Skip to main content

Researchers Identify New Genes Linked With Schizophrenia Risk in First-of-Its-Kind Study

Researchers have made an important discovery about the causes of schizophrenia, a disease related to dementia or fragmented mentality.   Researchers have identified two genes associated with the disease as well as a third gene that carries the risk of schizophrenia and autism. Scientists involved in this research believes, this discovery can go a long way in finding a cure for these kind of diseases. Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine found that these harmful genes are almost the same in every ethnic or racial group. The findings of this research were published in Nature Genetics . According to an estimate, about one percent of people worldwide suffering from schizophrenia. The scientists identified two risky genes, SRRM2 and AKAP11, based on a comparative analysis of gene sequencing from individuals with schizophrenia and healthy individuals. It compared a dataset of 35,828 patients with schizophrenia to 107,877 healthy or control groups and included a variety of

Researchers Find Microplastics In Human Blood For The First Time

A team of researchers has shown for the first time that plastic particles from plastic items used in our daily lives such as plastic bags, toys, bottles, disposable cutlery have reached measurable levels in human blood.

This research was published in the scientific journal 'Environmental International'. It has been told that the plastic items used by us not only adversely affect the environment but are also being absorbed by our blood flow system.

In the blood samples, the most commonly found polymers were polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and styrene. In addition, polymethyl methacrylate has also been found. Polypropylene has also been found in the analysis but its quantity was not measurable.

PET is commonly found in water, soda, milk, household cleaning products, plastic bags, toys, etc. Polymers of styrene are found in disposable cutlery, plastic models, CD-DVDs, etc.

Heather Leslie, an environmental specialist at Vrije University in Amsterdam, says: 'We have proved that plastic particles are also present in the blood that flows through our body.

The research team has developed an analytical method to prove the presence of micro and nanoplastic particles in human blood.

The presence of plastic building components and polymers was examined in the blood of 22 participants included in the study. The presence of plastic components in the blood was found in 3/4 of the blood samples. In this research, it was revealed that as the infiltration of plastic manufactured items in daily life is increasing, our body also absorbs it and this amount has reached measurable levels.

The average amount of plastic particles in the blood samples of 22 participants in the study was found to be 1.6 micrograms per milliliter (ug/mL). In general, this quantity can be thought of as the equivalent of one teaspoon of plastic particles in 1000 liters of water. Detectable plastic particles were found in 1/4 of the blood samples.

Analyst chemist Marja Lamori of the university said, 'This is the first data set of its kind and more analysis is needed to find out how plastic particles are entering our bodies and how much they affect our body doing harm'.

The research team is now working to find out how easy it is for these plastic particles to enter our bloodstream and reach our tissues and brain. This research has warned us of the new dangers of the negative effects of using plastic products.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Eye Masks Can Really Help Improve Your Overall Quality of Sleep

Sufficient and deep sleep is essential for our health and wellness. Insufficient sleep creates many kind of physical and mental problems for our healthy life. Recently, a new research has revealed that sleeping with blindfolds increases brain function . Blindfold prevents dim lights coming from the window to falling on eyes. This does not disturb our sleep and we are able to sleep deeply. Getting enough and deep sleep at night increases our brain's ability to receive informations and communication skills. In a study published in Sleep Journal , Eye masks increases our memory and alertness. Research author Vivana Greco, from Cardiff University's School of Psychology , said the team of researchers used two types of experiments to understand how eye masks help us. The team of researchers monitored both the groups for a week. The research concluded that the cognitive level of the group using the eye mask was higher than that of the group that did not use the eye mask. T

Insulin Deficiency From Insulin Gene Mutation Leads to Smaller Pancreas

A new thing has come to light about the case of insulin deficient diabetes type-1 patients. Researchers found that the pancreas of such patients is smaller than the pancreas of a healthy person.   Beta cells responsible for producing insulin make up a very small portion of the pancreas. Therefore, it was not expected to reduce the size of pancreas due to their degradation in type-1 diabetes. Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center studied to a family living in Alabama and found that insulin deficiency, not autoimmune diabetes, is the primary cause of pancreatic shortening in type 1 diabetes. Four out of eight members of this family were suffering from monogenetic diabetes. It is caused by a rare mutation in the insulin gene.   This leads to insulin deficiency without autoimmunity. MRI of pancreas found that it was smaller in size and abnormal in shape in diabetic patients. This was similar to what was observed in individuals with type 1 diabetes.  The research

Researchers Identify New Genes Linked With Schizophrenia Risk in First-of-Its-Kind Study

Researchers have made an important discovery about the causes of schizophrenia, a disease related to dementia or fragmented mentality.   Researchers have identified two genes associated with the disease as well as a third gene that carries the risk of schizophrenia and autism. Scientists involved in this research believes, this discovery can go a long way in finding a cure for these kind of diseases. Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine found that these harmful genes are almost the same in every ethnic or racial group. The findings of this research were published in Nature Genetics . According to an estimate, about one percent of people worldwide suffering from schizophrenia. The scientists identified two risky genes, SRRM2 and AKAP11, based on a comparative analysis of gene sequencing from individuals with schizophrenia and healthy individuals. It compared a dataset of 35,828 patients with schizophrenia to 107,877 healthy or control groups and included a variety of