Obesity epidemic of India

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Obesity in India is on the rise. It has reached enormous proportions. As I sit and count at airports, the number of women who look obviously overweight and obese, the figures I get is 8 out of 10. And this is around same in children of all sexes and around 6 in 10 men show clearcut overweight and obesity that is obvious even to naked eye. Anthropometric measurements might reveal more of them.  What are the likely causes? I have a theory that starts analysing these cases right from the 2000s or previous century. Junk food eating and sedantry lifestyle had already given an upward push to obesity in last century. And this also gave rise to diabetes mellitus in both men and women. Hence, such mothers also had diabetes in pregnancy. Some who did not have diabetes otherwise had gestational diabetes. From 2000 to 2026 prevalence of gestational diabetes has risen in india. It has even spread to rural areas and recent national data gives a figure of 22.4% which is almost 1 in 4 pregnant mot...
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MRNA covid-19 vaccine has opened up avenues for renewed interest and enthusiasm of use of mRNA in cancer cure

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 Covid-19 vaccine has arrived amidst a mixed reaction. These vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are messenger RNA. Another one from German Company CureVac NV is also on its way to be approved. There is more hope in these vaccines beyond control of covid. What are its future benefits?

mRNA vaccines and ordinary vaccines

Most vaccines are inactivated or attenuated viral parts which induce an immune response in the body that offers protection against the virus. They need cell cultures and chemicals. It is time-consuming with risk of contamination. But in case of mRNA, this process is skipped. Scientists determine which protein they want the host body to produce, analyze its amino acid sequence and see what instructions the mRNA must give. The process is faster and the mRNA is safe genetically. 


MRNA and its uses in maladies (Source: Nature)


The history of mRNA and its use

Research into mRNA began in the 1970s. But somehow after a decade of work on it it fell into the background. Money, time, efforts and patience went missing. Also some animal studies also led to fatal inflammation. 

Read here on emotional exhaustion of covid!

But somehow some scientists such as Hungarian-American Katalin Kariko continued work on this front and emerged victorious. She faced a lot of obstacles in her career and had salary cut and demotion. But nonetheless, she did not let her goal and focus to shift. She realized that uridine caused inflammation and changed this in the code with positive results. 

MRNA and cancer cure

Their research was mostly for use of mRNA against cancer. They used it to train the body to make immune cells against the target pathological antigen. This included viruses, other germs and cancer cells. The outcomes of studies in cancer was good and mRNA holds promise in treatment of cancers without affecting normal host cells. 

Not many investors were keen to put in money in this research. But now with the success of the mRNA vaccines against covid-19, renewed interest in them has happened. Hope for cancer cure is in the horizon!!! 


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