Nigeria News
Drug to prolong life being tested in mice
The first drug to successfully extend the lifespan of normal lab mice also does so in a way that prolongs their healthy existence, according to a new study.
Researchers hope the drug, rapamycin, may also serve to prolong life and ward off aging-related diseases in people, especially as it’s already tested and approved for another human use: to prevent transplant rejection.
But obstacles remain before any human use of rapamycin as a longevity booster. It’s unclear what dosages and regimens might be required for such a purpose. Concerns about side effects linger. And mouse studies have used a special encapsulation method that’s not currently used in human consumption of the drug.
A biotech firm has sprung up in San Antonio, Texas in hopes of exploiting new commercial possibilities for rapamycin, and its officials have said that clinical trials are expected soon.
In the new study, mice were fed rapamycin as part of their diet starting when they were 19 months—the equivalent of about 60 human years—old. The measured lifespan increases were more modest than in some previous studies. Compared to untreated mice, the lifespan of the treated rodents went up by about 3 percent on average, although the difference rose to 7 percent for mice who made it to older ages to begin with.
Previous studies had yielded more dramatic results.
A study in the July 2009 issue of Nature, using a similar methodology but different mouse strains, had found increases as high as about 10.5 percent for older mice on rapamycin compared to untreated. Another piece of research found that if treatment was started when the mice were about half as old, then the average survival increase jumped to about 14 percent. That study appeared in the February 2011 issue of The Journals of Gerontology: Biological Sciences.
The new study, in the May 16 online edition of the same journal, focused on the health effects in addition to the lifespan effects. “Whether the life-extending effects of rapamycin treatment are reflected in extended health has not yet been extensively investigated,” wrote the authors, researchers with the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
The authors included scientists who have licensed rapamycin-related technologies to the biotech company, Rapamycin Holdings Inc.
They also wrote that they investigated the health effects in greater detail because “increasing life span without simultaneously increasing health span is a fool’s errand.” They found that treated mice enjoyed health benefits including increased stride length and better results on a test of endurance.
Rapamycin’s lifespan benefits to mice have tended to be greater for females, which received lifespan boosts up to 80 percent greater than the males depending on the study.
The investigators in the new study used rapamycin that had been “microencapsulated” by a special method in order to resist degradation when mixed with the rodent chow. This isn’t the same way rapamycin, a prescription drug, is normally taken in human clinical use, although it is taken orally.
Rapamycin is thought to exert its effects on lifespan by suppressing the activity of a chemical pathway in the body known as mTOR, which helps to govern growth and survival responses in cells.
Rapamycin also helps prevent transplant rejection by blocking certain immune system cells, leading to concerns of harmful immune-suppressing side effects. But these have not proved problematic in the mouse studies, according to scientists.
Very few substances have been found to reliably prolong lifespan in lab animals. Before rapamycin, the one considered perhaps most promising was resveratrol, found to extend lifespan in roundworms, yeast and certain fish. But such benefits in lab mice, seen as an important stepping-stone toward human studies, were reported only for mice that were obese.
Rapamycin is so named because it was discovered coming from soil bacteria at Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui.
.Culled from World Science
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Nigeria News
Kano Transfers Over 1,000 Almajiris To Different States Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic
The Kano State Government on Saturday said it has transferred 1,098 ‘almajiris’ to different states of the country.
The commissioner for local government, Murtala Garo, disclosed this while presenting a report before the state’s task force on COVID-19 at the government house, Kano.
Almajiris are children who are supposed to be learning Islamic studies while living with their Islamic teachers. Majority of them, however, end up begging on the streets of Northern Nigeria. They constitute a large number of Nigeria’s over 10 million out-of-school children.
Mr Garo said the Kano government transported 419 almajiris to Katsina, 524 to Jigawa and 155 to Kaduna. He said all of them tested negative for coronavirus before leaving the Kano State.
Despite the coronavirus test done in Kano for the almajiris, the Jigawa government earlier said it would quarantine for two weeks all the almajiris that recently arrived from Kano.
Mr Garo said another 100 almajiris scheduled to be taken to Bauchi State also tested negative to COVID-19.
In a remark, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje said the COVID-19 situation in Kano was getting worse. He appealed for a collaborative effort to curtail the spread of the virus in the state.
Mr Ganduje, who commended residents for complying with the lockdown imposed in the state, said the decision was taken to halt the spread of the virus.
Kano State, as of Saturday night, has 77 coronavirus cases, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
The decision to transfer the Kano almajiris is part of the agreement reached between Northern governors that almajiris in each state be transferred to their states of origin.
However, even before the latest agreement by the governors, the Kano government had been transferring almajiris to other states and neighbouring countries after it banned street begging in the state, most populous in Northern Nigeria.
Despite the transfers, however, no concrete step has been taken to ensure such children do not return to Kano streets as there is freedom of movement across Nigeria although interstate travel was recently banned to check the spread of the coronavirus.
Sourced From: Premium Times Nigeria
Nigeria News
COVID-19: ‘Bakassi Boys’ Foil Attempt To Smuggle 24 Women Into Abia In Container
By Ugochukwu Alaribe
Operatives of the Abia State Vigilante Service, AVS, popularly known as ‘Bakassi Boys’ have arrested 24 market women hidden in a container truck, at Ekwereazu Ngwa, the boundary community between Abia and Akwa Ibom states.
The market women, said to be from Akwa Ibom State, were on their way to Aba, when they were arrested with the truck driver and two of his conductors for violating the lockdown order by the state government.
Driver of the truck, Moses Asuquo, claimed he was going to Aba to purchase stock fish, but decided to assist the market women, because they were stranded.
A vigilante source told Sunday Vanguard that the vehicle was impounded while the market women were sent back to Akwa Ibom State.
Commissioner for Home Land Security, Prince Dan Okoli, who confirmed the incident, said that smuggling of people into the state poses great threat to the state government’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID- 19.
Sourced From: Vanguard News
Nigeria News
Woman Kills Her Maid Over Salary Request
Operatives of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Yaba of the Lagos State police command have arrested one Mrs Nene Steve for allegedly killing her maid, Joy Adole
The maid was allegedly beaten to death by Nene for requesting for her salary at their residence located at 18, Ogundola Street, Bariga area in Lagos.
Narrating the incident, Philips Ejeh, an elder brother to the deceased said that he was sad when they informed him that his sister was beaten to death.
He explained that the deceased was an indigene of Benue State brought to Lagos through an agent and started working with her as a maid in January 2020.
‘’She reported that her boss refused to pay her and anytime she asked for her salary she will start beating her.
She was making an attempt to leave the place but due to the total lockdown she remained there until Sunday when her boss said she caught her stealing noodles and this led to her serious beating and death,’’ Ejeh said.
He called on Lagos State Government and well- meaning people in the country to help them in getting justice for the victim.
The police spokesman, Bala Elkana, stated that the woman and her husband came to Bariga Police Station to a report that their house girl had committed suicide.
Detectives were said to have visited the house and suspected foul play with the position of the rope and bruises all over the body which confirmed that the girl had been tortured to death and the boss decided to hang up the girl to make it look like suicide.
He said: “The police moved on with their investigation and found a lot of sign of violence on her body that she has been tortured before a rope was put on her neck.’’
He added that the police removed the corpse and deposited it in the mortuary for autopsy to further ascertain the cause of the death.
Elkana said the matter has been transferred from Bariga police station to Panti for further investigation while the couple have been arrested and will be charged to court.
Tribune
Boko Haram Attacks: Buhari Summons Urgent Meeting Of Service Chiefs
Ostensibly alarmed by the latest killings of dozens of soldiers by Boko Haram insurgents, President Muhammadu Buhari has summoned an urgent meeting of Service Chiefs to find ways to stop the trend.
He has also dispatched the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, to the neighbouring Republic of Chad for an urgent meeting with President Idris Deby and his defence counterpart.
Knowledgeable sources said in Abuja on Friday that the president is worried by on the deterioration of security situation on the Nigeria – Chad Border that has led to the recently increased Boko Haram terrorism in the area.
The sources which did not want to be named in Abuja said: “Nigeria has a Chad problem in the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) put together to secure the Lake Chad basin areas and repeal the Boko Haram terrorist attacks against all the countries neighbouring the Lake.”
The sources noted that Chad is believed to be having their own internal security challenges and this has reportedly led to their pulling away their own troops manning their own border around Lake Chad, saying: “That lacuna is being exploited by the Boko Haram terrorists, who go in and out of Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon to launch terrorist acts. This is a clear illustration of the fact that terrorism is beyond national borders.”
When contacted, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed that the Defence Minister is going to Chad but said he is unaware of the purpose.
Meanwhile, the military authorities are said to be in the process of identifying the families of the latest victims with a view to making contact with them.
Credible sources revealed that it is the reason the president is yet to make any pronouncement on the matter.
“The President has called an urgent meeting with the Service Chiefs, as well as the fact that families of the latest victims of the Boko Haram are being identified and contacts made before a government pronouncement on the tragic attacks. This, it is understood, is the reason for the silence of the government over the incident,” the source said.
Sourced From: Tribune