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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Wednesday

A strategy to discern between real and virtual video conferencing backgrounds

Video-conferencing platforms such as Skype, Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet allow people to communicate remotely with others in different parts of the world. The COVID-19 pandemic and the social distancing measures that followed led to a further rise in the use of these platforms, as it increased remote working and virtual collaborations.

Most video-conferencing platforms now also allow users to use virtual backgrounds, so that they don't need to show their home environments to their co-workers and to reduce the risk of distractions. These virtual background can be i) real (current), ii) virtual (e.g., a seaside landscape or outer space), and iii) fake, which is a real but not current background. While being able to change the background increases users' privacy, fake backgrounds can also be used with malicious intent, to give the impression of a false location, for instance suggesting that a user is at the office when he is actually at home.

Researchers  have recently developed a tool that could be used to distinguish between real and virtual backgrounds in video-conferencing platforms. Their method, introduced in a paper pre-published on arXiv, was found to successfully discern between real and "artificial backgrounds" in two distinct and common attack scenarios.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 17, 2022 at 10:39am

CRISPR now possible in cockroaches

Researchers have developed a CRISPR-Cas9 approach to enable gene editing in cockroaches, according to a study published by Cell Press on May 16th in the journal Cell Reports Methods. The simple and efficient technique, named "direct parental" CRISPR (DIPA-CRISPR), involves the injection of materials into female adults where eggs are developing rather than into the embryos themselves.

Insect researchers have been freed from the annoyance of egg injections. They  can now edit insect genomes more freely and at will. In principle, this method should work for more than 90% of insect species.

Current approaches for insect gene editing typically require microinjection of materials into early embryos, severely limiting its application to many species.

Takaaki Daimon, DIPA-CRISPR is a simple and accessible method for insect gene editing, Cell Reports Methods (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.crmeth.2022.100215. www.cell.com/cell-reports-meth … 2667-2375(22)00078-9

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 16, 2022 at 9:24am

While initial experiments revived the photoreceptors, the cells appeared to have lost their ability to communicate with other cells in the retina. The team identified oxygen deprivation as the critical factor leading to this loss of communication.

To overcome the challenge, researchers procured organ donor eyes in under 20 minutes from the time of death. They designed a special transportation unit too to restore oxygenation and other nutrients to the organ donor eyes.

 They also built a device to stimulate the retina and measure the electrical activity of its cells. With this approach, the team was able to restore a specific electrical signal seen in living eyes, the "b wave." It is the first b wave recording made from the central retina of postmortem human eyes.

They were able to make the retinal cells talk to each other, the way they do in the living eye to mediate human vision. Past studies have restored very limited electrical activity in organ donor eyes, but this has never been achieved in the macula, and never to the extent they have now demonstrated.

The process demonstrated by the team could be used to study other neuronal tissues in the central nervous system. It is a transformative technical advance that can help researchers develop a better understanding of neurodegenerative diseases, including blinding retinal diseases such as age-related macular degeneration.

Fatima Abbas, Silke Becker, Bryan W. Jones, Ludovic S. Mure, Satchidananda Panda, Anne Hanneken, Frans Vinberg. Revival of light signalling in the postmortem mouse and human retina. Nature, 2022; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04709-x

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 16, 2022 at 9:20am

Life after death for the human eye: Vision scientists revive light-sensing cells in organ donor eyes

Scientists have revived light-sensing neuron cells in organ donor eyes and restored communication between them as part of a series of discoveries that stand to transform brain and vision research.

Billions of neurons in the central nervous system transmit sensory information as electrical signals; in the eye, specialized neurons known as photoreceptors sense light.

Publishing in Nature, a team of researchers  describe how they used the retina as a model of the central nervous system to investigate how neurons die—and new methods to revive them.

They  were able to wake up photoreceptor cells in the human macula, which is the part of the retina responsible for our central vision and our ability to see fine detail and color. In eyes obtained up to five hours after an organ donor's death, these cells responded to bright light, colored lights, and even very dim flashes of light.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 16, 2022 at 7:46am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 14, 2022 at 6:59am

Paper or plastic? Rigid waterproof coating for paper aims to reduce...

There is a considerable amount of research into the reduction of plastic for many and various applications. For the first time, researchers have found a way to imbue relatively sustainable paper materials with some of the useful properties of plastic. This can be done easily, cost effectively, and efficiently. A coating called Choetsu not only waterproofs paper, but also maintains its flexibility and degrades safely as well.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 14, 2022 at 6:55am

Antibiotics can lead to fungal infection because of disruption to the gut's immune system

Patients prescribed antibiotics in hospital are more likely to get fungal infections because of disruption to the immune system in the gut, according to a new study .

Using immune-boosting drugs alongside the antibiotics could reduce the health risks from these complex infections say the researchers.

The life-threatening fungal infection invasive candidiasis is a major complication for hospitalized patients who are given antibiotics to prevent sepsis and other bacterial infections that spread quickly around hospitals (such as C. diff). Fungal infections can be more difficult to treat than bacterial infections, but the underlying factors causing these infections are not well understood.

This new study demonstrates the potential for immune-boosting drugs, but the researchers also say their work also highlights how antibiotics can have additional effects on our bodies that affect how we fight infection and disease. This in turn underscores the importance of careful stewardship of available antibiotics.

We knew that antibiotics make fungal infections worse, but the discovery that bacterial co-infections can also develop through these interactions in the gut was surprising. These factors can add up to a complicated clinical situation—and by understanding these underlying causes, doctors will be better able to treat these patients effectively.

Long-term Antibiotics Promote Mortality After Systemic Fungal Infection by Driving Lymphocyte Dysfunction and Systemic Escape of Commensal Bacteria, Cell Host & Microbe (2022).

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 14, 2022 at 6:51am

Solid tumors use a type of T cell as a shield against immune attack

An unexpected trick in cancer's playbook may fool an important component of our immune systems into knocking down our natural defenses against solid tumors.

This newfound vulnerability involves a misuse of a type of T cell, part of a large family of blood cells that are essential to a functioning immune system.

Researchers identified a subset of T cells that show up in great numbers in head and neck tumors, but not in similar tissues of the mouth inflamed by common ailments such as gum disease.

It seems that this odd group of T cells have mixed up their highly specialized assignments within our immune systems and are now working to protect tumour cells. 

The evidence the researchers uncovered now might help explain why cutting-edge immunotherapies that work against blood cancers are less effective against solid tumours (such as breast, prostate, kidney and colorectal cancers), which are responsible for most cancer deaths. Researchers say it points the way for future drugs that might strip away that protection, making current therapies work better for more people.

 These 'T-regs'  are immune-suppressing cells, swarming in the tumor-environment specimens, were different from T-regs found elsewhere in the body. Their cell surfaces are marked by two distinct protein receptors. These specially marked T-regs were particularly good at tamping down inflammation, expanding in number and protecting the tumor cells from attack by other types of T cells.

A very large fraction of these critical, immunosuppressive cells in the tumor have this trait. These human tumor-related T-regs were clustered in the thicket of blood cells and connective tissues in and around the malignant mass—a site of biological territory known as the tumour micro environment. And because these cells are easy to spot, in theory they also can be easily targeted by anticancer drugs.

Florian Mair et al, Extricating human tumour immune alterations from tissue inflammation, Nature (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04718-w

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 13, 2022 at 12:02pm

A first: Scientists grow plants in soil from the Moon

Scientists have grown plants in soil from the Moon, a first in human history and a milestone in lunar and space exploration.

In a new paper published in the journal Communications Biology, University of Florida researchers showed that plants can successfully sprout and grow in lunar soil. Their study also investigated how plants respond biologically to the Moon's soil, also known as lunar regolith, which is radically different from soil found on Earth.

This work is a first step toward one day growing plants for food and oxygen on the Moon or during space missions. More immediately, this research comes as the Artemis Program plans to return humans to the Moon.

Anna-Lisa Paul, Plants grown in Apollo lunar regolith present stress-associated transcriptomes that inform prospects for lunar exploration, Communications Biology (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03334-8. www.nature.com/articles/s42003-022-03334-8

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 13, 2022 at 12:00pm

Later researchers sequenced the RNA transcriptome of the optic gland at different stages of their maternal decline. RNA carries instructions from DNA about how to produce proteins, so sequencing it is a good way to understand the activity of genes and what's going on inside cells at a given time. As the animals began to fast and decline, there were higher levels of activity in genes that metabolize cholesterol and produce steroids, the first time the optic gland had been linked to something other than reproduction.

In the new paper, published this week in Current Biology, scientists took their studies a step further and analyzed the chemicals produced by the maternal octopus optic gland, specifically cholesterol. 

The new research shows that the maternal optic gland undergoes dramatic changes to produce more pregnenolone and progesterone, maternal cholestanoids, and 7-DHC during the stages of decline. While the pregnancy hormones are to be expected, this is the first time anything like the components for bile acids or cholesterol have been linked to the maternal octopus death spiral.

Some of these same pathways are used for producing cholesterol in mice and other mammals as well. 

Elevated levels of 7-DHC are toxic in humans; It's the hallmark of a genetic disorder called Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome (SLOS), which is caused by a mutation in the enzyme that converts 7-DHC to cholesterol. Children with the disorder suffer from severe developmental and behavioral consequences, including repetitive self-injury reminiscent of octopus end-of-life behaviors.

Z. Yan Wang, Steroid hormones of the octopus self-destruct system, Current Biology (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.04.043. www.cell.com/current-biology/f … 0960-9822(22)00661-3

Part 2

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