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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Wednesday

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

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Tuesday

Scientists use AI to predict a wildfire's next move accurately

Researchers  have developed a new method to accurately predict wildfire spread. By combining satellite imagery and artificial intelligence, their model offers a potential breakthrough in wildfire management and emergency response.

Detailed in an early study proof published in Artificial Intelligence for the Earth Systems, the new model uses satellite data to track a wildfire's progression in real time, then feeds this information into a sophisticated computer algorithm that can accurately forecast the fire's likely path, intensity and growth rate.

This model represents an important step forward in our ability to combat wildfires.

 Bryan Shaddy et al, Generative Algorithms for Fusion of Physics-Based Wildfire Spread Models with Satellite Data for Initializing Wildfire Forecasts, Artificial Intelligence for the Earth Systems (2024). DOI: 10.1175/AIES-D-23-0087.1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Tuesday

Switching from gas to electric stoves cuts indoor air pollution

Switching from a gas stove to an electric induction stove can reduce indoor nitrogen dioxide air pollution, a known health hazard, by more than 50 percent according to new research led by scientists.  The findings appear in the journal Energy Research & Social Science.

this study is the the first to evaluate the feasibility and benefits of transitioning from gas to induction stoves in affordable housing. The study is the first to evaluate the effects of residential cooking electrification in a public housing setting.

 Misbath Daouda et al, Out of Gas, In with Justice: Findings from a gas-to-induction pilot in low-income housing in NYC, Energy Research & Social Science (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2024.103662

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Tuesday

'New El Niño' discovered south of the equator

A small area of the southwestern Pacific Ocean, near New Zealand and Australia, can trigger temperature changes that affect the entire Southern Hemisphere, a new study has found.

The new climate pattern, which shares some characteristics with the El Niño phenomenon, has been named the "Southern Hemisphere Circumpolar Wavenumber-4 Pattern."

Unlike El Niño, which starts in the tropics, this new pattern begins in the mid-latitudes. The study, published this month in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, highlights how important the interaction between the ocean and atmosphere is for our climate.

This discovery is like finding a new switch in Earth's climate. It shows that a relatively small area of the ocean can have wide-reaching effects on global weather and climate patterns.

Understanding this new weather system could greatly improve weather forecasting and climate prediction, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. It might help explain climate changes that were previously mysterious and could improve our ability to predict extreme weather and climate events.

 Balaji Senapati et al, Southern Hemisphere Circumpolar Wavenumber‐4 Pattern Simulated in SINTEX‐F2 Coupled Model, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans (2024). DOI: 10.1029/2023JC020801

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Tuesday

Blood proteins predict the risk of developing more than 60 diseases, study finds

Research on thousands of proteins measured from a drop of blood demonstrates the ability of proteins to predict the onset of many diverse diseases.

The researchers used data from the UK Biobank Pharma Proteomics Project (UKB-PPP), the largest proteomics study to date with measurements for approximately 3,000 plasma proteins from a randomly selected set of over 40,000 UK Biobank participants.

The protein data is linked to the participants' electronic health records. The authors used advanced analytical techniques to pinpoint, for each disease, a 'signature' of between the five and 20 proteins most important for prediction.

The researchers report the ability of protein 'signatures' to predict the onset of 67 diseases including multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, motor neuron disease, pulmonary fibrosis, and dilated cardiomyopathy.

The protein prediction models out-performed models based on standard, clinically recorded information. Prediction based on blood cell counts, cholesterol, kidney function and diabetes tests (glycated hemoglobin) performed less well than the protein prediction models for most examples.

The patient benefits of measuring and discussing the risk of future heart attack and stroke ('cardiovascular risk scores') are well established. This research opens up new prediction possibilities for a wide range of diseases, including rarer conditions. Many of these can currently take months and years to diagnose, and this research offers wholly new opportunities for timely diagnoses.

These findings require validation in different populations, including people with and without symptoms and signs of diseases and in different ethnic groups.

 Proteomic signatures improve risk prediction for common and rare diseases', Nature Medicine (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41591-024-03142-z

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Tuesday

New study identifies two proteins that may contribute to stroke recurrence

People who experience an arterial ischemic stroke (AIS) or transient ischemic stroke (TIA) are at an increased risk of suffering a second stroke or other major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE), making it critically important to identify risk factors and treatments to prevent these subsequent occurrences.

A new study has identified new genetic and molecular risk factors that may reveal new pathways for treating patients after they experience their first stroke.

Published in Stroke, the study identified CCL27 and TNFRSF14, two proteins that are associated with subsequent MACE, but not initial strokes. These proteins are known to activate inflammation, which plays a key role in the development of strokes and many chronic conditions and diseases.

The findings suggest that inflammation is a contributing factor to MACE outcomes among people after they have their first stroke.

Utilizing genetic information and medical history data from two large biobanks, the VA's Million Veteran Program and UK Biobank, the research team conducted ancestry-specific genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to find associations between DNA and incident and subsequent AIS and MACE.

GWAS are typically performed to determine whether individuals have had a medical event for the first time, but applying this method to subsequent MACE events could shed novel insights about stroke progression, information that would be valuable for therapeutic drug identification, the researchers say.

Protein Identification for Stroke Progression via Mendelian Randomization in Million Veteran Program and UK Biobank, Stroke (2024). DOI: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.124.047103

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Tuesday

Scientists uncover fundamental rules for how dengue virus infects its mosquito and human hosts

Mosquito-borne viral infections once confined to tropical regions are spreading. Dengue virus infects up to 400 million people worldwide each year according to World Health Organization estimates, and no available treatments exist for this disease.

Now, research from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research has uncovered surprising strategies for how dengue and hundreds of other viruses replicate in their hosts, with the potential to aid in developing novel antiviral treatments and vaccines.

Exposing Dengue’s Invasion Strategies

 Luciana A Castellano et al, Dengue virus preferentially uses human and mosquito non-optimal codons, bioRxiv (2023). DOI: 10.1101/2023.06.14.544804

Luciana A Castellano et al, Dengue virus preferentially uses human and mosquito non-optimal codons, Molecular Systems Biology (2024). doi.org/10.1038/s44320-024-00052-7

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Tuesday

Smell of human stress can affect dogs' emotions, leading them to make more pessimistic choices

Dogs experience emotional contagion from the smell of human stress, leading them to make more 'pessimistic' choices, new research finds. 

Evidence in humans suggests that the smell of a stressed person subconsciously affects the emotions and choices made by others around them.

The researchers recruited 18 dog-owner partnerships to take part in a series of trials with different human smells present. During the trials, dogs were trained that when a food bowl was placed in one location, it contained a treat, but when placed in another location, it was empty.

Once a dog learned the difference between these bowl locations, they were faster to approach the location with a treat than the empty location. Researchers then tested how quickly the dog would approach new, ambiguous bowl locations positioned between the original two.

A quick approach reflected 'optimism' about food being present in these ambiguous locations—a marker of a positive emotional state—while a slow approach indicated 'pessimism' and negative emotion. These trials were repeated while each dog was exposed to either no odor or the odors of sweat and breath samples from humans in either a stressed (arithmetic test) or relaxed (listening to soundscapes) state.

Researchers discovered that the stress smell made dogs slower to approach the ambiguous bowl location nearest the trained location of the empty bowl. An effect that was not seen with the relaxed smell. These findings suggest that the stress smell may have increased the dogs' expectations that this new location contained no food, similar to the nearby empty bowl location.

Researchers suggest this 'pessimistic' response reflects a negative emotional state and could possibly be a way for the dog to conserve energy and avoid disappointment.

The team also found that dogs continued to improve their learning about the presence or absence of food in the two trained bowl locations and that they improved faster when the stress smell was present.

Parr-Cortes, Zoe ; Muller, Carsten T ; Talas, Laszlo et al, The odour of an unfamiliar stressed or relaxed person affects dogs' responses to a cognitive bias test, Scientific Reports (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-66147-1

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Tuesday

Biologists discover male elephants use infrasonic rumbles to signal 'let's go'

Bull elephants gather in the evening coolness to drink. After a spell, a senior male lifts his head and turns from the waterhole. With ears flapping gently, he lets out a deep, resonant rumble.

One by one, the others respond, their voices overlapping in a sonorous, infrasonic chorus that whispers across the savanna. This elephant barbershop quartet conveys a clear message: It's time to move on.

Gradually, the elephants shift, their massive bodies swaying as they follow their rumbling leader to the next stop on their nocturnal wanderings.

For the first time, scientists  have documented male elephants using "let's go" rumbles to signal the start of group departures from the Mushara waterhole in Etosha National Park, Namibia. The vocalizations are initiated by the most socially integrated, and often the most dominant, males in close-knit social groups.

The findings, detailed in the open-access journal PeerJ, are surprising because this behavior was previously thought to be exclusive to female elephants in family groups.

Male elephants, typically considered to have loose social ties, engaging in such sophisticated vocal coordination to trigger action is surprising. 

The "let's go" rumbles observed in male elephants bear striking similarities to those previously recorded in female elephants. The researchers hypothesized that male elephants likely learn the behaviour when they are young.

In the case of both male and female elephants, the initiator's call is followed by the next individual's rumble, with each elephant waiting for the preceding call to nearly finish before adding their own voice. This creates a harmonious, turn-taking pattern akin to a barbershop quartet.

It's very synchronized and ritualized. When one goes high, the other goes low, and they have this vocal space where they're coordinating.

PeerJ (2024). doi.org/10.7717/peerj.17767

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Monday

A second study by researchers also found evidence of long-lasting ovary proteins in young mice, including proteins that were present before the mice were born. Certain long-lasting proteins, such as ZP3, were identified for future studies.

Some of these hardy proteins were present in the cell mitochondria, where a cell's energy is generated. Since mitochondria are inherited as part of the egg cell a mammal grows from, it could ensure these critical organelles can remain functional as they're passed from mother to offspring.

Eventually, even these proteins that live way beyond the norm fade away and die, the researchers report. That could be connected to the natural decline in a woman's ability to have children, the study suggests – and could ultimately point to ways to treat or at least better diagnose infertility.

The findings from these studies of mice still need to be replicated in humans, but if they are, it would represent a significant step forward in our understanding of fertility and how oocytes can be kept in a healthy state.

https://elifesciences.org/reviewed-preprints/93172

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41556-024-01442-7

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