Brain Autopsies of Four Former Football Players Reveal That Not All Get Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

Newswise — Toronto, July, 26, 2011 – Preliminary results from the first four brains donated to the Canadian Sports Concussion Project at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre, TorontoWesternHospital, reveal that two of the four former Canadian Football League (CFL) players suffered from a brain disease known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), while two did not show signs of CTE.
Bobby Kuntz, a former Toronto Argonaut and Hamilton Tiger-Cat and Jay Roberts, an Ottawa Roughrider both had a history of repeated concussions during their careers and showed the characteristic signs of CTE, an abnormal build-up of a protein called Tau in the brain, and other degenerative changes.
CTE can result in memory impairment, emotional instability, erratic behavior, depression, and problems with impulse control. CTE may eventually progress to full-blown dementia. Dr. Hazrati is very clear, however, to emphasize that the precise relationship between concussions and neurodegeneration remains to be demonstrated by future research.
Peter Ribbins, a former Winnipeg Blue Bomber, passed away in December 2010, at age 63 of Parkinson’s disease. Autopsy results show he did not have signs of CTE. Tony Proudfoot, anall-star defensive back for the Montreal Alouettes, died at age 61 in 2011 of Lou Gehrig’s disease (a neurodegenerative condition also known as ALS). Although a connection between ALS and repeated head trauma is being researched, Proudfoot did not have signs of CTE. Both of these players were in the league at a time when it was common to spear tackle with the crown of the head. According to the Canadian Football League Alumni Association (CFLAA), Proudfoot experienced repeated head trauma as a hard-hitting defensive back throughout his 12 seasons in the league.
Kuntz passed away in February 2011 at age 79 after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease and diffuse Lewy body disease, a condition that overlaps with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Roberts, 67, who died in October 2010, suffered from dementia and lung cancer. The autopsies were performed by Dr. Lili-Naz Hazrati, a neuropathologist in the Laboratory Medicine Program at the University Health Network.
“While both of these men appeared to have pathological signs of CTE, they also suffered from other serious neurological and vascular related diseases,” said Dr. Hazrati. “Right now we have more questions than answers about the relationship between repeated concussions and late brain degeneration. For example, we are still trying to understand why these two players acquired CTE and the other two did not.”
Mary Kuntz, wife of the late Bobby Kuntz, donated his brain to the Canadian Sports Concussion Project at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre and believes the more players who donate their brains, the better the chances of helping future athletes.
“We’ve always had questions about Bob’s health, because there were so many conflicting medical opinions,” said Mary Kuntz. “We knew there must have been some effect from all of the concussions over the years, and this was an affirmation that concussions did have a part in his health problems.
“Young players should know the risks of concussions. When you are young, you can’t believe what can happen to you when you are older, but we have lived though it. What is good about this study is that there will be more evidence and information for players.”
“We were very happy to be involved in this and it has brought us a sense of closure.”
The Canadian Sports Concussion Project at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre is organized by a team of concussion experts including Dr. Charles Tator and Dr. Richard Wennberg and scientists from several other Canadian institutions. The focus of the project is to further our understanding of how concussions affect the brain.
“There are still so many unanswered questions surrounding concussion and the long-term consequences of repeated head injuries,” said Dr. Tator. “We are trying to determine why some athletes in contact sports develop CTE and others don’t, as well as how many concussions lead to the onset of this degenerative brain disease. Also, we need to develop tests to detect this condition at an early stage and to discover treatments.”
According to Jed Roberts, son of Jay Roberts, he and his sisters began noticing early signs of their father’s memory decline when he starting repeating stories, but insisting he had never told them. “My dad had numerous concussions, although they were undocumented, and I think he knew there was something was wrong, which is why he wanted to help find answers that would hopefully protect future football players,” said Jed, a former CFL player with the Edmonton Eskimos. “I think it is really important that we create awareness around this issue, so that players can live healthy, productive lives beyond the game.”
Leo Ezerins, former CFL player and current Executive Director of the CFLAA is a member of the Project Team. It has been through the joint efforts of the CFLAA and the research team that these four donations were made possible.
The Canadian Sports Concussion Project is actively looking for additional donations from professional athletes (current and retired) in all types of contact sport. Living donors agree to donate their brains upon death to the Concussion Project for analysis.Privacy of our donors is very important to us. All donor information will be kept private, except in circumstances where the player or family requests release of their name.
More information about the Sports Concussion Project at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre can be found at www.donateyourbrain.com
About the Canadian Sports Concussion Project at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre (formerly the Krembil Neuroscience Sports Concussion Project)
The Canadian Sports Concussion Project at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre, TorontoWesternHospital, is a Canadian study that is focused on examining the possible correlation between repeated concussions and late deterioration of brain function. The research team is comprised of neurosurgeons, neurologists, neuropathologists, neuroradiologists, neuropsychologists, specialists in genetics and molecular biology and psychiatrists. The project has received endorsement from the Canadian Football League Alumni Association (CFLAA), the Canadian Football League and ThinkFirst, a leading non-profit organization dedicated to the prevention of brain and spinal cord injuries, founded by Dr. Charles Tator.

HIV/AIDS kills 6 inmates of Owerri prisons

OWERRI – Six inmates of Federal Prisons, Owerri, have reportedly died of the dreaded HIV/AIDS pandemic, while 12 others have been confirmed to be carrying the virus.
The prison’s Nursing Officer, Mr. Mike Anyanwu, a superintendent of prisons, said this when the Chief Judge of Imo State, Hon. Justice Benjamin Ahanonu Njemanze, carried out a jail delivery session in the establishment.
“We have recorded six deaths arising from HIV/AIDS in Owerri Prisons. Twelve other inmates have been confirmed as carriers of the dreaded virus,” Anyanwu said.
He said more inmates might be infected and pointed out that there was no anti-retroviral drugs for such patients in the prison.
Addressing the court in the case involving Chinaenye Onyeneho, who is suffering from a terminal disease, the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Chief Soronnadi Njoku, urged the court to order that the inmate be transferred to the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, for treatment.
“If the accused is left in the prison, there is the likelihood that he will infect other inmates. If he is also allowed to go home, his immediate family may not have the financial ability to take adequate care of his medical bills.  The balance of justice is that he should be treated by the federal government,” Njoku pleaded.

Modern HIV drugs regimens not associated with fat loss in arms and legs

Researchers comfirmed that the use of hiv drug regiments is not associated with the loss of fats in the arms and legs fact, people tend to gain fat in their limbs,perhaps because their general health is improving.

 Former anti ritroviral regiments based on kivexa and truvada are associated with long term gains in limb fat. US investigators in july 15 edition of clinical infectious diseases.

                American researchers followed  269 people , who were starting hiv treatment for just under two years. People were radomly assigned to one of four different combinations of anti-hiv drugs.

The drugs used included abacavir and 3TC(in the combined pill kivexa),tenofovir and ftc (in the conbined pill truvada), efavirenz (sustiva), and ritonavir-boosted atazanavir(reyataz).

                Most of the patients (85 percent) were male and  47 percent were white.the median age at bas eline was 38 years, and median body mass index at this time was  24.9kg/m² median limb fat was 7.4kg, median trunk fat was 9.4kg, and median visceral adipose tissue was 84.1cm²

                At the  time hiv therapy was stated, the patients had a median cd4 cell count of 233 cells/mm and median viral load was 4.6 log₁₀ copies /ml.

At the end of the study body scan showed that limb fat levels had increased by an average of 23percent. People taking atazanavir gained more fat on their limbs than people taking efavinrenz.people who had a higher viral load to start with gain more fat, sugesting that they put on weight  as their  overall health improved.

 Only five percent of people lost more than twenty percent  of their limb fat.

                Lipodystrophy which is a term refering to changes in body fat and is a side effect of some hiv treatments. Lipodystophy includes both fat gain  and fat loss (from arms and legs, which makes the veins more prominent).

                Researchers say that their result provide reasurance that kivexa and truvada do not cause fat loss. Older drugs such as D4T(zidovudine, zerit) and AZT(zidovudine, retovir) are associated  with much higher rate of fat loss.

                However the study did find that people in the  study did also gained weight around the waist, including  in visceral fat. This is fat which accomulates around the internal organs causing  the belly to feel taut  and pushed out; it is tha kind of fat which may be a drug side-effect.

                Increases in viseral fat were larger in people taking the protease inhibitor atazanavir than in people taking efevirenz. Greater increase in visceral fat were also more common in people who were fatter to  begin with.

latest update about the malaria insect

 A new study by a team of University of Notre Dame researchers offers a wealth of information about the rhythmic nature of gene expression in Anopheles gambiae, the mosquito species that transmits the malaria parasite from person to person. Each year, roughly 250 million people suffer from malaria and that results in one million deaths, mostly pregnant women and children under five years of age.
Mosquitoes, like all animals, show daily rhythms in behavior and physiology. The rhythmic behaviors of Anopheles gambiae include dusk mating swarms, nocturnal flight activity and feeding on sugar and blood-meal hosts and egg-laying. The exclusive biting of humans at night by Anopheles gambiae provides the basis of protection by insecticide treated bed nets (ITNs) used while people are sleeping. This contrasts with the dengue/yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypi, which bites during the day and to which ITNs afford no protection.
Giles Duffield, Samuel Rund, Tim Hou, Sarah Ward and Frank Collins of the Department of Biological Sciences and Eck Institute for Global Health at Notre Dame are the authors of a paper describing the new findings, which appears in this week's edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The Notre Dame researchers, led by principal investigator Duffield, undertook a gene expression analysis of adult female Anopheles gambiae, which were sampled every four hours over a 48-hour period under both environmental light-dark cycles and under constant dark conditions. The researchers used DNA microarray gene chips to look for time-of-day specific changes in gene expression. This is the first global gene expression analysis of Anopheles gambiae rhythms, allowing exploration of the extent of its biochemistry, physiology and behavior that is under diel and circadian clock control. "Diel" refers to a regulation controlled by the daily alternating light-dark cycle, and "circadian" to daily 24-hour rhythmic cycles regulated by an organism's internal molecular clock.
A total of 2,095 genes were discovered to be rhythmic in either the mosquito head or body and under diel and/or circadian control, which amounts to nearly 16 percent of the Anopheles gambiae geneome. In many cases, genes were rhythmically expressed specifically in either the head or the body, and covered a wide range of biological processes, such as metabolism, detoxification, immunity, vision and olfaction, and they can serve as the basis of novel malarial control strategies and optimization of existing approaches.
For example, the data highlight the likelihood for Anopheles gambiae to exhibit rhythms in sensitivity to chemical insecticides, such as pyrethroids and DDT, which is an important finding for maximizing exposure of the mosquito to insecticides in relation to the time of day when they may be most susceptible.
Additionally, the data on rhythms of the mosquito's immune system highlights the possibility that the malaria parasite (Plasmodium) may not only be responding to the temporal availability of biting Anopheles gambiae, but also to daily rhythms in the innate immunity of the mosquito and its susceptibility to infection. Rhythms in immune functions may also be an important consideration for the implementation of biological pesticide control measures.
Rhythms of genes associated with the sensory modalities vision and olfaction (smell) are an especially interesting discovery. This includes a high proportion of the components of the light transduction cascade of the compound eye, as well as genes encoding odorant binding proteins and the olfactory coreceptor, OR7 (orco), potentially important in regulating sensitivity of the mosquitoes' smell organs. These rhythms, in turn, may contribute to the time-of-day specific host-seeking behavior of Anopheles mosquitoes, and raises the possibility that mosquitoes may not bite humans during the daylight hours simply because they do not detect their presence during this time.source: http://www.nd.edu/~bioclock

New virus for mosquitoes discoverd

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Malaria Research Institute have identified a previously unknown virus that is infectious to Anopheles gambiae—the mosquito primarily responsible for transmitting malaria.
According to the researchers, the discovered virus could one day be used to pass on new genetic information to An. gambiae mosquitoes as part of a strategy to control malaria, which kills over one million people worldwide each year.
The virus, AgDNV, is a densonucleosis virus or "densovirus," which are common to mosquitoes and other insects, but do not infect vertebrate animals such as humans. Although the virus does not appear to harm the mosquitoes, the researchers determined it is highly infectious to mosquito larvae and is easily passed on to the adults.
According to Jason Rasgon, PhD, senior author of the study, the discovery came about serendipitously while the research team was conducting experiments to determine whether Wolbachia bacteria could be used to infect An. gambiae mosquito cells. During the analysis, Xiaoxia Ren, a postdoctoral fellow with Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute, noticed an "artifact," that appeared as a prominent band in the gel used to detect the bacteria.
"Finding artifacts such as this one during experiments is not uncommon, but we decided to investigate this one further since we kept observing it over and over. When we sequenced it we were surprised to learn that we had found a new virus," explained Rasgon, an assistant professor with the Bloomberg School's W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology.
According to Rasgon, the virus could be potentially altered to kill the mosquito or make An. gambiae incapable of transmitting malaria. To test the concept, the research team successfully used altered AgDNV to express harmless green fluorescent protein in the adult mosquitoes which could be easily spotted under the microscope.
"In theory, we could use this virus to produce a lethal toxin in the mosquito or instruct the mosquito to die after 10 days, which is before it can transmit the malaria parasite to humans. However, these concepts are many years away," said Rasgon

Top 10 Research Facts on Diabetes Foods

Diabetic people are always in the look out of foods which can keep their blood sugar levels under control and yet provide the essential nutrients to the body. This article enlists certain fruits, vegetables and herbs beneficial to them along with research facts to substantiate their uses

Top 10 Research Facts on Diabetes Foods:
Fenugreek: According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, intake of 25-50 grams of these seeds is useful. A component Pectin present in these seeds keeps the glucose level in check.
Spinach: A study was carried out by the Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts in 2004. The study found that one cup of boiled spinach has 156 mg of magnesium. Intake of this leafy vegetable has inverse effect on the blood sugar level.
Azadirachta Indica: The leaves of the tree, according to ayurveda, have the quality of stimulating the beta cells in the pancreas responsible for producing insulin.
Onion: A research study carried out way back in 1977 revealed that lower levels of chromium mineral increases insulin production. A cup of onion daily fulfils 20 percent of the requirement of this mineral.
Garlic: Research study carried out in November 2008 at the Suzuka University of Medical Science, Japan, found that garlic contains two substances Allixin and Vanadium. They are found to influence the genes in the diabetic patients in such a way that the pancreas starts producing insulin in high levels.
Rinds of Citrus Fruits: A component called d- Limonene present in 51.24 percent in rinds of citrus fruit. The research was carried out in October 2009 at the Institute of Biotechnology, Hungkuang University, Taiwan.
Carrots: This vegetable gets its natural color because of the component Carotenoid. This component is found to be a power antioxidant fighting with the complications of free radicals in diabetic people. Researchers at the University of Minnesota School of public health found that it reduces the risk of diabetes to half as well.
Apple: Research study has found that eating this fruit decreases the need of insulin hormone by 35 percent. A natural healing component of this fruit beneficial to the diabetic people is pectin. The Glycemic rating index of apple is 38. Its glycemic load for 120 gms of consumption is only 6.
Capsicum: A substance Capsaicin separated from this vegetable and given to diabetic people reduced the blood sugar level by 23 percent. Results of the findings were published in the journal Phytotherapy Research, in March 2004.
Drumsticks: Researchers at the Department of Nutritional Science, Faculty of Applied Bioscience, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Sakuragaoka, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan, have found that leaves of this vegetable contains a component Quercetin-3-glucoside which can bring down the blood sugar level under control gradually.

Dangers of Oral Contraceptives

For some women, the benefits outweigh the dangers of oral contraceptives, but women with certain medical conditions or those who experience adverse side effects while using oral contraceptives may need to choose an alternative contraceptive method. Health care providers screen for major contraindications, but many women are not informed about dangers of oral contraceptives, such as vitamin deficiency and post-pill amenorrhea.

1. Types

   • There are two types of oral contraceptives--pills that contain only progestin and pills that contain both estrogen and progestin. Progestin oral contraceptives are less likely to produce serious side effects but are also slightly less effective in preventing pregnancy. Other hormonal contraceptives, such as birth control patches and injections, produce side effects and dangers similar to oral contraceptives.

   Side Effects

   • Common side effects of oral contraceptives include irregular spotting or bleeding, nausea and vomiting, breast tenderness, weight gain and mood changes. These side effects usually subside after three cycles. More serious side effects may include stroke, blood clot and jaundice. The risk of side effects is increased in women who smoke or are over 35. Medical disorders such as blood clotting disorders, obesity, diabetes or high cholesterol also increase the risk of serious oral contraceptive side effects. Some women experience abnormal hair loss or excessive hair growth when taking oral contraceptives.

   Contraindications

   • Women who have a history of blood clots, high blood pressure, jaundice during pregnancy or severe migraines should not take oral contraceptives. Certain heart diseases and hepatitis also increase the risks associated with oral contraceptives. Women with a family history of breast, cervical or liver cancer should discuss the risks with a knowledgeable health care provider since oral contraceptives have been linked to an increased instance of these cancers.

   Amenorrhea

   • Approximately 3% of women who stop taking oral contraceptives experience post-pill amenorrhea, an absence of menstruation for six months or longer. High levels of estrogen and progestin in oral contraceptives send feedback to the pituitary gland that indicate sufficient hormone levels in the body. With prolonged usage, the pituitary gland stops producing estrogen and progesterone, even after oral contraceptive use has ceased, so that neither ovulation nor menstruation occurs. If menstruation does not spontaneously return, estrogen blockers may be prescribed to stimulate estrogen production by the pituitary gland.

   Vitamin Deficiency

   • Oral contraceptives interfere with the body's absorption of folic acid, vitamin B6, selenium and vitamin C. Folic acid prevents anemia and cell changes that can lead to cancer. Long-term folic acid deficiency can lead to anemia, digestive disorders and increased cardiovascular risk. Vitamin B6 deficiency is linked to depression. Selenium and vitamin C are both important for maintaining a healthy immune system. Women taking oral contraceptives should consider supplements or increase consumption of vitamin-rich foods to prevent such vitamin deficiencies. source : http://www.ehow.com