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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 6 hours ago

Fathers' microplastics exposure tied to their children's metabolic problems

Paternal exposure to microplastics in mice leads to metabolic dysfunction in offspring, with female progeny showing increased susceptibility to diabetes and altered gene expression linked to inflammation. These effects are associated with changes in sperm small noncoding RNAs, indicating a mechanism for transgenerational impact of environmental pollutants.

A new study has shown for the first time that a father's exposure to microplastics (MPs) can trigger metabolic dysfunctions in his offspring. The research, conducted using mouse models, highlights a previously unknown pathway through which environmental pollutants impact the health of future generations.

While MPs have already been detected in human reproductive systems, the study, published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society, is the first to bridge the gap between paternal exposure to MPs and the long-term health of the next generation (the "F1 offspring").

MPs are tiny plastic particles (less than 5 millimeters) resulting from the breakdown of consumer products and industrial waste. Metabolic disorders refer to a cluster of conditions—including increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, and excess body fat—that increase the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Key findings and sex-specific effects The research team found that female offspring of male mice exposed to MPs were significantly more susceptible to metabolic disorders than offspring of unexposed fathers, despite all offspring being fed the same high-fat diet.

"The exact reasons for this sex-specific effect are still unclear", say the researchers. They observed upregulation of pro-inflammatory and pro-diabetic genes in their livers—genes previously linked to diabetes. These changes were not seen in male offspring.
The research team found that while male offspring did not develop diabetes, they showed a slight yet significant decrease in fat mass. Female offspring showed decreased muscle mass alongside increased diabetes.

Seung Hyun Park et al, Paternal microplastic exposure alters sperm small non-coding RNAs and affects offspring metabolic health in mice, Journal of the Endocrine Society (2025). DOI: 10.1210/jendso/bvaf214

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 6 hours ago

New species are being discovered faster than ever before, study suggests

According to a new  study published in Science Advances, scientists are discovering species quicker than ever before, with more than 16,000 new species discovered each year. The trend shows no sign of slowing, and the team behind the new paper predicts that the biodiversity among certain groups, such as plants, fungi, arachnids, fishes and amphibians is richer than scientists originally thought.

Researchers  analyzed the taxonomic histories of roughly 2 million species, spanning all groups of living organisms. Between 2015 and 2020—the most recent period with comprehensive data—researchers documented an average of more than 16,000 new species each year, including more than 10,000 animals (dominated by arthropods and insects), 2,500 plants and 2,000 fungi.

and the  good news is that this rate of new species discovery far outpaces the rate of species extinctions, which researchers calculated to about 10 per year.

These thousands of newly found species each year are not just microscopic organisms, but include insects, plants, fungi and even hundreds of new vertebrates.

The team also analyzed the rates of new species appearing over time to project how many species will be discovered and described in the future. For example, they projected that there might be as many as 115,000 fish species and 41,000 amphibian species, even though there are only about 42,000 fish and 9,000 amphibian species described now. They also projected that the final number of plant species might be over a half million.

Discovering new species is important because these species can't be protected until they're scientifically described. 

Additionally, the discovery of new species contributes to finding new natural products for human benefit.

Spider and snake venoms and many plants and fungi also contain natural products with potential medicinal applications, including treatments for pain and cancer.

Beyond medicine, many species have adaptations that can inspire human inventions, such as materials mimicking the "super-clinging" feet that allow geckos to climb up vertical surfaces. Scientists are still just scratching the surface of what these species can do for humanity.

Xin Li et al, The past and future of known biodiversity: Rates, patterns, and projections of new species over time, Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adz3071

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 7 hours ago

The study authors write, "Fully developed doughnuts continue to speed up (above 1 m/s), until a point where they sometimes break apart in an apparent fracture process. This breakage occurs when the tensile force driven by the centrifugal sandball stretching overcomes the strength of capillary bonds, producing child sandballs that carve their own track as they tumble down the slope."

Studying the shapes that raindrops take on as they tumble down dry dirt hills might seem frivolous, but these dynamics have real implications for soil erosion models, which are used for predicting soil loss from rain. These models help with conservation planning, land management, and environmental assessment by estimating erosion rates, identifying more vulnerable areas, designing control measures and evaluating land health in agriculture. 

Bertil Trottet et al, Sandball genesis from raindrops, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2519392122

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 7 hours ago

Raindrops form 'sandballs' as they roll downhill, contributing more to erosion than previously thought

We know that the initial splash of raindrops on soil contributes to erosion, but a new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that the journey of the raindrop downhill might have an even bigger impact on erosion than the initial splash.

Researchers observed natural raindrops hitting the surface of a hillside and noticed that they collected particles of sand as they rolled downhill. This spurred the researchers to document the event with a camera and then take the idea to the lab.

In the lab, they constructed a 1.2 meter long bed covered with dry silicate sand and tilted at an angle of 30°. The lab conditions enabled the team to properly document the phenomenon by recording the evolution of the raindrops' shapes as they rolled and take precise measurements of the relevant parameters. They found that each raindrop formed what they refer to as "sandballs" and that they took on differing shapes, depending on the conditions, and that the sandballs can move up to 10 times more soil than the initial splash alone.

"In the initial rolling stage, drops rapidly increase their speed and sediment entrainment rate. Under increasing centrifugal force, the rolling drops undergo a metamorphosis: Their rounded shape destabilizes, as both liquid and entrained grains drift away from the core to create sandballs," the study authors write in their paper.

The researchers found that the sandy raindrops formed two distinct shapes: a peanut shape and a doughnut shape. Peanuts occurred at comparably lower velocities and maintained their grains at the surface of the drop. They only gather grains up to a certain point and then usually plateau.

"Once their mass plateaus, peanuts continue to increase their angular velocity as they roll; this sometimes causes a shift in their mode of motion, triggering an additional phase of mass accumulation. Other times, peanuts break, tumble slower or settle. If peanuts survive to the end of the slope and roll onto a flat surface, they immediately fall apart," the study authors explain.

Instead of only gathering grains at the surface, doughnut-shaped drops absorb sand grains into their interior volume, making them more dense and opaque in appearance. The researchers call the emergence of these kinds of drops "unexpected."

The team found that these drops destabilize into the doughnut shape from axisymmetric radial stretching. These shapes only occur at very high spin rates in pure-liquid drops, but occurred at slightly lower rates in the lab experiments due to the water-glycerol mixture used in the lab-based drops.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 7 hours ago

The global fish trade is spreading 'forever chemicals' around the world

Eating fish may well be good for you, but it carries a hidden risk of exposure to so-called "forever chemicals." A new study published in the journal Science has revealed that the global seafood trade is acting as a massive delivery system for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), industrial pollutants that persist in the environment for decades.

These forever chemicals are used in many products, from nonstick cookware and cosmetics to food packaging and firefighting foams. They are extremely resistant to breaking down in the environment and have been linked to a variety of serious illnesses such as cancer and liver disease.

PFAS can travel long distances around the planet in the air and through water. Once they wash into the ocean, they are absorbed by tiny organisms at the bottom of the food chain, such as plankton and algae. Because these chemicals do not break down, they accumulate in their bodies, and when small fish eat them, the toxic substances pass up the food chain. Large predatory fish, the kind that end up on our dinner plates, eat these smaller marine creatures, and as a result, the chemical concentrations build up in their tissues and organs.

In their paper, the researchers set out to map how these chemicals move once they are inside the fish. They built a computer model covering 212 different species to track how toxins accumulate up the food chain and then validated this with lab tests on fish from numerous countries. Then the team combined this data with global trade records to see how the fish and PFAS travel from one country to another.

One of the most significant findings was that the international fish trade acts like a global conveyor belt, redistributing PFAS from contaminated regions to consumers thousands of miles away.
Before this study, it was generally assumed that forever chemicals were a local problem. If your country's rivers and seas were clean, then so were the fish. However, a nation with clean water can still be exposed to high levels of PFAS through the seafood it imports from other parts of the world. For example, researchers found that Italians buy only 11% of their fish from Sweden, yet this accounts for more than 35% of their PFAS exposure.

Given that this problem doesn't respect borders, researchers argue that a unified global strategy is needed to protect public health.

Wenhui Qiu et al, Risks of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance exposure through marine fish consumption, Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.adr0351

Jennifer Sun et al, Reevaluating PFAS exposure risks from marine fish, Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.aed7431

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 7 hours ago

Brain chemistry can reactivate or suppress dormant HIV

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections are still fairly common and an estimated 40 million people worldwide are currently living with this condition. The HIV virus attacks the body's immune system and thus makes those who contract it more vulnerable to a wide range of infections.

While there is still no known cure for HIV, there are now various treatment options that allow affected patients to live long and healthy lives. When treated with antiretroviral therapy (ART), the virus is known to remain in a latent state, essentially 'hiding' inside cells and forming a reservoir of dormant virus. If the medication is stopped, however, the virus can be re-awoken, causing severe immune deficiencies again.

Researchers have recently been investigating how the brain, particularly tiny molecules and protein-carrying packages released by cells, influence the persistence of HIV. In a new paper, published in Molecular Psychiatry, they presented new findings that shed new light on molecular mechanisms that can either re-ignite or suppress latent HIV.

In their experiments the researchers found that ECs collected from the brains of SIV-infected but untreated macaques strongly re-activated latent virus reservoirs increasing the activity of viral genes, the production of proteins and causing the virus to spread between cells. Interestingly, however, particles extracted from the brains of infected macaques who were treated with cannabinoids were found to suppress the re-activation of the virus.

"Cannabinoids have been shown to inhibit neuroinflammation," said the authors of the research paper. They showed that cannabinoids exert similar anti-inflammatory effects via EVs and in the current study on ECs, we report that ECs isolated from brains (basal ganglia) of rhesus monkeys have this anti-inflammatory effect and that cannabinoids modulate the cargos of the ECs, with resultant effects on latent HIV reservoirs.

Overall, the findings gathered by these researchers suggest that the brain's chemistry, particularly ECs, do play a key role in the reactivation or suppression of dormant HIV. In the future, their work could pave the way for the development of new drugs and therapeutic interventions aimed at better managing, or perhaps even curing, HIV infections.

Wasifa Naushad et al, Extracellular condensates (ECs) are endogenous modulators of HIV transcription and latency reactivation, Molecular Psychiatry (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41380-025-03354-w.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 7 hours ago

The team's findings will need to be validated in humans before they can be reliably translated into psychiatric and medical insight. In the future, however, they could potentially help to identify promising pathways for the treatment of depression in patients diagnosed with BD, which are designed to alter their gut microbiota.

Anying Tang et al, Gut microbiota modulates synaptic plasticity, connectivity, and dopamine transmission in the VTA-mPFC pathway in bipolar depression, Molecular Psychiatry (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41380-025-03398-y.

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 7 hours ago

Gut bacteria may play role in bipolar depression by directly influencing brain connectivity

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a psychiatric disorder characterized by extreme mood changes. Individuals diagnosed with BD typically alternate between periods of high energy, euphoria, irritability and/or impulsivity (i.e., manic episodes) and others marked by feelings of sadness, low energy, and hopelessness (i.e., depression).

While there are now several medications that can help patients to manage the disorder and stabilize their mood, many of these drugs have side effects and dosages often need to be periodically adjusted. Recent studies suggest that the bacteria and microorganisms living in the digestive system, also known as gut microbiota, play a key role in mental health and might also contribute to some symptoms of BD.

Researchers  recently carried out a study investigating the possible connection between gut microbiota and the depressive episodes experienced by people diagnosed with BD. Their findings, published in Molecular Psychiatry, suggest that the microorganisms in the digestive system can directly influence connections between specific brain regions known to be affected by BD depression.

Adequate evidence has shown that gut microbial dysbiosis is an emerging disease phenotype of BD and is closely related to clinical symptoms of this intractable disease, wrote the researchers in their paper.

To explore the link between gut microbiota and BD depression, the researchers collected gut bacteria from individuals diagnosed with BD who were going through a depressive phase. They then transplanted these bacteria into the digestive system of healthy mice.

They found that bipolar depression-like mice presented with a decrease in the density of dendrite spines in medial prefrontal neurons, and translation post-synapse as a key contributor to the changes in synaptic plasticity.

In addition, analysis of synaptic connectivity in the mPFC revealed that compared to control mice, fewer connections were observed between ventral tegmental area and mPFC glutamate neurons and dopamine response was decreased in BD mice.

Notably, the researchers found that after they received the microbiota taken from individuals who were experiencing BD depression, the mice also started exhibiting depression-like behaviors. In addition, neurons in two brain regions known to be implicated in mood regulation, namely the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), appeared to be less connected with each other.

The team also observed disruptions in the production of proteins and reduced dopamine signaling. Dopamine signaling (i.e., the release of dopamine) is essential for maintaining motivation and emotional regulation.

The results of this study confirm that microorganisms and bacteria in the gut can influence the connections between neurons in different brain regions. These altered connections could in turn have an impact on motivation, mood regulation and the processing of emotions.

Part1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Whale, dolphin strandings show widespread disease, trauma
Analysis of 272 cetacean strandings in the Pacific Islands from 2006 to 2024 found that over 65% involved disease or human-caused trauma. Disease accounted for 62% of cases, with infectious agents like morbillivirus and brucella affecting multiple species. Human-related trauma, including vessel strikes and debris ingestion, contributed to 29% of strandings.

From land-borne pathogens to high-speed vessel strikes, Pacific whales and dolphins are caught in a "perfect storm" where human-caused trauma and infectious diseases were found in more than 65% of investigated strandings.

A study spanning nearly two decades by  researchers provides insights into the threats whales and dolphins face in the Pacific Islands.

Based on 272 stranding investigations of 20 cetacean species between 2006 and 2024, the study provides foundational data to better manage and conserve Hawaiʻi's whales and dolphins. The findings are published in the journal Diseases of Aquatic Organisms.

Over 18 years, scientists examined more than three-quarters of the stranded whales and dolphins to understand why they died. Most cases (62%) were linked to diseases, and about half of those animals were in poor body condition due to long-term illness.
Infectious agents proved to be a significant threat, affecting 11 different species, including striped dolphins and Longman's beaked whales. Two of the most concerning pathogens were morbillivirus and brucella, which can cause serious brain and lung problems in marine mammals.

Toxoplasmosis—a parasite that infects warm-blooded animals and spreads through cat feces across the environment—was responsible for the deaths of two spinner dolphins and one bottlenose dolphin.

The study revealed that 29% of all strandings were linked to anthropogenic (human-caused) trauma. Vessel strikes were a significant risk, resulting in fatal vertebral and skull fractures for seven individuals, including two pygmy sperm whales, two humpback whale calves, a goose-beaked whale, a spinner dolphin and a striped dolphin.

Interactions with marine debris and fisheries were confirmed as fatal in multiple cases, including a sperm whale that died from plastic and fishery debris blocking its stomach and a bottlenose dolphin that died after a fishhook tore into it.

Kristi West et al, Pacific Islands cetaceans: a review of strandings from 2006-2024, Diseases of Aquatic Organisms (2025). DOI: 10.3354/dao03877

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

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