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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 28, 2022 at 12:48pm

Some guts are better than others at harvesting energy, study shows

New research from the University of Copenhagen suggests that a portion of the Danish population has a composition of gut microbes that, on average, extracts more energy from food than do the microbes in the guts of their fellow Danes. The research is a step towards understanding why some people gain more weight than others, even when they eat the same.

Unfair as it, some of us seem to put on weight just by looking at a plate of Christmas cookies, while others can munch away with abandon and not gain a gram. Part of the explanation could be related to the composition of our gut microbes. This is according to new research conducted at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports.

The research is published in the journal Microbiome.

Researchers studied the residual energy in the feces of 85 Danes to estimate how effective their gut microbes are at extracting energy from food. At the same time, they mapped the composition of gut microbes for each participant.

The results show that roughly 40% of the participants belong to a group that, on average, extracts more energy from food compared to the other 60%. The researchers also observed that those who extracted the most energy from food also weighed 10% more on average, amounting to an extra nine kilograms.

The results indicate that being overweight might not just be related to how healthily one eats or the amount of exercise one gets. It may also have something to do with the composition of a person's gut microbes.

Following the study, the researchers suspect that a portion of the population may be disadvantaged by having gut bacteria that are a bit too effective at extracting energy. This effectiveness may result in more calories being available for the human host from the same amount of food.

Jos Boekhorst et al, Stool energy density is positively correlated to intestinal transit time and related to microbial enterotypes, Microbiome (2022). DOI: 10.1186/s40168-022-01418-5

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 28, 2022 at 12:38pm

Spontaneous baby movements are important for development of coordinated sensorimotor system

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 28, 2022 at 12:28pm

New bacterial therapy approach to treat lung cancer

Lung cancer is one of the deadliest cancers  around the world. Many of the currently available therapies have been ineffective, leaving patients with very few options. A promising new strategy to treat cancer has been bacterial therapy, but while this treatment modality has quickly progressed from labouratory experiments to clinical trials in the last five years, the most effective treatment for certain types of cancers may be in combination with other drugs.

Researchers report that they have developed a preclinical evaluation pipeline for characterization of bacterial therapies in lung cancer models. Their new study, published December 13, 2022, by Scientific Reports, combines bacterial therapies with other modalities of treatment to improve treatment efficacy without any additional toxicity. This new approach was able to rapidly characterize bacterial therapies and successfully integrate them with current targeted therapies for lung cancer.

The team used RNA sequencing to discover how cancer cells were responding to bacteria at the cellular and molecular levels. They built a hypothesis on which molecular pathways of cancer cells were helping the cells to be resistant to the bacteria therapy. To test their hypothesis, the researchers blocked these pathways with current cancer drugs and showed that combining the drugs with bacterial toxins is more effective in eliminating lung cancer cells. They validated the combination of bacteria therapy with an AKT-inhibitor as an example in mouse models of lung cancer.

This new study describes an exciting drug development pipeline that has been previously unexplored in lung cancer—the use of toxins derived from bacteria.

The preclinical data presented in the manuscript provides a strong rationale for continued research in this area, thereby opening up the possibility of new treatment options for patients diagnosed with this lethal disease.

 Dhruba Deb et al, Design of combination therapy for engineered bacterial therapeutics in non-small cell lung cancer, Scientific Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-26105-1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 28, 2022 at 12:12pm

Brown algae removes carbon dioxide from the air and stores it in slime

Brown algae take up large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air and release parts of the carbon contained therein back into the environment in mucous form. This mucus is hard to break down for other ocean inhabitants, thus the carbon is removed from the atmosphere for a long time, according to a new study.

Researchers reveal that the algal mucus called fucoidan is particularly responsible for this carbon removal and estimate that brown algae could thus remove up to 550 million tons of carbon dioxide from the air every year.

Algae take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use the carbon to grow. They release up to a third of the carbon they absorb back into the seawater, for example in the form of sugary excretions. Depending on the structure of these excretions, they are either quickly used by other organisms or sink toward the seafloor.

Fucoidan made up about half of the excretions of the brown algae species the researchers studied, the so-called bladderwrack.

Fucoidan is a recalcitrant molecule. The fucoidan is so complex that it is very hard for other organisms to use it. No one seems to like it. As a result, the carbon from the fucoidan does not return to the atmosphere quickly. "This makes the brown algae particularly good helpers in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the long term—for hundreds to thousands of years.

Buck-Wiese, Hagen et al, Fucoid brown algae inject fucoidan carbon into the ocean, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2210561119. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2210561119

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 28, 2022 at 12:05pm

Using an ethylene carbonate solvent with a sodium iodide salt to create a new kind of refrigerator

A pair of researchers  used a commonly known, naturally occurring phenomenon to build a new kind of environmentally safe refrigerator.

In their paper published in the journal Science, they describe how expanding on the idea of using salt to melt road ice to design and build a new kind of refrigerator.

For many years, people around the world have used salt to melt road ice to make travel easier. Though technically, the salt does not melt the ice, its dark color attracts heat, allowing the ice below it to melt, which than allows the salt to mix with the water. And it does not refreeze because the salt dramatically lowers the freezing point of the water.

It was on this part of the process that the researchers focused. They noted that a similar process could result in cooling a material simply by mixing it with sodium iodide (NaI) salt due to the phase transition. The second material in this case was an ethylene carbonate (EC) solvent. They further noted that repeatedly cooling a material should also cool the environment in which it is contained. And to make that happen, all they had to do was remove the salt, and then add it again.

The researchers call their process "ionocaloric" refrigeration, and built such a refrigerator to prove that it was viable. They started with a box and then added a mixing device to mix their two ingredients and another device that performed electrodialysis to remove the salt. Then tested the resulting device to determine if it would keep the temperature inside the box at a steady cool temperature, and if so, if it was more or less efficient than other refrigeration devices.

Their testing showed that their refrigerator was able to maintain a cool temperature and that it was approximately as efficient as refrigerators now on the market. The big advantage of the approach is that it does not emit any hydrofluorocarbons or other pollutants. They acknowledge that it does have one drawback—it takes quite a while for the mixed solution to cool.

Drew Lilley et al, Ionocaloric refrigeration cycle, Science (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.ade1696

Emmanuel Defay, Cool it, with a pinch of salt, Science (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.adf5114

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 26, 2022 at 8:58am

Researchers use quantum mechanics to see objects without looking at them

We see the world around us because light is being absorbed by specialized cells in our retina. But can vision happen without any absorption at all—without even a single particle of light? Surprisingly, the answer is yes.

Imagine that you have a camera cartridge that might contain a roll of photographic film. The roll is so sensitive that coming into contact with even a single photon would destroy it. With our everyday classical means there is no way  to know whether there's film in the cartridge, but in the quantum world it can be done. Anton Zeilinger, one of the winners of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics, was the first to experimentally implement the idea of an interaction-free experiment using optics.

Now, in a study exploring the connection between the quantum and classical worlds,  researchers have discovered a new and much more effective way to carry out interaction-free experiments. They used transmon devices—superconducting circuits that are relatively large but still show quantum behavior—to detect the presence of microwave pulses generated by classical instruments. Their research was recently published in Nature Communications.

Quantum coherence refers to the possibility that an object can occupy two different states at the same time—something that quantum physics allows for. However, quantum coherence is delicate and easily collapses, so it wasn't immediately obvious that the new protocol would work. To the research  team's pleasant surprise, the first runs of the experiment showed a marked increase in detection efficiency. They went back to the drawing board several times, ran theoretical models confirming their results, and double-checked everything. The effect was definitely there. They also also demonstrated that even very low-power microwave pulses can be detected efficiently using their protocol.

The experiment also showed a new way in which quantum devices can achieve results that are impossible for classical devices—a phenomenon known as quantum advantage. Researchers generally think that achieving quantum advantage will require quantum computers with many qubits, but this experiment demonstrated genuine quantum advantage using a relatively simpler setup.

Shruti Dogra et al, Coherent interaction-free detection of microwave pulses with a superconducting circuit, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35049-z

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 24, 2022 at 1:24pm

Mitochondrial transplant shows promise In a world first, six children with rare disorders caused by deletions in the genomes of their mitochrondria — the cellular compartments essential for energy generation — have been successfully treated with donor mitochondria from their m.... Doctors transferred healthy mitochondria into the children’s haematopoietic stem cells, which give rise to the body’s blood cells. After the treatment, tests showed that some of the children were stronger and had reached healthier weights, and caregivers said they spent more time awake and in play. “These are very soft measures that are hard to report, but we did see major improvements to the quality of life in almost all of these children,” says paediatric haematologist Elad Jacoby, who led the study. A clinical trial of the approach, known as mitochondrial augmentation therapy, is expected to start next year. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.abo3724

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 24, 2022 at 1:14pm

Identifying pathways to slow cardiac aging

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, and is caused in part by age-related cardiac structural dysfunction. A team of bioengineers published a paper in Nature Aging on Dec. 22 that helps advance our understanding of how hearts age, and sheds light on a possible pathway to slow cardiac aging.

The researchers used fruit flies to show that Lamin C, a protein responsible for maintaining the structural integrity of heart cells' nuclei, declines as flies age. This study uncovered that Lamin decline is responsible for the age-induced structural remodeling in fruit fly hearts, and it could be a potential target to slow down, or even help reverse, cardiac aging in humans.

The team then quantified this change by segmenting and measuring nuclear stiffness with atomic force microscopy. This is when they discovered that cardiomyocyte nuclei stiffen during natural aging; after running a genetic anlysis, the researchers found that the expression of nuclear lamins decreases as flies age.

The team was able to verify that these results also applied to mice and primates. This indicates that a role for Lamins may apply to human heart aging as well, which could have tremendous therapeutic value, as targeting lamin-stimulating pathways could potentially help avoid this cardiac aging-related mechanical change.

Natalie J. Kirkland et al, Age-dependent Lamin changes induce cardiac dysfunction via dysregulation of cardiac transcriptional programs, Nature Aging (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s43587-022-00323-8

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 23, 2022 at 1:53pm

Male and Female Stem Cells Derived from One Donor in Scientific First

Studying otherwise identical XY, XX, X0, and XXY pluripotent stem cells will allow researchers to investigate sex-based differences in greater depth.

Scientists have developed a new line of stem cells—all derived from the same person—that can be used to study sex differences without the confounds of interpersonal genetic differences.

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), which are cells taken from a person that are then reprogrammed to abandon their current roles and return to a stem cell–like state, have become valuable tools not only for therapeutic purposes but also for probing the genetic mechanisms underlying cell behavior and disease. However, findings drawn from stem cell studies may not be broadly applicable, as the fact that all cells in a given line share the same genetic sequence makes it difficult to generalize discoveries, especially when it comes to investigating potential sex differences.

That’s why a team of scientists set out to create a new platform for studying genetic sex differences. 

To develop such a model, the team obtained cells from a repository that had been taken from someone with an unusual case of Klinefelter syndrome, a rare genetic condition that affects roughly 1 in 500 boys in which they’re born with an extra copy of the X chromosome, resulting in an XXY genetic makeup. What made this person even more unusual—and ideal for Reubinoff’s vision—is that, in addition to the 47XXY cells characteristic of the condition, they also had a large number of 46XY cells, a phenomenon known as a mosaic phenotype. As the study, published on November 24 in Stem Cell Reports, describes, the variety of cells taken from the Klinefelter patient allowed the team to generate 46XX, 46XY, 45X0, and 47XXY hiPSCs that are otherwise genetically identical. This means that any observable differences among them—related, for example, to disease risk factors or response to a pharmaceutical—can almost definitely be attributed to genetic sex differences.

When you study individuals, and you compare males to females and you find differences, you cannot differentiate whether they stem from the chromosomal differences or hormonal differences. This model is unique because it allows you to differentiate between chromosomal effects and hormonal effects.

https://www.cell.com/stem-cell-reports/fulltext/S2213-6711(22)00513-6?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2213671122005136%3Fshowall%3Dtrue#%20

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/male-and-female-stem-cel...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 23, 2022 at 12:47pm

Are elephants afraid of mice?

Mythbusters explore the myth of whether elephants are afraid of mice.

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