Body

Scientists from The University of Texas at Austin, the Stanford University School of Medicine and two other institutions have discovered that bacteria have a system that can recognize and disrupt dangerous viruses using a newly identified mechanism involving ribonucleic acid (RNA). It is similar to the CRISPR/Cas system that captures foreign DNA. The discovery might lead to better ways to thwart viruses that kill agricultural crops and interfere with the production of dairy products such as cheese and yogurt.

The research appears online Feb. 25 in the journal Science.

Scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and colleagues have discovered that a single monoclonal antibody--a protein that attacks viruses--isolated from a human Ebola virus disease survivor protected non-human primates when given as late as five days after lethal Ebola infection. The antibody can now advance to testing in humans as a potential treatment for Ebola virus disease.

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease that can develop into the life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome. There are currently no standard biomarkers or algorithms for the prognosis of the progression to hemorrhagic fever or potentially fatal shock syndrome. In the latest issue of PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases scientists from Colorado State University explore the use of small molecules in patient serum for diagnosis of dengue fever and potentially predicting progression to the severe disease.

A single monoclonal antibody isolated from a human survivor of Ebola virus disease (EVD) completely protected monkeys from lethal infection with the virus, according to research published in today's online edition of the journal Science.

Importantly, the antibody, known as mAb114, was effective even when given five days after exposure to Ebola virus, suggesting that it could hold promise as a potential treatment for human cases of EVD.

February 25, 2016 - Children with autism have no unique pattern of abnormal results on endoscopy or other tests for gastrointestinal (GI) disorders, compared to non-autistic children with GI symptoms, reports a study in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition (JPGN), official journal of the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition and the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition.

"Get up and move."

That's the take-home message from a new study from Ezra Fishman, a doctoral candidate in demography at the University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues from Johns Hopkins University, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute on Aging and others.

Even for people who already exercised, swapping out just a few minutes of sedentary time with some sort of movement was associated with reduced mortality, according to the research, published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

BOSTON -- An international collaboration of organizations, including Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, has reached a milestone in creating a library of complete genetic blueprints for the thousands of different proteins in human cells. The collection - consisting of open-reading frames (ORFs), the portions of genes that code for full-length proteins - is an essential resource for scientists studying the basic mechanics of human cells and how those processes go awry in disease.

Ciliates can do amazing things: Being so tiny, the water in which they live is like thick honey to these microorganisms. In spite of this, however, they are able to self-propel through water by the synchronized movement of thousands of extremely thin filaments on their outer skin, called cilia. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart are now moving robots that are barely perceptible to the human eye in a similar manner through liquids.

AUGUSTA, Ga. - A low-salt diet does not necessarily translate to stronger bones in postmenopausal women, physician-scientists report.

"When we started the study, we thought we were going to be telling everyone again that a low-salt diet is good for your bones," said Dr. Laura D. Carbone, chief of the Section of Rheumatology at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.

Malaria is a worldwide menace. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 500,000 individuals died from malaria in 2013 alone. While treatments for the disease exist, cures can also take a hefty physical toll. Professor of chemistry Robert Doyle in the College of Arts and Sciences, graduate students Brian Huta and Yan Nie, and an international team have begun to unravel the biochemical action of one such malarial drug.

Scientists in China have finally succeeded in creating functioning sperm from mice in the laboratory. To accomplish this feat, the researchers coaxed mouse embryonic stem cells to turn into functional sperm-like cells, which were then injected into egg cells to produce fertile mouse offspring. The work, reported February 25 in Cell Stem Cell, provides a platform for generating sperm cells that could one day be used to treat male infertility in humans.

While people and many animals might look pretty symmetrical on the outside, inside our bodies we are all fundamentally asymmetric. For example, the human heart is found to the left of center. Snails are similarly asymmetric in their appearance, and more obviously so: the shells and bodies of some snails twist around to the right, whereas others twist to the left.

Westerners have a less-diverse gut microbiome compared to hunter-gatherers, but how and why these microbe collections diverged has largely remained a mystery. Now, researchers reporting February 25 in Cell Reports describe an intermediate gut microbiome from the Central African Republic's Bantu community, a traditional population that incorporates some westernized lifestyle practices. The discovery offers insight into what factors may drive our microbiome differences, which are thought to be linked to metabolic disorders in western populations.

An international team of researchers has discovered a gene in snails that determines whether their shells twist clockwise or anti-clockwise - and could offer clues to how the same gene affects body asymmetry in other animals including humans. Watch the video on the research at https://youtu.be/Mh8-QyJsDVo.

Enzymes rarely have one job. So, attempts to shut down the enzyme that causes the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease often mean side effects, because these therapies prevent the enzyme from carrying out many other functions. A study appearing February 25 in Cell Reports presents a new therapeutic strategy: blocking the most harmful behavior enzyme while allowing it to work normally otherwise. This potential approach now needs to be further developed and tested in pre-clinical trials.