Urine test for detecting aging

Researchers find that a substance indicating oxidative damage increases in urine as people get older. Aging Neuroscience described a way to measure levels of this marker in human urine samples. The new marker potentially provides a method to measure how much human body has aged-biological rather than chronological age.

Everyone born in the same year has the same chronological age,  the bodies of different people age at different rates. This means that the risk of many diseases increases with age, the link between age in years and our health and lifespan is relatively loose. Many people enjoy long lives, relatively free of disease, while others suffer chronic illness and premature death.

The rate of cellular damage can vary from person to person, and may be dictated by genetics, lifestyle and the environment we live in. This cellular damage may be a more accurate indication of  biological age than the number of years. Measuring biological age could predict the risk of developing age-related diseases and death.

One mechanism thought to underlie biological aging involves a molecule vital to human survival- oxygen-the free radical theory of aging. Oxygen by-products produced during normal metabolism can cause oxidative damage to biomolecules in cells, such as DNA and RNA," explains Jian-Ping Cai, a researcher involved in the study. "As we age, we suffer increasing oxidative damage , and so the levels of oxidative markers increase in our body."

One such marker, with the catchy name of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanosine-or 8-oxoGsn for short-results from oxidation of a crucial molecule in our cells called RNA. In previous studies in animals, Cai and colleagues found that 8-oxoGsn levels increase in urine with age. To see if this is true for humans as well, the researchers measured 8-oxoGsn in urine samples from 1,228 Chinese residents aged 2-90 years old, using a rapid analysis technique called ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography. Age-dependent increase in urinary 8-oxoGsn in participants 21 years old and older."

Therefore, urinary 8-oxoGsn is promising as a new marker of aging. Levels of 8-oxoGsn were roughly the same between men and women, except in post-menopausal women, who showed higher levels. This may have been caused by the decrease in estrogen levels that happens during menopause, as estrogen is known to have anti-oxidant effects. Urinary 8-oxoGsn may reflect the real condition of human body better than chronological age, and may help us to predict the risk of age-related diseases.
          haleplushearty.blogspot.com

Virus cracking molecules for treating Hepatitis B

Indiana University researchers have made an important step forward in the design of drugs that fight the hepatitis B virus, which can cause liver failure and liver cancer. ''The drug could attack hepatitis B virus on multiple fronts-preventing replication and killing new copies of the virus," said senior author Adam Zlotnick, a professor in the IU Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences' Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry.

A virus reproduces by hijacking a host's cellular machinery to produce more of the virus. The majority of viruses protect their genetic material-DNA or RNA-inside a protein shell called a "capsid." The research leads to discovery of  a class of molecules called core protein allosteric modulators, or CpAMs, that disrupt capsid protein assembly.

CpAM molecules attack viruses by causing their shells to assemble incorrectly, interrupting the life cycle of the virus. Previously, CpAMs were seen as only able to disrupt a virus during formation of the capsid, after which its DNA was protected inside a hard casing.

To make their discovery,  researchers bound the CpAM to a chemical called TAMRA-a crimson-colored dye used in some red lipstick-to make it fluorescent and easier to detect in experiments. Using cryo-electron microscopy, they found the small CpAM molecule could make the large, soccer ball-shaped virus capsid bend and distort.

The big implication is viral capsids aren't as impenetrable,  if this type of interference works against hepatitis B virus, it might also work against other viruses. About half of known virus families have soccer ball-like capsids; examples include polio and herpes.  This study may lead to better treatments against them since the mechanisms behind capsid disruption could lead to drugs against any of them.
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Tissues nanotransfection device

Researchers have developed a new technology called Tissue Nanotransfection TNT, it can generate any cell type for treatment within the patient's body. This technology can be used to repair injured tissue or restore function of aging tissue like organs, blood vessels and nerve cells.

Researchers reprogram skin cells to become vascular cells in injured legs that lacked blood flow. Within one week, active blood vessels appeared in the injured leg, the leg was healed at the second week.

The technology also reprogram skin cells in the live body into nerve cells that were injected into brain-injured mice to help them recover from stroke.
The device delivers new DNA or RNA into living skin cells to change their function.

This technology can convert skin cells into elements of any organ with a touch. It takes less than a second and is non-invasive. The chip does not stay permanently in the body after use and the technology keeps the cells in the body under immune surveillance.

TNT technology has two major components: nanotechnology-based chip designed to deliver cargo to adult cells in the live body and the design of specific biological cargo for cell conversion.

 This cargo converts an adult cell from one type to another. TNT doesn't require any laboratory-based procedures and may be implemented at the point of care.
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Zika RNA found in Aedes albopictus

Chelsea Smartt, an entomology associate professor and her research team collected 20 female and 19 male Aede albopictus mosquitoes eggs and raised them to adults and tested the adults for the Zika virus RNA

They discovered that five of them are positive for Zika RNA, this shows that Zika virus is present in mosquito that is not associated with the virus.

Mosquitoes like Aedes albopictus can be infected with zika virus in an area that has high density of zika virus.

Avoid mosquito bites and sleep under insecticide mosquito net at night. Presently, their is no vaccine for zika virus.

Another type of mosquito may transmit Zika virus

The main carrier of Zika is yellow fever mosquito, researchers have found traces of zika virus in Asian tiger mosquitoes collected in Brazil.

According to Chelsea Smartt, their is no proof that Asian tiger mosquitoes can transmit zika but their is need for more research to detect other carriers of zika.

Smartt and her colleagues hatched mosquitoes egg in Brazil and discovered that Asian tiger males tested positive to Zika RNA but negative to the live Zika virus test.

She suggested zika virus test for all the mosquitoes in the area with a higher number of Zika cases for Zika RNA, if the mosquitoes are positive to Zika RNA they need to undergo live Zika virus test.