The Black Death, which swept through London in the 14^th century, killed around 40% of the population. That was some epidemic.

In an effort to understand microbial development and behaviour, with a view to helping us to deal with future infections, the science of paleomicrobiology has developed: the piecing together of genetic evidence from centuries ago.

It is interesting to paleomicrobiologists just why the Black Death was so very virulent. The ability to sequence of the genome – to know the precise composition of a human individual’s DNA from end to end – has made the task of finding out this information much more possible. The ability for paleomicrobiologists and historians to work together will deepen our understanding of the migrating activity of microbes and the progress of pandemics. This can only help us to spot them early and to be able to deal with them.

Related articles

• Bubonic plague genome: The Black Death decoded (nature.com)
• ‘Black Death’ bacteria likely extinct, study finds – msnbc.com (news.google.com)

Identifying the Precise Genome of the Black Death is a post from: Living To 150

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1. Genome Sequencing Used For First UK Medical Diagnosis
2. What Use Is Genetic Testing?
3. Is The NHS Ready For Genetic Medicine?

Cost of Genome Sequencing Plunges (dullhunk, Flickr)

Genetic testing – sequencing the genome – will be used more and more for individuals – and health services – as the price comes down. The cost is now around $10,000, down from $100,000 only two years ago.  In a very few years the cost will be hundreds of dollars.

But what will we be able to use genetic testing for? Here are three areas.

Cancer

Knowing the genetic cause of a person’s cancer will become more and crucial to treatment. Already, research is being put into ‘smart drugs’ which work only when certain genetic mutations are present. This will make cancer treatment much more focused.

Infectious Diseases

Knowing the exact genome of a bacterium – such as MRSA – will enable treatment and prevention to be much more targeted. The sources of infections will be easier to find and deal with: and treatments will be more readily available, and more accurate.

Screening

Each year, hundreds of people die suddenly and prematurely from a variety of ailments including sudden heart attacks. Genetic screening will be able to identify those at risk, and preventive measures – of lifestyle and, perhaps, drugs – recommended.

In, five years, certainly, these measures will become commonplace in the Western world, as the cost of genetic testing continues to fall rapidly. More applications will be found, no doubt, for the insights genetic screening provides.

Related articles

• Do You Need Genetic Testing? (everydayhealth.com)
• Should You Get Colon Cancer Genetic Testing? (everydayhealth.com)
• Can genetic tests tell me if I have cancer? (zocdoc.com)
• Genetic and Blood Tests for Celiac Disease (everydayhealth.com)
• DNA-Based Medicine: Race Emerges in Debate (theroot.com)

What Use Is Genetic Testing? is a post from: Living To 150

Related posts:

1. Genome Sequencing Used For First UK Medical Diagnosis
2. Is The NHS Ready For Genetic Medicine?

Genome Sequencing (Image via Wikipedia)

The genetic code of a 4-year old girl has been read to enable doctors to identify the cause of learning difficulties. She is the first person in the UK to have her genetic code read – her “genome sequenced” – to aid a medical diagnosis.

To enable the diagnosis, her parents’ genomes were sequenced as well so the child’s could be compared.

The diagnosis showed that the little girl, Katie, had a mutation called HUWEI which was not present in either parent. This also confirmed that the mutation is unlikely to be in any siblings – present or future. (She has one brother at present.)

The girl’s parents did find the diagnosis helpful, in that they could be prepared to get the best for Katie, knowing exactly what the cause of her learning difficulties were. This would help in education, for example. Up until the diagnosis they knew something was holding back her learning: but they had no idea what it was. The sequencing does not in itself provide a guide to any treatment, but it does give 100% certainty of the diagnosis.

Katie was part of a research project run at Oxford University, which is sequencing the genomes of 500 people with serious diseases and their close relatives.

The Cost of Genome Sequencing

When the genome was first sequenced in 2001 it coast around $100m (£65m). Eight years later, in 2009, this cost had fallen a thousand fold, to $100,000. Today the same sequencing has fallen a further tenfold to $10,000.

It is still pricey: at this rate the $1,000 barrier will be smashed in 3 years – putting it within the reach of many more people, with further falls in cost to come.

(Source: The Times, UK, August 3rd 2011)

Related articles to Genome Sequencing

• Illumina Cuts Price of Whole-Genome Sequencing for Individuals by More than Half (benzinga.com)
• A New Device Makes Genomes Fast, Easy, And (Sort Of) Cheap To Read (fastcompany.com)
• Whole Genome Sequencing costs $2000 in research and $4000 commercially (nextbigfuture.com)
• Genome study solves twins’ mystery condition (nature.com)

Genome Sequencing Used For First UK Medical Diagnosis is a post from: Living To 150

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The telomere is a small structure attached to the end of our DNA, which shrinks slightly every time a cell divides. Once the telomere reaches a certain small size, the cell is ‘instructed’ to self-destruct.

Hence there is a great deal of interest in keeping the telomeres as long as possible. One substance which appears to help this is TA 65.

But we can help the telomere shortening to slow down – and one way is by avoiding stress.

As the video shows…

How Stress Affects Our Telomeres (Chromosome / DNA)

Stress by way of stress hormones accelerate the shortening of telomeres.

Related articles on Stress and Aging

• The Effect of Negative Thinking on Health, Wellbeing and Life Span, by Nobel Prize Winner. [Sam Borrett] (ecademy.com)
• Daily Dose: How to slow the aging process (boston.com)
• The Costs Of Stress (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)

Telomeres Are Subject To Stress is a post from: Living To 150

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1. Resveratrol Supplements – A Summary Of The Good News

Image via Wikipedia

TA-65 is a ‘supplement’ extracted from the herb Astragalus which repairs the telomere – the straggly bits at the end of our DNA wich get shorted each time our cells divide. This process – the reducing of telomere length – eventually kills us off at the age of a maximum of 120. In other words, if we were healthy enough that nothing else killed us off, the shrinking of the telomere would do so at this age.

Well, companies are now finding out how to repair the telomere. And it is resulting in increasing health and wellbeing for hundreds of people. The leader in the field is TA Sciences, who licensed the research from Geron, a leading Californian anti-aging company, who discovered it. A study showed wide-ranging anti-aging benefits – in vision, skin condition, stamina and energy and sexual function. TA Sciences make TA-65 available to all employees over 40 years old.

The downside? There are no long-term studies on it yet, so its long-term effects are not known.

It is certainly an interesting one though – let’s face it, if you are 10-20 years from likely death anyway – what can you lose trying such a therapy – which at present looks pretty safe?

This blog is worth checking out for anti-aging information on TA-65. And Al Sears – anti-aging doctor and specialist – has a DVD on the topic which you can buy.

TA-65, Astragalus, telomere

What’s a Telomere and Why is it Important to the Aging Process

The following video is excerpted from Dr. Bill Andrew’s presentation at the Manhattan Beach Project Longevity Conference. Dr. Andrews leads the scientific research and development function of Sierra Sciences.

Related articles about TA-65, and the Telomere

• Arlene Weintraub: Scientists Can Reverse Aging in Mice, But Can They Do it for Humans? (huffingtonpost.com)
• Is There A Secret To Eternal Youth? (newyork.cbslocal.com)
• Telomere length as an indicator of life expectancy for the southern giant petrel (sciencedaily.com)
• Suck This ‘Magic Hormone’ into Your Body and Transform Your Health – Takes Just 20 Minutes (findmeacure.com)

TA-65 – Supplement Of The Moment is a post from: Living To 150

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The genetic structure of HIV-1 – the main cause of AIDS – has been sequenced by scientists in North Carolina, USA. This will give information firstly on how to attack the virus and secondly how it manages to avoid its hosts’ immune system so well.

The HIV-1 virus is an RNA-based, rather than DNA-based virus. In this respect it is the same as the swine flu virus. Being RNA-based makes a virus more complex to understand in some ways. It also gives a virus to ability, potentially, to mutate much faster than on which is DNA based.

Researchers hail the sequencing as an important step in understanding and treating the HIV virus.

HIV Virus Structure Decoded is a post from: Living To 150

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Scientists have used genetic engineering to create a new type of DNA by incorporating eight extra nucleotides – the ‘letters’ of DNA – into it. The eight ‘extras’ are slight modifications of the four nucleotides DNA usually consists of.

The new DNA is structured in a double helix, as DNA usually is.

The result of this genetic biotechnology is a mixture of oil and water in a beaker in a laboratory containing a new, artificial organism. The beaker has to be fed nutrients and alternately warmed and cooled to make the whole thing work.

Within two years, Dr Steven Benner at the American Association for the Advancement of Science hopes to make a self-sustaining version.

The two applications Dr Benner saw for his system were in medicine, and in researching possible alien life. The latter would be helped because it would be useful to study how an alternative system to our own developed.

Genetic Engineering Uses Synthetic DNA is a post from: Living To 150

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Scientists have ‘modified’ tomatoes to make them purple. They have done this by modifying them genetically such that they contain anthocyanins. 

Anthocyanins are a type of a class of substance called flavonoids, which show anti-oxidant activity. Flavonoids produce yellow, red or blue colouration in flowers and fruit. They also offer protection against insects and microbes.

Anthocyanins in particular produce a purple colouration, usually in fruit. Fruits containing anthocyanins include the Vaccinium species – such as bilberries and blueberries and the Rubus species – such as blackberry and raspberry.

Antioxidant Properties Help Indirectly

The first lesson we learn about antioxidants is that they ‘mop up’ free radicals – the oxygen-robbing substances which begin or accelerate cancer, heart disease and aging. However, although anthocyanins – and the flavonoids in general – are antioxidants, the way they help us is not by mopping up free radicals directly. Their benefits are indirect.

Particularly, in some way anthocyanins and flavonoids stimulate phase II of the important two phase liver-detox process. The enhanced Phase II then carries out its normal function of eliminating toxins from the body with extra power.

In this way our DNA can be protected, for example, reducing the likelihood of cancer starting.

Eat Purple Tomatoes – Or Stick With Blueberries?

So – do you want tomatoes modified to be purple; or would you prefer just to stick with eating purple berries which grow naturally?

A purple tomato seems to me to be much like taking an anthocyanin supplement. It has to be easier to get people – eg family members who are not great on fruit and vegetables – to eat tomatoes than to eat blackberries and blueberries every day. Let’s have the choice.

The scientists say at least here is a direct consumer benefit of genetic modification, rather than one designed purely to make money.

Science Daily Article

Purple Tomatoes – Modified For Health is a post from: Living To 150

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Our DNA is unique to each individual. Our DNA can reveal various information about us which could be vital for our healthcare.

For example, once we know exactly the blueprint of our DNA, this will help us to know:

• Which diseases we are prone to
• Which nutrients we need more than the average person
• Which ones we have difficulty in making ourselves – indicating that supplementation is desirable
• Which drugs, or combinations of drugs, will suit us best should ever need drug treatment. This might save our lives as well as helping to ensure the dose we are given is suitable for us.

DNA Profile For $1000

It is a matter of time until we know our DNA – ‘sequence our genome’ – for $1000 (£550). The ‘$1000 challenge’ has been issued by America’s National Institutes of Health, and a number of companies are working on it.

In the UK, Oxford Nanopore is one company working on the ‘$1000 Challenge’. In the USA, Pacific Biosciences is one company working on it.

DNA – Cheap Genome Gets Nearer is a post from: Living To 150

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The blog at www.fightaging.org gives some interesting food for thought about the healing methods which are very likely in the 2030s. For example:

• Cancer: cancer will generally be curable, and with few side effects. Nanotechnology will be of great value in treating cancer.
• Replacement organs: these will be grown from your own tissue, and so will not be rejected, and will not require drugs to avoid rejection.
• DNA: inherited genetic disorders will be curable.

Go to post to read further details of exciting therapies on the horizon.

Healthy Aging In The 2030s is a post from: Living To 150

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