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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 24, 2024 at 11:44am

Bear in mind, however, that an observational study like this can't definitively conclude that microplastics are causing the downstream heart effects; only that there is an association. The study did not consider other risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as smoking, physical inactivity, and air pollution.
"Although we do not know what other exposures may have contributed to the adverse outcomes among patients in this study, the finding of microplastics and nanoplastics in plaque tissue is itself a breakthrough discovery that raises a series of urgent questions," such as how to reduce exposure, explained pediatrician, public health physician and epidemiologist Philip J. Landrigan, of Boston College, in an accompanying editorial.

Plastic production has exploded in the past two decades, only a fraction of which has been recycled, and yet rates of cardiovascular disease have been falling in some parts of the world, so more research is needed to understand the link between the two.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2309822

Part 3

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 24, 2024 at 11:43am

With microplastics previously found coursing through people's bloodstream, the researchers were reasonably concerned about heart health. Lab-based studies suggest microplastics can trigger inflammation and oxidative stress in heart cells, and impair heart function, alter heart rate, and cause scarring of the heart in animals such as mice.

"Observational data from occupational-exposure studies [also] suggest an increased risk of cardiovascular disease among persons who are exposed to plastics-related pollution, including polyvinyl chloride, than that seen in the general population," Marfella and colleagues write.
In the study, patients with microplastics in their excised plaques were 4.5 times as likely to have experienced a stroke, non-fatal heart attack or died from any cause after 34 months than people who had no detectable microplastics in the plaques that surgeons had removed.

The amount of microplastics, and even smaller particles called nanoplastics, was measured using a technique called pyrolysis–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, and their presence confirmed using another method, stable isotopes analysis, which can distinguish between the carbon of human tissues and that of plastics made from petrochemicals.

Microplastics were also visible under powerful microscopes: The researchers observed plastic fragments with jagged edges inside immune cells called macrophages, and within the fatty plaques. Examining the tissue samples, the team also found higher levels of inflammatory markers in patients with microplastics in their plaques.
Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 24, 2024 at 11:42am

Plastic Was Found Inside More Than 50% of Plaques From Clogged Arteries

Plastics are now everywhere, with tiny fragments found in several major organs of the human body, including the placenta.
Given how easily the microscopic particles infiltrate our tissues, it's vital that we learn exactly what kinds of risks they could pose to our health.
Researchers have been busy studying the effects of microplastics in mini-replicas of organs, and in mice, to get a sense of how they might impact the human body. However, the concentrations of microplastics used in those studies might not reflect people's real-world exposure, and few studies have been done in humans.

In March, a small study in Italy found shards of microplastics in fatty deposits surgically removed from patients who had an operation to open up their clogged arteries – and reported their health outcomes nearly 3 years later.

Removing fatty plaques from narrowed arteries in a procedure called a carotid endarterectomy reduces the risk of future strokes.

The team behind this recent study, led by Raffaele Marfella, a medical researcher at the University of Campania in Naples, wondered how the risk of stroke – as well as heart attacks and death – compared between patients who had microplastics in their plaques and those who did not.
Following 257 patients for 34 months, the researchers found nearly 60 percent of them had measurable amounts of polyethylene in plaques pulled from their fat-thickened arteries, and 12 percent also had polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in extracted fat deposits.

PVC comes in both rigid and flexible forms, and is used to make water pipes, plastic bottles, flooring, and packaging. Polyethylene is the most commonly produced plastic, used for plastic bags, films, and bottles, too.
Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 24, 2024 at 11:05am

Virus spreading in Latin America may cause stillbirths and birth defects
Brazilian Ministry of Health tells doctors to closely monitor pregnant women infected with the little-known Oropouche virus
Fears over viral infection during pregnancy
The 2015-2016 outbreak of the Zika virus in Brazil caused thousands of birth defects after women were infected during pregnancy; now the country is facing the same fears with the Oropouche virus. Brazil’s health ministry has reported four cases of microcephaly — a type of reduced brain development — in newborns of infected mothers and one fetal death that might be associated with the virus. The virus is transmitted by Culicoides paraensis, a tiny midge found across the Americas. Cases of Oropouche fever have surged in Brazil since late 2022. “The cases are worrisome and a sign to be alert,” says virologist Amilcar Tanuri.

https://www.science.org/content/article/virus-spreading-in-latin-am...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 24, 2024 at 10:50am

Evidence of ‘Dark oxygen’ production from the sea floor

A chemical reaction could be producing oxygen by splitting water molecules, but its source of energy remains unknown.

The phenomenon was discovered in a region strewn with ancient, plum-sized formations called polymetallic nodules, which could play a part in the oxygen production by catalysing the splitting of water molecules, researchers suspect. The findings are published in Nature Geoscience.
Something is pumping out large amounts of oxygen at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, at depths where a lack of sunlight makes photosynthesis impossible. The find has surprised scientists and the source remains a mystery. The oxygen might be generated by metal-rich mineral deposits, or nodules. To researchers’ surprise, they measured voltages of up to 0.95 volts across the surface of the nodules. It is possible that the nodules catalyse the splitting of water into oxygen and hydrogen, but more experiments are needed.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01480-8?utm_source=Live+...

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02393-7?utm_source=Live+...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 24, 2024 at 9:44am

Chinese lunar probe finds water in moon samples

A Chinese lunar probe found traces of water in samples of the moon's soil, scientists have said, as the country pushes its ambitious space program into high gear.

The Chang'e-5 rover completed its mission in 2020, returning to Earth with rock and  soil samples from the moon.

The lunar samples "revealed the presence of trace water", the group of scientists from Chinese universities wrote in the Nature Astronomy journal published recently.

Shifeng Jin et al, Evidence of a hydrated mineral enriched in water and ammonium molecules in the Chang'e-5 lunar sample, Nature Astronomy (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-024-02306-8 , www.nature.com/articles/s41550-024-02306-8

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 24, 2024 at 9:35am

Electric scooter and bike accidents are soaring across the US, researchers report

In the crowded urban landscape, where small electric vehicles—primarily scooters and bicycles—have transformed short distance travel,  researchers are reporting a major national surge in accidents tied to "micromobility."

The researchers analyzed injuries and hospitalizations from electric bicycles, electric scooters, conventional bicycles and conventional scooters. The study, which appears July 23 in JAMA Network Open, is believed to be the first investigation into recent injury patterns in the U.S.

E-bicycle injuries doubled every year from 2017 to 2022, while e-scooter injuries rose by 45%. Injured e-riders tended to be slightly older and wore helmets less often than conventional riders. And e-scooter riders were more likely to sustain internal injuries than conventional scooter riders, while upper extremity injuries were more common among non-EV riders.

JAMA Network Open (2024). jamanetwork.com/journals/jaman … tworkopen.2024.24131

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 24, 2024 at 9:30am

The AI model and human physicians answered questions from the New England Journal of Medicine's Image Challenge. The challenge is an online quiz that provides real clinical images and a short text description that includes details about the patient's symptoms and presentation, then asks users to choose the correct diagnosis from multiple-choice answers.

The researchers tasked the AI model to answer 207 image challenge questions and provide a written rationale to justify each answer. The prompt specified that the rationale should include a description of the image, a summary of relevant medical knowledge, and provide step-by-step reasoning for how the model chose the answer.

Nine physicians from various institutions were recruited, each with a different medical specialty, and answered their assigned questions first in a "closed-book" setting, (without referring to any external materials such as online resources) and then in an "open-book" setting (using external resources). The researchers then provided the physicians with the correct answer, along with the AI model's answer and corresponding rationale. Finally, the physicians were asked to score the AI model's ability to describe the image, summarize relevant medical knowledge, and provide its step-by-step reasoning.

The researchers found that the AI model and physicians scored highly in selecting the correct diagnosis. Interestingly, the AI model selected the correct diagnosis more often than physicians in closed-book settings, while physicians with open-book tools performed better than the AI model, especially when answering the questions ranked most difficult.

Importantly, based on physician evaluations, the AI model often made mistakes when describing the medical image and explaining its reasoning behind the diagnosis—even in cases where it made the correct final choice. In one example, the AI model was provided with a photo of a patient's arm with two lesions. A physician would easily recognize that both lesions were caused by the same condition. However, because the lesions were presented at different angles—causing the illusion of different colors and shapes—the AI model failed to recognize that both lesions could be related to the same diagnosis.

The researchers argue that these findings underpin the importance of evaluating multi-modal AI technology further before introducing it into the clinical setting.

 Hidden Flaws Behind Expert-Level Accuracy of Multimodal GPT-4 Vision in Medicine, npj Digital Medicine (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41746-024-01185-7. www.nature.com/articles/s41746-024-01185-7

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 24, 2024 at 9:28am

New findings shed light on risks and benefits of integrating AI into medical decision-making

Researchers have found that an artificial intelligence (AI) model solved medical quiz questions—designed to test health professionals' ability to diagnose patients based on clinical images and a brief text summary—with high accuracy. However, physician-graders found the AI model made mistakes when describing images and explaining how its decision-making led to the correct answer.

The findings, which shed light on AI's potential in the clinical setting, were published in npj Digital Medicine. 

Integration of AI into health care holds great promise as a tool to help medical professionals diagnose patients faster, allowing them to start treatment sooner.

However, as this study shows, AI is not advanced enough yet to replace human experience, which is crucial for accurate diagnosis.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 24, 2024 at 9:17am

Dual action antibiotic could make bacterial resistance nearly impossible

A new antibiotic that works by disrupting two different cellular targets would make it 100 million times more difficult for bacteria to evolve resistance, according to new research.

For a new paper in Nature Chemical Biology, researchers probed how a class of synthetic drugs called macrolones disrupt bacterial cell function to fight infectious diseases. Their experiments demonstrate that macrolones can work two different ways—either by interfering with protein production or corrupting DNA structure.

Because bacteria would need to implement defenses to both attacks simultaneously, the researchers calculated that drug resistance is nearly impossible.

The beauty of this antibiotic is that it kills through two different targets in bacteria. If the antibiotic hits both targets at the same concentration, then the bacteria lose their ability to become resistant via acquisition of random mutations in any of the two targets.

Macrolones are synthetic antibiotics that combine the structures of two widely used antibiotics with different mechanisms. Macrolides, such as erythromycin, block the ribosome, the protein manufacturing factories of the cell. Fluoroquinolones, such as ciprofloxacin, target a bacteria-specific enzyme called DNA gyrase.

Elena V. Aleksandrova et al, Macrolones target bacterial ribosomes and DNA gyrase and can evade resistance mechanisms, Nature Chemical Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41589-024-01685-3

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