Smoking, drinking can damage arteries in teens: Study

Agencies

August 29, 2018

London, Aug 29: The arteries of teenagers who drink alcohol and smoke -- even very occasionally -- begin to stiffen by the age of 17, increasing their risk of heart attacks and stroke in later life, a study has found.

The findings, published in the European Heart Journal, showed that a combination of high alcohol intake and smoking was linked to even greater arterial damage compared to drinking and smoking separately.

The researchers analysed data from 1,266 adolescents over a five-year period between 2004 and 2008.

"We found that in this large contemporary British cohort, drinking and smoking in adolescence, even at lower levels compared to those reported in adult studies, is associated with arterial stiffening and atherosclerosis progression," said John Deanfield, from University College London in the UK.

"However, we also found that if teenagers stopped smoking and drinking during adolescence, their arteries returned to normal suggesting that there are opportunities to preserve arterial health from a young age," said Deanfield.

Participants provided details of their smoking and drinking habits at ages 13, 15 and 17. Aortic stiffening was then assessed using a Vicorder device to measure the speed at which the arterial pulse propagates through the circulatory system.

"Injury to the blood vessels occurs very early in life as a result of smoking and drinking and the two together are even more damaging," said Marietta Charakida, who carried out the research at UCL.

"Although studies have shown teenagers are smoking less in recent years, our findings indicated approximately one in five teenagers were smoking by the age of 17," said Charakida, now at King's College London in the UK.

"In families where parents were smokers, teenagers were more likely to smoke," she said.

Participants recorded the number of cigarettes they had ever smoked and were grouped by intensity from 'low' (0-20 cigarettes) to 'moderate' (20-99 cigarettes) to 'high' (more than 100 cigarettes).

Exposure to parental smoking was also assessed by questionnaires.

Teenagers in the 'high' intensity smoking group had a relative increase of 3.7 per cent in the stiffening of their arteries (measured by mean increase in pulse wave velocity) compared to those in the 'low' smoking intensity group.

Participants also reported the age they started drinking alcohol and the frequency and intensity of alcohol consumption per month.

Heavy, medium and light intensity drinkers were defined as consuming more than 10 drinks, between 3-9 drinks and fewer than two drinks respectively on a typical day that they were drinking alcohol.

Teenagers showed a preference for beer over wine or spirits, and those who tended to 'binge drink' (have more than 10 drinks in a typical drinking day, with the aim of becoming drunk), had a relative increase of 4.7 per cent in the stiffening of their arteries compared to 'light' intensity drinkers.

Participants in the 'high smoking and 'high' drinking intensity group had a relative increase of 10.8 per cent in the stiffening of their arteries compared to those who had never smoked and low alcohol consumers.

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Alzheimer can spread it roots if you lose even one night's sleep!

Agencies

January 12,2020

Washington D.C., Jan 12: Disruption in one night's sleep can lead to getting Alzheimer's disease, a recent study has stated.

The interruption in the sound sleep for a single night aggravates the level of tau protein in any young male's body, thus gives rise to the chances of developing the disease.

According to CNN, the report was published on Wednesday in neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

"Our study focuses on the fact that even in young, healthy individuals, missing one night of sleep increases the level of tau in blood suggesting that over time, such sleep deprivation could possibly have detrimental effects," says study author Dr Jonathan Cedernaes, a neurologist at Uppsala University in Sweden.

As defined by the Alzheimer's Association, tau is the name of a protein that helps in stabilizing the internal structure of the brain's nerve cells. An abnormal build-up of tau protein in the body can end up in causing interior cells to fall apart and eventually developing Alzheimer's.

"When you get more of that deep sleep and you get the REM sleep in the normal amounts, that improves clearance of abnormal proteins which we think is good," said Mayo Clinic neurologist Dr Donn Dexter, not the study author but a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology.

Earlier studies have also shown that getting deprived of sleep can allow higher tau development and accumulation. Thus that poor sleep can hasten the development of cognitive issues.

Researchers caution that the study is small and inconclusive, and acknowledged they were not able to determine what the increased levels might mean.

"This study raises more questions than answers," agreed Dexter on a concluding note, sharing, "What this is telling us is that we have to dig more deeply. Despite something we do for a third of our lives, we know so little about sleep and we're learning every day, particularly when it comes to sleep and dementia."

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First open source all-atom models of COVID-19 protein developed

Agencies

June 22,2020

A team of scientists has produced first open source all-atom models of full-length COVID-19 Spike protein that facilitates viral entry into host cells – a discovery that can facilitate a faster vaccine and antiviral drug development.

The group from Seoul National University in South Korea, University of Cambridge in the UK and Lehigh University in the US produced the first open-source all-atom models of a full-length S protein.

The researchers say this is of particular importance because the S protein plays a central role in viral entry into cells, making it a main target for vaccine and antiviral drug development.

"Our models are the first full-length SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein models that are available to other scientists," said Wonpil Im, a professor in Lehigh University.

"Our team spent days and nights to build these models very carefully from the known cryo-EM structure portions. Modeling was very challenging because there were many regions where simple modeling failed to provide high-quality models," he wrote in a paper published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry B.

Scientists can use the models to conduct innovative and novel simulation research for the prevention and treatment of Covid-19.

Though the coronavirus uses many different proteins to replicate and invade cells, the Spike protein is the major surface protein that it uses to bind to a receptor.

The total number of global COVID-19 cases was nearing 9 million, while the deaths have increased to over 467,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

With 2,279,306 cases and 119,967 deaths, the US continues with the world's highest number of COVID-19 infections and fatalities, according to the CSSE.

Brazil comes in the second place with 1,083,341 infections and 50,591 deaths.

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