It was appalling to read the news item, “An uninhabited island of trash” (May 17), that mentioned the dismal condition of Henderson Island, a tiny, uninhabited island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where researchers were astonished to find an estimated 38 million pieces of trash, most of it plastic, washed up on its beaches. . The fact that the island is a UNESCO World Heritage site makes the finding even more ironical. Our relation with plastics, considered unequivocally as a major enemy of the environment, needs revisiting. The continuous and unrelentless use of plastic and its accumulation across the world pose a serious threat to the environment. Although there are curbs and restrictions on their use in individual countries, all this goes in vain if implementation is tardy. A push for alternatives, awareness about the perils of using plastics, and, more importantly, strong community will are needed for any real changes to become visible on the ground. Environment and climate change is an area all nations have to focus their energies on and act expeditiously together.
In a first, a team of researchers has found that high doses of Vitamin C and niacin or Vitamin B3 can kill cancer stem cells. A study published in Cell Biology International showed the opposing effects of low and high dose of vitamin C and vitamin B3 on colon cancer stem cells. Led by Bipasha Bose and Sudheer Shenoy, the team found that while low doses (5-25 micromolar) of Vitamin C and B3 proliferate colon cancer stem cells, high doses (100 to 1,000 micromolar) killed cancer stem cells. Such high doses of vitamins can only be achieved through intravenous injections in colon cancer patients. The third leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, colon cancer can be prevented by an intake of dietary fibre and lifestyle changes. While the next step of the researchers is to delineate the mechanisms involved in such opposing effects, they also hope to establish a therapeutic dose of Vitamin C and B3 for colon cancer stem cell therapy. “If the therapeutic dose gets validated under in vivo...
Comments
Post a Comment