Culture
NEW YORK, June 7, 2021--Recent studies suggest that new brain cells are being formed every day in response to injury, physical exercise, and mental stimulation. Glial cells, and in particular the ones called oligodendrocyte progenitors, are highly responsive to external signals and injuries. They can detect changes in the nervous system and form new myelin, which wraps around nerves and provides metabolic support and accurate transmission of electrical signals.
Just a few bacterial taxa found in ecosystems across the planet are responsible for more than half of carbon cycling in soils. These new findings, made by researchers at Northern Arizona University and published in Nature Communications this week, suggest that despite the diversity of microbial taxa found in wild soils gathered from four different ecosystems, only three to six groups of bacteria common among these ecosystems were responsible for most of the carbon use that occurred.
Consuming large amounts of daily caffeine may increase the risk of glaucoma more than three-fold for those with a genetic predisposition to higher eye pressure according to an international, multi-center study. The research led by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is the first to demonstrate a dietary - genetic interaction in glaucoma. The study results published in the June print issue of Ophthalmology may suggest patients with a strong family history of glaucoma should cut down on caffeine intake.
Terpenoids are omnipresent in almost all living organisms. Prenylated indoles are prominent representatives that usually display potent medicinal properties (e.g. tryprostatin B). Therefore, significant efforts have been devoted to indole prenylation over the past decades. The known protocols often require a multi-step procedure and rely on the use of stoichiometric promoters.
HOUSTON - (June 7, 2021) - If identical versions of 20 people lived out their lives in dozens of different worlds, would the same people be popular in each world?
If you substitute "fruit flies" for "people" in that question, you have a fair description of a Rice University study showing that the evolution of social structures and the positions of individuals within those structures are based partly on genetics.
The kidneys are a target organ of COVID-19 and are affected very early in the course. However, this is precisely where there is strong prognostic potential: As early as last spring, COVID-19-associated nephritis was identified as an early warning signal for severe courses of the infectious disease and studies to that effect were published [1]. In that regard, the research group led by Professor Oliver Gross, Department of Nephrology and Rheumatology at Göttingen University Medical Center (UMG), screened 223 patients in a study and included 145 of them as a predictive cohort.
It was clear at a relatively early stage of the pandemic that SARS-CoV-2 causes a wide range of symptoms; in addition to typical respiratory symptoms, patients also had neurological symptoms (starting with anosmia), gastrointestinal symptoms, elevated liver values, and renal, urinary or hematological changes, for example. The fact that such findings occurred not only in severely ill patients with general organ dysfunction suggested that the virus may potentially cause disorders in various organs directly, i.e. that it causes a multi-system disease.
Various viruses and bacteria have long been known to cause autoimmune diseases where there is such a predisposition. This phenomenon also seems to play a major role in SARS-CoV-2, especially in severe courses. The body's own immune cells are activated, with the formation of autoantibodies that attack the body's own healthy cell structures (proteins, autoantigens); deposits of immune complexes can then trigger severe inflammatory processes and cell destruction in the body.
The battle against antibiotic-resistant bacteria: A new study at Tel Aviv University revealed a mechanism through which "good" viruses can attack the systems of "bad" bacteria, destroy them and block their reproduction. The researchers demonstrated that the "good" virus (bacteriophage) is able to block the replication mechanism of the bacteria's DNA without damaging its own, and note that the ability to distinguish between oneself and others is crucial in nature.
Wider clean chemistry applications of the extraordinary Vortex Fluidic Device - invented by Flinders University's Professor Colin Raston - are likely in the wake of new research that has been published outlining the seemingly endless possible uses.
The defining paper on understanding fluid flow in the Vortex Fluidic Device has just been comprehensively explained in an article published in Nanoscale Advances (DOI: 10.1039/D1NA00195G).
A world-first international study led by the University of South Australia has identified a new drug to stop athletes developing dementia after sustaining repeated head injuries in their career.
The link between concussion and neurogenerative diseases is well established, but new research findings could halt the progression of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in sportspeople who sustain repeated blows to the head.
Monash University researchers have provided a fundamental advance regarding how T cells become activated when encountering pathogens such as viruses.
The recent study published in Science, co-led by Professor Nicole La Gruta, Professor Jamie Rossjohn and Professor Stephanie Gras with first author Dr Pirooz Zareie from the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, have found that T Cells need to recognise pathogens in a particular orientation in order to receive a strong activating signal.
Niigata, Japan - A comprehensive investigation on cells and colony motion offers new insight into the proliferative and epithelial regenerative capacities of human primary oral keratinocyte cultures with implications for quality control of engineered cells used in regenerative medicine. Dr. Kenji Izumi and his colleagues, Dr. Emi Hoshikawa and Dr.
Could an over-the-counter health "shot" help fight COVID-19? George Mason University researchers think it just might.
Cell and Bioscience recently highlighted research led by Yuntao Wu and Ramin Hakami in which they examined the potential anti-coronavirus activities of an over-the-counter drink called Respiratory Detox Shot (RDS).
WOODS HOLE, Mass. -- Plastics are everywhere. From cell phones to pens and cars to medical devices, the modern world is full of plastic-- and plastic waste. New research from scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) Ecosystems Center found that some of that plastic waste has been accumulating in salt marshes for decades. The study was published in Environmental Advances.