1 Department of Neurosurgery, Research Center of Clinical Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Medical School of Nantong University, Nantong, China.
2Neuro-Microscopy and Minimally Invasive Translational Medicine Innovation Center, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, China.
3Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.
The epithelial, microbial, and immune components of the intestinal barrier coexist in harmony to prevent undesirable inflammatory outcomes and ensure homeostasis in the host. In this review, we outline molecular mechanisms by which T cells regulate intestinal homeostasis and how the ageing-associated dysfunction of T cells could disturb host–microbiota symbiosis and the physical integrity of the intestinal barrier, ultimately driving inflammageing and poor health outcomes. Finally, we propose microbiota- and T cell-based therapeutic interventions aimed at strengthening the intestinal barrier to promote healthier longevity. Namely, we discuss the transplantation of youthful microbiota, the use of designed probiotics, and the adoptive transfer of competent or engineered T cells.
Vaughan, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Simpson Querrey Biomedical Research Center 8–516303 E. Superior St., Chicago, Illinois 60,611, USA. Phone: 312.503.1531; Email: [email protected].
Researchers have developed a simpler, more cost-effective method to measure a biologically important form of phosphorus in soils, providing new insights into nutrient cycling that could help improve sustainable agricultural management.
Phosphorus is an essential nutrient for plant growth and global food production, yet its natural reserves are finite. Understanding how phosphorus is stored, transformed and made available in soils is critical for maintaining soil fertility while reducing environmental impacts.
In a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, an international research team, including scientists from Sultan Qaboos University, James Hutton Institute, the Environment Authority of Oman and others, optimized a laboratory method for measuring DNA-bound phosphorus (DNA-P) in soils. DNA-P is part of the organic phosphorus pool associated with living microorganisms and plays an important role in nutrient cycling.
The bacteria enterotoxigenic E. coli and Shigella together cause hundreds of millions of infections each year and are among the leading causes of diarrheal death, especially in children. Decades of vaccine development efforts have come up short, in part because the usual vaccine targets vary too much from one strain to the next. Now, new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis points to a shared biological feature of these gut pathogens that could lead to a vaccine that protects against both.
Researchers at WashU Medicine, along with collaborators at the University of Missouri and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh, found that enterotoxigenic E. coli (the leading cause of travelers’ diarrhea), Shigella and other diarrhea-causing pathogens rely on three closely related enzymes to get through the gut’s protective mucus layer and cause infection. Based on samples from infected patients and volunteers exposed to the bugs, the team showed that antibodies targeting one shared region of these enzymes can neutralize all three biomolecules and block the bacteria from penetrating the mucus barrier of the intestines.
The results, which appear in PNAS, point to the potential for a single combination vaccine against these major causes of severe diarrhea.
Author: Hideaki Matsui Source: Niigata University Contact: Hideaki Matsui – Niigata University Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News.
Original Research: Closed access. “A protective role for APP in nuclear waste clearance via lysosomal exocytosis” by Dougnon G, Otsuka T, Nakamura Y, Sakai A, Yamanaka T, Matsui N, Nakahara A, Ito A, Hatano A, Matsumoto M, Igarashi H, Kakita A, Ueno M, Matsui H. PNAS DOI:10.1073/pnas.
Abstract.
By applying machine-learning models to single-cell brain recordings taken from humans in conversation, a research team identified both individual and collective neuronal activity that reflected key features of language. The work, published in Nature, offers unprecedented insight into how neurons encode linguistic information, suggesting that brain activity may one day be used to infer speech-related thoughts, which could be transformative for some patients.
“This level of granularity is necessary for us to more completely understand how the brain generates speech and, ultimately, how we can develop technologies to restore it for individuals with communication disorders,” said Debara Tucci, M.D., director of NIH’s National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD).
What if a single sentence could carry two completely different meanings, one when read forward and another when read backward? In a new study, researchers at Arizona State University have discovered a biological version of this idea. Working with the mitochondria of a tiny insect called the citrus mealybug, the team found that the same stretch of DNA can carry two different genes—sets of genetic instructions used by the cell—with one encoded on each strand of the DNA’s ladder-like structure.
The finding expands scientists’ understanding of how DNA can store genetic information and helps solve a mystery that has puzzled researchers for years. The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“This kind of paper is what makes running a lab so fun. Born from a spark of individual brilliance—not mine—but accomplished as a collective effort,” says John McCutcheon. “The idea that these two critically important genes could be mirrored on the same piece of DNA has been around a long time, and so it’s a thrill to be part of the team that proved this speculative idea was, in fact, reality.”
Scientists studying particle collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) usually capture what happens when atomic nuclei smash into one another at nearly the speed of light. But even when the nuclei don’t collide, interesting things can happen. In a new paper just published in Physical Review Letters, members of RHIC’s STAR collaboration describe a new way to use near-miss collisions at RHIC to study what’s going on inside the nucleus. The approach advances the reach of RHIC, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, into the next frontier in nuclear physics—a journey into the inner workings of the building blocks of matter.
The technique relies on particles of light, known as photons, that surround the nuclei as they speed around the 2.4-mile (3.9-kilometer) RHIC racetrack. Acting something like the beam of a giant X-ray machine, the photons around one nucleus can interact with particles called gluons inside a nucleus whizzing by in the opposite direction. By tracking the signals produced by those interactions, scientists can map out the distribution of the gluons—the glue-like particles that hold the nucleus together.
“This is an extension of the many ways people have used light to probe hidden structures in our world—from using X-rays to see broken bones and reveal the 3D atomic structures of proteins, to capturing signals from the cosmic microwave background to study the evolution of the universe,” said Ashik Ikbal, a STAR collaborator from Kent State University who carried out this work as a major component of his postdoctoral research. “In this case, we’re using light to map out features at a scale much smaller than atoms to study the gluons that hold quarks together inside the protons and neutrons of atomic nuclei.”
