Temperatures in India are rising, which could mean more deaths due to heat waves, say scientists at IIT-Delhi and Bombay

A recent study has found that the mean temperatures in India have risen by 0.5 degree Celsius over a period of 60 years, which corresponds to a 146% increase in the probability of deaths due to heat waves in the country. Done by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Delhi and IIT-Bombay, Mumbai, and University of California, Irvine and Los Angeles, and Boise State University, USA, it deciphers that even moderate increases in mean temperatures, such as 0.5°C, may lead to large increases in heat wave-related deaths. Based on their findings, they urge the government to put in more efforts to build up the resilience of vulnerable populations in regions with severe heat waves.

They studied temperature data from 395 weather stations from Indian meteorological department between the years 1960 to 2009. “Our results suggest that future climate warming will lead to substantial increases in heat-related deaths, particularly in developing low-latitude countries, such as India, where heat waves will become more frequent and populations are especially vulnerable to these extreme temperatures” they say. The research team comprised of Omid Mazdiyasni, Amir AghaKouchak, Steven J Davis, Shahrbanou Madadgar, Ali Mehran, Elisa Ragno, Mojtaba Sadegh, Ashmita Sengupta, Subimal Ghosh, CT Dhanya, and Mohsen Niknejad. They published their results in the journal Science Advances. ^.

Their data shows that in years—1972, 1988, 1998, and 2003—when there were more than 10 heat wave days on average across India, there was a corresponding spike in heat-related deaths of between 650 and 1500 people.

The substantial increase in mortality rates due to 0.5°C increase in summer mean temperature or two more heat wave days suggests that future climate warming could have a relatively drastic human toll in India and similarly in developing tropical and subtropical countries. “Our data will create awareness about the impact of rising temperatures in India on health, and this needs to be urgently communicated to the society”, says Dr. Subimal Ghosh, at the Department of Civil engineering at IIT-Bombay in Mumbai, who did the study.

Reference: Science Advances 3: e1700066.

This story got published in Down To Earth, BioVoice, CatchNews, Newsroom24X7, and Dainik Jagran.  

Indian scientists find 5g to kill leukemia

Indian scientists have found a new compound that effectively kills leukemic cancer cells. Named 5g, it kills more than 70 percent leukemic cancer cells in culture in 48 hours time at an extremely low concentration of 50 micromolar. It did not affect blood cells from healthy individuals, which signifies that it shows a higher toxicity to cancer cells. “After treating cancer cells, they either entered cell death or reverted back to normal cell cycle”, say scientists who tested this new compound.

This effect of 5g was most prominent on leukemic cells, while some cancer cell lines like colorectal and cervical cancer cell line showed less effect, which implies that this drug is of particular relevance in treating leukemia. The new compound accumulates death-inducing reactive oxygen species in cancer cells leading to breaks in DNA, which ultimately causes cell death. “We are working with Mysuru University to improve its efficacy. We believe that it has the potential to be developed as an anti-leukemic agent”, says Professor Sathees Raghavan, at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. 

Daily doses of 5g for 2 weeks reduced the size of tumor in mice. It was nontoxic and moderately increased the life span of tumorigenic mice. The tumor regression was incomplete, because of which, the scientists suggest that 5g needs combinational compounds to increase its efficiency. “We identify a novel inhibitor of cell cycle and provide evidence at proof of principle level that 5g can be developed as a potent anticancer molecule for chemotherapy”, they say.

This study was done at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, University of Mysore in Mysuru, and Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology in Bangalore. It was supported by IISc-Department of Biotechnology partnership. The research team consisted of Mahesh Hegde, Supriya V Vartak, Chandagirikoppal V Kavitha, Hanumappa Ananda, Doddakunche S Prasanna, Vidya Gopalakrishnan, Bibha Choudhary, Kanchugarakoppal, S Rangappa, and Sathees C Raghavan. 

This story was published by Down To Earth, OutlookIndia, Newsroom24X7, BioVoice, Amar Ujala, Dainik Jagran, and India Science Wire. 

 This news appeared in Amar Ujala. 

                                                  This news appeared in Dainik Jagran. 

Dr. Sathees Raghavan from IISc, Bangalore, with his student Supriya Vartak, who are co-authors of the study. 

Reference: Scientific Reports 7: 2533.

TB vaccination programs and deworming need to go together, say scientists

There is an immediate need to combine deworming and TB vaccination programs, according to a report by researchers from India and USA that appeared in a recent issue of the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. They studied latent TB patients who are infected with the disease-causing bacterium but cannot spread it to others because the infection is kept under control by the immune system of the body. Some of these latent TB patients were also infected with the threadworm Strongyloides stercoralis. This worm survives in the small intestine of many organisms including humans, cats, dogs, and non-human primates like chimps. It spreads through feces contaminated soil common in rural areas from developing countries where sanitation standards are poor.  

They studied a total of 132 individuals in Tamil Nadu, with 44 people in each of the three groups- those with latent TB, threadworm infestation, and with latent TB and worm infection both. They found that latent TB patients with worm infestation had lower numbers of immune cells called B-cells that secrete antibodies that keep TB under check. In addition to lowered B-cell numbers, they had reduced levels of antibodies against TB in their blood that signifies a weak immune response against TB in their body. When these patients were treated with deworming drugs ivermectin or albendazole, the immune cells and antibody levels recovered.

“The implications of our study are twofold: threadworms might promote reactivation of active TB in latent TB infected patients, and also negatively influence the immune response to TB vaccines. We suggest that treatment for worm infection would make for a prudent first step in the conduct of TB vaccine trials in countries endemic for both TB and worms”, says Professor Subash Babu, Scientific Director at the National Institute of Research in Tuberculosis, formerly Tuberculosis Research Center in Chennai.

The research team comprised of Rajamanickam Anuradha, Saravanan Munisankar, Yukti Bhootra, Chandrakumar Dolla, Paul Kumaran, Thomas B Nutman, and Subash Babu. The study was done at the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis in Chennai and National Institutes of Health, Bethesda in USA. 

This news was published by Newsroom24X7, BioVoice, and India Science Wire. 

Reference: PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 11 (5): e0005569.