Lifeboat Foundation

Flexible spikes

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein enables viral entry into host cells by binding to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor and is a major target for neutralizing antibodies. About 20 to 40 spikes decorate the surface of virions. Turoňová et al. now show that the spike is flexibly connected to the viral surface by three hinges that are well protected by glycosylation sites. The flexibility imparted by these hinges may explain how multiple spikes act in concert to engage onto the flat surface of a host cell.

Science, this issue p. 203.

Continue reading “In situ structural analysis of SARS-CoV-2 spike reveals flexibility mediated by three hinges” »

If Dr. Ken Berry actually meant to say that you need to eat saturated fat for your nerves and brain, he flunks Biochem 101. First of all, your body can make all the saturated fat you need out of carbs and proteins. You don’t need to eat ANY saturated fat. Second, the most common fatty acid in your brain is the polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) called DHA, which you DO need to eat, because you can’t make it from non-fats (you need to eat it or EPA in things like seafood, or at least the precursor omega-3 PUFA called ALA in cold-climate plants.) Ironically enough, ALA is common in Canola oil, which Dr. Berry deprecates, but not in the tropical plant oils that he likes. More on that later.

A diet with a lot of saturated fat is NOT the best for the heart. The American Heart Association continues to recommend low saturated fat diets (with the missing sat-fat replaced by mono and polyunsaturated fat, not by carbohydrates) because the evidence from animal and human trials and even properly controlled epidemiology, shows these the best diets (see reference below—an extensive review of meta analyses [1]). Examples are the DASH hypertension diet and the closely-related Mediterranean diet (which has lots of olive oil for monounsaturated fatty acid, and seafood for DHA). If Dr. Berry thinks he has something better than the Mediterranean diet for longevity, what is his direct evidence?

Saturated fat, of course, is used by the body to make cholesterol (you don’t need to eat any cholesterol for this reason), and it does raise cholesterol levels and it does increase atherosclerosis in nearly every controlled prospective experimental model in animals and humans. This is the gold standard of evidence in medicine.

Continue reading “Dietary Fats and Cardiovascular Disease: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association” »

If Dr. Ken Berry actually meant to say that you need to eat saturated fat for your nerves and brain, he flunks Biochem 101. First of all, your body can make all the saturated fat you need out of carbs and proteins. You don’t need to eat ANY saturated fat. Second, the most common fatty acid in your brain is the polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) called DHA, which you DO need to eat, because you can’t make it from non-fats (you need to eat it in things like seafood, or at least the precursor omega-3 PUFA called ALA in cold-climate plants.) Ironically enough ALAis common in Canola oil, which Dr. Berry deprecates, but not in the tropical plant oils he likes. More on that later. A diet with a lot of saturated fat is NOT the best for the heart. The American Heart Association continues to recommend low saturated fat diets (with the missing sat-fat replaced by mono and polyunsaturated fat, not by carbohydrates) because the evidence from animal and human trials and even properly controlled epidemiology, shows these the best diets (see reference below–an extensive review of meta analyses [1]). Examples are the DASH hypertension diet and the closely-related Mediterranean diet (which has lots of olive oil for monounsaturated fatty acid, and seafood for DHA). If Dr. Berrythinks he has something better than the Mediterranean diet for longevity, what is his direct evidence? Saturated fat, of course, is used by the body to make cholesterol (you don’t need to eat any cholesterol for this reason), and it does raise cholesterol levels and it does increase atherosclerosis in nearly every controlled prospective experimental model in animals and humans. This is the gold standard of evidence in medicine.

One can go only so far with epidemiology, because occasionally when one bad thing (saturated fat) is heavily replaced for calories by another bad thing (certain carbohydrates) one detects no epidemiologic effect from changing just the first thing.

Continue reading “Which Cooking Oils are Safe? (Which to AVOID)” »

The 2 Gig service is targeting households with heavy internet users who are now forced to work from home due to COVID-19. “So we’re more than a little excited to announce 2 Gig today—bringing even more bandwidth and speed to customers in internet-intensive households who may need more than a gig to do their thing, whatever that may be,” wrote Amalia O’Sullivan, Google Fiber’s director of product management, in the announcement. (That said, upload speeds will remain at 1Gbps.)

Google Fiber is currently looking for subscribers in Nashville, Tennessee, and Huntsville, Alabama, to sign up as testers for the 2 Gig service. The beta will then roll out to other Google Fiber cities in the fall before the official launch. Interested customers can also go to the Google Fiber website to sign up for email updates on the 2Gbps service’s availability.

We should save their DNA and resurrect them or keep in a bubble environment.

Close To Home

The researchers behind the study warned that each time an animal goes extinct, it also threatens humanity’s continued survival.

Continue reading “Study: More Than 500 Vertebrates Poised To Go Extinct” »

Modifications to chromosomes in “engram” neurons control the encoding and retrieval of memories.

When the brain forms a memory of a new experience, neurons called engram cells encode the details of the memory and are later reactivated whenever we recall it. A new MIT study reveals that this process is controlled by large-scale remodeling of cells’ chromatin.

This remodeling, which allows specific genes involved in storing memories to become more active, takes place in multiple stages spread out over several days. Changes to the density and arrangement of chromatin, a highly compressed structure consisting of DNA and proteins called histones, can control how active specific genes are within a given cell.

Analysis revealed that variants in the HMGCR gene region, which represent proxies for statin treatment, were associated with overall cancer risk, suggesting that statins could lower overall cancer risk.

Cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins may reduce cancer risk in humans through a pathway unrelated to cholesterol, says a study published today in eLife.

Statins reduce levels of LDL-cholesterol, the so-called ‘bad’ cholesterol, by inhibiting an enzyme called HMG-CoA-reductase (HMGCR). Clinical trials have previously demonstrated convincing evidence that statins reduce the risk of heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases. But evidence for the potential effect of statins to reduce the risk of cancer is less clear.

Continue reading “Statins may reduce cancer risk through mechanisms separate to cholesterol” »

When it comes to vitamin D, most adults exhibit either frank deficiency, which results in clear clinical symptoms, or insufficiency, which often goes undetected. But how that insufficiency impacts physical health and the vulnerability of older adults to frailty as they age has been difficult to determine.

Now a University at Buffalo study of 24–28–month-old mice, the equivalent of 65-to-80-year-old adults, has found that frailty can be slowed with what might be considered “over” supplementation with vitamin D, referred to as “hypersufficiency.”

Published Sept. 30 in Nutrients, the research builds on previous work that Kenneth L. Seldeen, Ph.D., first author and research assistant professor in the Department of Medicine in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB, has been conducting for more than a decade with colleague Bruce R. Troen, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine and director of the Center for Successful Aging, both in the Jacobs School.

Gets advanced, but some might like.

A research team from Cologne has discovered that a change in the DNA structure—more precisely in the chromatin—plays a decisive role in the recovery phase after DNA damage. The key is a double occupation by two methyl groups on the DNA packaging protein histone H3 (H3K4me2). The discovery was made by scientists under the direction of Prof. Björn Schumacher of the Cluster of Excellence for Aging Research CECAD, the Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne (CMMC), and the Institute for Genome Stability in Aging and Disease at the University of Cologne. The specific change enables genes to be reactivated and proteins to be produced after damage: The cells regain their balance and the organism recovers. The protective role of H3K4me2 was identified in experiments with the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. The study has now been published in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.

The genome in every human cell is damaged on a daily basis, for example in the skin by UV radiation from the sun. Damage to the DNA causes diseases such as cancer, influences development, and accelerates aging. Congenital malfunctions in DNA repair can lead to extremely accelerated aging in rare hereditary diseases. Therefore, preservation and reconstruction processes are particularly important to ensure development and to maintain tissue function. DNA, which is rolled up on packaging proteins—the histones—like on cable drums, is regulated by methyl groups. Various proteins are responsible for placing methyl groups on histones or removing them. The number of groups on the packaging proteins affects the activity of genes and thus the protein production of the cell.

Continue reading “Research team discovers mechanism that restores cell function after genome damage” »