Nerdy Science Blog

Investigators at  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Emory University, and Andrews University analyzed a survey data of 500 adults showing that there is a positive correlation between video-game playing and health risks in adults.  The participants were from Seattle-Tacoma, and the data of self-assessment of depression, personality, health status, physical and mental health, body mass index (BMI), and quality of life were collected.  It is found that generally playing video game will lead to greater depression and lower health status in female and higher BMI in male.  Both sexes that play video game also have higher reliance on internet for social support.

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Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have identified a possible toxicity mechanism that causes Parkinson’s disease.

Lewy body is abnormal aggregated proteins inside cells. Neurologists have observed in the damaged parts of brains in the patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease for decades. The appearance of Lewy body shows that protein recycling and waste disposal could be the reason that leads to Parkinson’s disease.

A study that is going to be published in Jan 2, 2009 issue of Science shows a possible toxicity pathway that kill the brain cells and cause Parkinson’s disease. A protein component of Lewy body, alpha-synuclein, is interfering with the recycling of MEF2D. This explains why MEF2D is abundant in patients with Parkinson’s disease. MEF2D is a transcription factor that regulates the activity of the gene. It binds to DNA to control the gene, hence controlling development and survival of brain cells, as shown in many studies.

This finding helps researcher understand the pathway for controlling cell loss and survival in Parkinson’s disease, hence develop drugs which help MEF2D to be more toxic resistance.

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If you are a vegetarian, the following news might be useless to you.

Scientists from University of Adelaide discovered a bacterium cause disease among meat lovers.  The discovery led by microbiologists Dr Adrienne Paton and Professor James Paton was published in Nature on 30 October.

E. coli bacteria will release Subtilase cytotoxin, a potent bacterial toxin, to target Neu5Gc sugar on cell surface.  This will cause bloody diarrhoea and haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) in humans.  However human does no make Neu5Gc naturally, and we the toxin release by the bateria should do us no harm.  The secret to the triumph of the bacterium is because we eat too much meat and fairy products.  While we are creating more carbon emmission by eating the food we love, we also uptake Neu5Gc sugar which is rich in these food into our body.  Scientist emphasized that it is important to eat well-cooked meat and pasteurised dairy products as the bacteria are killed in these food products.

Other researchers involved in this study included scientists from Monash University, the University of California and Emory University.

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