Artificial Sweeteners aren’t so sweet

Many people are doing several different things to improve their health. Some things are exercising more, eating healthy, taking vitamin supplements, and even replacing their sugar with artificial sweeteners, such as Splenda, Equal, or Sweet and Low, which contain aspartame. Mainly those worried about their weight and health conditions such as diabetes will take artificial sweeteners to reduce their sugar intake, in hopes of reducing their sugar levels and aiding in the prevention of gaining weight.

Aspartame, although seen as a healthy alternative to sugar, actually causes the exact opposite effects. Aspartame is actually detrimental to the body and the health of people who use it. This produce actually causes people to gain weight due to the chemical that make you crave carbohydrates. Not only does it cause weight gain due to increase intake of carbohydrates, it also can change the chemicals in the brain, which can cause seizures and can be fatal for those suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

Aspartame is dangerous because the ingredients of the produce can be converted to formaldehyde, formic acid, which induces metabolic acidosis. Metabolic acidosis is when the body is not removing acids quick enough, causing high levels of acid, which can result in coma or death. Also keep in mind that formaldehyde can be used as a disinfectant and is also used to preserve cadavers.

Why would you want to put something in yourself that can preserve your cells? So next time you go to sweeten your tea or coffee think, sugar or formaldehyde.

BPA: It's everywhere!

A recent article in Women’s Health magazine raised awareness to the fact that BPA is present in canned foods, which as many know can be detrimental to one’s health if consumed in excess. BPA is a plastic hardening chemical that has negative effects on the brain, impairing normal function, leading to memory loss, learning difficulties and depression. A study conducted at Yale School of Medicine used primates in a study of BPA exposure, giving them equal amounts designated safe for humans by the EPA. These primates after long term exposure showed nerve cell connection loss in the brain that influences memory consolidation and learning.
An interest fact about BPA that I was unaware of was that it is a synthetic sex hormone, mimicking estrogen in the body. This excess of estrogen in the body is a hormone disrupting chemical meaning it interferes with the normality of the functioning hormone by exaggerating hormonal responses. BPA gets into the human body from its leaching into food and beverages from cans and plastics lined with the chemical. Over the past few years, there has been raised awareness not to heat plastics by microwave, boiling or washing. What is scary is that BPA in food production is not anything new. BPA has been manufactured in plastics for the past 60 years. In a study conducted by the Center for Disease Control in 2005, 95% of urine samples from people in the United States have measurable BPA levels. The only hope we have for change it to stop its production in our food packaging and hope that drastic health complications are not waiting for us all in the future.
Carlson, Caitlin. Is BPA in Your Soup? Women’s Healthy Magazine, 22 November 2011.
Frederick S. vom Saal and Claude Hughes. An Extensive New Literature Concerning Low-Dose Effects of Bisphenol A Shows the Need for a New Risk Assessment. Environ Health Perspect. 2005 August; 113(8): 926–933, Published online 2005 April 13.

How to Make Your Baby Smarter

In our society, parents are continually trying to find ways to give their child an advantage. One advantage that parents want their kids to have is brains. Trends including reading to your baby and playing classical music to your baby in order to make them smarter have come about, but does it really work?

While researching I have determined that “making a baby smarter” doesn’t mean that you are able to increase the baby’s IQ, it means you are trying to make the baby’s brain develop faster. Infancy is the most fragile and essential time for the brain to develop. The brain doubles in size and grows to 60% of its adult mass in one year (Sears). In the field of Neurobiology, smartness is measured by the number of connections a neuron makes (Sears). A baby is born with most of its neurons unconnected, so in the first year a lot of those connections can be aided by the parents. The connections of these neurons create circuits and allow for the baby to better think and do things (Sears).

Parents performing simple tasks such as making eye contact with the baby and making faces will cause the image to be sent to the visual information part of the brain and eventually the motor part of the brain because the baby will try to react. Therefore, a circuit will be made by the neurons connecting the visual part of the brain to the motor part of the brain.

In extreme cases of neglect and abuse parents can also be responsible for inhibition of their child’s development. On the Anderson Cooper show, child psychologist, Bruce Perry, discussed the effects of neglect on babies. He said that without any affection or interaction the baby’s brain and neural connections will atrophy. This can lead to lifelong mental impairment and irreversible effects.

Sears. How baby brains grow. Dr.Sears Family Essentials. 2011. http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/child-rearing-and-development/smart-start/how-baby-brains-grow

Werewolf Syndrome

Congenital hypertrichosis (CGH) is a rare inherited condition characterized by excessive hair growth on the body present at birth. People who are affected with this disease are often stigmatized, yet have been an intriguing subject not only in the field of science and genetics, but for circus and royalty amusement in the Middle Ages. Rashid and White (2007) first distinguish between the three types of human hair associated with CGH and the progression of the hair growth. Lanugo hairs are thin, lightly pigmented hairs which develop during the fetus stage of life; they typically shed prior to birth and/or shortly after. Replacing the lanugo hairs are non-pigmented vellus hairs that are shorter in length. Vellus hair covers the entire body with the exception of the scalp, eyelashes and eyebrows. From vellus hair follicle sprout longer and coarser terminal hair. Terminal hair is typically more darkly pigmented and constitutes the eyebrows, eyelashes, and scalp. Terminal hair also arises from the excretion of androgen, or male hormones, during and after puberty, and is thus responsible for the surfacing hair patterns of puberty that are observed.

The different syndromes with CGH as the main phenotypic feature are classified based on the type of hair as well as its distribution (Sun et al., 2009). The most commonly researched CGH is that which is observed over the entire body, referred to as generalized congenital hypertrichosis. Thus far, research shows an inversion on chromosome 8. Balducci et al. (1998) reported a paracentric inversion on chromosome 8, inv8(q12q22). Paracentric inversions are those which do not involve the centromere of the chromosome, showing both breakpoints of the inversion on the same arm.

CGH cannot be readily identified and diagnosed on a molecular basis, but because of its distinct phenotypic characteristics can often be diagnosed based on hair type, distribution and age of onset. Furthermore, CGH is often classified with regard to associated anomalies. Case reports, of both single and multiple generations, have associated CGH with various phenotypic anomalies and other disorders. Phenotypically, observed patients of different syndromes of CGH tend to show characteristic broadened nose and jaw structures, full lips, and a short and broad neck.

The phenotypic defects caused by CGH have significant psychological effects on adolescents and young adults. Those who are affected typically suffer from anxieties and insecurities regarding their physical appearance (Hawryluk & English, 2009). Although there is no cure for this rare disorder, the excess or undesired hair caused by CGH can typically be removed via laser hair removal, waxing, tweezing and most commonly, shaving (Plantin, Schloenlaub, Dupre & LeFlur, 1998).

Balducci R, Toscano V, Tedeschi B, Mangiantini A, Toscano R, et al. 1998. A new case of Ambras syndrome associated with a paracentric inversion (8) (q12; q22). Clin Genet. 53: 466-468.

Hawryluk EB, English JC. 2009. Female adolescent hair disorders. J Pediatr Adolesc Gynecol. 22:271-281

Plantin P, Schoenlaub P, Dupre D, LeFur J. 1998. Shaving: a simple and effective treatment for moderate congenital hypertrichosis. Eur J Dermatol. 8(3): 189-190.

Rashid RM, White LE. 2007. A hairy development in hypertrichosis: a brief review of Ambras syndrome. Dermatol Online J. 13(3): 8.

Sun M, Li N, Dong W, Chen Z, Lui Q, et al. 2009. Copy-number mutations on chromosomes 17q24.2-q24.3 in congenital generalized hypertrichosis terminalis with or without gingival hyperplasia. Am J Hum Genet. 84(6): 807-813.

Odd Eating Habits of Cows

All over the world, cows have been demonstrating very peculiar eating habits that no one bothered to notice, until now. Thanks to google earth, a curious scientists in Germany, Dr. Sebine Begall, it has been discovered that cows all eat in formation; all cows eat together periodically during the day, all facing north or south. Never were the cows seen facing eat or west when they were eating.
The scientists also looked at deer and sheep and realized that for the most part, they all eat in this bizarre, but organized way. It was believed to be caused by the animals innate sensitivity to the earths poles, and the magnetic pull occurring in the earth in accordance to the poles. But why would they care? It was thought that the animals did this because of their over sensitivity to the earths rotations and magnetic pull, but also to the sun and to the weather. Many have thought that the animals will stand a certain way because of the sun; the sun always rises in the east and sets in the west, so in the life a lazy cow, the easiest way to stand would be facing north or south to avoid the glaring direct sun, altogether. However, the sun hypothesis has been ruled as a secondary cause for the way that the cattle stand and not a primary cause. The primary cause is still the magnetic pull within the earth (north and south) that is effecting the way that the cattle, and other animals, will stand during times of grazing.
The same researchers also looked at body positions of over 2,000 different deer all across the Czech Republic and found that 2/3rds of deer stood facing north during grazing periods, and only 1/3rd faced south.
"That might be due to some anti-predatory behavior" ~ Dr. Begall
Next time that you are driving cross country or bored on google-earth, check out the way that cattle are grazing, and see if you can notice this bizarre, north-south standing behavior.

Mitchell, E. (2008, August 25). Cattle shown to align north-south. BBC News, Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7575459.stm

Lungs... Who Needs Them

At National Jewish Hospital, where I work, it is common place to hear about Thoracotomies. This is a procedure that removes part or even all of a lung. The reason this is sometimes a necessary treatments is due to malignant or benign diseases that fest in the lungs. The most common Thoracotomies I have seen at the hospital are either Lobectomies (the removal of one of the lobes of one of the lungs), or the Pneumonectomy (removal of one whole lung) (USC 2011). The reason this last resort procedure may take place is due to the common cold. Some individuals who lack physiological functions to expel disease will be unable to get rid of the common cold and in turn it will build up in the lungs and be very difficult to get rid of, even with intense antibiotics. The body is very resilient though and depending on age and health the body can recover very quickly. For example, in a study conducted on lambs 2-24 days old a Thoracotomy was performed to measure if and how long it takes for the their bodies to recover (Sidi 1982). This study was able to conclude that 48-72 hours preceding procedure the lambs were able to adequately recover to levels seen before the surgery. No matter how lambs respond to the surgery it is still scary for anyone undergoing this procedure with fear of complications. One way to determine if a patient is a good candidate for the procedure is a simple fitness test. In an article found in The American Review of Reparatory Disease, patients with VO2max greater than 20 ml/kg/min only showed 10% of complications where all the patients in the test pool with a VO2max less than 15 ml/kg/min showed complications (Smith et al 1984). Therefore, going into the procedure knowing how fit and healthy your body is will be a good cursor to how well your body will respond to the operation. Thoracotomies are performed for a variety of other reasons as well but the fact that this a common place operation is proof of the advancement of modern medicine.

Smith Tp, Kinasewitz GT, Tucker Wy, Spillers WP, Geroge RB (1984). Exercise capacity as a predictor of post-theracotomy morbidity. The American Review of Respiratory Disease, 129(5): 730-4.
USC (2011). A Patient’s Guild to Lung Surgery. www.cts.usc.edu
Sidi D, Kuipers RG, Heyman A, Rudolph M (1982). Recovery of Cardiovascular Function in Newborn Lambs after THoractotomy. Pediatric Research, 16(9).

Coffee= Better Memory

Addicted to Coffee? Good for you, since it can help your memory. A study found in Pharmacol Biochem Behav found that caffeine is able to increase long term memory in lab rats (Abreu et al 2011). In the experiment the researchers made caffeine and coffee a fraction of the diet for some test pools. After 80 days the rats where retested for memories that were taught before the period of dietary change. All though these rats where experience some serious caffeine highs; there was no increase in the rats locomotor or exploratory activities. As the study says, “chronic coffee ingestion” leads to improved cognitive function which may be good news due to the over consumption of this product in our society. The scientists of this study suggest that this fact may be an important role when considering age associated decline in cognitive function. This has also been studied in humans as Appetite published an article about caffeinated herbal chewing gum improving memory (Davidson 2011). The study was trying to test if this caffeinated Herbal chewing gum would increase memory function as well as concentration. The 62 students involved in the study showed results that using the gum, compared to other test groups, led to elevated mental performance. Pretty impressive for the $2 pack of gum. Sometimes caffeine can get bad PR though due to withdrawals and crashes but another study found in The Journal of Nutrition suggest other positive effects of the use of caffeine ranging from enhanced physical activity, increased alertness/awareness, increase accuracy of reaction, increase ability to problem solve, enhanced short term memory, and much more (Glade 2010). When it comes to memory caffeine has some stimulating results. In the spirit of winter finals, coffee may just make you do that much better when studying and cramming last minute.

Glade MJ (2010). Caffeine- Not just a Stimulant. Nutrition (10): 932-8.

Abreu RV, Silva EM, Moraes MF, Pereira GS, Moraes T (2011). Chronic coffee and caffeine ingestion effects on cognitive function and antioxidant system of rat brains. Pharmacol Biochem Behav, 99(4): 659-64.

Davidson MG (2011). Herbal-caffeinated chewing gum, but not bubble gum, improves aspects of memory. Appetite 57(1): 303-7

www.thinkgum.com

Mickey Mouse can Improve your Memory

Did you ever think going to Disney land could help you remember better? A study from LI-Huei Tsai showed that this was actually the case in lab mice (Huei 2011). The study was shown on Nova as Dr. Huei tested lab mice’s ability to find a hidden platform in a tub of water. The scientists would “teach” the mice where the platform was until they were able to find the platform from memory and would not have to search for it. After this point, the mice were injected with a memory inhibiting protein that made it so that the mice could not find the platform when put back into the tank of water. When the mice successfully forgot where the platform was the scientist put the mice in a social environment where they were able to play, run on the wheel, and do other Mickey Mouse games. After this little “play date”, the mice where tested again and they were able to successfully remember where the platform was even without retraining (Huei 2011).

Why is it that memories can be lost and re-found? Fischer et al has found that genetic makeup of our DNA has a big part to play with how well we remember (Fischer et al. 2007). This study used “environmental enrichment” to increase the memory in their mice subjects. What the researchers have found was that environmental enrichment modified the chromatin through Histone- tail acetylation. Also, the act of Histone-tail acetylation led to new Dendrites to form, increasing synaptic passageways (Fischer et al. 2007). Why is this? The environmental enrichment lead to DNA to loosen up around the Histone proteins so that genes responsible for memory and brain function can be translated. The Nova program related this back to Older Adults in nursing homes that showed improved mental status when stimulated through activities, music, dance, etc (Hendrie 2008).

So the next time mommy and daddy ask about going to Disney Land tell them that the dendritic benefits of riding on magic mountain or riding on It’s a Small World After All and how this will help you remember that much better.

Hendrie et al (2008). Of Mice and Memory. Nova Science now, <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/mice-memory.html>

Huei LH (2011). Mechanisms Underlying Memory Disorders. HHMI, <http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/tsai.html>

Fischer A, Sananbenesi F, Wang X, Dobbin M, Tsai LH (2007). Recovery of learning and memory is associated with chromatin remodeling. Nature. 10;447(7141):178-82

Microsleep – an Embarrassing Situation or a Deadly One

Have you ever seen someone's head bobbing during a class lecture? Perhaps you have experienced this state of powerlessness where you feel as if the entire world is watching you, but you just simply can’t stay awake no matter what. You wake up in a fear of realizing that you just dose off right in front of a professor. The youtube video [1] demonstrates one unfortunate student who is struggling through such a situation. Sometimes this could take us to such extremes as not realizing actions that we just performed, i.e. randomly putting cereal in the refrigerator. This phenomenon is called microsleep, where a person is experiencing brief episodes of loss of attention [2]. It usually occurs in a fatigued but awake person during a monotonous task, such as sitting in a classroom or watching a computer screen. These episodes could last from a few seconds to several minutes, even while a person’s eyes remain open. Such situations could potentially lead to a misunderstanding, where a professor may interpret a sleeping student as lazy, whereas in reality the student could have actually pulled an all-nighter while studying. In a research on exhausted mice scientists monitored how 18 out of 20 neurons remained awake, causing subjects to partially fail in certain challenging tasks [3].

In more serious situations, microsleep occurs during driving, which may cause a driver to overlook a red light or shift lanes without realizing what had actually happened until several seconds later, which may already be too late. According to German Traffic Safety Advisory Board statistics about 25 percent of fatal single vehicle accidents in Germany are attributed to microsleep [4]. I remember once experiencing an uncontrollable dosing off during night driving where I woke up in a different lane a few seconds later, not remembering how the event actually occurred. In that instance of realization my heart rate had peaked up through the car roof, following by sweating and heavily protruded eyes. Having experienced it once, I since avoided it at all cause. To help drivers such as myself to avoid such dangerous situations, Siemens had developed an infrared light-emitting diode (IR-LED) to help recognize microsleep in motorists [4]. This technology uses camera with sensor at wavelength of 850 nm capable of seat occupancy recognition, among other features, to hopefully keep sleepy drivers safe on or off the road.


References:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z4ZcV0DZgQ
2. Microsleep. Retrieved from: http://www.sleep.com/content/microsleep
3. Microsleep: Brain Regions Can Take Short Naps During Wakefulness, Leading to Errors. (2011). ScienceDaily. Retrieved from: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110427131814.htm
4. Detecting drivers in microsleep with infrared LED. (2010). Retrieved from: http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-10-drivers-microsleep-infrared.html

Multifunctional Polymers for the Targeted Treatment of Breast Cancer via RNA Interference

The use of RNA interference in gene therapy has recently shown great potential in cancer treatment. Using nanomedicines to deliver siRNA to cancer cells is an excellent solution to delivery problems encountered in previous experiments. These nanoparticles must contain a specific siRNA sequence, ligands able to target only cancer cells, and imaging abilities.

To produce an efficient nanomedicine, there are several important components that must be considered. The most important requirement for a nanomedicine is stability and biocompatibility. All components must not be unexpectedly degraded by different environments in the body or toxic to unexpected parts of the body. The nanomedicine must have some type of imaging, targeting, and treatment capabilities. The nanomedicine in my research was composed of gadolinium nanoparticles with biocompatible polymers attached to the outside of the nanoparticle. Gadolinium was used because it is an effective imaging agent for MRIs. This allows for the nanomedicines to be tracked and make sure they are concentrated near the cancer cells. The biocompatible polymers can be modified with targeting ligands, siRNA, or a chemotherapeutic. I used folic acid to target breast cancer cells and siRNA for treatment.

The nanomedicine is administered to patients intravenously, travels throughout the body, and attaches to cancer cell surface receptors. Once the targeting ligand attaches to over expressed cell surface receptors, the nanomedicine is endocytosed into the cell. When in the cell enzymes or changes in pH can activate the release of siRNA from the nanomedicine and RNA interference (RNAi) can commence.

The process of RNA interference to silence specific oncogenes has incredible possibilities. RNAi makes use of small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules to regulate gene expression by the inhibition or degradation of existing genetic material. This prevents transcription of mature messenger RNA (mRNA) into phenotypic expression. RNAi is a natural self-defense mechanism present in all eukaryotic cells and requires small amounts of siRNA to completely silence a specific gene.

RNAi is initiated when double stranded RNA (dsRNA) molecules enter the cell. A protein complex called Dicer cleaves the dsRNA into smaller fragments, siRNA, about twenty nucleotides in length. A new protein called the RNA induced silencing complex (RISC) attaches to a siRNA molecule and uses its helicase activity to separate the two strands. The RISC protein and an associated single stranded siRNA attach to complementary nucleotides on mRNA in the cytoplasm. The RISC protein cleaves the mRNA into fragments and these “fragments are recognized by the cell as being aberrant and are destroyed” by other proteins.^[1]

Though there is a lot of research that needs to be done, multifunctional nanomedicines and the use of RNAi for the treatment of cancer shows great potential.

[1] Nature Reviews. RNA Interference (Video).

http://www.nature.com/focus/rnai/animations/animation/animation.htm.

[2] N. Durcan, C. Murphy, and S. Cryan. Inhalable siRNA: Potential as a Therapeutic Agent in the Lungs. Molecular Pharmaceutics. 2008. Vol. 5, No. 4, 559-566.

[3] P. Low, W. Henne, and D. Doorneweerd. Discover and Development of Folic-Acid-Based Receptor Targeting for Imaging and Therapy of Cancer and Inflammatory Diseases. Accounts of Chemical Research. 2007. Vol. 41, No. 1, 120-129.