Reposted from November 27, 2008

Tryptophan is one of eight essential amino acids in the human body.  Essential amino acids are so called not because they are more important to life than the others, but because the body does not synthesize them, making it essential to include them in one’s diet in order to obtain them.

Like other amino acids, tryptophan works as a building block for proteins.  Tryptophan is found in every protein including fish, steak, cheese and eggs.  Tryptophan is required for the synthesis of some specific organic compounds including:

• Serotonin and melatonin (neurotransmitters)
• Niacin (vitamin B3), and
• kynurenines

Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) affects mood, melatonin helps regulate sleep, and kynurenines may be useful in regulating the immune system.

A drug called tranilast, available in Japan as an allergy medication, is chemically similar to kynurenines and shows promise for the treatment of certain autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis.

Turkey isn’t even unusually high in tryptophan. Many foods, such as beef or soybeans, boast higher concentrations (read more and see the table comparing Turkey Tryptophan to other foods after the break).

Turkey sleeping pill

In its purified form and on an empty stomach, tryptophan is a mild sleep-inducing agent and that probably led to the idea that foods containing heavy doses of the chemical cause drowsiness.   While consuming tryptophan-rich foods may cause blood levels of the amino acid to rise, so many other chemicals are also present in a Thanksgiving meal that not enough tryptophan reaches the brain to have a sedative affect.

In the 1980s, the connection between tryptophan serotonin was put to the test in a form of supplements marketed as a sleep aid.  Ater a massive outbreak of an autoimmune disease called eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome, the FDA banned their sale in 1991.

Tens of thousands of people became sick with flu-like symptoms and 37 died.  Most of the cases were attributed to contamination at the manufacturer’s plant, but some researchers still find a connection between high-doses of tryptophan and eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome.

So why the traditional Thanksgiving nap?
The lethargy may be caused by the stressful hustle and bustle of the holidays, alcohol consumption, and the massive caloric intake of the year’s biggest feast.  It takes the body a tremendous amount of energy to break down these foods.  When your stomach is full, blood is directed away from other organ systems, including your nervous system. The result? You will feel the need to snooze after any big meal.

Bronchiolitis is an inflammation of the small passages in the lungs (bronchioles) of children, usually caused by a viral infection.  Some children have infections with few or minor symptoms.  It begins as a mild upper respiratory infection that can develop into increasing respiratory distress with wheezing and a tight wheezy cough over just a couple of days.  The infant’s breathing rate may increase a lot, and the infant may start to become short-tempered or anxious-looking. If the disease is severe enough, the infant may turn bluish, which is an emergency.  There have been many viruses found that seem to be the cause of bronchiolitis, including respiratory syncytial virus, adenovirus, influenza, or parainfluenza.  The virus is transmitted from person to person by direct contact.

This article is about a study done to determine whether or not specific types of pollution increases the risk of infants developing bronchiolitis.  The researchers analyzed about 12,000 diagnoses of infants with the developing disease between the years of 1999 and 2002 in southwestern British Columbia.  They monitored the levels of nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter from monitoring stations within 10 kilometers of the homes of the infants to determine exactly how exposed the children are to the pollution.  They also used maps of land use regression to assess intensities of ambient pollution with respect to traffic and wood smoke.  The researchers also used other confounding variables including sex, gestational age, maternal smoking and breastfeeding.  As a result, they found that bronchiolitis is definitely linked to the amount of exposure to specific pollutants.  Nitric oxide increased the illness by 8%, nitrogen dioxide by 12%, carbon monoxide by 13%, and sulfur dioxide by 4%.  Infants who lived within 50 meters of a highway had a 6% increased chance of getting the illness and those who lived in a higher wood smoke exposure area had an 8% increased chance.

Pollution can cause many different respiratory diseases for infants, but these researchers focused on bronchiolitis for many different reasons.  First, it is the main reason for infants to become hospitalized within the first year.  Secondly, it is pretty harsh for an infant’s lungs to handle.  Lastly, the disease is pretty costly to handle and resolve.

Reflection

I became interested in this article for many different reasons.  I am currently attending Fairleigh Dickinson to become an elementary teacher, so anything involving children catches my attention.  Also, I have had much experience with infants working in an infant room for two years, dealing with children ranging between 2 months and 18 months old.  When a baby is sick, so much changes, and a parent may need to take many days off from work to help the child get better.  With the economy right now, parents need to try everything they can to avoid having to do so.  A parent should take into consideration the amount of pollution is around the area they live in, along with the area their child’s school is in.  I felt that this article was a great way to keep parents educated on different concerns regarding their children, pollution that harms their children, and the places where their children spend the most amount of time.

Works Cited

American Thoracic Society. “Air Pollution Increases Infants’ Risk Of Bronchiolitis.”

ScienceDaily 7 November 2009. 7 November 2009 <http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2009/11/091106084243.htm>.

by Erika Fahy

A group of scientists have tackled the myth that eating at night will cause more rapid weight gain then any calorie intake during the day. In order to conduct the study, the scientists observed 16 female rhesus monkeys that were placed on a high-fat diet, mimicking that of a human diet. During the study, each monkey had their ovaries removed to put their bodies in a menopause-like state, another factor that has been attributed with weight gain. For an entire year the monkeys were observed and the scientists noted what and when they ate. “Specifically, the researchers found that the monkeys ate between 6 percent and 64 percent of their total calories at night. This is comparable to reports in humans who take in approximately 24 percent to 65 percent of total calories at night.” In comparing the food intake with what time of day it was consumed and the resulted weight gain, the study proved that calories are calories no matter when you consume them. They are no more lethal at night then during the day.

When I saw the title of this article it immediately drew me in because as a college student, I can easily relate to the late-night munching sessions along with the guilt that follows because of the notion that eating at night has always been a “no-no.” I am happy to see that this study has fallen in my favor. I have come to believe that eating at night is worse for you because you are not really being active for the rest of the day. But when you think about it, there are many times during the day that one will consume something and be no more active at 12 pm then at 12am. The bottom line is that one should attempt to be health conscious at all times but, at least it is a little comforting that having that late-night snack is not going to be the end of me.

Source

A recent study indicates that overweight women are more likely to give birth to a child with congenital heart defects according to the U.S. government. The study, conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, stated that women that are obese have a 18 percent chance of giving birth to a child with a heart defect while women who are severely obese have a 30 percent chance of giving birth to a child with a heart defect. Congenital heart defects are the most common birth defects and they are the leading cause of illness, death and medical expenditures. This study showed that obese women have a greater chance of giving their child a heart defect by the mother’s obesity. The study also stated that if a women if obese and pregnant she should try to get healthier during the pregnancy by seeing their doctor and trying to find a safe way of losing weight.

Source

by Tiffany Wieczorek

“We are within five to 10 years of a watershed event where there will be more people on earth over 65 than there under five,”  Life expectancy in rich countries has been rising steadily, even beyond what most researchers thought was possible. It says that people in developed countries are now living about 3 decades longer than in the past. Improvements in health care are leading to slowing rates of aging. A drug that is supposed to lengthen life span are being tested on mice right now and may one day be applied to people. The pill, if it works for people is supposed to not only lengthen lifespan, but also help protect health as well. Researchers say that this pill may also be able to protect against a lot of age-related diseases. Many illnesses that affect the elderly like diabetes, heart disease and cancer are on the rise, but advances in medical treatment are helping people to stay active and alive for longer. They are however worried about the obesity factor, because that is one of the main reasons that all of these problems are caused in the first place and obesity does not seem to be slowing down. It has become a national epidemic. So, although the pill may work in the coming years, the obesity factor needs to be addressed because it will cause adverse affects.

I think it is amazing that people are able to live longer now than in the past. It is great that medical advances are taking place and there are more effective ways to treat illnesses than in the past. I really hope that this article is true and that something does come out that can increase lifespan and protect against age related diseases. Both of my grandfathers died at a relatively young age, 62 and 73 because of illnesses like cancer and diabetes. I hope that in the future, people will be able to spend more time with their loved ones and not have to lose them because of old age or age related illnesses because I know I wish that my grandfathers were still around and if a pill like they are talking about was available to them, maybe they wouldn’t have died from these illnesses or at so young an age.

People could accomplish so many more things in their lives and have more time to enjoy life and their friends and family. Life is very short and if there is a way to extend it, I am excited about it. I know I want to live long enough to know my grandchildren and great-grandchildren and to experience all the things I want to in life. I hope we all get that opportunity.

Questions that I have are: how do researchers even come up with something that they think may prolong lifespan? What part of the body/ brain do they study? Does study of DNA and diseases help in the development of this type of “drug”?

Source:

by Lindsay Meyers

A recent study reviews the research of a new drug that is meant to treat Melanoma skin cancer.  The drug which is now called PLX4032, has been proven to reduce if not treat Melanoma cancer.  The research showed that the drug dramatically shrank the tumors. Paul Chapman at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York said 70 percent of patients with a particular gene mutation saw their tumors shrink when given the new drug PLX4032 (Reuters). Of the twenty-seven patients that were tested, two reported a complete disappearance of the cancer.  This research took place in Berlin and Roche is developing with privately-held U.S. biotech company Plexxikon.

I think that this article was interesting because it shows that technology is so advanced these days that cancer is starting to be treatable.  This article is related to Human Biology because it deals with cancer which is something that we covered in lecture.  If this drug works many people will be saved because Melanoma skin cancer can spread to the brain or anywhere else in the body.  This article touched me personally because my grandmother had cancer, not technically skin cancer but she had lymphoma cancer.  If skin cancer can be treated then maybe down the road other cancers will be able to be treated.  I think that if researchers continue to do their jobs that cancer will no longer be such a deadly disease.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32982020/ns/health-cancer/

By: Michael Sztuk

In a recent study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, critical biochemical pathways linked to the aging of human muscle have been identified. Researchers found that by manipulating these pathways we can turn back the clock on old human muscle, restoring its ability to repair and rebuild itself. These findings will be reported in the Journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, a peer-reviewed, scientific publication of the European Molecular Biology Organization. According to Professor Irina Conboy, the study shows the ability of old human muscle to be maintained and repaired by muscle stem cells which can be restored to youthful vigor given the correct mix of biochemical signals. “This provides promising new targets for forestalling the debilitating muscle atrophy that accompanies aging, and perhaps other tissue degenerative disorders as well,” (Irina Conboy).

Research on animals revealed that the ability of adult stem cells to do their job of repairing and replacing damaged tissue is governed by the molecular signals they get from surrounding muscle tissue. These signals change with age in ways that prevent productive tissue repair. These studies also show that the regenerative function in old stem cells can be revived given the appropriate biochemical signals (UC Berkeley). The researches further examined the response of the human muscle to biochemical signals by learning that adult muscle stem cells have a receptor called Notch, which triggers growth when activated. Those stem cells also have a receptor for protein TGF-beta that when excessively activated, sets off a chain reaction that ultimately inhibits a cells’ ability to divide. The researchers said that aging in mice is associated in part with the progressive decline of Notch and increased levels of TGF-beta, ultimately blocking the stem cells’ capacity to effectively rebuild the body (UC Berkeley). In their study, researchers found that the same pathways are in human muscle but also showed for the first time that mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase was an important positive regulator of Notch and is activity essential for human muscle repair, and that it was rendered inactive in old tissue. For old human muscle, MAP kinase levels are low, so the Notch pathway is not activated and the stem cells no longer perform their muscle regeneration. When levels of MAP kinase were inhibited, young human muscle was no longer able to regenerate. The reverse was true when the study cultured old human muscle in a solution where activation of MAP kinase had been forced. In that case, the regenerative ability of the old muscle was significantly enhanced (UC Berkeley).

“The fact that is MAPK pathway has been conserved throughout evolution, from worms  to flies to humans, shows that it is important. Now we know that it plays a key role in  regulation and aging of human tissue regeneration. In practical terms, we now know that  to enhance regeneration of old human muscle and restore tissue health, we can either  target the MAPK or the Notch pathways. The ultimate goal of course, is to move this  research toward clinical trials,” (Conboy).

I found this article to be very interesting and it relates to what we are studying in class about muscles and tissues and how they begin to weaken with age. Hopefully, with this research scientists will be able to come up with ways that can improve our muscle growth as we age. This could possible be the answer to helping the millions of people that suffer from tissue degenerative disorders and the elderly people that have debilitating muscle atrophy. While there is a lot more that needs to be studied with MAPK and Notch pathways there is promising developments in lab animals and early studies on humans. Now that the scientists have discovered some clues to what makes humans muscle age maybe they will be able to develop better ways to prevent our muscle tissue from degenerating. Could this be the answer to people that suffer from multiple muscle degenerative diseases? Could scientist one day come up with a pill that will slow the aging of our muscle tissue? Hopefully with more research and these developments people with muscle diseases will live better lives.

Source:  (UC Berkeley) http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2009/09/30/scientists_discover_clues_to_what_makes_human_muscle_age.html

Click here for another student’s view on this article

By Melissa Freitas

A recent article talked about new breakthroughs in restoring sight to the blind. A research project lasting for a total of three years consists of various patients from the United States and several other countries each receiving electrodes that are surgically implanted in the patients’ eyes, a small camera on their noses, and, finally, a video processor placed on their waists. So far the results have been positive. Patients are able to distinguish large objects such as doors and even notice people, although they are unable to make out specific features. The scientists behind this project hope to continue on with their research and ultimately develop the device so that patients will be able to see more clearly so that they can read, write, and perform other crucial tasks. The push for this type of research might be able to help the 3.3 million blind Americans who are over 40 years old and the 160 million people blind worldwide. With the increase in the number of aging people and the number of blind thought to double within the next three decades, it is extremely important to try to find a solution now. In addition to the artificial retina project, gene therapy and stem cell research are also being tested as possible solutions.

Those who have agreed to try these new methods are quite pleased with the results. Linda Morfoot, a 65 year old woman from California, who was blind for twelve years, is now able to play basketball with her grandchildren, see the lights of Paris, and see her hand while writing. Another California resident, 58 year old Kathy Blake is now able to sort laundry and see fireworks on the Fourth of July. However, there are downsides to this. Barbara Campbell, a 56 year old, said that at times her sight is like a, “gray haze—like being in a cloud.” She began losing her sight in her teens and by her late 30s she was completely blind. Although her sight will most likely never be like it was in her childhood and teens, she is taking part in this project in order to help future blind men and women. The artificial retina project seems to be a promising beginning to this type of research to help people afflicted with blindness.

I chose this article because my paternal grandfather suffered from blindness. His entire life was disrupted by losing his sight. It must have been extremely upsetting to not be able to do everyday tasks such as cooking, driving, writing, and reading. He was suddenly forced to be dependent on other people which, I believe, would be difficult for anyone. Also, on a more personal note, my grandfather lost his sight before any of his grandchildren were born so he was never able to see us, go to soccer games, sit in the audience at recitals, play ball, etc. Hopefully in the future things of this nature will not occur and people will not have to miss out on these memorable activities with their loved ones. I truly wish that my grandfather were alive to participate in this project. Perhaps he would have been able to regain some of his sight.

The progress that is being made seems rather promising. The blind do suffer because of the loss of sight although it is usually not as severe as cancer or other diseases. However, certain diseases can be cured while blindness has been relatively permanent. Out of all of the senses, the loss of sight seems to be one of the grimmest. The artificial retina project has helped numerous people regain at least some of their sight. It allows them to make out shapes, write, play certain sports, and see their family, friends, and others. I believe that this project will inspire other scientists to move forward and try new techniques and methods in the quest to end blindness. It will take time but more advanced progress will be made until the final result is achieved.

Source:

Belluck, Pam. “Burst of Technology Helps Blind to See.” The New York Times. September 27,

2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/health/research/27eye.html?_r=1