Nadine Dorries, the first MP to test positive, is one of 382 confirmed cases in the UK.
Coronavirus: Health minister Nadine Dorries tests positive
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Category Archives: Mind Building
Coronavirus : NHS to ramp up testing capacity
NHS England will be able to carry out 10,000 tests per day, up from 1,500 currently.
Chemists create new artificial enzyme
Enzymes are nature’s powerhouses. Found in the cells of all animals, plants, and every other living organism, they accelerate the chemical reactions that trigger thousands of biological functions — from forming neurons to digesting food.
They perform their jobs so selectively and so quickly — millions of times faster than a blink of the eye — that the field of biomimetic chemistry has emerged over the past few decades with the goal of designing artificial enzymes that can mimic the powers of natural enzymes in industrial settings. Artificial enzymes could, for example, convert corn into ethanol or help create new drugs more quickly, cheaply, and effectively.
Moving one step closer to achieving that goal, Rajeev Prabhakar, a computational chemist at the University of Miami, and his collaborators at the University of Michigan have created a novel, synthetic, three-stranded molecule that functions just like a natural metalloenzyme, or an enzyme that contains metal ions.
“It wasn’t clear that they could be made, but we made them. And, then we used them to successfully catalyze reactions,” said Prabhakar, a professor of chemistry who studies enzyme reactions in hopes of designing their artificial analogues. “This is an incremental but important step in the development of artificial enzymes, which has long been considered chemistry’s holy grail. Unfortunately, as good as natural enzymes work in our bodies and other life forms, they don’t tolerate other settings very well. They’re also very expensive and not easy to prepare and purify.”
For their groundbreaking study published in Nature Chemistry this week, Prabhakar and graduate student Vindi M. Jayasinghe-Arachchige joined forces with Vincent L. Pecoraro, a University of Michigan chemistry professor, to improve the performance of the artificial enzymes Pecoraro’s lab pioneered over the years. The Michigan researchers had previously created simpler synthetic metalloenzymes that successfully catalyzed a number of chemical reactions. But those artificial macromolecules were designed with three identical, or symmetrical “homotrimeric” strands, which, Prabhakar said, limited their catalytic abilities.
In the new molecule, which Jayasinghe-Arachchige designed on the University of Miami’s supercomputer with Prabhakar’s guidance, the third strand differs in structure from the other two strands. Her quantum mechanical calculations showed that the more complex, non-symmetrical, three-stranded structure, known as a “heterotrimeric” coil, expanded the catalytic performance of homotrimeric artificial metalloenzymes — a finding that Pecoraro and his team confirmed with experiments in his Michigan lab.
“Our techniques are different, but complementary,” Prabhakar said. “What we do the Pecoraro group cannot do, and what they do, we cannot do. We model molecules on the computer so we can predict their structural properties and the mechanism of their formations. They use our models to build the real thing, and in this case that is the first example of a natural heterotrimeric molecule.”
Most lay people would probably find the study as incomprehensible as its title: “Heteromeric three-stranded coiled coils designed using a Pb(II)(Cys)3 template mediated strategy.” But the bottom line, Prabhakar said, is that the collaborative research conducted in Miami and Michigan opens the door to a new strategy for achieving the creation of artificial enzymes that work as well as natural enzymes.
In addition to Pecocaro, Prabhakar, and Jayasinghe-Arachchige, other co-authors of the study include Prabhakar’s former graduate student, Thomas J. Paul, now at the University of Michigan; Audrey E. Tolbert, Catherine S. Ervin, and Kosh P. Neupane, also from the University of Michigan; and Leela Ruckthong, from King Mongkut’s University of Technology, in Thailand.
Now in her last year of study for her doctorate in chemistry, Jayasinghe-Arachchige said she remains fascinated by the advances in computational chemistry techniques that allowed her to model the chemical structures and reactions of the new molecule.
“I’m excited that our findings will create new avenues toward the development of efficient artificial enzymes that can be used to enhance the quality of life,” said Jayasinghe-Arachchige, “and as a woman in a field where women are underrepresented, I hope this study will motivate women to join the fascinating world of STEM fields.”
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Materials provided by University of Miami. Original written by Maya Bell. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Some domesticated plants ignore beneficial soil microbes
While domestication of plants has yielded bigger crops, the process has often had a negative effect on plant microbiomes, making domesticated plants more dependent on fertilizer and other soil amendments than their wild relatives.
In an effort to make crops more productive and sustainable, researchers recommend reintroduction of genes from the wild relatives of commercial crops that restore domesticated plants’ ability to interact with beneficial soil microbes.
Thousands of years ago, people harvested small wild plants for food. Eventually, they selectively cultivated the largest ones until the plump cereals, legumes, and fruit we know today evolved. But through millennia of human tending, many cultivated plants lost some ability to interact with soil microbes that provide necessary nutrients. This has made some domesticated plants more dependent on fertilizer, one of the world’s largest sources of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution and a product that consumes fossil fuels to produce.
“I was surprised how completely hidden these changes can be,” said Joel Sachs, a professor of biology at UC Riverside and senior author of a paper published today in Trends in Ecology and Evolution. “We’re so focused on above ground traits that we’ve been able to massively reshape plants while ignoring a suite of other characteristics and have inadvertently bred plants with degraded capacity to gain benefits from microbes.”
Bacteria and fungi form intimate associations with plant roots that can dramatically improve plant growth. These microbes help break down soil elements like phosphorus and nitrogen that the plants absorb through their roots. The microbes also get resources from the plants in a mutually beneficial, or symbiotic, relationship. When fertilizer or other soil amendments make nutrients freely available, plants have less need to interact with microbes.
Sachs and first author Stephanie Porter of Washington State University, Vancouver, reviewed 120 studies of microbial symbiosis in plants and concluded that many types of domesticated plants show a degraded capacity to form symbiotic communities with soil microbes.
“The message of our paper is that domestication has hidden costs,” Sachs said. “When plants are selected for a small handful of traits like making a bigger seed or faster growth, you can lose a lot of important traits relating to microbes along the way.”
This evolutionary loss has turned into a loss for the environment as well.
Excess nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer can leach from fields into waterways, leading to algae overgrowth, low oxygen levels, and dead zones. Nitrogen oxide from fertilizer enters the atmosphere, contributing to air pollution. Fossil fuels are also consumed to manufacture fertilizers.
Some companies have begun selling nitrogen-fixing bacteria as soil amendments to make agriculture more sustainable, but Sachs said these amendments don’t work well because some domesticated plants can no longer pick up those beneficial microbes from the soil.
“If we’re going to fix these problems, we need to figure out which traits have been lost and which useful traits have been maintained in the wild relative,” Sachs said. “Then breed the wild and domesticated together to recover those traits.”
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Materials provided by University of California – Riverside. Original written by Holly Ober. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
New study on COVID-19 estimates 5.1 days for incubation period
An analysis of publicly available data on infections from the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, that causes the respiratory illness COVID-19 yielded an estimate of 5.1 days for the median disease incubation period, according to a new study led by researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. This median time from exposure to onset of symptoms suggests that the 14-day quarantine period used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for individuals with likely exposure to the coronavirus is reasonable.
The analysis suggests that about 97.5 percent of people who develop symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection will do so within 11.5 days of exposure. The researchers estimated that for every 10,000 individuals quarantined for 14 days, only about 101 would develop symptoms after being released from quarantine.
The findings will be published online March 9 in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
For the study, the researchers analyzed 181 cases from China and other countries that were detected prior to February 24, were reported in the media, and included likely dates of exposure and symptom onset. Most of the cases involved travel to or from Wuhan, China, the city at the center of the epidemic, or exposure to individuals who had been to Hubei, the province for which Wuhan is the capital.
The CDC and many other public health authorities around the world have been using a 14-day quarantine or active-monitoring period for individuals who are known to be at high risk of infection due to contact with known cases or travel to a heavily affected area.
“Based on our analysis of publicly available data, the current recommendation of 14 days for active monitoring or quarantine is reasonable, although with that period some cases would be missed over the long-term,” says study senior author Justin Lessler, an associate professor in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Epidemiology.
The global outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 infection emerged in December 2019 in Wuhan, a city of 11 million in central China, and has resulted in 95,333 officially confirmed cases around the world and 3,282 deaths from pneumonia caused by the virus, according to the World Health Organization’s March 5 Situation Report. The majority of the cases are from Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province, although dozens of other countries have been affected, including the U.S., but chiefly South Korea, Iran, and Italy.
An accurate estimate of the disease incubation period for a new virus makes it easier for epidemiologists to gauge the likely dynamics of the outbreak, and allows public health officials to design effective quarantine and other control measures. Quarantines typically slow and may ultimately stop the spread of infection, even if there are some outlier cases with incubation periods that exceed the quarantine period.
Lessler notes that sequestering people in a way that prevents them from working has costs, both personal and societal, which is perhaps most obvious when health care workers and first responders like firefighters are quarantined.
The new estimate of 5.1 days for the median incubation period of SARS-CoV-2 is similar to estimates from the earliest studies of this new virus, which were based on fewer cases. This incubation period for SARS-CoV-2 is in the same range as SARS-CoV, a different human-infecting coronavirus that caused a major outbreak centered in southern China and Hong Kong from 2002-04. For MERS-CoV, a coronavirus that has caused hundreds of cases in the Middle East, with a relatively high fatality rate, the estimated mean incubation period is 5-7 days.
Human coronaviruses that cause common colds have mean illness-incubation periods of about three days.
Lessler and colleagues have published an online tool that allows public health officials and members of the public to estimate how many cases would be caught and missed under different quarantine periods.
“The incubation period of COVID-19 from publicly reported confirmed cases: estimation and application” was written by co-first authors Stephen Lauer and Kyra Grantz, and Qifang Bi, Forrest Jones, Qulu Zheng, Hannah Meredith, Andrew Azman, Nicholas Reich, and Justin Lessler.
Support for the research was provided by CDC (NU2GGH002000), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (R01 AI135115), the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R35 GM119582), and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
Health24.com | ‘Tired, stressed and bored’ – why most teens hate high school
It’s supposed to be the best time in your life, but a new study finds that US high school pupils have mostly negative feelings throughout their school day.
Surveying nearly 22 000 pupils nationwide, researchers found about 75% expressed boredom, anger, sadness, fear or stress.
Girls were slightly more negative than boys, according to the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and the Yale Child Study Center researchers.
A second survey asked 472 high school pupils in Connecticut about their feelings at distinct moments throughout the school day. The teens reported negative feelings 60% of the time, according to the study.
Negative emotions
The levels of negativity were “higher than we expected”, said study co-author and research scientist Zorana Ivcevic. “We know from talking to students that they are feeling tired, stressed and bored, but were surprised by how overwhelming it was,” she said in a university news release.
The study’s co-author is Marc Brackett, founding director of the Center for Emotional Intelligence. He said, “Overall, students see school as a place where they experience negative emotions.”
The researchers also found that the most common positive feelings about school – calm and happy – were vague.
“They are on the positive side of zero,” Ivcevic said, “but they are not energised or enthusiastic.”
Feeling “interested” or “curious” would reveal a high level of student engagement at school that’s associated with deeper and more enduring learning, she noted.
Many of the negative feelings expressed by students may be interrelated. For example, tiredness may contribute to boredom and stress.
Sleep deprivation
“Boredom is in many ways similar to being tired,” Ivcevic said. “It’s a feeling of being drained, low-energy. Physical states, such as being tired, can be at times misattributed as emotional states, such as boredom.”
The way pupils feel at school affects their academic performance and their overall health and well-being, the researchers noted.
“Students spend a lot of their waking time at school,” Ivcevic said. “Kids are at school to learn, and emotions have a substantial impact on their attention. If you’re bored, do you hear what’s being said around you?”
Recent research has looked at the effect of early start times for high schools and how that leads to sleep deprivation among teens. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that high schools start at 8:30 am or later, but most US schools start much earlier.
“It is possible that being tired is making school more taxing, so that it is more difficult for students to show curiosity and interest. It is like having an extra weight to carry,” Ivcevic added.
The new report was published in the Journal of Learning and Instruction.
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Health24.com | How smartphone app gets heart patients to follow their medicine prescriptions
Forget doctor’s instructions: New research shows a smartphone app is the best way to get heart patients to remember to take their prescribed medication.
Heart attack survivors are typically prescribed medications to prevent another attack, but one in four stop taking at least one drug within 30 days after leaving the hospital. That increases the chance of re-hospitalisation and premature death.
In this study, researchers compared the use of a smartphone app to written instructions to remind 90 heart attack patients, average age 63, to take their medications.
The app sounded an alarm each time a pill should be taken. After taking it, the patient confirmed it in the app. Through digital access to the app, doctors could check if patients were taking their medications.
Greater impact than expected
After 90 days, 65% in the app group were correctly taking their pills versus 21% of those given written instructions, the findings showed.
“We hypothesised that the app would increase adherence by 30%, but the impact was even greater,” study author Dr Cristian Garmendia said in a European Society of Cardiology news release. Garmendia is a resident heart specialist at the Cardiovascular Institute of Buenos Aires.
The study also looked at the number of patients who were hospitalised with another heart attack or had an unplanned visit to a doctor or emergency department. Researchers found no difference between the two groups.
“This may be due to the relatively small number of patients or the low rate of events,” said study senior author Dr Juan Pablo Costabel, head of the institute’s coronary unit. “This was an exploratory endpoint, but our next study will be designed with these outcomes as the primary endpoint.”
The findings were scheduled for presentation at a meeting of the Argentine Congress of Cardiology, in Buenos Aires.
Research presented at meetings is typically considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Image credit: iStock
Health24.com | Research reveals why you shouldn’t overlook the gastro symptoms of the new coronavirus
As cases of the new coronavirus are being confirmed around the world, with several confirmed cases in South Africa so far, people want more understanding as to how the virus spreads and what exactly we should be looking out for.
During the first couple of weeks of coronavirus outbreak it was established that the virus was largely respiratory, meaning that coughing is a significant symptom and the virus spreads through cough droplets on surfaces and close proximity to people.
However, new research that is due to be published in the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Society, suggests that we should be looking further down when it comes to the spreading of coronavirus – your stomach (and subsequent faeces) may also play a part.
What does a respiratory virus have to do with your stomach?
As people look out for the three key symptoms, fever, fatigue and a dry cough, they might dismiss gastrointestinal symptoms that were also experienced in some cases. Some patients with the Covid-19 virus have reported diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal discomfort.
But why would a virus that should affect the lungs cause these symptoms? According to scientists, it has to do with the way the virus attaches to human cells and mostly what enzymes are activated and where.
In some cases of the coronavirus, mild to moderate liver injury was experienced. This could explain some of the gastrointestinal symptoms. According to the research, this was also seen during the outbreak of SARS in 2003.
Notably, the first case of the new coronavirus infection that was confirmed in the US stated that there were two days of nausea and vomiting when the patient was first admitted to the hospital, and that loose, watery stool was passed on the second day.
We should start looking beyond the obvious
As more and more research is being done on coronavirus and Covid-19, it’s important that we use this as a way to improve diagnosis and treatment. In this paper that focused on gastrointestinal symptoms, it is clear that the virus doesn’t only bind to lung tissue but also tissue of the colon, upper oesophagus and liver amongst others.
This means that medical professionals might be making a greater effort to spot digestive issues for earlier detection, diagnosis and isolation of of the new coronavirus. The way the virus adheres to cells and which enzymes are activated in the process can also help with a potential treatment or vaccine.
This means improved hygiene
As digestive issues could present with the Covid-19 virus, patients and healthcare workers should be even more stringent with hygiene as smaller studies also indicated that the coronavirus could be found and spread through stool.
This means washing your hands especially after being to the toilet or cleaning up after children to prevent the spread of the virus through the oral-faecal matter (through the surface of hands or through contaminated food and water).
Image credit: iStock
Second patient cured of HIV, say doctors
Adam Castillejo, the “London Patient”, is free of the virus more than 30 months after stopping treatment.
Health24.com | Spotting which hospital patients infected with coronavirus face greatest death risk
If you wind up in the hospital with coronavirus, what might raise your chances of dying from the disease?
A new study offers some answers: being older; showing signs of sepsis; and having blood-clotting issues. To come to that conclusion, researchers analysed 191 adult patients with confirmed Covid-19 at two hospitals in Wuhan, China, the city where the worldwide outbreak began.
The scientists also found that hospitalised Covid-19 patients shed the virus for longer than expected, according to the study published in The Lancet journal. Viral shedding means that patients can still spread a virus.
The median duration of viral shedding was 20 days in survivors (ranging from eight to 37 days), and the virus was detectable until death in those who did not survive.
Extended viral shedding
However, factors such as the severe illness of the patients, and limited samples and genetic material for testing mean that the actual duration of viral shedding among patients remains unclear, the authors noted.
The study is the first to assess risk factors associated with severe disease and death in hospitalised Covid-19 patients, the researchers said. Of the 191 patients in the study, 137 were discharged and 54 died in the hospital.
“The extended viral shedding noted in our study has important implications for guiding decisions around isolation precautions and antiviral treatment in patients with confirmed Covid-19 infection,” said study co-lead author Bin Cao, from China-Japan Friendship Hospital and Capital Medical University, in China.
“However, we need to be clear that viral shedding time should not be confused with other self-isolation guidance for people who may have been exposed to Covid-19 but do not have symptoms, as this guidance is based on the incubation time of the virus,” Cao said in a journal news release.
“We recommend that negative tests for Covid-19 should be required before patients are discharged from hospital. In severe influenza, delayed viral treatment extends how long the virus is shed, and together these factors put infected patients at risk of dying,” Cao noted.
Poorer outcomes in older people
Other factors came into play when measuring death risk, the researchers noted.
“Older age, showing signs of sepsis on admission, underlying diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes, and the prolonged use of non-invasive ventilation were important factors in the deaths of these patients,” said study co-author Dr Zhibo Liu, from Jinyintan Hospital, in China.
“Poorer outcomes in older people may be due, in part, to the age-related weakening of the immune system and increased inflammation that could promote viral replication and more prolonged responses to inflammation, causing lasting damage to the heart, brain and other organs,” Liu explained.
The median duration of fever in survivors was about 12 days – about the same as in those who died – but the cough may last for a long time, and 45% of survivors still had the cough when they were discharged from hospital, the researchers reported.
In survivors, shortness of breath ceased after about 13 days, but lasted until death in those who died, the findings showed.
READ | Why exactly does the coronavirus spread so easily among people?
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