Papers Flashcards
What study is an overview of MS and hygiene hypothesis?
7-year study of patients with multiple sclerosis, some of whom had worm infections while others did not
Patients without worms rapidly worsened; those with worms did not
5 years in patient suffered from worm infection so had anti-helminths and MS symptoms returned
How did they treat MS using worms?
Phase 1 clinical trial using eggs of pig whipworms, Trichuris suis, chosen because they elicit immune responses in the human gut without establishing a damaging infection
What were the results of the pig whipworm immune response?
The patients either improved or did not get worse during worm therapy.
That cleared the way for larger phase 2 and phase 3 trials that could lead to FDA approval of worm therapy in the USA
How does the menstrual cycle increase risk breast cancer?
Each menstrual cycle, breast tissue differentiates and multiplies, then regresses, and each such episode involves cell divisions with mitoses that allow somatic mutations
What is the difference in number of menstrual cycles in modern vs naturally reproducing women?
Modern - ~350 mentrual cycles per lifetime
Natural - ~70 mentrual cycles per lifetime
What is the difference between natural and modern reproduction?
Naturally reproducing population without contraception, a woman has several children, breast feeds them and experiences lactational amenorrhoea while breast feeding
What is the trade off with modern contraception?
Contraception is, however, protective against ovarian cancer
What are the two hypothesis of the menopause evolutution?
Mother
Grandmother
What is the mother hypothesis?
IF the probability of the mother dying in childbirth, or of the child dying in infancy, rises sufficiently with age, then there will come a point where selection will favour mothers who stop reproducing to ensure survival of their last child
What is the grandmother hypothesis?
Menopause evolved to free grandmothers from rearing their own infants so that they could help their daughters rear grandchildren
What is host tolerance?
Host should choose to tolerate rather than resist an invading pathogen is that the costs of defence can exceed the benefits
What is an example of host tolerance?
1918 influenza pandemic, where mortality rates were especially high among young adults with healthy immune systems capable of mounting a vigorous response
What happens with young adults with spanish flu?
The viral infection induced a cytokine storm that provoked intense inflammation, causing lungs to fill with fluid and enabling secondary bacterial infections that in many cases led to death from pneumonia
What are the impacts of chronic inflammation induced by infections?
20 per cent of adult cancer
What is the impact on anti-inflammatory agents on diseases?
Anti-inflammatory agents, including aspirin and statins, significantly reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke
What is an overview of phage therapy?
Killing pathogenic bacteria within the human host with viruses that evolved to infect bacteria, not humans
What are the advantages of using phages?
Phage have the advantages that they multiply, increasing the dose, in proportion to the number of bacteria available and they co-evolve with their bacterial hosts
What is the current outlook on phage therapy?
Poland and Russia, where more than 1000 patients have been treated
Increased focus in the west due to rapid rise of antibiotics
What is the aim of targetting of production of bacterial signals?
The production of the signals is costly, and the introduction into the population of mutants that cheated by not producing the signals might so disrupt coordination that infection became inefficient or was even blocked entirely
What can be the problem with imperfect vaccine?
Human intervention into the lives of pathogens with the greatest identified potential to make pathogens much more lethal than they already are
Has imperfect vaccine led to increased lethality?
Only been experimentally confirmed in mice and chickens
What is an overview of the cancer deaths amogst mammals?
Cancer accounts for 46 per cent of deaths in wild mice kept in the laboratory
25 per cent of human deaths in the USA
20 per cent of dog deaths
18 per cent of beluga deaths
What is an overview of cancer deaths within dogs?
Osteosarcomas occur 200 times more frequently in large breeds of dogs than in small or medium-sized breeds
What is an example of evolution in Inuit’s?
Two variants in the fatty acid desaturase enzymes (FADS) region
