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Category: biotech/medical – Page 221

Glyphosate use in the United States (US) has increased each year since the introduction of glyphosate-tolerant crops in 1996, yet little is known about its effects on the brain. We recently found that C57BL/6J mice dosed with glyphosate for 14 days showed glyphosate and its major metabolite aminomethylphosphonic acid present in brain tissue, with corresponding increases in pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-⍺ (TNF-⍺) in the brain and peripheral blood plasma. Since TNF-⍺ is elevated in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), in this study, we asked whether glyphosate exposure serves as an accelerant of AD pathogenesis. Additionally, whether glyphosate and aminomethylphosphonic acid remain in the brain after a recovery period has yet to be examined.

We hypothesized that glyphosate exposure would induce neuroinflammation in control mice, while exacerbating neuroinflammation in AD mice, causing elevated Amyloid-β and tau pathology and worsening spatial cognition after recovery. We dosed 4.5-month-old 3xTg-AD and non-transgenic (NonTg) control mice with either 0, 50 or 500 mg/kg of glyphosate daily for 13 weeks followed by a 6-month recovery period.

We found that aminomethylphosphonic acid was detectable in the brains of 3xTg-AD and NonTg glyphosate-dosed mice despite the 6-month recovery. Glyphosate-dosed 3xTg-AD mice showed reduced survival, increased thigmotaxia in the Morris water maze, significant increases in the beta secretase enzyme (BACE-1) of amyloidogenic processing, amyloid-β (Aβ) 42 insoluble fractions, Aβ 42 plaque load and plaque size, and phosphorylated tau (pTau) at epitopes Threonine 181, Serine 396, and AT8 (Serine 202, Threonine 205). Notably, we found increased pro-and anti-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines persisting in both 3xTg-AD and NonTg brain tissue and in 3xTg-AD peripheral blood plasma.

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Objective: Intermittent energy restriction (IER) is an effective weight loss strategy. However, little is known about the dynamic effects of IER on the brain-gut-microbiome axis.

Methods: In this study, a total of 25 obese individuals successfully lost weight after a 2-month IER intervention. FMRI was used to determine the activity of brain regions. Metagenomic sequencing was performed to identify differentially abundant gut microbes and pathways in from fecal samples.

Results: Our results showed that IER longitudinally reduced the activity of obese-related brain regions at different timepoints, including the inferior frontal orbital gyrus in the cognitive control circuit, the putamen in the emotion and learning circuit, and the anterior cingulate cortex in the sensory circuit. IER longitudinally reduced E. coli abundance across multiple timepoints while elevating the abundance of obesity-related Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Parabacteroides distasonis, and Bacterokles uniformis. Correlation analysis revealed longitudinally correlations between gut bacteria abundance alterations and brain activity changes.

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Microscopic worms that live their lives in the highly radioactive environment of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) appear to do so completely free of radiation damage.

Nematodes collected from the area have shown no sign of damage to their genomes, contrary to what might be expected for organisms living in such a dangerous place.

The finding, published earlier this year, doesn’t suggest the CEZ is safe, the researchers explain, but rather the worms are resilient and able to adroitly adapt to conditions that might be inhospitable to other species.

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Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) at Texas Children’s Hospital and collaborating institutions have gained new insights into the molecular changes leading to Rett syndrome, a severe neurological disorder caused by mutations in the MeCP2 gene encoding methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2).

The team reports in the journal Neuron that loss of MeCP2 in adulthood causes immediate progressive dysregulation of hundreds of genes—some are activated while others are suppressed—and these changes occur well before any measurable deficiencies in neurological function.

The MeCP2 protein is most highly expressed in neurons— where, like an orchestra conductor, MeCP2 directs the expression of hundreds of genes. When mutations produce a nonfunctional MeCP2 protein, the conductor is no longer present to direct the harmonious expression of genes needed for normal brain function. The resulting discord in leads to Rett syndrome.

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“The future of medicine is the medicine of frequencies.” – Albert Einstein.

Imagine a future where cancerous tumors inside the body could be destroyed using only sound waves. Well… the future is now. And it’s called histotripsy.

Histotripsy is a non-invasive process that uses sound waves to completely eliminate cancer tumors. Like radiation therapy, doctors point an ultrasound device at your tumor and “zap it.” But unlike radiotherapy, there is no cancer-causing radiation or heat involved, tumors can be destroyed in one treatment, there is minimal damage to surrounding tissue, a low rate of complications, faster recovery time, and it has been shown to activate immune cells to identify and target any remaining cancer cells in the body.

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IVF technology matures eggs in a culture of iPSC (induced stem cell)-derived ovarian cells.

A baby was born in their trial, marking “first ever human birth using using iPSC technology” company claims.

Gameto useds iPSCs, or induced pluripotent stem cells. Same as embryonic stem cell, except made by inducing (forcing) a skin cell or white blood from a donor cell to become a stem cell using a protein cocktail. Dont need embryo to start.

This is also the first demonstration of an end-to-end process by which a therapy developed from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) has the potential to improve IVF outcomes and advance women’s health. Co-culturing immature eggs with Gameto’s proprietary OSCs has shown promising results to date, with the potential for higher rates of egg maturation and embryo formation.

“This breakthrough represents a historic milestone in reproductive medicine,” said Dr. Luis Guzmán, Lead at Pranor Labs & Science, who oversaw the Fertilo-enabled IVF cycle that enabled the first live birth. “The ability to mature eggs outside the body with minimal hormonal intervention significantly reduces risks such as ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome and alleviates the side effects caused by high hormone doses. Fertilo is a major advancement for women who cannot tolerate or do not want to undergo the burden of the traditional IVF protocol, bringing hope and new possibilities to a broader patient population.”

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Oral immunotherapy shrinks gastrointestinal tumors in mouse study.

Immunotherapy is a promising treatment that recruits the immune system to help fight cancer, but it has had limited success in gastrointestinal cancers. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have engineered a probiotic that delivers immunotherapy directly to the gut to shrink tumors in mice, offering a potentially promising oral drug for hard-to-reach cancers.

The probiotic cancer treatment, described Nov. 20 in the journal Cell Chemical Biology, establishes a customizable drug delivery system that can be modified to potentially treat other gut diseases.

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Infectious diseases can have very different effects on different people; some individuals may have virtually no symptoms from COVID-19, for example, while others are killed by the viral disease. Scientists have now learned more about one genetic mechanism that can lead to variations in immune responses in different people. The findings, which have been reported in Cell, describe a kind of tuner that can dial the immune response up or down, and has been encoded in human DNA for millions of years.

The human genome contains bits of ancient viruses known as retrotransposons, which were once able to move around the genome, like so-called jumping genes, but have since been brought under control. They are thought to compose a major part of the genome. Researchers have identified instances where retrotransposons can become active again, however, such as in some types of cancer. Now even more consequences of these trasnposons are being identified.

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