Health Meaning

The chronic underfunding field malaria research has just received a major new impetus. Traveling in Mozambique mogul software and philanthropist Bill Gates announced yesterday that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will spend $ 168 million on new research in the fight against the scourge, which is estimated to sicken half a billion people every year and kills more than one million.

The money will be spent on three projects:

• The Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), which aims to bring together governments, industry and academia to develop vaccines will receive $ 100 million. Despite decades of research, there is no vaccine against malaria. Founded in 1999 as part of the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health in Seattle, MVI has already received $ 50 million from the Gates Foundation.
  
• The drugs based in Geneva for Malaria Venture will receive $ 40 million for his efforts to develop new cheap drugs against the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum , who developed resistance to many drugs currently available. The nonprofit, who pocketed $ 25 million from Gates in 00, has several drug candidates in the pipeline.
  
• Another $ 28 million will go to the study of an innovative prevention tool based on existing drugs. In intermittent preventive treatment in infants, children, the group most vulnerable to malaria, receive antimalarial drug three times during the first year of life, as well as routine vaccinations. A study in 701 children in southern Tanzania, published in 01, showed that the treatment could cut the number of malaria cases; Gates' contribution will pay for the bigger, cluster tests necessary to decide the implementation strategy widely.

The researchers say that the new initiatives could significantly advance the field, which is currently estimated to receive only $ 100 million a year - a fraction of what is spent on the study of diseases affecting richer countries. "Given the needs in malaria is a tremendous boost," said Michael Gottlieb, a program officer for parasitology at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland.

Related Sites
More information on grants
Malaria Vaccine Initiative
Medicines for Malaria Venture
Executive Summary of intermittent preventive treatment in infants

A new vaccine against the SARS coronavirus has shown promising results in early trials, researchers report in the December issue of 6 The Lancet . The vaccine revved up immune responses in six monkeys, but researchers have not yet tested its ability to fend off disease. No human vaccine exists yet.

To develop the vaccine, Andrea Gambotto and colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh have turned to adenovirus, the culprit behind the common cold. They were designed so that each three adenovirus expresses a component of the SARS virus of different proteins. The idea behind the vaccine is to stimulate a slight attack against the cold virus, and a fierce attack against the SARS protein. Make a vaccine with the only SARS protein was more expensive and took longer, said Gambotto. And it would not have triggered the production of both T cells and antibodies -. Two components of the immune system attack considered necessary to protect

To see if the vaccine could trigger an immune response, the team injected six macaques with adenoviruses and gave them a booster injection 28 days later. After 6 weeks, all monkeys had mobilized killer T cells against SARS and had high levels of protective antibodies. Two control monkeys injected with a common cold virus, do not mount an attack. Because the monkeys do not develop SARS, the monkeys are not infected with the virus.

It is a first step, but significant, says Gary Nabel, director of the research center on vaccines at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which earlier this year suggested ' use adenoviral vaccines against SARS. Get the immune response to two components is important, says Nabel. "If you have one but not the other, the protection that you see tends to be shorter," he said.

Although the team Gambotto is the first to publish results against SARS vaccine trials, the list of candidate vaccines is booming. Nabel said it is too early to say which is best. A Canadian team working on another adenovirus vaccine and Chinese researchers can begin human studies using an inactivated virus in a few months, Nabel said, adding that his group hopes to begin human trials later next year with an adenovirus vaccine which protects mice against SARS infection.

related sites
basic information on SARS NIAID
SARS Resources Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
the site Gambotto
Vaccine Research NIAID Center of

An enigmatic, highly lethal virus group has struck again. More than 40 people in Bangladesh seem to have fallen ill with encephalitis in the last month, and 14 died. Tests indicate the Nipah virus, which began with a devastating epidemic in Malaysia in 1999. Dozens of other cases are under investigation, according to the World Health Organization

The disease appeared in several clusters in central Bangladesh. most victims are children, said principal investigator Robert Breiman the Centre for Health and Population Research in Dhaka.

The Nipah virus and an Australian cousin, Hendra, both naturally infect Pteropus fruit bats. Using horses as an intermediate host, Hendra first jumped to humans in 1994, killing two. Nipah made its way to humans in Malaysia after causing a massive outbreak in pigs, killing 105 of its 276 victims (science, including April 16, 1999, p. 407). Grouped together in a new genre - the Henipavirus -. Attention within the paramyxovirus family, high mortality and the ability to jump the species barriers duo drew

Bangladesh had even small outbreaks in 01 and 03. Since the researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta could detect antibodies against Nipah antigens in patients, but were unable to isolate the virus, they nicknamed "Nipah-like." This time, the virus was isolated, Breiman said, and CDC studies should soon make clear whether Nipah or a close relative

epidemiologically, "it is a very different disease than in Malaysia. - C is what makes it so fascinating, "said Breiman most victims were Malaysian pig farmers;. Bangladesh, there has been no outbreak of swine, and most patients were males . aged 8 to 15 years in Bangladesh bats Tests have shown that they, too, carry Nipah-like virus if an intermediate host, such as the outbreak of Malaysia is scrutinized is. also possible that the victims were directly exposed to feces of infectious bats, said Breiman.

There is no cure for Nipah, but a vaccine is under development. in the January issue of Journal of Virology , the french and Malaysian researchers reported that vaccinia virus, modified to express one or the other of two surface glycoproteins of Nipah protected golden hamsters with a mortal challenge Nipah. Because antibodies against Nipah and Hendra cross reaction, Institut Pasteur main virologist Vincent Deubel said he is "pretty confident" that the vaccine also protect against the virus Bangladesh.

Related Sites
WHO press release
Book on outbreaks of 01 and 03 in Bangladesh by the Center for Health and the research population
information about Nipah
vaccine document Summary

In some people, the immune system has a disturbing tendency to revolt: For some reason, he violently attacks the body itself. For years, scientists have wondered what triggers this rebellion. Now a team of immunologists may have hit on an important piece of the puzzle: an aggressive T cell overproduction of a class that attack the body's tissues. This blow of T cells can be avoided, they found, by exposing mice to bacteria early in life

The immune system is like a mini-ecosystem -. If there is a shortage of one type of cell, another will multiply furiously to fill the niche. To study how this can contribute to disease, immunologists Nora Sarvetnick, Cecile King, and their colleagues at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, studied mice predisposed to type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases -immunes. A few weeks before falling ill, these animals had about half the normal number of so-called memory T cells. Cells recall encounters with intruders and defense against future ones.Not surprisingly, the team found that Sarvetnick other T cells have been filling the void memory cells left behind. What was particularly striking is that these replacements were supposedly CD4 + and CD8 +, the same ones that go haywire and destroy the pancreas, which triggers type 1 diabetes rapidly proliferating cells, they found, also sported a specific cell signaling molecule. Although this marker, called IL21 has not yet been associated with autoimmune diseases, the gene product is to the right in the known DNA segment to these mouse susceptible to diabetes, suggesting that IL21 could make a drug target, said Sarvetnick.Furthermore, giving the animal a shot dead bacteria - similar to an immunization in humans - when they were newborns, Sarvetnick and colleagues prevented CD4 glut + and CD8 +. And the animals are not sick, they report in the April issue of Cell 16. The approach gives credit to the so-called "hygiene hypothesis," which argues that exposure to toxins early in life - in the case of mice, inoculated bacteria - helps prevent allergies and autoimmune diseases.Use finding provides evidence for a link between a low number of T cells and autoimmune diseases, although still not clear that it exists, said Michael Bevan, an immunologist at the University of Washington, Seattle. Sarvetnick now hopes to collect samples of human patients to see if his theory holds there.

Related Sites
Background of autoimmunity of the National Institutes of Health

SARS has sent the head of another senior official wheelchair China. Yesterday, the director Li Liming Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) resigned and several officials of lower rank, after a report of an expert group showed the largest recent outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome China on a series of faults at National Institute of Virology CDC in southern Beijing.

epidemic earlier this year that sickened eight people in Beijing and in Anhui province and killed a ( science NOW, April 27), has started when two CDC laboratory workers, independently of each other, have developed SARS. The most likely source of their infection, the report concludes, is a lot of supposedly inactivated SARS virus was brought from a high containment facility in a research laboratory of the low security diarrhea where the two worked . Apparently, the inactivation process - the addition of a mixture of detergents to the virus - was not working properly, according to the study, only a summary of five paragraphs was released. In a breach of standard safety procedures, the researcher who conducted the inactivation - identified only by a surname, "Ren." - Had not tested whether the virus really was inactive, as the panel

Some scientists have welcomed the report and the resignation of Li. "This is a clear sign for Chinese scientists and the rest of the world that the Chinese government takes [biosafety] seriously, "said Guan Yi, a virologist in Hong Kong. University But others are disappointed that many details of the incident and laboratory operating procedures remain hidden." I was hoping a full account, more open to what happened, "said Tony Della-Porta, an Australian biosafety consultant who contributed to an earlier survey SARS escapes Singapore and Taiwan.

The government immediately named Wang Yu, currently deputy director of rural and social development within the Ministry of science and technology, as the new director of the CDC. A doctor and researcher trained at the medical University of China and Nihon University Tokyo, Wang has held a number of administrative positions and is a representative of a "new generation" of Chinese leaders more open and capable, says virologist David Ho of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in new York, who recently met. "I hope that the Chinese government gives enough support to put the CDC on track," said Guan

- .. LEI OF MARTIN and Enserink With reporting by Dennis Normile Tokyo related site
press releases on the investigation

a new study in mice shows that a chemical the body related to a compound in marijuana may complicate pregnancy if present in excessive amounts. The results could have implications for pregnant women, who can put their embryos at risk by getting high.

The psychoactive compound in marijuana, THC, is similar to some of the body's own signaling molecules, called endocannabinoids. These molecules mediate their effects by binding to two proteins, called CB1 and CB2. The exact role of these endocannabinoids in reproduction is uncertain, but high levels are associated with miscarriage in women.

To clarify this role, a team led by Sudhansu Dey, a biologist with the reproduction and development at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, examined mice lacking CB1 and CB2 gene. Reporting in September 19 issue of Nature Medicine , the team discovered that embryos are often stuck in the oviducts of these mice and can not reach the uterus. The same problem occurred when the team injected booster injections of a synthetic endocannabinoid. Because the CB1 protein is found only in the muscles of the oviducts, the researchers conclude that endocannabinoids help coordinate the transport of embryos in the womb.

The study shows that the transport of the embryo depends chemical "fine tuning," said Vincenzo Di Marzo, a reproduction biologist at the National Institute of Molecular Biology in Naples, Italy. Dey warns that women who use marijuana may be at risk of ectopic pregnancy - the development of an embryo attached to the fallopian tube rather than the uterus - which can threaten the life of the mother and child, but Di. Marzo cautions that "the general picture in humans could be radically different," and he has not known whether THC reached dangerous levels in the fallopian tubes of women who use marijuana.

Related Sites
homepage of Sudhansu Dey
research group endocannabinoid Vincenzo Di Marzo

An Advisory Committee World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that scientists be allowed to genetically modify the smallpox virus. If the recommendation is accepted by WHO Director General Jong-wook Lee and the World Health Assembly, it would be the first time since smallpox was eradicated that scientists would be allowed this organization to genetically modify the virus.

Smallpox eradication is one of the greatest triumphs WHO: a disease that used to kill millions has been eliminated thanks to a vaccination campaign in the world. The samples of the smallpox virus still only known are stored frozen under tight security in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, and the research center VECTOR in Koltsovo, Russia. Many involved in the eradication effort pushed for stocks remaining to be destroyed, but others argued that stocks should be kept to allow research on new treatments or safer vaccines in cases of terrorists or rogue countries have secret caches.

A WHO Advisory Committee must approve any research done with remaining stock, and CDC scientists recently requested permission to insert a marker gene encoding green fluorescent protein in the virus to make it easier to test the efficacy of new antiviral drugs. The modified virus would then be a green light under fluorescent light as long as the virus is intact. In the presence of effective drugs, the green glow will fade. The Advisory Committee approved these experiences last week, according to a WHO spokesman.

The experiment in question "has a clear scientific justification" with little or no chance of accidentally creating a more dangerous virus, said molecular biologist Richard Ebright of Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey. The review process, it went through "is an example of how the process should work," he said.

Related Sites
Smallpox information from the CDC
Smallpox Information WHO

Is a diabetes treatment using targeted cancer drugs? This is a question asking two independent teams after giving leukemia patients Gleevec drug and watch their regression of pre-existing diabetes. A 70-year-old woman improved dramatically that she could be considered a type 2 diabetic, three physicians reported last week in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) .

Gleevec was designed to disable a defect in a protein called tyrosine kinase that occurs in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a blood cancer. The connection with diabetes does not come as a complete surprise; Gleevec affect other kinases which indirectly contribute a control insulin signaling and the body's response to insulin secreted by the pancreas. And it strikes a known protein kinase growth factor, platelet derived which can stimulate conditions such as atherosclerosis, which are common complications of diabetes. Two mouse studies recently by Mark Cooper and colleagues from the Baker Heart Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia, showed that Gleevec helped animals with atherosclerosis induced by diabetes and kidney disease caused by diabetes .

The benefits may apply to humans, too. In November 04 Journal of Clinical Oncology , doctors from the University of Rome described seven patients with type 2 diabetes and CML. Six improved enough to reduce drugs against diabetes or insulin doses. The only patient whose diabetes did not help, the team said, was also the only one whose leukemia has not responded to Gleevec.

And now in NEJM , Enzo Bonora, an endocrinologist at the University of Verona, hematologist and two colleagues report improvements in three other cancer patients with diabetes, including older women. Italians can not tell if an effect on insulin signaling is behind the unusual observations. In addition, the cohort is tiny, Bonora stresses, so the results should be viewed with caution. "We do not know exactly what is happening," he said.

Neither do others. Brian Druker of Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, a hematologist-oncologist who helped develop Gleevec, said three or four diabetics with CML were treated at the center, and he does not remember changes in their diabetes while on the drug. Yet Druker said that the new findings are "hard to ignore."

Bonora considering asking Novartis, the Swiss company that makes Glivec to consider testing the type of medication 2 diabetes. Currently, Novartis " does not expect "the Gleevec study in type 2 diabetes, spokesperson for Novartis Kim Fox wrote in an email.

Related Sites
American diabetes Association
Information about Gleevec to the Food and Drug administration
Gleevec Context of the National cancer Institute
Clip NEJM letter

Humans put much stock in symmetry. People with symmetrical faces, for example, are often seen as more attractive and worthy companion. But the benefits do not end there. According to a new study, women with more symmetrical breasts are less likely to develop breast cancer than those with less breast perfect mirror

Many factors are known to influence the risk of breast cancer :. inherited genetic mutations ( science NOW, November 26, 26 03), the duration of breastfeeding ( science NOW, July 18, 03), and exposure to smoke from cigarette second hand ( science NOW, April 11, 00), for example. Another difference between healthy women and those with breast cancer is that the latter group more asymmetrical breasts. The question was: the breast asymmetry could predict the risk of breast cancer when measured in healthy women

The preliminary results suggest that it could ?. In a study published today in Breast Cancer Research , medical imaging Diane Scutt and Gillian Lancaster, University of Liverpool, UK, and John Manning of the University of Central Lancashire, UK , measured the volume of the breast mammograms of 504 healthy women. breast asymmetry was quite common. Among women who remained healthy breast averaged 53 milliliters, or 2.5%, larger than the other; for those who have developed cancer, the difference was significantly higher: 63 ml or 2.7%. Researchers have estimated that for each difference of 100 milliliters of breast volume, there was a 50% risk.

Such extreme volume difference is found in very few women, Scutt said, noting that other factors must be taken into account when assessing the risk of cancer. Still, she said, doctors may eventually be able to use breast asymmetry measures to monitor women already at high risk of breast cancer.

Anthropologist Robert Trivers of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, who is studying the effects of asymmetry, agrees and says that the sense of conclusions; breast asymmetry is caused by changes in estrogen levels, which are also associated with other breast cancer risk factors. He adds that the study is potentially "valuable" to quantify the risk of asymmetry.

Related Sites

• The study
• More information on the risk factors of breast cancer

experts have long feared that if a virus and human influenza strain H5N1 avian influenza currently circulating in much the world were to combine their genes, the result could be a disaster-- a deadly virus that spreads easily among people. But scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today that several of these hybrid viruses are, at least in ferrets, relatively benign.

Since 1997, the H5N1 virus has infected at least 231 people mostly in Asia, 133 of them died ( science NOW, February 9). So far the virus has not taken a form that passes easily between humans. This could occur if the H5N1 slowly developed the necessary changes, as probably happened with the Spanish flu of 1918 ( Science NOW, October 5, 05). Or H5N1 virus that infected a person could exchange some of its eight genes with those of a human flu virus - keeping its hemagglutinin (HA) surface protein, to which people have no immunity. Known as reassortment, this process led to two milder flu pandemics in 1957 and 1968.

Thus, CDC researchers and colleagues used a technique called reverse genetics laboratory to make combinations of H3N2 , a strain of human seasonal flu, and the virus strain H5N1 1997. to model the spread of the virus in people, they housed ferrets inoculated with reassortant in adjacent cages to healthy ferrets so that animals may transmit the virus through the air.

The hybrid proteins with H3N2 outside and H5N1 internal proteins well replicated in the cells, but not as easily transmitted among ferrets as H3N2 itself, the CDC team found. And potentially the most dangerous combinations - viruses containing genes for surface proteins of H5N1 and the virus proteins internal human flu - not only did not increase, and the H5N1 virus, but does not spread at all between ferrets. All reassortant would probably need, reports the CDC team today more genetic changes, such as those who made the 1957 and 1968 strains most able to bind to epithelial cells of the human respiratory tract in Acts of the national Academy of sciences . "The picture is more complex" than just the mixing of avian genes and flu, says co-author Jacqueline Katz of CDC.

This does not mean that the world can let down his guard against the H5N1 virus. "I'm cautious about using the word" reassuring, "said CDC Director Julie Gerberding reporters Friday, noting that the study only looked at simple combinations of a human flu virus and one strain H5N1. But it would have been bad news if a so-called reassortant had spread easily among ferrets, according to virologist Albert Osterhaus of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. We can be a "little" relieved, he said.

For wider coverage, please stay tuned for August 4 issue of Science.

Related site

• CDC facts on H5N1