For over 15 years, Dr Anthony Shum, a pulmonologist at the University of California, San Francisco has been studying a rare genetic disorder called the COPA Syndrome. It stands for coatomer subunit alpha and is a rare, inherited disorder that affects the lungs, joint, and kidney. The National Organization for Rare Disorder also notes that it is a genetic autoimmune disorder that is caused by mutations in the COPA gene. This disease affects families unpredictably—some individuals with the mutation develop severe lung damage early in life, while others remain completely healthy. Now, Shum’s team has discovered a protective genetic variant that may offer new hope for treatment.

A Breakthrough

Researchers found that some relatives of COPA Syndrome patients stayed healthy despite carrying the same COPA gene mutation that causes the disease. The key difference? These unaffected individuals had a protective version of another gene called HAQ-STING.

When scientists introduced HAQ-STING into diseased lung cells from COPA patients, the cells returned to a balanced state, suggesting that this gene could be used as a therapy.

“We really think HAQ-STING could be a gene therapy tool and a step toward a cure,” said Shum, whose findings were published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Families Who Solved The Mystery

Shum’s journey into COPA Syndrome research began in 2011 when he treated a young woman, Letasha, who had severe lung bleeding. Her mother, Betty Towe, mentioned that Letasha’s sister, Kristina, had suffered from similar symptoms. Over the years, Betty had taken both daughters on a four-hour trip to UCSF for treatment. After tracing their family history, Shum discovered that their distant relatives in Texas and Oakland also had lung problems and arthritis. In 2015, Shum, along with scientists from Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital identified the COPA gene mutation. They realized that it was the common factor behind the illness. However, only some of the 30 individuals with the mutation actually developed symptoms, leaving a major question unanswered.

The Domino Effect

It was established that it occurs when a mutated COPA gene causes another gene STING to go overdrive. The STING that helps fight infections in COPA patients, remain permanently active, which leads to chronic inflammation that damages the lungs, kidneys, and joints. In 2020, while studying STING’s role in the disease, researchers discovered a key variation: HAQ-STING. This version of STING, present in about one-third of the population, appeared to neutralize the harmful effects of the COPA mutation.

To confirm their theory, the scientists needed both affected and unaffected family members to participate in the testing. Letasha, Kristina and Betty immediately volunteered. The researchers then analyzed DNA samples from 26 COPA patients and their healthy relatives. They also conducted CT scans and blood tests to ensure that unaffected members did not have any hidden symptoms. When the findings were all clear, it was revealed that all the healthy individuals had HAQ-STING, while none of the COPA patients did. This was the first known case of a common gene variant completely protecting against a severe genetic disease.

Encouraged by this discovery, researchers tested HAQ-STING’s effects in a lab setting. They introduced it into diseased lung cells from COPA patients, and the cells returned to normal function.

Way Ahead

Shum believes HAQ-STING could lead to game-changing treatments, including:

• Prenatal gene therapy for babies diagnosed with COPA Syndrome before birth
• Aerosol delivery of HAQ-STING for adults, directly targeting the lungs

Before publishing their findings, Shum called Betty with the news—her own HAQ-STING gene had protected her from the disease. He also informed Letasha and Kristina, who were overwhelmed with relief and joy.

“We always believed Dr. Shum would get to the bottom of it,” said Letasha. “This discovery is going to change lives.”

Worried that your vegetarian-only diet may not save you from cancer? A new study showed that a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and fiber-containing foods, and no meat, can lower the risks of five cancers, namely breast cancer, prostate cancer, kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer, and multiple myeloma.

The study published today in the British Journal of Cancer, however, showed that vegetarians had nearly double the risk of squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus, and a significantly higher risk of bowel cancer. This may be due to a lack of certain nutrients that are more abundant in animal foods, said the researchers from the University of Oxford, UK.

"Vegetarians typically consume more fruit, vegetables, and fiber than meat eaters and no processed meat, which may contribute to lower risks of some cancers,” said Aurora Perez Cornago, principal investigator of the study and formerly Associate Professor at Oxford Population Health.

“The higher risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in vegetarians and bowel cancer in vegans may relate to lower intakes of certain nutrients more abundant in animal foods. Additional research is needed to understand what is driving the differences in cancer risk found in our study,” Cornago added.

The researchers advised eating meals around wholegrains, pulses, fruit and vegetables, and avoiding processed meat and limiting red meat to increase overall protection from cancer.

What Did The Study Find?

The findings are based on data from more than 1.8 million people from three continents.

Compared to meat eaters, about 72,000 vegetarians in the study had:

• 21 percent lower risk of pancreatic cancer
• 9 percent lower risk of breast cancer
• 12 percent lower risk of prostate cancer
• 28 percent lower risk of kidney cancer
• 31 percent lower risk of multiple myeloma

Tim Key, Emeritus Professor of Epidemiology at Oxford Population Health, and co-investigator, said the study helps to shed light on the benefits and risks associated with vegetarian diets.

The study found no statistically significant differences in risk for colorectal, stomach, liver, lung (in never smokers), endometrial, ovarian, mouth and pharynx, or bladder cancers, or non-Hodgkin lymphoma, leukemia, and esophageal adenocarcinoma in vegetarians.

Vegans had a statistically significantly higher risk of colorectal (bowel) cancer when compared with meat eaters.

Pescatarians had lower risks of breast and kidney cancers, as well as a lower risk of bowel cancer. Poultry eaters were found to have a lower risk of prostate cancer.

For the other cancers studied, there was no evidence that the risk in vegans differed from that of meat eaters, and for some less common cancers, there were too few vegan cases to analyze. Further studies are needed to confirm these results in the vegan population, the team said.

Global Cancer Burden: How Diet Influences Risk Worldwide

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were an estimated 20 million new cancer cases and 9.7 million deaths in 2022.

About 1 in 5 people develop cancer in their lifetime, approximately 1 in 9 men and 1 in 12 women die from the disease.

The American Cancer Society's guidelines for diet to prevent cancer include

• A variety of vegetables – dark green, red, and orange, fiber-rich legumes (beans and peas), and others
• Fruits, especially whole fruits in a variety of colors
• Whole grains
• Avoiding red and processed meats
• Sugar-sweetened beverages
• Highly processed foods and refined grain products

Data from the Indian Council of Medical Research also shows that one out of 10 cancers may be linked to diet, and over half of these are caused by eating less than five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.

It also advises against diets rich in saturated fats, red meat, and salt and poor in fiber, red, and processed meats.

Typhoid have plagued humans for millennia and many believe that in developed countries it is no longer considered a threat. However, this 'ancient killer' is still dangerous and a Lancet study published in 2022, titled: The international and intercontinental spread and expansion of antimicrobial-resistant Salmonella Typhi: a genomic epidemiology study, noted that typhoid fever is evolving extensive drug resistance, and is rapidly replacing strains that are not resistant.

As of now, antibiotics are the only effective treatment for typhoid, caused by the bacterium Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi). However, in the past three decades, the bacteria's resistance to oral antibiotics have been growing.

What Did The Study Find?

In this large-scale investigation, researchers from several countries analyzed the genetic sequences of 3,489 Salmonella Typhi (S. Typhi) samples collected between 2014 and 2019 from Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India. Their findings revealed a concerning increase in extensively drug-resistant (XDR) Typhi strains across the region.

XDR Typhi is resistant not only to commonly used first-line antibiotics such as ampicillin, chloramphenicol, and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, but is also increasingly showing resistance to more advanced treatments, including fluoroquinolones and third-generation cephalosporins.

More alarmingly, these highly resistant strains are spreading quickly beyond national borders.

Although the majority of XDR Typhi cases originate in South Asia, researchers have documented close to 200 cases of international transmission since 1990. Many of these strains have spread to Southeast Asia and parts of East and Southern Africa. Additionally, cases of these drug-resistant typhoid strains have been detected in countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada.

"The speed at which highly resistant strains of S. Typhi have emerged and spread in recent years is a real cause for concern, and highlights the need to urgently expand prevention measures, particularly in countries at greatest risk," said Stanford University infectious disease researcher Jason Andrews when the results were published.

Drug-resistant Typhoid And Warnings

Scientists have warned about the drug-resistant typhoid for years now. In 2016, the first XDR typhoid strain was identified in Pakistan.

By 2019, this had become a dominant genotype in the nation. However, by the early 2000s, mutations that confer resistance to quinolones accounted for more than 85 per cent of all cases in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Singapore. At the same time, cephalosporin resistance was also taking over.

Today, only one oral antibiotics is left: the macrolide, azithromycin. However, scientists believe that this medicine may also not work for much longer.

The 2022 Lancet study reported that mutations responsible for resistance to azithromycin are increasingly emerging and spreading, raising fresh concerns among scientists. Researchers warned that this development “threatens the efficacy of all oral antimicrobials for typhoid treatment,” significantly narrowing the pool of effective medicines. Although these particular mutations have not yet been observed in extensively drug-resistant (XDR) S. Typhi strains, experts caution that if XDR variants acquire azithromycin resistance as well, treatment options would become extremely limited, creating a potentially dire public health scenario.

Typhoid fever remains a serious and potentially life-threatening illness. If left untreated, as many as 20 percent of cases can result in death. In 2024 alone, more than 13 million typhoid cases were reported worldwide, underscoring the scale of the burden.

While typhoid conjugate vaccines offer a promising tool to help prevent future outbreaks and reduce transmission, their impact depends heavily on widespread and equitable access. Without significant global expansion of vaccination coverage, health experts warn that the world could face another major public health crisis driven by increasingly drug-resistant typhoid strains.

"The recent emergence of XDR and azithromycin-resistant S. Typhi creates greater urgency for rapidly expanding prevention measures, including use of typhoid conjugate vaccines in typhoid-endemic countries," the authors write.

What Could Be Done To Prevent This From Happening?

Experts say that nations must now expand their access to typhoid vaccines and invest in new antibiotic research.

A 2021 study in India published in journal Vaccine estimated that if children are vaccinated against typhoid in urban areas, it could prevent up to 36 per cent of typhoid cases and death. Pakistan is also leading the front as it was the first nation in the world to offer routine immunization for typhoid. A small number of countries have followed the suit or are "planning or considering introduction".

The World Health Organization (WHO) too have prequalified four typhoid vaccines as of April 2025.

French fries are the top choice for binge-eating, movie night or days when you do not want to cook anything. It’s easier and faster to make. However, over the period of time, snacking on these snacks has been deemed unhealthy by people claiming it triggers several health risks

Recently, a fitness influencer, Siddhartha Singh, came into the spotlight for calling French fries the “worst food”. He called French fries the “hyper-palatable” food, items that contain high levels of sugar, carbohydrates, sodium, and fat which triggers the reward part of your brain, leading to consuming more.

“If you have one, you’ll have to eat 50. This food will put you on a blood-sugar roller coaster. High fat, high carb! You eat it, and after 10 minutes, you’re hungry again, but your blood sugar goes up and then falls.” He explains in the video that French fries absorb all the oil, and when you eat them, it goes directly into your body.

Highly processed foods are usually engineered to have enjoyable qualities of sweetness, saltiness, or richness.

Meanwhile, Aditi Prasad Apte, Senior Clinical Nutritionist at Aster RV Hospital, says otherwise and claims that fries are not entirely unhealthy but the damage caused by them depends on how they are cooked or how often they are eaten in quantity.

She explains that every food's nutritional value falls into one of two categories: healthy or unhealthy. The nutritional value of French fries depends on their cooking method and portion size. She said, "Deep-fried fries eaten frequently can contribute to weight gain, high blood pressure and heart disease due to excess calories, unhealthy fats and sodium.”

How Can It Affect Your Health?

Usually, French fries affect metabolic health. Sodium consumed, which is in high concentration in French fries, affects the kidneys and elevates blood pressure, while unhealthy fats can raise LDL, which is bad cholesterol.

Dr Apte shares that hormonal differences can also influence how fries impact men and women.

“In women, frequent consumption may worsen insulin resistance and hormonal imbalances seen in conditions like PCOS. In men, it can contribute to abdominal obesity, which is closely linked to heart disease.”

Many women have strong cravings for fries during PMS. The expert explains that fluctuating estrogen and progesterone levels can lower serotonin, a chemical which affects the mood, which leads to a craving for high-carbonated foods like fries.

She further says, it may boost mood, but excess salt can worsen bloating.

How Can You Make French Fries Healthy?

Dr. Apte also shares how fried foods can be eaten healthily:

• Baking, air frying or using minimal oil.
• A portion is about 80–100 grams, roughly a small serving.
• Roasted vegetables like carrots, zucchini, beetroot or pumpkin can also be used as a good substitute.