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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 28, 2021 at 7:12am

Researchers pinpoint blood factors linked to severe COVID

Scientists have identified unique "indicators" in the blood of patients with severe and fatal COVID, paving the way for simple diagnostic tests to help doctors identify who will go on to become critically ill.

The scientists analyzed blood samples from hospitalized COVID patients. They detected markers in the blood associated with patients becoming so ill they needed treatment in intensive care.

The findings may lead to new ways for triaging and assessing the risk of COVID patients, relieving the pressure from hospitals during infection spikes.

Since the start of the pandemic, researchers have been working to understand how and why COVID affects individuals differently. Even patients hospitalized with the disease have diverse treatment needs, with some milder cases simply requiring extra oxygen while others need invasive ventilation in intensive care.

This new study identified factors in the blood that are uniquely correlated with severe and fatal outcomes for hospitalized COVID patients. These findings support the observation that COVID is a disease that develops in stages and have the potential to provide doctors with vital information, allowing them to tailor treatments according to severity of disease and identify high-risk patients early.

The research, published in the journal iScience, involved testing blood samples from over 160 patients admitted to hospital during the first and second wave of the pandemic and was carried out in collaboration with York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester University and four NHS Trusts in Greater Manchester.

The researchers measured levels of cytokines and chemokines—the proteins in the blood that drive the overwhelming immune response observed in patients with COVID—as well as tiny RNAs, called microRNAs—which reflect the state of diseased tissues and are already known to be good indicators of severity and stage in several other diseases. They identified a set of cytokines, chemokines, and microRNAs linked to fatal outcomes from COVID.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 27, 2021 at 7:22am

James Webb Telescope

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 27, 2021 at 7:20am

Oral and gut microbes can inactivate an antidiabetic drug

Acarbose is a commonly prescribed antidiabetic drug that helps control blood sugar levels by inhibiting human enzymes that break down complex carbohydrates. Now, new research  demonstrates that some bacteria in the mouth and gut can inactivate acarbose and potentially affect the clinical performance of the drug and its impact on bacterial members of the human microbiome. The paper appeared online and in the December 2, 2021 issue of the journal Nature.

Acarbose was originally isolated from bacteria that live in soil. These bacteria secrete acarbose to hinder the growth of other types of bacteria in their environment, giving themselves a competitive advantage. Both the natural bacterial version and the drug acarbose inhibit a-glucosidases, enzymes expressed by humans and bacteria to break down complex sugars into a form that can be metabolized for energy.

But acarbose-producing bacteria also express an antidote to it—an enzyme called acarbose kinase that modifies acarbose, rendering it inactive. 

This mechanism may accidentally affect the response of diabetic patients to this drug as well as shape its impact on the microbiome.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04091-0?proof=t+target%3D

https://researchnews.cc/news/10757/Oral-and-gut-microbes-can-inacti...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 27, 2021 at 7:14am

Parasitic worms in dogs, cats may jump into people

Parasitic worms that infect companion animals such as dogs and cats are more likely to make the leap into humans than other worm species, according to new research.

The study also identified three species of worms that don't currently infect people but have a more than 70% chance of crossing into humans in the future.

The close relationships that we have with pets is the predominant reason why people might become infected with new species of parasitic worms.

Parasitic worms, or helminths, are estimated to infect 1.5 billion people globally, according to the World Health Organization. Many of these parasites infect humans, causing a number of serious illnesses, including schistosomiasis and filariasis.

Published in The Royal Society journal Philosophical Transactions B, the study focused on 737 parasitic worm species that predominantly infect wild and domesticated mammals. Of these, 137 are known to be able to infect people.

The researchers categorized the worm species' traits and built a machine learning model to determine which characteristics were most commonly associated with transmission into humans.

They found that worms that can infect companion animals or fish are more likely to cause human infection than worms that infect other animal species. Geographically widespread parasites were also more likely to make the jump from animals into people.

The analyses showed that three worm species not currently known to infect people have traits that make them very likely to be able to do so: Paramphistomum cervi, a flatworm mostly found in livestock and some wild animals; Schistocephalus solidus, a fish-based tapeworm that also infects birds and rodents; and Strongyloides papillosus, a pinworm found largely in livestock.

The study marks the first time these species have been identified as likely to infect humans, suggesting they are candidates for surveillance and further study.

It's relatively easy for dogs and cats to become infected with parasitic worms, particularly if they're allowed to wander during the day.

Dogs and cats aren't the only transmission route, though.

Fish also host a variety of parasitic worms. People can easily become infected by eating raw, undercooked or improperly prepared fish. The roundworm that causes herring worm disease, for example, infects thousands of people each year, largely in areas where eating raw fish is common, like Japan and parts of Europe.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8450625/

https://researchnews.cc/news/10746/Parasitic-worms-in-dogs--cats-ma...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 26, 2021 at 1:38pm

Real-space subfemtosecond imaging of quantum electronic coherences in molecules

" It has been a long-time dream of scientists to capture image of electron moving inside the atoms. For this scientist have been using two techniques to track the movement of an electron inside a molecule. One of the techniques of attosecond science enables to generate and trace the consequences of this motion in real time, but not in real space. On the other hand, another technique Scanning tunneling microscopy, can locally probe the valence electron density in molecules, but cannot alone provide dynamical information at this ultrafast timescale.

Now by combining scanning tunnelling microscopy and attosecond technologies, real-space and -time imaging of electrons became possible first time.

These results are a major boon for the scientific research world because it will facilitate understanding of chemical reactions. With the help of these understandings, scientists can gain new insights into the most elementary processes such as photosynthesis in plants and the biochemical processes on our retina which are also triggered by light. These experimental achievements can enable the manipulation of electron movements which will allow unprecedented control over chemical reactions and biological processes. The scientists have now come a huge step closer to achieving this goal."

Tracking electron motion in molecules is the key to understanding and controlling chemical transformations. Contemporary techniques in attosecond science are able to generate and trace the consequences of this motion in real time, but not in real space. Scanning tunnelling microscopy, on the other hand, can locally probe the valence electron density in molecules, but cannot alone provide dynamical information at this ultrafast timescale. Here researchers show that, by combining scanning tunnelling microscopy and attosecond technologies, quantum electronic coherences induced in molecules by <6-fs-long carrier-envelope-phase-stable near-infrared laser pulses can be directly visualized at ångström-scale spatial and subfemtosecond temporal resolutions. They demonstrate concurrent real-space and -time imaging of coherences involving the valence orbitals of perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride molecules, and full control over the population of the involved orbitals. This approach opens the way to the unambiguous observation and manipulation of electron dynamics in complex molecular systems.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-021-00929-1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 26, 2021 at 11:20am

What makes an mRNA vaccine so effective against severe COVID-19?

The first two vaccines created with mRNA vaccine technology—the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines—are arguably two of the most effective COVID vaccines developed to date. In clinical trials, both were more than 90% effective at preventing symptomatic infection, easily surpassing the 50% threshold the Food and Drug Administration had set for COVID-19 vaccines to be considered for emergency use authorization.

While breakthrough infections have increased with the emergence of the delta and omicron variants, the vaccines remain quite effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths. The success of the new technology has led scientists to try to figure out why mRNA vaccines are so effective and whether the protection they provide is likely to endure as new variants arise.

A new study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital shines light on the quality of the immune response triggered by mRNA vaccines. The study shows that the Pfizer vaccine strongly and persistently activates a kind of helper immune cell that assists antibody-producing cells in creating large amounts of increasingly powerful antibodies, and also drives the development of some kinds of immune memory. Known as T follicular helper cells, these cells last for up to six months after vaccination, helping the body crank out better and better antibodies. Once the helper cells decline, long-lived antibody-producing cells and memory B cells help to provide protection against severe disease and death, the researchers said.

Further, many of the T follicular helper cells are activated by a part of the virus that doesn't seem to pick up mutations, even in the highly mutated omicron variant. The findings, published online in the journal Cell, help explain why the Pfizer vaccine elicits such high levels of neutralizing antibodies and suggests that vaccination may help many people continue producing potent antibodies even as the virus changes.

The longer the T follicular helper cells provide help, the better the antibodies are and the more likely you are to have a good memory response. In this study, researchers found that these T follicular helper cell responses just keep going and going. And what's more, some of them are responding to one part of the virus's spike protein that has very little variation in it. With the variants, especially delta and now omicron, we've been seeing some breakthrough infections, but the vaccines have held up very nicely in terms of preventing severe disease and death. This strong T follicular helper response is part of the reason why the mRNA vaccines continue to be so protective.

1. Philip A. Mudd, Anastasia A. Minervina, Mikhail V. Pogorelyy, Jackson S. Turner, Wooseob Kim, Elizaveta Kalaidina, Jan Petersen, Aaron J. Schmitz, Tingting Lei, Alem Haile, Allison M. Kirk, Robert C. Mettelman, Jeremy Chase Crawford, Thi H.O. Nguyen, Louise C. Rowntree, Elisa Rosati, Katherine A. Richards, Andrea J. Sant, Michael K. Klebert, Teresa Suessen, William D. Middleton, Joshua Wolf, Sharlene A. Teefey, Jane A. O’Halloran, Rachel M. Presti, Katherine Kedzierska, Jamie Rossjohn, Paul G. Thomas, Ali H. Ellebedy. SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination elicits a robust and persistent T follicular helper cell response in humans. Cell, 2021; DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.12.026

https://researchnews.cc/news/10732/What-makes-an-mRNA-vaccine-so-ef...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 26, 2021 at 11:07am

Study shows robotic-assisted bladder removal reduces blood loss and enhances post-operative recovery

 Robotic-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC), the complete removal of the bladder with the use of surgical robots, has gained increasing acceptance worldwide. After the removal of the bladder, patients need to undergo a urinary diversion, such as the reconstruction of a “new bladder”. In the past, a urinary diversion had to be performed through an open approach, i.e. extracorporeal urinary diversion (ECUD). Recently, an intracorporeal urinary diversion (ICUD) approach has been introduced, and the whole procedure can be performed in a minimally invasive manner.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Medicine has led a...

https://www.med.cuhk.edu.hk/press-releases/study-led-by-cuhk-shows-...

https://researchnews.cc/news/10723/Study-shows-robotic-assisted-bla...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 25, 2021 at 12:11pm

A Scent of Space

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 24, 2021 at 11:15am

Frog cells transform into tiny living robots

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 24, 2021 at 11:04am

A special microbe turns oil into gases all by itself

Microorganisms can convert oil into natural gas, i.e. methane. Until recently, it was thought that this conversion was only possible through the cooperation of different organisms. In 2019, Rafael Laso-Pérez and Gunter Wegener from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology suggested that a special archaeon can do this all by itself, as indicated by their genome analyses. Now, in collaboration with a team from China, the researchers have succeeded in cultivating this “miracle microbe” in the laboratory. This enabled them to describe exactly how the microbe achieves the transformation. They also discovered that it prefers to eat rather bulky chunks of food.

Underground oil deposits on land and in the sea are home to microorganisms that use the oil as a source of energy and food, converting it into methane. Until recently, it was thought that this conversion was only possible in a complicated teamwork between different organisms: certain bacteria and usually two archaeal partners. Now the researchers have managed to cultivate an archaeon called Methanoliparia from a settling tank of an oil production facility that handles this complex reaction all by itself.

This “miracle microbe” breaks down oil into methane and carbon dioxide. Now that the researchers have succeeded in cultivating these microorganisms in the laboratory, they were able to investigate the underlying processes in detail. They discovered that its genetic make-up gives Methanoliparia unique capabilities. “In its genes it carries the blueprints for enzymes that can activate and decompose various hydrocarbons. In addition, it also has the complete gear kit of a methane producer.

n their laboratory cultures, the researchers offered the microbes various kinds of food and used a variety of different methods to keep a close eye on how Methanoliparia deal with it. What was particularly surprising to see was that this archaeon activated all the different hydrocarbons with one and the same enzyme.

Zhuo Zhou, Cui-jing Zhang, Peng-fei Liu, Lin Fu, Ra­fael Laso-Pérez, Lu Yang, Li-ping Bai, Ji­ang Li, Min Yang, Jun-zhang Lin, Wei-dong Wang, Gunter We­gener, Meng Li, Lei Cheng (2021): Non-syn­trophic meth­ano­genic hy­dro­car­bon de­grad­a­tion by an ar­chaeal spe­cies. Nature (2021)

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04235-2 

https://researchnews.cc/news/10687/A-special-microbe-turns-oil-into...

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