Today I was going to focus on sharing news about what I dub as the "winning the war on plastic bags". In fact I posted two articles about it, and had this entire preview section written already. THEN I noticed I had not gotten the web page for the chewing gum article. When I went back to http://www.sciencedaily.com/ I found a new article about a nasal vaccine for HIV, that has worked in mice! That article bumped to #1, because, with AIDs affecting roughly 30 million people, I think that finding a cure is one of the most wonderful things that could happen!
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the posts today. See you again tomorrow!
Today's Top 5:
1. Smallpox, HIV: Oil-based Nasal Vaccine Technique Produces Immunity (Science Daily)
2. Newborn Survives Fall Through Train Toilet (CNN)
3. Blind Man Sees with Son's Tooth in His Eye (China Daily)
4. Gordon Brown Gives Supermarkets One Year to Start Charging for Plastic Bags ... or else (Daily Mail UK)
5. UN Rally to End Female Genital Mutilation (Scoop News NZ)
Honorable Mentions:
1. 8th Century BCE Seals Found at City of David Site (Scoop News NZ)
2. Chewing Gum Speeds Recovery From Gastrointestinal Surgery, Study Shows (Science Daily)
Unpublishable:
Polar Bear Born in Stuttgart (Statesman.com)
1. Smallpox, HIV: Oil-based Nasal Vaccine Technique Produces Immunity
ScienceDaily (Feb. 28, 2008)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080226143559.htm
— A novel technique for vaccinating against a variety of infectious diseases -- using an oil-based emulsion placed in the nose, rather than needles -- has proved able to produce a strong immune response against smallpox and HIV in two new studies.
The results build on previous success in animal studies with a nasal nanoemulsion vaccine for influenza, reported by University of Michigan researchers in 2003.
Nanoemulsion vaccines developed at the Michigan Nanotechnology Institute for Medicine and the Biological Sciences at U-M are based on a mixture of soybean oil, alcohol, water and detergents emulsified into ultra-small particles smaller than 400 nanometers wide, or 1/200th the width of a human hair. These are combined with part or all of the disease-causing microbe to trigger the body's immune response.
A team led by U-M scientist James Baker Jr., M.D., the institute's director, pioneered the technology, for which a patent was recently awarded to U-M.
"The two studies show the nanoemulsion platform is capable of developing vaccines from very diverse materials. We used whole virus in the smallpox vaccine. In the HIV vaccine, we used a single protein. We were able to promote an immune response using either source," says Baker.
The technology is licensed to NanoBio Corp., an Ann Arbor-based biotech company which Baker founded in 2000 and in which he has a financial interest. Baker is the Ruth Dow Doan Professor of internal medicine and Allergy Division chief at the U-M Medical School.
The surface tension of the nanoparticles disrupts membranes and destroys microbes but does not harm most human cells due to their location within body tissues. Nanoemulsion vaccines are highly effective at penetrating the mucous membranes in the nose and initiating strong and protective types of immune response, Baker says. U-M researchers are also exploring nasal nanoemulsion vaccines to protect against bioterrorism agents and hepatitis B.
Potential for a better smallpox vaccine
The smallpox results, which appear in the February issue of Clinical Vaccine Immunology, could lead to an effective human vaccine against smallpox that is safer than the present live-vaccinia virus vaccine because it would use nanoemulsion-killed vaccinia virus, says Baker.
Anna U. Bielinska, Ph.D., a research assistant professor in internal medicine at the U-M Medical School, and others on Baker's research team developed a killed-vaccinia virus nanoemulsion vaccine which they placed in the noses of mice to trigger an immune response. They found the vaccine produced both mucosal and antibody immunity, as well as Th1 cellular immunity, an important measure of protective immunity.
When the mice were exposed to live vaccinia virus to test the vaccine's protective effect, all of them survived, while none of the unvaccinated control mice did. The researchers conclude that the nanoemulsion vaccinia vaccine offers protection equal to that of the existing vaccine, without the risk of using a live virus or the need for an inflammatory adjuvant such as alum hydroxide.
"We found that the nanoemulsion vaccine could inactivate and kill the virus and then subsequently induce immunity to the virus that includes cellular immunity, antibody immunity and mucosal immunity," Baker says.
In antibody immunity, antibodies bind invading microbes as they circulate through the body. In cellular immunity, the immune system attacks invaders inside infected cells. There is growing interest in vaccines that induce mucosal immunity, in which the immune system stops and kills the invader in mucous membranes before it enters body systems.
A National Institutes of Health program, the Great Lakes Regional Centers of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, funded the research. If the federal government conducts further studies and finds the nanoemulsion smallpox vaccine effective in people, it could be a safer way to protect citizens and health care workers in the event of a bioterrorism attack involving smallpox, Baker says.
That would allay concerns about the current vaccine's safety which arose in 2002. On the eve of the Iraq War, the Bush administration proposed a voluntary program to vaccinate military personnel and 500,000 health care workers with the existing vaccine to prepare for the possible use of smallpox virus as a biological weapon.
Relatively few health care workers volunteered to get the vaccine, amid concerns that the live vaccinia virus used in the vaccine can be transmitted to other people for a time and can pose a serious risk to people with weakened immune systems and certain skin conditions. As of mid-2007, more than 1.2 million military personnel received smallpox shots. Small percentages of those vaccinated subsequently have had heart and neurological adverse effects.
Early HIV study tests mucosal immunity
Baker's team has published results from a preliminary test of a nanoemulsion vaccine's effectiveness against HIV in the February issue of AIDS Research Human Retroviruses.
It is becoming widely acknowledged that standard approaches to vaccines against HIV have not worked. Baker says the HIV nanoemulsion vaccine tested in the noses of mice in the study represents "a different approach in the way it produces immunity and the type of immunity produced."
Vaccines administered in the nose are also able to induce mucosal immunity in the genital mucosa. Evidence is growing that HIV virus can infect the mucosal immune system.
"Therefore, developing mucosal immunity may be very important for protection against HIV," Baker says, adding that previous vaccine approaches have not aimed to do that.
In the study, the nanoemulsion HIV vaccine showed it was able to induce mucosal immunity, cellular immunity and neutralizing antibody to various isolates of HIV virus. A protein used by the team, gp120, is one of the major binding proteins under study in other HIV vaccine approaches.
"This was an exploratory study to see if further research is warranted," Baker says. His team plans further research to test the concept in animal models, potentially with whole viral vaccines or ones with multiple protein components.
The smallpox study appears in Clinical Vaccine Immunology, Vol. 15(2), Feb. 2008.
The study was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, through the Great Lakes Regional Centers of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases.
In addition to Bielinska and Baker, other University of Michigan authors include Alexander A. Chepurnov, Jeffrey J. Landers, Katarzyna W. Janczak, Tatiana S. Chepurnova and Gary D. Luker.
The HIV study results appear in AIDS Research Human Retroviruses, Vol. 24, Feb. 2008. The study was funded by the Michigan Nanotechnology Institute for Medicine and the Biological Sciences, the Ruth Dow Doan Endowment and the Burroughs Welcome Fund.
In addition to Baker, authors include Anna U. Bielinska, Katarzyna W. Janczak, Jeffrey J. Landers and David M. Markovitz of the U-M Medical School and David C. Montefiori of the Duke University Medical Center.
A patent has been granted and assigned to U-M for the nanoemulsion vaccine technique, which has been exclusively licensed to NanoBio Corp., an Ann Arbor based biotech company in which Baker has a financial interest.
Adapted from materials provided by University of Michigan Health System.
2. Newborn Survives Fall Through Train Toilet
updated 2:35 p.m. EST, Thu February 28, 2008']));
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/02/28/india.baby.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest
AHMADABAD, India (AP) --
A newborn baby girl fell through the toilet in a moving train and onto the tracks moments after her mother prematurely gave birth, surviving nearly two hours before being found, relatives said Thursday.
This newborn baby girl fell through the toilet on a moving train and onto the tracks moments after her mother prematurely gave birth.
The child's mother, who uses the single name Bhuri, was traveling with relatives on an overnight train when she went to the bathroom shortly before midnight Tuesday and unexpectedly gave birth to a baby girl, said Arjun Kumar, her brother-in-law.
"Later, she fell unconscious and the baby fell through the toilet," he continued. "Two stations later, we knocked at the door."
Bhuri opened the door, soaked in blood. Watch baby who survived fall »
"When we asked her about what happened, she said the baby had fallen through onto the tracks," Kumar said.
Toilets on Indian trains usually have holes that open directly onto the tracks, and there were no indications Thursday that authorities doubted Bhuri's story or planned to investigate the incident.
Kumar said that after finding Bhuri, relatives pulled the train's emergency brake and told railway officials what had happened. A search was quickly organized, and guards at one of the stations the train had passed soon found the baby.
"She was on the rail track for almost 1½ to two hours," said Dr. Gautam Jain, a pediatrician at Rajasthan Hospital in Ahmadabad, in the western state of Gujarat, where the baby and mother were taken
The child, who has not yet been named, was eight to 10 weeks premature and weighed only 3.22 pounds, Jain said. She had a low heart rate and body temperature.
"We do not expect such children to survive," Jain said.
3. Blind Man Sees with Son's Tooth in His Eye
Updated: 2008-02-29 06:39
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2008-02/29/content_6494321.htm
DUBLIN -- An Irishman blinded by an explosion two years ago has had his sight restored after doctors inserted his son's tooth in his eye, he said on Wednesday.
Bob McNichol, 57, from County Mayo in the west of the country, lost his sight in a freak accident when red-hot liquid aluminium exploded at a re-cycling business in November 2005.
Blind man holding his cane is seen in this file photo. [Agencies]
"I thought that I was going to be blind for the rest of my life," McNichol told RTE state radio.
After doctors in Ireland said there was nothing more they could do, McNichol heard about a miracle operation called Osteo-Odonto-Keratoprosthesis (OOKP) being performed by Dr Christopher Liu at the Sussex Eye Hospital in Brighton in England.
The technique, pioneered in Italy in the 1960s, involves creating a support for an artificial cornea from the patient's own tooth and the surrounding bone.
The procedure used on McNichol involved his son Robert, 23, donating a tooth, its root and part of the jaw.
McNichol's right eye socket was rebuilt, part of the tooth inserted and a lens inserted in a hole drilled in the tooth.
The first operation lasted ten hours and the second five hours.
"It is pretty heavy going," McNichol said. "There was a 65 percent chance of me getting any sight.
"Now I have enough sight for me to get around and I can watch television. I have come out from complete darkness to be able to do simple things," McNichol said.
4. Gordon Brown Gives Supermarkets One Year to Start Charging for Plastic Bags ... or else
By BENEDICT BROGAN -
Last updated at 00:17am on 29th February 2008
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=522765&in_page_id=1770&ito=1490
Gordon Brown today orders supermarkets to stop giving away carrier bags - or be forced to do so. The Prime Minister is lending his voice to the Daily Mail's campaign against the blight of "plastic poison".
Under an initiative to be introduced next month, stores will be given a year to match Marks & Spencer's pledge to slash the use of environmentally- damaging throwaway bags, by charging customers 5p for each one.
Retailers who do not do so voluntarily will be required to impose a levy of at least 5p.
Supermarkets will be forced to charge their customers for disposable carrier bags under plans for a new green levy drawn up by Gordon Brown.
They will be given a year to end their reliance on single use plastic bags or face a legal requirement to introduce a charge and reveal how much it raises.
The Prime Minister will introduce legislation next month to impose a charge of 5p or even more on all giveaway bags next year if they fail to comply. And today he throws his weight behind the Daily Mail's landmark "Banish the Bags" campaign with an impassioned plea to retailers.
Writing exclusively for the Mail, he urges them to follow the example of Marks & Spencer by calling time on the wasteful culture of free single use carrier bags that is fouling the planet.
And he reveals that like millions of families each week, he and his wife Sarah are left with a "binful of plastic bags" from their supermarket delivery to remind them of the scale of the problem.
The Mail campaign, and its shocking image of a majestic giant turtle swathed in deadly plastic, has triggered an unprecedented response from readers clamouring for action to end "plastic pollution" caused by 13 billion bags handed out by shops each year.
Film stars, environmental groups, academics and politicians have rallied to the campaign. Last night Tesco and Sainsbury's responded to public pressure by confirming that they are drawing up plans to reduce the amount of plastic bags they give away.
And yesterday, the trade body which represents 33,000 convenience stores said they are ready to accept a plastic bag tax in a bid to reduce the number handed out.
There are suspicions that many major chains have been dragging their feet on the issue.
Scroll down for more ...
'Plastic poisin': A seagull picks over a pile of burst carrier bags
A voluntary agreement brokered by the Government to reduce the use of plastic bags by 25 per cent is behind target. Official figures show the number of bags issued by retailers has fallen by only 7.4 per cent in a year.
The average family gets through about 800 such bags a year, but each one gets used for only 20 minutes before being thrown away.
It emerged last night that Mr Brown is ready to impose a mandatory fee for disposable carrier bags if supermarkets across the UK fail to meet growing public demands for action.
M&S stole a march on its competitors yesterday by announcing in the Mail that it will slap a 5p charge on every plastic bag from May.
Other retailers will be given a year to follow suit or be compelled by law to introduce a mandatory fee for every bag they give away.
Amendments to the Climate Change Bill will give ministers the power require supermarkets to declare how much they raise each year from the new levy, and how the cash is spent.
The Daily Mail understands that a package of green measures being prepared in Whitehall could raise millions each year for environmental causes.
If other major retailers who between them give away more than seven billion bags a year follow the M&S lead with a 5p levy, the amount raised could hit £400m before customers switch to eco-friendly alternatives.
Mr Brown's plan falls short of imposing a tax on supermarkets by leaving it up to them to decide how to spend the proceeds from the sale of each bag. They will be required under law to publish in their annual accounts how much they raise, and how they spend it.
Details are still being worked out by Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs, and consultations with the devolved executives in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will seek to make the scheme apply across the UK.
The Prime Minister believes that public pressure on retailers to "go green" will ensure the money they raise goes to environmental causes.
In his article for the Mail, Mr Brown praises M&S as well as Ikea, which has reduced its bag use by 95 per cent. "If they can do it, so can others," he says.
"I am convinced we need to act - and the time to act is now. I have already made clear that over time, we should aim to eliminate the single-use plastic bag altogether."
FOR MORE INFORMATION, see related article: Marks & Spencer Joins The Mail's Campaign to Banish the Bags by Charging for Them:
Last updated at 16:37pm on 28th February 2008 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=521529&in_page_id=1770
5. UN Rally to End Female Genital Mutilation
Friday, 29 February 2008, 8:20 am Press Release: United Nations
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0802/S00409.htm
UN agencies rally to end to female genital mutilation within a generation
27 February 2008 - Ten United Nations agencies have banded together to help eliminate the harmful practice of female genital mutilation within a generation, stressing the need for strong leadership and greater resources to protect the health and lives of millions of women and girls.
An estimated 3 million girls are at risk of undergoing the procedure - which involves the partial or total removal of external female genital organs - that some 140 million women, mostly in Asia, the Middle East and in Africa, have already endured.
In a statement issued today, the agencies pledged to support governments and communities to abandon female genital mutilation, which remains widespread in many parts of the world, highlighting the damaging effects of the practice on the health of women, girls and newborn babies.
The agencies expressed their concern about the "medicalization" of the practice, whereby it is performed by health professionals in health facilities, and the belief that it enhances a girl's chastity and chances of marriage by controlling her sexuality.
"We recognize that traditions are often stronger than law, and legal action by itself is not enough," they said. "Change must also come from within. This is why it is critical for us to join hands and work closely with communities and their leaders so that they can bring about sustainable social change."
The aim is to have a major reduction in female genital mutilation in many countries by 2015, the target date for the achievement of the global anti-poverty objectives known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
"If we can come together for a sustained push, female genital mutilation can vanish within a generation," said Deputy Secretary General Asha-Rose Migiro, adding her voice to the pledge made today. "But this goal demands both increased resources and strengthened coordination and cooperation among all of us."
She called on countries to join the UN as full partners in the fight against female genital mutilation, which "clashes with our core universal values and constitutes a challenge to human dignity and health."
Pledging their commitment to end the practice are the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), The UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Honorable Mentions:
1. 8th Century BCE Seals Found at City of David Site
Thursday, 28 February 2008, 8:28 am
Press Release: Israel Antiquities Authority
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0802/S00400.htm
Seals dating to the 8th Century BCE found at City of David excavations
Finds recovered from the excavations in the City of David reveal an interesting development in the ancient world: whereas during the 9th century BCE letters and goods were dispatched on behalf of their senders without names, by the 8th century BCE the clerks and merchants had already begun to add their names to the seals.
Complete seal bearing the Hebrew name "Rephaihu (ben) Shalem".(Photo: Israel Antiquities Authority)
In an excavation the Israel Antiquities Authority is conducting in cooperation with the Nature and Parks Authority and the Elad Association in the City of David, in the National Park around the Old City Walls of Jerusalem, artifacts were found that include, among other things, a complete seal that bears the Hebrew name "Rephaihu (ben) Shalem" and fragments of bullae. The excavation directors are Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa and Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
In an archaeological excavation that is being carried out at the Spring House near the Gihon Spring in the City of David, soil was excavated which contained pottery sherds that date to the Iron Age 2 (8th century BCE).
Wet sifting and carefully sorting through the soil produced the hoped for results: fragments of three bullae (pieces of clay that were meant to seal letters or goods), and two stone seals were recently found. All of the objects bear Hebrew names and all date to the 8th century BCE. Among them is a seal that was discovered intact and which bears the Hebrew name "Rephaihu (ben) Shalem", who lived in the City of David in Jerusalem during this period. The seals were primarily used by public officials.
According to the researchers, Eli Shukron and Professor Ronny Reich, "In contrast with the large cluster of bullae that was found two years ago, in which all of its items contain graphic symbols (such as a boat or different animals - fish, lizards and birds) but are of an earlier date (end of the 9th-beginning of the 8th century BCE), the new items indicate that during the 8th century BCE the practice had changed and the clerks who used the seals began to add their names to them."
Chewing Gum Speeds Recovery From Gastrointestinal Surgery, Study Shows
ScienceDaily (Feb. 28, 2008)
— New research has resulted in an immediate change in the way physicians treat their patients -- giving them chewing gum to speed recovery following stomach-related surgery. Researchers find chewing gum is a simple solution to the recovery of bowel function after gastrointestinal surgery -- a problem that has troubled patients and physicians for decades.
Authors of the paper published in Urology* evaluated 102 patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery and gave half of them 5 pieces of chewing gum per day after their operation.
Chewing the gum is thought to stimulate the smooth muscle fibers and secretion from the salivary glands and liver. The 51 patients who chewed gum recovered their bowel movement significantly faster than those who did not.
Pediatric Urologist, Kropp. of Faculty of 1000 Medicine, will be giving his patients undergoing reconstructive surgery a piece of gum following their operation. He says, " In today's high-tech, molecular-driven scientific world, it is nice to come across an article that can be implemented immediately into our practices without increased healthcare cost."
Kropp also adds, "Just think how much a pack of gum would cost today had the pharmaceutical industry come across this information first."
*Journal reference: Gum chewing stimulates bowel motility in patients undergoing radical cystectomy with urinary diversion. Kouba EJ, Wallen EM, Pruthi RS in Urology 2007 Dec 70(6):1053-6 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?list_uids=18158012&holding=f1000,f1000m,isrctn
Adapted from materials provided by BioMed Central, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Unpublishable:
Polar Bear Born in Stuttgart
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/shared-gen/ap/Europe/Germany_Polar_Bear.html
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