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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 29, 2022 at 11:24am

Scientists call for cap on production to end plastic pollution

Now, after the United Nations' historic decision to adopt a global treaty to end plastic pollution earlier this year, governmental negotiations on the agreement are set to begin on May 30th. These will foster intense debates on what kind of measures will be needed to end the pollution of the air, soils, rivers and oceans with plastic debris and microplastics.

In a letter to the journal Science, an international group of scientists and experts now argue for tackling the issue right at the source, by regulating, capping, and in the long term phasing out the production of new plastics. because, they think, recycling is not enough.

Even if we recycled better and tried to manage the waste as much as we can, we would still release more than 17 million tons of plastic per year into nature. If production just keeps growing and growing, we will be faced with a truly Sisyphean task.

 Melanie Bergmann et al, A global plastic treaty must cap production, Science (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abq0082

Winnie W. Y. Lau et al, Evaluating scenarios toward zero plastic pollution, Science (2020). DOI: 10.1126/science.aba9475

Nils Simon et al, A binding global agreement to address the life cycle of plastics, Science (2021). DOI: 10.1126/science.abi9010

https://phys.org/news/2022-04-scientists-cap-production-plastic-pol...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 29, 2022 at 10:04am

Researchers discover new function performed by nearly half of brain cells

Researchers  have discovered a previously unknown function performed by a type of cell that comprises nearly half of all cells in the brain.

The scientists say this discovery in mice of a new function by cells known as astrocytes opens a whole new direction for neuroscience research that might one day lead to treatments for many disorders ranging from epilepsy to Alzheimer's to traumatic brain injury.

It comes down to how astrocytes interact with neurons, which are fundamental cells of the brain and nervous system that receive input from the outside world. Through a complex set of electrical and chemical signaling, neurons transmit information between different areas of the brain and between the brain and the rest of the nervous system.

Until now, scientists thought astrocytes were important, but lesser cast members in this activity. Astrocytes guide the growth of axons, the long, slender projection of a neuron that conducts electrical impulses. They also control neurotransmitters, chemicals that enable the transfer of electrical signals throughout the brain and nervous system. In addition, astrocytes build the blood-brain barrier and react to injury.

But they did not seem to be electrically active like the all-important neurons—until now. 

The electrical activity of astrocytes changes how neurons function.

Neuroscientists now have discovered a new way that two of the most important cells in the brain talk to each other. Because there is so much unknown about how the brain works, discovering new fundamental processes that control brain function is key to developing novel treatments for neurological diseases.

Neuron-to-neuron communication occurs through the release of packets of chemicals called neurotransmitters. Scientists knew that astrocytes control neurotransmitters, helping to make sure that neurons stay healthy and active. But the new study reveals that neurons also release potassium ions, which change the electrical activity of the astrocyte and how it controls the neurotransmitters.

So the neuron is controlling what the astrocyte is doing, and they are communicating back and forth. Neurons and astrocytes talk with each other in a way that has not been known about before.

Moritz Armbruster, Neuronal activity drives pathway-specific depolarization of peripheral astrocyte processes, Nature Neuroscience (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41593-022-01049-x. www.nature.com/articles/s41593-022-01049-x

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-04-function-brain-cells.html?ut...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 29, 2022 at 7:39am

All of the bases in DNA and RNA have now been found in meteorites

The discovery adds to evidence that suggests life’s precursors came from space

More of the ingredients for life have been found in meteorites.

Space rocks that fell to Earth within the last century contain the five bases that store information in DNA and RNA, scientists report April 26 in Nature Communications.

These “nucleobases” — adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine and uracil — combine with sugars and phosphates to make up the genetic code of all life on Earth. Whether these basic ingredients for life first came from space or instead formed in a warm soup of earthly chemistry is still not known. But the discovery adds to evidence that suggests life’s precursors originally came from space, the researchers say.

Y. Oba et al. Identifying the wide diversity of extraterrestrial purine and pyrim.... Nature Communications. April 26, 2022. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-29612-x.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 29, 2022 at 7:23am

Antibiotics diminish babies’ immune response to key vaccines

The drugs disrupt gut bacteria, which appear to play a part in the body’s response to vaccines

Taking antibiotics in the first two years of life can prevent babies from developing a robust immune response to certain vaccines. The new finding provides another cautionary tale against overusing antibiotics, researchers say.

Babies get immunized in their first six months, and receive booster doses in their second year, to protect against certain infectious diseases. Antibiotic use during that time was associated with subpar immune responses to four vaccines babies receive to ward off whooping cough, polio and other diseases, researchers report online April 27 in Pediatrics.

And the more rounds of antibiotics a child received, the more antibody levels to the vaccines dropped below what’s considered protective. Levels induced by the primary series of shots for the polio, diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae type b and pneumococcal vaccines fell 5 to 11 percent with each antibiotic course. In the children’s second year, antibody levels generated by booster shots of these vaccines dropped 12 to 21 percent per course.

If anyone needed yet another reason why overprescription of antibiotics is not a good thing, this research results offers that reason.

Taking antibiotics disrupts the population of bacteria that live in the gut. That’s well known, but researchers are still learning about how that disruption can affect a person’s health. The new study adds to evidence that diminishing the amount and diversity of gut bacteria impacts vaccination. In studies in mice, antibiotics hampered the immune system’s response to vaccines. And a small study in humans found that antibiotics dampened adults’ response to the flu vaccine in those whose prior immune memory for influenza had waned. (1)

The study in Pediatrics is the first to report an association between antibiotic use and compromised vaccine responses in children. 

The type and length of antibiotic treatment also made a difference. Broad spectrum drugs were associated with antibody levels below what is protective, while a more targeted antibiotic was not. Furthermore, a 10-day course, but not a five-day course, reduced vaccine-induced antibody levels.

T.J. Chapman et al. Antibiotic use and vaccine antibody levels. Pediatrics. Published online April 27, 2022. doi: 10.1542/peds.2021-052061

T. Hagan et al. Antibiotics-driven gut microbiome perturbation alters immunity to v.... Cell. Vol. 178, September 2019, p. 1313. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.08.010

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 28, 2022 at 6:41am

How the James Webb Space Telescope Will Unfold the Universe

Microrobot collectives display versatile movement patterns

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 28, 2022 at 6:38am

New evidence of how exercise can counter diabetes damage

 One way exercise can counter the damage of diabetes is by enabling activation of a natural system we have to grow new blood vessels when existing ones are ravaged by this disease, scientists report.

Angiogenesis is the ability to form new blood vessels, and diabetes not only damages existing blood vessels, it hinders this innate ability to grow new ones in the face of disease and injury, say experts.

Endothelial cells line our blood vessels and are essential to that new blood vessel growth.

Now the MCG scientists have the first evidence that in the face of diabetes, even one 45-minute session of moderate intensity exercise enables more exosomes, submicroscopic packages filled with biologically active cargo, to deliver directly to those cells more of the protein, ATP7A, which can set angiogenesis in motion, they report in The FASEB Journal.

Kareem Abdelsaid, Varadarajan Sudhahar, Ryan A. Harris, Archita Das, Seock‐Won Youn, Yutao Liu, Maggie McMenamin, Yali Hou, David Fulton, Mark W. Hamrick, Yaoliang Tang, Tohru Fukai, Masuko Ushio‐Fukai. Exercise improves angiogenic function of circulating exosomes in type 2 diabetes: Role of exosomal SOD3. The FASEB Journal, 2022; 36 (3) DOI: 10.1096/fj.202101323R

https://researchnews.cc/news/12860/New-evidence-of-how-exercise-can...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 28, 2022 at 6:34am

Heat flow shown to be more efficient when temperature is oscillatin...

A team of researchers from the Institute of Scientific Instruments working with a colleague from Charles University, both in the Czech Republic, has shown that heat flows more efficiently when the temperature of the material through which it is flowing oscillates, as opposed to remaining steady. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes experiments they conducted with heating and cooling helium in a container and its relevance to a theory proposed just two years ago.

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Discovery of the one-way superconductor, thought to be impossible

Associate professor Mazhar Ali and his research group at TU Delft have discovered one-way superconductivity without magnetic fields, something that was thought to be impossible ever since its discovery in 1911—up until now. The discovery, published in Nature, makes use of 2D quantum materials and paves the way toward superconducting computing. Superconductors can make electronics hundreds of times faster, all with zero energy loss. Ali: "If the 20th century was the century of semiconductors, the 21st can become the century of the superconductor."

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 28, 2022 at 6:25am

Study identifies causes of cancer

A team of  researchers can now quantify the factors causing changes in the DNA that contribute most to cancer growth in tumors of most major tumor types.

They write in a new paper, published in Molecular Biology and Evolution, that their new molecular analysis approach brings clarity to a longstanding debate over how much control humans have over developing cancer across time.

Looking at the instances of specific genetic mutations can reveal the extent to which preventable exposures like ultraviolet light caused tumor growth in 24 cancers.

We can now answer the question—to the best of our knowledge—'What is the underlying source of the key mutations that changed those cells to become a cancer instead of remaining normal tissue'.

Previously, scientists have shown that they can reliably predict how certain factors that cause specific mutations that alter the genome in tissues. By combining this knowledge with their method that quantifies the contribution of each mutation to cancer, researchers showed the specific percentage of the blame to be assigned to known and unknown but identified factors in the emergence of cancer.

This work now done is really direct: scientists look in your tumor, and they see the signal written in your tumor of what caused that cancer.

They write in their report that some cancers are more controllable than others.For example, preventable factors account for a large part of the formation of tumors of the bladder and skin. However, they found that prostate cancers and gliomas are largely attributable due to internal age-associated processes.

Attribution of cancer origins to endogenous, exogenous, and preventable mutational processes, Molecular Biology And Evolution (2022). DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msac084

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-04-cancer.html?utm_source=nwlet...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 28, 2022 at 6:16am

Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste

An enzyme variant created by engineers and scientists  can break down environment-throttling plastics that typically take centuries to degrade in just a matter of hours to days.

This discovery, published recently in Nature, could help solve one of the world's most pressing environmental problems: what to do with the billions of tons of plastic waste piling up in landfills and polluting our natural lands and water. The enzyme has the potential to supercharge recycling on a large scale that would allow major industries to reduce their environmental impact by recovering and reusing plastics at the molecular level.

The project focuses on polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a significant polymer found in most consumer packaging, including cookie containers, soda bottles, fruit and salad packaging, and certain fibers and textiles. It makes up 12% of all global waste.

The enzyme was able to complete a "circular process" of breaking down the plastic into smaller parts (depolymerization) and then chemically putting it back together (repolymerization). In some cases, these plastics can be fully broken down to monomers in as little as 24 hours.

Hal Alper, Machine learning-aided engineering of hydrolases for PET depolymerization, Nature (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04599-z. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04599-z

https://phys.org/news/2022-04-plastic-eating-enzyme-billions-tons-l...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 28, 2022 at 6:07am

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