Genetically modified tobacco plants produce antibodies to treat rabies.

Smoking tobacco is bad for your health, but a genetically altered version of the plant might provide an inexpensive cure for the deadly rabies virus. Scientists have produced a monoclonal antibody in transgenic tobacco plants shown to neutralize the rabies virus. This antibody works by preventing the virus from attaching to nerve endings around the bite site and keeping the virus from traveling to the brain. The research finding appeared in The FASEB Journal, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology shows the efficacy of the tobacco plant to produce the vaccine. Rabies is a public health concern in developing countries where majority of pets are not vaccinated and a dog-bite incidence is always fatal because of high cost of vaccine and accessibility. The Production of an inexpensive antibody in transgenic plants opens the prospect of adequate rabies prevention for low-income families in developing countries.

Two major groups of rabies virus display distinct evolutionary trends.

Genome data reveal the evolutionary patterns that underlie jumps between rabies host species.Using hundreds of viral genome sequences, scientists have shown that two major groups of rabies virus have unique evolutionary tendencies and their findings are presented in a study published in PLOS Pathogens. Diseases that jump from other vertebrate hosts to humans are a major public health threat, but the evolutionary mechanisms behind these jumps are poorly understood. With its long history of jumping between host species, the rabies virus offers a good opportunity to identify evolutionary patterns associated with such shifts. The scientists compared 321 viral genome sequences collected from 66 countries over 65 years. The analysis revealed very different evolutionary patterns for bat-related rabies, which is found in bats and some carnivores; versus dog-related rabies, which is responsible for almost all human cases of rabies and is found in both dogs and wild carnivores. The data suggest that different subgroups of bat-related rabies do not evolve uniformly, but dog-related rabies usually evolves at a steady rate. For dog-related rabies, host jumping was linked to multiple evolutionary patterns, such as parallel changes in amino acid sequences between different host species. The data also suggest that dog-related rabies may not need to evolve much to jump to new carnivore hosts.

Golden Retriever Is Obsessed With Giving People Hugs.

Whenever Cesar Fernandez-Chavez walks his dog Louboutina in Manhattan, it's never an ordinary walk. Within minutes of hitting the sidewalks, Louboutina (or Loubie for short) wants to stop, greet people and then hug them, wrapping her forelegs around their knees. "It's just not a regular walk," Fernandez-Chavez says "It's a walk with hugging. So we don't get to go too far." continue

Zoos, animal handling and public feeding.

The pictures of tigers in a Chinese zoo has been making rounds and various animal groups and sectors of the society have different views. There are actually several problems with these photos, which were taken at the Siberian Tiger Park in Harbin City, China. The most obvious issue is that these animals are being fed in excess which could predispose them to certain diseases and conditions. The zoo allows visitors to feed the animals and are doing most of the excessive feeding, according to some reports. The visitors are reportedly feeding the tigers live chickens, where people can buy a chicken and throw it them. When many tigers are kept in a confined space, there would be few opportunities for exercise, which could exacerbate the health issues related to obesity.When animals are denied the opportunity to work for their food, as they would in the wild by foraging and hunting, they end up with underdeveloped muscles and deposition of fat. more

How to fix a broken snail shell.

The life of one little snail in the world might not amount to much for some people, but it means everything to him.The veterinarian fixes all creatures great and small.Veterinarians from the HaClinica animal hospital, in Tel Aviv, Israel, recently offered their life-saving services to the humble garden snail after a mishap in a local woman's yard. The woman accidentally stepped on him shattering his brittle shell ,rather than leave the snail to fend for himself with his suddenly broken home, the woman actually rushed him to get the help he needed. This is how the veterinarian put the shell back together, piece by piece using glue. more

Dubai Dental Authority And 3D Printing Teeth .

Dubai Health Authority (DHA) announced plans to advance the use of 3D printing in dentistry and healthcare at this weeks Arab Health Congress (AHC) in Dubai. This includes plans for the Dental Services department to make greater use of 3D printing for dentistry by the end of this year. The Arab Health Congress also saw a number of 3D printing companies showcase new innovations. In order to understand these ambitious plans from DHA, we take a look at current dental 3D printing technology. There is strong potential for 3D printing in the dental industry and we’ve seen many different companies approaching the market. continue

3D printing and personalized medicine.

Professor Jukka Rantanen is from the Department of Pharmacy at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. His seminar at the 3D Medical Expo 2017 focused on Designing compartmental pharmaceutical products based on 3D printing. In the talk, Professor Rantanen details the opportunity to 3D print pills with inner geometries, i.e. one drug forms the outer shell of a tablet and another fills the inside. The advantages of developing this type of drug are that it gives more control over how and when a particular treatment is released into the body. Developing the means to produce what Professor Rantanen terms “two layer” drugs is of course a substantial challenge to researchers. Additionally, Professor Rantanen points out that marketing & distribution is one of the biggest challenges to 3D printed pharmaceuticals. continue