Fall is here! It is finally the season for decorative gourds, pumpkin-flavored everything, and sweaters! Or, it would be if it weren't 90° every day. It's also nearing the middle of the semester, which means I'm beginning to stress about how little time I have to study for midterms (or midterm, as biochemistry is the only one I have), work on my term papers, gather data for my practicum, and study for the MCAT. So, this week's post will be a rather short one.
Dress: thrifted
Shoes: Nine West
This outfit made me realize two things: 1) I need to invest in a dress slip STAT, because skirt slips don't fit well, don't work very well under completely sheer dresses, and make me paranoid that they're showing. 2) I need to wear heels more often. I love feeling tall! Also, these shoes are comfortable enough to walk around all day (I went to class, work, did some shopping, then went to dinner in these) without feeling like dying.
The topic we're currently studying in biochemistry is protein folding, and at first glance this topic may seem uninteresting to those more interested in genetics and infectious disease, like me. However, malfunctions in the process of protein folding can result in a few interesting diseases. One of those diseases is Kuru, caused by consuming the brain matter of infected persons, and known for causing bouts of uncontrollable laughter, tremors, and death. As far as I am aware, this disease has only been found amongst tribal peoples in Papua New Guinea, which I think makes it fairly clear that it could be considered a global health issue. Infectious disease in another country = obviously global health concern, it seems. I find it more interesting to consider what else can be called "global health".
One other disease of infectious misfolded protein that is more relevant to most people, considering that Kuru is contracted by consuming the brain matter of an infected person, is bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease. One instance of host cellular prion protein (PrPC) misfolding can cause other proteins in the organism to misfold, becoming a new form of protein known as PrPSc. Some may remember that an epidemic of BSE in England and the US caused a meat recall. The disease is spread when infected cows died and their bodies were then ground and used in the feed for the other cows.* Healthy cattle consumed the misfolded protein in the meat and bone meal and contracted the disease. The meat was recalled because consumption of infected meat could cause illness in humans, in the form of a similar disease called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).
There are four different forms of CJD, though the most common are sporadic CJD and familial CJD. In sporadic CJD, the normal PrPC protein spontaneously misfiles, becoming PrPSc and causing other proteins to misfold. Familial CJD is genetic, and for the most part is caused by a mutation in the gene coding for PrP.
There are very few cases of CJD every year. France's Institute for Health Surveillance (InVS) tracks cases of CJD within the country, and in 2016 there have been only 32 suspected cases of CJD, 31 of which were spontaneous. The other one was genetic. The last French case of probable vCJD - the form likely to be caused by consumption of infected meat - was in 2014.**
I mention Creutzfeldt-Jakob and BSE both because I am fascinated by prion diseases and the science behind them, and because I Feel that when people think of global health they think of neglected tropical diseases (e.g Chagas disease, African sleeping sickness) or emerging infectious diseases (e.g MERS-CoV, Chikungunya) but don't consider rarer diseases that may or may not be infectious (e.g CJD, phenylketonuria) as falling under the umbrella of global health. Global health can define health issues affecting people worldwide, not just developing countries and not just infectious disease. I tend to focus on infectious disease because that's what I find most interesting - there's nothing quite like developing an in-depth understanding of both a pathogen and human physiology - but I just wanted to take a little time to mention in this short post that science, especially biology, is integral to global health, as is a consideration of what is included under the global health umbrella, including non-infectious diseases.
* "Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Questions and Answers" fda.gov
** "Nombre de cas décédés certains ou probables de MCJ en France par année de signalement pour les suspicions, par année de décès pour les cas de MCJ décédés" invs.santepubliquefrance.fr
FACT OF THE DAY!
John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, later became a US senator. A member of the Mercury 7 - the first group of American astronauts - John Glenn is a former test pilot who went on to resign from the space program and become an Ohio senator.
