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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 22, 2021 at 10:42am

Novel coronavirus affects male fertility levels: Study

City gynaecologists and fertility experts have found that the novel coronavirus has affected the fertility levels, particularly in men, as a majority of those infected hailed from the reproductive age.

As the body temperature is directly linked to the production of sperm, those suffering from Covid-19 with high fever, are at risk of infertility, though temporary. Fertility experts said fever has an impact on the parameters of sperm, including its motility and count. The worst-hit during the lockdown were the infertile couples as they could not have access to assisted reproductive techniques (ART). Even after relaxation in the lockdown, the access to the ART is limited.

The result of the study was published in the recent issue of ‘The Journal of Reproductive Health and Medicine’.

https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/novel-cor...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 22, 2021 at 10:32am

No more popping pills, now just inhale your antibiotics!

You may not have to pop up azithromycin pills in the future. Instead, you will be able to simply inhale this most common antibiotic drug widely prescribed to treat respiratory tract infections of the nose, throat and lungs.

You may not have to pop up azithromycin pills in the future. Instead, you will be able to simply inhale this most common antibiotic drug widely prescribed to treat respiratory tract infections of the nose, throat and lungs.

Researchers of M S University’s Faculty of Pharmacy have received a patent for their invention of a liposomal dry powder inhaler (LDPI) of azithromycin. This invention will significantly reduce the side effects that the drug causes to people who consume it currently in pill form.

Azithromycin is a widely prescribed drug for the treatment of respiratory tract infections. But as the drug enters the stomach and blood, it causes a number of side effects. There has always been a demand for a formulation that can help the drug reach its target organ — the organ where the bacteria that is causing respiratory infection resides — without causing side effects.

The team developed the new formulation by encapsulating azithromycin within liposomes (used as a carrier), converting it into a dry powder by freeze-drying and filling it in capsules. Patients can easily take drug doses through dry powder inhalers.
The liposomal dry powder was evaluated using various in-vitro and animal studies. The in-vivo studies done on rats showed that the liposomes are retained in the lungs for a prolonged period of up to 12 hours with lesser presence in blood.

“These liposomes slowly released the loaded azithromycin into the lungs and thus avoided the exposure of the drug to stomach or blood. This helps in building local drug concentrations required for maximizing effectiveness and minimizing side effects.

https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/no-more-p...

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 22, 2021 at 10:17am

Electronics free, air-powered robot

Engineers have created a four-legged soft robot that doesn’t need any electronics to work. The robot only needs a constant source of pressurized air for all its functions, including its controls and locomotion systems.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 22, 2021 at 10:14am

Dancing DNA

Dancing DNA

This video allows us to see, for the first time, how small circles of DNA adopt dance-like movements inside a cell. Being able to observe DNA in such detail could help to accelerate the development of new gene therapies.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 22, 2021 at 10:09am

Lab-grown 'mini-bile ducts' used to repair human livers in regenerative medicine first

The research paves the way for cell therapies to treat liver disease – in other words, growing ‘mini-bile ducts’ in the lab as replacement parts that can be used to restore a patient’s own liver to health – or to repair damaged organ donor livers, so that they can still be used for transplantation.

Bile ducts act as the liver’s waste disposal system, and malfunctioning bile ducts are behind a third of adult and 70 per cent of children’s liver transplantations, with no alternative treatments. There is currently a shortage of liver donors: This means that only a limited number of patients can benefit from this therapy.

Approaches to increase organ availability or provide an alternative to whole organ transplantation are urgently needed. Cell-based therapies could provide an advantageous alternative. However, the development of these new therapies is often impaired and delayed by the lack of an appropriate model to test their safety and efficacy in humans before embarking in clinical trials.

Now, in a study published in Science, scientists have developed a new approach that takes advantage of a recent ‘perfusion system’ that can be used to maintain donated organs outside the body. Using this technology, they demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to transplant biliary cells grown in the lab known as cholangiocytes into damaged human livers to repair them. As proof-of-principle for their method, they repaired livers deemed unsuitable for transplantation due to bile duct damage. This approach could be applied to a diversity of organs and diseases to accelerate the clinical application of cell-based therapy.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6531/839

https://www.sanger.ac.uk/news_item/lab-grown-mini-bile-ducts-used-t...

https://researchnews.cc/news/5261/Lab-grown--mini-bile-ducts--used-...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 22, 2021 at 10:02am

Common agricultural pesticide may be putting hummingbirds at risk: U of T study

Hummingbirds need an incredible amount of energy to flap their wings 50 times per second to maintain hovering flight. Their metabolism is so supercharged that if they were human-sized they would consume energy at a rate more than 10 times that of an Olympic marathon runner. But a new University of Toronto study has found that a common agricultural pesticide, which is related to nicotine in tobacco and  might be slowing down the crucial physiological process  that makes hummingbirds so unique upto 25% in the hours after exposure.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-82470-3

https://www.utoronto.ca/news/common-agricultural-pesticide-may-be-p...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 21, 2021 at 7:28am

People who don't suffer in cold have a genetic mutation to tolerate cold better

A new research has identified a specific genetic mutation that makes a fifth of us more resilient to cold conditions.

The genetic mutation in question stops the production of the protein α-actinin-3, which is important for skeletal muscle fibre: The protein is only found in fast-twitch (or white) fibres and not in slow-twitch (or red) fibres.

Based on the new study's results, people without α-actinin-3 have a higher proportion of slow-twitch fibres, and one of the consequences is that the body tends to conserve energy by building up muscle tone through contractions rather than shivering.

This suggests that people lacking α-actinin-3 are better at keeping warm and, energy-wise, at enduring a tougher climate. The loss of this protein gives a greater resilience to cold .

https://www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltext/S0002-9297(21)00013-6

https://www.sciencealert.com/1-in-5-of-us-have-a-genetic-mutation-t...

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

Spina bifida can be caused by uninherited genetic mutations

Genetic mutations which occur naturally during the earliest stages of an embryo's development can cause the severe birth defect spina bifida, finds a new experimental study in mice.

The research explains for the first time how a 'mosaic mutation' - a mutation which is not inherited from either parent (either via sperm or egg cell) but occurs randomly during cell divisions in the developing embryo—causes spina bifida.

Scientists 

found that when a mutation in the gene Vangl2 (which contains information needed to create spinal cord tissue) was present in 16% of developing spinal cord cells of mouse embryos, this was sufficient to produce spina bifida.

Researchers say the findings add to scientists' understanding of how and why mosaic mutations can affect and disrupt cell function, including those of neighbouring cells, helping cause birth defects.

For parents, the findings may help reduce the burden felt by those who believe their child inherited spina bifida from them via genes, and believe future children could also inherit the condition. This is often discussed during genetic counselling.

Cell non-autonomy amplifies disruption of neurulation by mosaic Vangl2 deletion in mice, Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21372-4

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-02-spina-bifida-uninherited-gen...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 20, 2021 at 11:13am

Researchers observe stationary Hawking radiation in an analog black hole

Black holes are regions in space where gravity is very strong—so strong that nothing that enters them can escape, including light. Theoretical predictions suggest that there is a radius surrounding black holes known as the event horizon. Once something passes the event horizon, it can no longer escape a black hole, as gravity becomes stronger as it approaches its center.

Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking predicted that while nothing can escape from within them, black holes spontaneously emit a limited amount of light, which is known as Hawking radiation. According to his predictions, this radiation is spontaneous (i.e., it arises from nothing) and stationary (i.e., its intensity does not change much over time).

Researchers at Technion- Israel Institute of Technology have recently carried out a study aimed at testing Hawking's theoretical predictions. More specifically, they examined whether the equivalent of Hawking radiation in an "artificial black hole" created in a laboratory setting was stationary.

If you go inside the event horizon there's no way to get out, even for light. Hawking radiation starts just outside the event horizon, where light can barely escape. That is really weird because there's nothing there; it's empty space. Yet this radiation starts from nothing, comes out, and goes towards Earth.

The Hawking radiation emitted by this analog black hole is made of sound waves, rather than light waves. The rubidium atoms flow faster than the speed of sound, so sound waves cannot reach the event horizon and escape from the black hole. Outside of the event horizon, however, the gas flows slowly, so sound waves can move freely.

According to Hawking's predictions, the radiation emitted by black holes is spontaneous. In one of their previous studies, Researchers were able to confirm this prediction in their artificial black hole. In their new study, they set out to investigate whether the radiation emitted by their black hole is also stationary (i.e., if it remains constant over time).

A black hole is supposed to radiate like a black body, which is essentially a warm object that emits a constant infrared radiation (i.e., black body radiation). Hawking suggested that black holes are just like regular stars, which radiate a certain type of radiation all the time, constantly. That's what they wanted to confirm in our study, and they did.

Observation of stationary spontaneous Hawking radiation and the time evolution of an analog black hole. Nature Physics(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-020-01076-0

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-stationary-hawking-analog-black-hole....

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 19, 2021 at 11:25am

Paleopocalypse!
Earth’s magnetic field broke down 42,000 years ago and caused massive sudden climate change

Ancient trees show turning point in Earth history 42,000yr ago

https://theconversation.com/earths-magnetic-field-broke-down-42-000...

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