Senior author Professor Tony Merriman, of Otago’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology, hopes the findings will remove some of the stigma around gout.
“Gout is a chronic disease with a genetic basis and is not the fault of the sufferer – the myth that gout is caused by lifestyle or diet needs to be busted.
“This widespread myth causes shame in people with gout, making some people more likely to suffer in silence and not go and see the doctor to get a preventive drug that lowers urate in the blood and will prevent their pain.
“People need to understand that while specific dietary factors, such as eating red meat, can trigger gout attacks, the fundamental cause is high urate levels, crystals in the joints, and an immune system primed to ‘attack’ the crystals – genetics plays an important role in all of these processes.”
The research identified a large number of immune genes and immune pathways that provide new targets and approaches for preventing gout attacks.
Professor Merriman hopes these findings will lead to improved treatment for gout sufferers.
Senior author Professor Tony Merriman, of Otago’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology.
“We hope that, in time, better and more accessible treatments will become available with the new targets we identified,” he says.
One such option could be the repurposing of a drug used to treat a range of other immune-related diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis – tocilizumab targets a receptor for an immune signaller, interleukin-6, which the research identified as a new gene for gout.
“Gout deserves more health spend resource and greater prioritisation in the health system.”
Information about gout:
– Gout is the most common form of arthritis in men; it affects about 3-4 times more men than women.
– Gout attacks are caused by severe inflammation in the joints that arises from reaction to crystals of urate. These crystals form in the joints when urate levels in the body are high.
– Diet plays a very small role in high urate levels but it is well established as a trigger of gout in people with urate crystals in their joints.
– Gout can be effectively treated by drugs (such as allopurinol) which lower the urate in the blood and prevent urate crystal forming in the joints (or dissolve them if they are already there).
– Gout is a chronic disease so treatment is lifelong.
Senior author Professor Tony Merriman, of Otago’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology, hopes the findings will remove some of the stigma around gout.
“Gout is a chronic disease with a genetic basis and is not the fault of the sufferer – the myth that gout is caused by lifestyle or diet needs to be busted.
“This widespread myth causes shame in people with gout, making some people more likely to suffer in silence and not go and see the doctor to get a preventive drug that lowers urate in the blood and will prevent their pain.
“People need to understand that while specific dietary factors, such as eating red meat, can trigger gout attacks, the fundamental cause is high urate levels, crystals in the joints, and an immune system primed to ‘attack’ the crystals – genetics plays an important role in all of these processes.”
The research identified a large number of immune genes and immune pathways that provide new targets and approaches for preventing gout attacks.
Professor Merriman hopes these findings will lead to improved treatment for gout sufferers.
Senior author Professor Tony Merriman, of Otago’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology.
“We hope that, in time, better and more accessible treatments will become available with the new targets we identified,” he says.
One such option could be the repurposing of a drug used to treat a range of other immune-related diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis – tocilizumab targets a receptor for an immune signaller, interleukin-6, which the research identified as a new gene for gout.
“Gout deserves more health spend resource and greater prioritisation in the health system.”
Information about gout:
– Gout is the most common form of arthritis in men; it affects about 3-4 times more men than women.
– Gout attacks are caused by severe inflammation in the joints that arises from reaction to crystals of urate. These crystals form in the joints when urate levels in the body are high.
– Diet plays a very small role in high urate levels but it is well established as a trigger of gout in people with urate crystals in their joints.
– Gout can be effectively treated by drugs (such as allopurinol) which lower the urate in the blood and prevent urate crystal forming in the joints (or dissolve them if they are already there).
– Gout is a chronic disease so treatment is lifelong.
NEW YORK — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Monday suggested that migrants who are in the U.S. and have committed murder did so because “it’s in their genes.” There are, he added, “a lot of bad genes in our country right now.”
It’s the latest example of Trump alleging that immigrants are changing the hereditary makeup of the U.S. Last year, he evoked language once used by Adolf Hitler to argue that immigrants entering the U.S. illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
Trump made the comments Monday in a radio interview with conservative host Hugh Hewitt. He was criticizing his Democratic opponent for the 2024 presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris, when he pivoted to immigration, citing statistics that the Department of Homeland Security says include cases from his administration.
“How about allowing people to come through an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers? Many of them murdered far more than one person,” Trump said. “And they’re now happily living in the United States. You know, now a murderer — I believe this: it’s in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now. Then you had 425,000 people come into our country that shouldn’t be here that are criminals.”
Trump’s campaign said his comments regarding genes were about murderers.
“He was clearly referring to murderers, not migrants. It’s pretty disgusting the media is always so quick to defend murderers, rapists, and illegal criminals if it means writing a bad headline about President Trump,” Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, said in a statement.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released immigration enforcement data to Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales last month about the people under its supervision, including those not in ICE custody. That included 13,099 people who were found guilty of homicide and 425,431 people who are convicted criminals.
But those numbers span decades, including during Trump’s administration. And those who are not in ICE custody may be detained by state or local law enforcement agencies, according to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE.
The Harris campaign declined to comment.
Asked during her briefing with reporters on Monday about Trump’s “bad genes” comment, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “That type of language, it’s hateful, it’s disgusting, it’s inappropriate, it has no place in our country.”
The former president and Republican nominee has made illegal immigration a central part of his 2024 campaign, vowing to stage the largest deportation operation in U.S. history if elected. He has a long history of comments maligning immigrants, including referring to them as “animals” and “killers,” and saying that they spread diseases.
Last month, during his debate with Harris, Trump falsely claimed Haitian immigrants in Ohio were abducting and eating pets.
As president, he questioned why the U.S. was accepting immigrants from Haiti and Africa rather than Norway and told four congresswomen, all people of color and three of whom were born in the U.S., to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
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Associated Press writer Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.
New Delhi: The increasing use of drugs Ozempic and Wegovy for weight loss has been witnessing rapid and massive backlash, fuelling a new form of weight-associated stigma — Ozempic shaming.
For every celebrity who has admitted to using these drugs — be it Elon Musk or Oprah Winfrey — there is an equal number of naysayers. On social media, self-proclaimed health gurus caution against what they call “quick fixes”, urging followers to adopt more traditional methods of fat loss, such as diet and exercise.
While both Ozempic and Wegovy are semaglutide injections, the former is prescribed for type 2 diabetes and the latter, a higher-dose version, for obesity. Semaglutide mimics Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) — a hormone that regulates blood glucose levels and metabolism, is released in response to food, and suppresses appetite and the release of insulin. In this way, semaglutide offers a potential option for those struggling with weight management and associated health complications.
“Give A Trophy Today! A little encouragement goes a long way. WIN with Nutrition & Exercise!” an X user wrote on the microblogging platform, as a veiled jab at weight loss drugs.
Meanwhile, conspiracy theorists are accusing pharmaceutical giants of colluding with media outlets to drive profits from these drugs.
In an interview toThe Harvard Gazette earlier this year, Dr Chika Anekwe, an obesity medicine physician at the Mass General Weight Center in Massachusetts General Hospital and instructor at Harvard Medical School in Boston, attributes the backlash to fear and bias.
“Mistrust of the medical community is another potential explanation for the vigor with which people are so opposed to the use of medications for weight management,” she said in the interview.
She further explained that much of this criticism overlooks the struggles faced by those battling metabolic conditions that contribute to obesity, many of which are often beyond their control.
“The belief that has been so ingrained in our minds is that you should be able to maintain a healthy weight by yourself and anything you’re using, other than a healthy diet and exercise, to help is considered cheating or evidence of a lack of willpower,” said Anekwe. She emphasised the importance of medical interventions like pharmacotherapy and bariatric surgery.
Criticism of weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy often stems from a lack of understanding in society, where obesity is not yet widely recognised as a disease. Many still hold the ingrained belief that using anything other than diet and exercise for weight management is “cheating”, overlooking the fact that similar to diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia, obesity is also a chronic metabolic disorder.
Doctors in India acknowledge that lifestyle factors play a significant role in obesity. But it is also a chronic disease requiring long-term management strategies, similar to other persistent health conditions, Dr Himika Chawla, senior consultant endocrinologist at PSRI Hospital in New Delhi, told ThePrint.
“Obesity needs to be addressed and treated beyond just lifestyle modifications. Genetics play a critical role in managing obesity, and many patients visit hospitals after struggling to maintain a healthy weight despite adhering to strict diet and exercise routines,” she said.
For such patients, oral or injectable drugs can facilitate long-term weight management. Dr Chawla warned, however, that such treatments must be taken under strict medical supervision.
“When combined with closely monitored dietary interventions and exercise routines, these medications can help patients with obesity — who are at higher risk for conditions like diabetes, hypertension, and even cancer — maintain better overall health,” she added.
Dr Chawla said doctors have been receiving queries on weight loss drugs from patients, and while these drugs can be helpful for weight management, they can lead to several side effects. “These include nausea, vomiting, severe appetite loss, constipation, and diarrhoea, among others.”
Hype for weight loss drugs in India
Semaglutide has created a lot of buzz in India as well.
In other countries, Denmark-based pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy have garnered attention for managing type 2 diabetes and weight loss, respectively. Meanwhile, Indian regulators have so far approved type 2 diabetes and obesity drug tirzepatide only for diabetes treatment.
In July, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), India’s apex drug regulator, recommended regulatory approval to import and market tirzepatide in the country.
Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly, which sells tirzepatide under the brand names Mounjaro and Zepbound, has received marketing authorisation for type 2 diabetes indication for the drug in India. The application for obesity indication is undergoing review by the CDSCO, an Eli Lilly spokesperson told ThePrint in July.
Mounjaro has been available in the US since 2022, and is indicated for diabetes. Zepbound was approved as a drug for weight management by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2023.
Mental toll of weight stigma
Weight stigma, which often causes people to loathe and doubt themselves, has to be addressed first, experts say.
“When people are looking down on or judging somebody for their excess weight, that’s weight stigma. Self-stigma occurs when those perceptions are internalized, causing individuals to believe they possess the negative traits associated with excess weight,” Dr Anekwe had said in the interview to The Harvard Gazette.
Apart from the stigma attached to excess weight, the points highlighted by Dr Anekwe included the need for greater awareness of the concept of excess weight. Currently, Body Mass Index (BMI) is often used as a measure for weight management, but this needs to change, she said.
The real concern is excess fat, not excess weight, as individuals such as bodybuilders may have higher body weight without the associated health risks of obesity. Dr Anekwe urged those concerned about their weight or health to first consult their primary care doctor, rather than relying on BMI or unverified information. Building trust in the medical community is key to addressing these issues effectively.
Neanderthals were morning people, a new study suggests. And some humans today who like getting up early might credit genes they inherited from their Neanderthal ancestors.
The new study compared DNA in living humans with genetic material retrieved from Neanderthal fossils. It turns out that Neanderthals carried some of the same clock-related genetic variants as do people who report being early risers.
Since the 1990s, studies of Neanderthal DNA have exposed our species’ intertwined history. About 700,000 years ago, our lineages split apart, most likely in Africa. While the ancestors of modern humans largely stayed in Africa, the Neanderthal lineage migrated into Eurasia.
About 400,000 years ago, the population split in two. The hominins who spread west became Neanderthals. Their cousins to the east evolved into a group known as Denisovans.
The two groups lived for hundreds of thousands of years, hunting game and gathering plants, before disappearing from the fossil record about 40,000 years ago. By then, modern humans had expanded out of Africa, sometimes interbreeding with Neanderthals and Denisovans.
And today, fragments of their DNA can be found in most living humans.
Research carried out over the past few years by John Capra, a geneticist at the University of California, San Francisco, and other scientists suggested that some of those genes passed on a survival advantage. Immune genes inherited from Neanderthals and Denisovans, for example, might have protected them from new pathogens they had not encountered in Africa.
Dr. Capra and his colleagues were intrigued to find that some of the genes from Neanderthals and Denisovans that became more common over generations were related to sleep. For their new study, published in the journal Genome Biology and Evolution, they investigated how these genes might have influenced the daily rhythms of the extinct hominins.
Inside the cells of every species of animal, hundreds of proteins react with each other over the course of each day, rising and falling in a 24-hour cycle. They not only control when we fall asleep and wake up, but also influence our appetite and metabolism.
To explore the circadian rhythms of Neanderthals and Denisovans, Dr. Capra and his colleagues looked at 246 genes that help to control the body clock. They compared the versions of the genes in the extinct hominins to the ones in modern humans.
The researchers found over 1,000 mutations that were unique only to living humans or to Neanderthals and Denisovans. Their analysis revealed that many of these mutations probably had important effects on how the body clock operated. The researchers predicted, for example, that some body-clock proteins that are abundant in our cells were much scarcer in the cells of Neanderthals and Denisovans.
Next, the scientists looked at the small number of body-clock variants that some living people have inherited from Neanderthals and Denisovans. To see what effects those variants had on people, they probed the UK Biobank, a British database holding the genomes of half a million volunteers.
Along with their DNA, the volunteers provided answers to a long list of health-related questions, including whether they were early risers or night owls. To Dr. Capra’s surprise, almost all the ancient body-clock variants increased the odds that the volunteers were morning people.
“That was really the most exciting moment of the study, when we saw that,” Dr. Capra said.
Geography might explain why the ancient hominins were early risers. Early humans lived in Africa, fairly close to the Equator, where the duration of days and nights stays roughly the same over the course of the year. But Neanderthals and Denisovans moved into higher latitudes, where the day became longer in the summer and shorter in the winter. Over hundreds of thousands of years, their circadian clocks may have adapted to the new environment.
When modern humans expanded out of Africa, they also faced the same challenge of adapting to higher latitudes. After they interbred with Neanderthals and Denisovans, some of their descendants inherited body-clock genes better suited to their new homes.
All of these conclusions, however, stem from a database limited to British people. Dr. Capra is starting to look at other databases of volunteers with other ancestries. If the links hold up, Dr. Capra hopes ancient body clocks can inspire some ideas about how we can adapt to the modern world, where circadian rhythms are disrupted by night shifts and glowing smartphones. These disruptions don’t just make it hard to get a good night’s sleep; they can also raise the risk of cancer, obesity and a host of other disorders.
Michael Dannemann, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Tartu in Estonia who was not involved in the new study, said one way to test Dr. Capra’s variants would be to engineer various human cells in the lab so that their genes were more like those of Neanderthals and Denisovans. Then scientists could grow clusters of the cells and watch them go through their daily cycles.
“This step forward not only advances our knowledge of how Neanderthal DNA influences present-day humans,” he said, “but also offers a pathway to expanding our understanding of Neanderthal biology itself.”
