Voles fall in love, even without oxytocin

Gene-edited prairie voles that can’t detect the ‘love hormone’ oxytocin still form monogamous relationships and care for their pups. The study challenges decades of research suggesting that prairie vo.... The study might help scientists to understand oxytocin’s role in humans. It has been trialled as a treatment for conditions that can affect social attachment. “There’s a sort of eerie similarity between prairie vole social behaviours and human social behaviours,” says neuroscientist Nirao Shah. “Prairie voles are one of the few mammalian species that exhibit social attachment.”

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00197-9?utm_source=Natur...

Berendzen, K. M. et al. Neuron https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2022.12.011 (2023)

Scientists couple terahertz radiation with spin waves

An international research team has developed a new method for the efficient coupling of terahertz waves with much shorter wavelengths, so-called spin waves. As the experts report in the journal Nature Physics, their experiments, in combination with theoretical models, clarify the fundamental mechanisms of this process previously thought impossible. The results are an important step for the development of novel, energy-saving spin-based technologies for data processing.

Ruslan Salikhov et al, Coupling of terahertz light with nanometre-wavelength magnon modes via spin–orbit torque, Nature Physics (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-022-01908-1

Scientists release new map of all the matter in the universe

When the universe began, matter was flung outward and gradually formed the planets, stars and galaxies that we know and love today. Scientists are very interested in tracing the path of this matter; by seeing where all the matter ended up, they can try to recreate what happened and what forces would have had to have been in play. By carefully assembling a map of that matter today, scientists can try to understand the forces that shaped the evolution of the universe.

A group of scientists have released one of the most precise measurements ever made of how matter is distributed across the universe today.

Combining data from two major telescope surveys of the universe, the Dark Energy Survey and the South Pole Telescope, the analysis involved more than 150 researchers and is published as a set of three articles Jan. 31 in Physical Review D.

Among other findings, the analysis indicates that matter is not as "clumpy" as we would expect based on our current best model of the universe, which adds to a body of evidence that there may be something missing from our existing standard model of the universe.

Combining two different methods of looking at the sky reduces the chance that the results are thrown off by an error in one of the forms of measurement. "It functions like a cross-check, so it becomes a much more robust measurement than if you just used one or the other. In both cases, the analysis looked at a phenomenon called "gravitational lensing." As light travels across the universe, it can be slightly bent as it passes objects with lots of gravity, like galaxies.

This method catches both regular matter and dark matter—the mysterious form of matter that we have only detected due to its effects on regular matter—because both regular and dark matter exert gravity.
By rigorously analyzing these two sets of data, the scientists could infer where all the matter ended up in the universe. It is more precise than previous measurements—that is, it narrows down the possibilities for where this matter wound up—compared to previous analyses.
Part 1

The majority of the results fit perfectly with the currently accepted best theory of the universe.

But there are also signs of a crack—one that has been suggested in the past by other analyses, too.

It seems like there are slightly less fluctuations in the current universe, than we would predict assuming our standard cosmological model anchored to the early universe.

That is, if you make a model incorporating all the currently accepted physical laws, then take the readings from the beginning of the universe and extrapolate it forward through time, the results look slightly different from what we actually measure around us today.

Specifically, today's readings find the universe is less "clumpy"—clustering in certain areas rather than evenly spread out—than the model would predict.

If other studies continue to find the same results, scientists say, it may mean there is something missing from our existing model of the universe, but the results are not yet to the statistical level that scientists consider to be ironclad. That will take further study.

 Y. Omori et al, Joint analysis of Dark Energy Survey Year 3 data and CMB lensing from SPT and Planck . I. Construction of CMB lensing maps and modeling choices, Physical Review D (2023). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.107.023529

C. Chang et al, Joint analysis of Dark Energy Survey Year 3 data and CMB lensing from SPT and Planck . II. Cross-correlation measurements and cosmological constraints, Physical Review D (2023). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.107.023530

T. M. C. Abbott et al, Joint analysis of Dark Energy Survey Year 3 data and CMB lensing from SPT and Planck . III. Combined cosmological constraints, Physical Review D (2023). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.107.023531

Part 2

Tuning into brainwave rhythms speeds up learning in adults, study finds

Scientists have shown for the first time that briefly tuning into a person's individual brainwave cycle before they perform a learning task dramatically boosts the speed at which cognitive skills improve.

Calibrating rates of information delivery to match the natural tempo of our brains increases our capacity to absorb and adapt to new information, according to the team behind the study.

The researchers say that these techniques could help us retain "neuroplasticity" much later in life and advance lifelong learning.

Each brain has its own natural rhythm, generated by the oscillation of neurons working together. Scientists simulated these fluctuations so the brain is in tune with itself—and in the best state to flourish. 

The brain's plasticity is the ability to restructure and learn new things, continually building on previous patterns of neuronal interactions. By harnessing brainwave rhythms, it may be possible to enhance flexible learning across the lifespan, from infancy to older adulthood.

Part 1

The neuroscientists used electroencephalography—or EEG—sensors attached to the head to measure electrical activity in the brain of 80 study participants, and sample brainwave rhythms.

The team took alpha waves readings. The mid-range of the brainwave spectrum, this wave frequency tends to dominate when we are awake and relaxed.

Alpha waves oscillate between eight to twelve hertz: a full cycle every 85-125 milliseconds. However, every person has their own peak alpha frequency within that range.

Scientists used these readings to create an optical "pulse": a white square flickering on a dark background at the same tempo as each person's individual alpha wave.

Participants got a 1.5-second dose of personalized pulse to set their brain working at its natural rhythm—a technique called "entrainment"—before being presented with a tricky quick-fire cognitive task: trying to identify specific shapes within a barrage of visual clutter.

A brainwave cycle consists of a peak and trough. Some participants received pulses matching the peak of their waves, some the trough, while some got rhythms that were either random or at the wrong rate (a little faster or slower). Each participant repeated over 800 variations of the cognitive task, and the neuroscientists measured how quickly people improved.

The learning rate for those locked into the right rhythm was at least three times faster than for all the other groups. When participants returned the next day to complete another round of tasks, those who learned much faster under entrainment had maintained their higher performance level.

The intervention itself is very simple, just a brief flicker on a screen, but when we hit the right frequency plus the right phase alignment, it seems to have a strong and lasting effect.

Importantly, entrainment pulses need to chime with the trough of a brainwave. Scientists think this is the point in a cycle when neurons are in a state of "high receptivity".

Elizabeth Michael et al, Learning at your brain's rhythm: individualized entrainment boosts learning for perceptual decisions, Cerebral Cortex (2022). DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhac426

Part 2

An illuminated water droplet creates an 'optical atom'

Shining light on a water droplet creates effects analogous to what happens in an atom. This can help us understand how atoms work, write researchers from the  in a new journal article published in Physical Review Letters.

If you whisper by the wall in the dome of St Paul's Cathedral in London, you'll discover that the sound bounces off the dome's walls all the way around and is audible on the opposite side. Which is why the Cathedral's dome has been dubbed "the whispering gallery."

The same effect is achieved when a beam of light is shone into a water droplet. Rays of light bounce off the inner wall of the water droplet over and over again, going around and around inside the droplet. When its circumference is a multiple of the light's wavelength, a resonance phenomenon occurs, just like the sound inside the Cathedral's dome, making the droplet shine brighter.

In their  experiments with laser light, we could see that the light is trapped inside the water droplet. When the droplet shrinks due to evaporation, it appears to flash every time its size is right to create the resonance phenomenon.

You cannot change the size of the dome in St. Paul's Cathedral, but a water droplet changes size as it evaporates. The researchers then discovered how the droplet flashed in a way similar to what occurs when an electron is emitted from an atom when illuminated by light of varying wavelengths. They were also able to use a quantum mechanics analogy to explain how the resonances—the size of the droplet when the scattering was greatest—correspond to the energy levels of an atom. This makes the droplet a model of an atom with the added bonus that its size can be varied. It provides deeper insights into how light scatters while being a model for understanding how atoms work.

Javier Tello Marmolejo et al, Fano Combs in the Directional Mie Scattering of a Water Droplet, Physical Review Letters (2023). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.043804

Physicists observe rare resonance in molecules for the first time

If s/he hits just the right pitch, a singer can shatter a wine glass. The reason is resonance. While the glass may vibrate slightly in response to most acoustic tones, a pitch that resonates with the material's own natural frequency can send its vibrations into overdrive, causing the glass to shatter.

Resonance also occurs at the much smaller scale of atoms and molecules. When particles chemically react, it's partly due to specific conditions that resonate with particles in a way that drives them to chemically link. But atoms and molecules are constantly in motion, inhabiting a blur of vibrating and rotating states. Picking out the exact resonating state that ultimately triggers molecules to react has been nearly impossible. MIT physicists may have cracked part of this mystery with a new study appearing in the journal Nature. The team reports that they have for the first time observed a resonance in colliding ultracold molecules. They found that a cloud of super-cooled sodium-lithium (NaLi) molecules disappeared 100 times faster than normal when exposed to a very specific magnetic field. The molecules' rapid disappearance is a sign that the magnetic field tuned the particles into a resonance, driving them to react more quickly than they normally would. The findings shed light on the mysterious forces that drive molecules to chemically react. They also suggest that scientists could one day harness particles' natural resonances to steer and control certain chemical reactions.

Juliana Park, A Feshbach resonance in collisions between triplet ground-state molecules, Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05635-8. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05635-8

Study examines how reflecting on your values before opening your mouth makes for happier relationships

Ever found yourself angry at a situation and in desperate need to tell the world about it by ranting to anyone who'll listen? Maybe it's time to pause; inhale and reflect on what values you hold dear.

A new interdisciplinary study, conducted by philosophers,  linguists and  psychologists  has found that a process of reflecting on life values before a debate can enhance people's willingness to listen to others and engage with them in a civil dialogue.

The analysis revealed that the process of reflecting on values first helped to inspire individuals' "intellectual humility" (their awareness of their own fallibility and openness to others' views): 60.6% of participants who reflected on their values first showed more humility compared to the average person who was not given this task. In a seemingly ever-distant world where opinions appear increasingly polarized, the researchers suggest their results show grounds for optimism. If people were to stop and reflect on the values which are important to them, debates in the online and offline world could be far more harmonious, they think.

Using Self-Affirmation to Increase Intellectual Humility in Debate, Royal Society Open Science (2023). DOI: 10.1098/rsos.220958. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.220958

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Using CRISPR to detect cancer biomarkers

Most cancer diagnostic techniques rely on uncomfortable and invasive procedures, such as biopsies, endoscopies or mammograms. Blood samples could be a less unpleasant option, though only a few forms of the disease can currently be diagnosed this way. But now, researchers reporting in ACS Sensors have developed an easy-to-use method that can detect small amounts of cancer-related molecules in exosomes in plasma and effectively distinguish between malignant and benign samples.

Exosomes are small vesicles that pinch off from a host cell, carrying cargo, such as nucleic acids, lipids and proteins, inside. This means that they provide a window into the condition of the cell they originated from. Accordingly, the unique intracellular environment of cancerous cells will be reflected in their exosomes through biomarkers such as micro RNAs (miRNAs). These are very small nucleic acids, only a few nucleotides in length, that regulate protein expression in cells and can become dysregulated in tumors. Therefore, it's possible that a blood test could someday detect cancerous cells simply by targeting these exosomal miRNAs.

But quantifying miRNAs has been difficult because they are present at very low levels in exosomes, requiring laborious processes that can introduce contamination and report unreliable results. So, some researchers have analyzed RNA and proteins in vesicles with the gene-editing tool CRISPR. Butother scientists wanted to develop a way to detect the small numbers of cancer-related exosomal miRNAs using a different CRISPR system with a unique RNase activity that was sensitive, reliable and effective. To create the detection method, the team designed a CRISPR/Cas13a system to cut apart a fluorophore and quencher-labeled reporter molecule, then packed it into a liposome—essentially a manufactured version of an exosome. When the two types of compartments fused together, the CRISPR cargo would then interact with the exosomal genetic material. If the target miRNA sequence was present, the Cas13a protein became activated and cut apart the reporter molecule, producing a fluorescent signal. In these experiments, the team targeted miRNA-21, which is involved in the development of several diseases, including breast cancer. The method successfully detected this miRNA within a mixture of similar sequences with high sensitivity. In other experiments, the researchers tested the method on a group of exosomes from healthy human cells and groups derived from breast cancer cells. The system consistently differentiated the cancer-related exosomes from those derived from healthy cells, showing it could be useful as a cancer diagnostic. The researchers say that this method has the potential to make cancer diagnosis and monitoring quicker and easier by analyzing blood samples.

Highly effective detection of exosomal miRNAs in plasma using liposome-mediated transfection CRISPR/Cas13a, ACS Sensors (2023). pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acssensors.2c01683

Light-activated nanoscale drills can kill pathogenic fungi

That stubborn athlete's foot infection an estimated 70% of people get at some point in their life could become much easier to get rid of thanks to nanoscale drills activated by visible light.

Proven effective against antibiotic-resistant infectious bacteria and cancer cells, the molecular machines developed by researchers are just as good at combating infectious fungi, according to a new study published in Advanced Science.

The molecular machines developed by them are nanoscale compounds whose paddlelike chain of atoms moves in a single direction when exposed to visible light. This causes a drilling motion that allows the machines to bore into the surface of cells, killing them. This study is the first to show that, indeed, these molecules can also be effective against fungi.

In contrast to most antifungals, development of resistance to the visible-light activated nanoscale drills was not detected. Spinning at 2-3 million times per second, their rotors cause fungal cells to disintegrate by disrupting their metabolism.

By targeting the mitochondria,  these molecules disrupt the cell's metabolism, resulting in an overall energy imbalance that leads to an uncontrolled flow of water and ions such as calcium into the cell, eventually causing the cell to explode.

Ana L. Santos et al, Visible‐Light‐Activated Molecular Machines Kill Fungi by Necrosis Following Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Calcium Overload, Advanced Science (2023). DOI: 10.1002/advs.202205781

A Mysterious Whirlpool Appeared Over Hawaii, And It Could Be Because of SpaceX

A ghostly blue spiral spotted in the sky over Hawaii could be related to a SpaceX satellite launch.

The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan spotted the mysterious spiral through its Subaru Telescope on Janua..., just after SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a large military satellite for the US Space Force.

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-mysterious-whirlpool-appeared-over-h...

Network science is the study of physical, biological, social and other phenomena through the creation of network representations. These representations can sometimes offer very valuable insight, unveiling interesting patterns in data and relationships between connected entities.

  Network science and network visualizations are superb in summarizing and explaining complex systems in one image in a quick and objective way.

A network is essentially an object that consists of several nodes and links that connect these nodes. Network scientists  build these networks using data that relates to specific phenomena involving different interconnected parties or entities.

Two data scientists working at Central European University, Baoba Inc. and Revolut recently used network science to examine the FIFA World Cup 2022. The network representations they created, outlined in a paper published on Research Gate, allowed them to shed some new light on the fascinating interconnected world of soccer stars and clubs.

To build a network, researchers need a data source that shows relationships between the entities they are studying. In the example of soccer, this could be a team just as much as individual players. So, first things first—researchers needed data. This is where expert knowledge is required.

So the researchers collected the data necessary to build their FIFA World Cup 2022 Networks from transfermarkt.com, a soccer-related website owned by Axel Springer SE. This website contains a vast amount of information about soccer players and clubs, including players' team memberships and transfer histories, as well as both ongoing and past championship results.

So they came up with this: 

 Milan Janosov et al, FIFA World Cup 2022—The Network Edition, Unpublished (2023). DOI: 10.13140/rg.2.2.20650.29129

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Discovery of new ice may change our understanding of water

Researchers  have discovered a new type of ice that more closely resembles liquid water than any other known ices and that may rewrite our understanding of water and its many anomalies.

The newly discovered ice is amorphous—that is, its molecules are in a disorganized form, not neatly ordered as they are in ordinary, crystalline ice. Amorphous ice, although rare on Earth, is the main type of ice found in space. That is because in the colder environment of space, ice does not have enough thermal energy to form crystals.

For the study, published in the journal Science, the research team used a process called ball milling, vigorously shaking ordinary ice together with steel balls in a jar cooled to -200 degrees Centigrade.

They found that, rather than ending up with small bits of ordinary ice, the process yielded a novel amorphous form of ice that, unlike all other known ices, had the same density as liquid water and whose state resembled water in solid form. They named the new ice "medium-density amorphous ice" (MDA).

The team suggested that MDA (which looks like a fine white powder) may exist inside ice moons of the outer solar system, as tidal forces from gas giants such as Jupiter and Saturn may exert similar shear forces on ordinary ice as those created by ball milling. In addition, the team found that when MDA was warmed up and recrystallized, it released an extraordinary amount of heat, meaning it could trigger tectonic motions and "icequakes" in the kilometers-thick covering of ice on moons such as Ganymede.

 Alexander Rosu-Finsen et al, Medium-density amorphous ice, Science (2023). DOI: 10.1126/science.abq2105. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abq2105

https://phys.org/news/2023-02-discovery-ice.html?utm_source=nwlette...

Here is another reason to stop wars and voilence : Life in a violent country can be years shorter and much less predictable, even for those not involved in conflict

How long people live is less predictable and life expectancy for young people can be as much as 14 years shorter in violent countries compared to peaceful countries, according to a new study today from an international team. It reveals a direct link between the uncertainty of living in a violent setting, even for those not directly involved in the violence, and a "double burden" of shorter and less predictable lives.

According to the research, violent deaths are responsible for a high proportion of the differences in lifetime uncertainty between violent and peaceful countries. But, the study says, "The impact of violence on mortality goes beyond cutting lives short. When lives are routinely lost to violence, those left behind face uncertainty as to who will be next."

What the researchers found most striking is that lifetime uncertainty has a greater association with violence than life expectancy. Lifetime uncertainty, therefore, should not be overlooked when analyzing changes in mortality patterns.

Using mortality data from 162 countries, and the Internal Peace Index between 2008–2017, the study shows the most violent countries are also those with the highest lifetime uncertainty. It also says, in the most violent societies, lifetime uncertainty is even experienced by those not directly involved in violence. The report states, "Poverty-insecurity-violence cycles magnify pre-existing structural patterns of disadvantage for women and fundamental imbalances in gender relations at young ages."

Whilst men are the major direct victims of violence, women are more likely to experience non-fatal consequences in violent contexts. These indirect effects of violence should not be ignored as they fuel gender inequalities, and can trigger other forms of vulnerability and causes of death.

According to the report, lower life expectancy is usually associated with greater lifetime uncertainty. In addition, living in a violent society creates vulnerability and uncertainty—and that, in turn, can lead to more violent behavior.

Therefore, countries with high levels of violence experience lower levels of life expectancy than more peaceful ones.

José Aburto, A global assessment of the impact of violence on lifetime uncertainty, Science Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.add9038. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.add9038

Genetic analysis can reduce adverse drug reactions by 30%

Patients can experience 30% fewer serious adverse reactions if their drugs are tailored to their genes, reports a study published in The Lancet. A European collaboration research suggests that a genetic analysis prior to drug therapy could significantly reduce suffering and health care costs.

A significant proportion of patients experience adverse reactions to their medication. Since we each carry a unique set of genes, we react differently to the same drugs. For example, some people break them down faster, meaning that they require a higher dose to obtain the desired effect.

To overcome this problem, researchers have developed the principle for a "DNA pass" that has been clinically validated in the recently published study.

It's basically a credit card-sized card with a magnetic strip containing all the important genetic data on a particular patient. When a patient's card is scanned, doctors and pharmacists can work out the optimal dose of a drug for that particular individual.

The study included almost 7,000 patients from seven European countries between March 2017 and June 2020 all of whom were genotyped with respect to variations in twelve specific genes of significance to drug metabolism, transport and side-effects. All participants then received their drugs either conventionally or with a genotype-based modification.

Twelve weeks after their drug regimen began, the patients were contacted by a specialist nurse about any adverse reactions, such as diarrhea, pain or loss of taste. The study concluded that such adverse reactions to drugs can be greatly reduced by analyzing the genes that code for enzymes that metabolize them.

The patients who'd received genotype-driven treatment had, on average, 30% fewer adverse reactions than the controls in the study.

Jesse J Swen et al, A 12-gene pharmacogenetic panel to prevent adverse drug reactions: an open-label, multicentre, controlled, cluster-randomised crossover implementation study, The Lancet (2023). DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01841-4

Coffee can pollute too!

Caffeine is an emerging global pollutant. It enters our waterways through the wastewater system, and impacts water quality and marine life. And while coffee grounds are often used as a soil amendment, caffeine is a killer for emerging seedlings.

But there are things consumers can do to reduce the pollution; some are listed  below. And scientists are looking at innovative strategies for removing the contamination.

Five ways to clean up your caffeine habit

1. Stop drinking caffeinated beverages

Since at least 90% of adults drink coffee, tea or energy drinks regularly, I imagine some of you are laughing (or crying) right now. So consider reducing your consumption, and move on to No. 2.

2. Reuse and recycle

Some businesses, artists and engineers are finding creative ways to reuse and recycle grounds. For example, companies in the United Kingdom are collecting coffee pulp and spent grounds to use in textiles, ink, aromatics, and biofuels. Coffee shops and manufacturers could partner with such companies to reuse their coffee waste.

3. Don't dump spent grounds or leftover drink down the sink

Compost or dispose of grounds in the trash rather than send caffeine down the drain and into the wastewater system.

4. Reduce plastic pollution, too

The plastic and disposable cups that often go with caffeine habits is a different but related type of pollution we can reduce. Remember to bring your own cup to the café, or use one of the many low-waste techniques of brewing at home.

5. Support government funding to update sewage facilities

"Investing in outdated treatment plants is how we can actually solve it," Subuyuj said. "In the U.S., outdated water treatment plants, especially in bigger cities, is the main source of caffeine entering waterways. That would also reduce other contaminants to the environment, like heavy metals and microplastics."

Rocket industry could undo decades of work to save the ozone layer

The ozone layer is on track to heal within four decades, according to a recent UN report, but this progress could be undone by an upsurge in rocket launches expected during the same period.

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Rates of hatching failure in birds almost twice as high as previous...

Hatching failure rates in birds are almost twice as high as experts previously estimated, according to the largest ever study of its kind by researchers 

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How long does COVID immunity last?

How quickly does immunity from vaccination, infection with SARS-CoV-2, or a combination of the two, wane? Studies from Portugal, Israel, Sweden and Qatar have offered clues, but the real answer is: it’s complicated. ‘Hybrid’ immunity gained from vaccination and infection provides some protection against reinfection for around eight months, longer than immunity acquired from a booster alone. But the emergence of new variants makes it hard to determine the role of immune evasion. One study suggests that immunity against reinfection could last up to three years — if the virus does not mutate. The data make it difficult to predict when new surges of infections might occur — or when to schedule booster shots.

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Using muon detectors to remotely create a 3D image of the inside of...

A team of physicists affiliated with several institutions in France has developed a way to use muon detectors to create 3D images of difficult-to-access objects, such as a reactor inside a nuclear plant. The research is published in the journal Science Advances.

Bird flu detected in mammals but risk to humans low: experts

Experts have warned that the recent detection of bird flu in mammals including foxes, otters, minks, seals and even grizzly bears is concerning but emphasized that the virus would have to significantly mutate to spread between humans.

It is rare that bird flu jumps over into mammals—and rarer still that humans catch the potentially deadly virus.

However two recent larger scale infections have raised concerns that bird flu has the potential to spread between mammals.

One was an outbreak of H5N1 with the PB2 mutation at a Spanish farm in October that led to the culling of more than 50,000 minks.

Transmission between the minks has not been confirmed, with further research ongoing.

The mass death of some 2,500 endangered seals found along Russia's Caspian Sea coast last month has also raised concern.

But it was always concerning when a flu virus enters mammals "because they're often the mixing point of influenza viruses, or they create an environment where mutations can occur and then can become adapted in humans".

If H5N1 did mutate into a strain that could circulate among humans, the current seasonal flu vaccine could be fairly easily updated to include it.

Over the last two decades, there have been 868 confirmed H5N1 cases in humans with 457 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. There were four confirmed cases and one death last year.

Last month, Ecuador reported South America's first case of the A(H5) bird flu virus in a human—a nine-year-old girl who was in contact with backyard poultry.

The experts called for continued surveillance of avian influenza in wild birds, poultry and mammals, in order for humans to limit their exposure.

source: AFP

Will revitalizing old blood slow aging?

Young blood has a rejuvenating effect when infused into older bodies, according to recent research: Aging hearts beat stronger, muscles become stronger, and thinking becomes sharper.

Many scientists are looking for the elements of young blood that can be captured or replicated and put into a pill. But what if the best way to get the benefits of young blood is to simply rejuvenate the system that makes blood?

An aging blood system, because it's a vector for a lot of proteins, cytokines, and cells, has a lot of bad consequences for the organism. A 70-year-old with a 40-year-old blood system could have a longer healthspan, if not a longer lifespan. Rejuvenating an older person's blood may now be within reach, based on recent findings according to a paper published in Nature Cell Biology.

According to new research ,  an anti-inflammatory drug, already approved for use in rheumatoid arthritis, can turn back time in mice and reverse some of the effects of age on the hematopoietic system. These results indicate that such strategies hold promise for maintaining healthier blood production in the elderly.

The researchers only identified the drug after a comprehensive investigation of the stem cells that create all blood cells and the niches where they reside in the center of the bones.

All blood cells in the body are created by a small number of stem cells that reside in bone marrow. Over time, these hematopoietic stem cells start to change: They produce fewer red blood cells (leading to anemia) and fewer immune cells (which raises the risk of infection and impedes vaccination efforts), and they have trouble maintaining the integrity of their genomes (which can lead to blood cancers).

The researchers first tried to rejuvenate old hematopoietic stem cells, in mice, with exercise or calorie-restricting diet, both generally thought to slow the aging process. Neither worked. Transplanting old stem cells into young bone marrow also failed. Even young blood had no effect on rejuvenating old blood stem cells.

They then took a closer look at the stem cells' environment, the bone marrow. Blood stem cells live in a niche; they thought what happens in this specialized local environment could be a big part of the problem. 

With new techniques developed  that enable detailed investigation of the bone marrow milieu, the researchers found that the aging niche is deteriorating and overwhelmed with inflammation, leading to dysfunction in the blood stem cells. One inflammatory signal released from the damaged bone marrow niche, IL-1B, was critical in driving these aging features, and blocking it with the drug anakinra remarkably returned the blood stem cells to a younger, healthier state. Even more youthful effects on both the niche and the blood system occurred when IL-1B was prevented from exerting its inflammatory effects throughout the animal's life.

The researchers are now trying to learn if the same processes are active in humans and if rejuvenating the stem cell niche earlier in life, in middle age, would be a more effective strategy. Meanwhile, "treating elderly patients with anti-inflammatory drugs blocking IL-1B function should help with maintaining healthier blood production".

Carl A. Mitchell et al, Stromal niche inflammation mediated by IL-1 signalling is a targetable driver of haematopoietic ageing, Nature Cell Biology (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41556-022-01053-0

Genes decide the willow warbler's migration routes

Since antiquity, humans have been fascinated by birds’ intercontinental migratory journeys. A new study shows that two areas in their genome decide whether a willow warbler flies across the Iberian Peninsula to western Africa, or across the Balkans to eastern and southern Africa.

Researchers have long known that the behaviour that causes songbirds to migrate in a specific direction towards a remote winter location is something they are born with. The recent study aims to further understanding of the genetics behind this behaviour. With the help of modern technology, and 20 years of research into the genetics of songbirds and their migration routes, the researchers managed to identify which parts of the genome that determine the songbirds’ routes.

“The songbirds’ direction of travel is determined by two areas in the genome. Genes from the southern subspecies take the bird towards the southwest, across the Iberian peninsula to their wintering grounds in western Africa. Genes belonging to the northern subspecies instead lead the willow warblers towards the southeast, over the Balkans, to locations in eastern and southern Africa, according to the study.

Researchers have previously assumed that interbreeding between subspecies that move in different directions would result in offspring that migrate in a direction in between these two. For willow warblers, this would mean a route straight over the Mediterranean and the Sahara, with probable higher mortality than if they flew west or east of that route. Instead, researchers discovered that crosses between northern and southern willow warblers usually migrate like one or other of the subspecies. The price of interbreeding, then, is lower than researchers previously thought. 

Researchers are surprised that such complex behaviour as variations in migratory patterns can to such a large extent be explained by just two genetic areas.

Knowledge of the willow warbler’s behaviour also helps us to understand how different species’ spectacular migratory patterns have developed through evolution. Climate change means that many species are being forced to alter their routes when the habitats they are adapted to change. The more we know about the genetics of migration, the better understanding we will gain of the birds’ capacity to adapt their migration patterns in response to climate change.

Kristaps Sokolovskis et al, Migration direction in a songbird explained by two loci, Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-35788-7

Why lung cancer doesn't respond well to immunotherapy

Immunotherapy — drug treatment that stimulates the immune system to attack tumors — works well against some types of cancer, but it has shown mixed success against lung cancer.

A new study helps to shed light on why the immune system mounts such a lackluster response to lung cancer, even after treatment with immunotherapy drugs. In a study of mice, the researchers found that bacteria naturally found in the lungs help to create an environment that suppresses T-cell activation in the lymph nodes near the lungs.

The researchers did not find that kind of immune-suppressive environment in lymph nodes near tumours growing near the skin of mice. They hope that their findings could help lead to the development of new ways to rev up the immune response to lung tumours.

There is a functional difference between the T-cell responses that are mounted in the different lymph nodes. Researchers are hoping to identify a way to counteract that suppressive response, so that they can reactivate the lung-tumor-targeting T cells.
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For many years, scientists have known that cancer cells can send out immunosuppressive signals, which leads to a phenomenon known as T-cell exhaustion. The goal of cancer immunotherapy is to rejuvenate those T cells so they can begin attacking tumors again.

One type of drug commonly used for immunotherapy involves checkpoint inhibitors, which remove the brakes on exhausted T cells and help reactivate them. This approach has worked well with cancers such as melanoma, but not as well with lung cancer.

Recent research work has offered one possible explanation for this: Researchers found that some T cells stop working even before they reach a tumor, because of a failure to become activated early in their development. In a 2021 paper, they identified populations of dysfunctional T cells that can be distinguished from normal T cells by a pattern of gene expression that prevents them from attacking cancer cells when they enter a tumor.

“Despite the fact that these T cells are proliferating, and they’re infiltrating the tumor, they were never licensed to kill”.
Part 1

In the new study, teh researchers delved further into this activation failure, which occurs in the lymph nodes, which filter fluids that drain from nearby tissues. The lymph nodes are where “killer T cells” encounter dendritic cells, which present antigens (tumor proteins) and help to activate the T cells.

To explore why some killer T cells fail to be properly activated, researchers studied mice that had tumors implanted either in the lungs or in the flank. All of the tumors were genetically identical.

The researchers found that T cells in lymph nodes that drain from the lung tumors did encounter dendritic cells and recognize the tumor antigens displayed by those cells. However, these T cells failed to become fully activated, as a result of inhibition by another population of T cells called regulatory T cells.

These regulatory T cells became strongly activated in lymph nodes that drain from the lungs, but not in lymph nodes near tumors located in the flank, the researchers found. Regulatory T cells are normally responsible for making sure that the immune system doesn’t attack the body’s own cells. However, the researchers found that these T cells also interfere with dendritic cells’ ability to activate killer T cells that target lung tumors.

The researchers also discovered how these regulatory T cells suppress dendritic cells: by removing stimulatory proteins from the surface of dendritic cells, which prevents them from being able to turn on killer-T-cell activity.

Further studies revealed that the activation of regulatory T cells is driven by high levels of interferon gamma in the lymph nodes that drain from the lungs. This signaling molecule is produced in response to the presence of commensal bacterial — bacteria that normally live in the lungs without causing infection.

The researchers have not yet identified the types of bacteria that induce this response or the cells that produce the interferon gamma, but they showed that when they treated mice with an antibody that blocks interferon gamma, they could restore killer T cells’ activity.

Interferon gamma has a variety of effects on immune signaling, and blocking it can dampen the overall immune response against a tumor, so using it to stimulate killer T cells would not be a good strategy to use in patients.

Researchers are now exploring other ways to help stimulate the killer T cell response, such as inhibiting the regulatory T cells that suppress the killer-T-cell response or blocking the signals from the commensal bacteria, once the researchers identify them.

Maria Zagorulya, Leon Yim, et al. Tissue-specific abundance of interferon-gamma drives regulatory T cells to restrain DC1-mediated priming of cytotoxic T cells against lung cancer. Immunity. DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2023.01.010

Part 2

Scientists detect molten rock layer hidden under Earth's tectonic plates

Scientists have discovered a new layer of partly molten rock under the Earth's crust that might help settle a long-standing debate about how tectonic plates move.

Researchers had previously identified patches of melt at a similar depth. But a new study  revealed for the first time the layer's global extent and its part in plate tectonics.

The molten layer is located about 100 miles from the surface and is part of the asthenosphere, which sits under the Earth's tectonic plates in the upper mantle. The asthenosphere is important for plate tectonics because it forms a relatively soft boundary that lets tectonic plates move through the mantle.

The reasons why it is soft, however, are not well understood. Scientists previously thought that molten rocks might be a factor. But this study shows that melt, in fact, does not appear to notably influence the flow of mantle rocks.

The convection of heat and rock in the mantle are the prevailing influence on the motion of the plates. Although the Earth's interior is largely solid, over long periods of time, rocks can shift and flow like honey.

Showing that the melt layer has no influence on plate tectonics means one less tricky variable for computer models of the Earth.

Junlin Hua, Asthenospheric low-velocity zone consistent with globally prevalent partial melting, Nature Geoscience (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41561-022-01116-9. www.nature.com/articles/s41561-022-01116-9

Why icicles are rippled

When you look at these icicles carefully, you may notice that they show a characteristic pattern of ripples—always around one centimeter wide. What causes these ripples? Using an icicle machine of their own design, physicists and chemists investigated this question, and discovered that salt plays an important part in the formation process of the ripples.

 It was discovered that the flow of liquid water caused the ripples to appear. Using pure water, the layer of salty liquid water around the icicle was absent, and the formation process looked more like a dripping candle. When saltier water was used, the icicle was surrounded by a thin film of liquid, salty water, and the flow of that water created the regular ripples. The more salt the water contained, the stronger the process, causing thicker ripples to eventually form.

In nature, water always contains a small concentration of salt. This explains the beautiful structures we find on our gutters and car bumpers in the morning—rippled by a thin layer of slightly salty water that was at work throughout the night.

 Menno Demmenie et al, Growth and Form of Rippled Icicles, Physical Review Applied (2023). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.19.024005

Global study shows influences of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems

In a study published in Nature Geoscience, plant ecologistshave shown how global climate change is impacting the Earth's terrestrial ecosystems. Changes in vegetation activity could in most cases be explained by temperature and soil moisture changes, while changes in solar radiation and atmospheric CO₂ levels seldom played a dominant role.

In some of the ecosystems studied, years of increased vegetation activity have been followed by decreases. Such trend reversals raise the question of whether terrestrial ecosystems will continue to make large contributions to the sequestration of atmospheric carbon.

Researchers 

 linked global remote sensing data from the past 40 years to a novel dynamic model of plant growth. This model allows the identification of the climate factors involved in global climate change that are driving vegetation change.

These factors include air temperature, soil temperature, soil moisture, solar radiation, and atmospheric CO₂ levels. The method allows, for the first time, the attribution of measured changes in vegetation activity to individual climate factors.

Steven I. Higgins et al, Shifts in vegetation activity of terrestrial ecosystems attributable to climate trends, Nature Geoscience (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41561-022-01114-x

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Bacteria use dogma-defying DNA packaging

Some bacteria have a bizarre way of packaging chromosomes and regulating gene expression: they use proteins that weren’t thought to exist in bacteria at all. Researchers report that proteins called histones seem to coat regions of the bacterial chro... in two species. This is a marked difference from histones’ function in eukaryotes (which includes animals, plants and fungi), in which the proteins form a spool for DNA to wind around. The researchers surveyed thousands of bacterial genomes and found histone-like proteins in about 2%. For now, it’s unclear what the histones might be doing, and how their unusual mode of action might help the bacteria to survive.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.26.525422v1?utm_sou...

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Driving culture gives us ‘car brain’

People seem to be more likely to excuse the negative effects of driving — such as pollution and accidents — than those in other areas of life. In a survey of 2,157 drivers and non-drivers in the United Kingdom, roughly half were asked to rate a statement about cars. The others were given an almost identical sentence about another issue. For example, 75% agreed that people shouldn’t smoke in highly populated areas where others have to breathe in the fumes — but only 17% agreed that people shouldn’t drive in highly populated areas. The researchers suggest that this ‘motonormativity’ inhibits our ability to think objectively about how we use cars.

https://psyarxiv.com/egnmj/

Scientists first in the world to regenerate diseased kidney cells

In a world first, scientists at Duke-NUS Medical School, the National Heart Center Singapore (NHCS) and colleagues in Germany have shown that regenerative therapy to restore impaired kidney function may soon be a possibility.

In a preclinical study reported in Nature Communications, the team found that blocking a damaging and scar-regulating protein called interleukin-11 (IL-11) enables damaged kidney cells to regenerate, restoring impaired kidney function due to disease and acute injuries.

Searching for ways to restore the kidney's ability to regenerate damaged cells, researchers investigated the role of IL-11, which is known to trigger scarring in other organs, including the liver, lungs and heart, in acute and chronic kidney disease.

Their findings implicate the protein in triggering a cascade of molecular processes in response to kidney injury that leads to inflammation, fibrosis (scarring) and loss of function. They also discovered that inhibiting IL-11 with a neutralizing antibody can prevent and even reverse kidney damage in this setting.

They found that IL-11 is detrimental to kidney function and triggers the development of chronic kidney disease. They also showed that anti-IL11 therapy can treat kidney failure, reverse established chronic kidney disease, and restore kidney function by promoting regeneration in mice, while being safe for long term use.

More specifically, the researchers showed that renal tubular cells, which line the tiny tubes inside kidneys, release IL-11 in response to kidney damage. This turns on a signaling cascade that ultimately leads to increased expression of a gene, called Snail Family Transcriptional Repressor 1 (SNAI1), which arrests cellular growth and promotes kidney dysfunction.

In a preclinical model of human diabetic kidney disease, turning off this process by administering an antibody that binds to IL-11 led to proliferation of the kidney tubule cells and reversal of fibrosis and inflammation, resulting in the regeneration of the injured kidney and the restoration of renal function.

While clinical trials of an antibody that binds to another pro-fibrotic molecule called transforming growth factor beta have been unsuccessful, this new approach brings hope of a new target.  This work has shown that scientists  can restore function to a damaged kidney.

This discovery could be a real game-changer in the treatment of chronic kidney disease—which is a major public health concern globally—bringing us one step closer to delivering the benefits promised by regenerative medicine.

Anissa A. Widjaja et al, Targeting endogenous kidney regeneration using anti-IL11 therapy in acute and chronic models of kidney disease, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35306-1

Harmful bacteria can elude predators when in mixed colonies

 Efforts to fight disease-causing bacteria by harnessing their natural predators could be undermined when multiple species occupy the same space, according to a new study.

When growing in mixed colonies, some harmful bacteria may be able to withstand attacks from the bacteria and viruses that target them by finding protection inside groups of rival species, according to a report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The researchers found that the intestinal bacterium Escherichia coli became surrounded by tightly packed colonies of Vibrio cholerae—which causes the deadly disease cholera—when the species were grown together. These clusters protected E. coli from the bacteria Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus that preys on both species individually, but in the study could only kill the outer layer of V. cholerae. This left the unscathed cells of E. coli and V. cholerae insulated within the colonies free to multiply.

The findings add a new layer of complication to the development of biological antimicrobials, wherein bacteria-killing bacteria or viruses—known as bacteriophages—are deployed to fight infections.

For E. coli, if it grew with V. cholerae, it could do better than on its own, but V. cholerae did worse. It's fascinating that growing together had opposite effects on each species' chances of survival. This new research shows that the way prey populations can resist or not resist predators can be very different in multispecies conditions. The efficacy of bacteriophages and predatory bacteria to kill off harmful bacteria might depend on the other species their prey are living with, and on the biofilm structures they produce alone versus together.

These organisms can be more effective than antibiotics at penetrating bacterial colonies, or biofilms, and have emerged as a possible supplement or alternative to antibiotics. Bacteria worldwide have become more resistant to antibiotics due to the drugs' overuse.

Most of earlier research on predatory bacteria and phages, however, has focused on liquid cultures or single-species biofilms, not on mixed colonies like we see in human eco-systems. 

This work highlights the importance of studying other examples of multispecies biofilm structures. What the scientists  saw in this work will apply to other cases, but it's a question of when and to what extent.

Benjamin R. Wucher et al, Breakdown of clonal cooperative architecture in multispecies biofilms and the spatial ecology of predation, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2023). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2212650120

James B. Winans et al, Multispecies biofilm architecture determines bacterial exposure to phages, PLOS Biology (2022). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001913

Scientists Create Semi-Living 'Cyborg' Cells That Could Transform Medicine

Through a complex chemical process, scientists have been able to develop versatile, synthetic 'cyborg' cells in the lab. They share many characteristics of living cells while lacking the ability to divide and grow.

That non-replication part is important. For artificial cells to be useful, they need to be carefully controlled, and that can't happen as easily if they're propagating in the same way that actual cells do.

The researchers behind the new development think these cyborgs could have a huge variety of applications, from improving treatments for diseases like cancer to cleaning up pollution through targeted chemical processes.

The cyborg cells are programmable, do not divide, preserve essential cellular activities, and gain nonnative abilities.

Cell engineering is currently based on two key approaches: genetically remodeling existing cells to give them new functions (more flexible but also able to reproduce) and building synthetic cells from scratch (which can't replicate but have limited biological functions).

These cyborg cells are the result of a new, third strategy. The researchers took bacterial cells as their foundation and added elements from an artificial polymer. Once inside the cell, the polymer was exposed to ultraviolet light to build it into a hydrogel matrix by cross-linking, mimicking a natural extracellular matrix.

While able to maintain much of their normal biological functions, these cyborg cells proved to be more resistant to stressors like high pH and antibiotic exposure – stressors that would kill off normal cells. Much like actual cyborgs, they're tough.

Cyborg cells preserve essential functions, including cellular metabolism, motility, protein synthesis, and compatibility with genetic circuits.

Lab tests on tissue samples showed that the newly developed cells were able to invade cancer cells, highlighting the potential of these modified biological building blocks for health treatments further down the line – they could one day be used to deliver drugs to very specific parts of the body.

he researchers say they now want to experiment with the use of different materials to create these cells, as well as investigate how they could be used.

It's also not clear exactly what is stopping the cells from replicating, which needs to be determined. The authors think the hydrogel matrix may stop cell division by inhibiting cell growth or DNA replication, or both.

The blending of the natural and the artificial demonstrated here in some ways takes the best elements of both, opening up new possibilities – a state of "quasi vita" or "almost life", as the researchers put it.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/advs.202204175

New way climate change is fueling itself

Healthy, undisturbed soil sinks carbon, storing what's generated when plants and other living things decompose so it doesn't get released as a planet-warming greenhouse gas.

But a new study  suggests nitrogen pollution from cars and trucks and power plants might make soil release that carbon in dry places—worsening, rather than helping to fight, climate change.

In places that get more regular rain and snow, other studies have shown that adding nitrogen to soil can increase carbon storage. Nitrogen fuels plant growth, which captures carbon and draws it down into the soil. It also helps slow decomposition of whatever is in the soil.

Dryland ecosystems cover roughly 45% of land on Earth. They also store 33% of the carbon found in the top layer of soil worldwide. So if nitrogen pollution is making the carbon stored in these soils vulnerable, that definitely rings some alarm bells.

The findings offer new motivation, then, to speed the transition away from fossil fuels and cut back on nitrogen-rich fertilizer if we want to slow global warming that's already creating climate refugees due to worsening heat waves, droughts, floods and wildfires.

https://phys.org/news/2023-02-dirty-truth-climate-fueling.html?utm_...

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What generative AI means for science

Some scientists now frequently use generative artificial-intelligence (AI) systems, such as ChatGPT, to help them write and edit manuscripts, check their code and brainstorm ideas. But the excitement about the use of such tools is tempered with apprehe..., because of their propensity to make factual errors, reproduce biases in training data and provide fuel for fakery. They also rely on humans to tag reams of violent, abusive and other horrific content so that it can be filtered out, and require a huge amount of energy to train. Researchers are grappling with these issues, in part by urging more regulation and transparency.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00340-6?utm_source=Natur...

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If wormholes exist, they might magnify light by 100,000 times

A small team of astrophysicists affiliated with several institutions in China has found evidence that suggests if wormholes are real, they might magnify light by 100,000 times. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes the theories they have developed and possible uses for them.

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This exoplanet orbits around its star's poles

In 1992, humanity's effort to understand the universe took a significant step forward. That's when astronomers discovered the first exoplanets. They're named Poltergeist (Noisy Ghost) and Phobetor (Frightener), and they orbit a pulsar about 2300 light-years away.

A new ring system discovered in our solar system

Scientists have discovered a new ring system around a dwarf planet on the edge of the solar system. The ring system orbits much further out than is typical for other ring systems, calling into question current theories of how ring systems are formed.

The ring system is around a dwarf planet, named Quaoar, which is approximately half the size of Pluto and orbits the sun beyond Neptune.

The discovery, published in Nature, was made by an international team of astronomers using HiPERCAM—an extremely sensitive high speed camera developed by scientists at the University of Sheffield which is mounted on the world's largest optical telescope, the 10.4 meter diameter Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) on La Palma.

The rings are too small and faint to see directly in an image. Instead, the researchers made their discovery by observing an occultation, when the light from a background star was blocked by Quaoar as it orbits the sun. The event lasted less than a minute, but was unexpectedly preceded and followed by two dips in light, indicative of a ring system around Quaoar.

Ring systems are relatively rare in the solar system. In addition to the well-known rings around the giant planets Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, only two other minor planets possess rings—Chariklo and Haumea. All of the previously known ring systems are able to survive because they orbit close to the parent body, so that tidal forces prevent the ring material from accreting and forming moons.

What makes the ring system around Quaoar remarkable is that it lies at a distance of over seven planetary radii—twice as far out as what was previously thought to be the maximum radius according to the so-called "Roche limit," which is the outer limit of where ring systems were thought to be able to survive. For comparison, the main rings around Saturn lie within three planetary radii. This discovery has therefore forced a rethink on theories of ring formation.

Three hallmarks of aging work together to prevent cancer: 

telomeres, mitochondria, and inflammation

As we age, the end caps of our chromosomes, called telomeres, gradually shorten. Now,  scientists have discovered that when telomeres become very short, they communicate with mitochondria, the cell's powerhouses. This communication triggers a complex set of signaling pathways and initiates an inflammatory response that destroys cells that could otherwise become cancerous.

The findings, published in Nature on February 8, 2023, could lead to new ways of preventing and treating cancer as well as designing better interventions to offset the harmful consequences of aging.

It is surprising to note that telomeres talk to mitochondria. They clearly synergize in well-controlled biological processes to initiate cellular pathways that kill cells that could cause cancer.

When telomeres shorten to a point where they can no longer protect chromosomes from damage, a process called "crisis" occurs and cells die. This beneficial natural process removes cells with very short telomeres and unstable genomes and is known to be a powerful barrier against cancer formation. Cells in crisis are removed by a process called autophagy, in which the body rids itself of damaged cells.

 Jan Karlseder, Telomere-to-mitochondria signalling by ZBP1 mediates replicative crisis, Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-05710-8. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05710-8

Donor hearts can be reprogrammed with medication for longer storage, improved transplant outcomes

Although thousands of people are sick with heart failures around the world,  only around few heart transplants are performed annually.

One reason for this gap is the time window during which a heart can survive outside the donor body before transplant hovers around four hours. And the longer it takes for the donor heart to be transported to the recipient, the more likely that heart will not work well once it's implanted.

Using a drug previously used to treat seizures, researchers have found a way to reprogram donor hearts to boost the production of a beneficial enzyme that both increases the amount of time they can be stored and transported, as well as improves their function after they are transplanted, a study published in Science Translational Medicine suggests. This technology that coaxes donor hearts to mount adaptive responses to existence outside the body could lead to a paradigm shift not only for extending the time a heart can be outside of the donor during transport but for improving heart function after transplant.

Being able to extend the storage of hearts by figuring out the pathways that define and modulate preservation biology is the first step toward the ultimate goal of organ banking.

Current donor preservation techniques focus on cold storage and, more recently, technologies that keep the organs perfused during transport to minimize injury to the heart, but there are no targeted molecular therapies to improve heart preservation in a very precise fashion.

When an organ is in cold storage, succinate is free to build up in excess—more ammunition for stress against the soon-to-be-transplanted heart. To reprogram hearts to take on the heart-damaging succinate, researchers used valproic acid, a histone deacetylase inhibitor previously used as an anti-seizure medication. They found that it defused a significant amount of this cumulative stress in both human and pig hearts by instructing the donor heart to produce antioxidants and anti-inflammatory proteins while preserved on ice.

Using a metabolomic screen, researchers found that valproic acid can reprogram the donor heart to produce beneficial itaconate during preservation.

Ienglam Lei et al, Metabolic reprogramming by immune-responsive gene 1 upregulation improves donor heart preservation and function, Science Translational Medicine (2023). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.ade3782. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.ade3782

Could we use Space dust as Earth's Sun-shield? Researchers are exploring this idea

On a cold winter day, the warmth of the sun is welcome. Yet as humanity emits more and more greenhouse gases, the Earth's atmosphere traps more and more of the sun's energy and steadily increases the Earth's temperature. One strategy for reversing this trend is to intercept a fraction of sunlight before it reaches our planet. For decades, scientists have considered using screens, objects or dust particles to block just enough of the sun's radiation—between 1 or 2%—to mitigate the effects of global warming.

A new study  explored the potential of using dust to shield sunlight. They analyzed different properties of dust particles, quantities of dust and the orbits that would be best suited for shading Earth. The authors found that launching dust from Earth to a way station at the "Lagrange Point" between Earth and the sun (L1) would be most effective but would require astronomical cost and effort. An alternative is to use moondust. The authors argue that launching lunar dust from the moon instead could be a cheap and effective way to shade the Earth.

The team of astronomers applied a technique used to study planet formation around distant stars, their usual research focus. Planet formation is a messy process that kicks up lots of astronomical dust that can form rings around the host star. These rings intercept light from the central star and re-radiate it in a way that we can detect it on Earth. One way to discover stars that are forming new planets is to look for these dusty rings.

That was the seed of the idea; if we took a small amount of material and put it on a special orbit between the Earth and the sun and broke it up, we could block out a lot of sunlight with a little amount of mass. It is amazing to contemplate how moon dust—which took over four billion years to generate—might help slow the rise in Earth's temperature, a problem that took us less than 300 years to produce.

The authors, however,  stress that this study only explores the potential impact of this strategy, rather than evaluate whether these scenarios are logistically feasible.

Dust as a solar shield, PLOS Climate (2023). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pclm.0000133 , journals.plos.org/climate/arti … journal.pclm.0000133

Air pollution linked with blood pressure in London teens

In a new analysis involving adolescents living in London, exposure to higher levels of the pollutant nitrogen dioxide was associated with lower systolic blood pressure, while exposure to higher levels of particulate matter (PM_2.5) was associated with higher systolic blood pressure. Scientists presented these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on February 8, finding that these associations are stronger for girls than for boys.

Exposure to air pollutants is linked to greater risk of cardio-respiratory disease, hospital visits, and death. Adolescents' rapidly growing bodies may be particularly susceptible to long-lasting effects of exposure to air pollutants, including effects on BP. However, most prior studies on air pollution and blood pressure have focused on adults.

For this analysis, they used data on 3,284 adolescents in DASH to examine associations between blood pressure and exposure to pollution in the form of nitrogen dioxide and PM2.5; exposures were estimated based on annual mean levels of pollutants where each participant lived. The researchers found that greater estimated exposure to nitrogen dioxide was associated with lower systolic blood pressure, and greater estimated exposure to PM2.5 was associated with higher systolic blood pressure. These associations were stronger in girls than in boys. No evidence of a relationship between nitrogen dioxide/PM2.5 and diastolic blood pressure was observed. For example, a 1μg/m3 increase in nitrogen dioxide was associated with a 0.30 mmHg (95% CI 0.18 to 0.40) decrease in systolic blood pressure for girls and 0.19 mmHg (95% CI 0.07 to 0.31) decrease in systolic blood pressure for boys. Meanwhile, a 1μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 was associated with a 1.34 mmHg (95% CI 0.85 to 1.82) increase in systolic blood pressure for girls and 0.57 mmHg (95% CI 0.04 to 1.03) increase in systolic blood pressure for boys. The associations between pollutants and blood pressure were consistent regardless of ethnicity, body size, or socioeconomic status. Eighty percent of the adolescents studied were from ethnic minority groups, and the residential estimates suggest that these adolescents were exposed to higher levels of the pollutants than their white peers.

The researchers call for further studies to help confirm and clarify these findings, particularly among young people from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

 Associations between air pollutants and blood pressure in an ethnically diverse cohort of adolescents in London, England, PLoS ONE (2023). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0279719

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How India is battling deadly rain storms

Grassroots action such as the flood early-warning system along the Meenachil River run by Eby Emmanuel is doing something India’s country-wide forecasts can’t: collating local knowledge to warn people of deadly rainstorms. The South Asian summer monsoon is a notoriously complex weather phenomenon. “Climate change is making [extreme rainfall] more erratic and the weather forecasting models are unable to account for that increase in chaos,” says climate scientist Roxy Koll. And forecasting models created in the United States and Europe do not account for how much South Asia’s farming practices and population can change the weather.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00341-5?utm_source=Natur...

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COVID drug might drive viral mutations

Molnupiravir, a drug widely used to treat COVID-19, might be spurring the evolution of new SARS-CoV-2 variants. The drug works by peppering the coronavirus’s genome with mutations, which add up to make SARS-CoV-2 worse at replicating. But scientists have raised the possibility that, in rare cases, molnupiravir treatment might not entirely eliminate SARS-CoV-2, allowing some individuals who have taken the drug to continue to transmit the virus. Now, a preprint study (which is not yet peer reviewed) of more than 13 million SARS-CoV-2 sequences has uncovered sequences that bear molnupiravir’s fingerprints. Quantitative bioscientist Rustem Ismagilov says the study underscores the need to quickly assess the risk of continued use of the drug. “If we are playing Russian roulette, we’d better know our odds.”

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.26.23284998v2

The everyday chemicals that make us fatter

“There are at least 50 chemicals, probably many more, that literally make us fatter,” says environmental-health scientist Leonardo Trasande. He is among those researching ‘obesogens’ — chemicals, such as fungicides and flame retardants, that seem to ma.... The term was coined by cell biologist Bruce Blumberg, who discovered in 2006 that tributyltin chloride promoted fat formation in mice. His advice? “Do not eat packaged processed food. It’s full of obesogens. Buy fresh ingredients and make a meal.”

https://academic.oup.com/mend/article/20/9/2141/2738473

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Global supply chains are devouring what's left of Earth's unspoiled...

While farming continues to drive deforestation around the world, 60% of the destruction of Earth's large, intact forests is caused by other forces. In particular, our research shows that more than one-third of this destruction can be blamed on the production of commodities for export, particularly timber, minerals and oil and gas.

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Urgent environmental action needed to limit the spread of superbugs...

To reduce superbugs, world must cut down pollution and change how we behave, according to a new report by the UN.

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Light pollution has cut humanity's ancient connection with the star...

Humans are naturally afraid of the dark. We sometimes imagine monsters under the bed and walk faster down unlit streets at night. To conquer our fears, we may leave a night light on to scare away the monsters and a light over the porch to deter break-ins.

Calorie restriction slows pace of aging in healthy adults

In a first of its kind randomized controlled trial an international team of researchers shows that caloric restriction can slow the pace of aging in healthy adults. The CALERIE intervention slowed pace of aging measured from participants' blood DNA methylation using the algorithm DunedinPACE (Pace of Aging, Computed from the Epigenome). The intervention effect on DunedinPACE represented a 2-3 percent slowing in the pace of aging, which in other studies translates to a 10-15 percent reduction in mortality risk, an effect similar to a smoking cessation intervention. The results are published online in the journal Nature Aging.

The CALERIE Phase-2 randomized controlled trial is the first ever investigation of the effects of long-term calorie restriction in healthy, non-obese humans. The trial randomized 220 healthy men and women at three sites in the U. S. to a 25 percent calorie-restriction or normal diet for two years. CALERIE is an acronym for 'Comprehensive Assessment of Long-Term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy'.

To measure biological aging in CALERIE Trial participants, the researchers analyzed blood samples collected from trial participants at pre-intervention baseline and after 12- and 24-months of follow-up. Humans live a long time, so it isn't practical to follow them until we see differences in aging-related disease or survival. Instead, we rely on biomarkers developed to measure the pace and progress of biological aging over the duration of the study. The team analyzed methylation marks on DNA extracted from white blood cells. DNA methylation marks are chemical tags on the DNA sequence that regulate the expression of genes and are known to change with aging.

In the primary analysis teh researchers focused on three measurements of the DNA methylation data, sometimes known as "epigenetic clocks". The first two, the PhenoAge and GrimAge clocks, estimate biological age, or the chronological age at which a person's biology would appear "normal". These measures can be thought of as "odometers" that provide a static measure of how much aging a person has experienced. The third measure studied by the researchers was DunedinPACE, which estimates the pace of aging, or the rate of biological deterioration over time. DunedinPACE can be thought of as a "speedometer".

The study found evidence that calorie restriction slowed the pace of aging in humans. But calorie restriction is probably not for everyone. These findings are important because they provide evidence from a randomised trial that slowing human aging may be possible. They also give us a sense of the kinds of effects researchers might look for in trials of interventions that could appeal to more people, like intermittent fasting or time-restricted eating.

A follow-up of trial participants is now ongoing to determine if the intervention had long-term effects on healthy aging.

Daniel Belsky, Effect of long-term caloric restriction on DNA methylation measures of biological aging in healthy adults from the CALERIE trial, Nature Aging (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s43587-022-00357-y. www.nature.com/articles/s43587-022-00357-y

New land creation on waterfronts is increasing

Humans are artificially expanding cities' coastlines by extending industrial ports and creating luxury residential waterfronts. Developers have added over 2,350 square kilometers of land (900 square miles, or about 40 Manhattans) to coastlines in major cities since 2000, according to a new study.

The study reports the first global assessment of coastal land reclamation, which is the process of building new land or filling in coastal water bodies, including wetlands, to expand a coastline. The researchers used satellite imagery to analyze land changes in 135 cities with populations of at least 1 million, 106 of which have done some coastline expansion.

The study was published in the journal Earth's Future.

It's quite important to capture this. There are more and more people, and our footprint is going up. Inevitably, there are ecologic consequences.

The researchers found that  industrialization and a need for urban space have driven much coastal land reclamation, while a smaller proportion of expansion projects are for "prestige," such as the palm tree-shaped islands of Dubai.

About 70% of coastal land expansion has been carried out in low-lying regions that are likely to be exposed to extreme sea level rise by the end of the century. Both environmental impacts and projected coastal inundation suggest these developed coastlines are not sustainable, but cities will likely continue to build them, the researchers say.

Ecological impacts: 

New land is typically created by piling sediments in the ocean, building cement sea walls and structures to contain sediments or cement, or by filling in wetlands and other shallow water bodies near the coast. These methods require vast volumes of sediment and disturb ecosystems irreversibly, as other research has established.

The ecological impacts of reclamation are immense. Reclamation is a massive civil engineering project that fundamentally alters the characteristics of the space that it targets. Coastal wetlands are particularly hard-hit. In the Yellow Sea, for example, more than half of tidal flats were lost mainly due to reclamation.

The creation of land will make sense where it's needed, but you have to do it in a responsible way … and think about whether it is really needed. Those are value judgments.

Other environmental impacts include adding sources of point-source pollution, changing the patterns of sediment movement and altering the biosphere, all of which can impact ocean-based economies such as fishing and tourism. And unequal access to newly created shoreline can exacerbate class divides.

Reclamation also impacts distant ecosystems where fill materials such as sand and gravel are quarried. With a global shortage of sand,  construction companies are quarrying sand and clay from the seabed, which destroys benthic ecosystems.

Dhritiraj Sengupta et al, Mapping 21st Century Global Coastal Land Reclamation, Earth's Future (2023). DOI: 10.1029/2022EF002927

Cockatoos know to bring along multiple tools when they fish for cashews

Scientists develop test that can identify respiratory viruses within five minutes

Scientists have developed a world-first diagnostic test, powered by artificial intelligence, that can identify known respiratory viruses within five minutes from just one nasal or throat swab. The new diagnostic test could replace current methods that are limited to testing for only one infection—such as a lateral flow test for COVID-19—or otherwise are either lab-based and time-consuming or fast and less accurate.

The new virus detection and identification methodology is described in a paper published in ACS Nano. The paper demonstrates how machine learning can significantly improve the efficiency, accuracy and time taken to not only identify different types of viruses, but also differentiate between strains.

The ground-breaking testing technology combines molecular labeling, computer vision and machine learning to create a universal diagnostic imaging platform that looks directly at a patient sample and can identify which pathogen is present in a matter of seconds—much like facial recognition software, but for germs.

Preliminary research demonstrated that this test could identify the COVID-19 virus in patient samples and further work determined that the test could be used to diagnose multiple respiratory infections.

In the study, the researchers began by labeling viruses with single-stranded DNA in over 200 clinical samples from John Radcliffe Hospital. Images of labeled samples were captured using a commercial fluorescence microscope and processed by custom machine-learning software that is trained to recognize specific viruses by analyzing their fluorescence labels, which show up differently for every virus because their surface size, shape and chemistry vary.

The results show the technology is able to rapidly identify different types and strains of respiratory viruses, including flu and COVID-19, within five minutes and with >97% accuracy.

 Nicolas Shiaelis et al, Virus Detection and Identification in Minutes Using Single-Particle Imaging and Deep Learning, ACS Nano (2022). DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.2c10159

Tracing the origin of life—a new abiotic pathway for the formation of peptide chains from amino acids

A team of scientists has discovered a new abiotic pathway for the formation of peptide chains from amino acids—a key chemical step in the origin of life. The current study provides strong evidence that this crucial step for the emergence of life can indeed occur even in the very inhospitable conditions of space.

The origin of life is one of the great questions of mankind. One of the prerequisites for the emergence of life is the abiotic—not by living beings caused chemical—production and polymerization of amino acids, the building blocks of life.

Two scenarios are being discussed for the emergence of life on Earth: On the one hand, the first-time creation of such amino acid chains on Earth, and on the other hand, the influx from space. For the latter, such amino acid chains would have to be generated in the very unfavorable and inhospitable conditions in space.

A team of researchers now made a significant discovery in the field of abiotic peptide chain formation from amino acids for the smallest occurring amino acid, glycine, a molecule that has been observed several times extraterrestrially in recent years.

A study published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A, which also made the cover of the journal, shows that small clusters of glycine molecules exhibit polymerization upon energy input. A reaction occurs within a cluster consisting of two glycine molecules. The two amino acids become a dipeptide and a water molecule. The reaction of a dipeptide to a tripeptide within a cluster was also demonstrated by the researchers.

This new  study sheds light on the less likely unimolecular scenario for the formation of such amino acid chains in the extreme conditions of space. Researchers  were able to show that peptide chain growth occurs through unimolecular reactions in excited cluster ions, without the need for contact with an additional partner such as dust or ice.

The recent paper provides evidence that the first step toward the origin of life can occur in the highly unlikely conditions of space.

Denis Comte et al, Glycine Peptide Chain Formation in the Gas Phase via Unimolecular Reactions, The Journal of Physical Chemistry A (2023). DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.2c08248

Scientists discover receptor that blocks COVID-19 infection

scientists have discovered a protein in the lung that blocks SARS-CoV-2 infection and forms a natural protective barrier in the human body.

This protein, the leucine-rich repeat-containing protein 15 (LRRC15), is an inbuilt receptor that binds the SARS-CoV-2 virus without passing on the infection.

The research opens up an entirely new area of immunology research around LRRC15 and offers a promising pathway to develop new drugs to prevent viral infection from coronaviruses like COVID-19 or deal with fibrosis in the lungs.
 This new receptor acts by binding to the virus and sequestering it which reduces infection.

The COVID-19 virus infects humans by using a spike protein to attach to a specific receptor in our cells. It primarily uses a protein called the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor to enter human cells. Lung cells have high levels of ACE2 receptors, which is why the COVID-19 virus often causes severe problems in this organ of infected people.

Like ACE2, LRRC15 is a receptor for coronavirus, meaning the virus can bind to it. But unlike ACE2, LRRC15 does not support infection. It can, however, stick to the virus and immobilize it. In the process, it prevents other vulnerable cells from becoming infected.

Scientists think it acts a bit like Velcro, molecular Velcro, in that it sticks to the spike of the virus and then pulls it away from the target cell types.

LRRC15 is present in many locations such as lungs, skin, tongue, fibroblasts, placenta and lymph nodes. But the researchers found human lungs light up with LRRC15 after infection.

Scientists  can now use this new receptor to design broad acting drugs that can block viral infection or even suppress lung fibrosis. 
The study has been published in the journal PLOS Biology. 

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pb...

Drugs Hitch a Ride on Algae for Targeted Delivery

A new microrobot uses algae to transport antibiotics into the lungs of mice with pneumonia.

When you swallow a pill, only a fraction of the drug ends up where it’s needed. Active compounds diffuse across the intestinal wall and are diluted in rivers of blood, aimlessly drifting with the currents. For more precise delivery, scientists are recruiting motile, single-celled organisms as vehicles that transport drugs to specific sites in the body.

So far, researchers have harnessed swimming bacteria for targeted drug delivery. In one case, magnetotactic bacteria guided by an external magnetic field carried nanosize liposomes loaded with a chemotherapy drug to mouse tumors. But bacteria are prime targets for the immune system that are often destroyed before they reach their destination.

Now, a team at the University of California, San Diego has built a microscopic robot—or microrobot—using Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a species of microalgae, which are less likely to elicit an immune response than bacteria.

Researchers attached antibiotic-filled nanoparticles to the microbes’ surfaces using click chemistry, the Nobel Prize-winning
method that uses rapid reactions to connect molecules. Inside the body, modified algae beat their flagella to swim through the blood and dive deep into tissues. Each nanoparticle is wrapped in a neutrophil membrane, which promotes immune evasion and allows the microrobots to latch onto pathogens, depositing the drugs in their vicinity.

The researchers tested the algae in mice with a severe form of pneumonia caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria. Known as ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), the potentially fatal infection is picked up by human patients during ventilator use in hospitals. Microrobots were delivered directly into mouse lungs through a tube leading into the windpipe. After one week, infections disappeared in all treated mice. Their untreated littermates died within three days.

The researchers then compared the microrobots to intravenous injection, the current standard treatment for VAP. Treatment with microalgae worked despite a dose of antibiotics 3,000 times smaller than was needed intravenously, which could reduce side effects.

Taking advantage of the algae’s natural fluorescence, the researchers dissected and imaged the mouse lungs. Light radiated from the whole organ for over 24 hours and from homogenized lung tissue for three days, indicating that the robots had dispersed throughout the tissue and dodged immune attack long enough for successful drug delivery.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-022-01360-9.epdf?sharing_tok...

Protein droplets may cause many types of genetic disease

Most proteins localize to distinct protein-rich droplets in cells, also known as “cellular condensates”. Such proteins contain sequence features that function as address labels, telling the protein which condensate to move into. When the labels get screwed up, proteins may end up in the wrong condensate. According to an international team of researchers from clinical medicine and basic biology, this could be the cause of many unresolved diseases.

Patients with BPTA syndrome have characteristically malformed limbs featuring short fingers and additional toes, missing tibia bones in their legs and reduced brain size. As the researchers found out, BPTAS is caused by a special genetic change that causes an essential protein to migrate to the nucleolus, a large proteinaceous droplet in the cell nucleus. As a result, the function of the nucleolar condensate is inhibited and developmental disease develops.

Affected individuals have complex and striking malformations of the limbs, face, and nervous and bone systems, only partially described by the already-long disease name “brachyphalangy-polydactyly-tibial aplasia/hypoplasia syndrome” (BPTAS).

 To track down the cause,  researchers decoded the genome of five affected individuals and found that the gene for the protein HMGB1 was altered in all patients.

This protein has the task of organizing the genetic material in the cell nucleus and facilitates the interaction of other molecules with the DNA, for example to read genes.

In mice, a complete loss of the gene on both chromosomes is catastrophic and leads to death of the embryo. In some patients with only one copy mutated, however, the cells are using the intact copy on the other chromosome, resulting only in mild neurodevelopmental delay. But the newly discovered cases did not fit this scheme.

A closer look revealed that different mutations of HMGB1 have different consequences. The sequencing data showed that in the affected individuals with the severe malformations, the reading frame for the final third of the HMGB1 gene is shifted.After translation to protein, the corresponding region is now no longer equipped with negative but with positively charged amino acid building blocks. This can happen if a number of genetic letters not divisible by three is missing in the sequence, because exactly three consecutive letters always code for one building block of the protein.

However, the tail part of the protein does not have a defined structure. Instead, this section hangs out of the molecule like a loose rubber band. The purposes of such protein tails (also called “intrinsically disordered regions”) are difficult to study because they often become effective only in conjunction with other molecules. So how might their mutation lead to the observed disease?

To answer this question, the medical researchers approached biochemists  who work with cellular condensates that control important genes. These droplet-like structures behave much like the oil and vinegar droplets in a salad dressing. Composed of a large number of different molecules, they are separated from their surroundings and can undergo dynamic changes.

Researchers think condensates are formed in the cell for practical reasons.

 Molecules for a specific task are grouped together in this way, say to read a gene. For this task alone several hundred proteins need to somehow make their way to the right place.
Intrinsically disordered regions, which tend not to have an obvious biochemical role, are thought to be responsible for forming condensates.

Part1

The nucleolus within the cell nucleus is also a condensate, which appears as a diffuse dark speck under the microscope. This is where many proteins with positively charged tails like to linger. Many of these provide the machinery required for protein synthesis, making this condensate essential for cellular functions.

The mutant protein HMGB1 with its positively charged molecular tail is attracted to the nucleolus as well, as the team observed from experiments with isolated protein and with cell cultures.

But since the mutated protein region has also gained an oily, sticky part, it tends to clump. The nucleolus loses its fluid-like properties and increasingly solidifies, which Niskanen was able to observe under the microscope. This impaired the vital functions of the cells – with the mutated protein, more cells in a culture died compared to a culture of cells without the mutation.

What scientists discovered in this one disease might apply to many more disorders. It is likely not a rare unicorn that exists only once.

The research team then searched databases of genomic data from thousands of individuals looking for similar incidents. In fact, the scientists were able to identify more than six hundred similar mutations in 66 proteins, in which the reading frame had been shifted by a mutation in the protein tail, making it both more positively charged and more “greasy”. Of the mutations, 101 had previously been linked to several different disorders.

For a cell culture assay, the team selected 13 mutant genes. In 12 out of 13 cases, the mutant proteins had a preference to localize into the nucleolus. About half of the tested proteins impaired the function of the nucleolus, resembling the disease mechanism of BPTA syndrome.

1. Martin A. Mensah, Henri Niskanen, Alexandre P. Magalhaes, Shaon Basu, Martin Kircher, Henrike L. Sczakiel, Alisa M. V. Reiter, Jonas Elsner, Peter Meinecke, Saskia Biskup, Brian H. Y. Chung, Gregor Dombrowsky, Christel Eckmann-Scholz, Marc Phillip Hitz, Alexander Hoischen, Paul-Martin Holterhus, Wiebke Hülsemann, Kimia Kahrizi, Vera M. Kalscheuer, Anita Kan, Mandy Krumbiegel, Ingo Kurth, Jonas Leubner, Ann Carolin Longardt, Jörg D. Moritz, Hossein Najmabadi, Karolina Skipalova, Lot Snijders Blok, Andreas Tzschach, Eberhard Wiedersberg, Martin Zenker, Carla Garcia-Cabau, René Buschow, Xavier Salvatella, Matthew L. Kraushar, Stefan Mundlos, Almuth Caliebe, Malte Spielmann, Denise Horn, Denes Hnisz. Aberrant phase separation and nucleolar dysfunction in rare genetic diseases. Nature, 2023; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05682-1

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Study reveals how drug resistant bacteria secrete toxins, suggesting targets to reduce virulence

Antimicrobial resistance represents one of the top 10 global public health threats according to the World Health Organization, and scientists have been scrambling to find new tools to cure the most deadly drug-resistant infections.

New research work  suggests that reducing virulence in drug resistant infections rather than trying to kill bacteria  outright may offer an alternative approach to treatment.

The study revealed how two proteins enable the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacterium to secrete the toxins that make people sick. The research suggests that therapies targeting these two proteins could disable MRSA, making it less deadly and possibly even harmless. Such an approach would also reduce the risk of promoting antibiotic resistance.

The paper, which was published on February 13, 2023, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science suggests that similar mechanisms may exist in other bacteria, pointing to the potential for a new approach to treating other bacterial infections.

 Dickey, Seth W. et al, Two transporters cooperate to secrete amphipathic peptides from the cytoplasmic and membranous milieus, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2023). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2211689120. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2211689120