One in 10 kids found with a taste disorder

Imagine a child without a taste for candy. Turns out this may be remarkably common: almost one in 10 children in a recent study were unable to taste their food properly. Taste disorders such as this are known to lead to diet changes and could play a role in obesity.
David Laing at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and colleagues tested the taste buds of 432 children aged 8 to 12. Each was asked to drink a series of water-based drinks containing either sugar, salt, citric acid or bitter quinine hydrochloride. After each drink the children were asked to point to one of three photographs that they thought best described the taste. One photograph showed a food object with the correct taste and one showed food with the incorrect taste. The third photograph always showed a glass of water in case the children found the drink tasteless.
The experiment was repeated for five different concentrations of each flavoured drink, making a total of 40 drinks. These were given to the children in a random order. Between drinks they rinsed their mouth with water.
A child is considered to have a taste disorder if they cannot point to the photograph that correctly relates to the taste in at least three of the five different concentrations of that particular flavour.
Surprisingly, 41 children – 9.5 per cent – met this criterion, with almost two-thirds of those children unable to identify a sweet taste.
Taste disorders can be caused by a variety of diseases including Bell's palsy, renal failure and diabetes. But Laing suspects that chronic middle-ear infections may be responsible for the children's disorders.

-From ear to brain
Last month, Seung Geun Yeo at the Kyung Hee University in Seoul, South Korea, found a strong association in 42 children between chronic middle-ear infections and difficulty identifying sweet and salty tastes.
A major nerve involved in tasting, called the chorda tympani, passes through the middle ear en route to the brainstem. Inflammatory proteins, viruses and bacteria from the infection can "chew up the nerve" and deteriorate taste sensations, says Laing.
In his study, Indigenous Australian children, who are particularly susceptible to ear infections, were also more likely to have taste disorders than non-Indigenous kids.
"Given the age of the children, it is likely that for many their taste loss is permanent," says Laing.

-No taste for exercise
The disorder may partly explain the rise of childhood obesity. The South Korean study found that children with taste disorders were heavier than those without. According to Laing, losing a taste sensation would "dramatically" change the taste of many foods, possibly leading to dietary switches. For example, children who could not appreciate a sweet taste may move to a high-salt diet.
The loss of taste sensations and childhood obesity is "a reasonable link", says Beverly Mühlhäusler at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. While high-fat diets and low activity levels are the main cause of obesity, taste disorders could explain why some people are more likely to make those poor lifestyle choices, she says.
But it is also possible that obese children are predisposed to getting ear infections and the ensuing taste disorders. According to Yeo, obese people have a thicker fat pad around their ear and more inflammatory proteins than normal individuals – two factors that increase the likelihood of ear infection.

*Journal references: Laing: Acta Paediatrica, DOI: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2011.02292.x; Yeo: Archives of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, DOI: 10.1001/archoto.2011.23

**Published in "NEW SCIENTIST"

Los primeros signos de un accidente vascular cerebral

**El Blog de Rosa( Salud en Red )

Daiichi Sankyo Receives First Market Approval in Japan for LIXIANA(R) (Edoxaban)

Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited (hereafter, Daiichi Sankyo), announced today that the company has received its first marketing approval for LIXIANA(R) (JAN: Edoxaban Tosilate Hydrate, INN:edoxaban) 15 mg and 30 mg tablets, by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in Japan.
Edoxaban, which is being developed solely by Daiichi Sankyo, is a once-daily oral anticoagulant that specifically, reversibly and directly inhibits the enzyme Factor Xa, a clotting factor in the blood. Results from clinical studies supported the approval of edoxaban for the prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients with total knee arthroplasty, total hip arthroplasty and hip fracture surgery.
Commenting on receiving the first national marketing authorization for edoxaban, Joji Nakayama, President and CEO of Daiichi Sankyo, said, "We are pleased to confirm that an exciting milestone has been reached, and we are confident that edoxaban will make a great contribution to VTE prevention after major orthopedic surgery. Daiichi Sankyo also remains committed to exploring the potential for edoxaban in several other indications, and has a robust global clinical trial program."
The global clinical development program for edoxaban is focused on several indications, including stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients, as well as treatment and prevention of recurrent VTE. In the ENGAGE AF-TIMI 48 study, an ongoing, multinational, randomized, double blind, phase III study, the efficacy and safety of edoxaban in preventing stroke and systemic embolic events in patients with AF are being examined in more than 21,000 patients in 46 countries.
The ENGAGE AF-TIMI 48 study is the largest trial in this indication to date. Also currently ongoing, the HOKUSAI VTE study is the largest single, double-blind, randomized, multinational phase III study in the treatment and prevention of recurrent VTE, involving approximately 7,500 patients in 450 clinical sites in approximately 40 countries.
Existing anticoagulants such as heparins and vitamin K antagonists, although effective, have several clinical considerations. Heparins are injectable agents and therefore less suitable for long-term treatment. Vitamin K antagonists are given orally, but are associated with numerous drug and food interactions.
Commenting on the future global potential for edoxaban, Kazunori Hirokawa, Global Head of R&D Unit, Daiichi Sankyo, said, "Based on the data we have seen so far, edoxaban has been shown to be an effective anticoagulant with a predictable pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profile, which allows for a convenient, once-daily dosing. The data are encouraging and support the potential for edoxaban in anticoagulation management while being effective against thromboembolic events."

VCTE(TM), de Echosens, técnica líder para la evaluación de la enfermedad hepática

Con ocasión del 46 Congreso de la Asociación Europea para el Estudio del Hígado, la VCTE(TM) (Vibration Controlled Transient Elastography) de Echosens destacó como una técnica líder en el campo. Es la única técnica capaz de medir la elasticidad en una frecuencia controlada (50 Hz) y predeterminada, que es esencial puesto que la elasticidad aumenta a medida que aumenta la frecuencia. Hoy en día, la elasticidad del hígado es reconocida como un indicador de problemas hepáticos debido a su vinculación con la fibrosis y la cirrosis, así como otros factores como la hipertensión portal, inflamación, congestión y colestasia, que surgen como consecuencia de la enfermedad hepática crónica.
FibroScan(R)502 táctil:
El FibroScan(R)502, que permite la medición no invasiva y cuantitativa de la fibrosis hepática, se ha desarrollado y ya está disponible en una versión de "pantalla táctil".
-- Nueva interfaz de pantalla táctil más ergonómica y de fácil uso.
-- Exámenes más rápidos, con un tercio del tiempo de adquisición.
-- Mejor gestión del historial del paciente.
-- Informes personalizados completos de examen.
-- Recomendaciones para los que investigan su uso (M o XL)
Solución de escritorio:
El software de gestión de informes y examen es fácil de usar. Usted puede exportar los datos FibroScan(R), gestionar los datos para cada paciente, garantizar una mejor visualización de los resultados de los exámenes, y volver a leer elastogramas en el ordenador del médico.

CAP(TM) (parámetro de atenuación controlado)
Adaptado para el FibroScan(R), esta innovación cuantifica con precisión la esteatosis. La incidencia de enfermedades metabólicas (diabetes tipo 2, obesidad) está aumentando rápidamente en todo el mundo. Causan complicaciones, como la esteatohepatitis no alcohólica. La esteatosis también puede ser inducida por el alcohol.
Este parámetro CAP se convertirá en el estándar en la detección y cuantificación de la esteatosis. Durante este Congreso, el profesor Victor de Lédinghen (University Medical Center of Bordeaux) presentó los resultados de un estudio a largo plazo para validar CAP(TM), medido utilizando el FibroScan(R). El estudió implicó a 112 pacientes sometidos a una biopsia hepática como parte del tratamiento de una enfermedad crónica (36% hepatitis C, 4% hepatitis B, 5% abuso de alcohol, 25% NAFLD, 30% otra). Se ha demostrado la superioridad de CAP(TM) en comparación con el SteatoTest(R) o la puntuación del Fatty Liver Index (basados en parámetros biológicos y clínicos).

UGA compound offers new hope for treatment of painful adult shingles

Researchers at the University of Georgia and Yale University have discovered a compound with the potential to be more effective than existing agents in treating the very painful blisters known as shingles—a condition that affects up to 30 percent of Americans, mostly elderly, and for which no specific treatment exists. Most adults remember the fever, itchy blisters and possibly tiny scars they experienced as children when they had chickenpox, which is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, or VZV.Unfortunately, that memory can come back—with a vengeance—when they are older. The VZV virus from childhood chickenpox hides in the nerves, emerging most frequently in adults over the age of 60 as a blistering rash on one side of the body. The rate of complications, including nerve pain that can persist for months or years after the shingles attack is gone, also increases with age.
The novel and effective anti-shingles agent called L-BHDA may change that. Rights to the shingles treatment have been licensed to Bukwang Pharmaceutical Company for preclinical investigations by the University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc. and Yale University.
"We need new options for medications with increased potency and specificity that can treat VZV, including strains that may be resistant to existing drugs," said medicinal chemist Chung (David) Chu, Distinguished Research Professor of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences at UGA, one of the inventors of L-BHDA.
A collaboration between Chu and co-inventor Yung-Chi (Tommy) Cheng, the Henry Bronson Professor of Pharmacology at Yale, has resulted in an extensive portfolio of antiviral compounds that target such diseases as HIV, shingles, hepatitis and cancers.
Chu, who is head of the Drug Discovery Group in the UGA College of Pharmacy, said that although there are generic antiviral drugs to reduce the duration and pain of shingles, and a variety of pain medications and topical creams to relieve long-term pain, "They are only moderately effective.We need more effective anti-VZV agents.
"L-BHDA has the potential to be more effective than existing agents," said Chu. He noted that the new compound has been tested in the laboratory and demonstrated in mice models by a group of researchers headed by Jennifer Moffat, associate professor of microbiology and immunology, State University of New York Upstate Medical University.
A vaccine to prevent shingles, available to older adults since 2006, can cut the likelihood of a shingles attack in half. However, according to a recent study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, only a small percentage of older people receive the shot, principally because of cost, lack of insurance reimbursement and shortage of supply.
It is likely that immunization against chickenpox during childhood also protects against shingles, because the vaccine uses a weakened strain of the virus. However, the vaccine was only introduced in 1995, and there are not enough data to provide a definitive answer.
"Dr. Chu and Dr. Cheng have been working diligently to fill a much needed gap in the treatment options for such a prevalent disease," said Rachael Widener, UGARF technology licensing manager. "Before the chicken pox vaccine became widely used in the mid-1990s, older, unvaccinated individuals would have their immunity boosted naturally.
"Now, with less exposure to chicken pox, shingles is becoming more prevalent," said Widener. "This, combined with the aging baby boomer population, underscores the need for more directed treatment. We are hopeful that L-BHDA will allow patients to get well sooner and feel less pain, and will lessen their chances of complications."

*Source: University of Georgia

Early warning system for Alzheimer's disease

Scientists at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow are developing a technique based on a new discovery which could pave the way towards detecting Alzheimer's disease in its earliest stages - and could help to develop urgently-needed treatments. The technique uses the ratio of detected fluorescence signals to indicate that clusters of peptide associated with the disease are beginning to gather and to have an impact on the brain.
Current techniques are not able to see the peptide joining together until more advanced stages but a research paper from Strathclyde describes an approach which could not only give indications of the condition far sooner than is currently possible but could also screen patients without the need for needles or wires.
Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, currently affects around 450,000 people in the UK alone and currently has no cure.
Dr Olaf Rolinski, of the University of Strathclyde's Department of Physics, led the research. He said: "Alzheimer's Disease has a devastating impact on people around the world and their families but one of the reasons it is still incurable is that little is known about how and why the peptide that contributes to the disease aggregates in its initial stages.
"When irradiated with light, the intrinsic fluorescence given off by the peptide is like a communication from a spy. We took samples of the peptide and discovered that, where they were in the type of aggregation linked to Alzheimer's, they produced fluorescence light signals which could be picked up with our technique much earlier than in more conventional experiments, such as those that use the addition of a dye .
"This approach could help us understand better the role of these peptides in the onset of Alzheimer's and discover ways in which the disease could be stopped in its tracks early on. We now want to take the research further so that it can be used in the development of drugs to treat Alzheimer's."

**Source: University of Strathclyde

Decenas de miles de embriones congelados esperan su destino en España

En España, entre un 10% y un 40% de las parejas se desentienden de los embriones congelados que se conservan en los centros donde se les ha practicado una fecundación in vitro. Solo en Cataluña, la única comunidad con un registro, hay más de 61.000 congelados, de los que el 23% (unos 14.000) llevan más de cinco años, según datos de 2008 del Sistema de Información sobre Reproducción Asistida de Cataluña (FIVCAT.NET). Y el número no deja de crecer. En 2001 eran cuatro veces menos.
En estos casos, la ley de reproducción estipula que los comités clínicos deben decidir qué hacer. La realidad es que no lo hacen, con lo que muchos centros acumulan embriones sin un destino y sin fecha límite. Estos óvulos fecundados son los sobrantes de los procesos de fecundación in vitro, y deben guardarse congelados por si la pareja quiere tener más niños, a no ser que ya de entrada indique lo contrario. La ley fija que la pareja debe especificar qué desea hacer con ellos: guardarlos, donarlos para investigación, para adopción o que se destruyan. Cuando tras dos intentos de comunicación, en un periodo de cinco años, la pareja no ha dado señales de vida, se considera que se ha desentendido. Entonces, los comités clínicos de los hospitales y centros pasan a custodiarlos y son responsables de su destino.

Pero, en la práctica, no deciden nada. "Para nosotros es un problema. No nos atrevemos por diferentes motivos. Además, tampoco estamos seguros de que esa pareja no reaparezca", afirma Alfonso de Lafuente, presidente del grupo de ética y buenas prácticas de la Sociedad Española de Fertilidad y director médico del Instituto Europeo de Fertilidad. "Aún no hemos llegado a estar saturados, pero lo estaremos. De momento, vamos comprando contenedores y nitrógeno líquido", dice Joaquim Calaf, director del programa de reproducción asistida de la Fundación Puigvert, en Barcelona. "Será un problema", coincide José Antonio Castilla, responsable del laboratorio de embriología del hospital Virgen de las Nieves, de Granada. "En una década hemos duplicado los embriones congelados. Y, con el aumento de la demanda y la mejora de las técnicas, la previsión es que en dos años se tripliquen", añade.

Una opción sería destinarlos a investigación. "Antes los donábamos al Banco de Células Madre de Andalucía, pero ahora no hay ningún proyecto en marcha con células madre embrionarias", cuenta Castilla. "El problema está en que se deben donar a un proyecto de investigación específico, y no los hay", dice. En la misma situación se encuentran otras clínicas. "Los centros de investigación no los quieren", afirma Marisa López Tejón, responsable del Institut Marqués. En este centro, en 2010, un 48% de las parejas se desentendió de sus embriones. "Hemos notado un incremento, en el 2007 era un 39%. Creemos que es la crisis", afirma.

Esta falta de interés de los científicos choca con la voluntad de algunos progenitores. Entre un 5% y un 10% querría donarlos para investigar. "El entusiasmo por las células madre embrionarias ha bajado, ahora hay otras opciones", relata Calaf. "Lo que querríamos es que hubiese más personas que los diesen en adopción", apunta.

Pero esta opción tampoco es sencilla. La ley contempla que los embriones para adopción deberán ser fruto de óvulos de mujeres menores de 35 años. Y la realidad es que la mayoría de las que recurren a esta técnica para tener hijos son mayores de esta edad. De hecho, recientemente un hospital público catalán solicitó a la Comisión Nacional de Reproducción Humana Asistida (CNRHA) que permitiese que se usasen embriones de mujeres de más de 35 años. La Comisión de Reproducción Humana Asistida de Cataluña apoyaba la iniciativa, pero la respuesta de la comisión nacional fue negativa.

En cuanto a destruirlos, existe un doble motivo por el cual los centros españoles no optan por esta decisión. Por un lado, a pesar de que la ley lo permite, existen reticencias y un temor a las reacciones de los grupos conservadores y religiosos. De hecho, cuando las parejas escogen se trata de la opción menos popular: menos del 10% lo elige.

Por otro lado, la ley estipula que la destrucción no se podrá llevar a cabo hasta que la mujer haya completado su edad reproductiva. Es decir, aproximadamente hasta que se encuentre alrededor de los 50 años. Y que esto deberá certificarse por dos médicos ajenos al centro que los guarda. "¿Cómo vamos a hacer eso con las parejas que no responden?", afirma López Tejón.

En el desentendimiento de las parejas hay centros que ven falta de responsabilidad. Otros, excusan a las parejas argumentando que la carga emotiva que supone decidir les bloquea. "No responden porque cambian de domicilio y no avisan, porque se separan, y no tienen en cuenta que hay unos embriones almacenados... Existe una gran variedad de situaciones", explica Calaf. "También hay muchas que una vez acabado el proceso quieren olvidarse, les resulta incómodo decidir", afirma de Lafuente. "Muchas parejas nos dicen: decide tú por mí", explica López Tejón.

Todos coinciden en que las parejas deberían ser más responsables. "Hay que hacer un esfuerzo para que tomen conciencia de que sus actos tienen una trascendencia de la que tienen que responsabilizarse", afirma Josep María Busquets, responsable de bioética del departamento de Salud de la Generalitat de Cataluña. Desde la Administración catalana se reconoce esta incomodidad de los centros: "No se sienten seguros, sería necesario desplegar alguna instrucción que clarificase mejor qué hacer con estos embriones", dice Busquets. "Algún día, los centros y las Administraciones tendrán que tomar alguna decisión", concluye.

**Publicado en "EL PAIS"