Pointers for TB

An international team backed with European Union funds has discovered tuberculosis signs in 51 genes in infected children’s blood. The team hope the discovery will produce an inexpensive means of spotting TB, which is difficult to diagnose in children and is easily mistaken for other diseases. More than 2,800 children in South Africa, Kenya and Malawi were seen over seven years by British, African and Singaporean clinicians and scientists. Professor Michael Lewin said: “What we need now is collaboration from biotechnology and industrial partners to turn these findings into a simple, rapid and affordable test.”

Danger weight 

Two aspects of the suspected link between being overweight and developing bowel cancer are being examined by the World Cancer Research Fund. Specialists are investigating how tumour growth is encouraged by high insulin levels, which have to be produced because excess fat makes the body less responsive to the hormone. They are also seeking common factors behind both weight gain tendencies and bowel cancer susceptibility. They hope their findings will suggest lifestyle choices that reduce the risks.

Magnesium works again

Magnesium sulphate, whose uses already include asthma and heart disease treatment, has been shown to protect the kidneys from damage in diabetes. Specialists at a medical institute in Tehran observed that in laboratory rats it decreased blood glucose and oxidative stress, common causes of kidney damage in diabetics.

Drug on target

A drug that selectively targets the bone marrow cancer multiple myeloma is to be tested this year. Earlier attempted therapies disabling the protein NF-kB, which is overactive in many cancers and switches off natural destruction of cancer cells, failed because they halted its processes in healthy cells. The new drug, which blocks only one part of NF-kB, a protein complex allowing cancer cells to survive, succeeded on laboratory mice and human cells. The work, funded by the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK and the US National Institutes of Health, proceeds now to trials with multiple myeloma patients.

How partners help

Unmarried women, including widows and divorcees, have been found to be 28 per cent more likely to die from breast cancer than their married or cohabiting peers. Oxford University researchers, who analysed statistics from the Million Women study, the UK-wide health data project, suggested one reason was that partners encouraged women to take symptoms seriously and helped them to seek treatment. An earlier suggestion was that partners ensured women took medication and dissuaded them from unhealthy lifestyles.

Flies with answers

The house fly genome, now sequenced and analysed by an international consortium of scientists, could offer new remedies for human ailments. The fly, which lives on human and animal waste, carries more than 100 diseases, including typhoid, tuberculosis and trachoma, without becoming affected. The researchers, led by Professor Jeff Scott, an entomologist at Cornell University, New York State, say that understanding the fly’s immunity could therefore help in creating treatments and vaccines for many human diseases. Professor Scott predicted: “The completed genome will be a phenomenal tool.”