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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 6, 2021 at 9:05am

Genes are individualists, not collectivists, during early fruit fly development

Active genes do not form clusters and share resources during early development in the fruit fly, according to a new study by researchers published in the journal Current Biology.

The study changes the way we think about how the molecular machinery functions in basic cellular mechanisms during the development of organisms.

The nucleus is the portion of the cell containing the vast majority of genetic information—including the complex jumble of long cables of DNA that make up the genome—in order to determine the behavior of that organism. Genes stored in the sequence of DNA encode not just the protein sequence required to express the trait associated with that gene, but also the information for when that protein sequence should be manufactured.

"The nucleus is an elaborate switchboard—the connection point for the vast array of information about the state of the cell's environment, which will be processed and responded to by a defined set of expressed protein products. Within this framework, this study asked if there exists cooperation between these hundreds of logic gates making individual decisions about when to manufacture their respective proteins.

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 6, 2021 at 8:53am

Announcement of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics

Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for work that found order in seeming disorder, helping to explain and predict complex forces of nature, including expanding our understanding of climate change.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 5, 2021 at 10:03am

Our DNA is becoming the world's tiniest hard drive

Our genetic code is millions of times more efficient at storing data than existing solutions, which are costly and use immense amounts of energy and space. In fact, we could get rid of hard drives and store all the digital data on the planet within a couple hundred pounds of DNA.

Using DNA as a high-density data storage medium holds the potential to forge breakthroughs in biosensing and biorecording technology and next-generation digital storage, but researchers haven't been able to overcome inefficiencies that would allow the technology to scale.

Now, researchers at Northwestern University propose a new method for recording information to DNA that takes minutes, rather than hours or days, to complete. The team used a novel enzymatic system to synthesize DNA that records rapidly changing environmental signals directly into DNA sequences, a method the paper's senior author said could change the way scientists study and record neurons inside the brain.

The research, "Recording Temporal Signals with Minutes Resolution Using Enzymatic DNA Synthesis," was published Thursday (Sept. 30) in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Namita Bhan et al, Recording Temporal Signals with Minutes Resolution Using Enzymatic DNA Synthesis, Journal of the American Chemical Society (2021). DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c07331

https://phys.org/news/2021-10-dna-world-tiniest-hard.html?utm_sourc...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 5, 2021 at 9:58am

The researchers combined infrared satellite imagery and readings from thousands of ground instruments to determine maximum daily heat and humidity readings in 13,115 cities, from 1983 to 2016. They defined extreme heat as 30 degrees Centigrade on the so-called "wet-bulb globe temperature" scale, a measurement that takes into account the multiplier effect of high humidity on human physiology. A wet-bulb reading of 30 is the rough equivalent of 106 degrees Fahrenheit on the so-called "real feel" heat index—the point at which even most healthy people find it hard to function outside for long, and the unhealthy might become very ill or even die.

To come up with a measure of person-days spent in such conditions, the researchers matched up the weather data with statistics on the cities' populations over the same time period.

The analysis revealed that the number of person-days in which city dwellers were exposed went from 40 billion per year in 1983 to 119 billion in 2016—a threefold increase. By 2016, 1.7 billion people were being subjected to such conditions on multiple days.

The most-affected cities tend to cluster in the low latitudes, but other areas are being affected, too. The worst-hit city in terms of person-days was Dhaka, the fast-growing capital of Bangladesh; it saw an increase of 575 million person-days of extreme heat over the study period. Its ballooning population alone—4 million in 1983, to 22 million today—caused 80 percent of the increased exposure. This does not mean that Dhaka did not see substantial warming—only that population growth was even more rapid. Other big cities showing similar population-heavy trends include Shanghai and Guangzhou, China; Yangon, Myanmar; Bangkok; Dubai; Hanoi; Khartoum; and various cities in Pakistan, India and the Arabian Peninsula.

https://phys.org/news/2021-10-exposure-deadly-urban-worldwide-tripl...

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 5, 2021 at 9:56am

Exposure to deadly urban heat worldwide has tripled in recent decades, says study

A new study of more than 13,000 cities worldwide has found that the number of person-days in which inhabitants are exposed to extreme combinations of heat and humidity has tripled since the 1980s. The authors say the trend, which now affects nearly a quarter of the world's population, is the combined result of both rising temperatures and booming urban population growth. The study was published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Over recent decades, hundreds of millions have moved from rural areas to cities, which now hold more than half the world's population. There, temperatures are generally higher than in the countryside, because of sparse vegetation and abundant concrete, asphalt and other impermeable surfaces that tend to trap and concentrate heat —the so-called urban heat island effect.

 This has broad effects. It increases morbidity and mortality. It impacts people's ability to work, and results in lower economic output. It exacerbates pre-existing health conditions.

 Global urban population exposure to extreme heat, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2024792118

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 5, 2021 at 9:33am

2 win medicine Nobel for showing how we react to heat, touch

Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for their discoveries into how the human body perceives temperature and touch, revelations that could lead to new ways of treating pain or even heart disease.

 David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian separately identified receptors in the skin that respond to heat and pressure, and researchers are working on drugs to target them. Some hope the discoveries could eventually lead to pain treatments that reduce dependence on highly addictive opioids. 

Julius, of the University of California at San Francisco, used capsaicin, the active component in chili peppers, to help pinpoint the nerve sensors that respond to heat, the Nobel Committee said. Patapoutian, of Scripps Research Institute at La Jolla, California, found pressure-sensitive sensors in cells that respond to mechanical stimulation.

This really unlocks one of the secrets of nature. It's actually something that is crucial for our survival, so it's a very important and profound discovery.

Announcement of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-10-nobel-prize-honors-discovery...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 4, 2021 at 11:20am

The promise of medical science

Understanding and treating Necrotizing Enterocolitis in babies

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 3, 2021 at 1:55pm

Mystery of the Pulsating Spider

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 3, 2021 at 11:37am

Covid pill cuts hospitalizations by 50%

Oral drug molnupiravir for Covid-19 was shown to reduce the chance newly infected patients were hospitalized by 50 percent. A simple pill to treat the coronavirus has been sought since the start of the pandemic and Friday's announcement was hailed as a major step towards that goal.

In a late stage clinical trial, Merck and its partner Ridgeback Therapeutics evaluated data from 775 patients -- roughly half of whom received either a five-day course of the pill, while the other received a placebo.

All the patients had lab-confirmed Covid-19 with symptoms that developed within five days of them being assigned to their respective groups.

Of the patients who received molnupiravir, 7.3 percent were hospitalized by day 29, compared to 14.1 percent of those on a placebo -- a relative risk reduction of around 50 percent.

There were also eight deaths in the placebo group but, significantly, none in the drug group.

Efficacy was said to hold up against variants of concern, including Delta, and the drug had a good safety profile.

The results were compelling enough that an independent data monitoring committee in consultation with the FDA decided to halt the trial early, which could indicate they felt it would be unethical to continue with a placebo arm.

Molnupiravir belongs to a class of antiviral drugs called "polymerase inhibitors," which work by targeting an enzyme that viruses need to copy their genetic material, and introducing mutations that leave them unable to replicate.

Such drugs are expected to be more variant-proof than monoclonal antibody treatments, which target a surface protein of the virus that is continually evolving.

It was initially developed as an inhibitor of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, two other important acute respiratory infections, by a team at Emory University.

"If it is proven to be very safe and proven to be effective, then it can be used broadly, irrespective of the diagnosis, to treat and prevent multiple respiratory infections.

But experts also cautioned they would like to see the complete underlying data. They also stress that this is no substitute for vaccination. It's not a miracle cure but a companion tool. And if the drug is used carelessly, the public may end up developing resistance to the drug.

Experts also said it would be crucial to administer the drug early. Since it isn't always clear who is at risk for developing severe disease, it would have the greatest impact if it is cheap enough to distribute widely.

https://researchnews.cc/news/9225/Merck-s-Covid-pill-hailed-after-c...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 3, 2021 at 11:26am

Primordial 'hyper-eye' discovered

An international research team has found an eye system in trilobites of the suborder Phacopina from the Devonian (390 million years ago) that is unique in the animal kingdom: each of the about 200 lenses of a hyper-facet eye spans a group of six normal compound-eye-facets, forming a compound eye itself. In addition to the hyper-facetted eyes, the researchers identified a structure that they think to be a local neural network which directly processed the information from this special eye, and an optic nerve that carried information from the eye to the brain. The article, "A 390 million-year-old hyper-compound eye in Devonian phacopid trilobites," has been published in Scientific Reports.

B. Schoenemann, E. N. K. Clarkson, C. Bartels, W. Südkamp, G. E. Rössner, U. Ryck. A 390 million-year-old hyper-compound eye in Devonian phacopid trilobites. Scientific Reports, 2021; 11 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-98740-z

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210930101416.htm

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