Monthly Archives: July 2018

Medical, Research, Science

The availability of cheap drugs offers hope for dementia sufferers

DEMENTIA

SCIENTISTS in Scotland have found a potential cure for the most common cause of dementia and strokes in old people – using cheap, everyday drugs.

Human trials are already being carried out after rats were treated with a combination of cilostazol and isosorbide mononitrate.

Researchers say once trials are complete they could be available to patients within two years.

The breakthrough comes days after new figures showed Scotland is facing a dementia “timebomb” as experts warn conditions such as Alzheimer’s will soon overtake heart disease as the biggest killer.

The drugs involved in the latest study repaired the deterioration of blood vessels in rats’ brains associated with a condition called cerebral small vessel disease, or SVD, and reversed the symptoms.

SVD is responsible for almost half of all dementia cases in the UK and accounts for one in five strokes. It can also aggravate the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.

Professor Anna Williams, group leader at Edinburgh University’s Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Regenerative Medicine, said: “We are very excited because it is the first time we have really got to the bottom of why this disease called cerebral small vessel disease happens.

“We gave rats some drugs that made the cells happier and managed to reverse the changes in the brain. We have found a way to reverse it. That is exciting for people with dementia.”

Professor Williams added: “The nice things about these drugs is that they are already tested on people, they are cheap and readily available so can quickly be given to people.”

Cilostazol and isosorbide mononitrate are commonly used by patients with heart and blood pressure ailments. Pills are available for around 60p and 20p respectively.

The research team discovered that SVD occurs when cells that line the small blood vessels in the brain become dysfunctional. This causes them to secrete a molecule into the brain, which stops production of myelin, a protective layer that surrounds brain cells, leading to brain damage. The drugs prevent this.

Experts hailed the breakthrough. A spokesperson for the charity Age Scotland, said: “Any development of this nature and any measures to combat dementia is good news indeed.”

The research, first published in Science Translational Medicine, was carried out at the MRC centre and the UK Dementia Research Institute at Edinburgh University. It was funded by the MRC, Alzheimer’s Research UK and the private Leducq Foundation, based in Paris.

Dr Sara Imarisio, head of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “The findings highlight a promising direction for research into treatments that could limit the damaging effects of blood vessel changes and help keep nerve cells functioning for longer.”

Researchers say further studies will be needed to test whether the treatment also works once the disease is firmly established, but trials will be over within a year.

Estimates indicate there are almost 47 million people living with dementia worldwide and the numbers affected are expected to double every 20 years, rising to more than 115 million by 2050.

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China, Economic, European Union, Government, Politics, Society, United States

Trump’s trade war is a risk to the global economy

GLOBAL TRADE WAR

AN escalating trade war between China, the US and Europe could plunge the global economy into turmoil, international experts have warned.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) said the battle of wills between President Donald Trump and rivals in China and the European Union has put “economic recovery in jeopardy”.

In a major report on the 20 largest economies – known as the G20 – WTO economists warn that angry rhetoric and rising tariffs on all sides are a severe threat.

The WTO said that G20 countries slapped £52.6billion of sanctions on trade between October and May. A total of 39 new restrictive measures were introduced to block goods from competitors – double the number in the previous report.

The WTO said: “The G20 economies must use all means at their disposal to de-escalate the situation and promote further trade recovery.”

President Trump vowed on the campaign trail to protect US jobs and industries from globalisation. He has imposed aluminium and steel tariffs on China and the EU, and hit the Chinese with extra duties on everything from bulldozers to touchscreens.

Beijing responded in kind, hitting key US exports such as its important soya bean trade. Meanwhile, Brussels has slapped tariffs on American goods, including motorcycles and bourbon whiskey.

The President is now threatening to act against Europe’s prized car manufacturers. Last week, he said: “The EU is possibly as bad as China, only smaller. They send a Mercedes in, we can’t send our cars in.”

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European Union, France, Germany, Government, Immigration, Italy, Politics

The desperate migrants’ route across Europe

EU IMMIGRATION

IN the freezing passes of the Italian Alps, migrants march slowly up an icy incline as they head for France.

The mountains have become an unlikely route for Africans looking for a new life across the border.

Thousands are thought to have tried to traverse the range over the last few months alone, wearing clothing that is unlikely to protect them from the extreme conditions.

Faced with the policies of Italy’s Right-wing government, asylum seekers who arrive by boat on the country’s Mediterranean shores have headed north instead to reach France.

From there they can move on to Germany, Spain, Belgium, Holland and – ultimately, for many – Britain.

The latest route used by desperate migrants is increasingly coming to the attention of populist Right-wing political groups that have risen to prominence on the back of Europe’s migrant crisis.

Already, Italy has swung heavily to the right, with interior minister Matteo Salvini turning migrant boats away from harbours. Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban has made stopping immigration a cornerstone of his philosophy, and young conservative Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz has called for an “axis of the willing” to strengthen borders. Anti-immigrant MEP Christelle Lechevalier – of the renamed French right-wing National Front, now National Rally – last week tried to make political capital out of African migrants crossing from Italy into France at the ski resort of Montgenevre.

Some 26 European nations are in the supposedly border-free Schengen zone, which makes it possible to cross between member states without border controls. But faced with the prospect of mass immigration, police at several border posts are increasingly turning away new arrivals and sending them back to Italy.

As a result, migrants are turning to mountain passes, ski resorts and hiking trails to avoid official checks.

Snow-free in the summer, the Alps are a far less dangerous hike. And even if migrants are caught and sent back to Italy, they can always try again.

Earlier this year there were reports of migrants using the Col de l’Echelle mountain pass into France through thick snowdrifts. At the end of their eight-mile journey, African migrants would simply knock on the first door they saw.

Up to half a million migrants are thought to be in Italy, despite the fall in the number arriving – usually from lawless Libya – in boats across the Mediterranean.

Widespread public reaction to Europe’s migrant crisis has prompted EU nations to belatedly close off entry points and movement routes (as well as proposed detention centres in the Med to process asylum applications). German chancellor Angela Merkel hailed the migrant summit agreement as a success, with its vague talk of promises of cash for Third World countries to help them control population flows and loosen proposals to tighten border controls within the EU.

But no European country, let alone any African one, has yet agreed to host a migration centre. Mrs Merkel’s firm grip on Germany, which she has led since 2005, has weakened in recent months. Interior minister Horst Seehofer, leader of the Bavarian CSU party, was so incensed with last week’s deal that Mrs Merkel’s governing alliance was in serious jeopardy of collapsing. There were fears he was on the verge of ordering German police to start turning new arrivals away (in direct defiance of Mrs Merkel’s wishes).

Last Friday’s summit agreement failed to nail down any firm agreements on exactly how migrants arriving in EU countries on the Mediterranean coast could be dispersed elsewhere.

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