Medically Speaking

India reported a decline in Coronavirus cases with 8,813 fresh Covid-19 infections reported in the last 24 hours as compared to 14,917 cases a day before, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed on Tuesday.

The country recorded 15,040 recoveries in the last 24 hours which takes the total recoveries from the infection to 4,36,38,844. The current recovery rate is 98.56 per cent. According to the Health Ministry, the country’s daily positivity rate stands at 4.15 per cent, while its weekly positivity rate is 4.79 per cent.

The Ministry further informed that the country’s active caseload stands at 1,11,252 with the active cases at 0.25 per cent.

The Health Ministry also said that 88.06 crore Covid tests have been conducted in the country so far, of which 2,12,129 were conducted in the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, under the Nationwide Vaccination Drive, the Centre has administered 208.31 crore total vaccine doses which included 93.80 crore Second Dose and 12.36 crore Precaution Dose for Coronavirus infection.

In the last 24 hours, 6,10,863 doses have been administered.

An international research team has successfully recovered muscular mobility in a model of paralysed mice using organic neurons. Prof. Tae-Woo Lee (Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea) and Prof. Zhenan Bao headed the team (Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, US).

The outcome was published in the prestigious international journal “Nature Biomedical Engineering.” The nerves are easily harmed by a variety of factors, including physical injury, genetic factors, secondary problems, and ageing. The nerves are crucial for life activities and also have a substantial impact on quality of life. Additionally, some or all of their body functions are permanently lost due to poor bio-signaling because once nerves are injured, they are difficult to rebuild.

The traumatic account of a celebrity’s spinal cord injury occasionally makes the news. Despite the dramatic advances in medicine and biology, the medical problem of nerve injury, which has existed since the dawn of humanity, has remained a mystery to science, and there doesn’t appear to be any clear solution in the near future.

Damaged nerves have been treated in a variety of ways, including surgical procedures and drugs, but it is still nearly difficult to restore damaged or degraded nerve functioning.

Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES), a technique used often in clinical practise for the rehabilitation of patients with neurological impairment, uses computer-controlled signals. This involves applying electrical stimulation to muscles that are no longer arbitrary controlled in neuropathy patients in order to trigger muscle contraction, resulting in functionally effective motions in the biological body while being constrained in a particular space.

These conventional approaches, however, have drawbacks that make them unsuitable for patients to use on a long-term basis in their daily lives. This is because they use sophisticated digital circuits and computers for signal processing to stimulate muscles, which uses a lot of energy and has poor biocompatibility.

By using a stretchable, low-power organic nanowire neurormorphic device that mimics the structure and functionality of real nerve fibres, the research team was able to control the movement of mice’s legs solely with artificial nerves, eliminating the need for a complicated and large external computer. The stretchy artificial nerve comprises of a hydrogel electrode for signal transmission to the leg muscles, an organic artificial synapse that mimics a biological synapse, and a strain sensor that models a proprioceptor that senses muscle movements.

Because the researchers controlled the mouse legs’ movement and the force with which their muscles contract in line with the frequency of the action potentials conveyed to it, the artificial synapse performs smoother and more lifelike leg motions than the standard FES.

Furthermore, the artificial proprioceptor monitors the mouse’s leg movement and delivers real-time feedback to the artificial synapse to reduce muscle injury from excessive leg movement.

A paralysed mouse was taught to kick the ball, walk, and run on the treadmill by the researchers. Furthermore, by taking samples of recorded signals from the motor cortex of moving animals and manipulating the legs of mice through artificial synapses, the study team demonstrated the potential use of artificial nerves in the future for voluntary movement.

The neuromorphic technology, which is gaining interest as a next-generation computer device by simulating the behaviour of a biological neural network, has a new application feasibility that was discovered by the researchers. The researchers showed that the neuromorphic field would be utilised in other sectors, including biomedical engineering and biotechnology, in addition to computers.

According to Prof. Tae-Woo Lee, “Neural injury is still seen as a major scientific challenge from the past to the present despite the amazing medical breakthroughs, and without a fresh discovery, it will still be a difficult problem to overcome in the future. The study’s relevance is best summed up by the phrase, “This research provides a fresh advance in overcoming nerve damage in an engineering method using neuromorphic technology, not in a biomedical way. “An engineering approach to overcoming nerve damage will provide a new road to improve the quality of life for those suffering from linked diseases and disorders,” the author further stated.

Prof. Zhenan Bao highlighted the study’s potential, noting that it “has offered a cornerstone for patient-friendly, more realistically useable wearable neural prosthetics, away from the existing form factor” through the development of flexible artificial nerves for patients with injured nerves. This gave rise to hopes that “The underlying technology of the stretchy artificial nerve may be used to numerous medical wearable technologies,” as she put it.

The study team stated a wish to continue the work with therapeutic applications beyond primates and animals such as mice in the future. This suggests that new techniques and therapies for human nerve damage, including as spinal cord injury, peripheral nerve damage, and neurological impairments such as Lou Gehrig’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s disease, may be available.

For more than a century, cancer cell metabolism has been regarded as a puzzle. Recent research from Washington University in St. Louis suggests that it may not be an anomaly after all. On August 15, the study was published in Molecular Cell.

Glucose, a common sugar present in the diet, is one of the most important nutrients in the body. It is consumed at an alarming rate by cancer cells. At first glance, this seems fair because cancer cells must synthesise a variety of substances.

Because cancer spreads rapidly, each cell must replicate every component within it. But there’s a catch.

Cancer cells do not make good use of glucose. Instead of collecting every ounce of energy possible from glucose, they squander the vast majority of it.

Gary Patti, the Michael and Tana Powell Professor of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences, as well as genetics and medicine at the School of Medicine, noted that for cells to receive the greatest energy from glucose, its transformation products must be moved into mitochondria. Patti, who works at the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and the School of Medicine, is the present study’s senior author.

The metabolism is anticipated to follow certain biochemical rules. Patti described her fascination with the many causes malignancies may be allowed to ruin people.

But the results we provide here show that cancer cells do adhere to established rules.

The tiniest compartments inside cells known as mitochondria are frequently referred to as the cell’s power plants or powerhouses. They have strict controls over what enters and leaves them.

To provide some context, in the 1920s a renowned biochemist by name of Otto Warburg made the initial discovery of the wastefulness of tumours. He proposed that damaged mitochondria occur in cancer cells as a solution to the puzzle of why more energy isn’t derived from glucose.

We now understand that this is untrue. In fact, most tumours have functional and active mitochondria, according to Patti. But that doesn’t explain why cancer cells metabolise so little of the glucose they eat in mitochondria, which is a bothersome and enduring conundrum.

hat has perplexed researchers, according to Patti, is the idea that cancer cells choose not to metabolise glucose in their mitochondria. The idea has frequently been that cancer cells desire to use glucose wastefully, whether as a result of Warburg’s original thought or perhaps because it occurs so frequently.

There are a variety of justifications for why cancer cells could desire to waste their glucose. Patti and his group assert that these justifications might not be essential. In the end, scientists may be wrong about how odd cancer metabolism is.

Cancer cells actively metabolise glucose in their mitochondria because they genuinely desire to. as long as they can.

Nearly all of the glucose that is restricted from being absorbed by cancer cells ends up in mitochondria, according to Patti. However, as glucose consumption rises, the rate at which molecules produced from glucose are transported into mitochondria can’t keep up.

In other words, glucose is only wasted away by cancer cells because mitochondrial transport is too sluggish.

Imagine a bathtub faucet that is shooting out water at a rate that exceeds the capacity of the drain. The water eventually overflows onto the floor.

This metabolic paradigm is not entirely new. Most cells do favour oxidising glucose in their mitochondria over excreting it as waste, according to Patti. “Our findings imply that cancer cells are a common occurrence. They resemble other cells in that they seem to follow similar biochemical pathways.

The breakthrough revealed by the Patti team was made possible by the potent technique known as metabolomics.

Patti stated that the last ten years have seen “amazing breakthroughs in the field of metabolomics and mass spectrometry.” “We are currently at a stage where it is even possible to measure chemicals in single cells.”

Metabolomics and stable isotope tracers were used in this study. Researchers were able to tag various components of glucose and monitor them inside cells while also measuring the pace at which chemicals entered mitochondria or were expelled from cells. When scientists realised that cancer cells were outpacing or getting saturated with the typical fuel transport routes, they made this finding.

In her maiden address to the country, President Droupadi Murmu praised India’s reaction to the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic, saying that India’s efforts in combatting the pandemic had been better than those of many industrialised countries.

“The world has witnessed the rise of a new India in recent years, especially with the outbreak of COVID-19.” Our reaction to the epidemic has been widely praised. We started the largest immunisation campaign in human history, using vaccines made in the country. We passed the 200-million-person threshold in cumulative vaccination coverage last month.

Our achievements in battling the epidemic have been superior to those of many wealthy countries. We are grateful to our scientists, physicians, nurses, paramedics, and immunisation workers for this accomplishment “President Murmu stated this in her address to the country. President Droupadi Murmu, who comes from a tribal group, stated on Sunday that the government’s decision last year to mark November 15 as ‘Janajatiya Gaurav Divas’ is welcome because our tribal heroes are more than just local or regional stars; they inspire the entire nation.

“Our heroic Freedom Struggle was fought valiantly across our huge country. Many great freedom warriors fulfilled their job and passed on the torch of waking, leaving little evidence of their valiant efforts.

They have witnessed how, following independence, all generations struggled hard, how we faced huge obstacles, and how we took control of our future. The lessons learned will be valuable as we approach the next milestone in the nation’s journey – the Amrit Kaal, the 25-year countdown to the centennial of our independence “She stated.

According to the President, India is already on track to construct an Atmanirbhar Bharat, and by 2047, India would have fully realised the goals of our independence heroes.

According to the President, “We shall have fully realised the goals of our liberation warriors by 2047.

We shall have given tangible form to the idea of those who created the Constitution, led by Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar. We are already on track to create an Atmanirbhar Bharat, an India that has reached its full potential.”

According to the President, Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav is dedicated to the people of India.

According to a Rashtrapati Bhavan release, President Murmu made her inaugural address to the country on the eve of the 76th Independence Day on Sunday.

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Murmu, a tribal from Odisha, took the oath of office as the 15th president on July 25. She is the youngest and first tribal leader to occupy the highest constitutional position. She is the first president to be born after independence.

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The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare reported 14,917 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, with a daily positive rate of 7.52 percent.

With this, India’s total number of cases is currently 4,42,68,381. There are 1,17,508 active cases among them, accounting for 0.27 percent of all cases. The current recovery rate is 98.54 percent. In the previous 24 hours, 14,238 recoveries were recorded, bringing the overall number of recoveries to 4,36,23,804.

According to official figures updated at 8 a.m., the death toll has risen to 5,27,069, with 32 deaths.

A positive rate of 7.52 percent was recorded among the 1,98,271 COVID-19 tests performed in the past 24 hours, with a weekly positivity rate of 4.65 percent.

On the COVID-19 vaccination front, 25,50,276 doses were administered in last 24 hours. Further, over 208.25 crore total vaccine doses have been administered so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.

Bharat Biotech International said on Monday that BBV154 (intranasal vaccination) has been shown in controlled clinical studies to be safe, well-tolerated, and immunogenic in individuals.

BBV154 is a pre-fusion stabilised spike protein recombinant replication-deficient adenovirus vectored vaccine. This vaccine candidate has already been studied in phase I and II clinical trials, with positive findings. BBV154 has been particularly designed for intranasal administration. Furthermore, the nasal delivery system was conceived and developed to be affordable in low and middle-income nations.

BBV154 was developed in partnership with Washington University St Louis, which had designed and developed the recombinant adenoviral vectored constructs and evaluated them in preclinical studies for efficacy. Product development related to preclinical safety evaluation, large-scale manufacturing scale-up, formulation, and delivery device development, including human clinical trials, were conducted by Bharat Biotech. The Government of India partly funded product development and clinical trials through the Department of Biotechnology’s, COVID Suraksha program.

Two separate and simultaneous clinical trials were conducted to evaluate BBV154 as a primary dose (2-dose) schedule; and a heterologous booster dose for subjects who have previously received 2 doses of the two commonly administered covid vaccines in India.

Data from both Phase III human clinical trials have been submitted for approval to National Regulatory Authorities.

Primary dose schedule phase III trials were conducted for safety, and immunogenicity in 3100 subjects, and compared with COVAXINO. The trials were conducted in 14 trial sites across India.

Heterologous booster dose studies were conducted for safety and immunogenicity in ~875 subjects, where a booster dose (3rd dose) of BBV154 intranasal vaccine was administered to study participants who were previously vaccinated with licensed COVID vaccines. The trials were conducted in 9 trial sites across India.

Being an intranasal vaccine, BBV154 may produce local antibodies in the upper respiratory tract which may provide the potential to reduce infection and transmission. Further studies are being planned.

At the start of the COVID pandemic, Bharat Biotech commenced work on 4 platform technologies, the Vero cell inactivated platform, and the adenoviral vector platform have been developed.

“On this 75th Independence Day, we are proud to announce the successful completion of clinical trials for the BBV154 intranasal vaccine. We stay committed and focused on innovation and product development; this is yet another achievement for the multidisciplinary teams at Bharat Biotech. If approved, this intranasal vaccine will make it easier to deploy in mass immunization campaigns with an easy-to-administer formulation and delivery device,” said Suchitra K. Ella, Joint Managing Director, Bharat Biotech.

“Vectored vaccines also enable faster development of targeted vaccines in response to emerging variants of concern. We hereby thank the volunteers, principal investigators, and clinical trial personnel for all their efforts,” Ella said.

BBV154 has the double benefit of enabling faster development of variant-specific vaccines and easy nasal delivery that helps mass immunization protect from emerging concern variants. It promises to become an important tool in mass vaccinations during pandemics and endemics.

BBV154 is stable at 2-8°C, making it ideal for storage and delivery. Bharat Biotech has created major manufacturing capacities in numerous locations across India, including Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Telangana, with activities throughout the country.

A recent study reveals that the common steroid betamethasone might be used to decrease the unpleasant side effects of prostate cancer radiation treatments.

The findings were reported in the journal ‘International Journal of Molecular Sciences.’ The lab study, led by Luksana Chaiswing, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Toxicology and Cancer Biology at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, is the first to show that betamethasone protects normal prostate cells from radiation therapy-induced injury while making cancer cells more susceptible to the treatment.

In the United States, prostate cancer is the second highest cause of cancer mortality in males. While radiation therapy is beneficial for slowing the progression of prostate cancer, it also increases the chance of undesired side effects, such as tissue damage.

“New therapeutics targeted at preventing against natural tissue harm while simultaneously enhancing the efficiency of radiation therapy are desperately needed,” Chaiswing added. “The development of such treatments would have a significant influence on prostate cancer control and patient quality of life.”

The researchers examined over 700 FDA-approved medications for qualities such as shielding non-cancer cells from radiation therapy-induced cytotoxicity, killing prostate cancer cells, and boosting hydrogen peroxide levels in both cancer and non-cancer cells.

Betamethasone, a corticosteroid licenced for the treatment of haematological system inflammation and cancer, was one of the top five medications with all of the necessary qualities.

In normal, non-cancerous prostate cells, betamethasone raises hydrogen peroxide levels, which activates a protective protein called “RelB.”

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“The results of this investigation might lead to a novel anticancer regimen that increases the efficiency of radiation treatment by sensitising c to radiation while simultaneously shielding normal tissue from radiation-induced adverse effects,” Chaiswing explained.

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A new study conducted by the Universities of Eastern Finland and Turku has enhanced comprehension of an under-researched problem concerning sleep among elderly employees. The survey comprised 2,771 near-retired Finnish municipal personnel.

The study looked at how mental and physical job circumstances, stressful life events, and work-life balance influenced sleep issues in older workers. Sleep issues are linked to both job and nonwork pressures.

In another demographic survey, over half of Finnish males aged 60-69 and nearly 70% of Finnish women had sleeplessness symptoms in the previous month.

“In our investigation, we discovered four distinct components connected with mental stress. Physical workload and shift work, psychological workload, social and environmental nonwork adversity, and life event- and health-related nonwork adversity are all examples of nonwork adversity “Marianna Virtanen, Professor of Psychology at the University of Eastern Finland, states

Loneliness and limited engagement with one’s neighbours are examples of social and environmental nonwork difficulties. Nonwork adversity connected to life events and health refers to a stressful occurrence in one’s life or the provision of informal care.

“The more job and nonwork pressures each employee faced, the more sleep issues they had.”

Flexibility is a key development goal.

Work-related stress was connected with present sleep issues, but loneliness and stress related to one’s living environment predicted growing sleep problems throughout the follow-up. Sleep quality was also linked to psychosocial working situations.

“Psychosocial working circumstances were defined in this study by the contents and arrangements of work, such as chances for influence and working hours, as well as competence development and fair management.”

The research, funded by the Finnish Work Environment Fund, provides information on characteristics at which development measures and interventions for older employees might be focused.

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“Flexible working hours are an essential aim for growth, especially when there are stress factors in private life, such as serious sickness or death in the family, or being an informal caretaker for someone,” Virtanen adds.

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A pooled data analysis of the existing evidence suggests that dietary salt replacements reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke, and mortality from all causes including cardiovascular disease, according to the conclusions of a new research.

The findings were reported in the journal Heart online. According to the experts, the favourable effects of these alternatives are likely to apply to people all over the world.

Cardiovascular disease is the largest cause of mortality globally, and high blood pressure is a significant risk factor for premature death. A high salt, low potassium diet is known to raise blood pressure.

According to the study, around 1.28 billion people worldwide have excessive blood pressure, with more than half of them going untreated.

Salt substitutes that replace a portion of the sodium chloride (NaCl) with potassium chloride (KCl) are known to help reduce blood pressure.

A significant Chinese research (Salt Substitute and Stroke Study; SSaSS) released recently indicated that salt replacements reduce the incidence of heart attacks, stroke, and premature mortality, but it was unclear whether these advantages would extend to other regions of the world.

In order to shed light on this, the researchers combed through research databases for randomised clinical studies published up to the end of August 2021 that reported on the effects of a salt replacement on blood pressure, cardiovascular health, and premature mortality.

Blood pressure is measured in millimetres of mercury (mmHg) and is composed of two numbers: systolic—the larger number indicating the power with which the heart pumps blood around the body—and diastolic—the lower number indicating arterial pressure while the heart is filled with blood.

They combined the findings of 21 relevant worldwide clinical studies involving over 30,000 participants from Europe, the Western Pacific Region, the Americas, and Southeast Asia.

The research periods ranged from one month to five years. The amount of sodium chloride in the salt replacements ranged from 33% to 75%, whereas the quantity of potassium ranged from 25% to 65%.

The examination of pooled data revealed that salt replacements reduced blood pressure in all subjects. The total systolic blood pressure drop was 4.61 mm Hg, while the overall diastolic blood pressure reduction was 1.61 mmHg.

Blood pressure reductions appeared to be constant regardless of region, age, gender, history of high blood pressure, weight (BMI), baseline blood pressure, and baseline urine salt and potassium levels.

Each 10% reduction in sodium chloride in the salt replacement was related with a 1.53 mmHg increase in systolic blood pressure and a 0.95 mmHg increase in diastolic blood pressure. There was no indication that consuming more potassium was harmful to one’s health.

A pooled data analysis of the outcomes of five of these trials involving over 24,000 individuals found that salt replacements reduced the odds of early mortality from any cause by 11%, cardiovascular disease by 13%, and heart attack or stroke by 11%.

The researchers recognise that their findings have limitations, such as the fact that the studies in the pooled data analysis differed in design and that there were very limited data for those who did not have high blood pressure.

Nonetheless, they emphasise that their findings are consistent with those of the SSaSS, the biggest study of a potassium-enriched salt replacement to date.

“Because blood pressure lowering is the mechanism by which salt substitutes confer cardiovascular protection,” they write, “the observed consistent blood pressure reductions make a strong case for the generalisability of the cardiovascular protective effect observed in the SSaSS both outside of China and beyond.”

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“These findings are unlikely to be due to chance,” they write, “and support the use of salt replacements in clinical practise and public health policy as a strategy to reduce dietary sodium intake, increase dietary potassium intake, lower blood pressure, and avoid major cardiovascular events.”

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