Issue 6

News

Happy Holidays from all of us at CSMLS!!

This is the final edition of LabBuzz for 2015. We’ll be back in your inbox on Friday, January 8th, 2016.

Héma-Québec celebrates banking 10,000th unit of cord blood

The first Canadian public cord blood bank, Héma-Québec which is located in Quebec, is celebrating banking its 10,000th unit. The blood bank opened in 2004 and has been collecting and storing umbilical cord blood in specialized tanks at -150 degrees Celsius since that time. The cord blood units collected have been used in patients across Canada, United States, Netherlands, England and France. By reaching the 10,000 milestone, Héma-Québec contributes significantly to placing Canada amongst the top cord blood banks in the world.

Annual blood test might help prevent deaths from ovarian cancer

Quote: "This is the first time that there has been evidence of a reduction in deaths from ovarian cancer through early detection by screening," said lead researcher Dr. Ian Jacobs, from the University College London. "It opens up the prospect that, in due course, a national screening program for ovarian cancer could become available alongside breast cancer and cervical cancer screening."

The large trial published in The Lancet, found that an annual blood test to screen postmenopausal women for ovarian cancer could reduce deaths by 20 percent. The study proposes analyzing blood for CA125 pattern over time to detect any significant increase. Over 200,000 women were randomly selected to have either no screening, an annual screening of the blood marker plus ultrasound, or ultrasound alone.

2015 NIH research highlights — Insights from the lab

The National Institute of Health (NIH) has released a list of the most noteworthy advances in basic research that can improve the health of any nation. See the details on laboratory based research for:

Charting genetic variation across the globe
Epigenetics emerging
The interactome: mapping protein interactions
Lymphatic vessels discovered in central nervous system
Insights into energy-burning fat cells
Skin microbes and the immune response
Muscle mitochondria may form energy power grid
Autoimmune disease super-regulators uncovered

For a full list of highlighted basic and non-basic research, see this report.

Transfusion Medicine

FDA Offers Guidance for Blood Establishments During Ebola Outbreaks

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released the highly anticipated new draft recommendations for blood establishments to implement additional screening measures during Ebola virus outbreaks including assessing blood donor suitability, donor deferral, and blood product management. Also, the recommendations apply to routine collection of blood and blood components for transfusion or further manufacture, including Source Plasma. The guidance document applies primarily to Ebola virus (species Zaire ebolavirus), but recommendations are expected to apply to other viruses such as Sudan virus, Bundibugyo virus, and Taï Forest virus.

FDA Report: Recommendations for Assessment of Blood Donor Suitability, Donor Deferral and Blood Product Management in Response to Ebola Virus

Microbiology

The fight against antibiotic resistance has a new ally

Antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) has traditionally been performed using two methods: the disc-diffusion or Kirby-Bauer method, and the agar or broth dilution. The techniques are considered reliable, accurate and represent the gold standard for AST testing. However, the lack of rapid processing and inability to scale up for high-throughput assays are limiting factors. As technology advances, there are new approaches for expediting AST testing, such as multiplexed PCR-based assays for amplification of biomarkers and mass spectrometry techniques like MALDI-TOF for rapid identification of unknown organisms. Read this summary article on another technique that uses time-lapse imaging microscopy and analysis software to distinguish live resistant cells from the milieu of microbes typically contained within clinical microbiology samples.

Anatomic Pathology

Biochemical clues may predict who develops Alzheimer's disease -- and who doesn't

Investigators have wondered why the brains of some cognitively-intact elderly individuals have abundant pathology on autopsy or significant amyloid deposition on neuroimaging that are characteristic of Alzheimer disease (AD). Published in The American Journal of Pathology investigated biochemical factors and identified differences in proteins from parietal cortex synapses between patients with and those without manifestation of dementia. Specifically, early-stage AD patients had elevated concentrations of synaptic soluble amyloid-β (Aβ) oligomers compared to controls who were not demented but displayed signs of AD pathology. Synapse-associated hyperphosphorylated tau (p-tau) levels did not increase until late-stage AD.

"Our results suggest that effective therapies will need to target synaptic Aβ oligomers, and that anti-amyloid therapies will be much less effective once synaptic p-tau pathology has developed, thus providing a potential explanation for the failure of amyloid-based trials," explained lead investigator Karen H. Gylys, PhD, of the UCLA School of Nursing and the Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer's Research.

Molecular Biology

Cancer breakthrough as Canadian scientists “switch off” notorious Ras protein

As the most responsible protein for causing cancer, Ras is directly responsible for 30% of all cancers and indirectly involved in virtually all cancers. In a breaking study, a team of researchers from Indiana University and Toronto’s University Health Network discovered that the SHP2 protein turns Ras off. The team tested a SHP2 inhibitor on mice with glioblastoma (brain cancer). The inhibitor reduced the tumours by over 80%. These results identify SHP2 as a direct activator of Ras and a potential therapeutic target for cancers driven by a previously ‘undruggable’ oncogenic or hyperactive Ras.

Publication: Inhibition of SHP2-mediated dephosphorylation of Ras suppresses oncogenesis

Press Release: U of T researchers “turn off” cancer-causing protein

Viral Infections Leave Signature on Immune System

A team from Stanford University has identified a distinctive pattern of gene expression that distinguishes a viral infection from a bacterial infection as well as a pattern that distinguishes the flu from other respiratory infections. The 396 gene pattern called the meta-virus signature, occurs in a range of viruses and is distinct from the pattern of gene expression in healthy people or in people with bacterial infections. This signature pattern is also present even before a person has clear symptoms of infection. Published in Immunity, the authors also described a second gene expression pattern that signals when a person is infected specifically with the flu virus. This second pattern called the influenza meta-signature, consists of a change pattern of 11 human genes and can distinguish the flu from other viral infections, including bacterial infections. It can also identify a flu infection before a person has symptoms and even reveal whether a person is building immunity after getting the flu vaccine. The researchers proposed that theoretically the meta-virus signature could be used clinically to distinguish viral from bacterial infections to determine if an antibiotic should be prescribed.

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