Biology & Medicine News and Discussions

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A drug that increases dopamine can reverse the effects of inflammation on the brain in depression
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-01- ... ation.html

An Emory University study published in Molecular Psychiatry shows levodopa, a drug that increases dopamine in the brain, has potential to reverse the effects of inflammation on brain reward circuitry, ultimately improving symptoms of depression.

Numerous labs across the world have shown that inflammation causes reduced motivation and anhedonia, a core symptom of depression, by affecting the brain's reward pathways.

Past research conducted by the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine has linked the effects of inflammation on the brain to decreased release of dopamine, a chemical neurotransmitter that regulates motivation and motor activity, in the ventral striatum.

In the study, researchers demonstrated that levodopa reversed the effects of inflammation on the brain's functional connectivity in reward circuitry and anhedonia (inability to feel pleasure) in depressed individuals with higher C-reactive protein (CRP), a blood biomarker produced and released by the liver in response to inflammation.

Levels of inflammation can be easily measured by simple blood tests, like CRP, readily available in clinics and hospitals throughout the U.S.

The study included 40 depressed patients with a range of CRP levels from high to low who underwent functional brain scans on two visits after receiving in random order either placebo or levodopa, a drug often prescribed for disorders like Parkinson's disease.

Levodopa improved functional connectivity in a classic ventral striatum to ventromedial prefrontal cortex reward circuit but only in patients with higher levels of CRP. This improvement in reward circuitry in depressed individuals with higher CRP also correlated with reduced symptoms of anhedonia after levodopa.

"This research demonstrates the translational potential for use of inflammation-related deficits in functional connectivity and could have important implications for the future investigations of precision therapies for psychiatric patients with high inflammation," says principal investigator and senior author Jennifer C. Felger, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Emory School of Medicine.

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Bill Gates would rather pay for vaccines than travel to Mars

6 hours ago

Billionaire Bill Gates has said he would rather pay for vaccines than travelling to Mars, which he does not think is a good use of money.

"It's actually quite expensive to go to Mars. You can buy measles vaccines and save lives for $1,000 (£814) per life saved," he told the BBC.

"And so [that] just kind of grounds you, as in - don't go to Mars."

[...]

Mr Gates, who has spent much of his life as the richest person in the world, has given tens of billions of pounds to philanthropic causes, often targeted at global health, especially children.

He now divides his time between climate change, and eradicating malnutrition and diseases such as polio and malaria.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-64499635

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Inhalable powder could protect lungs against COVID-19, flu viruses
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02- ... d-flu.html
by Tracey Peake, North Carolina State University

Researchers have developed an inhalable powder that could protect lungs and airways from viral invasion by reinforcing the body's own mucosal layer. The powder, called Spherical Hydrogel Inhalation for Enhanced Lung Defense, or SHIELD, reduced infection in both mouse and non-human primate models over a 24-hour period, and can be taken repeatedly without affecting normal lung function.

"The idea behind this work is simple—viruses have to penetrate the mucus in order to reach and infect the cells, so we've created an inhalable bioadhesive that combines with your own mucus to prevent viruses from getting to your lung cells," says Ke Cheng, corresponding author of the paper describing the work. "Mucus is the body's natural hydrogel barrier; we are just enhancing that barrier."

Cheng is the Randall B. Terry, Jr. Distinguished Professor in Regenerative Medicine at North Carolina State University's College of Veterinary Medicine and a professor in the NC State/UNC-Chapel Hill Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering.

The inhalable powder microparticles are composed of gelatin and poly(acrylic acid) grafted with a non-toxic ester. When introduced to a moist environment—such as the respiratory tract and lungs—the microparticles swell and adhere to the mucosal layer, increasing the "stickiness" of the mucus.

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New diagnostic test is 1,000 times more sensitive than conventional tests
https://phys.org/news/2023-02-diagnosti ... ional.html
by Shawn Ballard, Washington University in St. Louis

When Srikanth Singamaneni and Guy Genin, both professors of mechanical engineering and materials science at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, established a new collaboration with researchers from the School of Medicine in late 2019, they didn't know the landscape of infectious disease research was about to shift dramatically. In a conference room overlooking Forest Park on a beautiful fall day, the team had one goal in mind: tackle the biggest infectious disease problem facing the world right then.

"Srikanth and I had a vision of a simple, quantitative diagnostic tool, so we connected with infectious disease physicians here at WashU and asked them, 'What are the most important questions that could be answered if you could get really detailed information cheaply at the point of care?'" said Genin, the Harold and Kathleen Faught Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

"Greg Storch told us that one of the most important challenges facing the field of infectious disease is finding a way to figure out quickly if a patient has a bacterial infection and should get antibiotics or has a viral infection, for which antibiotics will not be effective."

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Womb transplants for transgender women will soon be possible, doctors say
https://nationalpost.com/health/womb-tr ... nder-women

If the anatomical challenges in transgender women can be overcome — and surgeons have said none seem insurmountable — uterus transplants would make it possible for trans women to gestate and give birth to a child.
Article content

Forty-five years after the world’s first “test-tube baby” was born, surgeons are preparing for another historical first: transplanting a womb inside the body of someone born male.
Article content

Several teams are “actively working” to make uterus transplants for transgender women a reality, according to an article published in the medical journal Fertility and Sterility, with the first such procedure likely to happen “within the next few years, if not sooner.”

https://nationalpost.com/health/womb-tr ... nder-women

Awesome!

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Study finds mushrooms magnify memory by boosting nerve growth
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02- ... nerve.html
by University of Queensland

Researchers from The University of Queensland have discovered the active compound from an edible mushroom that boosts nerve growth and enhances memory.

Professor Frederic Meunier from the Queensland Brain Institute said the team had identified new active compounds from the mushroom, Hericium erinaceus.

"Extracts from these so-called 'lion's mane' mushrooms have been used in traditional medicine in Asian countries for centuries, but we wanted to scientifically determine their potential effect on brain cells," Professor Meunier said.

"Pre-clinical testing found the lion's mane mushroom had a significant impact on the growth of brain cells and improving memory.

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New genetic risk factors for rheumatoid arthritis revealed by analysis of multiple ancestry groups
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02- ... ealed.html
by RIKEN

In a large genetic study published in Nature Genetics, RIKEN researchers have identified 124 genetic markers, 34 of which are novel, that can influence the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis. This information could help to develop new treatments for the painful and often debilitating condition.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease where the immune system mistakenly attacks a person's joint tissues, causing inflammation and pain. It is a complex disease that develops as a result of interactions between a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

Many genes are involved in determining a person's susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis, with each contributing a small amount to the overall risk of developing the disease. A better understanding of the genetics of the condition could help advance new treatments for it.

"While there have been some recent advances in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, these medications don't work for everyone—and a cure has yet to be identified," says Yukinori Okada of the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences. "Genetic research has the potential to advance our understanding of the disease, revealing new clues that could inspire effective novel treatment strategies."

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Scientists develop new technique for studying mitochondria
https://phys.org/news/2023-02-scientist ... ndria.html
by The Scripps Research Institute

An advanced imaging-based method from scientists at Scripps Research offers a new way of studying mitochondria.

In their report on February 14, 2023, in the Journal of Cell Biology, the scientists described a set of techniques that enables the imaging and quantification of even subtle structural changes inside mitochondria, and the correlation of those changes with other processes ongoing in cells.

Mitochondria are involved not only in energy production, but also in several other critical cellular functions, including cell division and cell-preserving responses to various types of stress. Mitochondrial dysfunctions have been observed in a host of diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and different cancers, and researchers are eager to develop treatments that can reverse these dysfunctions. But the scientific tools for studying the fine details of mitochondria structure have been limited.

"We now have a powerful new toolkit for detecting and quantifying structural, and thus functional, differences in mitochondria—for example, in diseased versus healthy states," says study senior author Danielle Grotjahn, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at Scripps Research.

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Multiple sclerosis discovery could end disease's chronic inflammation

by Josh Barney, University of Virginia
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02- ... ronic.html

University of Virginia Health neuroscientists have discovered a potential way to disrupt the chronic inflammation responsible for multiple sclerosis.

UVA's new study identifies a vital contributor to the hyperactive autoimmune response and neuroinflammation that are the hallmarks of MS. Blocking this lynchpin in a research model of MS alleviated the inflammation, giving researchers a prime target in developing new treatments for multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases.

The research was conducted by Andrea Merchak, a doctoral candidate in neuroscience, and her colleagues in the lab of Alban Gaultier of the University of Virginia School of Medicine's Department of Neuroscience and its Center for Brain Immunology and Glia, or BIG.

"We are approaching the search for multiple sclerosis therapeutics from a new direction," Merchak said. "By modulating the microbiome [the collection of microorganisms that naturally live inside us], we are making inroads in understanding how the immune response can end up out of control in autoimmunity. We can use this information to find early interventions."

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Reversed With a Single Drug – “Incurable” Liver Disease May Be Curable

https://scitechdaily.com/reversed-with- ... e-curable/
By Sanford Burnham Prebys February 23, 2023
Human Body Liver.Pain Disease

Alagille syndrome is a genetic disorder that affects the liver, heart, and other parts of the body. It is characterized by a reduction in the number of bile ducts within the liver, leading to bile accumulation and liver damage. The disease can also cause heart problems, including heart defects, and facial abnormalities.

A new study from Sanford Burnham Prebys has discovered a drug that can spur liver regeneration in patients with Alagille syndrome.

For the first time, research conducted by Associate Professor Duc Dong, Ph.D. has revealed that the detrimental effects of Alagille syndrome, a genetic disorder that has no cure, can be reversed using a single drug. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, have the potential to revolutionize the treatment approach for this rare condition, and could also shed light on more widespread diseases.

“Alagille syndrome is widely considered an incurable disease, but we believe we’re on the way to changing that,” says Dong, who is also the associate dean of admissions for Sanford Burnham Prebys’ graduate school. “We aim to advance this drug into clinical trials, and our results demonstrate its effectiveness for the first time.”

[Ken_J]

Reversed With a Single Drug – “Incurable” Liver Disease May Be Curable

https://scitechdaily.com/reversed-with- ... e-curable/
By Sanford Burnham Prebys February 23, 2023
Human Body Liver.Pain Disease

Alagille syndrome is a genetic disorder that affects the liver, heart, and other parts of the body. It is characterized by a reduction in the number of bile ducts within the liver, leading to bile accumulation and liver damage. The disease can also cause heart problems, including heart defects, and facial abnormalities.

A new study from Sanford Burnham Prebys has discovered a drug that can spur liver regeneration in patients with Alagille syndrome.

For the first time, research conducted by Associate Professor Duc Dong, Ph.D. has revealed that the detrimental effects of Alagille syndrome, a genetic disorder that has no cure, can be reversed using a single drug. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, have the potential to revolutionize the treatment approach for this rare condition, and could also shed light on more widespread diseases.

“Alagille syndrome is widely considered an incurable disease, but we believe we’re on the way to changing that,” says Dong, who is also the associate dean of admissions for Sanford Burnham Prebys’ graduate school. “We aim to advance this drug into clinical trials, and our results demonstrate its effectiveness for the first time.”

boosting Notch signaling seems to also be something that can happen in small degrees in decreasing dietary cholesterol intake https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 071830683X
though it looks like too little and too much are both problematic and decreasing cholesterol had a much weaker effect than increasing it did. IF I understood the material correctly.

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Drug from cancer chemotherapy helps fight deadly fungal infections
https://phys.org/news/2023-02-drug-canc ... ungal.html
by Medizinische Hochschule Hannover

There are up to 10,000 fungal spores in every cubic meter of air that can enter our bodies when we breathe them in. Some of these belong to the species Aspergillus fumigatus, a widespread fungus found everywhere in the environment.

In immunocompromised people—for example, after transplantation or severe respiratory illnesses such as influenza or COVID-19—the fungus can enter the lungs and cause aspergillosis. The infection is particularly difficult to treat—especially because the fungus surrounds itself with a biofilm. This acts like a kind of glue and enables Aspergillus to take hold in the tissue. In addition, the fungus seals itself off in this way and protects itself against attacks by the immune system and especially against antimycotics, i.e. anti-fungal drugs.

A research team led by Professor Dr. Françoise Routier from the Institute of Clinical Biochemistry at the Hannover Medical School (MHH) has found a way to prevent the formation of such an Aspergillus biofilm with the help of a drug from cancer chemotherapy. The study has been published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
Sugar molecule is important for biofilm formation

Aspergillus fumigatus is an opportunistic fungus that takes advantage of a weakened immune system and can cause diseases of varying severity, from allergies to fatal mycoses. The infection starts in the lungs but can spread through the bloodstream to the brain, heart, liver and kidneys, affecting more than 300,000 people each year. In the respiratory tract, Aspergillus is embedded in a biofilm that forms a barrier against immune system defense cells and antimicrobials.

[raklian]

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Walking just 11 minutes a day could stop 10% of early deaths, researchers find

Tue 28 Feb 2023 23.30 GMT

An 11-minute brisk walk every day could prevent one in 10 premature deaths worldwide, according to the largest ever study of its kind.

This equates to 75 minutes of moderate intensity activity a week, half the weekly 150 minutes recommended by the NHS.

Brisk walking, dancing, riding a bike, playing tennis or hiking can all substantially cut the risks of early death, cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers, including those of the head and neck and myeloid leukaemia, Cambridge University experts have found.

Globally, one in 10 early deaths could be avoided if everyone met just half the recommended weekly target of 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity, the largest ever pooled data analysis suggests. The results were published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Moderate-intensity physical activity is defined as activity that raises the heart rate and makes people breathe faster, but not so fast they cannot speak.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... rly-deaths

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Scientists have revived a ‘zombie’ virus that spent 48,500 years frozen in permafrost

Updated 9:11 PM EST, Wed March 8, 2023

Warmer temperatures in the Arctic are thawing the region’s permafrost — a frozen layer of soil beneath the ground — and potentially stirring viruses that, after lying dormant for tens of thousands of years, could endanger animal and human health.

While a pandemic unleashed by a disease from the distant past sounds like the plot of a sci-fi movie, scientists warn that the risks, though low, are underappreciated. Chemical and radioactive waste that dates back to the Cold War, which has the potential to harm wildlife and disrupt ecosystems, may also be released during thaws.

“There’s a lot going on with the permafrost that is of concern, and (it) really shows why it’s super important that we keep as much of the permafrost frozen as possible,” said Kimberley Miner, a climate scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California.

Permafrost covers a fifth of the Northern Hemisphere, having underpinned the Arctic tundra and boreal forests of Alaska, Canada and Russia for millennia. It serves as a kind of time capsule, preserving — in addition to ancient viruses — the mummified remains of a number of extinct animals that scientist have been able to unearth and study in recent years, including two cave lion cubs and a woolly rhino.

The reason permafrost is a good storage medium isn’t just because it’s cold; it’s an oxygen-free environment that light doesn’t penetrate. But current day Arctic temperatures are warming up to four times faster than the rest of the planet, weakening the top layer of permafrost in the region.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/08/worl ... index.html



Credit: Jean-Michel Claverie/IGS/CNRS-AM

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Scientists have revived a ‘zombie’ virus that spent 48,500 years frozen in permafrost

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Scientists identify substance that may have sparked life on Earth
https://phys.org/news/2023-03-scientist ... earth.html
by Rutgers University

A team of Rutgers scientists dedicated to pinpointing the primordial origins of metabolism—a set of core chemical reactions that first powered life on Earth—has identified part of a protein that could provide scientists clues to detecting planets on the verge of producing life.

The research, published in Science Advances, has important implications in the search for extraterrestrial life because it gives researchers a new clue to look for, said Vikas Nanda, a researcher at the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine (CABM) at Rutgers.

Based on laboratory studies, Rutgers scientists say one of the most likely chemical candidates that kickstarted life was a simple peptide with two nickel atoms they are calling "Nickelback" not because it has anything to do with the Canadian rock band, but because its backbone nitrogen atoms bond two critical nickel atoms. A peptide is a constituent of a protein made up of a few elemental building blocks known as amino acids.

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New research to bring Brillouin microscopy closer to widespread use in diagnostic medicine
https://phys.org/news/2023-03-brillouin ... ostic.html
by Wayne State University

Diagnostic imaging offers physicians and scientists critical visual representations of internal body structures, greatly enhancing clinical analysis and medical intervention. Researchers continue to break new ground on how various imaging technologies can provide a better understanding of human health.

Jitao Zhang, assistant professor of biomedical engineering (BME) at Wayne State University and a scientific member of the Karmanos Cancer Institute's Molecular Imaging Program, is an award-winning researcher who holds three patents on a novel imaging technique called Brillouin microscopy that can map cell and tissue stiffness often associated with early signs of such diseases as cancer and Alzheimer's.

Different from conventional imaging methods such as confocal fluorescence microscopy, Brillouin microscopy can acquire the mechanical information (e.g., stiffness and viscosity) of biological samples in a non-contact and label-free manner.

His lab's work to improve this method, which can answer many important questions in biophysics and mechanobiology, was featured in The Guardian after being named by peers in the scientific community as one of the 10 biggest science stories of 2022.

Zhang and his collaborators from the University of Maryland—where Zhang spent six years in the Department of Bioengineering before joining Wayne State in 2021—and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently published a research article in Nature Methods examining the use of dual line-scanning Brillouin microscopy (dLSBM) to improve acquisition speed and reduce irradiation doses, two main limiting factors to the widespread use of this technique in biomedicine.

"Existing confocal Brillouin microscopy is fairly slow; it takes a few minutes to acquire one mechanical image of a single cell," said Zhang. "If we are imaging larger samples such as tumor cell clusters or early-stage embryo, we need to wait an hour or longer to obtain one image."

Using dLSBM, Zhang's team reported speeds of 50 to 100 times faster than its counterpart, while reducing the light irradiation level by 80 times for 2D and 3D mechanical mapping.

"With this innovation, we can acquire one mechanical image of cell clusters in a few minutes," he said. "This improved acquisition speed is important because it allows us to investigate details of cell behaviors in almost real time."

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Researchers develop new technology to easily detect active TB
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-03- ... ly-tb.html
by Wayne State University

A team of faculty from Wayne State University has discovered new technology that will quickly and easily detect active Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) infection antibodies. Their work, "Discovery of Novel Transketolase Epitopes and the Development of IgG-Based Tuberculosis Serodiagnostics," was published in a recent edition of Microbiology Spectrum.

The team is led by Lobelia Samavati, M.D., professor in the Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics in the School of Medicine. Samavati was joined by Jaya Talreja, Ph.D, and Changya Peng, research scientists in Wayne State's Department of Internal Medicine.

TB remains a global health threat, with 10 million new cases and 1.7 million deaths annually. According to the latest World Health Organization report, TB is the 13th leading cause of death and the second leading infectious killer after COVID-19. Latent tuberculous infection (LTBI) is considered a reservoir for TB bacteria and subjects can progress to active TB. One-third of the world's population is infected with TB, and on average, 5 to 10% of those infected with LTBI will develop active TB disease over the course of their lives, usually within the first five years after initial infection.

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Novo Nordisk to lower list price of some of its insulin by up to 75% in the U.S.
Source: NBC News

Novo Nordisk will lower the U.S. list price of some of its insulin products by up to 75%, the Danish drugmaker said Tuesday.

The change — which will take effect on Jan. 1, 2024 — follows a similar move by Eli Lilly, which said this month that it will lower the list price for several of its products, including Humalog, by 70% later this year.

But Eli Lilly also went a step further, immediately capping the out-of-pocket cost of all of its insulin products at $35 a month. President Joe Biden praised Eli Lilly at the time, calling on other insulin makers to follow suit.

Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, along with the French drugmaker Sanofi, make up more than 90% of the insulin market in the United States. Following Eli Lilly’s announcement, experts had predicted that other insulin makers would also make changes.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-n ... -rcna74836