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New discovery explains antihypertensive properties of green and black tea

University of California at Irvine, March 8, 2021

A new study from the University of California, Irvine shows that compounds in both green and black tea relax blood vessels by activating ion channel proteins in the blood vessel wall. The discovery helps explain the antihypertensive properties of tea and could lead to the design of new blood pressure-lowering medications.

Published in Cellular Physiology and Biochemistry, the discovery was made by the laboratory of Geoffrey Abbott, PhD, a professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the UCI School of Medicine. Kaitlyn Redford, a graduate student in the Abbott Lab, was first author of the study titled, “KCNQ5 potassium channel activation underlies vasodilation by tea.”

Results from the research revealed that two catechin-type flavonoid compounds (epicatechin gallate and epigallocatechin-3-gallate) found in tea, each activate a specific type of ion channel protein named KCNQ5, which allows potassium ions to diffuse out of cells to reduce cellular excitability. As KCNQ5 is found in the smooth muscle that lines blood vessels, its activation by tea catechins was also predicted to relax blood vessels – a prediction confirmed by collaborators at the University of Copenhagen.

“We found by using computer modeling and mutagenesis studies that specific catechins bind to the foot of the voltage sensor, which is the part of KCNQ5 that allows the channel to open in response to cellular excitation. This binding allows the channel to open much more easily and earlier in the cellular excitation process,” explained Abbott.

Because as many as one third of the world’s adult population have hypertension, and this condition is considered to be the number one modifiable risk factor for global cardiovascular disease and premature mortality, new approaches to treating hypertension have enormous potential to improve global public health. Prior studies demonstrated that consumption of green or black tea can reduce blood pressure by a small but consistent amount, and catechins were previously found to contribute to this property. Identification of KCNQ5 as a novel target for the hypertensive properties of tea catechins may facilitate medicinal chemistry optimization for improved potency or efficacy.

In addition to its role in controlling vascular tone, KCNQ5 is expressed in various parts of the brain, where it regulates electrical activity and signaling between neurons. Pathogenic KCNQ5 gene variants exist that impair its channel function and in doing so cause epileptic encephalopathy, a developmental disorder that is severely debilitating and causes frequent seizures. Because catechins can cross the blood-brain barrier, discovery of their ability to activate KCNQ5 may suggest a future mechanism to fix broken KCNQ5 channels to ameliorate brain excitability disorders stemming from their dysfunction.

Tea has been produced and consumed for more than 4,000 years and upwards of 2 billion cups of tea are currently drunk each day worldwide, second only to water in terms of the volume consumed by people globally. The three commonly consumed caffeinated teas (green, oolong, and black) are all produced from the leaves of the evergreen species Camellia sinensis, the differences arising from different degrees of fermentation during tea production.

Black tea is commonly mixed with milk before it is consumed in countries including the United Kingdom and the United States. The researchers in the present study found that when black tea was directly applied to cells containing the KCNQ5 channel, the addition of milk prevented the beneficial KCNQ5-activating effects of tea. However, according to Abbott, “We don’t believe this means one needs to avoid milk when drinking tea to take advantage of the beneficial properties of tea. We are confident that the environment in the human stomach will separate the catechins from the proteins and other molecules in milk that would otherwise block catechins’ beneficial effects.”

This hypothesis is borne out by other studies showing antihypertensive benefits of tea regardless of milk co-consumption. The team also found, using mass spectrometry, that warming green tea to 35 degrees Celsius alters its chemical composition in a way that renders it more effective at activating KCNQ5.

“Regardless of whether tea is consumed iced or hot, this temperature is achieved after tea is drunk, as human body temperature is about 37 degrees Celsius,” explained Abbott. “Thus, simply by drinking tea we activate its beneficial, antihypertensive properties.”

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy impact on telomere length & immunosenescence

• Shamir Medical Center and Tel-Aviv University (Israel), March 8, 2021

Aging-US published “Hyperbaric oxygen therapy increases telomere length and decreases immunosenescence in isolated blood cells: a prospective trial” which reported that the aim of the current study was to evaluate whether hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) affects telomere length (TL) and senescent cell concentrations in a normal, non-pathological, aging adult population.

Thirty-five healthy independently living adults, aged 64 and older, were enrolled to receive 60 daily HBOT exposures.

Whole blood samples were collected at baseline, at the 30th and 60th session, and 1-2 weeks following the last HBOT session.

Telomeres length of T helper, T cytotoxic, natural killer and B cells increased significantly by over 20% following HBOT.

In this Aging-US study, the most significant change was noticed in B cells which increased at the 30th session, 60th session and post HBOT by 25.68%±40.42 , 29.39%±23.39 and 37.63%±52.73, respectively.

Dr. Amir Hadanny and Dr. Shai Efrati said, “Aging can be characterized by the progressive loss of physiological integrity, resulting in impaired functions and susceptibility for diseases and death.”

At the cellular level, there are two key hallmarks of the aging process: shortening of telomere length and cellular senescence.

Shortened TLs can be a direct inherited trait, but several environmental factors have also been associated with shortening TL including stress, lack of physical endurance activity, excess body mass index, smoking, chronic inflammation, vitamins deficiency and oxidative stress.

Cellular senescence is an arrest of the cell cycle which can be caused by telomere shortening, as well as other aging associated stimuli independent of TL such as non-telomeric DNA damage.

The accumulation of senescent cells with aging reflects either an increase in the generation of these cells and/or a decrease in their clearance, which in turn aggravates the damage and contributes to aging.

On the cellular level, it was demonstrated that HBOT can induce the expression of hypoxia induced factor, vascular endothelial growth factor and sirtuin, stem cell proliferation, mitochondrial biogenesis, angiogenesis and neurogenesis.

The Hadanny/Efrati Research Team concluded in their Aging-US Research Output that hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a well-established treatment modality for non-healing wounds, radiation injuries as well as different hypoxic or ischemic events .

In recent years, a growing evidence from preclinical as well as clinical trials demonstrate the efficacy of HBOT for neurological indications including idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss, post stroke and post traumatic brain injury, central sensitization syndrome such as fibromyalgia syndrome and age related cognitive decline and animal models of Alzheimer’s disease.

For the first time, the current study aimed to evaluate the physiological effect on the cellular level in aging humans without any functional limiting disease.

Get into the swing: Golf may have more benefit for Parkinson’s than tai chi

Massachusetts General Hospital, March 4, 2021

When it comes to exercise that does the most good for people with Parkinson’s disease, golf may hit above par when compared to tai chi. That’s according to a preliminary study released today, March 3, 2021, that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 73rd Annual Meeting being held virtually April 17 to April 22, 2021. The study found that golf was better than tai chi for improving balance and mobility.

“We know that people with Parkinson’s disease benefit from exercise, but not enough people with the disease get enough exercise as therapy,” said study author Anne-Marie A. Wills, M.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital Boston and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. “Golf is popular–the most popular sport for people over the age of 55–which might encourage people to try it and stick with it. We decided to compare golf to tai chi in our study because tai chi is the gold standard for balance and preventing falls in people with Parkinson’s.”

The study involved 20 people with moderate Parkinson’s disease. Everyone was offered 10 weeks of two one-hour group classes per week of golf or tai chi at no cost. Eight people were randomly assigned to practice their golf swing at a driving range while 12 did tai chi.

At the start and again at the end of the study, researchers evaluated everyone with tests, including one that measures balance, walking ability and risk of falling in older adults. For the test, a person is timed while getting up from a chair, walking 10 feet and then returning to the chair and sitting down.

The golfers were 0.96 seconds faster on the test at the end of the study, while those who did tai chi were 0.33 seconds slower.

“While the results for golf might be surprising, it’s important to remember that the number of participants in our study was small, and the period over which we studied them was relatively short,” Wills said. “More research in larger groups of people, over longer periods of time, is needed.”

Researchers said overall satisfaction with their sport was similar in both groups, however 86% of golfers compared to 33% of tai chi participants were “definitely” likely to continue the activity.

“Our finding that golfers were much more likely to continue with their sport is exciting because it doesn’t matter how beneficial an exercise is on paper if you people don’t actually do it,” Wills said. “So if swinging a golf club is more appealing than practicing tai chi, by all means, go to a driving range and hit balls for an hour instead!”

Coffee compound induces programmed cell death, inhibits metastasis and Improves antitumor immunity in breast cancer

Sichuan University (China), March 1, 2021

According to news reporting originating from Sichuan, People’s Republic of China, research stated, “Breast cancer which is the most common type of diagnosed cancer among women worldwide possesses metastatic potential, multi-drug resistance, and high mortality. The NF-kappa B signaling pathway has been revealed to be abnormally activated in breast cancer cells and closely associated with high metastasis and poor prognosis.”

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Sichuan University, “In the present study, it was reported that chlorogenic acid (CGA), a potent NF-kappa B inhibitor derived from coffee, exerted antitumor activity in breast cancer. MTT and colony formation assays were conducted and it was revealed that CGA inhibited viability and proliferation in breast cancer cells. Additionally, CGA significantly induced apoptosis and suppressed migration and invasion in breast cancer cells. Notably, immunofluorescence analysis confirmed that CGA could efficiently suppress nuclear transcription of NF-kappa B p65. In addition, results of western blotting demonstrated that CGA markedly impaired the NF-kappa B and EMT signaling pathways. The antitumor effect of CGA was evaluated in a subcutaneous tumor mouse model of 4T1 cells, and the results revealed that CGA markedly retarded tumor growth and prolonged the survival rate of tumor-bearing mice. Notably, CGA inhibited pulmonary metastasis of 4T1 cells by enhancing the proportion of CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells in spleens of mice, which indicated an improvement of antitumor immunity.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “The present present study demonstrated that CGA improved antitumor immunity, exerting antitumor and anti-metastatic effects by impairing the NF-kappa B/EMT signaling pathway, suggesting that CGA may serve as a potential candidate for therapy of breast cancer.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

How eating a whole-food, plant-based diet can prevent COVID-19

Rush University Medical Center, March 8 2021

Although our efforts have been focused on reducing the spread of the virus, millions of Americans are simultaneously dealing with heart disease. And having heart disease actually increases your risk for COVID-19.

A recent study by Kim Williams Sr., MD, a cardiologist at Rush, found that a heart-healthy diet not only lowers your risk for heart disease, but also assists in fending off COVID-19.

Here, Williams shares the combined impact heart disease and the virus has had on Black and Latinx communities—and he provides helpful healthy eating tips during the era of COVID-19.

Heart disease and COVID-19

Last year, the virus killed over 400,000 Americans while cardiovascular disease typically claims someone’s life every 37 seconds, and an estimated total of 655,000 Americans.

Additionally, people with heart disease are at a higher risk of contracting a severe case of COVID-19. And if you’re living with other underlying conditions, like diabetes, high blood pressure or obesity, both diseases can have a significant impact on your overall health.

“It’s particularly tough because both heart disease and COVID-19 have the same risk factors for having a bad outcome—it’s a perfect storm,” Williams says.

Here is a list of risk factors that contribute to worse outcomes for heart disease and the virus:

• Diabetes
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Obesity

Williams emphasizes that nutrition can help manage and improve, if not reverse, all of these risk factors. “If you want to avoid a bad outcome from cardiovascular causes, or even COVID-19, this is the time to change your diet.”

Importance of healthy eating

Williams’ research shows that a whole-food, plant-based diet is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and, ultimately would contribute to a lower risk of COVID-19.

“Your level of heart inflammation goes down when you eat a whole-food, plant-based diet, and it helps to build your immune system,” he says. “So, as I like to say it, #GoVegan4COVID.”There are over 20,000 types of vegetables, fruits, grains and beans on this planet, but Williams notes that if you’re still not sure what to eat, focus your grocery shopping on the produce section.

“If it’s a plant, go ahead and eat it, but be careful if it is made in a factory,” he says. “There is such a thing as an unhealthy vegan diet. For example, eating refined grains, fried potatoes and sugar-sweetened beverages may indeed be vegan, but they are actually worse than eating an animal product.”

The pandemic has also contributed to other challenges associated with food—including overall access, as well as financial and safety concerns. Williams suggests taking advantage of grocery stores that provide an online delivery service and that sell plants and grains in bulk.

“The availability of healthy foods has actually improved substantially, particularly in regard to the concept of food deserts and the delivery system,” he says. “As for the price tag, I’ve heard numerous times that eating a whole-food, plant-based diet is more expensive. In reality, it’s less expensive than consistently purchasing processed or fast food.”

Williams recommends visiting the Association of Black Cardiologists website to find healthy recipes and concepts that can help you change to a whole-food, plant-based diet.

Priority communities

Cardiovascular disease and COVID-19 disproportionately affect Black and Latinx communities.

In fact, the Centers for Disease Control reports that Black Americans are 20% more likely to die from heart disease. Heart disease is also one of the leading causes of deaths in the Latinx community. Additionally, Black Americans are almost four times more likely to be hospitalized due to COVID-19, whereas Latinx folks are more than twice as likely to be hospitalized.

These three factors contribute to these disparities:

• Diet. Food choices remain a key factor to your overall risk. For example, foods that contain an excessive amount of refined carbohydrates, among other ingredients, can increase the risk of heart disease, such as obesity and diabetes, if consumed on a consistent basis. This lowers your immune system and worsens your risk for COVID-19.
• Structural racism. Structural racism impacts education and work situations that contribute to food choices and risk for the virus. “If you have a group of people who are systematically (inadequately) educated, or who are not receiving college degrees with a higher frequency, this group of people is probably working at public-facing jobs more than other people,” Williams says. “That being said, they are more at risk of being exposed and don’t always have a lot of options, as they are considered essential workers during the pandemic.”
• Home situation. During the pandemic, it can be difficult if your home situation does not allow space for six people to stay 6 feet apart all the time. If one family member catches the virus, it can affect the whole household. Williams notes that the real tragedy is that older adults—the people with the highest number of risk factors and underlying conditions—suffer the most.

“It’s a very difficult time for all people of color,” Williams says. “There’s been an unexpected emphasis put on how much our society needs to address our social disparities and truly try to resolve the educational and economic disparities. If we can all commit to this, we are less likely to have the same problem in the future.”

Protecting ourselves and our communities

COVID-19 has taken a toll on our lives, and as a result, we’ve put other health concerns on hold. Although the virus has created a global pandemic, we must not forget about the ongoing leading cause of death in the United States—heart disease.

“COVID-19 hit (the Black) community and its cardiovascular health, and it’s time we get people to be healthier,” Williams says. “We all need to be a beacon of a heart-healthy diet in order to protect ourselves, our families and our communities from the virus and from heart disease.”

Acupuncture improves outcomes in carpal tunnel syndrome in part by remapping the brain 

Massachusetts General Hospital, March 2, 2021

Though the practice of acupuncture predates current understanding of physiology by several millennia, it often provides measureable improvements in health outcomes, particularly in the area of chronic pain. Now, in a study reported in the journal Brain, a team of investigators based at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) sheds new light on the question of how.

“Acupuncture is a medical therapy that originated in China several thousand years ago,” said Vitaly Napadow, PhD, director of the Center for Integrative Pain Neuroimaging at the Martinos Center and senior author of the Brain paper. “But despite its long history, the intervention itself – particularly when coupled with electrical stimulation – has significant similarities to many conventional therapies, such as transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). A large body of clinical research exploring acupuncture for chronic pain disorders has demonstrated that it may be marginally better than a placebo procedure in reducing pain ratings. But questions still remain: How exactly does acupuncture work? Is it any better at improving objective outcomes for chronic pain?”

To get to the root of these questions, Napadow and colleagues performed a sham-controlled acupuncture neuroimaging study of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), a neuropathic pain disorder. Few chronic pain disorders have established biomarkers or measureable treatment outcomes. However, in CTS measurements taken at the wrist of the speed at which signals are transmitted along the median nerve are a well known and accepted biomarker. In addition, studies by Napadow and others have shown that the brain – particularly the primary somatosensory cortex, which receives signals related to the sense of touch – is remapped in CTS. Specifically, brain cells that usually respond to touch signals from specific fingers start to respond to signals from multiple fingers, which provides another measureable outcome.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) taken before and after several months of therapy in three different groups of CTS patients – one receiving electro-acupuncture at the affected hand, one receiving electro-acupuncture at the ankle opposite the affected hand, and the other receiving sham electro-acupuncture with placebo needles near the affected hand – the researchers found that both real and sham acupuncture improved patient-reported CTS symptoms. However, there were notable differences in physiologic measures. Real acupuncture at the affected hand led to measurable improvements in outcomes both at the affected wrist and in the brain, while acupuncture at the opposite ankle produced improvement at the wrist only. Brain remapping immediately after real acupuncture was linked to long-term improvement in CTS symptoms. No physiologic improvements resulted from sham acupuncture.

Even after years of clinical research, controversy continues as to whether acupuncture works primarily by the placebo effect, especially given the slight differences between the efficacy of real and sham acupuncture. The findings of the Brain study help to address this question. Sham acupuncture may produce a stronger placebo effect than a pill because it sends inputs to the brain via skin receptors and is coupled with a specific ritual. But the symptom improvement produced by sham treatment for conditions like CTS also might derive from entirely different mechanisms than those elicited by real acupuncture, the mechanisms of which may more specifically target CTS pathophysiology.

“Sham acupuncture may ‘work’ by modulating known placebo circuitry in the brain,” Napadow said. “In contrast, real acupuncture may improve CTS symptoms by rewiring the primary somatosensory cortex, in addition to modulating local blood flow to the peripheral nerve in the wrist. In other words, both peripheral and central neurophysiological changes in CTS may be halted or even reversed by electro-acupuncture interventions that provide more prolonged and regulated input to the brain – something that future, longer-term neuroimaging studies should explore.”

Napadow and colleagues plan to follow up the Brain study with further research linking objective/physiological and subjective/psychological outcomes for acupuncture-produced pain relief. Better understanding of how acupuncture works to relieve pain ultimately will enable them and others to optimize the therapy to provide effective, non-pharmacological care for chronic pain patients.

Vitamin C 10 Times More Effective Killing Cancer Stem Cells Than Pharmaceuticals

University of Manchester (UK), March 9 ,2021  

A new study by UK scientists openly claims that vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is more potent than some pharma drugs at killing cancer stem cells – the pervasive cells that “seed” new cancer cells, feed fatal tumors and often evade treatment.

The study, published in Oncotarget, is the first evidence that supports that vitamin C be used to target and kill cancer stem cells (CSCs).

Vitamin C has previously been shown to be effective as a non-toxic anti-cancer agent in studies by Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling and was recently shown to reduce mortality by 18% on breast cancer patients in Japan.  However, its effects on CSC activity have not been previously evaluated and in this context, say the researchers, it behaves as an inhibitor of glycolysis, which fuels energy production in mitochondria, the “powerhouse” of the cell.

In order to find out which substances might target stem cells, researchers needed to find a way to disrupt cancer cell metabolism.

Focusing on energy-transfer, they measured the impact on cell lines in a laboratory of seven substances:

• The clinically approved cancer drug, stiripentol
• Three experimental pharmaceuticals: actinonin, FK866 and 2-DG.
• Three natural substances: caffeic acid phenyl ester (CAPE), silibinin and ascorbic acid

While they found that natural antibiotic actinonin and the compound FK866 were the most potent, the natural products also inhibited cancer stem cell (CSC) formation, with vitamin C, outperforming 2-DG by tenfold in terms of potency.

Dr Michael P. Lisanti, Professor of Translational Medicine at the University of Salford, said [emphasis H.C.]:  We have been looking at how to target cancer stem cells with a range of natural substances including silibinin (milk thistle) and CAPE, a honey-bee derivative, but by far the most exciting are the results with Vitamin C.

Vitamin C is cheap, natural, non-toxic and readily available so to have it as a potential weapon in the fight against cancer would be a significant step. 

Dr Gloria Bonuccelli, lead author and another member of the Salford team added:  This is further evidence that Vitamin C and other non-toxic compounds may have a role to play in the fight against cancer.

Our results indicate it is a promising agent for clinical trials, and a as an add-on to more conventional therapies, to prevent tumour recurrence, further disease progression and metastasis.

It’s important to note that this study was done on cancer cell lines in the lab – so a study on humans would be ideal, especially to see which type of vitamin C therapy would work best. There are so-called skeptics out there who like to poke at stories on studies like this, saying that anything can kill cell lines in a Petri dish. There are even comics showing a scientist shooting a handgun into the cell lines to possibly mock the idea. Bleach kills cancer, too, they say. While it doesn’t hurt to keep that in mind, not everything can effectively kill cancer stem cells in the lab. Truth be told, everyone wants to know about which substances can kill cancer stem cells while protecting other human cells.