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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 8, 2024 at 10:31am

New telomere findings may offer new insights for cancer treatments

A new study by  researchers shows that an enzyme called PARP1 is involved in repair of telomeres, the lengths of DNA that protect the tips of chromosomes, and that impairing this process can lead to telomere shortening and genomic instability that can cause cancer.

PARP1's job is genome surveillance: When it senses breaks or lesions in DNA, it adds a molecule called ADP-ribose to specific proteins, which act as a beacon to recruit other proteins that repair the break. The new findings, published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, are the first evidence that PARP1 also acts on telomeric DNA, opening up new avenues for understanding and improving PARP1-inhibiting cancer therapies.

In normal cells, genomic lesions occur naturally during DNA replication when a cell divides, and PARP1 plays an important role in fixing these errors. But while healthy cells have other DNA repair pathways to fall back on, BRCA-deficient cancers—which include many breast and ovarian tumors—rely heavily on PARP1 because they lack BRCA proteins, which control the most effective form of DNA repair called homologous replication.

When cancer cells can't make BRCA proteins, they become dependent on repair pathways that PARP1 is involved in. So, when you inhibit PARP1—which is the mechanism of several approved cancer drugs—cancer cells have no repair pathway available, and they die.

Deregulated DNA ADP-ribosylation impairs telomere replication, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41594-024-01279-6

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 8, 2024 at 10:07am

Freshly manufactured automobiles were making people feel ill!
Chemical-rich, and completely unavoidable, these distinct car aromas are but one of many allergens humans are exposed to while riding in automobiles.

From the steering wheel and dashboard, to armrests, headrests seats, and safety restraints, if it was man-made, chances are it was out-gassing noxious chemicals. All told, researchers found more than 275 different chemicals floating within these new car cabins, some of which bordered on being labeled as lethal.
Zero-in on Autocar’s findings surrounding the subject of new car interiors, and how they have the potential to make humans sick, and some disturbing trends begin to surface. The research reports point out eight common substances that are particularly prone to “diffusing” or “off-gassing,” with evidence showing that these toxic fumes continue to expel from surfaces, sometimes even months after assembly.
CAR PLASTICS, VOCS, ALLERGIES, AND YOUR HEALTH
The culprits are hazardous chemicals, like VOCs. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are probably the most recognizable evildoer in the world of hazardous inhalants. Some of the more commonplace poisonous compounds beneath this category include: acetaldehyde, acrolein, benzene, ethylbenzene, formaldehyde, styrene, toluene, and xylene.
While many of these dangerous substances have been identified as having an “adverse effect on occupants,” researchers report that, “VOCs can cause symptoms in humans like nausea, headaches, itchy eyes-basically, an allergic reaction.”

https://avalonking.com/blogs/news/toxic-cabin-interiors-why-that-ne....

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 8, 2024 at 10:02am

Your car may be slowly killing you

You're breathing potential carcinogens inside your car, says study

The air inside all personal vehicles is polluted with harmful flame retardants—including those known or suspected to cause cancer—according to a new study published in Environmental Science & Technology. Car manufacturers add these chemicals to seat foam and other materials to meet an outdated federal flammability standard with no proven fire-safety benefit.

Recent research found that interior materials release harmful chemicals into the cabin air of  cars. 

Considering the average driver spends about an hour in the car every day, this is a significant public health issue. It's particularly concerning for drivers with longer commutes as well as child passengers, who breathe more air pound for pound than adults.

The researchers detected flame retardants inside the cabins of 101 cars (model year 2015 or newer). In total, 99% of cars contained tris (1-chloro-isopropyl) phosphate (TCIPP), a flame retardant under investigation as a potential carcinogen. Most cars had additional organophosphate ester flame retardants present, including tris (1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TDCIPP) and tris (2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP), two California Proposition 65 carcinogens. These and other flame retardants are also linked to neurological and reproductive harms.

About half of the cars were tested in both summer and winter. Warmer weather was linked to higher flame retardant concentrations because off-gassing from interior components like seat foam is increased by higher temperatures. Vehicle interiors can reach up to 150 degrees Fahrenheit.

The researchers also analyzed samples of seat foam from 51 of the cars in the study. Vehicles that contained the suspected carcinogen TCIPP in their foam tended to have higher concentrations of TCIPP in their air, confirming foam as a source of this flame retardant in cabin air.

Incidentally, firefighters are concerned that flame retardants contribute to their very high cancer rates.

You may be able to reduce your exposure to flame retardants in your car by opening your windows and parking in the shade.

But what's really needed is reducing the amount of flame retardants being added to cars in the first place. Commuting to work shouldn't come with a cancer risk. 

 Flame Retardant Exposure in Vehicles is Influenced by Use in Seat Foam and Temperature, Environmental Science & Technology (2024). DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c10440

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 7, 2024 at 12:31pm

Progression of Liver Disease Overview - Animated

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 7, 2024 at 12:11pm

Q: Why do women wear jasmine flowers in their hair?

Krishna: 

Jasmines usually come in summer. In summer you sweat a lot, especially near the sea, where the RH doesn’t allow your sweat to evaporate.

With sweat comes bacteria and body odour. So to camouflage that smell, women usually use sweet-smelling jasmine flowers.

That ‘s the reason given to me.

And I am not surprised. Even in Andhra and Telangana, people use this trick.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 7, 2024 at 9:59am

'Quartet Nanocage' vaccine found effective against coronaviruses that haven't even emerged yet

Researchers have developed a new vaccine technology that has been shown in mice to provide protection against a broad range of coronaviruses with potential for future disease outbreaks—including ones we don't even know about. The results are published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

This is a new approach to vaccine development called "proactive vaccinology," where scientists build a vaccine before the disease-causing pathogen even emerges.

The new vaccine works by training the body's immune system to recognize specific regions of eight different coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and several that are currently circulating in bats and have potential to jump to humans and cause a pandemic.

Key to its effectiveness is that the specific virus regions the vaccine targets also appear in many related coronaviruses. By training the immune system to attack these regions, it gives protection against other coronaviruses not represented in the vaccine—including ones that haven't even been identified yet.

For example, the new vaccine does not include the SARS-CoV-1 coronavirus, which caused the 2003 SARS outbreak, yet it still induces an immune response to that virus.

We don't have to wait for new coronaviruses to emerge. We know enough about coronaviruses, and different immune responses to them, that we can get going with building protective vaccines against unknown coronaviruses now.

The new "Quartet Nanocage" vaccine is based on a structure called a nanoparticle—a ball of proteins held together by incredibly strong interactions. Chains of different viral antigens are attached to this nanoparticle using a novel "protein superglue." Multiple antigens are included in these chains, which trains the immune system to target specific regions shared across a broad range of coronaviruses.

This study demonstrated that the new vaccine raises a broad immune response, even in mice that were pre-immunized with SARS-CoV-2.

The new vaccine is much simpler in design than other broadly protective vaccines currently in development, which the researchers say should accelerate its route into clinical trials.

The underlying technology they have developed also has potential for use in vaccine development to protect against many other health challenges.

Proactive vaccination using multiviral Quartet Nanocages to elicit broad anti-coronavirus responses. Nature Nanotechnology (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41565-024-01655-9

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 7, 2024 at 9:55am

The new method uses a nanoparticle made of a biodegradable polymer, previously developed by the team, coupled with two drugs also developed by them that take aim at cancer's energy sources. Because cancer cells often have a different form of metabolism than healthy cells, stifling their metabolism can be an effective way to kill tumors without harming other tissues.

One of these drugs is a modified version of a classic chemotherapy drug, cisplatin, which kills cancer cells by damaging DNA in rapidly growing cells, effectively halting their growth. But tumor cells can repair their DNA, sometimes leading to cisplatin resistance.

The research team modified the drug to shift its target from nuclear DNA, the DNA that makes up our chromosomes and genome, to mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondria are our cells' energy sources and contain their own, much smaller genomes—and, importantly for cancer therapeutic purposes, they don't have the same DNA-repair machinery that our larger genomes do.

Because cancer cells can switch between different energy sources to sustain their growth and proliferation, the researchers combined their modified cisplatin, which they call Platin-M and attacks the energy-generating process known as oxidative phosphorylation, with another drug they developed, Mito-DCA, that specifically targets a mitochondrial protein known as a kinase and inhibits glycolysis, a different kind of energy generation.

 Dhar, Shanta, Simultaneous targeting of peripheral and brain tumors with a therapeutic nanoparticle to disrupt metabolic adaptability at both sites, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2318119121. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2318119121

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 7, 2024 at 9:53am

Researchers develop a nanoparticle that can penetrate the blood-brain barrier

Researchers  have developed a nanoparticle that can penetrate the blood-brain barrier. Their goal is to kill primary breast cancer tumors and brain metastases in one treatment, and their research shows the method can shrink breast and brain tumors in laboratory studies.

Brain metastases, as these secondary tumors are called, most commonly arise from solid tumors like breast, lung and colon cancer and are often associated with a poor prognosis. When cancer breaches the brain, it can be difficult for treatment to follow, in part because of the blood-brain barrier, a near-impenetrable membrane that separates the brain from the rest of the body.

In teh present study, by loading the particle with two prodrugs that target mitochondria, the energy production center of the cell, the researchers showed that their method could shrink breast and brain tumors in preclinical studies.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 7, 2024 at 9:45am

Wild animals suffer chronic stress, fertility problems and change their migration routes in response to noise. Confined animals are often exposed to high levels of human-generated noise which they cannot escape. Research shows noise causes confined animals pain, fear and cognitive problems.

https://www.aru.ac.uk/news/noise-pollution-is-hurting-animals#:~:te....

Part 3

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 7, 2024 at 9:44am

Laboratory studies and field research have identified four main ways in which animals are adversely affected by noise pollution: (i) hearing loss, with noise levels of 85 Decibel or higher; (ii) masking, such as the inability to hear important environmental and animal signals; (iii) increased heart rate and breathing; and (iv) behavioral effects. There is considerable intra-species variability, and this varies according to the characteristics of the noise. This may lead to territory abandonment and loss of reproduction.

Marine animals such as whales, which depend on sound for communication, can be affected by noise in various ways. Marine mammals live in a habitat that transmits little light but through which sound propagates well and quickly, even over great distances. For this reason, marine mammals rely on sound to communicate, explore the environment, find their prey and avoid obstacles. Research had shown that higher ambient noise levels also caused the animals to vocalize louder (“Lombard Effect”) and that the duration of the humpback whales’ song was longer when there was low-frequency sonar in the vicinity .

Exposure to noise can produce a wide range of effects on marine mammals. The low-level sound may be audible to animals without producing any visible effects; higher-intensity sound can disturb the animals, causing them either to move away or may produce other behavioral changes. Noise can increase the risk of death by modifying the delicate balance between predators and prey, interfering with the use of sounds in communication, especially in relation to reproduction and navigation.

Part 2

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9819367/#:~:text=Labor...

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