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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

How inflammation may prime the gut for cancer
Chronic gut inflammation can leave lasting epigenetic changes, or "molecular scars," in intestinal cells, making tissues more susceptible to cancer if a cancer-promoting mutation occurs later. These epigenetic alterations persist after inflammation subsides, are inherited by daughter cells, and may accelerate tumor growth, highlighting potential biomarkers and intervention targets for colorectal cancer risk.

Chronic inflammation can raise a person's risk of cancer, and a new study reveals key details about how that might happen in the gut and points to better ways to identify and reduce risk.
revealed in mice that after colitis (chronic intestinal inflammation), seemingly healed gut tissues may retain the memory of earlier inflammation through molecular "scars" that make it easier for cancer to take hold later on. These memories are encoded as changes in the epigenome that are handed down from cell to cell through many generations of cell division, with long-lasting effects on gene activity that can later drive tumor growth.
The work, appearing in Nature, suggests a two-hit process over time in which alterations in the genome—an epigenetic change and a cancer mutation—can accelerate tumor growth. It also points to ways to potentially identify and possibly intervene on these cancer-promoting factors with new biomarkers and therapeutics.

Surya Nagaraja et al, Epigenetic memory of colitis in stem cells promotes tumour growth, Nature (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10258-4. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10258-4

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

What is particularly noteworthy is the idea that it is not only epigenetic processes that influence an individual's behavior and, consequently, their environment, but that, conversely, the environment altered by individual decisions can also give rise to new epigenetic patterns.

For example, individuals may seek out a new living environment or alter their surroundings by building a nest, which in turn affects the epigenome—the totality of all epigenetic marks. Even without direct inheritance via the germline, the epigenome can thus be altered in offspring.

This has far-reaching consequences: such processes could buffer natural selection and thereby generate and maintain epigenetic diversity within populations.
For understanding ecological and evolutionary processes, this represents a shift in perspective. Rather than examining genetic or phenotypic differences in isolation, researchers should analyze genetic, epigenetic and observable traits of the same individuals together.

This concept helps explain how environmental change is linked to individualization. In times of climate change and biodiversity loss, it provides an important foundation for better assessing the adaptive capacity and resilience of natural populations.

Denis Meuthen et al, Exploring the interplay of epigenetics and individualization, Trends in Ecology & Evolution (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2025.12.010

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Why no individual is like another when epigenetics come into play
Epigenetic modifications—chemical changes to DNA that do not alter its sequence—regulate gene expression and contribute to individual behavioural differences among animals. These modifications can result from both environmental influences and intrinsic factors, creating a dynamic interplay where behaviour and environment reciprocally shape the epigenome. This process enhances individual ecological niches and maintains diversity within populations, influencing adaptation and evolution.

Why do animals behave differently, and what are the consequences of this? A research team now provides a new explanation: epigenetic processes—chemical markings on DNA—may play a key role. The study, published in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution, links individuality, environmental adaptation, genetics, ecology, and evolution in a novel way.
The researchers propose that individuality and epigenetic variation influence each other. This bidirectionality—this mutual interaction—helps us to better understand ecological and evolutionary processes, they say.
At the center of the study is epigenetics. This refers to chemical modifications of DNA in which small molecules attach to the genetic material. These modifications do not alter the genetic sequence itself, but they regulate how frequently a gene is translated into proteins. Proteins, in turn, shape the observable traits and characteristics of an organism.

Thus, the same genetic blueprint—the same genotype—can give rise to different appearances, known as phenotypes. The researchers propose that epigenetic mechanisms contribute to how animals develop their individual ecological niche.

An individual niche is the range of environmental conditions under which a specific individual with a given set of traits could possibly live and reproduce. It is a subset of the species' niche that arises from the interaction of the individual with its environment.
The researchers distinguish between epigenetic changes triggered by environmental factors and those that arise independently, such as genetically determined or spontaneously occurring modifications. All forms play different roles in shaping individual differences.
Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Thousands of websites are accidentally broadcasting sensitive data, study finds

Researchers have discovered a major security leak hiding in plain sight on the internet that could expose the personal data and financial records of millions of people. In a paper published on the arXiv preprint server, they  analyzed 10 million websites to see how often API (application programming interfaces) credentials are exposed. These are digital keys or tokens that enable different software programs to communicate and are often used to process bank payments and access cloud storage.

The team used a huge database called the HTTP Archive, which tracks how millions of real websites work. They looked at live, running versions of sites to monitor how data is processed as pages load.

By examining the websites while they were active, the researchers identified API credentials that appear only when a user visits a site. These credentials are specific strings of text that a website uses to identify itself to services like banks or cloud providers.

The researchers found 1,748 active, verified credentials from major service providers (including Amazon Web Services, Stripe and OpenAI). These credentials were found publicly accessible within the live code of websites. The dangers are that anyone who finds the keys and knows what they're doing can gain full access to a company's cloud servers, bank accounts, or customer databases without a password.

The study also revealed that some of these credentials remained exposed for 12 months. In a few rare cases, the sensitive keys had been publicly available for several years without being detected by the companies. Most of the breaches (84%) were found within JavaScript files, the background instructions that tell a website how to behave.

The fault, however, doesn't lie with service providers like Amazon or Stripe, according to the study authors. The problem is with software developers and website operators who accidentally include these private credentials in the final version of a website that is sent to a user's browser.

The results show that the vast majority of leaks are introduced during the build process and materialize exclusively in live production environments (e.g., within JavaScript bundles), making the static scanning methods used in prior work fundamentally insufficient for the web," explain the authors.

The researchers wrote to the affected organizations to alert them of the leaks, and within two weeks, 50% of the exposed credentials were removed or deactivated.

The team suggests a few best practices to help stop the leaks. These include developers scanning the live, running version of their website rather than just the private code, and companies setting strict rules for their automated website-building tools. They also recommend that service providers improve their automated systems to alert customers the moment a secret key is detected on a public webpage.

Nurullah Demir et al, Keys on Doormats: Exposed API Credentials on the Web, arXiv (2026). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2603.12498

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Wednesday

CERN hails delicate test on transporting antimatter as a scientific success

CERN successfully transported antiprotons by road for the first time, using a cryogenic, magnetically shielded vacuum trap to prevent contact with matter and annihilation. The test demonstrated the feasibility of moving antimatter safely, enabling future high-precision studies of fundamental symmetries outside CERN, though current containment is limited to about four hours.
Manipulating antimatter, like antiprotons, can be tricky business. As scientists understand the universe today, for every type of particle that exists, there is a corresponding antiparticle, exactly matching the particle but with an opposite charge.
If those opposites come into contact, they "annihilate" each other, setting off lots of energy, depending on the masses involved. Any bumps in the road on the test journey that aren't compensated for by the specially-designed box could spoil the whole exercise.

Scientists in Geneva took some antiprotons out for a spin—a very delicate one—in a truck, in a never-tried-before test drive that has been deemed a success.
If this so-called antimatter had come into contact with actual matter, even for a fraction of an instant, it would have been annihilated in a quick flash of energy. So experts at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, had to be extra careful when they took 92 antiprotons on the road for a short ride on Tuesday.

The antiprotons were suspended in a vacuum inside a specially designed box and held in place by supercooled magnets.

In methodical exercise over about three hours, the nearly 1,000-kilogram (2,200-pound) cryogenic box was craned up slowly and moved through a cavernous lab the onto the truck.

The drive on CERN's campus itself lasted only about a half-hour to test how—if at all—the infinitesimal particles could be transported by road without seeping out.
The antiprotons were then placed back in their usual lab area, and the operation was concluded with applause, claims of success

Source: CERN

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Wednesday

Severe infections may raise dementia risk

Severe infections increase the risk of dementia independently of other coexisting illnesses, according to a new study published in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine 

In the new study, researchers used nationwide Finnish health registry data covering more than 62,000 individuals aged 65 or older who were diagnosed with late-onset dementia between 2017 and 2020, along with more than 312,000 matched dementia-free controls.
Taking a broad approach, they examined all hospital-treated diseases recorded during the previous twenty years, identifying 29 diseases that were robustly associated with increased dementia risk. Nearly half (47%) of dementia cases had at least one of the 29 identified diseases before their diagnosis.

Of those diseases, two were infections: cystitis (a urinary tract infection) and bacterial infection of an unspecified site. Among the non-infectious diseases, the strongest associations with dementia were seen for mental disorders due to brain damage or physical disease, Parkinson's disease, and alcohol-related mental and behavioral disorders.

When the researchers then adjusted for all 27 non-infectious dementia-related diseases identified, the association between both infections and dementia remained largely intact. Less than one-seventh of the excess dementia risk among individuals with hospital-treated cystitis or bacterial infections was attributable to pre-existing conditions.

The link between infections and dementia was even stronger for early-onset dementia (diagnosed before age 65), where five types of infection—including pneumonia and dental caries—were associated with elevated risk.

The role of noninfectious comorbidities in the association between severe infections and risk of dementia in Finland: A nationwide registry study, PLOS Medicine (2026). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004688. plos.io/4qY5nix

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Wednesday

Vivid dreaming makes sleep feel deeper, researchers discover

Researchers  have discovered a key relationship between dreaming and the feeling of having had a good night's sleep. Published in PLOS Biology, the study shows that the feeling of deep sleep is not determined solely by slow-wave brain activity. Rather, immersive dreaming that comes with increases in wake-like brain activity leads to a greater feeling of deep sleep.

Why is it that sometimes we sleep eight hours and don't feel rested, while other times we feel like we had a great night's sleep after only five hours? Research has shown that our feeling of deep sleep is related to a shift from high- to low-frequency brain waves, which is thought to drive unconsciousness. At the same time, other reports indicate that dream (REM) sleep is also perceived as deep, despite its wake-like brain waves.

To better characterize the effects of dream sleep on perceived sleep depth, the researchers analyzed EEG recordings from 44 adults who were repeatedly awoken during non-REM sleep over the course of four nights.

Analysis showed that shifts from faster to slower waves were indeed associated with a feeling of deep sleep. However, this relationship weakened when participants reported having had a dream, even if they could not remember the content.

Perceived sleep depth was thus higher after dreaming, even though this state is associated with wake-like brain activity. Specifically, vivid, bizarre, and emotionally intense dreams were all associated with subjectively deeper sleep, while abstract, reflective thought-like dreams with meta-awareness were related to more shallow feeling sleep.

These findings are contrary to the longstanding view that the feeling of deep sleep is governed solely by slow brain waves and the depth of unconsciousness, and suggest that perceptually immersive dreaming is what allows us to feel well rested—even if we can't remember what we dreamed.

This study suggests that dreams may help shape how we experience sleep by immersing us in an internal world that keeps us disconnected from the external environment.

Understanding how dreams contribute to the feeling of deep sleep opens new perspectives on sleep health and mental well-being.

Michalak A, et al. Immersive NREM2 dreaming preserves subjective sleep depth against declining sleep pressure. PLOS Biology (2026). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003683

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Sunday

Researchers found that a cluster of genetic variants near the AS3MT gene that strongly influenced how the body processes arsenic. These variants were far more common in people from San Antonio de los Cobres than in genetically similar populations in Peru and Colombia.

The variants appear to make the body more efficient at converting arsenic into forms that can be safely excreted in urine, reducing the buildup of the most toxic intermediate compounds – a result that neatly aligns with earlier studies of arsenic metabolites in urine.
While arsenic contamination is common around the world, very few communities have lived with such high levels of exposure for long periods of time.

In San Antonio de los Cobres, people have lived with arsenic in their groundwater for thousands of years – long enough for natural selection to favor traits that reduce vulnerability to arsenic's toxic effects.
Research suggests similar genetic signals may also appear in other Andean populations exposed to arsenic for generations, supporting the findings that long-term exposure can drive genetic tolerance, and hinting that the adaptation may be more widespread across the region.

https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/32/6/1544/1074042?login=false

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Sunday

Humans in The Andes Appear to Have Evolved a Strange Genetic Ability

For thousands of years, humans living high in the Argentinian Andes have relied on drinking water that would make most people deathly ill.
There, naturally occurring arsenic in volcanic bedrock leaches into the groundwater, contaminating the local water supply with levels of the toxic metalloid that would pose serious health risks to most human populations.

But for one group in northern Argentina, natural selection may have provided an unusual genetic advantage.

According to a DNA analysis of people across western South America, a population in the Argentinian Andes carries a gene variant that likely helps them metabolize arsenic more safely.
Scientific data show that adaptation to tolerate the environmental stressor arsenic has likely driven an increase in the frequencies of protective variants of AS3MT, providing the first evidence of human adaptation to a toxic chemical.

In 1995, scientists noted that women from the Argentinian Andes had a "unique" ability to metabolize arsenic, as evidenced by metabolites in their urine.
When arsenic enters the body, enzymes convert it through several chemical forms. One of these intermediate forms, called monomethylated arsenic (MMA), is particularly toxic. A later form, dimethylated arsenic (DMA), is easier for the body to excrete in urine.

People in San Antonio de los Cobres tended to produce less of the toxic intermediate and more of the easily excreted form, suggesting their bodies were unusually efficient at processing arsenic.
Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Sunday

Ryugu asteroid samples contain all DNA and RNA building blocks, bolstering origin-of-life theories

Samples from asteroid Ryugu contain all nucleobases required for DNA and RNA, including uracil, adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine, supporting the idea that such molecules are widespread in the solar system. The study also found a unique correlation between nucleobase ratios and ammonia concentration, suggesting a previously unrecognized formation pathway in early solar system materials.

All the essential ingredients to make the DNA and RNA underpinning life on Earth have been discovered in samples collected from the asteroid Ryugu, scientists said last week.
The discovery comes after these building blocks of life were detected on another asteroid called Bennu, suggesting they are abundant throughout the solar system.
The asteroids that hurtle through our solar system give scientists a rare chance to study this possibility.

In 2014, the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa-2 blasted off on a 300-million-kilometer (185-million-mile) mission to land on Ryugu, a 900-meter-wide (2,950-feet-wide) asteroid.

It successfully managed to collect two samples of rocks weighing 5.4 grams (under a fifth of an ounce) each and bring them back to Earth in 2020.

Research in 2023 showed that these samples contained uracil, which is one of the four bases that make up RNA.
While DNA, the famed double helix, functions as a genetic blueprint, single-strand RNA is an all-important messenger, converting the instructions contained in DNA for implementation.

Last Monday, a new study by a Japanese team of researchers in Nature Astronomy demonstrated that the samples contained all the "nucleobases" for both DNA and RNA.

These included uracil as well as adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine.

This means their presence indicates that primitive asteroids could produce and preserve molecules that are important for the chemistry related to the origin of life.
The discovery also "demonstrates their widespread presence throughout the solar system and reinforces the hypothesis that carbonaceous asteroids contributed to the prebiotic chemical inventory of early Earth," according to the study.
With this and the results from Bennu, we now have a very clear idea of which organic materials can form under prebiotic conditions anywhere in the universe.
Last year, the same building blocks were found in fragments brought back to Earth by NASA from the asteroid Bennu.

Scientists have also detected their presence in the meteorites Orgueil and Murchison, which were part of asteroids that fell to Earth.
Scientists also identified a correlation between the ratios of the building blocks and the concentration of another important chemical for life: ammonia.

Because no known formation mechanism predicts such a relationship, this finding may point to a previously unrecognized pathway for nucleobase formation in early solar system materials.
This discovery has important implications for how biologically important molecules may have originally formed and promoted the genesis of life on Earth.

Toshiki Koga et al, A complete set of canonical nucleobases in the carbonaceous asteroid (162173) Ryugu, Nature Astronomy (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-026-02791-z

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