People around the world are living longer again, with global life expectancy almost fully recovered from the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
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Common Viral Infections May Accelerate ALS
“A lot of the previous work in this area has been epidemiological in nature, without much focus on the molecular mechanisms that actually underpin the connection between infections and ALS,” says Ahmed, who co-first authored the new paper with Miller Lab alumni Art Marzok and Jonathan Mapletoft. “What makes our study unique is that we did take a mechanistic approach — we explored why this connection might exist.”
What the researchers found was that even common respiratory viruses that do not infect neurons can leave lasting changes to the nervous system.
In their animal models, Miller’s team observed that COVID-19 and flu infections triggered an inflammatory response from immune cells in the nervous system — a process called gliosis — that remained elevated in the spinal cord even after the virus had been cleared from the body. Gliosis, Ahmed notes, is already known to play an important role in ALS, but the findings suggest that an infection may amplify this process, helping to accelerate the disease.
Catalog of mitochondria across life’s family tree unearths unusual functions
A research consortium has generated the broadest look yet at the proteins that make up mitochondria, capturing the organelle’s diversity across multiple branches on the tree of complex life. With major contributions from Broad Institute scientists and its Proteomics Platform, the consortium generated and analyzed the mitochondrial proteomes of one plant and five single-celled pathogens that affect millions of people globally every year.
Their results reveal unexpected functions of the organelle, clues to its origin and role in the evolution of complex-celled organisms known as eukaryotes, and potential new drug targets for neglected tropical diseases.
The MitoCarta Tree of Life project was led by scientists at the Broad Institute, Mass General Brigham, Harvard Medical School (HMS), Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. Their findings appear in nine scientific papers and a commentary article in Cell and related journals.
New center boosts nuclear isotope output for deep-space missions
Canada is moving to expand its role in supplying nuclear isotopes that could power spacecraft on long-duration missions.
The Nuclear Innovation Institute launched the Canadian Centre for Space Isotopes this week in Toronto. The organization will focus on research, policy, and partnerships across the nuclear and space industries.
Radioisotope power systems convert heat from radioactive decay into electricity. They provide steady power without relying on sunlight, making them useful for missions traveling far from the Sun.
NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Takes First Coronagraph Instrument Observation
On September 22, the Coronagraph Instrument on NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope opened its eyes to cosmic light for the first time. The ultimate purpose of the instrument—which is commanded from Caltech’s IPAC, a science and data center for astrophysics and planetary sciences—is to demonstrate technology that can block starlight, providing unprecedented views of the planets and dusty disks around nearby stars.
The coronagraph first woke up on September 1 and stretched its digital, electronic, and mechanical “limbs” mid-month. Once the Roman team confirmed that the fine-guidance system was holding the Coronagraph Instrument steady, scientists adjusted the focus so it could take its first bleary-eyed look at space, which will help scientists fine-tune the instrument’s view.
“We’re all extremely pleased with how well things are working,” says Alexandra Greenbaum, coronagraph data management system lead at IPAC. “There’s a lot of collaboration that went into this milestone, so it’s wonderful to see all of us working together and to be a part of the team. I’m really looking forward to supporting the rest of commissioning, both on the operations and the data processing.”
White matter pathlength maps from diffusion-weighted MRI tractography for radiotherapy target planning in glioblastoma
Conventional radiotherapy target delineation for glioblastoma (GBM) includes an isotropic expansion from gross tumor visible on anatomic MRI to an empirically defined clinical target volume (CTV) for coverage of microscopic infiltrative disease. GBM spreads preferentially along white matter tracts, but this information has not previously been systematically incorporated into radiotherapy planning. We investigated using white matter tractography from diffusion-weighted MRI (dwMRI) to inform target delineation.
Thirteen patients with GBM underwent 55-directional dwMRI at the time of post-operative radiation planning MRI. Whole-brain tractography was performed, and streamlines passing within 5 mm of gross disease were used to generate maps representing white matter path length from gross disease. Clinical target volumes were generated using tractography (CTVtract) and conventional isotropic expansion (CTVisotropic). MRI at time of GBM recurrence was registered to the radiation planning MRI, and coverage of the recurrence volume was compared between CTVtract and CTVisotropic.
CTVtract demonstrated non-isotropic expansion of the primary tumor along regional white matter tracts while respecting natural anatomic boundaries. CTVtract volumes using a 2 cm path-length were a median of 67 cc smaller (−19%) than the paired 2 cm CTVisotropic volumes (p = 0.003). 10/13 recurrence volumes were included in CTVisotropic, while 12/13 recurrence volumes were included in CTVtract.
Field Persistence and Application Timing of Beauveria bassiana and Two Surfactants to Suppress Tarnished Plant Bug Population in Cotton
A commercial and native isolates of Beauveria bassiana (Bb) and two emulsifiers, Tween-80 and starched-based sprayable bioplastic, applied at night and morning were evaluated in the field to measure the indices of damage caused by the tarnished plant bug (TPB), Lygus lineolaris (Palisot de Beauvois) on cotton. Effects of solar radiation on TPB suppression, infectivity, and Bb sporulation were also examined. The TPB population was significantly reduced 7 days after spray (DAS) for all treated plots, suppressing population from 5–6 adults/10 sweep nets (SN) to 1 adult/10-SN 3-DAS and 0–1 adults/10-SN 7-DAS for all treatments. Little to no variation was observed in TPB nymph populations between treated and untreated plots. No significant differences in adult suppression were observed between morning and night application (MA, NA). The highest mortality rates and sporulation were found in insects exposed to cotton terminals sprayed with NI8+Tween-80-NA, 0-DAS. Although, no significant differences were observed between MA and NA, mortality and sporulation were higher in plots sprayed at night. Mortality and sporulation significantly decreased by the first day of application for all treatments regardless of NA or MA corresponding to the high susceptibility of Bb to sunlight. The highest percentage retention of all first position fruiting structures was observed in plots treated with NI8 + Tween-80-MA (88.30 ± 1.41), NI8+BioPlastic-MA (90.77 ± 1.28), and NI8 + Tween-80-NA (87.60 ± 1.15). Which were significantly higher than the controls. Overall, the seasonal plant mapping provided clear evidence of damage to cotton caused by TPB and how Bb regardless of the isolate, surfactant, or timing prevents indices of cotton damage.
Surfactants, UV Light, Microbial Control, B. bassiana, Lygus.
Cellular recycling changes with age, but not how we expected
Taking out the trash is a chore that even our cells cannot escape. Through a process known as autophagy, they place misshapen proteins and other cellular garbage in biological containers to digest them into their molecular building blocks.
Autophagy is designed to prevent the buildup of waste that causes cellular damage. A decline in this cellular recycling process is considered one of the hallmarks of aging and is associated with many age-related diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and neurodegeneration.
Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute published findings in Aging Cell adding new wrinkles to our understanding of the links between aging and autophagy.