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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 11, 2014 at 8:27am

How human existence doesn't have to cost the Earth
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22429941.000-how-human-existe...

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 11, 2014 at 8:02am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 11, 2014 at 7:58am

Mindfulness-based cancer recovery and supportive-expressive therapy maintain telomere length relative to controls in distressed breast cancer survivors
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cncr.29063/full
Researchers in Canada have found the first evidence to suggest that support groups that encourage meditation and yoga can actually alter the cellular activity of cancer survivors.
Good news but let us wait and watch for more evidence in this regard.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 10, 2014 at 5:39am

Scientists beat cancer protein by 'turning it against itself'

In a new study, scientists have a new way to beat one of the most hard to pin down target proteins in cancer cells, by turning the protein's own molecular machinations against it.

Researchers at Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center used a specially crafted compound to disrupt the protein's ability to rev up its own production and that of other proteins involved in tumor cell growth. The result, in laboratory samples of neuroblastoma cancer cells and in mice with an aggressive form of neuroblastoma, was death of the cancer cells and retreat of the animals' tumors, with little or no harm to normal cells. Neuroblastoma is a pediatric cancer that begins in embryonic nerve cells and generally occurs in infants and young children.

The study focused on a cell protein called MYCN, one of a family of proteins that are notorious not only for stimulating the growth and proliferation of cancer cells, but also for their ability to evade targeted drug therapies. Researchers now hope that the approach may prove effective against some of the many other cancers also characterized by a surplus of MYC-family proteins in tumor cells.

MYCN and its kin are "transcription factors," proteins that bind to DNA and influence the rate at which genetic information is used by the cell - essentially serving as brightener/dimmer switches for gene activity. Lead author Edmond Chipumuro said that as per recent studies, when transcription factors like MYC were mutated or overabundant, they could have a cancerous effect. They cause a global rise in gene expression, making genes throughout the cell more active.

Although very rare in children older than 10, neuroblastoma has been by far the most common cancer in infants. It accounts for about 7 percent of all cancers in children, and 15 percent of all pediatric cancer deaths.

Chemical biologists led by Dana-Farber's Nathanael Gray, PhD, designed and custom-made a compound called THZ1 that forms a particularly strong bond with CDK7, which is one of the many proteins used in the assembly of a super-enhancer, rendering the protein essentially nonfunctional. When researchers treated laboratory samples of MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma cells with THZ1, the tumor cells died, but normal cells were unaffected. When they used the agent to treat mice with this type of neuroblastoma, the tumors shrank markedly, with no negative side effects for the animals.

Study's senior author, Rani George explained because normal cells didn't acquire super-enhancers on these master regulators, the agent had a profound impact on neuroblastoma tissue but not on normal tissue.

-Journal CELL

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 8, 2014 at 9:01am

Possible alternative to antibiotics: scientists from the University of Bern have developed a novel substance for the treatment of severe bacterial infections without antibiotics, which would prevent the development of antibiotic resistance

Scientists have developed the first effective alternative to antibiotics in what is being described as a major development in the battle against superbugs.

A patient trial showed the drug was effective at eradicating the MRSA superbug. Scientists say it is unlikely the infection could develop resistance against the new treatment which is already available as a cream for skin infections.

Researchers hope to develop a pill or injectable version of the drug within five years.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 8, 2014 at 8:29am

Virus pushing tigers towards extinction
Adding to the existing pressures of habitat loss, poaching and depletion of prey species, a new threat to tiger populations in the wild has surfaced in the form of a lethal virus.

According to a new study from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), canine distemper virus (CDV) has the potential to be a significant driver in pushing the tigers towards extinction.

While CDV has recently been shown to lead to the deaths of individual tigers, its long-term impacts on tiger populations had never before been studied, researchers said.

The authors evaluated these impacts on the Amur tiger population in Russia's Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Zapovednik (SABZ), where tiger numbers declined from 38 individuals to 9 in the years 2007 to 2012.

In 2009 and 2010, six adult tigers died or disappeared from the reserve, and CDV was confirmed in two dead tigers - leading scientists to believe that CDV likely played a role in the overall decline of the population.

Joint investigations of CDV have been an ongoing focus of scientists since its first appearance in tigers in 2003.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone....

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 8, 2014 at 8:06am

Direct brain-to-brain connection has been established between humans for the second time

Scientists in the US have successfully linked the brains of six people, allowing one person to control the hands of another using just their thoughts.
Researchers from the University of Washington in the US have managed to non-invasively link-up two people’s brains and allowed them to communicate without speaking.

This is the second time they’ve succeeded in creating this brain-to-brain communication, one year after they first showed it was possible, and it brings the ability closer to real-world applications.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone....

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 8, 2014 at 8:03am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 7, 2014 at 7:28am

Making tiny machines that can move through blood and other fluids that have inconsistent consistencies, or viscosities, is tough. Now scientists say that their “micro-scallop” is up to the task. The device has two shells attached at a single hinge. Magnets control how quickly the shells flap open and shut. Depending on those speeds, the viscocity of the fluid between the shells can change, propelling the 300-micrometer-wide scallop forward. The design could pave the way for similar swimmers to travel through blood and tissue and deliver therapeutic drugs to targeted areas, researchers report November 4 in Nature Communications.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 6, 2014 at 7:19am

The bizarre behavior of the quantum world — with objects existing in two places simultaneously and light behaving as either waves or particles — could result from interactions between many 'parallel' everyday worlds, a new theory suggests.

“It is a fundamental shift from previous quantum interpretations,” says Howard Wiseman, a theoretical quantum physicist at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, who together with his colleagues describes the idea in Physical Review X.

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