Culture
Hamilton, ON (February 26, 2020) - McMaster University researchers have identified an antibacterial compound made by cannabis plants that may serve as a lead for new drug development.
An interdisciplinary team of McMaster researchers found that the chemical compound, or cannabinoid, called cannabigerol (CBG) is not only antibacterial but also effective in mice against a resilient family of bacteria known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
The findings were published in the journal American Chemical Society Infectious Diseases.
As metropolises balloon with growth and sprawl widens the footprint of cities around the world, access to nature for people living in urban areas is becoming harder to find.
If you're lucky, a pocket park might be installed next to a new condominium complex on your block, or perhaps a green roof tops the building where you work downtown. But it's unusual to find places in a city that are relatively wild -- even though our evolutionary history suggests we need interactions with wild nature to thrive.
When it comes to encouraging manufacturers to reduce their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a carrot might be more effective than a stick. That's the approach taken by a recent U.S. tax code rule that offers credits to companies that capture and then store or use CO2. The rule will likely spur innovations in carbon capture technology, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society.
Forget what you know about bile because that's about to change, thanks to a new discovery made by Michigan State University and published in the current issue of Nature.
Much of our knowledge about bile hasn't changed in many decades. It's produced in the liver, stored in our gall bladder and injected into our intestine when we eat, where it breaks down fats in our gut. In fact, the first bile acid was discovered in 1848, and the scientists who revealed the structure of bile acids in 1928 won the Nobel Prize. That's a long time ago.
Oncotarget Volume 11 Issue 8 features Figure 8, "MLN4924 treatment induces DNA damage by stabilizing CDT1 and accumulates the cells in S phase which are enhanced by MLN4924/cisplatin co-treatment," by Misra, et al.
Moreover, adding MLN4924 to the standard TNBC chemotherapeutic agent cisplatin increased the DNA damage level, further enhancing the sensitivity.
A new special issue of the journal The Gerontologist from The Gerontological Society of America explores how contemporary trends in immigration, migration, and refugee movement affect how people age and how societies care for aging people.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- With a new CRISPR gene-editing methodology, scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign inactivated one of the genes responsible for an inherited form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - a debilitating and fatal neurological disease for which there is no cure. The novel treatment slowed disease progression, improved muscle function and extended lifespan in mice with an aggressive form of ALS.
The aggravating skin condition eczema is most commonly treated by suppressing the immune system, but not all patients get relief. Now, a drug strategy aimed at revving up the immune system and boosting a type of immune cell known as natural killer cells appears, at least in mice, to effectively treat eczema.
The innovative approach, from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, may point to a potential treatment for the skin condition, as well as other health problems linked to it, including asthma.
Seawater is more than just saltwater. The ocean is a veritable soup of chemicals.
Part of that broth comes from dissolved carbon compounds, which account for a significant store of global carbon, on par with the amount held in the atmosphere. Researchers are actively working to classify what forms carbon takes in the world's oceans, as well as the biological processes that recycle it in the ocean's water.
More than eight million to 14 million tonnes of unreported fish catches are traded illicitly every year, costing the legitimate market between $9 billion and $17 billion in trade each year, according to new UBC research.
Doctors who use drugs that target antibiotic-resistant bacteria as a first-line defense against pneumonia should probably reconsider this approach, according to a new study of more than 88,000 veterans hospitalized with the disease. The study, conducted by University of Utah Health and VA Salt Lake City Health Care System researchers, found that pneumonia patients given these medications in the first few days after hospitalization fared no better than those receiving standard medical care for the condition.
When it comes to the smallest of creatures, the hydrogen bonds that hold water molecules together to form "surface tension" lend enough strength to support their mass: think of insects that skip across the surface of water. But what happens to small creatures that dwell below the surface of the water?
UConn researchers have taken a close look, and in research published recently in The Proceedings of the Royal Society B, have documented how tiny tadpoles are able to access air above the water's surface, breathing without having to break through the surface tension.
Cats who suffered burns and smoke inhalation in recent California wildfires also had a high incidence of heart problems, according to a new study from researchers at the University of California, Davis, Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. The study represents the first published research to come from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine on feline victims of California wildfires and was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports.
A new study examines how color evolved in one of the flashiest groups of parrots--Australasian lorikeets--finding that different plumage patches on the birds evolved independently through time. The study, published this week in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, helps explain why it's possible for the birds' faces and front sides to display a dazzling variety of colors--from vibrant ultraviolet blue only visible to other birds to deep crimson and black--while their wings and backs tend to be the same color: green.
A new study exposes the fallacy of relying on pronunciation as a measure of linguistic proficiency. The study, 'Revisiting phonetic integration in bilingual borrowing', by Shana Poplack, Suzanne Robillard, Nathalie Dion (all from the University of Ottawa), and John. C. Paolillo (University of Indiana Bloomington) will be published in March 2020 issue of the scholarly journal Language.