Zark's

Can Bingo Keep Alzheimer's Disease Away?

Amid a network of blood vessels and star-shaped support cells, neurons in the brain signal each other.
Image Credit: Kim Hager and Neal Prakash, University of California, Los Angeles

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is going to become an urgent problem as last year the first of America's baby boomers began reaching their 65th birthday.  The disease itself began receiving increased attention in the 1970s, although the principal contributors of the disease, high levels of amyloid and tau proteins in the brain have been known for almost 100 years.

Brain amyloid: Is it ever benign? explains that the proteins are correlated with poor mental acuity.  (Memory, language, vision, and navigation.)   Healthy brains don't have abnormal levels of proteins - it isn't that some people become immune to them.  You can think of the tangles as simply shorting out the brain.

Researchers are developing drugs and therapies, but so far, they have not discovered a magic bullet.  Untangling the Mysteries of Alzheimer's tells that scientists have identified some elementary building blocks of these proteins and tangles. 

Cellular Changes in Alzheimer’s Disease explains that researchers also know that gene changes, specifically —presenilin-1 and presenilin-2 can cause early-onset AD.  They have also been identified the abnormal tau protein invades cell walls and boundaries that healthy protein does not.  Penetration into the dendrites disrupts chemical messaging and reception.

Brain imaging shows lifetime cognitive activity may influence Alzheimer’s disease risk explains that just as researchers have correlated the proteins with AD, they have also correlated lower levels of protein with higher levels of cognitive activity.  In other words, people who stay mentally alert with games, reading, and writing, have lower amyloid and tau protein levels. 

 

 

Controversy Over Monsanto's Genetically Engineered Sweet Corn

American corn
Image Credit: Doug Wilson, USDA

Mmm.  The Monsanto webpage says - "producing more conserving more improving lives  That's sustainable agriculture and that's what Monsanto is all about."  Nothing wrong with that mission statement, is there? 

Monsanto enters into market for fresh sweet corn explains this is the first time the biogiant has genetically engineered a corn intended for consumers.  This new variant has three genetic changes that make it resistant to insects and Monsanto's Roundup herbicide.  Other variants have been used for industrial production and livestock consumption, but this is the first intended for consumers.  (The non-consumer variant has been planted since 1994.)  In The Revenge of the Weeds, I blogged about genetic changes that Monsanto engineers to produce a plant that is Roundup-resistant.

Enough Tricks: Consumers Speak Up Against Monsanto's GE Sweet Corn tells that consumer advocates are alarmed that the product will not be labeled as genetically modified.  A coalition of several groups has collected petition signatures and asking retailers and food processors to refuse the genetically engineered corn. The coalition tells that General Mills and Trader Joe's has responded favorably to their request.

In the graphic above from the USDA, HT corresponds to herbicide resistant and Bt corresponds to insect resistant.  The new Monsanto sweet corn incorporates both of these traits.

It is complicated isn't it?  Very likely without the innovation of biotechs, we will not be able to feed this planet of 7 billion humans, far exceeding the estimates of Thomas Robert Malthus.  On the other hand, we are witnessing genetic pollution.  In one example, a genetically engineered flax variant, believed to have been destroyed, has escaped into the wild.  We have experienced environmental catastrophes with invasive species, that are natural, and not man-made.  Imagine the havoc that could be produced by a manmade species.  Mmm.  As I said, it is complicated.

 

 

Nature Fights Back Against Genetically Modified Food

The adult stage of the western corn rootworm (shown searching for pollen on corn silk)
Image Credit: Tom Hlavaty, USDA

The pattern is apparent - we kill harmful bacteria with antibiotics and before too long, the bacteria become antibiotic-resistant.  We build a levee alongside the river and the river plots to breach the levee.  Well - you get the idea.  Nature always fights back.

Wikipedia tells that corn rootworm can devastate crops of corn if untreated.  Perhaps 30 million acres out of the 80 million acres planted yearly in the U.S. has infestation with the pest. In dollars, the corn rootworm might cost $1B annually, with $200M of that for crop protection.  The wizards at the biotechs have created transgenic corn that that contains the genes from Bacillius thuringiensis (Bt) bacterium.  The protein from Bt has been used as an insecticide since 1920, and genetically engineering the corn to produce it naturally seemed like a grand idea.  The larva eat the plant with Bt genes and the protein binds to receptors in the digestive system, eventually causing death to the insect.

Rootworm could be resistant to genetically modified crops tells that the corn rootworm is developing resistance to genetically modified corn.  The Minnesota Public Radio adds that the rootworm makes it difficult for corn plants to remain upright during storms.  That was the clue to farmers that the rootworm had developed resistance - the corn stalks were lying down or tilted at extreme angles.

Estimates are that 15 percent of genetically modified corn in Minnesota is affected by the rootworm resistance.  The resistance seems to be more associated with the Monsanto genetically modified corn compared to other brands.  More research is needed.

Corn You Shouldn't Eat

American Corn
Image Credit: Doug Wilson, USDA

Even if you've never been on a farm, you probably know that you don't eat the seed corn.  There is growing controversy about another corn that you should not eat.

U.S. farmers grow world's first ethanol producing GM corn used to fill gas tanks explains the Enogen brand corn has an added gene to assist the conversion of starch into ethanol.  The USDA approved the planting of the genetically engineered corn last February and now 5000 acres are planted in Kansas.  The biotech company, Syngenta plans on also planting fields in Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, and southwest Minnesota.

From food to fuel, concerns grow about impact of GM corn explains that the Swiss company inserted a gene for amylase which accelerates the conversion of starches into ethanol.  Today, ethanol plants must exterally supply the enzyme to economically produce ethanol.

It seems there are more critics of the crop than advocates.  Technically the corn can be consumed, but it is incompatible with most common food processing.  (One kernel in 10,000 will damage food products.)  Human rights advocates are concerned this diverts land from production that could feed the hungry.  Ethanol producers think it is great - a 10 percent mix with conventional corn increases production by 10 percent.

Perhaps the biggest fear of all is that the genetically modified corn will contaminate the corn we depend upon for food.  In We're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat! They Are Reproducing!, I blogged about how university researchers discovered canola growing on the side of the road with herbicide resistant genes it should not have.  Most troubling, it had contamination from both Monsanto Roundup and Bayer LibertyLink genes.

Mmm.  I wonder whether professional athletes will attempt a diet of this stuff?