Genetic Changes In The Ebola Virus

Genetic Changes In The Ebola Virus.
Genetic changes that have occurred in the Ebola virus over the mould few decades could become it more difficult for scientists to find ways to investigate the deadly pathogen, a new study says. Many of the most promising experimental drugs being developed to disturbance Ebola bind to and target a section of the virus's genetic sequence or a protein derived from that genetic sequence. If there are significant changes in Ebola's genetic sequence, these drugs may not work, the researchers explained. The researchers compared the genetic makeup of the Ebola family causing the progress outbreak in West Africa with the genetic makeup of strains that caused outbreaks in Africa in 1976 and 1995.

Compared to the older strains, the widespread heritage had changes in about 3 percent of its genetic structure, the work authors said. The findings were published Jan. 20 online in the almanac mBio. "Our work highlights the genetic changes that could affect these sequence-based drugs that were first designed in the early 2000s based on virus strains from outbreaks in 1976 and 1995," mull over senior author Gustavo Palacios said in a journal news release.

The Rate Of Blood Coagulation Is Determined Genetically

The Rate Of Blood Coagulation Is Determined Genetically.
In an striving to uncover why some people's blood platelets mass faster than others, a genetic study has turned up a specific grouping of overactive genes that seems to control the process. On the benefit side, platelets are critical for fending off infections and healing wounds. On the down side, they can accelerate heart disease, heart attacks and stroke, the study authors noted.

The current pronouncement regarding the genetic roots driving platelet behavior comes from what is believed to be the largest rehash of the human genetic code to date, according to co-senior study investigator Dr Lewis Becker, a cardiologist with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "Our results give us a certain set of immature molecular targets, the proteins produced from these genes, to develop tests that could help us identify public more at risk for blood clots and for whom certain blood-thinning drugs may work best or not," Becker said in a Johns Hopkins tidings release.

So "We can even look toward testing new treatments that may haste up how the body fights infection or recovers from wounds". The study findings were published online June 7 in Nature Genetics.

Scientists Have Identified New Genes That Increase The Risk Of Alzheimer's Disease

Scientists Have Identified New Genes That Increase The Risk Of Alzheimer's Disease.
Scientists have pinpointed two genes that are linked to Alzheimer's sickness and could become targets for fresh treatments for the neurodegenerative condition. Genetic variants appear to coverage an important business in the development of Alzheimer's since having parents or siblings with the disease increases a person's risk. It is estimated that one of every five persons old 65 will develop Alzheimer's disease in their lifetime, the researchers added.

Genome-wide connection studies are increasing scientists' understanding of the biological pathways underlying Alzheimer's disease, which may standard to new therapies, said study author Dr Sudha Seshadri, an companion professor of neurology at Boston University School of Medicine. For now, folk should realize that genes likely interact with other genes and with environmental factors.

Maria Carrillo, senior top banana of medical and scientific relations at the Alzheimer's Association, said that "these are the types of studies we desideratum in terms of future genetic analysis and things must be confirmed in much larger samples, as was done in this study". The put out is published in the May 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Although it was known that three genes are culpable for rare cases of Alzheimer's disease that run in families, researchers had been unflinching of only one gene, apolipoprotein E (APOE), that increased the risk of the common type of Alzheimer's disease. Using a genome-wide bond analysis study of 3006 people with Alzheimer's and 14642 populate without the disease, Seshadri's group identified two other genes associated with Alzheimer's disease, located on chromosomes 2 and 19.

Recommendations For Cancer Prevention

Recommendations For Cancer Prevention.
Nine of 10 women do not indigence and should not meet with genetic testing to see if they are at risk for breast or ovarian cancer, an influential panel of trim experts announced Monday. The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) reaffirmed its untimely recommendation from 2005 that only a limited number of women with a family history of chest cancer be tested for mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes that can increase their cancer risk. Even then, these women should talk over the test with both their family doctor and a genetic counselor before proceeding with the BRCA genetic test, the panel said.

And "Not all males and females who have positive family histories should be tested. It's not at all bovine or straightforward," said Dr Virginia Moyer, the task force's chair. Interest in the midst women in genetic testing for breast cancer has greatly increased, comparatively due to Hollywood film star Angelina Jolie's announcement in May that she underwent a double mastectomy because she carried the BRCA1 mutation. A Harris Interactive/HealthDay figures conducted a few months after Jolie's disclosure found as many as 6 million women in the United States planned to get medical advice about having a precautionary mastectomy or ovary removal because of the actress' personal decision.

On average, mutations of the BRCA genes can addition breast cancer risk between 45 percent to 65 percent, according to the American Cancer Society. The pickle is that there are myriad mutations of the BRCA gene. Doctors have identified some mutations that improve breast cancer risk, but there are many more BRCA mutations where the increased risk is either broken-hearted or as yet unknown. "The test is not something that comes back positive or negative.

The test comes back a strong lot of different ways, and that has to be interpreted. There are a variety of mutations. Often you get what appears to be a negative evaluate but we call it an 'uninformative' negative because it just doesn't tell you anything. A woman would walk away from that with no idea, but worried, and that's not helpful".

Earlier this month, the genetic testing business 23andMe announced it's no longer gift health information with its home-based kit service after the US Food and Drug Administration warned that the check is a medical device that requires government approval. The unfledged task force recommendations will be published online Dec 23, 2013 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The work force's judgment carries heavy weight within the health custody industry.

Scientists Have Discovered A New Appointment DNA

Scientists Have Discovered A New Appointment DNA.
Another lex non scripta 'common law within DNA has been discovered by scientists - a pronouncement that the researchers say sheds light on how changes to DNA trouble health. Since the genetic code was first deciphered in the 1960s, scientists have believed it was employed solely to write information about proteins. But this new study from University of Washington scientists found that genomes use the genetic cryptogram to write two separate languages.

One wording describes how proteins are made, and the other helps direct genetic activity in cells. One patois is written on top of the other, which is why this other language went undiscovered for so long, according to the report in the Dec 13, 2013 end of Science. "For over 40 years, we have assumed that DNA changes affecting the genetic organization solely impact how proteins are made," team leader Dr John Stamatoyannopoulos, an associate professor of genome sciences and of medicine, said in a university news release.

The 2009 H1N1 Virus Is Genetically Changed Over The Past 1,5 Years

The 2009 H1N1 Virus Is Genetically Changed Over The Past 1,5 Years.
Although the pandemic H1N1 "swine" flu that emerged go the distance jump has stayed genetically secure in humans, researchers in Asia say the virus has undergone genetic changes in pigs during the abide year and a half. The fear is that these genetic changes, or reassortments, could exhibit a more virulent bug. "The particular reassortment we found is not itself likely to be of major someone health risk, but it is an indication of what may be occurring on a wider scale, undetected," said Malik Peiris, an influenza dexterous and co-author of a paper published in the June 18 issue of Science. "Other reassortments may occur, some of which place greater risks".

The findings underscore the importance of monitoring how the influenza virus behaves in pigs who is easy chair and professor of microbiology at the University of Hong Kong and precise director of the university's Pasteur Research Center. "Obviously, there's a lot of evolution going on and whenever you ponder some unstable situation, there's the potential for something new to emerge that could be dangerous," added Dr John Treanor, professor of c physic and of microbiology and immunology at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York.

New Genetic Marker For Autism And Schizophrenia

New Genetic Marker For Autism And Schizophrenia.
An intercontinental consortium of researchers has linked a regional distortion found in a specific chromosome to a significantly increased risk for both autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and schizophrenia. Although erstwhile work has indicated that genetic mutations undertake an important role in the risk of both disorders, this latest finding is the first to hone in on this certain abnormality, which takes the form of a wholesale absence of a certain sequence of genetic material. Individuals missing the chromosome 17 run are about 14 times more likely to develop autism and schizophrenia, the check in team estimated.

And "We have uncovered a genetic variation that confers a very high imperil for ASD, schizophrenia and neurodevelopmental disorders," study author Dr Daniel Moreno-De-Luca, a postdoctoral accessory in the department of human genetics at Emory University in Atlanta, said in a university word release. Moreno-De-Luca further explained the significance of the finding by noting that this particular region, comprised of 15 genes, "is mid the 10 most frequent pathogenic recurrent genomic deletions identified in children with unexplained neurodevelopment impairments.

Fatal Case Of Black Plague In The USA

Fatal Case Of Black Plague In The USA.
In 2009, a 60-year-old American lab researcher was mysteriously, and fatally, infected with the awful anguish while conducting experiments using a weakened, non-virulent overburden of the microbe. Now, a follow-up investigation has confirmed that the researcher died because of a genetic predisposition that made him exposed to the hazards of such bacterial contact. The reborn report appears to set aside fears that the strain of plague in question (known by its painstaking name as "Yersinia pestis") had unpredictably mutated into a more lethal one that might have circumvented standard research lab insurance measures.

And "This was a very isolated incident," said study co-author Dr Karen Frank, superintendent of clinical microbiology and immunology laboratories in the department of pathology at the University of Chicago Medical Center. "But the outstanding point is that all levels of public health were mobilized to probe this case as soon as it occurred. "And what we now know is that, despite concerns that we might have had a non-virulent strain of virus that unexpectedly modified and became virulent, that is not what happened.

This was an precedent of a person with a specific genetic condition that caused him to be uniquely susceptible to infection. And what that means is that the precautions that are typically taken for handling this type of a-virulent spirit in a lab setting are safe and sufficient". Frank and her UC colleague, Dr Olaf Schneewind, reported on the instance in the June 30 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

According to the National Institutes of Health, prairie dogs, rats and other rodents, and the fleas that morsel them, are the rule carriers of the bacteria responsible for the spread of the deadly plague, and they can infect people through bites. In the 1300s, the soi-disant "Black Death" claimed the lives of more than 30 million Europeans (about one-third of the continent's aggregate population at the time). In the 1800s, 12 million Chinese died from the illness.

Today, only 10 to 20 Americans are infected yearly. As beginning reported by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Feb 25, 2011, the crate of the American lab researcher began in September 2009, when he sought heed at a hospital exigency room following several days of breathing difficulties, dry coughing, fevers, chills, and weakness. Thirteen hours after admission, he was dead.

The Genetic Sequence, Which Is Responsible For The Occurrence Of Medulloblastoma In Children

The Genetic Sequence, Which Is Responsible For The Occurrence Of Medulloblastoma In Children.
US scientists have unraveled the genetic encode for the most overused species of brain cancer in children. Gene sequencing reveals that this tumor, medulloblastoma, or MB, possesses far fewer genetic abnormalities than comparable grown tumors. The discovery that MB has five to 10 times fewer mutations than telling adult tumors could further attempts to show compassion what triggers the cancer and which treatment is most effective.

And "The good news here is that for the first time now we've identified the ignored genetic pieces in a pediatric cancer, and found that with MD there are only a few broken parts," said cable author Dr Victor E Velculescu, associate professor with the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "And that means it's potentially easier to interpose and to lay off it," he said, likening the cancer to a train that's speeding out of control. Velculescu and his colleagues, who piece their findings in the Dec 16, 2010 online topic of Science, say this is the first time genetic decoding has been applied to a non-adult cancer.

Each year this cancer strikes about 1 in every 200000 children younger than 15 years old. Before migrating through the patient's essential apprehensive system, MBs begin in the cerebellum portion of the brain that is reliable for controlling balance and complicated motor function. Focusing on 88 childhood tumors, the explore team uncovered 225 tumor-specific mutations in the MB samples, many fewer than the number found in mature tumors.

Scientists Have Discovered New Genes Associated With Alzheimer's Disease

Scientists Have Discovered New Genes Associated With Alzheimer's Disease.
Researchers explosion that they have spotted two late regions of the human genome that may be related to the situation of Alzheimer's disease. The findings, published in the June issue of the Archives of Neurology, won't transform the lives of patients or people at risk for the devastating dementia just yet, however. "These are now altered biological pathways to start thinking about in terms of finding drug targets and figuring out what real causes Alzheimer's disease," explained study senior author Dr Jonathan Rosand, a dispensation member with the Center for Human Genetic Research at Massachusetts General Hospital and an affiliated professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Maria Carrillo, senior administrator of medical and scientific relations at the Alzheimer's Association, believes findings such as this one will eventually usher in an stage of "personalized medicine" for Alzheimer's, much like what is being seen now with cancer. "Perhaps some day in the future, all this information can be put into a scuttle and given a bar code, which represents your risk for Alzheimer's," she said, while cautioning, "we're not there yet".

Although scientists have known that Alzheimer's has a severe genetic component, only one gene - APOE - has been implicated and in early-onset disease. A few weeks ago, however, two studies identified three genetic regions associated with Alzheimer's disease. Now Rosand and his colleagues have looked at genetic and neuroimaging information on the perceptiveness structures of 168 plebeians with "probable" Alzheimer's disease (Alzheimer's can't be definitively diagnosed until a sense autopsy has been conducted), 357 people with mild cognitive worsening and 215 normal individuals.

Scanning The Human Genome Provide Insights Into The Likelihood Of Future Disease

Scanning The Human Genome Provide Insights Into The Likelihood Of Future Disease.
Stephen Quake, a Stanford University professor of bioengineering, now has a very great intelligence of his own genetic destiny. Quake's DNA was the heart of the first completely mapped genome of a salutary person aimed at predicting future health risks. The read over was conducted by a team of Stanford researchers and cost about $50,000. The researchers say they can now intimate Quake's risk for dozens of diseases and how he might respond to a number of widely used medicines.

This strain of individualized risk report could become common within the next decade and may become much cheaper, according to the Stanford team. "The $1000 genome trial is coming fast. The challenge lies in knowing what to do with all that information. We've focused on establishing priorities that will be most practical when a patient and a physician are sitting together looking at the computer screen," Euan Ashley, an subordinate professor of medicine, said in a university news release.

Those priorities subsume assessing how a person's activity levels, weight, diet and other lifestyle habits ally with his or her genetic risk for, or protection against, health problems such as diabetes or sincerity attack. It's also important to determine if a certain medication is likely to benefit the patient or cause dangerous side effects.

"We're at the dawn of a new age in genomics. Information like this will enable doctors to yield personalized health care like never before. Patients at risk for certain diseases will be able to gain closer monitoring and more frequent testing, while those who are at lower risk will be spared unnecessary tests. This will have signal economic benefits as well, because it improves the efficiency of medicine".

A New Cause Of Heart Disease

A New Cause Of Heart Disease.
A genetic differing occurring in a significant digit of people with heart disease appears to raise the odds for heart disparage or death by 38 percent, a new study suggests. This "stress reaction gene," which Duke University scientists in days gone by linked to an overproduction of cortisol, a stress hormone that can put on heart risks, was found in about 17 percent of men and 3 percent of women with heart disease. The untrained finding, also from Duke researchers, offers a potential new explanation for a biological predisposition to will disease and early death, the study authors said.

The research may when all is said and done lead to personalized therapies for heart disease patients. "This is very exciting, but it's very preliminary. It certainly merits further investigation," said research author Beverly Brummett, an affiliated professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Duke University School of Medicine. "Down the line, if the findings were replicated, then the next footfall would be to test people on a widespread basis for the gene and watch them more closely".