Sperm from men with children with early signs of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have distinct DNA methylation patterns which could be contributory to autism. This is the main finding of a new study from researchers in John Hopkins published online in the International Journal of Epidemiology on April 15th.
The authors concluded that the methylation results from paternal sperm, together with the post-mortem brain evidence showing directionally consistent, potentially related epigenetic mechanisms, suggest that epigenetic methylation differences in paternal sperm may be contributory to risk of autism spectrum disorders in children. As this was a relatively small study, the team plans to extend the study to more families to confirm its and to examine occupations and environmental exposures of the fathers in the study. Currently, there is no genetic or epigenetic test available to assess autism risk. Studies such as this may help to address this problem for the future.
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/04/14/ije.dyv028.s...

How the skin fusing works in wound healing ... an interesting observation by scientists

Scientists from the Goethe University Frankfurt, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory Heidelberg and the University of Zurich explain skin fusion at a molecular level and pinpoint the specific molecules that do the job in their latest publication in the journal Nature Cell Biology.

As a first step, as the scientists discovered, cells find their opposing partner by "sniffing" each other out. As a next step, they develop adherens junctions which act like a molecular Velcro. This way they become strongly attached to their opposing partner cell. The biggest revelation of this study was that small tubes in the cell, called microtubules, attach to this molecular Velcro and then deploy a self-catastrophe, which results in the skin being pulled towards the opening, as if one pulls a blanket over.

Damian Brunner who led the team at the University of Zurich has performed many genetic manipulations to identify the correct components. The scientists were astonished to find that microtubules involved in cell-division are the primary scaffold used for zipping, indicating a mechanism conserved during evolution.

"What was also amazing was the tremendous plasticity of the membranes in this process which managed to close the skin opening in a very short space of time. When five to ten cells have found their respective neighbors, the skin already appears normal", says Achilleas Frangakis from the Goethe University Frankfurt, who led the study.

The scientists hope that their results will open new avenues into the understanding of epithelial plasticity and wound healing.

"Quantitative analysis of cytoskeletal reorganization during epithelial tissue sealing by large-volume electron tomography"

http://www.nature.com/ncb/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ncb3159.html

How to avoid pet-associated (zoonotic infections) diseases:

We all love pets. However, we can get a few diseases from them too - especially those who are more vulnerable like young children, older people and people with weak immune systems because of various diseases are at higher risk.

Disease can be transmitted to people by all kinds of pets. Examples of the types of pathogens that can be transmitted include Salmonella, multidrug resistant bacteria (including Clostridium difficile) and Campylobacter jejuni, as well as parasites such as hookworm, roundworm and Toxoplasma. Routes of transmission include bites, scratches and contact with faeces and indirect transmission via infected surfaces from reptiles and amphibians.

Relatively simple steps can be taken to reduce risk of infection, including use of gloves when cleaning aquariums, cages and removing faeces, hand washing after contact with pets and their living and feeding areas, keeping living, sleeping and feeding areas clean and disinfected, keeping litter boxes away from human food preparation and consumption areas, discouraging face-licking, avoidance of contact with exotic animals, taking pets for regular veterinary checks and holding off on acquiring new pets until immune status of a vulnerable person has improved.

http://www.cmaj.ca/content/early/2015/04/20/cmaj.141020

Social exchange can amplify subjective fears and risk perception...
New findings by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and the University of Konstanz show that subjective fears about potential risks may be amplified in social exchange. Their findings have now been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA .
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and the University of Konstanz studied 10-person communication chains in the laboratory. In an experiment based on a “pass the message” game, they examined how risk information is transmitted from one person to the next, and how this process influences risk perception. The results show not only that information is often gradually lost or distorted, but that new information can be spontaneously created. “The participants’ messages became shorter, less accurate, and increasingly dissimilar,“ says Mehdi Moussaïd, lead author of the study and researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin.
The authors of the study found that participants’ preconceptions affected the information transmitted, and in turn influenced the perceptions of those receiving the information. The subjective view of the communicator was thus amplified. “People tend to single out the information that fits their preconceptions, and communicates primarily that information to the next person,“ says Henry Brighton, co-author of the study and researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. This can lead to preconceptions being reinforced, so that the original message eventually has a negligible impact on the receiver’s judgments, and leads to an increasingly alarmist perception of potential risks.
The results of this study provide insights into the public response to risk and the formation of often unnecessary fears and anxieties. The researchers emphasize the socio-political importance of the realistic assessment of potential dangers. To combat the social amplification of risk, they call for the open, transparent communication of scientific evidence. “Without scaremongering, but also without giving people a false sense of security or an illusion of certainty,“ says co-author Wolfgang Gaissmaier, Professor of Social Psychology and Decision Sciences at the University of Konstanz.
"The amplification of risk in experimental diffusion chains"
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/04/14/1421883112

Asthma's potential root cause has been identified...
A team of scientists have for the first time identified the potential root cause of asthma and an existing drug that offers a new treatment. Published in Science Translational Medicine, Cardiff University researchers, working in collaboration with scientists at King’s College London and the Mayo Clinic (USA), describe the previously unproven role of the calcium sensing receptor (CaSR) in causing asthma, a disease which affects 300 million people worldwide.

The team, which includes Professor Christopher Corrigan and Professor Jeremy Ward from the Division of Asthma, Allergy and Lung Biology at King’s College London, used mouse models of asthma and human airway tissue from asthmatic and non-asthmatic people to reach their findings.

Crucially, the paper highlights the effectiveness of a class of drugs known as calcilytics in manipulating CaSR to reverse all symptoms associated with the condition. These symptoms include airway narrowing, airway twitchiness and inflammation - all of which contribute to increased breathing difficulty. For the first time researchers have found a link airways inflammation, which can be caused by environmental triggers - such as allergens, cigarette smoke and car fumes – and airways twitchiness in allergic asthma.
The research paper shows how these triggers release chemicals that activate CaSR in airway tissue and drive asthma symptoms like airway twitchiness, inflammation, and narrowing. Using calcilytics, nebulized directly into the lungs, and show that it is possible to deactivate CaSR and prevent all of these symptoms.
The identification of CaSR in airway tissue means that the potential for treatment of other inflammatory lung diseases beyond asthma is immense. These include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and chronic bronchitis, for which currently there exists no cure. It is predicted that by 2020 these diseases will be the third biggest killers worldwide.

The team is now seeking funding to determine the efficacy of calcilytic drugs in treating asthmas that are especially difficult to treat, particularly steroid-resistant and influenza-exacerbated asthma, and to test these drugs in patients with asthma.
Calcilytics were first developed for the treatment of osteoporosis around 15 years ago with the aim of strengthening deteriorating bone by targeting CaSR to induce the release of an anabolic hormone. Although clinically safe and well tolerated in people, calcilytics proved unsuccessful in treating osteoporosis.

But this latest breakthrough has provided researchers with the unique opportunity to re-purpose these drugs, potentially accelerating the time it takes for them to be approved for use asthma patients. Once funding has been secured, the group aim to be trialling the drugs on humans within two years.
- King's College London

Heritability of Attractiveness to Mosquitoes
Abstract

Female mosquitoes display preferences for certain individuals over others, which is determined by differences in volatile chemicals produced by the human body and detected by mosquitoes. Body odour can be controlled genetically but the existence of a genetic basis for differential attraction to insects has never been formally demonstrated. This study investigated heritability of attractiveness to mosquitoes by evaluating the response of Aedes aegypti (=Stegomyia aegypti) mosquitoes to odours from the hands of identical and non-identical twins in a dual-choice assay. Volatiles from individuals in an identical twin pair showed a high correlation in attractiveness to mosquitoes, while non-identical twin pairs showed a significantly lower correlation. Overall, there was a strong narrow-sense heritability of 0.62 (SE 0.124) for relative attraction and 0.67 (0.354) for flight activity based on the average of ten measurements. The results demonstrate an underlying genetic component detectable by mosquitoes through olfaction. Understanding the genetic basis for attractiveness could create a more informed approach to repellent development.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.01...

Labs are not boring places.  Apart from searching for and spreading knowledge they have aesthetic values too! See for yourself :

http://gizmodo.com/these-are-the-most-beautiful-science-labs-in-the...

The Lancet: Scientists announce final trial results of the world's most advanced malaria vaccine
The first malaria vaccine candidate (RTS,S/AS01) to reach phase 3 clinical testing is partially effective against clinical disease in young African children up to 4 years after vaccination, according to final trial data, published in The Lancet. The results suggest that the vaccine could prevent a substantial number of cases of clinical malaria, especially in areas of high transmission. The findings reveal that vaccine efficacy against clinical and severe malaria was better in children than in young infants, but waned over time in both groups. However, protection was prolonged by a booster dose, increasing the average number of cases prevented in both children and young infants.
In children who received 3 doses of RTS,S/AS01 plus a booster, the number of clinical episodes of malaria at 4 years was reduced by just over a third (36%). This is a drop in efficacy from the 50% protection against malaria seen in the first year.

Importantly, without a booster dose, significant efficacy against severe malaria was not shown in this age group. However, in children given a booster dose, overall protective efficacy against severe malaria was 32%, and 35% against malaria-associated hospitalisations.

In infants who received 3 doses of RTS,S/AS01 plus a booster, the vaccine reduced the risk of clinical episodes of malaria by 26% over 3 years follow-up. There was no significant protection against severe disease in infants.
- The Lancet

Mitochondrial diseases are maternally inherited genetic disorders that cause a wide spectrum of debilitating conditions and which currently have no cure. In a study published April 23 in the journal Cell, Salk Institute researchers report the first successful attempt using gene-editing technology to prevent mutated mitochondrial DNA associated with multiple human mitochondrial diseases from being passed from mothers to offspring in mice.

"This technique is based on a single injection of mRNA into a mother's oocytes or early embryos and therefore could be easily implemented in IVF [in vitro fertilization] clinics throughout the world," said senior study author Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. "Since mutations in mitochondrial DNA have also been implicated in neurodegenerative disorders, cancer, and aging, our technology could potentially have broad clinical implications for preventing the transmission of disease-causing mutations to future generations."

Mitochondria are known as the powerhouse of the cell because they generate most of the cell's supply of energy. Each cell in the body contains anywhere from 1,000 to 100,000 copies of mitochondrial DNA, which is exclusively transmitted through maternal inheritance. In most patients with mitochondrial disease, mutated and normal mitochondrial DNA molecules are mixed together in cells. A high percentage of mutated mitochondrial DNA can lead to the degeneration and catastrophic failure of various organs, resulting in serious health problems such as seizures, dementia, diabetes, heart failure, liver dysfunction, vision loss, and deafness.
In the new study, Belmonte and his team demonstrated the therapeutic promise of an alternative approach that allows the direct correction of the mutated DNA in mitochondria by using DNA-cutting enzymes called restriction endonucleases and TALENs. This gene-editing approach might be safer, simpler, and more ethical than mitochondrial replacement therapy because it does not require donor eggs. The enzymes are designed to target a specific mutated DNA sequence and introduce a precise cut that destroys the mutated mitochondrial DNA while leaving the normal mitochondrial DNA intact, thereby shifting the balance toward a healthy genetic state in mitochondria.
''Selective Elimination of Mitochondrial Mutations in the Germline by Genome Editing''
http://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674%2815%2900371-2?_return...

How orchid petals get their shape:
Model for perianth formation in orchids

Orchid flowers are well-known for their unique shape and the beautiful patterns on their petals. A team of researchers from Taiwan have discovered that an orchid flower's unique perianth (shape) is the result of competition between two groups of proteins. In a study published in the journal Nature Plants, Professor Yang Chang-Hsien and colleagues from the National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan showed that the shape of orchids is determined by a competition between two protein complexes, a phenomenon they named the perianth (P) code.

study published in the journal Nature Plants
Unlike most flowers with star-shaped (actinomorphic) symmetry, orchid flowers typically have mirror-image (zygomorphic) symmetry with a striking well-differentiated lip that acts as the main pollinator attractant by employing visual, fragrance and tactile cues. These lips attract insects and enable the orchids to be pollinated. The researchers found that two competing protein complexes serve different functions in perianth formation. The higher-order heterotetrameric SP (sepal/petal) complex specifies sepal/petal formation, whereas the L (lip) complex is exclusively required for lip formation. The authors also found that orchid species from many subfamilies with different types of lips and petals all obey this perianth code. They were also able to convert lips into petals in two orchid species by reducing the activity of the L complex using gene silencing. This study adds to the current knowledge of how orchid petals develop and the evolutionary changes that orchids have undergone to ensure pollination.

http://www.nature.com/articles/nplants201546

Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology have developed a new technique that extends the time that donor organs last and can also resuscitate organs obtained after cardiac arrest. The work published in Scientific Reports details a procedure that cools organs down to 22°C (71.6°F) and slows down organ function while still supplying oxygen, resulting in more successful transplants than the current standard methods. Team leader Professor Tsuji Takashi notes that this system should quickly increase the pool of available donor organs and could even be used to grow whole 3D organs in the future.
"Hypothermic temperature effects on organ survival and restoration"
http://www.nature.com/srep/2015/150422/srep09563/full/srep09563.html

Scientists Launch Investigation into Climate Data “Adjustments”

http://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/environment/item/20762-scientist...

HIV-positive men dramatically reduce virus spreading after circumcision but not while wound healing
The World Health Organization recommends male circumcision (the surgical removal of foreskin from the penis) which reduces HIV acquisition by 50-60% for teh control of HIV. However, scientists report that a new study of HIV-infected men in Uganda has identified a temporary, but potentially troublesome unintended consequence of the procedure: a possible increased risk of infecting female sexual partners while circumcision wounds heal.

In a study by researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and Rakai Health Sciences Program, 223 HIV-positive Ugandan men were medically circumcised. Health workers poured 5 milliliters (about a teaspoon) of saline solution over the circumcision site near the neck of the penis and collected the solution for testing just before surgery, during the operation, and once a week for 12 weeks.

Data showed that among the 183 men not taking anti-retroviral drugs, less than 10 percent were shedding HIV before circumcision, but nearly 30 percent were shedding the virus two weeks after surgery. The percentages dropped sharply as the men's wounds healed, to less than three percent at six weeks and less than two percent at 12 weeks.

Circumcision reduced the number of HIV-positive men who were shedding the virus more than five-fold over the long term, but it had the opposite effect in the weeks right after the surgery.
""HIV Shedding from Male Circumcision Wounds in HIV-Infected Men: A Prospective Cohort Study""
http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pm...

Individuals with Type 2 Diabetes have difficulty regulating their glucose – or blood sugar – levels, particularly after meals. Now, University of Missouri researchers have found that Type 2 diabetics can eat more protein at breakfast to help reduce glucose spikes at both breakfast and lunch.

“People often assume that their glucose response at one meal will be identical to their responses at other meals, but that really isn’t the case,” said Jill Kanaley, professor and associate chair in the MU Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology. “For instance, we know that what you eat and when you eat make a difference, and that if people skip breakfast, their glucose response at lunch will be huge. In our study, we found those who ate breakfast experienced appropriate glucose responses after lunch.”

Kanaley and her colleagues monitored Type 2 diabetics’ levels of glucose, insulin and several gut hormones – which help regulate the insulin response – after breakfast and lunch. The participants ate either high-protein or high-carbohydrate breakfasts, and the lunch included a standard amount of protein and carbohydrates.

The researchers found eating more protein at breakfast lowered individuals’ post-meal glucose levels. Insulin levels were slightly elevated after the lunch meal, which demonstrated that individuals’ bodies were working appropriately to regulate blood-sugar levels, Kanaley said.

“The first meal of the day is critical in maintaining glycemic control at later meals, so it really primes people for the rest of the day,” Kanaley said. “Eating breakfast prompts cells to increase concentrations of insulin at the second meal, which is good because it shows that the body is acting appropriately by trying to regulate glucose levels. However, it is important for Type 2 diabetics to understand that different foods will affect them differently, and to really understand how they respond to meals, they need to consistently track their glucose. Trigger foods may change depending on how much physical activity people have gotten that day or how long they have waited between meals.”

Kanaley said that although it would be helpful for individuals with high blood sugar to eat more protein, they do not need to consume extreme amounts of protein to reap the benefits.

“We suggest consuming 25 to 30 grams of protein at breakfast, which is within the range of the FDA recommendations,” Kanaley said.
http://jn.nutrition.org/content/145/3/452

Babies born with drug withdrawal symptoms on the rise in US
The number of infants born in the United States with drug withdrawal symptoms, also known as neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), nearly doubled in a four-year period. By 2012, one infant was born every 25 minutes in the U.S. with the syndrome, accounting for $1.5 billion in annual health care charges, according to a new Vanderbilt study published in the Journal of Perinatology.

Neonatal abstinence syndrome has been linked to both illicit drug use as well as use of prescription opioids -- narcotic pain relievers such as hydrocodone -- by pregnant women. Infants born with NAS are more likely to have respiratory complications, feeding difficulty, seizures and low birth-weight.

The study found that from 2009-2012, the incidence of neonatal abstinence syndrome rose in the United States from 3.4 births per 1,000 to 5.8 births per 1,000. Broken down by geographic area, the east south central division (Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama) had the highest rates of the syndrome, occurring in 16.2 hospital births per 1,000.

"The rise in neonatal abstinence syndrome mirrors the rise we have seen in opioid pain reliever use across the nation. Our study finds that communities hardest hit by opioid use and their complications, like overdose death, have the highest rates of the NAS," said study lead author Stephen Patrick, M.D., MPH, MS, assistant professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy in the Division of Neonatology with the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt.
Source: Vanderbilt University

More than 200 scientists outline potential health concerns from fluorinated chemicals, urge replacements and tightened regulations

Chemicals used to make products waterproof and stain resistant are persistent, pervasive, potentially harmful to humans, and should be regulated and largely replaced, according a statement signed by more than 200 scientists.

The “Madrid Statement” was authored by 14 scientists and signed by 208 more from 38 countries around the world representing a variety of scientific disciplines. The statement was issued amid growing concern that exposure to highly fluorinated chemicals — found everywhere, including in people — is linked to certain cancers, hormone disruption, brain and liver problems and lower birth weights.

“We call on the international community to cooperate in limiting the production and use of PFASs [poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances] and in developing safer non-fluorinated alternatives,” says the statement published in today’s Environmental Health Perspectives journal.
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2015/may/fluorinate...

Most recently, studies point to a direct role for soil bacteria in shielding crops from drought; improving their growth and ability to absorb nutrients; and enhancing their tolerance of flooding, high temperatures, low temperatures and many other challenges of a changing global climate.
''Turning to Bacteria to Fight the Effects of Climate Change''
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2015/04/30/turning-t...

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are common, and widespread antibiotic resistance has led to urgent calls for new ways to combat them. Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences report that an experimental drug that stabilizes a protein called HIF-1alpha protects human bladder cells and mice against a major UTI pathogen. The drug might eventually provide a therapeutic alternative or complement to standard antibiotic treatment.

The study is published April 30 by PLOS Pathogens.

HIF-1alpha is known to influence the innate immune response, the body’s first line of defense against intruding pathogens. Like many regulator proteins, HIF-1alpha is relatively short-lived. To increase HIF-1alpha levels, researchers have developed drugs that delay its breakdown. This same pathway has been the target for drugs now in advanced clinical trials for treatment of anemia.

In this study, Victor Nizet, MD, professor of pediatrics and pharmacy, and colleagues explored the use of HIF-1alpha-stabilizing drugs to boost the innate immune response to uropathogenic E.coli (UPEC) bacteria, a major cause of UTIs. In healthy human urinary tract cells, treatment with the drugs increased HIF-1alpha levels. Such cells were then more resistant to UPEC attachment, invasion and killing than human urinary tract cells with normal HIF-1alpha levels.

Using a mouse model of UTI, the researchers showed that administration of HIF-1alpha stabilizers directly into the bladder protected against UPEC infection. They also found that invasion of bladder cells, a critical early step in the infection process, was reduced in treated mice compared to untreated mice.

To verify the importance of HIF-1alpha in the defense against UPEC infection, the researchers studied mice with reduced HIF-1alpha levels. Exposed to UPEC, these mice were more susceptible to bladder infection, and pre-treatment with HIF-1alpha stabilizers made no difference. This demonstrates that the drugs combat UTIs through their effect on HIF-1alpha.

Finally, the researchers examined whether treatment with HIF-1alpha stabilizers would be beneficial against an established UTI. To do this, they infected mice with UPEC first and then administered the drugs into the bladder six hours later. The treated mice had a more than 10-fold reduction in bladder colonization with the bacteria, demonstrating that HIF-1alpha stabilization is beneficial even after the initial infection.

“The ultimate goal of this research will be to advance HIF-1alpha stabilizers toward clinical trials in humans, using versions of the drug that can be taken orally and reach the urinary tract,” Nizet said.
http://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.p...

Scientists stumble across unknown stem-cell type ‘Region-selective’ pluripotent cells raise possibility of growing human organs in animals.

http://www.nature.com/news/scientists-stumble-across-unknown-stem-c...

Gram’s Stain Does Not Cross the Bacterial Cytoplasmic Membrane
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acschembio.5b00042
Contrary to standard scientific texts, the purple dye called crystal violet, a main ingredient in gram staining, does not actually enter bacterial cells, researchers report April 27 in ACS Chemical Biology. Instead, the dye gets trapped in a tight package of sugar-filled polymers, called peptidoglycan, which envelops bacterial cells. The thickness and integrity of the sweet bacterial armor determines whether crystal violet leaves a cell purple or not. That royal shade, or lack of it, reveals a cell’s type of outer structure.
Abstract of the paper:
For well over a century, Hans Christian Gram’s famous staining protocol has been the standard go-to diagnostic for characterizing unknown bacteria. Despite continuous and ubiquitous use, we now demonstrate that the current understanding of the molecular mechanism for this differential stain is largely incorrect. Using the fully complementary time-resolved methods: second-harmonic light-scattering and bright-field transmission microscopy, we present a real-time and membrane specific quantitative characterization of the bacterial uptake of crystal-violet (CV), the dye used in Gram’s protocol. Our observations contradict the currently accepted mechanism which depicts that, for both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, CV readily traverses the peptidoglycan mesh (PM) and cytoplasmic membrane (CM) before equilibrating within the cytosol. We find that not only is CV unable to traverse the CM but, on the time-scale of the Gram-stain procedure, CV is kinetically trapped within the PM. Our results indicate that CV, rather than dyes which rapidly traverse the PM, is uniquely suited as the Gram stain.

Are you planning to go to Mars? Then think again... for..the journey might damage your brain so much that when you reach Mars, you won't be able to enjoy your stay there. Why? Read on...

As NASA prepares for the first manned spaceflight to Mars, questions have surfaced concerning the potential for increased risks associated with exposure to the spectrum of highly energetic nuclei that comprise galactic cosmic rays. Animal models have revealed an unexpected sensitivity of mature neurons in the brain to charged particles found in space. Astronaut autonomy during long-term space travel is particularly critical as is the need to properly manage planned and unanticipated events, activities that could be compromised by accumulating particle traversals through the brain. Using mice subjected to space-relevant fluences of charged particles, researchers have shown that significant cortical- and hippocampal-based performance decrements 6 weeks after acute exposure. Animals manifesting cognitive decrements exhibited marked and persistent radiation-induced reductions in dendritic complexity and spine density along medial prefrontal cortical neurons known to mediate neurotransmission specifically interrogated by our behavioral tasks. Significant increases in postsynaptic density protein 95 (PSD-95) revealed major radiation-induced alterations in synaptic integrity. Impaired behavioral performance of individual animals correlated significantly with reduced spine density and trended with increased synaptic puncta, thereby providing quantitative measures of risk for developing cognitive decrements. Our data indicate an unexpected and unique susceptibility of the central nervous system to space radiation exposure, and argue that the underlying radiation sensitivity of delicate neuronal structure may well predispose astronauts to unintended mission-critical performance decrements and/or longer-term neurocognitive sequelae.

If humans are similarly susceptible, astronauts on voyages to Mars could suffer permanent cognitive impairment that could hinder their abilities to recall information and to think on their feet. Faster transits, new anti-radiation drugs and better spacecraft shielding should help. But until those solutions are developed, sending brain-damaged humans to Mars would be a dim-witted thing to do.

http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/4/e1400256

Cancer tricks the lymphatic system into spreading tumors...
Swollen lymph nodes are often the earliest sign of metastatic spread of cancer cells. Now cancer researchers and immunologists at Sweden's Karolinska Institutet have discovered how cancer cells can infiltrate the lymphatic system by 'disguising' themselves as immune cells (white blood cells). The researchers hope that this finding, which is published in the scientific journal Oncogene, will inform the development of new drugs.

The main reason why people die of cancer is that the cancer cells spread to form daughter tumours, or metastases, in vital organs, such as the lungs and liver. A route frequently used by cancer cells for dissemination is the lymphatic system. Upon entering lymphatic vessels, they migrate to nearby lymph nodes, which then swell up, and from there, to other organs via the blood. The details of how and why cancer cells use the lymphatic system for spread are, however, relatively unknown.

"It's not clear whether there are signals controlling this or whether it's just random," says principal investigator Jonas Fuxe, cancer researcher and Associate Professor at Karolinska Institutet's Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics. "However, in recent years it has become evident that inflammation is a factor that can promote metastasis and that anti-inflammatory drugs may have a certain inhibitory effect on the spread of cancer."

The study is based on an interdisciplinary collaboration between cancer researchers and immunologists, which the researchers point out has has contributed to the new, exciting results. What they discovered was that an inflammatory factor known as TGF-beta (transforming growth factor-beta) can give cancer cells properties of immune cells by supplying the surface of the cancer cell with a receptor that normally only exists on the white blood cells that travel through the lymphatic system.

Equipped with this receptor, the cancer cells are able to recognise and migrate towards a gradient of a substance that is secreted from the lymphatic vessels and binds to the receptor. In this way, the cancer cells can effectively target lymphatic vessels and migrate on to lymph nodes, just like immune cells. According to the researchers, their results link inflammation and cancer in a novel way and make possible the development of new treatment models.

"With this discovery in our hands, we'd now like to try to find out which additional immune-cell properties cancer cells have and study how they affect the metastatic process," says Dr Fuxe. "The possibility of preventing or slowing down the spread of cancer cells via the lymphatic system is an attractive one, as it could reduce the risk of metastasis to other organs."
http://www.nature.com/onc/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/onc2015133a.html

You Call It “Self-Exuberance”; I Call It “Bragging”

Miscalibrated Predictions of Emotional Responses to Self-Promotion

People engage in self-promotional behavior because they want others to hold favorable images of them. Self-promotion, however, entails a trade-off between conveying one’s positive attributes and being seen as bragging. We propose that people get this trade-off wrong because they erroneously project their own feelings onto their interaction partners. As a consequence, people overestimate the extent to which recipients of their self-promotion will feel proud of and happy for them, and underestimate the extent to which recipients will feel annoyed . Because people tend to promote themselves excessively when trying to make a favorable impression on others, such efforts often backfire, causing targets of self-promotion to view self-promoters as less likeable and as braggarts .

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/05/07/0956797615573516.ab...

http://www.sciguru.org/newsitem/19053/bragging-backfires-study?utm_...

Prolonged daily light exposure increases body fat mass through attenuation of brown adipose tissue activity
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/05/06/1504239112
Brown fat is supposed to be the friendly kind of fat. But making the days longer with artificial light may turn brown fat into an enemy in the battle against obesity, a mouse study suggests.

Compared with mice experiencing normal light cycles, mice exposed to longer periods of light gained fat — not because they were eating more or moving less, but because their brown fat wasn't working efficiently. Brown fat in these mice converted fatty acids and glucose to heat more slowly than brown fat in mice experiencing normal days, researchers report May 11 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Finding a way to boost brown fat's activity may combat the negative effects of extended time spent in artificial light, the scientists suggest.

Fascinating news: People take the drugs, their body breaks them down into different metabolites that are excreted, and the microbes take these different parts of the drug and put them back together in sewage treatment and recycling plants!

Wastewater treatment plants not only struggle removing pharmaceuticals, it seems some drugs actually increase after treatment. When researchers tested wastewater before and after treatment at a Milwaukee-area (USA) treatment plant, they found that two drugs—the anti-epileptic carbamazepine and antibiotic ofloxacin—came out at higher concentrations than they went in. The study suggests the microbes that clean our water may also piece some pharmaceuticals back together. Carbamazepine and ofloxacin on average increased by 80 percent and 120 percent, respectively, during the treatment process. Such drugs, and their metabolites (formed as part of the natural biochemical process of degrading and eliminating the compounds), get into the wastewater by people taking them and excreting them. Flushing drugs accounts for some of the levels too. “Microbes seem to be making pharmaceuticals out of what used to be pharmaceuticals".

The researchers have a clue as to how this might happen: microbes.

After removing the solids from incoming wastewater, treatment plants use microbes—tiny single-celled organisms—to decompose organic matter that comes in the sewage. Their best guess is that people take the drugs, their body breaks them down into different metabolites that are excreted, and the microbes take these different parts of the drug and put them back together!

Canadian researchers found carbamazepine more than doubled its initial medicinal load after treatment at a Peterborough, Ontario, plant.

These pharmaceuticals will act on hormones in our bodies.

http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2015/may/bacteria-m...

Restoring eyesight and healing brains: how hydrogels can boost the work of stem cells

Researchers show that engineered hydrogels not only help with stem cell transplantation, but actually speed healing in both the eye and brain. It's a discovery that, in early lab trials, has been shown to partially reverse blindness and help the brain recover from stroke. Using a gel-like biomaterial called a hydrogel, University of Toronto scientists and engineers have made a breakthrough in cell transplantation that keeps cells alive and helps them integrate better into tissue.
http://www.cell.com/stem-cell-reports/abstract/S2213-6711%2815%2900...

Future cameras may focus light by relying on flat lenses. Physicists are making major advancements with planar lenses that can scatter and bend rays of light, sans bulge.

The latest rendition, detailed online in February in the journal Science, has moved beyond proof of concept: it perfectly focuses red, green and blue light, which can be combined to yield multicolor images. The team has since crafted a larger prototype, and it “works exactly like the prediction,” Capasso says. Such lenses could reduce the bulk and cost of photography, microscopy and astronomy equipment. And they could one day be printed on flexible plastic for thin, bendable gadgets.

Rogue Antimatter Found in Thunderclouds

A detector fitted on an airplane picked up a signature spike in photons that does not fit any known source of antiparticles
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rogue-antimatter-found-in...

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Jahn-Teller-metal: Scientists discover new state of matter

Scientists at Tokohu University in Japan have discovered a new state of matter called the ‘Jahn-Teller-metal’ that resembles an insulator, superconductor, metal and magnet all rolled into one.

The team made the discovery by studying a superconductor made from carbon-60 molecules or “buckyballs”.

Researchers said the research could help develop new molecular materials that are superconductors at even higher temperatures.

The research provides important clues about how the interplay between the electronic structure of the molecules and their spacing within the lattice can strengthen interactions between electrons that cause superconductivity.

Superconductors are a large and diverse group of materials that offer zero resistance to electrical currents when cooled below a critical temperature (TC).

Superconducting lattices of fullerides - C60 plus three alkali-metal atoms - have been studied for more than two decades, and provide an interesting test bed.

This research, described in Science Advances, involves caesium fulleride (Cs3C60) in a face-centred-cubic lattice with a Cs3C60 molecule at each lattice site.

People against  synthetic turf...because it is toxic

Artificial turf fields, cushioned with recycled crushed tires and increasingly in demand for athletic complexes, are getting some serious pushback.

They are worried about alleged health risks in the ant-size rubber pieces that cushion the bright synthetic grass.

The pellets, made up of pulverized tire bits and used to cushion fields and anchor synthetic grass, may contain known carcinogens such as arsenic and benzene and other harmful substances like lead, according to a report by the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Artificial turf advocates say there are multiple studies that show fields are safe, while critics argue that there are no conclusive tests to prove such claims and that waiting for definitive evidence of a health hazard leaves children unprotected.

Athletes who play on the fields are well acquainted with the black pellets – a spray of which is often kicked up by bouncing balls and running children, and gets into cleats and tracked into homes and mixed with laundry after practice. The authorities recommend “common sense” to minimize exposure to chemicals that may be in crumb rubber, including washing hands after playing, and taking shoes off before entering homes.

- http://necir.org/2015/05/10/toxic-turf/

If you hear some strange noises from the sky, don't worry! Here is why you hear them:

It is earth’s ‘background noise’ according to scientists!

The unsettling noises were heard recently from Europe to Canada, sounding like groans and powerful horns.

According to NASA, the Earth has ‘natural radio emissions’.

‘If humans had radio antennas instead of ears, we would hear a remarkable symphony of strange noises coming from our own planet. Scientists call them “tweeks,” “whistlers” and “sferics.”

‘They sound like background music from a flamboyant science fiction film, but this is not science fiction. Earth’s natural radio emissions are real and, although we’re mostly unaware of them, they are around us all the time.’

University of Saskatchewan physics professor Jean-Pierre St. Maurice said that it’s electromagnetic noise emitted from auroras and radiation belts.

'They sound like background music from a flamboyant science fiction film, but this is not science fiction. Earth's natural radio emissions are real and, although we're mostly unaware of them, they are around us all the time.’

For instance lightning can produce eerie-sounding radio emissions, Nasa added.

Earthquakes can also produce sub-audible sounds, according to seismologist Brian W Stump from the Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Developing the Critical Thinking Skills of Astrobiology Students through Creative and Scientific Inquiry
Scientific inquiry represents a multifaceted approach to explore and understand the natural world. Training students in the principles of scientific inquiry can help promote the scientific learning process as well as help students enhance their understanding of scientific research. Here, we report on the development and implementation of a learning module that introduces astrobiology students to the concepts of creative and scientific inquiry, as well as provide practical exercises to build critical thinking skills. The module contained three distinct components: (1) a creative inquiry activity designed to introduce concepts regarding the role of creativity in scientific inquiry; (2) guidelines to help astrobiology students formulate and self-assess questions regarding various scientific content and imagery; and (3) a practical exercise where students were allowed to watch a scientific presentation and practice their analytical skills. Pre- and post-course surveys were used to assess the students' perceptions regarding creative and scientific inquiry and whether this activity impacted their understanding of the scientific process. Survey results indicate that the exercise helped improve students' science skills by promoting awareness regarding the role of creativity in scientific inquiry and building their confidence in formulating and assessing scientific questions. Together, the module and survey results confirm the need to include such inquiry-based activities into the higher education classroom, thereby helping students hone their critical thinking and question asking skill set and facilitating their professional development in astrobiology. Key Words: Scientific inquiry—Critical thinking—Curriculum development—Astrobiology—Microbialites. Astrobiology 15, 89–99.
http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/ast.2014.1219

Microbes with potential to cleanse waterways

17 hours ago by Amal Naquiah

A seven-year scientific study has revealed that microbial communities in urban waterways has the potential to play an important role in cleansing Singapore's waterways and also act as raw water quality indicators.

The study found that canals designed to channel rainwater host microbial communities that could remove and neutralise organic pollutants in raw water. These organic pollutants are currently at trace levels in raw water – well below the United States-Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA) drinking water standards – which is removed during water treatment processes.

Researchers from the NUS Environmental Research Institute (NERI) and the Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) have discovered that the untapped natural ability of microbial communities could be harnessed to treat raw water even before undergoing treatment.

This process is known as 'bioremediation', a treatment that uses naturally occurring organisms to break down organic pollutants.

The study, which was published in the scientific journal Environmental Science & Technology, was conducted around the Ulu Pandan catchment area in collaboration with the Singapore's national water agency, PUB.

-Environmental Science & Technology

Scientists want contracts to guarantee they won't be muzzled
Canada’s muzzled federal scientists claim they are now being barred from meeting with their union at work to discuss its bargaining proposals to restore “scientific integrity” in government, says the union.

Debi Daviau, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, is leading scientists Tuesday in a string of outdoor protests at labs and science-based departments across the country largely because the union can no longer get inside to meet with their members as it once did.
Federal scientists were a thorn in the Conservatives’ side during the government’s downsizing, accusing them of using federal policies to muzzle them, change or suppress their findings and undermine their ability to do their jobs.
The policy would touch on a range of issues and existing policies, but the key proposal is the “right to speak.” The union wants a clause guaranteeing scientists the right to express their personal views while making clear they don’t speak for government.

The other big demand is professional development, allowing scientists to attend meetings, conferences and courses to maintain their professional standards.

They also want contract changes so half of the revenues generated by their inventions and other intellectual property will be plowed back into government research to shore up budgets hit by spending cuts and to attract top talent.

PIPSC argues the changes would ensure science is done in the public interest, information and data are shared, and that scientists can collaborate and be protected from political interference, coercion or pressure to alter data. The policy would touch on a range of issues and existing policies, but the key proposal is the “right to speak.”
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/scientists-want-contracts-to...

“Young Blood” Anti-Aging Mechanism Called into Question

A protein in the blood of young mice that seemed to rejuvenate older animals may do the opposite
http://www.nature.com/news/young-blood-anti-ageing-mechanism-called...

‘Plastic Rice’. 'Synthetic rice'. Have you heard these terms before? One more rice contaminant!
Several Indonesian regions are on alert after lab tests confirmed rice found in the West Java city of Bekasi, on the outskirts of Jakarta, contained plastic compounds.

Lab results from state-controlled inspection firm Superintending Company of Indonesia, or Sucofindo, revealed that two rice samples collected from Mutiara Gading market in Bekasi contained contained benzyl butyl phthalate, 2-ethylhexyl phthalate and diisononyl phthalate, also known as plasticizer.

“The two samples of rice look the same; results of our tests show that both contain plastic compounds,” Adisam Z.N., Sucofindo’s laboratory examinations head, said in Jakarta on Thursday.

“Plasticizers are usually used in the production of cables and plastic pipes. In Europe, these substances have been banned for use in children’s toys, let alone as food substances,” he added.

Long-term consumption of the synthetic rice, dubbed “plastic rice” by local media, can cause abdominal pain and even cancer.

Fears of the so-called synthetic rice have spread across the country after a police raid at Mutiara Gading found evidence of it mixed with real grains of rice.
Synthetic rice had slightly different physical attributes compared to natural grains, such as sharper tips.

Rice traders in Jakarta have admitted to not knowing the difference before they were informed by authorities.
http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/authorities-alert-plasti...

Why ovarian cancer treatments fail ...

Ovarian cancer cells can lock into survival mode and avoid being destroyed by chemotherapy, an international study reports.

Professor Sean Grimmond, from The University of Queensland's Institute for Molecular Bioscience, said ovarian cancer cells had at least four different ways to avoid being destroyed by platinum-based chemotherapy treatments.

"One way involves breaking and rearranging big groups of genes - the chromosomes," Professor Grimmond said.

"This is fundamentally different to other cancers where the disease is driven by smaller but more gradual changes to individual genes.

"It is essentially shattering big chunks of the cell's hard drive and moving them around, rather than just changing bits in the files."

The research used whole genome sequencing to analyse tumour DNA samples from 91 patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC).

The study's results are published recently in Nature.

A vaccine to lower blood pressure? Scientists have devised one for rats, at least.
Scientists jabbed hypertensive rats with three doses of the formulation. It's a DNA vaccine—containing DNA fragments from angiotensin II—a hormone that boosts blood pressure, as well as fragments from hepatitis B, to guarantee the immune system’s attention. Cells suck up the vaccine's DNA, and start pumping out the proteins the DNA codes for. When the host’s defenses gets a whiff of the proteins, it reacts. It really revs up against the hepatitis B fragments. And while it’s at it, it starts taking out some angiotensin II as well.

The result is a reduction in angiotensin II's usual blood pressure raising effects—similar to what blood pressure meds like Benicar do. Less angiotensin II means more relaxed blood vessels, and a drop in pressure. That effect lasted six months in the vaccinated rats, and lengthened their lifespan by eight weeks. Necropsies on the vaccinated rats revealed healthier heart tissue than normally found with high blood pressure, and no damage to their kidneys or livers. The results are in the journal Hypertension
"Long-Term Reduction of High Blood Pressure by Angiotensin II DNA Vaccine in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats"
http://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/early/2015/05/26/HYPERTENSIONA...

Estimated glomerular filtration rate and albuminuria for prediction of cardiovascular outcomes: a collaborative meta-analysis of individual participant data
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587%2815...
Kidney function tests help in measuring over all health
If health care providers have data on kidney damage and kidney function - which they often do - they should be using those data to better understand a patient's risk of cardiovascular disease. Cholesterol levels and blood pressure tests are good indicators of cardiovascular risk, but they are not perfect. This study tells us we could do even better with information that often times we are already collecting.
The most common assessment of kidney function checks the blood for creatinine, a waste product of the muscles, and reflects how well the kidneys are filtering it out (called an estimated glomerular filtration rate, or eGFR). Another key test measures albuminuria, or how much of the protein albumin leaks out of the kidney and into the urine. Higher amounts indicate the presence of kidney damage. It is also a fairly common test, particularly in patients with diabetes, hypertension and kidney disease.
The researchers now  found that both eGFR levels and albuminuria independently improved prediction of cardiovascular disease in general and particularly heart failure and death from heart attack and stroke, but albuminuria was the stronger predictor. It outperformed cholesterol levels and systolic blood pressure - and even whether someone is a smoker - as a risk factor for heart failure and death from heart attack or stroke.
Poorly functioning kidneys can lead to a fluid overload that may result in heart failure. People with kidney disease tend to not receive certain medications that can reduce heart ailments, such as statins, likely because patients with kidney disease frequently are excluded from clinical trials performed to prove the efficacy of these medicines.

People with chronic kidney disease are twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease as those with healthy kidneys and roughly half of them die from it before they reach kidney failure.

The link between typhoid bacterium and gallbladder cancer...

Controlling bacterial infections responsible for typhoid fever could dramatically reduce the risk of gallbladder cancer in India and Pakistan, according to a study published by Cell Press May 28th in Cell Host & Microbe. The findings establish for the first time the causal link between bacterial infection and gallbladder cancer, explaining why this type of cancer is rare in the West but common in India and Pakistan, where typhoid fever is endemic. Public policy changes inspired by this research could have an immediate impact on preventing a type of cancer that currently has a very poor prognosis.

S. typhi,   typhoid-causing bacterium is endemic in India and has been associated with gallbladder cancer in epidemiological studies. Moreover, proteins that Salmonella injects into host cells activate cancer-related signaling pathways called AKT and MAPK, which support not only bacterial infection and survival, but also the growth and proliferation of cancer cells.

To explore the role of S. typhi in cancer in the new study, the researchers compared tumor samples from Indian and Dutch patients with gallbladder cancer. While both groups showed signs of AKT and MAPK activation and an inactive, mutant TP53 cancer gene, only Indian patients showed strong evidence of S. typhi infection and over-activating mutations in a cancer gene called c-Myc. To mimic the features of the tumor samples from India, the researchers transplanted Salmonella-infected cells with mutations affecting TP53 and c-Myc activity into mice. These mice later developed tumors, demonstrating that Salmonella causes cancer in genetically at-risk hosts as a result of the collateral damage induced by its normal infection cycle.

Additional experiments suggested that Salmonella infection sets genetically predisposed host cells on the cancerous path by secreting proteins that increase AKT and MAPK activity, which remains elevated and perpetuates the cancer trajectory long after the bacteria have disappeared. These same two host signaling pathways are activated by bacterial pathogens implicated in cervical and lung cancer, suggesting that a direct contribution of bacteria to tumor formation could be more common than previously anticipated. "The findings also suggest that the use of antibiotic treatment to control these bacterial infections may come too late for individuals who have already developed cancer," the researchers say. "Instead, the main goal should be prevention through proper treatment with antibiotics, vaccination programs, or better sanitary conditions."

"If typhoid fever is controlled, gallbladder carcinoma in India and Pakistan could be prevented and become as rare as in the Western world."

Salmonella Manipulation of Host Signaling Pathways Provokes Cellular Transformation Associated with Gallbladder Carcinoma

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1931312815002061

Vials of bioterror bacteria have gone missing. Lab mice infected with deadly viruses have escaped, and wild rodents have been found making nests with research waste. Cattle infected in a university's vaccine experiments were repeatedly sent to slaughter and their meat sold for human consumption. Gear meant to protect lab workers from lethal viruses such as Ebola and bird flu has failed, repeatedly.

A USA TODAY Network investigation reveals that hundreds of lab mistakes, safety violations and near-miss incidents have occurred in biological laboratories coast to coast in recent years, putting scientists, their colleagues and sometimes even the public at risk.

Oversight of biological research labs is fragmented, often secretive and largely self-policing, the investigation found. And even when research facilities commit the most egregious safety or security breaches — as more than 100 labs have — federal regulators keep their names secret.

Of particular concern are mishaps occurring at institutions working with the world's most dangerous pathogens in biosafety level 3 and 4 labs — the two highest levels of containment that have proliferated since the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. Yet there is no publicly available list of these labs, and the scope of their research and safety records are largely unknown to most state health departments charged with responding to disease outbreaks. Even the federal government doesn't know where they all are, the Government Accountability Office has warned for years.
http://www.usatoday.com/longform/news/2015/05/28/biolabs-pathogens-...

How Bacteria Talk and how we can use this knowledge to control diseases

Global Warming Spawns Hybrid Species

Animals have been interbreeding for millennia. Even modern humans are the product of genetic exchange with Neanderthals some 60,000 years ago.

But the rate at which species interbreed is accelerating because of climate change, researchers say. As habitats and animal ranges change and bleed into one another, species that never before would have encountered one another are now mating.

Warmer temperatures have allowed grizzly bears and polar bears to venture to habitats they don’t usually occupy and mate to form a hybrid: the pizzly or grolar bear.

Similar trends have been observed between golden-winged warblers and blue-winged warblers.

This issue is horrendously complex because of our ability to change the environment.
s rainbow trout meet and interbreed with dwindling cutthroat trout populations, the survival of cutthroat trout is at risk. Instead, a hybrid species is taking its place.

It’s a major cause of species extinction—lots of species are now disappearing because they are being genetically swamped by other, commoner ones. In some cases, hybridization can lead to reduced genetic diversity in animals. Rather than growing a new branch on the [genetic] tree, you have two branches growing together. In the case of cutthroat-rainbow trout hybrids, the hybrids are less genetically fit, with offspring of the hybrids struggling to survive, a study led by researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey found.

The rate at which humans are driving species to extinction is 1,000 times faster than the rate at which animals would go extinct naturally.
"ADAPTATION:
The grolar bear dilemma -- do warming-created hybrids hurt species? "
http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060019399