Knowledge Update

New York, Oct 5 (IANS) Medication-resistant bacteria are making it more difficult to treat a common but severe kidney infection, says a study.

Pyelonephritis -- infection of the kidney usually caused by E. coli bacteria and which can start as a urinary tract infection -- causes fever, back pain and vomiting. 

About half of people infected require hospitalisation. If not treated with effective antibiotics, it can cause sepsis and death.

"This is a very real example of the threat posed by the emergence of new antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, which greatly complicates treatment of infection," said the study's lead author David Talan, Professor at David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles. 

In an earlier study based on data from 10 large hospital emergency departments in the US, almost 12 per cent of people diagnosed with pyelonephritis had infections resistant to the standard class of antibiotic used in treatment -- fluoroquinolone. That is up from four per cent in a similar study conducted a decade ago. 

The new study -- published in the jurnal Emerging Infectious Diseases -- also documents the emergence of infections caused by a specific strain of E. coli that is resistant to additional types of antibiotics, severely limiting treatment options. 

That strain, dubbed ESBL for the antibiotic-destroying enzymes it produces (extended-spectrum beta-lactamases), was not detected in the previous study. 

Currently, there are only a few intravenous antibiotic options to treat ESBL-related infections, and no oral antibiotics that are consistently effective.

The study included 453 people diagnosed with kidney infection. The study participants were diagnosed between July 2013 and December 2014 in 10 emergency departments at large hospitals in the US.

The rates of ESBL-related infections varied from zero per cent to more than 20 per cent, depending on the location of the emergency room and patient risk factors.

About three of every four people infected with ESBL-producing E. coli were initially treated with antibiotics ineffective against that particular strain of bacteria, placing them at risk for poor outcomes, the researchers reported.

Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Oct 5 (IANS) Horn of Africa countries Ethiopia and Djibouti on Wednesday launched the continent's first modern electric railway connecting their respective capitals, media reported.

The 752.7 km Ethiopia-Djibouti railway was inaugurated in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa in a grand ceremony, Xinhua news agency reported.

The railway has a designed speed of 120 km per hour and was constructed by China Railway Group and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation with a total investment of $4 billion.

It is expected to reduce travel time between the two capital cities from seven days by road to about 10 hours only, and provide landlocked Ethiopia faster access to Djibouti port.

​New York, Oct 5 (IANS) Researchers have crystallised and determined the 3D structure of a protein that could help them develop new treatments by understanding nicotine's molecular effects.

The protein, called alpha-4-beta-2 nicotinic receptor, sits on nerve cells in the brain. Nicotine binds to the receptor when someone smokes a cigarette or chews tobacco, causing the protein to open a path for ions to enter the cell. 

The process produces cognitive benefits such as increased memory and focus but is also highly addictive.

Until the new findings were reported in the journal Nature, scientists did not have a way to examine at atomic resolution how nicotine achieves these addictive effects.

"It's going to require a huge team of people and a pharmaceutical company to study the protein and develop the drugs, but I think this is the first major stepping stone to making that happen," said study co-author Ryan Hibbs, Assistant Professor at the Peter O'Donnell Jr. Brain Institute at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in the US.

The expectation is that the 3D structures will help researchers understand how nicotine influences the activity of the receptor and lead to a medication that mimics its actions in the brain.

The finding may also have benefits in creating medications for certain types of epilepsy, mental illness, and dementia such as Alzheimer's, which are also associated with the nicotinic receptor, the researchers said. 

However, testing of any ensuing treatment would likely take many years, Hibbs cautioned.

Studies have shown smoking cessation drugs have mixed results in treating nicotine addiction, as have other methods such as nicotine patches and chewing gum.

​London, Oct 5 (IANS) A handgrip could be used for early detection of health problems that may lead to premature death, say researchers.

Handgrip strength is a simple test, measured with a hand-held device. On average, handgrip strength peaks in the 30s and 40s and then declines with age.

"When individuals' handgrip falls below some reference value for their age group, sex and body height this can be taken as an indicator for practitioners that further health checks may be warranted," said Nadia Steiber from International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria.

"The measurement of handgrip strength in clinical practice is a simple but efficient screening tool for health vulnerability. It comes at a very low cost," Steiber noted.

The study builds on research conducted as part of the Reassessing Aging from a Population Perspective (Re-Aging) project, which showed that handgrip strength could be used as an alternative measure for age, since it corresponds with other markers of age such as future mortality, disability, cognitive decline and ability to recover from hospital stays.

The new study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, provides a comprehensive set of reference values for the measurement of handgrip strength that could be used in clinical practice. 

The study was based on data from the German Institute for Economic Research including over 25,000 measurements of over 11,000 people. 

​New York, Oct 5 (IANS) Does working out feels like more of pain to you? Take heart. Exercise releases a hormone that can help your body shed fat and keep it from forming again, which may also act as potential target to fight obesity, diabetes and other health issues, a study has found.

The results showed that hormone irisin helps convert calorie-storing white fat cells into brown fat cells that burn energy and may be an attractive target for fighting obesity and diabetes.

"Exercise produces more irisin, which has many beneficial effects including fat reduction, stronger bones and better cardiovascular health," said Li-Jun Yang, Professor at the University of Florida. 

The hormone works by boosting the activity of genes and UCP1 -- a protein crucial to turning white fat cells into brown cells. 

Further, irisin, which surges when the heart and other muscles are exerted, also inhibits the formation of fatty tissue.

For the study, researchers collected fat cells donated by 28 patients who had breast reduction surgery. 

After exposing the samples to irisin, they found a nearly five-fold increase in cells with protein UCP1 -- crucial to fat "burning".

"We used human fat tissue cultures to prove that irisin has a positive effect by turning white fat into brown fat and that it increases the body's fat-burning ability," Yang said.

Moreover, among the tested fat-tissue samples, the team found that irisin also reduced the number of mature fat cells by 20 to 60 per cent compared with those of a control group. 

That suggests irisin reduces fat storage in the body by hindering the process that turns undifferentiated stem cells into fat cells while also promoting the stem cells' differentiation into bone-forming cells, the researchers said.

The findings about irisin's role in regulating fat cells sheds more light on how working out helps people stay slender, Yang said.

The study was published recently in the American Journal of Physiology -- Endocrinology and Metabolism.

San Francisco, Oct 4 (IANS) Instant mobile messaging app WhatsApp on Tuesday introduced new ways to customise and enhance the photos and videos you share with friends and family around the world.

New York, Oct 4 (IANS) Facebook has launched Messenger Lite, a stand-alone version of Messenger for Android that offers core features of Messenger for markets with slower than average internet speeds.

​New York, Oct 3 (IANS) Companies that do invest in building their innovative capacity are rewarded over the long run by higher stock market returns and profits, say researchers including one of Indian-origin.

​London, Oct 3 (IANS) The pound sterling was the worst performer among major currencies on Monday, after British Prime Minister Theresa May said Britain would kick off the process of separating from the European Union (EU) by the end of March 2017.