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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 9, 2022 at 12:35pm

New implant offers promise for the paralyzed

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 9, 2022 at 11:26am

New Discovery could help finetune immunity to fight infections, disease

New Research  by scientists supports a novel theory that the innate immune system people are born with can respond differently to specific pathogens. This quality, known as immunological specificity, was previously ascribed only to the adaptive immune system, which develops over time through disease exposure.

Published in the journal Cell Reports, the study suggests that this innate immune specificity is driven by the  nervous system and identifies a neuronal protein as a critical link in the process.

Based on an animal model, these findings hold early promise for the treatment of conditions such as sepsis, arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease, in which the innate immune system attacks the body and causes uncontrolled inflammation. They could also provide the basis for finetuning an experimental treatment that harnesses the nervous system to fight infection.

Clinical studies have shown that stimulating impaired neural circuits—either electrically or pharmacologically—can cure or alleviate many innate immune diseases. Knowing how the innate immune system generates a specific response to a particular pathogen enables us to manipulate neural circuits to adjust the intensity of the immune response as needed.

This would essentially help restore balance to the immune system, either by dialing back an excessive response that can cause prolonged inflammation, tissue damage and even death; or by boosting an insufficient response to keep an infection from getting worse. 

Jingru Sun, Neuronal GPCR NMUR-1 regulates distinct immune responses to different pathogens, Cell Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110321. www.cell.com/cell-reports/full … 2211-1247(22)00032-8

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-02-discovery-finetune-immunity-...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 8, 2022 at 9:48am

A never-before-seen way bacteria infect cells

 A child is born into a world full of bacteria, starting with the birth process, where contact with the mother during vaginal birth introduces the infant to the first cultures, which are far different (and absent) during a Caesarian section. Nursing and breast-feeding provide additional early exposure to bacteria that will later contribute to the development of the immune system and influence the central nervous system.

Bacteria can enter the body through an opening in your skin, such as a cut or a surgical wound, or through your airway and cause infections like bacterial pneumonia. They also enter and colonize in our gastrointestinal tract mainly by food sources. Bacteria that are in dirt, in milk and on plant surfaces enter our body.

Bacteria are much larger than viruses, and they are too large to be taken up by receptor-mediated endocytosis. Cells engulf the larger objects and pull them in, which is generally called endocytosis. There are many different types of endocytosis, one of which is called phagocytosis.

 Biologists  have now identified a new way that one type of bacteria invades multiple cells within a living organism.

The study, published this week in Nature Communications, describes how a new species of bacteria, Bordetella atropi, invades its roundworm host.

And it is aptly named because the bacteria changes its shape into a long thread, growing up to 100 times the usual size of one bacterium in the span of 30 hours without dividing.

By altering the genes of Bordetella atropi, the research team discovered that this invasive threading relies on the same genes and molecules that other bacteria use when they are in a nutrient-rich environment. However, these other bacteria only use this pathway to make subtly larger cells, whereas the B. atropi bacteria grows continuously.

Other bacteria often transform into threads, called filamentation, in response to dangerous environments or damage to their DNA. This lets them continue to grow in size, but delay dividing into new bacterial cells until they fix the damage caused by the stress. 

Here, however, the researchers were the first to observe filamentation as a way of spreading from cell to cell in a living organism for a purpose other than the stress response. They think that instead the new species is invading the host cells, detecting this rich environment and triggering filamentation in order to quickly infect more cells and access additional nutrients for their growth. 

Although neither the bacteria nor the roundworm  infects humans, it is possible that the spreading mechanism may also be used by human pathogens. Separately, the nutrient-induced filamentation process might be used by other  bacteria to form biofilms, which can coat the tubing of catheters and lead to complications for patients.

Tuan D. Tran et al, Bacterial filamentation as a mechanism for cell-to-cell spread within an animal host, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28297-6

https://phys.org/news/2022-02-never-before-seen-bacteria-infect-cel...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 6, 2022 at 10:33am

Researchers report game-changing technology to remove 99% of carbon dioxide from air

Researchers have demonstrated a way to effectively capture 99% of carbon dioxide from air using a novel electrochemical system powered by hydrogen.

It is a significant advance for carbon dioxide capture and could bring more environmentally friendly fuel cells closer to market.

Fuel cells work by converting fuel chemical energy directly into electricity. They can be used in transportation for things like hybrid or zero-emission vehicles.

They found a way to embed the power source for the electrochemical technology inside the separation membrane. The approach involved internally short-circuiting the device.

It's risky, but they managed to control this short-circuited fuel cell by hydrogen. And by using this internal electrically shorted membrane, they were able to get rid of the bulky components, such as bipolar plates, current collectors or any electrical wires typically found in a fuel cell stack.

Now, the research team had an electrochemical device that looked like a normal filtration membrane made for separating out gases, but with the capability to continuously pick up minute amounts of carbon dioxide from the air like a more complicated electrochemical system.

In effect, embedding the device's wires inside the membrane created a short-cut that made it easier for the carbon dioxide particles to travel from one side to the other. It also enabled the team to construct a compact, spiral module with a large surface area in a small volume. In other words, they now have a smaller package capable of filtering greater quantities of air at a time, making it both effective and cost-effective for fuel cell applications. Meanwhile, fewer components mean less cost, and more importantly, provide a way to easily scale up for the market.

The research team's results showed that an electrochemical cell measuring 2 inches by 2 inches could continuously remove about 99% of the carbon dioxide found in air flowing at a rate of approximately two liters per minute. An early prototype spiral device about the size of a 12-ounce soda can is capable of filtering 10 liters of air per minute and scrubbing out 98% of the carbon dioxide, according to the researchers.

Lin Shi et al, A shorted membrane electrochemical cell powered by hydrogen to remove CO2 from the air feed of hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cells, Nature Energy (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41560-021-00969-5

https://researchnews.cc/news/11453/Researchers-report-game-changing...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 5, 2022 at 12:19pm

Your culture informs the emotions you feel when listening to music

https://theconversation.com/how-your-culture-informs-the-emotions-y...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 5, 2022 at 11:22am

Mind-blowing mission to the early Universe

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Liquid Metal Magic: Hands free levitation and manipulation

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 5, 2022 at 9:42am

Mosquitoes are seeing red: These new findings about their vision could help you hide from these disease vectors

Beating the bite of mosquitoes this spring and summer could hinge on your attire and your skin. New research indicates that a common mosquito species—after detecting a telltale gas that we exhale—flies toward specific colors, including red, orange, black and cyan. The mosquitoes ignore other colours, such as green, purple, blue and white. The researchers think these findings help explain how mosquitoes find hosts, since human skin, regardless of overall pigmentation, emits a strong red-orange "signal" to their eyes.

Mosquitoes appear to use odours to help them distinguish what is nearby, like a host to bite. When they smell specific compounds, like CO2 from our breath, that scent stimulates the eyes to scan for specific colors and other visual patterns, which are associated with a potential host, and head to them.

The results, published Feb. 4 in Nature Communications, reveal how the mosquito sense of smell—known as olfaction—influences how the mosquito responds to visual cues. Knowing which colours attract hungry mosquitoes, and which ones do not, can help design better repellants, traps and other methods to keep mosquitoes at bay.

There are three major cues that attract mosquitoes: your breath, your sweat and the temperature of your skin. In this study, researchers found a fourth cue: the colour red, which can not only be found on your clothes, but is also found in everyone's skin. The shade of your skin doesn't matter, we are all giving off a strong red signature. Filtering out those attractive colours in our skin, or wearing clothes that avoid those colours, could be another way to prevent a mosquito biting.

In the experiments conducted, without any odour stimulus, mosquitoes largely ignored a dot at the bottom of the chamber they were locked in, regardless of colour. After a spritz of CO2 into the chamber, mosquitos continued to ignore the dot if it was green, blue or purple in colour. But if the dot was red, orange, black or cyan, mosquitoes would fly toward it!

The olfactory gating of visual preferences to human skin and visible spectra in mosquitoes, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28195-x

https://phys.org/news/2022-02-mosquitoes-red-vision-disease-vectors...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 5, 2022 at 9:28am

Why water flows weirdly in nanotubes Normally, water flows faster through a wider pipe than a narrower one. But in tiny carbon nanotubes, the flow rate is flipped, with water moving faster through the narrowest channels. This week, the Nature Podcast features researchers who have come up with a new explanation for this phenomenon. The nanotubes are perfectly smooth, so there should be no friction of the classical kind. But there is still ‘quantum friction’ because of interactions between the atoms of water and carbon. There is less quantum friction in narrower tubes because of the way the layers of the tube walls are aligned, say the researchers.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 5, 2022 at 9:01am

Three COVID-19 exposures needed for broad immunity

The immune system develops a high-quality antibody response after three encounters with the coronavirus spike protein. These antibodies are also capable of neutralizing omicron efficiently. This applies to people who are triple-vaccinated, to those having recovered and then received two vaccinations and to double-vaccinated individuals who have experienced a breakthrough infection. These are results of a study which tracked the antibodies of vaccinated and recovered individuals for two years.

Answers to the question how the immune systems can be "educated" to battle omicron and other immune escape variants of the virus are provided by a team of researchers. As they report in Nature Medicine, a total of three exposures to the viral spike protein leads to production of virus neutralizing antibodies not only in high quantity, but also high quality. These high-quality antibodies bind to the viral spike protein more vigorously and are also capable of effectively fighting the omicron variant. This applies to triple-vaccinated people, to people who have recovered from COVID-19 and then had two vaccinations, and to double-vaccinated people who then had a breakthrough infection.

In the new study the team now defined several parameters in the blood of study participants: the concentration of antibodies to the viral spike protein, the binding strength of these antibodies, and their ability to neutralize infection of SARS-CoV-2 variants in cell culture. For estimating the extent of protective immunity, the latter two parameters are particularly important. The study revealed that the ability of the immune system to neutralize the virus correlates only weakly with the antibody titer. Rather, it was critical how effectively these antibodies bind to the virus and thus disable infection.

As predicted from its many mutations, omicron exhibited the most pronounced evasion from neutralizing antibodies compared to all other viral variants tested. "For omicron, you need considerably more and better antibodies to prevent infection" . The researchers developed a new virus neutralization test, which allowed them to analyze antibodies in many serum samples and different variants of the virus at high throughput rates. A new finding of this study is that people require three separate exposures to the spike protein to build up high-level neutralizing activity against all viral variants, including omicron.

As the scientists report, various constellations are possible for these three spike encounters. Triple-vaccinated people without prior SARS-CoV-2 infection had almost the same titer and quality of neutralizing antibodies against omicron as vaccinated convalescents or people who had a breakthrough infection with delta or omicron.

In all cases, the neutralization activity reached similarly high levels and this was paralleled by an increased binding strength of the antibodies.

Paul R. Wratil et al, Three exposures to the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 by either infection or vaccination elicit superior neutralizing immunity to all variants of concern, Nature Medicine (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41591-022-01715-4

Nina Koerber et al, Dynamics of spike-and nucleocapsid specific immunity during long-term follow-up and vaccination of SARS-CoV-2 convalescents, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27649-y

https://researchnews.cc/news/11427/Three-COVID-19-exposures-needed-...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 4, 2022 at 12:04pm

There's a Bunch of Bacteria exchanging genetic material  in Your Gut, And It's Wilder Than We Thought

The human gut is the host of a rampant microscopic orgy. To survive, the microbes in our digestive tract are having 'sex' with each other on a regular basis, all in the name of swapping secrets on how to survive deadly doses of antibiotics.

A team of researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and University of California Riverside has now learned just how far this bacterial bump-and-grind goes, finding exchanges that go beyond what we knew previously.

Bacteria, of course, don't have genitals, but technically 'sex' in biology refers to any process that exchanges genetic material.

By forming a 'temporary union' with another bacterium in our gut, a microbe can therefore transfer its genes to another – it doesn't even have to be the same species.

All the microbe has to do is stick out a tube, called a pilus, and attach itself to another cell, shooting off a transferable package of DNA called a mobile genetic element when it's ready.

The discovery of bacterial sex was made over 70 years ago, when scientists realized this horizontal gene transfer was how microbes were sharing resistance genes for certain antibiotics, thereby spreading antibiotic resistance.

More recently, it's become clear that bacterial sex doesn't just occur when microbes are under attack. It happens all the time, and it's probably part of what keeps our microbiome fit and healthy.

https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(21)01664-8?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2211124721016648%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

https://www.sciencealert.com/there-are-a-bunch-of-bacteria-having-s...

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