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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 16, 2022 at 7:46am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 14, 2022 at 6:59am

Paper or plastic? Rigid waterproof coating for paper aims to reduce...

There is a considerable amount of research into the reduction of plastic for many and various applications. For the first time, researchers have found a way to imbue relatively sustainable paper materials with some of the useful properties of plastic. This can be done easily, cost effectively, and efficiently. A coating called Choetsu not only waterproofs paper, but also maintains its flexibility and degrades safely as well.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 14, 2022 at 6:55am

Antibiotics can lead to fungal infection because of disruption to the gut's immune system

Patients prescribed antibiotics in hospital are more likely to get fungal infections because of disruption to the immune system in the gut, according to a new study .

Using immune-boosting drugs alongside the antibiotics could reduce the health risks from these complex infections say the researchers.

The life-threatening fungal infection invasive candidiasis is a major complication for hospitalized patients who are given antibiotics to prevent sepsis and other bacterial infections that spread quickly around hospitals (such as C. diff). Fungal infections can be more difficult to treat than bacterial infections, but the underlying factors causing these infections are not well understood.

This new study demonstrates the potential for immune-boosting drugs, but the researchers also say their work also highlights how antibiotics can have additional effects on our bodies that affect how we fight infection and disease. This in turn underscores the importance of careful stewardship of available antibiotics.

We knew that antibiotics make fungal infections worse, but the discovery that bacterial co-infections can also develop through these interactions in the gut was surprising. These factors can add up to a complicated clinical situation—and by understanding these underlying causes, doctors will be better able to treat these patients effectively.

Long-term Antibiotics Promote Mortality After Systemic Fungal Infection by Driving Lymphocyte Dysfunction and Systemic Escape of Commensal Bacteria, Cell Host & Microbe (2022).

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 14, 2022 at 6:51am

Solid tumors use a type of T cell as a shield against immune attack

An unexpected trick in cancer's playbook may fool an important component of our immune systems into knocking down our natural defenses against solid tumors.

This newfound vulnerability involves a misuse of a type of T cell, part of a large family of blood cells that are essential to a functioning immune system.

Researchers identified a subset of T cells that show up in great numbers in head and neck tumors, but not in similar tissues of the mouth inflamed by common ailments such as gum disease.

It seems that this odd group of T cells have mixed up their highly specialized assignments within our immune systems and are now working to protect tumour cells. 

The evidence the researchers uncovered now might help explain why cutting-edge immunotherapies that work against blood cancers are less effective against solid tumours (such as breast, prostate, kidney and colorectal cancers), which are responsible for most cancer deaths. Researchers say it points the way for future drugs that might strip away that protection, making current therapies work better for more people.

 These 'T-regs'  are immune-suppressing cells, swarming in the tumor-environment specimens, were different from T-regs found elsewhere in the body. Their cell surfaces are marked by two distinct protein receptors. These specially marked T-regs were particularly good at tamping down inflammation, expanding in number and protecting the tumor cells from attack by other types of T cells.

A very large fraction of these critical, immunosuppressive cells in the tumor have this trait. These human tumor-related T-regs were clustered in the thicket of blood cells and connective tissues in and around the malignant mass—a site of biological territory known as the tumour micro environment. And because these cells are easy to spot, in theory they also can be easily targeted by anticancer drugs.

Florian Mair et al, Extricating human tumour immune alterations from tissue inflammation, Nature (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04718-w

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 13, 2022 at 12:02pm

A first: Scientists grow plants in soil from the Moon

Scientists have grown plants in soil from the Moon, a first in human history and a milestone in lunar and space exploration.

In a new paper published in the journal Communications Biology, University of Florida researchers showed that plants can successfully sprout and grow in lunar soil. Their study also investigated how plants respond biologically to the Moon's soil, also known as lunar regolith, which is radically different from soil found on Earth.

This work is a first step toward one day growing plants for food and oxygen on the Moon or during space missions. More immediately, this research comes as the Artemis Program plans to return humans to the Moon.

Anna-Lisa Paul, Plants grown in Apollo lunar regolith present stress-associated transcriptomes that inform prospects for lunar exploration, Communications Biology (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03334-8. www.nature.com/articles/s42003-022-03334-8

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 13, 2022 at 12:00pm

Later researchers sequenced the RNA transcriptome of the optic gland at different stages of their maternal decline. RNA carries instructions from DNA about how to produce proteins, so sequencing it is a good way to understand the activity of genes and what's going on inside cells at a given time. As the animals began to fast and decline, there were higher levels of activity in genes that metabolize cholesterol and produce steroids, the first time the optic gland had been linked to something other than reproduction.

In the new paper, published this week in Current Biology, scientists took their studies a step further and analyzed the chemicals produced by the maternal octopus optic gland, specifically cholesterol. 

The new research shows that the maternal optic gland undergoes dramatic changes to produce more pregnenolone and progesterone, maternal cholestanoids, and 7-DHC during the stages of decline. While the pregnancy hormones are to be expected, this is the first time anything like the components for bile acids or cholesterol have been linked to the maternal octopus death spiral.

Some of these same pathways are used for producing cholesterol in mice and other mammals as well. 

Elevated levels of 7-DHC are toxic in humans; It's the hallmark of a genetic disorder called Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome (SLOS), which is caused by a mutation in the enzyme that converts 7-DHC to cholesterol. Children with the disorder suffer from severe developmental and behavioral consequences, including repetitive self-injury reminiscent of octopus end-of-life behaviors.

Z. Yan Wang, Steroid hormones of the octopus self-destruct system, Current Biology (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.04.043. www.cell.com/current-biology/f … 0960-9822(22)00661-3

Part 2

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 13, 2022 at 11:55am

How cholesterol plays a part in the life cycle process and death

For all their uncanny intelligence and seemingly supernatural abilities to change color and regenerate limbs, octopuses often suffer a tragic death. After a mother octopus lays a clutch of eggs, she quits eating and wastes away; by the time the eggs hatch, she is dead. Some females in captivity even seem to speed up this process intentionally, mutilating themselves and twisting their arms into a tangled mess.

The source of this bizarre maternal behavior seems to be the optic gland, an organ similar to the pituitary  in mammals. For years, just how this gland triggered the gruesome death spiral was unclear, but a new study by researchers 

shows that the optic gland in maternal octopuses undergoes a massive shift in cholesterol metabolism, resulting in dramatic changes in the steroid hormones produced. Alterations in cholesterol metabolism in other animals, including humans, can have serious consequences on longevity and behavior, and the study's authors believe this reveals important similarities in the functions of these steroids across the animal kingdom, in soft-bodied cephalopods and vertebrates alike.

Cholesterol is important from a dietary perspective, and within different signaling systems in the body too. It's involved in everything from the flexibility of cell membranes to production of stress hormones, but it was a big surprise to see it play a part in this life cycle process as well.

In 1977, Brandeis University psychologist Jerome Wodinsky showed that if he removed the optic gland from Caribbean two-spot octopus (Octopus hummelincki) mothers, they abandoned their clutch of eggs, resumed feeding, and lived for months longer. At the time, cephalopod biologists concluded that the optic gland must secrete some kind of "self-destruct" hormone, but just what it was and how it worked was unclear.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 13, 2022 at 11:03am

What it Takes to Image a Black Hole

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 12, 2022 at 1:32pm

Exoskeleton device helps stroke victims regain hand function

Simulation Suggests Some Volcanoes Might Warm Climate, Destroy Ozone Layer

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 12, 2022 at 1:28pm

Scientists transform beating heart stem cells into brain cells

By turning off a single gene,  researchers  caused stem cells already becoming heart cells to change course and become future brain cells. And that could help scientists understand how specific genes affect the development of your body and the role they play in developmental diseases, potentially leading to new therapies.

Previously, it’s been thought that the paths that cells take towards becoming a heart cell or a nerve cell are very rigid. This study is showing that this process is actually much more fluid.

Stem cells are kind of a blank slate. They’re “pluripotent,” meaning that they can transform into any type of cell in the body. There are a series of steps involved in this transformation process, called canalization. Until now, it was thought that once stem cells start undergoing canalization, they can’t change course to become other, different cell types.

Scientists now used CRISPR genome-editing approaches to turn off the Brm gene in mouse stem cells undergoing canalization into heart cells. This resulted in the mouse cells lacking a protein called Brahma.

Turning off Brm prevented stem cells from becoming beating heart cells. Additionally, they had switched from being heart precursors to become precursors for brain cells.

This study was the first to explore the effect of Brahma on cardiac differentiation

1. Nan Cao, Yu Huang, Jiashun Zheng, C. Ian Spencer, Yu Zhang, Ji-Dong Fu, Baoming Nie, Min Xie, Mingliang Zhang, Haixia Wang, Tianhua Ma, Tao Xu, Guilai Shi, Deepak Srivastava, Sheng Ding. Conversion of human fibroblasts into functional cardiomyocytes by small molecules. Science, 2016 DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf1502
2. Mingliang Zhang , Yuan-Hung Lin , Yujiao Jennifer Sun , Saiyong Zhu10 , Jiashun Zheng , Kai Liu , Nan Cao , Ke Li , Yadong Huang , Sheng Ding. Pharmacological Reprogramming of Fibroblasts into Neural Stem Cells by Signaling-Directed Transcriptional Activation. Cell Stem Cell, 2016 DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2016.03.020

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