The Mother of All Parasites

Via The Anti-Toxo: Future Microbiology reports the discovery of a missing-link apicomplexan and its implications.

Symbiosis and parasitism are thus wide-spread in both the dinoflagellates and apicomplexans, suggesting that modern parasites like Plasmodium spp. and Toxoplasma likely started out as mutualistic symbionts that initially nourished their animal hosts before turning to parasitism. These symbiotic/parasitic relationships thus extend back in evolutionary time to the earliest origins of the animals, which means that either as parasites or symbionts, these protists have been interacting with the animal immune system since its inception. As a consequence of this protracted dance, malaria parasites are exquisitely well-equipped to evade our immune system: a sobering harbinger for malaria vaccine prospects.

Prions are Forever

Via ProMED-mail: in June ScienceDaily reported on prions surviving waste water treatment.

Until now, scientists did not know whether prions entering sewers and septic tanks from slaughterhouses, meatpacking facilities, or private game dressing, could survive and pass through conventional sewage treatment plants.
Joel Pedersen and colleagues used laboratory experiments with simulated wastewater treatment to show that prions can be recovered from wastewater sludge after 20 days, remaining in the "biosolids," a byproduct of sewage treatment sometimes used to fertilize farm fields.

I suppose if you can get prions from squirrels, you can get them anywhere.

Adjustable Glasses

Via plime: The World Bank reports on the bright prospects of cheap, adjustable corrective eyeglasses with oil-filled lenses.

For too many of the world’s poorest people, life is just a blur. WHO estimates that roughly a billion people—mostly in developing countries—need eyeglasses to read, write, work, and go about their daily lives. But they cannot find them, let alone afford the high price tag. It can take as much as three months’ wages or more to afford glasses in many African countries.
At least 10 % of this group is made up of youngsters of school age.
These vision problems could eventually be corrected on a large scale through use of cheap, self-correcting spectacles, invented by Oxford University physicist Josh Silver, and being made by a British NGO for between $5–$10, with the ultimate target price being about $1 a pair.

The Achilles' Heel of HIV

Via plime: The Daily Texan reports on progress towards an HIV vaccine.

Along with fellow researchers, Paul has identified one region on the surface of the virus that is mostly unchanging. He explained that this small region is critical for the virus to bind to cells; without this section, the virus would not be able to infect the cells.
The UT researchers call this small region the "Achilles heel" of HIV, which causes AIDS.
"We identified this region as a suitable target for antibodies," Paul said.

On the dissent front (not that they intended it that way) Discover reports on a connection between schistosomiasis and HIV:

Schistosomiasis, seen primarily in developing countries, is caused by tiny flatworms that live in snail-infested freshwater like rivers and lakes. When people wade, swim or bathe in contaminated water, worms bore through the skin and travel in the blood, causing anemia, diarrhea, internal bleeding, organ damage and death.

HIV sounds like the least of their problems.

Beware of Green Food

Via Universal Hub: the FDA advises against the consumption of tomalley from Maine lobsters due to the risk of Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP).

The FDA advisory applies only to tomalley, the soft, green substance found in the body cavity of the lobster that functions as the liver and pancreas. Cooking does not eliminate the PSP toxins. However, studies have shown that, even when high levels of PSP toxins are present in lobster tomalley, lobster meat itself is typically unaffected.

Also on the green food watch, the CDC reports a couple of smoking jalapeños:

An FDA laboratory detected Salmonella Saintpaul with the outbreak strain fingerprint pattern in a sample of jalapeño pepper obtained from a distribution center in McAllen, Texas. The distributor is working with FDA to recall the contaminated product in the United States. The peppers were grown in Mexico; investigators are working to determine where they were contaminated.
The Laboratory Services Division of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment detected Salmonella Saintpaul with the outbreak strain fingerprint pattern in a jalapeño pepper provided by an ill individual. The state health department is working with the FDA to determine the origin of the jalapeño pepper.

Plagueblog recommends eating locally-grown produce (unless you are local to Mexico) and ruminants. In no case should you be eating any part of an animal whose internal organs can be described as a "soft, green substance [...] that functions as both liver and pancreas."

Rapamycin

Via Technovelgy:

Rapamycin, a drug approved by the FDA to stop tissue rejection after organ transplants, has been found to reverse the brain dysfunction caused by a genetic disease - tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC).
"This is the first study to demonstrate that the drug rapamycin can repair learning deficits related to a genetic mutation that causes autism in humans. The same mutation in animals produces learning disorders, which we were able to eliminate in adult mice," explained principal investigator Dr. Alcino Silva, professor of neurobiology and psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "Our work and other recent studies suggest that some forms of mental retardation can be reversed, even in the adult brain."

See Science Daily for more details.

Marburg Death in the Netherlands

Via ProMED-mail: the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control reports a Marburg death in Leiden, the Netherlands, of a woman who had recently visited the Maramagambo forest in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda.

The patient died on July, 11.
ECDC’s initial assessment is that the threat to public health is limited and mainly focussed on the people who have been in close contact with the patient after the onset of her symptoms. People intending to travel to Uganda should be aware there may be a risk related to visiting caves in the Maramagambo forest.

PlagueBlog recommends New England as a safer travel destination than Uganda--as long as you keep out of the Muddy River.

A New Non-variant CJD

Via an unnamed source: the BBC reports the discovery of a new type of sporadic CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease).

Dr Pierluigi Gambetti, director of the US National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center, in Ohio, said that he believed the newly discovered type had probably "been around for years, unnoticed".
He suggested one interesting common factor was that the patients came from families with a history of dementia, suggesting a genetic cause, but did not carry the gene traditionally associated with a small number of sporadic CJD cases.

Tomato Doubts

Via ProMED-mail: USA Today reports that the ongoing salmonella outbreak has led to doubts about the tomato theory:

At a news conference Friday, representatives of the FDA and the CDC were more forceful in saying that they aren't sure tainted tomatoes caused the outbreak of salmonella saintpaul, a fairly rare strain. Previous statements had been more vague.
Over the weekend, the tide of opinion among epidemiologists, produce companies and food safety officials also began to turn in that direction.
Tomatoes couldn't have caused an outbreak that has stretched from early April to late June, says Jim Prevor, editor of Produce Business magazine. "There's not a field in the world" that produces that long, he says.

No new smoking vegetable has been implicated.

Salmonella hits Massachusetts

Via ProMED-mail: The CDC reports that the Saintpaul [sic] salmonella strain has now been reported in Massachusetts, with twelve people affected.

Among the 316 persons with information available, illnesses began between April 10 and June 13, 2008. Patients range in age from <1 to 99 years; 50% are female. At least 69 persons were hospitalized. No deaths have been officially attributed to this outbreak. However, a man in his sixties who died in Texas from cancer had an infection with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Saintpaul at the time of his death. The infection may have contributed to his death.
Only 3 persons infected with this strain of Salmonella Saintpaul were identified in the country during the same period in 2007. The previous rarity of this strain and the distribution of illnesses in all U.S. regions suggest that the implicated tomatoes are distributed throughout much of the country. Because of inherent delays in reporting and because many persons with Salmonella illness do not have a stool specimen tested, it is likely many more illnesses have occurred than those reported. Some of these unreported illnesses may be in states that are not on today’s map.

The FDA has specific information on what tomatoes are safe to eat.

Parasites Unleashed

Via Boardgame News: Zygote Games has finally released Parasites Unleashed, a card game.

Become one of life's ultimate insiders! In PARASITES UNLEASHED! you control a wily parasite, racing to complete your life cycle, mate, and lay eggs before your opponents. Do all the entertainingly gross things real parasites do -- bore into vital organs, hide inside a blood cell, hitch a ride inside a mosquito, even take over your host's brain! But beware, because your enemies can add stages to your life cycle, and zap you with medicine!

Lactose Intolerance in Europe

Tthere's an article about lactose intolerance at Food Reactions, with a map showing the percentage of people with primary lactase deficiency (the genetic inability to produce the lactose-eating enzyme lactase) across Europe.

In a review by Gudmand-Hoyer E in published on The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1994), [primary lactose deficiency] is lowest in Scandinavia and Northwest Europe (3-8%) and close to 100% in most of Southeast Asia. In Europe the frequency increases in the southern and eastern directions, reaching 70% in southern Italy and Turkey. There is also a high prevalence of lactose maldigestion in the people of Africa with the exception of cattle-raising nomads. Moreover, studies conducted by Scrimshaw and Murray and Sahi review the prevalence of lactose maldigestion globally. The prevalence is above 50% in South America, Africa, and Asia, reaching almost 100% in some Asian countries.

If you look very carefully at the map, though, you will see that the rate of lactose intolerance reaches not just 70% in Sicily but a pan-European high of 81% just north of Napoli (around the lower calf of Italy, above the spur). This region is called Campobasso, and it's where I get my gene for hypolactasia.

Via ProMED-mail: the South Carolina Department of Health and Environment Control reports on a rabid raccoon that exposed sixteen people to rabies, because they wouldn't let Darwin be Darwin.

Sixteen people who were exposed to rabies by a raccoon are under the care of a physician after the raccoon tested positive for the disease, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control said today.
"The baby raccoon was found in the woods and was being cared for by several people over the past several weeks," said Sue Ferguson of DHEC's Bureau of Environmental Health.
According to Ferguson, many of the exposures occurred when feeding the raccoon, as caretakers came into contact with the animal's saliva. Seven more people are being evaluated for possible exposure risk.

Biolab Follies

Via Universal Hub: the Boston Phoenix reports on BU's ongoing "Biolab Follies."

Throughout the past few years, and particularly during the past 12 months, the biolab’s backers have suffered a string of setbacks: legal, diplomatic, political. Boston University Medical Center (BUMC) may still end up hosting a BSL-4 facility, but this is hardly the sure thing it once was. In fact, given the current momentum of the debate, the smart money might actually be on the biolab not coming to fruition, at least as it was originally conceived.
So what went wrong, exactly? Or, for those who see things differently: what went right?

The story chronicles the political side of the biolab debate, with, perhaps, too much attention to race and too little to zombie protesters.

Heparin Tainting Deliberate

I found this report accidentally in a Parkinson's search, because the CEO of Baxter happens to be one Robert Parkinson. The Chicago Tribune reports that Parkinson called the contamination of its heparin supplies a "deliberate adulteration scheme" by suppliers in China. (PlagueBlog is shocked that such a thing could happen.)

The scale of the scandal over tainted heparin continued to expand. David Strunce, chief executive of Wisconsin-based Scientific Protein, acknowledged that the company has no way of knowing which of 12 different suppliers might have introduced foreign matter into the heparin supply chain. Strunce also claimed Chinese regulators have interfered with his company's efforts to investigate the matter.
The FDA has tallied more than 80 reports of deaths and more than 1,000 adverse events associated with patients in the U.S. who had one or more allergic reactions to heparin products, including those sold by Baxter, since Jan. 1, 2007.

As a result, the Chicago Tribune also reports, Baxter is considering getting out of the heparin business altogether:

The product generates $30 million of Baxter's more than $11 billion in annual sales, and Wall Street analysts asked Parkinson last week whether it was worth the legal risks and liability to remain in the business given that sales are so small.
"We haven't made a decision whether or not we are going to re-enter [the market] with heparin," Parkinson told analysts.

PlagueBlog recommends producing drugs, including their ingredients, domestically.

Rabies on the Cape

Via an unnamed source: the Cape Cod Times reports two cases of rabies in pet cats in the past two weeks.

The discovery of rabies in the cats has dire public health implications, local veterinary and natural resources officials said yesterday. They urged residents to make sure their cats, as well as dogs and ferrets, are vaccinated.
Cats are the "perfect bridge to human health," said Dr. Thomas Burns, president of the Cape Cod Veterinary Medical Association, who treated the Yarmouth cat.
Officials fear an unvaccinated house cat could contract rabies, pass it on to a person before exhibiting symptoms, then wander off and die in the wild. The person might not be aware of the infection, the officials said.

PlagueBlog fondly recalls the days when ferrets were illegal in Massachusetts and continues to recommend fish--the perfect pet and the perfect food.

Heavy Drugs

Via Universal Hub: Xconomy reports on a Lexington (Mass.) company that plans to build better drugs with deuterium.

Concert Pharmaceuticals may have found a way to help established drug substances pack a better punch. By substituting a few normal hydrogen atoms with the heavier form, deuterium, the company believes it is possible to create new chemical entities with greater efficacy and fewer side effects. And since these entities are based on proven drugs, the reasoning goes, it will probably take less time and money to take them to the market.

Magic Finger Powder

Via plime: the BBC reports on an Ohio man who allegedly regrew a severed fingertip using his brother's experimental extra-cellular matrix.

"There are all sorts of signals in the body," explains Dr Badylak.
"We have got signals that are good for forming scar, and others that are good for regenerating tissues.
"One way to think about these matrices is that we have taken out many of the stimuli for scar tissue formation and left those signals that were always there anyway for constructive remodelling."
In other words when the extra cellular matrix is put on a wound, scientists believe it stimulates cells in the tissue to grow rather than scar.

Heparin Update

Via ProMED-mail: The New York Times reported the latest news on the counterfeit heparin scandal this week.

The F.D.A. sent a warning letter on Monday to Changzhou SPL, the Chinese plant identified as the source of contaminated heparin made by Baxter International in the United States. It warned that the plant used unclean tanks to make heparin, that it accepted raw materials from an unacceptable vendor and that it had no adequate way to remove impurities.
Heparin is made from the mucous membranes of the intestines of slaughtered pigs that, in China, are often cooked in unregulated family workshops. The contaminant, identified as oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, a cheaper substance, slipped through the usual testing and was recognized only after more sophisticated tests were used.
The F.D.A. has identified 12 Chinese companies that have supplied contaminated heparin to 11 countries — Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United States. Deborah Autor, director of compliance at the F.D.A.’s drug center, said the agency did not know the original source of all the contamination or the points in the supply chain at which it was added.
Officials have discovered heparin lots that included the cheap fake additive manufactured as early as early as [sic] 2006, although a spike in illnesses associated with contaminated heparin began in November and persisted through February, officials said.

China apparently admits to the contamination but denies that it caused any adverse reactions. All PlagueBlog recommendations concerning China still stand.

The Smoking Hamster

Via an unnamed source: WBZ reports that a local woman is suing PetSmart for selling a diseased (Lymphocytic choriomeningitis) hamster to a Rhode Island woman who later passed away and donated her organs. The plantiff's husband received a liver, and also died.

Magee claims her husband died because the liver he received was infected with the rodent-borne disease. Five days after the transplant, which was performed at Mass. General Hospital, Magee's husband developed a high fever and began to bleed internally. According to Magee, one of his lungs collapsed.
He died about one month after the transplant.
The suit filed against PetSmart also alleges two other people also died after receiving organs from the same donor who bought the hamster.

If you must have pets, PlagueBlog recommends fish.