Mamba Analgesic - Duchenne's Treatment - Right Eyes - Obesity Virus

[Marc Breedlove]

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/10/03/super-toxic-snake-venom-could-yield-new-painkillers/

Super-Toxic Snake Venom Could Yield New Painkillers

By Katherine Harmon

A bite from the black mamba snake (Dendroaspis
polylepis) can kill an adult human within 20
minutes. But mixed in with that toxic venom is a
new natural class of compound that could be used
to help develop new painkillers.

Named “mambalgins,” these peptides block acute
and inflammatory pain in mice as well as morphine
does, according to a new study.

Researchers, led by Sylvie Diochot, of the
Institute of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology
at Nice University, Sophia Antipolis in France,
purified the peptides from the venom and profiled
the compounds’ structure. They then were able to
test the mambalgins in strains of mice with
various genetic tweaks to their pain pathways.
Diochot and her colleagues determined that the
mambalgins work by blocking an as-yet untargeted
set of neurological ion channels associated with
pain signals. The findings were published online
October 3 in Nature (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group).

As a bonus, mambalgins did not have the risky
side effect of respiratory depression that
morphine does. And the mice developed less
tolerance to them over time than is typical with morphine.

Experimenting with the newfound compounds should
also help researchers learn more about the
mechanisms that drive pain. As the researchers
noted in their paper, “It is essential to
understand pain better to develop new analgesics.
The black mamba peptides discovered here have the
potential to address both of these aims.”

© 2012 Scientific American,
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19819065

Aspirin may 'slow elderly brain decline', study finds

By Anna-Marie Lever Health reporter, BBC News

An aspirin a day may slow brain decline in
elderly women at high risk of cardiovascular disease, research finds.

Around 500 at risk women, between the ages of 70
to 92, were tracked for five years - their mental
capacity was tested at the start and end of the study.

Those taking aspirin for the entire period saw
their test scores fall much less than those who had not.

The Swedish study is reported in the journal BMJ Open.

Dr Silke Kern, one of paper's authors, said:
"Unlike other countries - Sweden is unique, it is
not routine to treat women at high risk of heart
disease and stroke with aspirin. This meant we
had a good group for comparison."

The women were tested using a mini mental state
exam (MMSE) - this tests intellectual capacity
and includes orientation questions like, "what is
today's date?", "where are we today?" and
visual-spatial tests like drawing two interlinking pentagons.

But the report found that while aspirin may slow
changes in cognitive ability in women at high
risk of a heart attack or stroke, it made no
difference to the rate at which the women
developed dementia - which was also examined for by a neuropsychiatrist.

BBC © 2012
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/business/drug-shows-promise-in-treating-type-of-muscular-dystrophy.html?ref=health

Drug Shows Promise in Treating a Type of Muscular Dystrophy in Boys

By ANDREW POLLACK

An experimental drug preserved and even improved
the walking ability of boys with Duchenne
muscular dystrophy in a clinical trial, raising
hopes that the first effective treatment for the disease may be on the horizon.

Boys with the disease who received the highest
dose of the drug had a slightly improved ability
to walk after 48 weeks of treatment, the drug’s
developer, Sarepta Therapeutics, announced
Wednesday. By contrast, the boys who received a
placebo suffered a sharp decline in how well they could walk.

The drug, called eteplirsen, also appeared to
restore levels of the crucial protein that
muscular dystrophy patients lack to about half of normal levels, Sarepta said.

“I think this changes the entire playing field
for muscular dystrophy,” said Dr. Jerry R.
Mendell, director of the gene therapy and
muscular dystrophy programs at Nationwide
Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and the lead investigator in the trial.

There are many caveats. The trial had only 12
patients, with only four receiving the high dose
and four the placebo, and the data has not been
reviewed by experts. It is also unclear how long
the effects of the drug would last or if safety
issues would arise with longer treatment.

Also, eteplirsen would be appropriate for only
about 13 percent to 15 percent of Duchenne
patients, those with the particular genetic
mutation the drug is meant to counteract.
However, a similar approach might work for some other mutations.

© 2012 The New York Times Company
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http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/345496/title/Right_eye_required_for_finding_Mrs._Right

Right eye required for finding Mrs. Right

By Susan Milius

A patch over a male Gouldian finch’s right eye
works like beer goggles, though the bird doesn’t
need booze to flirt unwisely. If limited to using
his left eye when checking out possible mates, he
risks making really stupid choices.

Gouldian finches have caps of black, red or
yellow feathers on their heads. In nature, the
birds prefer to mate with partners with the same
cap color. Yet black-headed males rendered
temporarily left-eyed by a tiny removable eye
patch flirted as readily with red-heads as with
black-heads, says cognitive ecologist Jennifer
Templeton of Knox College in Galesburg, Ill.
That’s not smart because daughters typically fail
to survive when Gouldian finches mate outside their cap color.

Also the male himself “becomes less attractive,”
Templeton says. When the bird’s right eye was
covered, he sang, bowed and posed less during his
attempts at courtship. Some left-eyed males
didn’t manage to make up their minds at all, but
“just hopped around randomly,” Templeton says.

Moving the eye patch to the right eye, however,
restored male Gouldian finches to their senses.
Males then spent more time perching near
same-cap-color females and flirting with them.
“Beauty is in the right eye of the beholder,”
Templeton and her colleagues conclude online October 3 in Biology Letters.

Birds make fine subjects for comparing eye biases
because many species’ eyes sit on opposite sides
of their skulls with very different fields of
view. A bird’s right eye connects to the left
hemisphere of its brain, and the left eye to the
right hemisphere. Unlike mammals, birds don’t
have a high-speed connection between hemispheres.

© Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2012
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http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22330-virus-leads-to-obesity-but-lowers-risk-of-diabetes.html

Virus leads to obesity but lowers risk of diabetes

by Marissa Miley

A virus that may encourage the body to grow more
fat cells could, paradoxically, lower diabetes risk.

Nikhil Dhurandhar at the Pennington Biomedical
Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and
colleagues examined the long-term effects of a
common virus – adenovirus-36 (Ad-36) – on humans.

The team analysed blood samples made available
from 1400 volunteers in a decades-long
epidemiological study. The researchers detected
antibodies to Ad-36 in 14.5 per cent of the
subjects when they first joined the study – a
prevalence in line with studies on the US adult population.

Ten years later, those individuals naturally
infected with Ad-36 had a higher body mass index
and body fat percentage than those who were not
infected – but their blood sugar and insulin levels were healthier.

Animal and cell studies offer an explanation,
says Dhurandhar. They suggest that Ad-36
increases the number and size of fat cells, or
adipocytes, providing additional "depots" for any
fat coming from excessive calorie consumption.

Under normal circumstances, the number of these
fat storage cells stays constant in adulthood, no
matter what dietary choices people make. The
extra cells from Ad-36 may make the body more
likely to store excess fat, but that means less
fat is left to travel to other areas, like the
liver, where it can have toxic effects. The
adipocytes may also store more sugar, helping to
keep blood sugar levels under control and
maintaining insulin sensitivity to glucose.

© Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.
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