Infectious Disease Like Coronavirus

London: Increased levels of blood fats, also known as lipids, in people with Type 2 diabetes and obesity are more harmful than previously thought, a new study has found. In patients with metabolic diseases, elevated fat levels in the blood create stress in muscle cells -- a reaction to changes outside the cell which damage their structure and function. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications showed that these stressed-out cells give off a signal which can be passed on to other cells. The signals, known as ceramides, may have a protective benefit in the short-term, because they are part of a mechanism designed to reduce stress in the cell. But in metabolic diseases, which are long term conditions, the signals can kill the cells, make symptoms more severe, and worsen the illness, said researchers at University of Leeds in the UK. Increased fat in the blood has long been known to damage tissues and organs, contributing to the development of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases including Type 2 diabetes. The condition can be caused by obesity, rates of which have nearly tripled worldwide between 1975 and 2020. "This research gives us a novel perspective on how stress develops in the cells of individuals with obesity, and provides new pathways to consider when looking to develop new treatments for metabolic diseases," said Lee Roberts, Professor of Molecular Physiology and Metabolism in the University's School of Medicine. "With obesity an ever-increasing epidemic, the burden of associated chronic disease such as Type 2 diabetes necessitates new treatments. We hope the results of our research here open a new avenue for research to help address this growing concern," he added. In the lab, the team replicated the blood fat levels observed in humans with metabolic disease by exposing skeletal muscle cells to a fatty acid called palmitate. The cells began to transmit the ceramide signal. When these cells were mixed with others which had not been previously exposed to fats, the researchers found that they communicated with each other, transporting the signal in packages called extracellular vesicles. The experiment was reproduced in human volunteers with metabolic diseases and gave comparable results. The findings provide a completely new angle on how cells respond to stress, with important consequences for our understanding of certain metabolic diseases including obesity.  (Agency) Read More► Genetic Inflammation Linked to Neuropsychiatric Illness

New York: Contrary to worries among some doctors and the public, drinking coffee may protect your heart instead of causing or worsening heart problems, find a new study. According to three research abstracts, drinking two to three cups of coffee daily has been associated with a 10 per cent to 15 per cent lower risk of getting heart disease, heart failure or a heart rhythm problem, or dying early for any reason, CNN reported. "We found coffee drinking had either a neutral effect meaning that it did no harm or was associated with benefits to heart health," said researcher Peter M. Kistler from the University of Melbourne. For all the studies, the researchers used data from UK Biobank, which follows the health outcomes of more than 500,000 people for at least 10 years. When joining the registry, participants reported that their coffee consumption fell on a range from up to a cup to six cups or more daily. The authors of the current research wanted to examine the relationship between coffee drinking and heart rhythm problems (arrhythmias), cardiovascular disease, including coronary heart disease, heart failure and stroke, and total and heart-related deaths among people with and without heart disease. The first study focused on more than 382,500 adults who did not have heart disease and was age 57 on average. Participants who drank two to three cups of coffee daily had the lowest risk for later developing the heart problems the study focused on, the researchers found. People who drank roughly one cup of coffee per day had the lowest risk of having a stroke or dying from cardiovascular disease. Another study looked into the relationships between different types of coffee caffeinated ground, caffeinated instant and decaffeinated and the same health outcomes. Whether the decaf coffee was ground or instant wasn't specified. Drinking one to five cups of ground or instant coffee a day was linked with lower risks of having arrhythmia, heart disease or failure, or stroke. Drinking two to three cups of any type of coffee every day was associated with a lower risk of dying early or from heart disease. Participants analysed in a third study were those who already had arrhythmia or a type of cardiovascular disease. For people with cardiovascular disease, no level of coffee intake was found to be linked with developing arrhythmia. Of the adults with arrhythmia, coffee intake especially one cup per day was associated with a lesser risk of premature death. (agency) Read More► Shortness of Breath Could Signal Heart Attack With Worst Survival Rate

London: Though SARS-CoV-2, virus causing Covid-19, majorly causes infections of the respiratory tract, it also affects other organs of the human body such as the eyes and brain. While there is growing evidence to show that coronaviruses can enter the retina of the eye, German researchers have now shown that the virus can also replicate in human eyes. According to the study, published in the Stem Cell Reports, SARS-CoV-2 actually infects retinal cells, especially retinal ganglion cells, but also light-sensitive cells. Furthermore, the researchers show that coronaviruses can also replicate in these cell types. This finding is new and underlines the need to monitor retinal pathologies as a possible consequence of 'Long Covid'. A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine and the Westfalische Wilhelms-Universitat Munster utilised organoids, an organ-like model system, of the retina from human reprogrammed stem cells to study SARS-CoV-2 infection of the retina. The retinal organoids were incubated with SARS-CoV-2 viruses and then using quantitative PCR analysis, the researchers succeeded in detecting Covid mRNA in the organoids, indicating that cells in the organoids were indeed infected by the virus. To measure the active virus concentrations produced by the infected organoids after different incubation times, the researchers used an assay called a "viral plaque assay". Indeed, the assay showed that new viral progeny has been formed in the retinal organoids. "This is the first demonstration that SARS-CoV-2 replicates in human retinal cells," said Thomas Rauen from Max Planck. To find out which cells in the retinal organoids are affected, the researchers analysed the organoids under a fluorescence microscope. With the help of different immune markers for the different cell types of the retina and with a fluorescent antibody against the nucleoprotein (N-protein) of SARS-CoV-2, they found that mainly two cell layers - inner and outer - of the retinal organoids were infected. The outer nuclear layer of the organoids contains the cell bodies of the photoreceptors -- the cones and rods that convert incoming light into nerve impulses. "However, the cell type in which we most frequently detected the N-protein of Sars-CoV-2 is retinal ganglion cells," Yotam Menuchin-Lasowski from the Institute. These cells are located in the innermost cell layer of the retina and transmit all signals from the retina to the brain via the optic nerve. Interestingly, many of the retinal symptoms associated with Covid-19 are related to retinal ganglion cells, but these have previously been associated predominantly with secondary effects of other Covid-induced disease symptoms, such as damage to blood vessels or an increase in eye pressure. "However, our current retina-organoid study shows that infection with SARS-CoV-2 can have direct pathological consequences for retinal ganglion cells, even though visual impairment is not common in patients with Covid-19," Rauen said. "But our data give us reason to believe that so-called long-Covid symptoms may include degenerative retinal disease." (agency) Read More► Natural Covid Antibodies Last 7 Months in Children: Study

वाशिंगटन: अमेरिका में बीते एक महीने में करीब 270,000 बच्चे कोरोना पॉजिटिव हुए हैं। ये जानकारी अमेरिकन एकेडमी ऑफ पीडियाट्रिक्स (एएपी) और चिल्ड्रन हॉस्पिटल एसोसिएशन की रिपोर्ट से सामने आई है। समाचार एजेंसी सिन्हुआ की रिपोर्ट के अनुसार, देश में 2 साल से ज्यादा समय पहले महामारी की शुरूआत के बाद से लगभग 1.28 करोड़ बच्चे कोरोना संक्रमित हुए हैं। रिपोर्ट के अनुसार, 19 प्रतिशत बच्चे कोरोना पॉजिटिव हैं। 17 मार्च को समाप्त हुए पिछले सप्ताह में कुल 31,991 बच्चे कोरोना पॉजिटिव पाए गए। बीते 4 हफ्तों में लगभग 270,000 बच्चों के मामले दर्ज किए गए हैं। रिपोर्ट के अनुसार, सितंबर 2021 के पहले सप्ताह से अब तक 77 लाख से ज्यादा बच्चों के मामले सामने आए हैं। आप ने कहा कि नए रूपों से संबंधित बीमारी की गंभीरता के साथ-साथ संभावित दीर्घकालिक प्रभावों का आकलन करने के लिए ज्यादा डेटा इक्ठ्ठा करने की तत्काल जरूरत है। (एजेंसी) यह भी पढ़े► कोरोना का नया वैरिएंट फिर मचा सकता है तबाही: फौसी