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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 20, 2024 at 11:48am

Researchers discover new way to control the sense of touch

Researchers have found a new way to manage the receptors that control the sense of touch, which could lead to treating chronic pain more effectively.

Identifying a natural molecule that specifically reduces pain sensitivity offers hope for new therapeutic strategies in the management of pain.

A natural molecule called phosphatidic acid can reduce the activity of certain touch-sensing ion channels in the body, according to the study published in Nature Communications.

Researchers found that increasing the levels of phosphatidic acid in cells makes them less sensitive to touch. This finding was confirmed through experiments on sensory neurons and tests in mice, where the animals became more sensitive to touch when the formation of phosphatidic acid was inhibited.

This finding adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that lipids are key regulators of somatosensation (the body's ability to perceive sensations such as touch, temperature and pain).

By targeting the natural pathways that regulate these channels, we can develop more targeted and effective pain treatments that could be especially useful for conditions involving inflammatory pain, where current pain relief options are often inadequate.

Matthew Gabrielle et al, Phosphatidic acid is an endogenous negative regulator of PIEZO2 channels and mechanical sensitivity, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-51181-4

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 20, 2024 at 11:31am

Animals with higher body temperatures are more likely to evolve into herbivores, study finds

A new study has uncovered a surprising relationship between an animal's body temperature and its likelihood of evolving into an herbivore. The study, published in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography, offers fresh insights into the evolution of plant-based diets across tetrapods, which include the land vertebrates—amphibians, birds, reptiles and mammals. The findings could reshape scientists' understanding of the evolution of animal diets.

The study, which analyzed data from 1,712 species, found a consistent pattern: Animals with higher body temperatures are more likely to evolve into herbivores. This relationship holds true across the major land vertebrate groups.

The relationship between body temperature and herbivory is linked to the unique digestive challenges posed by a plant-based diet.

Higher body temperatures may be necessary to support the gut bacteria that break down cellulose, the primary component of plant cell walls. The relationship between an animal's body temperature and its gut microbiome could be key to understanding why certain species are better equipped to adopt and maintain herbivorous diets.

The research team conducted extensive analyses, examining various other factors that might influence the evolution of diet, including body size and day or night activity patterns. Body temperature ultimately emerged as the most crucial factor in predicting the evolution of an herbivorous diet.

The researchers really didn't see any herbivores that don't have a high body temperature. Typically, the body temperature was more than 86 degrees Fahrenheit.

 Kristen E. Saban et al, Diet Evolution and Body Temperature in Tetrapods: Cool Old Carnivores and Hot Young Herbivores, Global Ecology and Biogeography (2024). DOI: 10.1111/geb.13900

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 20, 2024 at 11:26am

Spider exploits firefly's flashing signals to lure more prey

Fireflies rely on flashing signals to communicate to other fireflies using light-emitting lanterns on their abdomens. In fireflies of the species Abscondita terminalis, males make multi-pulse flashes with two lanterns to attract females, while females make single-pulse flashes with their one lantern to attract males.

Now researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology on August 19 have evidence that an orb-weaving spider (Araneus ventricosus) manipulates the flashing signals of male fireflies ensnared in its web such that they mimic the typical flashes of a female firefly, thereby luring other males to serve as their next meal.

Araneus ventricosus practices deceptive interspecific communication by first ensnaring firefly males in its web and then predisposing the entrapped male fireflies to broadcast bioluminescent signals that deviate from female-attracting signals typically made by A. terminalis males and instead mimic the male-attracting signals typically made by females," the researchers wrote.

The outcome is that the entrapped male fireflies broadcast false signals that lure more male fireflies into the web.

The findings show that animals can use indirect yet dynamic signaling to target an exceptionally specific category of prey in nature.

Spiders manipulate and exploit bioluminescent signals of male fireflies, Current Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.07.011. www.cell.com/current-biology/f … 0960-9822(24)00914-X

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 20, 2024 at 10:59am

New statistical mechanics formula suggests urban street networks and building density shape severity of floods

Cities around the globe are experiencing increased flooding due to the compounding effects of stronger storms in a warming climate and urban growth. New research  suggests that urban form, specifically the building density and street network of a neighborhood, is also affecting the intensity of flooding.

For a paper published recently in Nature Communications, researchers  turned to statistical mechanics to generate a new formula allowing urban planners to more easily assess flood risks presented by land development changes.

 Sarah K. Balaian et al, How urban form impacts flooding, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-50347-4 www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-50347-4

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 20, 2024 at 10:50am

Researchers develop an instant version of trendy, golden turmeric milk

"Golden" turmeric milk is the new trend in the USA. Though recently advertised as a caffeine-free, healthy coffee alternative, the drink is a fancified version of haldi doodh—a traditional Indian beverage often used as an at-home cold remedy.

Now, researchers have developed an efficient method to make a plant-based, instant version that maintains the beneficial properties of the ingredients while also extending its shelf life.

The researchers present their results at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society.

They first added turmeric powder to an alkaline solution, where the high pH made the curcumin more soluble and easier to extract than in plain water. This deep red solution was then added to a sample of soy milk, turning it a dark yellow colour. They brought it down to a neutral pH around 7.

Just like low-pH acids, high-pH bases are not the most pleasant things to consume. The neutralized pseudo-golden milk could be enjoyed as-is, but to further preserve it, the team removed the water from the solution through freeze-drying, producing an instant golden milk powder.

Not only does the method extract curcumin from turmeric more efficiently than existing methods, but it also encapsulates the curcumin in oil droplets within the soy milk. This means that when consumed, our bodies recognize the curcumin as fat and digest it as such, theoretically making the curcumin more bioavailable, or likely to be absorbed and able to have an effect in the body.

Encapsulating the curcumin also protects it from air and water, preserving it and keeping it shelf-stable for longer.

Utilizing a green pH-driven approach for developing curcumin-infuse..., ACS Fall 2024.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 20, 2024 at 10:28am

Poisonous books containing toxic dyes!

If you come across brightly colored, cloth-bound books from the Victorian era, you might want to handle them gently, or even steer clear altogether. Some of their attractive hues come from dyes that could pose a health risk to readers, collectors or librarians.

The latest research on these poisonous books used three techniques—including one that hasn't previously been applied to books—to assess dangerous dyes in a university collection and found some volumes may be unsafe to handle.

The researchers present their results at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society.

These old books with toxic dyes may be in universities, public libraries and private collections. Users can be put at risk if pigments from the cloth covers rub onto their hands or become airborne and are inhaled.

Emerald-green pigment was used in Victorian-era wallpaper, garments and—as researchers found out—in cloth book covers. This discovery led to the launch of the Poison Book Project, a crowdsourced research effort that uses X-ray fluorescence (XRF), Raman spectroscopy and other techniques to reveal toxic pigments in books around the world.

Weinstein-Webb and the Lipscomb students he recruited launched their own investigation in 2022. For the Lipscomb book project, the team used three spectroscopic techniques:

XRF to qualitatively check whether arsenic or other heavy metals were present in any of the book covers.

Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) to determine the concentration of those metals.

X-ray diffraction (XRD) to identify the pigment molecules that contain those metals.

Researchers used XRF data to show that lead and chromium were present in some of the Lipscomb books. To quantify the amounts, they snipped samples roughly the size of a small paperclip from the cloth covers and then dissolved them in nitric acid.

Their analysis by ICP-OES showed that lead and chromium were both present at high levels in some samples. Subsequent XRD testing indicated that in some instances these heavy metals were in the form of lead(II) chromate, one of the compounds that contributes to the chrome yellow pigment favoured by Vincent van Gogh in his sunflower paintings.

Source: Multimodal detection of toxic metals in Victorian era book cloths as part of the Beaman library collection, ACS Fall 2024.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 19, 2024 at 11:25am

Fatherhood at Fifty Impacts your Child Health

We all know that motherhood is constrained by a biological clock. 

And there is a "diminished concerns of the male 'biological clock' !

But mature fatherhood comes with its own risks, and a new study finds the proportion of US fathers aged 50 or older at the time of their child's birth is on the rise, meaning more children are likely to be impacted.

A 2018 study identified many of the risks of mature fatherhood, using data from 2007 to 2016 for more than 40 million live births in the US.

The data revealed that babies born to fathers over the age of 35 were at higher risk for adverse outcomes like low birth weight, seizures, and breathing problems immediately after birth.

And the older a father was, the greater the risk – for a man aged 45 years or older, his baby was 14 percent more likely to be born prematurely, and for a man aged 50 or older, his child was 28 percent more at risk of being admitted to neonatal intensive care.

Even after controlling for maternal age and other factors, every 10-year increase in the father's age increased the proportion of births that relied on assisted reproductive technology (ART). It was also associated with a higher likelihood of being the mother's first birth, and an increased risk of preterm birth and low birth weight compared to fathers aged 30 to 39.

Paternal age has also affected fertility, pregnancy trajectory, and child health," the researchers  write.

Age-related conditions, such as erectile dysfunction and hypogonadism, impair paternal fecundity, while older age is associated with decreased semen volume, motility, and morphology.

Research has also linked older paternal age to declines in sperm quality, meaning the squiggly little gene packets that contribute half of a baby's DNA are more likely to be affected by DNA fragmentation, abnormal chromosome numbers, new mutations, and epigenetic alterations.

Overall, the accumulation of alterations in older men may increase the risk of conditions like autism, pediatric cancers, achondroplasia, and schizophrenia; decrease likelihood of ART success; and heighten risk of perinatal complications.

There were no significant differences found in infant sex ratio based on a father's age, except among fathers aged 70 years or older, who were more likely to have a female baby.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/282181...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 19, 2024 at 11:16am

The two peaks of aging in humans
The progress of a human being through life might be thought of as a mostly gradual succession of changes from the ovum to the grave.
But according to new research into the molecular changes associated with aging, humans experience two drastic lurches forward, one at the average age of 44 and the other at the average age of 60.
We're not just changing gradually over time; there are some really dramatic changes at these peaks. 
It turns out the mid-40s is a time of dramatic change, as is the early 60s. And that's true no matter what class of molecules you look at.
Researchers noticed that in some conditions, such as Alzheimer's and cardiovascular disease, risk doesn't rise gradually with time, it escalates sharply after a certain age.
 Using the samples from their cohort, the researchers have been tracking different kinds of biomolecules. The different molecules studied include RNA, proteins, lipids, and gut, skin, nasal, and oral microbiome taxa, for a total of 135,239 biological features.
Scientists now noticed that there's a very clear change in the abundances of many different kinds of molecules in the human body at two distinct stages.
Around 81 percent of all the molecules they studied showed changes during one or both of these stages. Changes peaked in the mid-40s, and again in the early 60s, with slightly different profiles.

The mid-40s peak showed changes in molecules related to the metabolism of lipids, caffeine, and alcohol, as well as cardiovascular disease, and dysfunctions in skin and muscle. The early 60s peak was associated with carbohydrate and caffeine metabolism, cardiovascular disease, skin and muscle, immune regulation, and kidney function.

The first peak, the mid-40s, is typically when women start undergoing menopause or perimenopause, but the researchers ruled this out as a main factor: men, too, also underwent significant molecular changes at the same age.

This suggests that while menopause or perimenopause may contribute to the changes observed in women in their mid-40s, there are likely other, more significant factors influencing these changes in both men and women

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-024-00692-2

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 19, 2024 at 11:11am

First Major Study Links Cannabis Use Disorder to Deadly Cancers

A new investigation from the American Head and Neck Society finds that excessive cannabis use disorder may increase the risk of developing any head or neck cancer, including oral, oropharyngeal, nasopharyngeal, salivary gland, and laryngeal cancer.

However, the  results should be "interpreted cautiously", as there is a chance they did not fully control for alcohol and tobacco use, as well as HPV status – all of which can contribute to the risk of developing head or neck cancers.

What's more, the study did not measure the amount or the potency of the cannabis participants consumed, how often it was consumed, or how the cannabis was consumed (whether it be vaped, smoked, or ingested).

But this is one of the first studies – and the largest that we know of to date – to associate head and neck cancer with cannabis use. The detection of this risk factor is important because head and neck cancer may be preventable once people know which behaviors increase their risk.

The research relied on 20 years of clinical records belonging to 116,076 individuals diagnosed with a cannabis-related disorder that was "substantial enough to cause physical or emotional symptoms with the inability to cease cannabis use."

This group was then compared to a cohort of nearly 4 million individuals who did not have cannabis use disorder.

In the end, the relative risk of developing head and neck cancer was 3.5 to 5 times greater for those with cannabis use disorder than those without.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaotolaryngology/fullarticle/282...

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 19, 2024 at 11:03am

Spinal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak and  an upright headache

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