Comment

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 6, 2025 at 2:50pm

Researchers debunk long-standing concern about flu treatment in children

For decades, medical professionals debated whether a common antiviral medication used to treat flu in children caused neuropsychiatric events or if the infection itself was the culprit.

Now researchers at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt have debunked a long-standing theory about oseltamivir, known as Tamiflu.

According to the study, published in JAMA Neurology, oseltamivir treatment during flu episodes was associated with a reduced risk of serious neuropsychiatric events, such as seizures, altered mental status and hallucination.

These findings demonstrated what many pediatricians have long suspected, that the flu, not the flu treatment, is associated with neuropsychiatric events.

"In fact, oseltamivir treatment seems to prevent neuropsychiatric events rather than cause them."

Key points:

• Influenza itself was associated with an increase in neuropsychiatric events compared to children with no influenza, regardless of oseltamivir use.
• Among children with influenza, those treated with oseltamivir had about 50% reduction in neuropsychiatric events.
• Among children without influenza, those who were treated with oseltamivir prophylactically had the same rate of events as the baseline group with no influenza.

Taken together, these three findings do not support the theory that oseltamivir increases the risk of neuropsychiatric events. It's the influenza, conclude the researchers.

James W. Antoon et al, Influenza With and Without Oseltamivir Treatment and Neuropsychiatric Events Among Children and Adolescents, JAMA Neurology (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2025.1995

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 6, 2025 at 2:34pm

New study shows that E. coli can evolve antibiotic resistance during treatment

Scientists have documented a notable case of antibiotic resistance evolving within a critically ill patient during treatment for an E. coli bloodstream infection, providing genomic evidence of how drug resistance can emerge in real time.

This new study published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology, details the rapid evolution of resistance in an E. coli strain exposed to piperacillin/tazobactam (TZP), a first-line treatment for serious bacterial infections that pairs an antibiotic with a compound that inhibits beta-lactamase enzymes, a widespread antibiotic resistance gene.

While the initial infection appeared treatable, the bacteria quickly developed a mechanism to escape the drug's effects, not by acquiring new resistance genes, but by amplifying one it already carried, overcoming the effects of the resistance inhibitor.

This is a striking example of resistance evolving under antibiotic pressure.

The researchers identified a tenfold increase in copies of a key resistance gene within the bacterial isolate, leading to a 32-fold increase in the level of antibiotic required to kill the bacteria, ultimately causing the treatment to fail, and all within the course of a single patient's illness.

The research team, which included genomic scientists, microbiologists and clinicians used high-resolution whole-genome sequencing to confirm the genetic changes.

The amplified resistance gene in E. coli, named blaTEM-1, produces a beta-lactamase enzyme that breaks down the antibiotic piperacillin. Although the TZP drug combination is meant to inhibit these enzymes, the sheer volume produced following gene duplication overwhelmed its protective effect, allowing the infection to persist. Further lab experiments confirmed that exposure to TZP led E. coli to generate even more copies of the gene.

This form of "within-patient evolution" presents a major diagnostic challenge. Routine resistance tests may underestimate the risk of treatment failure if they don't detect bacteria capable of rapidly increasing enzyme production under antibiotic pressure.

The study also highlights that 40% of new antibiotic candidates in the pipeline are beta-lactamase inhibitor combinations like TZP, raising critical concerns for drug developers and frontline clinicians alike.

This study underscores why relying on static resistance profiles can be misleading.

The findings underscore the need for greater investment in diagnostics and surveillance tools that can detect dynamic, hard-to-spot resistance mechanisms before they undermine treatment.

Alice J. Fraser et al, A high-resolution genomic and phenotypic analysis of resistance evolution of an Escherichia coli strain from a critically unwell patient treated with piperacillin/tazobactam, Journal of Medical Microbiology (2025). DOI: 10.1099/jmm.0.002018

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 6, 2025 at 2:19pm

In this study, AUN exhibits transcendent antitumor effects through uniquely orchestrated bacterial mechanisms, including:

Selective destruction of tumor vasculature and cancer cells
Structural transformation of A-gyo (filamentation) triggered by tumor metabolites, enhancing its antitumor potency
Functional optimization via intratumoral population shift—although the initial bacterial mixture is A-gyo : UN-gyo ≈ 3:97, it dramatically shifts to 99:1 within the tumor microenvironment
Suppression of pathogenicity and minimization of side effects, including the avoidance of CRS
Notably, UN-gyo functions as a regulatory partner only when coexisting with A-gyo, helping to suppress the pathogenicity of both strains while simultaneously enhancing their tumor-specific cytotoxicity. This "cooperation of labor" mirrors the Japanese philosophical concept of AUN—perfect harmony between opposites. It is this delicate and dynamic interplay between the two bacterial species that unlocks the remarkable antitumor efficacy—a feat previously unattainable through conventional therapies.

Tumour-resident oncolytic bacteria trigger potent anticancer effects through selective intratumoural thrombosis and necrosis, Nature Biomedical Engineering (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41551-025-01459-9

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 6, 2025 at 2:18pm

Bacterial duo eliminates tumors without immune system help in new cancer therapy

A  research team has developed an immune-independent bacterial cancer therapy using a novel microbial consortium called AUN.

Cancer immunotherapy originated in 1868 when the German physician Busch reported a case of a cancer patient who was intentionally infected with bacteria and subsequently cured. In 1893, Dr. William Coley proposed the use of bacteria for cancer treatment, and immunotherapies have been evolving into modern treatments such as checkpoint inhibitors and CAR-T cells for over 150 years. While powerful, these approaches fundamentally depend on immune cells—making them ineffective for many cancer patients with compromised immune systems due to chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

The newly developed AUN therapy overturns this long-standing limitation. The research is published in Nature Biomedical Engineering.

AUN is composed of two naturally occurring bacteria:

• Proteus mirabilis (A-gyo), a tumor-resident microbe
• Rhodopseudomonas palustris (UN-gyo), a photosynthetic bacterium

Working in perfect synergy, these AUN bacteria produce exceptional tumor eradication in both murine and human cancer models, even in immunocompromised environments—all without the help of immune cells. The therapy exhibits high biocompatibility and minimal side effects, including suppression of cytokine release syndrome (CRS).

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 6, 2025 at 2:14pm

Study finds Ozempic may weaken muscles even as muscle size remains stable

As use of the popular anti-diabetic and weight-loss drug Ozempic skyrockets, so have concerns about the medication's side effects. One such side effect is loss of "lean mass"—body weight that isn't fat—raising concerns that Ozempic could be reducing muscle mass and strength.

New research in mice suggests that muscle mass changes less than expected, but muscles may still get weaker, pointing out an urgent need for clinical studies to pin down the full effects of the popular medications.

Researchers found that Ozempic-induced weight loss did decrease lean mass by about 10%. Most of this lost weight wasn't from skeletal muscles but instead from other tissues like the liver, which shrank by nearly half. The researchers emphasize that more research is needed to determine whether similar changes to organ size occur in humans—and whether those changes come with any risks.

Interestingly, when the researchers tested the amount of force the mice's muscles could exert, they found that, for some muscles, strength decreased as the mice lost weight, even when the size of the muscle stayed roughly the same. For other muscles, strength was unchanged. It's unknown how weight loss drugs affect this balance in people, the researchers say.

A potential loss of strength when taking Ozempic may be of particular concern for adults over the age of 60, who are at higher baseline risk for muscle loss and reduced mobility. "The loss of physical function is a strong predictor of not just quality of life but longevity," they add.

However,  mice and humans gain and lose weight in different ways and unless tested in humans, we can't apply the same results to human beings. 

Unexpected effects of semaglutide on skeletal muscle mass and force-generating capacity in mice, Cell Metabolism (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2025.07.004. www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/f … 1550-4131(25)00331-6

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 6, 2025 at 2:04pm

Science in History's help

Napoleon's doomed retreat: DNA from Vilnius mass grave reveals signs of foodborne and lice-borne fever

Institut Pasteur and partner institutions report genetic evidence of Salmonella enterica lineage Para C and Borrelia recurrentis in Napoleonic soldiers from Vilnius, indicating paratyphoid fever and louse-borne relapsing fever were present during the 1812 retreat.

Napoleon assembled about 500,000–600,000 soldiers to invade Russia in 1812. After arriving in Moscow without decisively defeating the Russian army, the Napoleonic forces found themselves isolated in a ruined city and initiated a retreat to establish winter encampments along the border with Poland.

Retreat from Russia spanned October 19 to December 14, 1812 and resulted in massive losses attributed by historians to cold, hunger, and diseases. Physicians and officers documented typhus, diarrhea, dysentery, fevers, pneumonia, and jaundice.

Previous reports described body lice in Vilnius remains and PCR-based claims of Rickettsia prowazekii and Bartonella quintana using short fragments, alongside Anelloviridae in other soldiers from Kaliningrad.

In the study, "Paratyphoid Fever and Relapsing Fever in 1812 Napoleon's Devastated Army," published on the pre-print server bioRxiv, researchers recovered and sequenced ancient DNA from the teeth of soldiers who likely died from infectious diseases to identify pathogens that could have contributed to their deaths.

The sampling drew on 13 intact teeth from different individuals recovered from a mass grave in Vilnius, Lithuania associated with the December 1812 retreat, from a site with a minimum of 3,269 exhumed individuals. No battle trauma was observed at the site.

Initial analysis flagged fourteen possible pathogens. Salmonella enterica and Borrelia recurrentis showed the strongest signals. Four soldiers (87A, 92B, 95A and 97B) yielded between roughly 30 and 970 unique DNA fragments matching the Paratyphi C strain, with read-mismatch patterns indicating authentic ancient bacterial DNA.

Sample 93A produced about 4,060 unique fragments covering the chromosome and all seven plasmids of B. recurrentis, while 92B contributed around 320 unique reads and 18 confirmed hits after detailed filtering.

Phylogenetic placement positioned all Salmonella sequences firmly within the Paratyphi C lineage, a pathogen known to cause paratyphoid fever. No authenticated DNA matches Rickettsia prowazekii or Bartonella quintana. While no authenticated reads for R. prowazekii or B. quintana were found, the authors note this does not rule out their presence due to limitations of ancient DNA preservation.

Authors conclude that paratyphoid fever lineage Para C and louse-borne relapsing fever were present among Napoleonic soldiers during the 1812 retreat.

Historical testimony described widespread diarrhea and consumption of salted beets and brine along the route to Vilnius, consistent with a foodborne route for paratyphoid fever.

A scenario of fatigue, cold, and overlapping infections likely contributed to mortality.

Rémi Barbieri et al, Paratyphoid Fever and Relapsing Fever in 1812 Napoleon's Devastated Army, bioRxiv (2025). DOI: 10.1101/2025.07.12.664512

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 6, 2025 at 1:54pm

In their experiment, the researchers first squeezed their hydrocarbon samples to pressures greater than those within Earth's mantle using a diamond anvil cell. Then, they heated the samples to over 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit by hitting them repeatedly with X-ray pulses from the European XFEL.

The team recorded and analyzed how the X-rays scattered off the samples, which allowed them to resolve the structural transformations within. As expected, the recorded scattering patterns showed that the carbon atoms had formed a diamond structure. But the team also saw unexpected signals that were due to hydrogen atoms reacting with the gold foil to form gold hydride. Under the extreme conditions created in the study, the researchers found hydrogen to be in a dense, "superionic" state, where the hydrogen atoms flowed freely through the gold's rigid atomic lattice, increasing the conductivity of the gold hydride.

Mungo Frost et al, Synthesis of Gold Hydride at High Pressure and High Temperature, Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2025). DOI: 10.1002/anie.202505811

Part2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 6, 2025 at 1:52pm

Scientists create gold hydride by combining gold and hydrogen under extreme conditions

An international research team formed solid binary gold hydride, a compound made exclusively of gold and hydrogen atoms.

The researchers were studying how long it takes hydrocarbons, compounds made of carbon and hydrogen, to form diamonds under extremely high pressure and heat.

In their experiments at the European XFEL (X-ray Free-Electron Laser) in Germany, the team studied the effect of those extreme conditions in hydrocarbon samples with an embedded gold foil, which was meant to absorb the X-rays and heat the weakly absorbing hydrocarbons. To their surprise, they not only saw the formation of diamonds, but also discovered the formation of gold hydride.

 Gold is typically chemically very  unreactive—that's why researchers use it as an X-ray absorber in the experiments.

These results suggest there's potentially a lot of new chemistry to be discovered at extreme conditions where the effects of temperature and pressure start competing with conventional chemistry, and you can form these exotic compounds.

The results, published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, provide a glimpse of how the rules of chemistry change under extreme conditions like those found inside certain planets or hydrogen-fusing stars.

Part1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 6, 2025 at 1:43pm

Eating earlier linked to long-term weight-loss success

 researchers report that eating earlier in the day blunts the weight gain ordinarily predicted by a high genetic score for obesity.

Meal timing has drawn attention for associated effects on metabolism, energy expenditure, and circadian alignment. Zeitgeber, a rhythmically occurring body phenomenon which acts as a cue in the regulation of the body's circadian rhythms, can also synchronize metabolic tissues such as the liver, pancreas, and adipose tissue.

Changes in food timing can alter zeitgeber, leading to a change in the molecular timing of circadian clock cues and, consequently, rhythms in metabolic function.

Peripheral oscillators in metabolic organs and tissues sensitive to food timing may become desynchronized from the central clock, which is highly sensitive to environmental light. It is hypothesized that such internal circadian misalignment may contribute to adverse cardiometabolic traits and obesity.

In the study, "Early meal timing attenuates high polygenic risk of obesity," published in Obesity, the team performed linear regression analyses to test whether meal timing interacts with a genome-wide polygenic score on BMI and long-term weight-loss maintenance.

Investigators calculated a polygenic risk score for BMI from 900,492 single-nucleotide polymorphisms and assessed the timing of meals. Midpoint of meal intake was calculated as the halfway time between a participant's first and last meals, weighted across weekdays and weekends. Linear regression models adjusted for age, sex, clinic site, and principal ancestry components.

Each hour of later midpoint corresponded to a 0.952 kg/m² higher baseline BMI and a 2.2% rise in body weight at 12 years (± 3 y) after treatment. Within the highest polygenic risk tertile, BMI climbed by about 2.21 kg/m² for every hour of meal delay. No association appeared in lower-risk groups.

The authors conclude that meal timing is associated with weight-loss maintenance and moderates genetic risk, suggesting that early eating could form part of personalized obesity interventions.

R De la Peña‐Armada et al, Early meal timing attenuates high polygenic risk of obesity, Obesity (2025). DOI: 10.1002/oby.24319

Divya Joshi et al, Timing Matters: Early Eating Mitigates Genetic Susceptibility for Obesity, Obesity (2025). DOI: 10.1002/oby.24350

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 5, 2025 at 1:09pm

How the brain constructs emotional experiences

Arousal—how alert or excited one feels—is a basic part of emotions, along with whether those emotions are positive or negative.

A recent study  published in Nature Communications uncovers a brain signature that reveals how emotional intensity is consciously experienced—and whether this experience is distinct from automatic bodily reactions.

Using a powerful combination of AI-driven modeling, advanced brain imaging, and close-to-real-life experimental paradigms, the team was able to uncover a brain signature that precisely measures emotional intensity (arousal) across diverse situations ranging from seeing a loved one to watching a horror movie. Notably, the team was able to disentangle the conscious emotional experience from automatic physiological responses such as sweating or heart racing.

The findings touch on a core debate that has fascinated philosophers and psychologists for more than 150 years, debating whether conscious feelings and bodily reactions can be separated. Such insights could drive the next generation of emotionally intelligent AI systems by indicating that conscious emotional experience can be disentangled from bodily aspects.

Beyond the theoretical implications, this discovery opens new avenues for:

• Developing and designing emotionally intelligent AI systems
• Advancing brain-computer interfaces and affective computing, and
• Designing more precise interventions for emotional disorders such as anxiety and depression.

In short, this research offers a better, more precise way to understand how our brains create emotional arousal, and it could help with future studies and applications in understanding emotions.

Ran Zhang et al, A neurofunctional signature of affective arousal generalizes across valence domains and distinguishes subjective experience from autonomic reactivity, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-61706-0

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