Fasting Promotes Stem Cell Regeneration in Intestines

As people age, we lose the ability to regenerate stem cells successfully in our body. Our organs grow old, and begin to fail. Our metabolism changes, and our body begins to lose muscle mass. Eventually, we reach the point in old age where we cannot function normally and die. To prevent this, scientists and researchers have been pursuing the "secret" to prolonging life for a long time. We want to live longer. We want to live healthier. So how can we? We have been told to eat right, exercise, and develop healthy habits. Medical discoveries have been made that provide us with a longer life compared to previous generations.

But have you been told to just not eat? That fasting was the way to become healthier?

I know, fasting seems like something done during lent or for personal reasons. Trust me, I love a good cheeseburger as much as anybody, and generally scoffed at the idea of fasting to promote health. Granted, I was younger, and mac and cheese was liquid gold that I could never give up. However, there is science backing up the idea that occasional fasting is healthy.

Take our stem cells for example. The role of our stem cells is to create new cells in our body where we need them. Hematopoietic stem cells become new red blood cells (RBCs) to replenish old cells. Tissue-specific stem cells become new cells within our organs. As we grow older, our stem cells slowly lose the ability to proliferate into new cells.

This is where fasting becomes an unexpected hero. Recent research shows that fasting can actually improve the regeneration of stem cells. MIT researchers have completed a study that shows the benefits from a 24 hour fast regarding stem cells. Using mice, they took away food and induced a 24 hour fast. During this time period, the mice began to break down fatty acids instead of food derived glucose. By doing so, the capability of the mouse intestinal stem cells to regenerate and produce new cells nearly doubled compared to stem cells from a non-fasting mouse sample.

The process of deriving energy in the human body is the same among other animals, including mice. The body uptakes food and uses the glucose in the diet and begins to break it down. When we don't eat, our body switches what it uses for energy. With no glucose available, our body turns to fat stored in our body and begins to break them down into fatty acids for energy. This process (lipolysis), according to the research done in this study, actually increases the ability for stem cells to regenerate by introducing stress in the body.

So the prospect of fasting is shown to have health benefits when fasting is done correctly. But even more impressive is the fact that this information can be used in a pharmaceutical environment.

The research team, in order to prove that the mouse stem cells had switched to breaking down fats, isolated messenger RNA from within the cells to look at what genes had been activated. For further clarification, messenger RNA (mRNA) is used within a cell for gene expression by sending a specific code of amino acids to ribosomes in the cell. The mRNA seen in this study indicated that fasting had activated transcription factors named Peroxisome Proliferator-acivated Receptors (PPARs). These transcription factors turn on the genes that switch energy production from the breakdown of glucose to the breakdown of fats. Therefore, the researchers took this experiment one step further and treated the mouse stem cells with a molecular compound named GW501516. This compound activates the PPARs within the cell. As a result, the increased production of intestinal cells from stem cells was also shown just from the introduction of this molecule.

The implications of this research are quite important. Jared Rutter, a biochemistry professor at the University of Utah School of Medicine, stated that "this work fits into a rapidly growing field that is demonstrating that nutrition and metabolism has profound effects on the behavior of cells and this can predispose for human disease." From this study, fasting and drug treatment involving PPARs can increase stem cell proliferation in our intestines. This could be beneficial for us as we grow older, or even cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy (which harms our intestinal cells). Maybe give fasting a try, it could help your body out in ways you didn't think were possible

*NOTE: To properly fast, DO NOT just stop eating and call it good. You need to drink plenty of water and only fast for about 24 hours. You could even follow a 16:8 diet where you only consume food for 8 hours a day and fast for 16. Fasting beyond 24 hours could cause your body harm. If you do decide to follow a longer fast than a 24 hour fast, get supervision to ensure that your body remains healthy.*

More information on this research can be found in these two articles:

https://www.sciencealert.com/fasting-for-just-24-hours-boosts-the-regeneration-of-stem-cells-study-finds-intestine-longevity

http://news.mit.edu/2018/fasting-boosts-stem-cells-regenerative-capacity-0503

The research article for this study can be found here:

https://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/fulltext/S1934-5909(18)30163-2

Thank You For Your Continuing Support!

A big thank you to everyone who views and enjoys this blog, you all have been a wonderful audience! I do apologize that I took such a long break in between posts, things in my life have been picking up in intensity. I'm nearly done with my second degree in Medical Laboratory Science and am also getting married to the love of my life! More topics and posts will be coming shortly as I will have more time to write in the near future. Again, thank you for your support. It is my privileged to bring these incredible discoveries to light for you to discover yourself.

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."

- Carl Sagan

Aliens May Be Trapped On Their Planets

The notion that aliens are real is not new. With the discovery of planets in the Goldilocks Zone around stars, it's looking more likely that habitable planets are a little more common than we originally thought. This brings about the discussion of aliens. Surely, these planets house alien life. If the planets are habitable, shouldn't aliens be populated across the landscape? Maybe even have a space agency of their own? Flying saucers? And if they do exist, why don't we see more evidence out in space?

Could it be because they can't make it off their own planet?

Super-Earth planets, when discovered, are absolutely massive. They exist within the habitual range from their star, yet they can range in size up to 10x the size of Earth. This means that the gravity on those planets would be astronomically larger than our own. The amount of power required to get into space from those planets would be incredibly high. On a Super-Earth, we would need to have a mass of about 440,000 tons due to fuel requirements in order to escape the atmosphere. That's a little more than the weight of the Empire State Building.

"On more-massive planets, spaceflight would be exponentially more expensive," said study author Michael Hippke, an independent researcher affiliated with the Sonneberg Observatory in Germany. "Civilizations from Super-Earths are much less likely to explore the stars. Instead, they would be to some extent arrested on their home planet and, for example, make more use of lasers or radio telescopes for interstellar communication instead of sending probes or spaceships."

Therefore, it is theorized that these Aliens - if they do exist - might be stuck on their home-world due to the required power to achieve an escape velocity off of their planet. This however takes into consideration what we have, such as our fuel, our materials, and our designs. As of right now, evidence that Aliens exist flying around in space is grim. The only "evidence" that we have is accounts of flying saucers, lights, and shapes in the sky. If Aliens do exist, and they live on Super-Earths, then one of two possibilities may be true.

1). They haven't made it off their planet yet, but have developed other means of transport and communication.

2). They have made it off due to a leap forward in technological advancement and are far more advanced then us.

If the 2nd outcome is true, then we may be in trouble. The Aliens with that technology outclass anything we have, and would just roll over us. That or our government has already made contact with them and isn't telling us anything (that's a whole topic for another day). If the 1st outcome is true, it could explain why we really don't see much of Alien life in space. They can't make it off of their worlds due to an immense gravitational pull down. They don't have the capability to build spacecraft that could propel them into the edges of space. All they can do is broadcast radio waves into space, or rely on some other form of communication.

We as humans are very fortunate to live on a small planet like Earth. We can still put rockets and objects into space without using monolithic spacecraft. We have sent satellites into deep space, past the edge of our solar system. We might be the first species to do something like this if Aliens live on Super-Earths. Who knows, maybe in a couple of hundred years when we have spacecraft capable of interstellar and interplanetary travel, we will be the "Aliens" with crazy "UFOs" that other Alien species see and form conspiracy theories about.

The article written on Super-Earths can be found here:

https://www.space.com/40375-super-earth-exoplanets-hard-aliens-launch.html?utm_source=notification

The paper that Michael Hippke wrote on this topic can be viewed and downloaded here:

https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.04727

High Coffee Consumption May Lower Your Risk of Death

Coffee, the fuel that keeps us going as we make our way to work in the morning. It is the lifeline that students cling to as they make their way through college and exams. It's a massive industry that seems to keep growing as more and more coffee is consumed throughout the world. I drink it everyday, sometimes multiple times a day. A dark roast coffee with a little bit of milk added to it? That's my power-up that gives me a swift kick in the pants and gets me going every morning. Coffee is good for it's caffeine to keep us going, but is there any other benefit to it?

According to a recent study, it could possibly lower your risk of dying.

Mind you, this isn't saying that coffee makes you immortal, and that if you drink it then you last forever. However, a study recently presented to the European Society of Cardiology proposed that drinking a couple cups of coffee a day can lower your overall risk of mortality. "Previous studies have suggested that drinking coffee might be inversely associated with all-cause mortality but this has not been investigated in a Mediterranean country," said Dr. Adela Navarro, a cardiologist at Hospital de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain. In order to explore the effects of coffee, the study was conducted through the Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra (SUN) Project, a long-term study in which about 22 500 Spanish university graduates participate, which started in 1999. The study focused on 19,896 participants who were asked to complete a questionnaire that asked about their consumption of coffee and lifestyle habits. After a period of 10 years, the study followed up with each of the participants and compared the results to the National Death Index. Cox Regression Models were also used to determine a confidence interval with the data.

After 10 years, 337 participants died. Through this data, the experiment revealed that participants who had about 4 cups of coffee every day had a 64% lower risk of all-cause death (meaning all causes of death were analyzed in the 10 year period) compared to those who didn't drink coffee. In addition, for every two additional cups of coffee that were consumed, a 22% lower risk of death was also evident. To confirm that these results were not just coincidental, the team then focused on age, sex, and race as factors that could affect the outcome. By looking at the data, they determined that a lower risk of mortality was greatest for those aged 45 or older.

So this data looks promising, right? I mean, coffee could help us live longer! However, a couple questions arise after the completion of this study. In terms of chemistry, does coffee or caffeine have an effect on us? If the amount of years in this study increased, would the results change? And above all, this study focused on a Mediterranean country. Would the results be affected if they looked at the United States? The United Kingdom? Or even Russia or China?

If anything, this study might open a couple of doors to other research down the road. Sure, coffee is a wonderful drink, and this study might show some increased benefits beyond just having caffeine to wake us up. But for now, go ahead and grab an extra cup of joe, you may be helping yourself out in the long run. Just don't load it up with a ton of sugar, that just leads to all kinds of other problems.

Here is the article written for Forbes that was published:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2017/08/27/drinking-coffee-may-lower-risk-of-death-in-healthy-people-according-to-new-study/#45c338674f82

Another article that focuses on a different coffee study, but with similar results:

http://annals.org/aim/article/2643433/association-coffee-consumption-total-cause-specific-mortality-among-nonwhite-populations

Mars Might Not be Habitable (At Least on the Surface)

Right now, the hunt is on to locate possible alien life on Mars. Additionally, many organizations are looking to land probes on Mars, and quite possibly people in the near future. With all of this exploration going on that's directed towards the red planet, we've heard of water possibly existing on the planet (an earlier article reported here at Science Bureau). We've gathered samples from the surface of Mars for observation. And there just might be a new discovery that could change the way we look at Mars.

Turns out, there's a toxic cocktail of chemicals on the surface that completely sterilize the planet.

Yep, the toxic soil shows no signs of life, and the compounds within the soil are turned into potent bactericides by the ultraviolet light. A bactericide is a substance that kills bacteria, effectively sterilizing whatever surface it is touching. And the compounds found in the soil are located all over the entire planet. So chances are there's nothing in terms of alien life on the surface of Mars.

Granted, this is only the surface. There still exists the possibility of life that could exist at some point beneath the surface. Due to the current onslaught of ultraviolet light and radiation on the surface, the most hospitable area on the planet could be a couple feet below the surface. “At those depths, it’s possible Martian life may survive,” said Jennifer Wadsworth, a postgraduate astrobiologist at Edinburgh University who completed this research. Back in the 1970s, the Viking landers on Mars made the discovery of detecting perchlorates on the surface. Perchlorates are powerful oxidants that are often used in propellants for rockets. In short, they are not the best for human health if they are consumed. And in 2015, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted signs of perchlorates that streaked on the surface, suggesting possible liquid movement on Mars.

At first, the notion was that alien bacterial life might have trouble existing in an environment with these perchlorates, but they could maybe exist in some form that could utilize the perchlorates as energy. With this in mind, Wadsworth worked with a fellow astrobiologist named Charles Cockell, and put the bacteria Bacillus subtilis through an experiment to simulate the surface on Mars. B. subtilis is a common soil bacterium and a contaminant found on many space probes. When the bacteria was mixed with perchlorates like the ones on Mars and blasted with UV light, the bacteria was found to die twice as fast when the perchlorates were present. In addition, the UV light also was observed breaking down the perchlorates into hypochlorite and chlorite, which are also destructive to bacteria.

The study also focused on other compounds found on the surface of Mars, such as iron oxides and hydrogen peroxide. When these were hit with UV light, the bacteria was found to die 11 times faster than combined with the perchlorates. So as of now, life on the surface seems like a dismal possibility. “I can’t speak for life in the past,” said Wadsworth. “As far as present life, it doesn’t rule it out but probably means we should look for life underground where it’s shielded from the harsh radiation environment on the surface.”

Luckily, that's what many space agencies plan to do. The European Space Agency plans to launch its ExoMars rover to the planet so that it can bore down 2 meters into the soil to retrieve samples and observe them for possible alien life. But for now, especially on the surface of the red planet, any alien life - if it did exist in the past - probably has no chance now thriving or even existing on the surface of Mars. Again, we may find something in the planet, but we are going to need to wait a few more years for some more answers.

A news article on this topic posted at The Guardian can be read here:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jul/06/mars-covered-in-toxic-chemicals-that-can-wipe-out-living-organisms-tests-reveal

The research paper published in the journal Nature can be found here:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-04910-3

The Creation of Human Heart Tissue using a Spinach Leaf

For ages, mankind has tried to find new methods to producing viable human tissue to use in organ transplants and tissue repair. As medical and healthcare technology advance, so do the methods we use. For example, organs can now be grown from tissue samples using a 3D printer. Each day, new ideas and methods are discovered. And as of a month or two ago, a new one was determined to be a successful option.

We can create heart tissue samples from decellularized spinach leaves. Yeah, the same leaves you sometimes have in your salads.

Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic University have discovered a way to turn spinach leaves into beating human heart tissue. Before, issues with growing viable blood vessels to support the heart were troublesome. It is very hard to manufacture or print such small vessels for the heart. “The main limiting factor for tissue engineering … is the lack of a vascular network,” says study co-author Joshua Gershlak, a graduate student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Massachusetts. However, one of the characteristics of leaves are their extensive vein network that supplies nutrients throughout the leaf. If these veins could be altered to provide blood flow to a makeshift heart, then the heart would have an adequate supply of blood.

So the research team first took a spinach leaf and decellularized it, meaning that only the shell of the leaf remained (no plant cells were left in the leaf). Then the team bathed the leaf structure in human cells, which allowed the human cells to infiltrate the spinach leaf scaffolding and surround all of the structures within. After a period of time, the cells began to take on the structure of heart muscle tissue. Finally, the team injected red dyed fluid and micro beads to stimulate the flow of blood in the leaf veins.

The eventual goal of this study is to provide a new method to repair heart tissue in victims of heart attacks or other cardiac issues. The veins in the leaf would be able to bring blood to the affected areas of the heart, supplying key nutrients in keeping the heart healthy and building new heart tissue. The research team also mentioned that they would be testing this theory on other plants (for example, inserting human cells into wood might help provide some benefits in repairing bones). “We have a lot more work to do, but so far this is very promising,” study co-author Glenn Gaudette, also of WPI, said. “Adapting abundant plants that farmers have been cultivating for thousands of years for use in tissue engineering could solve a host of problems limiting the field.”

This new discovery may provide a cheaper and efficient way in repairing tissue and organ damage in the near future. Quite possibly, we may not have to rely on using other more expensive methods (3D printing, using a pig's heart, etc.) And even so, how cool would it be to say that a chunk of your heart is actually spinach leaves? I know, super weird to say, but it could very well be a possibility.

An article written on this paper can be found here at National Geographic:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/03/human-heart-spinach-leaf-medicine-science/

PHOTO CREDIT TO NEW ATLAS
A second news article by New Atlas can be found here:
http://newatlas.com/spinach-leaves-grow-heart-tissue/48564/

The published research paper can be read here:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0142961217300856

Cannabis Related Treatment for Epilepsy Proves Effective

Marijuana treatment is a touchy subject in today's society. Many express approval for using medicinal Marijuana to help treat cancer and other mental diseases (Parkinson's, extreme stress, etc.). However, others share a discontent with the drug, stating that it is a drug with no benefit and should remain illegal. Even so, multiple studies have linked Marijuana to problems with the brain, including reduced memory, levels of psychosis, and increased levels of random neural activity, . On the other hand, the drug has been shown to increase brain connectivity between neurons, relaxation, and hunger. So from all of this, one simple question arises: is Marijuana (or specifically Cannabis) good for you or bad for you?

From a scientist's opinion, the pros outweigh the cons tenfold.

There have been countless studies that show the benefits of using medicinal cannabis to treat diseases in the past few years. One great example is a recent story about an 11 year old girl that was diagnosed with Febrile Infection-Related Epilepsy Syndrome (Fires). This disease only affects one in a million children, but it is extremely terrible. The patient usually suffers hundreds of seizures a day for a fortnight after contracting an illness, usually a cold or the flu. Annalise Lujan, from Tucson, Arizona, was struck with these seizures one day after participating in a gymnastics competition and was rushed to the hospital. From there, she was hooked onto a ventilator and put into a medical coma. In a new move, the Phoenix Children's Hospital sought approval from the FDA to use marijuana derivative cannabidiol (CBD) as a treatment to try and save the little girl. After 48-hours of treatment with cannabis, Lujan’s seizures stopped and she woke up. The treatment of CBD literally save the little girl's life. "She was afraid. She cried. And, I whispered to her that she was very strong, she's beautiful, and she's strong, and she needed to keep breathing, and she did,” Maryann (her mother) stated in a story written by Kashmira Gander for Independent.

As seen with this story, the potential for cannabis related treatment is incredibly great. A recent study done last week by Orrin Devinsky, a neurologist at New York University Langone Medical Center, and a few colleagues tested 120 children that were diagnosed with Dravet syndrome. This syndrome kills about 20 percent of those with this disease by the time they are 20. The patients were treated with CBD (or Epidiolex, as branded by GW Pharmaceuticals who sponsered this study). Half of the children were given Epidiolex while the other half were given a placebo. Over a span of 14 weeks, they found that CBD reduced the seizures from about 12.4 to 5.9 per month, while the placebo group went from 14.9 seizures to 14.1 per month. However, some children experienced some adverse effects, such as fatigue, diarrhea, and vomiting. 8 of the children withdrew from the study because of these effects. Nonetheless, the benefit of CBD treatment can be seen. "We now have solid, rigorous scientific evidence that in this specific syndrome, cannabidol is effective at reducing seizures," said Orrin Devinsky.

The evidence is all there, and it is coming from many different studies and stories; CBD based treatment is an effective method for treating epileptic seizures across different kinds of diseases. When adding this onto the benefits that are being found for cannabis based treatment, the argument for the legal use of medicinal marijuana (and even legalizing marijuana) gets even stronger. Looking at these cases, maybe it's time we start utilizing this form of treatment to its potential. We could be saving lives by doing so.

For more information, the story of Annalise Lujan can be found here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/cannabis-cbd-febrile-infection-related-epilepsy-syndrome-annalise-lujan-cannabidiol-a7770621.html

The study done on children with Dravet syndrome can be found here:
https://www.statnews.com/2017/05/24/cannabis-epilepsy-trial/

The original research article for the above study that was published by The New England Journal of Medicine can be found here:
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1611618

Artificial Uterine-System: Growing Babies Outside of the Uterus

At some point in the future I expected to see something like this.  Some sort of science fiction technology that would allow for humans and animals to be grown in other forms of a makeshift uterus could very well be possible.  Well, that time appears to be now.

Published on the 25 of April, 2017, a study was proven to grow a fetal lamb outside of its mother in an artificial uterine-system.  Now, mind you, the technology proven to work here does not mean we have reached the point where we could take an egg outside of the mother, insert it into this system, and a baby would grow completely fine.  This artificial uterine-system is a method to continue the development of a baby that might have been born prematurely or that still needed time to develop.  In addition, this new form of a makeshift uterus (being called the BioBag) has only been tested on sheep as of now.

The BioBag works by mimicking the conditions of a uterus within the mother.  For starters, a pump filters in amniotic fluid into the pouch that the baby is located.  That fluid is cycled out in order to provide healthy amniotic fluid through pressure derived at the other end that forces out the old fluid.  In addition, a gas blender keeps the environment in check by providing the correct amount of Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen, and Oxygen within the pouch to ensure the baby's survival.  Finally, an umbilical system is attached to the baby to provide nutrients, oxygenated blood, and medicine to keep the baby healthy and alive.  All of the data taken from the study was proven to show statistical correlation with what the lamb receives while growing in the mother.

To prove that this study showed positive results with a premature baby, the lamb used was developmentally equivalent to an extreme premature baby.  The lamb survived and thrived in this artificial uterine-system for 4 weeks.  However, further research remains a priority.  Lambs and Humans develop different, with different brain capacities and functions that separate the two.  Overtime, human trials may be a possibility.  "I think its realistic to think about three years for first-in-human-trials," said Alan Flake, who is one of the lead writers on this study.

So we aren't quite at the point yet where we can grow babies completely outside of the mother.  But this discovery could help save the lives of thousands of prematurely born babies.  Soon after, we may be able to assist the growth of endangered species by recreating the uterine-system to harbor the babies of those species.  We may even have the ability to combine this technology with cloning to finally create those dinosaurs we see in Jurassic Park (I really hope not, we have many movies to show why growing actual dinosaurs is a bad idea).  The point of this study is to find a way to assist prematurely born babies in a better way than what we have now.  It's not completely done yet, but it is an incredibly important first step into saving those babies' lives.

Thanks to Kate Berglung for sending in the following article for information on this topic!:

https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/25/15421734/artificial-womb-fetus-biobag-uterus-lamb-sheep-birth-premie-preterm-infant

The research paper published on April 25 can be read here:

https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15112

Science Bureau adopted a small part of Earth

In celebration of Earth Day, NASA is giving people the ability to adopt a small part of Earth to call their own!  As of April 20th, Science Bureau is now the proud adopter of a small plot of land in Africa, located at 12.24° N, 4.8° W.  Here's the ID card that states the adoption:

And here is a picture of that plot of land (courtesy of Google Earth):

It is important to remember the importance of keeping our Earth clean and the environment healthy everyday as we go about our lives.  Little things, like recycling and not littering can go a long way if we all work together.  Earth day is on April 22 this year, so remember to consider the well-being of planet Earth as you go about your day!

Anyone can adopt a piece of land on Earth to celebrate Earth day!  You can find out how to do so at:

https://climate.nasa.gov/adopt-the-planet/#/

Thank you all for reading and participating in the quest to discover science through the Science Bureau!  The growing audience and enthusiasm from people around the globe is greatly appreciated!  Remember to appreciate each other and the world on April 22, our planet is a wonderful place to be!

Spider Venom Protects Brain Cells from Stroke Damage

Who knew?  Just from reading the title of this post, you would probably be a little skeptical.  I mean, this is spider venom we are talking about, it's toxic for humans.  Yet some significant results have been achieved from this study.  But first, let's start with what goes on when a stroke occurs.

A stroke in the body happens when a clot keeps blood from reaching cells in the brain.  This causes the brain cells to switch to other metabolic pathways that don't necessarily rely on oxygen.  However, these other metabolic pathways create an acidic environment within the brain, which causes the pH to drop drastically - a condition deemed acidosis.  The brain cells - in an acidic environment and with no oxygen available - then begin to die off and cause irreparable damage to the brain.

Research in the past has linked a specific ion channel, called acid-sensitive ion channels (ASICs), that activate when the cell looses its connection to oxygen.  These ion channels pump out calcium ions which have a toxic effect in the brain when they reach abnormally high levels.  Previously, scientists had identified a specific peptide (psalmotoxin 1) in Tarantula venom that specifically blocked ASICs.  In the study conducted with the Tarantula venom, the rats that had strokes were much more protected from acidosis in the brain when administered psalmotoxin 1 for treatment.

In this current study, researchers focused on the venom of the Australian Funnel Web Spider (Hadronyche infensa) and a disulfide-rich peptide within the venom called Hi1a.  For reference, the Australian Funnel Web Spider Hadronyche infensa is an incredibly venomous spider.  Their presynaptic neurotoxins target sodium and ion channels within the body and induce spontaneous, repetitive firing of action potentials in autonomic and motor neurons, thus causing an increase in adrenaline, acetylcholine, and noreprinephrine.  The researchers discovered that Hi1a specifically targets ASICs, and does an incredibly fantastic job at doing so.  Even so, Hi1a has a faster time getting to the ASICs and inducing an effect on the channels than the peptide found in Tarantula venom.  So the researchers in this study induced rats to have strokes and gave them Hi1a to observe the effects.  In the rats tested, the Hi1a peptide protected up to 77 percent of the brain cells that were affected.  Specifically, it saved brain tissue that was hit the hardest from the lack of oxygen and severely limited peripheral damage to other parts of the brain.

The potential of this discovery is very high, for this peptide gives doctors and medical professionals a greater window to treat and prevent damage from a stroke.  As of now, the use of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) to restore blood flow is the only FDA approved treatment option for strokes.  This alternative could now help more patients that suffer strokes and prevent long-term damage.  However, the medical world is still a long ways away from venom-based treatment.  It will take a lot more research and time to develop a capable drug or treatment that is based on the peptides found in venom.  More specifically, more research needs to be done to determine potential problems that may arise using this method of treatment; lethal doses, effective doses, and risk assessments all need to be completed as well as trials for clinical use.  But the study does prove that spider venom, although toxic, does contain chemicals that may benefit our lives and our health.

If you want to read more, the story written on this study can be found here:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/03/spider-venom-messes-with-our-brains-and-may-help-protect-them-from-harm/

The published research paper within the PNAS Journal can be found here:

http://www.pnas.org/content/114/14/3750.full

Some Stress is Good, According to Worm Studies

We as humans all hate stress.  Stress can be annoying, whether it lies within schooling or social environments.  Nobody wants to be stressed out, and there are numerous ways in which to relieve stress.  However, according to a study done by the Sanford-Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, some stress can promote longevity.

Essentially, the study done focused on a specific process in the body called autophagy.  Autophagy, as defined by ScienceDaily, is a means of recycling cells' old, broken, or unneeded parts so that their components can be re-used to make new molecules or be burned for energy.  Granted, this has been proven before.  This isn't entirely new science that is being done here.  What this study proves is that long life and stress resistance are connected at a cellular level.  In order to prove this theory, the researchers used a different subject other than humans.  They used an animal that bears some resemblance to our own cellular level.  They, in fact, bear a stronger resemblance to us via DNA than one might think (which I may someday discuss in another topic).

It's a worm.  More specifically, Caenorhabditis elegans, which is a free living, transparent nematode.

"We used C. elegans -- tiny roundworms used to study fundamental biology -- to test the importance of autophagy in becoming stress resistant," says Caroline Kumsta, Ph.D., staff scientist in Hansen's lab and lead author of the study. "They're a great model system because they're transparent, so you can easily observe what goes on inside them, most of their genes and molecular signaling pathways have functional counterparts in humans, and they only live a few weeks, which greatly facilitate measuring their lifespans."  Granted, the worms used in this study were not presented with horrible conditions.  Simply raising the temperature to 36 degrees Celsius for one hour provided a small shock to the system.  The worms exposed went through autophagy to repair the cells damaged.  Again, they were exposed to another heat stress.  Worms that were unable to repair their cells or were deficient with completing autophagy sustained more damage than the worms who experienced autophagy successfully.

Secondly, the team set out to determine if this cellular function could help out with another issue due to old age.  By targeting these worms with heat stress, the researchers hoped to reduce aggregated proteins that build up in cells.  They used worms that were modeled after Huntington's disease, which is a fatal inherited disorder caused by neuronal proteins that start to stick together into big clumps as patients age that leads to degeneration throughout the brain.  After exposing the model worms to heat once more, the aggregated proteins were reduced in number as the body experienced autophagy again.  "Our finding that brief heat exposure helps alleviate protein aggregation is exciting because it could lead to new approaches to slow the advance of neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's," says Hansen.  "The results may also be relevant to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, which are similarly caused by clumping-prone proteins."

Essentially, this experiment shows that mild stress induction can improve the body's longevity by causing the body to repair cells through autophagy.  Does this mean you need to sit in the sauna or do hot yoga at all times?  No, not necessarily.  But it is important to expose your body to some levels of stress in order to improve yourself.  Take for example, a runner.  As a runner progresses, they get better and better at running longer and longer distances.  Their lungs handle the run better each time.  This same idea applies to the body and the cells within you.  By exposing them to small stresses slowly over time, they repair through autophagy and can increase your longevity because your body is trying to adapt to the environment.  So go sit in the sauna every once in awhile.  Go for that run you keep telling yourself you're going to do.  Go lift weights or do yoga.  You're helping your body out by doing so.

The link to the published story by ScienceDaily can be found here:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170215084050.htm

The link to the research paper for this topic published at Nature can be found here:

http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14337

A Baby that has Three Parents?

Normally a baby that is born contains genetics from both the father and the mother.  To think that a baby could have three parents is a bit odd to think about let alone become a reality.  If it were to happen, could that mean one of the parents had cheated on the other and somehow carried multiple eggs or sperm when creating a baby in some way?

No, don't worry.  Nobody cheated on anybody.  In fact, you can thank science for this profound discovery.

What actually occurs is a still controversial process in which genetic material from three different people are combined to create a child.  By doing so, this eliminates the possibility of a child to be born with a fatal genetic disease.  This process was supposedly carried out successfully in Mexico, for the greenlight for this procedure in the United States has yet to receive the go ahead.

Originally published in New Scientist, Dr. John Zhang (pictured above) of New Hope Fertility Center in New York City holds the child and told the story.  He worked with two parents who had already lost two children to a mitochondrial disease, a rare class of conditions caused by defects in the DNA of mitochondria, the organelles that provide energy to cells.  This disease in inherited maternally, so if the mother carries this mutation in her DNA the baby is born with the disease.  Therefore, in order to correct this, Zhang used an approach called spindle nuclear transfer to create five human embryos.  The article on Science described this process very well:

The method involves removing the nucleus—the bulk of a cell’s DNA—from one of the mother’s egg cells, and inserting that nucleus into a donor egg cell stripped of its own nucleus. The result is an egg with mitochondrial DNA from a healthy donor and nuclear DNA from the mother. Five donors eggs prepared this way were then fertilized with the husband’s sperm—but only one of the resulting embryos had a normal number of chromosomes. That embryo was transferred into the mother-to-be.

However, this process has drawn some criticism.  For starters, it is not a published paper or researched topic.  “Right now it’s just, ‘We have done it.’ It’s a claim,” says Dieter Egli, a stem cell biologist at Columbia University.  In addition, “This and other important questions remain unanswered because this work has not been published and the rest of the scientific community has been unable to examine it in detail,” wrote Dusko Ilic, a reader in stem cell science at King’s College London, in a public comment for journalists. “It’s vital that that happens soon.”  Still, some praise Zhang's work.  Clinical embryologist Jacques Cohen of Reprogenetics in Livingston, New Jersey, who has advised Zhang’s team about regulatory issues, states that “just because this was done in Mexico doesn’t mean it was not done ethically,” says Cohen, who himself led controversial fertility experiments in the 1990s involving the transfer of cytoplasm, in which the resulting babies also had three genetic parents.

For now, the question as to whether this procedure is ethically sound is still up in the air.  Regardless, the outcome is incredible, and could shape the future of stem cell research and giving parents the ability to have children if they couldn't before.

For more information, check out the article on Science here:

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/09/unanswered-questions-surround-baby-born-three-parents

In addition, check out the article posted on New Scientist here:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2107219-exclusive-worlds-first-baby-born-with-new-3-parent-technique/?cmpid=SOC|NSNS|2016-Echobox&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#link_time=1474985189

Learning How to Walk Again Thanks to Virtual Reality

Awhile ago, if you had asked any doctor or physician if there was hope for paraplegics in terms of recovery, they would have responded with little to no hope.  All that could be done for them was to comfort them and provide them with another means of transportation.  Fast forward to today, there may be a new hope.  A new way in which paraplegics may be able to walk again.  And it comes in the form of virtual reality.

Yeah, the same thing people use to play video games.

In essence, paraplegics have little to no brain function when it comes to motor skills forMiguel Nicolelis, the lead researcher from Duke University in North Carolina.  “It’s almost like the brain had erased the concept of moving by walking.”  So when patients were asked to imagine walking, the brain showed no sign of activity for that area.  By becoming paraplegic, patients' brains would literally "forget" how to walk because they could no longer control it.
walking, running, or basic movement of the lower limbs.  “When we look at the brains of these patients when they got to us, we couldn’t detect any signal when we asked them to imagine walking again. There was no modulation of brain activity,” Dr.

With virtual reality, everything may change.  Eight patients with chronic spinal cord injuries (SCIs) were used in a study in order to test brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) in terms of developing better therapies for paraplegics.  In this virtual reality, each patient was asked to navigate a virtual reality game using an Oculus Rift.  The game consisted of an avatar creation and a soccer field, in which the patients were asked to take their avatar and walk around on the soccer field.  In addition, a specially designed shirt was used in correlation with this study that monitored the patient and provided feedback onto the patients forearms that simulated walking on the ground.  This was used for a period of time, allowing the patients to get reacquainted with walking in a different form that their brain could understand.  After completing the first part, each patient was moved to an exoskeleton with a cap that could detect brain activity.  Simply put, the patient would have to think about walking and the cap would detect it.

Now the results were not immediate.  Each patient had a different recovery time in the 12 months of testing.  However, after an hour of using the exoskeleton every day, each patient regained some motor skills with walking.  More incredibly, each patient was able to recreate voluntary movement and sensation in their legs, as well as control bowel movements for the first time in years.

Granted, there are other methods for helping paraplegics now, including stem cell therapies and surgeries.  But this is the least intrusive method of recovery to date with incredible results.  "Overall, the results obtained in our study suggest that BMI applications should be upgraded from merely a new type of assistive technology to help patients regain mobility, through the use of brain-controlled prosthetic devices, to a potentially new neurorehabilitation therapy, capable of inducing partial recovery of key neurological functions," said Dr. Miguel Nicolelis.  "Such a clinical potential was not anticipated by original BMI studies. Therefore, the present findings raise the relevance of BMI-based paradigms, regarding their impact on SCI patient rehabilitation. In this context, it would be very interesting to repeat the present study using a population of patients who suffered a SCI just a few months prior to the initiation of BMI training. We intend to pursue this line of inquiry next. Based on our findings, we anticipate that this population may exhibit even better levels of partial neurological recovery through the employment of our BMI protocol."  This breakthrough could provide paraplegics with a greater hope for recovery and a cheaper alternative to other methods of recovery.  Who knew that by playing a VR game/simulation could lead to paraplegics recovering from their injuries?

For more information, here is the story that was written on the research paper:

http://qz.com/757516/paraplegics-are-learning-to-walk-again-with-virtual-reality/

In addition, here is the scientific paper that was published in the Nature magazine:

http://www.nature.com/articles/srep30383

OSIRIS-REx: How to Study a Killer Asteroid

To know your enemy, you must study and understand your enemy.  Same applies for killer asteroids right?

Nasa is planning on studying a monster asteroid that has been slowly getting closer and closer to Earth ever since it was discovered in 1999.  The asteroid, named "Bennu" crosses Earth's orbit every 6 years.  Granted, it's not like the asteroid is passing by Earth so closely that you can see it as it streaks through the sky.  In 2135, the asteroid will fly between the Earth and the Moon however, so the slight potential this asteroid has in hitting Earth increases every time it passes by.  And with passing between the Earth and the Moon, the asteroid could possibly be altered by Earth's gravity and strike the Earth in that century.

“Bennu falls on the boundary, in terms of size, for an object capable of causing a global catastrophe,” Professor Mark Bailey of Northern Ireland’s Armagh Observatory said.  Bennu is about 487 metres in diameter and travels around the sun at an average of 101,000 km per hour.  That size and that speed could result in an impact that is almost 200 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.

NASA plans to use the Osiris-Rex probe to fly to Bennu in September and study the asteroid.  In order to do so, Osiris-Rex will spend a year orbiting the sun to build up its speed before it slingshots back around Earth, using the planet’s gravity to align its orbit with the asteroid’s.  Once the probe reaches the asteroid, it will study the surface and the composition of the asteroid.  In addition, the probe will hover over the surface of the asteroid, obtain samples, and then fly back to Earth.  “Bennu is a carbonaceous asteroid, an ancient relic from the early solar system that is filled with organic molecules,” said Lauretta. “Asteroids like Bennu may have seeded the early Earth with this material, contributing to the primordial soup from which life emerged.”  So for scientists, this is a big discovery in identifying what the asteroid is made of.

Although the asteroid is a long ways away from striking the Earth, the data obtained from this solar expedition will provide the future with great information.  If the asteroid does indeed one day make its way into a possible contact with Earth, we will at least know what its made of, the exact size, and how fast its going.  This could prevent a catastrophic collision and save mankind in the future.

For more information on this story, check out this link:

http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/space/nasa-plans-to-launch-study-of-asteroid-that-could-destroy-earth/news-story/cb8f49b07e2100200997e74922c2b60e?from=public_rss&utm_content=SocialFlow&utm_campaign=EditorialSF&utm_source=News.com.au&utm_medium=Twitter

In addition, more info on the story can be found here:

http://nypost.com/2016/07/31/nasa-plans-to-launch-study-of-asteroid-that-could-destroy-earth/

Check out OSIRIS-REx on twitter to see photos and information on the probe and its journey:

https://twitter.com/OSIRISREx?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Invasion of the Origami Gut Robots

Released from Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The prospect of small robots being used within the human body to fight infections or other problems within seemed like a far fetched idea.  However, the research group of Daniela Rus, Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science presented their paper at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation on their discovery.  What they had developed were tiny origami robots that would enter the esophagus and the stomach, would fold and move around in the stomach to help with stomach wounds or foreign materials.

"It's really exciting to see our small origami robots doing something with potential important applications to health care," says Rus. "For applications inside the body, we need a small, controllable, untethered robot system. It's really difficult to control and place a robot inside the body if the robot is attached to a tether."  The robot uses a stick-slip method which uses its appendages to stick to a surface through friction when it moves, but slips free again when its body flexes to alter its weight distribution.  Also, since there is quite a bit of liquid within the stomach, the tiny robot can also use water to propel itself forward.  

In addition, the small robot is constructed out of bio-compatible material, so you aren't having a metal robot enter your system.  The material Biolefin was selected after the group tested numerous materials.  This material consists of a shrinking layer within a biodegradable shrink wrap that is partially comprised of dried pig intestine (used in sausage casings).  They then tested their design by using a pig's stomach filled with water and lemon juice to simulate an actual environment within a stomach.  The robot proved to be an excellent tool in removing a watch battery from said stomach.

“This concept is both highly creative and highly practical, and it addresses a clinical need in an elegant way,” says Bradley Nelson, a professor of robotics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. “It is one of the most convincing applications of origami robots that I have seen.”

For more information on this topic, check out the video released by MIT news:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Waj08gk7v8

In addition, check out the story here:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-05/miot-iro051216.php

Nevada Amphibole Asbestos: My Research

So this article is a little bit different.  This isn't a news story or a published article as of now.  It's still in development and the research is still ongoing.  Mainly, this research has to deal with natural asbestos that was found in Libby, Montana and Nevada.  The cool thing about this research is that it's all brand new information regarding autoimmune diseases and asbestos.

The super cool thing is that it is a project that I am working on.

Yep, you read that right.  I am actually participating in a big research project studying asbestos.  More specifically, I am looking at asbestos from Libby, Montana and Nevada and observing the correlations between autoimmune diseases and asbestos.  Like I said before, this research is still ongoing.  But I would love to share what information I have on the topic so far.

To begin with, this is the abstract that we submitted to the Montana State University Undergraduate Research Celebration during the month of April:

"Asbestos is a known carcinogen and also induces fibrosis of the lung. In addition, amphibole asbestos in particular has been shown to induce autoimmune responses. Despite these different outcomes, early stages are characterized by an immune/inflammatory reaction in the lungs, which can be used as a measure of the immunotoxicity of the fibers. Libby Amphibole (LA) asbestos was a contaminant of vermiculite mined near Libby MT for decades, leading to asbestos diseases not only to workers at the mine, but in the entire community. Recently, amphibole asbestos fibers similar in composition to LA were discovered just east of Boulder City, NV. It is very important to determine the relative toxicity of these fibers to establish the risk of disturbing this material. Our objective was to determine whether the Nevada Amphibole (NA) has similar biological effects as LA in a culture of mixed splenocytes. Fibers were collected and characterized by geologists at UNLV. Mixed splenocytes were challenged in vitro with five treatment groups: No Treatment, or 2 doses of each amphibole, 35 µg/cm 2 or 70 µg/cm 2 . Culture media was collected after 24 hr of treatment, and tested for Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (TNFα) using a sandwich ELISA, as an early indicator of inflammation. The results showed that there is a statistical difference when comparing the asbestos treatments and no treatment, as well as differences between LA and NA. The results of the experiment showed that both amphiboles elicited a high amount of TNFα within the samples tested. This indicates that NA can cause as much risk as LA and that NA should raise as much concern if not more concern than the Libby Amphibole. Further studies in our laboratory will measure other cytokines in this comparison
model."

To begin with, we looked at TNFα.  Essentially, this is a cytokine (chemical) produced by our cells when our body is trying to fight an autoimmune infection or cancer.  In my area, we focused on the splenocytes from mice spleen models while another group focused on macrophages in the lungs.  Now to explain the premise of this research.

So naturally occurring asbestos has recently been observed in Nevada, specifically around Boulder City and Las Vegas.  Through previous studies (the Libby Montana study) asbestos has been determined to cause some serious problems regarding mesothelioma and autoimmune diseases.  Our objective was to determine if the Nevada samples elicited the same reaction within mice models.  As the abstract says above, the same reactions in the splenocytes (and the macrophages) occurred in the mice models.  In addition, even higher levels of TNFα were produced in these samples than the Libby samples.  Granted, this is perliminary research, but the results suggest a serious problem.

Asbestos can take many years to manifest into a disease.  If people were exposed to this in Nevada, there could be a huge clean up problem.  How many people are exposed to this on a regular basis?  Thousands?  Millions?  With the amount of tourists that travel through this area, the problem could be catastrophic.  Therefore, it is crucial to fully determine what this naturally occurring asbestos sample can do to us.

As stated before, the research for this is ongoing!  I am working on this project for the next couple of months, maybe even the next year.  It is exciting to see where this research is heading!  Thanks for reading! 

If you have any questions on this topic, feel free to send me an email at: calebjstair@gmail.com

Here is the funding that we receive for this project:

Emerging Exposures to Natural Occurring Asbestos in Western States: Fiber Specific Pulmonary and Autoimmune Health Effects in a Mouse Model.  PIs: Deborah E. Keil and Jean C. Pfau. MAES, College of Agriculture, Montana State University.

 

Here are some research papers that could shed some light on this topic:

http://www.fairwarning.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Sciences-AsbestosResearch-SSAJ-77-6-2192.pdf

http://geology.geoscienceworld.org/content/43/1/63.full?ijkey=zKWR0L7Tcx2w6&keytype=ref&siteid=gsgeology

DNA That Could Make Us Superheroes

So who wants to be a superhero?

Turns out, there is a specific DNA series that can protect us from debilitating diseases.  In a recent study, approximately 600,000 genomes were sampled.  Within these samples, about 13 adults were found to harbor mutations for severe diseases.  However, these adults were not sick at all and showed no traits of the disease they were supposed to have.  This diseases include: cystic fibrosis, Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome, familial dysautonomia, epidermolysis bullosa simplex, Pfeiffer syndrome, autoimmune polyendocrinopathy syndrome, acampomelic campomelic dysplasia and atelosteogenesis.

So how in the world are these adults protected from these diseases?

Mutations in the individual genomes from the study are likely the answer.  Although mutations can cause diseases, they have also led to some incredible results.  So in essence, the next step would be to identify the specific gene mutations within these genomes in order to determine how exactly these people are protected from serious diseases they should have.  Easy enough, right?

Except that everyone in this study signed a consent form, so that no names would be used.  Therefore, the scientists can't go out and find the 13 "superheroes" from this study.

As a result, the research group states in their paper, "In prospective searches for resilient individuals, more appropriate consenting will be needed to link participants to their medical records and to allow for appropriate recontacting that enables follow-up characterizations, validation of their resilient condition and decoding to uncover the causes of the resilience".  Unfortunately, this raises some ethical questions.  Normally, names and identities are kept in secrecy to prevent any data on these individuals getting out and causing harm in anyway to said person.  With this study, these parameters would be slightly changed.  "[the study] exemplifies the often unforeseen benefits that can be achieved from responsible sharing of anonymized genetic and clinical data," said Dr Matthew Hurles, from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.  "This poses research and ethical questions. Personally, if I were that individual, I'd happily share my genome if it could help someone else who had been dealt a less favorable genetic hand."

So the prospect of being a superhero could be a possibility after all.  Unfortunately, it wouldn't come with the abilities of flying, heat vision, super strength, or wearing a cape.  But, a superhero who is protected from numerous DNA-linked diseases and could help numbers of people get cured from said diseases sounds pretty great to me.

You can read the article that summarizes the paper here:
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-36015243

You can read the published research paper here:
http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nbt.3514.html

Bacteria that Grows Better in Space than on Earth

Space is devoid of air and nutrients.  It's a vacuum that allows no life to exist outside of a sealed environment.  However, one of the many ongoing research projects in space is seeing how things fair in space that normally do well on earth.  For example, the human body, materials, and even small microorganisms are studied in space to determine the effect of space on each item.  And interestingly enough, bacteria don't really have a problem growing in a controlled environment in space.

"A lot of people as us 'why' we sent microbes into space," said Dr. David Coil, who is a lead author on this study and a microbiologist at UC Davis.  "Understanding how microbes behave in microgravity is critically important for planning long-term manned spacecraft but also has the possibility of providing new insights into how these microbes behave in human constructed environments on Earth."

After completing this experiment, however, one species of bacteria tested grew even better in space than on Earth.

Bacillus safensis, the bacteria that grew better in space, is found quite commonly here on earth.  In fact, its name is derived from its discovery on the outside of spacecraft in Florida and California.  Now this bacteria wasn't discovered when the spacecraft returned from space, it was discovered after assembly here on earth.  Its an aerobic Gram (+) bacteria (this means that the bacteria contains a thicker layer of peptidoglycan) who doesn't have any abnormal traits that differentiate it from any other bacteria on earth in terms of generic characteristics.

This bacteria, along with 47 other samples of microorganisms that were swabbed from multiple public locations as part of a nationwide citizen science project called Project MERCCURI, were sent up into space to be studied.  Most of not all of the organisms that were identified were determined to be normally found on the International Space Station (ISS).  However, it is completely unknown as to why Bacillus safensis grew 60% even better in space.

Granted, this discovery doesn't pave the way to cure cancer or anything of the sort.  However, the aspect that some bacteria can grow more efficiently in microgravity is a fantastic discovery.  From this, there is a possibility that we could isolate genes or specific features from this bacteria and use genetic engineering to grow other microorganisms or even food in microgravity.  Astronauts being able to grow vegetables and other foods within their ships as they travel through space could be a possibility if specific genes are isolated from within the genome of Bacillus safensis is a very cool thought.  Again, this is all speculation, but in the future of space travel and exploration, this could be a big discovery.

PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Alexiev, UC Davis (CC BY 4.0)


To read more about this experiment, check out the PeerJ article here:

http://static.peerj.com/pressReleases/2016/Press-Release-Coil.pdf

In addition, another news story about this discovery can be read here:

http://phys.org/news/2016-03-bacteria-space-earth.html

Eliminating Autoimmune Diseases

Autoimmune diseases affect numerous people throughout the world.  Rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, multiple sclerosis; they are all diseases we have heard of before.  The prospect of a treatment being possible is a tough obstacle to climb, for autoimmune diseases are incredibly hard to treat.  How soon could we expect some sort of drug that would help us combat such diseases?

Well, the wait may only be a little bit longer.

Scientists from Russia, Germany and Great Britain have recently created a prototype of a new antibody-based drug for autoimmune diseases.  This new drug, being called MYSTI (Myeloid-Specific TNF Inhibitor), focuses on the Tumer Necrosis Factors (TNF) produced by macrophages in the body.  This protein belongs to the family of cytokines, which help control inflammation, counterbalance tumor formation, and regulate the immune system against a plethora of diseases.  However, there are two sides to this small protein.  The "good" TNFs help the body by performing the actions listed above.  The "bad" TNFs are ones that do not function correctly and can promote serious diseases in the body.

In order to create a drug that would focus on the bad TNFs without harming the good TNFs, the scientists focused on bispecific antibodies.  EurekAlert gives a specific but brief description of bispecific antibodies:

Each B-lymphocyte produces against a particular antigen only one antibody type consisting of two pairs of heavy and light chains. Though scientists learned long time ago to produce artificial, 'chimeric' antibodies that are able to stick to two proteins simultaneously with various Fab-fragments. Such antibodies are called bispecific. One of its advantages - a possibility to connect different cells using such an antibody - this was already used to produce effective cure for several kinds of tumors. In antibody bioengineering field, a particular type of antibodies from camel, lama or shark, which contain only heavy chains, can be used. 

By utilizing these bispecific antibodies, the team of researchers successfully created a sample of bispecific antibodies that selectively inhibit the bad TNFs without altering the function of the good TNFs.  "This work lasted nearly ten years. The article describes only the tip of the iceberg," said Sergei Nedospasov, who was the main author of this study.  In addition, this research proves through scientific means that it is entirely possible to focus on a specific cytokine and produce it through a particular type of cell lineage.

Granted, this does not mean that the cure for cancer and all autoimmune diseases is at hand.  However, this is an incredible step into learning more about these diseases and finding a successful treatment that will help millions of people around the world.

More information on this topic can be found here:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-02/lmsu-adg022916.php

The scientific paper that was published on this topic can be found here:

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/03/01/1520175113.full

Reviving an Extinct Zebra Subspecies

Just outside of Cape Town in South Africa, there is a valley that roams with zebras.  More specifically, these zebras are known as Quaggas, which are a subspecies of the plains zebra.  The main difference between the Quaggas and the zebras we all know well reside in the markings on the body.  The Quaggas have no markings near the back of their bodies and have darker brown coloration.

The second difference between the two subspecies is that the Quaggas died out in 1883 after being hunted to extinction in the 19th century.  So how did the Quaggas end up just outside of Cape Town?

A DNA project for the Quaggas was founded by the late Reinhold Rau, a German-born South African natural historian, who had DNA samples from a quagga skin at the South African Museum analysed.  The DNA was found to be very similar to the zebras we see today, so zebras with weak or nonexistent streaks near the rear were selected for this project.  These zebras, although still field zebras, contained fragments or small traits of Quagga DNA within their own DNA, thus the weak/nonexistent strips on their hinds.  To exhibit more and more of the Quagga genes, selected zebras were bred together to try and produce the coloring found on the Quagga species.  After 5 generations of selective breeding, the project is satisfied that it has recreated the Quagga.  "To all intents and purposes they are the Quagga back again.  The project has been a complete success," says Eric Harley, a retired professor of chemical pathology at the University of Cape Town.  "We don't do genetic engineering, we aren't cloning, we aren't doing any particularly clever sort of embryo transfers - it is a very simple project of selective breeding."

However, the project has faced numerous criticism from many scientists who argue that selective breeding is mainly used for profits.  In addition, they state that the process is unjustifiable and should not have occurred.  "I think there is controversy with all programs like this.  There is no way that all scientists are going to agree that this is the right way to go," said Harley.  "We are a bunch of enthusiastic people trying to do something to replace something that we messed up many years ago."  Even facing some strong criticism, this project has seemingly brought the Rau-Quagga (named after the project to create distinction from its forebears) out of extinction and back into the wild.  Unlike other hybrid animals that have received treatment, the newly bred Rau-Quagga can reproduce among themselves, ensuring that with the right care and protection, this species can survive and thrive.

For more information on this topic, check out these links:

http://phys.org/news/2016-02-south-africa-revives-extinct-zebra.html
http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-say-they-ve-revived-an-extinct-sub-species-of-zebra

"I think there is controversy with all programmes like this. There is no way that all scientists are going to agree that this is the right way to go," he said.
"We are a bunch of enthusiastic people trying to do something to replace something that we messed up many years ago."


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-02-south-africa-revives-extinct-zebra.html#jCp

"I think there is controversy with all programmes like this. There is no way that all scientists are going to agree that this is the right way to go," he said.
"We are a bunch of enthusiastic people trying to do something to replace something that we messed up many years ago."


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-02-south-africa-revives-extinct-zebra.html#jCp

"We don't do genetic engineering, we aren't cloning, we aren't doing any particularly clever sort of embryo transfers—it is a very simple project of selective breeding," he said.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-02-south-africa-revives-extinct-zebra.html#jCp

"We don't do genetic engineering, we aren't cloning, we aren't doing any particularly clever sort of embryo transfers—it is a very simple project of selective breeding," he said.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-02-south-africa-revives-extinct-zebra.html#jCp

"To all intents and purposes they are the quagga back again. The project has been a complete success."

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-02-south-africa-revives-extinct-zebra.html#jCp

"To all intents and purposes they are the quagga back again. The project has been a complete success."

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-02-south-africa-revives-extinct-zebra.html#jCp

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-02-south-africa-revives-extinct-zebra.html#jCp

by the late Reinhold Rau, a German-born South African natural historian, who had DNA samples from a quagga skin at the South African Museum analysed

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-02-south-africa-revives-extinct-zebra.html#jCp

by the late Reinhold Rau, a German-born South African natural historian, who had DNA samples from a quagga skin at the South African Museum analysed

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-02-south-africa-revives-extinct-zebra.html#jCp

by the late Reinhold Rau, a German-born South African natural historian, who had DNA samples from a quagga skin at the South African Museum analysed

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-02-south-africa-revives-extinct-zebra.html#jCp

by the late Reinhold Rau, a German-born South African natural historian, who had DNA samples from a quagga skin at the South African Museum analysed

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-02-south-africa-revives-extinct-zebra.html#j