The Week USA - 09.08.2019

Health & Science NEWS^21

Gut bacteria linked to ALS

Changes in gut bacteria may play a role in

the development of motor neuron disease,

a new study has found. Researchers at the

Weizmann Institute in Israel genetically

programmed mice to have amyotrophic

lateral sclerosis (ALS), the most common

form of the disease. After the animals were

given a dose of antibiotics to kill their gut

biome, their symptoms became markedly

worse. The team identified 11 gut bacteria

that the diseased mice had in unusually

high or low levels and found that one,

Akkermansia muciniphila, appeared to

slow the pace of ALS. When the mice were

injected with nicotinamide, a chemical pro-

duced by A. muciniphila, their condition

improved. Subsequent tests on 37 people

with ALS found that the patients had lower

levels of the chemical in their microbiome,

blood, and cerebrospinal fluid than healthy

family members. Co-author Eran Elinav

cautioned that these are preliminary find-

ings that won’t result in a cure, reports

BBC.com. But, he says, “doing something

to slow down ALS is a very important step

in a disease we have almost nothing we can

do about.”

‘Sonic attacks’ changed brains

Government workers who claim they were

subjected to “sonic attacks” while stationed

at the U.S. Embassy in Havana appear to

have experienced changes in their brains.

Starting in late 2016, dozens of diplomats

and people associated with the embassy

began reporting hearing strange high-

pitched sounds and soon after experienced

symptoms including dizziness, headaches,

and hearing problems. Scientists and com-

mentators speculated that the staffers in

Cuba may have been blasted with a sonic

or microwave weapon—or perhaps had

succumbed to mass hysteria. Researchers

at the University of Pennsylvania decided

to investigate and examined detailed MRI

brain scans from 40 of the victims, which

they compared with a control group. The

embassy staffers had significantly less white

matter across their whole brain, researchers

found, and less connectivity in the region

involved in vision and hearing. What

caused those differences is still a puzzle.

Study author Ragini Verma tells NPR.org

that the changes don’t match the pattern of

a specific disorder, and don’t resemble the

effects of a traumatic brain injury or con-

cussion. “All you can say,” Verma says, “is

something happened, which caused their

brain to change.”

A game-changing HIV implant?

In what may prove to be

a breakthrough in the

fight against HIV, a

tiny implant contain-

ing an anti- retroviral

drug has been success-

fully tried in humans.

Developed by

drugmaker Merck,

the matchstick-size

device is inserted in the upper arm and

releases tiny doses of an infection-blocking

drug, called islatravir, that is 10 times more

potent than any previous HIV drug. In the

trial, implants were placed in a dozen vol-

unteers for 12 weeks. The participants suf-

fered no significant side effects, and model-

ing of the drug- concentration data suggests

that the implant could successfully block the

virus for a year or more. That could revolu-

tionize the battle against HIV, which infects

about 1.7 million people a year. While daily

anti-retroviral pills can successfully suppress

the virus, many people forget to take the

tablets daily. Prejudice against HIV sufferers

also stops some women in African coun-

tries from keeping the pills in their homes,

where they could be discovered by family

members, reports The New York Times.

“If—and I’m emphasizing if—it pans out in

a larger trial that [this implant] delivers a

level of drug that’s protective for a year, that

would be a game changer,” says Anthony

Fauci, director of the National Institute for

Allergy and Infectious Disease.

Health scare of the week

Mosquito-borne killer virus

Florida’s health department is warning of

a surge in a mosquito-borne virus that can

cause fatal brain swelling, reports CNN

.com. State officials announced last week

that the virus, Eastern equine encephalitis

(EEE), had been detected in several “sen-

tinel chickens”—birds that are regularly

tested for West Nile virus and EEE. That

means “the risk of transmission to humans

has increased,”officials said. The virus was

also found last month in mosquitoes in

New York state and Massachusetts. Only

about seven U.S. residents a year are diag-

nosed with EEE virus, but some 30 percent

of cases are fatal. Those who survive are

often left with permanent brain damage.

Symptoms—which can include headache,

fever, chills, and vomiting, or seizures and

coma in more extreme cases—typically

develop four to 10 days after a person has

been bitten by an infected mosquito. There’s

no cure for the virus, so officials advise

people to reduce their risk of being bitten

by draining standing water around their

homes, applying insect repellant, and using

Newscom, Getty, Merck door and window screens.

Climate change could be to blame for the

spread of a multidrug-resistant fungus

that has been deemed a “serious global

health threat” by the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention. Candida auris

can cause severe illness in people with

weakened immune systems; about one-

third of infected patients die. The superbug

was first discovered a decade ago in a

Japanese patient with an ear infection,

and cases of C. auris have been diagnosed

since around the world. But unlike a virus,

which typically radiates out from one

source, the fungus emerged simultane-

ously in multiple countries, including the

U.S., India, and South Africa. Scientists at

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public

Health wondered if climate change might

be responsible. Humans typically develop

fungal infections on the coolest parts of

their body, such as their feet and fingers;

internal infections are rare because fungi

can’t survive the warmer temperatures. But

a gradual rise in temperatures due to cli-

mate change may have enabled C. auris—

which scientists think may have originated

in wetlands—to adapt to warmer environs.

Tests proved that the fungus can indeed

grow at higher temperatures than many

of its relatives, a finding that has worry-

ing implications for disease prevention. “If

more of these organisms become tempera-

ture resistant,” co-author Arturo Casadevall

tells NBCNews.com, “then we’re going to

have more problems in the future.”

Deadly fungus fueled by global warming

It could become possible to slow ALS’s progress.

C. auris can thrive in unusually high temperatures.