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New pathway for accumulation of age-promoting 'zombie cells' - Logan Salazar

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New pathway for accumulation of age-promoting 'zombie cells' - Logan Salazar

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Senescent cells or "zombie cells" build up as you age and are alive but cannot reproduce because the DNA is damaged at the telomeres through the division of cells which can lead to dementia, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases.

You can promote these cells by smoking, drinking alcohol, and having a poor diet.
Zombie cells secrete chemicals that can promote inflammation.

Scientists tested this theory by using a tool with accuracy similar to a sniper to put protein on the cell to see if the cell turns and it did.

What are healthy habits that you can add to your lifestyle so you can avoid your cells turning into zombie cells?

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Senescent cells -- those that have lost the ability to divide -- accumulate with age and are key drivers of age-related diseases, such as cancer, dementia and cardiovascular disease. In a new study, a team led by University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center researchers has uncovered a mechanism by which senescent, or "zombie," cells develop.

Published today in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, the study shows for the first time that oxidative damage to telomeres -- the protective tips of chromosomes that act like plastic caps at the end of a shoelace -- can trigger cellular senescence. These findings could eventually point to new therapeutics that promote healthy aging or combat cancer.

"Zombie cells are still alive, but they can't divide, so they don't help replenish tissues," said senior author Patricia Opresko, Ph.D., professor of environmental and occupational health and of pharmacology and chemical biology at Pitt. "Although zombie cells don't function properly, they're not couch potatoes -- they actively secrete chemicals that promote inflammation and damage neighboring cells. Our study helps answer two big questions: How do senescent cells accumulate with age, and how do telomeres contribute to that?"

When a healthy human cell divides to form two identical cells, a small piece of DNA is shaved off each chromosome's tip, so that telomeres become gradually shorter with each division. However, it remains unclear whether over a person's lifetime, a cell may divide so often that its telomeres erode completely, prompting transition to a zombie-like state. Researchers have known for decades that telomere shortening triggers senescence in lab-grown cells, but they could only hypothesize that DNA damage at telomeres could turn cells into zombies.

Until now, testing this hypothesis had not been possible because the tools used to damage DNA were non-specific, causing lesions across the whole chromosome.

"Our new tool is like a molecular sniper," explained first author Ryan Barnes, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Opresko's lab. "It creates oxidative damage exclusively at the telomeres."

To develop such marksman-like precision, the team used a special protein that binds exclusively to telomeres. This protein acts like a catcher's mitt, grabbing hold of light-sensitive dye "baseballs" that the researchers tossed into the cell. When activated with light, the dye produces DNA-damaging reactive oxygen molecules. Because the dye-catching protein binds only to telomeres, the tool creates DNA lesions specifically at chromosome tips.

Using human cells grown in a dish, the researchers found that damage at telomeres sent the cells into a zombie state after just four days -- much faster than the weeks or months of repeated cell divisions that it takes to induce senescence by telomere shortening in the lab.

"We found a new mechanism for inducing senescent cells that is completely dependent on telomeres," explained Opresko, who also co-leads the Genome Stability Program at UPMC Hillman. "These findings also solve the puzzle of why dysfunctional telomeres are not always shorter than functional ones."

Sunlight, alcohol, smoking, poor diet and other factors generate reactive oxygen molecules that damage DNA. Cells have repair pathways to patch up DNA lesions, but, according to Opresko, telomeres are "exquisitely sensitive" to oxidative damage. The researchers found that damage at telomeres disrupted DNA replication and induced stress signaling pathways that led to senescence.

"Now that we understand this mechanism, we can start to test interventions to prevent senescence," said Barnes. "For example, maybe there are ways to target antioxidants to the telomeres to protect them from oxidative damage."

The findings could also inform the development of new drugs called senolytics that home in on zombie cells and kill them.

"By reducing the accumulation of zombie cells, which contribute to degenerative diseases, we might be able to promote 'healthspan' -- the length of time that a person is healthy," he added.

Other authors who contributed to the study were Mariarosaria de Rosa, Ph.D., Sanjana A. Thosar, M.S., Ariana C. Detwiler, M.S., Vera Roginskaya, B.S., Bennett Van Houten, Ph.D., and Jacob Stewart-Ornstein, Ph.D., all of Pitt and UPMC, and Marcel P. Bruchez, Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University.

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (F32AG067710-01, K99ES033771, R35ES030396, R01CA207342 and R01EB017268), the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research, the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Cytometry Facility (P30CA047904) and the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Postdoctoral Fellowship for Innovative Cancer Research.

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stem cells; genes; lymphoma; cancer; healthy aging; brain tumor; immune system; lung cancer

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New pathway for accumulation of age-promoting 'zombie cells'

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Senescent cells -- those that have lost the ability to divide -- accumulate with age and are key drivers of age-related diseases, such as cancer, dementia and cardiovascular disease. Researchers have uncovered a mechanism by which senescent, or 'zombie,' cells develop.

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Summary-A cell is the smallest living unit.
The nucleus is the most important organelle in these cells
Every cell in an organism’s body has the same DNA
Facts-
-cells are in everything
-nucleus is the most important part of a cell
-animal cells and plant cells are different

Interesting-
I found it interesting that cells are a part of everything.
I also found it interesting because it is very important to life.

question- what would life be if we did not have cells.

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amino acids: Simple molecules that occur naturally in plant and animal tissues and that are the basic building blocks of proteins.

amoeba: A single-celled microbe that catches food and moves about by extending fingerlike projections of a colorless material called protoplasm. Amoebas are either free-living in damp environments or they are parasites.

ATP: Short for adenosine triphosphate. Cells make this molecule to power almost all of their activities. Cells use oxygen and simple sugars to create this molecule, the main source of their energy. The small structures in cells that carry out this energy-storing process are known as mitochondria. Like a battery, ATP stores a bit of usable energy. Once the cell uses it up, mitochondria must recharge the cell by making more ATP using energy harvested from the cell's nutrients.

bacteria: (singular: bacterium) Single-celled organisms. These dwell nearly everywhere on Earth, from the bottom of the sea to inside other living organisms (such as plants and animals). Bacteria are one of the three domains of life on Earth.

biologist: A scientist involved in the study of living things.

carbohydrates: Any of a large group of compounds occurring in foods and living tissues, including sugars, starch and cellulose. They contain hydrogen and oxygen in the same ratio as water (2:1) and typically can be broken down in an animal's body to release energy.

carbon dioxide: (or CO ₂) A colorless, odorless gas produced by all animals when the oxygen they inhale reacts with the carbon-rich foods that they've eaten. Plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen during photosynthesis, the process they use to make their own food.

cell: (in biology) The smallest structural and functional unit of an organism.

cell membrane: A structure that separates the inside of a cell from what is outside of it. Some particles are permitted to pass through the membrane.

chemical: A substance formed from two or more atoms that unite (bond) in a fixed proportion and structure. For example, water is a chemical made when two hydrogen atoms bond to one oxygen atom. Its chemical formula is H ₂ O. Chemical also can be an adjective to describe properties of materials that are the result of various reactions between different compounds.

chlorophyll: Any of several green pigments found in plants that perform photosynthesis - creating sugars (foods) from carbon dioxide and water.

chloroplast: A tiny structure in the cells of green algae and green plants that contain chlorophyll and creates glucose through photosynthesis.

cholesterol: A fatty material in animals that forms a part of cell walls. In vertebrate animals, it travels through the blood in little vessels known as lipoproteins. Excessive levels in the blood can signal risks to blood vessels and heart.

contract: To activate muscle by allowing filaments in the muscle cells to connect. The muscle becomes more rigid as a result.

develop: To emerge or to make come into being, either naturally or through human intervention, such as by manufacturing. (in biology) To grow as an organism from conception through adulthood, often undergoing changes in chemistry, size, mental maturity or sometimes even shape.

digest: (noun: digestion) To break down food into simple compounds that the body can absorb and use for growth. Some sewage-treatment plants harness microbes to digest - or degrade - wastes so that the breakdown products can be recycled for use elsewhere in the environment.

DNA: (short for deoxyribonucleic acid) A long, double-stranded and spiral-shaped molecule inside most living cells that carries genetic instructions. It is built on a backbone of phosphorus, oxygen, and carbon atoms. In all living things, from plants and animals to microbes, these instructions tell cells which molecules to make.

environment: The sum of all of the things that exist around some organism or the process and the condition those things create. Environment may refer to the weather and ecosystem in which some animal lives, or, perhaps, the temperature and humidity (or even the placement of things in the vicinity of an item of interest).

eukaryote: Any organism whose cells have a nucleus. Eukaryotes include all multicellular creatures (such as plants, animals and fungi) as well as certain types of single-celled microorganisms.

fat: A natural oily or greasy substance occurring in plants and in animal bodies, especially when deposited as a layer under the skin or around certain organs. Fat's primary role is as an energy reserve. Fat also is a vital nutrient, though it can be harmful if consumed in excessive amounts.

fiber: Something whose shape resembles a thread or filament. (in nutrition) Components of many fibrous plant-based foods. These so-called non-digestible fibers tend to come from cellulose, lignin, and pectin - all plant constituents that resist breakdown by the body's digestive enzymes.

filament: Something with a thin, thread-like shape. For instance, the fragile metal wire that heats up to emit light inside an incandescent light bulb is known as its filament.

fungi: (sing: fungus) Organisms with one or more cells that reproduce via spores and feed on living or decaying organic matter. Examples include mold, yeasts and mushrooms.

genetic: Having to do with chromosomes, DNA and the genes contained within DNA. The field of science dealing with these biological instructions is known as genetics. People who work in this field are geneticists.

liver: An organ of the body of animals with backbones that performs a number of important functions. It can store fat and sugar as energy, break down harmful substances for excretion by the body, and secrete bile, a greenish fluid released into the gut, where it helps digest fats and neutralize acids.

lysosome: A major structure within cells that is surrounded by a membrane. It's interior liquid is acidic and contains enzymes that can be used to break down (digest) proteins and other types of molecular trash - materials for which the cell no longer has any need

membrane: A barrier which blocks the passage (or flow through) of some materials depending on their size or other features. Membranes are an integral part of filtration systems. Many serve that same function as the outer covering of cells or organs of a body.

messenger RNA: A type of genetic material that is copied from DNA. This mRNA carries the instructions for building a cell's proteins.

microscope: An instrument used to view objects, like bacteria, or the single cells of plants or animals, that are too small to be visible to the unaided eye.

mitochondria: (sing. mitochondrion) Structures in all cells (except bacteria and archaea) that break down nutrients, converting them into a form of energy known as ATP.

molecule: An electrically neutral group of atoms that represents the smallest possible amount of a chemical compound. Molecules can be made of single types of atoms or of different types. For example, the oxygen in the air is made of two oxygen atoms (O ₂), but water is made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom (H ₂ O).

multicellular: Having or consisting of many cells. This includes all animals and plants, and many types of fungus.

muscle: A type of tissue used to produce movement by contracting its cells, known as muscle fibers. Muscle is rich in protein, which is why predatory species seek prey containing lots of this tissue.

network: A group of interconnected people or things. (v.) The act of connecting with other people who work in a given area or do similar thing (such as artists, business leaders or medical-support groups), often by going to gatherings where such people would be expected, and then chatting them up.

nitrogen: A colorless, odorless and nonreactive gaseous element that forms about 78 percent of Earth's atmosphere.

nucleotides: The four chemicals that, like rungs on a ladder, link up the two strands that make up DNA. They are: A (adenine), T (thymine), C (cytosine) and G (guanine). A links with T, and C links with G, to form DNA. In RNA, uracil takes the place of thymine.

nucleus: Plural is nuclei. (in biology) A dense structure present in many cells. Typically a single rounded structure encased within a membrane, the nucleus contains the genetic information. (in astronomy) The rocky body of a comet, sometimes carrying a jacket of ice or frozen gases. (in physics) The central core of an atom, containing most of its mass.

nutrient: A vitamin, mineral, fat, carbohydrate or protein that a plant, animal or other organism requires as part of its food in order to survive.

organelle: Specialized structures, such as mitochondria, found within a cell.

organism: Any living thing, from elephants and plants to bacteria and other types of single-celled life.

oxygen: A gas that makes up about 21 percent of Earth's atmosphere. All animals and many microorganisms need oxygen to fuel their growth (and metabolism).

pathogen: An organism that causes disease.

permeable: Having pores or openings that permit liquids or gases to pass through. Sometimes materials can be permeable for one particular type of liquid or gas (water, for example) but block others (such as oil)

phosphate: A chemical containing one atom of phosphorus and four atoms of oxygen. It is a component of bones, hard white tooth enamel, and some minerals such as apatite.

photosynthesis: (verb: photosynthesize) The process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to produce foods from carbon dioxide and water.

pigment: A material, like the natural colorings in skin, that alter the light reflected off of an object or transmitted through it. The overall color of a pigment typically depends on which wavelengths of visible light it absorbs and which ones it reflects.

prokaryote: Any single-celled organism that does not have a nucleus or membrane-bound organelles.

protein: A compound made from one or more long chains of amino acids. Proteins are an essential part of all living organisms. They form the basis of living cells, muscle and tissues; they also do the work inside of cells. Among the better-known, stand-alone proteins are the hemoglobin (in blood) and the antibodies (also in blood) that attempt to fight infections. Medicines frequently work by latching onto proteins.

range: The full extent or distribution of something. For instance, a plant or animal's range is the area over which it naturally exists.

recycle: To find new uses for something - or parts of something - that might otherwise be discarded, or treated as waste.

RNA: A molecule that helps "read" the genetic information contained in DNA. A cell's molecular machinery reads DNA to create RNA, and then reads RNA to create proteins.

stress: (in biology) A factor - such as unusual temperatures, movements, moisture or pollution - that affects the health of a species or ecosystem.

trillion: A number representing a million million - or 1,000,000,000,000 - of something.

unicellular: An adjective for organisms that possess a single cell, such as an amoeba or bacterium.

unique: Something that is unlike anything else; the only one of its kind.

unit: (in measurements) A unit of measurement is a standard way of expressing a physical quantity. Units of measure provide context for what numerical values represent and so convey the magnitude of physical properties. Examples include inches, kilograms, ohms, gauss, decibels, kelvins and nanoseconds.

vesicle: A small fluid-filled sac inside cells. These sacs can hold chemicals that can be released either within the cell or outside of it.

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Life as we know it depends on the coordination of structures inside cells - whether a living thing has only a single cell or trillions of them.

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Stem cells: The secret to change - Payden

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Stem cells: The secret to change - Payden

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Summary - Stem cells are cells that can become any type of specialized cell. After discovering a technique to artificially create stem cells scientists are studying them and using them to research new treatments to cure diseases.

Interesting Facts
- Stem Cells can be used to cure many different diseases conditions such as blindness and blood diseases.
- Stem cells can now be created by changing any common cell such as skin cells.

Question
- Since this article was from 2013 what advancements have been made since then?

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Inside your body, red blood cells are constantly on the move. They deliver oxygen to every tissue in every part of your body. These blood cells also cart away waste. So their work is crucial to your survival. But all that squeezing through tiny vessels is tough on red blood cells. That’s why they la…

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Summary-
This article describes how the stem cell can be "reset" and have different functions.
Facts-
The fact that acid could reset stem cells.
Stem cells can "replace" sick or damaged cells
Question:
How do you know the cells have been in the acid long enough?

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See updates at bottom of story

Researchers report a surprisingly easy method to change a specialized cell, such as muscle or bone, into becoming a universal stem cell. Stem cells are immature cells that can be coaxed into becoming specialized cells - and they hold a lot of potential for treating sickness and disease

The body needs many different types of stem cells to replace sick, aging or dying cells in its many different tissues. An embryo, a ball of unspecialized cells that will grow into an animal with a backbone, is different. Scientists describe its stem cells as universal "blank slates," because each can mature into any type of tissue. Now researchers have found a way to create stem cells that mimic the universal role of embryonic cells.

Their method is simple: Just dip the specialized cell briefly in acid. This doesn't work all of the time. But it did work for 7 to 9 percent of cells taken from newborn mice. And that success rate has surprised a large number of scientists.

Haruko Obokata and her coworkers showed that other ways of stressing a baby mouse's cells, such as squeezing them, also worked like a reset button. Obokata is a stem-cell biologist at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan. She also works at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass.

She and her coworkers described the stem-cell making experiments in two papers in the Jan. 30 issue of Nature.

"It's fascinating. It's perplexing. It's potentially profound, but leaves a lot of reasons to scratch my head," George Daley told Science News. He studies stem cells at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. The new findings are "begging to be replicated," he says. Replication is when other scientists perform the same experiment to see if they get the same results. Daley's team is working on that now.

Other ways exist to turn ordinary cells into stem cells. These methods tend to be much more complicated, however. One requires removing cells from embryos. Another requires removing the nucleus from a specialized cell and inserting it into an egg cell. In yet another method, scientists turn on certain genes to reset cells into stem cells.

Finding an easy way to turn specialized cells into stem cells could provide advances in many areas of medicine. Easy-to-make stem cells could be used to replace cells in diseased organs.

This might one day help people with such brain diseases as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's. It might also help replace diseased cells in the pancreas (seen in diabetes) or the liver cells damaged by hepatitis. Because scientists could use the new stem cells to make any tissue in a test tube, they might have an easier time studying certain diseases and treatments. The new stem cells might one day even be useful in overcoming some conditions that prevent a woman from becoming pregnant or from successfully carrying a baby until it's ready to be born.

Called STAP cells, the new stem cells can change into more types of cells than other lab-made stem cells. The stem cells in an embryo, for example, are pluripotent. That means they can grow into any type of tissue. STAP cells can do this, too, but also make a placenta. This organ nurtures a fetus in the womb. Other stem cells have a hard time growing into a placenta.

In its new study, Obokata's team bathed blood, skin, brain, muscle, fat, bone marrow, lung and liver cells from newborn mice in an acid solution. The technique also worked on cells from older mice, but not as well. Now, they've started testing the method on human cells.

Many biologists have a hard time believing the new findings. Dieter Egli is one. He's a stem cell researcher at the New York Stem Cell Foundation. He says he can't imagine how squeezing or acid-dipping a cell resets it.

"If I were to describe this over a coffee break to one of my colleagues," he told Science News, "they'd say, 'You must be kidding.'"

Cells in the body undergo stress all the time. So if this is all it takes to reset a cell into a pluripotent form, then it's hard to imagine how the body keeps its cells in line, Egli says.

However, if the new method does work as well in people as it seems to do in mice, then it offers an exciting new way to create stem cells. More studies will be needed to confirm that the new method also can reliably engineer stem cells as effectively as current techniques.

Update, February 19, 2014:

There's now a concern that the findings described above may be too good to be true. That's why Japan's RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, where the lead scientist works, has begun probing whether the new studies might be flawed, according to reports in several news publications.

RIKEN launched its investigation after online commenters reported that images in the two Nature papers may have been improperly altered. In addition, several scientists have had noted that when they tried to repeat the work they didn't get the same findings.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Update, July 3, 2014:

In the July 3 Nature, authors of the stem-cell papers (reported above) owned up to substantial problems with their January claims. They said that mistakes in their initial work now make these researchers doubt that the phenomenon they had reported is real. As a result, the authors are retracting their papers - pulling them from Nature. (In a sense, it's now as if the journal had never published them. One difference: The journal will keep the papers on its website, marked as retracted).

It's an extreme move. A retraction of published research occurs only when reported data is found to be unreliable or unsupportable. Retraction of research can permanently tarnish a scientist's reputation, especially if the reason for the retraction is fraud or some other serious misconduct.

RIKEN is the research institute in Japan where much of the now-retracted work had been done. It has been probing into the controversy. In April, it reported that the lead scientist (and possibly some others) had plagiarized material - copied passages without saying where the text originally came from. It also found that the scientists had improperly manipulated their data.

As a result, RIKEN concluded that the study's lead author, Haruko Obokata, is guilty of misconduct. Obokata disputes that charge. But in the retraction notice, she and her co-authors describe five additional errors, including pictures of the same cells or embryos labeled as different cells or embryos.

Meanwhile, since January researchers in other labs have attempted to replicate the initial reported results. To date, none has been successful. RIKEN is giving Obokata five months to conduct experiments to show that her original findings are real. And all of her research will be videotaped. - Tina Saey

Power Words

acid A chemical that increases the level of hydrogen ions in a solution.

Alzheimer's disease An incurable brain disease that can cause confusion, mood changes and problems with memory, language, behavior and problem solving. No cause or cure is known.

cell The smallest structural and functional unit of an organism. It is typically too small to see with the naked eye.

diabetes A disease where the body either makes too little of the hormone insulin (known as type 1 disease) or ignores the presence of too much insulin when it is present (known as type 2 diabetes).

embryo A ball of unspecialized cells that will grow into a vertebrate, an animal with a backbone.

fetus The term for a mammal during its later-stages of development in the womb. For humans, this term is usually applied after the eighth week of development.

gene A segment of DNA that codes, or holds instructions, for producing a protein. Offspring inherit genes from their parents. Genes influence how an organism looks and behaves.

nucleus A dense structure present in many cells. Typically a single rounded structure encased within a membrane, the nucleus contains the genetic information.

Parkinson's disease A disease of the brain and nervous system that causes tremors and affects movement, memory and mood.

pluripotent A term that means having many possibilities. In medicine, pluripotent is an adjective used to describe a type of stem cell that can mature into any other type of cell in the body.

stem cell A "blank slate" cell that can give rise to other types of cells in the body. Stem cells play an important role in tissue regeneration and repair.

tissue A large collection of related, similar cells that together work as a unit to perform a particular function in living organisms. Different organs of the human body, for instance, often are made from many different types of tissues. And brain tissue will be very different from bone or heart tissue.

Stephen Ornes lives in Nashville, Tenn., and his family has two rabbits, six chickens and a cat. He has written for Science News Explores since 2008 on topics including lightning, feral pigs, big bubbles and space junk.

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Scientists had reported they had figured out how to turn a specialized cell into any other type of cell the body may need. All it took was an acid bath. But now in July, big doubts have emerged about the quality of that work and whether the results will hold up.

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New strategy to preserve insulin-producing cells in diabetes- Maria

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New strategy to preserve insulin-producing cells in diabetes- Maria

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Summary:
Researchers have discovered a new material that supposedly preserves the action of insulin-producing beta cells.

Facts:
~ High blood glucose is responsible for several complications in type 1-2 diabetes.
~ HIF-1Alpha regulates the response to hypoxia
~ PX-478 ameliorates beta cell activity without amplifying insulin secretion.

Questions:
~ Where do we see this taking action as of now?
~ Will this be a long-term treatment?

What i found most interesting in this article was that the beta cells produces high amounts of insulin which causes the increase of levels of the HIF- 1Alpha protein which then reduces the beta cell activity so what these researchers want to do is to use the PX-478 to improve the beta cell activity without causing harm to the insulin secretion.

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High blood glucose is responsible for several complications in type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have identified a new antidiabetic substance that preserves the activity of insulin-producing beta cells and prevents high blood glucose in mice. The study is published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Although several families of glucose-lowering agents are currently used in diabetes therapy, none of them can stop or reverse the progression of the disease. Maintenance of adequate beta cell activity is essential to prevent the progression of type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

"In diabetes, beta cells are challenged to produce high amounts of insulin," says the study's first author Erwin Ilegems, senior researcher at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet. "Our study shows that this leads to a hypoxic state that increases the levels of HIF-1alpha protein, which in turn reduces beta cell activity. By treating diabetic mice with the HIF-1alpha inhibitor PX-478 we successfully decreased their blood glucose levels."
Repurposing an anti-cancer drug
HIF-1alpha (hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha) regulates the response to hypoxia. The discovery of HIF-1alpha was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2019 and this protein is involved in many different diseases. The HIF-1alpha inhibitor PX-478 has already been tested in phase I clinical trials as an anticancer drug and was well tolerated in these patients.

In collaboration with Professor Jorge Ruas' research group at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Karolinska Institutet, the authors could demonstrate that the antidiabetic effect of PX-478 was mainly due to improved pancreatic beta cell activity.

Since it is well established that the production of insulin decreases during the progression of diabetes, therapeutic strategies have so far mostly focused on improving the insulin production of beta cells. However, this approach has not been as successful as initially predicted.

"Current therapies targeting beta cells have only a temporary positive effect on insulin secretion," says the study's last author Per-Olof Berggren, professor at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet. "In the long-term, these drugs lead to beta cell exhaustion."
Long-term treatment of diabetes
Unlike other treatments, PX-478 ameliorates beta cell activity without amplifying insulin secretion. The researchers therefore believe that it can prevent the exhaustion of beta cells and thus be more efficient in the long-term treatment of diabetes.

"We are now planning to further investigate the translatability of our findings to hopefully pave the way for future clinical trials," says Teresa Pereira, researcher at the Department of Medical Cell Biology, Uppsala University (formerly employed by Karolinska Institutet), who is co-last author of the study. "We will start by investigating the impact of PX-478 on human pancreatic beta cell activity by using 'humanised' diabetic mice."

This work was supported by funding from Karolinska Institutet, the Swedish Research Council, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Swedish Diabetes Association, the Family Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation, the Jonas & Christina af Jochnick Foundation, the Family Erling-Persson Foundation, Berth von Kantzow's Foundation, the Skandia Insurance Company, Ltd., the European Research Council, the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme, and the European Diabetes Research Programme in Cellular Plasticity Underlying the Pathophysiology of Type 2 Diabetes. Teresa Pereira has filed a patent entitled "Treatment of diabetes," and co-author Burcak Yesildag is an employee at InSphero AG. All other authors report no competing financial interests.

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diabetes; hormone disorders; hypertension; chronic illness; personalized medicine; vitamin a; stem cells; diseases and conditions

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New strategy to preserve insulin-producing cells in diabetes

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High blood glucose is responsible for several complications in type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have identified a new antidiabetic substance that preserves the activity of insulin-producing beta cells and prevents high blood glucose in mice. The study is published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

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Magnets that Kill Cancer Cells            - Madison

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Magnets that Kill Cancer Cells            - Madison

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Summary: Scientists have discovered a way to kill cancer cells with magnets. By attaching nanoparticles of iron to proteins, the iron will attach to the cell. Scientists can then use magnets to trigger the receptors that signal the cell's death.

Facts:
- cells have many receptors which trigger different actions.
- by combining iron with proteins, the iron will attach to the cell particles.
- magnets can manipulate the iron, to trigger the death receptor.

Interesting: Within just 24 hours, over half of the cancer cells died.

Question: Will putting iron nanoparticles into the body have any negative side effects?

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Magnets hold things to our refrigerators, and inside compasses they help us find our way. Now researchers have found a way to use magnets like a remote control to turn on cell-killing, metal beads. The technology may point to new treatments for diseases such as cancer, which kills more than 7 million people every year.

Scientists at Yonsei University in South Korea developed the new technology, which can flip a "death switch" on cells, causing them to self-destruct. The researchers described how they used their method to kill cancer cells in the journal Nature Materials.

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The outside surface of every cell contains many receptors, each functioning like a chemical lock. When the appropriate chemical slides into a receptor, this chemical acts like a key, unlocking some particular action of the receptor. In a sense, these receptors allow the outside world to communicate with the interior of cells.

Activating one of these receptors, known as death receptor 4, will release a signal that instructs the cell to die. For the Yonsei team, the trick was figuring out how to activate that receptor.

They turned to nanoparticles of iron. These bits are far too small to be seen with the human eye (and much smaller than the cells themselves). The researchers attached the metal particles to proteins that can find and stick to the death receptor.

In tests, the researchers added the iron-protein combos to a lab dish containing colon cancer cells. As the team had hoped, the protein "glued" the nanoparticles to the cells. Then the scientists used magnets to pull on the nanoparticles - and flip the death receptor's switch. At once, cells started to die. After 24 hours of this magnetic therapy, more than half of the cancer cells were dead.

"They've identified a major opportunity for magnetic nanoparticles [in medicine]," bioengineer Andrew MacKay told Science News. MacKay, who did not work on the new study, is from the University of Southern California. He and other bioengineers use knowledge about technology to better control living things.

It's too soon to know whether this magnetic therapy will be able to distinguish healthy cells from diseased cells. And that's important because the surface of healthy cells also contains the vulnerable death receptors. So the success of this potential treatment will depend on whether the scientists can design their nanoparticles to attach only to cells responsible for disease.

cancer A disease caused by an uncontrolled division of abnormal cells.

bioengineering The application of technology for the beneficial manipulation of living things.

iron A strong, hard metal that's often used in construction.

nano Something characterized as being around a nanometer - one-billionth of a meter long - in at least one dimension.

protein A molecule made of one or more long chains of amino acids. Proteins are an essential part of all living organisms, especially the structural components of body tissues.

Stephen Ornes lives in Nashville, Tenn., and his family has two rabbits, six chickens and a cat. He has written for Science News Explores since 2008 on topics including lightning, feral pigs, big bubbles and space junk.

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Magnets hold things to our refrigerators, and inside compasses they help us find our way. Now researchers have found a way to use magnets like a remote control to turn on cell-killing, metal beads. The technology may point to new treatments for diseases such as cancer, which kills more than 7 million people every year.

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How cells correct errors under time pressure? - Chandler

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How cells correct errors under time pressure? - Chandler

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Summary- Cell cycle checkpoints monitor cells and can stop either the cell cycle or the organism's development when they detect problems.

Facts - When cells become cancerous, they decouple ( separate ) from their fitness.
Cell cycle checkpoints protect transformed cells from external and internal stress.

Something i found interesting - There are many checkpoints but only three get mentioned the most, which is the G1/S, G2/M and the spindle assembly checkpoint ( SAC)

Question I have - What triggers cell cycle checkpoints?

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Cells go through a life cycle that includes growing to the right size, being equipped to perform its functions, and finally dividing into two new cells. The cell cycle is critical because it ensures the perpetuation of the cell population and by extension of the greater structure they are a part of -- for example a tissue in the body.

The cell cycle itself is tightly regulated by checkpoints, which prevent errors like mutations or DNA damage from being passed onto the next generation of cells. Each checkpoint acts as a kind of quality-control monitor (a biological "checklist") that ensures the order, integrity, and fidelity of the cell cycle. But checkpoints themselves often fail or are overridden after a prolonged stop of the cell cycle. If this happens in the human body, the result could be unregulated cell growth and division, which is what happens in cancer.

"Checkpoints monitor cells or whole organisms and can stop either the cell cycle or the organism's development when they detect problems," says Sahand Jamal Rahi at EPFL's School of Basic Sciences. "But if cells or organisms are stuck with an error for a very long time, in many cases, they just continue dividing or growing; they don't stop forever. There is a real risk of dying if checkpoints do not stop at all, but also waiting forever is effectively equivalent to dying."
The math of checkpoint override
The question is then, how does the cell balance risk and speed when dividing? Although critical, checkpoint override is not very well understood, neither theoretically nor experimentally. But in a new paper, Rahi and his colleagues put forward the first mathematical theory to describe the process of checkpoint override. "Many organisms have to predict what's going to happen," he says. "You have a problem and you have to assess how bad that problem could be because the consequences are not certain. You could survive this or you might not survive this. So, the cell makes a bet either way. And in this study, we analyze the odds of that bet."

For a real-life model organism, the researchers looked at the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which has been used in winemaking, baking and brewing for centuries. "There are systems that monitor organisms, and among these systems, possibly the best studied is the DNA damage checkpoint in yeast," says Rahi. "So, we thought, let's look at that and see whether we can make sense of checkpoint overrides. We started with a mathematical analysis behind which was a very simple question: what if these organisms are balancing risk and speed because they have to predict the future?"
The risk-speed tradeoff
This tradeoff between risk and speed is similar to the quality control system of a factory assembly line: how fast can you produce things before the quality is affected? How do you balance quality and efficiency? "People have thought about this risk-speed tradeoff for checkpoints before, but they've only thought about it qualitatively," says Rahi. "It's not something that has been actually analyzed or taken seriously. So, I guess we can claim ownership of the idea!"

The scientists looked into the relationship between risk and speed. "The theory is basically balancing different probabilities, so we're computing the change in fitness if you wait versus if you continue with self-replication," says Rahi. "The organism has to come up with a strategy that involves continuously making the decision to wait or go depending on the gravity of the organism's situation at that time. Of course, waiting means that you will make fewer and fewer progeny. So the alternative is to take a risk, so the cell divides and there's a probability that it survives, and there's a probability that it dies." The theory calculates when risk and speed balance one another, determining the optimal "time." "The result turned out to be a very simple equation," Rahi adds.

Despite being developed for yeast, the theory applies broadly to cells because it only takes into account risk and speed, factors that affect all organisms. "There isn't a one-to-one correspondence between what happens in yeast and mammalian cells because mammalian cells have other constraints on them than just maximizing their own growth," says Rahi.
The cancer dimension
"But when cells become cancerous, they decouple their fitness from the fitness of their host. And then Darwinian evolution suggests that they should remodel their checkpoints to maximize growth. It's something we are interested in; one of our next steps is seeing whether cells rewire their checkpoints in an optimal way once they become cancerous."

Rahi does not expect that cancerous cells would abolish their checkpoint systems altogether. "They don't get rid of their checkpoints because then they take on too much risk in each division," he says. "Having no checkpoints whatsoever compared to when they were precancerous is also not optimal because then as soon as there's a problem they will die. So, we're interested to see whether they too aim for this state of optimal balance that our theory describes."

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stem cells; cancer; lymphoma; developmental biology; biology; microbiology; mathematics; mathematical modeling; statistics

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How cells correct errors under time pressure

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Cells go through a life cycle that includes growing to the right size, being equipped to perform its functions, and finally dividing into two new cells. The cell cycle is critical because it ensures the perpetuation of the cell population and by extension of the greater structure they are a part of -- for example a tissue in the body.

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New strategy to preserve insulin-producing cells in diabetes- Daniel

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New strategy to preserve insulin-producing cells in diabetes- Daniel

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Summary-
Researchers have discovered a new strategy to preserve insulin-producing cells, reducing high blood levels in mice.

Facts:
-None can stop or reverse the progression of diabetes
-Insulin therapy can help regulate blood pressure/blood sugar.

Interesting:
Diabetes is none reversible, though there are treatments.

Questions:
How is insulin therapy established or administrated to a mice?
Can this be used in humans?

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High blood glucose is responsible for several complications in type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have identified a new antidiabetic substance that preserves the activity of insulin-producing beta cells and prevents high blood glucose in mice. The study is published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Although several families of glucose-lowering agents are currently used in diabetes therapy, none of them can stop or reverse the progression of the disease. Maintenance of adequate beta cell activity is essential to prevent the progression of type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

"In diabetes, beta cells are challenged to produce high amounts of insulin," says the study's first author Erwin Ilegems, senior researcher at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet. "Our study shows that this leads to a hypoxic state that increases the levels of HIF-1alpha protein, which in turn reduces beta cell activity. By treating diabetic mice with the HIF-1alpha inhibitor PX-478 we successfully decreased their blood glucose levels."
Repurposing an anti-cancer drug
HIF-1alpha (hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha) regulates the response to hypoxia. The discovery of HIF-1alpha was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2019 and this protein is involved in many different diseases. The HIF-1alpha inhibitor PX-478 has already been tested in phase I clinical trials as an anticancer drug and was well tolerated in these patients.

In collaboration with Professor Jorge Ruas' research group at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Karolinska Institutet, the authors could demonstrate that the antidiabetic effect of PX-478 was mainly due to improved pancreatic beta cell activity.

Since it is well established that the production of insulin decreases during the progression of diabetes, therapeutic strategies have so far mostly focused on improving the insulin production of beta cells. However, this approach has not been as successful as initially predicted.

"Current therapies targeting beta cells have only a temporary positive effect on insulin secretion," says the study's last author Per-Olof Berggren, professor at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet. "In the long-term, these drugs lead to beta cell exhaustion."
Long-term treatment of diabetes
Unlike other treatments, PX-478 ameliorates beta cell activity without amplifying insulin secretion. The researchers therefore believe that it can prevent the exhaustion of beta cells and thus be more efficient in the long-term treatment of diabetes.

"We are now planning to further investigate the translatability of our findings to hopefully pave the way for future clinical trials," says Teresa Pereira, researcher at the Department of Medical Cell Biology, Uppsala University (formerly employed by Karolinska Institutet), who is co-last author of the study. "We will start by investigating the impact of PX-478 on human pancreatic beta cell activity by using 'humanised' diabetic mice."

This work was supported by funding from Karolinska Institutet, the Swedish Research Council, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Swedish Diabetes Association, the Family Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation, the Jonas & Christina af Jochnick Foundation, the Family Erling-Persson Foundation, Berth von Kantzow's Foundation, the Skandia Insurance Company, Ltd., the European Research Council, the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme, and the European Diabetes Research Programme in Cellular Plasticity Underlying the Pathophysiology of Type 2 Diabetes. Teresa Pereira has filed a patent entitled "Treatment of diabetes," and co-author Burcak Yesildag is an employee at InSphero AG. All other authors report no competing financial interests.

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diabetes; hormone disorders; hypertension; chronic illness; personalized medicine; vitamin a; stem cells; diseases and conditions

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New strategy to preserve insulin-producing cells in diabetes

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High blood glucose is responsible for several complications in type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have identified a new antidiabetic substance that preserves the activity of insulin-producing beta cells and prevents high blood glucose in mice. The study is published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

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Summary:
Scientists are looking for a way to prevent such adaption by invading the main pillar of cellular life

Facts:
-Different cells have hairs that stop them from converting oxygen into ATP
-Cancer cells often evolve into aggressive forms and become untreatable.

Questions:
Will they ever succeed?
What made then come up with this idea?

This topic is important because they are finding way on how to battle cancer cells with other cells and killing them.

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Summary: EEG and K-complex are ways researchers and surgeons use to see brain activity. When a person is sleeping and their sleep is disturbed the EEG shows. Whenever an EEG shows a k-complex there was a dip in activity in the brain which means the k complex was a sign that the neurons were taking a break.
Facts:
-An EEG represents brain activity
-k complex shows a significant change of  electrical activity in the brain and show when a person sleeping sleep is disturbed
Question:
When they are "taking a break" what are the acutely doing, do they stop moving?

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Scientists have long wanted to know what happens inside the human brain when deep asleep. You may be unconscious, but your brain cells are busy with activity. Neurons, brain cells that conduct electricity, keep your mind humming even while your body is resting.

In a new study, a team of scientists found that neurons take breaks periodically as a person heads into deep sleep. These pauses in neuron activity help keep people asleep, even if they hear noises or are touched. Sydney Cash, a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and his team found a way to study electricity in the brain, inside and out.

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Scientists use different tools to study electrical currents in the brain. One of the most useful is the EEG, or electroencephalogram. An EEG represents the brain's activity as a graph that looks like a long series of differently shaped waves. The height, width and closeness of those waves give scientists a peek at what's happening in a person's head. Even though they can study the patterns, however, scientists don't know what causes the waves to form.

In the study led by Cash, the researchers were interested in a particular type of EEG squiggle called a K-complex. To people who don't understand EEG patterns, a K-complex just looks like a squiggle that's larger than the lines around it. To a trained scientist, a K-complex shows a significant change in the electrical activity in the brain.

A K-complex may show up on an EEG when the sleeping person hears a noise or has his or her sleep disturbed. Or these squiggles may show up for other reasons.

EEGs can't see everything, however. They only measure electric signals - including K-complexes - on the outside of the brain. In the new study, the scientists found a way to see even deeper into the brain. They studied patients with epilepsy, a medical condition that can cause a person to suffer from serious seizures. Epilepsy is believed to be caused by overactive neurons.

In previous surgeries, the people with epilepsy had had tiny electrodes implanted deeper inside their brains. Electrodes are also used to study electrical currents, and doctors had hoped that these devices would help them identify the source of the epileptic seizures.

Cash, who studies epilepsy, realized that those same electrodes could be used to study electrical activity deeper inside the brain while at the same time an EEG told the scientists what was happening on the surface. By comparing the two sets of information, the scientists thought they could better understand brain activity.

They were right. While the patients slept, Cash and his team collected data from both the EEG and from the electrodes. They found that whenever the EEG showed a K-complex, there was a dip in activity inside the brain. In other words, the K-complex was a sign on the outside that neurons on the inside were taking a break. These breaks help keep people asleep. Cash's research also shows that K-complexes don't spread to the entire brain, which means that only some neurons take a break at any given time.

The brain has long been one of the most mysterious parts of the human body. Studies like this one help scientists open a window onto the inner workings of our heads - and possibly figure out how the circuitry works. Understanding how neurons behave is important, but scientists also need to know what these cells do when they're not at work. As this study shows, neurons take a break so you can too.

Stephen Ornes lives in Nashville, Tenn., and his family has two rabbits, six chickens and a cat. He has written for Science News Explores since 2008 on topics including lightning, feral pigs, big bubbles and space junk.

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Scientists have long wanted to know what happens inside the human brain when deep asleep. You may be unconscious, but your brain cells are busy with activity. Neurons, brain cells that conduct electricity, keep your mind humming even while your body is resting. In a new study, a team of scientists found that neurons take [...]

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Aubrey Ward - "Here's how sea otters stay warm without blubber or a large body"

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Aubrey Ward - "Here's how sea otters stay warm without blubber or a large body"

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although otters are tiny with no true heat absorbing factors, they're still able to produce hear and thrive in the cold seas. their metabolism is so high because it was found that they have leaks in their mitochondria. this causes them to have to make up for that loss energy. it would be hard for otters to live without this because water transfers heat more than 22x as well as air does. they're skeletal system takes up 1/2 their body weight.  i thought it was mind blowing that otters' metabolism is 3x faster than predicted for their size. my question would be; do ant of otters ancestors have this trait?

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Here’s how sea otters stay warm without blubber or a large body

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For the smallest mammal in the ocean, staying warm is tough. Now, scientists have figured out how the animals’ cells rise to the challenge.

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"New ultrasound treatment kills off cancer cells" -Anna

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"New ultrasound treatment kills off cancer cells" -Anna

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Summary -
This article talks about how doctors are striving to find more than one way to kill cancer cells so the patient isn't suffering in pain or killing the healthy cells.

Important Facts
-chemo=poison
-chemo and radiation kill the cancerous cells but also kill the healthy
-cancer spreads quick
-high-intensity waves kill the bad and good cells.

Questions
Does it kill the cells quicker?
What happens if it fails on a human?

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Most cancer treatments involve surgery, chemical poisons or toxic radiation. Because they tend to take out healthy cells along with cancerous ones, these treatments can leave patients tired, hurting and more. So researchers are looking for new approaches that spare the healthy cells. One new idea would destroy cancer cells with ultrasound energy. Even this treatment, however, can sometimes damage healthy tissue. But a new development may help. It limits the ultrasound energy's damage to only the cancer cells. Healthy cells should suffer little if any harm from it.

It's exciting, says David Mittelstein of his team's findings. Mittelstein is a biomedical engineer at the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena. Low-intensity ultrasound, he says, "may allow physicians to target cancer cells based on their unique physical and structural properties." Any spillover of the energy should cause little harm to healthy tissue.

The treatment sends out pulses of sound waves - energy - that have a frequency above 20,000 hertz (cycles per second). That's too high for our ears to hear. (That's also what makes it "ultra" sound.) Medical imaging relies on very short pulses of this low-intensity ultrasound.

Doctors had already used high-intensity ultrasound to kill cancer cells. These sound waves send lots of energy to a small, focused area. The waves vibrate water inside cells within that area. This causes the cells to heat up. A lot. Targeted cells and their neighbors can reach 65° Celsius (149° Fahrenheit) in just 20 seconds. This kills cancer cells. The down side: It kills healthy ones, too.

Mittelstein's team wanted to try something different.

Another Caltech lab had studied effects of low-intensity ultrasound on cancer cells. These cells differ from healthy ones. They have a bigger nucleus. They're softer, too. This other Caltech team created computer models of cancer cells. These models suggested that low-intensity ultrasound might kill those cells. The process, Mittelstein explains, is "similar to how a trained singer can shatter a wine glass by singing a specific note."

This idea hadn't been tested, however. So his team set out to do that.

First, they mixed cancer cells with healthy blood cells and immune cells. The cells were all suspended in a liquid. Then the scientists directed short pulses of low-intensity ultrasound at this suspension.

ttsz/iStock/Getty Images Plus

The team tested different ultrasound frequencies (ranging from 300,000 to 650,000 hertz). They also tested different pulse durations (from 2 to 40 milliseconds). One minute of 500,000 hertz ultrasound, delivered in 20-millisecond bursts, killed nearly every cancer cell. It didn't hurt the blood cells. It also left more than eight in every 10 immune cells unharmed. Mittelstein rates it a huge success.

A role for microbubbles

The treatment caused super-small microbubbles - likely tiny bubbles of air present in the fluid - to merge. The ultrasound waves caused these bigger bubbles to oscillate (move back and forth). The oscillation caused these microbubbles to grow, then violently collapse. To kill cancer cells, Mittlestein reports, "microbubble oscillation was necessary - but not sufficient." Microbubbles oscillated in both healthy and cancer cells. "But only the cancer cells," he notes, "were vulnerable to certain frequencies of ultrasound."

More damage occurred when the ultrasound waves bounced back to hit the cancer cells more than once.

The initial ultrasound waves are known as traveling waves. They move out from the machine that produces them. But when those waves hit a surface of some type, they can reflect back - into the oncoming traveling waves. The colliding waves combine to form a special pattern known as "a standing wave," Mittelstein notes. And this wave has some "special stationary spots called 'nodes,'" he explains. At these, the pressure remains constant. Some other stationary spots, called "anti-nodes," also develop. In them, he says, "the pressure goes up and down at twice the amplitude [height] of the traveling wave." In the end, bubbles in the standing wave oscillate more than do those in a normal wave. And that extra oscillation proved essential to killing cancer cells.

The team suspects the standing wave brings microbubbles closer together. That then boosts the ultrasound energy deposited on the cells, Mittelstein says. Not all cells respond equally to this standing wave. Which do will depend on their physical properties. Here, only cancer cells were harmed.

David Mittelstein/Caltech

In his experiment, Mittelstein used a reflector to bounce the sound waves back into the suspension to create that standing wave. Bouncing ultrasound against bone might provide the same type of boosted impact, he suspects.

The team published its findings January 7 in Applied Physics Letters.

This study is exciting, says Timothy Meakem. He was not involved with the study. He does, however, know about ultrasound's value in medicine. He works at Focused Ultrasound Foundation in Charlottesville, Va., as its chief medical officer. If the effect seen in these cells also occurs in people, he says, it would let doctors target cancer cells in ways not currently possible.

However, he cautions, this technique is not ready for use in patients. This is just the first step in the process of developing a new treatment. But if the next stages go well, it "might be a huge benefit to patients."

Mittelstein is already moving ahead. His team's next experiments will go beyond targeting cells in a liquid. They will focus on mounds of cells, which model a cancerous tumor. If they get similar cell killing in treated tumors, he says, "we think this therapy could make a significant impact in cancer therapy."

This is one in a series presenting news on technology and innovation, made possible with generous support from the Lemelson Foundation.

Power Words
More About Power Words

amplitude: A measure of the height of a recurring wave in some signal, water or beam of radiation. In sound, wave amplitude corresponds with intensity - loudness or softness.

cancer: Any of more than 100 different diseases, each characterized by the rapid, uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells. The development and growth of cancers, also known as malignancies, can lead to tumors, pain and death.

cell: The smallest structural and functional unit of an organism. Typically too small to see with the unaided eye, it consists of a watery fluid surrounded by a membrane or wall. Depending on their size, animals are made of anywhere from thousands to trillions of cells.

chemical: A substance formed from two or more atoms that unite (bond) in a fixed proportion and structure. For example, water is a chemical made when two hydrogen atoms bond to one oxygen atom. Its chemical formula is H ₂ O. Chemical also can be an adjective to describe properties of materials that are the result of various reactions between different compounds.

computer model: A program that runs on a computer that creates a model, or simulation, of a real-world feature, phenomenon or event.

development: (in engineering) The growth or change of something from an idea to a prototype.

engineer: A person who uses science to solve problems. As a verb, to engineer means to design a device, material or process that will solve some problem or unmet need.

focus: (in physics) The point at which rays (of light or heat for example) converge sometimes with the aid of a lens.

frequency: The number of times some periodic phenomenon occurs within a specified time interval. (In physics) The number of wavelengths that occurs over a particular interval of time.

hertz: The frequency with which something (such as a wavelength) occurs, measured in the number of times the cycle repeats per second of time.

immune: (adj.) Having to do with the immunity. (v.) Able to ward off a particular infection. Alternatively, this term can be used to mean an organism shows no impacts from exposure to a particular poison or process. More generally, the term may signal that something cannot be hurt by a particular drug, disease or chemical.

millisecond: A thousandth of a second.

nucleus: Plural is nuclei. (in biology) A dense structure present in many cells. Typically, a single rounded structure encased within a membrane, the nucleus contains the genetic information.

oscillate: (n. oscillation) To swing back and forth with a steady, uninterrupted rhythm.

physics: The scientific study of the nature and properties of matter and energy. Classical physics is an explanation of the nature and properties of matter and energy that relies on descriptions such as Newton's laws of motion. A scientist who works in such areas is known as a physicist.

pressure: Force applied uniformly over a surface, measured as force per unit of area.

radiation: (in physics) One of the three major ways that energy is transferred. In radiation, electromagnetic waves carry energy from one place to another. Radiation can transfer energy across empty space.

sound wave: A wave that transmits sound. Sound waves have alternating swaths of high and low pressure.

suspension: (in chemistry) A mixture in which particles are dispersed throughout the bulk of a fluid.

therapy: (adj. therapeutic) Treatment intended to relieve or heal a disorder.

tissue: Made of cells, it is any of the distinct types of materials that make up animals, plants or fungi. Cells within a tissue work as a unit to perform a particular function in living organisms. Different organs of the human body, for instance, often are made from many different types of tissues.

toxic: Poisonous or able to harm or kill cells, tissues or whole organisms. The measure of risk posed by such a poison is its toxicity.

tumor: A mass of cells characterized by atypical and often uncontrolled growth. Benign tumors will not spread; they just grow and cause problems if they press against or tighten around healthy tissue. Malignant tumors will ultimately shed cells that can seed the body with new tumors. Malignant tumors are also known as cancers.

ultrasound: (adj. ultrasonic) Sounds at frequencies above the range that can be detected by the human ear. Also the name given to a medical procedure that uses ultrasound to "see" within the body.

unique: Something that is unlike anything else; the only one of its kind.

vibrate: To rhythmically shake or to move continuously and rapidly back and forth.

wave: A disturbance or variation that travels through space and matter in a regular, oscillating fashion

Alison Pearce Stevens is a former biologist and forever science geek who writes about science and nature for kids. She lives with her husband, their two kids and a small menagerie of cuddly (and not-so cuddly) critters.

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New ultrasound treatment kills off cancer cells

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Most cancer treatments involve surgery, chemical poisons or toxic radiation. Because they tend to take out healthy cells along with cancerous ones, these treatments can leave patients tired, hurting and more. So researchers are looking for new approaches that spare the healthy cells. One new idea would destroy cancer cells with ultrasound energy.

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Explainer: Cells and their parts - Jalyn

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Explainer: Cells and their parts - Jalyn

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Summary - Cells make up every living thing and they require certain structures like cell membranes and the nucleus to do it.

Important Facts - The cell is the smallest living unit

The thing I found interesting - How many organelles that can fit into a microscopic organism.

Question - Are there variations of cell structures between plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, etc?

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amino acids: Simple molecules that occur naturally in plant and animal tissues and that are the basic building blocks of proteins.

amoeba: A single-celled microbe that catches food and moves about by extending fingerlike projections of a colorless material called protoplasm. Amoebas are either free-living in damp environments or they are parasites.

ATP: Short for adenosine triphosphate. Cells make this molecule to power almost all of their activities. Cells use oxygen and simple sugars to create this molecule, the main source of their energy. The small structures in cells that carry out this energy-storing process are known as mitochondria. Like a battery, ATP stores a bit of usable energy. Once the cell uses it up, mitochondria must recharge the cell by making more ATP using energy harvested from the cell's nutrients.

bacteria: (singular: bacterium) Single-celled organisms. These dwell nearly everywhere on Earth, from the bottom of the sea to inside other living organisms (such as plants and animals). Bacteria are one of the three domains of life on Earth.

biologist: A scientist involved in the study of living things.

carbohydrates: Any of a large group of compounds occurring in foods and living tissues, including sugars, starch and cellulose. They contain hydrogen and oxygen in the same ratio as water (2:1) and typically can be broken down in an animal's body to release energy.

carbon dioxide: (or CO ₂) A colorless, odorless gas produced by all animals when the oxygen they inhale reacts with the carbon-rich foods that they've eaten. Plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen during photosynthesis, the process they use to make their own food.

cell: (in biology) The smallest structural and functional unit of an organism.

cell membrane: A structure that separates the inside of a cell from what is outside of it. Some particles are permitted to pass through the membrane.

chemical: A substance formed from two or more atoms that unite (bond) in a fixed proportion and structure. For example, water is a chemical made when two hydrogen atoms bond to one oxygen atom. Its chemical formula is H ₂ O. Chemical also can be an adjective to describe properties of materials that are the result of various reactions between different compounds.

chlorophyll: Any of several green pigments found in plants that perform photosynthesis - creating sugars (foods) from carbon dioxide and water.

chloroplast: A tiny structure in the cells of green algae and green plants that contain chlorophyll and creates glucose through photosynthesis.

cholesterol: A fatty material in animals that forms a part of cell walls. In vertebrate animals, it travels through the blood in little vessels known as lipoproteins. Excessive levels in the blood can signal risks to blood vessels and heart.

contract: To activate muscle by allowing filaments in the muscle cells to connect. The muscle becomes more rigid as a result.

develop: To emerge or to make come into being, either naturally or through human intervention, such as by manufacturing. (in biology) To grow as an organism from conception through adulthood, often undergoing changes in chemistry, size, mental maturity or sometimes even shape.

digest: (noun: digestion) To break down food into simple compounds that the body can absorb and use for growth. Some sewage-treatment plants harness microbes to digest - or degrade - wastes so that the breakdown products can be recycled for use elsewhere in the environment.

DNA: (short for deoxyribonucleic acid) A long, double-stranded and spiral-shaped molecule inside most living cells that carries genetic instructions. It is built on a backbone of phosphorus, oxygen, and carbon atoms. In all living things, from plants and animals to microbes, these instructions tell cells which molecules to make.

environment: The sum of all of the things that exist around some organism or the process and the condition those things create. Environment may refer to the weather and ecosystem in which some animal lives, or, perhaps, the temperature and humidity (or even the placement of things in the vicinity of an item of interest).

eukaryote: Any organism whose cells have a nucleus. Eukaryotes include all multicellular creatures (such as plants, animals and fungi) as well as certain types of single-celled microorganisms.

fat: A natural oily or greasy substance occurring in plants and in animal bodies, especially when deposited as a layer under the skin or around certain organs. Fat's primary role is as an energy reserve. Fat also is a vital nutrient, though it can be harmful if consumed in excessive amounts.

fiber: Something whose shape resembles a thread or filament. (in nutrition) Components of many fibrous plant-based foods. These so-called non-digestible fibers tend to come from cellulose, lignin, and pectin - all plant constituents that resist breakdown by the body's digestive enzymes.

filament: Something with a thin, thread-like shape. For instance, the fragile metal wire that heats up to emit light inside an incandescent light bulb is known as its filament.

fungi: (sing: fungus) Organisms with one or more cells that reproduce via spores and feed on living or decaying organic matter. Examples include mold, yeasts and mushrooms.

genetic: Having to do with chromosomes, DNA and the genes contained within DNA. The field of science dealing with these biological instructions is known as genetics. People who work in this field are geneticists.

liver: An organ of the body of animals with backbones that performs a number of important functions. It can store fat and sugar as energy, break down harmful substances for excretion by the body, and secrete bile, a greenish fluid released into the gut, where it helps digest fats and neutralize acids.

lysosome: A major structure within cells that is surrounded by a membrane. It's interior liquid is acidic and contains enzymes that can be used to break down (digest) proteins and other types of molecular trash - materials for which the cell no longer has any need

membrane: A barrier which blocks the passage (or flow through) of some materials depending on their size or other features. Membranes are an integral part of filtration systems. Many serve that same function as the outer covering of cells or organs of a body.

messenger RNA: A type of genetic material that is copied from DNA. This mRNA carries the instructions for building a cell's proteins.

microscope: An instrument used to view objects, like bacteria, or the single cells of plants or animals, that are too small to be visible to the unaided eye.

mitochondria: (sing. mitochondrion) Structures in all cells (except bacteria and archaea) that break down nutrients, converting them into a form of energy known as ATP.

molecule: An electrically neutral group of atoms that represents the smallest possible amount of a chemical compound. Molecules can be made of single types of atoms or of different types. For example, the oxygen in the air is made of two oxygen atoms (O ₂), but water is made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom (H ₂ O).

multicellular: Having or consisting of many cells. This includes all animals and plants, and many types of fungus.

muscle: A type of tissue used to produce movement by contracting its cells, known as muscle fibers. Muscle is rich in protein, which is why predatory species seek prey containing lots of this tissue.

network: A group of interconnected people or things. (v.) The act of connecting with other people who work in a given area or do similar thing (such as artists, business leaders or medical-support groups), often by going to gatherings where such people would be expected, and then chatting them up.

nitrogen: A colorless, odorless and nonreactive gaseous element that forms about 78 percent of Earth's atmosphere.

nucleotides: The four chemicals that, like rungs on a ladder, link up the two strands that make up DNA. They are: A (adenine), T (thymine), C (cytosine) and G (guanine). A links with T, and C links with G, to form DNA. In RNA, uracil takes the place of thymine.

nucleus: Plural is nuclei. (in biology) A dense structure present in many cells. Typically a single rounded structure encased within a membrane, the nucleus contains the genetic information. (in astronomy) The rocky body of a comet, sometimes carrying a jacket of ice or frozen gases. (in physics) The central core of an atom, containing most of its mass.

nutrient: A vitamin, mineral, fat, carbohydrate or protein that a plant, animal or other organism requires as part of its food in order to survive.

organelle: Specialized structures, such as mitochondria, found within a cell.

organism: Any living thing, from elephants and plants to bacteria and other types of single-celled life.

oxygen: A gas that makes up about 21 percent of Earth's atmosphere. All animals and many microorganisms need oxygen to fuel their growth (and metabolism).

pathogen: An organism that causes disease.

permeable: Having pores or openings that permit liquids or gases to pass through. Sometimes materials can be permeable for one particular type of liquid or gas (water, for example) but block others (such as oil)

phosphate: A chemical containing one atom of phosphorus and four atoms of oxygen. It is a component of bones, hard white tooth enamel, and some minerals such as apatite.

photosynthesis: (verb: photosynthesize) The process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to produce foods from carbon dioxide and water.

pigment: A material, like the natural colorings in skin, that alter the light reflected off of an object or transmitted through it. The overall color of a pigment typically depends on which wavelengths of visible light it absorbs and which ones it reflects.

prokaryote: Any single-celled organism that does not have a nucleus or membrane-bound organelles.

protein: A compound made from one or more long chains of amino acids. Proteins are an essential part of all living organisms. They form the basis of living cells, muscle and tissues; they also do the work inside of cells. Among the better-known, stand-alone proteins are the hemoglobin (in blood) and the antibodies (also in blood) that attempt to fight infections. Medicines frequently work by latching onto proteins.

range: The full extent or distribution of something. For instance, a plant or animal's range is the area over which it naturally exists.

recycle: To find new uses for something - or parts of something - that might otherwise be discarded, or treated as waste.

RNA: A molecule that helps "read" the genetic information contained in DNA. A cell's molecular machinery reads DNA to create RNA, and then reads RNA to create proteins.

stress: (in biology) A factor - such as unusual temperatures, movements, moisture or pollution - that affects the health of a species or ecosystem.

trillion: A number representing a million million - or 1,000,000,000,000 - of something.

unicellular: An adjective for organisms that possess a single cell, such as an amoeba or bacterium.

unique: Something that is unlike anything else; the only one of its kind.

unit: (in measurements) A unit of measurement is a standard way of expressing a physical quantity. Units of measure provide context for what numerical values represent and so convey the magnitude of physical properties. Examples include inches, kilograms, ohms, gauss, decibels, kelvins and nanoseconds.

vesicle: A small fluid-filled sac inside cells. These sacs can hold chemicals that can be released either within the cell or outside of it.

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Life as we know it depends on the coordination of structures inside cells - whether a living thing has only a single cell or trillions of them.

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Giant cave crystals may be home to 50,000-year-old microbes-Amiya 

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Giant cave crystals may be home to 50,000-year-old microbes-Amiya 

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Summary:
50,000 year old microbes have been extracted from crystals in a cave in Mexico. This discovery may lead to finding life beyond earth.

Facts:
- The crystal microbes are extremophiles.
- The microbes are not related to any genus.

Interesting:
Something that I found intriguing is how the microbes have survived for thousands of years.

Question:
How have the microbes survived for so long?

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Jamb and Jamc: essential proteins for the fusion of muscle cells. - Tripp

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Jamb and Jamc: essential proteins for the fusion of muscle cells. - Tripp

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Summary -
This article highlights two proteins, Jamb and Jamc. These proteins help with myoblast fusion, the fusion of muscular precursor cells. This process is essential for building proper skeletal mass as well as muscle fibers.

Important Facts -
In a study with zebrafish, Jamb and Jamc were helpful in building muscle tissue.
Loss of Jamb and Jamc could result in diseases such as muscular dystrophy.

Question -
Could humans use proteins like Jamb and Jamc to their advantage and help cure muscular dystrophy? Could humans access these proteins to build a greater amount of muscle mass overall?

In this article, I found the overall process of myoblast fusion to be the most interesting detail. Throughout my reading I kept wondering about the human access and ability to harness myoblast fusion. Maybe this function could help humans eventually find a process that increases the capacity for muscular tissue in a more "natural" way.

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from research organizations

Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have discovered two proteins that are essential for the fusion of muscle cells to build muscle fibres. Their discovery might help us better understand and treat illnesses such as muscle-wasting disorders and diseases of bone over-growth, in which cellular fusion is an important feature.

Cellular fusion is necessary to form larger cells that have specific functions throughout growth. Among the tissues that depend on cell fusion are the placenta, skeletal muscle and bone reshaping cells.

The team showed that Jamb and Jamc, two cell surface proteins, must directly interact on neighbouring cells so that they can fuse together and form a normal muscle fibre. Loss of function of either of these proteins completely prevented cellular fusion which resulted in unusual muscles. The study concluded that the binding of Jamb and Jamc is therefore critical for the recognition and adhesion of muscle cells, which then allow them to fuse.

"Researchers have sought for decades to identify proteins that are essential for muscle fusion, but surprisingly little is known about the cell and molecular biology of cell fusion in vertebrates," explains Dr Gareth Powell, lead author of the research from the Sanger Institute. "There is a view within the field that several redundant receptor proteins initiate fusion. Because of this, when we first made the discovery, I genuinely assumed something had gone wrong.

"When I realised it wasn't a mistake, I was overwhelmed by what we'd found."

The researchers examined the role of the Jamb and Jamc proteins in zebrafish embryos that lacked functional forms of either protein. The modified embryos lacking either of the proteins failed to form normal muscle fibres which result from the fusion of many precursor cells. The abnormal muscles had many more -- but thinner -- muscle fibres.

Jamb and Jamc have been studied extensively and have well-characterised roles in the migration of white blood cells and the formation of sperm. This is the first time it has been reported that both proteins are involved in muscle development.

"To our knowledge, this is the first example of a vertebrate cell surface protein pair essential for cellular fusion. Our discovery has important implications for understanding the biological mechanisms of fusion and also muscle repair and development," says Dr Gavin Wright, senior author from the Sanger Institute. "Our ultimate goal is to discover whether or not there is a universal set of proteins that have the ability to fuse any cell type, not just muscle cells."

The expression of both Jamb and Jamb are not restricted to muscle cells and are expressed in other tissue types. The researchers suspect that additional proteins are required along with Jamb and Jamc in other cells to complete the fusion process.

This research represents an important starting point. Now that we know which proteins are involved, we now have a clear route towards understanding more about cellular fusion and how it is regulated. The eventual hope is that this discovery will pave the way towards applications and medical treatments that depend on cellular fusion.

Journal Reference:

Gareth T. Powell, Gavin J. Wright. Jamb and Jamc Are Essential for Vertebrate Myocyte Fusion. PLoS Biology, 2011; 9 (12): e1001216 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001216

Cite This Page:

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stem cells; fibromyalgia; immune system; bone and spine; biology; cell biology; molecular biology; biotechnology and bioengineering

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The mystery behind the building of muscle: Jamb and Jamc are essential proteins for the fusion of muscle cells

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Cell fusion, the union of precursor cells to form one large cell containing many nuclei, is crucial to the development and maintenance of several tissues; for example, the placenta, bone-reshaping osteoclasts and skeletal muscle. Finding out which genes are essential for this process has been of great interest for decades, but surprisingly little is known about the cell and molecular biology of the process in vertebrates.

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Cancer cells eat themselves to survive - Runic

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Cancer cells eat themselves to survive - Runic

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Summary
--> Cancer cells especially the aggressive ones, can repair themselves using a technique called macropinocytosis, where the cells eat their own membrane.
Facts
--> The cells pull a full membrane over the damage area to seal the hole in just a couple of minutes
--> The damage part of the cell membrane is separated into tiny spheres and transported to the cell's 'stomach'
--> They've shot tiny lasers into cancer cells to see what actually happens
--> Cancer cells can block off a damage part of themselves
--> This can be seen as a weak point in cancer cells
Questions
--> How did they find this out?
--> How are we going to be able to prevent them from doing this?
Importance
--> This article is important because this is a step towards finding a way to defeat or cure cancer.

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To survive life threatening injuries, cancer cells use a technique in which they eat parts of the membrane surrounding them. This is shown for the first time in research from a team of Danish researchers.

It is the membrane of cancer cells that is at the focus of the new research now showing a completely new way in which cancer cells can repair the damage that can otherwise kill them.

In both normal cells and cancer cells, the cell membrane acts as the skin of the cells. And damage to the membrane can be life threatening. The interior of cells is fluid, and if a hole is made in the membrane, the cell simply floats out and dies -- a bit like a hole in a water balloon.

Therefore, damage to the cell membrane must be repaired quickly, and now research from a team of Danish researchers shows that cancer cells use a technique called macropinocytosis. The technique, which is already a known tool for cells in other contexts, consists in the cancer cells pulling the intact cell membrane in over the damaged area and sealing the hole in a matter of minutes. Next, the damaged part of the cell membrane is separated into small spheres and transported to the cells' 'stomach' -- the so-called lysosomes, where they are broken down.

In the laboratory, the researchers damaged the membrane of the cancer cells using a laser that shoots small holes in the membrane and triggers macropinocytosis. Here they can see that if the process is inhibited with substances blocking the formation of the small membrane spheres, the cancer cell can no longer repair the damage and dies.

"Our research provides very basic knowledge about how cancer cells survive. In our experiments, we have also shown that cancer cells die if the process is inhibited, and this points towards macropinocytosis as a target for future treatment. It is a long-term perspective, but it is interesting," says group leader Jesper Nylandsted from the Danish Cancer Society's Research Center and the University of Copenhagen, who has headed the new research and who for many years has investigated how cancer cells repair their membranes.
Possibility of recycling
One of the most dangerous properties of cancer is when the disease spreads in the body. If tumors occur in new parts of the body, the disease becomes more difficult to treat and typically requires more extensive forms of treatment. It is also when cancer cells spread through the body's tissues that they are particularly prone to damage to their membrane.

Researchers at the Danish Cancer Society have previously shown how cancer cells can use another technique to repair the membrane, namely by tying off the damaged part, rather like when a lizard throws its tail.

However, the experiments in the laboratory could indicate that especially the aggressive cancer cells use macropinocytosis. This may be due to the fact that the cancer cell has the opportunity to reuse the damaged membrane when it is degraded in the lysosomes. This type of recycling will be useful for cancer cells because they divide frequently, requiring large amounts of energy and material for the new cells.

And although the researchers have now published the new results, their work is not over. This is explained by another member of the research team, postdoc Stine Lauritzen Sønder:

"We continue to work and investigate how cancer cells protect their membranes. In connection with macropinocytosis in particular, it is also interesting to see what happens after the membrane is closed. We believe that the first patching is a bit rough and that a more thorough repair of the membrane is needed afterwards. It can be another weak point in the cancer cells, and is something we want to examine closer," she says.

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cancer; brain tumor; lung cancer; lymphoma; genetics; molecular biology; cell biology; biology

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To survive life threatening injuries, cancer cells use a technique in which they eat parts of the membrane surrounding them. This is shown for the first time in research from a team of Danish researchers.

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Gene variants provide insight into brain body incongruence in transgender individuals

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Gene Variations Point to Biological Cause of Body-Brain Incongruence in Transgender Individuals - Seth

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Gene Variations Point to Biological Cause of Body-Brain Incongruence in Transgender Individuals - Seth

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Summary- A study from the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University shows significant evidence for a genetically linked cause of brain-body incongruence, or gender dysphoria, in individuals who's brains are exposed or unexposed to estrogen after birth (Male brains are exposed to estrogen before or after birth, whereas female brains are not.) The article points to how transgender individuals when studied are more likely to have had their brains cross-sexed because of this mechanism.

-> Interesting:
This provides a strong biological argument for the existence of transgender individuals, as opposed to the idea of it being a delusion or mental disorder.

"It doesn't matter which sex organs you have, it's whether estrogen or estrogen masculinizes the brain during this critical period"

They also proposed that gender is just as unique as any other genetic trait, someone with brown eyes does not have the same genetics as someone else with brown eyes and the same with the genetics of gender, whereas no natal males will experience it the same.

- - > I wonder/worry: If this research continues will it allow people to "prove" someone's gender identity, and the ethics of that as it could be dangerous for the trans community if the hypothesis is incorrect.

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Some of the first biological evidence of the incongruence transgender individuals experience, because their brain indicates they are one sex and their body another, may have been found in estrogen receptor pathways in the brain of 30 transgender individuals.

"Twenty-one variants in 19 genes have been found in estrogen signaling pathways of the brain critical to establishing whether the brain is masculine or feminine," says Dr. J. Graham Theisen, obstetrician/gynecologist and National Institutes of Health Women's Reproductive Health Research Scholar at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.

Basically -- and perhaps counterintuitively -- these genes are primarily involved in estrogen's critical sprinkling of the brain right before or after birth, which is essential to masculinization of the brain.

Variants investigators identified may mean that in natal males (people whose birth sex is male) this critical estrogen exposure doesn't happen or the pathway is altered so the brain does not get masculinized. In natal females, it may mean that estrogen exposure happens when it normally wouldn't, leading to masculinization.

Both could result in an incongruence between a person's internal gender and their external sex. The negative emotional experience associated with this incongruence is called gender dysphoria.

"They are experiencing dysphoria because the gender they feel on the inside does not match their external sex," Theisen says. "Once someone has a male or female brain, they have it and you are not going to change it. The goal of treatments like hormone therapy and surgery is to help their body more closely match where their brain already is."

"It doesn't matter which sex organs you have, it's whether estrogen, or androgen, which is converted to estrogen in the brain, masculinizes the brain during this critical period," says Dr. Lawrence C. Layman, chief of the MCG Section of Reproductive Endocrinology, Infertility and Genetics in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. "We have found variants in genes that are important in some of these different areas of the brain."

These brain pathways are involved in regions of the brain where the number of neurons and how connected the neurons are typically differ between males and females.

They note that while this "critical period" for masculinizing the brain may seem late, brain development actually continues well after birth and these key pathways and receptors already need to be established when estrogen arrives.

While it's too early to definitively say the gene variants in these pathways result in the brain-body incongruence called gender dysphoria, it is "interesting" that they are in pathways of hormone involvement in the brain and whether it gets exposed to estrogen or not, says Layman.

He and Theisen are co-corresponding authors of the study in the journal Scientific Reports.

"This is the first study to lay out this framework of sex-specific development as a means to better understand gender identity," Theisen says. "We are saying that looking into these pathways is the approach we are going to be taking in the years ahead to explore the genetic contribution to gender dysphoria in humans."

In fact, they already are exploring the pathways further and in a larger number of transgender individuals.

For this study, they looked at the DNA of 13 transgender males, individuals born female and transitioning to male, and 17 transgender females, born male and transitioning to female. The extensive whole exome analysis, which sequences all the protein-coding regions of a gene (protein expression determines gene and cell function) was performed at the Yale Center for Genome Analysis. The analysis was confirmed by Sanger sequencing, another method used for detecting gene variants.

The variants they found were not present in a group of 88 control exome studies in nontransgender individuals also done at Yale. They also were rare or absent in large control DNA databases.

Reproductive endocrinologist/geneticist Layman says his experience with taking care of transgender patients for about 20 years, made him think there was a biological basis. "We certainly think that for the majority of people who are experiencing gender dysphoria there is a biologic component," says Theisen. "We want to understand what the genetic component of gender identity is."

While genetics have been suggested as a factor in gender dysphoria, proposed candidate genes to date have not been verified, the investigators say. Most gene or gene variants previously explored have been associated with receptors for androgens, hormones more traditionally thought to play a role in male traits but, like estrogen in males, also are present in females.

MCG investigators and their colleagues decided instead to take what little is known about sex-specific brain development -- that estrogen bath needed in early life to ensure masculinization of the brain -- to hone in on potential sites for relevant genetic variances. Extensive DNA testing initially revealed more than 120,000 variants, 21 of which were associated with these estrogen-associated pathways in the brain.

Animal studies have helped identify four areas of the brain with pathways leading to development of a male or female brain, and the investigators focused on those likely also present in humans. Laboratory studies have indicated that disrupting these brain pathways in males and females during this critical period results in cross sex behavior, like female rodents mounting and thrusting and males taking on a more traditional female posture when mating. These cross sex behaviors, which also have been documented in non-human primates, emerge during the natural sex hormone surge of puberty.

While sex specific brain development has not been thoroughly evaluated in humans, as with animals, the effects typically play out most at the time of puberty, a time when sex hormones naturally surge, when the general awareness of our sexuality really begins to awaken and when the complex state of gender dysphoria may become easier for adolescents to articulate, the investigators say. Layman notes that many individuals will report experiencing gender incongruent feelings as early as age 5.

Theisen notes that we all are full of genetic variants, including ones that give us blue eyes versus brown or green, and the majority do not cause disease rather help make us individuals. "I think gender is as unique and as varied as every other trait that we have," Theisen says.

The investigators suggest modification of the current system for classifying variants that would not imply that a variant means pathogenic, or disease causing.

Last year, the World Health Organization said that gender incongruence is not a mental health disorder and six years before that The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, replaced gender identity disorder with general dysphoria.

About 0.5 to 1.4% of individuals born male and 0.2 to 0.3 % of individuals born female meet criteria for gender dysphoria. Identical twins are more likely than fraternal twins to both report gender dysphoria.

Gender affirming therapies, like hormone therapies and surgeries along with mental health evaluation and support, help these individuals better align their bodies and brains, the physician-scientists say.

Transgender individuals experience increased rates of discrimination, sexual violence and are at increased risk of depression, substance abuse and attempted suicide. About 26% report use of alcohol or other drugs to help cope; 19% have been denied medical care by a physician or other provider, some report verbal harassment in a medical environment and insurance companies do not consistently cover the cost of gender affirming hormone or surgical therapies.

A problem, the investigators say, is an overall lack of understanding of the biologic basis of gender dysphoria.

While their study of 30 individuals -- they now have data on more than 30 others -- appears to be the largest to date, the sample size prompted them to classify the published findings as preliminary.

The research was funded in part by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

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brain tumor; gynecology; birth defects; pregnancy and childbirth; gender difference; brain-computer interfaces; brain injury; intelligence

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Gene variants provide insight into brain, body incongruence in transgender

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Some of the first biological evidence of the incongruence transgender individuals experience, because their brain indicates they are one sex and their body another, may have been found in estrogen receptor pathways in the brain of 30 transgender individuals.

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Can live cells found in human breast-milk aid in cancer research?- Avery

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Can live cells found in human breast-milk aid in cancer research?- Avery

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Summary: Since mammary glands and breast tissues change so often, research that is non-invasive to participants has been difficult to perform. Now, with consensual studies on the varying structures between lactating and non-lactating tissues, we are able to better understand some of these trying issues.

Note-worthy facts:
- Lactating women typically produce 750-800ml of breast-milk daily
-All participants, lactating or non-lactating that are donating breast tissue, consent to their cells being studied

- The most interesting part of this study to me is that there are live cells in breast-milk, but also the fact that it took this long to realize that.

Question: What will the outcomes of future tests determine (cancer-wise)?

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The study was led by researchers from the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute (CSCI) and the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge.

Breast tissue is dynamic, changing over time during puberty, pregnancy, breastfeeding, and aging. The paper, published today in the journal Nature Communications, focuses on the changes that take place during lactation by investigating cells found in human milk.

This research, led by Dr Alecia-Jane Twigger of CSCI, found that the cells in milk, once thought to be dead or dying, are in fact very much alive. These living cells provide researchers with the chance to study not only the changes that occur in mammary tissues during lactation, but also insight into a potential early indicator of future breast cancer development.

"I believe that by studying human milk cells, we will be able to answer some of the most fundamental questions around mammary gland function such as: how is milk produced? Why do some women struggle to make milk? and what strategies can be employed to improve breastfeeding outcomes for women?" said Dr Alecia-Jane Twigger at the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute who led the study.

The researchers collected voluntary breast milk samples from lactating women, as well as samples of non-lactating breast tissue donated from women who elected to have aesthetic breast reduction surgery. Using single-cell RNA sequencing analysis, the team conducted a novel comparison of the composition of the mammary cells taken using these two methods, identifying the distinctions between lactating and non-lactating human mammary glands.

While accessing breast tissue for study relies on donors already undergoing surgery, breast milk samples are much simpler to acquire. Breast milk donors are engaged via midwives or women's networks (an undertaking made more challenging by the pandemic) and agree to share their samples over time. Typical daily production for lactating women is between 750-800ml, and the sample size for Twigger's research is on average a mere 50ml, an amount which can contain hundreds of thousands of cells for study.

By collecting these samples donated by breastfeeding women -- samples now known to contain living and viable cells -- researchers have the opportunity to capture dynamic cells in a non-invasive way. This greater ease of access to breast cells can open the door to more studies on women's health in the future.

"The first time Alecia told me that she found live cells in milk I was surprised and excited about the possibilities. We hope this finding will enable future studies into the early steps of breast cancer," said Dr Walid Khaled, at the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and University of Cambridge's Department of Pharmacology, who was also involved in the study.

This paper and its findings are part of the Human Breast Cell Atlas project funded by the MRC.

Journal Reference:

Alecia-Jane Twigger, Lisa K. Engelbrecht, Karsten Bach, Isabel Schultz-Pernice, Sara Pensa, Jack Stenning, Stefania Petricca, Christina H. Scheel, Walid T. Khaled. Transcriptional changes in the mammary gland during lactation revealed by single cell sequencing of cells from human milk. Nature Communications, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27895-0

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breastfeeding; breast cancer; women's health; stem cells; cancer; lymphoma; prostate cancer; menopause

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Live cells discovered in human breast milk could aid breast cancer research

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The study was led by researchers from the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute (CSCI) and the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge. Breast tissue is dynamic, changing over time during puberty, pregnancy, breastfeeding, and aging. The paper, published today in the journal Nature Communications, focuses on the changes that take place during lactation by investigating cells found in human milk.

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~Summary
Brain cells don't just stop working when you go to sleep they stay active but they sometimes take a rest when you are in a really deep sleep. Scientists have used an EEG to see exactly what happened when we are in a deep sleep. It also states that the brain is the most mysterious part of the body.

~Facts
~EEG stands for electroencephalogram
~EEG- represent the brain's activity as a graph that looks like a long shaped wave

~Question
Is there a big difference in brain activity the deeper the sleep gets?

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Scientists have long wanted to know what happens inside the human brain when deep asleep. You may be unconscious, but your brain cells are busy with activity. Neurons, brain cells that conduct electricity, keep your mind humming even while your body is resting.

In a new study, a team of scientists found that neurons take breaks periodically as a person heads into deep sleep. These pauses in neuron activity help keep people asleep, even if they hear noises or are touched. Sydney Cash, a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and his team found a way to study electricity in the brain, inside and out.

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Scientists use different tools to study electrical currents in the brain. One of the most useful is the EEG, or electroencephalogram. An EEG represents the brain's activity as a graph that looks like a long series of differently shaped waves. The height, width and closeness of those waves give scientists a peek at what's happening in a person's head. Even though they can study the patterns, however, scientists don't know what causes the waves to form.

In the study led by Cash, the researchers were interested in a particular type of EEG squiggle called a K-complex. To people who don't understand EEG patterns, a K-complex just looks like a squiggle that's larger than the lines around it. To a trained scientist, a K-complex shows a significant change in the electrical activity in the brain.

A K-complex may show up on an EEG when the sleeping person hears a noise or has his or her sleep disturbed. Or these squiggles may show up for other reasons.

EEGs can't see everything, however. They only measure electric signals - including K-complexes - on the outside of the brain. In the new study, the scientists found a way to see even deeper into the brain. They studied patients with epilepsy, a medical condition that can cause a person to suffer from serious seizures. Epilepsy is believed to be caused by overactive neurons.

In previous surgeries, the people with epilepsy had had tiny electrodes implanted deeper inside their brains. Electrodes are also used to study electrical currents, and doctors had hoped that these devices would help them identify the source of the epileptic seizures.

Cash, who studies epilepsy, realized that those same electrodes could be used to study electrical activity deeper inside the brain while at the same time an EEG told the scientists what was happening on the surface. By comparing the two sets of information, the scientists thought they could better understand brain activity.

They were right. While the patients slept, Cash and his team collected data from both the EEG and from the electrodes. They found that whenever the EEG showed a K-complex, there was a dip in activity inside the brain. In other words, the K-complex was a sign on the outside that neurons on the inside were taking a break. These breaks help keep people asleep. Cash's research also shows that K-complexes don't spread to the entire brain, which means that only some neurons take a break at any given time.

The brain has long been one of the most mysterious parts of the human body. Studies like this one help scientists open a window onto the inner workings of our heads - and possibly figure out how the circuitry works. Understanding how neurons behave is important, but scientists also need to know what these cells do when they're not at work. As this study shows, neurons take a break so you can too.

Stephen Ornes lives in Nashville, Tenn., and his family has two rabbits, six chickens and a cat. He has written for Science News for Students since 2008 on topics including lightning, feral pigs, big bubbles and space junk.

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Scientists have long wanted to know what happens inside the human brain when deep asleep. You may be unconscious, but your brain cells are busy with activity. Neurons, brain cells that conduct electricity, keep your mind humming even while your body is resting. In a new study, a team of scientists found that neurons take [...]

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Cancer cells eat themselves to survive ~ Natalee

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Cancer cells eat themselves to survive ~ Natalee

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Cancer cells can survive longer or repair themselves by eating membranes of healthy cells that surround them.
Key facts:
1. Cancer cells take the nutrients out of the membrane which makes them grow stronger.
2. The nutrients from said membranes recharge and refuel the cell so it lasts longer.
3. Damage to the cell membrane can be life-threatening.
4. By doing this the cancer cells are weakening the healthy cells which is highly fatal.
5. This is what causes cancer patients to die not just the unhealthy cells.
Question: Could this help clean cells stay alive too or is it only cancer cells.

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To survive life threatening injuries, cancer cells use a technique in which they eat parts of the membrane surrounding them. This is shown for the first time in research from a team of Danish researchers.

It is the membrane of cancer cells that is at the focus of the new research now showing a completely new way in which cancer cells can repair the damage that can otherwise kill them.

In both normal cells and cancer cells, the cell membrane acts as the skin of the cells. And damage to the membrane can be life threatening. The interior of cells is fluid, and if a hole is made in the membrane, the cell simply floats out and dies -- a bit like a hole in a water balloon.

Therefore, damage to the cell membrane must be repaired quickly, and now research from a team of Danish researchers shows that cancer cells use a technique called macropinocytosis. The technique, which is already a known tool for cells in other contexts, consists in the cancer cells pulling the intact cell membrane in over the damaged area and sealing the hole in a matter of minutes. Next, the damaged part of the cell membrane is separated into small spheres and transported to the cells' 'stomach' -- the so-called lysosomes, where they are broken down.

In the laboratory, the researchers damaged the membrane of the cancer cells using a laser that shoots small holes in the membrane and triggers macropinocytosis. Here they can see that if the process is inhibited with substances blocking the formation of the small membrane spheres, the cancer cell can no longer repair the damage and dies.

"Our research provides very basic knowledge about how cancer cells survive. In our experiments, we have also shown that cancer cells die if the process is inhibited, and this points towards macropinocytosis as a target for future treatment. It is a long-term perspective, but it is interesting," says group leader Jesper Nylandsted from the Danish Cancer Society's Research Center and the University of Copenhagen, who has headed the new research and who for many years has investigated how cancer cells repair their membranes.
Possibility of recycling
One of the most dangerous properties of cancer is when the disease spreads in the body. If tumors occur in new parts of the body, the disease becomes more difficult to treat and typically requires more extensive forms of treatment. It is also when cancer cells spread through the body's tissues that they are particularly prone to damage to their membrane.

Researchers at the Danish Cancer Society have previously shown how cancer cells can use another technique to repair the membrane, namely by tying off the damaged part, rather like when a lizard throws its tail.

However, the experiments in the laboratory could indicate that especially the aggressive cancer cells use macropinocytosis. This may be due to the fact that the cancer cell has the opportunity to reuse the damaged membrane when it is degraded in the lysosomes. This type of recycling will be useful for cancer cells because they divide frequently, requiring large amounts of energy and material for the new cells.

And although the researchers have now published the new results, their work is not over. This is explained by another member of the research team, postdoc Stine Lauritzen Sønder:

"We continue to work and investigate how cancer cells protect their membranes. In connection with macropinocytosis in particular, it is also interesting to see what happens after the membrane is closed. We believe that the first patching is a bit rough and that a more thorough repair of the membrane is needed afterwards. It can be another weak point in the cancer cells, and is something we want to examine closer," she says.

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cancer; brain tumor; lung cancer; lymphoma; genetics; molecular biology; cell biology; biology

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To survive life threatening injuries, cancer cells use a technique in which they eat parts of the membrane surrounding them. This is shown for the first time in research from a team of Danish researchers.

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Being In Space Destroys More Red Blood Cells-Cloey

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Being In Space Destroys More Red Blood Cells-Cloey

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Summary: Red blood cells are typically a very fast occurring thing to develop in your body but in space they red blood cells are destroys by 54% compared to on earth. This was thought to be due to fluid change but it is not after conducting research it is due to many different changes u experience in space.

Facts:
1)Space Anemia-caused by Lower red blood cell count
2)54% of red blood cells are destroyed in space rather than on earth
3)pace related anemia can be reversed over time
4) space effects the body and fluids in the body over time
5)10% liquid is loss in space

Question: Why does it internally affect the body?

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A world-first study has revealed how space travel can cause lower red blood cell counts, known as space anemia. Analysis of 14 astronauts showed their bodies destroyed 54 percent more red blood cells in space than they normally would on Earth, according to a study published in Nature Medicine.

"Space anemia has consistently been reported when astronauts returned to Earth since the first space missions, but we didn't know why," said lead author Dr. Guy Trudel, a rehabilitation physician and researcher at The Ottawa Hospital and professor at the University of Ottawa. "Our study shows that upon arriving in space, more red blood cells are destroyed, and this continues for the entire duration of the astronaut's mission."

Before this study, space anemia was thought to be a quick adaptation to fluids shifting into the astronaut's upper body when they first arrived in space. Astronauts lose 10 percent of the liquid in their blood vessels this way. It was thought astronauts rapidly destroyed 10 percent of their red blood cells to restore the balance, and that red blood cell control was back to normal after 10 days in space.

Instead, Dr. Trudel's team found that the red blood cell destruction was a primary effect of being in space, not just caused by fluid shifts. They demonstrated this by directly measuring red blood cell destruction in 14 astronauts during their six-month space missions.

On Earth, our bodies create and destroy 2 million red blood cells every second. The researchers found that astronauts were destroying 54 percent more red blood cells during the six months they were in space, or 3 million every second. These results were the same for both female and male astronauts.

Dr. Trudel's team made this discovery thanks to techniques and methods they developed to accurately measure red blood cell destruction. These methods were then adapted to collect samples aboard the International Space Station. At Dr. Trudel's lab at the University of Ottawa, they were able to precisely measure the tiny amounts of carbon monoxide in the breath samples from astronauts. One molecule of carbon monoxide is produced every time one molecule of heme, the deep-red pigment in red blood cells, is destroyed.

While the team didn't measure red blood cell production directly, they assume the astronauts generated extra red blood cells to compensate for the cells they destroyed. Otherwise, the astronauts would end up with severe anemia, and would have had major health problems in space.

"Thankfully, having fewer red blood cells in space isn't a problem when your body is weightless," said Dr. Trudel. "But when landing on Earth and potentially on other planets or moons, anemia affecting your energy, endurance, and strength can threaten mission objectives. The effects of anemia are only felt once you land, and must deal with gravity again."

In this study, five out of 13 astronauts were clinically anemic when they landed -- one of the 14 astronauts did not have blood drawn on landing. The researchers saw that space-related anemia was reversible, with red blood cells levels progressively returning to normal three to four months after returning to Earth.

Interestingly, the team repeated the same measurements one year after astronauts returned to Earth, and found that red blood cell destruction was still 30 percent above preflight levels. These results suggest that structural changes may have happened to the astronaut while they were in space that changed red blood cell control for up to a year after long-duration space missions.

The discovery that space travel increases red blood cell destruction has several implications. First, it supports screening astronauts or space tourists for existing blood or health conditions that are affected by anemia. Second, a recent study by Dr. Trudel's team found that the longer the space mission, the worse the anemia, which could impact long missions to the Moon and Mars. Third, increased red blood cell production will require an adapted diet for astronauts. And finally, it's unclear how long the body can maintain this higher rate of destruction and production of red blood cells.

These findings could also be applied to life on Earth. As a rehabilitation physician, most of Dr. Trudel's patients are anemic after being very ill for a long time with limited mobility, and anemia hinders their ability to exercise and recover. Bedrest has been shown to cause anemia, but how it does this is unknown. Dr. Trudel thinks the mechanism may be like space anemia. His team will investigate this hypothesis during future bedrest studies done on Earth.

"If we can find out exactly what's causing this anemia, then there is a potential to treat it or prevent it, both for astronauts and for patients here on Earth," said Dr. Trudel.

These are the first published results from MARROW, a made-in-Ottawa experiment looking at bone marrow health and blood production in space. The project is funded by the Canadian Space Agency and led by Dr. Trudel.

"This is the best description we have of red blood cell control in space and after return to Earth," said Dr. Trudel. "These findings are spectacular, considering these measurements had never been made before and we had no idea if we were going to find anything. We were surprised and rewarded for our curiosity."

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anemia; sickle cell anemia; hypertension; blood clots; space station; space probes; nasa; space exploration

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Being in space destroys more red blood cells

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A world-first study has revealed how space travel can cause lower red blood cell counts, known as space anemia. Analysis of 14 astronauts showed their bodies destroyed 54 percent more red blood cells in space than they normally would on Earth, according to a new study.

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"Fighting cancer with the help of someone else's cells" -Kay-Lynn

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"Fighting cancer with the help of someone else's cells" -Kay-Lynn

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Sometime's when your own body is unable to fight off cancer on it's own, someone else's immune cells (t cells) may be able to help you do so. T cells kill aberrant (cancerous) cells. Some immune systems may not be able to recognize aberrant cells or sometime's your t cells take "breaks" so you may not be able to fight them off alone. I wonder if this experiment was at all connected to the knowledge of Henrietta Lacks?

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Content on this website is for information only. It is not intended to provide medical or other professional advice.

Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily, its staff, its contributors, or its partners.

Financial support for ScienceDaily comes from advertisements and referral programs, where indicated.

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ScienceDaily: Your source for the latest research news

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Breaking science news and articles on global warming, extrasolar planets, stem cells, bird flu, autism, nanotechnology, dinosaurs, evolution -- the latest discoveries in astronomy, anthropology, biology, chemistry, climate & environment, computers, engineering, health & medicine, math, physics, psychology, technology, and more -- from the world's leading universities and research organizations.

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Vaping is something that partakes within younger audiences and can lead to health problems. Within this article the consequences are shown to let the people make their own decisions.

Facts
-3.6 million U.S students vaped or had interacted with vaping
-40% of high-schoolers used e-cigarettes
-Vapes create oxidative stress that can be helpful but also harmful if there is to much
-Vaping can have cause many health issues including of : heart and lung disease, cancer premature aging, and diseases such as dementia.

Question
-How has something so dangerous be so involved with younger audiences.

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A single vape session can harm immune cells in the body

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Vaping creates molecules in the body that can attack cells and cause damage.

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Fighting cancer with the help of someone else immune cells

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Fighting cancer with the help of someone else immune cells

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Summary:  inserting certain components of T cells into the immune cells of a cancer patient.

Facts:
faster rehabilitation
T cells scan the surface

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The biological system of certain plants can now be altered through the use of artificial nerve cells. Scientists built cells that are ion based, which is similar to human cells. For example, using these cells, humans can make a venus fly trap close its "mouth" even when there isn't any food within the mouth.
These are some facts that were gathered from the scientists' research:
1. Connecting the neuron and the synapse results in a learning behavior
2. The process is harmless
3. Storing information in the synapse is more effective
4. The semiconductors operate at a low voltage
5. The semiconductors are made of organic material and are biodegradable

This is important to scientists and those in the medical field because if they figured out how to operate this on humans they could relieve neurological diseases.

Question: If this were to successfully work on humans, would ethics become an issue?

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"Live Cells Discovered in Human Breast Milk Could Aid Breast Cancer Research"-Andrea

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"Live Cells Discovered in Human Breast Milk Could Aid Breast Cancer Research"-Andrea

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Summary
- When cells in breast tissue and milk were researched it was discovered that cells in the milk, once thought to be dead or dying, are in fact very much alive. It caused people to be excited about it's possibilities because it could open the door to  more studies on women's health in the future.

Facts
-Typically daily production for lactating women is between 750-880 ml
-They used single-cell RNA sequencing analysis for studying the cells

Most interesting
-This new discovery could be insight into a potential early indicator of future breast cancer development.

Question
-Could this discovery help with other illnesses?

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Could we use macropinocytosis against cancer? -Darrell

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Could we use macropinocytosis against cancer? -Darrell

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Main Idea
-The main point is the continual search for the cure for cancer and the many different aspects and effects of cancer.
Facts
-Any damage to the cell membrane must be repared quickly
agressive cancer uses macropinocytosis
Tumors make diseases more difficult to treat
dangerous properties when cancer spread to the body
cancer cells require alot of energy.

Summary-Showes the different reasearch going on with cancer and what types of treatments can help or harm someone further.

Questions What are lysosomes

what are common traits for people who have cancer.

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Can teen depression be linked to how the brain processes rewards?

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Can teen depression be linked to how the brain processes rewards?

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If the ventral striatum is not functioning correctly, it can contribute to depression. Depression can be caused by stressors that can start from early childhood.

Facts:
1. The brain of rodents and primates can show similar connections to humans
2. Stress can change your behavior which can be a contributor to depression.
3. Early childhood stress like neglect or abuse may set the child up for depression.

- Mice have similar brains to ours so they are used in labs to look inside their brains when they experience stress.

Question: How old does the child have to be when to be set up for depression?

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Feeling sad. Sleeping too much. Not wanting to do things that used to be fun. Such feelings may come and go throughout adolescence. But if they last more than two weeks, they can be signs of depression. It's a serious mental health disorder that requires treatment. And it's remarkably common in teens. By age 18, one in four will experience at least one bout of depression. In fact, that may not be surprising, since stress appears to be a major trigger.

People sometimes think of depression as sadness. Some people with depression do feel sad. But many also lose interest in everyday activities. They don't get excited about things they once enjoyed. They lack motivation. They just feel sort of ... empty. They may have trouble sleeping, or sleep too much. They may even eat more - or less - than usual.

Most also spend a lot of time replaying negative events. This and focusing on negative thoughts are known as rumination (Rue-mih-NAY-shun). It gets people thinking too much on what seems to be going wrong in their lives. Such thoughts feed back on themselves in a loop, getting worse and worse.

Daisy-Daisy/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Scientists don't know for sure if rumination causes depression. But "if it doesn't cause depression, it certainly perpetuates it," says Ian Gotlib. He is a psychologist at Stanford University in California. Gotlib is one of many scientists trying to understand teen depression.

People are diagnosed with depression when they experience at least five of nine main symptoms. These include depressed mood and loss of interest or enjoyment in activities. Altered sleep patterns and appetite. Overall low energy. Anxiety and trouble concentrating. Feelings of guilt or low self-worth and thoughts about death. Some are more common than others, but few people experience all of them.

The various mixes of these symptoms number in the hundreds, Gotlib says. And that can make depression tricky to treat. Treatment that works for a teen with one set of symptoms might not work for an adult with a different set. Depression researchers are learning that different changes in the brain may be tied to specific symptoms. When those changes happen during adolescence, they can lead to long-term mental-health issues.

But there's good news, too. The flexibility of the developing brain means teens may be able to prevent long-term problems if they seek help.

Depressed? Where to look for help

The first place to turn is a trusted adult, such as a parent or guardian, doctor, teacher or school counselor. If an adult isn't a good option, try talking to a friend. There are also plenty of options online and through your phone:

TXT4HELP offers 24/7 help for teens in crisis. Text the word "safe" and your location to 4HELP (44357) to receive a text message with a phone number for a local youth agency.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) offers a free, 24/7 helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) and provides callers in English and Spanish referrals to local mental-health-treatment facilities, support groups and community-based organizations.

The Heard Alliance operates a crisis hotline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK), or text START to 741-741.

Learn more about depression and available resources from the National Institute of Mental Health and the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine.

All about rewards

The human brain changes a lot between childhood and early adulthood. It grows and develops during this time. But different areas mature at different rates.

Areas involved in processing emotions mature early. They are part of what's known as the limbic system. Gotlib likens it to an engine. This system is what gets us revved up and going. The prefrontal cortex, in contrast, acts like the brakes. It tries to exert self-control by tamping down the limbic system's impulsive urges. But the prefrontal cortex takes longer to mature - well into someone's twenties.

Part of the limbic system plays a role in motivation and rewards. One area in particular is the ventral striatum (VEN-trahl Stry-AY-tum). This area lies deep inside the brain and influences whether we want to try something. If we do try it, it also affects how much we enjoy it. This area is one reason teens tend to be impulsive. They focus on the thrill but don't yet have a good grasp of the risks.

If the ventral striatum is n't functioning correctly, it may contribute to depression. That's because this region is essential for excitement, anticipation and enjoyment. If we don't feel those emotions, we lose interest in the activities that once sparked them. The resulting apathy is "one of the key symptoms of depression," says Deanna Barch. She is a psychologist at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.

But the ventral striatum doesn't work alone. It partners with two other areas thought to help process rewards. The anterior cingulate (SING-gyew-let) is part of the limbic system. It helps us make decisions, control impulses and regulate emotions. Then there's the parietal (Pu-RY-eh-tul) cortex. It's involved with self-awareness. All three areas act together when we anticipate something good or bad. They also register when something good or bad actually happens.

How the brain measures rewards

Barch wanted to know how depression affects reward regions in the brain. She teamed up with psychologist Katherine Luking, also at Washington University. Their group worked with 100 teens who were 16 to 18 years old. Barch had been working with them since they were young children. For this study, the teens came into the lab to play a virtual card game.

Katherine Luking/Washington University

The team told the kids they would win money if they guessed correctly whether they would win or lose each round of the game. The teens got a hint ahead of time to help them with their guesses. While they played, the kids wore a net of electrodes on their heads. It picked up electrical impulses from different areas of their brains. The electrodes allowed the researchers to see in real time how these brains responded to wins and losses, especially in the reward regions.

Kids who first experienced depression as teens didn't have a big response to wins. But their response to losses proved strong. "They hurt more," Luking explains. That could be because they felt sad or down, she notes, and those feelings were exaggerated when they lost.

Teens who first experienced depression in preschool, on the other hand, didn't show much brain response to wins or losses. This might link to feelings of apathy, Luking says. "You get a 'numbing' effect to both types of feedback with that specific symptom," she notes. For these kids, there's no joy from a win. But a loss also doesn't sting.

Barch and Luking think early life experiences play a role in setting up later feelings of apathy. If you are unable to enjoy things early in life, Barch says, it may "set up your brain to be less responsive to good things in the future."

Latsalomao/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Their findings are supported by other research.

Several studies, for instance, find that early life stress, such as neglect or abuse, may set children up for depression later. Others find that a stressful event in adolescence or later triggers the disorder. Some scientists think there are two parts to developing a mental disorder, Gotlib says. The first is some type of vulnerability. This might be genetic. Or it might be one of those stressful events early in life. The second is experiencing major stress later in life. That might be losing a loved one, for example, or being bullied.

"You can have a genetic predisposition to depression," Gotlib says. But "unless you experience a significant stressor, you may go through life without ever developing the disorder." On the flip side, someone who is not predisposed may experience stress but not develop depression, he notes. Both parts are required to trigger the changes that lead to depression.

Making connections

Changes in a teen's developing brain may make it extra sensitive to stress. The brain contains billions of neurons. During development, these cells grow long extensions called axons. The ends of axons send signals to other neurons. They do this by releasing chemicals called neurotransmitters. This is how the brain's neurons "chat" with each other.

Many connections form within a single brain region. Others connect one region to another, like long-distance highways. Most between-region links form early in life. But those between the limbic system and prefrontal cortex connect during adolescence. This is when the brakes begin to slow down those emotional impulses.

All of that happens in the brain of every teen. But add in depression and you have a recipe for long-term mental-health issues. That's because depression appears to alter how brain connections form. That's true within the prefrontal cortex, notes Cecilia Flores. She is a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Even more importantly, she adds, it's true of links between brain regions.

deliormanli/E+/Getty Images Plus

Flores has been trying to understand what guides axons as they grow. How do they know which brain regions are the "right" ones to which they should connect? How do they know to start chatting with one neuron instead of another?

The brains of rodents and primates show similar connections. So Flores and her lab study them in adolescent mice. The advantage to using mice is that the researchers can later look inside their brains. They can track neurons from one place to another. They can probe for specific molecules that affect neuron growth. And they can see what might be causing changes in behavior.

As in people, stress can change the behavior of mice in ways that resemble depression, the team found. For example, mice normally choose sugar water over plain water. But when stressed, they no longer prefer the sugary option. Mice also are social. But "depressed" mice don't socialize when given the chance.

The brain connections in mice showing these behaviors are also different. Flores and her colleagues focused on two brain chemicals: DCC and Netrin-1. Both help guide growing axons to the right target. They also are abundant in neurons that respond when people (and mice) expect or get a reward.

Alice Morgunova/McGill University

These neurons use the neurotransmitter dopamine. "Dopamine connections are very important" in reward processing, Flores says. Together, DCC and Netrin-1 choreograph new connections between those neurons and the prefrontal cortex, she explains. And they are especially active during adolescence.

Stress can cause Netrin-1 and DCC to show up in the wrong regions of the brain, she and her team reported last year. When this happens, some axons connect where they normally wouldn't. Connections may break between some neurons while new links form between others.

DCC levels usually drop off in adulthood. This appears to stabilize and protect brain connections, Flores explains. But DCC may not drop in the brains of depressed people or stressed mice.

She and her team examined brains of depressed people who died by suicide. They found high levels of DCC in the prefrontal cortex. This suggests that connections in these brain regions are continuing to change, she says. That in turn could disrupt the balance of emotional impulses and brakes - and lead to mental-health problems. But a lot is still unknown about how this may happen, she adds.

Courtney Hale/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Controlling stress

S tudy after study finds that stress can trigger depression. In a recent one, Flores's team found a possible link between stress and DCC. A tiny molecule called miR-218 can tamp down DCC levels in neurons. But stressed brains have less miR-218. That boosts DCC levels as well as brain changes linked to depression-like behaviors.

Her team described its findings last October 15 in Biological Psychiatry.

When stress suppresses miR-218 in the teen brain, "we see changes in DCC but in a brain that is still developing," Flores says. "So the consequences of the changes we see are large." Axons meant to connect two brain regions may now grow in the wrong direction. This can create a brain that's not "wired" correctly.

In adults, changes tend to be more localized to within a region. And the effects are "not as large because connections between distant regions are already formed," she says. Such altered wiring during the teen years may be related to why people who first experience depression in adolescence are more likely to have recurring bouts as adults.

Right now, psychiatrists treat depression by prescribing one treatment and seeing if it works. If it doesn't, they try another. Most people respond to some type of therapy, but it's not always the first one they are prescribed. Flores hopes her research will take some of this guesswork out of treatment. It may help point to what will work best based on the brain changes underlying a patient's symptoms.

One day, scientists might identify ways to prevent axons from connecting the wrong way in the first place. This could reduce mental-health problems the world over.

For now, there's hope. "The brain is still very malleable in adolescence," Flores says. Wiring problems have time to be fixed before the brain fully matures. Teens "can take advantage of that," Flores says. "Be exposed to a good environment, healthy experiences, enrichment." Each will benefit your brain in the long term.

"Talk to somebody if you start feeling down and depressed," Gotlib adds. Depression "is among the most easily treated of all psychiatric disorders" - as long as people seek help. For many people, talking to a mental-health professional may be enough to restore normal feelings and behavior. Others may require medication. "There are a lot of options that work," Gotlib notes. Seek help and know you're not alone.
Important note: As of 2016, suicide is the second leading cause of death among young adults ages 15 to 29. If you or someone you know is suffering from suicidal thoughts, please seek help. In the United States, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Or you can text 741-741. Please do not suffer in silence.

Power Words
More About Power Words

adolescence: A transitional stage of physical and psychological development that begins at the onset of puberty, typically between the ages of 11 and 13, and ends with adulthood. People in this stage are known as adolescents.

anterior: An adjective meaning near the front of some structure, or it can mean earlier tin time.

anxiety: A nervous reaction to events causing excessive uneasiness and apprehension. People with anxiety may even develop panic attacks.

apathy: A flat mood, where one is indifferent to people, opportunities and the environment around them. It's marked by a lack of enthusiasm for things, for not caring any more.

appetite: A desire to eat or drink, often because of hunger.

axon: The long, tail-like extension of a neuron that conducts electrical signals away from the cell.

behavior: The way something, often a person or other organism, acts towards others, or conducts itself.

cell: The smallest structural and functional unit of an organism. Typically too small to see with the unaided eye, it consists of a watery fluid surrounded by a membrane or wall. Depending on their size, animals are made of anywhere from thousands to trillions of cells. Most organisms, such as yeasts, molds, bacteria and some algae, are composed of only one cell.

choreograph: (n. choreography) The process of planning or designing each step in a complicated performance (be it dance, ice skating or the movements across the stage in some play). Or it can be setting the controls to set the role of each participant in some precision operation (such as battlefield plan of attack or marching band's half-time display). The person who does this planning is known as a choreographer.

colleague: Someone who works with another; a co-worker or team member.

cortex: The outermost part of an organ, such as the kidney or brain. Or the outer part of some microbes or plant, such as a tree's bark or a mango's rind. (in hair)The protein-based layer of a hair shaft (the layer responsible for a hair's color) that is below the cuticle.

depression: (in medicine) A mental illness characterized by persistent sadness and apathy. Although these feelings can be triggered by events, such as the death of a loved one or the move to a new city, that isn't typically considered an "illness" - unless the symptoms are prolonged and harm an individual's ability to perform normal daily tasks (such as working, sleeping or interacting with others). People suffering from depression often feel they lack the energy needed to get anything done. They may have difficulty concentrating on things or showing an interest in normal events. Many times, these feelings seem to be triggered by nothing; they can appear out of nowhere.

develop: (n. development) To emerge or to make come into being, either naturally or through human intervention, such as by manufacturing. (in biology) To grow as an organism from conception through adulthood, often undergoing changes in chemistry, size, mental maturity or sometimes even shape.

disorder: (in medicine) A condition where the body does not work appropriately, leading to what might be viewed as an illness. This term can sometimes be used interchangeably with disease.

disrupt: (n. disruption) To break apart something; interrupt the normal operation of something; or to throw the normal organization (or order) of something into disorder.

dopamine: A neurotransmitter, this chemical helps transmit signals in the brain.

electrode: A device that conducts electricity and is used to make contact with non-metal part of an electrical circuit, or that contacts something through which an electrical signal moves.

feedback: A response or assessment that follows some a particular act or decision. Or a process or combination of processes that propel or exaggerate a change in some direction.

genetic: Having to do with chromosomes, DNA and the genes contained within DNA. The field of science dealing with these biological instructions is known as genetics. People who work in this field are geneticists.

impulsive: (n. impulsivity) Quick to act; not willing to wait. Not waiting for deliberation or a weighing of consequences.

link: A connection between two people or things.

localized: An adjective for something that has a very local impact. (antonym: broad or far-reaching)

malleable: Something whose shape can be altered, usually by hammering or otherwise deforming with pressure. (in social science) Attitudes or behaviors that can be changed with social pressure or logic.

mature: (adj.) Connoting an adult individual or full-grown and fully developed (non-juvenile) form of something. (verb) To develop toward - or into - a more complex and full-grown form of something, be it a living thing, a technology or an idea.

mental health: A term for someone's emotional, psychological and social well-being. It refers to how people behave on their own and how they interact with others. It includes how people make choices, handle stress and manage fear or anxiety. Poor mental health can be triggered by disease or merely reflect a short-term response to life's challenges. It can occur in people of any age, from babies to the elderly.

nerve: A long, delicate fiber that transmits signals across the body of an animal. An animal's backbone contains many nerves, some of which control the movement of its legs or fins, and some of which convey sensations such as hot, cold or pain.

neuron: An impulse-conducting cell. Such cells are found in the brain, spinal column and nervous system.

neuroscientist: Someone who studies the structure or function of the brain and other parts of the nervous system.

neurotransmitter: A chemical released at the end of a neuron to carry a message to a neighboring cell. This chemical travels across the space between two cells, and then binds to molecules on a neighboring cell to transmit a message. Neurotransmitters are released from neurons, and can bind to neurons or to other types of cell, including those that make up muscles or glands.

prefrontal cortex: A region containing some of the brain's gray matter. Located behind the forehead, it plays a role in making decisions and other complex mental activities, in emotions and in behaviors.

primate: The order of mammals that includes humans, apes, monkeys and related animals (such as tarsiers, the Daubentonia and other lemurs).

psychiatrist: A medical doctor who spends many years learning to study and treat diseases of the human mind. Treatments may consist of talking therapies, prescription drugs or both. This medical field is known as psychiatry.

psychologist: A scientist or mental-health professional who studies the human mind, especially in relation to actions and behaviors.

real time: A term that connotes immediacy; something is being studied, recorded and/or reported at the very time it is happening.

reward: (In animal behavior) A stimulus, such as a tasty food pellet, that is offered to an animal or person to get them to change their behavior or to learn a task.

risk: The chance or mathematical likelihood that some bad thing might happen. For instance, exposure to radiation poses a risk of cancer. Or the hazard - or peril - itself. (For instance: Among cancer risks that the people faced were radiation and drinking water tainted with arsenic.)

rodent: A mammal of the order Rodentia, a group that includes mice, rats, squirrels, guinea pigs, hamsters and porcupines.

social: (adj.) Relating to gatherings of people; a term for animals (or people) that prefer to exist in groups. (noun) A gathering of people, for instance those who belong to a club or other organization, for the purpose of enjoying each other's company.

stress: (in biology) A factor - such as unusual temperatures, movements, moisture or pollution - that affects the health of a species or ecosystem. (in psychology) A mental, physical, emotional or behavioral reaction to an event or circumstance (stressor) that disturbs a person or animal's usual state of being or places increased demands on a person or animal; psychological stress can be either positive or negative.

stressor: Something that induces stress in an individual or system.

symptom: A physical or mental indicator generally regarded to be characteristic of a disease. Sometimes a single symptom - especially a general one, such as fever or pain - can be a sign of any of many different types of injury or disease.

ventral striatum: A region deep inside the brain known as the brain's reward center.

virtual: Being almost like something. An object or concept that is virtually real would be almost true or real - but not quite. The term often is used to refer to something that has been modeled - by or accomplished by - a computer using numbers, not by using real-world parts.

Citations

Alison Pearce Stevens is a former biologist and forever science geek who writes about science and nature for kids. She lives with her husband, their two kids and a small menagerie of cuddly (and not-so cuddly) critters.

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Teen depression linked to how the brain processes rewards

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Feeling sad. Sleeping too much. Not wanting to do things that used to be fun. Such feelings may come and go throughout adolescence. But if they last more than two weeks, they can be signs of depression. It's a serious mental health disorder that requires treatment. And it's remarkably common in teens.

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Stem cells can use same method as plants and insects to protect against viruses- Joseph.E.Bentley

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Stem cells can use same method as plants and insects to protect against viruses- Joseph.E.Bentley

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On infecting a host, a virus enters cells in order to replicate. For most cells in mammals the first line of protection are proteins, called interferons. As viruses infect stem cells release a protein, named antiviral Dicer (aviD) it cuts up the viral RNA in the virus so it can't replicate.

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Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute have found a vital mechanism, previously thought to have disappeared as mammals evolved, that helps protect mammalian stem cells from RNA viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 and Zika virus. The scientists suggest this could one day be exploited in the development of new antiviral treatments.

On infecting a host, a virus enters cells in order to replicate. For most cells in mammals the first line of protection are proteins, called interferons. Stem cells, however, lack the ability to trigger an interferon response and there has been uncertainty about how they protect themselves.

In their study, published in Science today (8 July) the scientists analysed genetic material from mouse stem cells and found it contains instructions to build a protein, named antiviral Dicer (aviD), which cuts up viral RNA and so prevents RNA viruses from replicating. This form of protection is called RNA interference, which is the method also used by cells in plants and invertebrates.

Caetano Reis e Sousa, author and group leader of the Immunobiology Laboratory at the Crick says, "It's fascinating to learn how stem cells protect themselves against RNA viruses. The fact this protection is also what plants and invertebrates use suggests it might be something that goes far back in mammalian history, right up to when the evolutionary tree spilt. For some reason, while all mammalian cells possess the innate ability to trigger this process, it seems to only be relied upon by stem cells.

"By learning more about this process, and uncovering the secrets of our immune system we are hoping to open up new possibilities for drug development as we strive to harness our body's natural ability to fight infection."

In laboratory experiments which exposed engineered human cells to SARS-CoV-2, the virus infected three times fewer stem cells when aviD was present in the cells compared to when the researchers removed this protein.

The scientists also grew mini brain organoids from mouse embryonic stem cells and found that, when infected with Zika virus, the organoids with aviD grew more quickly and less viral material was produced than in organoids without this protein. Similarly, when organoids were infected with SARS-CoV-2, there were fewer infected stem cells in the organoids with aviD.

Enzo Poirier, author and postdoc in the Immunobiology Laboratory at the Crick says, "Why stem cells use this different mechanism of defence remains a mystery. It might be that the interferon process would cause too much harm to stem cells, so mammals, including humans, have evolved to shield these precious cells from this damage. There is still a lot of uncertainty about how these cells are protected from viruses, which we're excited to explore further."

The researchers will continue this work, creating a mouse model which allows them to further study the effects and importance of aviD in mammalian stem cells.

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stem cells; skin cancer; prostate cancer; immune system; biotechnology; biology; biotechnology and bioengineering; genetics

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Stem cells can use same method as plants and insects to protect against viruses

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Researchers have found a vital mechanism, previously thought to have disappeared as mammals evolved, that helps protect mammalian stem cells from RNA viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 and Zika virus. The scientists suggest this could one day be exploited in the development of new antiviral treatments.

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Being In Space Destroys More Red Blood Cells

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Being In Space Destroys More Red Blood Cells

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Can Being In Space Affect your Red Blood Cell Count?

Summary:
A recent world study found that space travel can cause lower blood cells. This is called Anemia.

- Astronauts lose 10% of the liquids in their blood cells

- Our bodies create and destroy 2 million red blood cells every second

- Being in space causes the human body to destroy about 50% more red blood cells, leading to a potentially dangerous condition known as anemia. The effects persist even after astronauts return to Earth.

- I wonder...?
If they found solutions to this study? And if so, what?

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A world-first study has revealed how space travel can cause lower red blood cell counts, known as space anemia. Analysis of 14 astronauts showed their bodies destroyed 54 percent more red blood cells in space than they normally would on Earth, according to a study published in Nature Medicine.

"Space anemia has consistently been reported when astronauts returned to Earth since the first space missions, but we didn't know why," said lead author Dr. Guy Trudel, a rehabilitation physician and researcher at The Ottawa Hospital and professor at the University of Ottawa. "Our study shows that upon arriving in space, more red blood cells are destroyed, and this continues for the entire duration of the astronaut's mission."

Before this study, space anemia was thought to be a quick adaptation to fluids shifting into the astronaut's upper body when they first arrived in space. Astronauts lose 10 percent of the liquid in their blood vessels this way. It was thought astronauts rapidly destroyed 10 percent of their red blood cells to restore the balance, and that red blood cell control was back to normal after 10 days in space.

Instead, Dr. Trudel's team found that the red blood cell destruction was a primary effect of being in space, not just caused by fluid shifts. They demonstrated this by directly measuring red blood cell destruction in 14 astronauts during their six-month space missions.

On Earth, our bodies create and destroy 2 million red blood cells every second. The researchers found that astronauts were destroying 54 percent more red blood cells during the six months they were in space, or 3 million every second. These results were the same for both female and male astronauts.

Dr. Trudel's team made this discovery thanks to techniques and methods they developed to accurately measure red blood cell destruction. These methods were then adapted to collect samples aboard the International Space Station. At Dr. Trudel's lab at the University of Ottawa, they were able to precisely measure the tiny amounts of carbon monoxide in the breath samples from astronauts. One molecule of carbon monoxide is produced every time one molecule of heme, the deep-red pigment in red blood cells, is destroyed.

While the team didn't measure red blood cell production directly, they assume the astronauts generated extra red blood cells to compensate for the cells they destroyed. Otherwise, the astronauts would end up with severe anemia, and would have had major health problems in space.

"Thankfully, having fewer red blood cells in space isn't a problem when your body is weightless," said Dr. Trudel. "But when landing on Earth and potentially on other planets or moons, anemia affecting your energy, endurance, and strength can threaten mission objectives. The effects of anemia are only felt once you land, and must deal with gravity again."

In this study, five out of 13 astronauts were clinically anemic when they landed -- one of the 14 astronauts did not have blood drawn on landing. The researchers saw that space-related anemia was reversible, with red blood cells levels progressively returning to normal three to four months after returning to Earth.

Interestingly, the team repeated the same measurements one year after astronauts returned to Earth, and found that red blood cell destruction was still 30 percent above preflight levels. These results suggest that structural changes may have happened to the astronaut while they were in space that changed red blood cell control for up to a year after long-duration space missions.

The discovery that space travel increases red blood cell destruction has several implications. First, it supports screening astronauts or space tourists for existing blood or health conditions that are affected by anemia. Second, a recent study by Dr. Trudel's team found that the longer the space mission, the worse the anemia, which could impact long missions to the Moon and Mars. Third, increased red blood cell production will require an adapted diet for astronauts. And finally, it's unclear how long the body can maintain this higher rate of destruction and production of red blood cells.

These findings could also be applied to life on Earth. As a rehabilitation physician, most of Dr. Trudel's patients are anemic after being very ill for a long time with limited mobility, and anemia hinders their ability to exercise and recover. Bedrest has been shown to cause anemia, but how it does this is unknown. Dr. Trudel thinks the mechanism may be like space anemia. His team will investigate this hypothesis during future bedrest studies done on Earth.

"If we can find out exactly what's causing this anemia, then there is a potential to treat it or prevent it, both for astronauts and for patients here on Earth," said Dr. Trudel.

These are the first published results from MARROW, a made-in-Ottawa experiment looking at bone marrow health and blood production in space. The project is funded by the Canadian Space Agency and led by Dr. Trudel.

"This is the best description we have of red blood cell control in space and after return to Earth," said Dr. Trudel. "These findings are spectacular, considering these measurements had never been made before and we had no idea if we were going to find anything. We were surprised and rewarded for our curiosity."

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anemia; sickle cell anemia; hypertension; blood clots; space station; space probes; nasa; space exploration

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Being in space destroys more red blood cells

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A world-first study has revealed how space travel can cause lower red blood cell counts, known as space anemia. Analysis of 14 astronauts showed their bodies destroyed 54 percent more red blood cells in space than they normally would on Earth, according to a new study.

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"Fighting cancer with the help of someone else's immune cells"- Kamryn 

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"Fighting cancer with the help of someone else's immune cells"- Kamryn 

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Summary:
Taking the mutated DNA of cancer cells and mixing them with healthy donor cells could cure cancer. With the use of "immunotherapy."
Facts:
- There are more foreign aspects on cancer cells than they can fix
-T- cells scan the surface of other cells and kill aberrant cells.
Most interesting:
Using one's healthy cell can take power a cancer cell and leave the patient cancer-free.
Question: How long before the research is finalized and taught to doctors?

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A new step in cancer immunotherapy: researchers from the Netherlands Cancer Institute and University of Oslo/Oslo University Hospital show that even if one's own immune cells cannot recognize and fight their tumors, someone else's immune cells might. Their proof of principle study is published in the journal Science on May 19th.

The study shows that adding mutated DNA from cancer cells into immune stimulating cells from healthy donors create an immune response in the healthy immune cells. Inserting the targeted components from the donor immune cells back into the immune cells of the cancer patients, the researchers were able to make cancer patients' own immune cells recognize cancer cells.

The extremely rapidly developing field of cancer immunotherapy aims to create technologies that help the body's own immune system to fight cancer. There are a number of possible causes that can prevent the immune system from controlling cancer cells. First, the activity of immune cells is controlled by many 'brakes' that can interfere with their function, and therapies that inactivate these brakes are now being tested in many human cancers. As a second reason, in some patients the immune system may not recognize the cancer cells as aberrant in the first place. As such, helping the immune system to better recognize cancer cells is one of the main focuses in cancer immunotherapy.

Ton Schumacher of the Netherlands Cancer Institute and Johanna Olweus of the University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital decided to test whether a 'borrowed immune system' could "see" the cancer cells of the patient as aberrant. The recognition of aberrant cells is carried out by immune cells called T cells. All T cells in our body scan the surface of other cells, including cancer cells, to check whether they display any protein fragments on their surface that should not be there. Upon recognition of such foreign protein fragments, T cells kill the aberrant cells. As cancer cells harbor faulty proteins, they can also display foreign protein fragments -- also known as neo-antigens -- on their surface, much in the way virus-infected cells express fragments of viral proteins.

To address whether the T cells of a patient react to all the foreign protein fragments on cancer cells, the research teams first mapped all possible neo-antigens on the surface of melanoma cells from three different patients. In all 3 patients, the cancer cells seemed to display a large number of different neo-antigens. But when the researchers tried to match these to the T cells derived from within the patient's tumors, most of these aberrant protein fragments on the tumor cells went unnoticed.

Next, they tested whether the same neo-antigens could be seen by T-cells derived from healthy volunteers. Strikingly, these donor-derived T cells could detect a significant number of neo-antigens that had not been seen by the patients' T cells.

"In a way, our findings show that the immune response in cancer patients can be strengthened; there is more on the cancer cells that makes them foreign that we can exploit. One way we consider doing this is finding the right donor T cells to match these neo-antigens.," says Ton Schumacher. "The receptor that is used by these donor T-cells can then be used to genetically modify the patient's own T cells so these will be able to detect the cancer cells."

"Our study shows that the principle of outsourcing cancer immunity to a donor is sound. However, more work needs to be done before patients can benefit from this discovery. Thus, we need to find ways to enhance the throughput. We are currently exploring high-throughput methods to identify the neo-antigens that the T cells can "see" on the cancer and isolate the responding cells. But the results showing that we can obtain cancer-specific immunity from the blood of healthy individuals are already very promising," says Johanna Olweus.

This research was performed within the K.G.Jebsen Center for Cancer Immunotherapy, at the University of Oslo/ Oslo University Hospital and The Netherlands Cancer Institute.

Journal Reference:

E. Stronen, M. Toebes, S. Kelderman, M. M. van Buuren, W. Yang, N. van Rooij, M. Donia, M.-L. Boschen, F. Lund-Johansen, J. Olweus, T. N. Schumacher. Targeting of cancer neoantigens with donor-derived T cell receptor repertoires. Science, 2016; DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf2288

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immune system; lymphoma; skin cancer; brain tumor; cancer; prostate cancer; stem cells; lung cancer

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Fighting cancer with the help of someone else's immune cells

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A new step in cancer immunotherapy: researchers from the Netherlands Cancer Institute and University of Oslo/Oslo University Hospital show that even if one's own immune cells cannot recognize and fight their tumors, someone else's immune cells might. Their proof of principle study is published in the journal Science on May 19th.

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Earth's Simplest Animal: "Trichoplax" - Tyner

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Earth's Simplest Animal: "Trichoplax" - Tyner

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Summary: The Trichoplax is the simplest animal on Earth. Scientists are studying it because it may hint at what the first animals originally looked like.

Facts:
1. Despite its simplicity, Trichoplax contains nearly 50,000 cells, each with its own job.
2. These jobs are referred to as the "Division of Labor" and is what classifies an animal as an animal.

Interesting: The animal is able to live, even without a mouth, heart, blood, muscles, stomach, or veins.

Question: How are nutrients absorbed in order to provide energy, specifically in relation to Trichoplax?

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Franz Eilhard Schulze had a laboratory full of beautiful sea creatures. In the 1880s, he was one of the world's top experts on ocean sponges. He found many new species and filled saltwater aquariums at the University of Graz in Austria with these simple sea animals. They were striking - brightly colored with exotic shapes. Some looked like flower vases. Others resembled miniature castles with pointy towers.

But today, Schulze is best remembered for something very different - a drab little animal no larger than a sesame seed.

He discovered it one day by pure accident. It was hiding in one of his fish tanks. Creeping along the inside of the glass, it was dining on the green algae that grew there. Schulze named it Trichoplax adhaerens (TRY-koh-plaks Ad-HEER-ens). That's Latin for "hairy sticky plate" - which is about what it looks like.

To this day, Trichoplax remains the simplest animal known. It has no mouth, no stomach, no muscles, no blood and no veins. It has no front or back. It is nothing but a flat sheet of cells, thinner than paper. It is only three cells thick.

This little blob might look boring. But scientists are interested in Trichoplax precisely because it is so simple. It shows what the very first animals on Earth might have looked like, 600 million to 700 million years ago. Trichoplax is even providing hints about how simple animals later evolved more complicated bodies - with mouths, stomachs and nerves.

A hungry suction cup

At first glance, Trichoplax does not even look like an animal. Its flat body constantly changes shape as it moves. As such, it resembles a blob called an amoeba (Uh-MEE-buh). Amoebas are a type of protist, single-celled organisms that are neither plants nor animals. But when Schulze looked through his microscope in 1883, he could see several clues that Trichoplax truly was an animal.

Trichoplax can reproduce by splitting in two. Each piece then becomes its own new animal.

Some amoebas are larger than this animal. But an amoeba has just one cell. In contrast, the body of a Trichoplax has at least 50,000 cells. And though this animal lacks a stomach or heart, its body is organized into different kinds of cells that perform different tasks.

This "division of labor between cell types" is a hallmark of animals, explains Bernd Schierwater. He works at the Institute for Animal Ecology and Cell Biology in Hannover, Germany. He's a zoologist who has been studying Trichoplax for 25 years.

Cells on the underside of Trichoplax have tiny hairs called cilia (SILL-ee-uh). The animal moves by twirling these cilia like propellers. When the animal finds a patch of algae, it stops. Its flat body settles down atop the algae like a suction cup. Some special cells on the underside of this "suction cup" squirt out chemicals that break down the algae. Other cells absorb the sugars and other nutrients released from this meal.

So the animal's entire underside works as a stomach. And since its stomach is on the outside of its body, it doesn't need a mouth. When it finds algae, a Trichoplax just plops itself onto the food and begins to digest it.

Clues about the first animals

Schierwater believes that the first animals on Earth must have looked a lot like Trichoplax.

When those animals appeared, the oceans were already full of single-celled protists. Much as Trichoplax do, those protists swam by twirling their cilia. Some protists even formed colonies. They gathered into balls, chains or sheets made of thousands of cells. Many protists alive today also form colonies. But these colonies are not animals. They are just clumps of identical, single-celled organisms that happen to be living in harmony.

Then, 600 million to 700 million years ago, something happened. One group of ancient protists formed a new type of colony. Each member's cell started out the same. But over time, those cells began to change. Once identical, they eventually morphed into two different types. All of the cells still contained the same DNA. They had exactly the same genes. But now the cells began chatting with each another. To do that, they released chemicals that served as messages. These told cells in different parts of the colony to do different things. Says Schierwater, this would have been the first animal.

He suspects that this first animal must have been a flat sheet, much like Trichoplax. It would have been just two cells thick. Those on the bottom let it crawl and digest food. Cells on the top did something else. Maybe they protected the animal from protists out to eat it.

It makes sense that the first animal would be flat. Just consider what the ocean looked like back then. Shallow areas of the seafloor were covered with a gooey carpet of single-celled microbes and algae. The first animal would have crept atop this "microbial mat," Schierwater says. It would have digested the microbes and algae berneath it - just as Trichoplax does.

That first animal was probably no larger than Trichoplax. It left no fossils. But larger, similar animals evolved over time. Scientists have found fossils that look like giant versions of Trichoplax.

One, known as Dickinsonia, lived some 550 million to 560 million years ago. It was up to 1.2 meters (four feet) across. No one knows whether it would have been related to Trichoplax. It moved and ate the way Trichoplax does, crawling around and then plopping down on a meal. Like Trichoplax, it had no organs - tissues like a brain or eyes that work together to perform a particular task. But its body was a bit complex in other ways. It had front and back ends and left and right sides. Its flat body also was divided into segments, like a quilted blanket.

Mouth and butt - an animal starter kit?

For Schierwater, it is easy to imagine how such a simple animal could evolve a more complex body. Start with a plate of cells, like Trichoplax, whose stomach is its entire underside. The edges of that plate might gradually lengthen until it looked like a bowl sitting upside down. The opening of the bowl might narrow until it looked like an upside-down vase.
Story continues below image.

"Now you have a mouth," says Schierwater. It's the opening of the vase. Inside that vase is now the stomach.

When this primitive animal has digested its food, it just spits back out any unneeded remains. Some modern animals do this. Among them are jellyfish and sea anemones (Uh-NEMM-oh-nees).

Over millions of years, Schierwater suggests, this vase-shaped body stretched. As it got longer, it made a hole at each end. One hole became the mouth. The other, an anus, was where it pooped out wastes. This is the type of digestive system seen in bilaterian (By-lah-TEER-ee-an) animals. Bilaterians are a step past anemones and jellyfish on the evolutionary tree of life. They include all animals with right and left sides and front and back ends: worms, snails, insects, crabs, mice, monkeys - and, of course, us.

Deceptively simple

Schierwater's idea that the first animal looked like Trichoplax gained some support in 2008. That year, he and 20 other scientists published its genome (JEE-noam). That's its full string of DNA, containing all of its genes. Trichoplax might look simple on the outside. But its genes pointed to a somewhat complex inner life.

Smith et al/ Current Biology 2014

This animal has only six types of cells. For comparison, a fruit fly has 50 types. But Trichoplax boasts 11,500 genes - 78 percent as many as a fruit fly.

In fact, Trichoplax has many of the same genes that more complex animals use to shape their bodies. One gene is called brachyury (Brack-ee-YUUR-ee). It helps form the vase shape of an animal, with its stomach on the inside. Another gene helps divide the body - from front to back - into different segments. It's known as a Hox-like gene. And as this name implies, the gene is similar to Hox genes, which shape insects into front, middle and back parts. In people, Hox genes divide the spine into 33 separate bones.

"It was a surprise" to see so many of these genes in Trichoplax, says Schierwater. This suggests that a flat, primitive animal already had many of the genetic instructions that animals would need to evolve a more complicated body. It was just using those genes for different purposes.

First nerves

Trichoplax turned out to have 10 or 20 of the genes that in more complex animals help create nerve cells. And this really grabbed the interest of biologists.

In 2014, scientists reported that Trichoplax has a few cells that act surprisingly like nerve cells. These so-called gland cells are scattered across its underside. They contain a special set of proteins known as SNARE. These proteins also show up in the nerve cells of many more complex animals. In those animals, they sit at synapses (SIN-apse-uhs). These are places where one nerve cell connects to another. The proteins' job is to release chemical messages that move from one nerve cell to the next.

A gland cell in Trichoplax looks much like a nerve cell at a synapse. It, too, is packed with little bubbles. And just as in nerve cells, those bubbles store a kind of messenger chemical. It's known as a neuropeptide (Nuur-oh-PEP-tyde).

Last September, scientists reported that gland cells actually control the behavior of Trichoplax. When this animal creeps over a patch of algae, these cells "taste" the algae. That informs the animal that it's time to stop creeping.

A single gland cell can do this by releasing its neuropeptides. Those neuropeptides tell nearby cells to stop twirling their cilia. This puts putting on the brakes.

The chemicals also communicate with other nearby gland cells. They tell their neighbors to dump out their own neuropeptides. So this "stop and eat" message now spreads from cell to cell across the entire animal.

Carolyn Smith looks at Trichoplax and sees a nervous system that is just starting to evolve. In a sense, it is a nervous system without nerve cells. Trichoplax uses some of the same nerve proteins that more complex animals use. But those aren't yet organized into specialized nerve cells. "We're thinking of it as like a proto-nervous system," says Smith. As early animals continued to evolve, she explains, "those cells essentially became neurons."

Smith is a neurobiologist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. She and her husband, Thomas Reese, discovered the nerve-like properties of gland cells. Three months ago, they described another part of Trichoplax 's proto-nervous system. They found cells containing a kind of mineral crystal. That crystal always sinks to the bottom of the cell, whether Trichoplax is level, tilted or upside down. In this way, the animal uses these cells to "feel" which direction is up and which is down.

Creature carries snake-like venom

Trichoplax isn't just teaching biologists about evolution, however. Scientists still are learning surprisingly basic things about how this animal lives. For one thing, it can fly! (Sort of.) Also it is deadly poisonous. And it may spend part of its life sneaking around in an entirely different shape - a disguise that scientists still haven't recognized.

For a century after Trichoplax's discovery, people had thought the animal could only crawl. In fact, they are skilled swimmers. And that may be how they spend much of their time, Vicki Pearse discovered. She's a biologist, recently retired from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Back in 1989, she was traveling from one island to another in the Pacific Ocean.

She collected Trichoplax wherever she went. Afterward, she spent hours watching them under a microscope. One day, she spotted one swimming through the water "like a little flying saucer." Once she learned to look for it, she often saw the animals swimming this way.

This wasn't the only weird discovery that she made that year. Another time at her microscope, she watched Trichoplax being chased by a snail. She was sure she was going to see the little fellow get eaten. But as soon as the snail caught hold of Trichoplax, it pulled back as if it had touched a hot stove.

"They look completely defenseless," she says of Trichoplax. "They're just a little blob of tissue. They should be delicious." But not once did she see a hungry predator actually eat one. Instead, the hunter always seemed to change its mind at the last second. "There must be something nasty about them," Pearse thought.

The mystery was solved years later, in 2009. That's when another scientist discovered that Trichoplax can sting an animal that tries to eat it. That sting can actually paralyze its would-be predator. It uses tiny dark balls, found on its upper side, to do this.

People had always thought those balls were just globs of fat. But instead, they hold some kind of venom that Trichoplax releases when attacked. In fact, the animal has genes that look a lot like the venom genes of certain poisonous snakes, such as the American copperhead and the West African carpet viper. A little blip of that venom means nothing to a big human. But if you're a tiny snail, it can ruin your day.

Secret life

Pearse believes that scientists are still missing something big about Trichoplax. These animals usually reproduce by splitting in half. That gives rise to two animals. At least that's what scientists see when they grow them in the laboratory. Once in a while, Pearse has seen one of these animals break into a dozen or more tiny pieces. Each would go on to become a new little animal.

Trichoplax does not always just divide into two new animals. Sometimes it divides into three, as this one is doing. The animal has even been seen breaking up into 10 or more pieces that each develop into complete new animals.

But Trichoplax also reproduces sexually, as most other animals do. Here, a sperm - a male reproductive cell - seems to fertilize an egg cell from another individual. Scientists know this because they can find Trichoplax whose genes are a mix of two others. This suggests that the animal had a mother and father. Trichoplax also has genes that are involved in making sperm. Despite this genetic evidence of sex, says Pearse, "no one's ever caught them at it."

She also wonders if these animals have another life stage that no one knows about. Many sea animals, such as sponges and coral, start out as a tiny, baby larvae. Each larva swims around like a little tadpole. Only later does it land on a rock and grow into a sponge or a coral - one that will stay put for the rest of its life.

Trichoplax could also have a swimming larval stage. That larva's body could look very different from the "sticky hairy plate" into which it later morphs. It also could help explain why such a simple-seeming animal has so many genes. Shaping and building that larval body would require many genetic instructions.

Pearse hopes that scientists can one day answer all of these questions. "These are mystery animals," she says. "They have all kinds of puzzles waiting to be solved."

Power Words
More About Power Words

algae Single-celled organisms, once considered plants (they aren't). As aquatic organisms, they grow in water. Like green plants, they depend on sunlight to make their food.

amoeba A single-celled microbe that catches food and moves about by extending fingerlike projections of a colorless material called protoplasm. Amoebas are either free-living in damp environments or they are parasites.

animal ecology A branch of biology that deals with the relations of animals to one another and to their physical surroundings. A scientist who works in this field is called an animal ecologist.

anus The opening at the end of an animal's digestive system through which solid waste leaves the body.

behavior The way something, often a person or other organism, acts towards others, or conducts itself.

bilaterian Any of the animals whose bodies generally exhibit two-sided (or bilateral) symmetry. That means they would have equal numbers of appendages (such as legs, fins or antennae) on the right and left sides, for instance. The best known animal phyla are bilaterians, including fish, birds, mammals (including humans), amphibians and reptiles. Not included in this group are sponges, placozoans (such as Trichoplax), jellyfish and other jellies.

biology The study of living things. The scientists who study them are known as biologists.

cell The smallest structural and functional unit of an organism. Typically too small to see with the unaided eye, it consists of a watery fluid surrounded by a membrane or wall. Depending on their size, animals are made of anywhere from thousands to trillions of cells. Most organisms, such as yeasts, molds, bacteria and some algae, are composed of only one cell.

chemical A substance formed from two or more atoms that unite (bond) in a fixed proportion and structure. For example, water is a chemical made when two hydrogen atoms bond to one oxygen atom. Its chemical formula is H ₂ O. Chemical also can be an adjective to describe properties of materials that are the result of various reactions between different compounds.

cilia (singular cilium) Small hairlike features that occur on the surface of some cells and larger tissue structures. They can move and their wavelike motion can propel liquids to move in a particular direction. Cilia play an important role in many biological functions throughout the body.

coral Marine animals that often produce a hard and stony exoskeleton and tend to live on reefs (the exoskeletons of dead ancestor corals).

crystal (adj. crystalline) A solid consisting of a symmetrical, ordered, three-dimensional arrangement of atoms or molecules. It's the organized structure taken by most minerals. Apatite, for example, forms six-sided crystals. The mineral crystals that make up rock are usually too small to be seen with the unaided eye.

digest (noun: digestion) To break down food into simple compounds that the body can absorb and use for growth. Some sewage-treatment plants harness microbes to digest - or degrade - wastes so that the breakdown products can be recycled for use elsewhere in the environment.

DNA (short for deoxyribonucleic acid) A long, double-stranded and spiral-shaped molecule inside most living cells that carries genetic instructions. It is built on a backbone of phosphorus, oxygen, and carbon atoms. In all living things, from plants and animals to microbes, these instructions tell cells which molecules to make.

ecology A branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings. A scientist who works in this field is called an ecologist.

egg The unfertilized reproductive cell made by females.

evolution (v. to evolve) A process by which species undergo changes over time, usually through genetic variation and natural selection. These changes usually result in a new type of organism better suited for its environment than the earlier type. The newer type is not necessarily more "advanced," just better adapted to the particular conditions in which it developed.

evolutionary An adjective that refers to changes that occur within a species over time as it adapts to its environment. Such evolutionary changes usually reflect genetic variation and natural selection, which leave a new type of organism better suited for its environment than its ancestors. The newer type is not necessarily more "advanced," just better adapted to the conditions in which it developed.

exotic An adjective to describe something that is highly unusual, strange or foreign (such as exotic plants).

fat A natural oily or greasy substance occurring in plants and in animal bodies, especially when deposited as a layer under the skin or around certain organs. Fat's primary role is as an energy reserve. Fat also is a vital nutrient, though it can be harmful if consumed in excessive amounts.

fertilize (in biology) The merging of a male and a female reproductive cell (egg and sperm) to set in create a new, independent organism.

fossil Any preserved remains or traces of ancient life. There are many different types of fossils: The bones and other body parts of dinosaurs are called "body fossils." Things like footprints are called "trace fossils." Even specimens of dinosaur poop are fossils. The process of forming fossils is called fossilization.

fruit A seed-containing reproductive organ in a plant.

gene (adj. genetic) A segment of DNA that codes, or holds instructions, for a cell's production of a protein. Offspring inherit genes from their parents. Genes influence how an organism looks and behaves.

genetic Having to do with chromosomes, DNA and the genes contained within DNA. The field of science dealing with these biological instructions is known as genetics. People who work in this field are geneticists.

genome The complete set of genes or genetic material in a cell or an organism. The study of this genetic inheritance housed within cells is known as genomics.

insect A type of arthropod that as an adult will have six segmented legs and three body parts: a head, thorax and abdomen. There are hundreds of thousands of insects, which include bees, beetles, flies and moths.

larva (plural: larvae) An immature life stage of an insect, which often has a distinctly different form as an adult. (Sometimes used to describe such a stage in the development of fish, frogs and other animals.)

microbe Short for microorganism. A living thing that is too small to see with the unaided eye, including bacteria, some fungi and many other organisms such as amoebas. Most consist of a single cell.

microscope An instrument used to view objects, like bacteria, or the single cells of plants or animals, that are too small to be visible to the unaided eye.

mineral Crystal-forming substances that make up rock, such as quartz, apatite or various carbonates. Most rocks contain several different minerals mish-mashed together. A mineral usually is solid and stable at room temperatures and has a specific formula, or recipe (with atoms occurring in certain proportions) and a specific crystalline structure (meaning that its atoms are organized in regular three-dimensional patterns). (in physiology) The same chemicals that are needed by the body to make and feed tissues to maintain health.

morph Short for metamorphosis, it means to change from one form to another (such as from a caterpillar to a butterfly). Or it can mean to evolve or mutate, where one or more parts of the genome undergo some sort of change in their chemistry - and potentially in their function.

muscle A type of tissue used to produce movement by contracting its cells, known as muscle fibers. Muscle is rich in protein, which is why predatory species seek prey containing lots of this tissue.

National Institutes of Health (or NIH) This is the largest biomedical research organization in the world. A part of the U.S. government, it consists of 21 separate institutes - such as the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute - and six additional centers. Most are located on a 300 acre facility in Bethesda, Md., a campus containing 75 buildings. The institutes employ nearly 6,000 scientists and provide research funding to more than 300,000 additional researchers working at more than 2,500 other institutions around the world.

nerve A long, delicate fiber that transmits signals across the body of an animal. An animal's backbone contains many nerves, some of which control the movement of its legs or fins, and some of which convey sensations such as hot, cold or pain.

nervous system The network of nerve cells and fibers that transmits signals between parts of the body.

neurobiologist Scientist who studies cells and functions of the brain and other parts of the nervous system.

neuron An impulse-conducting cell. Such cells are found in the brain, spinal column and nervous system.

neuropeptides This is the most diverse group of signaling molecules in the brain. Each member of this group is a peptide - a molecule made of two or more amino acids (the building blocks of proteins). Neuropeptides ferry messages between nerve cells in the brain.

nutrient A vitamin, mineral, fat, carbohydrate or protein that a plant, animal or other organism requires as part of its food in order to survive.

organ (in biology) Various parts of an organism that perform one or more particular functions. For instance, an ovary is an organ that makes eggs, the brain is an organ that makes sense of nerve signals and a plant's roots are organs that take in nutrients and moisture.

organism Any living thing, from elephants and plants to bacteria and other types of single-celled life.

Pacific The largest of the world's five oceans. It separates Asia and Australia to the west from North and South America to the east.

predator (adjective: predatory) A creature that preys on other animals for most or all of its food.

protein A compound made from one or more long chains of amino acids. Proteins are an essential part of all living organisms. They form the basis of living cells, muscle and tissues; they also do the work inside of cells. Among the better-known, stand-alone proteins are the hemoglobin (in blood) and the antibodies (also in blood) that attempt to fight infections. Medicines frequently work by latching onto proteins.

protist A broad group of mostly single-celled organisms that are neither plants nor animals. Some, like algae, may appear plant-like. Those known as protozoans may appear animal-like. And still others appear fungi-like.

sea An ocean (or region that is part of an ocean). Unlike lakes and streams, seawater - or ocean water - is salty.

sea anemone An animal that usually lives on the seafloor and reefs. Although the young larvae disperse through the water, they eventually settle and permanently anchor themselves to a solid structure. They have a tube like structure and resemble a soft, flower. But what appear to be petals are actually stinging tentacles that ring their mouths.

sex (in biology) An animal's biological status, typically male or female. There are a number of indicators of biological sex, including sex chromosomes, gonads, internal reproductive organs, and external genitals. It can also be a term for some system of mating between male and female animals such that each parent organism contributes genes to the potential offspring, usually through the fertilization of an egg cell by a sperm cell.

species A group of similar organisms capable of producing offspring that can survive and reproduce.

sperm The reproductive cell produced by a male animal (or, in plants, produced by male organs). When one joins with an egg, the sperm cell initiates fertilization. This is the first step in creating a new organism.

sponge A primitive aquatic animal with a soft, porous body.

synapse The junction between neurons that transmits chemical and electrical signals.

taste One of the basic properties the body uses to sense its environment, especially foods, using receptors (taste buds) on the tongue (and some other organs).

tissue Made of cells, it is any of the distinct types of materials that make up animals, plants or fungi. Cells within a tissue work as a unit to perform a particular function in living organisms. Different organs of the human body, for instance, often are made from many different types of tissues.

tree of life A diagram that uses a branched, treelike structure to show how organisms relate to one another. Outer, twiglike, branches represent species alive today. Ancestors of today's species will lie on thicker limbs, ones closer to the trunk.

vein Part of the body's circulation system, these tubes usually carrying blood toward the heart.

venom A poisonous secretion of an animal, such as a snake, spider or scorpion, usually transmitted by a bite or sting.

waste Any materials that are left over from biological or other systems that have no value, so they can be disposed of as trash or recycled for some new use.

Douglas Fox is a freelance journalist who writes about life, earth and Antarctic sciences.

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Living Mysteries: Meet Earth's simplest animal

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Franz Eilhard Schulze had a laboratory full of beautiful sea creatures. In the 1880s, he was one of the world's top experts on ocean sponges. He found many new species and filled saltwater aquariums at the University of Graz in Austria with these simple sea animals.

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Cancer cells eat themselves to survive - Karian

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Cancer cells eat themselves to survive - Karian

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Summary - Cancer cells use a technique called macropinocytosis to survive.
Interesting -> What I found interesting is that cancer cells don't let the other cancer cells die because I originally thought that when cancer cells die many others reproduce to replace them but no, they get fixed.
Facts -
>One of the most dangerous properties of cancer is when the disease spreads in the body.
> Cancer cells tie off damaged parts
> Mainly the aggressive cancer cells use macropinocytosis
Question - Is there an antibitoc that can stop the survival of the cells or possibly slow them down?
Important because.. > Cancer is something very bad and scientist should find a way to stop this process from happening.

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To survive life threatening injuries, cancer cells use a technique in which they eat parts of the membrane surrounding them. This is shown for the first time in research from a team of Danish researchers.

It is the membrane of cancer cells that is at the focus of the new research now showing a completely new way in which cancer cells can repair the damage that can otherwise kill them.

In both normal cells and cancer cells, the cell membrane acts as the skin of the cells. And damage to the membrane can be life threatening. The interior of cells is fluid, and if a hole is made in the membrane, the cell simply floats out and dies -- a bit like a hole in a water balloon.

Therefore, damage to the cell membrane must be repaired quickly, and now research from a team of Danish researchers shows that cancer cells use a technique called macropinocytosis. The technique, which is already a known tool for cells in other contexts, consists in the cancer cells pulling the intact cell membrane in over the damaged area and sealing the hole in a matter of minutes. Next, the damaged part of the cell membrane is separated into small spheres and transported to the cells' 'stomach' -- the so-called lysosomes, where they are broken down.

In the laboratory, the researchers damaged the membrane of the cancer cells using a laser that shoots small holes in the membrane and triggers macropinocytosis. Here they can see that if the process is inhibited with substances blocking the formation of the small membrane spheres, the cancer cell can no longer repair the damage and dies.

"Our research provides very basic knowledge about how cancer cells survive. In our experiments, we have also shown that cancer cells die if the process is inhibited, and this points towards macropinocytosis as a target for future treatment. It is a long-term perspective, but it is interesting," says group leader Jesper Nylandsted from the Danish Cancer Society's Research Center and the University of Copenhagen, who has headed the new research and who for many years has investigated how cancer cells repair their membranes.
Possibility of recycling
One of the most dangerous properties of cancer is when the disease spreads in the body. If tumors occur in new parts of the body, the disease becomes more difficult to treat and typically requires more extensive forms of treatment. It is also when cancer cells spread through the body's tissues that they are particularly prone to damage to their membrane.

Researchers at the Danish Cancer Society have previously shown how cancer cells can use another technique to repair the membrane, namely by tying off the damaged part, rather like when a lizard throws its tail.

However, the experiments in the laboratory could indicate that especially the aggressive cancer cells use macropinocytosis. This may be due to the fact that the cancer cell has the opportunity to reuse the damaged membrane when it is degraded in the lysosomes. This type of recycling will be useful for cancer cells because they divide frequently, requiring large amounts of energy and material for the new cells.

And although the researchers have now published the new results, their work is not over. This is explained by another member of the research team, postdoc Stine Lauritzen Sønder:

"We continue to work and investigate how cancer cells protect their membranes. In connection with macropinocytosis in particular, it is also interesting to see what happens after the membrane is closed. We believe that the first patching is a bit rough and that a more thorough repair of the membrane is needed afterwards. It can be another weak point in the cancer cells, and is something we want to examine closer," she says.

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cancer; brain tumor; lung cancer; lymphoma; genetics; molecular biology; cell biology; biology

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To survive life threatening injuries, cancer cells use a technique in which they eat parts of the membrane surrounding them. This is shown for the first time in research from a team of Danish researchers.

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"Fighting cancer with the help of some else's immune cells." - Yours truly, Ka'Viya White!

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"Fighting cancer with the help of some else's immune cells." - Yours truly, Ka'Viya White!

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Summary: Putting a healthy person's cells into a cancer patient's body allows the patient's body to recognize the cancer cells causing it to fight back.
Important facts: 1) All T cells in our body scan the surface of other cells.
2) Sometimes immune systems cannot recognize cancer cells.
Something I found interesting: I found it very interesting how another person's cells can help fight cancer for your body.
Question: Is this actually beating cancer?

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A new step in cancer immunotherapy: researchers from the Netherlands Cancer Institute and University of Oslo/Oslo University Hospital show that even if one's own immune cells cannot recognize and fight their tumors, someone else's immune cells might. Their proof of principle study is published in the journal Science on May 19th.

The study shows that adding mutated DNA from cancer cells into immune stimulating cells from healthy donors create an immune response in the healthy immune cells. Inserting the targeted components from the donor immune cells back into the immune cells of the cancer patients, the researchers were able to make cancer patients' own immune cells recognize cancer cells.

The extremely rapidly developing field of cancer immunotherapy aims to create technologies that help the body's own immune system to fight cancer. There are a number of possible causes that can prevent the immune system from controlling cancer cells. First, the activity of immune cells is controlled by many 'brakes' that can interfere with their function, and therapies that inactivate these brakes are now being tested in many human cancers. As a second reason, in some patients the immune system may not recognize the cancer cells as aberrant in the first place. As such, helping the immune system to better recognize cancer cells is one of the main focuses in cancer immunotherapy.

Ton Schumacher of the Netherlands Cancer Institute and Johanna Olweus of the University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital decided to test whether a 'borrowed immune system' could "see" the cancer cells of the patient as aberrant. The recognition of aberrant cells is carried out by immune cells called T cells. All T cells in our body scan the surface of other cells, including cancer cells, to check whether they display any protein fragments on their surface that should not be there. Upon recognition of such foreign protein fragments, T cells kill the aberrant cells. As cancer cells harbor faulty proteins, they can also display foreign protein fragments -- also known as neo-antigens -- on their surface, much in the way virus-infected cells express fragments of viral proteins.

To address whether the T cells of a patient react to all the foreign protein fragments on cancer cells, the research teams first mapped all possible neo-antigens on the surface of melanoma cells from three different patients. In all 3 patients, the cancer cells seemed to display a large number of different neo-antigens. But when the researchers tried to match these to the T cells derived from within the patient's tumors, most of these aberrant protein fragments on the tumor cells went unnoticed.

Next, they tested whether the same neo-antigens could be seen by T-cells derived from healthy volunteers. Strikingly, these donor-derived T cells could detect a significant number of neo-antigens that had not been seen by the patients' T cells.

"In a way, our findings show that the immune response in cancer patients can be strengthened; there is more on the cancer cells that makes them foreign that we can exploit. One way we consider doing this is finding the right donor T cells to match these neo-antigens.," says Ton Schumacher. "The receptor that is used by these donor T-cells can then be used to genetically modify the patient's own T cells so these will be able to detect the cancer cells."

"Our study shows that the principle of outsourcing cancer immunity to a donor is sound. However, more work needs to be done before patients can benefit from this discovery. Thus, we need to find ways to enhance the throughput. We are currently exploring high-throughput methods to identify the neo-antigens that the T cells can "see" on the cancer and isolate the responding cells. But the results showing that we can obtain cancer-specific immunity from the blood of healthy individuals are already very promising," says Johanna Olweus.

This research was performed within the K.G.Jebsen Center for Cancer Immunotherapy, at the University of Oslo/ Oslo University Hospital and The Netherlands Cancer Institute.

Journal Reference:

E. Stronen, M. Toebes, S. Kelderman, M. M. van Buuren, W. Yang, N. van Rooij, M. Donia, M.-L. Boschen, F. Lund-Johansen, J. Olweus, T. N. Schumacher. Targeting of cancer neoantigens with donor-derived T cell receptor repertoires. Science, 2016; DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf2288

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immune system; lymphoma; skin cancer; brain tumor; cancer; prostate cancer; stem cells; lung cancer

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Fighting cancer with the help of someone else's immune cells

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A new step in cancer immunotherapy: researchers from the Netherlands Cancer Institute and University of Oslo/Oslo University Hospital show that even if one's own immune cells cannot recognize and fight their tumors, someone else's immune cells might. Their proof of principle study is published in the journal Science on May 19th.

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Gene Editing Wiped Out a Population of Mosquitoes in Lab Tests- Abriella

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Gene Editing Wiped Out a Population of Mosquitoes in Lab Tests- Abriella

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Summary:
Scientists have discovered that changing a mosquitoes genes to not bite or lay eggs can cause their extinction and the end of malaria.

1. After the gene was introduced in a lab, the mosquitoes died out after 8 to 12 generations
2. The technique used on mosquitoes, "gene driving", can also be used on other insects and they could become extinct as well

Would mosquitoes going extinct mess up the ecosystem?

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biology The study of living things. The scientists who study them are known as biologists.

Cas9 An enzyme that geneticists are now using to help edit genes. It can cut through DNA, allowing it to fix broken genes, splice in new ones or disable certain genes. Cas9 is shepherded to the place it is supposed to make cuts by CRISPRs, a type of genetic guides. The Cas9 enzyme came from bacteria. When viruses invade a bacterium, this enzyme can chop up the germs DNA, making it harmless.

coauthor One of a group (two or more people) who together had prepared a written work, such as a book, report or research paper. Not all coauthors may have contributed equally.

CRISPR An abbreviation - pronounced crisper - for the term "clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats." These are pieces of RNA, an information-carrying molecule. They are copied from the genetic material of viruses that infect bacteria. When a bacterium encounters a virus that it was previously exposed to, it produces an RNA copy of the CRISPR that contains that virus' genetic information. The RNA then guides an enzyme, called Cas9, to cut up the virus and make it harmless. Scientists are now building their own versions of CRISPR RNAs. These lab-made RNAs guide the enzyme to cut specific genes in other organisms. Scientists use them, like a genetic scissors, to edit - or alter - specific genes so that they can then study how the gene works, repair damage to broken genes, insert new genes or disable harmful ones.

develop To emerge or come into being, either naturally or through human intervention, such as by manufacturing. (in biology) To grow as an organism from conception through adulthood, often undergoing changes in chemistry, size and sometimes even shape.

disrupt (n. disruption) To break apart something; interrupt the normal operation of something; or to throw the normal organization (or order) of something into disorder.

DNA (short for deoxyribonucleic acid) A long, double-stranded and spiral-shaped molecule inside most living cells that carries genetic instructions. It is built on a backbone of phosphorus, oxygen, and carbon atoms. In all living things, from plants and animals to microbes, these instructions tell cells which molecules to make.

ecology A branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings. A scientist who works in this field is called an ecologist.

egg The unfertilized reproductive cell made by females.

engineering The field of research that uses math and science to solve practical problems.

eradicate To deliberately eliminate or wipe out, such as a population of vermin (rats or cockroaches, for instance) inhabiting a particular site.

evolutionary An adjective that refers to changes that occur within a species over time as it adapts to its environment. Such evolutionary changes usually reflect genetic variation and natural selection, which leave a new type of organism better suited for its environment than its ancestors. The newer type is not necessarily more "advanced," just better adapted to the conditions in which it developed.

evolutionary biologist Someone who studies the adaptive processes that have led to the diversity of life on Earth. These scientists can study many different subjects, including the microbiology and genetics of living organisms, how species change to adapt, and the fossil record (to assess how various ancient species are related to each other and to modern-day relatives).

extinction The permanent loss of a species, family or larger group of organisms.

fertile Old enough and able to reproduce.

gene (adj. genetic) A segment of DNA that codes, or holds instructions, for a cell's production of a protein. Offspring inherit genes from their parents. Genes influence how an organism looks and behaves.

gene drive A technique for introducing new bits of DNA into genes to change their function. Unlike other such genetic engineering techniques, gene drives are self-propagating. That means they make more of themselves, becoming part of every unaltered target gene they encounter. As a result, they get passed on to more than 50 percent of an altered animal's offspring, "driving" themselves quickly into populations.

gene editing The deliberate introduction of changes to genes by researchers.

generation A group of individuals (in any species) born at about the same time or that are regarded as a single group. Your parents belong to one generation of your family, for example, and your grandparents to another. Similarly, you and everyone within a few years of your age across the planet are referred to as belonging to a particular generation of humans. The term also is sometimes extended to year classes of other animals or to types of inanimate objects (such as electronics or automobiles).

genetic engineering The direct manipulation of an organism's genome. In this process, genes can be removed, disabled so that they no longer function, or added after being taken from other organisms. Genetic engineering can be used to create organisms that produce medicines, or crops that grow better under challenging conditions such as dry weather, hot temperatures or salty soils.

insect A type of arthropod that as an adult will have six segmented legs and three body parts: a head, thorax and abdomen. There are hundreds of thousands of insects, which include bees, beetles, flies and moths.

malaria A disease caused by a parasite that invades the red blood cells. The parasite is transmitted by mosquitoes, largely in tropical and subtropical regions.

mutation (v. mutate) Some change that occurs to a gene in an organism's DNA. Some mutations occur naturally. Others can be triggered by outside factors, such as pollution, radiation, medicines or something in the diet. A gene with this change is referred to as a mutant.

organism Any living thing, from elephants and plants to bacteria and other types of single-celled life.

parasite An organism that gets benefits from another species, called a host, but doesn't provide that host any benefits. Classic examples of parasites include ticks, fleas and tapeworms.

population (in biology) A group of individuals from the same species that lives in the same area.

resistance (as in drug resistance) The reduction in the effectiveness of a drug to cure a disease, usually a microbial infection. (as in disease resistance) The ability of an organism to fight off disease.

simulation (v. simulate) An analysis, often made using a computer, of some conditions, functions or appearance of a physical system. A computer program would do this by using mathematical operations that can describe the system and how it might change over time or in response to different anticipated situations.

species A group of similar organisms capable of producing offspring that can survive and reproduce.

sterile An adjective that means devoid of life - or at least of germs. (in biology) An organism that is physically unable to reproduce.

technology The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry - or the devices, processes and systems that result from those efforts.

World Health Organization An agency of the United Nations, established in 1948, to promote health and to control communicable diseases. It is based in Geneva, Switzerland. The United Nations relies on the WHO for providing international leadership on global health matters. This organization also helps shape the research agenda for health issues and sets standards for pollutants and other things that could pose a risk to health. WHO also regularly reviews data to set policies for maintaining health and a healthy environment.

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Gene editing wiped out a population of mosquitoes in lab tests | Science News for Students

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biology The study of living things. The scientists who study them are known as biologists. Cas9 An enzyme that geneticists are now using to help edit genes. It can cut through DNA, allowing it to fix broken genes, splice in new ones or disable certain genes.

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Cloning boosts endangered black footed ferrets - Marlecia 

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Cloning boosts endangered black footed ferrets - Marlecia 

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Summary:
This article is focusing on stopping the extinction of the black footed ferrets. Scientists have gathered data and cells to continue the reproduction.
- Something that I found interesting would be that the ferret, Elizabeth Ann is a genetic copy of an animal that died decades ago. She's a clone. They also stated in the article that she could be the key to their success in saving the species.
- One of my questions for this article was about the current progress regarding the ferrets. How is it going as of today? Is it improving?
- I find all of this interesting but confusing at the same time because it deals with cloning... I don't fully understand how all of this works.

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amphibians: A group of animals that includes frogs, salamanders and caecilians. Amphibians have backbones and can breathe through their skin. Unlike reptiles, birds and mammals, unborn or unhatched amphibians do not develop in a special protective sac called an amniotic sac.

captive breeding: The breeding of an animal, often a species threatened with extinction, in a protected environment. The species is often raised in part to supply animals for reintroduction back into the wild.

cell: The smallest structural and functional unit of an organism. Typically too small to see with the unaided eye, it consists of a watery fluid surrounded by a membrane or wall. Depending on their size, animals are made of anywhere from thousands to trillions of cells.

clone: An exact copy (or what seems to be an exact copy) of some physical object. (in biology) An organism that has exactly the same genes as another, like identical twins. Often a clone, particularly among plants, has been created using the cell of an existing organism. Clone also is the term for making offspring that are genetically identical to some "parent" organism.

conservation: The act of preserving or protecting something. The focus of this work can range from art objects to endangered species and other aspects of the natural environment.

descendant: A blood relative of a person who lived during a previous time.

diversity: A broad spectrum of similar items, ideas or people. In a social context, it may refer to a diversity of experiences and cultural backgrounds. (in biology) A range of different life forms.

DNA: (short for deoxyribonucleic acid) A long, double-stranded and spiral-shaped molecule inside most living cells that carries genetic instructions. It is built on a backbone of phosphorus, oxygen, and carbon atoms. In all living things, from plants and animals to microbes, these instructions tell cells which molecules to make.

egg: A reproductive cell that contains half of the genetic information necessary to form a complete organism. In humans and in many other animals, ovaries produce eggs. When an egg fuses with a sperm, they combine to produce a new cell, called a zygote. This is the first step in the development of a new organism."

embryo: The early stages of a developing organism, or animal with a backbone, consisting only one or a few cells. As an adjective, the term would be embryonic - and could be used to refer to the early stages or life of a system or technology.

endangered: An adjective used to describe species at risk of going extinct.

extinct: An adjective that describes a species for which there are no living members.

ferret: A mammal belonging to the family of animals that includes weasels, skunks, otters and badgers.

gene: (adj. genetic) A segment of DNA that codes, or holds instructions, for a cell's production of a protein. Offspring inherit genes from their parents. Genes influence how an organism looks and behaves.

generation: A group of individuals (in any species) born at about the same time or that are regarded as a single group. Your parents belong to one generation of your family, for example, and your grandparents to another. Similarly, you and everyone within a few years of your age across the planet are referred to as belonging to a particular generation of humans. The term also is sometimes extended to year classes of other animals or to types of inanimate objects (such as electronics or automobiles).

genetic: Having to do with chromosomes, DNA and the genes contained within DNA. The field of science dealing with these biological instructions is known as genetics. People who work in this field are geneticists.

genetic diversity: The range of genes types - and traits - within a population.

habitat: The area or natural environment in which an animal or plant normally lives, such as a desert, coral reef or freshwater lake. A habitat can be home to thousands of different species.

mammal: A warm-blooded animal distinguished by the possession of hair or fur, the secretion of milk by females for feeding their young, and (typically) the bearing of live young.

nucleus: Plural is nuclei. (in biology) A dense structure present in many cells. Typically a single rounded structure encased within a membrane, the nucleus contains the genetic information.

plague: (noun) Any catastrophic event that causes destruction that can lead to sickness or death (such as a crop-destroying plague of locusts). Or any horrific infection that spreads easily and kills many people, usually quickly. Best known are the infections caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis.

population: (in biology) A group of individuals from the same species that lives in the same area.

prairie dog: A social animal (Mustela nigripes) about the size of a large squirrel that lives in burrows that form large colonies - known as prairie-dog towns. Each "town" may extend across many hectares (acres). The animals have a bark-like call, short legs and sharp claws. They can live for up to 8 or 10 years.

pup: A term given to the young of many animals, from dogs and mice to seals.

reptile: Cold-blooded vertebrate animals, whose skin is covered with scales or horny plates. Snakes, turtles, lizards and alligators are all reptiles.

species: A group of similar organisms capable of producing offspring that can survive and reproduce.

threatened: (in conservation biology) A designation given to species that are at high risk of going extinct. These species are not as imperiled however, as those considered "endangered."

vaccine: (v. vaccinate) A biological mixture that resembles a disease-causing agent. It is given to help the body create immunity to a particular disease. The injections used to administer most vaccines are known as vaccinations.

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Cloning boosts endangered black-footed ferrets

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amphibians: A group of animals that includes frogs, salamanders and caecilians. Amphibians have backbones and can breathe through their skin. Unlike reptiles, birds and mammals, unborn or unhatched amphibians do not develop in a special protective sac called an amniotic sac. captive breeding: The breeding of an animal, often a species threatened with extinction, in a protected environment.

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Teen depression linked to how the brain processes rewards- Biancha 

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Teen depression linked to how the brain processes rewards- Biancha 

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Summary: Teen depression at a young age can cause the brain to be less responsive in later life.

Facts:
1. By age 18, 1 in 4 experience 1 bout of depression.
2. Areas invloved in processing emotions mature early, known as the limbic system.
3. If the ventral stadium isn't functioning correctly, it can contribute to depression.

Interesting: Areas involved in processing emotions mature early, so if depression is something occuring at a young age then most likely it will guide you through your later life decisions.

Question: What's the earliest depression can begin in life?

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Feeling sad. Sleeping too much. Not wanting to do things that used to be fun. Such feelings may come and go throughout adolescence. But if they last more than two weeks, they can be signs of depression. It's a serious mental health disorder that requires treatment. And it's remarkably common in teens. By age 18, one in four will experience at least one bout of depression. In fact, that may not be surprising, since stress appears to be a major trigger.

People sometimes think of depression as sadness. Some people with depression do feel sad. But many also lose interest in everyday activities. They don't get excited about things they once enjoyed. They lack motivation. They just feel sort of ... empty. They may have trouble sleeping, or sleep too much. They may even eat more - or less - than usual.

Most also spend a lot of time replaying negative events. This and focusing on negative thoughts are known as rumination (Rue-mih-NAY-shun). It gets people thinking too much on what seems to be going wrong in their lives. Such thoughts feed back on themselves in a loop, getting worse and worse.

Daisy-Daisy/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Scientists don't know for sure if rumination causes depression. But "if it doesn't cause depression, it certainly perpetuates it," says Ian Gotlib. He is a psychologist at Stanford University in California. Gotlib is one of many scientists trying to understand teen depression.

People are diagnosed with depression when they experience at least five of nine main symptoms. These include depressed mood and loss of interest or enjoyment in activities. Altered sleep patterns and appetite. Overall low energy. Anxiety and trouble concentrating. Feelings of guilt or low self-worth and thoughts about death. Some are more common than others, but few people experience all of them.

The various mixes of these symptoms number in the hundreds, Gotlib says. And that can make depression tricky to treat. Treatment that works for a teen with one set of symptoms might not work for an adult with a different set. Depression researchers are learning that different changes in the brain may be tied to specific symptoms. When those changes happen during adolescence, they can lead to long-term mental-health issues.

But there's good news, too. The flexibility of the developing brain means teens may be able to prevent long-term problems if they seek help.

Depressed? Where to look for help

The first place to turn is a trusted adult, such as a parent or guardian, doctor, teacher or school counselor. If an adult isn't a good option, try talking to a friend. There are also plenty of options online and through your phone:

TXT4HELP offers 24/7 help for teens in crisis. Text the word "safe" and your location to 4HELP (44357) to receive a text message with a phone number for a local youth agency.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) offers a free, 24/7 helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) and provides callers in English and Spanish referrals to local mental-health-treatment facilities, support groups and community-based organizations.

The Heard Alliance operates a crisis hotline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK), or text START to 741-741.

Learn more about depression and available resources from the National Institute of Mental Health and the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine.

All about rewards

The human brain changes a lot between childhood and early adulthood. It grows and develops during this time. But different areas mature at different rates.

Areas involved in processing emotions mature early. They are part of what's known as the limbic system. Gotlib likens it to an engine. This system is what gets us revved up and going. The prefrontal cortex, in contrast, acts like the brakes. It tries to exert self-control by tamping down the limbic system's impulsive urges. But the prefrontal cortex takes longer to mature - well into someone's twenties.

Part of the limbic system plays a role in motivation and rewards. One area in particular is the ventral striatum (VEN-trahl Stry-AY-tum). This area lies deep inside the brain and influences whether we want to try something. If we do try it, it also affects how much we enjoy it. This area is one reason teens tend to be impulsive. They focus on the thrill but don't yet have a good grasp of the risks.

If the ventral striatum is n't functioning correctly, it may contribute to depression. That's because this region is essential for excitement, anticipation and enjoyment. If we don't feel those emotions, we lose interest in the activities that once sparked them. The resulting apathy is "one of the key symptoms of depression," says Deanna Barch. She is a psychologist at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.

But the ventral striatum doesn't work alone. It partners with two other areas thought to help process rewards. The anterior cingulate (SING-gyew-let) is part of the limbic system. It helps us make decisions, control impulses and regulate emotions. Then there's the parietal (Pu-RY-eh-tul) cortex. It's involved with self-awareness. All three areas act together when we anticipate something good or bad. They also register when something good or bad actually happens.

How the brain measures rewards

Barch wanted to know how depression affects reward regions in the brain. She teamed up with psychologist Katherine Luking, also at Washington University. Their group worked with 100 teens who were 16 to 18 years old. Barch had been working with them since they were young children. For this study, the teens came into the lab to play a virtual card game.

Katherine Luking/Washington University

The team told the kids they would win money if they guessed correctly whether they would win or lose each round of the game. The teens got a hint ahead of time to help them with their guesses. While they played, the kids wore a net of electrodes on their heads. It picked up electrical impulses from different areas of their brains. The electrodes allowed the researchers to see in real time how these brains responded to wins and losses, especially in the reward regions.

Kids who first experienced depression as teens didn't have a big response to wins. But their response to losses proved strong. "They hurt more," Luking explains. That could be because they felt sad or down, she notes, and those feelings were exaggerated when they lost.

Teens who first experienced depression in preschool, on the other hand, didn't show much brain response to wins or losses. This might link to feelings of apathy, Luking says. "You get a 'numbing' effect to both types of feedback with that specific symptom," she notes. For these kids, there's no joy from a win. But a loss also doesn't sting.

Barch and Luking think early life experiences play a role in setting up later feelings of apathy. If you are unable to enjoy things early in life, Barch says, it may "set up your brain to be less responsive to good things in the future."

Latsalomao/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Their findings are supported by other research.

Several studies, for instance, find that early life stress, such as neglect or abuse, may set children up for depression later. Others find that a stressful event in adolescence or later triggers the disorder. Some scientists think there are two parts to developing a mental disorder, Gotlib says. The first is some type of vulnerability. This might be genetic. Or it might be one of those stressful events early in life. The second is experiencing major stress later in life. That might be losing a loved one, for example, or being bullied.

"You can have a genetic predisposition to depression," Gotlib says. But "unless you experience a significant stressor, you may go through life without ever developing the disorder." On the flip side, someone who is not predisposed may experience stress but not develop depression, he notes. Both parts are required to trigger the changes that lead to depression.

Making connections

Changes in a teen's developing brain may make it extra sensitive to stress. The brain contains billions of neurons. During development, these cells grow long extensions called axons. The ends of axons send signals to other neurons. They do this by releasing chemicals called neurotransmitters. This is how the brain's neurons "chat" with each other.

Many connections form within a single brain region. Others connect one region to another, like long-distance highways. Most between-region links form early in life. But those between the limbic system and prefrontal cortex connect during adolescence. This is when the brakes begin to slow down those emotional impulses.

All of that happens in the brain of every teen. But add in depression and you have a recipe for long-term mental-health issues. That's because depression appears to alter how brain connections form. That's true within the prefrontal cortex, notes Cecilia Flores. She is a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Even more importantly, she adds, it's true of links between brain regions.

deliormanli/E+/Getty Images Plus

Flores has been trying to understand what guides axons as they grow. How do they know which brain regions are the "right" ones to which they should connect? How do they know to start chatting with one neuron instead of another?

The brains of rodents and primates show similar connections. So Flores and her lab study them in adolescent mice. The advantage to using mice is that the researchers can later look inside their brains. They can track neurons from one place to another. They can probe for specific molecules that affect neuron growth. And they can see what might be causing changes in behavior.

As in people, stress can change the behavior of mice in ways that resemble depression, the team found. For example, mice normally choose sugar water over plain water. But when stressed, they no longer prefer the sugary option. Mice also are social. But "depressed" mice don't socialize when given the chance.

The brain connections in mice showing these behaviors are also different. Flores and her colleagues focused on two brain chemicals: DCC and Netrin-1. Both help guide growing axons to the right target. They also are abundant in neurons that respond when people (and mice) expect or get a reward.

Alice Morgunova/McGill University

These neurons use the neurotransmitter dopamine. "Dopamine connections are very important" in reward processing, Flores says. Together, DCC and Netrin-1 choreograph new connections between those neurons and the prefrontal cortex, she explains. And they are especially active during adolescence.

Stress can cause Netrin-1 and DCC to show up in the wrong regions of the brain, she and her team reported last year. When this happens, some axons connect where they normally wouldn't. Connections may break between some neurons while new links form between others.

DCC levels usually drop off in adulthood. This appears to stabilize and protect brain connections, Flores explains. But DCC may not drop in the brains of depressed people or stressed mice.

She and her team examined brains of depressed people who died by suicide. They found high levels of DCC in the prefrontal cortex. This suggests that connections in these brain regions are continuing to change, she says. That in turn could disrupt the balance of emotional impulses and brakes - and lead to mental-health problems. But a lot is still unknown about how this may happen, she adds.

Courtney Hale/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Controlling stress

S tudy after study finds that stress can trigger depression. In a recent one, Flores's team found a possible link between stress and DCC. A tiny molecule called miR-218 can tamp down DCC levels in neurons. But stressed brains have less miR-218. That boosts DCC levels as well as brain changes linked to depression-like behaviors.

Her team described its findings last October 15 in Biological Psychiatry.

When stress suppresses miR-218 in the teen brain, "we see changes in DCC but in a brain that is still developing," Flores says. "So the consequences of the changes we see are large." Axons meant to connect two brain regions may now grow in the wrong direction. This can create a brain that's not "wired" correctly.

In adults, changes tend to be more localized to within a region. And the effects are "not as large because connections between distant regions are already formed," she says. Such altered wiring during the teen years may be related to why people who first experience depression in adolescence are more likely to have recurring bouts as adults.

Right now, psychiatrists treat depression by prescribing one treatment and seeing if it works. If it doesn't, they try another. Most people respond to some type of therapy, but it's not always the first one they are prescribed. Flores hopes her research will take some of this guesswork out of treatment. It may help point to what will work best based on the brain changes underlying a patient's symptoms.

One day, scientists might identify ways to prevent axons from connecting the wrong way in the first place. This could reduce mental-health problems the world over.

For now, there's hope. "The brain is still very malleable in adolescence," Flores says. Wiring problems have time to be fixed before the brain fully matures. Teens "can take advantage of that," Flores says. "Be exposed to a good environment, healthy experiences, enrichment." Each will benefit your brain in the long term.

"Talk to somebody if you start feeling down and depressed," Gotlib adds. Depression "is among the most easily treated of all psychiatric disorders" - as long as people seek help. For many people, talking to a mental-health professional may be enough to restore normal feelings and behavior. Others may require medication. "There are a lot of options that work," Gotlib notes. Seek help and know you're not alone.
Important note: As of 2016, suicide is the second leading cause of death among young adults ages 15 to 29. If you or someone you know is suffering from suicidal thoughts, please seek help. In the United States, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Or you can text 741-741. Please do not suffer in silence.

Power Words
More About Power Words

adolescence: A transitional stage of physical and psychological development that begins at the onset of puberty, typically between the ages of 11 and 13, and ends with adulthood. People in this stage are known as adolescents.

anterior: An adjective meaning near the front of some structure, or it can mean earlier tin time.

anxiety: A nervous reaction to events causing excessive uneasiness and apprehension. People with anxiety may even develop panic attacks.

apathy: A flat mood, where one is indifferent to people, opportunities and the environment around them. It's marked by a lack of enthusiasm for things, for not caring any more.

appetite: A desire to eat or drink, often because of hunger.

axon: The long, tail-like extension of a neuron that conducts electrical signals away from the cell.

behavior: The way something, often a person or other organism, acts towards others, or conducts itself.

cell: The smallest structural and functional unit of an organism. Typically too small to see with the unaided eye, it consists of a watery fluid surrounded by a membrane or wall. Depending on their size, animals are made of anywhere from thousands to trillions of cells. Most organisms, such as yeasts, molds, bacteria and some algae, are composed of only one cell.

choreograph: (n. choreography) The process of planning or designing each step in a complicated performance (be it dance, ice skating or the movements across the stage in some play). Or it can be setting the controls to set the role of each participant in some precision operation (such as battlefield plan of attack or marching band's half-time display). The person who does this planning is known as a choreographer.

colleague: Someone who works with another; a co-worker or team member.

cortex: The outermost part of an organ, such as the kidney or brain. Or the outer part of some microbes or plant, such as a tree's bark or a mango's rind. (in hair)The protein-based layer of a hair shaft (the layer responsible for a hair's color) that is below the cuticle.

depression: (in medicine) A mental illness characterized by persistent sadness and apathy. Although these feelings can be triggered by events, such as the death of a loved one or the move to a new city, that isn't typically considered an "illness" - unless the symptoms are prolonged and harm an individual's ability to perform normal daily tasks (such as working, sleeping or interacting with others). People suffering from depression often feel they lack the energy needed to get anything done. They may have difficulty concentrating on things or showing an interest in normal events. Many times, these feelings seem to be triggered by nothing; they can appear out of nowhere.

develop: (n. development) To emerge or to make come into being, either naturally or through human intervention, such as by manufacturing. (in biology) To grow as an organism from conception through adulthood, often undergoing changes in chemistry, size, mental maturity or sometimes even shape.

disorder: (in medicine) A condition where the body does not work appropriately, leading to what might be viewed as an illness. This term can sometimes be used interchangeably with disease.

disrupt: (n. disruption) To break apart something; interrupt the normal operation of something; or to throw the normal organization (or order) of something into disorder.

dopamine: A neurotransmitter, this chemical helps transmit signals in the brain.

electrode: A device that conducts electricity and is used to make contact with non-metal part of an electrical circuit, or that contacts something through which an electrical signal moves.

feedback: A response or assessment that follows some a particular act or decision. Or a process or combination of processes that propel or exaggerate a change in some direction.

genetic: Having to do with chromosomes, DNA and the genes contained within DNA. The field of science dealing with these biological instructions is known as genetics. People who work in this field are geneticists.

impulsive: (n. impulsivity) Quick to act; not willing to wait. Not waiting for deliberation or a weighing of consequences.

link: A connection between two people or things.

localized: An adjective for something that has a very local impact. (antonym: broad or far-reaching)

malleable: Something whose shape can be altered, usually by hammering or otherwise deforming with pressure. (in social science) Attitudes or behaviors that can be changed with social pressure or logic.

mature: (adj.) Connoting an adult individual or full-grown and fully developed (non-juvenile) form of something. (verb) To develop toward - or into - a more complex and full-grown form of something, be it a living thing, a technology or an idea.

mental health: A term for someone's emotional, psychological and social well-being. It refers to how people behave on their own and how they interact with others. It includes how people make choices, handle stress and manage fear or anxiety. Poor mental health can be triggered by disease or merely reflect a short-term response to life's challenges. It can occur in people of any age, from babies to the elderly.

nerve: A long, delicate fiber that transmits signals across the body of an animal. An animal's backbone contains many nerves, some of which control the movement of its legs or fins, and some of which convey sensations such as hot, cold or pain.

neuron: An impulse-conducting cell. Such cells are found in the brain, spinal column and nervous system.

neuroscientist: Someone who studies the structure or function of the brain and other parts of the nervous system.

neurotransmitter: A chemical released at the end of a neuron to carry a message to a neighboring cell. This chemical travels across the space between two cells, and then binds to molecules on a neighboring cell to transmit a message. Neurotransmitters are released from neurons, and can bind to neurons or to other types of cell, including those that make up muscles or glands.

prefrontal cortex: A region containing some of the brain's gray matter. Located behind the forehead, it plays a role in making decisions and other complex mental activities, in emotions and in behaviors.

primate: The order of mammals that includes humans, apes, monkeys and related animals (such as tarsiers, the Daubentonia and other lemurs).

psychiatrist: A medical doctor who spends many years learning to study and treat diseases of the human mind. Treatments may consist of talking therapies, prescription drugs or both. This medical field is known as psychiatry.

psychologist: A scientist or mental-health professional who studies the human mind, especially in relation to actions and behaviors.

real time: A term that connotes immediacy; something is being studied, recorded and/or reported at the very time it is happening.

reward: (In animal behavior) A stimulus, such as a tasty food pellet, that is offered to an animal or person to get them to change their behavior or to learn a task.

risk: The chance or mathematical likelihood that some bad thing might happen. For instance, exposure to radiation poses a risk of cancer. Or the hazard - or peril - itself. (For instance: Among cancer risks that the people faced were radiation and drinking water tainted with arsenic.)

rodent: A mammal of the order Rodentia, a group that includes mice, rats, squirrels, guinea pigs, hamsters and porcupines.

social: (adj.) Relating to gatherings of people; a term for animals (or people) that prefer to exist in groups. (noun) A gathering of people, for instance those who belong to a club or other organization, for the purpose of enjoying each other's company.

stress: (in biology) A factor - such as unusual temperatures, movements, moisture or pollution - that affects the health of a species or ecosystem. (in psychology) A mental, physical, emotional or behavioral reaction to an event or circumstance (stressor) that disturbs a person or animal's usual state of being or places increased demands on a person or animal; psychological stress can be either positive or negative.

stressor: Something that induces stress in an individual or system.

symptom: A physical or mental indicator generally regarded to be characteristic of a disease. Sometimes a single symptom - especially a general one, such as fever or pain - can be a sign of any of many different types of injury or disease.

ventral striatum: A region deep inside the brain known as the brain's reward center.

virtual: Being almost like something. An object or concept that is virtually real would be almost true or real - but not quite. The term often is used to refer to something that has been modeled - by or accomplished by - a computer using numbers, not by using real-world parts.

Citations

Alison Pearce Stevens is a former biologist and forever science geek who writes about science and nature for kids. She lives with her husband, their two kids and a small menagerie of cuddly (and not-so cuddly) critters.

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Teen depression linked to how the brain processes rewards

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Feeling sad. Sleeping too much. Not wanting to do things that used to be fun. Such feelings may come and go throughout adolescence. But if they last more than two weeks, they can be signs of depression. It's a serious mental health disorder that requires treatment. And it's remarkably common in teens.

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https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/brain-cells-take-break

Summary- The cells in your brain are busy when you're sleeping but the neurons take breaks periodically in order for you to stay asleep.

1- Brain activity can be shown on a graph that can show scientists what's going on based on its height, width, & closeness.

Interesting- Overactive neurons can cause epilepsy.

Question- What if some neurons are unable to take breaks?

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Researchers build living robots from frog cells - Oscar

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Researchers build living robots from frog cells - Oscar

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Living task-specific robots is being made of living cells scraped from frog embryos. They are called, "living, programmable organisms".

1. They are potentially self-healing, biodegradable, purpose-build automations.
2. Xenobots, named of the living robots, can survive for 10 days.

This is quite interesting. It is like the creation of cyborg. However, instead of adding mechanical parts to a body, they are parts of a body to mechanical parts.

How does living cells help create living robots made out of non-living materials?

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While we typically think of robots as being constructed from metal, circuitry, and plastic, a team of researchers from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts and the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont have just announced the creation of task-specific robots made of living cells scraped from frog embryos. (They are not called "ribits.") Biologist Michael Levin tells The Guardian, "They are living, programmable organisms."

Levin and his colleagues call the tiny automatons "xenobots," after Xenopus laevis, the African clawed frogs from whom their cells came. They're proofs of a larger concept the researchers have invented: a method, or "pipeline," theoretically capable of creating living bots for all sorts of tasks.

Aside from being a somewhat shocking development, the robots raise obvious ethical and practical issues. "These are entirely new lifeforms. They have never before existed on Earth," points out Levin. Team member Sam Kreigman says, "What's important to me is that this is public, so we can have a discussion as a society and policymakers can decide what is the best course of action."
Image source: Kriegman, Blackiston, Levin, and Bongard
How the xenobots are made and how they work

The primary purpose of the research is the development of a workable, scalable pipeline that produces robots selected, or "programmed," for specific capabilities. It works like this:
Computer algorithms set to work iterating 500 to 1,000 virtual 3D structures using models of actual cells - whose behaviors are known - as building blocks. For the xenobots, models of passive and contractive (heart muscle) skin cells from frog embryos were used. Upon identifying designs that function in a desired manner, the scientists then painstakingly construct a real-world version using the actual, living cells.
In the case of the xenobots, the contractive skin muscles contract and expand, like an engine. Through this action, a xenobot can move itself around on a pumping pair of stumpy legs. One xenobot has a hole in its middle that's been formed into a pouch allowing it, theoretically, to carry a tiny payload of some sort. The xenobots can survive for about 10 days.

The pipeline

Since the research is really about the pipeline, the xenobots are primarily intended as a demonstration of the system's potential. If you're wondering why we might want living robots, you're not alone. According to senior researcher roboticist Joshua Bongard, "It's impossible to know what the applications will be for any new technology, so we can really only guess."

Even so, the researchers propose a few possible applications, including eating up and digesting microplastics in the ocean, and doing the same for toxins in the human body, delivering drugs to patients, and cleaning plaque from human artery walls.

All of these assume that the system can mature into a means of creating robots capable of performing multiple interlinked tasks such as identifying and then digesting toxins. If this becomes doable, there are some obvious benefits inherent in living-cell robots: They can heal themselves if the become damaged-this has already been demonstrated with the xenobots-and they are made of eminently biodegradable materials.
Image source: Kriegman, Blackiston, Levin, and Bongard
Ethical and practical issues

Chief among the ethical concerns regarding living robots is the notion that, as living organisms, the robots may be reasonably entitled to moral status as individuals.

L. Syd M Johnson, bioethicist at SUNY Upstate Medical University tells Big Think: "As with any new technology, how it is used or will be used raises important ethical concerns. As humans, we've shown time and again that we are really not good at predicting the future consequences of technological innovations. But when novel living organisms are created, I have concerns about potential harms to those organisms themselves. Humans have been creating and manipulating animals for millennia with little concern for how it affects the animals themselves. Will these xenobots be more like bacteria, which are alive, but not sentient, so we need not worry about their welfare? Or will they be more like jellyfish or corals, animals about whom we might reasonably wonder what they feel? In principle, xenobots are arguably animals, and could be created using neural cells, and to have a nervous system that would make it easier to "program" them to respond to and navigate the world. Releasing them into the world, and creating them to be potentially capable of feeling are both possibilities that I find worrying."

On a practical level, it's worth noting that among the possible uses mentioned by the researchers is an illustration of the type of problem the robots couldn't really solve. If they ate microplastics from the sea and then died, what would happen to their plastic-filled corpses? Wouldn't they eventually be eaten by other ocean organisms, merely shifting the plastic to a different rung in the ecological ladder? (Removing toxins from a human body would be less of an issue-the robot could simply be eliminated through the patient's digestive system.)

Big picture

These concerns notwithstanding, the researchers remain excited by the possibilities, even beyond making living robots. "The aim is to understand the software of life," says Levin. "If you think about birth defects, cancer, age-related diseases, all of these things could be solved if we knew how to make biological structures, to have ultimate control over growth and form."

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Researchers build living robots from frog cells

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While we typically think of robots as being constructed from metal, circuitry, and plastic, a team of researchers from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts and the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont have just announced the creation of task-specific robots made of living cells scraped from frog embryos.

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"Does Alzheimer's disease start inside nerve cells?"

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"Does Alzheimer's disease start inside nerve cells?"

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Summary
- Instead of studying plaques outside cells, studies are showing we need to study inside the cells themselves in order to treat Alzheimer's.

Facts
- Amyloid-beta accumulates inside nerve cells because misfolded amyloid-beta inside cells cause increase production.
- Alzheimer's treatments remove plaque but not dementia.

Most interesting
- They have been studying outside cells but have not tried to find if it starts within.

Question
- Have any new studies/ tests on this been done since this article?

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Does Alzheimer’s disease start inside nerve cells?

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An experimental study has revealed that the Alzheimer’s protein amyloid-beta accumulates inside nerve cells, and that the misfolded protein may then spread from cell to cell via nerve fibers. This happens at an earlier stage than the formation of amyloid-beta plaques in the brain, something that is…

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How does counting cells shed light on the spreading of cancer cells? SPC

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How does counting cells shed light on the spreading of cancer cells? SPC

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https://news.mit.edu/2021/counting-cells-cancer-0928

As tumors grow within an organ, they also release cells that enter the bloodstream. These cells can travel to other organs, seeding new tumors called metastases. With scientists able to count the cells, they're able to understand how fast the cancer cells can spread so they can establish how fast they need to be treated.

1. One milliner of blood may contain between one and ten such cells.
2. CTC are more difficult to find in mice because mice only have a little over one ml of blood.
3. They have only tested tumors related to pancreatic, small cell lung, and non-small cell lung cancer.
4. These techniques can also study dynamic circulation of other cells such as immune cells and natural killer cells.
5. Different drug treatments influence the circulation of CTC levels in the body.

- How long did it take to revolutionize the idea of counting the cells?
- Why did scientists choose to analyze lung and pancreatic cancer first with this technology?

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MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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As tumors grow within an organ, they also release cells that enter the bloodstream. These cells can travel to other organs, seeding new tumors called metastases.

MIT engineers have now developed a technique that, for the first time, allows them to measure the generation rate of these circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in mice. Their approach, which also reveals how long CTCs survive once released into the bloodstream, could help scientists learn more about how different types of cancers spread through the body.

"By exchanging blood between mice while counting CTCs in real-time, we obtained a direct measurement of how quickly CTCs enter the circulation and how long it takes before they're cleared," says Scott Manalis, the David H. Koch Professor of Engineering in the departments of Biological Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and the senior author of the study.

Using their new system, the researchers were able to study CTCs from pancreatic tumors as well as two types of lung tumors.

Graduate student Alex Miller and Bashar Hamza PhD '20, a Koch Institute visiting scientist, are the lead authors of the paper, which appears today in Nature Communications.
Capturing rare cells
Circulating tumor cells are rare in patients: One milliliter of blood might contain between one and 10 such cells. In recent years, researchers have devised strategies to capture these elusive cells, which can yield a great deal of information about a patient's tumor, and even help doctors track how a tumor is responding to treatment.

"Circulating tumor cells are attractive because you can get them from blood and they provide a window into the tumor. It's a lot easier than biopsying the tumor," Manalis says.

In mice, CTCs are even more difficult to find because mice only have a little more than 1 milliliter of blood. Being able to study CTCs in mice could help researchers answer many outstanding questions about how rapidly these cells are shed by tumors, how long they survive in circulation, and how efficiently they seed new tumors, Manalis says.

To try to answer some of those questions, Manalis and his students designed a system that lets them remove blood from a mouse with a tumor and flow it into a healthy mouse. Through a separate tube, blood from the healthy mouse flows back to the tumor-bearing mouse. The system includes two cell-counters (one for each mouse) that detect and remove circulating tumor cells from the blood.

Using this setup, the researchers can analyze all of the blood from each mouse in less than an hour. After determining the concentration of CTCs in the bloodstream of the tumor-bearing mouse and of the healthy mouse, they can calculate the rate at which CTCs are generated in the tumor-bearing mouse. They can also calculate the half-life of the cells - a measure of how long they survive in the bloodstream before being cleared by the body.

Working with members of the Jacks lab in the Koch Institute, the researchers used the system to study mice with three different types of tumors: pancreatic cancer, small cell lung cancer, and non-small cell lung cancer.

They found that the half-life of CTCs was fairly similar between the three types of tumors, with values ranging from 40 seconds to about 250 seconds. However, the generation rates showed much more variability between different tumor types. Small cell lung tumors, which are known to be aggressively metastatic, could shed more than 100,000 CTCs per hour, while non-small cell lung tumors and pancreatic tumors shed as few as 60 CTCs per hour.

Previous studies that relied on injecting tumor cells from cell lines cultivated in the lab have found that those cells had a half-life of only a few seconds in the bloodstream, but the new results from Manalis' lab suggest that endogenous CTCs actually persist much longer than that.
Generating metastases
The researchers also showed that the healthy mice that received CTCs later developed metastases, even after only exchanging a few thousand CTCs. They found that CTCs from small-cell lung tumors formed metastases in the livers of the recipient healthy mice, just as they did in the mice where the tumors originally formed.

"What we realized was that these CTCs that we're injecting into the healthy recipient mouse start to grow and create metastases that we can detect after a couple of months," Hamza says. "That was exciting to observe because it validated that our blood-exchange technique can also be used to gently inject a viable CTC sample in its native blood environment without having to enrich it using harsh in vitro techniques."

Using this approach, researchers now hope to study how different drug treatments influence CTC levels. "With this system, we can look at real-time concentration of CTCs, so we can perform a drug treatment and look at how it is affecting half-life time and generation rate," Miller says.

The researchers also plan to study other types of cancers, including blood cancers such as leukemias and lymphomas, using this system. The technique could also be used to study the circulation dynamics of other kinds of cells, including immune cells such as neutrophils and natural killer cells.

The research was funded by the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Fund for Cancer Research, the Cancer Systems Biology Consortium, the National Cancer Institute, the Pew-Stewart Scholars Program for Cancer Research, a Sloan Fellowship in Chemistry, and the National Institutes of Health.

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Counting cells may shed light on how cancer spreads

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As tumors grow within an organ, they also release cells that enter the bloodstream. These cells can travel to other organs, seeding new tumors called metastases. MIT engineers have now developed a technique that, for the first time, allows them to measure the generation rate of these circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in mice.

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https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/vaping-harm-immune-cells-human-body

A single vape session can harm your immune cells in the body for life.
1. people who don't smoke have low oxidative stress.
2.  people who do smoke have high oxidative stress.

if you smoke like once. you can have lifetime issues.
What are some changes that are gonna happen to vapes with this new information?

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A single vape session can harm immune cells in the body

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Vaping creates molecules in the body that can attack cells and cause damage.

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Could we use macropinocytosis against cancer?

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Could we use macropinocytosis against cancer?

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1. Could lead to exposing vulnerabilities of cancer
2. Possibly enable rapid human cell regeneration

A common process that cancer cells use to survive fatal injuries is macropinocytosis; it's possible to use this against cancer cells.

Could humans in the future potentially use macropinocytosis and live indefinitely?

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To survive life threatening injuries, cancer cells use a technique in which they eat parts of the membrane surrounding them. This is shown for the first time in research from a team of Danish researchers.

It is the membrane of cancer cells that is at the focus of the new research now showing a completely new way in which cancer cells can repair the damage that can otherwise kill them.

In both normal cells and cancer cells, the cell membrane acts as the skin of the cells. And damage to the membrane can be life threatening. The interior of cells is fluid, and if a hole is made in the membrane, the cell simply floats out and dies -- a bit like a hole in a water balloon.

Therefore, damage to the cell membrane must be repaired quickly, and now research from a team of Danish researchers shows that cancer cells use a technique called macropinocytosis. The technique, which is already a known tool for cells in other contexts, consists in the cancer cells pulling the intact cell membrane in over the damaged area and sealing the hole in a matter of minutes. Next, the damaged part of the cell membrane is separated into small spheres and transported to the cells' 'stomach' -- the so-called lysosomes, where they are broken down.

In the laboratory, the researchers damaged the membrane of the cancer cells using a laser that shoots small holes in the membrane and triggers macropinocytosis. Here they can see that if the process is inhibited with substances blocking the formation of the small membrane spheres, the cancer cell can no longer repair the damage and dies.

"Our research provides very basic knowledge about how cancer cells survive. In our experiments, we have also shown that cancer cells die if the process is inhibited, and this points towards macropinocytosis as a target for future treatment. It is a long-term perspective, but it is interesting," says group leader Jesper Nylandsted from the Danish Cancer Society's Research Center and the University of Copenhagen, who has headed the new research and who for many years has investigated how cancer cells repair their membranes.
Possibility of recycling
One of the most dangerous properties of cancer is when the disease spreads in the body. If tumors occur in new parts of the body, the disease becomes more difficult to treat and typically requires more extensive forms of treatment. It is also when cancer cells spread through the body's tissues that they are particularly prone to damage to their membrane.

Researchers at the Danish Cancer Society have previously shown how cancer cells can use another technique to repair the membrane, namely by tying off the damaged part, rather like when a lizard throws its tail.

However, the experiments in the laboratory could indicate that especially the aggressive cancer cells use macropinocytosis. This may be due to the fact that the cancer cell has the opportunity to reuse the damaged membrane when it is degraded in the lysosomes. This type of recycling will be useful for cancer cells because they divide frequently, requiring large amounts of energy and material for the new cells.

And although the researchers have now published the new results, their work is not over. This is explained by another member of the research team, postdoc Stine Lauritzen Sønder:

"We continue to work and investigate how cancer cells protect their membranes. In connection with macropinocytosis in particular, it is also interesting to see what happens after the membrane is closed. We believe that the first patching is a bit rough and that a more thorough repair of the membrane is needed afterwards. It can be another weak point in the cancer cells, and is something we want to examine closer," she says.

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cancer; brain tumor; lung cancer; lymphoma; genetics; molecular biology; cell biology; biology

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To survive life threatening injuries, cancer cells use a technique in which they eat parts of the membrane surrounding them. This is shown for the first time in research from a team of Danish researchers.

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Why Are Newborn Screening Practices Shining A Light On Genetic Ownership?

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Why Are Newborn Screening Practices Shining A Light On Genetic Ownership?

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Until 2014 and the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Reauthorization Act was passed there was no federal mandate that required hospitals and research entities get parental consent to use the child's sample in research.
1) Many newborn screening lawsuits filed against many states.
2) Genetic counseling began as a profession in the 1970s to interpret and explain genetic information and disorders in order to educate individuals, especially parents and families.

Question: WHERE IS MY DNA BRUH?

Website: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/16112111114

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Before Samantha Zent's parents brought home their newborn daughter from the hospital 22 years ago, Zent left behind a blood sample.

"I was born in Nappanee, Ind., and my blood sample is currently in the Indiana State Department of Health possibly being used for research because state policy says it will be held there until I turn 23," Zent said.

The Indiana State University senior biology major is one of the thousands of babies born each day who leave the hospital having been tested for a variety of inheritable and fatal health conditions through a practice known as newborn screening.

While newborn screening is one of the national public health services that has transformed preventive healthcare, there are certain ethical and legal concerns about what happens to the babies' genetic information beyond the tests. As a part of the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience program, Zent explored each state's policy and procedure as it pertains to newborn screening practices.

"I found that up until 2014 when President Obama passed the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Reauthorization Act, there was no federal mandate that required hospitals and research entities get parental consent to use the child's sample in research," Zent said.

In recent years, there have been newborn screening lawsuits filed against many states, including one against the Indiana State Department of Health, for the improper storage and use of blood samples obtained from newborn screening. "I think this really became a national conversation after the book 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' by Rebecca Skloot came out," said Nathan Myers, a faculty sponsor for the SURE program.

In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, a poor African-American woman, was diagnosed with cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Her cells were taken without her knowledge and used to advance scientific research. Now known as HeLa cells, they helped to develop medical innovations such as the polio vaccine and countless others.

"There is a certain amount of controversy surrounding this issue of who actually owns your genetic information and to what extent does the individual actually have ownership," Myers said. "Samantha looked at her research from high-risk to low-risk states in terms of a parent's perspective. Is there a lot of information provided on newborn screening and a low level of storage time for the samples? The states that store samples forever and do not provide any information about newborn screening or research are the ones that might have a higher probability of using that genetic information in a negative way." Zent concluded there is a general lack of knowledge about newborn screening and research for parents and healthcare providers. In her research, which is ongoing, she suggests that genetic counselors may be able to bridge the gap between researchers, physicians and families.

"The personal side of me wishes genetic counselors could meet with all of those women to help them understand what their babies are even being tested for, because I don't think there is very much education," said Megan Tucker, director of the master's of genetic counseling program. "At the same time, when there are less than 50 of us in the entire state, I don't think there is the physical man power to truly touch the thousands of women that have babies every year."

Genetic counseling began as a profession in the 1970s to interpret and explain genetic information and disorders in order to educate individuals, especially parents and families.

"It is very much a growing field that leads into all kinds of different specialties, not just prenatal but into adult disorders and neurology and cardiology," Tucker said. "So it's growing in a lot of directions, which that in itself makes it hard for us to keep up with all of those things with the few of us that exist."

Indiana State's master's of genetic counseling is the 33rd accredited program in the U.S. and Canada and aims to help fill the profession's needs while providing students with an interdisciplinary education. "In theory, a graduate student from our program, or any genetic counselling program, should be able to walk out and know all of the areas that genetic counselors work in, such as prenatal, oncology clinics, pediatrics and others," Tucker said.

The two-year program, which accepted its first class in August, offers a unique opportunity for students to gain experiential learning in the new Genetic Counseling Clinic in Wabash Valley.

"Indiana State and Union Hospital have partnered to open the first genetic counseling clinic in which we are now serving patients with diagnoses of cancer or psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder," Tucker said. "Through the Center for Genomic Advocacy, the genetic counseling program and the clinic, we begin to truly reach out to individuals outside of the university to the Terre Haute community."

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patient education and counseling; infant's health; personalized medicine; today's healthcare; genes; diseases and conditions; pregnancy and childbirth; gene therapy

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Newborn screening practices: Issue of genetic ownership examined

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Before Samantha Zent's parents brought home their newborn daughter from the hospital 22 years ago, Zent left behind a blood sample. "I was born in Nappanee, Ind., and my blood sample is currently in the Indiana State Department of Health possibly being used for research because state policy says it will be held there until I turn 23," Zent said.

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Many people do not fully understand what cancer is besides it is a very dangerous thing that can kill someone, the article goes over what cancer is, types, treatment, background info, etc.

1 - genetics can be a factor in cancer.
2 - 40,000 people are diagnosed with cancer each year.

With knowing this, people can understand how serious cancer is besides it being deadly.

When was cancer first discovered?

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Cancer causes cells to divide uncontrollably. This can result in tumors, damage to the immune system, and other impairment that can be fatal.

In the United States, an estimated 15.5 million people with a history of cancer were living as of January 1, 2016, according to a 2018 report from the American Cancer Society.

In this article, we examine types of cancer, how the disease develops, and the many treatments that help improve the quality of life and survival rates.

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Photo edited by Stephen Kelly; Science Photo Library - STEVE GSCHMEISSNER/ CSA Images/Getty Images

Cancer is a broad term. It describes the disease that results when cellular changes cause the uncontrolled growth and division of cells.

Some types of cancer cause rapid cell growth, while others cause cells to grow and divide at a slower rate.

Certain forms of cancer result in visible growths called tumors, while others, such as leukemia, do not.

Most of the body's cells have specific functions and fixed lifespans. While it may sound like a bad thing, cell death is part of a natural and beneficial phenomenon called apoptosis.

A cell receives instructions to die so that the body can replace it with a newer cell that functions better. Cancerous cells lack the components that instruct them to stop dividing and to die.

As a result, they build up in the body, using oxygen and nutrients that would usually nourish other cells. Cancerous cells can form tumors, impair the immune system and cause other changes that prevent the body from functioning regularly.

Cancerous cells may appear in one area, then spread via the lymph nodes. These are clusters of immune cells located throughout the body.

There are many causes of cancer, and some are preventable.

For example, over 480,000 people die in the U.S. each year from smoking cigarettes, according to data reported in 2014.

In addition to smoking, risk factors for cancer include:

Other causes of cancer are not preventable. Currently, the most significant unpreventable risk factor is age. According to the American Cancer Society, doctors in the U.S. diagnose of cancer cases in people ages 50 years or older.

Is cancer genetic?

Genetic factors can contribute to the development of cancer.

A person's genetic code tells their cells when to divide and expire. Changes in the genes can lead to faulty instructions, and cancer can result.

Genes also influence the cells' production of proteins, and proteins carry many of the instructions for cellular growth and division.

Some genes change proteins that would usually repair damaged cells. This can lead to cancer. If a parent has these genes, they may pass on the altered instructions to their offspring.

Some genetic changes occur after birth, and factors such as smoking and sun exposure can increase the risk.

Other changes that can result in cancer take place in the chemical signals that determine how the body deploys, or "expresses" specific genes.

Finally, a person can inherit a predisposition for a type of cancer. A doctor may refer to this as having a hereditary cancer syndrome. Inherited genetic mutations significantly contribute to the development of 5-10 percent of cancer cases.

The side effects of chemotherapy include hair loss. However, advances in treatment are improving the outlook for people with cancer.

Innovative research has fueled the development of new medications and treatment technologies.

Doctors usually prescribe treatments based on the type of cancer, its stage at diagnosis, and the person's overall health.

Below are examples of approaches to cancer treatment:

Chemotherapy aims to kill cancerous cells with medications that target rapidly dividing cells. The drugs can also help shrink tumors, but the side effects can be severe.

Hormone therapy involves taking medications that change how certain hormones work or interfere with the body's ability to produce them. When hormones play a significant role, as with prostate and breast cancers, this is a common approach.

Immunotherapy uses medications and other treatments to boost the immune system and encourage it to fight cancerous cells. Two examples of these treatments are checkpoint inhibitors and adoptive cell transfer.

Precision medicine, or personalized medicine, is a newer, developing approach. It involves using genetic testing to determine the best treatments for a person's particular presentation of cancer. Researchers have yet to show that it can effectively treat all types of cancer, however.

Radiation therapy uses high-dose radiation to kill cancerous cells. Also, a doctor may recommend using radiation to shrink a tumor before surgery or reduce tumor-related symptoms.

Stem cell transplant can be especially beneficial for people with blood-related cancers, such as leukemia or lymphoma. It involves removing cells, such as red or white blood cells, that chemotherapy or radiation has destroyed. Lab technicians then strengthen the cells and put them back into the body.

Surgery is often a part of a treatment plan when a person has a cancerous tumor. Also, a surgeon may remove lymph nodes to reduce or prevent the disease's spread.

Targeted therapies perform functions within cancerous cells to prevent them from multiplying. They can also boost the immune system. Two examples of these therapies are small-molecule drugs and monoclonal antibodies.

Doctors will often employ more than one type of treatment to maximize effectiveness.

The most common type of cancer in the U.S. is breast cancer, followed by lung and prostate cancers, according to the National Cancer Institute, which excluded nonmelanoma skin cancers from these findings.

Each year, more than 40,000 people in the country receive a diagnosis of one of the following types of cancer:

Other forms are less common. According to the National Cancer Institute, there are over 100 types of cancer.

Cancer development and cell division

Doctors classify cancer by:

its location in the body

the tissues that it forms in

For example, sarcomas develop in bones or soft tissues, while carcinomas form in cells that cover internal or external surfaces in the body. Basal cell carcinomas develop in the skin, while adenocarcinomas can form in the breast.

When cancerous cells spread to other parts of the body, the medical term for this is metastasis.

A person can also have more than one type of cancer at a time.

Improvements in cancer detection, increased awareness of the risks of smoking, and a drop in tobacco use have all contributed to a year-on-year decrease in the number of cancer diagnoses and deaths.

According to the American Cancer Society, the overall cancer death rate declined by between 1991 and 2015.

When a person has cancer, the outlook will depend on whether the disease has spread and on its type, severity, and location.

Cancer causes cells to divide uncontrollably. It also prevents them from dying at the natural point in their life cycle.

Genetic factors and lifestyle choices, such as smoking, can contribute to the development of the disease. Several elements affect the ways that DNA communicates with cells and directs their division and death.

After nonmelanoma skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common type in the U.S. However, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death.

Treatments are constantly improving. Examples of current methods include chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgery. Some people benefit from newer options, such as stem cell transplantation and precision medicine.

The diagnosis and death rates of cancer are dropping yearly.

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Cancer: Overview, causes, treatments, and types

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Cancer is the uncontrolled development of cells. After heart disease, it is the second most common cause of death in the United States. However, researchers continue to develop treatments that result in improved survival rates. Read on to learn more.

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160519144556.htm

Immune cells from healthy donors can create an immune response with healthy immune cells in a recipient with cancer.

1- could lead to more survivors of cancer
2-faster recovery

By doing this the cancer patients own immune cells can recognize the cancer cells.

How are the cancer patients given the healthy immune cells?

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A new step in cancer immunotherapy: researchers from the Netherlands Cancer Institute and University of Oslo/Oslo University Hospital show that even if one's own immune cells cannot recognize and fight their tumors, someone else's immune cells might. Their proof of principle study is published in the journal Science on May 19th.

The study shows that adding mutated DNA from cancer cells into immune stimulating cells from healthy donors create an immune response in the healthy immune cells. Inserting the targeted components from the donor immune cells back into the immune cells of the cancer patients, the researchers were able to make cancer patients' own immune cells recognize cancer cells.

The extremely rapidly developing field of cancer immunotherapy aims to create technologies that help the body's own immune system to fight cancer. There are a number of possible causes that can prevent the immune system from controlling cancer cells. First, the activity of immune cells is controlled by many 'brakes' that can interfere with their function, and therapies that inactivate these brakes are now being tested in many human cancers. As a second reason, in some patients the immune system may not recognize the cancer cells as aberrant in the first place. As such, helping the immune system to better recognize cancer cells is one of the main focuses in cancer immunotherapy.

Ton Schumacher of the Netherlands Cancer Institute and Johanna Olweus of the University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital decided to test whether a 'borrowed immune system' could "see" the cancer cells of the patient as aberrant. The recognition of aberrant cells is carried out by immune cells called T cells. All T cells in our body scan the surface of other cells, including cancer cells, to check whether they display any protein fragments on their surface that should not be there. Upon recognition of such foreign protein fragments, T cells kill the aberrant cells. As cancer cells harbor faulty proteins, they can also display foreign protein fragments -- also known as neo-antigens -- on their surface, much in the way virus-infected cells express fragments of viral proteins.

To address whether the T cells of a patient react to all the foreign protein fragments on cancer cells, the research teams first mapped all possible neo-antigens on the surface of melanoma cells from three different patients. In all 3 patients, the cancer cells seemed to display a large number of different neo-antigens. But when the researchers tried to match these to the T cells derived from within the patient's tumors, most of these aberrant protein fragments on the tumor cells went unnoticed.

Next, they tested whether the same neo-antigens could be seen by T-cells derived from healthy volunteers. Strikingly, these donor-derived T cells could detect a significant number of neo-antigens that had not been seen by the patients' T cells.

"In a way, our findings show that the immune response in cancer patients can be strengthened; there is more on the cancer cells that makes them foreign that we can exploit. One way we consider doing this is finding the right donor T cells to match these neo-antigens.," says Ton Schumacher. "The receptor that is used by these donor T-cells can then be used to genetically modify the patient's own T cells so these will be able to detect the cancer cells."

"Our study shows that the principle of outsourcing cancer immunity to a donor is sound. However, more work needs to be done before patients can benefit from this discovery. Thus, we need to find ways to enhance the throughput. We are currently exploring high-throughput methods to identify the neo-antigens that the T cells can "see" on the cancer and isolate the responding cells. But the results showing that we can obtain cancer-specific immunity from the blood of healthy individuals are already very promising," says Johanna Olweus.

This research was performed within the K.G.Jebsen Center for Cancer Immunotherapy, at the University of Oslo/ Oslo University Hospital and The Netherlands Cancer Institute.

Journal Reference:

E. Stronen, M. Toebes, S. Kelderman, M. M. van Buuren, W. Yang, N. van Rooij, M. Donia, M.-L. Boschen, F. Lund-Johansen, J. Olweus, T. N. Schumacher. Targeting of cancer neoantigens with donor-derived T cell receptor repertoires. Science, 2016; DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf2288

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immune system; lymphoma; skin cancer; brain tumor; cancer; prostate cancer; stem cells; lung cancer

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Fighting cancer with the help of someone else's immune cells

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A new step in cancer immunotherapy: researchers from the Netherlands Cancer Institute and University of Oslo/Oslo University Hospital show that even if one's own immune cells cannot recognize and fight their tumors, someone else's immune cells might. Their proof of principle study is published in the journal Science on May 19th.