Laptops and cancer...

So I decided to do a slightly interesting post for my last blog. Recently I read an article claiming that laptop use can lead to testicular cancer (I heavily doubted its validity, but thought it interesting). Testicular cancer is fairly rare, but is the most common form of cancer in 15 to 34 year olds (this subset of the population rarely gets any cancer). Much of the supposed "research" that has been done is merely interviewing young business professionals who use laptops frequently during long flights. Of course, the ones interviewed are in the upper range of the most effected population range. While searching on the internet for this topic I stumbled upon this article which mentions hematologist and oncologist Timothy M. Kuzel of Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine. According to the article Kunzel states that he felt that any relationship between testicular cancer is highly debatable: "We’re not seeing an epidemic of 50-year-old businessmen with testicular cancer." That is to say one would also expect elevated levels of all laptop users. There aren't.

So as to whether we men should be worried about holding our laptops away from, ahem, ourselves when we use them, the answer, like that of cell phone usage and brain tumours is no. This area should definitely be watched as carcinogens and radioactivity may act slowly depending on dosage, but for the moment, I am not particularly worried.

Blinking neurons

Perhaps I am a little too nerdy, however, when I read this article from the Max Planck Society. Anyone who has a biology lab has probably performed a genetic transformation lab. Essentially a plasmid (circular strand of DNA) is transferred from one organism (the standard to use in bio classes is called the PUC8 plasmid) into a bacteria which has been heatshocked. Inserting the plasmid will change the bacteria so that it expresses proteins that grant it such properties as antibiotic resistance and the ability to break down lactose into galactose and glucose (this latter property is used to identify the bacteria that take up the plasmid, the breakdown creates a blue product). In addition proteins such as green flourescent protein (GFP) plasmids are added for the same reason (GFP is actually common, look for the green GloFish next time you're at a pet store). These techniques are useful as they can allow macroscopic visualization of microscopic events.

The specific type of GFP (along with another unnamed flourescent protein) used for this study is known as "Cameleon" and it is a GFP molecule that is activated by calcium. Essentially calcium binds to the protein and causes the flourescent molecules to approach each other and change color. As neurons are involved in calcium signaling, the application of cameleon to neurons will allow neuroscientists to observe neuronal signaling in realtime without microelectrodes for stimulation and voltage measuring. When a neuron is activated, calcium concentrations generally raise and the color of the neuron will alter.

According to the study:

These new advances, using light to study the brain, provide us with a unique opportunity to investigate how memories are formed and lost and, furthermore, when and where nerve cell activity patterns become altered as in the case of aging and also in neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and schizophrenia.

This is a very unique new technique with diverse applications and it will be most interesting what may discovered with its use in time.

More on vitamin D

Last week I spoke of some recent benefits mentioned for consumption of milk and the ill effects of vitamin D deficiency along with several alternate sources of vitamin D. While scanning Eurekalert.org's science news service I came across yet another article concerning the ill effects of deficient levels of vitamin D on patients suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS). MS is a debilitating neuromuscular-immune disorder which involves immune cells attacking the body's own oligodendrocytes (also known as Schwnn cells when located in the peripheral nervous system) which possess the primary function of insulating axons. This causes the loss of signal from the brain to the muscle.

According to a University of Buffalo study published in the American Academy of Neurology, "(l)ow vitamin D levels may be associated with more advanced physical disability and cognitive impairment in persons with multiple sclerosis." The 236 participants' blood serum for total vitamin D (D2 and D3) along with active vitamin D byproducts. According to the study "(r)esults showed that only seven percent of persons with secondary-progressive MS showed sufficient vitamin D, compared to 18.3 percent of patients with the less severe relapsing-remitting type." This indicates that there is a possible correlation between vitamin D levels and severity of neurodegeneration in MS. When controlling for both season (Winter is associated with lower levels of vitamin D) and depression (which is also associated with lowered vitamin D levels), this relationship still held true.

Little is currently known about vitamin D's relation to cognitive development or degeneration. What is known is that vitamin D levels are associated with increased risk for MS and that low levels may be implicated in worse prognosis for MS. As I have stated many times before, we do not know enough about these severe neurological diseases and much work is yet to be done in order to prevent and fine treatments for these conditions.