Comment

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 24, 2020 at 9:29am

Patches to detect worsening viral diseases

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 24, 2020 at 8:47am

Parkinson's disease is not one, but two diseases

Researchers around the world have been puzzled by the different symptoms and varied disease pathways of Parkinson's patients. A major study has now identified that there are actually two types of the disease: starting either in the brain or in the intestines. Which explains why patients with Parkinson's describe widely differing symptoms, and points towards personalised medicine as the way forward for people with Parkinson's disease.

The study showed that some patients had damage to the brain's dopamine system before damage in the intestines and heart occurred. In other patients, scans revealed damage to the nervous systems of the intestines and heart before the damage in the brain's dopamine system was visible.

This knowledge is important and it challenges the understanding of Parkinson's disease that has been prevalent until now.

1. Jacob Horsager, Katrine B Andersen, Karoline Knudsen, Casper Skjærbæk, Tatyana D Fedorova, Niels Okkels, Eva Schaeffer, Sarah K Bonkat, Jacob Geday, Marit Otto, Michael Sommerauer, Erik H Danielsen, Einar Bech, Jonas Kraft, Ole L Munk, Sandra D Hansen, Nicola Pavese, Robert Göder, David J Brooks, Daniela Berg, Per Borghammer. Brain-first versus body-first Parkinson’s disease: a multimodal imaging case-control study. Brain, 2020; DOI: 10.1093/brain/awaa238

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200922092156.htm

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 24, 2020 at 8:44am

Researchers find new way to protect plants from fungal infection

Widespread fungal disease in plants can be controlled with a commercially available chemical that has been primarily used in medicine until now. In a comprehensive experiment scientists have uncovered a new metabolic pathway that can be disrupted with this chemical, thus preventing many known plant fungi from invading the host plant.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200922102427.htm

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Earthquake Sounds Could Reveal How Quickly the Ocean Is Warming

A new way of measuring the temperature of the seas could fill in gaps left by limited direct monitoring

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 24, 2020 at 8:38am

Sci-Com lecture: DWIH Science Circle Lecture on Exhibiting the Ocean – Communicating Global Challenges

A message was sent to me asking me to share this information ….

In the run-up to the United Nations Decade of the Oceans (2021 – 2030), DWIH New Delhi is engaging with the German Maritime Museum (DSM) to explore aspects of marine research and science communication through museums. Exhibiting the ever-changing sea and ocean ecosystems in a static museum landscape is challenging. This Science Circle Lecture aims at encouraging maritime museums, the science community, and the public to take the evolutionary character of the oceans as an assignment for becoming a marketplace of ideas and reflections on how we can face our common future.

When? Wednesday, 30 September 2020 | 5-6 pm IST

Where? Online, on Adobe Connect. Registration is free but mandatory. Register now!

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Ruth Schilling, Head of Scientific Program and Exhibitions, DSM

You will find more information here:

https://www.dwih-newdelhi.org/en/event/science-circle-lecture-scien...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 24, 2020 at 8:22am

Sci-Com

with poems

https://physics.aps.org/articles/v13/150

with tweets

Although Twitter is best known for its role in political and cultural discourse, it has also become an increasingly vital tool for scientific communication. A new study shows that Twitter users can be characterized in extremely fine detail by mining a relatively untapped source of information: how those users' followers describe themselves.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200922144321.htm

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 24, 2020 at 8:15am

Herd immunity at what cost?
So many people have gotten sick in Manaus that researchers say the virus is running out of people to infect.

The city of Manaus, Brazil, might help to reveal what the terrible toll of coronavirus looks like when the virus rages almost unchecked. A preprint study, not yet peer reviewed, shows that between one in 500 and one in 800 people in the city died of the di.... Manaus is fairly young, with just 6% of its population over the age of 60 (in the United States, it’s around 20%). Researchers tested samples from blood banks and estimated that up to 66% of the city’s people have been infected, which they say helped to finally bring down the death rate despite conditions, such as overcrowding, that allow the virus to spread easily.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/22/1008709/brazil-manaus-c...

MIT Technology Review 
Reference: medRxiv preprint

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 24, 2020 at 6:32am

Scientists devise 'Trojan horse' approach to kill cancer cells without using drugs

Cancer cells have been killed in lab experiments and tumor growth reduced in mice, using a new approach that turns a nanoparticle into a 'Trojan horse' that causes cancer cells to self-destruct, a research team has found.

The researchers created their 'Trojan horse' nanoparticle by coating it with a specific amino acid—L-phenylalanine—that cancer cells  rely on, along with other similar amino acids, to survive and grow. L-phenylalanine is known as an 'essential' amino acid as it cannot be made by the body and must be absorbed from food, typically from meat and dairy products.

Studies by other research teams have shown that cancer tumor growth can be slowed or prevented by 'starving' cancer cells of amino acids. Scientists believe that depriving cancer cells of amino acids, for example through fasting or through special diets lacking in protein, may be viable ways to treat cancer.

However, such strict dietary regimes would not be suitable for all patients, including those at risk of malnutrition or those with cachexia—a condition arising from chronic illness that causes extreme weight and muscle loss. Furthermore, compliance with the regimes would be very challenging for many patients.

So researchers devised a novel alternative approach. They took a silica nanoparticle designated as 'Generally Recognized As Safe' by the US Food and Drug Administration and coated it with L-phenylalanine, and found that in lab tests with mice it killed cancer cells effectively and very specifically, by causing them to self-destruct.

The anti-cancer therapeutic nanoparticle is ultrasmall, with a diameter of 30 nanometres, or approximately 30,000 times smaller than a strand of human hair, and is named "Nanoscopic phenylalanine Porous Amino Acid Mimic", or Nano-pPAAM.

The scientists tested the efficacy of Nano-pPAAM in the lab and in mice and found that the nanoparticle killed about 80 per cent of breast, skin, and gastric cancer cells, which is comparable to conventional chemotherapeutic drugs like Cisplatin. Tumor growth in mice with human triple negative breast cancer cells was also significantly reduced compared to control models.

Further investigations showed that the amino acid coating of Nano-pPAAM helped the nanoparticle to enter the cancer cells through the amino acid transporter cell LAT1. Once inside the cancer cells, Nano-pPAAM stimulates excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) production—a type of reactive molecule in the body—causing cancer cells to self-destruct while remaining harmless to the healthy cells.

Zhuoran Wu et al, Potent‐By‐Design: Amino Acids Mimicking Porous Nanotherapeutics with Intrinsic Anticancer Targeting Properties, Small (2020). DOI: 10.1002/smll.202003757

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-scientists-trojan-horse-approach-canc...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 24, 2020 at 5:55am

Customizable synthetic antibiotic outmaneuvers resistant bacteria

Antibiotic resistance is one of the world's most urgent public health threats.

Researchers now are tackling antibiotic resistance using a different approach: redesigning existing antibiotic molecules to evade a bacterium's resistance mechanisms. By devising a set of molecular LEGO pieces that can be altered and joined together to form larger molecules, the researchers have created what they hope is the first of many "rebuilds" of drugs that had been shelved due to antibiotic resistance. The aim is to revive classes of drugs that haven't been able to achieve their full potential, especially those already shown to be safe in humans. If we can do that, it eliminates the need to continually come up with new classes of drugs that can outdo resistant bacteria. Redesigning existing drugs could be a vital tool in this effort.

Synthetic group A streptogramin antibiotics that overcome Vat resistance, Nature (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2761-3 , www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2761-3

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-customizable-synthetic-antibiotic-out...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 24, 2020 at 5:43am

3-D bioprinting constructs for cartilage regeneration

Cartilage injury is a common cause of joint dysfunction and existing joint prostheses cannot remodel with host joint tissue. However, it is challenging to develop large-scale biomimetic anisotropic constructs that structurally mimic native cartilage.

 In  new reports, scientists detailed anisotropic cartilage regeneration using three-dimensional (3-D) bioprinting dual-factor releasing gradient-structured constructs. The team used the dual-growth-factor releasing mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-laden hydrogels for chondrogenic differentiation (cartilage development). The 3-D bioprinted cartilage constructs showed whole-layer integrity, lubrication of superficial layers and nutrient supply into deeper layers. The scientists tested the cartilage tissue in the lab and in animal models to show tissue maturation and organization for translation to humans after sufficient experimental studies. The one-step, 3-D printed dual-factor releasing gradient-structured cartilage constructs can assist regeneration of MSC- and 3-D bioprinted therapy for injured or degenerative joints.

Ye Sun et al. 3D bioprinting dual-factor releasing and gradient-structured constructs ready to implant for anisotropic cartilage regeneration, Science Advances (2020). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aay1422

Chang H Lee et al. Regeneration of the articular surface of the rabbit synovial joint by cell homing: a proof of concept study, The Lancet (2010). DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60668-X

April M Craft et al. Generation of articular chondrocytes from human pluripotent stem cells, Nature Biotechnology (2015). DOI: 10.1038/nbt.3210

Benjamin R. Freedman et al. Biomaterials to Mimic and Heal Connective Tissues, Advanced Materials (2019). DOI: 10.1002/adma.201806695

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-09-d-bioprinting-cartilage-rege...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 23, 2020 at 10:10am

How The Brain Prepares For The Eyes To See Computer simulations show that spontaneous activity in the developing retina could help the visual cortex form properly prior to input from the eyes. Read more from Asian Scientist Magazine at: https://www.asianscientist.com/2020/09/in-the-lab/visual-cortex-spo...

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3-D Printing inside the Body Could Patch Stomach Ulcers

In vivo bioprinting might also help repair hernias and treat infertility

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The Quantum Butterfly Noneffect

A familiar concept from chaos theory turns out to work differently in the quantum world

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** New analysis of black hole reveals a wobbling shadow

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-analysis-black-hole-reveals-shadow.ht...

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Researchers pinpoint how iron deposits form

The findings shed new light on how iron deposits form—and this new understanding can aid geologists in the hunt for more ore.

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-iron-deposits.html?utm_source=nwlette...

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Bushfires release decades of pollutants absorbed by forests

We know forests absorb carbon dioxide, but, like a sponge, they also soak up years of pollutants from human activity. When bushfires strike, these pollutants are re-released into the air with smoke and ash.

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