Wellness Wisdom Circle

Wellness Wisdom Circle Health/beauty

China confirms first human case of H3N8 bird flu strain
Oh no, not this again.
In a statement, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said the flu was found in Henan province, a landlocked area in east-central China. The child apparently developed severe symptoms that started with a fever, and a few days later got worse. Eventually, he had to be admitted to a local medical facility, where it was confirmed that he had the H3N8 influenza strain. The patient lived on a farm, and none of his family exhibited any symptoms.

H3N8 originated in the 1960s, as a subtype of equine influenza in Miami. It’s a subtype of the Influenza A virus that is now endemic in birds, horses, and dogs. Between 1978 and 1981, there were large epidemics of the strain across much of the US and Europe — despite the development of vaccines (which the virus appeared capable of evading at least partially). Since then, the H3N8 has diverged into two main groups: an “American” one and a “European” one. According to a study from 1997, the virus is responsible for about one-quarter of influenza infections in wild ducks. This fits with the current case as well, as the boy’s virus may have come from chickens (which his family raised) or from wild ducks (which live close to his home).

Analysis of the virus inside the boy showed that the infection came directly from birds, and according to the NHC, it was a “one-off cross-species transmission, and the risk of large-scale transmission is low”. This is far from the first avian influenza that jumped to humans. Previous strains include H5N1, H7N9, H5N6, H5N8, and now H3N8.

Even as this episode may not cause widespread problems, it’s yet another reminder that viruses are never too far away. We’re not nearly done with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but that doesn’t mean that the risk of having a new virus pop up from animals is any lower. In fact, our interaction with animals (both farm and wildlife) makes the risk of a new pandemic higher than ever.

Alexandra Phelan, assistant professor at the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University, told The Guardian that this is yet another sign that we need to increase international surveillance “Apart from H3N8, we have seen a number of other new spillover events of influenza from poultry to people over recent years including H5N8 in Russia and H7N9 and H10N3 in China,” she said.

The good touch: researchers uncover the biological pathways that transmit pleasant touch
It is a dedicated pathway that transmits this sensation specifically.
Who here doesn’t love a gentle caress? Known as ‘soft touch’, this type of physical stimuli is known to shore up our emotional state and protect our mental health and overall balanced development. But exactly how this sensation is transmitted through the body was not known. Finding out more about the nerve circuits and neuropeptides — chemical messengers that carry signals between nerve cells — that carry this sensation between the skin and the brain can help researchers understand and treat disorders that involve touch avoidance.

Getting pats
“Pleasant touch sensation is very important in all mammals,” said principal investigator Zhou-Feng Chen, PhD, director of the Center for the Study of Itch & Sensory Disorders at Washington University. “A major way babies are nurtured is through touch. Holding the hand of a dying person is a very powerful, comforting force. Animals groom each other. People hug and shake hands. Massage therapy reduces pain and stress and can provide benefits for patients with psychiatric disorders.”

“In these experiments with mice, we have identified a key neuropeptide and a hard-wired neural pathway dedicated to this sensation.”

Our sense of touch is academically divided into two parts: discriminative touch, and affective touch. The first is the sense that allows us to determine that something is coming into contact with our bodies, the force with which it does so, and the exact location where it is happening. The second — which can be ‘pleasant’ or ‘aversive’ — also includes a strong emotional value to the sensation of touch.
While studying affective touch in humans is easy, as participants can report on the sensation, doing the same with lab animals is exceedingly difficult. Researchers can only indirectly infer the emotional response of an animal to a particular touch, by observing their behavior.

In order to determine this, Chen’s team placed their lab mice in single-mouse cages, apart from the rest of the mouse community (these animals are usually kept in large groups, as they are quite social). The lack of physical interaction made the mice more willing to be stroked with a soft brush by the researchers, which produces a sensation similar to petting or grooming.

After several days of brushing, the mice were placed into an experimental environment where they could choose to go in one of two chambers. In one, they would be brushed; in the other, no extra stimulus of any kind would be delivered. The mice chose the brushing chamber virtually every time. This step established that the mice enjoyed the sensation and would seek it out (heavily suggesting that it was pleasant for them).

Next, the team worked to identify potential neuropeptide candidates for the mediation of this pleasant touch sensation produced by brushing. The search led them to the prokinecticin 2 (PROK2) molecule in sensory neurons and the prokineticin receptor 2 (PROKR2) molecule in the spinal cord, which ferried this sensation to the brain. When breeding mice genetically-engineered to lack PROK2, the team found that these animals could not sense pleasant touch, but continued to respond normally to other touch stimuli such as itchiness. Mice engineered to lack PROKR2 in their spinal cords also avoided activities such as grooming and showed signs of stress not seen in control mice.

Further experiments confirmed that the PROK2 pathway is a dedicated pathway for pleasant touch and does not transmit other types of physical stimuli.

Scientists find drug that reverses incurable finger-bending disease
A clinical trial found Dupuytren disease can be reversed if treatment is administered early enough.
The newly announced breakthrough offers a glimmer of hope for patients with Dupuytren’s disease, a common disease that oddly enough not many people are aware exists. Although official physician records suggest that 1% of the US population has a form of the condition, the actual number may be over 7%, according to the Dupuytren Foundation.

Luckily, not all patients with Dupuytren’s disease have bent fingers. About 20% of patients that have this condition end up developing abnormal thickening of the skin in the palm of the hand at the base of the fingers that grows severe enough to develop into a hard lump or thick band. Over time, this abnormal growth can cause one or more fingers to curl, pull sideways, or towards the palm. Usually, the disease mainly affects the ring and little fingers and some people have it in both hands at the same time.
The loss of tactile mobility caused by rigidly bent fingers can dramatically affect a person’s quality of life. Simple things like driving, fitting gloves, or putting your hand in your trouser pocket can be a nuisance.

The disease is named after French surgeon Baron Guillaume Dupuytren, who was one of the personal physicians of Napoleon Bonaparte. In a paper published in 1833, the Baron outlined the pathology of the disease for the first time and the results of the first successful operation. To this day, the treatment of severe cases, which affects around 1 in 20 with Dupuytren’s disease, involves surgery to remove the diseased tissue. However, recurrence rates are rather high and in extreme cases amputation of the fingers may be required.

Dupuytren’s disease is believed to be inherited, with risk factors including diabetes, alcohol, and to***co use. It mainly affects those over the age of 55. Men are eight times more likely to develop Dupuytren’s than women.

There is no proper treatment for early-stage Dupuytren’s, so most patients wait until their condition worsens to the point that they can qualify for surgery. But thanks to recent research out of the University of Oxford that may finally change.

Researchers gave volunteers with early Dupuytren’s one injection of adalimumab, a drug commonly used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, every three months for a year. As a result of the treatment, the patients’ lumps shrank and continued to decrease in size even nine months after the last injection. It is likely that patients need to take regular shots of the drug to keep the excess tissue at bay.