Treating Type-2 Diabetes with Tea

Researchers in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry have found an alternative method to treating Type-2 Diabetes using tea extract from Nigeria.

In a six week study, genetically diabetic mice were treated with Africa tea on a daily basis. The combination of the tea treatment and a low-lipid diet siginificantly changed the structure of the fat in the mice eyes and reduced the amount of fat, as well as protected the pancreas.

With human patients, the 23 cases treated showed promising results after four months of being administered 750 mL of tea per day.

After treatment, noted side effects were an increased glucose tolerance and an increase in the amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids. The elevated amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids is advantageous to Type-2 diabetes patients because it promotes glucose absorption from the blood into the cells by causing the cell membranes to be more permeable.

Further research is being performed to weigh the effectiveness of tea treatment for diabetic patients.



url: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090505132224.htm



Acacia Ho
vtpp 435, section 502

Artificial Heart

Researchers have been trying for years to create a totally implantable artificial heart to completely replace the existing human heart. Well, they have. Dr. Alain Carpentier led his team in creating an artificial heart to completely replace an existing one. This is not a bridge-to-transplant or a temporary heart, but a heart that will be able to serve the same job as a human heart, with a few minor differences.

They engineered a device that uses two pumps to more accurately mimic the function of a real heart's two ventricles. There will also be a series of monitors to change the heart rate based on environmental or physiological changes.The materials will be animal tissue and are chemically treated to decrease blood clotting.

Because this device should be able to completely replace a damaged heart, it will make an amazing difference in the world of medicine. For the almost 17 million people dying from cardiac disease every year, many of these lives will be saved. Currently, only about one-fourth of patients on the heart transplant list are receiving donor hearts. With the implementation of this heart, people will not need to wait for someone else to die.

The team has been working on this project for 15 years and are very hopeful about the success of their project. there still need to be tests done on the heart, but for the most part it looks like something that will cause a significant change in the medical field.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1857216,00.html

Nicole Maxey

Section 502

Common chemical may be connected to OCD

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder may not seem to be a very problematic disease, but to many it can even be debilitating. You can think of Mr. Monk from TV, though only fictional, there are people with similar levels of OCD that seriously impede on their daily lives.
Relief for these unfortunate people may be in sight with a recently discovered connection between the common biological chemical, glutamate, and OCD. Researchers at the School of Medicine at Wayne State studied a number of children with the disease because of the 1 to 3 percent of the population with the condition, about 80 percent developed symptoms early in childhood. The researchers found that in the children, certain areas of the brain, including the thalamus and the orbital prefrontal cortex, had abnormally high levels of glutamate. These areas that are most likely key in the symptoms of OCD are being deprived of serotonin and other important chemicals that glutamate effectively “shut off.”
So this means that drugs that reduce the glutamate levels in the brain may be a wonder cure for those who have serious forms of this disease. In fact, recent studies of a drug called riluzole, a drug commonly used in treating Lou Gehring’s disease, applied to OCD patients have shown great promise in reducing symptoms, but the trials are ongoing.
Admittedly, this research may be of little consequence to those who may experience a little OCD moment every once in awhile. Personally, I know I fall in that category and I’m sure nearly everyone can be a little OCD sometime, but OCD can be serious and I think it is awesome that there might relief on the horizon for those seriously affected, like the fictional Mr. Monk who may be able to be a police officer again if he can shake his OCD. All the real people that have lives similar to Monk will get relief too.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/148418.php

-John Horn

Autophagy of Fats

New evidence suggests that in periods of starvation or fasting the body may undergo autophagic breakdown of lipids. As most of us understand autophagy is the process where cells self-degrade unused components using lysosomal machinery. To do this cellular components are trapped in double-membrane bound vesicles called autophagosomes that fuse with and are broken down by lysosomes. What the new research posits is that in a similar way, under fasting conditions, cytoplasmic proteins are recruited to lipids to form similar double membrane enclosures. These enclosures, dubbed "autolipophagosomes," can then fuse with the lysosomes for degradation.

For years its been thought that catabolizing lipids has been the task of regulatory proteins and lipases--most notably hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) and adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL). But this understanding left a number of aspects unexplained. For example, why the hepatocytes of liver cells could turnover triglycerides and cholesteryl esters so quickly, despite having low concentrations of HSL and ATGL. The new model suggests and shows that an autophagic mechanism may be at work.

One further poitn of interest: the study also showed that the efficiency of this process varied with nutritional status. Mice fed a high-fat diet for an extended period of 16 weeks showed an impaired autophagy-mediated breakdown in the liver. This would force the conclusion that increased fat ingestion might actually decrease fat removal.

Sources:
"Cell Biology Another Way to get rid of fat"
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v458/n7242/full/4581118a.html

"Autophagy regulates lipid metabolism" (Original Research Article)
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v458/n7242/full/nature07976.html

Genes 'have key role in autism'

According to researchers, genetics plays an important role in the development of autism and related conditions. The small changes occur in the genes that form and keep the connections between the brain cells. Dr Raynard Kington, of the US National Institutes of Health, said: "Detailed analysis of the genes and how they affect brain development is likely to yield better strategies for diagnosing and treating children with autism." In the largest study led by the University of Pennsylvania, researchers scanned the human genome of more than 10,000 people to look for differences in the genes of people who have autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and those who do not. The study found genetic variants in two genes found in chromosome 5 which control the production of proteins that help cells stick together and form nervous connections. Researchers calculate that if they fix one variant linked to a gene present in over 65% of the cases, the number of autism cases will decrease by 15%. Lead researcher Dr Hakon Hakonarson believes that the genetics of ASD is likely to be complex: "Because other autism researchers have made intriguing suggestions that autism arises from abnormal connections among brain cells during early development, it is very compelling to find evidence that mutations in genes involved in brain interconnections increase a child's risk of autism. There are going to be many genes involved in causing autism.” Professor Simon Baron-Cohenn, an autism expert at the University of Cambridge, said that 133 genes have been linked to autism, but that work is still needed to study how the genes interact with each other and the environment.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8020837.stm

Decoded Structure Of Secretion System, Essential For Infection, Could Lead To New Drugs

This article talks about the physiology of dysentery. There are “sharp” proteins on the surface of the bacterial cell that penetrate the endothelial cells and the secretions cause them to break down.

“The secretion system is a complex protein structure that traverses the bacterial cell membrane and acts as a biological syringe to inject deadly proteins into intestinal cells. These proteins rupture the cell's innards, leading to bloody diarrhea and sometimes death. Similar secretion systems exist in a range of other infectious bacteria, including those that cause typhoid fever, some types of food poisoning, and plague.”

Scientists are trying to determine the exact protein structure of the cell surface in order to design drugs that will destroy thus and render the bacteria harmless to the gut.

“The more accurate model therefore shows how the different parts of the injection machine fit together and may fit with other bacterial components that provide the engine to drive injection. These are important steps toward developing a detailed understanding of how the injection machine works, and to developing inhibitors that can prevent bacterial infections.”

This model is important in discovering the overall mechanism of infection that is carried out by the bacteria and could help find a way to disrupt it and effectively cure the disease.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/147880.php