Research provides new evidence for potential blood-based biomarker for Alzheimer's

A potential blood-based biomarker for Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases seems even more promising thanks to new research from a Massachusetts General Hospital-led study. According to this team's work, neurofilament light chain (NfL) has great potential as a biomarker for early detection of Alzheimer's disease and could be also useful for monitoring treatment response for that condition.

"We wanted to determine the earliest age at which plasma NfL levels could distinguish individuals at high risk of Alzheimer's," says Quiroz, who is also an MGH Research Scholar 2020-2025.

They found that NfL levels increased with age among people at genetic risk because of a specific mutation (PSEN1 E280A) and began to differentiate carriers from non-carriers at age 22, an average of 22 years before their estimated age of cognitive impairment (age 44).

Neurofilament light chain (NfL) is a biomarker of neurodegeneration - damage to neurons. Measures of NfL concentrations in cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) and blood have been used to detect and track neurodegeneration in individuals with Alzheimer's disease and other brain disorders.

The team used an ultra-sensitive single molecule array immunoassay to measure NfL concentrations in serum and plasma. Earlier studies have shown close correlations between blood-based and CSF measurements in people and animal models of neurodegenerative diseases.

The team studied over 2,000 members of the world's largest kindred with familial Alzheimer's because of a single mutation (PSEN1 E280A) --the familial Alzheimer's disease Colombian kindred, which were aged 8-75 years and had no other neurological or health conditions.

Next they used a single molecule array immunoassay to examine the relationship between plasma NfL concentrations and age to establish the earliest age at which NfL concentrations start to diverge between mutation carriers and non-carriers. The team enrolled 1070 PSEN1 E280A mutation carriers and 1074 non-carriers with baseline assessments.

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Our findings add to the growing evidence that blood-based NfL can be useful in detecting neurodegeneration, starting with very early, subtle elevations way before the onset of clinical symptoms. We need more studies to further explore NfL as a way to inform prognosis and evaluate treatments in Alzheimer's disease."

Yakeel T. Quiroz, PhD, Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Familial Dementia Neuroimaging Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital

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Three key signs to distinguish coronavirus from your allergy symptoms

To help clear up the confusion, Popular Science has created a handy chart, revealing the three key signs to distinguish COVID-19 from allergy symptoms.

PopSci posted the photo to its Instagram page, writing: “Seasonal allergies or #COVID19? Here's a handy symptom chart to help you tell the difference.” 

The chart reveals that allergies and COVID-19 tend to share four key symptoms - a dry cough, loss of smell, runny nose and congestion.

However, the chart also highlights three key signs that you’re suffering from an allergy, and not coronavirus.

Popular Science has created a handy chart, revealing the three key signs to distinguish COVID-19 from allergy symptoms

These are sneezing, itchy nose and itch eyes.

Meanwhile, if you have GI issues, fever, difficulty breathing, loss of taste, body aches, sore throat of fatigue, you may have COVID-19. 

The Royal College of GPs (RCGP) said some people might be concerned that there was an overlap in symptoms.

Its chairman, Professor Martin Marshall, said: "We would normally expect to see a number of patients at this time of year suffering with symptoms of allergic rhinitis, more commonly known as hay fever - an allergic reaction to various types of pollen.

Typically, patients suffering with hay fever will experience symptoms such as a runny or blocked nose, sneezing, sore and watering eyes - but also sometimes a cough.

"Some of these presenting problems, especially a cough, can also be symptoms of Covid-19."
He separately told the BBC on Monday: "It's not surprising given the overlap between some hay fever symptoms and mild coronavirus that people might be concerned."

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Genetic signature helps distinguish latent autoimmune diabetes in adults from pediatric-onset T1D

A multi-center team of researchers led by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) has discovered a genetic signature that could help distinguish an adult-onset form of diabetes sharing many type 1 diabetes (T1D) characteristics from pediatric-onset T1D, opening the door to potentially more straightforward diagnostic tests for the adult condition and improving responses by ensuring patients receive the most appropriate treatment.

This is our first insight into genetic differences between latent autoimmune diabetes in adults and T1D in children that may be diagnostically useful. We have found a genetic means of discriminating between the two conditions without expensive and cumbersome anti-autobody screening."

Latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) is sometimes referred to as "type 1.5 diabetes" because it shares characteristics of both T1D and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Like T1D, LADA produces autoantibodies that attack the body's insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. However, like those with T2D, patients with LADA are diagnosed in adulthood and do not require insulin at the time of diagnosis. For this reason, LADA is often misdiagnosed as T2D; studies have shown that up to 10% of T2D diagnoses are, in fact, LADA, and as a result patients do not respond to the commonly inappropriate treatments prescribed to them.

An earlier genome-wide association study led by CHOP found that, from a genetic perspective, LADA has more in common with T1D than with T2D. Researchers wanted to take a deeper dive and look for genetic differences that could help discriminate between LADA and T1D, meaning the diagnosis of LADA could potentially begin with a simple genotype array, rather than with a more complex and expensive auto-antibody screening.

To do so, the team decided to look at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), a highly variable region of the genome that helps drive the immune system and is implicated in T1D. Earlier studies have shown that when researchers control for T1D genetic variants in one part of the MHC, other variants associated with T1D appear in another part of the MHC.

The study team applied that methodology to both a set of T1D data as well as a cohort of LADA patients. They found that when it came to the T1D group, the results from the earlier studies held: controlling for genetic variants in one part of the MHC revealed variants in another part of the MHC.

However, researchers did not find the same effect with LADA patients. When controlling for genetic variants in the MHC in those patients, the additional association was not observed within this key region - an important genetic distinction between the two conditions. When a sensitivity test was applied to the two cohorts, researchers still saw the effect only in T1D patients, not in those with LADA.

"This suggests that these MHC class associations may be a genetic discriminator between LADA and childhood-onset T1D," said Diana Cousminer, PhD, a geneticist at CHOP and a joint-first author of the study. "The next step is to look at this association in different ethnicities, particularly African ancestry, where the prevalence of adult-onset diabetes can be significantly higher in certain parts of the world."

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15 Little Known Facts About The Human Anatomy

The human anatomy is interesting. We have two of certain parts and organs, one of some. We feel a certain way sometimes but just never understand why sometimes. Some parts of the body grow while others remain the same and the list is endless.
The truth is, there’s even more to our bodies than meets the eye and here are fifteen little known or mind blowing facts about the human body.

1.In a single lifetime, you produce enough saliva to fill a swimming pool

As gross as this sounds, 25,000 quarts of saliva are produced by the average human. While it sounds like a bad thing, this saliva helps keep our bodies clean.People who have lower levels of saliva are more susceptible to oral infections.
On that note, you might as well know that in just a day, you produce a whole litre of mucus.

2.Sleeping for less than 7 hours a day decreases life expectancy

Sounds scary right?

Well, getting less than seven hours of sleep consistently is said to lower your life expectancy.

It is sad that often times, life always seems to stand in the way of our getting the amount of sleep our bodies need. This is especially the case for people with full time jobs in busy cities that will often keep you on the road too long making you get home late and have you up too early if you are to get to work in time.It’s almost like we can’t exactly win on this one but it does increase your chances of dying prematurely.

At night when you sleep, your brain is more active as it starts to prepare for the next day. It gets rid of toxins and certain information to ensure you wake up revitalized.

The most ideal number of sleep hours is eight, although babies need even more sleep for healthy growth.

3. You are at a bigger risk of dying of a heart attack on a Monday

As if Mondays aren’t already bad enough, here comes more reason to not like them. A lot always seems to happen on Mondays come to think of it and most of all that is usually negative, which subsequently causes stress. 

Apparently, 20% more people succumb to heart attacks on this dreaded first day of the week.

4. A Human being can distinguish between 1 trillion different smells

One trillion!

As shocking as that number seems, it is true. People often underestimate the nose but you, the average human can tell between this immense number of odors which compared to how many colors the eye can tell from, is impeccable. 

The eye can only distinguish between 10 million colors.

5. A baby has 99 more bones than an adult

Yes, as crazy as that might sound, it is a fact.

 It is said that a new born baby has around three hundred and five bones compared to a fully grown adult who has two hundred and six. The explanation for this is that a baby’s skeleton is mostly made up of cartilage and as the baby grows to the point of adulthood, through a process called ossification, the cartilage turns into adult bone.

6.You have as much hair as a chimpanzee

This one is funny. Chimps usually appear to be so hairy. In fact they just look like a ball of hair, so how can the amount of hair on the average  human being be compared to the amount of hair on a chimp?

Well, it has an explanation.

The hair on a human being’s body is often incredibly fine and is also very light so it isn’t as easy to notice, while that on a chimpanzee is much thicker. 

It is believed that that appearance of our hair is to actually make us sweat better but this is still unclear.

7. Your heart pumps enough blood to fill 200 train tanks

Well, in a single lifetime, your heart will keep pumping blood as long as it has oxygen supply. This blood pumped throughout this entire time is about 1.5 million barrels.

Did you know that as long as this same heart is supplied with oxygen continuously, it can keep pumping even if it is outside the body?

This is because of its own electrical impulse.

The amount of energy produced on a single day by your heart can also power a truck for, wait for it, 20 miles.

8. Music heals the body

I’m sure you’ve heard of cases where music is used by expectant ladies for the sake of keeping the unborn baby relaxed, among other things related to that entire period of expectancy, but the wonders of music surpass that.

Medical practitioners, mainly in cardiovascular units, are starting to incorporate music into treating of patients because it has been found to generally relax the body, lower their heart rate as well as their blood pressure.

Careful though with the kind of music for this purpose. It needs to be nice and slow in order to avoid sending the patients into a state of shock.

9. An unborn baby can actually save the mother

This is a very interesting fact. When a woman is expectant and has a malfunctioning organ, the foetus has a way of sending stem cells to save the mother.

It is a beautiful phenomenon because typically the mother’s body is what protects the foetus as it grows but it turns out, the mother can also count on her unborn baby in the event that she faces a health risk.

10. Your eyes  actually never change in size ,but the nose and ears do

Yes, your eyes as an adult are the exact size they were when you were still a baby. In fact, that is why babies usually look so cute and adorable. It’s because their eyes , other than being so bright, appear bigger.

Contrary to this, your ears and nose will always keep growing for as long as you are alive.

11. You lose 600,000 particles of skin in every hour

Do you realize that this is an equivalent of 1.5 pounds lost every year? Sure it doesn’t look like much but for automatic skin particle shedding, it is quite the figure.

That is a lot of dead cells.

12. The fastest human sense is hearing and the most active muscle is the eye

The average brain can tell sound faster than the blink of an eye. How fast? Well, 10 times faster.

That is why it is obviously easier to get someone’s attention by yelling than it is to do a gesture.

The eye on the other hand is the most active among the body’s muscles as it moves a hundred thousand times in a single day.

13. Your body has enough acid to dissolve a razor blade and more chemicals

In just the stomach alone, a razor blade can dissolve in the acid present.

The sulphur in your body can finish off all the fleas on a dog.

About nine hundred pencils can be made from the carbon present in the body.

There is also enough fat to to make seven bars of soap. The fat part might be a little scary for some but it is a fact.

14. The feet contain 52 bones

Realize, this is approximately a quarter of all the bones contained in your entire body. This should not actually be a surprise seeing the amount of work the feet do . They literally support your entire body throughout the day.

In addition to the number of bones, they also contain thirty three joints, nineteen different muscles and more than a hundred ligaments.

15. When you wake up, you are actually taller than you were before you slept

 Are you sure about that? 

You may ask, because you probably never note the difference in your height. 

 
Well it is not much of a difference but if it counts, then you will be glad to note that you wake up a centimeter taller, so maybe another reason not to underestimate the power of a good night sleep.

There will always be more to learn about the human body and knowledge of this is power because it could, to a great extent, shape how we look after ourselves and generally all our activities.
Understanding such facts should be interesting. 

Fifteen is just a small number compared to how much more there is to human beings but certainly a good number to start with in learning.

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AI helps identify new breast cancer types

Using artificial intelligence (AI), researchers have distinguished five types of breast cancer, which were earlier lumped into one. Researchers applied AI and machine learning (ML) to gene sequences and molecular data from breast tumours, to reveal crucial differences among these cancer types.

According to researchers, two of them are more likely to respond to immunotherapy, one was more likely to relapse on tamoxifen. “We are at the cusp of a revolution in healthcare as we get to grips with the possibilities AI and ML can open up,” said study leader author .

“Our study has shown that AI can recognise patterns in breast cancer that are beyond the limit of the human eye, and to point us to new avenues of treatment among those who have stopped responding to standard hormone therapies,” the researcher said.

The majority of breast cancers develop in the inner cells that line the mammary ducts and are “fed” by oestrogen or progesterone. These are classed as ‘luminal A’ tumours and often have the best cure rates.

However, patients within the group respond differently to standard treatments, like tamoxifen, or new treatments — needed if patients relapse — such as immunotherapy.

The researchers applied the AI-trained computer software to a vast array of data available on the genetics, molecular and cellular make-up of primary ‘luminal A’ breast tumours, along with data on patient survival.

Once trained, the AI was able to identify five different types of disease with particular patterns of response to treatment.

Women with a cancer type labelled ‘inflammatory’ had immune cells present in their tumours and high levels of a protein called PD-L1, suggesting they were likely to respond to immunotherapies.

Another group of patients had ‘triple negative’ tumours, which don’t respond to standard hormone treatments but various indicators suggest they might also respond to immunotherapy.

Patients with tumours that contained a specific change in chromosome 8 had worse survival than other groups when treated with tamoxifen and tended to relapse much earlier. These patients may benefit from an additional or new treatment to delay or prevent late relapse.

The markers identified in the study don’t challenge the overall classification of breast cancer, but find additional differences within the current sub-divisions of the disease, with important implications for treatment.

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