DOCTORS AND PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERTS CALL ON UN TO ACT ON ANTIBIOTICS.

The U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) delivered a letter signed by leaders in the American public health and medical communities to the U.S. Delegation of the United Nations today urging them to push for international action to stop the misuse of antibiotics on livestock and poultry. The letter is in anticipation of the UN General Assembly’s first ever high-level meeting on antibiotic resistance this week. “Global leaders have failed to act in a unified way to protect life-saving antibiotics. Now we find ourselves at the cliff’s edge—just a step away from a post-antibiotic era. It’s time to act,” said Dr. Lance Price, Director of the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center, Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. “We need a global agreement to protect medically important antibiotics from overuse and misuse in industrial farming and in human medicine.” The UN doesn’t convene high level meetings on health issues lightly, having done so only a handful of times in the past. Antibiotic resistance warrants the spotlight. A study conducted for the United Kingdom estimates that unless immediate action is taken, drug resistant infections could kill more people worldwide per year by 2050 than cancer does today. Although antibiotics are sometimes misused in human medicine, the widespread overuse of the drugs on livestock and poultry has also been connected to the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria. In the United States, approximately 70% of medically important antibiotics sold are for use on livestock and poultry. The drugs are often given routinely to animals that aren’t sick to promote growth and prevent disease common in unsanitary conditions. This overuse can encourage the growth of antibiotic resistant bacteria, which can spread to people through contaminated food, human to animal contact, air born dust and water runoff. “These miracles of modern medicine are slipping through our fingers,” said Patrice Snow, U.S. PIRG Antibiotics Program Director. “In order to preserve antibiotics for the future, we need to stop overusing and misusing them on healthy farm animals.” more

Scientists create live offspring without a female egg.

A study documented in journal of Natures Communication has shown how scientists have been able to breed produce offspring's from 2 males.The experiment by the University of Bath rewrites years of biology teaching and could pave the way for a baby to be born from the DNA of two men. It was always thought that only a female egg could spark the changes in a sperm required to make a baby, because an egg forms from a special kind of cell division in which just half the number of chromosomes are carried over.Sperm cells form in the same way, so that when a sperm and egg meet they form a full genetic quota, with half our DNA coming from our mother and half from our father. Scientists have shown embryos could be created from cells which carry all their chromosomes which means that, in theory, any cell in the human body could be fertilized by a sperm.Three generations of mice have already been created using the technique and are fit and healthy and now researchers are planning to test out the theory using skin cells. The experiment involved, scientists stimulating an egg into developing into an embryo using special chemicals which makes the egg think it has been fertilized. Technically the cells in an embryo copy themselves completely when they divide, and so mirror closely most other cells in the body, such as skin cells. When scientists injected the embryos with sperm, they grew into healthy mice which went on to produce their own litters. The technique shows a possibility for gay men to have children, whose DNA was half of each of the couple, although a woman would still need to act as a surrogate to carry the baby.It also amplifies the possibility that a man could even fertilize his own cells to produce offspring containing a mixture of genes inherited from him and his parents. Women can also benefit from this technique, women whose fertility has been erased by cancer drugs or radiotherapy to have their own children. The current method is for eggs to be frozen before cancer therapy and later fertilized in an IVF clinic, but nothing can be done once the eggs have been lost may be due to aging . This technique will also help women to continue having children later in life even after menopause. Its known that women are born with all their eggs but these degrade with age, which makes conception more difficult in later life. The possibility of fertilizing new skin cells to produce off springs will improve and increase the chances of having a baby at any age depending on the health status of the mother. The animal world will also have a piece of the cake as conception using sperm cells with non-egg cells(primed skin cells) will prolong the lines of certain species as endangered species will not be a problem since the need to recover eggs is erased. The preservation of certain breeds,with pure lines will be possible and with immense benefits.

The link between flowers and bacteria transmission in wild bees.

A study has shown that multiple flower and wild bee species share several of the same types of bacteria,as these bacteria may play important roles in bee health. The research, published in the journal Microbial Ecology, shows for the first time that multiple flower and wild bee species share several of the same types of bacteria. Wild bees although not as widely studied as honey bees or bumblebees, are a critical in the pollination puzzle. Wild bees could become more important because of the decline in numbers of honey bees due to colony collapse disorder, which has resulted in the loss of more than 10 million hives in the past decade. The team collected wild bees and flowers from 2 locations,they simulated bee nests by drilling holes into wood and placing these nests in fields with wildflowers,because wild bees naturally nest in abandoned holes in trees created by beetles. The bees established nests in wood and they were collected , the microbiomes of their guts and the pollen they were carrying was analyzed. They also collected flowers at the site including those that the bees visited and flowers that they didn't visit. They ensured flowers that had not been visited by bees, had bags placed over them before they bloomed and then picked them once they matured and opened. The result showed that the bacteria were present on the flowers whether they were bagged or not. The presence of bee-associated bacteria in bagged flowers suggests the bacteria may be transmitted to flowers via plant surfaces, the air or small insects. The bacteria shared by flowers and wild bees is believed to be beneficial because of the presence of Lactobacillus bacteria, which was found on all the flower and bee samples.

Rapid test to detect salmonella in meat and poultry.

A study published in the journal of food safety,shows a rapid test to detect salmonella in meat and poultry. Salmonella is the leading cause of food borne illnesses so an early detection of the pathogen, by a rapid and sensitive test is important to prevent the illness and economic losses. Scientists led by University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researchers has found a faster and more precise way to detect salmonella in beef and chicken. In the study, researchers artificially contaminated food with salmonella, and then tested the food samples using Salmonella-specific antibodies combined with a unique signal amplification technique. The test found salmonella present after 15 hours and removed other microorganisms that sometimes clutter laboratory results. This is shorter than the two to three days it takes to detect salmonella in a culture.This test is an effective simple monitoring system for food borne pathogens in food samples, which can improve food safety .

Small implanted device limits metastatic breast cancer.

A new finding reported in Cancer Research shows how a medical device implanted under the skin can improve breast cancer survival by catching cancer cells, slowing the development of metastatic tumors in other organs and allowing time to intervene with surgery or other therapies. This study shows that in the metastatic setting, early detection combined with a therapeutic intervention can improve outcomes. Early detection of a primary tumor is generally associated with improved outcomes.This study, done in mice shows that the implantable scaffold device effectively captures metastatic cancer cells. The scaffold is made of FDA-approved material commonly used in sutures and wound dressings. It's biodegradable and can last up to two years within a patient. The researchers envision it would be implanted under the skin, monitored with non-invasive imaging and removed upon signs of cancer cell colonization, at which point treatment could be administered. The scaffold is designed to mimic the environment in other organs before cancer cells migrate there. The scaffold attracts the body's immune cells, and the immune cells draw in the cancer cells. This then limits the immune cells from heading to the lung, liver or brain, where breast cancer commonly spreads.Typically, immune cells initially colonize a metastatic site and then pave the way for cancer cells to spread to that organ. In the mouse study at day 5 after tumor initiation, the researchers found a detectable percentage of tumor cells within the scaffold but none in the lung, liver or brain, suggesting that the cancer cells hit the scaffold first. At 15 days after tumor initiation, they found 64 percent fewer cancer cells in the liver and 75 percent fewer cancer cells in the brains of mice with scaffolds compared to mice without scaffolds. This suggests that the presence of the scaffold slows the progress of metastatic disease. The researchers removed the tumors at day 10, which is after detection but before substantial spreading, and found the mice that had the scaffold in place survived longer than mice that did not have a scaffold. While surgery was the primary intervention in this study, the researchers suggest that additional medical treatments might also be tested as early interventions. This system is early detection and treatment, not a cure, the researchers emphasize. The scaffold won't prevent metastatic disease or reverse disease progression for patients with established metastatic cancer.

New mosquito-borne disease detected in Haiti.

University of Florida researchers have identified a patient in Haiti with a serious mosquito-borne illness that has never before been reported in the Caribbean nation. Its known as "Mayaro virus," and it is closely related to chikungunya virus and was first isolated in Trinidad in 1954. Most reported cases, however, have been confined to small outbreaks in the Amazon. Whether this case signals the start of a new outbreak in the Caribbean region is currently unknown. The case was identified from a blood sample taken in January 2015 from an 8-year-old boy in rural Haiti. The patient had a fever and abdominal pain but no rash or conjunctivitis.The symptoms of Mayaro fever are similar to those of chikungunya fever: fever, joint pain, muscle pain and rashes. Abdominal pain is also a feature of Mayaro fever, however, and joint pain can last longer.

Detection of mad cow disease using cattle retina.

A study published in the peer-reviewed academic journal PLOS ONE shows that examining the retinas of cattle can give information about mad cow disease 11 months before signs are noticed. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy BSE, known more commonly as mad cow disease, is an untreatable neurodegenerative disorder caused by misfolded brain proteins known as prions . Classic BSE incubates for years before farmers,herdsmen or veterinarians notice symptoms, which is usually discovered when the animal can no longer stand on its own. The cow's retina could give secrets about bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the retina is part of the central nervous system,the part of the brain that windows the outside world. Studies have shown that changes occur in the retina of animals that have prion diseases. The study used noninvasive technologies to access the retinas and determine the health status of the animal. This can easily be adapted for inspection and selection of animals both for import and slaughter to ensure food safety. Examination of retinas of cattle will be a much faster way to check for mad cow disease and prevent economic loses.