(Press-News.org) The Idu-Mishmi community and Arunachal Pradesh appeared on the world map today for its greatest contribution in studying dormant Mycobacterium in TB that has affected nearly 4 billion people in the world and causing 1.9 million deaths yearly. In India, one person is dying of TB every 3 minutes. The study details and the contribution of Idu-Mishmis of Arunachal Pradesh and RIWATCH (Research Institute of World's Ancient Traditions Cultures and Heritage) in accomplishing the study has been duly acknowledged in a research paper published in a reputed journal 'Science Translational Medicine' on 30 January 2013. Dr. Ista Pulu, a Doctor belonging to Idu Mishimi community, and Vijay Swami, Director of RIWATCH are the co-authors of the paper. Dr. Deepjyoti Kalita, a Doctor from Guwahati Medical College who participated in research study and Lab work at Roing is also a co-author from north east India.
TB is a huge problem in North East India. The incidence of this infectious disease is much more higher in Northeast of India and especially Arunachal Pradesh than rest of India. There are special TB departments in every hospital to treat TB patients. The doctors prescribe drug treatment for months together to the TB patients, however TB recurs leading to death and suffering. It was not clear as to how the bacteria of TB hide in the body from months of drug treatment. Now the study published in Science Translational Medicine report that the dormant TB hide in bone marrow stem cells to escape from drug treatment. This research will help our efforts to develop better therapy to target the dormant TB bacteria.
Concern for Public Health of local communities of Arunachal Pradesh has been always on the top priorities of RIWATCH, since it directly affects the socio-cultural life of local communities and their social environment. Dr. Bikul Das, who hails from Sualkuchi in Assam and engaged in doing research on stem cells in Stanford University California is known to RIWATCH and its' parent organization ICCS (International Center for Cultural Studies US) since long. When he was working as a Doctor in Bhutan, he speculated that, TB bacteria escapes the host immune defense and drug treatment by hiding inside bone marrow stem cells. Dr. Das and his team at Stanford University, California and Forsyth Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA had a thorough lab research and successfully recovered variable bacteria inside the CD271+ stem cells using mouse model of TB developed by Dr. Antonio Campos-Neto at Forsyth Institute. Dr. Das then approached RIWATCH to perform the clinical study in the Arunachal Pradesh/Bhutan area, where he is actively engaged in yearly free medical camps.
Here in Arunachal Pradesh, the public health concern of RIWATCH and Dr. Bikul Das's research came together. The RIWATCH decided to facilitate Dr. Das to study as to why the TB recurrence is higher in Arunachalee communities.
The RIWATCH plunged into action, mobilized a team of local medical professionals from Governmental Hospital to work with Dr. Das, obtained necessary permission from Department of health, even involved doctors from Guwahati Medical College Assam to set up a temporary research lab at Roing, a district headquarter of Lower Dibang Valley, Arunachal Pradesh. The place was given by Dr. Ista Pulu, Sr. Gynecologist, District Hospital Roing, a generator from medical department was borrowed for uninterrupted power supply, accommodation for the entire team was done by RIWATCH free of cost, Dr. Pulu provided the fuel for generator, and this is how with people's involvement our temporary laboratory was set up. A local NGO founded by Dr. Das, the KaviKrishna Foundation provided the funding for the research materials. We conducted free general medical camps in five villages and given free medicines to all patients. The people of Idu-Mishmis suffering from this dreaded disease participated in the study actively. This effort led to identification of individuals who had TB, and successfully completed drug treatment. This was even confirmed with department of TB in Govt. hospital. From these individuals, the team isolated the CD271+ stem cells, and found evidence of dormant TB bacteria in those stem cells. These results supported Dr Das's laboratory and Dr Campos-Neto's animal study evidence that dormant TB hide in the CD271+ stem cells.
Briefly, the findings indicate that the dormant TB bacteria hijack a stem cell type known as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). The TB bacteria hide inside the CD271 expressing MSCs, and these infected MSCs resides in the bone marrow niche, which is of low oxygen. So, drugs and immune cells cannot reach the niche where MSCs resides in the bone marrow. This helps dormant TB bacteria to escape the attack from immune cells and drugs. This could be the reason why it is so difficult to eradicate TB from human host.
The MSCs are stem cells that give rise to bone, cartilage and muscle. MSCs are also known to migrate to the area of inflammation including lung. Recently a group of Indian scientists led by Dr Gobardhan Das of New Delhi found MSCs in the lung granuloma, which is not so surprising because lung granuloma is inflammatory. During drug treatment most of the granuloma become sterile, that means TB bacteria become dead. So, scientists were wondering where does the dormant bacteria survive in our body following drug treatment. The present findings now indicate that TB hijack these MSCs to move to the secured niches in the bone marrow to hide for years to escape from the drug treatment.
For the people of Arunachal Pradesh and RIWATCH, the study undertaken is proved to be one of the greatest contributions to the whole humanity. The study as to "why TB treated patients remain sensitive to TB tests for life" made a breakthrough, "the results now will have direct implications in anti-TB drug development and explain why it is so difficult to treat active and latent TB" said the RIWATCH release. No doubt, this RIWATCH initiative in medical research has brought the Idu-Mishmi people and Arunachal on the world map.
### END
Arunachal contributes in detecting stem cells where dormant TB bacteria hide
2013-01-31
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Tenofovir Gel wins out in drug absorption study, but HIV prevention trials say differently
2013-01-31
PITTSBURGH, Jan. 30, 2012 –A novel head-to-head study looking at differences in how the antiretroviral (ARV) drug tenofovir gets absorbed in the body as either an oral tablet or a vaginal gel found tenofovir gel can achieve substantially higher concentrations of active drug in vaginal tissue than the oral tablet, suggesting that tenofovir gel should be highly effective in protecting women against HIV transmitted through vaginal sex. Yet, as unequivocal as the study's results may be, they have not been borne out in HIV prevention trials to date, leading the researchers to ...
Antibiotics cut death rate for malnourished children
2013-01-31
Severely malnourished children are far more likely to recover and survive when given antibiotics along with a therapeutic peanut-based food than children who are simply treated with the therapeutic food alone, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found.
"The findings are remarkable," says Indi Trehan, MD, lead author of the research, published Jan. 31 in The New England Journal of Medicine. "Based on previous research, we didn't think there would be much benefit from antibiotics. We did not at all expect to see a drop in the death ...
Vultures foraging far and wide face a poisonous future
2013-01-31
A first ever study of the range and habits of white-backed vultures across southern Africa shows that they often shun national parks, preferring to forage further afield on private farmland.
This behaviour and their tendency to scavenge in groups, means that vultures risk encountering dead cattle that have been administered veterinary drugs that are poisonous to them, or even poisoned carcasses intended to control other carnivores such as jackals.
The research, using Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite transmitters to track the movements of adolescent vultures, ...
Exposure to antiepileptic drug in womb linked to autism risk
2013-01-31
Children whose mothers take the antiepileptic drug sodium valproate while pregnant are at significantly increased risk of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders, suggests a small study published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
The authors base their findings on children born to 528 pregnant women between 2000 and 2004 in the North West of England.
Just fewer than half the mums (243) had epilepsy, all but 34 of whom took antiepileptic drugs during their pregnancy. Fifty nine mums took carbamazepine; 59 took valproate; 36 took lamotrigine; ...
Bonobos predisposed to show sensitivity to others
2013-01-31
Comforting a friend or relative in distress may be a more hard-wired behavior than previously thought, according to a new study of bonobos, which are great apes known for their empathy and close relation to humans and chimpanzees. This finding provides key evolutionary insight into how critical social skills may develop in humans. The results are published in the online journal PLOS ONE.
Researchers from the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, observed juvenile bonobos at the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo engaging ...
Study finds parasites and poor antenatal care are main causes of epilepsy in Africa
2013-01-31
The largest study of epilepsy in sub-Saharan Africa to date reveals that programmes to control parasitic diseases and access to better antenatal care could substantially reduce the prevalence of the disease in this region.
Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological conditions worldwide and it is well known that it is significantly more prevalent in poorer countries and rural areas. The study of over half a million people in five countries of sub-Saharan Africa is the first to reveal the true extent of the problem and the impact of different risk factors.
The ...
Risk of unwarranted pregnancies with morning after pill conscience clauses
2013-01-31
[The fox and the grapes: an Anglo-Irish perspective on conscientious objection to the supply of emergency hormonal contraception without prescription Online First doi 10.1136/medethics-2012-100975]
Conscience clauses, which allow pharmacists to opt out of providing the "morning after pill" without a prescription, risk unwanted pregnancies and undermine the principle of universal healthcare in the NHS, say pharmacists in the Journal of Medical Ethics.
These clauses should either be banned or enhanced so that pharmacists and patients know exactly where they stand, rather ...
Researchers see more West Nile virus in orchards and vineyards
2013-01-31
PULLMAN, Wash.—Washington State University researchers have linked orchards and vineyards with a greater prevalence of West Nile virus in mosquitoes and the insects' ability to spread the virus to birds, horses and people.
The finding, reported in the latest issue of the journal PLOS ONE, is the most finely scaled look at the interplay between land use and with the virus's activity in key hosts. By giving a more detailed description of how the disease moves across the landscape, it opens the door to management efforts that might bring the disease under control, says David ...
BRI researchers identify biomarker and potential therapy target in multiple sclerosis
2013-01-31
(Seattle, January 30, 2013) Researchers from Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason (BRI) have found that proteins in the IL-6 signaling pathway may be leveraged as novel biomarkers of multiple sclerosis (MS) to gauge disease activity and as a target for new therapies. The research, which investigated how several components involved in immune response differ between MS patient and control samples, was conducted by a team of researchers at BRI led by Dr. Jane Buckner in collaboration with Dr. Mariko Kita at Virginia Mason Medical Center and was published today in ...
3D microchip created
2013-01-31
Scientists from the University of Cambridge have created, for the first time, a new type of microchip which allows information to travel in three dimensions. Currently, microchips can only pass digital information in a very limited way - from either left to right or front to back. The research was published today, 31 January, in Nature.
Dr Reinoud Lavrijsen, an author on the paper from the University of Cambridge, said: "Today's chips are like bungalows – everything happens on the same floor. We've created the stairways allowing information to pass between floors."
Researchers ...