Summer is done and we now move into Autumn and that should bring on cooler weather and gearing-up for the mid-terms.
All the news that should have been news.
Local–A bit cooler temps have moved in for now….
Personal–My scan were not good so I have to wait for the line-up of doctors that will want to see me.
Let’s start with medical news shall we?
New research on Huntington’s Disease looks promising….
Doctors say Huntington’s disease has been successfully treated for the first time, offering hope for those affected by the inherited fatal condition. The condition, which typically strikes in a person’s 30s or 40s and progresses over about 20 years, causes severe neurological decline, per the BBC. In a recent clinical trial, a new gene therapy from UniQure slowed the disease’s progression by an average of 75% three years after surgery. That means the functional decline expected over a single year could now take four years after treatment, potentially giving patients decades of improved quality of life, according to Sarah Tabrizi of University College London.
The experimental therapy involves a complex procedure that involves from 12 to 18 hours of surgery, in which doctors infuse a modified virus carrying a specially designed DNA sequence into two specific brain regions. Once inside, this genetic material prompts the brain cells to produce molecules that suppress the faulty huntingtin protein responsible for the disease. “For people living with Huntington’s, an effective, one-time therapy … could preserve years of quality relationships and gainful employment that would normally be lost to the disease,” notes STAT.
Indeed, doctors reporting back after the small trial of 29 patients said that some participants who were expected to need wheelchairs are still walking, and one patient, previously retired due to the illness, has returned to work. The treatment appears to be safe, though some patients experienced temporary inflammation. The Independent notes that a single dose should last a person for life.
Hopefully this will be good news for those suffering with this disease.
Ever heard of the “Nightmare Bacteria”?
Infection rates from drug-resistant “nightmare bacteria” rose almost 70% between 2019 and 2023, according to a new report from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists. Bacteria that are difficult to treat due to the so-called NDM gene primarily drove the increase, CDC researchers wrote in an article published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Only two antibiotics work against those infections, and the drugs are expensive and must be administered through an IV, researchers said.
- Bacteria with the gene were once considered exotic, linked to a small number of patients who received medical care overseas. Though the numbers are still small, the rate of US cases jumped more than fivefold in recent years, the researchers reported. “The rise of NDMs in the US is a grave danger and very worrisome,” David Weiss, an Emory University infectious diseases researcher, tells the AP.
- It’s likely many people are unrecognized carriers of the drug-resistant bacteria, which could lead to community spread, the CDC scientists said. That may play out in doctors’ offices across the country, as infections long considered routine and easy to treat—like urinary tract infections—could become chronic problems, said Dr. Maroya Walters, one of the report’s authors.
- Antimicrobial resistance occurs when germs such as bacteria and fungi gain the power to fight off the drugs designed to kill them. The misuse of antibiotics was a big reason for the rise—unfinished or unnecessary prescriptions that didn’t kill the germs made them stronger.
- In recent years, the CDC has drawn attention to “nightmare bacteria” resistant to a wide range of antibiotics. That includes carbapenems, a class of antibiotics considered a last resort for treatment of serious infections.
- The CDC’s count is only a partial picture. Many states are not fully testing and reporting cases. Even in states that do, cases tend to be among hospital patients sick enough to warrant special testing. The CDC researchers did not have data from some of the most populous states, including California, Florida, New York, and Texas, which means the absolute number of US infections “is definitely underestimated,” Dr. Jason Burnham, a Washington University researcher, tells the AP. Burnham believes the increased drug resistance is probably linked to the “huge surge in antibiotic use during the pandemic.”
Do you trust the current CDC to deal this this?
The creation of ‘mini brains’….
Scientists have been growing “mini-brains” or brain organoids in labs for some time now. Those who do it claim to be doing so for altruistic and scientific purposes. However, other scientists are concerned that at some point they will grow full human brains in a lab that can become conscious and feel pain, and that is not okay.
The problem is that the scientists that have been growing these mini-brains have either assumed that they lack consciousness or just aren’t concerned about it. This issue was recently addressed in a research paper published in the journal Patterns.
The scientists creating these human brain organoids (HBOs) are often doing so a way of studying how the brain develops, as well as possible treatments of diseases. Others are using these mini-brains to create biocomputers that use far less energy than traditional computers.
“Strong dismissive claims regarding HBO consciousness, such as assertions claiming that there is ‘no possibility’ of its imminent occurrence, rendering its concept ‘biologically unfounded’ over the near future, or suggesting that there is no evidence that it will ever become possible, appear, at the very least, speculative and overconfident,” the researchers wrote in their paper.
They added that “categorical dismissal of HBO consciousness appears not only premature but internally inconsistent with the field’s own evidence and admissions of uncertainty and progress.”
Scientists Worried That Lab-Grown ‘Mini-Brains’ Will Become Conscious And Feel Pain
From butthole to fingers…..
The reason we humans have fingers today may all be thanks to a fish’s clacker.
New research into the origins of digit formation shows that the DNA switch controlling finger and toe development got its humble start regulating the formation of fish cloacas, 380 million years ago.
It’s a beautiful illustration of nature’s “waste not, want not” ethos in action: Why build new genetic tools from scratch when existing ones can be repurposed for the job?
“The fact that these genes are involved is a striking example of how evolution innovates, recycling the old to make the new,” says developmental geneticist Denis Duboule of the University of Geneva in Switzerland.
“Rather than building a new regulatory system for the digits, nature has repurposed an existing mechanism, initially active in the cloaca.”
The question of how tetrapods, or four-limbed animals, evolved digits from our fishy ancestors is one scientists have sought to answer for some time now. One school of thought proposes that digits derived from fins, but it’s not the only possible explanation for our wiggly, dextrous appendages.
https://www.sciencealert.com/fish-buttholes-may-be-the-reason-we-now-have-fingers-study-finds
If you are addicted to your smartphone then this is something to think about….
Have you ever thought that your smartphone might be making you stupider? It turns out, you’re probably 100 percent right about that.
A recent study found that, by simply blocking mobile internet on smartphones, researchers were able to improve mental health more than antidepressants, subjective well-being including satisfaction with their own lives and attention span.
The crazy part? The study only took place for two weeks — and after just, again, *two weeks* of not having a smartphone with internet, participants reported spending “more time socializing in person, exercising and being in nature.”
Yet another reason to get rid of your phone — not that we’re going to, of course.
That does it for today…..enjoy your early Autumn weekend and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
