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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Mountain ranges could be hidden treasure troves of natural hydrogen, plate tectonic modeling finds

The successful development of sustainable georesources for the energy transition is a key challenge for humankind in the 21st century. Hydrogen gas (H₂) has great potential to replace current fossil fuels while simultaneously eliminating the associated emission of CO₂ and other pollutants.

However, a major obstacle is that H2 must be produced first. Current synthetic hydrogen production is at best based on renewable energies but it can also be polluting if fossil energy is used.

The solution may be found in nature, since various geological processes can generate hydrogen. Yet, until now, it has remained unclear where we should be looking for potentially large-scale natural H₂ accumulations.

A team of researchers present an answer to this question: using plate tectonic modeling, they found that mountain ranges in which originally deep mantle rocks are found near the surface represent potential natural hydrogen hotspots. 

Such mountain ranges may not only be ideal geological environments for large-scale natural H₂ generation, but also for forming large-scale H₂ accumulations that can be drilled for H₂ production.

The results of this research have been published in Science Advances.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Through additional experiments with skin, breast, and lung cancer cells, the researchers determined that a key source of nutrients for cancer cells comes from oligopeptides—pieces of proteins made up of small chains of amino acids—found outside the cell.

Where this process becomes cooperative is that instead of grabbing these peptides and ingesting them internally, the scientists found that tumor cells secrete a specialized enzyme that digests these peptides into free amino acids. Because this process happens outside the cells, the result is a shared pool of amino acids that becomes a common good.
Determining the enzyme secreted by cancer cells, called CNDP2, was an important discovery.

Carlos Carmona-Fontaine, Cooperative nutrient scavenging is an evolutionary advantage in cancer, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08588-w. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08588-w

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Cancer cells cooperate to scavenge for nutrients, scientists discover

Cancer cells work together to source nutrients from their environment—a cooperative process that was previously overlooked by scientists but may be a promising target for treating cancer.

Researchers identified cooperative interactions among cancer cells that allow them to proliferate. Thinking about the mechanisms that tumor cells exploit can inform future therapies.

Scientists have long known that cancer cells compete with one another for nutrients and other resources. Over time, a tumor becomes more and more aggressive as it becomes dominated by the strongest cancer cells.

However, ecologists also know that living organisms cooperate, particularly under harsh conditions. For instance, penguins form tight huddles to conserve heat during the extreme cold of winter, with their huddles growing in size as temperatures drop—a behavior not observed during warmer months.

Similarly, microorganisms such as yeast work together to find nutrients, but only when facing starvation.

Cancer cells also need nutrients to thrive and replicate into life-threatening tumors, but they live in environments where nutrients are scarce. Is it possible that cancer cells work together to scavenge for resources?

To determine whether cancer cells cooperate, the researchers tracked the growth of cells from different types of tumors. Using a robotic microscope and image analysis software they developed, they quickly counted millions of cells under hundreds of conditions over time.

This approach allowed them to examine tumor cultures at a range of densities—from sparsely populated dishes to those crowded with cancer cells—and with different levels of nutrients in the environment.

It is well-known that cells uptake amino acids in a competitive manner. But when the cancer cells studied were starved of amino acids such as glutamine, all of the cell types tested showed a strong need to work together to acquire the available nutrients.

Surprisingly, the researchers observed that limiting amino acids benefited larger cell populations, but not sparse ones, suggesting that this is a cooperative process that depends on population density. It became really clear that there was true cooperation among tumor cells.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

The researchers then demonstrated that the mice's elevated insulin levels fueled the growth of fatty plaques in the mice's arteries, suggesting that insulin may be the key link between aspartame and cardiovascular health.

Next, they investigated how exactly elevated insulin levels lead to arterial plaque buildup and identified an immune signal called CX3CL1 that is especially active under insulin stimulation.

Because blood flow through the artery is strong and robust, most chemicals would be quickly washed away as the heart pumps. Surprisingly, not CX3CL1. It stays glued to the surface of the inner lining of blood vessels. There, it acts like a bait, catching immune cells as they pass by.

Many of these trapped immune cells are known to stoke blood vessel inflammation. However, when researchers eliminated CX3CL1 receptors from one of the immune cells in aspartame-fed mice, the harmful plaque buildup didn't occur. These results point to CX3CL1's role in aspartame's effects on the arteries.

Artificial sweeteners have penetrated almost all kinds of food, so we have to be careful not to consume such food, say the researchers.

Sweetener aspartame aggravates atherosclerosis through insulin-triggered inflammation, Cell Metabolism (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2025.01.006. www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/f … 1550-4131(25)00006-3

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Artificial sweetener triggers insulin spike, leading to blood vessel inflammation in mice

From diet soda to zero-sugar ice cream, artificial sweeteners have been touted as a guilt-free way to indulge our sweet tooth. However, new research published in Cell Metabolism shows that aspartame, one of the most common sugar substitutes, may impact vascular health.

The team of cardiovascular health experts and clinicians found that aspartame triggers increased insulin levels in animals, which in turn contributes to atherosclerosis—buildup of fatty plaque in the arteries, which can lead to higher levels of inflammation and an increased risk of heart attacks and stroke over time.

Previous research has linked consumption of sugar substitutes to increased chronic disorders like cardiovascular disease and diabetes. However, the mechanisms involved were previously unexplored.

For this study, the researchers fed mice daily doses of food containing 0.15% aspartame for 12 weeks—an amount that corresponds to consuming about three cans of diet soda each day for humans.

Compared to mice without a sweetener-infused diet, aspartame-fed mice developed larger and more fatty plaques in their arteries and exhibited higher levels of inflammation, both of which are hallmarks of compromised cardiovascular health.

When the team analyzed the mice's blood, they found a surge in insulin levels after aspartame entered their system. The team noted that this wasn't a surprising result, given that our mouths, intestines, and other tissues are lined with sweetness-detecting receptors that help guide insulin release. But aspartame, 200 times sweeter than sugar, seemed to trick the receptors into releasing more insulin.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Synthetic diamond with hexagonal lattice outshines the natural kind with unprecedented hardness

A team of physicists, materials scientists and engineers has grown a diamond that is harder than those found in nature. In their project, reported in the journal Nature Materials, the group developed a process that involves heating and compressing graphite to create synthetic diamonds.

Diamonds are a prized gem the world over. Their sparkling appearance has made them one of the most treasured gemstones throughout human history. In more recent times, because they are so hard, diamonds have also been used in commercial applications, such as drilling holes through other hard materials. Such attributes have kept the price of diamonds high. Because of that, scientists have developed ways to synthesize them, and today, a host of synthetic diamonds are available for sale.

Researchers have previously pursued harder diamonds with hexagonal rather than cubic lattices, which is how most natural and synthetic diamonds form. However, past attempts to make hexagon-lattice synthetic diamonds have resulted in diamonds that were too small and of low purity.

In this new effort, the research team tried a different approach. They developed a process that involved heating graphene samples to high temperatures while inside a high-pressure chamber. By adjusting the parameters of their setup, the researchers found they could get the graphene to grow into a synthetic diamond with hexagonal lattices.

The first diamond made by the group was millimeter-sized and was tested at 155 GPa, with thermal stability up to 1,100°C. Natural diamonds typically range from 70 to 100 GPa and can only withstand temperatures up to 700°C.

The researchers note that it is unlikely diamonds made using their technique would be used for jewelry; instead, they would be used for drilling and machining applications. They also note that they might be used in other ways, such as for data storage or in thermal management applications.

Desi Chen et al, General approach for synthesizing hexagonal diamond by heating post-graphite phases, Nature Materials (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41563-025-02126-9

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Many different types of neurons are contained in the vagus nerve, but the researchers focused here on sensory neurons, which reacted most strongly to the presence of stomach cancer in mice. Some of these sensory neurons extended themselves deep into stomach tumors in response to a protein released by cancer cells called Nerve Growth Factor (NGF), drawing the cancer cells close to the neurons.

After establishing this connection, tumors signaled the sensory nerves to release the peptide Calcitonin Gene Related Peptide (CGRP), inducing electrical signals in the tumor.

Though the cancer cells and neurons may not form classical synapses where they meet—the team's electron micrographs are still a bit fuzzy—"there's no doubt that the neurons create an electric circuit with the cancer cells," the researchers say. "It's a slower response than a typical nerve-muscle synapse, but it's still an electrical response."
The researchers could see this electrical activity with calcium imaging, a technique that uses fluorescent tracers that light up when calcium ions surge into a cell as an electrical impulse travels through.

"There's a circuit that starts from the tumor, goes up toward the brain, and then turns back down toward the tumor again," they confirm. It's like a feed-forward loop that keeps stimulating the cancer and promoting its growth and spread."

For stomach cancer, CGRP inhibitors that are currently used to treat migraines could potentially short-circuit the electrical connection between tumors and sensory neurons.

Timothy Wang, Nociceptive neurons promote gastric tumor progression via a CGRPRamp1 axis, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08591-1. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08591-1

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Stomach cancers make electrical connections with the nervous system to fuel spread, study finds

Researchers have discovered that stomach cancers make electrical connections with nearby sensory nerves and use these malignant circuits to stimulate the cancer's growth and spread.

It is the first time that electrical contacts between nerves and a cancer outside the brain have been found, raising the possibility that many other cancers progress by making similar connections.

Many cancers exploit nearby neurons to fuel their growth, but outside of cancers in the brain, these interactions have been attributed to the secretion of growth factors broadly or through indirect effects.

Now that we know the communication between the two is more direct and electrical, it raises the possibility of repurposing drugs designed for neurological conditions to treat cancer.

The wiring of neurons to cancer cells also suggests that cancer can commandeer a particularly rapid mechanism to stimulate growth.

There are many different cells surrounding cancers, and this microenvironment can sometimes provide a rich soil for their growth.

Researchers have been focusing on the role of the microenvironment's immune cells, connective tissue, and blood vessels in cancer growth but have only started to examine the role of nerves in the last two decades. What's emerged recently is how advantageous the nervous system can be to cancer.

The nervous system works faster than any of these other cells in the tumor microenvironment, which allows tumors to more quickly communicate and remodel their surroundings to promote their growth and survival.

Earlier the researchers discovered that cutting the vagus nerve in mice with stomach cancer significantly slowed tumor growth and increased survival rate.

Part 1 

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Wednesday

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Wednesday

Swimming in some lakes can lead to infection with Legionella, warn scientists

Swimming in some lakes with still water can lead to infection with Legionella, bacteria that can cause pneumonia, and people who engage in open water swimming should be aware of this risk, say the authors of a practice article published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Legionella infection represents a public health hazard owing to its ability to spread through exposure to natural water bodies and human-made water reservoirs.

Legionella infection is an atypical cause of community-acquired pneumonia. Referred to as legionnaires' disease, it presents with fever, fatigue, respiratory symptoms, and sometimes diarrhea. Legionella bacteria thrive in the warm, stagnant water in plumbing systems, air conditioners, public spas, and even lakes and rivers.

Risk factors for legionnaires' disease include age older than 50 years, smoking history, chronic cardiovascular or kidney disease, diabetes, and a compromised immune system.

 Legionnaires' disease following lake swimming in Iowa, Canadian Medical Association Journal (2025). DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.241086. www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.241086

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