Health Highlights: July 20, 2012

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments,
compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Software Simulation of Entire Organism a
First

U.S. scientists have created the first software simulation of an entire
organism.

The researchers and outside experts said the model of a single-cell
bacterium that lives in the human genital and respiratory tracts is a
major advance toward developing computerized laboratories that could
conduct complete experiments without the need for traditional instruments,
The New York Times reported.

The team from Stanford University and the J. Craig Venter Institute
said their simulation of the complete life cycle of the pathogen
Mycoplasma genitalium was a “first draft,” but added that it was
the first time that an entire organism was modeled in such detail. The
model included all 525 of the organism’s genes.

“Where I think our work is different is that we explicitly include all
of the genes and every known gene function,” team’s leader Markus W.
Covert, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford, wrote in an
e-mail to The Times. “There’s no one else out there who has been
able to include more than a handful of functions or more than, say,
one-third of the genes.”

The research was published Friday in the journal Cell.

—–

European Approval of Gene Therapy Would be a
Milestone

A gene therapy called Glybera should be approved to treat a rare
genetic disease called lipoprotein lipase deficiency, the European
Medicine Agency has recommended.

If the European Commission follows the agency’s advice, Glybera would
become the first gene therapy to be approved in the Western world, The
New York Times
reported.

The approval could give a much-needed boost to the struggling field of
gene therapy after more than two decades of failed expectations. Glybera
was developed by the Dutch company uniQuire.

Lipoprotein lipase deficiency affects only several hundred people in
the European Union and a similar number in North America. The disease is
caused by a genetic mutation that prevents people from producing an enzyme
required to break down certain fat-carrying particles that circulate in
the bloodstream after meals, The Times reported.

—-

‘Polypill’ Could Slash Heart Attack, Stroke
Rates: Study

A “polypill” that combines a cholesterol-lowering statin drug and three
blood pressure drugs reduced patients’ “bad” LDL cholesterol by 39 percent
and their blood pressure by 12 percent, according to a new study.

The U.K. researchers said the pill could prevent a huge number of heart
attacks and strokes each year and called for regulators to make the pill
available to patients “as a matter of urgency,” BBC New
reported.

“The health implications of our results are large,” Dr. David Wald of
Queen Mary, University of London, said.”If people took the polypill from
age 50, an estimated 28 percent would benefit by avoiding or delaying a
heart attack or stroke during their lifetime.”

If half of the people over age 50 in the U.K. took the polypill daily,
there would be 94,000 fewer heart attacks and strokes each year, according
to the researchers.

The results from the study of 84 people over the age of 50 were
published in the journal PLoS One.

While the pill’s potential is interesting, medicines are not a
substitute for healthy lifestyle habits such as exercise, good nutrition
and not smoking, Natasha Stewart, senior cardiac nurse at the British
Heart Foundation, told BBC News.

—–

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes