A Taiwanese medial research team discovered a natural mechanism of the body that could be used to develop new drugs for treating sepsis, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday.
The team led by National Health Research Institute researchers Kenneth Wu (伍焜玉) and Kuo Cheng-chin (郭呈欽), and Tri-Service General Hospital physician Hsu Yu-Juei (許育瑞) found that blood vessel endothelial cells can produce 5-methoxytryptophan (5-MTP, also known as cytoguardin) — an anti-inflammatory that can reduce inflammatory response in mice with septicemia.
Septicemia is life-threatening bacterial infection that spreads through the vascular system and can progress into sepsis, causing a full-body inflammatory response and can result in organ failure.
On average, someone dies of sepsis every three seconds worldwide, Kuo said, adding that about 50 percent of patients with severe illness died of sepsis.
It is ranked No. 13 in causes of death in Taiwan and there is not effective drug to cure it, Kuo added.
Kuo said the team discovered that 5-MTP released by endothelial cells not only reduces inflammatory response in the vascular system and controls the abnormal activation of inflamed cells, it can also increase the survival rate of mice with septicemia by 80 percent.
He said the team also found that people have 5-MTP in their blood with or without sepsis, but the 5-MTP levels in people with sepsis is about 65 percent lower than healthy people.
Although the injection of 5-MTP into mice with sepsis has suggested that it could be an effective treatment, its effects on the human body would need to be confirmed through research, Kuo said, adding that the 5-MTP is a natural substance in the human body, so it is not toxic.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
RSS