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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 19, 2022 at 12:19pm

Research discovery could enable broad coronavirus vaccine

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 19, 2022 at 12:00pm

The findings of gut microbiome and blood compound changes in patients with one of the three heart disorders, acute myocardial infarction, was validated and extended in a study from Israel that is reported in the same issue of Nature Medicine.

It is now clear that major disturbances occur in the gut microbiome of patients suffering from heart disease and that these alterations may start many years before onset of heart disease symptoms and diagnosis. These microbiome changes are not explained by drug treatments.

The primary limitation of the studies is that the investigators report associations, rather than causal explanations for their observations. However,  in the past decade a number of cellular and animal experiments into specific microbiome-derived compounds—like the ones identified in the present studies—have demonstrated how the imbalanced gut microbiome may play a role in the development of heart disease.

Intervention in both humans and rodents have shown that an imbalanced gut microbiome at various stages of heart disease development can be modified and partly restored by eating a more plant-based and energy-controlled diet, avoidance of smoking and compliance with daily exercise. It is time for translating the accumulated evidence of the role of the gut microbiome to more focused public health initiatives in attempts to prevent or delay morbidity and mortality related to heart  disease.

Sebastien Fromentin et al, Microbiome and metabolome features of the cardiometabolic disease spectrum, Nature Medicine (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41591-022-01688-4

Yeela Talmor-Barkan et al, Metabolomic and microbiome profiling reveals personalized risk factors for coronary artery disease, Nature Medicine (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41591-022-01686-6

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-02-scientists-characterize-imba...

Part 3

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 19, 2022 at 11:58am

The researchers recruited 1,241 middle-aged people from Denmark, France and Germany including healthy individuals, individuals with obesity and type 2 diabetes but lacking a diagnosis of heart disease, and patients with either myocardial infarction, angina pectoris or heart failure. The investigators quantified about 700 different bacterial species and estimated their functions in the gut microbiome and compared these findings to more than 1,000 compounds circulating in blood with many of these compounds originating from the inner gut chemistry factory.

The researchers  found that about half of these gut bacteria and blood compounds were modified by drug treatment and not directly related to heart disease or the early disease stages like diabetes or obesity occurring prior to diagnosis of heart disease.

Among the remaining half, about 75 percent of the disturbances of the gut microbiome occurred in the early disease stages of overweight and type 2 diabetes, many years before patients noticed any symptoms of heart disease".

However, the early microbiome changes persisted in patients with heart disease who in addition showed specific heart disease related alterations in the composition and function of the gut microbiome. Both at the early dysmetabolic stage and at the later stages of diagnosed heart disease, the diseased microbiome was characterized by a loss of bacterial cells and bacterial competences. In addition, the patients showed a shift towards fewer types of bacteria known to produce health promoting compounds like short chain fatty acids and more bacteria types producing unhealthy compounds from the metabolism of certain dietary amino acids, choline and L-carnitine. Analyses of the blood compounds mirrored the imbalance of the gut microbiome.

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 19, 2022 at 11:57am

Scientists characterize the imbalanced gut bacteria of patients with myocardial infarction, angina and heart failure

The human gut contains trillions of bacteria, collectively called the gut microbiome, which may have positive and negative effects on human health. When in balance they function as an inner chemistry factory producing numerous compounds that promote good health. However, an unhealthy lifestyle—poor diet, smoking, lack of physical activity or disease—can disrupt the balance, leading the microbiome to instead produce compounds that may trigger multiple non-communicable chronic disorders in people at high genetic risk, including myocardial infarction, angina or heart failure.

Scientists have already discovered that the gut microbiome is altered in people with chronic heart disease. They subsequently identified compounds that are produced by the diseased microbiome, for instance a bacterial compound called trimethylamine (TMA) that after modification in the liver of the human host  causes arteriosclerosis.

However, these findings of altered gut microbiome are challenged because they were achieved in studies of medicated patients. Patients with heart disease are given several different drugs, each of which are known to modify the gut microbiome. As a result, it was unclear whether  drugs or heart disease itself caused the disrupted gut microbiome of people with cardiovascular disorders.

A further complication lies in the fact that heart disease often develops alongside the early stages of overweight and type 2 diabetes, which are also characterized by having disrupted gut microbiomes. As a result, it remained to be shown whether an imbalanced gut microbiome is a feature of heart disease itself.

To answer these critical questions a European consortium of researchers established the EU-funded MetaCardis research project in 2012 to investigate the role of gut microbes in cardiometabolic disease. Now they published the consortium's findings in in the journal Nature Medicine.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 19, 2022 at 10:55am

Plants under anesthesia reveal surprising parallels with humans

When the carnivorous Venus flytrap was  anesthetized with ether, some surprising parallels to anesthesia in humans emerge.

Anesthetics  allow patients to better endure painful treatments or even sleep through them. 

Remarkably, anaesthetisation is also possible in plants. Claude Bernard proved in 1878 that the touch-sensitive plant Mimosa pudica did not react to touch under the influence of ether by closing its leaves. He concluded that plants and animals must have a common biological essence that is disturbed by anesthetics.

Ether anesthetics were used during surgery, childbirth and in palliative treatment to take away patients' pain. However, the exact mechanism of action has never been elucidated. Even with modern anesthetics, it is often unclear how and where they function. One reason for this is certainly that humans are a very delicate research subject.

Unlike most other plants, the Venus flytrap is particularly sensitive to touch. In response to such stimuli, electrical impulses are triggered and transmitted extremely quickly to catch animal prey.

The electrical impulses (action potentials, APs) of the flytrap are comparable to those of our nervous system. It is true that plants do not have a distinct nervous system. But they do transmit electrical information in their conductive tissue, for example to close the trap at lightning speed.

Researchers have found that the Venus flytrap can be anesthetized, similar to a human being, and that it does not react to touch during this time. Investigations of the trap memory even showed that the trap cannot "remember" touches during anesthesia. Thus, its reaction is not different from that of a patient, as they  reports in the journal Scientific Reports.

Researchers also found out that the anesthetized  traps can perceive touch locally, but cannot transmit it. 

In the plant, the researchers were able to make the calcium signal visible by expressing genetically encoded calcium sensors. They found that the calcium signal is still produced in the sensory hairs of anesthetized plants after a touch, but that it no longer leaves this touch sensor. Ether therefore interrupts the transmission of stimuli.

Now we finally knew in which tissue the ether acts.

Sönke Scherzer et al, Ether anesthetics prevents touch-induced trigger hair calcium-electrical signals excite the Venus flytrap, Scientific Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-06915-z

https://phys.org/news/2022-02-anesthesia-reveal-parallels-humans.ht...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2022 at 8:56am

Microbes in gut might affect personality

There are thousands of types of bacteria living in the gut, comprising what is known as the gut microbiome. The number of each type of bacteria is determined by many factors, such as health status, dietary habits and even physical activity levels. Gut metabolomes are small molecules, such as amino acids, enzymes and co-factors, that are produced by gut microbiota.

The gut microbiome is known to stay stable through most of one's adult life, unless there is a gastrointestinal issue or a person is taking antibiotics, and personality traits can take years to change.

Researchers are working to determine if there are unique gut microbiome and metabolomic pathways that are associated with the four personality traits.

The preliminary findings, published in the journal Nutrients, found that there are distinct bacteria and metabolomes that are associated with each personality trait. One bacterium was associated with three of the four personality traits, but none between all four traits.

Earlier work showed that mental energy, mental fatigue, physical energy and physical fatigue are four distinct biological moods, but there may be some overlap—for example, you can be both physically fatigued and physically energetic at the same time.

The study also shows that bacteria and metabolome associated with metabolism were associated with either mental or physical energy, while bacteria associated with inflammation were associated with mental or physical fatigue.

The study shows feelings of energy are associated with metabolic processes, while feelings of fatigue are associated with inflammatory processes. Additionally, these findings may help explain some of the interpersonal differences that we see in response to the anti-fatiguing effects of nutritional interventions.

Although the researchers don't know whether this response is due to gut microbiota or epigenetic markers, the findings of the current study provide them with some insight into the role that the gut plays in the personality traits.

Ali Boolani et al, Trait Energy and Fatigue May Be Connected to Gut Bacteria among Young Physically Active Adults: An Exploratory Study, Nutrients (2022). DOI: 10.3390/nu14030466

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-02-microbes-gut-affect-personal...

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2022 at 8:41am

Cord blood clears woman of HIV

A woman in the United States has become the third person to be curedof HIV. She was treated with a new method: a transplant with umbilical-cord blood. The woman stopped antiretroviral therapy 37 months after the transplant and, more than 14 months later, still shows no signs of HIV in blood tests. Two other people have been cleared of HIV after a cancer-treating bone-marrow transplant. Transplanting cord blood, instead of bone marrow, allowed researchers to use a partially matched donor for the woman, who is mixed race, while giving her immune system a boost with blood from a close relative. This fresh approach could offer the promise of treatment to more HIV-positive people, regardless of their race or ethnicity.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 16, 2022 at 11:40am

Plastic, chemical pollution beyond planet's safe limit: study

The torrent of man-made chemical and plastic waste worldwide has massively exceeded limits safe for humanity or the planet, and production caps are urgently needed, scientists have concluded for the first time.

There are an estimated 350,000 different manufactured chemicals on the market and large volumes of them end up in the environment.

The impacts that we're starting to see today are large enough to be impacting crucial functions of planet Earth and its systems.

Chemicals and plastics are affecting biodiversity, piling additional stress on already stressed ecosystems.

Pesticides kill living organisms indiscriminately and plastics are ingested by living things.

Some chemicals are interfering with hormone systems, disrupting growth, metabolism and reproduction in wildlife.

While greater efforts are needed to prevent these substances being released into the environment, scientists are now pushing for more drastic solutions, such as production caps.

Recycling has so far yielded only mediocre results.

Less than 10 percent of the world's plastic is currently recycled, even as production has doubled to 367 million tonnes since 2000.

Today, the total weight of plastic on Earth is now four times the biomass of all living animals, according to recent studies.

"What we're trying to say is that maybe we have to say, 'Enough is enough'. Maybe we can't tolerate more," the  researchers said. Maybe we have to put a cap on production. Maybe we need to say, 'We can't produce more than this'.

https://phys.org/news/2022-02-plastic-chemical-pollution-planet-saf...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 16, 2022 at 9:55am

Chewing sugar-free gum reduced preterm births in a large study

The idea was inspired by the connection between poor oral health and preterm birth

Chewing a sugar-free gum daily reduced preterm births in a large study in Malawi. The oral intervention was inspired by past research linking poor oral health and preterm birth. The gum contains xylitol — a chemical that can boost oral health — in place of regular sugar.

Among women who chewed the xylitol gum, 549 out of 4,349 pregnancies, or 12.6 percent, were preterm, researchers reported February 3 at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine’s Annual Pregnancy Meeting. That’s a 24 percent reduction compared with the group who didn’t receive the gum. Among those women, 878 out of 5,321 pregnancies, or 16.5 percent, of the babies were born before 37 weeks.

The oral health of gum users also improved. About 4,000 of the women had an initial dental exam and a later checkup. The women who chewed the gum had less periodontal disease, a condition in which the tissue surrounding the teeth becomes infected and inflamed, compared with those who didn’t get the chewing gum.

Chewing xylitol gum appears to be a check on that shift in the oral microbial community. Previous studies have shown that chewing xylitol gum leads to fewer cavities and suggest it can reduce inflammation.

K.M. Aagaard et al. PPaX: Cluster randomized trial of xylitol chewing gum on prevention.... Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine Annual Pregnancy Meeting. February 3, 2022.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/preterm-birth-chewing-gum-sugar...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 16, 2022 at 9:37am

Studying clouds can provide deeper insight into climate change

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