Health News: Sugary drinks linked to 180000 deaths a year ♦ Human milk-sharing networks reflect a growing movement ♦ How small genetic changes changed human histor

Human milk-sharing networks reflect a growing movement There’s nothing new about the sharing of human breast milk. In earlier days, moms in tribal groups nursed babies other than their own when the baby’s mother died or wasn’t close by.

Sugary drinks linked to 180000 deaths a year Scientists are asking people across the globe to lay off sugary drinks, linking the consumption to an estimated 184,000 adult deaths each year, including more than 25,000 Americans. Overall, that means one in every 100 deaths from obesity-related diseases is caused by sugary beverages, according to a study published Monday in the journal Circulation.

Hantaviruses are highly dependent on cell membrane cholesterol to infect humans Hantaviruses use cholesterol in cell walls to gain access into cells and infect humans, according to laboratory research. Multiple genes involved in cholesterol sensing, regulation and production, including key components to a chemical pathway called SREBP (sterol response element binding protein), are critical to hantaviruses gaining entry.

Human urine helps prevent bacteria from sticking to bladder cells Human urine contains factors that prevent a common culprit in urinary tract infections (UTIs), uropathogenic Escherichia coli bacteria, from properly attaching to bladder cells, a necessary step for infection. The research reveals a weakness that could be exploited to develop more effective, non-antibiotic treatments for UTIs

How small genetic change in Yersinia pestis changed human history While studying Yersinia pestis, the bacteria responsible for epidemics of plague such as the Black Death, scientists found a single small genetic change that fundamentally influenced the evolution of the deadly pathogen, and thus the course of human history. They demonstrated how the acquisition of a single gene caused the shift of Y. pestis from causing a primarily gastrointestinal infection to a more serious and often fatal respiratory disease and how later modifications lead to infections associated with the bubonic plague.

2/4/14 Health News Salmonellosis NOT Prevented by Just Cooking - Molecular Nano Spies - Bubonic Plague Could Return

SALMONELLOSIS PREVENTION: JUST COOK IT

When Michael Taylor declared Escherichia coli O157:H7 an adulterant in ground beef, there were howls of, “Just cook it,” from the industry and from within FSIS. For example, two members of FSIS’ Microbiology Division were adamant in their declaration that cooking was sufficient and quoted from the 1975 American Public Health Association, et al., Appellants,... Continue Reading

Molecular Nano-spies to Make Light Work of Disease Detection

A world of cloak-and-dagger pharmaceuticals has come a step closer with the development of stealth compounds programmed to spring into action when they receive the signal. Researchers at the University of Nottingham’s School of Pharmacy have designed and tested large molecular complexes that will reveal their true identity only when they’ve reached their intended target, like disguised saboteurs working deep behind enemy lines. What is then exposed – an active pharmaceutical compound, a molecular tag to attach to diseased tissue, or a molecular beacon to signal activation – depends on what function is needed. Continue Reading

Bubonic Plague Could Return, Warn Scientists After Discovering New Strain Of Black Death Bacterium

A similar form of bubonic plague to the Black Death could make an unwelcome reappearance on Earth, according to researchers. Scientists studying the Plague of Justinian (AD 541–542), one of the most lethal pandemics in human history, which wiped out half of the world's population, extracted the teeth of two 1,500-year-old victims. By doing so, they were able to trace the genetics of the ancient plague, concluding that the Justinian outbreak was caused by a different bacterial strain from that responsible for the later Black Death (AD 1348–50). Continue Reading