Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: health

Two bacteria join forces to turn chemical signals into electricity, opening up low-cost sensing options

Bacterial sensors usually rely on emitting light to transfer information about what they’re sensing, but that method isn’t practical in many settings. That’s why most information transmission is done via electricity. And while electricity-emitting bacteria exist, manipulating them into useful sensors has been quite challenging. Rice University professor Caroline Ajo-Franklin’s group, working in collaboration with researchers from Tufts University and Baylor College of Medicine, recently developed a flexible bioelectrical sensor system called electroactive co-culture sensing system (e-COSENS). The study is published in Nature Biotechnology.

“Bioelectrical sensing is by no means a new concept,” said Ajo-Franklin, the Ralph and Dorothy Looney Professor of Biosciences and corresponding author on this paper. “But e-COSENS is the first system that allows us to easily engineer bioelectronic sensors in a modular manner, like assembling Legos, allowing us to potentially use them to monitor everything from human health to environmental contaminants.”

Bioelectrical sensing requires bacteria that produce electricity and are easy for researchers to manipulate to respond to different substances. Ideally, the bacteria would be able to live in a variety of different places so that the system could be used in environments ranging from rivers to milk.

Skin-deep microneedle sensor tracks drug clearance and reveals early kidney and liver dysfunction

Wearable technologies are starting to reshape how people manage health. Continuous glucose monitors that measure blood sugar levels in diabetes patients have already shown the power of tracking an important molecule in real time. The next leap is to track other medically important molecules. However, doing so is far more difficult because most of those molecules are present at much lower concentrations than glucose.

One area such wearable technologies could transform is drug therapy. Many powerful medications are still managed through blood tests that offer only occasional snapshots of how a patient’s body is processing treatment. For drugs that must be dosed precisely to avoid harm, clinicians can miss the point at which dosing becomes ineffective or begins to threaten the organs responsible for processing the drug.

A UCLA-led research team has now developed a microneedle sensor platform designed to address that problem through continuous, minimally invasive monitoring in skin. In a study published in Science Translational Medicine, the researchers showed in rats that the sensors could operate continuously for six days, track drug concentrations over time and provide insight into kidney and liver function by measuring how quickly the body cleared those drugs.

Ancient viruses serve as gene delivery couriers to help bacteria resist antibiotics

Research has shed important new light on the enemies-turned-allies that allow bacteria to exchange genes, including those linked to antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The insights, which expand our understanding of the major global health threat of AMR, came as John Innes Center researchers investigated the curious phenomena of gene transfer agents (GTAs).

These gene-carrying particles look like bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria), but they have been domesticated from ancient viruses and put to beneficial use under the control of the bacterial host cell.

Acting as couriers, they take up parcels of host bacterial DNA and deliver them to neighboring bacteria. This “selfless” sharing, known as horizontal gene transfer, can rapidly spread useful traits including genes that confer resistance to antibiotic drugs used to treat infections.

Activities Like Reading May Reduce Alzheimer’s Risk by 38%

Intellectually engaging and stimulating activities like reading, writing, and learning new languages are linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment in later life. The corresponding study was published in Neurology.

“Our study looked at cognitive enrichment from childhood to later life, focusing on activities and resources that stimulate the mind. Our findings suggest that cognitive health in later life is strongly influenced by lifelong exposure to intellectually stimulating environments,” said study author, Andrea Zammit, PhD, of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, in a press release.

For the study, the researchers analyzed data from 1939 adults with an average age of 80 years old who were dementia-free at the start of the study. They were followed for around eight years.

Abstract: Offering a topical strategy in skin cancer

https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI189044 Brian C. Capell & team identify the epigenetic regulator LSD1 as critical for epidermal development and find its inhibition suppresses tumors in two cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma mouse models by promoting immunosurveillance.

The image shows immunofluorescence from mice lacking LSD1 in the skin, revealing profound activation of cutaneous retinoid signaling (as measured by CRABP2 levels in green); keratin 14 (red); nuclei (blue).

1Department of Dermatology and.

2Penn Epigenetics Institute, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

3Division of Allergy and Immunology, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

How do cancer cells ‘learn’ to resist treatment?

Researchers at NYU Langone Health propose a model that could explain how cancer cells adapt to environmental stress, an approach that may lead to new therapies. Published online April 15 as the cover story of the journal Nature, the perspective article centers on a family of proteins called AP-1, which are quickly activated in cells in response to stressful situations—like being exposed to chemotherapy.

While AP-1 proteins have been studied for many decades, the authors propose they are part of a previously overlooked molecular mechanism in which cells survive by learning to rewire their circuitry. This process depends not on permanent changes to a cell’s DNA code, but rather on the cell’s ability to turn genes on or off, and then “remember” the changes that improve its survival chances.

The work suggests that cancer cells use this plasticity to explore gene expression patterns until they find a combination that helps them survive. Once a successful survival state is discovered, it can be locked in and passed down to future cell generations, leading to drug-resistant tumors.

Abstract: Immune signaling and function in neurodegeneration:

Yvonne L. Latour & Dorian B. McGavern contribute a Review to the JCI Series on Neurodegeneration, discussing signaling pathways, cellular players, and immune responses shared across multiple neurodegenerative diseases, while considering external factors that may influence CNS disease progression. Neurodegeneration.

Viral Immunology and Intravital Imaging Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

Lifestyle-Driven Variations in Nutrimiromic MicroRNA Expression Patterns across and beyond Genders

The importance of diet and lifestyle in maintaining overall health has long been recognised. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as key players in the intricate interplay between health and disease. This study, including 305 participants, examined the role of miRNAs from capillary blood as indicators of individual physiological characteristics, diet, and lifestyle influences. Key findings include specific miRNAs associated with inflammatory processes and dietary patterns. Notably, miR-155 was associated with subjects with metabolic diseases and upregulated in age. Additionally, the study revealed diet-related miRNA expressions: high consumption of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains correlated with increased levels of miR-let-7a and miR-328, both implicated in anti-inflammatory pathways, and decreased expression of pro-inflammatory miR-21.

Unlocking secrets of human development: How early nerve cell choices shape the peripheral nervous system

Millions of neurons branch throughout our bodies, keeping them in close communication with our brains. This peripheral network begins to take shape long before birth, as the cells of a growing embryo move into position and adopt their specialized roles. This crucial stage of human development can’t be monitored directly, but by examining genetic clues that linger in adult cells, scientists have now gained surprising insights into the developmental origins of the peripheral nervous system.

Researchers led by Xiaoxu Yang, Ph.D., at University of Utah Health, and Keng Ioi Vong, Ph.D., and Joseph Gleeson, M.D., at the University of California San Diego, have discovered that within the first few weeks of development, some of an embryo’s cells have already been selected to take on particular roles in the peripheral nervous system. Their findings, recently reported in the journal Nature, overturn longstanding assumptions in biology.

Their discovery could change the way scientists think about treatments for a variety of childhood diseases that begin in the cells of the peripheral nervous system.

/* */