Posts tagged ‘H1N1’
Healthy air can be quite sickening
The Globe and Mail recently published an opinion piece on the work of Canadian scientists Khursheed Jeejeebhoy and Pierre-Jean Maziade which looked at the benefits of probiotics used in conjunction with antibotics to treat C. difficile infections. The study found that using specific strains of probiotics may be an effective way of countering opportunistic infection caused by antibiotic treatment.
While Drs. Jeejeebhoy and Maziade describe how aggressively targeting all gut bacteria is detrimental to one’s health, ecologist Jessica Green found that filtering out both “good” and “bad” bacteria from the air we breath can have a similar detrimental effect. Watch the video below to learn more.
August 15, 2011 at 7:25 am Canadian Biotechnologist Leave a comment
Biotechnology News
More on a New weapon in ongoing flu fight
Scientists have identified a “cure-all” substance capable of stopping the replication of a range of seasonal flu viruses. Writing in the journal Nature Biotechnology, researchers from Hong Kong and Canada said nucleozin – a compound selected from a library of more than 50,000 – was effective against H1N1, H3N2, and H5N1 in both cell cultures and mice.
The drug works by attacking nucleoproteins, which control how the organism replicates.
Biotechnology News
Experts find compound to fight bird, seasonal flu
Scientists have identified a chemical compound that can stop the H5N1 bird flu virus as well as seasonal human flu viruses from replicating.
Health
Finding new flu drugs is essential as flu viruses mutate and are adept at evading the limited array of antiviral drugs.
In a paper published in Nature Biotechnology, scientists from Hong Kong and Canada said they had found a chemical “nucleozin,” which fought off both seasonal flu viruses and the H5N1 in mice as well as in cell culture.
“We have now brand-new weapons to combat influenza virus resistant to … (antiviral drugs like) oseltamivir and zanamivir,” said microbiologist Richard Yao at the University of Hong Kong, who led the study.
Nearly all of the seasonal H1N1 viruses circulating in the United States in the 2008-2009 flu season were resistant to Roche AG and Gilead Sciences Inc’s Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, according to the paper.
New H1N1 Study
A new study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) of all patients in Canada admitted to hospital for H1N1 in the first five months of the outbreak summarizes the risk factors for a severe outcome. The H1N1 pandemic presents important learnings for clinicians and researchers and data on severe outcomes can help inform future treatment and prevention guidelines. The risk of a severe outcome among patients admitted to hospital with H1N1 was elevated among those who had an underlying medical condition and patients 20 years of age and older. Patients aged 65 years and older were at the greatest risk for death.
For more Clink: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100216140150.htm
Biotechnology in the News
WHO Denies Hyping Dangers of Swine Flu:
The World Health Organization refutes charges by politicians in some European countries that it has exaggerated the dangers of Swine Flu. The WHO also denies any of its decisions have been improperly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry for commercial reasons.
The World Health Organization has been clearly stung by these criticisms. Special Adviser to the WHO Director-General on Pandemic Influenza, Keiji Fukuda says there is no truth to the allegations that the agency overplayed the severity of the pandemic.
Clink: http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/health/WHO-Denies-Hyping-Dangers-of-Swine-Flu-81545362.html
DO YOU THINK THAT THE DANGERS FOM H1N1 WERE EXADURATED?
Canadian BioTechnologist2.0 