Author: jplucas

Scourge. Epidemic. Pest.

All are words often used to describe the pine beetles currently wreaking havoc across large tracts of North America’s forests.

Yet nature is too complex for good-versus-evil characterizations, says Cameron Currie, an Edmonton-born scientist and associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. whose recent work has discovered a potential upside to the notorious bugs.

Letâ??s take the bad news first.

A new report released today by the journal Nature finds that the new H1N1 flu has quite a talent for making its way deep into the lungs. Once there, the so-called swine flu churns out copies of itself, producing symptoms such as bronchitis, alveolitis and pneumonia.

H1N1_flu_virus_09_sThe researchers, led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Tokyo, infected mice, ferrets, monkeys and pigs with four variants of H1N1, along with a version of the seasonal flu for comparison. Unlike the pandemic strains, the seasonal flu did most of its damage in the upper respiratory tract.

The way swine flu multiplies in the respiratory system is more severe than ordinary winter flu, a new study in animals finds.

Tests in monkeys, mice, and ferrets show that swine flu thrives in greater numbers all over the respiratory system, including the lungs, instead of staying in the nose and throat like seasonal flu.

The new H1N1 influenza virus bears a disturbing resemblance to the virus strain that caused the 1918 flu pandemic, with a greater ability to infect the lungs than common seasonal flu viruses, researchers reported on Monday.

Tests in several animals confirmed other studies that have shown the new swine flu strain can spread beyond the upper respiratory tract to go deep into the lungs — making it more likely to cause pneumonia, the international team said.

Swine flu is more dangerous than regular flu and could cause an especially deadly flu season in the United States this winter, UW-Madison research suggests.

The swine flu virus, also known as H1N1, infects cells deep in the lungs of animals, a study by campus virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka found. That could explain why swine flu has caused serious cases of viral pneumonia in healthy people, something normal flu generally doesnâ??t do, he said.

Another worrisome finding: Only the very elderly â?? people born before 1918 â?? appear to have any natural protection to the new virus, Kawaoka said. Previous reports have suggested that the immune systems of people older than 60 could help ward off swine flu.

Most people accept that death and taxes are inevitable. But that doesnâ??t mean you should not try to postpone them. A good accountant can help with the latter, but the usual prescription for the former is a way of life that avoids excess.

For a country in which roughly 200 million people are overweight or obese, scientists today have discouraging news: Even those who maintain a healthy weight probably should be eating less.

Evidence has been mounting for years that the practice of caloric restriction — essentially, going on a permanent diet — greatly reduces the risk of age-related diseases and even postpones death. It has been shown to significantly extend the lives of yeast, worms, flies, spiders, fish, mice and rats.

Cutting calories may delay the ageing process and reduce the risk of disease, a long-term study of monkeys suggests.

The benefits of calorie restriction are well documented in animals, but now the results have been replicated in a close relative of man over a lengthy period.

Over 20 years, monkeys whose diets were not restricted were nearly three times more likely to have died than those whose calories were counted.

Eat less, live longer? It seems to work for monkeys: A 20-year study found cutting calories by almost a third slowed their aging and fended off death. This is not about a quick diet to shed a few pounds.

Scientists have long known they could increase the lifespan of mice and more primitive creatures â?? worms, flies â?? with deep, long-term cuts from normal consumption.

Now comes the first evidence that such reductions delay the diseases of aging in primates, too â?? rhesus monkeys living at the Wisconsin National Primate Center. Researchers reported their study Friday in the journal Science.

Eating less helped monkeys live longer and prevented disease in a study that holds promise for humans hoping to stay young.

U.S. scientists, who already knew that cutting calories prolonged the life of rodents and worms, first began to investigate the effect on rhesus monkeys in 1989. Their findings are published in the journal Science today.

Researchers have found that reducing calories by as much as 30 per cent â?? just above malnutrition levels â?? could reduce risks of developing heart disease or cancer by half and increase lifetimes by nearly a third.

The extreme diet could add an extra 25 years to the average life in Britain with the vast majority of people living to their 100th birthday.

Sharply cutting calories in the diets of rhesus monkeys was found to reduce aging-related deaths, according to a study that followed 76 monkeys for two decades.

The findings, published Thursday in Science magazine by researchers at the University of Wisconsin, give new impetus to researchers and companies, including GlaxoSmithKline PLC, that are searching for a drug to mimic the beneficial effects of a meager diet in humans without the feeling of near-starvation.

Wisconsin researchers reported yesterday that rhesus monkeys on a low-calorie diet live longer and healthier lives, a finding two decades in the making that suggests such diets might slow aging in people, too.

Scientists have long known that dramatically cutting calories can extend the lives of yeast, flies, and rodents, discoveries that have sparked a fevered quest for a human fountain of youth. The new study in monkeys, a genetic cousin of humans, gives researchers hope that they are on the right track.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison associate professor of bacteriology has been awarded the nation’s highest honor for researchers beginning their independent careers.

Cameron Currie is one of 20 winners of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. The honor was announced by the UW-Madison news service on Thursday.