Antibiotic medicine, mitochondrial medicine, cancer medicine: three stories so good we couldn’t leave out any: and a deeper question for you

Three stories we saw this morning were so compelling that it was impossible to choose just one to showcase. Each was so novel, so rich, that they raised a deeper question: where do you stop? We could have spent hours digging into any of them. Instead, we’ll let you decide for yourselves, gentle readers, as we present each in turn — and return to that last question at the end.

Ancient Antibiotic Resistance

Our first story is a tour‑de‑force article in New Scientist by Joni Wildman. You may have already seen recent media reports about dormant bacteria in ancient sediments showing signs of antibiotic resistance. Well, Joni has the definitive deep dive for anyone who wants to understand what this really means. You’ll encounter plasmids, the resistome, and even how these discoveries might help us identify the antibiotics of the future. Her article is behind a paywall, but worth it — you get the rest of the magazine too. How ancient superbugs could help us fight antibiotic resistance | New Scientist

Joni’s article is behind a paywall, but worth it, as you’ll get the rest of the mag too

How ancient superbugs could help us fight antibiotic resistance | New Scientist

Mitochondrial Transfer? Confession: before we read this excellent article by Blake Forman for Technology Networks, we didn’t know very much about mitochondrial disease(actually our basic mitochondriology was a bit weak too) But it seems that some healthy cells may be able to donate their mitochondria, those busy little subcellular power stations, to neighbours with less healthy ones. What’s more, there are promising signs that this discovery may be translatable into practicable therapies, as Blake outlines in this extremely learned article.

https://www.technologynetworks.com/biopharma/news/healthy-cells-donate-mitochondria-in-potential-treatment-for-mitochondrial-disease-416832?fbclid=IwY2xjawUodV9leH

Infections and Cancer Well, this story by Zoe Hardy of the Mail really had to go in: a new study claims that on e in eight cancers may be caused by a previous infection. No, we weren’t expecting that one either. But Zoe’s sources (International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lancet Oncology) are impeccable, their data wide and deep, and the conclusions faintly unsettling. The usual suspects are in there-HPV, Hepatitis virus, EBV and of course poor public health and sanitation. Naturally more vaccination programmes would help-but that’s becoming an uphill battle in many places these days, isn’t it? Once more, read the article and judge for yourselves:

One in eight cancers are linked to infections, new study finds, including a common stomach bug linked to bowel cancer | Daily Mail Online

All of which leads us to our main point. Each of these stories begged more reading, more digging into the data and more pondering. But in the part of the universe where we live at least there are only 24 hours in any one day, and only seven of those days in your average week. So: where do you stop? Read too much on mitochondria and you won’t have any time for green aviation technology or research on cocktails. But skim over everything and we guarantee you’ll understand none of it. It’s a conundrum which we have never satisfactorily solved. How do you do it. Gentle reader? We’d love to know.

#superbugs #antibiotics #microbiology #joni Wildman #mitochondrial disease #cell biology #inherited disorders #blake forman #cancer #infection #vaccination #zoe hardy #public health

New therapy for ALS: Medical RNA comes of age

One of the things about reading Nature Briefing: they always seem put you au fait with the cutting-edge medical techniques, and the science that drives them, a little way ahead of the mainstream. Which is why we are showcasing their story First for Gene Targeting RNA therapy, not just because it’s interesting in itself, but because it is a beautiful illustration of the progress in RNA based medicine, even since we started this humble little blog six years ago. First, here’s their snippet

An RNA therapy for rare forms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has shown promising results in the first person to receive it. He experienced improved symptoms and continued to work as a physician a year after starting treatment. Antisense oligonucleotide therapy uses short strands of genetic material to target RNA produced by a faulty gene called CHCHD10. Roughly 5–10% of people with ALS have a known genetic mutation, and antisense oligonucleotide therapies could someday benefit them and others with neurodegenerative diseases caused by rare mutations.

Nature | 7 min read

Now, we admit CHCHD10 is a rare mutation, apparently occurring in less than one per cent of ALS cases. There are many other genes involved among the different types of ALS, and, who knows, maybe some epigenetic and environmental factors as well. But to raise that is to be like a man who has won the lottery complaining that the prize didn’t come gift wrapped in Harvey Nicholls wrapping paper. Because, gentle readers-this is a start and a magnificent one. Better still, it’s part of a much bigger story of RNA based medicine advancing on many fronts. Readers will recall how the sudden arrival of RNA vaccines suddenly lifted the world from its COVID-19 based Slough of Despond in 2021. But astute readers will recall that even before COVID, RNA‑based drugs were quietly succeeding: briefly, we will cite Patisiran , ansiRNA therapy for hereditary amyloidosis;Nusinersen — antisense therapy for spinal muscular atrophy; and Givosiran, and inclisiran — RNA drugs for metabolic and cardiovascular conditions; and then let you go off to do your own reading. Yet this in turn is but part of an even bigger picture, a new frontier if you like, of therapies which we hope might deliver RNA constructs to reduce toxic proteins in motor neurons, use antisense or siRNA to knock down mutant SOD1, C9orf72, or other ALS‑linked genes, and even exploit improved delivery systems (lipid nanoparticles, viral vectors) that can finally reach neural tissue. But time will answer many of these questions

And our takeaway? It’s our usual . Using science, and its simple but effective tools of evidence and reason will always make you feel better. So if you start tinkering with basic research and its funding, you do so at your peril.

#RNA #RNA therapy #ALS #medicine #health #COVID 19 # # CHCHD10 #gene therapy #neurodegenerative diseases

Are you missing out on red light? A lightbulb moment for Graham Lawton and the New Scientist

It’s a funny thing to be a progressive. We ‘re always prey to the Law of Unintended Consequences. For example, we rack our brains to replace all those nasty energy intensive incandescent bulbs with lovely low energy LEDs . And suddenly there’s a new problem. Is the new light from the LEDs missing something the old incandescents were giving us for free? Something that might, just might, have been good us?

Now we take this problem seriously because it is brought to us by no less than Graham Lawton of the New Scientist, a sure guarantee of intellectual probity. Quite rightly the magazine keeps Graham and all its top writers behind a pay wall, so once again we beg you to either take a sub, or buy the magazine. But the essence of Graham’s article is that the old incandescent lights, for all their dreadful shortcomings. were throwing out long wavelength infrared light, a bit more like the natural light you find when you go outdoors. Graham presents intriguing evidence that these wavelengths stimulate mitochondria to produce energy-carrying ATP (adenosine triphosphate) which production facilitates any number of health benefits, But you’ll have to read his article to find out what those are! Not only do the new LEDs chop out most of that infrared; but the new types of window glass actually reduce its natural ingress further. If you are sitting indoors under the dominance of blue‑weighted indoor light (from computer screens for example) you may be missing out on something rather good.

So how do we as Whigs, progressives, rationalists or whatever you want to call us, take all this? Intelligent readers will already see the other side jumping up and down with glee “See-orl dem (expletive deleted) sointissstss tryin ter cure (expletive deleted) global warmin’ wiv dem crap new bulbs, only making fings worse etc etc” In the same spirit as they disparage initiatives such as renewable energy technologies or health initiatives such as the London ULEZ zone (see next blog) Well, let’s concentrate on the rationalist word Rationalists know the world to be infinitely complex, not reducible to tabloid newspaper soundbites. Naturally every new initiative will have a cost benefit ratio(only children believe in pure unalloyed good) The new LED’s have undoubtedly brought immense benefits Only a pub philosopher would be dim enough to throw them away. But we know the tools of reason and evidence will deal with this problem as it did with the other one. That is what differentiates us.

[1] The shock revelation that light bulbs are wrecking your metabolism | New Scientist

#incandescent bulbs #LED #energy #sustainability #red light #infra red #health #medicine #lighting #ATP

Sea side dangers? Why Statistics is the true masterclass in critical thinking

Does living by the seaside make you ill? Today, we’re showcasing some excellent reporting by Shaun Wooller of the Mail because it’s a perfect example of how to interpret statistics, and more importantly, how not to interpret them. And to strike a personal note: we think the discipline of statistics might give us a way out of the muddle the world has got itself into by relying on emotion, unreason and by inveterately jumping to conclusions. But first to Shaun’s article [1]

He quotes huge, statistically robust studies made by the impeccable University College London. Who find, unarguably, that if you live in one of Britain’s seaside towns you are going to have a 21% higher chance of developing chronic health conditions such as diabetes, cancer and depression. At first this seems counterintuitive: surely all those views and sea air are good for you? What dreadful maritime factor is at play? Should our seaside towns be evacuated at once? Fortunately, Shaun has the answer on hand: look at the samples. If you do that you find that A all the younger people tend to move away from such towns and B so do the affluent. Leaving behind a population of elderly, poorer residents who are, ipso facto, more likely to suffer from these ailments anyway. Which leads us to our own conclusion: sea air may be good for you :but statistics are much, much better

Long standing readers will recall our piece about the dangers of Ice Cream (LSS 23 4 20) in which we covered the irrefutably demonstrable fact that as ice cream sales increase, so does the chance of death by drowning. From which the hysterical and the ignorant might conclude that ice cream represents a clear and present danger to our young. Taking no cognisance of the fact that ice cream sales increase in warm weather, when more people go wild swimming in lakes rivers and oceans, massively increasing the drowning statistics for that week.How about banning lakes and rivers instead?

As Shaun shows us, as Professor Spiegelhalter does even more so in his excellent work {2] the discipline of statistics is a master class in critical thinking. It reminds us that, while many observations produce patterns, finding the cause of these is much more tricky. That the base rate is all important and that every sample made will necessarily be imperfect. Above all that all learning has limits, and what those limits may be. In a world on fire, where warring tribes now clash daily those may turn out to be very important lessons indeed.

[1]The UK regions where you’re more likely to get cancer, diabetes AND depression – it’s bad news for coastal areas | Daily Mail Online

[2]Spiegelhalter, David. The Art of Statistics: Learning from Data. London: Pelican (Penguin Books), 2019.

#statistics #health #epidemiology #medicine #survey #sample #cancer #diabetes #poverty #age

Vaccines: it’s a question of Anthropology not Biology: Gillian Tett knows why

Why doesn’t evidence cut through? Why do reason and learning so often fail? They’re themes that have haunted this blog since its inception way back in the COVID‑19 days of 2020. Aren’t we supposed to be the heirs of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and all that? Maybe part of the answer lies in this story about the UK and Japan, and their startlingly different experiences with their respective HPV vaccination programmes, as detailed in this excellent Conversation article by Professor Justin Stebbing of Anglia Ruskin University [1].

On the face of it, vaccines are a winner: the biology is clearly understood, they save lives, and they have eliminated numerous diseases [2]. Which explains the success of the UK rollout of the HPV vaccine: Justin has a barrage of juicy statistics, but in his words the NHS now feels able to publish a plan to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem in England by 2040. Compare that with Japan, where following a reasonable start, the HPV vaccine campaign collapsed into desuetude. There were media stories, the government lost its nerve: the result is” that among girls born in certain years, coverage fell from around 70% to below 1%, and it remained at that level for years“. And Justin explains the dreary consequences at some length.

So why can’t we understand the difference between the two countries? In the end, vaccine hesitancy has very little to do with the science and everything to do with the stories people swim in. The biology stays constant; what shifts is the cultural weather around it. A rumour here, a misframed headline there, a neighbour’s anecdote, a politician’s stumble — tiny changes in narrative that can tilt whole communities from confidence to doubt. Vaccination succeeds or fails not in the laboratory but in the social world: in trust networks, identity cues, and the fragile ways humans decide whom to believe. It is anthropology, not virology, that explains why one hospital bed stays empty and another does not.

In other words, public health is really about anthropology, not biology. One person who understands this well is Gillian Tett, whose formidable book Anthro‑Vision [3] argues that the real drivers of human behaviour are rarely the numbers on the page but the cultural currents beneath them — the stories people trust, the tribes they belong to, the risks they feel rather than calculate. Public health often talks in data, but people decide in narrative. A stray rumour, a clumsy headline, a shift in group mood can undo months of scientific clarity, while a well‑placed story or trusted voice can restore confidence just as fast. And suddenly this becomes true of many of the things that preoccupy us here — climate change, economics, even the long arc of female emancipation. For all our “LSS are the heirs‑of‑the‑Age‑of‑Reason,” for all our Whiggish rhetoric, we’ve missed one important truth. People are not how we would like them to be. And this book tells us a lot about why.

[1]https://theconversation.com/the-hpv-vaccine-works-but-only-if-we-keep-trusting-it-285618?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20fo

[2] Why vaccination is important and the safest way to protect yourself – NHS

[3]Tett, Gillian. Anthro‑Vision: How Anthropology Can Explain Business and Life. London: Random House Business, 2021.

#vaccination #public health # HPV #anthropology #biology #culture #history

Should nicotine be included the war on drugs?

When that paragon of unimpeachable virtue Richard Milhous Nixon announced the War on Drugs back in 1971, we counted ourselves among his most fervid supporters. It chimed with our most basic principle: people must be stopped from enjoying themselves wherever and when that is possible. And when some of those people are pot-smoking hippies or degenerate cocaine fiends, how much more satisfying still was that act of repression! But yet, as always, the Devil Whispered in Our Ear: If we were banning all that weed and charlie and smack and billy whizz because they altered minds and caused social problems, then what about nicotine and alcohol? Didn’t Jesus seem to take a relaxed view of the matter, both in the famous wedding at Cana (John 2 10 ), and in the Last Supper (Matthew 26:27–29) At least the company didn’t light up cigars at the end of the meal-but boy, did these passages pose us some problems!

Since when things have slipped still further. As if they didn’t have enough problems with fossil fuels and rising sea levels already, the nation of Palau has dropped another logic bomb upon the Comfortable nations of the world Read this Should Nicotine be regulated like drugs? from Nature Briefings

A call by the Pacific island nation of Palau for nicotine to be regulated like narcotics by the United Nations will trigger an assessment and a vote by member states. If nicotine were to be added to the UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances, it would effectively make it illegal to sell nicotine products that aren’t considered medicinal, says nicotine-treatment specialist Renee Bittoun. But tobacco-company lobbying makes it unlikely that nicotine will be added to the list, says Bittoun. Nature | 4 min read

Whatever next, gentle readers? Will they free up restrictions and red tape on the sale of tea and coffee? Will they start alleging the thrill people get from driving fast cars is like that from cocaine-and bring in speed restrictions? Or will some sect of uber – Free Market Liberals, followers of Adam Smith or something, seize power and then abolish all restrictions on all neurologically active substances? We can’t decide whether we are going to be oppressed by Communists or Capitalists: but we await our fate in trepidation.

[1] War on drugs – Wikipedia

#tobacco #nicotine #palau #pollution #free market #war on drugs #cannabis #cocaine #heroin #alcohol

Broaden your mind with these two great brain stories from Nature Briefing

We believe that research into the human brain is the flip side of research into Artificial Intelligence. As the two will one day coincide, the more we know about both the better. So when Nature Briefing, that go-to Record for all things new and scientific, puts out not one but two (two, folks!) stories on the human brain, we felt it our solemn duty to bring you them both.

We have always believed that scaring people into doing things is counter-productive in the long term. Our worse fears are confirmed by this piece called Stress stops the Brain Joining the dots.

Acute stress makes it difficult to connect memories of past experiences with fresh information — a process crucial for making deductions. This could explain why people struggle to show insight under pressure. During psychological tests that involved making links between indirectly related pictures, brain imaging showed altered activity in the hippocampi of people who had been through a stressful mock interview compared with those of people who’d had to complete a simpler task, which suggests that their brains hadn’t inferred connections between the images as strongly.

Nature | 5 min read

Reference: Science Advances paper

Every epoch casts reality in its own image The Victorians though that everything in the world worked like a steam engine. Around 1910 they thought all was electric circuits. And Cold war people put us all down as computers. Every picture of the brain is an analogue, an attempt only as this piece The Brian is no machine makes clear.

In The Brain, In Theory, neuroscientist Romain Brette makes the case to move away from the predominant model of the brain, which treats the organ like a computer. Brette argues that engineering metaphors are often vague and misleading, and attempts to breathe life back into brain science by focusing on the study of the nervous system on biology. “Brette’s take-down of the field’s dominant theoretical frameworks is systematic,” writes neuroscientist Àlex Gómez-Marín in his review. “The book is intense and intricate. One can get lost in it, but it is worth the adventure.”

Nature | 7 min read

So our advice is study both of the above with close attention, gentle reader. It’s a no-brainer!

#neuroscience #artificial intelligence #biology #IT #nervous system #logic #stress

Meet the influencers trying to clean up the internet

The invention of the internet has been a mixed blessing. On the one hand, you can instantly discover how many stars a Thai restaurant in Benidorm has earned. On the other, it has unleashed a torrent of unregulated and often misleading information — particularly on subjects like medicine and meteorology, where accuracy can genuinely matter. Now, a gallant group of educated rationalists has taken it upon themselves to counter some of this misinformation, as reported by Nature Briefing.: Science Influences go viral:

To combat the swathes of scientific misinformation circulating on social media platforms such as TikTok, scientists and medical experts are taking strategies straight out of the influencer playbook. Some content creators try to ‘pre-bunk’ misinformation by reaching a broad audience with peer-reviewed evidence on topics such as climate change. Others, such as Doctor Mike, challenge it head-on by fact-checking specific claims, including those by US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The task can be difficult for individual creators, who can face personal backlash, but it’s important to meet audiences where they are, says creator Simon Clark. Research has shown that these efforts can help to shift the dial on issues such as vaccine hesitancy.Nature | 10 min read

We’ve often thought that the world of the internet is a bit like those old Victorian towns in the early Industrial Revolution, where their were no regulations about anything. So anyone could belch out anything they liked from their chimneys. And could put almost anything in a tin and call it food. Gradually laws were passed regulating pollution. Other laws imposed strict standards on what could be produced and sold. That was for physical things, of course. Isn’t time we had the same safeguards on all things digital?

#internet #pollution #misinformation #rational #fact check

Can Cancer really save you from Alzheimer’s? Some great research, but also some caveats

Could having cancer really protect you from Alzheimers? For years epidemiologists have noticed that people who have had cancer — especially certain solid tumours — seem to have a reduced statistical risk of developing Alzheimer’s, but the mechanisms have been unclear. Now an exciting mew study suggests a possible explanation. Some cancer cells overproduce a protein called Cystatin C. This enters the brain where it interacts with the amyloid-β plaques which many researchers associate with the development of Alzheimer’s. Now, we can’t do better than put you onto Nature Briefing Why Cancer and Alzheimer’s don’t mix. and their admirable analysis of a paper that originally appeared in then Journal Cell. It contains all the links and primary source matter you will need. But we’ll make a couple of observations( see below); for that is our wont.

Cystatin C, a protein produced by cancer cells, could partially explain why people who have had cancer have a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease. In a study in mice, researchers found that the protein can infiltrate the brain and bind to the molecules that make up the hallmark brain plaques of Alzheimer’s disease. This interaction draws the attention of immune cells, which then degrade the plaques. If confirmed in humans, the findings could suggest a path toward new therapies for Alzheimer’s, says cancer researcher Jeanne Mandelblatt. Nature | 5 min read
Reference: Cell paper

Firstly the research is obviously tip-top and exciting- regular readers will know our love of an unexpected truth hiding in plain sight . There’s potential here for some really radical treatments for Alzheimer’s and goodness knows what other neurological conditions. However: so far, the work only pertains to mice. That’s usual: but as it scales up to humans, there’s many a slip ‘twixt cup and lip as the old adage would have it. What’s more, the relationship between cancer and Alzheimer’s is complex and multifactorial — immune system changes, metabolic shifts, treatment effects and environmental and epigenetic factors may all have their say. And Cystatin C itself has been implicated in both protective and harmful processes in the brain, depending on context.

And there is a deeper problem which has nothing to do with the earnest efforts of the researchers but everything to do with the less than acute hominins who surround them and who will read about this in popular daily newspapers and in mediabytes on dubious feeds. Ever prone to believe stories rather than weigh evidence some will conclude that “ a cure for Alzheimer’s has been found!” Others will ignore the old warnings of the logic teachers, ever suspicious of over hasty correlation between cause and effect. Yes, this is exciting research, But cautious people will expect no life changing applications any time soon.

#Cystatin C #cancer #alzheimer’s #neurology #brain #health #medicine

Autism: How many types?

Readers will recall the ancient controversy over claims that Autism was caused by the MMR vaccine. We didn’t believe those claims much then, and probably even less so now. But amid all the shouting we think that a point was missed. Is there really a single psychiatric condition called “autism”; or does that word conceal more than one condition lurking underneath?(see also LSS 28 8 25; 15 5 25 et seq)

Michael Marshall examines this question in a wide ranging article for the New Scientist[1] Now : when you do things as well as Marshall and the New Scientist do, you’ve every right to put it behind a paywall. So for those of you who can’t go round we’ll zoom in on two of the more intriguing research projects MIchael discusses, as they also hint at another topic we’ve also covered recently: but see below for that.

Firstly: what really does lie beneath the word autism? In different studies Dr Conor Liston and Dr Natalie Sauerwold were both able to group people with autism into four reliable categories according to the traits which their subjects presented. Unfortunately, the two classifications that each scientist came up with did not always overlap . But both teams were using different techniques: and of course this work is very new. Intriguingly for LSS readers Dr Liston also found

That brain regions with altered circuitry in autistic people……also showed characteristic changes in gene expression……

But being a good journalist , Michael warns us against over interpretation here. Modifications in neural architecture may not be caused solely by underlying genes: they could also be due to the brain re-wiring itself, to compensate for defects in an entirely different region, whose construction is the responsibility of an entirely different set of genes.

Hardened members LSS community will recall our enthusiastic blogs ( LSS 15 12 25; 29 2 25) wherein we discussed the exciting findings which do indeed hint at a demonstrable link between gene frequencies and reliable patterns of behaviour. Neither those findings, nor these ones on autism, are yet conclusive. But they show which way the wind is blowing: and we think it is in a hopeful direction

[1] https://www.newscientist.com/article/2509117-what-if-the-idea-of-the-autism-spectrum-is-completely-wrong/

#autism #psychiatric disorder #neurological disorder #genetics