Most of the world’s population either chronically suffers from plaque and dental cavities or will develop them at some point in their lives. Toothpastes, mouthwashes, and regular checkups do their part, but more can always be done. Now, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev scientists and their colleagues at Sichuan University and the National University of Singapore have discovered that 3,3′-Diindolylmethane (DIM), a naturally occurring molecule also known as bisindole, reduces by 90% the biofilms that produce plaque and cavities. The molecule is also found to have anti-carcinogenic properties.

Their findings were published earlier this month in the journal Antibiotics.

Your mouth is a great reservoir for bacteria such as S. mutans, which is believed to be one of the primary actors in dental cavities. After you eat, S. mutans grows in the moist and sugary atmosphere of your mouth in a biofilm that coats your teeth. Biofilm generates plaque, attacks enamel and causes cavities. The scientists found that the bisindole (DIM) disrupted that biofilm by 90% and therefore the bacterium was not given a chance to grow.

In a recent study published in Metabolism, researchers investigate the correlation between a healthy lifestyle and Life’s Essential 8 (LE8) scores in new-onset severe non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

Study: A healthy lifestyle, Life’s Essential 8 scores and new-onset severe NAFLD: A prospective analysis in UK Biobank. Image Credit: Explode / Shutterstock.com.

Anne L. Peters, MD, discusses clinical trial results of beta cells made from stem cells in patients with type 1 diabetes.

A team of researchers led by Feng Zhang at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT has uncovered the first programmable RNA-guided system in eukaryotes—organisms that include fungi, plants, and animals.

In a study published in Nature, the team describes how the system is based on a protein called Fanzor. They showed that Fanzor proteins use RNA as a guide to target DNA precisely, and that Fanzors can be reprogrammed to edit the genome of human cells. The compact Fanzor systems have the potential to be more easily delivered to cells and tissues as therapeutics than CRISPR/Cas systems, and further refinements to improve their targeting efficiency could make them a valuable new technology for human genome editing.

CRISPR/Cas was first discovered in prokaryotes (bacteria and other single-cell organisms that lack nuclei) and scientists including Zhang’s lab have long wondered whether similar systems exist in eukaryotes. The new study demonstrates that RNA-guided DNA-cutting mechanisms are present across all kingdoms of life.