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Oct 12, 2021
Epic Particle Collider Experiment in US Could Reveal How Matter Holds Itself Together
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: particle physics, space
When the Nobel Prize-winning US physicist Robert Hofstadter and his team fired highly energetic electrons at a small vial of hydrogen at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in 1,956 they opened the door to a new era of physics.
Until then, it was thought that protons and neutrons, which make up an atom’s nucleus, were the most fundamental particles in nature.
They were considered to be ‘dots’ in space, lacking physical dimensions. Now it suddenly became clear that these particles were not fundamental at all, and had a size and complex internal structure as well.
Oct 12, 2021
Intradermal vaccination of live attenuated influenza vaccine protects mice against homologous and heterologous influenza challenges
Posted by Quinn Sena in category: biotech/medical
To test whether LAIV is effective via intradermal route, 106 plaque forming units (PFU) of DelNS1-LAIV was i.d. injected to multiple groups of mice. One of the groups was boosted with second injection at 14 days after the prime vaccination. Unvaccinated control mice were injected with the same volume of PBS. The mice were intranasally challenged with 10x LD50 of H1N1/415742Md at 28 days after primary vaccination. Both single dose and two doses of i.d. vaccination induced good protection with no weight loss and 100% survival after virus challenge (Fig. 1a). Comparing i.d. vaccinated mice with i.n. vaccinated mice, there was no difference in body weight loss or survival rate (Fig. 1a), which suggested LAIV i.d. vaccination offered the same protective efficacy as i.n. vaccination. Remarkably, a single dose of i.d. vaccination fully protected mice against virus challenge with 100% survival and no weight loss (Fig. 1b).
To test the broadness of i.d. vaccination-induced immunity, H7N9 (A/Anhui/1/2013m) or H5N1 (A/VNM/1194/2004) challenges were performed at 28 days after a single dose of i.d. vaccination. H7N9 challenge caused sharp weight loss and 60% death in PBS control mice, while the vaccinated mice were 3 days quicker in body weight recovery and had 100% survival (Fig. 1c). However, i.d. DelNS1-LAIV only rescued the survival rate to 20% among the H5N1-challenged mice, versus 100% mortality in the PBS group (Fig. 1d).
We then studied the longevity of i.d. DelNS1-LAIV-induced immunity by challenging the vaccinated mice at 3 or 6 months after vaccination. Firstly, homologues virus H1N1/415742Md challenge did not cause body weight loss, nor lethality 3 or 6 months after vaccination (Fig. 1e), suggesting the protective immunity lasted at least for 6 months; Secondly, all vaccinated mice survived against an antigenically different H1N1 strain (PR8) challenge and regaining body weight starting day 7 post challenge (7dpi) (Fig. 1f). All vaccinated mice survived after H7N9 challenge though with a similar degree of weight loss comparing to the PBS control mice (Fig. 1g). The immunized mice challenged by H5N1 at 3 or 6 months had 30% and 20% survival, respectively, with a similar degree of weight loss comparing to the PBS controls (Fig. 1h).
Oct 12, 2021
Emerging Approaches for Regulation and Control of CAR T Cells: A Mini Review
Posted by Omuterema Akhahenda in category: biotech/medical
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells have emerged as a promising treatment for patients with advanced B-cell cancers. However, widespread application of the therapy is currently limited by potentially life-threatening toxicities due to a lack of control of the highly potent transfused cells. Researchers have therefore developed several regulatory mechanisms in order to control CAR T cells in vivo. Clinical adoption of these control systems will depend on several factors, including the need for temporal and spatial control, the immunogenicity of the requisite components as well as whether the system allows reversible control or induces permanent elimination. Here we describe currently available and emerging control methods and review their function, advantages, and limitations.
As a living drug, CAR T cells bear the potential for rapid and massive activation and proliferation, which contributes to their therapeutic efficacy but simultaneously underlies the side effects associated with CAR T-cell therapy. The most well-known toxicity is called cytokine release syndrome (CRS) which is a systemic inflammatory response characterized by fever, hypotension and hypoxia (5–7). CRS is triggered by the activation of CAR T cells and their subsequent production of pro-inflammatory cytokines including IFNγ, IL-6 and IL-2. This is thought to result in additional activation of bystander immune and non-immune cells which further produce cytokines, including IL-10, IL-6, and IL-1. The severity of CRS is associated with tumor burden, and ranges from a mild fever to life-threatening organ failure (10, 11). Neurologic toxicity is another serious adverse event which can occur alongside CRS (12).
Oct 12, 2021
UCI-led study finds medicinal plant extract to prevent morphine addiction
Posted by Omuterema Akhahenda in category: biotech/medical
Irvine, Calif., Oct. 12 2021 — The extract of the plant Corydalis yanhusuo prevents morphine tolerance and dependence while also reversing opiate addiction, according to a recent study led by the University of California, Irvine. The findings were published in the October issue of the journal Pharmaceuticals.
(Link to study: https://pharmsci.uci.edu/uci-led-study-finds-medicinal-plant…-epidemic/)
Over the past two decades, dramatic increases in opioid overdose mortality have occurred in the United States and other nations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the opioid epidemic has only worsened. The documented effects of YHS, the extract of the plant Corydalis yanhusuo, could have an immediate, positive impact to curb the opioid epidemic.
Oct 12, 2021
Another Global Pandemic Is Spreading —Among Pigs
Posted by Poopeh Morakkabati in categories: biotech/medical, food, health, surveillance
In the United States, animal health authorities are now on high alert. The US Department of Agriculture has pledged an emergency appropriation of $500 million to ramp up surveillance and keep the disease from crossing borders. African swine fever is so feared internationally that, if it were found in the US, pork exports—worth more than $7 billion a year—would immediately shut down.
“Long-distance transboundary spread of highly contagious and pathogenic diseases is a worse-case scenario,” Michael Ward, an epidemiologist and chair of veterinary public health at the University of Sydney, told WIRED by email. “In agriculture, it’s the analogue of Covid-19.”
As with the Covid pandemic at its start, there is no vaccine—but also as with Covid, there is the glimmer of hope for one, thanks to basic science that has been laying down findings for years without receiving much attention. Two weeks ago, a multinational team led by scientists at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service announced that they had achieved a vaccine candidate, based on a weakened version of the virus with a key gene deleted, and demonstrated its effectiveness in a field trial, in pigs, in Vietnam.
Oct 12, 2021
Iron Dome heads to missile defense experiment in Guam
Posted by Raphael Ramos in category: military
Oct 12, 2021
Edge computing: The architecture of the future
Posted by Poopeh Morakkabati in categories: business, computing
To fully digitize the last mile of business, you need to distribute compute power where it’s needed most — right next to IoT devices that collect data from the real world.
Oct 12, 2021
No-code AI analytics may soon automate data science jobs
Posted by Shahriar Mahmud in categories: business, employment, internet, robotics/AI, science
SparkBeyond, a company that helps analysts use AI to generate new answers to business problems without requiring any code, today has released its product SparkBeyond Discovery.
The company aims to automate the job of a data scientist. Typically, a data scientist looking to solve a problem may be able to generate and test 10 or more hypotheses a day. With SparkBeyond’s machine, millions of hypotheses can be generated per minute from the data it leverages from the open web and a client’s internal data, the company says. Additionally, SparkBeyond explains its findings in natural language, so a no-code analyst can easily understand it.
The product is the culmination of work that started in 2013 when the company had the idea to build a machine to access the web and GitHub to find code and other building blocks to formulate new ideas for finding solutions to problems. To use SparkBeyond Discovery, all a client company needs to do is specify its domain and what exactly it wants to optimize.
Oct 12, 2021
New Perseverance Photo Reveals Martian Rocks In Incredible Detail
Posted by Alberto Lao in category: space
Every Mars rock has a story to tell.
We all know that Mars is a rocky and dusty planet. But what happens when you get up close to its surface? The results are mighty impressive.