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Locally-Produced Drug
For Hepatitis C
A biotechnological medicine pegylated interferon with the brand name Pegaferon has been produced in Iran. The drug is used for treating chronic Hepatitis C.
Head of the Medicinal Biotechnology Committee of Health Ministry, Mohammad Reza Fazeli said that the drug is exactly similar to its foreign counterpart, which is available in the Iranian market with the brand name Pegasys, ISNA wrote.
Pegasys is expensive and not all patients who have chronic hepatitis C can afford it.
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The plan for producing Pegaferon was conceived in Tehran University of Medical Sciences two years ago.
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Fazeli added, “The plan for producing Pegaferon was conceived in Tehran University of Medical Sciences two years ago. A few months ago the drug was tested clinically on a number of patients and it was completely similar to Pegasys.“
The necessary permit has been issued by the Health Ministry for Pegaferon to be sold in the domestic market.
“Each injection of Pegaferon costs about a million rials. This is while each injection of pegasys costs 2.7 million rials,“ Fazeli said.
He emphasized that Pegaferon is available only in special pharmacies.
Fazeli said that the lower the price of Pegaferon compared to the pegasys it is more likely that it will lead to treatment of a larger number of patients with Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection.
He expressed hope that Pegaferon becomes subject to insurance coverage so that its price would be lowered.
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Hunger Can Make You Happy
Contrary to the moans of many dieters, being hungry may make you happy. Or, at least, it can be a serious motivator whose evolutionary intent was to help you find dinner instead of becoming dinner.
According to LiveScience, when our bodies notice we need more calories, levels of a hormone called ghrelin increase.
Ghrelin is known to spur hunger, but new research suggests this may be a side effect of its primary job as a stress-buster.
Researchers manipulated ghrelin levels in mice through a variety of methods, including prolonged calorie restriction, ghrelin injection and a genetic modification rendering the mice numb to ghrelin’s effect.
Mice who had limited ghrelin activity seemed depressed. If pushed into deep water they made no effort to swim. When introduced to a maze, they clung to the entryway. And when placed with other mice, they tended to keep to themselves. (These behaviors were reversed when the mice were given a low-dose antidepressant commonly prescribed to humans).
In contrast, mice with high levels of ghrelin swam energetically in deep water, looking for escape. They eagerly explored new environments. And they were much more social.
Mice are thought to be good analogues for humans in tests like these.
The researchers think that hunger-induced happiness is an adaptive measure. Getting food, especially in the wild, requires concentration, clear-headed perception and often cooperation.
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Meat Eaters Live a Lie
While a big, juicy steak may indeed be culinary nirvana for many, your taste for beef could be based in part on expectation rather than reality.
On the assumption that meat is associated with social power in some peoples’ minds, researchers rated study participants on what they call a Social Power Value Endorsement measure, to determine their preferences for meat and their cultural perceptions of it. Participants were then told they would taste either a beef sausage roll or a vegetarian roll. You can guess where this is headed, LiveScience wrote.
Of course the researchers used one of the oldest tricks in the social scientist’s toolbox: they lied.
Some participants got what they were told was coming, and others unknowingly ate the other type of roll. Then they all filled out questionnaires about how they like the food. “Participants who ate the vegetarian alternative did not rate the taste and aroma less favorably than those who ate the beef product,“ the researchers report in August issue of the Journal of Consumer Research. “Instead, what influenced taste evaluation was what they thought they had eaten and whether that food symbolized values that they personally supported.“
The study was done by Michael W. Allen at the University of Sydney, Richa Gupta from the University of Nashville, and Arnaud Monnier of the National Engineer School for Food Industries and Management, France.
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Babies Think
Like Adults
Like adults, babies can remember more things by grouping objects together, a new study found.
The finding shows short-term memory in babies works similarly to that in adults, who routinely break information into chunks to remember more of it. The discovery indicates that this memory-boosting trick does not seem to be learned, but may be an innate human ability, Chinadaily said.
Adults break down phone numbers, social security numbers, and even grocery lists into smaller bits to more easily remember them. Researchers have wondered whether this was a technique we pick up over time, or if it is fundamentally built into our memory system.
So psychologists Lisa Feigenson and Justin Halberda of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore tested babies to see how their memories work. They found that 14-month-old children could more easily recollect hidden toys and remember greater numbers of toys, if the objects were sorted into groups.
“Our results say you don’t need to be explicitly taught these strategies,“ Feigenson said.
“If babies, who don’t have a lot of language ability and haven’t been instructed in the task, can just show they can do this that tells us this is a very early-developing feature of memory. It tells us that this is something fundamental about the architecture of memory in the brain.“
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Alzheimer’s Drug Trial Promise
Dimebon, a drug once used to treat hayfever “significantly improves“ symptoms in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. The US researchers have found it can improve memory, behavior and ability to conduct simple activities.
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Balance Problems? Step Into iShoe
Your grandmother might have little in common with an astronaut, but both could benefit from a new device an MIT graduate student is designing to test balancing ability.
The iShoe insole could help doctors detect balance problems before a catastrophic fall occurs, says Erez Lieberman, a graduate student in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology who developed the technology as an intern at NASA, ScienceDaily said.
Falls among the elderly are common and can be deadly. In 2005, nearly 300,000 Americans suffered hip fractures after a fall, and an average of 24 percent of hip-fracture patients aged 50 and over die in the year following their fracture, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation.
Lieberman is now testing the iShoe technology in a small group of patients. The current modelÊ is equipped to diagnose balance problems, but future versions could help correct such problems, by providing sensory stimulation to the feet when the wearer is off-kilter.
“By doing that we can replace the sense and thus improve people’s balance,“ Lieberman says.
Snake Venom Changes With Age, Location
Like people with an accent, snakes from different regions pack different venom. A new study finds that antivenoms, the drugs created to combat snake bites in humans, need to take these chemical differences into account.
Scientists have known for many decades that venom of snakes of the same species can vary geographically, causing snakebite victims to suffer different symptoms. Yet while these differences in symptoms had been studied, little research has been done on the chemical differences in venom within any given species, LiveScience reported.
The new study compares the protein chemistry of the deadly lancehead pitviper (Bothrops asper) from two geographically isolated populations from the Caribbean and Pacific regions of Costa Rica. The researchers also analyzed venom from adult and newborn snakes.
The researchers “found major differences in the venoms collected from the two regions,“ they report in the August issue of the Journal of Proteome Research.
They also found distinct differences in proteins of venom collected from newborns and adult snakes, “indicating that the requirement for the venom to immobilize prey and initiate digestion may change with the size (age) of the snake.“
Snake-bite antivenoms (sometimes called antivenins) are often expensive, available only at select hospitals, and don’t always work.
The study suggests that venom should be mixed with geographical and age distribution of the snakes in mind when creating antivenin, the authors conclude.
Why We Need to Re-Read a Page?
Scientists have discovered why people sometimes need to re-read a page. According to a study the brain needs a specific chemical in order to concentrate properly.
The researchers found brain cells need the neurochemical substance called acetylcholine to send signals around the nervous system. When it is not present it causes lapses in concentration, Telegraph said.
The research will help scientists unlock the secrets of how the brain works, and could provide a significant breakthrough in the development of treatments for conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and attention deficit disorder. Scientists at Newcastle University and University College London found Macaque monkeys paid better attention to tasks when the chemical was present.
Professor Alex Thiele, who led the research, said: “For the first time we have been able to precisely identify the mechanism by which the brain implements a state of attention and increases awareness for important tasks.“
“Our research shows that for us to have full attention and awareness the neurons and specific receptors in the brain require a dose of acetylcholine to get them into the correct state. When this happens correctly the brain has higher levels of attention.“
Sick Bees Lose Their Buzz
Bumblebees lose a bit of their buzz when ill, and like humans, have a tougher time doing daily tasks until they recover, British researchers said.
Honeybees with activated immune systems also have memory problems, according to evolutionary biologist Eamonn Mallon of the University of Leicester, who said his findings can boost efforts to save dwindling bee colonies, Reuters reported.
“This is an animal that lives on its memory,“ he said. “If even a minor infection hurts its memory that is a major cost.“
Like humans, bees can get sick and recover in days from infections after the immune system kicks into action to fight off viruses or parasites, Mallon said. The researchers divided bees into two groups and injected half with a substance that stimulated the immune system. They then offered the bees the choice of blue and yellow flowers but only one color contained sugar water.
Eventually all the bees spent their time feeding from the correct flower but it took the stimulated bees 10 percent longer to reach this point, showing that an active immune response when ill affects memory, the researchers said.
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