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.

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

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

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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

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

Ehsan Nowroozi et al, Real or virtual: a video conferencing background manipulation-detection system. arXiv:2204.11853v1 [cs.CV]. arxiv.org/abs/2204.11853

Machine learning techniques for image forensics in adversarial setting. Ph.D. Thesis (2020). theses.eurasip.org/theses/859/ … for-image-forensics/

Ehsan Nowroozi et al, A survey of machine learning techniques in adversarial image forensics. arXiv:2010.09680v1 [cs.CR], arxiv.org/abs/2010.09680

Shijing He, Yaxiong Lei, The privacy protection effectiveness of the video conference platforms' virtual background and the privacy concerns from the end-users. arXiv:2110.12493v1 [cs.HC], arxiv.org/abs/2110.12493

Jan Malte Hilgefort et al, Spying through Virtual Backgrounds of Video Calls, Proceedings of the 14th ACM Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Security (2021). DOI: 10.1145/3474369.3486870

Information Leakage in Encrypted IP Video Traffic. Proceedings of the IEEE Global Communications (GLOBECOM)(2015).

Mauro Barni et al, CNN Detection of GAN-Generated Face Images based on Cross-Band Co-occurrences Analysis, 2020 IEEE International Workshop on Information Forensics and Security (WIFS) (2021). DOI: 10.1109/WIFS49906.2020.9360905

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-05-strategy-discern-real-virtual-v...

Part 2

For large bone injuries, it's Sonic hedgehog to the rescue

A  Stem Cell study in npj Regenerative Medicine presents intriguing evidence that large bone injuries might trigger a repair strategy in adults that recapitulates elements of skeletal formation in utero. Key to this repair strategy is a gene with a fittingly heroic name: Sonic hedgehog.

Rocket engine exhaust pollution extends high into Earth's atmosphere

Reusable space technology has led to a rise in space transportation at a lower cost, as popularized by commercial spaceflights of companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic. What is poorly understood, however, is rockets' propulsion emissions creating significant heating and compositional changes in the atmosphere.

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Scientists Just Measured a Mechanical Quantum System Without Destroying It

There's a key aspect of quantum computing you may not have thought about before. Called 'quantum non-​demolition measurements', they refer to observing certain quantum states without destroying them in the process.

If we want to put together a functioning quantum computer, not having it break down every second while calculations are made would obviously be helpful. Now, scientists have described a new technique for recording quantum non-demolition measurements that shows a lot of promise.

In this case, the research involved mechanical quantum systems – objects that are relatively large in quantum computing terms, but exceedingly tiny for us. They use mechanical motion (such as vibration) to handle the necessary quantum magic, and they can be combined with other quantum systems too.

For the purposes of this study, the team put together a thin strip of high-​quality sapphire, just under half a millimeter thick. A thin piezoelectrical transducer was used to excite acoustic waves, moving energy units such as phonons which can, in theory, be put through quantum computing processes. Technically, this device is known as an acoustic resonator.

That was the first part of the setup. To do the measuring, the acoustic resonator was coupled with a superconducting qubit – those basic quantum computer building blocks that can simultaneously hold both a 1 and a 0 value, and upon which companies such as Google and IBM have already built rudimentary quantum computers.

By making the status of the superconducting qubit dependent on the number of phonons in the acoustic resonator, the scientists could read that number of phonons without actually interacting with them or transferring any energy.

They describe it as similar to playing a theremin, the strange musical instrument that doesn't need to be touched to produce sound.

By interfacing mechanical resonators with superconducting circuits, circuit quantum acoustodynamics can make a variety of important tools available for manipulating and measuring motional quantum states.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-022-01591-2

Wood-based foam to keep buildings cooler

Running air conditioners constantly in summer can be expensive and wasteful. Now, researchers reporting in the ACS journal Nano Letters have designed a lightweight foam made from wood-based cellulose nanocrystals that reflects sunlight, emits absorbed heat and is thermally insulating. They suggest that the material could reduce buildings' cooling energy needs by more than a third.

Although scientists have developed cooling materials, they have disadvantages. Some materials that passively release absorbed heat let a lot of heat through to buildings under the direct, midday sun of the summer months. And other materials that reflect sunlight don't work well in hot, humid or cloudy weather. So researchers wanted to develop a robust material that could reflect sunlight, passively release heat and keep wayward heat from passing through.

To generate a cooling material, the researchers connected cellulose nanocrystals together with a silane bridge, before freezing and freeze-drying the material under a vacuum. This process vertically aligned the nanocrystals, making a white, lightweight foam, which reflected 96% of visible light and emitted 92% of absorbed infrared radiation. When placed over an aluminum foil-lined box sitting outdoors at noon, the material kept the temperature inside the box 16 degrees F cooler than the temperature outside it. Also, the material kept the inside of the box 13 degrees F cooler when the air was humid. As the cellulose-based foam was compressed, its cooling ability decreased, revealing tunable cooling properties. The team calculated that placing the foam on the roof and exterior walls of a building could reduce its cooling energy needs by an average of 35.4%. Because the wood-based cellulose foam's performance can be tuned depending on weather conditions, the researcher say that the technology could be applied in a wide range of environments.

Chenyang Cai et al, Dynamically Tunable All-Weather Daytime Cellulose Aerogel Radiative Supercooler for Energy-Saving Building, Nano Letters (2022). DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c00844

Climate change indicators hit record highs in 2021: UN

Four key climate change indicators all set new record highs in 2021, the United Nations said Wednesday, warning that the global energy system was driving humanity towards catastrophe.

Greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rise, ocean heat and ocean acidification all set new records last year, the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in its "State of the Global Climate in 2021" report.

The annual overview is "a dismal litany of humanity's failure to tackle climate disruption".

"The global energy system is broken and bringing us ever closer to climate catastrophe."

The WMO said human activity was causing planetary-scale changes on land, in the ocean and in the atmosphere, with harmful and long-lasting ramifications for ecosystems.

https://phys.org/news/2022-05-climate-indicators-highs.html?utm_sou...

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'Polluted' babies, millions dead: Scientists sound alarm on global ...

By many measures, modern science has greatly improved the American way of life. Advances in chemistry and other technologies over the past century have made food more affordable and transportation more convenient and paved the way for a plethora of consumer goods. About 4 in 5 U.S. households own a computer and smartphone.

Climate change boosts extreme heat in India

In India and Pakistan, climate change has made record-breaking heatwaves 100 times more likely to happen, according to an analysis by the UK Met Office. The modelling study assessed the heatwave that gripped the region in April and May 2010 to determine how climate change has affected the probability of these events and found that, by the end of the century, India and Pakistan could face extreme temperatures every year. Pre-monsoon heatwaves in recent weeks have seen temperatures reach as high as 51 ℃ in Pakistan, and the heat looks set to worsen later this week.

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Ghostly 'mirror world' might be cause of cosmic controversy

New research suggests an unseen "mirror world" of particles that interacts with our world only via gravity that might be the key to solving a major puzzle in cosmology today—the Hubble constant problem.

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Under anaerobic conditions, common microbial communities can break ...

Engineers at University of California Riverside are the first to report selective breakdown of a particularly stubborn class of PFAS, called fluorinated carboxylic acids (FCAs), by common microorganisms.

Magnetic resonance makes the invisible visible

A small group of researchers just published in Nature Protocols an advanced NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) method to monitor fast and complicated biomolecular events such as protein folding.

Protein folding was long considered as one of the great mysteries of modern research. This crucial process during which amino acid chains adopt a 3D structure and functionality takes place within milliseconds. Being this fast, protein folding events could often not be characterized by NMR spectroscopy, which is the standard method for studying molecular structures. Employing hyperpolarized water, researchers have now developed a method that dramatically enhances the signals of the proteins, nucleic acids, and other biomolecules. This renders monitoring of processes such as protein folding possible.

With NMR spectroscopy, researchers can measure the magnetic properties of atoms and thus analyze the atomic structure of molecules in solution. This new method is based on NMR and enables the monitoring of biological processes in real-time. By using hyperpolarized water, the researchers significantly enhanced NMR signals of the investigated samples and therefore boost the method's sensitivity.

With hyperpolarization methods, more precisely dissolution DNP (D-DNP), a signal enhancement of over 10,000-fold is possible. The hyperpolarized water acts as a booster for the NMR signals of a protein during the measurement. The hydrogen nuclei of the hyperpolarized water are exchanged with those of the proteins, thus transferring the signal strength to the latter.

With the new method, the researchers can record an NMR spectrum every 100 milliseconds and use it to track the 3D coordinates of individual amino acids and how they change over time. This allows researchers to monitor processes that occur in milliseconds and distinguish individual atoms.

In their study the authors describe their technique in detail, from hyperpolarization to the transfer of the hyperpolarized water to the NMR spectrometer, to the mixing of the hyperpolarized water with the sample solution, and the NMR measurement.

In addition, they present six examples for method application, including the observation of protein folding or even the interactions of RNA (nucleic acids) and RNA-binding proteins as the basis for gene expressions in the cell. According to the scientists, the new method can be used for specific studies of RNA, DNA and polypeptides, especially when signal enhancement reaches the "magic" number of 1,000-fold.

An NMR spectrometer equipped with a hyperpolarization prototype is a prerequisite for NMR boosted by hyperpolarized water. However, this kind of infrastructure is not common yet.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41596-022-00693-8

https://www.nature.com/articles/s42004-021-00587-y

https://www.inar.de/magnetic-resonance-makes-the-invisible-visible/

Chemists skew the odds to prevent cancer

The path to cancer prevention is long and arduous for legions of researchers, but new work by  scientists shows that there may be shortcuts.

They are developing a theoretical framework to explain how cancers caused by more than one genetic mutation can be more easily identified and perhaps stopped.

Essentially, it does so by identifying and ignoring transition pathways that don’t contribute much to the fixation of mutations in a cell that goes on to establish a tumor.

A study in the Biophysical Journal describes their analysis of the effective energy landscapes of cellular transformation pathways implicated in a variety of cancers. The ability to limit the number of pathways to the few most likely to kick-start cancer could help to find ways to halt the process before it ever really starts.

Sometimes cancer is just a probability coming true. These researchers  think they can decrease the probability by looking for low-probability collections of mutations that typically lead to cancer. Depending on the type of cancer, this can range between two mutations and 10.

Calculating the effective energies that dictate interactions in biomolecular systems can predict how they behave. The theory is commonly used to predict how a protein will fold, based on the sequence of its constituent atoms and how they interact.

The research team is applying the same principle to cancer initiation pathways that operate in cells but sometimes carry mutations missed by the body’s safeguards. When two or more of these mutations are fixed in a cell, they are carried forward as the cells divide and tumors grow.

Part 1

By their calculations, the odds favor the most dominant pathways, those that carry mutations forward while expending the least amount of energy

Instead of looking at all possible chemical reactions, they identify the few that they might need to look at. They think that most tissues involved in the initiation of cancer are trying to be as homogenous as possible. The rule is a pathway that decreases heterogeneity is always going to be the fastest on the road to tumor formation.

The huge number of possible pathways seems to make narrowing them down an intractable problem. But it turned out that using their chemical intuition and building an effective free-energy landscape helped by allowing them to calculate where in the process a mutation is likely to become fixated in a cell.

The team simplified calculations by focusing initially on pathways involving only two mutations that, when fixed, initiate a tumor. Mechanisms involving more mutations will complicate calculations, but the procedure remains the same.

Hamid Teimouri, Cade Spaulding, Anatoly B. Kolomeisky. Optimal pathways control fixation of multiple mutations during cancer initiation. Biophysical Journal, 2022; DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2022.05.011

Part 2

A Black Hole's Magnetic Reversal

Genetic predictability steadily erodes during evolution, new study shows

A critical goal in genetics and evolution is predicting the effects of mutations that may happen in the future and inferring the effects of those that happened in the past. To make these predictions, scientists generally assume that a mutation's effects tested in the present apply to past and future versions of the same gene.

This assumption turns out to be wrong for most mutations, a new study by University of Chicago scientists shows. By combining cutting-edge techniques in experimental biochemistry and evolutionary reconstruction of ancient proteins, the study directly measured how the effects of every possible mutation in a biologically essential gene changed across 700 million years of evolution. As the gene evolved, the effects of most mutations changed steadily and randomly, often switching from highly detrimental to inconsequential, or vice versa.

This constant drift makes it impossible to reliably predict the effects of most mutations into the future or back into the past. The findings also imply that the potential fate of a mutation during evolution is determined not only by natural selection, but also by the particular set of chance events that happened to unfold during the gene's history. These events determine the effect each mutation has at each timepoint and therefore the probability that it will be incorporated into the gene during evolution.

Yeonwoo Park et al, Epistatic drift causes gradual decay of predictability in protein evolution, Science (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abn6895. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn6895

https://phys.org/news/2022-05-genetic-steadily-erodes-evolution.htm...

How one of the X chromosomes in female embryonic stem cells is silenced

In most mammals, females have two X chromosomes and males have one X and one Y chromosome in each of their cells. To avoid a double dose of X-linked genes in females, one of the Xs is silenced early in the developmental process. This silencing is critical, yet how it happens has been relatively mysterious. Two new  studies reveal more about this silencing process and insights that could improve stem cell research.

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) hold enormous promise for research into early development as well as for regenerative medicine for diseases ranging from type 1 diabetes to Parkinson's disease. Yet, biologists working with female hESCs in the lab often run into a phenomenon wherein the normally inactivated X chromosome loses this suppression while growing in a culture dish.

If you can't maintain hESCs exactly as such in culture then you can't use them for any downstream application. Researchers set out to determine why X-inactivation erodes under certain experimental conditions over time.

Their primary suspect was the substance used to grow the cells in culture, called media. Cells are grown in media that supply them with chemical instructions called growth factors. These growth factors signal stem cells to keep dividing. One popular medium, called mTeSR1, appeared to be correlated with the loss of a key regulator of X-inactivation, a non-coding strand of RNA called XIST. Another medium, called Xenofree, did not lead to a loss of X-inactivation.

Researchers looked at the differences in the composition of these two media and identified lithium chloride as being present in mTeSR1 but not in Xenofree.

Lithium chloride is sometimes included in media to promote stem cell proliferation, however, it is known to interfere with many cell-signaling pathways by inhibiting GSK-3 proteins. (Inhibitors of GSK-3 proteins have been used to treat several diseases, and lithium, used to treat bipolar disorder, was one of the first natural GSK-3 inhibitors discovered.)

To confirm lithium chloride as the culprit, they added the compound to the Xenofree medium and saw a loss of X-inactivation.

This study suggests that researchers need to be a little more cautious about the use of GSK-3 inhibitors like lithium. They may not only interfere with X inactivation, but other modes of epigenetic transcriptional regulation across the genome.

 Marissa Cloutier et al, Preventing erosion of X-chromosome inactivation in human embryonic stem cells, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30259-x

Milan Kumar Samanta et al, Activation of Xist by an evolutionarily conserved function of KDM5C demethylase, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30352-1

New method to kill cyberattacks in less than a second

A new method that could automatically detect and kill cyberattacks on our laptops, computers and smart devices in under a second has been created by researchers.

Using artificial intelligence in a completely novel way, the method has been shown to successfully prevent up to 92 percent of files on a computer from being corrupted, with it taking just 0.3 seconds on average for a piece of malware to be wiped out.

The new approach is based on monitoring and predicting the behavior of malware as opposed to more traditional antivirus approaches that analyze what a piece of malware looks like.

By training computers to run simulations on specific pieces of malware, it is possible to make a very quick prediction in less than a second of how the malware will behave further down the line.

Once a piece of software is flagged as malicious the next stage is to wipe it out, which is where the new research comes into play.

Once a threat is detected, due to the fast-acting nature of some destructive malware, it is vital to have automated actions to support these detections.

Matilda Rhode et al, Real-Time Malware Process Detection and Automated Process Killing, Security and Communication Networks (2021). DOI: 10.1155/2021/8933681

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-05-method-cyberattacks.html?utm_so...

Mars Has Auroras Without a Global Magnetic Field

Earth's auroras are a glorious wonder, but our planet isn't the only place in the Solar System where these phenomena can be found. An atmospheric glow, albeit sometimes in invisible wavelengths, has been spotted at every planet except Mercury, and even some moons of Jupiter... and even a comet. But Mars is where it gets interesting. The red planet is famous for its lost global magnetic field, an ingredient that plays a crucial role in the formation of aurora elsewhere.

But that doesn't mean Mars is totally magnetism-free. Regions of localized magnetic fields sprout from some regions of the crust, particularly in the southern hemisphere. New analysis has confirmed that these small, local magnetic fields interact with the solar wind in interesting ways to produce Mars's discrete (or structured) ultraviolet auroras.

The new main finding is that inside the strong crustal field region, the aurora occurrence rate depends mostly on the orientation of the solar wind magnetic field, while outside the strong crustal field region, the occurrence rate depends mostly on the solar wind dynamic pressure.

But Mars's global magnetic field decayed fairly early on in the planet's history, leaving behind only patches of magnetism preserved in magnetized minerals in the crust. Ultraviolet images of Mars at night have revealed that auroras tend to form near these crustal magnetic fields, which makes sense if magnetic field lines are required for particle acceleration.  Outside the crustal magnetic field regions, the dynamic pressure of the solar wind plays a significant role in the detection frequency of auroras.

Part 1

However, the pressure of the solar wind seems to play little role in the brightness of said auroras. This suggests that space weather events, such as coronal mass ejections, where masses of charged particles are ejected from the Sun and are associated with higher solar wind pressure, may trigger Martian auroras.

Inside the crustal magnetic field regions, the orientation of the magnetic field and the solar wind seems to play a significant role in the formation of auroras on Mars. At certain orientations, the solar wind seems to be favorable to the magnetic reconnection events or particle acceleration required to produce the ultraviolet glow.

These results, the researchers said, reveal new information on how interactions with the solar wind can generate auroras on a planet stripped of its global magnetic field. This information can be used to help better understand the formation of discrete auroras on very different worlds.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021JA030238

Part 2

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Exoskeleton device helps stroke victims regain hand function

Scientists devise method to prevent deadly hospital infections without antibiotics

 A hospital or medical clinic might be the last place you’d expect to pick up a nasty infection, but that is what happens usually resulting in hundreds of deaths from infection-related complications and billions in direct medical costs.

The biggest culprits, experts say — accounting for two-thirds of these infections — are medical devices like catheters, stents, heart valves and pacemakers, whose surfaces often become covered with harmful bacterial films. But a novel surface treatment developed by a  team of scientists could help improve the safety of these devices and ease the economic burden on the health care system.

The new approach, tested in both laboratory and clinical settings, involves depositing a thin layer of what is known as zwitterionic material on the surface of a device and permanently binding that layer to the underlying substrate using ultraviolet light irradiation. The resulting barrier prevents bacteria and other potentially harmful organic materials from adhering to the surface and causing infection.

In the laboratory, researchers applied the surface treatment to several commonly used medical device materials, then tested the modified materials’ resistance to various types of bacteria, fungi and proteins. They found that the treatment reduced biofilm growth by more than 80% — and in some cases up 93%, depending on the microbial strain.

The modified surfaces exhibited robust resistance against microorganisms and proteins. The surfaces greatly reduced or even prevented biofilm formation.

Brian McVerry, Alexandra Polasko, Ethan Rao, Reihaneh Haghniaz, Dayong Chen, Na He, Pia Ramos, Joel Hayashi, Paige Curson, Chueh‐Yu Wu, Praveen Bandaru, Mackenzie Anderson, Brandon Bui, Aref Sayegh, Shaily Mahendra, Dino Di Carlo, Evgeniy Kreydin, Ali Khademhosseini, Amir Sheikhi, Richard B. Kaner. A Readily Scalable, Clinically Demonstrated, Antibiofouling Zwitterionic Surface Treatment for Implantable Medical Devices. Advanced Materials, 2022; 2200254 DOI: 10.1002/adma.202200254

https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/surface-treatment-for-medical-de...

Male pheromones improve health of females' eggs

Male pheromones just might be the fountain of youth for aging female animals’ eggs, according to a new study.

In the new study, researchers used the tiny transparent roundworm C. elegans, a well-established model organism commonly used in biology research. Exposure of female roundworms to male pheromones slowed down the aging of the females’ egg cells, resulting in healthier offspring.

Not only did the exposure decrease embryonic death by more than twofold, it also decreased chromosomal abnormalities in surviving offspring by more than twofold. Under the microscope, egg cells also looked younger and healthier, rather than tiny and misshapen, which is common with aging.

To conduct the study, the team aged female roundworms in the presence of a pheromone that is normally produced by male roundworms. The researchers saw that egg quality in females exposed to the pheromone was higher than in control roundworms that did not encounter the pheromone.

Although continuous exposure to male pheromones worked best, even shorter exposure improved overall egg quality. Researchers think this result can be explained by the animals’ “shifting energy budgets.”

Acting outside the body, pheromones are chemicals that animals produce and release to elicit social responses from other members of their species. Pheromones also inform animals about how to budget their finite energy.

When conditions are not conducive to reproduction, female animals will spend resources and energy maintaining their overall body health, including muscles, neurons, intestines and other nonreproductive organs. Sensing male pheromones triggers downstream signaling from the nervous system to the rest of the body, causing the female animals to shift their energy and resources to increasing reproductive health instead. The result? Better eggs but faster decay of the body.

The pheromone tricks the female into sending help to her eggs and shortchanging the rest of her body. It’s not all or nothing, but it’s shifting the balance.

The researchers think this finding potentially could lead to pharmacological interventions that combat infertility issues in humans by improving egg cell quality and delaying the onset of reproductive aging.

Reproductive aging affects everyone. One of the first signs of biological aging is the decreased quality of reproductive cells, which causes reduced fertility, increased incidence of fetal defects including miscarriages, and eventually loss of fertility. By all criteria scientists could think of, male pheromones made the eggs better.

Of course, there are unfortunate trade-offs. When female roundworms neglected the rest of their body to focus their energy on reproductive health, they were more likely to experience early death.

Erin Z. Aprison, Svetlana Dzitoyeva, David Angeles-Albores, Ilya Ruvinsky. A male pheromone that improves the quality of the oogenic germline. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022; 119 (21) DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2015576119

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2022/05/male-pheromones-impro....

Drug treatment for cataracts moves a step closer

A revolutionary new treatment for cataracts has shown extremely positive results in laboratory tests, giving hope that the condition, which currently can only be cured with surgery, could soon be treated with drugs.

Cataract is a clouding of the eye lens that develops over time and affects the quality of vision. It is caused by a disorganization of the proteins in the lens that leads to clumps of protein forming, which scatter light and severely reduce transmission to the retina. Cataracts cause vision loss  and blindness for millions of people worldwide.

Scientists have  been carrying out advanced optical tests on an oxysterol compound that had been proposed as an anti-cataract drug.  In laboratory trials, treatment with the oxysterol compound VP1-001 showed an improvement in refractive index profiles—a key optical parameter that is needed to maintain high focusing capacity—in 61% of lenses. This means that the protein organization of the lens is being restored, resulting in the lens being better able to focus. This was supported by a reduction in lens opacity in 46% of cases.

It has shown that there is a remarkable difference and improvement in optics between eyes with the same type of cataract that were treated with the compound compared to those that were not.

"Improvements occurred in some types of cataract but not in all, indicating that this may be a treatment for specific cataracts. This suggests distinctions may need to be made between cataract types when developing anti-cataract medications. It is a significant step forward towards treating this extremely common condition with drugs rather than surgery.

Oxysterol compounds in mouse mutant αA- and αB-crystallin lenses 2 can improve the optical properties of the lens, Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science (2022).

'Next generation wonder material' created for first time

For over a decade, scientists have attempted to synthesize a new form of carbon called graphyne with limited success. That endeavor is now at an end.

Graphyne has long been of interest to scientists because of its similarities to the "wonder material" graphene—another form of carbon that is highly valued by industry . 

However, despite decades of work and theorizing, only a few fragments have ever been created before now.

This research, announced last week in Nature Synthesis, fills a longstanding gap in carbon material science, potentially opening brand-new possibilities for electronics, optics and semiconducting material research.

Scientists have long been interested in the construction of new or novel carbon allotropes, or forms of carbon, because of carbon's usefulness to industry, as well as its versatility.

There are different ways carbon allotropes can be constructed depending on how sp2, sp3 and sp hybridized carbon (or the different ways carbon atoms can bind to other elements), and their corresponding bonds, are utilized. The most well-known carbon allotropes are graphite (used in tools like pencils and batteries) and diamonds, which are created out of sp2 carbon and sp3 carbon, respectively.

Using traditional chemistry methods, scientists have successfully created various allotropes over the years, including fullerene and graphene.

However, these methods don't allow for the different types of carbon to be synthesized together in any sort of large capacity, like what's required for graphyne, which has left the theorized material—speculated to have unique electron conducting, mechanical and optical properties—to remain that: a theory.

Part 1

Some researchers are now  studying reversible chemistry, which is chemistry that allows bonds to self-correct, allowing for the creation of novel ordered structures, or lattices, such as synthetic DNA-like polymers.

Using a process called alkyne metathesis—which is an organic reaction that entails the redistribution, or cutting and reforming, of alkyne chemical bonds (a type of hydrocarbon with at least one carbon-carbon triple covalent bond)—as well as thermodynamics and kinetic control, the researchers were able to successfully create what had never been created before: A material that could rival the conductivity of graphene but with control.

This could be the next generation wonder material. 

While the material has been successfully created, the scientists still want to look into the particular details of it, including how to create the material on a large scale and how it can be manipulated.

Yiming Hu et al, Synthesis of γ-graphyne using dynamic covalent chemistry, Nature Synthesis (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s44160-022-00068-7

Part 2

Low-cost gel film can pluck drinking water from desert air

More than a third of the world's population lives in drylands, areas that experience significant water shortages. Scientists and engineers have developed a solution that could help people in these areas access clean drinking water.

Researchers now developed a low-cost gel film made of abundant materials that can pull water from the air in even the driest climates. The materials that facilitate this reaction cost a mere $2 per kilogram, and a single kilogram can produce more than 6 liters of water per day in areas with less than 15% relative humidity and 13 liters in areas with up to 30% relative humidity.

The research builds on previous breakthroughs from the team, including the ability to pull water out of the atmosphere and the application of that technology to create self-watering soil. However, these technologies were designed for relatively high-humidity environments.

This new work is about practical solutions that people can use to get water in the hottest, driest places on Earth. This could allow millions of people without consistent access to drinking water to have simple, water generating devices at home that they can easily operate.

The researchers used renewable cellulose and a common kitchen ingredient, konjac gum, as a main hydrophilic (attracted to water) skeleton. The open-pore structure of gum speeds the moisture-capturing process. Another designed component, thermo-responsive cellulose with hydrophobic (resistant to water) interaction when heated, helps release the collected water immediately so that overall energy input to produce water is minimized.

The film is flexible and can be molded into a variety of shapes and sizes, depending on the need of the user. Making the film requires only the gel precursor, which includes all the relevant ingredients poured into a mold.

The gel takes 2 minutes to set simply. Then, it just needs to be freeze-dried, and it can be peeled off the mold and used immediately after that.

Youhong Guo et al, Scalable super hygroscopic polymer films for sustainable moisture harvesting in arid environments, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30505-2

Study reveals evidence that bacteria can live in snake and spider venoms

Newly published research  shows that, contrary to what is commonly believed, the venom of snakes and spiders is actually populated with microbes, including bacteria that could cause infection in people who have suffered a bite.

For decades scientists have thought that animal venom is an entirely sterile environment due to it being full of antimicrobial substances—materials that can kill bacteria.

However, new scientific evidence from research has shown that this is not the case. 

The work, published today in scientific journal Microbiology Spectrum demonstrates how adaptable microorganisms are. The study provides strong genetic and culture evidence that bacteria can not only survive in the venom glands of several species of snakes and spiders, but can also mutate to resist the notoriously toxic liquid that is venom.

The findings also suggest that victims of venomous animal bites may therefore also need to be treated for infections, not just antivenom to tackle the toxins deposited through the bite.

Common diagnostic tools failed to identify these bacteria correctly—if you were infected with these, a doctor would end up giving you the wrong antibiotics, potentially making matters worse.

When researchers sequenced their DNA recently they clearly identified the bacteria and discovered they had mutated to resist the venom. This is extraordinary because venom is like a cocktail of antibiotics, and it is so thick with them, you would have thought the bacteria would not stand a chance. Not only did they stand a chance, they had done it twice, using the same mechanisms.

They also directly tested the resistance of Enterococcus faecalis, one of the species of bacteria they found in the venom of black-necked spitting cobras, to venom itself and compared it to a classic hospital isolate: the hospital isolate did not tolerate the venom at all, but the two isolates from venom  happily grew in the highest concentrations of venom researchers could throw at them.

The researchers say that their study shows the need for clinicians to consider treating snakebite victims not just for tissue destruction, but for infection too, as quickly as possible.

 Elham Esmaeilishirazifard et al, Bacterial Adaptation to Venom in Snakes and Arachnida, Microbiology Spectrum (2022). DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.02408-21. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/spectrum.02408-21

Nuclear pasta, the hardest known substance in the universe

A team of scientists has calculated the strength of the material deep inside the crust of neutron stars and found it to be the strongest known material in the universe.

Neutron stars are born after supernovas, an implosion that compresses an object the size of the sun to about the size of Montreal, making them "a hundred trillion times denser than anything on earth." Their immense gravity makes their outer layers freeze solid, making them similar to earth with a thin crust enveloping a liquid core.

This high density causes the material that makes up a neutron star, known as nuclear pasta, to have a unique structure. Below the crust, competing forces between the protons and neutrons cause them to assemble into shapes such as long cylinders or flat planes, which are known in the literature as 'lasagna' and 'spaghetti,' hence the name 'nuclear pasta.' Together, the enormous densities and strange shapes make nuclear pasta incredibly stiff.

Thanks to their computer simulations, which required 2 million hours worth of processor time or the equivalent of 250 years on a laptop with a single good GPU, Caplan and his colleagues were able to stretch and deform the material deep in the crust of neutron stars.

M. E. Caplan, A. S. Schneider, C. J. Horowitz. The Elasticity of Nuclear Pasta. Physical Review Letters, 2018 [abstract]

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180918110836.htm#:~:t....

First Patient Injected With Experimental Cancer-Killing Virus in New Clinical Trial

An experimental cancer-killing virus has been administered to a human patient for the first time, with hopes the testing will ultimately reveal evidence of a new means of successfully fighting cancer tumors in people's bodies.

The drug candidate, called CF33-hNIS (aka Vaxinia), is what's called an oncolytic virus, a genetically modified virus designed to selectively infect and kill cancer cells while sparing healthy ones. In the case of CF33-hNIS, the modified pox virus works by entering cells and duplicating itself. Eventually, the infected cell bursts, releasing thousands of new virus particles that act as antigens, stimulating the immune system to attack nearby cancer cells. Previous research in animal models has shown the drug can harness the immune system in this way to hunt and destroy cancer cells, but up until now no testing has been done in humans. That's just changed, with co-developers of the drug – the City of Hope cancer care and research center in Los Angeles, and Australia-based biotech company Imugene – now announcing that the first clinical trial in human patients is underway.

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05346484

https://www.sciencealert.com/first-patient-injected-with-experiment...

A candlelight-like glow from a flexible organic LED

Giving off a comfortable glow, candles set the ambiance for a special dinner or just a quiet evening at home. However, some lighting alternatives, such as electronic candles, give off unwanted blue wavelengths that interfere with the body's circadian rhythm. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Electronic Materials have fabricated an improved bendable organic LED that releases candlelight-like light for flexible lighting and smart displays that people can comfortably use at night.

researchers developed organic LEDs that released warm-white light, similar to that produced by candles. However, the devices still emitted some blue wavelength light, which can interfere with sleep because it dampens the body's production of melatonin. These devices were made of solid materials and weren't flexible.

One option for making them bendable is to use a plastic backing, as has been done for other organic LEDs. But plastics don't stand up well to repeated bending. Another option for the backing is mica—a natural mineral with extreme temperature tolerance that can be split into bendable, transparent sheets. So, Jou, Ying-Hao Chu and colleagues wanted to develop an even better organic LED and apply it to a mica backing, creating a bendable candle-like light with a long lifespan.

The researchers deposited a clear indium tin oxide film onto a transparent mica sheet as the LED's anode, which could bend 50,000 times without breaking. Next, the team mixed the luminescent substance N,N'-dicarbazole-1,1'-biphenyl with red and yellow phosphorescent dyes to produce a light-emitting layer. This layer was then placed between electrically conductive solutions with the anode on one side and an aluminum layer on the other side, creating a flexible organic LED.

When a constant current was applied to the device, it produced a bright, warm light with even less blue wavelength emissions than natural candlelight. Calculations showed that exposure to the LED for 1.5 hours would suppress a person's melatonin production by about 1.6%, whereas light from a cold-white compact fluorescent lamp would suppress melatonin production by 29%. The researchers say that the flexibility of their candlelight-like organic LED opens up the design opportunities for blue-light-free nighttime devices.

Tun-Hao Chen et al, Flexible Candlelight Organic LED on Mica, ACS Applied Electronic Materials (2022). DOI: 10.1021/acsaelm.2c00123

Scientists discover new tools to fight potentially deadly protozoa

Investigating whether epigenetic aging is the manifestation of one or more aging hallmarks

A team of researchers affiliated with a host of institutions in the U.K. and the U.S. has conducted an investigation into whether epigenetic aging is the manifestation of one or more aging hallmarks. In their paper published in the journal Nature Aging, the group describes subjecting human cells to three kinds of abuse and then testing them to see if the cells aged epigenetically.

Over the past several years, some researchers focusing on the science of aging have become proponents of what is described as epigenetic aging, whereby certain attributes of our bodies age at a rate that may not be consistent with our biological age. That has led to studies aimed at measuring the epigenetic age of people (and other animals) using DNA methylation clocks, ostensibly as a means to circumvent them and allow people to live longer. In this new effort, the researchers studied hallmarks of aging such as exposure to radiation, reproduced them and tested the effects on the pace of epigenetic aging.

The work involved collecting tissue samples from 14 healthy people and dividing them into four groups. One group was subjected to a small dose of radiation, another had some of their cell properties altered to become cancerous, and yet another set was subjected to induced senescence. The fourth group was left undisturbed. Each of the groups represented a hallmark of aging. Exposure to radiation can, for example, make changes to the genome that results in accelerated aging.

Part 1

None of the tissue samples exhibited changes in epigenetic aging. But the researchers did find changes to the way the cells handled energy—their ability to sense nutrients was impacted. This ability plays a major role in cell growth, reproduction and death. The researchers also found changes in mitochondrial activity and in the number of stem cells in their samples. They suggest that epigenetic aging does not predict changes in senescence, nor does it match with age-related changes to telomeres, one of the major indicators of aging in general.

How the universe got its magnetic field

When we look out into space, all of the astrophysical objects that we see are embedded in magnetic fields. This is true not only in the neighborhood of stars and planets, but also in the deep space between galaxies and galactic clusters. These fields are weak—typically much weaker than those of a refrigerator magnet—but they are dynamically significant in the sense that they have profound effects on the dynamics of the universe. Despite decades of intense interest and research, the origin of these cosmic magnetic fields remains one of the most profound mysteries in cosmology.

In previous research, scientists came to understand how turbulence, the churning motion common to fluids of all types, could amplify preexisting magnetic fields through the so-called dynamo process. But this remarkable discovery just pushed the mystery one step deeper. If a turbulent dynamo could only amplify an existing field, where did the "seed" magnetic field come from in the first place?

We wouldn't have a complete and self-consistent answer to the origin of astrophysical magnetic fields until we understood how the seed fields arose. New work carried out recently provides an answer that shows the basic processes that generate a field from a completely unmagnetized state to the point where it is strong enough for the dynamo mechanism to take over and amplify the field to the magnitudes that we observe.

Naturally occurring magnetic fields are seen everywhere in the universe. They were first observed on Earth thousands of years ago, through their interaction with magnetized minerals like lodestone, and used for navigation long before people had any understanding of their nature or origin. Magnetism on the sun was discovered at the beginning of the 20th century by its effects on the spectrum of light that the sun emitted. Since then, more powerful telescopes looking deep into space found that the fields were ubiquitous.

And while scientists had long learned how to make and use permanent magnets and electromagnets, which had all sorts of practical applications, the natural origins of magnetic fields in the universe remained a mystery. Recent work has provided part of the answer, but many aspects of this question are still under debate.

Part 1

Scientists started thinking about this problem by considering the way that electric and magnetic fields were produced in the laboratory. When conductors, like copper wire, move in magnetic fields, electric fields are created. These fields, or voltages, can then drive electrical currents. This is how the electricity that we use every day is produced. Through this process of induction, large generators or "dynamos" convert mechanical energy into the electromagnetic energy that powers our homes and offices. A key feature of dynamos is that they need magnetic fields in order to work.

But out in the universe, there are no obvious wires or big steel structures, so how do the fields arise? Progress on this problem began about a century ago as scientists pondered the source of the Earth's magnetic field. By then, studies of the propagation of seismic waves showed that much of the Earth, below the cooler surface layers of the mantle, was liquid, and that there was a core composed of molten nickel and iron. Researchers theorized that the convective motion of this hot, electrically conductive liquid and the rotation of the Earth combined in some way to generate the Earth's field.

Eventually, models emerged that showed how the convective motion could amplify an existing field. This is an example of "self-organization"—a feature often seen in complex dynamical systems—where large-scale structures grow spontaneously from small-scale dynamics. But just like in a power station, you needed a magnetic field to make a magnetic field.

part 2

A similar process is at work all over the universe. However, in stars and galaxies and in the space between them, the electrically conducting fluid is not molten metal, but plasma—a state of matter that exists at extremely high temperatures where the electrons are ripped away from their atoms. On Earth, plasmas can be seen in lightning or neon lights. In such a medium, the dynamo effect can amplify an existing magnetic field, provided it starts at some minimal level.

Where does this seed field come from? Present studies developed the underlying theory and performed numerical simulations on powerful supercomputers that show how the seed field can be produced and what fundamental processes are at work. An important aspect of the plasma that exists between stars and galaxies is that it is extraordinarily diffuse—typically about one particle per cubic meter. That is a very different situation from the interior of stars, where the particle density is about 30 orders of magnitude higher. The low densities mean that the particles in cosmological plasmas never collide, which has important effects on their behavior that had to be included in the model that these researchers were developing.

Calculations performed by the MIT researchers followed the dynamics in these plasmas, which developed from well-ordered waves but became turbulent as the amplitude grew and the interactions became strongly nonlinear. By including detailed effects of the plasma dynamics at small scales on macroscopic astrophysical processes, they demonstrated that the first magnetic fields can be spontaneously produced through generic large-scale motions as simple as sheared flows. Just like the terrestrial examples, mechanical energy was converted into magnetic energy.

An important output of their computation was the amplitude of the expected spontaneously generated magnetic field. What this showed was that the field amplitude could rise from zero to a level where the plasma is "magnetized"—that is, where the plasma dynamics are strongly affected by the presence of the field. At this point, the traditional dynamo mechanism can take over and raise the fields to the levels that are observed. Thus, their work represents a self-consistent model for the generation of magnetic fields at cosmological scale.

Muni Zhou et al, Spontaneous magnetization of collisionless plasma, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2119831119

Part 3

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Scientists detect deadly arrhythmia trifecta: Salt, swelling, and leaky sodium channels

Less than 1 percent of the population has been diagnosed with Long QT syndrome – a rare heart condition that can cause chaotic, sometimes fatal, heart rhythms.

Now, researchers  have identified two core factors that may put patients with Long QT syndrome Type 3 at significantly higher risk of sudden cardiac death. Their findings were recently published in the American Journal of Physiology – Heart and Circulatory Physiology.

Some Long QT syndrome patients are born with the disease, while others develop it as a result of natural aging, certain medications, tissue swelling, or heart disease.

The syndrome remodels the heart’s sodium channels to become hyperactive and leaky, which disrupts the heart’s normal electrical pathways. Long QT is diagnosed when the length of time it takes for a heartbeat to drop from its peak to baseline, the QT interval, is extended on an electrocardiogram reading.

Some patients with Long QT live long, healthy, and event-free lives, while others suddenly die. Some Long QT syndrome patients are born with the disease, while others develop it as a result of natural aging, certain medications, tissue swelling, or heart disease.

The syndrome remodels the heart’s sodium channels to become hyperactive and leaky, which disrupts the heart’s normal electrical pathways. Long QT is diagnosed when the length of time it takes for a heartbeat to drop from its peak to baseline, the QT interval, is extended on an electrocardiogram reading.

Some patients with Long QT live long, healthy, and event-free lives, while others suddenly die. 

This research  data suggests that the combination of tissue edema, elevated blood sodium, and faulty sodium channels trigger deadly heart arrhythmias. While Long QT is a rare disorder, anyone could acquire similar sodium channel dysfunction with age, ischemia, or other heart disease.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34623182/

https://vtx.vt.edu/articles/2022/05/scientists-detect-deadly-arrhyt...

New type of extremely reactive substance discovered in the atmosphere

For the first time, an entirely new class of super-reactive chemical compounds has been discovered under atmospheric conditions. Researchers from the University of Copenhagen, in close collaboration with international colleagues, have documented the formation of so-called trioxides—an extremely oxidizing chemical compound that likely affects both human health and our global climate.

Hydrogen peroxide is a commonly known chemical compound. All peroxides have two oxygen atoms attached to each other, making them highly reactive and often flammable and explosive. They are used for everything from whitening teeth and hair to cleaning wounds, and even as rocket fuel. But peroxides are also found in the atmosphere. In recent years, there has been speculation as to whether trioxides—chemical compounds with three oxygen atoms attached to each other, and thereby even more reactive than the peroxides—are found in the atmosphere as well. But until now, it has never been unequivocally proven.

The type of compounds now discovered are unique in their structure. And, because they are extremely oxidizing, they most likely bring a host of effects that we have yet to uncover.

Hydrotrioxides (ROOOH), as they are known, are a completely new class of chemical compounds. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH), together with colleagues at the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), have demonstrated that these compounds are formed under atmospheric conditions. 

The researchers have also shown that hydrotrioxides are formed during the atmospheric decomposition of several known and widely emitted substances, including isoprene and dimethyl sulfide.

Torsten Berndt et al, Hydrotrioxide (ROOOH) formation in the atmosphere, Science (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abn6012. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn6012

Harnessing the immune system to treat traumatic brain injury in mice

A therapeutic method for harnessing the body's immune system to protect against brain damage is published recently by researchers. The collaboration between various researchers has produced a targeted delivery system for boosting the numbers of specialized anti-inflammatory immune cells specifically within the brain to restrict brain inflammation and damage. Their brain-specific delivery system protected against brain cell death following brain injury, stroke and in a model of multiple sclerosis. The research is published in the journal Nature Immunology.

Traumatic brain injury, like that caused during a car accident or a fall, is a significant cause of death worldwide and can cause long-lasting cognitive impairment and dementia in people who survive. A leading cause of this cognitive impairment is the inflammatory response to the injury, with swelling of the brain causing permanent damage. While inflammation in other parts of the body can be addressed therapeutically, but in the brain it is problematic due to the presence of the blood-brain barrier, which prevents common anti-inflammatory molecules from getting to the site of trauma.

The research team found that regulatory T cell numbers were low in the brain because of a limited supply of the crucial survival molecule interleukin 2, also known as IL2. Levels of IL2 are low in the brain compared to the rest of the body as it can't pass the blood-brain barrier.

Together the team devised a new therapeutic approach that allows more IL2 to be made by brain cells, thereby creating the conditions needed by regulatory T cells to survive. A 'gene delivery' system based on an engineered adeno-associated viral vector (AAV) was used: this system can actually cross an intact blood brain barrier and deliver the DNA needed for the brain to produce more IL2 production.

Matthew Holt, Astrocyte-targeted gene delivery of interleukin 2 specifically increases brain-resident regulatory T cell numbers and protects against pathological neuroinflammation, Nature Immunology (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41590-022-01208-z. www.nature.com/articles/s41590-022-01208-z

Autonomous vehicles can be tricked into dangerous driving behaviour

When a driverless car is in motion, one faulty decision by its collision-avoidance system can lead to disaster, but researchers  have identified another possible risk: Autonomous vehicles can be tricked into an abrupt halt or other undesired driving behavior by the placement of an ordinary object on the side of the road.

A box, bicycle or traffic cone may be all that is necessary to scare a driverless vehicle into coming to a dangerous stop in the middle of the street or on a freeway off-ramp, creating a hazard for other motorists and pedestrians. Vehicles can't distinguish between objects present on the road by pure accident or those left intentionally as part of a physical denial-of-service attack.

The vehicle's planning module is designed with an abundance of caution, logically, because you don't want driverless vehicles rolling around, out of control. But real testing has found that the software can err on the side of being overly conservative, and this can lead to a car becoming a traffic obstruction, or worse.

 Ziwen Wan et al, Too Afraid to Drive: Systematic Discovery of Seman..., (2022)

Why unprecedented bird flu outbreaks sweeping the world are concerning scientists

Worms Live Longer with Mitochondria Powered by Light: Preprint

Increasing mitochondrial activity in worms by engineering a light-activated proton pump into the organelle’s membrane extends the animals’ lifespan without evidence of health decline, according to a preprint.

Mitochondrial dysfunction has long been associated with aging, making preventing or reversing the organelle’s decay a high priority for longevity researchers. One key target for such work is the decline in the organelle’s membrane potential: the difference in electrical charge between each side of the inner mitochondrial membrane that is essential for energy production. Now, research published May 12 as a bioRxiv preprint that has not yet been peer reviewed demonstrates that it’s possible to genetically engineer a light-activated proton pump into the mitochondria of Caenorhabditis elegans that maintains the voltage across the inner mitochondrial membrane as the worms age—and doing so, prolongs the animals’ lifespan.

The underlying technology was first described in 2020 research, in which University of Rochester Medical Center mitochondria researcher Andrew Wojtovich and his colleagues uncovered the proton pump’s impact on mitochondria. When they engineered the pump—naturally found in the cells of a fungus—into C. elegans, the animals’ mitochondrial membrane potential was increased, which ramped up the production of molecular fuel. The process, they showed, required neither metabolic substrates like glucose nor oxygen. Instead, the pump used light to fuel the movement of protons across the inner membrane, driving the synthesis of ATP. The team named this tool mitochondria-ON (mtON), which only works if the gene-edited animals are treated with light and supplemented with a vitamin A derivative called all-trans retinal, which acts as a cofactor for the pump. 

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/worms-live-longer-with-m...

Mixing drugs into oil-based gels could help the medicine go down

For most children and even some adults, swallowing pills or tablets is difficult. To make it easier to give those medicines, researchers  have created a drug-delivering gel that is much easier to swallow and could be used to administer a variety of different kinds of drugs.

The gels, made from plant-based oils such as sesame oil, can be prepared with a variety of textures, from a thickened beverage to a yogurt-like substance. The gels are stable without refrigeration, which could make them easier to get to children in developing nations, but they could also be beneficial for children anywhere, the researchers say. They could also help adults who have difficulty swallowing pills, such as older people or people who have suffered a stroke.

This platform will change our capacity for what we can do for kids, and also for adults who have difficulty receiving medication. Given the simplicity of the system and its low cost, it could have a tremendous impact on making it easier for patients to take medications.

Ameya R. Kirtane et al, Development of Oil-Based Gels as Versatile Drug Delivery Systems for Pediatric Applications, Science Advances (2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abm8478. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abm8478

T cells found to require rest and maintenance

T cells are the soldiers of the immune system, constantly on the ready to respond to a variety of threats, from viruses to tumors. However, without rest and maintenance T cells can die and leave their hosts more susceptible to pathogens,  scientists report May 27 in the journal Science.

Until pathogens are detected, T cells remain in a quiescent state. However, the molecular mechanisms that keep T cells inactive were previously unknown.

In the new study,  researchers show that a protein known as CD8a—which is found in a subset of T cells called CD8 cells—is crucial to keeping the cells in this dormant state. When scientists deleted this protein in mice, the protective CD8 cells were unable to enter a quiescent state and died, leaving the host vulnerable to infections.

Further, they identified another protein, PILRa, that provides a biochemical signal to CD8a. By disrupting this protein pair, both "memory" CD8 cells—cells that previously had been exposed to pathogens—and naïve cells died because they lacked the ability to stay in a quiescent state.

The researchers hope that understanding why this resting state is crucial to maintenance and survival of T cells can lead to improved immune system function.

They noted that as people age they tend to lose both naïve and memory T cells, making older individuals more susceptible to infections. It is possible that the inability of T cells to remain in a quiescent state could lead to people becoming more susceptible to infections and cancer, the authors suggest.

Linghua Zheng et al, The CD8α–PILRα interaction maintains CD8 + T cell quiescence, Science (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz8658

How the brain links memories

Our brains rarely record single memories. Instead, they store memories in groups so that the recollection of one significant memory triggers the recall of others that are connected chronologically. As we age, however, our brains gradually lose this ability to link related memories.

Now researchers have discovered a key molecular mechanism behind this memory linking. They’ve also identified a way to restore this brain function genetically in aging mice — and an FDA-approved drug that achieves the same thing.

Published in the journal Nature, the findings suggest a new method for strengthening human memory in middle age and a possible early intervention for dementia.

Brain cells are studded with receptors. To enter a cell, a molecule must latch onto a specific receptor, which operates like a doorknob to provide access inside. The UCLA team focused on a gene that encodes a receptor for CCR5 molecules — the same receptor that HIV hitches a ride on to infect brain cells and cause memory loss in AIDS patients.

As people age, the amount of CCR5 expressed in the brain rises, and increased CCR5 gene expression reduces memory recall.

In the current study, researchers discovered a key mechanism underlying mice’s ability to link memories of their experiences in two different cages. A tiny microscope opened a window into the animals’ brains, enabling the scientists to observe neurons firing and creating new memories.

They found that boosting CCR5 gene expression in the brains of mice interfered with memory linking. The animals forgot the connection between the two cages. But when the scientists deleted the CCR5 gene in the animals, the mice were able to link memories that normal mice could not.

When the researchers gave maraviroc, a drug used for HIV patients, to older mice, the drug duplicated the effect of genetically deleting CCR5 from their DNA. The older animals were able to link memories again.

The finding suggests that beyond reversing the cognitive deficits caused by HIV infection, maraviroc can also be used to help restore middle-aged memory loss.

Yang Shen, Miou Zhou, Denise Cai, Daniel Almeida Filho, Giselle Fernandes, Ying Cai, André F. de Sousa, Min Tian, Nury Kim, Jinsu Lee, Deanna Necula, Chengbin Zhou, Shuoyi Li, Shelbi Salinas, Andy Liu, Xiaoman Kang, Masakazu Kamata, Ayal Lavi, Shan Huang, Tawnie Silva, Won Do Heo, Alcino J. Silva. CCR5 closes the temporal window for memory linking. Nature, 2022; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04783-1

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Why the memory of fear is seared into our brains

Experiencing a frightening event is likely something you’ll never forget. But why does it stay with you when other kinds of occurrences become increasingly difficult to recall with the passage of time?

A team of neuroscientists have been studying the formation of fear memories in the emotional hub of the brain – the amygdala — and think they have a mechanism.

In a nutshell, the researchers found that the stress neurotransmitter norepinephrine, also known as noradrenaline, facilitates fear processing in the brain by stimulating a certain population of inhibitory neurons in the amygdala to generate a repetitive bursting pattern of electrical discharges. This bursting pattern of electrical activity changes the frequency of brain wave oscillation in the amygdala from a resting state to an aroused state that promotes the formation of fear memories.

If you are held up at gunpoint, your brain secretes a bunch of the stress neurotransmitter norepinephrine, akin to an adrenaline rush.

This changes the electrical discharge pattern in specific circuits in your emotional brain, centered in the amygdala, which in turn transitions the brain to a state of heightened arousal that facilitates memory formation, fear memory, since it’s scary. This is the same process, we think, that goes awry in PTSD and makes it so you cannot forget traumatic experiences.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28928-y

https://news.tulane.edu/pr/study-examines-why-memory-fear-seared-ou...

Threat to 6G: Eavesdroppers can hack 6G frequency with DIY metasurface