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Gene behind freckles, brown hair and blue eyes found

[email protected] (Agencies)
November 23, 2013

boards.weddingbee.comWashington, Nov 23: In the study of Icelanders, researchers uncovered an intricate pathway involving the interspersed DNA sequence, or non-coding region, of a gene that is among a few dozen associated with human pigmentation traits.

It is more common to find people with ancestors from geographic locations farther from the equator, such as Iceland, who have less pigment in their skin, hair and eyes.

The researchers, including scientists from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), analysed data from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 2,230 Icelanders.

A GWAS compares hundreds of thousands of common differences across individuals' DNA to see if any of those variants are associated with a known trait.

"This study explains a complex molecular pathway that may also contribute insights into skin diseases, such as melanoma, which is caused by the interaction of genetic susceptibility with environmental factors," said NHGRI Scientific Director Dan Kastner.

Researchers focused on the interferon regulatory factor 4 (IRF4) gene, previously associated with immunity. IRF4 makes a protein that spurs production of interferons, proteins that fight off viruses or harmful bacteria.

The researchers noted from genomic databases that the IRF4 gene is expressed at high levels only in lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell important in the immune system, and in melanocytes, specialized skin cells that make the pigment melanin. The new study established an association between the IRF4 gene and the pigmentation trait.

"Genome-wide association studies are uncovering many genomic variants that are associated with human traits and most of them are found in non-protein-coding regions of the genome," said William Pavan, co-author and senior investigator, Genetic Disease Research Branch, NHGRI.

The Icelandic GWAS yielded millions of variants among individuals in the study. The researchers narrowed their study to 16,280 variants located in the region around the IRF4 gene.

They used an automated fine-mapping process to explore the set of variants in IRF4 in 95,085 people from Iceland. The data revealed that a variant in a non-coding, enhancer region that regulates the IRF4 gene is associated with the combined trait of sunlight sensitivity, brown hair, blue eyes and freckles.

The study was reported in the journal Cell.

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Agencies
July 7,2020

The World Health Organization (WHO) is reviewing a report that suggested its advice on the novel coronavirus needs updating after some scientists told the New York Times there was evidence the virus could be spread by tiny particles in the air.

The WHO says the Covid-19 disease spreads primarily through small droplets, which are expelled from the nose and mouth when an infected person breaths them out in coughs, sneezes, speech or laughter and quickly sink to the ground.

In an open letter to the Geneva-based agency, 239 scientists in 32 countries outlined the evidence they say shows that smaller exhaled particles can infect people who inhale them, the newspaper said on Saturday.

Because those smaller particles can linger in the air longer, the scientists - who plan to publish their findings in a scientific journal this week - are urging WHO to update its guidance, the Times said.

"We are aware of the article and are reviewing its contents with our technical experts," WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said in an email reply on Monday to a Reuters request for comment.

The extent to which the coronavirus can be spread by the so-called airborne or aerosol route - as opposed to by larger droplets in coughs and sneezes - remains disputed.

Any change in the WHO's assessment of the risk of transmission could affect its current advice on keeping one-metre physical distancing. Governments, which also rely on the agency for guidance policy, may also have to adjust public health measures aimed at curbing the spread of the virus.

"Especially in the last couple of months, we have been stating several times that we consider airborne transmission as possible but certainly not supported by solid or even clear evidence," Benedetta Allegranzi, the WHO's technical lead for infection prevention and control, was quoted as saying in the New York Times.

WHO guidance to health workers, dated June 29, says that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, is primarily transmitted between people through respiratory droplets and on surfaces.

But airborne transmission via smaller particles is possible in some circumstances, such as when performing intubation and aerosol-generating procedures, it says.

Medical workers performing such procedures should wear heavy-duty N95 respiratory masks and other protective equipment in an adequately ventilated room, the WHO says.

Officials at South Korea's Centers for Disease Control said on Monday they were continuing to discuss various issues about Covid-19, including the possible airborne transmission. They said more investigations and evidence were needed.

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Agencies
June 23,2020

The record levels of new daily COVID-19 cases are due to the fact that the pandemic is peaking in a number of big countries at the same time and reflect a change in the virus' global activity, the World Health Organisation said.

At a media briefing on Monday, WHO's emergencies chief Dr Michael Ryan said that the numbers are increasing because the epidemic is developing in a number of populous countries at the same time.

Some countries have attributed their increased caseload to more testing, including India and the US But Ryan dismissed that explanation.

We do not believe this is a testing phenomenon, he said, noting that numerous countries have also noted marked increases in hospital admissions and deaths neither of which cannot be explained by increased testing.

There definitely is a shift in that the virus is now very well established, Ryan said. The epidemic is now peaking or moving towards a peak in a number of large countries.

He added the situation was definitely accelerating in a number of countries, including the US and others in South Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

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Agencies
June 10,2020

Early treatment with the antiviral drug remdesivir has been found to reduce viral load and prevent lung disease in macaques infected with SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19, according to a study.

The findings, published in the journal Nature on Tuesday, support the early use of remdesivir treatment in patients with COVID-19 to prevent progression to pneumonia.

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health in the US noted that remdesivir has broad antiviral activity and has been shown to be effective against infections with SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV in animal models.

The drug is being tested in human clinical trials for the treatment of COVID-19, they said.

Researcher Emmie de Wit and colleagues investigated the effects of remdesivir treatment in rhesus macaques, a recently established model of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Two sets of six macaques were inoculated with SARS-CoV-2.

One group was treated with remdesivir 12 hours later -- close to the peak of virus reproduction in the lungs -- and these macaques received treatment every 24 hours until six days after inoculation.

In contrast to the control group, the researchers found that macaques that received remdesivir did not show signs of respiratory disease, and had reduced damage to the lungs.

Viral loads in the lower respiratory tract were also reduced in the treated animals; viral levels were around 100 times lower in the lower-respiratory tract of remdesivir-treated macaques 12 hours after the first dose, they said.

The researchers said that infectious virus could no longer be detected in the treatment group three days after initial infection, but was still detectable in four out of six control animals.

Despite this virus reduction in the lower respiratory tract, no reduction in virus shedding was observed, which indicates that clinical improvement may not equate to a lack of infectiousness, they said.

Dosing of remdesivir in the rhesus macaques is equivalent to that used in humans, the researchers noted.

They cautioned that it is difficult to directly translate the timing of treatment used in corresponding disease stages in humans, because rhesus macaques normally develop only mild disease.

However, researchers said the results indicate that remdesivir treatment of COVID-19 should be initiated as early as possible to achieve the maximum treatment effect.

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