Comment

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 5, 2022 at 9:57am

What still remains a mystery is why humans evolved to have a BRCA2 gene that increases the risk of developing cancer, though there is the possibility that it was a tradeoff between an increased risk of cancer and an increase in fertility rates. Prior research has shown that women with a BRCA2 variant that makes them more susceptible to developing cancer can more easily become pregnant. The work also suggests that a means for treating cancer in the distant future may involve altering the BRCA2 gene to make it more like other primates, thereby reducing the overall risk of developing cancer.

 Christine A. Iacobuzio-Donahue, Evidence for Reduced BRCA2 Functional Activity in Homo Sapiens After Divergence from the Chimpanzee-Human Last Common Ancestor, Cell Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110771. www.cell.com/cell-reports/full … 2211-1247(22)00535-6

https://phys.org/news/2022-05-evidence-dna-humans-susceptible-cance...

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 5, 2022 at 9:57am

Evidence that a DNA change made humans more susceptible to cancer

A team of researchers at the Sloan Kettering Institute working with a group at the American Museum of Natural History has found evidence of a change in human DNA after diverging from other primates that has made humans more susceptible to the development of cancerous tumors. In their paper published in the journal Cell Reports, the group compares human genes to those of other primates to learn more about why humans are more prone to developing cancer.

Prior research has shown that humans are more likely to develop cancerous tumors than any other primate, but the reason has remained a mystery until now. To find the answer, the researchers compared parts of the human genome with similar parts of 12 non-human primate genomes. They found a small difference in the BRCA2 gene that had to have arisen after humans diverged from other primates. The BRCA2 gene plays a role in tumor suppression due to coding for DNA repair.

The researchers then looked at the impact of the letter change in the human DNA and found that it lessened its effectiveness at coding for DNA repair by approximately 20%. And that, the researchers suggest, could explain why humans are more susceptible to the development of tumors. The findings align with results from prior research that has shown that humans with a certain BRCA2 variant are more likely to develop tumors, particularly of the ovaries and breast.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 5, 2022 at 9:14am

The study, published in the journal Microbiome, found that the microbiota from old donors led to loss of integrity of the lining of the gut, allowing bacterial products to cross into the circulation, which results in triggering the immune system and inflammation in the brain and eyes.

Age-related chronic inflammation, known as inflammaging, has been associated with the activation of specific immune cells found in brain. These cells were also over-activated in the young mice who received aged microbiome transplants.

In the eye, the team also found specific proteins associated with retinal degeneration were elevated in the young mice receiving microbiota from old donors.

In old mice, these detrimental changes in the gut, eye and brain could be reversed by transplanting the gut microbiota from young mice.

In ongoing studies, the team are now working to understand how long these positive effects can last, and to identify the beneficial components of the young donor microbiota and how they impact on organs distant from the gut.

The microbiota of young mice, and the old mice who received young microbiota transplants were enriched in beneficial bacteria that have previously been associated with good health in both mice and humans.

The researchers have also analyzed the products which these bacteria produce by breaking down elements of our diet. This has uncovered significant shifts in particular lipids (fats) and vitamin metabolism, which may be linked to the changes seen in inflammatory cells in the eye and brain.

Similar pathways exist in humans, and the human gut microbiota also changes significantly in later life, but the researchers caution about extrapolating their results directly to humans until similar studies in elderly humans can be performed.

Aimée Parker et al, Fecal microbiota transfer between young and aged mice reverses hallmarks of the aging gut, eye, and brain, Microbiome (2022). DOI: 10.1186/s40168-022-01243-w

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-05-fecal-transplants-reverse-ha...

Part 2

1. Aimée Parker, Stefano Romano, Rebecca Ansorge, Asmaa Aboelnour, Gwenaelle Le Gall, George M. Savva, Matthew G. Pontifex, Andrea Telatin, David Baker, Emily Jones, David Vauzour, Steven Rudder, L. Ashley Blackshaw, Glen Jeffery, Simon R. Carding. Fecal microbiota transfer between young and aged mice reverses hallmarks of the aging gut, eye, and brain. Microbiome, 2022; 10 (1) DOI: 10.1186/s40168-022-01243-w

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 5, 2022 at 9:13am

Fecal transplants reverse hallmarks of aging

In the search for eternal youth, poo transplants may seem like an unlikely way to reverse the aging process.

However, scientists  have provided evidence, from research in mice, that transplanting fecal microbiota from young into old mice can reverse hallmarks of aging in the gut, eyes, and brain.

In the reverse experiment, microbes from aged mice induced inflammation in the brain of young recipients and depleted a key protein required for normal vision.

These findings show that gut microbes play a role in the regulating some of the detrimental effects of aging and open up the possibility of gut microbe-based therapies to combat decline in later life.

It has been known for some time that the population of microbes that we carry around in our gut, collectively called the gut microbiota, is linked to health. Most diseases are associated with changes in the types and behavior of bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microbes in an individual's gut.

Some of these changes in microbiota composition happen as we age, adversely affecting metabolism and immunity, and this has been associated with age-related disorders including inflammatory bowel diseases, along with cardiovascular, autoimmune, metabolic and neurodegenerative disorders.

--

To better understand the effects of these changes in the microbiota in old age, scientists  transferred the gut microbes from aged mice into healthy young mice, and vice versa. They then looked at how this affected inflammatory hallmarks of aging in the gut, brain and eye, which suffer from declining function in later life.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 4, 2022 at 1:24pm

Humanity will need to survive about 400,000 years if we want any chance of hearing from an alien civilization

If there are so many galaxies, stars, and planets, where are all the aliens, and why haven't we heard from them? Those are the simple questions at the heart of the Fermi Paradox. In a new paper, a pair of researchers ask the next obvious question: How long will we have to survive to hear from another alien civilization?

Their answer? 400,000 years.

Four-hundred-thousand years is a long time for a species that's only been around for a couple hundred thousand years, and only discovered farming about 12,000 years ago. But 400,000 years is how long we'll need to keep this human experiment going if we want to hear from any alien civilizations. That's according to some new research into communicating extraterrestrial intelligent civilizations (CETIs.)

The paper is "The Number of Possible CETIs within Our Galaxy and the Communication Probability among These CETIs." The authors are Wenjie Song and He Gao, both from the Department of Astronomy at Beijing Normal University. The paper is published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Wenjie Song et al, The Number of Possible CETIs within Our Galaxy and the Communication Probability among These CETIs, The Astrophysical Journal (2022). DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac561d

https://phys.org/news/2022-05-humanity-survive-years-chance-alien.h...

**

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 4, 2022 at 1:19pm

Recurrent UTIs linked to gut microbiome, chronic inflammation

One of the greatest frustrations regarding urinary tract infections (UTIs) is that they so often recur. UTIs are caused by bacteria in the urinary tract and characterized by frequent and painful urination. A round of antibiotics usually clears up the symptoms, but the relief is often temporary: A quarter of women go on to develop a second UTI within six months. Some unfortunate individuals get UTIs over and over, and require antibiotics every few months.

A new study suggests that women who get recurrent UTIs may be caught in a vicious cycle in which antibiotics given to eradicate one infection predispose them to develop another. The study, by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, showed that a round of antibiotics eliminates disease-causing bacteria from the bladder but not from the intestines. Surviving bacteria in the gut can multiply and spread to the bladder again, causing another UTI.

At the same time, repeated cycles of antibiotics wreak havoc on the community of helpful bacteria that normally live in the intestines, the so-called gut microbiome. Similar to other disorders in which gut microbes and the immune system are linked, women with recurrent UTIs in the study had less diverse microbiomes that were deficient in an important group of bacteria that helps regulate inflammation, and a distinct immunological signature in their blood indicative of inflammation.

The study is published May 2 in Nature Microbiology.

The difference between the women who got repeated UTIs and those who didn't, surprisingly, didn't come down to the kind of E. coli in their intestines or even the presence of E. coli in their bladders. Both groups carried E. coli strains in their guts capable of causing UTIs, and such strains occasionally spread to their bladders.

The real difference was in the makeup of their gut microbiomes. Patients with repeat infections showed decreased diversity of healthy gut microbial species, which could provide more opportunities for disease-causing species to gain a foothold and multiply. Notably, the microbiomes of women with recurrent UTIs were particularly scarce in bacteria that produce butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid with anti-inflammatory effects.

Women in the control group were able to clear the bacteria from their bladders before they caused disease, and women with recurrent UTI were not, because of a distinct immune response to bacterial invasion of the bladder potentially mediated by the gut microbiome.

The findings highlight the importance of finding alternatives to antibiotics for treating UTIs.

this study clearly demonstrates that antibiotics do not prevent future infections or clear UTI-causing strains from the gut, and they may even make recurrence more likely by keeping the microbiome in a disrupted state.

Scott Hultgren, Longitudinal multi-omics analyses link gut microbiome dysbiosis with recurrent urinary tract infections in women, Nature Microbiology (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41564-022-01107-x. www.nature.com/articles/s41564-022-01107-x

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-05-recurrent-utis-linked-gut-mi...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 4, 2022 at 1:10pm

Why is the 100-year-old BCG vaccine so broadly protective in newborns?

The century-old Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine against tuberculosis is one of the world's oldest and most widely used vaccines, used to immunize 100 million newborns every year. Given in countries with endemic TB, it has surprisingly been found to protect newborns and young infants against multiple bacterial and viral infections unrelated to TB. There's even some evidence that it can reduce severity of COVID-19.

What's special about BCG vaccine? How does it protect infants so broadly? It turns out little is known. To understand its mechanism of action, researchers at the Precision Vaccines Program at Boston Children's Hospital partnered with the Expanded Program on Immunization Consortium (EPIC), an international team studying early life immunization, to collect and comprehensively profile blood samples from newborns immunized with BCG, using a powerful "big data" approach.

Their study, published online May 3 in Cell Reports, found that the BCG vaccine induces specific changes in metabolites and lipids that correlate with innate immune system responses. The findings provide clues toward making other vaccines more effective in vulnerable populations with distinct immune systems, such as newborns.

BCG is an 'old school' vaccine—it's made from a live, weakened germ—but live vaccines like BCG seem to activate the immune system in a very different way in early life, providing broad protection against a range of bacterial and viral infections. There's much work ahead to better understand that and use that information to build better vaccines for infants.

Joann Diray-Arce, Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine reprograms human neonatal lipid metabolism in vivo and in vitro, Cell Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110772. www.cell.com/cell-reports/full … 2211-1247(22)00536-8

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-05-year-old-bcg-vaccine-broadly...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 3, 2022 at 10:47am

Change Is Happening to Earth's Water Cycle

Climate change is throwing Earth's water cycle severely out of whack. According to new satellite data, freshwaters are growing fresher and salt waters are growing saltier at an increasingly rapid rate all around the world. If this pattern continues, it will turbocharge rainstorms.

The findings indicate a severe acceleration of the global water cycle – a sign that isn't as clearly observed in direct salinity measurements from ocean buoys, which typically measure a little below the surface of the ocean. However, it's commonly predicted in climate models. 

As global temperatures increase, climate scientists expect there will be greater evaporation on the ocean surface, which will make the top layer of the sea saltier and add moisture to the atmosphere.

This, in turn, will increase rainfall in other parts of the world, diluting some bodies of water to make them even less salty.

The pattern can basically be described as "wet-gets-wetter-dry-gets-drier", and it's a real cause for concern. If the water cycle accelerates with global warming, it could have profound impacts on modern society, driving drought and water shortages, as well as greater storms and flooding. 

It might even have started speeding up snow melt, as rainfall has been increasing in polar regions.

This higher amount of water circulating in the atmosphere could also explain the increase in rainfall that is being detected in some polar areas, where the fact that it is raining instead of snowing is speeding up the melting.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-10265-1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 3, 2022 at 8:17am

A gravity telescope that could image exoplanets

In the time since the first exoplanet was discovered in 1992, astronomers have detected more than 5,000 planets orbiting other stars. But when astronomers detect a new exoplanet, we don't learn a lot about it: We know that it exists and a few features about it, but the rest is a mystery.

To sidestep the physical limitations of telescopes, Stanford University astrophysicists have been working on a new conceptual imaging technique that would be 1,000 times more precise than the strongest imaging technology currently in use. By taking advantage of gravity's warping effect on space-time, called lensing, scientists could potentially manipulate this phenomenon to create imaging far more advanced than any present today.

In a paper published on May 2 in The Astrophysical Journal, the researchers describe a way to manipulate solar gravitational lensing to view planets outside our solar system. By positioning a telescope, the sun, and exoplanet in a line with the sun in the middle, scientists could use the gravitational field of the sun to magnify light from the exoplanet as it passes by. As opposed to a magnifying glass which has a curved surface that bends light, a gravitational lens has a curved space-time that enables imaging far away objects.

In order to capture an exoplanet image through the solar gravitational lens, a telescope would have to be placed at least 14 times farther away from the sun than Pluto, past the edge of our solar system, and further than humans have ever sent a spacecraft. But, the distance is a tiny fraction of the light-years between the sun and an exoplanet.

By unbending the light bent by the sun, an image can be created far beyond that of an ordinary telescope. So, the scientific potential is an untapped mystery because it's opening this new observing capability that doesn't yet exist.

The solar gravitational lens opens up an entirely new window for observation. This will allow investigation of the detailed dynamics of the planet atmospheres, as well as the distributions of clouds and surface features, which we have no way to investigate now.

Alexander Madurowicz et al, Integral Field Spectroscopy with the Solar Gravitational Lens, The Astrophysical Journal (2022). DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac5e9d

https://phys.org/news/2022-05-scientists-gravity-telescope-image-ex...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 2, 2022 at 11:51am

Researchers identify 'super-calculating' network in the human brain

Are you impressed when Scientists manage to calculate the time and speed of a rocket's trajectory? A new study shows that your brain has a "nerd center" capable of even more complex calculations.

If, late on your way to work, you see the bus coming and run to catch it while carrying your cup of coffee, you have probably beaten rocket scientists. Nerve cells in your brain perform billions of complicated mathematical calculations to work out your speed, position and direction. For years, this ability of the brain to calculate such parameters has been a mystery.

After five years of research into the theory of the continuous attractor network, or CAN, a group of scientists have made a breakthrough.
They are the first to clearly establish that the human brain actually contains such 'nerd cells' or 'super-calculators' put forward by the CAN theory. They also found nerve cells that code for speed, position and direction all at once.

The CAN theory  had been widely popular among scientists for decades. In a nutshell, it proposes that when we move around, our mental map or representation of the place in which we find ourselves constantly updates itself according to our new position. The CAN theory hypothesizes that a hidden layer of nerve cells perform complex math and compile vast amounts of information about speed, position and direction, just as space scientists do when they are adjusting a rocket trajectory.

At all times, the brain is bombarded with sensory experiences (sight, feelings, hearing). It must make sense of this chaos to create an image coherent with memories of similar situations previously experienced in order to adjust one's actions. For example, we see that the bus is coming, we can feel that the coffee is hot; at which speed can we run to reach the bus without burning ourselves?

In recent years, the research community has proven that these brain areas is involved in many more tasks beyond mapping spatial position. The nerve cells there can also map sounds and rewards. Now,scientists wonder whether the cells they found are capable of performing other tasks, in addition to calculating speed and direction.

Davide Spalla et al, Angular and linear speed cells in the parahippocampal circuits, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29583-z

https://researchnews.cc/news/12939/Researchers-identify--super-calc...

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 528
• 529
• 530
• 531
• 532
• …
• 1110
• Next ›
• Page