A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Wednesday, June 28, 2017
Tick saliva 'gold mine' blocks killer heart condition
Myocarditis can result in sudden cardiac death in young adults-GETTY IMAGESImage caption
27 June 2017
The saliva from ticks could be used to treat a dangerous kind of heart
disease that can cause sudden death in young people, scientists say.
Proteins in the saliva were found to be excellent at stopping
inflammation of the heart, which can cause myocarditis and lead to heart
failure.
Oxford University researchers say ticks are a "gold mine" for new drugs.
And there is potential they could be used to treat other diseases, such as stroke and arthritis, they said.
But all the research has so far been done in the lab, so it is likely to be many years before the drugs are used on humans.
Under cover
Ticks are experts at biting without being noticed.
This means ticks can feed on animals and humans for eight to 10 days without there being any pain or inflammation.
Writing in Scientific Reports, scientists say this is a result of
proteins in the saliva preventing inflammation by neutralising chemicals
called chemokines in the host.
This is also important in people with myocarditis, a condition where chemokines are released in the heart and cause inflammation to the heart muscle.
The problem is difficult to spot and can lead to dilated cardiomyopathy
and heart failure in a third of people, with some then needing a heart
transplant.
The researchers have now identified new proteins in tick saliva that
appear to block the effect of particular chemokines that cause heart
problems.
Prof Shoumo Bhattacharya, BHF professor of cardiovascular medicine at
the University of Oxford, who led the research, said: "Myocarditis is a
devastating disease, for which there are currently very few treatments.
"With this latest research, we hope to be able to take inspiration from
the tick's anti-inflammatory strategy and design a life-saving therapy
for this dangerous heart condition.
He added: "We may also be able to use the same drugs to treat other
diseases where inflammation plays a big part, such as heart attack,
stroke, pancreatitis, and arthritis."
Tick milking
Tick saliva can contain up to 3,000 proteins, depending on the tick species.
To avoid having to milk the ticks for their saliva using a tiny tube -
the way it used to be done - scientists now grow tick saliva proteins in
yeast, from synthetic genes.
This way they can make very large amounts.
They now hope their "bug to drug" pipeline will lead to new treatments for a range of other diseases.
Prof Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart
Foundation, said: "They may not be pretty, but these little creatures
could hold the secret to better treatments for a whole range of
diseases.
"There's a long way to go, but tick saliva looks like an exciting, albeit unconventional, area of research."