Scientists at Johns Hopkins Come Closer to Eliminating Heart Disease

A world without heart disease seems impossible. But researchers at Johns Hopkins just got one step closer.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins University may be one step closer to eradicating debilitating heart diseases in humans, particularly those caused by excessive buildup of cholesterol.

A new study published in the journal Circulation shows that a synthesized drug reduces, and may even eradicate, the effects of high-fat and high-cholesterol diets. And though the drug is prosperous for the heart and brain most specifically, the entire body may benefit from this development.

“It’s the entire cardiovascular system that’s affected,” Ekaterina Pesheva, a representative for Johns Hopkins, told The Daily Beast. “The reason we’re worried about the heart and the brain is because those are the centers that end up being the most debilitating to human life when affected by fatty buildups.”
The study shows that the new drug under examination, known now as D-PDMP, changes the way fat metabolism works, and eliminates the risk of heart attack and heart disease. The drug halts the development of atherosclerosis, a word referring to the hardening of the arteries. Atherosclerosis is based on a buildup of fat and cholesterol in blood vessels, and happens to be the main cause of heart attacks in humans. Most notably, atherosclerosis is the No. 1 cause of death in humans (perhaps a little-known fact in a world rampant with famine, war, and crime).
Atherosclerotic heart disease is the most common type of heart disease, which develops when fat builds inside the blood vessels over time, rendering them stiff, narrowed, and hardened. This, in turn, reduces blood flow to the heart and brain.
Other kinds of heart disease include structural heart disease—people born with malformations of their heart, which is rare, and heart failure (mostly a result of poorly functioning heart muscle, which can be due to a number of causes, including atherosclerosis. It can also be caused by other conditions such as viral infections of the heart) will also benefit from this development.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of these new developments is that the compound used to control the atherosclerosis is a widely available, man-made compound.

Dr. Subroto Chatterjee, Ph.D, a cardio-metabolic expert at Johns Hopkins Medicine, spearheaded the research and development of this project. “Atherosclerotic, in most colloquial terms, means clogged vessels, or vessels thickened by buildup of fat inside the vessel,” Chatterjee told The Daily Beast. “And this research was quite challenging,” he said, “but we feel like we got quite lucky with the development here.”
Chatterjee and his team found that D-PDMP almost totally eliminated the buildup of cholesterol in vital regions of the body. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of these new developments is that the compound used to control the atherosclerosis is a widely available, man-made compound.
The researchers tested the drug in mice and rabbits, Chatterjee told The Daily Beast. The mice were known to already have heart problems and the rabbits were known to have healthy hearts. That complicates the study, if only because the control group of the species isn’t specific to one cardiovascular system. Researchers fed both species a high-fat and high-cholesterol diet.
“Indeed, this diet nearly guarantees arteriosclerosis in these transgenic/mutant mice as they fail to handle LDL [low-density liver] cholesterol,” Chatterjee said. “In these animals on this diet, the risk of this disease is nearly 100%. There is one chance in four that your child may have blood cholesterol that is too high. Healthy individuals have a one in two chance of abnormally elevated blood cholesterol,” he said. “More than 70 million Americans have high cholesterol, according to the CDC.”
Cholesterol control is a contentious field in medical research, because the side effects of drugs used to treat the issue can be dangerous. The Daily Beast spoke with John McEvoy, a cardiology fellow in preventive cardiology physician, at Johns Hopkins, who was not involved with this particular study.
“It’s always very important when a new mechanism for treating high cholesterol and heart disease comes about,” McEvoy said. “This pathway and new treatment are very exciting in that regard. However, the next step for these researchers will be making sure there are no side effects of the drug that are harmful to humans.”


http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/25/scientists-at-johns-hopkins-come-closer-to-eliminating-heart-disease.html

WHO issues its first hepatitis C treatment guidelines

News release

9 April 2014 | London, United Kingdom - WHO has issued its first guidance for the treatment of hepatitis C, a chronic infection that affects an estimated 130 million to 150 million people and results in 350 000 to 500 000 deaths a year.
The publication of the "WHO Guidelines for the screening, care and treatment of persons with hepatitis C infection" coincides with the availability of more effective and safer oral hepatitis medicines, along with the promise of even more new medicines in the next few years.
“The WHO recommendations are based on a thorough review of the best and latest scientific evidence,” says Dr Stefan Wiktor, who leads WHO’s Global Hepatitis Programme. “The new guidance aims to help countries to improve treatment and care for hepatitis and thereby reduce deaths from liver cancer and cirrhosis.”
WHO will be working with countries to introduce the guidelines as part of their national treatment programmes. WHO support will include assistance to make the new treatments available and consideration of all possible avenues to make them affordable for all. WHO will also assess the quality of hepatitis laboratory tests and generic forms of hepatitis medicines.
“Hepatitis C treatment is currently unaffordable to most patients in need. The challenge now is to ensure that everyone who needs these drugs can access them,” says Dr Peter Beyer, Senior Advisor for the Essential Medicines and Health Products Department at WHO. “Experience has shown that a multi-pronged strategy is required to improve access to treatment, including creating demand for treatment. The development of WHO guidelines is a key step in this process.”

Nine key recommendations

The new guidelines make nine key recommendations. These include approaches to increase the number of people screened for hepatitis C infection, advice as to how to mitigate liver damage for those who are infected and how to select and provide appropriate treatments for chronic hepatitis C infection.

Screening

WHO recommends a screening test for those considered at high risk of infection, followed by another test for those who screen positive, to establish whether they have chronic hepatitis C infection.

Mitigating liver damage

Since alcohol use can accelerate liver damage caused by hepatitis C, WHO now advises that people with chronic hepatitis C infection receive an alcohol assessment. The Organization also recommends providing counseling to reduce alcohol intake for people with moderate or high alcohol use. In addition, the guidelines provide advice on the selection of the most appropriate test to assess the degree of liver damage in those with chronic hepatitis C infection.

Treatment

The guidelines provide recommendations on existing treatments based on interferon injections as well as the new regimens that use only oral medicines. WHO will update recommendations on drug treatments periodically as additional antiviral medicines are registered on the market and new evidence emerges.

Prevention

The 2014 recommendations also summarize for policy makers and health care workers interventions that should be put in place to prevent transmission of hepatitis C, including measures to assure the safety of medical procedures and injections in health care settings and among persons who inject drugs. Rates of new hepatitis C infections remain unacceptably high in many countries because of the reuse of injection equipment and lack of screening of blood transfusions.
“Many people remain unaware - sometimes for decades - that they are infected with hepatitis C,” says Dr Andrew Ball, Senior Advisor for Policy, Strategy and Equity for WHO’s HIV/AIDS Department where the Global Hepatitis Programme is housed. “Today’s launch highlights the need for more awareness and education on hepatitis for the general public. Greater awareness on the risks associated with hepatitis C should lead to a demand for services and expansion of laboratory capacity and clinical services so that more people can be tested, treated and cured.”
There are five main hepatitis viruses, referred to as types A, B, C, D and E. Hepatitis B and C have the greatest public health impact because they cause chronic infection which can progress to cirrhosis and liver cancer. Hepatitis A and E, spread though unsafe water and contaminated food, have the potential to cause outbreaks in certain populations.
Hepatitis C virus is most commonly transmitted through exposure to contaminated blood. Those at risk include people undergoing invasive medical procedures and therapeutic injections where there is poor infection control. Also at risk are those exposed to contaminated injecting and skin piercing equipment, including through injecting drug use, tattooing and body piercing.
The WHO Guidelines for the screening, care and treatment of persons with hepatitis C infection were launched on the eve of the opening of the 2014 International Liver Congress, attended by around 10 000 delegates in London.

Click here to go to WHO

ARE LOVE AND AFFECTION ESSENTIAL FOR SURVIVAL? CAN SOMEONE DIE OF BROKEN HEART? SCIENCE REVEALS.

Are love and affection essential for survival?

Is there an association of depriving of an infant of love and affection and later illness? Are nutritious food and other good physical condition s the only requirement for normal physical and well- being? Another , more question popular way to pose this basic question is: can someone die of broken heart? Such questions focus our attention on the role of emotional deprivation in the process of development. They touch upon the broader issue of how psychological and physical processes relate to each other.

Long before the science of psychology was born , Fredrick II, a thirteen century ruler of sicily and a master of languages ,believed that every person was born already knowing the original human language. According to him, a child would begin to use this built in language without any training or experience as soon as he or she was old enough. To test this hypothesis Fredrick conducted an experiment. A group of foster mothers were put in charge of a number of new born infants. They were to care for the babies in silence, never speaking to them or allowing them to hear human sounds. When at last they spoke, it would reveal, according to Fredrick, the true nature of language the inherited, since nothing could be attributed to their upbringing. His story gave us the sad results of this experiment: “But he labored in vein, because the children all died. For they could not live without the petting and the joyful faces of their foster mothers.”

A fable? Folkore? Could emotional deprivation really have had such profound effect? Writing in 1760, a Spanish churchman noted, “In the foundling home the child become sad and many of the die of sorrow.” Since the early years of century, a number of studies have found signs of physical as well as psychological deterioration in young children who were hospitalized for long periods of time. One study of children in two postwar German orphanages traced the relationship of weight changes to quality of care. Although group of children received the same basic rations for the first 26 weeks, those in orphanage A, with kind kind and loving matron, showed greater weight gain than those in orphanage B, where their matron was harsh and stern. This stern matron transferred to orphanage A at the same time a better diet was begun. A t orphanage B the diet was not changed, but the weight gain increased sharply after the stern mother left. The data showed that growth accelerate with better die of good food and loving care.

The most direct evident for the link between emotional factors and physical development comes from an intensive study of six “thin dwarfs”. Researcher Lytt Gardner 1972 studied children who were underweight and short. These are undersized children also had retarded skeletal development with “bone age” much lesser the their chronological age. All had come from family environment marked by emotional detachment and lack of affection between parents and children. Gardner this condition which which has called deprivation dwarfism , was indeed the physical consequence of emotional deprivation. He found that such children gain weight and begin to grow when they are removed fro their hostile environment, and their again become stunted if the environment is unchanged when they are returned to it. Since the growth problem reappear in children who are returned to a hostile situation, we have “experimental” evidence that deprivation dwarfism is indeed the consequence of emotional deprivation.

Not only has a relation between emotion deprivation and defective physical growth been demonstrated experimentally but physiological link between them has been found. Two structures in the brain are involved in this link with emotional starvation. A region called the hypothalamus (which play a central role in emotional arousal) fails to have its usual stimulating effect on pituitary gland (which secrets growth hormone). Its through such a mechamism that lack of love and human attention at critical, sensitive periods in the development of infant can affect the body-producing deprivation dwarfism in those babies who manage to live at all. Gardner concluded: “deprivation dwarfism is a concrete example-an ‘experiment of nature’, so to speak-that demonstrates the delicacy, complexity of infant-parent interactions.”

The exact process by which deprivation dwarfism works is not yet known. However it seem to be related to impact of emotional on the production of pituitary and growth hormones. Most growth hormones is secreted during sleep, these children may note sleep properly in their stress-filled homes. Recent study with infant rats shows clearly that maternal deprivation lead to immediate suppression of growth hormone, which will increase when the rat pups are returned to the mother(Kuhn, Butler& schanberg, 1978). Apparently, maternal deprivation is bad for all living creatures. But can we extend this tha a person can “die of broken heart”? Psychologist James Lynch believes we can. After reviewing the evidence link loneliness and isolation to health, Lynch assert that “there is biological basis for our need to form human relaltionships. If we fail to fulfill that need, our health is in peril” (Lynch 1977 p xiii). He points to the greater coronary death rates among widows than married womens, among divorced men than married men. Cancer and stokes as well as heart disease, occur twice as often among the divorced as among the married. The ultimate cause of death is, of course, a physical malfunction, such as ventricular fibrillation. But in some still be be discovered way, the likelihood of that breakdown when that person is isolated from the touch,trust, and tenderness of fellow human beings.

CONCLUSION:
Many factors combine together to affect the health of individuals and communities. Whether people are healthy or not, is determined by their circumstances and environment. To a large extent, factors such as where we live, the state of our environment, genetics, our income and education level, and our relationships with friends and family all have considerable impacts on health, whereas the more commonly considered factors such as access and use of health care services often have less of an impact.(WHO)

 
REFERENCE:

1. Psychology and life  10th edition Philip G Zimbardo
2. WHO
   

Dengue Fever Alert to MUHAS Community

Recently, some students have been suspected to have dengue fever. The cases have been reported to the University Management by the Emergency Medicine Department of Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH). In this regard, the University is taking various measures such as investigating the environment which led to exposure to dengue vector. However, it has also been necessary to provide information regarding dengue fever to the members of MUHAS community.

A: Transmission

Dengue is a disease caused by a virus transmitted to humans by the Aedes aegypti mosquito that bites mainly during the day. Patients with dengue fever can pass on the infection through mosquito bites. Physical contact or closeness to a sick person does not transmit dengue.

B: Common symptoms

Dengue manifests as a sudden onset of severe headache (typically behind the eyes), high grade fever, muscle and joint pains and sometimes a rash. Other possible symptoms are nausea, abdominal pain and vomiting. The symptoms resemble malaria a lot (except for the rash). Severe form, which is uncommon, can present with bleeding tendencies.

C: What to do if you suspect you have dengue

If you develop these symptoms please report to the Emergency Medicine Department at Muhimbili National Hospital. Don’t take aspirin, ibuprofen or diclofenac as these medicines can cause internal bleeding. Paracetamol can be used. Take also plenty of fluids.

D: Protection

In order to protect your-self you are advised to avoid mosquito risky areas. Use also mosquito repellent and use insecticide treated bed nets. When sitting outside, it is important to wear loose fitting clothing but with long sleeves to make it harder for mosquitoes to bite you.

E: Important note

• Don’t panic and stay calm as dengue is not transmitted through any other means than mosquito bite.
• Contacts are not at risk of acquiring dengue for having close contact to the case.
• Supportive care is available for dengue patients.
• The University has formed a task force to oversee the problem.
  MUHAS. 
  
  

  

Past HIV Vaccine Trials Reveal New Path to Success

 

A multi-national research team led by Duke Medicine scientists has identified a subclass of antibodies associated with an effective immune response to an HIV vaccine.
The finding, reported in the March 19, 2014, issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine, helps explain why a combination of two vaccines was able to show some effect, when one vaccine alone did not. The study also provides key insights that could aid development of new vaccines.
“More is not always better with an antibody response,” said senior author Georgia D. Tomaras, Ph.D., director of the Laboratory of Immune Responses and Virology at Duke Human Vaccine Institute. “Instead, it’s the underlying quality of the immune response. Going forward with other vaccine trials, it will be important to know the subclass, specificity and antiviral functions of antibodies that are induced.”

Tomaras and colleagues examined two HIV vaccine trials previously conducted in Thailand. The first trial they revisited, called VAX003, was completed in 2003 and studied an investigational vaccine among intravenous drug users. The vaccine was found to be ineffective.

The second trial, known as RV144, concluded in 2009 and involved more than 16,000 adults. It used two vaccines in combination – one as the prime vaccine and the second as a boost. The boost was the same investigational vaccine used in the earlier VAX003 trial. In the RV144 study, the combination vaccine was 31.2 percent effective at preventing HIV infection – a success rate that was unprecedented, but considered too low to advance the vaccine to common use.
In both trials, the vaccines induced the production of antibodies that targeted the same region of the HIV virus. In fact, the vaccine used in the VAX003 trial actually elicited higher levels of most of the antibodies than the prime/boost combination of the more successful RV144 trial.

But there was one exception. Tomaras and colleagues found that participants in the RV144 vaccine trial were more likely to have HIV-specific IgG3 antibodies, compared to individuals in the VAX003 trial. The HIV-specific IgG3 response correlated with decreased infection risk, but the effect waned over time, similar to the declining efficacy observed in the RV144 trial.
“HIV-1 specific IgG3 is one biomarker that can be evaluated in further vaccine candidates. It provides a specific way to benchmark HIV-1 vaccine candidates against the one partially efficacious vaccine to date.” Tomaras said.


 By Duke Medicine News and Communications. Read more