Researchers discover ancient predatory, fanged fish that swam in Nova Scotia waters

A research team led by Carleton University's Conrad Wilson has uncovered a new species of ancient predatory fish—Sphyragnathus tyche—shown in this handout illustration, from a fossil found along the Blue Beach cliffs of Nova Scotia. The fossil is the earliest known example of a 'back-fanged' predatory fish. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Hailey Sexsmith (Mandatory Credit)

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CTV News

3 hours ago

• CTV News

Researchers discover ancient predatory, fanged fish that swam in Nova Scotia waters

A research team led by Carleton University's Conrad Wilson has uncovered a new species of ancient predatory fish—Sphyragnathus tyche—shown in this handout illustration, from a fossil found along the Blue Beach cliffs of Nova Scotia. The fossil is the earliest known example of a 'back-fanged' predatory fish. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Hailey Sexsmith (Mandatory Credit)

CBC

4 hours ago

• CBC

Anorexia is normally treated with therapy. Now a Canadian team is trying the gut

Social Sharing This story is part of CBC Health's Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers on Saturday mornings. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here. Anorexia is a life-threatening eating disorder that can manifest as an intense preoccupation on weight loss. It's classified as a mental illness and normally treated with talk therapy, known as family-based therapy, but that's only effective for about half of the mostly women and girls who have it. Those who don't improve may go to hospital and get locked into a relentless cycle of gaining weight and recovering from malnourishment, followed by weight loss and damage to organs, including changes to the brain from starvation. Now, Canadian researchers are testing a new approach, tapping into the growing understanding of the gut-brain connection. They're going to try treating teens with fecal transplants, to change the bacteria in their gut. "We know that once the symptoms set in and the brain changes, it's really hard to change the course, so if we can intervene early in the adolescent years, we have the best chance," said Dr. Jennifer Couturier, a child psychiatrist and associate professor of psychiatry at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont. In fecal microbial transplants, a small sample of stool from a healthy person is purified to concentrate the beneficial bacteria minus the waste. The microbiome is then put in a capsule, which the recipient takes for therapeutic purposes. Couturier and her team have Health Canada approval to run a randomized clinical trial in an initial group of 20 females aged 12 to 17 diagnosed with anorexia. They will either take oral capsules along with standard family-based treatment to stabilize nutrition and avoid the harmful effects of starvation or family-based treatment alone. McMaster's own stool bank Fecal transplants have been tested in a small handful of adults with anorexia, including one who restored her weight. In this trial, the McMaster researchers will use the university's own stool bank of donations. Dr. Nikhil Pai, a gastroenterologist at McMaster and a co-investigator on the trial, credited the university's contributions for funding the research and starting the pediatric stool bank. "This is not affiliated with any company," Pai said. "We developed this entirely in-house using carefully screened pediatric donors." Pai said the screening checks for infectious diseases, similar to how blood donations are assessed. Staff at the stool bank then prepare the capsules, which can't be mass produced. WATCH | Exploring the power of poop: There are a few reasons Pai and some other doctors are optimistic participants will benefit. One comes from animal studies. Researchers transplanted gut microbes from humans with anorexia to normal mice models, and found the mice reduced their food intake as if anorexic. Then, when gut microbes from healthy humans were given, the effect reversed. Secondly, young guts are subject to change. Pai said the gut microbiome is malleable in children and teens. "It actually is a very different landscape in adolescence, where if you can make a change, you not only may see some improvement in terms of outcomes for anorexia nervosa in the short term, but … the sustained response," Pai said. Butterflies in the stomach With every meal, trillions of gut bacteria turn breakfast, lunch and dinner into molecules called metabolites that affect the brain. Pai, who also works at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said large population-based studies show a few types of bacteria can have an outsized effect on the brain through the gut-brain axis, a connection between the two. "When we feel a bit nervous, sometimes we feel butterflies in our stomach," as a symptom of the nervousness, Pai said. "It's no surprise that we often have these intestinal symptoms that come along with the psychological anxieties." Researchers will follow participants in the clinical trial for eight weeks while they receive the capsules and then for four weeks after that. Pai and Couturier say one aspect they'll record is whether participants are willing to take the fecal transplant — or repulsed by it. Then they'll measure how the patient is doing — by tracking their weight, and mood — and how the microbiome changes based on saliva, urine and stool samples. Gut commands the brain? Scientists are learning more about how gut microbes influence brain function. Various studies have shown people with some psychological problems, including anorexia nervosa, having abnormal intestinal microbes, said Dr. Howard Steiger, former director of McGill's eating disorder program. "We always like to think of the brain as being the command centre for the body," Steiger said. "But you know, a lot of recent findings suggest the gut also controls your brain." In people with anorexia, Steiger said, the thought is that their eating behaviour messes up the way gut microbes influence functions in the brain and body. Given that, transplanting purified fecal samples from healthy individuals could help those with anorexia, said the professor emeritus of psychiatry, who continues to treat people with eating disorders "It's not like total voodoo to think that [fecal transplant] would be a potential adjunct in treatment or maybe even a treatment in itself," Steiger said. Some clinicians now refer to anorexia as a "metabo-psychiatric problem," meaning it is associated with vulnerability both in the brain and the body. "I think that's important because it reduces shame," Steiger said. "People don't develop anorexia because of moral weakness. They carry a real, physical, heritable susceptibility." That means anorexia gets triggered by a combination of nature, or genetics, and nurture, such as life events. Making meal time comfortable Anita Federici, a clinical psychologist north of Toronto, treats adolescents with anorexia using family-based therapy. Federici said initially, the parents or caregivers are empowered to learn how to nourish their child by taking over all meal and snack preparation and supervising intake and weight checks. Then the child might start eating lunch at school unsupervised. In the last phase, the youth regains independence over eating and exercise. About half of younger people with anorexia nervosa who receive family-based treatment for it do really well, Federici said. Change pace of meals? But anorexia rarely "flies solo," Federici said, noting many people also have co-occurring suicidal thoughts or experience self injury, substance use, trauma or PTSD, as well as neurodiversity like autism. All can complicate the picture. Federici said the standard approach of medicalizing treatment for anorexia focuses on gaining weight. Treatment that doesn't take into account the metabolic underpinnings of anorexia can miss the mark, Federici says. "There was research not long ago that demonstrated that there were more serotonin receptors in your gut than there were in your brain," she said, referring to a neurotransmitter with roles including influencing mood. Taking the metabolic basis of anorexia into consideration could mean clinicians may need to change how they feed patients, both in terms of the types of food and the pacing of meals, Federici said. In people with anorexia, the body is dysregulated so they feel soothed when they eat less. While bystanders may think the patient isn't motivated to change, Federici said in reality they're quite motivated. "What I have observed over the years is that these people desperately want to get better. They desperately want a different life, but they need the treatments to be different."

CTV News

8 hours ago

• CTV News

Woman off insulin for Type 1 diabetes after a single dose of experimental manufactured stem cells

Amanda Smith celebrates the day, August 1, nearly two years ago, when she stopped taking insulin to manage her type one diabetes, just a few months after getting a dose of experimental stem cells as part of a study. 'I remember, like, being scared and excited, and it's history now,' she said. The 36-year-old nurse and mother is part of a small, but what some call 'milestone study,' of patients with Type 1 Diabetes using manufactured stem cells, designed to grow in the liver and become the full array of islet cells array of pancreatic islet cells that naturally control blood sugar levels. In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers report that of the 12 patients who received a single dose of the stem cells, it eliminated the need for insulin in 10 for at least a year and stopped episodes of low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia, which can lead to dangerous complications, even death. For Amanda, the treatment has been a blessing. Diagnosed with late-onset juvenile diabetes when she was 25, she was plagued with sudden bouts of low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia that would leave her faint, despite close monitoring. The risk was a diabetic coma or worse. 'I get emotional because I'm free from those handcuffs ... I don't have that looming over me every day,' she said from her home in London, Ont. 'I took it as a death sentence,' she said. 'I knew, eventually, like the end is always some sort of complication with diabetes,' she said 'We've ... dealt with a lot of patients that have struggled with diabetes. And to be able to see such a transformational change in their life is just amazing,' said Dr. Trevor Reichman, the lead author and the Surgical Director of the Pancreas and Islet Cell Transplant Program at the University Health Network in Toronto. Dr. Trevor Reichman Dr. Trevor Reichman appears for an interview with CTV News. Reichman says it is the first time that scientists have seen this kind of response with implanted stem cell-derived islets. Vertex, a Boston-based biotech company that sponsored the study, derived the cells from embryonic tissue and then found a way to grow them stem cells in large quantities. Researchers, working at centers in the U.S. and at least three transplant hospitals in Canada, infused them into the patient's liver. Over the next four to six months, Reichman said they transformed into the array of hormone-producing cells found in a normal pancreas, and they were monitoring the patients' blood sugar levels in real time. 'In the liver, they're sensing a patient's blood glucose level, and they're secreting the appropriate hormone,' said Reichman. adding that these biological replacements appear to sense changes in 'seconds or milliseconds. Essentially, it's the same as your native islet cells would function.' 'I think the data is just so very exciting, so very, very powerful,' said Dr. Peter Senior, director of the Alberta Diabetes Institute at the University of Alberta. He was not part of this study. 'The primary objective of the study was just to show that the blood sugars were better and that people were not having severe hypoglycemia. They blew past that. Ten of the 12 people are off insulin,' said Senior. ' It's never been done before in history' said Dr. Michael Thompson, director of Vancouver General Diabetes Centre. 'It's first time they a have achieved a high enough levels of insulin in patients,'using a stem cell product 'It's a big advance' he added. But there's a tradeoff. The patients, however, require immune-suppressing drugs for life, so that the immune system doesn't destroy the cells. There are risks to these immunosuppressive medications, including a higher risk of some cancers, infections, and high blood pressure. Amanda says it is nothing like her constant terror that she might slip into a sudden diabetic coma. 'Taking a couple of pills three times a day is nothing. I take it with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's easy. No comparison, none,' she said. 'And I know it's a huge relief for my family, especially my husband, that's for sure.' The study also reports that two patients in the study died, one likely as a result of complications from that immunosuppression, which Dr. Reichman says underscores the need for patients to be closely monitored at experienced transplant centers. A second patient, according to the study, died of severe dementia. Off-the-shelf live cell therapy The idea of using cells implanted in the body to produce insulin, instead of insulin injections, began in Canada 25 years ago. Researchers in Alberta pioneered the Edmonton Protocol. It uses insulin-producing islet cells removed from diseased organ donors that are implanted into those with hard-to-manage Type 1 Diabetes. Some 2,500 patients have been treated around the world, according to the University of Alberta, which reports 80 per cent were able to stop taking insulin injections for a median time of 95 days. Stem cells pipettes (Image credit: Vertex) But the number of procedures is limited because there aren't enough organ donors to meet the demand, and patients also require long-term immune suppression. So, there have been some two dozen companies around the world looking at other ways of getting manufactured islet cells to regulate blood sugar as a replacement for insulin. The Vertex cells, originally called VX-880, have been renamed Zimislecel. The Boston-based pharmaceutical company (says it is ramping up production, as it 'These are fresh, brand-new cells – they're not 60-year-old cells that have already had a life, and we're repurposing them,' said Senior, who works in Edmonton. It pushes the boundary of therapy forward because there is the potential to create a renewable source of insulin-producing cells instead of waiting for cells from deceased donors,' he added. 'I think we've got a treatment for diabetes where we are no longer constrained by organ donors,' said Senior. 'We've got potentially a limitless source of cells that could be used, and that is a massively huge step forward in terms of a cell therapy becoming a reality.' The next step is for someone to produce stem cells that don't require immune suppression, by either genetically engineering the cells or encapsulating them to make them invisible to immune attack. Several pilot studies are underway. It's a welcome advance, according to Senior. While insulin therapy has been a lifesaver for many since its discovery in Toronto by Banting and Best in 1921, it's never been a cure. Stem Cells (Image credit: Vertex) 'I think people with diabetes deserve some of the transformative treatments we've seen in cancer and other diseases but we've been stuck essentially doing the same thing for 100 years,' said Senior. In Canada, there are some 300000 people with Type 1 diabetes. Thirty-two new cases are diagnosed each day. The number of new cases per year increased by 34 per cent between 2000 and 2022, according to Breakthrough TD1(formerly the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation of Canada). Unlike Type 2 diabetes, which is linked to environmental, dietary, and genetic factors, the exact cause of Type 1 diabetes is still unknown, but doctors say the immune system mistakenly attacks insulin-producing islet cells in the pancreas, resulting in a gradual decline in the availability of insulin to regulate blood sugar. Questions remain The study is being continued to include a total of 50 patients, in Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto and the U.S., with Dr. Reichman's team actively recruiting candidates. There are still many questions. Dr. Reichman admits that no one knows how long these implanted cells will last. Amanda hasn't required any insulin inections for almost two years, the longest documented period so far. He adds there are no signs that the other nine, who also went off insulin, have gone back on the injections since their stem cell infusion. Unclear also is whether this therapy will reduce the longer-term and burdensome complications of diabetes, including heart problems, amputations, kidney failure, and vision loss. However, data from patients treated with the Edmonton protocol, using tissue from deceased donors, show signs of reduced complications, a promising sign for the newer therapy, according to Dr. Thompson. The other concern is that not all patients with severe hypoglycemia may want to make the same choice as Amanda, swapping the diabetes risks for those that come with the anti-rejection medications. 'Taking a couple of pills three times a day is nothing. It's easy. There's no comparison, none,' she said. Another question is that a single treatment therapy for this disease could come with a very high price tag. 'We'll have to wait and see,' said Reichman. Amanda Smith, meanwhile, tries to enjoy her freedom with her family and her work at a long-term care home, without thinking too far ahead. 'What happens if the cells stop working or something? You know, I just try and live right now, and I feel so blessed.' She debates the question - does she have diabetes anymore? 'I don't take any insulin anymore. I don't take medication for diabetes anymore. So, I feel like a regular person again without diabetes.'