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RESEARCHERS IN IRELAND have found a signal that appears in the blood before an epileptic seizure happens.
This discovery may lead to the development of an early warning system, which would enable people with epilepsy to know when they are at risk of having a seizure.
Researchers at FutureNeuro, hosted at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) led the study, which is published in the current edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI).
The researchers have discovered molecules in the blood that are higher in people with epilepsy before a seizure happens.
These molecules are fragments of transfer RNAs (tRNAs), a chemical closely related to DNA that performs an important role in building proteins within the cell.
When cells are stressed, tRNAs are cut into fragments. Higher levels of the fragments in the blood could reflect that brain cells are under stress in the build up to a seizure event.
Using blood samples from people with epilepsy at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin and in a similar specialist centre in Marburg, Germany, the group found that fragment levels of three tRNAs ”spike” in the blood many hours before a seizure.
“People with epilepsy often report that one of the most difficult aspects of living with the disease is never knowing when a seizure will occur,” said Dr Marion Hogg, the study’s lead author said.
The results of this study are very promising. We hope that our tRNA research will be a key first step toward developing an early warning system.
Around 40,000 people in Ireland have epilepsy and one third of those don’t respond to current treatments, meaning they continue experiencing seizures.
“New technologies to remove the unpredictability of uncontrolled seizures for people with epilepsy are a very real possibility,” said Professor David Henshall, a co-author on the paper, said.
“Building on this research we in FutureNeuro hope to develop a test prototype, similar to a blood sugar monitor that can potentially predict when a seizure might occur.”
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PA, WI and MI all still need to be counted correctly also…
@Eddie: They are.
@Tricia G: oh they are not counted “Correctly”
@Eddie: Evidence? Not some randomer YouTube or twitter or partisan news outlet, but actual independently verifiable evidence
oh and don’t forget Nevada also…
Recount them with an “independently verifiable” source and then we can all go back to worrying about the China flu.
@Eddie: well said
@Eddie: “Correctly” means showing a win for Trump despite him having fewer votes, right?
@Eddie: sure why not recount all 50 states just to be extra sure. How do we even know for certain Florida is correct.
@Diarmaid Mac Aonghusa: Correctly mean counting the legal votes and destroying illegal/invalid votes. If that means Trump getting more Electoral College votes then so be it…
@ED209: ah it’s only the states with Democratic Governors that appear to have “irregularities”.
It Biden was/is concened about the count in other states then he is quite rightly allowed to go through that states process to get a recount.
@Eddie: you’re gonna miss trump but you’ll get over it…. I hope.
@Eddie: Lol! this is awesome. Get ‘em Eddie
@Eddie: You know he’s lost. This isn’t a few hundred votes that you need to scam. This is thousands in multiple states and with the added democratic mandate of a huge victory in the popular vote. Nobody is arguing against a recount in a close call but the game of pretending that postal votes don’t count or are fraudulant is going nowhere and you know it. Your boy told us this was his plan – attack mail in votes before the election and then claim it is a scam afterwards. No one is buying it, not even Fox News.
@thesaltyurchin: :)
@Diarmaid Mac Aonghusa: Electoral College is there to stop elections been won by the “popular” vote… so no need to keep referring to it… it’s irrelevant.
Actually – wonder what’s going on with Fox News lately – they must be all on the piss with Alex Jones…
Anyways – only hanging around today to see what the craic is with our own
dodgy crew… has #Count5Leo resigned yet?
@Eddie: But by that reconning couldn’t the same logic be said about those states that have Republican Governors. How can you trust them that they have no irregularities and aren’t trying to swing the election?
Arizona and Georgia are gone blue this year, Alaska will stay red, North Carolina should have been called for Trump already.
Georgia will go to a recount either way, it’s within the margin of being a legit recount
There is no excuse for Arizona it should have been called long before now. Not good seeing people still standing around with guns it’s very intimidating for people living and working there.
@Joe Johnson: ‘mercaw. Land of the free… just like Iran. Lol
@Joe Johnson: Fox called it very early for biden.
We could be in for a few eye openers yet
@WreckDefier: not really. Biden is 45k ahead in Penn. He has over 270 with that. No recount will change 45k votes, nor will all the cries of voter fraud with evidence change it. Trump could win all the other states but he’d still lose
@Ger: The problem is trump and his supporters are getting a dose of reality. The actual courts of law in real life require verifiable proof. It’s not their little fox news bubble where you can just shout voter fraud and judge jeanine will nod and agree with you.
@WreckDefier: red car or blue car… either way the milky bar gets eaten.
Whether its Biden or Trump, the fact the winner has already been declared, as mentioned in the article, ‘by several media outlets’ should be worrying. As unlikeable Trump is, the fact is he and his team are entitled to challenge various aspects and counts of the election. Just as Al Gore did in 2000, and Jill Stein did in 2016. Allowing the media or anyone else just declare the winner without going through the proper procedure is not a practice I think will serve the US public in the long run. Fine, now its to the benefit of a popular left-leaning candidate who’s victory will end the presidency of someone many dislike but next time it might be the opposite. Or maybe next time the media will not be as friendly to a candidate preferred by progressive voters. Come December, after Trump (or Biden in other contested states) have their say in court, the institutions that have allowed the one of world’s oldest and most powerful democracies to continue its smooth transfer of power will continue and as long as people have faith in these institutions it will continue for generation to come.
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