Three New Scientific Findings for Better Health

Bringing the health issue of Alzheimer's disease to the forefront, Scripps Research Institute of Jupiter Florida took a unique approach and applied research to the study of antigens.

Zeroing in on a substance that originates in bacteria or a protein from a virus was a time consuming, laborious approach. Bypassing the wait for the right conditions that spur activity of the immune system expedites research.

The traditional method of research requires knowing the antigen that triggers an antibody. But, the new approach has gone around this requirement.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, works with the NIH Common Fund's Pioneer Award Program by helping oversee the funded research provided by NIH's award program.

Going around the established method, the researchers accessed libraries of synthetic molecules called peptides. Then by comparing actual serum samples from diseased animals, they captured the molecules needed for diagnosis and comparison.

Deciding to apply this to a comparative study of Alzheimer's disease, scientists also compared healthy individuals and with those having Parkinson's disease. Results of two peptides binding with lgG antibodies proved that in 2 out of three cases the peptides were able to recognize and pull results of antigen-binding sites of antibodies that were specific to disease.

The results could lead to quicker diagnosis, or possibly expedite research that leads to a cure for disease.

The long title for the original study on this topic is "Identification of Candidate IgG Antibody Biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease through Screening of Synthetic Combinatorial Libraries." Under this title are the names of other studies and their authors.

Brain Scans and Smoking

By showing commercials for cigarettes while scanning a test subject, researchers are able to predict the likelihood of whether a smoker who decides to quit will actually do so.

From the University of Michigan, the concluded results of watching the brain activity of heavy smokers who wanted to quit. Combined with observations, a post scan interview showed a parallel.

How the researchers determined the likelihood of test subjects becoming non smokers began with recruits from an anti smoking program. The test subjects viewed smoking commercials and answered questions about their response.

After a month, a review and a question answer test compared smoker's reports by checking CO levels. If a subject reported that they went down from 21 cigarettes to 5, the results were consistent with the tests.

The hope is that eventually researchers will be able to determine which mental stimulus is the most effective in programming smokers to quit.

A healthy world would eliminate many problems we are facing with human suffering not to mention the economy.

Bar coding for Herbal Products

After testing several products on the shelves of health and nutritional establishments, researchers found that many of the products didn't contain any ingredients of the product it was purported to be. The product they first found was of the herbal supplement, Gingko.

Others had differing amounts. Pure product was found to be a rarity.

In order to stop the rip offs, a new bar coding system is being developed. The herbs that are being misrepresented will be found out. The process for establishing a bar code system sounds laborious and time consuming. The first phase is identifying the markers of the various herbs. The safeguard from falsely represented products, may be years in the making. In the meantime, taking herbs as part of a health regimen may entail growing your own.

ref

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=118533&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click

http://www.scripps.edu/florida/

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2011/jan/13/scripps-florida-team-develops-groundbreaking-techn/?partner=RSS

PBS.org