Are Viruses Alive?

Viruses are infectious, tiny and nasty. But are they alive?

Not really, although it depends on what your definition of "alive" is, two infectious disease doctors told Live Science.

Living beings, such as plants and animals, contain cellular machinery that allows them to self-replicate. In contrast, viruses are free forms of DNA or RNA that can't replicate on their own.

Rather, viruses need to invade a living organism to replicate, said Dr. Otto Yang, a professor of medicine and microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"[Viruses are] packaged RNA or DNA," Yang told Live Science. "They make more copies of themselves by hijacking the machinery of cells to replicate themselves."

Is it alive?

Countless philosophers and scientists have debated how to define whether something is alive. According to the seven characteristics of life, all living beings must be able to respond to stimuli; grow over time; produce offspring; maintain a stable body temperature; metabolize energy; consist of one or more cells; and adapt to their environment.

However, some life-forms don't fit every single characteristic. Most hybrid animals, such as mules (a cross between a donkey and a horse), can't reproduce because they are sterile. Moreover, rocks can grow, albeit in a passive way, with new material flowing over them. But this classification problem goes away when a simpler definition of "life" is used.

"Take a cat, a plant and a rock, and leave them in a room for days," said Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and an affiliated scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore. "Come back, and the cat and the plant will have changed, but the rock will essentially be the same," he said.

Like a rock, most viruses would be fine if they were left indefinitely in a room, Adalja said. In addition, he noted that living beings have self-generated and self-sustaining actions — meaning they can seek out sustenance and behave in self-preserving ways. In other words, "they're taking actions to further their lives, [such as] a plant sprouting its roots to find water or an animal looking for food," Adalja said.

Something that is not alive, such as a virus, does not have self-generated or self-sustaining actions, he said.

"I don't think viruses qualify as being alive. They are, in essence, inert unless they come into contact with a living cell," Adalja said. "There are some characteristics of viruses that put them on the borderline [of being alive] — they have genetic material: DNA or RNA. It's not the same thing as a rock, but it's clearly not the same thing as even bacteria, in terms of that self-sustaining and self-generated action." [Could Humans Live Without Bacteria?]

Yang agreed, saying, "Without a cell, a virus cannot reproduce. And so from that standpoint, it's really not alive, if you consider life to be something that can reproduce by itself independently."

However, "if you loosen up your definition of life to something that can make copies of itself with help, then you could call it alive," Yang said.

It's thought that some of the very first life-forms on Earth were RNA molecules, as "RNA molecules, under the right conditions, can make copies of themselves," Yang said. "Viruses maybe evolved from that ancestor, but lost the capability to self-replicate."

US Drug Overdose Deaths Continue to Rise: Here Are the Numbers to Know

The rate of drug overdose deaths in the United States continues to rise, with a particularly sharp spike in heroin-related deaths in recent years, according to a new report.

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the rate of U.S. drug overdose deaths more than doubled over a 16-year period, increasing from about 6 deaths per 100,000 people in 1999 to 16 deaths per 100,000 people in 2015, according to the report.

The drug overdose death rate increased by about 10 percent per year from 1999 to 2006, and then continued to increase but at a slower rate, rising 3 percent per year from 2006 to 2013. Then, the rate sped up again, rising by 9 percent per year from 2013 to 2015.

In recent years, the percentage of drug overdose deaths involving heroin underwent a sharp rise. In 2010, only 8 percent of all drug overdose deaths involved heroin, but by 2015, 25 percent involved heroin, the report said.

The researchers also found that the percentage of overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl and tramadol, more than doubled during that time period, increasing from 8 percent in 2010 to 18 percent in 2015.

"The continuing rise in death rates related to heroin use and synthetic opioids is of great concern," said Dr. Larissa Mooney, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, and director of the university's Addiction Medicine Clinic.

This increase occurred despite growing awareness of the opioid epidemic and a rise in funding for opioid addiction treatment, said Mooney, who was not involved in the research. The new report "highlights an ongoing problem in that area," she told Live Science. [America's Opioid-Use Epidemic: 5 Startling Facts]

The CDC researchers could not determine from their data the reason for the rise in drug overdose deaths. But previous studies have found that the recent increase in drug overdose deaths has occurred alongside an increase in prescriptions for opioid pain relievers. And other research has shown that some people who become addicted to prescription opioids will switch to heroin, which can be less expensive and sometimes easier to obtain, Mooney said. [10 Interesting Facts About Heroin]

Although the percentage of overdose deaths from heroin is rising, the percentage of deaths from some types of prescription opioids, including oxycodone and hydrocodone, has declined slightly, dropping from 29 percent of all drug overdose deaths in 2010 to 24 percent in 2015, the report said. The percentage of overdose deaths from methadone also dropped during this period, decreasing from 12 percent of drug overdose deaths in 2010 to 6 percent in 2015.

The report also found the following:

• In 2015, the highest rate of drug overdose deaths was among people ages 45 to 54, with a rate of 30 deaths per 100,000 people.
• Adults ages 55 to 64 saw the biggest increase in drug overdose deaths over the course of the 16-year study period. From 1999 to 2015, the rate of drug overdose deaths in this age group increased from about 4 deaths per 100,000 people to about 22 deaths per 100,000 people.
• During the 16-year study period, the rate of overdose deaths among white people nearly quadrupled, from 6 deaths per 100,000 people in 1999 to 21 deaths per 100,000 people in 2015.
• Overdose death rates also increased among black people, from 7.5 deaths per 100,000 people in 1999 to 12 deaths per 100,000 people in 2015; and among Hispanic people, the rate increased from 5 deaths per 100,000 people in 1999 to 8 deaths per 100,000 people in 2015.
• The state with the highest rate of drug overdose deaths in 2015 was West Virginia, with a rate of 41 deaths per 100,000 people, followed by New Hampshire, with a rate of 34 deaths per 100,000 people, and Kentucky and Ohio, both of which had about 30 overdose deaths per 100,000 people.

Last year, the CDC introduced new guidelines for prescribing opioid painkillers, with an aim of reducing the risk of addiction and overdose tied to these drugs.

Efforts to reduce overdose deaths should also focus on increasing access to evidenced-based treatments for substance use disorders, Mooney said. There should also be a focus on screening people for substance use disorders so that people can be guided into treatment, Mooney said.

"The earlier that we can intervene in the course of the problem, the better the chances of providing that access to effective treatment and reducing some of the harms" of addiction, Mooney said.

'Ring of Fire' Eclipse Will Be Visible from Southern Hemisphere Sunday

This Sunday (Feb. 26) brings the first solar eclipse of 2017. Unlike the total solar eclipse that will cross the continental United States in August, Sunday's spectacle is an annular eclipse, which means a sliver of the sun's surface will still be visible around the moon.

The moon will appear to block varying amounts of the sun depending on where you are located within the eclipse visibility zone. For those who are properly positioned along a narrow path some 8,500 miles (13,700 kilometers) long and averaging roughly 45 miles (72 km) wide, the dark disk of the moon will briefly be surrounded by a dazzling "ring of fire" as the lunar disk passes squarely in front of the sun. 

Skywatchers positioned outside this path can still enjoy a partial solar eclipse. This spectacle will be visible to more than half a billion people living across the lower two-thirds of South America as well as the western and southern portions of Africa, as well as the sparse population in about half of Antarctica. If you won't be in the area where the eclipse is visible, you can watch the Slooh Community Observatory's live webcast of the eclipse here on Space.com.

From all of these regions, skywatchers who scrutinize the sun, either by safely projecting its disk through a pinhole camera or with solar viewing glasses, will be able to see the dark silhouette of the new moon passing across some portion of the sun's face.

Penny-on-nickel effect

Because the moon orbits Earth in an elliptical orbit, its distance from our planet can vary by as much as 31,000 miles (50,000 km). It is from within its dark, conical shadow (the umbra) that a total eclipse can be observed. But on Sunday, the moon will be 235,009 miles (378,210 km) from Earth — about 568 miles (914 km) too far for the tip of the umbra to reach Earth. So instead, it's the extension of this shadow tip — the so-called "negative shadow," or antumbra — that sweeps across the Earth. Because the apparent diameter of the moon under this shadow will appear ever-so-slightly smaller (less than 1 percent) compared to that of the sun, it will be unable to completely cover the sun, hence the ring of light that remains visible around the moon.

As an analogy, think of placing a penny on top of a nickel, with the penny representing the moon and the nickel representing the sun. No matter how you try, the outer edge of the nickel will always remain uncovered. The same holds true in this upcoming case involving the moon and the sun; even at the moment of greatest eclipse, a thin ring of sunlight will still remain in view. The Latin word for a ring-shaped object is "annulus," which is why the upcoming event is referred to as an "annular," or ring, eclipse of the sun. 

Zones of visibility

The path of the annular eclipse will cross the South Pacific Ocean, South America, the South Atlantic Ocean and Africa. Nations that will be within the path include Chile, Argentina, Angola, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In South America, the first landfall of the moon's antumbra will occur along the southern shore of the Gulf of Corcovado. Moving inland, the track crosses the Chilean village of Puerto Aisen and the larger town of Coyhaique before moving into Argentina. The so-called ring of fire will be visible from the towns of Malaspina and Camarones, which are situated along the coastal highway that runs from Comodoro Rivadavia and Rawson. Then, the shadow will head out over the open ocean waters of the South Atlantic, with its next landfall coming about 160 minutes later in Africa.

The moment of greatest eclipse will occur midway between the continents at 1452 GMT, when the moon will cover 99.2 percent of the sun's diameter. The width of the antumbra at this spot on Earth will have shrunk to just 19 miles (31 km), and the annular, or ring, phase will last just 44 seconds.

When the shadow arrives at the west coast of Africa at Lucira, Angola, its width will have increased to 44 miles (70 km), and the duration of the ring phase will have increased to just over a minute. But at this point, the sun will be low in the western sky as the eclipse track nears its end. Continuing east, the moon's shadow will pass over the village of Cuima, south of Huambo, and then race into northwest Zambia just prior to leaving the Earth just to the west of Lubumbashi, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, producing a fantastically unusual sunset; instead of a reddened ball, the sun will resemble a fiery hoop.

Coming soon: the "big" event

As spectacular and unusual as an annular solar eclipse is, it falls far short of the magnificence of a total solar eclipse. Indeed, even just a narrow ring of sunlight remaining will be more than enough to kill off the effect of a sudden darkening of the sky that takes place during a total solar eclipse, allowing the brighter stars and planets to pop into view. And even with more than 99 percent of the sun obscured, the remaining sunlight will be more than enough to squelch the faint light of the sun's outer atmosphere — the glorious corona — which comes into view only during a total eclipse.

But now, the good news: After Sunday, the very next solar eclipse will be less than six months away, on Aug. 21. A total solar eclipse will be visible only in the continental U.S., while a partial eclipse will be visible throughout North America. It is the first total solar eclipse to be visible from the contiguous (48) United States since 1979, and the first total eclipse in 99 years that will sweep from coast to coast across the United States. It is certain to be one of the big news stories of 2017 and will be witnessed by many millions of people.

Indeed, that midsummer eclipse will take center stage, but not until after the sun and moon put on their "one ring" performance this coming Sunday.

Editor's note: If you have an amazing photo of the eclipse you'd like to share with Space.com and our news partners for a possible story or image gallery, please send your photos to our staff at spacephotos@space.com

Could a Spacecraft Fly to the Sun?

Humans have sent spacecraft to the moon, the red planet Mars and even distant interstellar space, but could we send a spaceship to the scorching sun?

The answer is yes, and it's happening soon.

In 2018, NASA plans to launch the Solar Probe Plus mission to the sun. Earth is about 93 million miles (149 million kilometers) from the sun, and Solar Probe Plus is slated to get within 4 million miles (6 million km) of the blazing star. 

"This is going to be our first mission to fly to the sun," said Eric Christian, a NASA research scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "We can't get to the very surface of the sun," but the mission will get close enough to answer three important questions, he said.

First, the mission will hopefully reveal why the surface of the sun, called the photosphere, is not as hot as the sun's atmosphere, called the corona. The surface of the sun is only about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,500 degrees Celsius). But the atmosphere above it is a sizzling 3.5 million F (2 million C), according to NASA.

"You'd think the farther away you get from a heat source, you'd get colder," Christian told Live Science. "Why the atmosphere is hotter than the surface is a big puzzle."

Second, scientists want to know how solar wind gets its speed. "The sun blows a stream of charged particles in all directions at a million miles an hour," he said. "But we don't understand how that gets accelerated."

People have known about solar wind for years, as early observers noticed that the tails of comets always pointed away from the sun, even if the comet was traveling in another direction. This suggested that something — that is, solar wind — was coming off the sun faster than the comet was moving, Christian said.

Third, the mission may ascertain why the sun occasionally emits high-energy particles — called solar energetic particles — that are a danger to unprotected astronauts and spacecraft.

Researchers have tried to figure out these mysteries from Earth, but "the trouble is we're 93 million miles away," Christian said. "[The distance makes] things get smeared out in a way that makes it hard to tell what's happening at the sun."

Flying to within 4 million miles of the sun isn't without its challenges. The main challenge, unsurprisingly, is the heat. To deal with the extreme temperatures, NASA scientists have designed a 4.5-inch-thick (11.4 centimeters) carbon-composite shield, which is designed to withstand temperatures outside the spacecraft of 2,500 F (1,370 C), according to the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, a NASA collaborator working on the Solar Probe Plus.

In addition, the probe will have special heat tubes called thermal radiators that will radiate heat that permeates the heat shield to open space, "so it doesn't go to the instruments, which are sensitive to heat," Christian said.

If these protections work as expected, the instruments in the probe will stay at room temperature, Christian said. [Is There Gravity in Space?]

The Solar Probe Plus will also be protected from radiation, which can damage the probe's electrical circuits, especially its memory, he said.

The spacecraft will be unmanned, but if given enough time and money, NASA scientists could probably develop a spacecraft that could safely carry an astronaut to within 4 million miles of the sun, Christian said. However, the cost of a human life is great, he said, a risk that unmanned missions don't carry.

If all goes as planned, the Solar Probe Plus will be the closest that a man-made object has ever made it to the sun. Until now, the closest spacecraft were Helios 1 (launched December 1974), which flew within 29 million miles (47 million km) of the sun, and Helios 2 (launched April 1976), which flew 1.8 million miles (3 million km) closer to the sun than Helios 1.

More recently, Messenger (launched August 2004) explored Mercury, which is about 36 million miles (58 million km) from the sun.

Yangtze River: Longest River in Asia

The Yangtze River in China is the longest river in Asia, the third longest river in the world and the longest river to flow entirely in one country. The river begins its journey in the glacial meltwaters of the Tanggula Mountains in Tibet and flows approximately 3,915 miles (6,300 kilometers) until it empties in the East China Sea near the city of Shanghai. The river flows through or borders 10 provinces. 

Yangtze, which means "child of the ocean," is a name primarily used by Westerners. In China, the river is referred to as Chang Jiang, meaning "long river," while the name Yangtze is reserved for the small section of the river near its mouth. 

The river flows through a variety of terrains, including high plateaus and lowland plains, but most of its journey — approximately three-fourths of it — is spent passing through mountainous regions, including some extremely scenic areas with deep valleys, canyons and gorges. The river is fed by approximately 700 tributaries, including eight principal rivers: Yalung, Min, Jialing, Han, Wu, Yuan, Xiang and Gan rivers, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

The Yangtze plays a central role in Chinese agriculture, industry and travel. It is the country's primary waterway, and nearly one-third of the population lives in its basin — an area covering about 448 million acres — according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Traditionally, the Yangtze River has been considered a dividing line between North and South China, although geographers consider the true line to be the Qinling-Huai River, according to the New World Encyclopedia.

The Three Gorges Dam

The Three Gorges Dam, completed in May 2006, is the world's largest hydropower station, according to International Water Power & Dam Construction magazine. It measures 630 feet (192 meters) high and 1.4 miles (2.3 km) across. The dam is located about 1,000 miles (1,610 km) west of Shanghai, in the Three Gorges Region, an area widely considered the most scenic region in the Yangtze River. The Three Gorges (three narrow, adjacent valleys) are situated along the middle reaches of the river.

In general, the dam was built to produce electricity, increase shipping capacity and reduce the potential for dangerous floods; however, according to the organization International Rivers, the dam is quite notorious for its own role in causing environmental disasters and displacing people. The project set a record for the number of people displaced (more than 1.2 million) and the number of civilized areas flooded (13 cities, 140 towns, 1,350 villages), according to International Rivers. Unfortunately, the rising waters due to the construction of the dam submerged many ancient archaeological sites and caused the loss of ancient relics. 

Precipitation and river volume

The average yearly rainfall in the Yangtze River basin is around 43 inches (1,100 millimeters), according to Encyclopaedia Britannica. In the middle and lower regions of the river, most of the precipitation falls as rain, particularly during the warm summer monsoons. In the mountainous areas, precipitation is primarily snow.

The river volume fluctuates widely, depending on the time of year and the section of the river. Upstream, the average flow is about 70,000 cubic feet (1,980 cubic meters) per second, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica. Farther downstream, as more tributaries join the primary stream, the volume gradually increases.

Before the completion of the Three Gorges Dam, water volume in the Yangtze was about 529,000 cubic feet (15,000 cubic meters) at the end of the Three Gorges region and up to 1,100,000 cubic feet (31,100 cubic meters) at its mouth, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica. These numbers have decreased somewhat due to the dam. The suspended sediment load (sediment that is carried in the water flow and never quite settles on the bottom) at the mouth of the river is about 478 million tons a year — one of the highest sediment loads of any river on earth.

Wildlife

The Yangtze River basin, an area covering 448 million acres, is one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth — from towering mountains and thick forests to marshy wetlands and waterways, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The region is home to more than 280 species of mammals, 145 species of amphibians, 166 species of reptiles and 378 species of fish, according to WWF. Species of fish include the yellow head catfish, carp, copper fish, Chinese shad, eel, anchovies and the Chinese puffer fish, according to YangtzeRiver.org. Unfortunately, the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists many of the animals in the Yangtze River Basin on its Red List of Threatened Species. Statuses range from vulnerable (high risk of endangerment in the wild) to endangered (high risk of extinction in the wild) to critically endangered (extremely high risk of extinction in the wild). 

The giant panda, which was recently moved from the endangered list to the slightly better status of vulnerable, lives in the bamboo forests of the Upper Yangtze region. Although the giant panda has no natural predators, human activity has led to only a little more than 1,800 in the wild, according to WWF.

The Yangtze River is also home to the vulnerable finless porpoise. Only about 1,000 of them exist in the wild. Their troubles stem from dwindling sources of food and human activity, including boat traffic. These rare porpoises live mainly in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

The critically endangered Chinese alligator, which numbers only around 200 in the wild, also lives in the lower regions of the river and its surrounding lakes. Although the Chinese alligator resembles the American gator, it is much smaller, reaching lengths of only 5 feet (1.5 m), according to YangtzeRiver.org. 

The Yangtze softshell turtle is the largest softshell turtle in the world and a native of the Yangtze River basin. It is critically endangered, according to the IUCN. There are only three known individuals in existence — two in captivity in China, and one in a lake in Vietnam, according to the Turtle Survival Alliance. In July 2016, efforts to artificially inseminate the last known female were unsuccessful.  

Agriculture

The Yangtze River basin is considered the great granary of China. The economy of the basin focuses largely on agriculture, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica. The grains produced here -- 70 percent of which is rice -- is enough to feed half of the country's population, according to Travel China Guide. Other crops grown here include barley, cotton, wheat, corn and beans.

Pollution

Within the last five decades, China has seen a 73 percent increase in pollution levels in the hundreds of cities surrounding the main stem (primary downstream section) of the Yangtze River, according to WWF. The discharge of sewage and industrial waste has reached 25 billion tons per year -- 42 percent of the country's total sewage discharge, according to WWF.

One of the major pollution issues facing the Yangtze River is the excessive accumulation of phosphorus (P) in the water. Phosphorus is a common ingredient in agricultural fertilizer, manure, and other organic wastes found in sewage and industrial discharge. Although phosphorus is essential to plant life in small amounts, too much of it in the water (often due to soil erosion) speeds up a type of pollution called eutrophication -- explosive growth of algae that depletes the water of oxygen, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Eutrophication can be extremely harmful to river life.

"As with the rest of eastern China, phosphorus inputs via fertilizer runoff, leaching of animal manures, and human wastes have massively eutrophied the Yangtze River and associated water bodies in its flood plain, leading to blooms of algae and cyanobacteria that can pose a health hazard and cause fish kills," said James Elser, a research professor at Arizona State University. His research involves studying how carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus shape the ecology and evolution of living things.

"Furthermore, massive amounts of P have accumulated as 'legacy P' in the Yangtze River catchment, as the amounts of P used as fertilizer in the basin over the past decades greatly exceed the P that has left the basin river outflow and via food shipments," Elser told Live Science. "This legacy P will leave a long-lasting impact even after China brings its P management to a better level."

While discussing what can be done to reduce the damage, Elser said that first, the use of P fertilizer on crops needs to be reduced. He added that current application practices in China add more P than is needed by the crop.  

"Second, China needs a massive effort in manure management for its livestock operations. Manure is in great excess in many regions of the country and the manure cannot be returned to fields to fertilize them due to excessive transport costs," he said. "Less meat in the Chinese diet would also reduce the manure production. "

And finally Elser said there needs to be more widespread adoption of wastewater treatment technologies to prevent P losses from cities and towns. "As China develops this infrastructure, recapture of the P in human waste should be incorporated so that P can be re-used rather than just buried in a landfill somewhere," he concluded.

Experimental Therapy May Slow Type 1 Diabetes

It may be possible to slow the progression of type 1 diabetes, according to a new pilot study that used an experimental therapy that centers on the immune system.

In the new study, researchers in Sweden tested a new method to train the immune system to stop attacking the body's own insulin-producing cells, according to the findings published today (Feb. 15) in the New England Journal of Medicine. With only six participants, the study was small, but experts called these early results exciting.

In people with type I diabetes, the immune system mistakenly recognizes certain proteins in beta cellsas foreign invaders and wages a war against them. Once the beta cells have been killed, the pancreas produces little or no insulin, the hormone that regulates how the body absorbs sugar from the blood to use for energy. As a result, patients need to follow lifelong treatments ― such as insulin injections ― to keep their blood sugar levels at normal ranges.

This destruction of beta cells doesn't happen overnight, however. Although the majority of them are gone by the time someone is diagnosed, some cells manage to dodge the attacks and continue to produce some insulin. That's why several research teams have been working on finding ways to rescue the remaining cells, or delay their destruction in people who have been recently diagnosed with the condition.

In the new study, the researchers injected a protein normally found on beta cells directly into the patients' lymph nodes.

"This method has shown the best efficacy so far," at slowing the disease's progression, said Dr. Johnny Ludvigsson, senior professor of pediatrics at Linköping University and the study's lead investigator. "But we have to be cautious. The number of patients is small."

If confirmed in larger trials, the therapy could bring a number of benefits to patients. The ability to make insulin secretion, even if only at very low levels, dramatically decreases people's risk of complications, such as episodes of dangerously low blood sugar levels, Ludvigsson told Live Science.

The small amount of insulin that the patients in the study could produce would also make it easier for the patients to maintain a good blood sugar balance, improving their quality of life. It would also reduce their risk of long-term complications of the disease, such as heart attack, stroke, neuropathy, kidney problems and eye disease.

"These are exciting results," said Dr. Lawrence Steinman, a professor of pediatrics and neurological sciences at Stanford University, who was not involved with the study. Steinman echoed Ludvigsson's warning that the study is small, and said that trials with more people and which include a control group of patients who are given a placebo are needed to confirm the findings.

How to make the immune system more tolerant

The injections that the researchers gave to the patients in the study contained a protein called GAD, which is normally found in the beta cells. Ludvigsson and his colleagues injected this protein into the patients' lymph nodes near the groin. Lymph nodes contain many immune cells, and the idea behind the treatment is that exposing the body's immune cells to larger amounts of GAD than they normally encounter will cause the immune cells to become more tolerant of GAD, and halt their attack on it.

The participants in the study were ages 20 to 22, and all had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes within the last six months. The researchers followed up with the patients six to 15 months after the treatment, and found that the functioning of the pancreas had not declined, as expected in the typical course of the disease, but remained stable.

Previously, Ludvigsson's team had tried the same treatment, but had injected the protein under the skin. The new results suggest that an injection directly into the lymph nodes better exposes immune cells to the self-antigen.

"With a much lower dose, we got a very strong desired effect on the immune system," Ludvigsson said.

The team is now planning to repeat the study in a larger number of people, which would take a few years, Ludvigsson said.

Treating type 1 diabetes at the source

Although these results are far too early to be applied to patients, they lend promising evidence to a relatively new line of research that aims to modify the immune system with high precision to treat or perhaps even cure type 1 diabetes.

"A few approaches are in clinical trials, but nothing is yet on the market," Steinman said.  "Antigen-based therapy [which was used in the new study] is a sought-after approach, but only a few in the world are attempting this."

In his own work, Steinman has focused on another protein, called proinsulin, which also becomes a target of the immune system in people with type 1 diabetes.

In a 2012 clinical trial with 80 people, Steinman and his team injected participants with a chunk of DNA-encoding proinsulin, in an attempt to desensitize the immune system to proinsulin. The researchers found that the function of the pancreas not only stabilized, but actually improved. It is possible, Steinman said, that some beta cells somehow hide from the immune attacks by going into hibernation, and that once the attacks are eased,  they recover and resume function. Plans for the next trial are ongoing, Steinman said.

An immune therapy for type 1 diabetes in the future might combine some of the various approaches that different research teams have tried.  

"So far, almost all studies have been performed testing one drug at a time, and they have not been effective enough," Ludvigsson said. "My opinion is that we need a combination of different approaches. For example, different drugs, given in a planned scheme, as is done in oncology. And not until just recently has that idea started to become accepted."

Brain Tumor Triggers Woman's Sudden 'Hyper-Religious' Behavior

A woman in Spain who suddenly became very religious and believed she was speaking with the Virgin Mary turned out to have a brain tumor that appears to have caused her symptoms, according to a new report of the case.

The 60-year-old women was said to be a happy, positive person who was not particularly religious. But over a two-month period, her friends and family noticed changes in her personality and behavior. She appeared sad and withdrawn, and also showed increasing interest in the Bible and other sacred writings, the report said.

The woman started spending hours during the day reciting religious writings. She also had mystical experiences, in which she reported seeing, feeling and talking with the Virgin Mary, the report said. 

Those close to her thought the woman might be experiencing depression, because she was caring for a relative with cancer at the time.

However, when her doctors performed an MRI, they saw several lesions in her brain. After taking a biopsy from one of the lesions, doctors diagnosed the woman with glioblastoma multiforme, a particularly aggressive form of brain cancer.

The tumors were too large to treat with surgery, so the woman received chemotherapy and radiation for the cancer. Her doctors also prescribed antipsychotic drugs for her, because some studies have suggested this class of drugs may have an anti-cancer effect on glioblastoma.

During the woman's five-week treatment, her religious visions gradually disappeared, the report said.

In this patient's case, "it is clear that the religious experience represented a fracture" from her prior behavior that was "not preceded by a gradual change in her thinking and acting," the researchers, from the Hospital General Universitario Morales Meseguer in Murcia, Spain, wrote in their paper, published online Dec. 12, 2016, in the journal Neurocase. "Nor was there any kind of trigger or reason [for the behavior change] except for the disease, and hence, it can be considered a clearly pathological experience," they said.

It's not clear how often people experience "hyper-religiosity" or other behavior changes as their first symptom of a brain tumor, the researchers said. One review found that up to 22 percent of all brain tumors may first appear along with psychotic symptoms.

From this one case, it's not possible to pinpoint the part of the brain responsible for the women's religious experience, the researchers said. But, they note that the right temporal lobe, a brain region that has previously been linked to the development of mystical experiences, also appeared to be involved in the woman's case.

The researchers also said that, before the woman's extreme religious behavior, she did believe in God, so this "was not a case of religious conversion."

The woman's condition quickly declined — she experienced a stroke two months after she started treatment, the report said. Eight months after her cancer diagnosis, she died due to the progression of her tumor.

The researchers also suspect that, before her cancer diagnosis, the patient may have experienced non-convulsive seizures, possibly as a result of her brain tumor. They suspected this because of particular changes they saw in her brain scan. Some cases of hyper-religious behavior have also been reported in people with epilepsy, according to the report. However, the researchers were unable to perform tests to confirm the epilepsy diagnosis.

Rare Leptospirosis Cases in NYC: 5 Things to Know

Three people in New York City recently became sick with a rare bacterial disease called leptospirosis that they might have contracted from rats, according to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH).

All three cases occurred in a one-block section of a neighborhood in the Bronx called the  Concourse over the past two months, the DOHMH said in a statement. Although New York City typically sees about one to three cases of leptospirosis per year, this is the first time that health officials have identified a cluster of leptospirosis cases (meaning more than a single case occurring in the same place around the same time) in the city, the DOHMH said.

All three people were hospitalized with kidney and liver failure, and one person died as a result of their infection, DOHMH said.

Leptospirosis is caused by a spiral-shaped bacterium known as Leptospira, which can infect animals and people. Here are five important things to know about leptospirosis.

How do people get leptospirosis?

People can become infected with Leptospira bacteria when they come into contact with the urine of infected animals, or with an environment that's been contaminated with urine from infected animals, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The bacteria can enter the body through broken skin (such as a cut or scratch), or through the mucous membranes in the eyes, nose and mouth, the CDC said.

People may contract leptospirosis when they swim in water that's been contaminated with infected animal urine, or if they have contact with contaminated food or soil, the CDC said.

For the New York City cases, health officials suspect that the people became infected through contact with urine from rats, because most cases in New York City are linked with exposure to rats or rat-infested environments, the DOHMH said.

How common is leptospirosis?

Human cases of leptospirosis are rare in the United States. According to the CDC, only about 100 to 200 leptospirosis cases are reported each year in the United States. About 50 percent of all U.S. leptospirosis cases occur in Hawaii, the CDC said.

The largest outbreak of leptospirosis ever recorded in the United States occurred in 1998, when more than 1,000 athletes participating in summer triathlons in Illinois and Wisconsin were potentially exposed to the bacteria, and 110 became infected, according to the CDC.

How severe are the symptoms?

Some people infected with Leptospira bacteria may have no symptoms at all, according to the CDC. Others may experience a high fever, chills, muscle aches, vomiting, diarrhea and photophobia (eye discomfort when exposed to bright light). In severe cases, the infection can lead to kidney damage, brain inflammation, liver failure and death, the CDC said.

How is leptospirosis treated?

Leptospirosis can be treated with antibiotics — usually doxycycline or penicillin. Treatment should begin as early as possible to reduce the severity and duration of the disease, the DOHMH said.

Can leptospirosis be prevented?

To avoid becoming infected with the Leptospira bacteria that cause leptospirosis, people should wear protective clothing or footwear if they are exposed to water or soil that might have been contaminated with animal urine, the CDC said. For example, people should wear shoes when they take their garbage to a trash compactor room, and avoid contact with areas in which rats might have urinated, according to The New York Times.

People should also avoid swimming or wadding in water that may be contaminated with animal urine, and avoid swallowing water in lakes and rivers, the CDC said.

Taking measures to prevent rodent infestations (for example, by setting up rodent traps and sealing holes in your home) can also prevent some leptospirosis cases, the CDC said.

Finally, pets should be vaccinated against leptospirosis, although the vaccine is not 100 percent effective at preventing the infection, the CDC noted.