People who are at a greater genetic risk of schizophrenia are more likely to see a fall in IQ as they age, even if they do not develop the condition, according to a study.

Scientists at the University of Edinburgh say the findings could lead to new research into how different genes for schizophrenia affect brain function over time.

They also show that genes associated with schizophrenia influence people in other important ways besides causing the illness itself.

The researchers used the latest genetic analysis techniques to reach their conclusion on how thinking skills change with age.

They compared the IQ scores of more than 1,000 people from Edinburgh who were tested for general cognitive functions in 1947, when the subjects were aged 11, and again when they were around 70 years old.

The researchers were able to examine people`s genes and calculate each subject`s genetic likelihood of developing schizophrenia, even though none of the group had ever developed the illness.

They then compared the IQ scores of people with a high and low risk of developing schizophrenia.

They found that there was no difference at age 11, but people with a greater genetic risk of schizophrenia had slightly lower IQs at age 70.

Those people who had more genes linked to schizophrenia also had a greater estimated fall in IQ over their lifetime than those at lower risk.

Ian Deary, Director of the University of Edinburgh`s Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, who led the research team, said, "Retaining our thinking skills as we grow older is important for living well and independently.

"If nature has loaded a person`s genes towards schizophrenia, then there is a slight but detectable worsening in cognitive functions between childhood and old age".

Andrew McIntosh, of the University of Edinburgh`s Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, said, "With further research into how these genes affect the brain, it could become possible to understand how genes linked to schizophrenia affect people`s cognitive functions as they age".

Schizophrenia, a severe mental disorder characterised by delusions and by hallucinations, is in part caused by genetic factors. It affects around 1 per cent of the population, often in the teenage or early adult years, and is associated with problems in mental ability and memory.

The study, which was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council(BBSRC), Age UK, and the Chief Scientist Office, is published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Australian scientists claim to have developed a simple and low-cost blood test that can determine how well cancer patients are responding to chemotherapy, which could help in adjusting its dosage on a case-to-case basis.

According to Queensland Institute of Medical Research, the low-cost test discovered by a team at the institute can determine how well chemotherapy is working in patients suffering from Hodgkin`s lymphoma.

The discovery by Maher Gandhi and Kimberley Jones from QIMR`s Clinical Immunohaematology Laboratory could mean personalised treatment for patients with blood cancer, reducing the amount of chemotherapy as needed on a case-to-case basis.

"This has the potential to be a huge aid for doctors in their decision making and a faster and less invasive process for the patients," Gandhi said adding that "up until now, clinicians have relied on scans to help them judge how well people are responding to chemotherapy.

The imaging is expensive, it can be difficult to interpret, and can be limited to just one scan before treatment starts, and another when treatment is finished.

"This discovery means we can work towards using simple blood tests to provide quicker, cheaper and more regular monitoring of how a person is responding to treatment," he said.

About 400 Australians are diagnosed with Hodgkin`s lymphoma each year and it is most common in adolescents and young adults, and more likely to occur in men than women.

The QIMR team found that levels of a certain protein, CD163, are elevated in Hodgkin lymphoma patients, serum and drop as the tumour shrinks during chemotherapy.

"Chemotherapy drugs are toxic, and the more you use, the higher the chances of side-effects down the track," Jones said.

"Testing for these protein levels, using a simple blood test, could show doctors whether the treatment is working, whether they can reduce the doses or conversely, whether they need to increase the doses to beat the cancer," she added.

"In short, it means a way forward to personalised treatment for Hodgkin`s lymphoma patients, and hopefully smaller doses of chemotherapy drugs," Jones said.

The scientists have spent the past six years following 47 Hodgkin`s Lymphoma patients from diagnosis to recovery.

The next step is a larger international study of patients in collaboration with the Australasian Leukaemia Lymphoma Group and doctors in the UK.

Some high-fibre foods, which are sold as low in calories, may actually contain, in the extreme, up to 25 per cent more calories than the label suggests, nutritional experts have said.

It means that some high-fibre foods targeted at people on a diet are actually more fattening than people are led to believe, said Geoffrey Livesey, an independent nutritionist based in Britain who has advised the UN`s Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Dr Livesey told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston that consumers have been unknowingly consuming extra calorie in high-fibre food for decades because the system for assessing calories goes back to the 1970s and even earlier, according to the Independent.

It means that if people follow the daily recommended intake of 18 grams of fibre, they could be consuming more than 250 extra calories each week without realising it, he said.

Food manufacturers and government agencies have consistently misled consumers over many years about the number of calories contained in food, said experts.

Government assessments about the amount of energy in food assume that the caloric value is the same whether the food it cooked or raw, but scientists know that raw food provides fewer calories because the body expends energy breaking it down, said Richard Wrangham of Harvard University.
"There is a lot of misinformation around calories, and it is crucial for the consumer, whether they are on a diet or not, to have the correct information about what they eat," he told the meeting.

The UK's national synchrotron facility - the Diamond Light Source near Oxford - is to become a world centre for studying the structure of viruses and bacteria that cause serious disease.

Diamond uses intense X-rays to reveal the molecular and atomic make-up of objects and materials.

It will now use this capability to image Containment Level 3 pathogens.

These are responsible for illnesses such as Aids, hepatitis and some types of flu.

Level 3 is one step down from the most dangerous types of infectious agent, such as Ebola, which can only be handled in the most secure government facilities.

"Viruses, as you know, are sort of tiny nanomachines and you can't see them in a normal microscope.

"But with the crystallography and X-ray techniques we use, we are able to get about 10,000 times the resolution of the normal light microscope," explained Dave Stuart, the life sciences director at Diamond and a professor of structural biology at Oxford University.

"This takes us from the regime of not being able to see them to being able to see individual atoms.

"And if we can look at 'live' viruses and get an atomic-level description of them, it opens up the possibility of using modern drug-design techniques to produce new pharmaceuticals."

Prof Stuart was speaking in Boston at the annual meeting for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Diamond has been working for some time to get its "Crystal Lab" ready for Level 3 work, and the Oxford researcher used the US conference to announce that the preparation was now complete.

Synchrotrons work by accelerating electrons in a giant magnetic ring to near light-speeds.

As the particles turn around the circle, they lose energy in the form of exceptionally intense X-rays.

This light is channelled down "beamlines" where it hits targets put in its path.

The way the X-rays scatter off the atoms in these targets reveals their arrangement. This allows scientists to glimpse the shape of virus and bacteria components and get some insight into how they function.

Diamond has already been studying pathogens at lower levels of containment.

A good recent example, says Prof Stuart, is the Human Enterovirus 71 (EV71) that causes hand-foot-and-mouth disease.

The infection is relatively common in infants and children, especially across the Asia-Pacific region, and is characterised by fever, painful sores in the mouth, and unpleasant blisters on the hands, feet and buttocks. There is currently no vaccine or anti-viral treatment available.

A joint UK and Chinese team working at Diamond solved the structure of EV71 last year.

This allowed the researchers to see a kind of breathing motion in the virus that it uses to initiate the infection process. Evident also was the small molecule it picks up from the body's cells to shift itself from one state to another.

"That molecule must be lost to cause an infection, but now that we can see in atomic detail what that molecule looks like, we can try to design a synthetic version that will attach more strongly," Prof Stuart told BBC News.

"That would stop the breathing and stop the infection process."

The British synchrotron's new status makes it now one of only two such facilities in the world where Level 3 study is undertaken; the other being in the US.

This means it will be a major draw for scientists across the world.

Prof Stuart stressed the operations at Diamond would pose no risk to others working on the Harwell site or in the immediate Oxfordshire area.

The pathogens will be brought to the synchrotron in crystal form in double-sealed containers that are not opened during their time at the facility.

They are manipulated robotically inside the Light Source and, what is more, they are destroyed in the very act of shining X-rays on them.

Air pollution and ozone levels may also play a role in precipitating heart attacks, warns fresh research from the US.

Rice University (Houston) statisticians Katherine Ensor and Loren Raun analysed eight years worth of data drawn from Houston's extensive network of air-quality monitors and more than 11,000 concurrent out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) logged by Houston Emergency Medical Services (EMS).

"The bottom-line goal is to save lives," Ensor said. "We'd like to contribute to a refined warning system for at-risk individuals. Blanket warnings about air quality may not be good enough. At the same time, we want to enhance our understanding of the health cost of pollution - and celebrate its continuing reduction."

The researchers found a positive correlation between OHCAs and exposure to both fine particulate matter (airborne particles smaller than 2.5 micrograms) and ozone, the American Heart Association journal Circulation, reports.

They found that a daily average increase in particulate matter of six micrograms per day over two days raised the risk of OHCA by 4.6%, with particular impact on those with pre-existing (and not necessarily cardiac-related) health conditions, according to a Houston statement.

For the study, OHCA events were defined as cases where EMS personnel performed chest compressions. Ensor and Raun noted that the patients died in more than 90% of the cases, which occurred more during the hot summer months (55% of total cases).

The researchers also looked at the effects of nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide levels, none of which were found to impact the occurrence of OHCA.

These findings were presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference in Boston.