Spring

Lorem ipsum

2009-07-24T03:21:00.000-07:00

A normal paragraph

Morbi nunc odio, gravida cursus nec, luctus alorem tristique orci acem. Duis ultricies pharetra magna Donec sit amet eros similiqe ipsumc sociis atoque. Dis partuir ient inmontes, nascetur ridic ulusus. Nulla due feugiat malesuada pharetra magna donec accumsan malesuada orci. Donec sit amet eros morbi nunc odio, gravida cursus nec...

A paragraph format

Et posse meliore definitiones (strong) his, vim tritani vulputate (italic) pertinacia at. Augue quaerendum (Acronym) te sea, ex sed sint invenire erroribus. Cu vel ceteros scripserit, te usu modus fabellas mediocritatem. In legere regione instructior eos. Ea repudiandae suscipiantur vim, vel partem labores ponderum in Ray Creations (link).

An Image

A paragraph as blockquote

Eu mei solum oporteat eleifend, libris nominavi maiestatis duo at, quod dissentiet vel te. Legere prompta impedit id eum. Te soleat vocibus luptatum sed, augue dicta populo est ad, et consul diceret officiis duo. Et duo primis nostrum.

Unordered list

List Format line1

List Format line2

List Format line3

List Format line4

Ordered list

List Format line1

List Format line2

List Format line3

List Format line4

Heading H1

Heading H2

Heading H3

Heading H4

Michael Jackson's ghost in Neverland?

2009-07-09T01:30:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson's fans created a frenzy after possibly sighting the ghost of the pop legend at his Neverland ranch recently.

An eerie shadow resembling Jackson's figure appeared on a wall in the singer's former home during a live television programme last week, reports thesun.co.uk. If reports are to be believed, the shadow walked across the corridor and even moved quickly from left to right before disappearing.

The sighting reportedly took place during CNN's special show "Inside Neverland", where Larry King was in conversation with Jackson's brother Jermaine.

While shooting, the crew of the show takes viewers on a tour of the ranch and when the camera enters a long hallway, the shadowy figure appears at its far end.

Neither the presenter nor the cameraman noticed the shadow, but after it was posted on video sharing website YouTube, fans started pinpointing the shadow.

Jackson passed away on June 25 after suffering a cardiac arrest at his Los Angeles home.

Source: NDTV News

Global warming behind Malaria in Kolkata

2009-07-09T01:08:00.000-07:00

With malaria cases in Kolkata rising alarming, a West Bengal minister named global warming as one of the major reasons.

Health Minister Surya Kanto Mishra, who is a doctor himself, said global warming was one of the reasons for the rising cases of malaria in the city.

Even in cooler climes like Kalimpong in Darjeeling district, the disease has struck with a vengeance all because the snowfall has stopped there due to the warming of the climate, he said.

Replying to a calling attention on the subject of malignant malaria in Kolkata, Mishra told the state assembly that compared to 93 cases last year, already 843 people have tested positive this year. From January to June the malaria parasite has been detected among 10,608 patients.

He said Kolkata Municipal Corporation had taken a number of steps to combat the deadly disease. These include opening of more malaria clinics and massive campaign for blood collection in the malaria-prone areas, besides creating public health awareness.

Longevity Pill Tested in Humans

2009-07-09T00:26:00.000-07:00

Sirtris Pharmaceuticals announces that its souped-up version of resveratrol has passed early tests in humans.

What if I told you there was a pill that slows aging and allows you to live a healthy life to age 100?

Such a pill may exist right now. It's being tested in people in very early-stage human clinical trials. Today, the company making the pill, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, announced its findings from preclinical testing in cells and animals, and also from tests conducted on 85 male volunteers this summer.

The verdict: so far, the pill works, although it will be years before we know how well it works, or if it can actually extend the life span of people in the same way that it has bumped up the life span of mice.

Speaking today at the Annual Metabolic Diseases Drug Discovery and Development World Summit in San Diego, Sirtris's senior director of biology, Jill Milne, announced that the drug, SRT501, reduces glucose and improves insulin sensitivity in animal and in vitro studies of the drug's effect on type 2 diabetes. In people, the drug was tested for dose, safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics--that is, how well the drug was absorbed, distributed, metabolized, and removed from the body.

Phase 1b trials are already under way to test safety and pharmacokinetics on patients with type 2 diabetes. Later-phase trials will test to see if the drug actually works in diabetics.

SRT501 is a proprietary chemical developed by Sirtris that's based on the naturally occurring resveratrol that company cofounder David Sinclair of Harvard University has been studying for its effects in extending life span in a number of organisms, including yeast, flies, and mice. Last year, Sinclair created a sensation when he published a paper in Nature detailing how mice on a high-fat diet that were fed large doses of resveratrol were as healthy as mice on a regular diet. Resveratrol also sharply extended life span, produced positive changes in insulin sensitivity and other diabetes-preventing mechanisms, and increased energy production in cells. The mice were given very high doses of resveratrol--22 milligrams per kilogram of weight. In comparison, a liter of red wine delivers 1.5 to 3 milligrams. To match the results in the mice, a 150-pound human would need to drink 750 to 1,500 bottles of wine a day.

Sinclair says that SRT501 is a thousand times more potent than naturally occurring resveratrol, which gives it the same punch as the resveratrol in all those bottles of wine.

Sinclair believes that resveratrol activates a gene called SIRT-1, which is associated with the regulation of life span in several animals. This contention is disputed by some critics: they argue that the mechanism by which resveratrol works is still poorly understood.

Because humans are so long-lived, SRT501 can't be easily tested for longevity in humans--nor does the Food and Drug Administration recognize "increased life span" as an allowable indication for an approved drug. This is why Sirtris is testing SRT501 for diseases related to aging, such as type 2 diabetes. However, should the drug be approved for diabetes, it will undoubtedly be used to extend life span by many people without diabetes.

The drug still has years of testing to go and faces many hurdles. It may not work. But if it does, the consequences will be profound. For instance, it will mean that more people will be alive on the earth. Age 90 will be the new 70, and 70 the new 50, with profound impacts on everything from social security to retirement age. It may also mean fewer people with diabetes, Alzheimer's, and some cancers.

Can one pill do and cause all that? Critics have long said no--that such a compound will not work in humans. But they also said it wouldn't work in mice--until it did work. (At least in fat mice.)

So let's sip some pinot noir and wait for more results from Sirtris. After all, we're not getting any younger.