Curcumin hope in TB fight

Indian scientists have shown that turmeric’s yellow ingredient may help enhance the efficacy of the lone standard vaccine against tuberculosis, which is given to all children at birth but is effective only for about a decade.

Researchers at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, have carried out studies on mice to demonstrate that curcumin -– a molecule extracted from turmeric – when encapsulated into tiny nano-particles, can increase the efficacy of the bacille Camille-Guerin (BCG) vaccine.

The protective effect of the BCG vaccine diminishes over time and is lost by the time children turn 10 or 12.

Gobardhan Das, head of the Centre for Molecular Medicine at JNU, and his colleagues have now shown that curcumin nano-particles can enhance the capacity of the BCG vaccine to stimulate the long-term memory of the immune system.

They found that the efficacy of the BCG vaccine was stronger and lasted longer in immunised mice that had also received curcumin nano-particles for 30 days after receiving the vaccines.

They have published their findings in the research journal Infection and Immunity.

When the immunised mice were challenged by a virulent strain of tuberculosis, delivered through aerosols, the bacterial loads in the lungs and spleen were significantly lower in the mice that had also received the curcumin nano-particles.

The JNU studies suggest that the addition of curcumin nano-particles activates two types of cells in the immune system, called Th1 and Th17, which play a key role in the long-term protection against tuberculosis infections.

“We need to validate these findings, but if these results are extrapolated to humans, we’re proposing enhancing the efficacy of, and long-term protection with, BCG vaccines,” Das said.

Earlier studies had established that curcumin can influence the immune system in animals and humans.

“Our results suggest that nano-curcumin can elongate or stretch the ability of the immune system to recognise the TB bacilli,” said Anand Ranganathan, a study team member.

this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     
https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement 

Scientists fnd Tuberculosis vaccine lowers rate of Alzheimer's in cancer patients

Currently, Alzheimer's affects one-in-ten adults over the age of 65 -- a number that is expected to triple by 2030. The need to find a cure is great. In the backdrop of the following facts, researchers have developed a TB vaccine that lowers rates of Alzheimer's disease in cancer patients.

Now there may be a glimmer of hope. A research team headed by Herve Bercovier, Charles Greenblatt and Benjamin Klein at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU)'s Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics has discovered that the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine, originally developed for tuberculosis and commonly used to treat bladder cancer, may also be an effective treatment to prevent Alzheimer's. The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

"There's data reaching back to the 1960s that shows that countries treating bladder cancer patients with the BCG vaccine had a lower prevalence of Alzheimer's disease but it hadn't been properly analyzed," shared lead author Bercovier.

Until now Bercovier and his team followed 1,371 bladder cancer patients receiving treatment at HU's Hadassah Medical Center. The average patient age was 68. During follow-up visits, 65 cancer patients had developed Alzheimer's.

Those who had not received BCG as part of their treatment had a significantly higher risk of developing Alzheimer's than did BCG-treated patients: 8.9 per cent (44 patients) as opposed to 2.4 per cent(21). Further, when compared with the general (healthy) population, people who had never been treated with BCG had a 4-fold higher risk for developing Alzheimer's than did those who were treated with BCG.

It's important to note that the researchers have not developed a vaccine that prevents Alzheimer's. However, shared Bercovier, "our study is an important step towards understanding the ways in which our immune system is a major player in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's and how the BCG vaccine, which modulates the immune system, may serve as an effective preventative treatment to this crippling condition." 

this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     
https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement 

Tuberculosis infection is temporary in most people

A recent study challenged the earlier belief that tuberculosis infection stays forever and that it could come back at any point and cause the disease again.

Based on a review of clinical studies, researchers show that people who test positive with immunologic TB skin or blood tests rarely develop TB. 

They suggest it’s because the infecting organism, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is likely dead, wiped out naturally by people’s immune systems.

Despite that, these people retain an immunological memory to the disease, which the authors said likely explained why standard TB tests show a positive result since those tests look for an immune response and not live bacteria.

The findings upend commonly held beliefs, as well as approaches to care and research around the world, for the two billion people who test positive for TB and are thought to be persistently infected and at risk for active disease.

“The National Institutes of Health and other non-profit organisations spend millions of dollars on studies of the latent state because of the assumption that TB infection is life-long, held in check by the immune system,” said co-author of the study.

“However, based on our analysis, we believe that it is rarely life-long, and in 90 per cent or more of infected people, there is no possibility of TB development even with severe immunosuppression,” added another researcher.

In their review, the team pointed to several previous studies to demonstrate the natural history of TB immunoreactivity in people given preventive treatment, and of active TB in immunoreactive people with various forms of severe immunosuppression, like patients with HIV and those who have received an organ transplant.

“TB immunoreactivity is not a marker for the presence of continued TB infection,” a researcher wrote. “Rather, it serves as a sign of having been infected with TB at some point.”

The researchers believe future resources should focus on developing tests that can better identify infected people who are not symptomatic. Currently, there are no specific tests for these patients.

They also believe that detecting and treating people with active TB should be a high priority, as well as providing TB preventive therapy for those around them.

this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     
https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement        

New edible sensor helps TB patients take their medicinesingestible

An ingestible sensor that allows doctors to remotely monitor patients’ intake of tuberculosis medicine could revolutionise treatment and cure of the deadly disease in India which has the highest TB burden in the world, a study suggests. A randomised controlled trial, published in the journal , involved the sensor connected to a paired mobile.

The trial, conducted in California, produced superior results to directly observed therapy (DOT), where a healthcare worker watches the patient swallow medication. Researchers from the University of California in the US suggest that the technology could be a game changer in high prevalence countries where treatment adherence remains a stumbling block to eliminating TB.

They noted that TB is the world’s largest infectious disease killer, despite it being preventable, treatable and curable. In 2017, 10 million people globally fell ill with TB and 1.6 million died from the disease, the researchers said.

India has the highest TB burden in the world with one in four people affected by the disease residing in the country, they said. The trial demonstrates that Wirelessly Observed Therapy (WOT) was reported as highly accurate in recording medication ingestion (99.3 per cent), the researchers said.
WOT consists of an ingestion sensor composed of minerals, a patch worn on the torso and a paired mobile device. Patients with active TB using WOT were confirmed as taking 93 per cent of their daily prescribed doses as opposed to 63 per cent using DOT, they said.

All the 77 patients using WOT completed treatment, were cured, and preferred it to DOT, according to the researchers. Researchers said the system allowed patients to manage their own medication taking, preserving patient privacy and autonomy, but also enabled highly targeted treatment support from practitioners with permission.

“We are not doing people affected by TB justice when we have robust genomic diagnostic tests and the emergence of new antibiotic drugs that can cure TB but cannot guarantee consistent, convenient and private treatment support for them,” said Sara Browne, a professor at the University of California, who led the trial. 

this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   
https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement              

New Tuberculosis drug may shorten treatment time for patients

A new experimental antibiotic for tuberculosis (TB) may be more effective than isoniazid, a decades-old drug which is currently one of the standard treatments for the disease, a study claims. In mouse models, the drug showed a much lower tendency to develop resistance, according to the study.

The drug remains in the tissues where the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria reside for longer, killing them more effectively."The goal of TB drug development programmes is to develop universal treatment regimens that will shorten and simplify TB treatment in patients, which typically takes at least six months, and sometimes more than a year," said a researcher.

The new drug, called AN12855, has several advantages over isoniazid, which requires conversion to its active form by a Mycobacterial enzyme, KatG, in order to kill the pathogen. This creates a couple of problems. First, in some M tuberculosis, KatG is nonfunctional. That does not make M tuberculosis any less pathogenic, but it prevents the drug from working. That creates an easy avenue for the development of drug resistance, researchers said

Under selection pressure from isoniazid, the tuberculosis bacteria with nonfunctional KatG -- those that do not activate the drug -- are the ones that reproduce. Under these circumstances, drug resistance may develop. A hallmark of human tuberculosis is the presence of "heterogeneous pulmonary disease."

This includes a host defence involving confinement of invading bacteria within small cyst-like bodies called granulomas, that lack vasculature and often prevent the drug from reaching the pathogen. Most mouse TB models used for clinical evaluation of new drugs fail to produce this advanced lung pathology. Thus, they give little insight into how drugs might behave in the presence of advanced lung disease that is typical of human tuberculosis.

In the study, the researchers used a new TB mouse model that develops these M tuberculosis-containing granulomas to compare isoniazid and AN12855."We discovered that the drugs differed dramatically with respect to their abilities to kill the pathogen in highly diseased tissues. AN12855 proved more effective, without selecting for appreciable drug resistance," he said .

The superior efficacy is not surprising: AN12855 was superior in gaining entry and being retained in the granulomas, where M tuberculosis is found in highest numbers, he said."Whether this translates into improvements in the treatment of human disease will be the subject of future studies," he said.

"Our studies also further validate the use of a new TB mouse efficacy model (dubbed C3HeB/FeJ) as a research tool to study the impact of heightened human-like disease states on the activity and distribution of TB antibiotics that are in various stages of development," he said. That could accelerate the development of better TB treatments, researchers said. 

 

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                                    PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO  VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                           https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/       

                                                                                                                                                                    FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                                  https:// kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com/           
                                                                           FOR CROCHET DESIGNS                                                                                                                                                                                                  https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com

Tuberculosis doesn't just affect the lungs; other facts to know

Every year World TB Day is commemorated on March 24 to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of tuberculosis (TB) and to step up efforts to end the global TB epidemic.

Here are five interesting facts you should know about tuberculosis:

TB doesn't just affect the lungs
While TB is known primarily as a pulmonary (lung) disease, it can also affect other parts of the body, including the kidneys, brain, and spine.

TB is an airborne disease
TB is spread through expelled droplets, every time an infected person coughs, sneezes, or spits. Anyone who breathes in these particles is susceptible to an infection

Smokers are more likely to contract TB
Smokers are more than twice more likely to contract TB, while alcoholics and diabetics are also at a greater risk than the general population.

There is a Vaccine against TB
The Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine is recommended for healthy babies, to be administered as soon as possible after they're born.

Upto 10 per cent of people with latent TB develop active tuberculosis
As an airborne disease, TB is so contagious, it infects a third of the world's population, however only 10 percent actually develop an active infection.

According to a senior consultant in Respiratory Medicine, "Patients with symptoms of TB must visit the doctor at the earliest as with advanced treatment available it can be cured."

"Awareness is the first step towards good health. In infections such as tuberculosis, it is important that patients are fully aware of the burden of the disease, the types of tests needed and the drugs used for treatment," said a Dr.

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                                                                                                                                                                                                      PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                           https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/   

FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                                           https:// kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com/                              

FOR CROCHET DESIGNS                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         https://my crochet creations.blogspot.com/

Every year World TB Day is commemorated on March 24 to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of tuberculosis (TB) and to step up efforts to end the global TB epidemic.

Here are five interesting facts you should know about tuberculosis:

Read more at:
//economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/63442848.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Every year World TB Day is commemorated on March 24 to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of tuberculosis (TB) and to step up efforts to end the global TB epidemic.

Here are five interesting facts you should know about tuberculosis:

TB doesn't just affect the lungs
While TB is known primarily as a pulmonary (lung) disease, it can also affect other parts of the body, including the kidneys, brain, and s ..

Read more at:
//economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/63442848.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst