Horizontal Perspective 横顾天下

Public Library of Science’s PLoS Biology reports that researchers had demonstrated the reawakening of latent human cells’ ability to manufacture an HIV defence. They began with the knowledge that Old World monkeys have a built-in immunity to HIV: a protein that can prevent HIV from entering cell walls and starting an infection. They examined the human genome for any evidence of a latent gene that could manufacture such a protein, and found the capability in a stretch of what has been dismissively termed "junk DNA."

… we reveal that, upon correction of the premature termination codon in theta-defensin pseudogenes, human myeloid cells produce cyclic, antiviral peptides (which we have termed ‘retrocyclins’), indicating that the cells retain the intact machinery to make cyclic peptides. Furthermore, we exploited the ability of amino glycoside antibiotics to read-through the premature termination codon within retrocyclin transcripts to produce functional peptides that are active against HIV-1. Given that the endogenous production of retrocyclins could also be restored in human cervicovaginal tissues, we propose that amino glycoside-based topical microbicides might be useful in preventing sexual transmission of HIV-1.

With this discovery, genetic medicine holds out a tentative promise of an effective vaccines for the prevention of future HIV infection.

Psychologists at the University of California, Los Angeles say the human body has a gene that connects physical pain sensitivity with social pain sensitivity. The findings back the common theory that rejection ‘hurts’ by showing that a gene regulating the body’s most potent painkillers — mu-opioids — is involved in socially painful experiences too.

Because social connection is so important, feeling literally hurt by not having social connections may be an adaptive way to make sure we keep them. Over the course of evolution, the social attachment system, which ensures social connection, may have actually borrowed some of the mechanisms of the pain system to maintain social connections.

This is the first time that it has been proved that genes involved in physical pain are linked to mentally painful times like social rejection and breaking up with a lover.

Paper-thin batteries that can be printed onto greeting cards or other flexible substrates have been demonstrated at Fraunhofer Research Institution for Electronic Nano Systems in Germany.

The batteries use zinc anodes and manganese cathodes, which react with one another to produce electricity. They have a relatively short life span, as the anode and cathode materials slowly dissipate over the lifetime of the battery, making them suitable for short-term applications like greeting cards with built-in music players, The researchers are aiming at a price point under 10 cents per card.

The printable batteries for smart cards would weight less than 1 gram and measure less that 1-mm thick. The organic materials produced 1.5 volts per cell, like conventional batteries, but use no hazardous materials.

The New York Times reports on newly released court documents that show how pharmaceutical company Wyeth paid a medical communications firm to use ghost writers in drafting and publishing 26 papers between 1998 and 2005 backing the usage of hormone replacement therapy in women. The articles appeared in 18 journals, such as The American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and The International Journal of Cardiology. The papers ‘emphasized the benefits and de-emphasized the risks of taking hormones to protect against maladies like aging skin, heart disease and dementia,’ and the apparent ‘medical consensus benefited Wyeth … as sales of its hormone drugs, called Premarin and Prempro, soared to nearly $2 billion in 2001.’ The apparent consensus crumbled after a federal study in 2002 ‘found that menopausal women who took certain hormones had an increased risk of invasive breast cancer, heart disease and stroke.’

The documents on ghostwriting were uncovered by lawyers suing Wyeth and were made public after a request in court from PLoS Medicine, a medical journal from the Public Library of Science, and The New York Times.  Court documents provide a detailed paper trail showing how Wyeth contracted with a medical communications company to outline articles, draft them and then solicit top physicians to sign their names, even though many of the doctors contributed little or no writing. The documents suggest the practice went well beyond the case of Wyeth and hormone therapy, involving numerous drugs from other pharmaceutical companies.

It’s almost like steroids and baseball. You don’t know who was using and who wasn’t; you don’t know which articles are tainted and which aren’t.

As medical journals learn more about the issue, some like The Journal of the American Medical Association, have instituted authorship forms that require contributors to detail their role in an article and to disclose conflicts of interest. Sadly, despite the reported deaths, Wyeth will probably get off with a slap on the wrist and a nominal fine by the FDA.

Viruses and worms get all the headlines, but adopting weak passwords is a worse problem according to security service providers when they do security assessments. While password problems are nothing new, many users remain cavalier about passwords and businesses are doing too little to address this serious vulnerability.

From the moment people started using passwords, it didn’t take long to realize how many people picked the very same passwords over and over. Even the way people misspell words is consistent. In fact, people are so predictable that most hackers make use of lists of common passwords just like these listed here. To give you some insight into how predictable humans are, the following is a list of the 500 most common passwords. If you see your password on this list, please consider changing it immediately. Keep in mind that every password listed here has been used by at least hundreds if not thousands of other people.

There are some interesting passwords on this list that show how people try to be clever, but even human cleverness is predictable. For example, look at these passwords that I found interesting:
• ncc1701The ship number for the Starship Enterprise (Star Trek)
• thx1138 The name of George Lucas’s first movie, a 1971 remake of an earlier student project
• qazwsx Follows a simple pattern when typed on a typical keyboard
• 666666 Six sixes
• 7777777 Seven sevens
• ou812The title of a 1988 Van Halen album
• 8675309 The number mentioned in the 1982 Tommy Tutone song. The song supposedly caused an epidemic of people dialling 867- 5309 and asking for “Jenny”

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The NY Times reports that the US Army began encouraging its personnel — from the privates to the generals — to go online and collaboratively rewrite seven of the field manuals that give instructions on all aspects of Army life, using the same software behind Wikipedia. The goal, say the officers behind the effort, is to tap more experience and advice from battle-tested soldiers rather than relying on the specialists within the Army’s array of colleges and research centres, who have traditionally written the manuals.

“For a couple hundred years, the Army has been writing doctrine in a particular way, and for a couple months, we have been doing it online in this wiki,” said Col. Charles J. Burnett, the director of the Army’s Battle Command Knowledge System. “The only ones who could write doctrine were the select few. Now, imagine the challenge in accepting that anybody can go on the wiki and make a change — that is a big challenge, culturally.”

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About 30 children aged 3 to 12 years old and their parents are participating in a new program that uses DNA testing to identify genetic gifts and predict the future. … The test is conducted by the Shanghai Biochip Corporation. Scientists claim a simple saliva swab collects as many as 10,000 cells that enable them to isolate eleven different genes. By taking a closer look at the genetic codes, they say they can extract information about a child’s IQ, emotional control, focus, memory, athletic ability and more. For about $880, Chinese parents can sign their kids up for the test and five days of summer camp in Chongqing, where the children will be evaluated in various settings from sports to art. The test results, combined with observations by experts throughout the week, will be used to make recommendations to parents about what their child should pursue.

Nowadays, competition in the world is about who has the most talent, we can give Chinese children an effective, scientific plan at an early age.

Source: CNN.com – In China, DNA tests on kids ID genetic gifts, careers.

A recent BBC Health bulletin reported that most people get happier as they grow older, according to studies on people aged up to their mid-90s. Despite worries about ill health, income, changes in social status and bereavements, later life tends to be a golden age, according to psychologists.  They found older adults generally make the best of the time they have left and have learned to avoid situations that make them feel sad or stressed. The studies found the older people were far less likely than the younger to experience persistent negative moods and were more resilient to hearing personal criticism. They were also much better at controlling and balancing their emotions – a skill that appeared to improve the older they became.

This state of happiness makes for a more resilient outlook of life. In fact, suicides amongst the 60s and over had been in steady decline in Asia in the past 2 decades, despite a sharp increase in calamities that most affect the aged (earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, fires, landslides, economical slums, financial scams and failures).

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The spleen doesn’t get much respect — as one researcher put it, ‘the spleen lacks the gravitas of neighbouring organs.’ Those undergoing a splenectomy seem to be able to carry on without any consequences. However, some studies have suggested an enhanced risk of early death for those who have undergone splenectomies. Now researchers have discovered why: the spleen apparently serves as a vast reservoir for monocytes, the largest of the white blood cells, the wrecking crew of the immune system. After major trauma, such as a heart attack, the monocytes are disgorged into the blood stream and immediately get to work repairing the damage.

The parallel in military terms is a standing army. You don’t want to have to recruit an entire fighting force from the ground up every time you need it.

The New York Times – Finally, the Spleen Gets Some Respect

AAAS Science Magazine – Identification of Splenic Reservoir Monocytes and Their Deployment to Inflammatory Sites

A male middle-age foreign traveller was detained by U.S. immigration officials recently because his fingerprints had mysteriously disappeared and cannot be matched against the biometrics on his own passport.  Immigration officials had presumed that only criminals would obscure their identification. It later emerged that he was the victim of a rare side effect of the cancer medication he was taking.

Three years earlier the hapless traveller was started on Xeloda by his oncologist. Xeloda is a cancer (chemotherapeutic) medication used in the treatment of some types of breast and colorectal cancers. It works by interfering with the growth of cancer cells and slowing their growth and spread in the body. One of the rare and unusual adverse side effect is that it can eradicate fingerprints over time.

Monograph Summary
• Proprietary Name: Xeloda
• Generic Name: capecitabine
• Pronounced: cah peh SIGH tah bean
• Manufacturer: Roche Laboratories
• Class: Antimetabolites
• Mechanism of Action: inhibits DNA and RNA synthesis (pyrimidine analog)
• Photographs of product presentation  
  
  

  Xeloda 150mg & 500mg Tablets