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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 9, 2019 at 9:10am

Teenager recovers from near death in world-first GM virus treatment

Bacteria-killing viruses known as phages offer hope of solution to antibiotic resistance

A British teenager has made a remarkable recovery after being the first patient in the world to be given a genetically engineered virus to treat a drug-resistant infection.

Isabelle Holdaway, 17, nearly died after a lung transplant left her with an intractable infection that could not be cleared with antibiotics. After a nine-month stay at Great Ormond Street hospital, she returned to her home in Kent for palliative care, but recovered after her consultant teamed up with a US laboratory to develop the experimental therapy.

The scientists behind the breakthrough have said bacteria-killing viruses, known as phages, have the potential to be used as an alternative treatment to counter the antibiotic resistance.

Isabelle has cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that results in frequent infections clogging up the lungs with mucus. By summer 2017, her lungs had less than a third of their normal function and she had been plagued by two stubborn bacterial strains for eight years. She and her doctors decided a double lung transplant was the best option, even though it meant her existing infections could spread.

After the transplant, this fear became a reality: a bacterial strain similar to TB took hold, colonising her surgical wound, then her liver, until eventually pockets of bacteria known as nodules began pushing through the skin on her arms, legs and buttocks. Phages work by infecting bacteria cells and killing them, but they are very specific in which infections they can target. Scientists identified dozens of phages known to infect bacterial relatives of the patients’ strains, and tested thousands of combinations of them in petri dishes to see which wiped out the patients’ bacteria.Finally, they found a phage that could hit the strain that infected one of the teenagers. Each experiment took a week because the bacteria grow slowly. Shortly after Isabelle was sent home on a palliative care plan, Hatfull’s lab identified a phage that wiped out the infection, and another two phages that could infect it but not kill it efficiently. By removing a single gene, they were able to increase the efficiency of these two phages, making a cocktail that they believed could kill the infection. A combination was used to avoid the possibility of the infection becoming resistant to the phage. In June 2018, Isabelle returned to Great Ormond Street and after some safety tests, was given the cocktail twice daily via an intravenous drip and on her skin. Six weeks later a liver scan revealed the infection had essentially disappeared. And there were no side effects!

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-019-0437-z

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 8, 2019 at 9:54am

Rice husks can remove microcystin toxins from water

Scientists at The University of Toledo have discovered that rice husks can effectively remove microcystin from water, a finding that could have far-reaching implications for communities along the Great Lakes and across the developing world.

An abundant and inexpensive agricultural byproduct, rice husks have been investigated as a water purification solution in the past. However, this is the first time they have been shown to remove microcystin, the toxin released by harmful algal blooms.

The results of the study were recently published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

Researchers found the rice husks removed more than 95 percent of microcystin MC-LR -- the most common type found in Lake Erie -- in concentrations of up to 596 parts-per-billion (ppb). Even in concentrations approaching 3,000 ppb, more than 70 percent of the MC-LR was removed, and other types of MCs were removed as well.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 26, 2019 at 8:57am

Scientists have discovered a powerful new strain of fact-resistant humans who are threatening the ability of Earth to sustain life, a sobering new study reports.

The research, conducted by the University of Minnesota, identifies a virulent strain of humans who are virtually immune to any form of verifiable knowledge, leaving scientists at a loss as to how to combat them.

“These humans appear to have all the faculties necessary to receive and process information. And yet, somehow, they have developed defenses that, for all intents and purposes, have rendered those faculties totally inactive. As facts have multiplied, their defenses against those facts have only grown more powerful.” Davis Logsdon, one of the scientists who contributed to the study, said.

While scientists have no clear understanding of the mechanisms that prevent the fact-resistant humans from absorbing data, they theorize that the strain may have developed the ability to intercept and discard information enroute from the auditory nerve to the brain.

“The normal functions of human consciousness have been completely nullified,” Logsdon said.

While reaffirming the gloomy assessments of the study, Logsdon held out hope that the threat of fact-resistant humans could be mitigated in the future.

“Our research is very preliminary, but it’s possible that they will become more receptive to facts once they are in an environment without food, water, or oxygen,” he said.

https://www.thescinewsreporter.com/2019/04/scientists-earth-endange...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 11, 2019 at 11:19am

A Danish study of 657,461 children showed that children who were not vaccinated for MMR had a higher rate of autism than the children who were vaccinated with MMR. Large Danish Study: Autism Not Linked to MMR Vaccine

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 11, 2019 at 11:14am

A common food additive may make the flu vaccine less effective

A common food additive may make it more difficult to fight the flu.

Vaccinated mice that got food containing the additive, tert-butylhydroquinone (tBHQ), took three days longer to recover from the flu than mice that ate tBHQ-free food. The unpublished result suggests the common additive may make flu vaccines less effective, toxicologist Robert Freeborn of Michigan State University in East Lansing reported April 7 at the 2019 Experimental Biology meeting.  

The additive helps stabilize fats and is used as a preservative for a wide variety of foods, including some cooking oils, frozen meat products — especially fish fillets — and processed foods such as crackers, chips and other fried snacks. Food manufacturers aren’t required to put the ingredient on labels, so “it’s hard to know everything it’s in,” says Freeborn.

In separate experiments, unvaccinated mice eating tBHQ in their food had more virus RNA in their lungs than mice that didn’t eat it. The tBHQ eaters also had inflammation and increased mucus production deeper in their lungs than usual, Freeborn and colleagues found.  

The researchers don’t know exactly how the additive hampers flu fighting, but it may be because it increases activity of an immune system protein called Nrf2. Increased activity of that protein might reduce the number of virus-fighting immune cells in the mice. That possibility remains to be tested.

R. Freeborn et al. The immune response to influenza is suppressed by the synthetic food additive and Nrf2 activator, tert-butylhydroquinone (tBHQ). 2019 Experimental Biology, Orlando, April 7, 2019.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 23, 2019 at 8:05am

Scientists Watched  as Heat Moved at the Speed of Sound!

A rare phenomenon seen in just a handful of materials at forbidding temperatures has been detected within “warm” graphite—a finding that could aid future microelectronics.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/03/13/science.aav3548

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 2, 2019 at 11:53am

Night-vision ‘super-mice’ created using light-converting nanoparticles

The particles bind to photoreceptors in the eyes and convert infrared wavelengths to visible light.

Mice with vision enhanced by nanotechnology were able to see infrared light as well as visible light, reports a study published February 28 in the journal Cell. A single injection of nanoparticles in the mice's eyes bestowed infrared vision for up to 10 weeks with minimal side effects, allowing them to see infrared light even during the day and with enough specificity to distinguish between different shapes. These findings could lead to advancements in human infrared vision technologies, including potential applications in civilian encryption, security, and military operations.
Humans and other mammals are limited to seeing a range of wavelengths of light called visible light, which includes the wavelengths of the rainbow. But infra red variation, which has a longer wavelength, is all around us. People, animals and objects emit infrared light as they give off heat, and objects can also reflect infrared light.

"When light enters the eye and hits the retina, the rods and cones—or photoreceptor cells—absorb the photons with visible light wavelengths and send corresponding electric signals to the brain," says Han. "Because infra resd wavelengths are too long to be absorbed by photoreceptors, we are not able to perceive them."

In this study, the scientists made nanoparticles that can anchor tightly to photo receptor cells and act as tiny infrared light transducers. When infrared light hits the retina, the nanoparticles capture the longer infrared wavelengths and emit shorter wavelengths within the visible light range. The nearby rod or cone then absorbs the shorter wavelength and sends a normal signal to the brain, as if visible light had hit the retina.

The researchers tested the nanoparticles in mice, which, like humans, cannot see infrared naturally. Mice that received the injections showed unconscious physical signs that they were detecting infrared light, such as their pupils constricting, while mice injected with only the buffer solution didn't respond to infrared light.

To test whether the mice could make sense of the infrared light, the researchers set up a series of maze tasks to show the mice could see infrared in daylight conditions, simultaneously with visible light.

"In our study, we have shown that both rods and cones bind these nanoparticles and were activated by the near infrared light," say the researchers. "So we believe this technology will also work inhuman eyes not only for generating super vision but also for therapeutic solutions in human red color vision deficits."

Cell, Ma et al.: "Mammalian Near-Infrared Image Vision through Injectable and Self-Powered Retinal Nanoantennae." https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(19)30101-1 , DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.01.038 

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 27, 2019 at 11:00am

Scientists turn carbon dioxide back into coal!

Scientists have harnessed liquid metals to turn carbon dioxide back into solid coal, in research that offers an alternative pathway for safely and permanently removing the greenhouse gas from our atmosphere. The new technique can convert CO2 back into carbon at room temperature, a process that's efficient and scalable. A side benefit is that the carbon can hold electrical charge, becoming a supercapacitor, so it could potentially be used as a component in future vehicles.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190226112429.htm

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 26, 2019 at 7:03am

Hachimoji DNA and RNA : A genetic system with eight building blocks!

Expanding the genetic code

DNA and RNA are naturally composed of four nucleotide bases that form hydrogen bonds in order to pair. Hoshika et al. added an additional four synthetic nucleotides to produce an eight-letter genetic code and generate so-called hachimoji DNA. Coupled with an engineered T7 RNA polymerase, this expanded DNA alphabet could be transcribed into RNA. Thus, new forms of DNA that add information density to genetic biopolymers can be generated that may be useful for future synthetic biological applications.

Researchers reported DNA- and RNA-like systems built from eight nucleotide “letters” (hence the name “hachimoji”) that form four orthogonal pairs. These synthetic systems meet the structural requirements needed to support Darwinian evolution, including a polyelectrolyte backbone, predictable thermodynamic stability, and stereoregular building blocks that fit a Schrödinger aperiodic crystal. Measured thermodynamic parameters predict the stability of hachimoji duplexes, allowing hachimoji DNA to increase the information density of natural terran DNA. Three crystal structures show that the synthetic building blocks do not perturb the aperiodic crystal seen in the DNA double helix. Hachimoji DNA was then transcribed to give hachimoji RNA in the form of a functioning fluorescent hachimoji aptamer. These results expand the scope of molecular structures that might support life, including life throughout the cosmos.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6429/884

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 5, 2018 at 6:46am

It is not common but fathers too can pass mitochondrial DNA to their children!

Fathers in three unrelated families passed mitochondria — tiny energy factories found in cells — on to their children, researchers report.

Scientists have long thought that children inherited mitochondria exclusively from their mothers, since mitochondria from the father’s sperm are usually destroyed after fertilizing the egg. The new research, published online November 26, 2018 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that in rare cases dads can contribute mitochondria too. For now, the consequences of inheriting mitochondria from both parents aren’t known.

Mitochondrial disease researcher Paldeep Atwal spotted the paternal signature after examining DNA from a woman who came to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. DNA in a cell’s nucleus is inherited equally from both parents and contains all the genetic instructions for building a body. Mitochondria have their own DNA, too, that contains some of the genes needed for building and running the organelles. The woman’s cells weirdly contained two types of mitochondrial DNA, some from mom and some “from elsewhere”. 

Thinking the result was a mistake, Atwal and colleagues repeated the test. “The same thing came back the second time, and that’s when the researchers started to get a little bit suspicious”.

The researchers had DNA from both of the woman’s parents, so the team examined the father’s mitochondrial DNA, and found that he was the source of the mystery mitochondria. The woman’s brother also inherited mitochondria from their father. 

So Atwal got in touch with Taosheng Huang, a mitochondrial disease expert at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. It turns out that Huang had examined patients from two other families in which fathers had handed mitochondria down to their children. All together, the researchers found 17 people in the three families who inherited 24 percent to 76 percent of their mitochondria from dad.

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/11/21/1810946115

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