New treatments to tackle allergies: Study

IANS | Oct 4, 2013, 02.52 PM IST
READ MORE allergies|house dust|Grass allergy|Dust mite allergy
LONDON: Scientists have zeroed-in on new treatments for people with allergies to grasses and to dust mites, says a study.

The treatments are from a new class of therapy, known as 'synthetic peptide immuno-regulatory epitopes', or SPIREs.

There are two treatments, one for grass allergy, which is commonly known as hay fever, and the other for dust mite allergy.

These are expected to help people who, as a reaction to grass pollen or the tiny bugs that live in house dust, have sneezing bouts, itching eyes and a running nose, impacting their productivity at school or work.

The two studies were conducted by Adiga Life Sciences, a joint venture between McMaster University and Circassia, a UK-based biotechnology company, and was supported by St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton.

It is estimated that these allergens together are responsible for more than 50 percent of allergic respiratory disease. Between 15 and 25% of the population in North America and Europe is sensitive to pollen from different grass species.

One in four people is sensitized to house dust mites, more than any other common allergen, which includes millions of people in these regions, reports Science Daily.
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New way to combat flu virus identified

PTI | Oct 4, 2013, 05.12 PM IST

READ MORE flu virus|University of Rochester|Rutgers University|H1N1|Genetic
New way to combat flu virus identified
Researchers, including Indian-origin scientists, have discovered a new way to combat flu by identifying chemical agents that block the virus's ability to replicate itself in cell culture.
WASHINGTON: Researchers, including Indian-origin scientists, have discovered a new way to combat flu by identifying chemical agents that block the virus's ability to replicate itself in cell culture.

These novel compounds show promise for a new class of antiviral medicines to fight much-feared pandemic influenzas such as the looming "bird flu" threats caused by the H5N1 influenza A virus and the new H7N9 virus responsible for a 2013 outbreak in China.

Researchers said that some flu strains have developed resistance to Tamiflu, the sole orally available anti-flu drug.

Eddy Arnold from the Rutgers University and his collaborators have been working to create drugs beyond Tamiflu, especially ones that target different parts of the virus, using an approach that helped in the development of powerful anti-AIDS drugs.

By synthesizing chemical compounds that bind to metal ions in a viral enzyme, the researchers could halt that enzyme's ability to activate a key step in the virus's replication process.

Arnold said his team's compounds "really gum up" the targeted enzyme of influenza virus.

The search for these binding compounds relies on technology that reveals the structure of this enzyme in extremely fine detail.

Researchers Joseph Bauman and Kalyan Das first produced high-resolution images of an H1N1 flu enzyme, and Bauman and postdoctoral researcher Disha Patel screened 800 small molecule fragments for binding.

The researchers in Arnold's lab worked with Edmond LaVoie, professor and chair of medicinal chemistry in the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, to modify those compounds, making them more potent and selective in blocking the flu enzyme's activity.

Working with virologist Luis Martinez-Sobrido at the University of Rochester, they were able to detect antiviral activity of the compounds in cells.

The enzyme that the scientists are attacking is especially crafty, Arnold noted, because it steals material from human cells to disguise the invading flu virus in a process called "cap-snatching."

These "caps" are a small chemical structure that prime the process for reading genetic information.

"What we're doing by blocking or inhibiting this enzyme is to interfere with flu's ability to disguise itself," he said.

The study was published in the journal ACS Chemical Biology.
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New x-ray vision maps internal structure of objects

PTI | Oct 4, 2013, 02.22 PM IST

READ MORE x-ray vision maps|University of Manchester
LONDON: Scientists have developed a new kind of 'x-ray vision' that is able to peer inside an object and map the three-dimensional distribution of its nano-properties in real time.

Researchers from the University of Manchester, working with colleagues in the UK, Europe and the US, said the novel imaging technique could have a wide range of applications across many disciplines, such as materials science, geology, environmental science and medical research.

"This new imaging method - termed Pair Distribution Function-Computed Tomography - represents one of the most significant developments in X-ray micro tomography for almost 30 years," said Professor Robert Cernik in Manchester's School of Materials.

"Using this method we are able to image objects in a non-invasive manner to reveal their physical and chemical nano-properties and relate these to their distribution in three-dimensional space at the micron scale.

"Such relationships are key to understanding the properties of materials and so could be used to look at in-situ chemical reactions, probe stress-strain gradients in manufactured components, distinguish between healthy and diseased tissue, identify minerals and oil-bearing rocks or identify illicit substances or contraband in luggage," Cernik said.

In a study published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers explain how the new imaging technique uses scattered x-rays to form a three-dimensional reconstruction of the image.

"When x-rays hit an object they are either transmitted, absorbed or scattered," explained Cernik.

"Standard x-ray tomography works by collecting the transmitted beams, rotating the sample and mathematically reconstructing a 3D image of the object.

"This is only a density contrast image, but by a similar method using the scattered X-rays instead we can obtain information about the structure and chemistry of the object even if it has a nanocrystalline structure.

"By using this method we are able to build a much more detailed image of the object and, for the first time, separate the nanostructure signals from the different parts of a working device to see what the atoms are doing in each location, without dismantling the object," Cernik said.
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