By Laura Husband

Astronauts may have problems with immune deficiencies while in space, a new study has found.

The study carried out at the University of Arizona in the US with mice found that weightlessness during spaceflight caused changes to genes that controlled an immune and stress response.

“Our results hint at the possibility that an astronaut’s immune system might be compromised in space,” said immunobiologist and lead researcher Ty Lesback.

Weightlessness during spaceflight causes a change to the immune system that can make astronauts ill. Image credit: NASA

The thymus gland, which plays a key part in the immune system, was compared in four mice who spent 13 days in a space shuttle with four mice who remained on the ground.

All four mice that spent time in space were found to have changes in the same 12 genes within the thymus tissue.

“The altered genes we observed were found to primarily affect signaling molecules that play roles in programmed cell death and regulate how the body responds to stress,” explained Lesback.

Programmed cell death has an important function. But cell death needs to be tightly regulated in the immune system for the process to run smoothly.

“Potentially you could get more cell death aboard a spacecraft because many of the gene changes resulted in down-regulated changes that are needed to maintain the balance,” said Lesback.

The activity levels of thousands of genes in thymus tissue from the space-flown mice and the control group had to be compared and analysed.

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Genes linked to high altitude life

Tibetans’ ability to survive at high altitude without getting sick has been linked to genes for the first time in a study published in Science.

Tibetans live in one of the highest regions of the world yet do not experience the symptoms associated with low levels of oxygen found in these high altitudes.

Scientists have found 10 genes that could explain why Tibetans living on Mountaintops don’t get sick

By comparing the genes of 31 Tibetans with a group of 90 Japanese and Chinese lowland people, scientists discovered 10 genes linked to a resistance to altitude sickness. Two of these genes have been linked to haemoglobin, the component in blood, which carries oxygen around the body.

Scientists have long known that Tibetans produce a low number of red blood cells but it is not understood how the body survives on such decreased levels of oxygen. By doing so, doctors predict it will help to understand and treat altitude sickness in mountaineers and other illnesses.

“What’s unique about Tibetans is they don’t develop high red blood cells counts,” said Professor Josef T. Prchal, a senior author on the study. “If we can understand this, we can develop therapies for human disease.”

The study was a joint collaboration between researchers at the University of Utah and Qinghai University Medical School.

Smallpox vaccine helped to curb AIDS?

Ending the worldwide smallpox vaccination may have lead to the explosive spread of HIV, scientists in a new study have suggested.

Smallpox immunisation gradually stopped between 1950s and 1970s, and since then, the rates of HIV have increased around the world.

The researchers from the study analysed white blood cells taken from people recently immunised against smallpox. They found that HIV replicated at lower levels from the vaccinated group compared with those from a control group who had not been immunised against smallpox.

According to the research, the smallpox vaccine cut HIV replication five-fold.

“There have been several proposed explanations for the rapid spread of HIV in Africa, including wars, the reuse of unsterilised needles and the contamination of early batches of polio vaccine. However, all of these have been either disproved or do not sufficiently explain the behaviour of the HIV pandemic,” said Dr Raymond Weinstein the lead researcher of the study, from the George Mason University in Virginia.

Mobile phones – no risk of brain tumours, scientists say

The largest study of mobile phone usage has found no link to suggest it increases the risk of brain tumours although the results are inconclusive, scientists report.

The study, carried out between 2000 and 2004, involved interviewing thousands of people from 13 countries about mobile phone usage and health.

The researchers compared the results from a group of patients suffering from either glioma or meningioma (types of tumour) with a similar number of health adults acting as a control group. No children took part in the study.
“Overall, this research has not shown evidence of an increased risk of developing a giloma or meningioma brain tumour as a result of using a mobile phone,” said Patricia McKinney an epidemiologist at the University of Leeds and one of the leaders of the study.

“The balance of evidence from this study, and in the previously existing scientific literature, does not suggest a causal link between mobile phone use and risk of brain tumours,” said Anthony Swerdlow, an epidemiologist at the Institute of Cancer Research and one of the leaders of the study.

Along with the other authors of the study, he warns that this does not provide assurances that there are no health risks associated with mobile phone usage: “The duration of phone use for which we yet have evidence is currently limited, however, and we have virtually no information for use of mobile phones for longer than 15 years.”

Sleep study – too much or too little

Sleeping fewer than six hours each night leads to a higher chance of dying prematurely, a new study has found. But consistently getting too much sleep may increase the risk of developing fatal illnesses the researchers found after analysing 1.3 million participants over 25 years.

“While short sleep may represent a cause of ill-health, long sleep is believed to represent more an indicator of ill-health,” said Francesco Cappuccio, leader of the Sleep, Health and Society Programme at the University of Warwick.

“Modern society has seen a gradual reduction in the average amount of sleep people take, and this pattern is more common amongst full-time workers, suggesting that it may be due to societal pressures for longer working hours and more shift-work,” added Cappuccio.

The study, a collaboration between the University if Warwick and the Federico II University Medical school in Naples, is published in the Sleep journal.

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By Paul Rodgers

It’s the headline dedicated smokers have been waiting for: their disgusting habit is good for them. At least under certain conditions, though this doesn’t mean you’d be wise to reach for a pack of Players – the benefit is far outweighed by the danger of cancer.

Smokers are less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative disorder of the nervous system that often affects motor skills and speech, according to researchers at the Mayo Clinic and the European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano in Italy. But the link is not a simple one. The researchers hypothesise that a genetic disposition combines with environmental factors to protect smokers from the disease.

At last, some good news about tobacco

Maurizio Facheris, a neurologist at the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Bozen/Bolzano, and his colleagues studied 1228 subjects while working as a research fellow at the Mayo Clinic. “We asked the interviewees to tell us about their relationship with smoking and then compared this data with the presence or absence of variations in the gene CYP2A6, which encodes the enzyme responsible for metabolising nicotine,” said Facheris.

One variant of the gene, when combined with smoking, considerably reduces the risk of Parkinson’s, they found, although it is not clear whether this is due to the presence of the gene variant, or by cotinine, the derivative of nicotine it produces. “If this second hypothesis is confirmed, producing a cotinine-based drug would be a means to reduce exposure to the disease”, said Facheris.

Such a drug could be one of the first to arise from the new field of pharmacogenetics, in which patients will be genetically tested before being given personalised medicines.

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By Charlotte King

Studies in mice have shown that there is little genetic overlap between male and female fat cell genes.

Human men are more likely to carry extra weight around their guts, while pre-menopausal women store it in their bottoms, hips and thighs, say researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Centre, Dallas. Their studies in mice have shown that out of around 40,000 genes that code for fat in mice, only 138 are found in both male and female fat cells.

A fat and a normal mouse

Even though the studies were only carried out in mice, human and mice species both differ in the way that males and females distribute their fat. So the researchers used the mice to model humans.

“Given the difference in gene expression profiles, a female fat tissue won’t behave anything like a male fat tissue and vice versa,” says Dr. Deborah Clegg, assistant professor of internal medicine said. “The notion that fat cells between males and females are alike is inconsistent with our findings.”

Belly fat is associated with obesity-related conditions like diabetes and heart disease, so men are at a higher risk of these. But when women hit the menopause their ovarian hormone levels drop and their fat storage changes towards their waists.

Dr Clegg says that her ultimate goal is to “determine how fat tissue is affected by sex hormones and whether it would be possible to develop a ‘designer’ hormone replacement therapy that protected post-menopausal women from belly fat and related diseases such as metabolic syndrome.”

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By Laura Husband

Soldiers in action are 22 per cent more likely to be alcoholics than those not deployed but have low levels of post-traumatic stress disorder, a new study has found.

The study, carried out at King’s College London, examined the mental health effects of serving in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2003 and 2009.

Authors of the study, military expert Dr Nicola Fear and Professor of psychiatry Simon Wessely found 22 per cent of those who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan had misused alcohol.

Soldiers in action turn to the bottle.

“The Army itself encourages drinking because it numbs feelings while on the frontline,” explained Imogen Sturgeon-Clegg, a war veteran psychologist at psychological charity ‘Combat Stress’.

Deployed soldiers also developed social problems related to drinking too much including violence and relationship breakdown.

“A lot of people have problems with anger because in the army there are only two acceptable emotions: Anger and humour. Soldiers do not get a chance to talk through their experiences. They realise they’re suffering but can’t articulate it,” Sturgeon-Clegg said.

A low prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder was found among the deployed soldiers in the study. Between 2003 and 2009 it stayed at 3 to 4 per cent.
The authors found this surprising as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan lasted longer than expected.

But Sturgeon-Clegg argues, “Post-traumatic stress disorder has a delayed onset in war veterans and it takes an average of 14 years for them to ask Combat Stress for help. This is usually after they have had problems adjusting to civilian life.”

By Smitha Peter

According to United Nations Convention, every child has a right to not to go hungry and provision of free school meals is a way to address this problem. But how effective is the school meal program in UK at present? “More than one million children living in poverty don’t qualify for free school meals as per current policy and 39% of those who are eligible won’t take them,” said Professor Martin Caraher, Centre for Food Policy, City University in his lecture on the topic ‘Food Poverty and Inequality: The growth of hunger in the UK’.

Healthy school meals have the capacity to reduce dietary inequalities. Image credit: Henrique Dante de Almeida

Current policy excludes secondary school children from working house holds with a low income. This means around 60% of secondary students living in poor household are not eligible for free school meals. At the same time many children who are eligible won’t take it because of the issues related to stigma and availability of low priced unhealthy food.

The Low Income Diet and Nutrition Survey by Food Standard Agency reveal that children from low income families eat more fast food and processed meat than those from richer background. They often eat inadequate level of iron, folate and vitamin D.

The Survey also observed that 36% of low-income population cannot afford to eat balanced meals, 22% report reducing or skipping meals and 5% do not have enough money to eat for a full day. Local variation in food prices makes the existing situation worse.

Providing free school meals to all children from households earning below £20,000 a year would cost an extra £1.53 billion a year. However, it can reduce the cost of health related diseases and can increase work place productivity in long run. At present child poverty costs the health care system £2 billion a year.

Children currently eligible for free school meals:

1. Children whose parents are getting
   • Income support
   • Income-based jobseeker’s allowance
   • Income-related employment and supporters allowance
   • Support under part VI of immigration and asylum act
   • The guarantee credit of pension credit
2. Children whose parents are workless, with an annual income of £16,190 or less
3. Primary school children from working house hold with an income below £16,190

Children who are not eligible:

1. Secondary school children from working households with a low income
2. Primary school children whose parents have a household income over £16,190

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By Grace Howe

Memories

As I walk through the double gates into the car-park, I notice immediately that it looks smaller. The length of the drive to the main building is only the length of a London Underground Station platform. Just like going back to visit an old primary school or college this place, where I was once entrenched for the minimum required time of six months, seems tiny, unintimidating, and generally ‘quite nice’ to the naked eye.

I remember how the walk to the front door had felt like a long way and how the corridors were vast and frightening. It was a time when I felt so small, and my whole life seemed not so much ahead of me but completely out-of-reach.

I understand the misconception that I was taking undeserved ‘time out’, simply from the appearance of this building. Like a massive hotel it has a big open lawn and a posh glass reception area, and I stumble towards it. I feel sick with sadness knowing the true desperation of those inside, and loneliness from having to call this home.

Misconceptions

This is the Roehampton Priory; infamous for housing thwacked-out celebrities while they get over their drug habits or alcoholism. The public misconception is that this is not really a hospital, more of a clinic for respite and the self-indulgent; where the over-privileged get to talk about their problems and ‘get over themselves.’

But, in reality, The Priory only accepts patients who are deemed ‘critical within a 48hr time-limit’.Be it for starvation, attempted suicide, overdose, alcohol or other apparantly ‘self–induced’ illnesses, this is just a hospital for treating the physically sick until they are physically better.

When I came in I was so far beyond anxious about my personal and family life that I had driven myself mad, and so vocally angry that everyone else around me had completely lost perspective on the truly critical status of my body.

Returning

I have come back to talk to my old key-nurse Esme Prentice, and Dr. Eric Shur, chief consultant for 14 years. I wanted to hear how the in-patients feel about their treatment programme and if it has changed, because I remember just how frustrating and lonely I found it to be confined here over Christmas time and a boiling hot April nearly seven years ago.

It’s very claustrophobic. A smell of milk, boiled fish, vegetables, biscuits and Badedas bath bubbles. The girls were curled up on sofas, ready for bed at 2.30pm. They have nothing to do and can’t see their friends. There is nothing to mark the passing day, and they have nothing to say to me. ‘This is nothing to do with my own life’ was how I felt when I was sitting here, and I am sure they feel them same. I remember visitors glaring in on me as if I should be ashamed of myself or pleased to see them.

I was four stone when I came here and like these girls, looking physically frightening and skeletal, I was made to feel like an intruder in my own life, and in society. I remember seeing people who seemed blessed with an ability to cope with life and grief – an ability I did not have. I was in grief at the breakdown of my family, and couldn’t admit defeat until it was too late. I worried that there was a string of accusatory discussions about my needs and family ahead of me.

The Priory staff were the first people I had encountered, including our GP, who addressed anorexia for what it was; a physiological problem – a physical disability – and not something helped through endless counselling or that is relevant to a particular mentality or body image. Anorexia translated from the Greek means ‘no appetite’. It does not mean ‘pretending to not feel hunger for vanity’s sake, or some ulterior motive’. I asked Esme to clarify what this implies for the recovery process:

“Recovery is a long, cyclical process that can take many admissions. The outside world is always going to present the same fears and disappointments that have led patients in here. It can take years to realise that something within someone’s outside life is inadequate or damaging for them . The main problem that we have is that they don’t take themselves or the disease seriously enough, not the other way round.”

In here, it was the physical treatment and daily urgency of things like weigh-ins and bloods that woke me up to the actual crisis I was in. It allowed the survival instinct to kick in enough to concentrate on the real task at hand.

‘Getting it’

Eric Shur warned against presuming that the sufferer is aware of the problem; “There is always a lot of talk of control in this disorder – of controlling oneself, one’s sexuality, progress, time; also controlling others and controlling food. These symptoms give an unjust portrayal. Most people can’t register the severity of their disease until it is in its advanced stages. Anorexia should be treated with the understanding and respect that the patient doesn’t ‘intend ‘to get it’”.

“Anorexia is really like losing a sense – adrenaline levels are so high in the blood-stream that the brain cannot register hunger or satiety anymore. To lose the instinct entirely is a life-threatening disease and it must be treated as that serious and in an appropriate category.”

The Priory works to exemplify how the disorder can be solved through addressing it from the physical angle.

On leaving I wish I could say to the patients that recovery is not as complicated as everyone in the world makes out, and that the isolation will go when they leave, but this is not true. They will face the stigmatisation attached to anorexia for years and years to come, as I have. I hope at least they want to be able to reach the daylight at the end of the tunnel.

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By Smitha Mundasad

Sensors that could be implanted in the body to collect data about fracture healing are being developed by Turkish and American researchers.

“More than 10 per cent of fractures do not heal properly, but doctors are not able to see the bones healing, instead they have to make educated guesses,” said Emre Unal, a nanotechnologist at Bilkent University in Turkey.

X-ray of fractured femur. Image credit: Smitha Mundasad

In experimental models, sensors are applied to metal plates, similar to ones used by surgeons to fix fractures in place. The wireless sensors can then pick up information on the strain applied to them.

The nanotechnologists hypothesise that, over time, as bones heal and patients start to become mobile, less strain will be detected by the sensors as more will be taken up by the healing bone. When fully developed, they suggest, a doctor could monitor strain data over time to check whether a fracture is healing as expected. This important information could be obtained without scans and invasive procedures.

Experiments are currently taking place on sheep metatarsals in the US, which show promising results.

There are still, however, many barriers that need to be overcome if this is to become a clinically useful tool. “Sensors will need to be made of biocompatible material, and tests will have to take place on human bones,” explained Unal.

“Nanotechnological advances are set to make a huge contribution to medicine,” said Mohan, a Bristol surgeon.

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By Paul Rodgers

“No kidding, kid has grown new kidneys,” declared The Sun last week. That the child’s name is “Angel” didn’t do anything to dampen the miraculous tone of this and similar articles.

But her condition, duplex kidneys, is not that unusual, existing in about 1 per cent of the population.
Doctors say they didn’t notice the extra organs on Angel Burton’s scans before her operation three years ago to repair a failed valve that had caused her kidney infections. But that doesn’t mean that they’ve grown since. Thankfully, she’s unlikely to be subjected to a lifetime of intrusive tests as science tries to figure out her “secret”.

Regeneration in humans is rare. Children under 10 can regrow fingertips, though sans fingerprints, and even adult livers can recover from as little as 25 per cent of the original organ.

There seems to be an inverse relationship between the complexity of an organ and its ability to replace itself.

Amphibians such as newts can regenerate limbs after amputation, and when some worms are chopped in half, they can grow into two new creatures.

In newts, the cells in the stump of the amputated limb turn into undifferentiated stem cells as it starts to grow back, a clue which has inspired researchers in the field.

Regeneration scientists at Stanford University in the US and the New York University Langone Medical Center demonstrated a year ago that they could grow stem cells on a scaffold made out of blood, fat and bone tissue from rodents.

Geoffrey Gurtner, an associate professor of surgery at Stanford, and his colleagues harvested a piece of tissue containing blood vessels, fat and skin from the groin area of rodents and used a bioreactor to provide nutrients and oxygen to keep it alive. Then, they seeded the extracted tissue with stem cells before it was implanted back into the animal. Once the tissue was back in the animal, the stem cells continued to grow and were not rejected. This suggests that if the stem cells had been coaxed into becoming an organ, the organ would have “taken hold” in the animal’s body.

“The ability to provide stem cells with a scaffold to grow and differentiate into mature cells could revolutionise the field of organ transplantation,” said Gurtner.

By Paul Rodgers

Vincent Van Gogh famously combined genius and madness, and evidence for a link between these two characteristics is mounting.

Both highly creative people and schizophrenics are able to make unusual or bizarre associations, and highly creative skills are more common among people who have mentally ill relatives. They are also at a slightly higher statistical risk of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Self-portrait of Van Gogh with ear cut off

Now scientists have proposed a possible explanation for the link between mental health and creativity. Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm have shown that the way dopamine works in highly creative people is similar to the pattern seen in schizophrenics.

“Thinking outside the box might be facilitated by having a somewhat less intact box,” said Dr Fredrik Ullen, an associate professor in the department of women’s and children’s health at the institute.

“We have studied the brain and the dopamine D2 receptors, and have shown that the dopamine system of healthy, highly creative people is similar to that found in people with schizophrenia,” he said.

The study measured the creativity of healthy individuals by giving them a “divergent test” – a task for which they had to find many different solutions.

“Creative people who did well on the divergent tests had a lower density of D2 receptors in the thalamus than less creative people,” Dr Ullen said. “Schizophrenics are also known to have low D2 density in this part of the brain, suggesting a cause of the link between mental illness and creativity.”

The thalamus sits between the cerebral cortex and the midbrain. It relays sensations and motor signals and is involved in consciousness, sleep and alertness. The cortex in turn is responsible for cognition and reasoning.

“Fewer D2 receptors in the thalamus probably means a lower degree of signal filtering, and thus a higher flow of information from the thalamus,” Dr Ullen said. This, he argued, could explain why creative people see so many possible solutions to problems, as well as the bizarre associations formed in the minds of the mentally ill.

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