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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 20, 2024 at 9:57am

One drop of blood, many diagnoses: Infrared spectroscopy for screening health

Envision a scenario where a single drop of blood provides comprehensive health insights within minutes. Thanks to recent scientific advancements, this vision may become reality in the near future.

Scientists have developed a health screening tool that uses infrared light and machine learning to detect multiple health conditions with just one measurement. The work is published in Cell Reports Medicine.

Infrared spectroscopy, a technique that employs infrared light to analyze the molecular composition of substances, has been a foundational tool in chemistry for decades. It's like giving molecules a fingerprint that can be delivered by a specialized machine called a spectrometer.

When applied to complex biofluids like blood plasma, this physico-chemical technique can reveal detailed information about molecular signals, making it a promising tool for medical diagnostics. Despite its long-standing use in chemistry and industry, infrared spectroscopy has not been established nor integrated into the canon of medical diagnostics.

Researchers initiated an effort to tackle this issue now.

More than 5,000 blood plasma samples were measured using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy.

The researchers applied machine learning to analyze the molecular fingerprints and correlated them with medical data.

They discovered that these fingerprints contain valuable information that enables rapid health screening. A multi-task computer algorithm that is now capable of distinguishing between various health states, including abnormal levels of blood lipids, various changes in blood pressure, seeing type-2 diabetes but also spotting even pre-diabetes, a precursor to diabetes often undetected.

Interestingly, the algorithm could also single out individuals who were healthy and remained healthy over the investigated years. This was very significant for two reasons. First, most people in any random population experience abnormal health changes and, given that we are all different, as well as that we all change over time, it is all but trivial to find fully healthy individuals. Second, many individuals suffer from multiple conditions in various combinations. Traditionally, doctors would need a new test for each disease.

However, this new approach doesn't just pinpoint one condition at a time—it accurately identifies a range of health issues. This machine learning-powered system not only identifies healthy individuals but also detects complex conditions involving multiple illnesses simultaneously. Moreover, it can predict the development of metabolic syndrome years before symptoms appear, providing a window for interventions.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 20, 2024 at 9:02am

So, the cells are working together and over time randomly align to get the job done: one cell will take a few tasks and then another takes a few tasks. The cells are tracking motions and, thus, chunks of activities and time over the course of the task.

And the study's findings about our brains' perception of time applies to activities-based actions other than physical motions too.
By observing the rodents who worked quickly, scientists also concluded that keeping up a good pace helps influence time perception: "The more we do, the faster time moves. They say that time flies when you're having fun. As opposed to having fun, maybe it should be 'time flies when you're doing a lot.'

 Ryan A. Wirt et al, Temporal information in the anterior cingulate cortex relates to accumulated experiences, Current Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.05.045

Part 3

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 20, 2024 at 8:59am

The findings are based on analysis of activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a portion of the brain important for monitoring activity and tracking experiences. To do this, rodents were tasked with using their noses to respond to a prompt 200 times.
Scientists already knew that brain patterns are similar, but slightly different, each time you do a repetitive motion, so they set out to answer: Is it possible to detect whether these slight differences in brain pattern changes correspond with doing the first versus 200th motion in series? And does the amount of time it takes to complete a series of motions impact brain wave activity?

By comparing pattern changes throughout the course of the task, researchers observed that there are indeed detectable changes in brain activity that occur as one moves from the beginning to middle to end of carrying out a task. And regardless of how slowly or quickly the animals moved, the brain patterns followed the same path.
The patterns were consistent when researchers applied a machine learning-based mathematical model to predict the flow of brain activity, bolstering evidence that it's experiences—not time, or a prescribed number of minutes, as you would measure it on a clock—that produce changes in our neurons' activity patterns.
The researchers drove home the crux of the findings by sharing an anecdote of two factory workers tasked with making 100 widgets during their shift, with one worker completing the task in 30 minutes and the other in 90 minutes.

The length of time it took to complete the task didn't impact the brain patterns. The brain is not a clock; it acts like a counter. Our brains register a vibe, a feeling about time. And what that means for our workers making widgets is that you can tell the difference between making widget No. 85 and widget No. 60, but not necessarily between No. 85 and No. 88.
But exactly "how" does the brain count? Researchers discovered that as the brain progresses through a task involving a series of motions, various small groups of firing cells begin to collaborate—essentially passing off the task to a different group of neurons every few repetitions, similar to runners passing the baton in a relay race.
Part2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 20, 2024 at 8:56am

 How our brains track time

According to an old adage time flies when you're having fun. A new study by a team of  researchers suggests that although there's ‘some’ truth to the trope, the reality is 'time flies when you're doing a lot.'

Many people think of their brains as being intrinsically synced to the man-made clocks on their electronic devices, counting time in very specific, minute-by-minute increments. But a study, published in Current Biology, shows that our brains don't work that way.

By analyzing changes in brain activity patterns,  researchers found that we perceive the passage of time based on the number of experiences we have—not some kind of internal clock. What's more, increasing speed or output during an activity appears to affect how our brains perceive time.

We tell time in our own experience by things we do, things that happen to us, they conclude.

When we're still and we're bored, time goes very slowly because we're not doing anything or nothing is happening. On the contrary, when a lot of events happen, each one of those activities is advancing our brains forward. And if this is how our brains objectively tell time, then the more that we do and the more that happens to us, the faster time goes.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 20, 2024 at 8:51am

As part of their analysis, the researchers found a pattern—women who adhered to a "healthy diet" have a 22% lower chance of delivering a child with autism than women who ate a less-than-healthy diet.

In their work, they defined a healthy diet as one that included regular servings of vegetables, fruits, nuts, fish and whole grains, and excluded foods high in fat, processed meats, soft drinks and refined carbohydrates.

They also found that children born to mothers who regularly ate a healthy diet while pregnant were 24% less likely to develop social and/or communication problems irrespective of autism. The researchers noted that the association in both cases was stronger in mother/daughter pairs than in mother/son pairs.

The research team points out that the study does not explain why women eating a healthier diet may reduce their risk of having an autistic child, though they theorize that it might have something to do with how foods affect DNA or the immune process. They also note that their data was not able to show whether the impact of diet was causal in nature or due to other factors.

Catherine Friel et al, Healthy Prenatal Dietary Pattern and Offspring Autism, JAMA Network Open (2024). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.22815

Part 2

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 20, 2024 at 8:46am

Study suggests prenatal diet may play a role in autism

A small team of public health specialists from the University of Glasgow and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health reports a possible link between some cases of autism and prenatal diet.

In their study, published in JAMA Network Open, the group analyzed information in two large databases of medical information on thousands of mothers and daughters in Norway and England.
Prior research has suggested that there appears to be diet, genetic and environmental factors involved in the development of autism in children while they are still in the womb, though the exact cause is still unknown. For this new study, the research team looked more closely at the role of diet in its development.

The researchers analyzed patient information from two large databases: the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children and the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study. The researchers looked at data for the years 2002 through 2008 and 1990 through 1992, which included data for children up to age 8. In all, they analyzed data for more than 95,000 mother/daughter pairs.
Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 20, 2024 at 8:37am

The problem with influenza is that it's not just one virus. Like the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it's always evolving the next variant and we're always left to chase where the virus was, not where it's going to be.

The spike proteins on the virus exterior surface evolve to elude antibodies. In the case of flu, vaccines are updated regularly using a best estimate of the next evolution of the virus. Sometimes it's accurate, sometimes less so.

In contrast, a specific type of T cell in the lungs, known as effector memory T cell, targets the internal structural proteins of the virus, rather than its continually mutating outer envelope. This internal structure doesn't change much over time—presenting a stationary target for T cells to search out and destroy any cells infected by an old or newly evolved influenza virus.
To test their T cell theory, researchers designed a CMV-based vaccine using the 1918 influenza virus as a template. Working within a highly secure biosafety level 3 laboratory, they exposed the vaccinated nonhuman primates to small particle aerosols containing the avian H5N1 influenza virus—an especially severe virus that is currently circulating among dairy cows in the United States.

Remarkably, six of the 11 vaccinated primates survived the exposure, despite the century-long period of virus evolution.

It worked because the interior protein of the virus was so well preserved. So much so, that even after almost 100 years of evolution, the virus can't change those critically important parts of itself.

The study raises the potential for developing a protective vaccine against H5N1 in people.

Cytomegalovirus vaccine vector-induced effector memory CD4+ T cells protect cynomolgus macaques from lethal aerosolized heterologous avian influenza, Nature Communications (2024).

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-50345-6

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 20, 2024 at 8:35am

Study shows promise for a universal influenza vaccine: Scientists validate theory using 1918 flu virus

New research  reveals a promising approach to developing a universal influenza vaccine—a so-called "one and done" vaccine that confers lifetime immunity against an evolving virus.

The study, published recently in the journal Nature Communications, tested an OHSU-developed vaccine platform against the virus considered most likely to trigger the next pandemic.

Researchers reported the vaccine generated a robust immune response in nonhuman primates that were exposed to the avian H5N1 influenza virus. But the vaccine wasn't based on the contemporary H5N1 virus; instead, the primates were inoculated against the influenza virus of 1918 that killed millions of people worldwide.

Researchers reported that six of 11 nonhuman primates inoculated against the virus that circulated a century ago—the 1918 flu—survived exposure to one of the deadliest viruses in the world today, H5N1. In contrast, a control group of six unvaccinated primates exposed to the H5N1 virus succumbed to the disease.

This approach harnesses a vaccine platform previously developed by scientists at OHSU to fight HIV and tuberculosis, and in fact is already being used in a clinical trial against HIV.

The method involves inserting small pieces of target pathogens into the common herpes virus cytomegalovirus, or CMV, which infects most people in their lifetimes and typically produces mild or no symptoms. The virus acts as a vector specifically designed to induce an immune response from the body's own T cells.

This approach differs from common vaccines—including the existing flu vaccines—which are designed to induce an antibody response that targets the most recent evolution of the virus, distinguished by the arrangement of proteins covering the exterior surface.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 19, 2024 at 11:32am

Our last common ancestor
The shared forebearer of all life — known as the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) — was a complex microbe that lived around 4.2 billion years ago, ate carbon dioxide and hydrogen, and produced acetate that might have fed other life. Researchers inferred information about our great-great-grandblob’s genetics and biology by tracing duplicated, lost and mutated genes back up the microbial family tree. LUCA probably possessed an early immune system, too — hinting that it lived in an established ecosystem with other microbes and was already involved in an arms race with viruses.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-024-02461-1?utm_source=Live+...

https://www.science.org/content/article/our-last-common-ancestor-li...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 19, 2024 at 10:58am

Facially expressive individuals may be better equipped to build and maintain strong social connections, potentially leading to the range of benefits associated with group cohesion, such as increased access to resources, mating opportunities, and protection from threats
Social connectivity was also more evenly distributed throughout their group members when the dominant male was more expressive, suggesting the increased facial communication was linked to more tolerant leadership styles.

The research has implications for understanding human social behavior, suggesting that facial expressivity has evolved to help us build and maintain social relationships.
Now why do you think 'expressive-faced' actors are more popular than 'no-expression' scientists?

J. Whitehouse et al, Facial expressivity in dominant macaques is linked to group cohesion, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2024.0984

Part 2

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