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Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology have been able to solve a long-standing mystery about HIV infection as to how the virus promotes the death of CD4 T cells.

The study reveals that the virus actually makes an entry into the CD4 T cells to make a DNA copy of its reverse transcription, according to Dr. Gilad Doitsh, who performed many of the studies and is the lead author of the paper.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

The researchers identified the precise step in which the CD4 T cells die by using different anti-HIV drugs to arrest the virus at different points in its life cycle. Drugs that blocked viral entry or that blocked the start of reverse transcription stopped the killing.

Conversely, drugs that acted later in the life cycle did not. Importantly, the researchers used primary human lymphoid tissues, such as tonsil and spleen to uncover this death pathway. These and other lymphoid tissues contain over 98pc of the body’s CD4 T cells and represent the major site where the virus reproduces itself.

The team also found that the dying cells do not go silently into the night. As they die, these cells release proteins, called cytokines, that cause inflammation and that attract healthy cellular targets promoting repeated rounds of infection and cell death. Scientists have long been interested in why HIV infection and inflammation seem to go hand in hand. This study reveals a new mechanism linking the virus to inflammation.

The findings have been reported in the November 24th issue of Cell, a Cell Press publication.

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Scientists have come up with a novel way for approaching treatment of cancer and said that a new process to create a personalized vaccine could become an important tool in helping patients with colorectal cancer develop an immune response against their own tumors.

Richard Barth Jr., Chief of General Surgery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and a member of the Gastrointestinal Clinical Oncology Group at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center, who is the study’s principal investigator, said the study results suggest a new way to approach cancer treatment.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

“Basically, we’ve worked out a way to use dendritic cells, which initiate immune responses, to induce an antitumor response.”

Dendritic cells are critical to the human body’s immune system, helping identify targets, or antigens, and then stimulating the immune system to react against those antigens.

The new research grew dendritic cells from a sample of a patient’s blood, mixed them with proteins from the patient’s tumor, and then injected the mixture into the patient as a vaccine.

The vaccine then stimulated an anti-tumor response from T-cells, a kind of white blood cell that protects the body from disease.

In the study, Barth first operated on 26 patients to remove tumors that had spread from the colon to the liver. While some of these patients would be expected to be cured with surgery alone, most of them would eventually die from tiny metastases that were undetectable at the time the tumors were removed from the liver.

The DC vaccine treatment was given one month after surgery. The results were that T-cell immune responses were induced against the patient’s own tumor in more than 60pc of the patients.

This dendritic cell (DC) vaccine, developed at Dartmouth, has been used after surgical resection of metastatic tumors in an attempt to prevent the growth of additional metastases.

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If you doctor has advised you to come for a colonoscopy exam and you want to access some insights about this examination, this piece of information should be useful to you.

Before we read any further, it is important for us to know why colonoscopy exam is conducted so that all of us are on the same knowledge platform and confusions are best avoided.

Colonoscopy examination and its purpose

A colonoscopy examination is conducted by a doctor to find health complications such as ulcers, early signs of colon or rectum cancer, inflamed tissue, or abnormal growth. The exam is also used to look out for reasons behind unexplained changes in bowel habits and evaluate symptoms such as rectal bleeding, weight loss, and abdominal pain.

This visual examination of the large intestine is done by making use of a light weight, fiber-optic, or a video endoscope.

High risk people

Routine colonoscopy exams should usually begin at the age of 50. People who should undergo this test for once include those having a family history of colorectal cancer or a personal history of inflammatory bowel complications.

Discussions with the doctor

If you are making use of vitamins, supplements, medications, or herbal formulations, it is recommended that you disclose the same to the doctor before seeking his qualified advice. It is important that you disclose use of aspirin, blood thinning medications, medication for diabetes and arthritis, and vitamins containing iron before seeking the advice.

Things to do before examination

After the doctor has scheduled and described the procedures of examination, you will be asked to consume the colonoscopy preparation mix a day before the test. It is worthwhile to note here that you need to fast the day before this examination but you can always feed yourself with clear juices and broth. You can even consume liquids such as gelatin, plain tea, plain coffee, and water.  It is recommended that you stay away from eating anything colored as that may complicate the test readings.

On day of the colonoscopy exam, you would be asked to drink plenty of water since you will probably be sedated during the entire procedure. Drinking water will also help your body maintain an appropriate blood pressure.

Post examination care

After the colonoscopy exam has been conducted, you are recommended not to drive for a minimum of 24 hours so that the sedatives can wear off. It is recommended that you are accompanied with an individual who can drive and take you home if your home is not near to the medical center.

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In this YouTube video, Swami Satchidananda explains how human beings tend to lose health and happiness. The video also talks about easy ways to prevent this loss and is taken from a talk by Sri Gurudev on holistic healing at Lynchburg College, Virginia, 1987.

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A quarter of couples admit that they sleep in separate beds because one partner has an “unbearable” habit such as snoring, according to a survey by the Etap Hotel group.

The Daily Express reported that snoring leads to sleepless nights for three quarters of people and those who do share a bed lose out on an average of 70 minutes sleep a night.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

The poll of 4,000 couples found duvet hogging, restlessness and noisiness are the most common complaints that send partners heading for the spare room.

Nearly a quarter of us harbour resentment towards our partner as a result of lack of sleep and this causes arguments between almost half of couples.

Sex drive suffers in over a quarter of relationships and one in 20 people would even consider splitting up because of their partner’s snoring.

It seems celebrity couples suffer, too. Tom Cruise, Sid Owen and Kevin Jonas reportedly sleep separately from their other halves because of their own serious snoring problem.

Stealing the bedcovers is an irritation for six out of 10 people. A third take issue with their partner talking out loud in their sleep.

Psychologist Donna Dawson said it is better to sleep apart as the sleep of a good night rekindles the romance by making it feels as though you are dating again.

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According to a recently concluded research, women with the most common blood type “O” could be twice as likely to suffer fertility problems. Researchers found that women with O blood group are at much higher risk of running out of healthy eggs, so they could have problems conceiving as they age.

It is worthwhile to note that almost half the population – 44 percent – have blood type ‘O’ while 42 percent have type ‘A’ and 14 percent have type ‘AB’.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

American researchers found that those with blood type ‘O’ were twice as likely to have low ‘ovarian reserve’ – the number of healthy eggs left – than those with other types.

The size of a woman’s ovarian reserve gradually falls throughout her life. A newborn girl has up to two million eggs, but by the time she reaches puberty this has fallen to 400,000 and once she is over 40 she will have just a few hundred left.

Researchers from the Yale University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, looked at the blood type of 563 women under 45 who were undergoing fertility treatment.

They compared their levels of Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) – a chemical in the blood which, if high, indicates a woman has a poor ovarian reserve, said an Yale release.

FSH levels greater than 10 suggest a woman will have more difficulty conceiving.

Women with FSH levels higher than 20 are deemed infertile. The researchers said that in future women could make decisions on when to start a family based on their blood type.

These findings will be presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in Denver, Colorado, US.

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A new research has found that men using their laptops while keeping them in their laps can be risking their fertility.

Yefim Sheynkin, lead author of the study and State University of New York urologist, said temperature in testicles of 29 subjects rose by 4 degrees when they worked on laptops on their knees though this is not proof that laptops definitely lead to infertility among men.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

A new study by Fertility and Sterility has found that when men use their laptops in their laps instead of on their desks, they may be overheating those male parts, which, in turn, may be damaging their sperm.

In studies, even men who used laptop pads as a buffer between their machine and their man parts, dangerously overheated themselves within 10 minutes.

The authors noted that other research has shown that warming the scrotum more than 1.8 degrees is enough to damage sperm.

After one hour, the 29 subjects working with a laptop on their knees had raised the temperature in their testicles by more than 4 degrees.owever, Yefim Sheynkin, lead author of the study and State University of New York urologist, stated that this is not proof that laptops definitely lead to infertility among men.

It is advised that laptop use must be made from a safe distance so that you can always be high on personal and professional parameters.

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If you have been looking for inspirational quotations to improve quality of life, these quotes from some of the most eminent world personalities will surely see you in great mood.

I venture to maintain that there are multitudes to whom the necessity of discharging the duties of a butcher would be so inexpressibly painful and revolting, that if they could obtain a flesh diet on no other condition, they would relinquish it forever. - W.E.H. Lecky

I just could not stand the idea of eating meat – I really do think that it has made me calmer….  People’s general awareness is getting much better, even down to buying a pint of milk:  the fact that the calves are actually killed so that the milk doesn’t go to them but to us cannot really be right, and if you have seen a cow in a state of extreme distress because it cannot understand why its calf isn’t by, it can make you think a lot. - Kate Bush

One farmer says to me, “You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make the bones with;” and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying himself with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plow along in spite of every obstacle. – Henry David Thoreau

If nature had arranged that husbands and wives should have children alternatively, there would never be more than three in a family. – Lawrence Housman

There are three reasons for breast-feeding:  the milk is always at the right temperature; it comes in attractive containers; and the cat can’t get it. – Irena Chalmers

People are giving birth underwater now.  They say it’s less traumatic for the baby because it’s in water. But certainly more traumatic for the other people in the pool. – Elayne Boosler

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