Aurora magazine

Women suffering from high blood pressure during pregnancy are more prone to preeclampsia, which leads to high risks for the child. A study shows that this condition is also dangerous for the mother. Those with high blood pressure during gestation are more likely to have heart attacks or strokes.

The research was funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and presented at the British Cardiovascular Society Conference in Manchester. A team from the Universities of Cambridge and Bristol examined the data of 6.5 million women, collected between 1997 and 2015. Of these, over 276,000 had had problems with high blood pressure and 223,715 with preeclampsia.

The amount of data has allowed researchers to also examine the frequency of heart and cardiovascular diseases, including heart attacks and strokes. A woman with high blood pressure problems in pregnancy has a 45% chance of having a heart attack.

The percentage rises by 70%, if the woman has also suffered from preeclampsia. Under normal conditions, about 3 in 1,000 women suffer from heart and circulatory problems after pregnancy. With high blood pressure, the number rises to 5 per 1,000. With preeclampsia, it reaches 6 women out of 1,000. The percentages concerning the risk of stroke are even more serious. A woman who has high blood pressure during pregnancy is 80% more likely to have a stroke. The condition doubles the chances of having fatal cardiomyopathies. Knowing these data could save the lives of many women at risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Source: eurekalert.org

According to the World Health Organization, Switzerland is the least fertile country in Europe. The average for young European men is around 41-67 million spermatozoa per ml. Instead, more than half of Swiss young people fall far below this average. Other less fertile countries are Denmark, Norway and Germany.

How this phenomenon is possible and what consequences it can have for the health of the individual. By averaging across the entire Swiss male population, every man should have around 47 million spermatozoa per ml of semen. WHO data show a very different reality: only 38% of Swiss young people have a correct sperm concentration. 71% is instead "subfertile", meaning that it has less than 15 million spermatozoa per ml of seed. This means that Swiss men tend to be less fertile and take longer to conceive. In general, we are seeing a steady decrease in sperm concentration.

There are many theories as to what the causes could be: the substances present in the plastic; lack of physical activity; jeans too tight. Unfortunately, there is no safe answer, at least at the moment. In the specific case, the researchers tested the seed of 2,500 men between 18 and 22 years, as part of the exams for the military service. They also submitted a questionnaire about lifestyle, diet and education. All study participants were conceived and born in the country.

The low concentration of spermatozoa influences the ability to conceive, obviously. In addition, it increases the risk of testicular cancer and genital malformations. This could be related to the increase in cases of this type of cancer over the past 35 years. In Switzerland there are about 10 cases per 100,000 men, one of the highest rates in Europe.

Source: independent.co.uk

A Rice University bioengineering team is working on a new gene therapy against sickle cell anemia. If the findings were confirmed, we would be able to correct the mutation causing the disease already in the womb. One of the available therapies against sickle cell anemia is stem cell transplantation. Unfortunately, only 15% of patients find a compatible donor between relatives and volunteers.

The authors of the study have developed an alternative more compatible with the organism and available to all. The therapy uses CRISPR-Cas9 to repair the patients' hematopoietic stem cells. What is therapy? Doctors isolate the patient's bone marrow cells and correct them with genetic editing. At this point they use chemotherapy to eliminate part of the sick stem cells, so as to make room for healthy ones.

Then they implant the edited cells into the patient and wait for them to reproduce. Repairing stem cells instead of replacing them eliminates the risk of rejection, cutting most of the problems associated with transplantation. At first, the team tested guinea pig therapy using stem cells from 5 sick patients.

The edited cells multiplied and continued to function for about 4 months. In a second phase, the researchers used a more recent and precise version of the CRISPR-Cas9. This change has led to less unexpected changes. Genetic editing has corrected 40% of the cells. 50% of the stem cells cut the wrong DNA without correcting it. 10% continued to produce the sick version of hemoglobin.

Source: medicalxpress.com

Researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research in London have developed a new genetic test for women with breast cancer. The test predicts how patients will respond to therapy even before it starts. To do this, a few drops of blood are enough.

The test looks for genetic variants that make the tumor resistant to certain drugs. In this way, doctors know in advance if it is worth going ahead with a certain type of treatment. Furthermore, it is useful in cases of chronic cancer. In some cases, in fact, cancer cells become resistant to certain drugs and therefore we must change strategy. In the future, such tests could help identify almost half of women at high risk of recurrence. Doctors will see in advance if the cancer has become resistant to drugs and the therapy must be changed.

To develop the test, the researchers examined the blood samples from 310 women. All women suffered from the most common form of breast cancer, all in an advanced stage. The patients were testing two drug therapies designed for tumors of this type. About 42% of them (131 women) showed genetic variants related to the risk of relapse. On average, women with these variants had a tumor return 3.9 months after the end of therapy.

Source: medicalxpress.com