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Health News
Washington September 3:
The same gene that affects a rodent's ability to mate for life may affect human marriages, Swedish and US researchers reported.
Men carrying a common variation of a gene involved in brain signaling were more likely to be in unhappy marriages than men with the other version, the team at the Karolinska Institute found.
Although they are not sure what the genetic changes do to a man's behaviour, some other research suggests it has to do with the ability to communicate and empathize, the team reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "We never looked at infidelity in our study at all. What we have been focusing on is how strongly men bond to their partners," Karolinska's Hasse Walum, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.
Walum's team had been intrigued by previous research that showed one genetic difference seemed to explain why one species of vole formed strong pair bonds for life, while another mated promiscuously. "Maybe this same gene will affect humans," Walum said. They looked at a study of 552 pairs of twins and their spouses that detailed measures of parent and child relationships, marriage, personality and mental health of middle-class Swedes born between 1944 and 1971.
The researchers tested the blood of men in the study, looking in particular for a gene that is similar in humans and voles. Called AVPR1A, it helps explain why prairie voles are monogamous and mountain and meadow voles are not. The gene affects a brain chemical called neuropeptide arginine vasopressin and mostly affects blood pressure through the body's ability to retain water.
In humans, studies have shown certain variations of AVPR1A are linked with aggression, age at first sexual intercourse and altruism. One study suggested a link with autism, which affects the ability to interact socially, while another showed over-activation of the amygdala, the brain's emotional center.
Walum's team found that men with a gene variant, or allele, known as 334 earned low scores on their partner bonding scale, and were less likely to be married at all. Men carrying two copies of 334 were twice as likely to have had a marital crisis in the past year. Their wives were much more likely to report dissatisfaction with their marriage.
"Fifteen percent of the men carrying no 334 allele reported marital crisis, whereas 34 percent of the men carrying two copies of this allele reported marital crisis," the researchers wrote.
More than 30 percent of the men who had at least one copy of 334 were unmarried, compared to 17 percent of the men who had no copies. Walum said he has "no idea" how the genetic variant may actually affect a human being's behaviour and stressed that larger studies must be done to test the association. He would also like to test more unmarried men.
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Source :
Punjab Mail Online
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News Date :
September
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Washington September 3:
A virus that causes a universal childhood infection is often passed from parent to child at birth, not in the blood but in the DNA, US researchers said.
They found that most babies infected with the HHV-6 virus, which causes roseola, had the virus integrated into their chromosomes. Not only that, but either the father or mother also had the virus in the chromosomes, suggesting it was a so-called germline transmission -- passed on in egg or sperm.
"This is really a unique mechanism for congenital infections," said Dr Caroline Breese Hall, a pediatrician at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York who led the study published in the journal Pediatrics. Her team is now investigating what this means for the children.
"If you have a chromosome that has got a virus integrated into it, what does it mean? What does it do? Can it activate again? Can it start spewing out virus and cause problems? Can you get an immune response to it?" she said. The questions are critical because nearly everybody is infected with HHV-6. It is a herpes virus that causes roseola -- an infection marked by high fever and the usual vague virus symptoms that may include respiratory or stomach problems.
About 20 percent of children also have a characteristic sudden rash that appears just as the fever breaks. Hall's team studied 250 infants, 85 with HHV-6. Of them, 43 were born with the virus and 42 were infected later. Most of the babies born with the virus -- a congenital infection -- had the virus in the chromosome. Hall said the assumption had been that the virus somehow crossed the placenta from mother to child, but in 86 percent of cases, it was inherited directly in the genetic material.
Just 14 percent were infected across the placenta. Tests showed either the mother or the father -- but not both -- also had HHV-6 in the chromosomes. "Because we know a parent already had the virus in the chromosome, we know that it didn't spontaneously wiggle its way in once the baby got it," Hall said.
There were several spots where the virus integrated into the DNA, but usually right at the end of the chromosome, where a key structure called the telomere is found. Telomeres protect the chromosome and are involved in aging and immune response. The virus is everywhere in people who inherit it, Hall said. "In your hair, your nails, your skin, your blood, and at very high titers (levels)," she said.
The babies infected this way did not appear ill but Hall wants to follow them as they grow up to see if they develop normally. They all had antibodies to HHV-6, which is evidence of an immune reaction of some sort. There is no drug licensed to treat HHV-6 infection. Other viruses are known to integrate into the DNA and pass on from parent to child, but these so-called human endogenous retroviruses have never been known to cause symptoms or activate an immune response.
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Source :
Punjab Mail Online
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News Date :
September
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Paris August 29:
Scientists have used gene therapy on mouse embryos to grow hair cells with the potential to reduce hearing loss in adult animals, according to a study.
The proof-of-concept experiments are a crucial step toward therapies that could one day treat deafness and inner-ear disease in humans, said the study, published in the British journal Nature. Sensory hair cells inside the cochlea, the auditory portion of the inner ear, convert sound waves into electrical impulses that are delivered to the brain.
The loss of these cells and the neurons they contain is the most common cause of hearing impairment and so-called nerve deafness. At birth, humans have about about 30,000 hair cells, which can be damaged by factors like infections, aging, genetic diseases, loud noise or treatment with certain drugs.
In most cases, damaged hair cells do not regrow in mature humans. But recent research has kindled hope that nerve deafness may one day be curable. A team of scientists led by John Brigande at the Oregon Health and Science University, in Portland showed that implanting a gene known as Atoh1 into the inner ear of a mouse embryo coaxed non-sensory cells to become hair cells.
Earlier research had pointed to similar results, but this is the first study to show that the cells generated by the gene therapy are functional. The production of extra, working hair cells in a mouse embryo could be an important step toward using similar therapies in human patients, the study by the researchers in US said.
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Source :
Punjab Mail Online
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News Date :
August 29,
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Shillong April 2:
It is no longer a dog's life for Dinesh, the Labrador with Assam rifles, who has sniffed his way to fame by getting a governor's gold medal for his explosive detection skills.
The six-year-old canine was honoured for his skills in detecting explosives which has saved several lives in the North East. Besides Dinesh, 40 soldiers were honoured for their gallantry at the investiture ceremony on the occasion of the 173rd anniversary of Assam rifles on March 25.
The number ARL-69 force member puts the Labrador’s skill to use while performing duties during road opening operations to check the road surface and surroundings and have saved many lives. The dog has been with the 19 Assam rifles since March 1, 2004.
Giving an account of his sniffing skills, AR officials said on July 31, 2006, the force troopers were clearing the road between Nongda and Leima Khong Mapan on NH 150 in Manipur and proceeding towards Lamlai police station, when Dinesh detected a bomb and averted heavy casualties.
His sniffing skill enabled the road opening party personnel to spot the 2.5 kg Improvised Explosive Device (IED) concealed in shrubs, about two feet away from the road. The IED was found to be of claymore type with two detonators and 500 meters of electric wire.
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Source :
Punjab Mail Online
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News Date :
April 2,20
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