Chronic Lymphocytic (CLL) and Myelogenous (CML)

Hello readers,

In my previous two posts, I discussed acute lymphoblastic and myeloid leukemia, however, there are two other types of leukemia that are labelled as chronic. Usually in medical terms, the word chronic means to be continuing for a long time, or recurring, therefore a disease labelled chronic would be continuing for a long duration. On the other hand, an acute disease would have a rapid onset or last for a short course. Therefore, chronic lymphocytic and myelogenous leukemia tends to progress slowly over the course of many years. I'll be discussing the two diseases in more detail below.

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

In the UK, around 8,600 cases of leukaemia are diagnosed and about 3,200 (37 percent) of these are chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. It is more common in older people, most cases occurring in people over 60 and is rare in people under 40. Men are more likely to develop chronic lymphocytic leukaemia than women, however it is not known why. Although in its early stages, there are usually no noticeable symptoms, as the condition develops, symptoms can include repeated infections occurring over a short space of time, tiredness due to a lack of red blood cells, unusual bleeding and bruising, fever, night sweats, bone pain, weight loss, swollen spleen and swollen lymph nodes.

Classified according to the type of white blood cells affected, lymphocytic leukaemia affects the type of white blood cells called lymphocytes. In the bone marrow where stem cells are produced that can mature into red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, stem cells start overproducing white blood cells that are not fully developed which are lymphocytes. The overproduction of lymphcytes is at the expense of other blood cells, resulting in a lack of red blood cells and platelets that cause tiredness and increasing the likelihood of excessive bleeding. In some people with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, the body's immune system can start attacking red blood cells and cause haemolytic anemia. As white blood cells are not properly formed, immature lymphcytes are much less effective at fighting bacteria and viruses.

It is not known what causes leukaemia, however, there are several risk factors that may increase your chances of developing chronic leukaemia which include having a family history of the condition, being of European, American or Australian origin, having certain medical conditions such as pneumonia, sinusitis or shingles, and being male.

Some people can live or years or decades with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia without developing systems or needing treatment and so it may not necessarily always be required. In such cases, a policy of watchful waiting will be employed, involving regular visits to the doctor and blood tests to closely monitor the patient's condition. If treatment is required, chemotherapy will usually be recommended and radiotherapy may be needed to shrink swollen lymph nodes. Treatment cannot cure chronic lymphocytic leukaemia completely but can slow its progression and lead to remission.

Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia

A rare type of cancer, chronic myelogenous leukemia affected around 680 people in the UK in 2001 out of the 8,600 people diagnosed with leukaemia. It can affect people of any age, but is more common in people aged 40-60. Classified according to the type of white blood cell affected by the cancer, chronic myelogenous leukemia affects the myeloid cells. A genetic mutation causes the stem cells in bone marrow to over-produce white blood cells that correspond to the drop in levels of red blood cells and platelets which causes symptoms of anemia such as tiredness and excessive bleeding. As the condition develops, symptoms include tiredness, weight loss, night sweats, feeling of bloating, bruising, and bone pain. The outlook depends on how well a person responds to medication; most patients, numbering 60 to 65 percent, do well on imatinib tablets which taken daily for life. For those who do not, more than half respond to one of the alternative drugs: nilotinib, for example. For those who fail these drugs or cannot tolerate them, they may be offered a bone marrow transplant if it is suitable treatment. If diagnosed early, the outlook is excellent, with almost 90 percent of people living at least five years after diagnosis.

Cells affected:

Lymphocytes



It is any of the three types of white blood cells responsible for immune responses. There are two main types of lymphocytes: B-cells and T-cells, as well as natural killer cells. B-cells make antibodies that attack bacteria and toxins while the T-cells attack body cells themselves when they are taken over by viruses or have become cancerous. Lymphocytes secrete products (lymphokines) that modulate functional activities of many other types of cells and are often present at sites of chronic inflammation. Natural killer cells play a major role in defending the host from tumors and virally infected cells, distinguishing infected cells and tumors and when activated in response, release cytotoxic granules that destroy the altered cells.


Myeloid cells



The name refers to the granulocyte precursor cell in the bone marrow or spinal cord stem cells. They are controlled by distinct transcription factors that follow on by a terminal differentiation in response to specific stimulating factors and release into the circulation. When pathogens invade cells, myeloid cells go into local tissues via chemokine receptors, where they are then activated for phagocytosis and secretion of inflammatory cytokines, therefore, plays a major role in immunity. Phagocytosis is the process in which a cell engulfs a solid particle to form an internal vesicle known as a phagosome.

Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)

Another leukemia cancer, called Acute Myeloid (AML), is a rare cancer that can affect people at any age but is more common in people over 65. Around 2.500 people are diagnosed with AML each year in the UK. People with AML suffer from the occurrence of many abnormal leukemia cells being made and immature cells unable to develop into normal functioning blood cells.

To understand more about AML, it helps to know about blood in our bodies and the process it goes through. Blood, made up of blood cells that flout in a liquid called plasma, is a constantly circulating fluid that provides the body with nutrition, oxygen and waste removal. It is a mostly liquid fluid with numerous cells and proteins suspended in it, making blood thicker than pure water. A liquid called plasma makes up about half of the content of blood containing proteins that help blood to clot, transport substances through the blood, and perform other functions. Blood plasma also contains glucose and other dissolved nutrients. It is conducted through blood vessels, arteries and veins.

Blood cells are made in the bone marrow, a spongy material found in the middle of our bones, particularly in our pelvis and backbone. 

Normally, millions of blood cells would be made every day to replace old and worn-out blood cells. All blood cells come from two different types of stem cells: lymphoid stem cells and myeloid stem cells. In the bone marrow, stem cells go through the process of dividing and starting off immature and then growing to form fully mature red blood cells, platelets and white blood cells. Immature cells are known as blast cells that stay in the bone marrow until they have matured. Once they mature, they are released into the body to provide certain functions:

Red blood cells contain haemoglobin which carries oxygen from your lungs to all the cells in your body

Platelets are very small cells that help blood to clot and prevent bleeding and bruising

White blood cells fight and prevent infection. There are two types: neutrophils and lymphocytes

In AML, too many early myeloid cells and abnormal leukaemia cells are made. These immature cells cannot develop into normal functioning blood cells and fill up the bone marrow, taking up the space needed to make normal blood cells. Some of the leukaemia cells 'spill over' into the bloodstream and circulate the body. This leads to an increased risk of infection, anemia symptoms and bruising caused by fewer healthy red blood cells and platelets being made. 

Symptoms 

Most symptoms develop due to the effects of the leukaemia cells in the bone marrow, leaving it unable to produce enough normal blood cells. This results in symptoms such as looking pale and feeling tired and breathless, having more infections, unusual bleeding, feeling generally unwell and run down, and having a fever and sweats. Other less common symptoms may be caused by a build-up of leukaemia cells in a particular area of the body, causing bones to ache due to the pressure from a build-up of immature cells in the bone marrow. Raised, bluish-purple areas under the skin may occur due to leukaemia cells in the skin, or swollen gums caused by leukaemia cells in the gums.  

Treatment

The aim of treatment for AML is the destroy the leukaemia cells and allow the bone marrow to work normally again. When there is no sign of the leukaemia and bone marrow is working normal, the patient would be at remission. Chemotherapy is the main treatment used and research has shown that certain types of chemotherapy drugs can be very effective in treating AML. However, in some situations, high dose treatment and a stem cell or bone marrow transplant are used to improve the chances of curing leukaemia.

New treatments

While they are not currently licensed for use in the UK, patients may be offered one or more of these newly developed drugs as part of their treatment if they take part in a research trial.

Clofarabine is similar to another drug commonly used to treat people with AML, however, it has fewer side effects and thought to be more suitable for older people who are less able to have intensive chemotherapy. It is given as a drip into the vein and only available for people with AML as part of research trials.

Gemtuzumab is made up of a combination of a monoclonal antibody and chemotherapy drug. The monoclonal antibody attaches itself to a protein found on the surface of leukaemia cells, carrying the chemotherapy directly to the leukaemia cells. It is hoped that this drug will target the chemotherapy against leukemia cells and cause less damage to healthy cells.

Some people with AML have a mutation in the leukaemia cells called FLT3 which can increase the risk of leukaemia coming back in the future. AC220 is an experimental new treatment designed to act against cels with this mutation 

Arsenic trioxide is licensed to treat people who have acute promyelocytic leukaemia that has reoccured after treatment or has not gone into remission with treatment. Made from the poison arsenic, it is given at low, safe doses.

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Hello readers,

The next cancer that I will be discussing is acute lymphoblastic leukemia, one of the few types of leukemia cancers. Also known by its shorthand ALL or acute lymphoid leukemia, this cancer is an acute form of leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells, causing the overproduction of cancerous, immature white blood cells that are known as lymphoblasts. When these lymphoblasts are overproduced in the bone marrow, they continually multiply, which in turn causes damage and death by inhibiting the production of normal cells such as red and white blood cells and platelets in the bone marrow and by spreading to other organs. ALL is most common in childhood.

It is classified according to the type of the white blood cells affected. There are two types: lymphocytes which are mostly used to fight viral infections, and neutrophils, which have multiple functions, such as fighting bacterial infections, defense against parasites and prevention of the spread of tissue damage. Lymphoblastic leukaemia is a cancer of the lymphocytes.

All the blood cells in the body are produced by the bone marrow, a spongy material found inside bones. The bone marrow produces specialized cells called stem cells which have the ability to develop into three blood cells: red blood cells which carry oxygen around the body, white blood cells that fight injections and platelets which act as coagulants so help stop bleeding. Stem cells would fully develop before being released into the blood. However, in acute leukemia, bone marrow releases large numbers of immature white blood cells. As the number of these immature white blood cells increase, there is a drop in the number of red blood and platelet cells. This causes symptoms of anemia, such as tiredness, and increases the risk of excessive bleeding. The immature white blood cells are less effective at fighting bacteria and viruses, which results in increased vulnerability to infection.

Symptoms

The cause of leukemia are uncertain, but there are known risk factors which include exposure to high levels of radiation or exposure to benzene, a chemical used in manufacturing that is also found in cigarettes. The symptoms are usually slow to begin with before getting rapidly severe as the number of immature of white blood cells in blood increase. They include pale skin, tiredness, breathlessness, repeating infections over a short space of time and unusual and frequent bleeding.

Treatment

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is treated usually by a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, however, in some cases, treatment may also include a bone marrow transplant as a cure. Without treatment, there is a risk that the lack of healthy blood cells can make the person vulnerable to life-threatening infections due to the lack of white blood cells or uncontrolled and serious bleeding due to the lack of platelets. For children, the outlook is usually good - almost all children will be in remission and 85% completely cured. However, the outlook for adults are not as good, as only 40% of people with the condition will be completely cured.

Hodgkin's Lymphoma

Hello readers,

I hope you all had a merry Christmas and wonderful holiday! It may not be the a very festive post today but since I heard some sad news that a very dear friend of mine was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and never hearing of it before, I thought that it would be a good idea to spend some time writing on the disease to shed some light on for those who may want to learn more about it.

To understand Hodgin's, it is helpful to have a basic understanding of the lymphatic system. It is a system that is one of the body's defenses against infections and diseases made up of lymphatic organs such as bone marrow, tonsils, thymus, spleen and lymph nodes. Lymph nodes are throughout the body, although are mainly found in the neck, armpit and groin, and are connected by a network of tiny lymphatic tubes. Circulating in the lymphatic vessels are a fluid called lymph that contains something called lymphocytes which are also known as white blood cells. They are a significant part of our immune system, essential at fighting viruses, bacteria and other foreign bodies that threaten our health. They are produced inside the bone marrow and stored in our blood and lymphatic tissues.

As lymph circulates the body, the fluid passes through the lymph nodes which filter out bacteria that cause infection. Sometimes, if you have a cold, the lymph nodes in your neck may get larger which is a sign that your body is fighting the infection. There are two main types of white blood cells (lymphocyte) - T-cells and B-cells. While both types develop in the bone marrow from immature cells to stem cells, T-cells mature in the thymus gland and B-cells mature in the bone marrow or lymphatic organs.

Here is a diagram showing the lymphatic system is green all over the body.

In summary, the lymphatic system is composed of a series of vessels that are all over the body which drain fluid from tissues. Bacteria and other microbes are picked up in the lymphatic fluid and trapped inside lymph nodes where they are attacked and destroyed by white blood cells.

Hodgkin's Lymphoma
It is a cancer of the lymphatic system and can be divided into two main types:
Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Its cause is unknown, however, there are some risk factors that may contribute to its development including poor immunity and previous exposure to the Epstein Barr virus which causes glandular fever. It is most common in younger people aged 20-34 and older people aged 70-79. Having a member of the family with Hodgkin lymphoma may slightly increase someone's risk of getting it, but it is not known whether this is caused by an inherited faulty genes or because families may have similar lifestyle factors that affect their risk.

Symptoms
The first is usually a swelling in the neck, armpit or groin which are usually painless but some find that they ache. Other symptoms may include frequent sweats, especially at night, unexplained high temperatures, weight loss, tiredness, a cough or breathlessness or a persistent itch all over the body. A few people with Hodgkin lymphoma have abnormal cells in their bone marrow when diagnosed which can lower the number of healthy blood cells in the blood which in turn, can cause breathlessness and tiredness, increased risk of infection and/or excessive bleeding. When diagnosing a patient, the doctor may take blood tests and a chest x-ray and a definite diagnosis is made by a biopsy where the removal of an enlarged lymph node or part of it is examined under a microscope.

Staging

• Stage 1: one group of lymph nodes is affected
• Stage 2: two or more groups of lymph nodes are affected on the same side of the diaphragm 
• Stage 3: lymph nodes above and below the diaphragm are affected
• Stage 4: the lymphoma has spread outside the lymph nodes to organs such as the liver, bones or lungs

If the Hodgkin lymphoma comes back after initial treatment, this is known as recurrent lymphoma. As well as a stage, doctors use a letter: A or B, to show whether or not you have certain symptoms (unexplained high temperatures, drenching night sweats, for example). If the patient doesn't have these symptoms, the doctor will prescribe the letter A next to the stage. If the patient has one or more of these symptoms, the letter B is prescribed next to the stage.  

Treatment

Luckily, with current treatment the majority of people with Hodgkin's lymphoma can be cured. The main types of treatment are chemotherapy and radiotherapy and a treatment plan would be decided based on the results of the staging tests and other factors such as age, general health, what parts of the body is affected and specific type of Hodgkin lymphoma. 

Chemotherapy involves the use of anti-cancer, also known as cytotoxic, drugs to destroy the lymphoma cells by disrupting their growth and can reach lymphoma cells anywhere in the body through the bloodstream. The drugs can be administered as tablets or capsules or by injection into a vein in your arm which is called intravenously. A combination of several drugs is normally given over a few days followed by a break and would continue from 2 to 6 months depending on the stage of lymphoma.

Radiotherapy treats cancer by the use of high-energy rays that destroy the cancer cells while doing as little harm as possible to normal cells because it only treats the area of the body it is aimed at. This is usually provided after a course of chemotherapy for early-stage disease as part of the overall treatment. In more advanced stage disease, it may be used after after chemotherapy to treat areas where there may still be cancer. 

Another treatment is called high-dose treatment with stem cell support for Hodgkin lymphoma. This is a high-dose chemotherapy treatment if the standard chemotherapy had not completely gotten rid of the disease and may also be used if the lymphoma reoccurs. High doses of chemotherapy destroy the bone marrow where blood cells are usually made which means stem cells must be collected from your body at a time when you are well - this is called stem cell harvest. The stem cells are collected by a process where blood is removed through a needle in your arm and it is then passed through a machine called a cell separator where stem cells are separated from the rest of your blood. Alternatively, stem cells can be collected from your bone marrow. Stem cells are then frozen and kept in storage until the patient receives high-dose treatment and once it is administered, stem cells are thawed and given back through a drip to support their immune system.

Steroid therapy involves steroids, such as prednisolone or dexamethasone, which are drugs that are often given with chemotherapy to help treat Hodgkin lymphoma which may help the patient feel better and reduce nausea.

Possible long-term effects from the treatment may be permanent infertility from some chemotherapy drugs. Both chemotherapy and radiotherapy can also lead to a slightly increased risk of developing another cancer later in life. 

Hope this has been informative and, as always, thanks for reading  

Plans for Mars

Hello readers!

Recent reports on Mars have been discussing the speculation of possible form of life on the red planet due to Nasa's rover, Curiosity's detection of fluctuating wafts of methane. These unexplained spikes of methane levels detected, unable to be easily correlated by geology or transportation of organic material by comets or asteroids, has resulted in a few hypotheses including the suggestion that these spikes offer evidence of life on Mars.

Only last year the US space agency reported that Gale Crater, located on the Martian equator when a meteor hit the planet, contained the remains of an ancient freshwater lake that may have once been a hospitable environment for life in the past. The latest discovery adds to the possibility of gathered evidence of life on Mars. Curiosity recorded a 10-fold increase in methane in the atmosphere, additionally detecting other organic molecules in powdered rock that was obtained by the rover's drill, becoming the first definitive detection of organics in surface materials on Mars. These could have formed either on Mars or landed on Mars by meteorites. The spikes in methane are provoked interest as life is the main producer of methane on Earth, however, many non-biological processes can also generate the gas. Speculation on the methane fluctuations have included the idea of the Sun's rays degrading organic material deposited by meteors and methane being formed by microbial bugs that are known as methanogens.   

Named after the Roman god of war and dubbed the red planet due to its iron-rich minerals that cover the surface that give it a rusty red color, Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun that has the largest volcanoes in the solar system as well as the highest mountain and deepest valley. It has a cold, thin atmosphere which means that liquid water cannot currently exist on the Martian surface for any length of time, resulting in the desert planet having the same amount of dry land as Earth despite being half in diameter. With channels, valleys and gullies discovered across Mars, this suggests that liquid water may have flowed across the planet's surface in recent times and may still lie in cracks and pores in underground rock. Cooler than Earth, its average temperature is roughly minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit, however, it can vary depending on time and season. Its carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere means that it is dense enough to support weather, clouds and winds. NASA's detection of carbon-dioxide snow clouds makes Mars the only body in the solar system known to host winter weather. However, dust storms also occupy the planet, capable of lasting for months resulting in blanketing the entire planet.   

The possibility of life on Mars was first considered in 1996 when Geologist David McKay and his colleagues discovered in the rocks blasted from the surface of Mars grains of a mineral called magnetite that can form within certain kinds of bacteria and tiny structures that resembled fossilized microbes. The hypothesis that Mars may have once possessed oceans on its surface offer the opinion that it provided an environment where life can develop, a hypothesis further established with the discovery of the lake when beforehand establishing the planet had key ingredients present for life to evolve.   

Currently in process is an important development in space exploration; the Mars One Mission that aims to establish a human settlement on Mars. This project involves firstly building Earth-based simulation outposts for training, technology, try-outs and evaluation and the construction of rocket launches that would take payloads into Earth orbit and then onto Mars that include satellites, rovers, cargo or humans. Other necessities would include the Mars Transit Vehicle that would ensure the travel of human crew in space and a landing capsule that would carry life support unites, living units, rovers and mars suits. People are currently going through a vigorous process to be one of the chosen humans to be a part of the Mars One crew, who would have to go through eight years of training isolated from the world for several months every two years before being considered to settle permanently on Mars. So it seems that while we have yet to know whether life was or is on Mars for certain, the future ahead is dedicated to the emigration of humans to live on the red planet.

Thank you for reading!

Sources

http://www.space.com/47-mars-the-red-planet-fourth-planet-from-the-sun.html
http://www.mars-one.com/mission/humankind-on-mars
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/dec/16/methane-spikes-mars-fuel-speculation-life-nasa-curiosity

The Rosetta Mission

It was a mission that will go down in history, though perhaps not as amazing as man's first step on the Moon, but when the European Space Agency's one-billion-pound Rosetta probe swooped down over comet 67P and, from an altitude of 20km, released the robotic lander known as Philae, on descent to its surface, it was an incredible scientific feat. It may not have been 'one step for mankind' but that bounce over the comet culminated into a success after ten years of planning to occur beyond the orbit of Mars watched by the world. 

What was it?

The International Rosetta Mission was approved in ESA's Horizons 200 Science Programme 21 years ago in 1993. In those decades, scientists and engineers all over the world built an orbiter and lander for this expedition in order to discover and explore the secrets of the comet. Rosetta would, once landing on the Comet 67P, cross the asteroid belt and travel into deep space, more than five times the Earth's distance from the Sun. In 2015 when the mission will draw the close, the spacecraft and comet will have circled the Sun and be on their way out of the inner Solar System. The success of the mission is historic one. Rosetta will be the first spacecraft to orbit a comet's nucleus, fly alongside a comet as it heads towards the inner Solar system, and examine from close proximity how a frozen comet is transformed by the warmth of the Sun. One arriving at the Comet 67P, the orbiter will despatch Philae, the robotic lander, and its instruments will obtain images from the comet's surface and analyse its components. Once passing through the main asteroid belt, Rosetta will the first ever spacecraft to fly close to Jupiter's orbit using solar cells as its main power source.

Why do it?

Mainly to investigate the components of the comet that will be extracted by the lander and then fed back to Earth. The elements that make up the comet: complex organic molecules rich in carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, are the elements that make up nucleic and amino acids, the essential elements for life as we know it. Analysis of these elements may help answer some fundamental questions such as: did life on Earth begin with the help of comet seeding?

What happened?

The landing was not smooth: it bounced twice and culminated into a triple touchdown on Wednesday. Resting on its side, lodged in the shadows, the lander sent back historic images taken from the surface of the comet. As its landing left it surrounded by rocks, Philae then was only able to receive just 1.5 hours of sunlight instead of the expected 6 to 7 hours. However, despite this, the lander deployed a 1.2 metre arm and drill, accomplishing its primary mission to last around 60 hours on its initial battery charge and obtaining data on the surface of the comet. The drilling operation was deployed in order deliver samples to onboard instruments. The Cometary Sampling and Composition experiment instrument was chosen in order to study the first samples, and it works by detecting and identifying complex organic molecules from their molecular composition. The instrument detected and analyzed these moles of gas that naturally came off the comet's surface. The lander, however, did run out of power although there were some attempts to move it towards better sunlight in order for its solar panels to obtain more energy. Though the lander has now effectively gone to sleep, when the comet heads for its approach to the Sun that will occur in August 2015, by bringing the lander closer to sunlight, Philae may then power up.

What will happen next?

Dear Philae provided everything expected from it before it powered down, transmitting all the science data in the first sixty hours. As well as sending images and exercising of its Consert instrument that try to discern its internal structure, it can possibly be used to triangulate its precise position. Knowledge of its location would enable engineers to understand its future prospects. For now, Rosetta will continue to observations the 67P comet and we can admire the captured images



Thanks for reading!

The Anti-Aging Drug

Want to live forever? Or, alternatively, would you like to age well and healthy? Well, you can if you're a mouse. If, however, you are not a mouse that has mastered to ability to read blogs on Google and are a simple human being like myself, while there is still some time before anti-aging drugs become a possibility, there are some promising developments. Anti-Aging drugs may actually be a reality for the future as the current development of anti-aging compounds that Australian and US researchers have studied, have discovered a key breakthrough that saw the aging process reversed in mice.  

Exciting stuff.

This study discovered a possible way of restoring the efficiency of cells that would enable the reversal of the aging process in muscles. What occurred in the experiment is as follows: two-year-old mice were given a compound over a week,which resulted in moving back certain key indicators of ageing to that of a six-month-old mouse. This can be seen as the equivalent of an 60-year-old feeling more like a 20-year-old. This research has been concentrated on the area of cells, mitochondria, an place of which energy is produced from respiration. Over time, the communication between the mitochondria and the cell nucleus degrades, which leads to the aging process. Researchers have injected a chemical called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide - NAD - which reduces in the body as we age. The addition of this compound results in a radical reversal in the aging of mice.

Trials on humans are hoped to begin as soon as next year, with researchers confident that side-effects will be minimal due to the fact that the compound NAD is a naturally produced product. This possible advancement of biomedical science into age reversal could be used to treat diseases such as cancer, dementia and diabetes. Therefore, ant-aging research goals are not to enable people to live forever but for people to remain healthy longer into old age; a current issue as older people are now living much longer. 

Another advancement in this field has been explored in the tests on yeast, worms and mice who have all been treated with various chemical compounds in laboratory tests that have led to their living longer. As trials in humans have failed, reseachers are not proposing a different approach to animal testing: trials in pet dogs. Their target is rapamycin, which has been used clinically as part of an anti-rejection drug cocktail after kidney transplants in order prevent the body from rejecting its new organ. However, rapamycin has also shown promising results in extending the lives of mice by 13 percent in females and 9 percent in males.

This compound has yet to be tested in human trials due to its cost and the length of time necessary to be taken in order to learn whether the drug can extend a human life. Another issue is that rapamycin is no longer patenable so pharmaceutical companies are unwilling to invest in it. Additionally, the drug may also cause some serious side effects, for example, it has been linked to an increased risk of diabetes in people who have undergone kidney transplants. However, researchers have argued that at low doses, the drug will not be an issue for healthy dogs. 

Molecular biologists, Matthew Kaeberlein and Daniel Promislow from the University of Washington have proposed to give low doses of rapamycin to dogs in a study to test whether the drug can extend the animals' lives. The specific dogs to be testsed would be larger dogs that typically live for eight to ten years. Their proposal is that they would start giving the drug to dogs aged six to nine. In a pilot trial that would involve around thirty dogs, where half would receive the drug and their heart function and health measures would be observed. This trial aims to be completed in around three years.

Why dogs?

Scientists argue that pet dogs should provide a more realistic test than lab mice of how the drug would work in humans. In addition to this, pets experience some of the same environmental influences and sometimes get similar age-related diseases as their owners. Again, funding and time are important considerations in trials aiming to understand the mechanism of life-extending effects. As dogs are people's beloved pets, this may also be a later problematic hindrance to these planned trials. It has been considered whether pet owners could be asked to help fund a bigger trial, and whether researchers could promise in return that the pet owners who contribute mean that their dogs would be treated with rapamycin rather than a placebo without compromising the study. 

Why Rapamycin?

A protein kinase that controls cell growth and survival, little is actually known about how it can extend life. It is currently used to prevent transplant rejection as it has the ability to suppress the immune system. It characterized as such as by inhibiting the activation and proliferation of T-cells. This occurs by specifically acting on a FK-binding protein 12, commonly referred to as an immunophilin because it binds to immunosuppressive drugs. This complex then binds to a target of rapamycin, a kinase that regulates the progression of the cell cycle. The binding process results in the inhibition of the kinase, disrupts cell division, and hence the proliferation of T-cells - therefore the immune system is repressed.

 This diagram shows the process described above: how rapamycin, by acting on a FK-binding protein 12, becomes FKBP12, which in turn, then binds to the rapamycin kinase, mTOR

Additionally, due to the rapamycin kinase activities being implicated in cancer, rapamycin is also investigation for its use in the treatment of these malignancies. Additionally, rapamycin-coated stents, devices used to treat cardiovascular disease by narrowing the blood vessel, has been associated with reducing rates of recurrences of vessel narrowing. As a possible anti-aging drug, as the research in 2009 in mice indicated, the drug's inhibition of the rapamycin kinase is suspected to induce metabolic and stress responses that favour longevity. however, the process of which longevity occurs is still unknown. Other possibilities include retardation of the ageing process itself or preventing age-related diseases. 

Thanks for reading!

The Origins of Halloween

Ah, November 31^st. The day where an influx of the hushed whispers of little girls, rocking chairs and china dolls are on the big screen, Haribo sweets now have horror mix alongside cheap witch hats and matching brooms on the first aisle at supermarkets, and there are popular articles online for the best Halloween outfits – or, alternatively, the most offensive Halloween outfits. As a child living in London, trick or treating was a strange concept that involved reiterated warnings of not knocking on stranger’s doors and razors-in-apples horror stories. The sweets were always a good comfort eat on the day and extended to a few days afterwards. At university, Halloween involves horror club nights, slutty nurse outfits alongside the ever-popular Spartan, Greek and Roman ones as it only needs a cheap and easy white bed sheet, alcohol and someone miserably spewing in the street surrounded by laughing friends and bored-looking policemen. It also means it’s the perfect time to scoff sweets and re-watch Shaun of the Dead.   

Sometimes criticized as one of the many American traditions that have travelled around the pond to Britain, while modern Halloween is now concerned with costumes and sugar, it once evolved from the ancient Celtic holiday of Samhain. Known as All Hallows Eve, it was north European festival that signalled the end of the light and warm half of the year, ushering in a cold and dark one. The Celts used the day to mark the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, and also believed that this transition between the seasons was a bridge to the world of the dead. It was a pagan ritual and one of the greatest religious festivals of this ancient northern pagan year.

In the ushering in of winter, it was at the time considered a frightening and inconvenient season in the northlands prefacing months of darkness, cold and hunger. Perhaps think ‘winter is coming’ in this sense; it was a foreboding moment and so Halloween was regarded as the time when the spirits of darkness and fear would come, and when malevolent forces of nature would be let lose. The warriors, traders, sailors and other skilful people would return and there would be stories, celebrations, the settlement of disputes, and the taking of stock in this season. In medieval Ireland local kings were said to hold a feast at their royal halls, for a week before and after Samhain, for all these purposes. Festivals would occur and people would sing songs about spirits or dress up as them to mock the arriving season. It was commonly asserted that the feast was the pagan festival of the dead - in reality, it was to commemorate the dead.

During the Protestant reformation, it removed these rites from most of Britain, and left only a vague sense of Halloween as a time with certain associations, however, it survived in its actual form in Ireland as the Catholic feast of saints and souls. The idea of Halloween being translated from America comes from the celebration of Halloween as a great seasonal festival that travelled here through massive Irish emigration to America in the 19th century took it over there.

Halloween developed into a national festivity for Americans, retaining the custom of dressing up to mock powers of dark, cold and death, and a transforming one by which poor people went door to door to beg for food for a feast of their own. By the 1980s, the celebration came to Britain. Currently, traditional activities include trick-or-treating, bonfires, costume parties, haunted houses, and jack-o-lanterns. So everyone, consume all the sugar you want, don’t worry too much about outfits unless that is your thing – fake blood and a bed sheet always does the trick for those on a budget – and have some fun!  

Sources

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/28/halloween-more-than-trick-or-treat-origins

http://www.history.com/topics/halloween

http://www.halloweenhistory.org/

The Ebola Outbreak

Hello! It's been a while since my last post due the business of my summer, however, I'm hoping to turn over a new leaf and achieve some semblance of the ability to manage my time better and start posting more frequently. I'm aiming for my posts to go back to considering the background of occurring events or developments on the news so to hopefully gather better understanding and knowledge on a variety of day-to-day topics. There has certainly been a foray of possibilities: from the actions of extremists, the Ebola epidemic to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the international community and UK news from the rise of Ukip, Tory defections and its attempts to knuckle down on immigration and tackle it (no doubt its surge towards the far-right is for the good of Britain and not for the hope of increasing popularity), to drug use laws. The news, usually remarking on death, disease, terrorism, protesters, failing governments, is never the most cheery of outlets, and certainly can't be taken in without some critique, however, it is still appealing for those interested and wanting to know and understand what is going on in our crazy world. And for my posts, there are endless possibilities in store.

Moving to one of the 'cheerless' topics, the Ebola outbreak is an important one to consider. My post today briefly describes it, the disease's symptoms and what you can do to help if you're feeling charitable. This has been a terrible outbreak and its consequences severe; with its fatality rate of 60-70%, it has been extremely dangerous for those in the countries of West Africa where the outbreak has occured. It is, of course, important to realize that this has started almost a year ago and, while I do not wish to be the cynic, the media seemed to have only picked up on this issue recently once the virus had spread to a few aid workers from outside of West Africa. Whether this is due to race, to aid awareness of the very unlikely possibility of a pandemic crisis, or because people getting infected with Ebola outside of West Africa make for good, panic headlines, I cannot be sure. Regardless, this is a serious, ongoing issue, and the effects have been devastating on those who have been made victims to the virus.

The reason that the current Ebola outbreak has been making headlines is due to the recent imported cases and two locally acquired cases in healthcare workers reported in the United States. Secondary infections of medical workers have also occurred in Spain and one case identified in Mali.  However, this outbreak has been going on for almost a year in West African countries that have had a reported case fatality rate of about 71 percent. It began in Guinea in December 2013 and spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone, with a small outbreak additionally in Nigeria and one case occurred in Senegal. Now the largest epidemic in history, the World Health Organization reported that there have been a total of 12,008 suspected cases and 5,078 deaths, however, this is believed to understated figures. WHO have also warned that could be as many as 10,000 new cases every week by December 2014. Most recently, The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has now reported cases of Ebola; however, these cases are not related to the ongoing outbreak of Ebola in West Africa.

At the moment, Ebola is considered a viral disease that has yet to have any licensed treatments or vaccines. When a person is infected with the Ebola virus, their developing symptoms will include: fever, headache, joint and muscle pain, sore throat and intense muscle weakness. These symptoms would be followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, a rash and bleeding both internal and external which can be seen in the gums, eyes, nose and in stool. Patients tend to die from dehydration and multiple organ failure. These symptoms will occur suddenly between two and twenty-one days after becoming infected. It is absolutely necessary that any one experiencing these symptoms within twenty-one days of coming back from Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone should stay at home and telephone 111 or 999 and explain your circumstances so necessary arrangements can take place to determine the cause of the illness.  This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, a rash and bleeding - both internal and external - which can be seen in the gums, eyes, nose and in the stools.

When people begin to experience the symptoms, it is then that they become infectious to others. People become infected with the Ebola virus when they come into contact with the blood, body fluids or organs of an infected person. The majority of people that are infected are when giving care to other infected people, either by directly touching the patient’s body or by cleaning up body fluids (stools, urine or vomit) that carry infectious blood. Consequently, hospital workers, laboratory workers and family members are at greatest risk.

While there is currently no licensed treatment or vaccine for Ebola virus disease, there are potential new vaccines and drug therapies are being developed and tested. Patients at the moment infected with Ebola are placed in isolation where their blood oxygen levels and blood pressure are maintained at the right level and their body organs supported. ZMapp is an experimental treatment that can be tried; a product that is a combination of three different antibodies that bind to the protein of the Ebola virus. However, it has not yet been tested in humans for safety or effectiveness. 

One of the ways that you can help with the prevention of the spread of the deadly vis currently devastating the lives of people in West Africa, donate to the Ebola Crisis Appeal at Act!onaid whose teams are currently helping 271,000 people fight the disease which can pay for cleaning and disinfectant materials for families, buy personal protective equipment for volunteers and training the community on how to keep themselves safe and stop the spread of Ebola. Donations to help raise funds of these materials can also be made at Red Cross, International Medical Corps UK, Christian Aid and many more charities tackling the outbreak and contain it.  

Sources

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/2014-west-africa/index.html

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/ebola-virus/pages/ebola-virus.aspx

Donations

http://www.actionaid.org.uk/ebola?label=DECEbola&gclid=CNeIr4SK08ECFQPMtAodrnEA3A

http://www.redcross.org.uk/ebolavirus?gclid=CMLv4fiK08ECFamWtAodq3wAVQ

http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org.uk/about-us/emergencyresponse/ebola-crisis/?gclid=CPbV1pSL08ECFUPLtAod9h0ARw

http://www.christianaid.org.uk/emergencies/current/ebola-crisis-appeal/ebola/cld.aspx?_$ja=cgid:9389993148|tsid:56895|cid:237270468|nw:g|crid:42453493068|rnd:8986167318381291581|dvc:c|adp:1s3|kw:guinea%20%2Bebola|mt:b|pm:&gclid=COzGnKyL08ECFVHMtAodFWEAtw

The art of sleeping

Hello readers! Do you ever get that terrible feeling on the bus where the music in your ears have become more muffled, your eyes get heavier and heavier, eventually closing your eyes becomes out of your control, your head bobs forward, you start to stoop your shoulders...you just know you're going to sleep, coffee is far off in the distance, and the one thought that drifts across your mind about whether to risk missing your stop. That'll be any morning for me! And it gives me food for thought for this post!

Sleep is one of those essential things we just have to do as human beings. As a student that will inevitably have that all-nighter, sleep becomes not just essential but a greatly desirable thing to do. Without sleep, exhaustion, heavy eyelids, an inability to concentrate, ensues. There can be nights were you find it impossible to fall alseep, you keep waking up at night, and then there are nights when you simply drop off, and you're a log for the whole night. 

The characteristics of sleep for humans: usually, a person will lie down to go to sleep, the person's eyes are closed, the person doesn't hear anything unless it is a loud noise, the person breathes in a slow, rhythmic pattern, the person's muscles are completely relaxed and during sleep, the person will occasionally roll over or rearrange his or her body. This happens approximately once or twice an hour, which may be due to the body's way of making sure that no part of the body or skin has its circulation cut off for too long a period of time. A sleeping person is unconscious to most things happening in the environment, however, unlike someone who has fainted or is in a coma, a sleeping person can be aroused if the stimulus (shaking them, loud noises, flashing a bright light) is strong enough.

With animals, reptiles, birds and mammals all sleep - they become unconscious to their surroundings for periods of time. Some fish and amphibians reduce their awareness but do not ever become unconscious. Insects do not appear to sleep, although they may become inactive in daylight or darkness. Reptiles do not dream, birds dream a little and mammals all dream during sleep. Some animals sleep in one long session, while other animals, for example dogs, like to sleep in many short bursts.

During sleep, in the person's brainwave activity, while an awake and relaxed person will generate alpha waves which are consistent oscillations at about 10 cycles per second and the generation of beta waves that are twice as fast, two slower patterns called theta waves and delta waves take over. The brainwave patterns slow down. The slower the brainwave patterns, the deeper the sleep and so a person deep in delta wave sleep is hardest to wake up. Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep occurs at several points in the night and brainwaves during this period speed up to awake levels. REM sleep is when you dream. 

Pulling an all-nigher is not fatal; the person will usually become irritable during the next day and slow down or have some energy due to adrenalin. If a person misses two nights of sleep, concentration becomes difficult and attention spans fall, causing mistakes to increase. After three days, a person will start to hallucinate and clear thinking is impossible. A person can lose grasp of reality. Rats forced to stay away continuously will eventually die.

The importance of sleep is clear in what happens when you don't get any sleep. Additionally, a growth hormone in children is secreted during sleep, and chemicals important to the immune system are also secreted during sleep. There are many theories as to why we need sleep, including ideas that sleep gives the body a chance to repair muscles and other tissues, it gives the brain a chance to organize and archive memories, lowering our energy consumption and perhaps a way of recharging the brain.  

There are animals, including horses, donkeys and elephants, that sleep standing up because when they lie down, they put pressure on their ribs making breathing difficult. Horses are able to sleep standing up by having their legs able to lock into place, enabling them to sleep without falling over. Because they are prey animals, most of their sleeping is done during the day rather then at night when the predators are not hunting. Sometimes, horses would rest their legs during short naps lying down; they would sometimes be stretched out on its side, asleep in the sun, or laying in the ground with its legs folded under. 

Fun facts about animals sleeping

• On average, cats sleep 13 to 14 hours during the day, and mostly roam around at night, which is also true of big cats like lions
• Dolphins can slumber with just half their brains asleep: they can have the brain waves of non-REM sleep functioning in just one hemisphere while the other half remains awake. They sleep by resting on half of their brain at a time which is known as unihemispheric sleeping, which enables them to continue swimming. While they are sleeping, one eye will remain open while the other is closed (the open eye will be on the same side as the resting part of the brain) which means they can keep themselves and their young safe from predators.
• Horses and cows which sleep standing up don't experience full REM sleep unless they lie down
• Giraffes can go weeks without napping
• A desert snail can snooze for three years
• While asleep, platypuses make the same movement that they use when killing crustacean prey
• To avoid predators, African Papio baboons sleep on their heels, perched on trees
• Bats sleep upside down because it makes them less obvious to prey and allows them to take off at any moment should any threat emerge. Bats must fall into flying because their wings aren't strong enough for them to alight from a standing position.
• An albatross can sleep while it is flying
• A study on fire ants showed that the workers in the colony experienced 253 sleep episodes per day and each last about 1.1 minutes

Thanks for reading!

The Immune System

Hello readers! I've been struck with another cold, and as colds are, it decided to do so just when the weather is becoming delightfully sunny again after months of rain. Of course, the sniffing and need for tissues to be somehow on my person - meltdowns have the potential to be triggered when there are no tissues about and I've just sneezed! - this is all down to the workings of the immune system. After my last post on HIV, discussing it triggered some latent memories from my biology A-Level on the immune system and I figured it was time to brush up on that knowledge and share it with others! 

What is it?
The immune system is a network of cells, tissues, and organs that work together to protect the body from infection. The human body provides an ideal environment for many microbes, such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites, and the immune system prevents and limits their entry and growth to maintain optimal health. Currently in research, scientists continue to study how the body targets invading microbes, infected cells, and tumors while ignoring healthy tissues. New technologies for identifying individual immune cells help scientists determine which cells trigger an immune response under various circumstances. Improvements in microscopy also allow for observations of living immune cells as they interact within lymph nodes and other body tissues. Furthermore, scientists have been rapidly unraveling the genetic blueprints that direct the human immune response. This new technology and expanded genetic information promises to reveal more about how the body protects itself from disease. In turn, scientists can use this information to develop new strategies for the prevention and treatment of infectious and immune-mediated diseases.

How does it work?

• The immune system is designed to defend you against millions of bacteria, microbes, viruses, toxins and parasites.
• An example of being able to see the immune system is when you get a cut, bacteria and viruses are able to enter your body through the break in the skin. The immune system responds and eliminates the invaders while the skin heals itself and seals the puncture. In rare cases the immune system misses something and the cut gets infected. It gets inflamed and will often fill with pus. Inflammation and pus are both side-effects of the immune system doing its job.
• There are many ways that you can get sick: for example, mechanical damage when you break a bone or tear a ligament, vitamin or mineral deficiency, organ degradation when an organ is damaged or weakened, genetic disease caused by a coding error in the DNA, and cancer, where a cell will change in a way that causes it to reproduce uncontrollably.  
• In comparison, when a virus or bacteria invades your body and reproduces, it generates side effects by its presence we understand as symptoms. Strep throat bacteria releases a toxin that causes inflammation in your throat for example. Viruses and bacterial infections are the most common causes of illness for most people, causing things like colds, influenza, measles, mumps, malaria, AIDS and so on.
• The job of your immune system is to protect your body from these infections. It protects it through creating a barrier that prevents bacteria and viruses from entering your body, if it does get through this barrier, the immune system tries to detect and eliminate it before it can reproduce. If the virus or bacteria is able to reproduce, your immune system can then eliminate it. 
• The skin acts as a primary boundary between bacteria and viruses and your body; it acts as a barrier as the skin is tough and generally impermeable to bacteria and viruses. The epidermis of the skin contains cells called Langerhans cells which are an important early-warning component in the immune system. The skin also secretes antibacterial substances, causing bacteria and spores that land on your skin to die quickly.
• Your nose, mouth and eyes contain an enzyme called lysozyme, which break down the cell wall of many bacteria. Saliva is also anti-bacterial. The nasal passage and lungs are coated in mucus, causing bacteria to be trapped in the mucus and swallowed. Mast cells also line the nasal passages, throat, lungs and skin. Any bacteria or virus that wants to gain entry to your body must first make it past these defenses.
• Inside the body, the major components of the immune system are: the thymus, spleen, lymph system, bone marrow, white blood cells, antibodies, complement system and hormones.
• The thymus: it is situated in your chest between your breast bone and your heart. It produces T-cells and is especially important in newborn babies - without a thymus a baby's immune system collapses and the baby will die. 

• The spleen: it  filters the blood looking for foreign cells 
• The lymphatic system: it works by the fluids which ooze into the lymph system get pushed by normal body and muscle motion to the lymph nodes. Lymph is a clearish liquid that bathes the cells with water and nutrient, and also has blood plasma, the liquid which makes up blood without the red and white cells. Blood transfers these materials to the lymph through the capillary walls, and lymph carries it to the cells. The cells also produce proteins and waste products and the lymph absorbs these products and carries them away. Once lymph has been filtered through the lymph nodes, it re-enters the bloodstream.

• Bone marrow: it produces new blood cells, both red and white. Red blood cells are fully formed in the marrow and then enter the bloodstream. For some white blood cells, the cells mature elsewhere. The marrow produces all blood cells from stem cells which can branch off and become many different types of cells. Stem cells change into actual, specific types of white blood cells.

• White blood cells: white blood cells can ingest pathogens and destroy them, produce antibodies to destroy pathogens and produce antitoxins that neutralise that toxins released by pathogens. They can be grouped as phagocytes or macrophages and lymphocytes. Phagocytes can easily pass through blood vessel walls into the surrounding tissue and move towards pathogens or toxine. They then either ingest and absorb the pathogens or toxins or release an enzyme to destroy them. Having absorbed a pathogen, the phagocytes may also send out chemical messages that help nearby lymphocytes to identify the type of antibody needed to neutralise them. In comparison, lymphocytes work based on the fact that pathogens contain certain chemicals that are foreign to the body and are called antigens. Each lymphocyte carries a specific type of antibody - a protein that has a chemical 'fit' to a certain antigen. When a lymphocyte with the appropriate antibody meets the antigen, the lymphocyte reproduces quickly, and makes many copies of the antibody that neutralises the pathogen. Antibodies neutralise pathogens by binding to pathogens and damage or destroy them, coating coat pathogens, clumping them together so that they are easily ingested by phagocytes and they bind to the pathogens and release chemical signals to attract more phagocytes. Lymphocytes may also release antitoxins that stick to the appropriate toxin and stop it damaging the body.
• White blood cells are a whole collection of different cells that work together to destroy bacteria and viruses. Here are all of the different types, names and classifications of white blood cells working inside your body right now: Leukocytes, Lymphocyte, Monocytes, Granulocytes, B-cells, Plasma cells, T-cells, Helper T-cells, Killer T-cells, Suppressor T-cells, Natural killer cells, Neutrophils, Eosinophils, Basophils, Phagocytes and Macrophages
• All white blood cells are known officially as leukocytes and are divided in three classes: Granulocytes which make up 50 - 60% of all leukocytes, Lymphocytes which make up 30 - 40% of all leukocytes. Lymphocytes come in two classes: B cells (those that mature in bone marrow) and T cells (those that mature in the thymus). Monocyes make up 7% or so of all leukocytes which evolve into macrophages.
• All white blood cells start in bone marrow as stem cells which later will divide and differentiate into all different types of white blood cells. 
• Neutrophils, the most common form of white blood cells, work by being attracted to foreign material, inflammation and bacteria. It will be attracted by a process called chemotaxis, allowing motile cells move toward higher concentrations of a chemical. Once a neutrophil finds a foreign particle or a bacteria it will engulf it, releasing enzymes, hydrogen peroxide and other chemicals from its granules to kill the bacteria. 
• Eosinophils are focused on parasites in the skin and the lungs, while Basophils carry histamine along with mast cells to causing inflammation. It brings in more blood and it dilates capillary walls so that more immune system cells can get to the site of infection.

• Macrophages are the biggest cells, released by the bone marrow, float in the bloodstream, enter tissue and turn into macrophages. Most boundary tissue has its own devoted macrophages. They are called langerhans cells when they live in the skin. 

• The lymphocytes handle most of the bacterial and viral infections. They start in the bone marrow. B cells develop in the bone marrow before entering the bloodstream while T cells starts in the marrow but then migrate through the bloodstream to the thymus and mature there. T cells and B cells are often found in the bloodstream but tend to concentrate in lymph tissue such as the lymph nodes, the thymus and the spleen. There is also quite a bit of lymph tissue in the digestive system. B cells and T cells have different functions.

• B cells mature into plasma cells which produce antibodies. A specific B cell is tuned to a specific pathogen, and when the pathogen is present in the body, the B cell will then clone itself and produce millions of antibodies designed to eliminate the pathogen.
• T cells will bump up against cells and kill them. They are known as Killer T cells which can detect cells in your body that are harboring viruses, and when it detects such a cell, it kills it. Two other types of T cells, known as Helper and Suppressor T cells, help sensitize killer T cells and control the immune response.

Thanks for reading!