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Is a precrime unit in our future?  Probably not, but the identification of genes that may be associated with criminal behavior raises a multitude of questions and issues.

The combination of a specific mutation for a brain enzyme (MAO type A) was associated with violent tendencies in children who suffered from abuse during their childhood. People who had the more common type of MAO type A enzyme were much less likely to have violent tendencies when they grew up.

A version of a gene for MAO type A previously linked to poor impulsive control and violence seems to weaken brain connections that control impulses, emotions,  memory and thinking in humans,according to  researchers at the National Institutes of Health and National Institute of Mental Health. Brain scans showed that individuals with this gene variation (especially males) had smaller emotion related brain structures. Also, their alarm center was hyperactive. Their impulse control circuitry was also less active. The research identifies neural mechanisms by which this genetic variation may contribute to violent behavior through effects on the developing brain.

A specific mutation in the monoamine oxidase A (MAO A) gene has been linked to violent behavior in a family in the Netherlands. All men belonging to this family who had this mutation were arsonists and rapists.  Mice without an MAO A gene have been found to be excessively aggressive.

An Australian study used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and DNA analysis on 142 healthy men and women, who had no history of violence.  The subjects were shown pictures of angry and fearful faces. Researchers found:

• People with the low-functioning version of MAO type A  showed differences in parts of the brain associated with emotion (both in size and activity) to those with the high-expressing version of MAO type A
• People with the low-functioning version of MAO type A were more impulsive.
• Males with low-expression MAO type A had more evidence of poor impulse control than their female counterparts.

I can imagine findings like this could lead to therapy for the toughest members of our criminal society. Ethically speaking, it could be almost as bad as eugenics. There’s a fine line to walk between safety and freedom.

The article below about cheap human genome sequencing that makes the possibility of uncovering genes that predispose people to violent or criminal behavior more interesting.

More related reading Here and Here

A new company called Complete Genomics says it will start commercially sequencing the genetic code that makes up the DNA in one set of human chromosomes–for $5,000. The service will initially be offered to commercial entities.

While this would be the initial price, the price tag for the service is expected to fall rapidly.

“It’s a shockingly low price,” said George M. Church, a Harvard professor of genetics who advises Complete Genomics.

The cost of DNA sequencing has dropped by a factor of 10 every year for the last four years, a faster rate of decline than even for computers.

DNA is a string of molecular sub units called bases which form the basis for life on Earth. The code in the DNA strand tells the machinery in the cells what sequence to assemble amino acids that make proteins which control all of the functions of life. The human genome , is a term that refers to the complete set of DNA for a human. A complete human consists of about six billion letters. This takes into account both sides of each pair of chromosomes.

The first complete human genome sequence research was the federally funded Human Genome Project in 2003. The Human Genome Project was estimated to have cost a few hundred million dollars. In 2007, the genome sequence for Dr. James D. Watson ( co-discoverer of the structure of DNA) was completed at a cost of about $1 million.

Complete Genomics will begin its service in the second quarter of 2009. The cost of competing technologies will likely have fallen more. Another competing biotech company, Applied Biosystems, said it expected that its newest machine would be able to sequence an individual’s human genome for $10,000, although that includes only the cost of consumable materials, not labor or the machinery.

The next question that many people will have to ask themselves is whether they really want to know the information that their personal genome contains.

more info Here

The Health Protection Agency (HPA)  in the UK has issued a warning about being closer than  1ft to some compact fluorescent (cfl) bulbs.

Any danger appears small  and there is no evidence that such bulbs pose a cancer threat but UV light exposue is usually something to be avoided.

Enclosed CFL lights - where the coil of the light is covered like a traditional bulb are believed to be safer.

The UV light is equivalent to being outside on a sunny day for some bulbs. If the coil is covered the UV light is prevented from leaving the bulb.

The government agency said it  investigated the bulbs because of people who suffer from light sensitivity problems.

The testing revealed the potentially high levels of UV light for some compact fluorescent bulbs.  The recommendation is that people using unencapsulated compact fluorescent light bulbs should limit exposure to less than one hour a day if they are using them at a short distance such as 1 ft.

So far the government agency has state that there was no risk of skin cancer.  Few people use such bulbs at a distance of 1 ft.

The HPA’s researchers are the first in the world to notice the UV light problem and they have called on the EU, manufacturers and the bodies which set standards related to the bulbs, to work on tightening the rules around their creation and use.

No specific manufacturer was singled out by the study which is due to be published soon.

About one in five of the  unencapsulated compact fluorescent light bulbs were found to have UV light production from a sample of 20 encapsulated and 53 unencapsulated bulbs that were tested.

from the BBC

Doctors at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have performed the first non-surgical procedure in the United States to treat obesity by shrinking the size of the stomach. The investigational procedure was performed using direct endoscopic visualization with specialized instruments that are passed into the stomach through the mouth. The first U.S. patient received the treatment on July 23 at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

The procedure was performed as part of the TOGA Pivotal Trial, a multi-center study evaluating an incision-free procedure using the TOGA® System (transoral gastroplasty). In much the same way that traditional surgery for obesity decreases the stomach size, the TOGA procedure is designed to alter a patient’s anatomy to give a feeling of fullness after a small meal. The interesting difference is that the investigational procedure is performed through the mouth, without any incisions.

“This is a shift in the way we approach the surgical treatment of obesity,” says Washington University bariatric surgeon J. Christopher Eagon, M.D., who is an assistant professor of surgery and local co-principal investigator for the study. “If this technique provides results close to those achieved with more traditional surgery, it may be an option for people who need to lose a great deal of weight but don’t want to have surgery.”

In the TOGA procedure, the physician introduces a set of flexible stapling devices through the mouth into the stomach, and then uses the staplers to create a restrictive pouch. The pouch catches food as it enters the stomach, giving patients the feeling of fullness after eating less. This study is evaluating the safety and effectiveness of the investigational procedure.

Between February 2006 and July 2007, 47 subjects had the TOGA procedure in a pilot study at medical centers in Mexico and Belgium. They weighed an average of almost 120 pounds over their ideal body weight. Six months after the procedure, subjects had lost more than a third of their excess body weight. By 12 months, their excess weight loss averaged almost 40 percent.

“That’s not as great a loss as we see with gastric bypass surgery, which is still the ‘gold standard’ for weight-loss procedures,” says Washington University gastroenterologist Sreenivasa Jonnalagadda, M.D., who is an associate professor of medicine and co-principal investigator at the St. Louis study site. “The key benefits from an endoscopic procedure as compared to laparoscopic or open surgery are quicker recovery period, shortened hospital stay, decreased risk of complications and an incision-free procedure. And if the restrictive pouch becomes bigger over time, as has been the experience with some obesity surgery patients, it may be possible in the future to further decrease the size of the pouch with this new generation of devices.”

The complete story and video are HERE

HIV using a few basic components creates dramatic health effects. The HIV virus contains only nine genes that encode 15 proteins, these few proteins cause havoc in the human immune system. This bare bones attack by HIV could have an Achilles Heel.  HIV hijacks human proteins in order to propagate.  These hijacked proteins could be powerful therapeutic targets for treatment.

A technique called RNA interference allows scientists to screen thousands of genes. This technique has been used at Harvard Medical School by researchers who have now identified 273 human proteins that HIV needs for propagation. The majority  of these proteins had not been connected to the virus in previous research. The abstract of the study appears online in Science Express on Jan. 10.

HIV Drugs currently used to treat the viral infection interact directly with the virus itself.  This allows the rapidly mutating HIV virus to avoid destruction by changing how it interacts with these drugs. Patients take a cocktail(combination) of HIV drugs because the virus is less likely to evolve resistance to multiple drugs at the same time. Some HIV strains have still managed to evolve to  resist multiple drugs. Many of these strains of HIV could eventually develop resistance to several drugs.  This is especially true for patients who don’t take their medications on a strict schedule-stopping and starting drugs allows resistance to develop in the virus.

“Antiviral drugs are currently doing a good job of keeping people alive, but these therapeutics all suffer from the same problem, which is that you can get resistance, so we decided to take a different approach centered on the human proteins exploited by the virus,” says Harvard Medical School (HMS) Professor and senior author Stephen Elledge, who holds primary appointments in the Department of Genetics and at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “The virus would not be able to mutate to overcome drugs that interact with these proteins.”

“Scientists can look at the list, predict why HIV needs a particular protein, and then test their hypothesis.” He hopes that such research will lead to new therapeutics.

Of the 273 proteins that have been identified, just 36 had been previously found to be involved in the HIV life cycle. He picked three of the other 237 proteins, and subjected them to a host of careful genetic experiments, which proved that they truly play a role in HIV propagation.

Read More about this research HERE

Lung cancers in never-smokers have a different molecular profile and better response to targeted therapy than cancers in smokers. In some respects lung cancers in never-smokers represents a different type of cancer than that in smokers. Men who report never smoking have a 1.1% cumulative risk of dying from lung cancer before age 85 years old in the pooled analysis of individuals of European descent; the corresponding estimate for women is 0.8%. This compares to lifetime cumulative lung cancer risk estimates of 22.1% for male smokers and 11.9% for female cigarette smokers.

So what are some of the proposed causes for lung cancer in non-smokers?

1. Passive smoking, or the inhalation of tobacco smoke from active smokers sharing living or work space, is an established risk factor for the development of lung cancer. Non-smokers who reside with a smoker have a 24% increase in risk for developing lung cancer when compared with other non-smokers. Each year, up to 3,000 lung cancer deaths are estimated to occur in the U.S. that are attributable to passive smoking.
2. Radon gas, a naturally-occurring gas that forms when uranium decays, is another known cause of lung cancer. An estimated 12% of total lung cancer deaths in both smokers and non-smokers, or 15,000 to 22,000 lung cancer-related deaths annually in the U.S, are believed to be at least partially related to radon gas exposure. Those who do smoke and are exposed to radon have an even greater risk of developing lung cancer than non-smokers who are exposed to radon gas. Radon gas can travel up through soil and enter homes through gaps in the foundation, pipes, drains, or other openings. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that one out of every 15 homes in the U.S. contains dangerous levels of radon gas. Radon gas is invisible and odorless but can be detected with simple test kits.
3. Asbestos is a compound that was extensively used in the past as both thermal and acoustic insulation material. Sharp microscopic fibers of asbestos break loose from the insulation material and are released into the air where they can be inhaled into the lungs. Asbestos fibers can persist for a lifetime in lung tissue following exposure to asbestos. Both lung cancer and a type of cancer known as mesothelioma are associated with exposure to asbestos. Cigarette smoking drastically increases the chance of developing an asbestos-related lung cancer among workers exposed to asbestos; nevertheless, asbestos workers who do not smoke have a five fold greater risk of developing lung cancer than other non-smokers. Today, asbestos use is limited or banned in many countries including the Unites States.
4. Air pollution from vehicles, industry, and power plants, can raise the likelihood of developing lung cancer in exposed individuals. It has been estimated that up to 2,000 lung cancer deaths per year may be attributable to breathing polluted air, and many experts believe that prolonged exposure to highly polluted air can carry a risk for the development of lung cancer similar to that of passive smoking.
5. Viral Causes: Two new studies suggest that two different viral infections might boost a smoker’s already substantial risk for developing the disease. While the specific viruses at issue — human papillomavirus (HPV) and measles — may not directly cause lung cancer, they seem to aggravate the negative impact of tobacco, American and Israeli researchers say. Since the 1980s, a small but steady trickle of research (mostly foreign) has implicated human papilloma viruses(HPV) as a cause of lung cancer. HPV DNA has been detected in over 21.7% of non-small cell lung cancers.
6. Genetic susceptibility: Individual genetic susceptibility, may play a role in the causation of lung cancer. Numerous studies have shown that lung cancer is more likely to occur in both smoking and non-smoking relatives of those who have had lung cancer than in the general population.

Between 16,000 and 24,000 of the more than 161,000 lung cancer deaths projected to occur in the US in 2008 occur in nonsmokers. Lung cancer rates have remained unchanged among lifelong nonsmokers in the U.S. since the 1930s, failing to support assertions by some researchers that lung cancer risk has increased substantially in the United States in lifelong nonsmokers. If lung cancers that are not caused by smoking were considered a separate category, it would rank among the seven to nine most common fatal cancers in the U.S.

Read more in depth HERE, HERE and HERE

Chinese government officials stated on Wednesday a third child had died after drinking melamine contaminated milk and the number of those who were ill grew to many thousands. An official said the health problem has existed for at least a month.

The number of sick children due to drinking powdered milk contaminated by the compound melamine had risen nearly to 6,244. The number of patients with “acute kidney failure” had reached 158, Health Minister Chen Zhu told a news conference.

The problem has triggered a recall of exports. Officials have been fired and a company executive is being detained in custody.

“China’s dairy industry has been pushed to the brink of outright crisis,” said Li Zhiqi, a Beijing-based consultant who works with dairy companies.

A government probe announced on Tuesday that 20% of 109 dairy producers checked, had produced batches of products adulterated with the chemical melamine, which is banned from use in foods. The chemical melamine is rich in nitrogen, and is used to disguise diluted milk. Melamine can cause kidney stones and other organ injuries. Four dairy suppliers have so far been arrested for selling melamine-laced milk to Sanlu. Sanlu is the country’s biggest baby milk powder maker. The Sanlu Group, last week revealed its products contained melamine, which can be used to fool lab tests that check milk for protein quality.

The milk contamination scandal has effects beyond China’s borders. Two producers were recalling milk powder exported to Yemen, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Gabon and Burundi. Officials did not state whether those exports were contaminated. Taiwan, the self-governed island claimed by China has banned all dairy products from 22 mainland companies.

Melamine is usually used to make plastics, fertilizers and cleaning products. In 2007, the U.S. government found pet food ingredients from China tainted with melamine.

The new contamination scandal, with claims of an official cover-up, has again shaken public confidence. Sanlu was among seven dairy companies considered so safe it was excused from normal government quality checks.

Facing widespread public alarm, minister Chen urged hospitals to prevent further deaths.

“As far as possible, minimize the harm to infants’ health from the contaminated milk powder,” he said.

China is the world’s second-biggest market for baby milk powder, and Sanlu has long dominated it. Based in Shijiazhuang, capital of the north Chinese province of Hebei, it is 43 percent owned by New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra.

Sanlu last week halted production and announced a big recall. But officials acted only after the New Zealand government pressed Beijing, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said on Monday.

Bisphenol-A video

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a chemical widely found in food packaging and polycarbonate bottles which may have some negative effects on health. BPA is considered an endocrine disruptor which could impact numerous systems in the body. It doesn’t seem to be good for lab animals-cancer, diabetes and fertility problems appear to be a few of the problems that have BPA links. The US FDA says that it is safe. Other governments such as Canada have expressed concern about BPA safety.

A study testing pyridomorphinan (SoRI-9409) derived from Naltrexone will be published in the December 2008 issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry.  The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) estimates 15.1 million people are alcohol abusing or alcohol dependent. There are at the present time only 3 FDA approved medications for the treatment of alcoholism. The new drug, pyridomorphinan causes selective and long-lasting reductions of ethanol consumption.

The effects of pyridomorphinan with its ability to reduce alcohol consumption  provides a new drug lead and it serves as the impetus for further research.  Pyridomorphinan is a Delta Opioid Receptor Antagonist–this means that it blocks the activity of a type of brain opiate receptor that appears to play a role in alcohol abuse.

Pyridomorphinan (SoRI-9409)  is a drug derived from Naltrexone.   Naltrexone, and its active metabolite 6-?-naltrexol are competitve antagonists at mu- and kappa-  opioid receptors.  The main use of naltrexone is for the treatment of alcohol dependence. After publication of the first two randomised, controlled trials in 1992, a number of studies has confirmed its efficacy in reducing frequency and severity of relapse to drinking.  Naltrexone is sometimes used for rapid detoxification (”rapid detox”) regimens for opioid dependence.

More information HERE

A drug used to boost the production of red blood cells in many patients and occasionally used by athletes to boost endurance(usually banned from sports), has an unexpected side effect–it makes you smarter.

Erythropoietin (EPO) improves cognition of human subjects in the research findings by an unknown mechanism. A  mouse model of   cognitive improvement by EPO gave the first clues of how EPO influences cognition, and how it may act on hippocampal (memory center) neurons to control memory.

Results

We show here that a three week course of treatment of young mice with EPO enhances cells and  learning processes in the CA1 region of the hippocampus. This treatment  alters short-term memory and synaptic transmission, shifting the balance of neuron  activity. These effects are accompanied by an improvement of hippocampus dependent memory, persisting for 3 weeks after termination of EPO injections, and are independent of changes in hematocrit. Networks of EPO-treated primary hippocampal neurons develop lower overall spiking activity but enhanced bursting in discrete neuronal assemblies. At the level of developing single neurons, EPO treatment reduces the typical increase in excitatory synaptic transmission without changing the number of synaptic boutons, consistent with prolonged functional silencing of synapses.

Conclusions

We conclude that EPO improves hippocampus dependent memory by modulating plasticity, synaptic connectivity and activity of memory-related neuronal networks. These mechanisms of action of EPO have to be further exploited for treating neuropsychiatric diseases.

Link to Biomed central abstract     Here