Medically Speaking Team

Svante Paabo has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology 2022 for his findings involving the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution, the award-giving organisation said on Monday.

“The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has now chosen to award Svante Paabo the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his findings concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution,” according to the Nobel Prize release. Svante Paabo, the 2022 Nobel laureate, discovered gene transmission from now-extinct hominins to Homo sapiens. According to the statement, this historical flow of genes to modern humans has physiological importance today, such as influencing how our immune system responds to illnesses.

Svante Paabo has founded paleogenomics as a completely new scientific science. His insights lay the foundation for further research into what makes us truly human by demonstrating genetic characteristics that separate all contemporary humans from extinct hominins.

Svante Paabo’s pioneering study enabled him to do the seemingly impossible: sequence the DNA of the Neanderthal, an extinct cousin of modern humans. He also discovered Denisova, a previously unknown hominid, purely from genetic data extracted from a little finger bone specimen.

Paabo also discovered DNA transmission from these now-extinct hominins to Homo sapiens during the migration from Africa some 70,000 years ago, according to the announcement.

Svante Paabo is a Swedish biologist who specialises in evolutionary genetics and was recruited to the University of Munich in 1990, where he continued his work on ancient DNA as a newly appointed Professor.

Earlier in 2020, David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of temperature and touch receptors.

David Julius used capsaicin, a strong chemical derived from chilli peppers that causes a burning sensation, to find a heat-responsive sensor in skin nerve endings.

Ardem Patapoutian discovered a new class of sensors that respond to mechanical stimuli in the skin and internal organs by using pressure-sensitive cells.

Also Read: Gut bacteria may have role in HIV infection susceptibility: Study

These groundbreaking discoveries sparked extensive study efforts, resulting in a fast gain in understanding of how the nervous system detects heat, cold, and mechanical stimuli.

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According to new UCLA-led research, certain gut bacteria, particularly one necessary for a healthy gut microbiome, differ between persons who get HIV infection and those who do not.

According to research lead Dr Jennifer Fulcher, assistant professor of medicine, division of infectious diseases, the findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal eBioMedicine, imply that the gut microbiota may impact one’s risk of HIV infection. “This is an important area that requires more research to better understand if and how these bacteria might effect HIV transmission,” said Fulcher, who also has a VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System appointment.

“Microbiome-based treatments are emerging as a promising field of study. With more investigation, this might be an innovative approach to HIV prevention.”

Fulcher believes that there is a relationship between persistent HIV and alterations in gut microorganisms. The researchers sought to know when these alterations start to happen following HIV infection.

To that purpose, scientists investigated gut microbiota samples taken from 27 men who have intercourse with males both before and after infection. The samples were then compared to those of 28 males who had comparable behavioural risk factors for infection but did not have HIV.

The samples were from the UCLA-led Collaborating Consortium of Cohorts Producing NIDA Opportunities (C3PNO), a resource and data centre for millions of pieces of research, lab samples, statistics, and other data targeted at speeding up research into the impact of drug usage on HIV/AIDS.

The researchers revealed that the gut flora of the infected males changed very little throughout the first year. However, they revealed that HIV-positive males had different gut microbes before being infected than their uninfected counterparts.

These males exhibited reduced levels of Bacteroides species, a kind of bacterium widespread in the lower intestine tract that has key metabolic roles in maintaining a healthy gut environment, and greater amounts of Megasphaera elsdenii, whose significance in the human gut is unknown. According to the researchers, males who acquired HIV had higher inflammatory cytokines and bioactive lipids prior to infection, both of which are associated with systemic inflammation, indicating that their systems were continually on the defence against infection or damage.

Also Read: India recorded 3,011 new COVID cases

The study’s drawbacks include a limited sample size and a focus on primarily young males who have sex with men, the majority of whom take drugs, limiting its generalizability to other populations.

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The Ministry of Health and Family Affairs reported 3,011 new COVID cases in India in the previous 24 hours on Monday.

India’s active caseload now stands at 36,126, accounting for 0.8% of total cases. According to the health ministry, the national COVID-19 recovery rate has risen to 98.73 percent. The daily positivity rate was 2.23 percent, with a weekly positivity rate of 1.31 percent. The death toll has risen to 5,28,701, with 28 people killed in the previous 24 hours.

The statewide vaccination programme resulted in 218.77 crore total vaccine doses, with 94.87 crore receiving a second dose and 21.41 crore receiving a precaution dosage.

According to the ministry, 1,70,034 dosages have been provided in the previous 24 hours.

As part of the countrywide immunisation campaign, the Government of India provided free COVID-19 vaccines to states and union territories.

Previously, the ‘COVID Vaccination Amrit Mahotsava,’ which began on July 15 this year to promote Precaution Dose as part of the national COVID vaccination push, ended on Friday after administering over 15.92 crores of precaution doses, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

During these 75 days, nearly 13.01 lakh Special COVID immunisation sessions were held, according to the Ministry of Health.

“In 75 days, across all states and UTs, 11,104 camps were organised at bus stops, 5,664 camps at railway stations, 511 camps at airports, over 1,50,004 camps at various schools and colleges, 4,451 camps along religious yatra routes, and over 11,30,044 camps at various private and government workplaces and industrial establishments,” the ministry said in a statement.

During the 75-day period, the Ministry said that more than 76.18 lakh first doses, 2.35 crore second doses, and 15.92 crore precaution doses were delivered.

“More than 24.73 lakh doses per day have been provided, including 20.68 lakh doses precaution dosage per day,” it stated, adding that thanks to the 75-day free vaccination campaign, 27% of the eligible population has already gotten their precaution dose, up from 8% at the start of the project.

All States and UTs were advised to run the COVID Vaccination Amrit Mahotsava campaign as a ‘Jan Abhiyan’ with significant popular mobilisation, using a camp strategy, under the COVID Vaccination Amrit Mahotsava. Multiple special vaccination camps were set up along the itineraries of the Char Dham Yatra (Uttarakhand), Amarnath Yatra (Jammu and Kashmir), Kanwar Yatra (all North Indian states and UTs), as well as significant Melas and congregations.

Also Read: Researchers discover increased incidence of sexual issues among female cancer survivors

Special Vaccination Camps were also held at office complexes, industrial facilities, railway stations, inter-state bus terminals, schools, and colleges.

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A new World Health Organization (WHO) programme aims to prevent the spread of an invasive mosquito species in the region.

The WHO recognised Anopheles stephensi spread as a serious danger to malaria control and eradication in 2019 – notably in Africa, where the illness is most prevalent.

Originally native to parts of South Asia and the Arabian Peninsula, An. stephensi has been expanding its range over the last decade, with detections reported in Djibouti (2012), Ethiopia and Sudan (2016), Somalia (2019) and Nigeria (2020).

Unlike the other main mosquito vectors of malaria in Africa, it thrives in urban settings, the WHO said.

“With more than 40 per cent of the population in Africa living in urban environments, the WHO said the invasion and spread of An. stephensi could pose a significant threat to the control and elimination of malaria. But large-scale surveillance of the vector is still in its infancy, and more research and data are urgently needed,” the global health body said.

Dr Jan Kolaczinski, who leads the Vector Control and Insecticide Resistance unit with the WHO Global Malaria Programme, said they are still learning about the presence of Anopheles stephensi and its role in malaria transmission in Africa. “It is important to underscore that we still don’t know how far the mosquito species has already spread, and how much of a problem it is or could be.”

WHO’s new initiative aims to support an effective regional response to An. stephensi on the African continent through a five-pronged approach.

These approaches include increasing collaboration across sectors and border; strengthening surveillance to determine the extent of the spread of An. stephensi and its role in transmission; and improving information exchange on the presence of An. stephensi.

These efforts also aim at developing guidance for national malaria control programmes on appropriate ways to respond to An. stephensi and prioritizing research to evaluate the impact of interventions and tools against An. stephensi.

“Where feasible, national responses to An. stephensi should be integrated with efforts to control malaria and other vector-borne diseases, such as dengue fever, yellow fever and chikungunya,” the global health body said. The WHO Global vector control response 2017-2030 provides a framework for investigating and implementing such integration, it added.

“Integrated action will be key to success against Anopheles stephensi and other vector-borne diseases,” noted Dr Ebenezer Baba, malaria advisor for the WHO African Region. “Shifting our focus to integrated and locally adapted vector control can save both money and lives,” he added.

India saw a single day rise of 3,805 new Covid-19 infections, taking India’s tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,45,91,112, while the active cases declined to 38,293, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday.

The death toll climbed to 5,28,655 with 26 fatalities, which include 13 deaths reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am stated.

Of the 13 fresh fatalities, five were reported from Maharashtra and two from Kerala.

The active cases comprise 0.09 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate increased to 98.73 per cent, the health ministry said.

According to the ministry, 218.68 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.

It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

An undiscovered family of viruses that is now abundant in wild African primates and known to cause lethal Ebola-like symptoms in specific monkeys, according to new University of Colorado Boulder study published online Sept. 30 in the journal Cell, is “poised for spillover” to humans.

Despite the fact that these arteriviruses are already considered a severe threat to macaque monkeys, no human infections have been reported to date. It’s also unclear what impact the virus might have on people if it jumped species.

However, the scientists, drawing analogies to HIV (the forerunner of which arose in African monkeys), urge caution: The global health community might potentially avoid another pandemic by monitoring for arteriviruses in both animals and humans now, scientists suggested.

“This animal virus has worked out how to get into human cells, reproduce, and avoid some of the crucial immune responses that we would anticipate to protect us from an animal virus.” “That’s pretty unusual,” said senior author Sara Sawyer, a CU Boulder professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology. “We need to pay attention to it.”

Thousands of different viruses circulate among animals all throughout the world, with the vast majority causing no symptoms. In recent decades, an increasing number of viruses have leaped to humans, wreaking havoc on inexperienced immune systems: Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012, SARS-CoV in 2003, and SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) in 2020.

For the past 15 years, Sawyer’s lab has investigated which animal viruses are likely to infect humans using laboratory procedures and tissue samples from wildlife all around the world.

She and lead author Cody Warren, then a postdoctoral fellow at CU’s BioFrontiers Institute, focused on arteriviruses, which are abundant in pigs and horses but understudied in nonhuman primates. They focused on simian hemorrhagic fever virus (SHFV), which causes a devastating sickness comparable to Ebola virus disease and has been responsible for deadly outbreaks in captive macaque colonies since the 1960s.

The research shows that a molecule called CD163 plays an important role in the biology of simian arteriviruses, allowing the virus to enter and infect target cells. The researchers discovered, to their astonishment, that the virus was also extraordinarily adept at latching on to the human version of CD163, getting inside human cells, and rapidly replicating itself.

Simian arteriviruses, like human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and its progenitor simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), appear to attack immune cells, weakening important defence mechanisms and establishing a long-term presence in the body.

“The similarities between this virus and the simian viruses that caused the HIV epidemic are deep,” said Warren, who is currently an assistant professor in The Ohio State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

The authors emphasise that another pandemic is not imminent and that the public need not be concerned.

They do, however, recommend that the global health community prioritise further research into simian arteriviruses, develop blood antibody testing for them, and investigate surveillance of human populations exposed to animal carriers.

A wide variety of African monkeys already carry high viral loads of many arteriviruses, often without symptoms, and certain species contact frequently humans, biting and scratching them.

“Just because we haven’t yet identified a human arterivirus infection doesn’t mean no one has been exposed.” “We haven’t looked,” Warren explained.

Warren and Sawyer point out that no one had heard of HIV in the 1970s either.

Researchers now believe that HIV originated in nonhuman primates in Africa before spreading to humans in the early 1900s.

When HIV began killing young men in the United States in the 1980s, there was no serology test and no cure in the works.

According to Sawyer, there is no certainty that these simian arteriviruses will infect humans. But one thing is certain: more viruses will infect humans and cause sickness.

“COVID is merely the most recent in a long line of spillover events from animals to people, some of which have burst into global disasters,” Sawyer explained. “Our objective is that by raising knowledge of the viruses to be on the lookout for, we can get ahead of this so that if human illnesses start, we can respond swiftly.”

India recorded 4,272 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours. According to the data shared by the Union Health Ministry on Wednesday (September 28), the total recovery rate reached at around 98.72 per cent and total recoveries data reached to 4,40,13,999.

A decrease of 229 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The active cases comprise 0.09 per cent of the total infections, the ministry said.

The total death toll in the country is now at 5,28,611. In India, the first death due to the COVID pandemic was reported in March 2020.

The daily positivity rate on September 29 was recorded 1.35 per cent.

Under the nationwide vaccination drive, India’s cumulative vaccination coverage has exceeded 218.17 crore of which 94.82 crore are second dose and 20.88 crore are precaution dose.

The Medical Counseling Committee issued an official notification on Wednesday declaring that the NEET PG round 1 counselling 2022, which was announced yesterday, is being revoked.

“All candidates participating in NEET PG counselling 2022 are hereby informed that the provisional result for Round-1 of PG counselling which was uploaded yesterday (27-9-2022) is being withdrawn since some PG DNB institutes did not complete their address profile on the portal due to which the seats were not visible when ‘State Filter’ was applied by the candidates during choice filling, even though their seats were included in the seat matrix of round-1 and were available for choice filling.” stated notice issued by MCC.

“Keeping in view the larger public interest, the competent authority has decided to open the choice filling again and issue a fresh result for Round – 1 as per the following schedule. Kindly note that candidates who are satisfied with their choices exercised earlier need not make any changes and the software will pick earlier locked choices of candidates for seat processing. However, those who want to make changes in their choices can unfreeze their choices after giving ‘Consent’ on the MCC portal.” it said further.

Dr Rohan Krishnan, National President, Federation of All India Medical Association demanded for transparency in the system.

“We don’t know who should be held responsible for such delays. We don’t know who is responsible for PG counselling, or who is responsible for UG counselling. We don’t even know how the members are being selected. The elected members of the council, the National Medical Commission are also getting elected without any transparency. There is no proper documentation,” he said.

However, the Federation Of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) tweeted that Union Health Ministry should make strict rules and regulations.

“Every step has its own disappointments, why there can’t be strict rules and regulations?? Why can’t the adherence to rules be checked upon?? Sadism has become a character; Most unfortunate is: ‘Health Ministry remains silent spectator,” it tweeted.

To clarify the consequences of a booster dosage of the vaccinations, health specialists stated that there is no definitive relationship between heart problems and the precaution doses of the COVID injections. With social media filled with inquiries about the consequences of booster doses on the human heart, doctors defended the immunizations.

According to Dr. Vivek Chaturvedi, Professor and HOD, Cardiology, Amrita Hospital, Faridabad, there have been isolated cases of heart-related difficulties in patients following immunisation, but there is no clear data to support this.

“This is a very thorny question because we do see heart attacks happening. Not just attacks, sometimes fluid around the heart, sometimes Arrhythmias of the heart after vaccination. But it is very difficult to confirm this because these were happening in the past also,” he said.

However, Dr Vivek said that COVID can have effects on the heart and the person getting infected with COVID may have a flared heart-related disease.

“Covid can affect the heart in many ways. The most common problem which has been found is that the people who have had heart disease in the past, their heart disease can get flared and aggravated. They can have heart attacks and heart failure and also Arrhythmia. Secondly, people who have not had heart disease but have diabetes, and blood pressure can have a heart attack, and many such cases have come which is precipitated by COVID. Thirdly, even if no heart attack is precipitated, when covid is severe, it is known to cause heart dysfunctions, heart blocks, and different types of rapid heart rate called Arrhythmias,” he said.

When asked about the increase in the deaths due to heart-related issues since the onset of the pandemic, he said, “Yes, this has been a big controversy because a lot of death was occurring at home during covid when it was at its peak because people were afraid to go out but, data that has been carefully analyzed from certain countries has shown that covid definitely had increased the risk for heart attacks.”

Dr Vinayak Agrawal, Director, Non-Invasive Cardiology, Fortis, Gurugram mentioned that the road to recovery of an individual after COVID may differ for different persons, and added that the person who needs to be hospitalised in the ICU with severe lung disease or other infections may need supervised recovery.

“Post COVID infection, the road to recovery or rehabilitation is quite individualistic. For someone, who required hospitalization or ICU care during COVID with significant lung or heart or multisystem involvement, there would obviously be a need for prolonged and supervised gradual recovery or rehab inputs,” he said.

“Since heart involvement may be seen in these mild or asymptomatic cases also, hence if you experience significant fatigue/ weakness, out of proportion breathlessness at rest or walking, chest discomfort on walking or dizziness, then a specialist consult should be sought and further investigations including blood tests like troponin levels, NT proBNP (biomarkers), ECG, 24-hour ECG (Holter), Echocardiogram or cardiac MRI may be done,” he added.

The expert advised the people undergoing recovery not to engage in moderate to strenuous exercises or gym initially for nearly six weeks.

“Go slow, and do not resume moderate to strenuous exercises or gym initially for 4 to 6 weeks post-COVID diagnosis. Patients returning to high-level sports or physically demanding occupations following confirmed heart involvement require a 3-6 months or longer period of complete rest. If you continue to experience symptoms after a few weeks, consult your doctor to rule out long covid syndrome,” he said.

According to recent research, women who are anxious about their pregnancies give delivery earlier on average than those who are not.

The study, which looked at the association between pregnancy length and several anxiety indicators, might help doctors figure out when and how to screen for anxiety during pregnancy to help avoid premature delivery.

“Anxiety about a current pregnancy is a potent psychosocial state that may affect birth outcomes,” said lead study author Christine Dunkel Schetter, PhD, of the University of California Los Angeles. “These days, depressive symptoms are assessed in many clinic settings around the world to prevent complications of postpartum depression for mothers and children. This and other studies suggest that we should also be assessing anxiety in pregnant women.”

The findings were reported in the journal Health Psychology.

Previous study has discovered that up to one in every four pregnant women had clinically heightened anxiety symptoms, and that anxiety can be a risk factor for preterm delivery, or birth before 37 weeks. Those studies, however, employed a range of anxiety measures and examined both general anxiety and pregnancy-specific worry, which includes concerns about birthing, parenting, and the baby’s health. Researchers have also assessed anxiety at various stages of pregnancy, from early to late pregnancy, with the second trimester being the most common.

The researchers reviewed data from a broad sample of 196 pregnant women in Denver and Los Angeles who participated in the Healthy Babies Before Birth project to separate out these distinct impacts of timing and anxiety type. Women identified as non-Hispanic white 45% of the time, Hispanic white 36% of the time, Asian 10% of the time, and Black or African American 9% of the time.

The ladies were given four different anxiety scales by the researchers in both the first and third trimesters of their pregnancies. One was a five-question general anxiety screener, and the other three were pregnancy-specific: a 10-question and four-question scale of pregnancy-related anxiety, and a nine-question evaluation of a larger range of pregnancy-related stressors, such as medical care and anxieties about taking care of a newborn.

The researchers found that participants’ scores on all three scales of pregnancy-related anxiety were interrelated, suggesting that the scales measure the same underlying thing.

They also found that pregnancy-related anxiety in the third trimester was most strongly associated with earlier births. However, general anxiety in the first trimester also contributed to risk for early birth. One possibility, according to the researchers, is that general anxiety early in pregnancy could predispose women to be anxious later in pregnancy about such issues as medical risks, the baby, labor and delivery, and parenting. The results held even when adjusted for the actual medical risk of the women’s pregnancies.

“Although not all women who begin pregnancy with general anxiety symptoms will later experience pregnancy-specific anxiety, our results suggest that women who do follow this progression are likely to be especially at risk for earlier delivery,” Dunkel Schetter said.

The results suggest that doctors should screen women for general anxiety early in pregnancy, she added, just as they commonly screen for depression, and that women who score high could be monitored for increases in anxiety and possible intervention later in pregnancy.

Further research should continue to explore reasons that pregnancy anxiety is linked to birth timing, including stress-related neuroendocrine changes, inflammation and health behaviors, according to Dunkel Schetter.

“Increasing precision in our understanding of both the risks and mechanisms of the effects of pregnancy anxiety on gestational length can improve our ability to develop, test and implement interventions to address the pressing public health issue of preterm birth,” she said.