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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 7 hours ago

The sound of crying babies makes our faces hotter, according to new research

Hearing a baby cry can trigger a range of responses in adults, such as sympathy, anxiety and a strong urge to help. However, new research suggests that a deeper physical reaction is also occurring. A baby's cry, particularly if it is in pain or distress, makes our faces physically warmer.

Since they can't speak yet, babies cry to communicate their needs, whether they're in pain or want some attention. When a baby is in distress, they forcefully contract their ribcage, which produces high-pressure air that causes their vocal cords to vibrate chaotically. This produces complex disharmonious sounds known as nonlinear phenomena (NLP).

To study how adults respond to crying babies, scientists played 23 different recordings to 41 men and women with little to no experience with young infants. At the same time, a thermal infrared imaging camera measured subtle changes to their facial temperatures. A rise in temperature in this part of the body is governed by the autonomic nervous system, a network of nerves that controls unconscious processes such as breathing and digestion. After each cry, the participants rated whether the baby was in discomfort or in pain.

The study found that adults' facial temperatures change when they hear a baby cry, a clear sign that the autonomic nervous system has been activated. This suggests that people unconsciously pick up on acoustic features in a baby's cry. The higher the level of NLP (meaning a baby is in more pain or distress), the stronger and more in sync the listener's facial temperature became. In other words, as the cry grew louder, a person's face grew warmer. This physiological reaction was the same for both men and women.

Lény Lego et al, Nonlinear acoustic phenomena tune the adults' facial thermal response to baby cries with the cry amplitude envelope, Journal of the Royal Society Interface (2025). DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2025.0150

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 7 hours ago

A pathological partnership between Salmonella and yeast in the gut

Researchers have found that a common gut yeast, Candida albicans, can help Salmonella typhimurium take hold in the intestine and spread through the body. When interacting, a Salmonella protein called SopB prompts the yeast to release arginine, which turns on Salmonella's invasion machinery and quiets the body's inflammation signals.

Gut microbes shape human health across colonization resistance, immune training, digestion, and signaling that reaches distant organs. Bacteria dominate both abundance and research attention, while roles for viruses and fungi remain less defined.

Altered mycobiome composition appears in multiple gastrointestinal diseases, and integration of fungi into gut ecology and into interactions with commensal and pathogenic bacteria remains largely unknown.

Non-typhoidal Salmonella ranks among the best-studied enteric pathogens, infecting an estimated 100 million people each year. Healthy individuals typically experience localized inflammatory diarrhea, while immunocompromised patients face risks of spread to peripheral organs.

Establishing gut colonization requires competition with resident microorganisms, and commensal fungi occur across tested mammalian species, yet mycobiome contributions during enteric infection remain largely unexplored.

Candida albicans is a frequent colonizer of human mucosal surfaces, present in the gut of more than 60% of healthy humans. Usual behavior is commensal, with pathogenic potential particularly in immunocompromised hosts. A key virulence trait is morphology switching from yeast to epithelium-penetrating hyphae.

Associations with inflammatory bowel disease, specifically Crohn's disease, have been reported. C. albicans cannot induce gut inflammation and has been shown to exacerbate it. Both Salmonella and C. albicans thrive under inflammatory gut conditions, and C. albicans likely resides in the gut of many patients at the time Salmonella infection occurs.

In the study, "Commensal yeast promotes Salmonella Typhimurium virulence," published in Nature, researchers investigated cross-kingdom interactions to determine how Candida albicans influences Salmonella colonization, systemic dissemination, and host inflammatory responses.

In the experiments conducted in mice, Candida in the gut led to higher Salmonella loads in the large intestine and more bacteria reaching the spleen and liver, with co-infected mice losing more weight. Candida also boosted Salmonella entry into human colon cell lines. Gene readouts showed Salmonella's invasion machinery switched on near Candida.

Co-cultures contained millimolar arginine, and adding L-arginine alone increased invasion in a dose-dependent way, while an arginine-transporter mutant did not respond to Candida. Candida lacking arginine production also failed to boost Salmonella invasion or gut colonization, and an ARG4 revertant restored the effect.

Researchers conclude that C. albicans colonization represents a susceptibility factor for Salmonella infection, with arginine acting as a pivotal metabolite connecting fungus, bacterium, and host. Findings point to SopB-driven arginine production in Candida that boosts Salmonella's invasion program while softening host inflammatory signals.

 Kanchan Jaswal et al, Commensal yeast promotes Salmonella Typhimurium virulence, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09415-y

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Saturday

Researchers may have found a way to limit the debilitating damage strokes can cause

With limited treatment options for stroke patients available,  researchers are developing an experimental drug that is capable of protecting the brain and improving recovery after a cerebral vascular accident also known as a brain attack.

They targeted a small regulatory biological molecule called microRNA, which becomes abnormally elevated after stroke and promotes inflammation, contributes to tissue loss and causes a decline in neurological function. 

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs, which do not translate into proteins, that play important roles in regulating gene expression. 

So the researchers developed a next-generation inhibitor of this MiRNA to block its harmful effects. 

Unlike traditional experimental drugs that target only a single protein or molecule, this approach simultaneously suppresses multiple damaging processes by targeting several proteins. This reduces brain injury, inflammation, and the damage of the tissue while enhancing protective factors that support repair.

 

 

Source: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-09-limit-debilitating.html?utm_...

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Saturday

Microbial allies: Some Bacteria help fight against cancer

An international team of scientists have discovered that microbes associated with tumors produce a molecule that can control cancer progression and boost the effectiveness of chemotherapy.

Most people are familiar with the microbes on the skin or in the gut, but recent discoveries have revealed that tumors also host unique communities of bacteria. Scientists are now investigating how these tumor-associated bacteria can affect tumour growth and the response to chemotherapy.

New research, published online in Cell Systems, provides a significant breakthrough in this field, identifying a powerful anti-cancer metabolite produced by bacteria associated with colorectal cancer.

This finding opens the door to new strategies for treating cancer, including the development of novel drugs that could make existing therapies more potent.

The researchers used a sophisticated large-scale screening approach to test over 1,100 conditions in C. elegans. Through this, they found that the bacteria E. coli produced a molecule called 2-methylisocitrate (2-MiCit) that could improve the effectiveness of the chemotherapy drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU).

Using computer modeling, the team demonstrated that the tumor-associated microbiome (bacteria found within and around tumors) of patients was also able to produce 2-MiCit. To confirm the effectiveness of 2-MiCit, the team used two further systems; human cancer cells and a fly model of colorectal cancer. In both cases, they found that 2-MiCit showed potent anti-cancer properties, and for the flies could extend survival.

Bacteria are associated with tumors, and now scientists are  starting to understand the chemical conversation they're having with cancer cells.

They found that one of these bacterial chemicals can act as a powerful partner for chemotherapy, disrupting the metabolism of cancer cells and making them more vulnerable to the drug.

The study revealed that 2-MiCit works by inhibiting a key enzyme in the mitochondria (structures inside cells that generate energy for cellular functions) of cancer cells. This leads to DNA damage and activates pathways known to reduce the progression of cancer. This multi-pronged attack weakens the cancer cells and works in synergy with 5-FU. The combination was significantly more effective at killing cancer cells than either compound alone.

These exciting discoveries highlight how the cancer-associated microbiome can impact tumor progression, and how metabolites produced by these bacteria could be harnessed to improve cancer treatments.

These findings are also important in the context of personalized medicine, emphasizing the importance of considering not only the patient, but also their microbes.

Daniel Martinez-Martinez et al, Chemotherapy modulation by a cancer-associated microbiota metabolite, Cell Systems (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2025.101397

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Saturday

Smells that deceive the brain: Research reveals how certain aromas are interpreted as taste

Flavored drinks without sugar can be perceived as sweet—and now researchers know why. A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, published in the journal Nature Communications, reveals that the brain interprets certain aromas as taste. The paper is titled "Tastes and retronasal odours evoke a shared flavour-specific neura...

When we eat or drink, we don't just experience taste, but rather a "flavor." This taste experience arises from a combination of taste and smell, where aromas from food reach the nose via the oral cavity, known as retronasal odor.

Researchers  have now shown that the brain integrates these signals earlier than previously thought—already in the insula, a brain region known as the taste cortex—before the signals reach the frontal cortex, which controls our emotions and behavior.

The taste cortex reacts to taste-associated aromas as if they were real tastes.

The finding provides a possible explanation for why we sometimes experience taste from smell alone, for example in flavored waters. This underscores how strongly odors and tastes work together to make food pleasurable, potentially inducing craving and encouraging overeating of certain foods.

The study results showed that aromas that are perceived as sweet or savory not only activate the same parts of the brain's taste cortex as the actual tastes but that they evoke similar patterns of activation. This overlap was particularly evident in the parts of the taste cortex that are linked to the integration of sensory impressions.

This shows that the brain does not process taste and smell separately, but rather creates a joint representation of the flavor experience in the taste cortex.

This mechanism may be relevant for how our taste preferences and eating habits are formed and influenced.

Putu Agus Khorisantono, et al. Tastes and retronasal odours evoke a shared flavour-specific neural code in the human insula, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63803-6

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Friday

Breathlessness increases long-term mortality risk, finds a study in Malawi

Research led by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Program shows that over half of hospital patients with breathlessness had died within a year of admission (51%), as opposed to just 26% of those without the symptom.

Most of these patients had more than one condition that caused breathlessness, including pneumonia, anemia, heart failure and TB.

The findings demonstrate the importance of integrated, patient-centered care, researchers say, to tackle the burden of high mortality for people with breathlessness, particularly in low-income countries. The work appears in Thorax.

Most of these patients live with more than one condition at the same time, which the researchers found to be a factor linked to higher mortality, such as those with TB or pneumonia. This suggests that treating diseases in isolation is not enough, and health care models that have traditionally focused on single presenting conditions may overlook important concurrent diseases.

Acute breathlessness as a cause of hospitalisation in Malawi: a prospective, patient-centred study to evaluate causes and outcomes, Thorax (2025). DOI: 10.1136/thorax-2025-223623

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Friday

Medications leave lasting mark on gut microbiome, even years after use

Medications taken years ago can continue to shape the human gut microbiome, according to a large-scale study.

Analyzing stool samples and prescription records from over 2,500 Estonian Biobank participants in the Estonian Microbiome cohort, researchers found that the majority of drugs studied were linked to microbiome changes, with a substantial number of them also showing long-term effects detectable years after patients stopped taking them.

The impact was not limited to antibiotics: antidepressants, beta-blockers, proton pump inhibitors, and benzodiazepines all left microbial "fingerprints."

Most microbiome studies only consider current medications, but our results show that past drug use can be just as important as it is a surprisingly strong factor in explaining individual microbiome differences. 

This highlights that it is critical to account for drug usage history when studying links between the microbiome and disease. The research is published in the journal mSystems.

Interestingly, benzodiazepines—commonly prescribed for anxiety—had microbiome effects comparable to broad-spectrum antibiotics. The results also show that drugs from the same class that might be used for the same condition, e.g. diazepam and alprazolam, may differ in how much they disrupt the microbiome.

Follow-up samples from a subset of participants confirmed that starting or stopping certain drugs caused predictable microbial shifts, suggesting causal effects. Despite the small sample size of the second time-point analysis, the authors were able to verify long-term effects of proton pump inhibitors, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and antibiotics, such as penicillins in combination and macrolides.

Oliver Aasmets et al, A hidden confounder for microbiome studies: medications used years before sample collection, mSystems (2025). DOI: 10.1128/msystems.00541-25

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Friday

DNA cassette tapes could solve global data storage problems

Our increasingly digitized world has a data storage problem. Hard drives and other storage media are reaching their limits, and we are creating data faster than we can store it. Fortunately, we don't have to look too far for a solution, because nature already has a powerful storage medium with DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). It is this genetic material that researchers are using to create DNA storage cassettes.

DNA is the ultimate data storage solution because it is compact, dense and durable. It can hold an enormous amount of information in a microscopic space and preserve that data for thousands of years without needing electricity. Theoretically, the DNA in a single human cell has a capacity of approximately 3.2 gigabytes, which equates to roughly 6,000 books, 1,000 pieces of music or two movies.

Scientists have known about DNA's potential as a storage solution for a long time, but the challenge up until now has been to create a viable system that we can use. In a new study published in the journal Science Advances, researchers describe how they made a DNA cassette similar to cassette tapes that were staples in personal and car stereos in the 1980s.

The team first created the physical tape from a polyester-nylon blend. Then they printed barcode patterns on it to make millions of tiny, separate sections, similar to folders on a computer. This lets the system find the exact spot where the data is stored. Accessing information has been one of the problems of previous DNA storage techniques.
To store a file, digital data is first translated into a DNA sequence. The four bases, or building blocks of DNA (A, G, C, and T) act as a code, similar to the zeroes and ones that computers use. The researchers also coated the tape with a protective crystalline layer to protect the DNA bonds from breaking down.
Finally, they proved the system works by converting a digital image into DNA, then successfully and quickly retrieving it from the tape.

DNA cassette tape provides a strategy for fast, compact, large-scale DNA-based cold (infrequently accessed) or warm (needed on demand) data storage,  wrote the scientists in their paper.

Jiankai Li et al, A compact cassette tape for DNA-based data storage, Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ady3406

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Thursday

A review of 11 studies comparing donor-egg IVF to own-egg IVF found that donor-egg pregnancies had significantly higher rates of hypertensive disorders in the mother, as well as preterm birth and babies that were small for their gestational age.

A separate review focusing on preeclampsia in singleton IVF pregnancies found the condition occurred in 11.2% of donor-egg pregnancies, compared to 3.9% of own-egg pregnancies.

For women who can only become pregnant using a donor egg, these risks may be worth accepting. But it's important that women are made aware of the potential complications, especially if carrying twins, which further increases risks.

Women deserve full, unbiased information about the risks. That includes knowing that carrying someone else's egg may increase the likelihood of pregnancy complications. They can then make informed decisions about whether the potential benefits outweigh the risks.

Phoebe Barry et al, The outcomes of surrogate pregnancy using a donor egg compared to the surrogate's egg: a systematic review, Preprints (2025). DOI: 10.22541/au.174919886.60741282/v1

Part2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Thursday

Donor-egg births may carry more risks

More women than ever are carrying babies conceived with someone else's egg—but few are told that this might carry greater health risks.

Pregnancies involving an embryo that doesn't share the pregnant woman's DNA are becoming more common. For many, it's a path to parenthood that would otherwise be closed.
But emerging evidence suggests that these pregnancies may come with higher rates of complications, including preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and preterm birth, and that women are often not given the full picture before treatment.

As the fertility industry expands and diversifies, it's time to ask whether patients are being adequately informed about the risks of carrying another woman's egg—and whether more caution is needed in how these options are presented.

There are three situations in which a woman may carry another woman's egg in her uterus.

The most common is when a woman cannot produce her own eggs but has a functioning uterus. In this case, donor eggs and in-vitro fertilization (IVF) offer the only route to pregnancy.

The other two situations involve fertile women carrying a donated egg on behalf of someone else. This happens in cases of gestational surrogacy, where a surrogate carries a baby genetically unrelated to her, or in reciprocal IVF, also known as ROPA or co-IVF. In the latter, one woman in a same-sex couple (or a trans man) donates her egg to her partner, so that both have a biological connection to the child.

In IVF, fertilization occurs outside the body and the resulting embryo is transferred into the uterus. But what happens when the egg in the uterus has no genetic similarity to the woman carrying it? Could this cause complications for her or the baby?

To answer that question, we need to compare outcomes in these situations to pregnancies where the egg shares approximately 50% of the mother's DNA, either through natural conception or own-egg IVF. Early evidence suggests that having someone else's egg in the uterus is associated with a higher risk of obstetric complications, including preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and preterm birth.

There are three key comparisons to make. First, donor-egg IVF v own-egg IVF. For infertile women using donor eggs, the most relevant comparison is IVF with their own eggs.
Second, gestational v traditional surrogacy. In gestational surrogacy, the surrogate carries a donor egg, while in traditional surrogacy, she uses her own. Outcomes can also be compared with the surrogate's previous natural pregnancies.

Third, reciprocal IVF v own-egg IVF. In same-sex couples, reciprocal IVF can be compared to own-egg IVF to assess risks.
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