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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 3 hours ago

Vitamin D and calcium supplements may not protect against bone fractures, large new study suggests
Calcium or vitamin D supplements alone show little to no reduction in fractures or falls in adults, and combined supplementation yields only very small, clinically marginal benefits. The findings question routine supplementation for community-dwelling adults without deficiency or osteoporosis. Evidence more strongly supports weight-bearing exercise, balance training, and overall lifestyle measures for fracture and fall prevention.

original article.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 3 hours ago

Hope for spinal injuries as pigs walk again after experimental gel treatment for severed spinal cords

In humans and other mammals, spinal cord injuries can be devastating, leading to permanent loss of movement, sensation and bladder control. When severed axons (the long fibers that carry messages between nerve cells) cannot regrow, a dense scar forms, preventing nerve signals from passing the injury site.

But the situation is different for some primitive invertebrates, which can rapidly reconnect severed nerves by fusing them. Inspired by this natural phenomenon, scientists report that they have successfully reconnected severed spinal cords in pigs, enabling them to walk again.

When a spinal cord is completely cut, the two severed ends naturally pull away from each other. In microscopic roundworms, for example, the nerve ends automatically find each other and fuse together. The researchers realized that to recreate a natural fusion process like this, they needed a material to fill the empty space and hold the two ends together.
As they detail in a paper published in the journal PLOS One, they engineered a fusogen-based gel designed to weld damaged nerve membranes back together. It contains a chemical used in medicine, polyethylene glycol, and a biological polymer, chitosan.

Pigs with complete spinal cord transections treated with a polyethylene glycol–chitosan fusogen gel showed rapid sensory recovery, restoration of bladder control by day 5, and independent walking by day 60, unlike untreated controls. Histology indicated reduced scarring and nerve fibers crossing the lesion, consistent with axonal fusion–mediated neurorepair.

Given the rapid clinical improvement observed, the therapeutic effects ... cannot be attributed solely to axonal regeneration ... This points to immediate neurorepair mechanisms, namely axonal fusion, being the primary driver of the initial recovery.
While this pig study is a significant advance, human clinical trials are likely still a long way off, as larger animal studies will be needed first. However, the research has demonstrated that damaged nerve fibers may reconnect after spinal injury, giving hope for future spinal treatments, as the researchers note.

Michael Lebenstein-Gumovski et al, Fusogen-induced recovery of spinal cord function and morphology after complete transection, PLOS One (2026). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0349579

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 3 hours ago

White barn owls may use moonlight to startle prey
Male barn owls with white plumage orient flights toward the moon and preferentially hunt in brighter, unshaded areas, increasing exposure of their bright feathers to prey. Dive-level capture probability is similar across colors and light levels, but white males capture more prey per hour on bright nights, supporting a startle rather than background-matching function of whiteness.

Kim Schalcher et al, Barn owl color morphs hunt differently in moonlight, Current Biology (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2026.05.020

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 3 hours ago

Contact lenses can repair themselves with just one hour of UV light exposure

A methacrylate hydrogel cross-linked with disulfide bonds and coated with an antibacterial, anti-scratch layer enables self-healing contact lenses. UV exposure at 365 nm for 1 hour induces disulfide exchange, efficiently repairing scratches with minimal loss of transparency. The coated lenses show soft-contact-like water retention and high abrasion resistance, but require further stability and regulatory evaluation.

Jung-Hyun Choi et al, Room-Temperature UV-Induced Self-Healing Hydrogels with Antifouling and Antiscratch Surfaces for Soft Contact Lenses, ACS Applied Polymer Materials (2026). DOI: 10.1021/acsapm.5c04803

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 3 hours ago

Scientists design a clay that can prevent fruits and vegetables from rotting too quickly
Chemically modified natural clay with enlarged pore structures can strongly adsorb and retain ethylene gas, slowing fruit and vegetable ripening without added toxicity. The work clarifies the physicochemical mechanisms governing ethylene uptake, enabling optimization for industrial food packaging. Potential applications include ethylene-scavenging pads to reduce food waste and improve flavour.

K. Kovalchuk et al, Disentangling interlayer confinement and pore surface adsorption in functionalized smectites for tunable ethylene gas capture, Applied Surface Science Advances (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.apsadv.2026.101010

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 4 hours ago

The most common pneumotype—accounting for almost half (49%) of cases—was characterized by immune suppression, significant damage to the lining of the lungs and bleeding in the alveoli (tiny air sacs within the lungs). There were fewer signs of inflammation, which may explain why treatments targeting inflammation can fail or even harm some patients.

The second pneumotype—accounting for just under a quarter (23%) of cases—was characterized by a balanced immune response and active repair of damage to the lungs. Patients were most likely to recover faster from this pneumotype and require the shortest time on the ventilator, even though they initially looked just as ill as the others.

Patients with the most dangerous pneumotype—the one that most resembles "classic" pneumonia—spent the longest on mechanical ventilation and had prolonged critical illness. They had severe and persistent inflammation, with a flood of immature immune cells in the lung. This group may be most likely to respond to anti-inflammatory therapies, the research team said.
Severe pneumonia is not a single disease, but several biologically distinct conditions that happen to look alike. This helps explain why 'one-size-fits-all' treatments—including some immune-modulating drugs—have often failed in clinical trials.

The tests used to determine the pneumotypes are too complex to enable rapid classification, but the researchers hope to develop a simplified tool that could help them stratify the patients and ultimately offer tailored treatments.

Pulmonary inflammation in severe pneumonia is characterised by compartmentalised and mechanistically distinct sub-phenotypes, Nature Communications (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-74190-x

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 4 hours ago

Discovery of 3 severe pneumonia subtypes could lead to tailored treatments

Pneumonia is the most common infectious cause of death worldwide, responsible for an estimated 2.5 million deaths a year. In severe cases, patients may need to be admitted to an ICU and given mechanical ventilation. Severe pneumonia accounts for six in 10 infections managed in intensive care, and spread of the infection within ICUs is a significant concern.
Severe pneumonia is usually diagnosed through a combination of symptoms, imaging and blood tests. Symptoms typically include fever or hypothermia, low oxygen levels, breathing difficulties and confusion.

Doctors have long struggled to understand why patients whose condition looks similar clinically can have very different recoveries. Some respond quickly to treatment, while others remain critically ill for weeks or even die.
Researchers have now shown that severe pneumonia has three different subtypes, helping explain why some patients in intensive care units (ICUs) recover from their illness faster than others, while for other patients the disease can be life-threatening.
Their findings could in future help inform tailored treatments, allowing individual patients to receive the most appropriate therapies.
Even though doctors are able to treat the initial infection, many patients with severe pneumonia still struggle to come off the ventilator and can develop lung failure. Therapies to tackle inflammation in the lungs have had mixed results in clinical trials—some suggest they are beneficial, others that they're harmful.
The current approach of classifying patients by their clinical syndromes—sepsis, acute respiratory distress syndrome and so on—without looking at the underlying biology risks missing what's key. Instead of asking 'Does this patient have pneumonia?' doctors should be asking 'What's the inflammatory pattern in this patient's lungs to correctly treat them?'"

Instead of relying only on blood tests or scans, however, the Cambridge team analyzed immune cells, inflammatory signals and gene activity in fluid taken from the lungs of the patients. They discovered that there are three distinct biological types—or "pneumotypes"—of severe pneumonia, none of which could be reliably detected using standard blood tests, even though they were strongly linked to how patients recovered.
Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 4 hours ago

Spontaneous and voluntary laughter come from two different brain regions, researchers reveal
Laughter is a universal social signal that connects us with others.
In a review published in Trends in Neurosciences, researchers analyze reports from medical procedures in which the brain is electrically stimulated in awake patients. Laughter can be an unintentional byproduct of these stimulations, allowing scientists to pinpoint laughter-evoking brain areas.

By examining these reports and other clinical and animal studies, the authors describe two distinct networks in the brain for laughter: one that elicits spontaneous outbursts, and another that produces voluntary, conversational laughter.

Researchers have long observed two types of laughter in healthy humans.

Spontaneous, involuntary and sometimes uncontrollable laughter can be associated with certain types of seizure disorders, mood disorders, Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia.
The second kind is volitional laughter. That's most of the laughter you encounter. It's timed incredibly precisely. If you look at people having a conversation, they will laugh together at the end of a sentence and then breathe together.

When people are talking to each other, volitional laughter starts and stops really quickly. This type of coordination points to a degree of control that is lacking in spontaneous laughter.

To tease apart the brain circuitry underlying these two types of laughter, the team turned to reports of presurgical brain stimulation in epilepsy patients. During these procedures, clinicians identify brain regions to target for surgery by electrically stimulating parts of the brain while patients are awake. These probes often unintentionally evoke laughter, and patients are able to describe their feelings in real time.

The authors analyzed these reports, along with other clinical and animal studies, to propose two distinct networks underlying spontaneous and voluntary laughter.

The spontaneous network consists of brain regions involved in motor control and emotional regulation, including the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex, nucleus accumbens and the temporal pole. Stimulating these regions produces laughter accompanied by enhanced mood, euphoria and mirth.

The voluntary network comprises areas involved purely in motor control of laughing and smiling, such as the rolandic operculum, globus pallidus and presupplementary motor area. Stimulation of these regions evokes laughter without positive emotions.

The authors suggest that the spontaneous network is a more evolutionarily ancient pathway that arose in animal "rough-and-tumble" play, with laughter-like vocalizations serving as a signal to prevent aggression and promote social bonding. This hypothesis is consistent with recent discoveries that several mammalian species produce laughter-like vocalizations during social interactions.

The voluntary network, on the other hand, overlaps with brain regions that produce speech, supporting the idea that it controls more purpose-driven, conversational laughter.

The neural basis of laughter, Trends in Neurosciences (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2026.05.002

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Mars-like conditions fail to kill some Earth pathogens, experiments suggest

Microorganisms from our planet could survive on celestial bodies where water is present, such as Mars. That is the conclusion of researchers after experiments with simulated space conditions. Our immune system reacts less effectively to pathogens that have undergone such a simulated space journey.
Earth extremophiles, especially yeasts, withstand simulated lunar, Martian, and icy moon conditions via enhanced DNA repair and protective responses. Human pathogens such as Klebsiella pneumoniae survive Mars-like exposure, become smaller, and elicit weaker immune cell responses. Simulated lunar and Martian regolith damage lung barriers and promote infection more than terrestrial sand.
Researchers also studied several well-known human pathogens, such as the bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae, which can cause pneumonia. They observed that these pathogens shrank after a simulated trip to Mars, yet survived it. In laboratory experiments, immune cells from human blood responded less strongly to these shrunken pathogens.

This is important news for astronauts, who already face declining health in space and must therefore be extra cautious about infections. Space travel places heavy strain on the immune system because of the lack of a normal day-night rhythm, poor diet, disrupted gut function, DNA damage from radiation, limited social interaction and confinement in a small space.
In addition, astronauts must be wary of dust (regolith) from the moon and Mars.
Material from Mars, and even more so from our moon, damages the protective layer of the lungs and causes infections. Earth material usually does not.

Tommaso Zaccaria, Dissertation title: Life beyond Earth: microbial survival and immune health in space. Supervisors: Prof. Dr. M.G. Netea and Prof. Dr. M.I. de Jonge. Co supervisors: Dr. P. Rettberg and Dr. K. Beblo Vranesevic (both German Aerospace Center, Germany).

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Jumping gene caught moving between species in first direct observation

Genes are not passed on exclusively from parents to their offspring. Some are mobile and can also jump to other species, as researchers have now shown. The direct observation of a jumping gene provides the first evidence that such genes can transfer from one species to another—from predator to prey. The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Jumping genes are parasites in the genetic material of bacteria, plants, animals and humans. They are released into the cell as small RNA molecules from ribonucleic acid (RNA) and possess complex mechanisms for inserting themselves into other parts of the genetic material within the cell, thereby often conferring new properties on the cell and accelerating evolution. There are also jumping genes that free themselves from the RNA using an RNA enzyme. These ribozymes, or self-splicing introns, are a special group of jumping genes.

It is more difficult for a gene to jump into another cell or another species. Phylogenetic analyses of genes show that such jumps have taken place. Until now, it had been assumed that, for this to happen, the jumping genes traveled as 'hitchhikers' in the genomes of plasmids or viruses. Now,  researchers have made  this surprising observation.

Mobile self-splicing intron RNA from the predatory bacterium Candidatus Velamenicoccus archaeovorus was directly visualized in both predator cells and dead Methanothrix soehngenii cells, demonstrating horizontal transfer from predator to prey. The intron persists as stable circular RNA, indicating a plasmid- and virus-independent route for interspecies gene transfer that can accelerate microbial evolution.

Jana Kizina et al, Mobile intron RNA from a bacterial predator accumulates in dead archaeal cells, Scientific Reports (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-51721-6

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