Everyone has stress in their lives. You're thinking, “very helpful, Captain Obvious, I know. Why am I reading this?” Well keep reading, trust me. The amount, duration and quality of the stress determines the effect it has on us. In fact, a large number of diseases and illnesses are a result of stress. It is pretty common knowledge that long-term, or chronic stress in one's life can affect one's physiology negatively. It increases susceptibility to disease due to a suppression of the immune system. This is because your autonomic nervous system is frequently activated and redirects your immune system's resources elsewhere, to combat the stress.

However, it must be our lucky day! A little cup o' stress in the morning may just give your day a boost. A surprising new study came out recently in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity indicating that acute stress may actually help boost the immune system and fight cancer.

It must be noted that they are referring to an acute or short-term “fight or flight” stress response as opposed to chronic stress. The fight or flight response is fundamental in nature, common in many, if not all, animal species, and is known to stimulate survival systems in the body.

The study consisted of exposing 30 healthy mice to 10 weeks of UV radiation, 3 times a week, to induce squamous cell carcinoma cancer growth, a cancer known to be vulnerable to the immune system. Before each exposure, researchers induced psychological stress in half the mice by restraining them in ventilated plastic tubes for 2.5 hours. Exposure to the dangerous UV-B rays caused precancerous and cancerous growths to develop. However, the stressed-out half of mice developed fewer tumors than the non-stressed half, and if they did develop tumors, they were less numerous. The stress didn't fully protect them, but it did decrease the severity and number of the tumors.

Results showed that the stress induced higher secretions of chemicals that regulate the immune system (cytokines and chemokines, for those who were dying to know), specifically ones that increase production of leukocytes (white blood cells) and tumor suppressors.

Firdaus Dhabhar, PhD, first author of the article and associate professor at Stanford's Cancer Center, and Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection, explained that this is the first evidence that this type of short-lived stress may enhance anti-tumor activity. He mentions that he hopes it can lead to applications to help those that are ill by taking advantage of their own natural defenses.

Sounds very promising! I wonder if I can bottle up my own stress and sell it.

Source:
Dhabhar, FS. et al. Short term stress enhances cellular immunity and increases early resistance to squamous cell carcinoma. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 24:1, 2010.

• Southwest to enable Wi-Fi use on 737 fleet

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  Southwest Airlines has finally decided to wire its Boeing 737 fleet for wireless Internet service after dabbling with the concept for two years.

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  US electric carmaker Tesla Motors said on Friday that it plans an intial public offering of stock that could raise as much as 100 million dollars.

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  (PhysOrg.com) — Over billions of years, plants have evolved very efficient sunlight-collecting systems. Now, scientists are trying to harness the finely tuned systems in tobacco plants in order to use them …

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  (AP) — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered two state agencies to investigate a rash of birth defects that have confounded impoverished Kettleman City for more than a year.

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• FDA wants drug companies to look at potential for abuse

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Public release date: 8-Jan-2010

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Contact: Tom Rickey
tom_rickey@urmc.rochester.edu
585-275-7954
University of Rochester Medical Center

Sleeping Beauty hooks up with herpes to fight brain disease

Tag-team approach breaks the size barrier for gene therapy

Neuroscientists have forged an unlikely molecular union as part of their fight against diseases of the brain and nervous system.

The team has brought together the herpes virus and a molecule known as Sleeping Beauty to improve a technology known as gene therapy, which aims to manipulate genes to correct for molecular flaws that cause disease.

The work, detailed in a paper published online in Gene Therapy, has allowed scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center to reach a long-sought goal: Shuttling into brain cells a relatively large gene that can remain on for an extended period of time.

“We've broken what is in effect a size barrier