Supercentenarians - The Secret to Longer Lives May Rest Within Their Genes

Diagram - The number of supercentenarians, defined as individuals who live to at least the age of 110, has steadily increased over the course of the last 50 years. Estimates for the total number of supercentenarians worldwide vary, but even the most generous estimates place the global population of supercentenarians at less than 1000.

Supercentenarians are highly rare, but fascinating and remarkable individuals. In the United States, supercentenarians, members of the population who are aged 110 and older, account for roughly one in every five million people. While healthy lifestyles may play an important role in supercentenarians' longevity, scientists have long suspected genetic factors are also crucial to their long lasting lifespans. 

The New York Times documented one man's prodigious journey around the world to collect, store, and analyze blood samples from supercentenarians, in search of a common genetic link among them all. James Clement, a self-proclaimed "citizen-scientist," is an entrepreneur, the founder of Androcyte LLC, a crowdsourced biotechnology company that develops methods for early detection of age-related diseases, and co-founder of Veritas Genetics, another biotechnology company that develops new methods for sequencing the human genome at lower costs Clement's quest to meet and obtain samples from supercentenarians was advised by Harvard geneticist Dr. George Church, whose research interests have previously focused upon searching for ways to reverse the aging process. As the price to sequence full human genomes has fallen steadily throughout the early 21st century, Clement was able to secure a sufficient amount of capital to finance the sequencing of 15 supercentenarians' complete genomes; Dr. Church's lab assisted in the analysis of these samples. While roughly 2,500 differences in the nucleotide sequences between supercentenarians and control groups were found, the small sample size prevented any confirmation of their statistical significance. These differences between supercentenarians and the rest of the population have been attributed to the lack of normal polymorphisms that result in increased risk for cancer, heart disease, or other ailments that often afflict people as they age.

Finding willing supercentenarian participants was a significant challenge in Clement's quest. At least one of the supercentenarians Clement contacted had declined to provide a donation because she had already given blood samples to another university. While people can be incorrigible at any stage of life, a very elderly person born before the dawn of biotechnology could understandably be irked by persistent requests for blood samples. Modern news and media outlets are heavily tailored to younger people, and scientists must find ways to effectively communicate their findings and goals to the older demographic, especially when their research concerns the topic of aging. 

References: 

Androcyte LLC 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/androcyte-llc/

New York Times article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/13/health/supercentenarians-genetics-longevity.html

Veritas genetics

https://www.veritasgenetics.com/about

Farmers must stop antibiotics use in animals due to human health risk, warns WHO

The creation of a "superbug" due to the lack of finishing your antibiotics prescription has been a longstanding fear in our community. The understanding that only the strongest bugs will survive a 2 week antibiotic regiment is simple to understand, and their reproduction afterwards is assumed. This has been a troubling truth that has plagued the scientific community ever since the discovery of penicillin. The dosages prescribed have increased exponentially over the years, and trends are showing that this is something that will continue, as we do not have very many other methods to fight harmful bacteria in our bodies.
This groundbreaking article suggests that humans are not the problem. It shows that statistically, 80% of antibiotics, including the most powerful ones reserved for the deadliest of diseases, are used on animals. Farmers feed their livestock antibiotics to ensure maximum survival rates, and to turn a maximum profit off of feeding and raising these animals. The World Health Organization (WHO) is suggesting that animal antibiotic intake be severely lowered, and animals with serious bacterial infections be quarantined and left to die. They argue that trying to cure these animals will only result in more problems in the future.
The study published in The Lancet Planetary Health showed that a reduction in antibiotic use in a farm setting resulted in a 39% decrease in antibiotic resistant bacteria. This problem must be understood as an exponential relationship, where every single antibiotic resistant bacteria could cause thousands of times more damage in the future, than the damage prevented by killing off its less resistant counterparts.
The article suggests that these superbugs are being passed to humans through direct contact on the farm as well as through ingestion of food. A separate investigation conducted by the Guardian shows that the superbug MRSA is found in higher rates than ever before in commercially produced pork, and is literally sitting on the shelves of supermarkets. These kind of statistics are what is causing The WHO to urge producers to cut down on the use of these medicine on their livestock. This is receiving heavy pushback from the meat factories as it will cause heavy decline in production and lead to many other logistics problems. Unfortunately there are few alternatives in the scientific pipeline and all signs point to the fact that action must be taken immediately.
This MRSA superbug has even been found in the umbilical cord of newborn babies. The trail of evidence was directly linked to the contaminated meat sold in the supermarkets. This bug is rarely deadly, but it does cause infections. The problem is not the fact that it will kill people, but the fact that it is so hard to stop once the infection is caught. The superbug will be stagnant until the immune system is weakened, and then it can still strike. It is comforting that this particular bacteria is not deadly, but in the future the development of stronger, more deadly bacteria is imminent.



https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/07/farmers-must-stop-antibiotics-use-in-animals-due-to-human-health-risk-warns-who

https://www.theguardian.com/society/video/2015/jun/18/superbugs-la-mrsa-pigs-antibiotics-video

Why Does Iran Produce Proportionately More Women in Science than the US?

Elizabeth Weingarten in a recent article in Slate reviews research into the counter-intuitive result that women in developing countries, including muslim majority countries like Iran, produce proportionately more women science graduates than developed countries like the US.  In the US women are 57% of all college graduates and 55% of science graduates (National Academies, Women in Science Statistics for 2011).  In Iran the numbers are 49% and 67%.   Iran is not unique among developing nations, particularly Islamic nations.  The US is also quite typical of the developed world.  The effect is even more dramatic in engineering where only 18% of US bachelors degrees go to women.  One reason offered for this is practical.  In countries with unemployment rates of 15% or more women opt for the most employable careers possible.  The researchers also offer a more subtle explanation.  While institutional barriers for women entering science have largely been removed there are social and cultural expectations that remain.  Women graduates, like all graduates, frequently hear admonitions such as "pursue your passion."  This leads to a conviction that we have a pre-ordained path which we must find.  Women in response find and commit to careers that are really chosen in response to subtle cultural clues.  In this way they "buy-in" emotionally to the cultural preferences thinking they have "found" their "passion."  Weingarten concludes:

"Though this may sound like a bleak assessment, it’s actually a freeing realization: Say you’ve always thought you were destined—or designed—for a particular career. That’s a powerful narrative and one that’s reinforced by the media we consume and the people we talk to about their supposed career trajectories. But this narrative can also be powerfully constraining—especially if you experience failure or crises of confidence, which most of us will or already do. If we let go of the idea that our preferences, aspirations, and capabilities are completely self-determined, perhaps we’ll truly experience a freedom of choice that has so far eluded us."

Evolution's Missing Link

   

Diamidophosphate, a molecule well known to chemists for decades, may be the secret to the beginnings of life on Earth. According to a study published in Nature Chemistry, researchers from the Scripps Research Institute "We suggest a phosphorylation chemistry that could have given rise, all in the same place, to oligonucleotides, oligopeptides, and the cell-like structures to enclose them". The formation of proteins and lipids has been explored, and is well understood, but the actual catalyst for life has evaded scientists. 

Phosphorylation is a necessary biological process, and modern phosphorylating agents are  well known and studied, such as ATP.  Many suggested primordial phosphorylating agents are not applicable to every reaction that would have needed to take place for life to begin. Many of them require uncommon reacting environments. The breakthrough of the study showed that DPA is capable of phosphoyrlating all four of the nucleoside bases required to create RNA under a wide range of conditions. DPA is also capable of phosphorylating sugars. With these new discoveries, DPA may be the molecule that scientists have been looking for for so long.

DPA's ability to not only phosphorylate nucleosides, but begin RNA synthesis was investigated by adding the catalyst Imidazole, shown above. With both of these molecules present in solution with nucleosides, short chains of RNA were synthesized. Imidazole is not guaranteed to have been present at pre-biological times, but it is plausible. While it is hard to prove what molecules were actually present 4 billion years ago, we can be relatively sure of DPA's ability to have kickstarted life, based on its presence in modern day biological molecules, and the results shown in the lab. The lead researcher of the team, Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy, says that the next direction for the team will be collaborating with geochemists, to investigate potential sources for the molecule. 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171106112301.htm

Sniffing Cures with "Na-nose" the Electric Nose

Nanoparticles are particles between 1 and 100 nanometers consisting of organic and inorganic molecules as well as various ions. They are great scientific interest because their bridging between bulk materials and molecular structures. The intensity of the scientific research on nanoparticles is high because of its potential benefits in medicine, physics, optics, and electronics. This includes nanotechnology involved with analyzing the particles themselves. According to CNN writer, Susan Scutti, scientists from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed the pinnacle for experimental nanotechnology.Apparently, scientists have developed a unique new piece of technology called the Na-Nose. It “smells” to analyze breath and identify the chemical components that make up that person’s breath. It has the potential to diagnose “up to 17” different diseases with 86% accuracy including Parkinson’s disease, various cancers, kidney failure, multiple sclerosis (damage to nerve cells in brain and spine from insulation), and Crohn’s disease. Hossam Haick, the lead researcher, compared this non-invasive method to current invasive technologies stating that it is more accurate with certain diseases. Why aren’t Na-Noses being dispersed everywhere?

The article states that seven companies have already licensed with the product in hopes of launching a commercial product. Mass production of Na-Noses in combination with innovations for constant health monitoring would be revolutionary in the medical field. With the need for additional testing and regulations to meet, the devices will not be seeing the market for a few years. However, that is not the only reason why this nanotechnology has not seen much light in such a heavily researched field.There is a large amount of doubt about the technology and how accurate tests were performed. George Preti, a researcher at Monell Chemical Senses Center, states that depending on environmental conditions, it can be very difficult to separate the chemical compounds in the environment from the those in the breath, considering that the amounts detected in room air is similar to that of human breath. A considerable argument is that there are simply too many factors to consider such as age, gender, ethnicity, body mass index, or previous meals or hygiene. The Na-Nose is just a normal instrument that can shows its inaccuracies.

So finally, what is the underlying science behind this miraculous invention? The theory is that each human and disease have their own unique chemical signature. First the technology needs to be calibrated to what healthy human breath is. It can then determine the impact the disease leaves on the nanoparticles in your breath. Susan Scutti reports that the big secret behind the Na-nose are “nanorays” used to analyze nanoparticles; nanorays do not exist. This was disappointing to find so using additional sources I was able to get a better understanding. Nanoparticles are commonly analyzed by dynamic light scattering(. That being said, the credibility of the article is hurt. The article is interesting to view how media and chemistry blend together. There are a lot of benefits could come out of this nanotechnology however there is a lot of doubt. The doubt here seems to outweigh the accuracy. This article claims that it is 86% accurate, and can sense up to 17 different diseases except it uses incorrect terms which only contribute to the doubt. There is strong reasoning and great benefit for breath-related research, however there is much to be discovered still.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/07/health/na-nose-disease-smell-technology/index.html

http://www.horiba.com/scientific/products/particle-characterization/technology/dynamic-light-scattering/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanoparticle

Metal in Asteroids Can Kill Cancer Cells

     A collaboration between Warwick University and Sun Yat-Sen University in China recently found through their research that a metal in asteroids can be used to kill cancer cells without harming healthy ones. The article from Science Daily, talks about Professors Sadler and O'Connor (Warwick University) and Professor Hui Chao's group at Sun Yat-Sen and their findings about iridium metal. The iridium metal can kill cancer cells by filling them with a deadly version of oxygen, which does not harm the healthy cells around it. An iridium and an organic material compound transfers energy to the cancerous cells to turn O2 into a single oxygen atom, which is poisonous. 
     The researcher's experimentation involved shining a laser through the skin and onto the cancerous region, where the light then activates the iridium metal and begins creating oxygen. The process was tested on a model of a lung tumor and was proved effective; not only is the process safe, but they found that when applying the technique to healthy cells, no effect was observed. Photochemotherapy, using a laser light to target cancer, describes the researchers procedure, and proves to be effective and non-invasive. 
     Mass spectrometry was used to examine which proteins within the cancer cells attacked the actual iridium organic compound. Cooksen Chui, a postgraduate researcher from Warwick's Department of Chemistry replied to this project as "a leap forward in understanding how these new iridium-based anti-cancer compounds are attacking cancer cells, introducing different mechanisms of action, to get around the resistance issue and tackle cancer from a different angle." Because the researchers are identifying the proteins involved in the cancerous cells, "novel drugs with new mechanisms of action" are on the rise. 

     It is not a shock that the second densest metal, iridium, is being used to treat cancer. Platinum has been known to be used in at least 50% of cancer chemotherapies, but does cause serious side effects post treatment. The use of iridium through photochemotherapy gives hope for new drugs and safer treatments for those with cancer. 

Iridium was first discovered in 1803, and is similar to the metal, Platinum. It is almost nonreactive and resistant to corrosion with a melting point over 2400 °C. Iridium is interesting because it is rarely found on earth, but is very abundant in meteoroids. Large amounts of iridium from 66 million years ago has been found in the Earth's crust, and many believe in a theory that states iridium came to earth from the asteroid that caused the extinction of dinosaurs. 

References 
University of Warwick. "Cancer cells destroyed with dense metal found in asteroids." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 2 November 2017. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171102105839.htm>.

Climate Change Is Already A Public Health Crisis, Top Medical Journal Says

In an article from the Huffington Post, “Climate change is already taking a major toll on public health and threatening to reverse progress made over the past century in combatting infectious diseases, according to one of the world’s oldest and most respected medical journals.”

In a recent news report, the Lancet found that heatwaves have been hotter and lasted longer in the past 2 decades. Vector-borne diseases increased as warmer temperatures spread insects. Allergies worsened as unseasonable weather prolonged exposure to pollen. This report was the first to chronicle the existing impacts as opposed to the potential health effects of climate change.

“Global warming has become increasingly undeniable over the past decade, with the past two years being the hottest successive years on record, a title 2017 is now on track to surpass.” Heatwaves are the most tangible effect of temperature rise. The average length of heatwaves was 0.37 days longer between 2000 and 2016. Over 125 million more people were exposed to annual heatwaves as opposed to the period between 1986 and 2008. In 2015 alone, 175 million people were exposed to 627 heatwaves.

In the United States, the average temperature to which Americans were exposed increased by 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit. Disease carrying insects that thrive in warm temperatures are seeing an increase and in particular 2 species of mosquito that carry Dengue increased their ability to spread globally by 9.4% and 11.1% since the 1950’s. Dengue is a tropical virus that causes high fever, headache, vomiting and skin rashes. Warming temperatures helped the West Nile virus become the most common mosquito borne disease over the past 18 years. The number of Lyme disease cases in the U.S. has tripled over the past 2 decades as well, as warmer winters expand the area where ticks can survive.

Plant pollen is yet another outdoor menace already made worse by climate change. Americans faced significantly longer exposure to ragweed pollen in 2016 compared to 1990. Ragweed season lasted 17 days longer in Bellevue, Nebraska; three weeks longer in Minneapolis, Minnesota; and exactly 23 additional days in Kansas City, Missouri. Allergy sufferers cost the U.S. $6.2 billion each year, and it’s not limited to hay fever. Indoor molds and fungi also risk becoming a bigger threat.

Temperature increases alone are also causing economic ripples. Since 2000, labor productivity around the world plummeted 5.3 percent in rural areas, where people tend to work outside, including a dramatic 2 percent drop between 2015 and 2016. That equates to more than 920,000 people leaving the workforce, with more than 418,000 in India alone, the report noted.

The total cost of climate-related events hit $129 billion 2016, with 99 percent of those losses in low-income countries with little or no insurance policies. The recent wave of hurricanes that wreaked havoc in the Atlantic ― devastating Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Barbuda, as well as mainland U.S. cities like Houston and Miami ― offered what scientists described as examples of the kinds of storms that climate change will make more frequent.

The report concludes that shifting to renewable energy and dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions are key to preventing heat- and climate-related maladies. On that front, the report offered some hopeful statistics. Renewable electricity generation capacity increased by 20 percent from 1990 to 2013, exceeding new energy capacity added by fossil fuels for the first time in 2015. In places where renewables replaced fossil fuels ― particularly coal, which worsens air quality and is associated with asthma and other respiratory illnesses ― morbidity and mortality decreased.

But 1.2 billion people still lack access to electricity, and 2.7 billion rely on burning unsustainable or inefficient solid fuels, such as coal. In the U.S., shifting to wind or solar energy from coal resulted in between 3,000 and 12,700 avoided premature deaths from 2007 to 2015, the report found.

Alaska's Permafrost isn't so Permanent

           

             A recent article from the New York Times described the growing concern for the amount of Alaska’s permafrost that is thawing. Over the past few decades the temperature in Alaska has gradually increased, causing more of the permafrost to thaw. Permafrost is ancient organic material, which had absorbed CO₂, that froze before it could be completely decomposed. There is so much carbon in the permafrost that, “worldwide, permafrost is thought to contain about twice as much carbon as is currently in the atmosphere.”

            A group of scientists went to take readings about the severity of the situation by placing temperature probes deep in the ground. The thawing is allowing microbes to convert the organic material into CO₂ and CH₄, which go into the atmosphere causing more warming. This temperature change is not only occurring at the ground close to the surface, but has seen an increase of 3° C as deep as 65 feet. This may not seem like that large of an increase but every degree is very detrimental. Currently there is debate between scientists on how much, and when the permafrost will thaw. The near-surface temperatures are expected to be greater than freezing around the middle of the century.

            During the winter the ground is fully frozen, and thaws from the top down as the temperature rises in the spring. Every year the depth of the thawed ground is gradually getting deeper, allowing more CO₂ and CH₄ to be released into the atmosphere. There is also another problem of geographical changes from the change in volume from ice to liquid water. The changes in volume cause the ground to shift which is causing problems for the infrastructure of Alaska.

            “The amount of carbon released from permafrost worldwide is 1.5 billion tons a year, averaged over the remainder of the century, is about the same as current annual emissions from fossil-fuel burning in the United States.” This thawing of permafrost is being seen not just Alaska but other subarctic areas such as northern Canada and Siberia. Dr. Holmes, senior scientist and deputy director of the research center, describes the situation as “It’s been in a freezer, and that freezer is now turning into a refrigerator.”
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/23/climate/alaska-permafrost-thawing.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fclimate