Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: health

Microbiota derived nicotinic acid protects colon tissue

Prior research has shown that the four sections of the colon—ascending, transverse, descending and sigmoid—have different functions and risks for disease, but it wasn’t clear why these variations exist.

In this study, the investigators showed that the identity of distinct regions of the colon are regulated by the gut microbiome. They identified nicotinic acid, a molecule produced by certain bacteria in the gut microbiome, as a main driver of these regional differences in the colon’s sections. Nicotinic acid, also known as niacin, part of the vitamin B3 family, helps the body convert food into energy and supports the health of cells.

The researchers compared laboratory mice with and without a microbiome. They found that production of nicotinic acid by bacteria in the upper colon activates a protective mechanism in colon cells by the induction of Pparα expression to establish proximal colonocyte identity. In mice without a microbiome, minimal nicotinic acid was produced, and cells in the upper colon became more vulnerable to damage and disease.

Investigators also studied human colon tissue samples. They found that the different sections of the human colon showed regional characteristics similar to patterns observed in mice. And in samples from human patients with Crohn’s disease— a type of bowel disease in which abnormal immune system activity causes inflammation—this protective mechanism was reduced. ScienceMission sciencenewshighlights.

The gut microbiome—the trillions of bacteria and other microbes that inhabit the gastrointestinal tract—drives a process vital for protecting the colon against tissue injury, according to the findings of a new study.

The discovery, published in Cell, has important implications for understanding how a wide variety of intestinal disorders may develop.

Continue reading “Microbiota derived nicotinic acid protects colon tissue” | >

Precision radio waves may help counter brain diseases

A study has found that precise application of radio waves can change the activity of brain cells in ways that could counter neurological conditions. Led by researchers at NYU Langone Health, the work introduces a technique called transcranial radio frequency stimulation (TRFS), which promises to treat neurological diseases with neither the invasiveness of surgery nor the frequent failure of drugs as patients (e.g., 30% of people with depression and epilepsy) develop resistance.

Published online recently in the journal Brain Stimulation, the study describes the use of radio frequency (RF) energy, which is effective at penetrating biological tissue. The study says TRFS could overcome the limits of older technologies because it can, depending on the nature of the disease, target either a small part of the brain or the entire organ, and it can dial nerve signaling up or down.

“Our study is the first to demonstrate in live mice the potential of the technology to be highly effective for adjusting neural activity,” said senior study author György Buzsáki, MD, Ph.D., the Biggs Professor of Neuroscience in the Department of Neuroscience at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. “The need for better, noninvasive techniques is becoming ever more urgent, with one in three people globally affected by some form of brain disorder during their lifetime,” said Dr. Buzsáki, also faculty at the Institute for Translational Neuroscience.

Using AI to improve standard-of-care cardiac imaging

Heart disease is the leading cause of adult death worldwide, making cardiovascular disease diagnosis and management a global health priority. An echocardiogram, or cardiac ultrasound, is one of the most commonly used imaging tools employed by physicians to diagnose a variety of heart diseases and conditions.

Most standard echocardiograms provide two-dimensional visual images (2D) of the three-dimensional (3D) cardiac anatomy. These echocardiograms often capture hundreds of 2D slices or views of a beating heart that can enable physicians to make clinical assessments about the function and structure of the heart.

To improve diagnostic accuracy of cardiac conditions, researchers from UC San Francisco set out to determine whether deep neural networks (DNNs), a type of AI algorithm, could be re-designed to better capture complex 3D anatomy and physiology from multiple imaging views simultaneously. They developed a new “multiview” DNN structure—or architecture—to enable it to draw information from multiple imaging views at once, rather than the current approach of using only a single view. They then trained demonstration DNNs using this architecture to detect disease states for three cardiovascular conditions: left and right ventricular abnormalities, diastolic dysfunction, and valvular regurgitation.

Exercise triggers memory-related brain ‘ripples’ in humans

The team recruited 14 patients between 17 and 50 years of age, to participate. After a brief warmup, participants rode a stationary bike for 20 minutes at a pace they could maintain for the duration. Researchers recorded the participants’ brain activity before and after the cycling session using intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG), which utilizes implanted electrodes to measure neural activity in the brain. The recordings showed an increased rate of ripples originating in the hippocampus and connecting with cortical regions of the brain known to be involved in learning and memory performance.

“We’ve known for years that physical exercise is often good for cognitive functions like memory, and this benefit is associated with changes in brain health, largely from behavioral studies and noninvasive brain imaging,” says the study’s corresponding author. “By directly recording brain activity, our study shows, for the first time in humans, that even a single bout of exercise can rapidly alter the neural rhythms and brain networks involved in memory and cognitive function.”

The author says the results apply beyond the epileptic patients who participated. ScienceMission sciencenewshighlights.

A single session of physical exercise can spawn a boost of neural activity in brain networks that underlie learning and memory, according to a new study.

The researchers measured neural activity in the brains of patients with epilepsy before and after they completed a bout of physical exercise. The results showed that a single exercise session produced in the participants a burst of high-frequency brain waves, called ripples, emanating from the hippocampus to areas of the brain involved in learning and recall.

Neuroscientists have documented ripples relevant to memory in mice and rats, but they had not confirmed the link in humans, mainly because electrodes need to be implanted in the brain to obtain recordings. Instead, researchers had theorized the ripples’ role in humans, based on studies in people that measured changes in oxygenated blood in the brain after exercise. This new study marks the first time researchers have been able to see the neurons in action in people following exercise, the authors report.

Continue reading “Exercise triggers memory-related brain ‘ripples’ in humans” | >

Mechanically activated liquid metal powder lets users draw circuits on paper

What if electronic circuits could be created simply by drawing lines with a pencil on paper or leaves—and then immediately applied to soft robots or skin-attached health monitoring devices? Korean researchers have developed an electronic materials technology that forms electrically conductive liquid metal in a fine powder form, allowing circuits to be drawn directly on a wide variety of surfaces.

This technology presents new possibilities for next-generation flexible electronics, including applications on paper and plastic as well as in soft robotic systems and wearable devices. The research was published in Advanced Functional Materials.

A research team led by Distinguished Professor Inkyu Park from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, in collaboration with Dr. Hye Jin Kim’s team at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), has developed a liquid metal powder-based electronic material technology that allows electronic circuits to be directly drawn on desired surfaces.

Study Reveals a ‘Turning Point’ in US Life Expectancy

A worrying health pattern for some of the Gen X and Millennial crowd has been highlighted by a new study: people born between 1970 and 1985 are experiencing worse mortality rates than the generations before them, across multiple causes.

The international team of researchers analyzed cause-of-death records over more than 40 years, between 1979 and 2023, to examine changes in life expectancy and the underlying reasons that could be shaping it.

What stands out is that being born in the 1950s – the middle of the Baby Boomer generation – marks a turning point: from steadily decreasing mortality rates and better health outcomes compared with earlier groups, to the opposite.

A 3D-printed swallowable robot could perform gastrointestinal procedures

Recent technological advances have opened new possibilities for the development of advanced medical devices, including tiny robots that can safely move inside the human body. Some of these systems could help to simplify complex medical procedures, including delicate surgeries and the targeted delivery of drugs to specific sites.

THE MINIMAX lab at University of Texas (UT) Austin specializes in the development of tiny robots for medical, environmental, and other applications. In a recent preprint paper on arXiv, researchers from this lab introduced a new 3Dprintable and magnetically steerable capsule robot that could potentially help to diagnose and treat some gastrointestinal (GI) conditions.

“My motivation for GI health monitoring is deeply personal,” Fangzhou Xia, director of the MINIMAX lab at UT Austin and senior author of the paper, told Medical Xpress. “In 2022, when I was a postdoc at MIT, I experienced a severe GI medical episode involving repeated gallstone-induced bile duct blockage that ultimately required gallbladder removal surgery.

Nocturnal Hypertension and Prognosis in Patients of Very Advanced Age

RESEARCH ARTICLE: nocturnal hypertension and prognosis in patients of very advanced age.

BACKGROUND: Nocturnal blood pressure (BP) is a better predictor of health outcomes than office or daytime BP. However, the clinical significance of nocturnal hypertension in patients of very advanced age remains unexplored. We aimed to assess the association between nocturnal hypertension and composite cardiovascular outcomes in this population. METHODS: This was a prospective observational study including Japanese elderly outpatients aged ≥80 years. All patients underwent 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring at baseline. Nocturnal hypertension was defined as nocturnal systolic BP ≥120 mm Hg or diastolic BP≥70 mm Hg. Daytime hypertension was defined as daytime systolic BP ≥135 mm Hg and diastolic BP ≥85 mm Hg.

New DNA tools outperform traditional methods for detecting genetic risk in wildlife

Wildlife populations that become small and isolated, often due to habitat loss, inevitably experience inbreeding which can lead to the loss of fitness and eventual extinction. One solution is to perform a genetic rescue: a management intervention where new blood is brought in by introducing outsiders to a population to reduce inbreeding and restore diversity. But how do researchers know the inbreeding problem has been solved?

A new long-term study from Western, led by biology professor and chair David Coltman, shows DNA-based tools detected changes in inbreeding more accurately than traditional pedigree methods in a wild population of bighorn sheep that was recently genetically rescued. The study was published in the journal Evolutionary Applications.

Pedigree approaches estimate genetic health from family history, whereas genomic approaches directly analyze DNA.

Real-time protein quality control keeps cells healthy

Scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a biochemical technique that captures fleeting “handshakes” between newly made proteins and the cellular helpers. These short interactions are important because they can determine whether a protein turns out healthy and useful or is faulty and in need of removal. The research has been published in the journal Molecular Cell.

Cells produce vast numbers of proteins to sustain life. But building a protein is not only about assembling a chain of amino acids in the right order. As the protein chain is being produced, it must begin folding into the correct three-dimensional shape and avoid attaching to the wrong partners.

When folding goes wrong, misfolded proteins can become sticky, clump together, and disrupt cellular health. Cells reduce this risk by running “quality checks” even while proteins are still being made. However, identifying the key players in this early surveillance has been challenging because their interactions with newly forming protein chains are brief and easily missed.

/* */