males were more spectacularly coloured than females,” he said. (ANI)
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