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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 2, 2018 at 8:53am

Scientists are warning that if human beings continue to mine the world’s wildernesses for resources and convert them into cities and farms at the pace of the previous century, the planet’s few remaining wild places could disappear in decades.

Today, more than 77 percent of land on earth, excluding Antarctica, has been modified by human industry, according to a study published recently in the journal Nature, up from just 15 percent a century ago.

The study, led by researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia and the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York, paints the first global picture of the threat to the world’s remaining wildernesses — and the image is bleak.

Wilderness is defined as an area not subject to direct human use.

These areas are the only places on earth that have natural levels of biodiversity, and can continue to sustain plant and animal species on an evolutionary time scale.

Moreover, these spots often act as the world’s lungs, storing carbon dioxide that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere.

Policy experts, take note that even more aggressive action is needed to stop global resource extraction and industrial expansion. 

Healthy ecosystems are crucial in their own right for biodiversity and mitigating climate change, but more importantly, said the researchers, they are home for hundreds of millions of indigenous people, who rely on the wilderness to survive and thrive.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 31, 2018 at 10:03am

60% of world's wildlife has been wiped out since 1970 says WWF

Well over half the world's population of vertebrates, from fish to birds to mammals, have been wiped out in the past four decades, says a new report from the World Wildlife Fund.

Between 1970 and 2014, there was 60 per cent decline, on average, among 16,700 wildlife populations around the world according to the 2018 edition of the Living Planet Report  released recently.

We've had a loss of nearly two-thirds, on average, of our wild species. The magnitude of that should be eye opening… We really are reaching a point where we're likely to see species go extinct.

The WWF says the biggest drivers of the declines are habitat loss and overexploitation, but says climate change is a growing threat. The results of the new report shows a trend in the wrong direction, and "there's a real urgency" to take action to protect wildlife.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 25, 2018 at 10:07am

Brain-eating amoebae halted by silver nanoparticles

Researchers have developed silver nanoparticles coated with anti-seizure drugs that can kill brain-eating amoebae while sparing human cells. The researchers report their results in ACS Chemical Neuroscience.

Although infections with brain-eating amoebae (Naegleria fowleri) are rare, they are almost always deadly. Most cases result from inhaling warm, dirty water in ponds, hot springs or unchlorinated swimming pools. Another species, Acanthamoeba castellanii, can cause blindness by entering the eyes through dirty contact lenses. Common treatments include antimicrobial drugs, but they often cause severe side effects because of the high doses required for them to enter the brain. Ayaz Anwar and colleagues wondered if three anti-seizure drugs -- diazepam, phenobarbitone and phenytoin -- could kill amoebae, alone or in combination with silver nanoparticles. The drugs are already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and are known to cross the blood-brain barrier. The researchers reasoned that they might be more effective when attached to silver nanoparticles, which can improve the delivery of some drugs and also have their own antimicrobial effects.

The team chemically attached the drugs to silver nanoparticles and examined their ability to kill amoebae. They found that each of the three drugs alone could kill N. fowleri and A. castellanii, but they worked much better when bound to silver nanoparticles. The drug-nanoparticle combos protected human cells from the microbes, increasing their survival rate compared with untreated infected human cells. The researchers propose that these repurposed drugs, aided by the nanoparticles, might kill amoebae by binding to protein receptors or ion channels on the single-celled organism's membrane.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acschemneuro.8b00484

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 24, 2018 at 9:59am

Microplastics have been found in the human food chain as particles made of polypropylene (PP), polyethylene-terephthalate (PET) and others were detected in human stools, research presented recently at the 26th UEG Week in Vienna reveals.

Researchers from the Medical University of Vienna and the Environment Agency Austria monitored a group of participants from countries across the world, including Finland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, the UK and Austria. The results show that every single stool sample tested positive for the presence of microplastic and up to nine different plastic types were identified.

Microplastics are small particles of plastic less than 5mm and are used in various products for specific purposes; as well as being created unintentionally by the breaking down of larger pieces of plastic through weathering, degradation, wear and tear. Microplastic may impact human health via the GI tract where it could affect the tolerance and immune response of the gut by bioaccumulation or aiding transmission of toxic chemicals and pathogens.
The stools were tested at the Environment Agency Austria for 10 types of plastics following a newly developed analytical procedure. Up to nine different plastics, sized between 50 and 500 micrometres, were found, with polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) being the most common. On average, the researchers found 20 microplastic particles per 10g of stool.
Schwabl, P. et al (2018), Assessment of microplastic concentrations in human stool - Preliminary results of a prospective study, Presented at UEG Week 2018 Vienna, October 24, 2018.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 18, 2018 at 10:28am

Alarming news! Microplastics found in 90% of table salt around the world. 

A paper published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

recently says those from Asian brands were especially high. In another indicator of the geographic density of plastic pollution, microplastics levels were highest in sea salt, followed by lake salt and then rock salt. The new study estimates that the average adult consumes approximately 2,000 microplastics per year through salt.

For more information read this article....

https://kkartlab.in/group/some-science/forum/topics/the-perils-of-p...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 14, 2018 at 8:41am

New molecule with sneaky tactics to kill drug-resistant superbugs ...
A new molecule can kill deadly strains of common bacteria, such as Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumonia, that are resistant to most existing antibiotics. The drug works differently from currently available antibiotics, potentially making it harder for bacteria to develop resistance, researchers report September 12 in Nature.
Most antibiotics kill bacteria by weakening their cell wall or by preventing the production of certain proteins. But bacteria have, over time, evolved ways to circumvent these drugs.
The newly developed drug uses a different tactic. It inhibits a key enzyme in the cell membrane that helps the bacteria secrete proteins. That means that strategies that bacteria use to evade existing antibiotics won’t work here, giving the molecule an edge. When the enzyme is blocked, proteins build up in the cell membrane until the membrane bursts, ultimately killing the cell.
The molecule will need to go through additional testing and tweaking before it can be used in humans.
P. Smith et al. Optimized arylomycins are a new class of Gram-negative antibiotics. Nature. Published online September 12, 2018. doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0483-6.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 25, 2018 at 12:19pm

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 25, 2018 at 6:02am

Chemical additives in food for kids are highly harmful

The American Academy of Pediatrics is cautioning parents and pediatricians to avoid exposing children to eight chemicals found in food and in plastic packaging. The chemicals may be especially harmful to kids due to their small size, says the report published July 23 in Pediatrics. Pregnant women should also avoid the chemicals. And lower-income families who eat a lot of prepackaged foods could be at greater risk for exposure.

The chemicals include nitrates and nitrites, often added to processed meats as a preservative, as well as bisphenol A, or BPA, which is used to make durable plastics and has been linked to cancer, obesity and cardiovascular disease . Also listed are phthalates, which help make plastic flexible, and perfluoroalkyl chemicals, or PFCs, which are resistant to stains, grease and water. These and other compounds have also been associated with endocrine disruption, obesity and insulin resistance, when cells don’t respond properly to insulin leading to an overproduction of the hormone .

Some of these chemicals may also have neurocognitive effects, such as increased hyperactivity in children, says study coauthor Sheela Sathyanarayana, a physician and epidemiologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Scientists are unable to test the effects of these chemicals directly in humans, so evidence shows only that there is correlation, not causation, between exposure and disease.

To avoid these chemicals, the report suggests that parents buy fresh or frozen produce and skip processed meats packaged in plastic or food in metal cans, which can be lined with BPA. People should also avoid putting plastic containers in the dishwasher or microwave, the team says, where heat can draw chemicals out of plastic.

The researchers say that they hope the report prompts more strict regulation of these additives.

L. Trasande, R.M. Shaffer and S. Sathyanarayana. Food additives and child health. Pediatrics. Published online July 23, 2018. doi:10.1542/peds.2018-1408.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on June 16, 2018 at 5:39am

Bacteria survive in NASA's clean rooms by eating cleaning products
Even NASA clean rooms -- the squeaky-clean places where the agency assembles its spacecraft -- have their own microbiomes, a common community of super-hardy species that somehow withstand the rigorous disinfection procedures. The microbiomes in the clean rooms are dominated by Acinetobacter bacteria, which are typically found in soil and water. Scientists have isolated strains from the surface of the Mars Odyssey orbiter, from the floors on which the Mars Phoenix lander was assembled, from the exterior of the International Space Station and even from the station's drinking water. Now, a team of scientists led by Rakesh Mogul from California State Polytechnic University at Pomona has discovered one of Acinetobacter's survival tricks: these microbes can eat the very cleaning products that are meant to banish them. "You can clean the rooms out and sterilize them, but microbes are still there," says Mogul. "To be a bit Jurassic Park about it: life will find a way."

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on June 11, 2018 at 9:57am

Bacteriophage link to parkinson's disease identified ... 

In the first study of its kind, researchers from the New York-based Human Microbiology Institute have discovered the role certain bacteriophages may play in the onset of Parkinson's disease (PD). The research is presented at ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, held from June 7th to June 11th in Atlanta, Georgia.

The researchers, led by George, Tetz, M.D., Ph.D., Human Microbiology Institute, showed that the abundance of lytic Lactococcus phages was higher in PD patients when compared to healthy individuals. This abundance led to a 10-fold reduction in neurotransmitter-producing Lactococcus, suggesting the possible role of phages in neurodegeneration. Comparative analysis of the bacterial component also revealed significant decreases in Streptococcus spp. and Lactobacillus spp. in PD.

Lactococcus are regulators of gut permeability and are enteric dopamine producers, which plays a primary role in PD. "The depletion of lactococcus due to high numbers of strictly lytic phages in PD patients might be associated with PD development and directly linked to dopamine decrease as well as the development of gastrointestinal symptoms of PD," said Dr. Tetz.

To explore bacterial and bacteriophage community compositions associated with PD, the researchers used shotgun metagenomics sequencing data of fecal microbiome from 32 patients with PD and 28 controls.

The results indicate that the decrease in Lactococci in the PD patients was due to the appearance of strictly lytic, virulent lactococcal phages belonging to the c2-like and 936 groups that are frequently isolated from dairy products. These results open a discussion on the role of environmental phages and phagobiota composition in health and disease.

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