Fight Aging! Newsletter, February 26th 2024
In conclusion, mTORC1 signaling contributes to the ISC fate decision, enabling regional control of intestinal cell differentiation in response to nutrition.
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Reviewing the Development of Senotherapeutics to Treat Aging
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2024/02/reviewing-the-development-of-senotherapeutics-to-treat-aging/
Senescent cells accumulate with age and contribute meaningfully to chronic inflammation and degenerative aging. Destroying these cells produces rapid and sizable reversal of age-related diseases in mice, demonstrating that the presence of senescence cells ...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 25, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
An Update on Kimer Med, Improving on the DRACO Antiviral Technology and Moving Towards the Clinic
The state of anti-viral therapies isn't that great, all things considered. Technology has not yet advanced to the point at which a viral infection can be simply shut down, as is the case for near all bacterial infections. The present anti-viral drugs are either vaccines (useful!) or merely shift the odds somewhat by interfering in some part of the viral life cycle, but nowhere near as effectively as desired. Many persistent viral infections are thought to contribute meaningfully to forms of age-related dysfunction, and there is too little that can be done about that at the present time.
This landscape is one of the ...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 23, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Longevity Industry Source Type: blogs
Mid-term exam: Essay question
Here is a historical graph of life expectancy at birth, for Homo sapiens on planet Earth. The picture for the U.S. specifically is very similar, although the upturn started a bit earlier. (That mysterious dip around 1959 is the Chinese famine resulting from the so-called Great Leap Forward. In a graph of just the U.S., you would see a similar dip around 1918, from the influenza pandemic.) You can extend that horizontal tail back 6,000 years or more. In any given local area it might have gone up a bit in good times and down in times of plague or famine, but it basically stayed at around 30 years, never abov...
Source: Stayin' Alive - February 19, 2024 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
The Problem of Original Antigenic Sin
by Gertrud U. Rey Once the innate immune system senses a never-seen-before pathogen as new, it engages elements of the adaptive immune response. These adaptive immunity elements coordinate over time to develop a response that protects from re-infection and disease upon a second exposure to the same pathogen. The second exposure will immediately lead to … The Problem of Original Antigenic Sin Read More » (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - January 4, 2024 Category: Virology Authors: Gertrud U. Rey Tags: Basic virology Gertrud Rey adaptive immunity antigenic imprinting antigenic seniority back-boosting H1N1 immunological imprinting influenza virus innate immunity negative interference original antigenic sin pandemic primary addic Source Type: blogs
Device for Rapid COVID-19 Breath Testing
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have developed a COVID-19 breathalyzer test. The technology requires someone to breathe into it just once or twice, and it can then provide an indication if the person is infected with SARS-CoV-2 in as little as one minute. The device could be very useful fo screening large numbers of people prior to access to an indoor event, for instance, or in community clinics to quickly determine if people are infected. Moreover, the technology could be adapted to detect other viruses, which may be useful for future outbreaks. The system involves blowing into a straw, which direc...
Source: Medgadget - September 7, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Diagnostics Medicine Public Health wustl WUSTLmed Source Type: blogs
App Converts Smartphone to Clinical Thermometer
Researchers at the University of Washington have developed an app that converts common smartphones into clinical thermometers. Spotting the signs of fever early could make a difference in providing early treatment or beginning a period of isolation to reduce the chance of disease transmission. This is particularly important for viral diseases, such as COVID-19. However, many people may not have ready access to a clinical thermometer, so simply downloading an app could makes it accessible for people to take their temperature. The app relies on data from temperature sensors in the phone that normally monitor the temperature ...
Source: Medgadget - July 14, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Diagnostics Emergency Medicine Public Health Telemedicine universityofwashington Source Type: blogs
Better Health Care Tests, Faster
This article looks at some specific problems and solutions.
Speeding up Test Development
We’ve seen with COVID-19 how quickly a virus can evolve and how hard it is to design both tests and vaccinations that accommodate different variants. Virax Biolabs uses data from the World Health Organization and others to develop tests quickly. For instance, new viral variants tend to spread in the southern hemisphere before hitting the northern hemisphere in our Winter, so Virax can check existing data to prepare better tests for the North.
The company is developing a T-cell diagnostics and profiling platform called Virax Immu...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - June 13, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andy Oram Tags: Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System Interoperability CLIA COVID-19 Hydreight Immunexpress ixlayer Laboratories Labs Rolland Carlson Sepsis Sepsis Lab Tests Septicyte Shane Madden testing Tomasz George Source Type: blogs
A big data COVID train wreck
BY ANISH KOKA
If there was any doubt the academic research enterprise is completely broken, we have an absolute train wreck of a study in one of the many specialty journals of the Journal of the American Medical Association — JAMA Health.
I had no idea the journal even existed until today, but I now know to approach the words printed in this journal to the words printed in supermarket tabloids. You should too!
The paper that was brought to my attention is one that purports to examine the deleterious health effects of Long COVID. A sizable group of intellectuals who are still socially distancing and wearing n95s ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 13, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy Anish Koka Covid research COVID-19 Long Covid Source Type: blogs
H5N1 – It ’ s All About the Transmission
by Gertrud U. Rey Recent news headlines have been highlighting the global spread of H5N1, the strain of influenza virus that is typically associated with “bird flu.” This outbreak is the largest in recorded history, involving at least 50 million dead birds and countless non-human mammals, including sea lions, otters, mink, foxes, cats, dogs, and […] (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - March 2, 2023 Category: Virology Authors: Gertrud U. Rey Tags: Basic virology Gertrud Rey avian influenza H5N1 bird flu human-to-human transmission lower respiratory tract pandemic sialic acid upper respiratory tract vaccine Source Type: blogs
Myocarditis update from Sweden
BY ANISH KOKA
The COVID19/vaccine myocarditis debate continues in large part because our public health institutions are grossly mischaracterizing the risks and benefits of vaccines to young people.
A snapshot of what the establishment says as it relates to the particular area of concern: college vaccine mandates:
Dr. Arthur Reingold, an epidemiology professor at UC-Berkeley, notes that UC also requires immunizations for measles and chickenpox, and people still are dying from COVID at rates that exceed those for influenza. As of Feb. 1, there were more than 400 COVID deaths a day across the U.S.
“The arg...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 27, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Medical Practice Anish Koka covid19 myocarditis Sweden Source Type: blogs
Avian influenza, bird flu, H5N1
A bird flu pandemic has killed thousands of wild birds over the last couple of years. Scientists have now seen infection in mammals, and very recently a person died from avian influenza and several close contacts show signs of infection. The concern is that we might be headed for another H5N1 pandemic. Previous strains of H5N1 that infected people had a mortality rate of 60 percent.
Avian influenza, bird flu, H5N1
There are fifteen known variants of avian influenza. The most virulent, and usually fatal in birds, are the H5 and H7 strains. There are then nine variants of the H5 strain and the type of most concern because ...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - February 27, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Bird Flu Health and Medicine Vaccines Source Type: blogs
TWiV 984: Clinical update with Dr. Daniel Griffin
In his weekly clinical update Dr. Griffin discusses the political polarization of COVID-19 treatments among physicians and laypeople in the United States, seven alternatives to evidence-based medicine, Malawi’s cholera death toll crosses 1,300 in its deadliest outbreak on record, impact of coronavirus infections on pediatric patients at a tertiary pediatric hospital, maternal mRNA COVID-19 vaccination during […] (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - February 18, 2023 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology antiviral coronavirus COVID-19 delta inflammation influenza Long Covid monkeypox monoclonal antibody Omicron pandemic poliovirus SARS-CoV-2 vaccine vaccine booster variant of concern viruses Source Type: blogs
TWiV 984: Clinical update with Dr. Daniel Griffin
In his weekly clinical update Dr. Griffin discusses the political polarization of COVID-19 treatments among physicians and laypeople in the United States, seven alternatives to evidence-based medicine, Malawi’s cholera death toll crosses 1,300 in its deadliest outbreak on record, impact of coronavirus infections on pediatric patients at a tertiary pediatric hospital, maternal mRNA COVID-19 vaccination during … TWiV 984: Clinical update with Dr. Daniel Griffin Read More » (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - February 18, 2023 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology antiviral coronavirus COVID-19 delta inflammation influenza Long Covid monkeypox monoclonal antibody Omicron pandemic poliovirus SARS-CoV-2 vaccine vaccine booster variant of concern viruses Source Type: blogs
Reducing Viral Spread in Schools: France Makes Proactive Move to Measure and Reduce CO2 Levels in School and Daycare
One of my favorite gadgets from the pandemic is the AraNet 4 CO2 monitor. I carry it with me whenever I am curious about an indoor space. This easy-to-use monitor gives a simple red-yellow-green reading of the CO2 level. At a green level (<1000 ppm) it is harder to transmit an airborne viral infection. At a red level (>1400 ppm) it is much easier to catch a virus if someone else in the room is sick.
I use this in restaurants and on airplanes, for instance, to help guide my actions.
As a bonus, CO2 levels also correlate with alertness and productivity. When CO2 levels drift into the yellow range (>1000 ppm), cognit...
Source: Conversations with Dr Greene - January 9, 2023 Category: Child Development Authors: Alan Greene MD Tags: Dr. Greene's Blog Air Quality Allergies Virus Source Type: blogs
Going Viral
Helen Bramwell of StatNews is an excellent writer about public health. Here she interviews a bunch of scientists to ask what surprised them about Covid19. It ' s a long read, and I won ' t try to summarize it all, but a couple of points stand out.The first is that most experts originally thought, based on experience with other coronaviruses, that this one would be stable -- that it would not be able to mutate so as to avoid immunity from previous infections or vaccination. Therefore they believed that the pandemic would peak after a few months and we ' d enter an endemic phase. (You might remember those models from t...
Source: Stayin' Alive - December 30, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
