SPARKing the fight against deadly superbugs

Associate Professor Mark Blaskovich

Disarming superbugs that can cause deadly infections is the focus of a powerful database now housed at The University of Queensland.

The database and virtual laboratory, called SPARK, aims to foster the development of new antibiotics to prevent projections of 10 million deaths globally per year from superbugs by 2050.

SPARK– the Shared Platform for Antibiotic Research and Knowledge – enables scientists to share data and insights, learn from past research and generate new knowledge into how to kill bacteria.

Associate Professor Mark Blaskovich said superbugs threatened to make common medical procedures such as joint replacements, liver transplants and chemotherapy too dangerous because of the risk of untreatable infection.

“Without new antibiotics, the world risks a return to the day when a simple schoolyard scrape could lead to a deadly infection,” Dr Blaskovich said.

Superbugs have evolved to develop resistance, with mechanisms that protect them from the effects of a range of antibiotics.

“Many pharmaceutical companies have left the field of antibiotic research and development because of low returns on investment,” Dr Blaskovich said.

“This is where SPARK comes in, filling the gap and helping the global community come together to discover effective new antibiotics.

“SPARK captures the collective wisdom of companies and researchers that have retired from antibiotic discovery and provides a one-stop shop to find a wealth of antibiotic-related data that would otherwise be difficult to access.”

Terra Orbital Drift

On YouTube

Terra has consistently orbited Earth from pole to pole for over twenty years, collecting important data about Earth’s systems. Crossing the equator at 10:30 am mean local time allowed Terra’s five instruments to collect consistent, simultaneous data, important to Earth’s systems research and applications. In 2020, Terra completed its final inclination maneuver, using some of its limited fuel supply, to maintain that crossing time.

Since that final inclination maneuver, Terra has continuously drifted to an earlier equatorial crossing time. By the Fall of 2022, Terra’s crossing time will be earlier than 10:15 am. To ensure Terra, with limited fuel supplies, is a safe distance from other missions in the Earth Observing Satellite constellation orbit, Terra will be lowered to a new orbit, where it will be able to collect valuable data at an even earlier crossing time.

Breeding Plants With Genes From 1 Parent

Photo by Johann Piber from Pexels

Scientists are a step closer to breeding plants with genes from only one parent. New research led by plant biologists at the University of California, Davis, published Nov. 19 in Science Advances, shows the underlying mechanism behind eliminating half the genome and could make for easier and more rapid breeding of crop plants with desirable traits such as disease resistance.

The work stems from a discovery made over a decade ago by the late Simon Chan, associate professor of plant biology in the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences, and colleagues.

Plants, like other sexual organisms, inherit a matching set of chromosomes from each parent. In order to transmit a favorable trait, such as pest or drought resistance, to all their offspring, the plant would have to carry the same genetic variant on each chromosome. But creating plants that “breed true” in this way can take generations of cross-breeding.

In 2010, Chan and postdoctoral fellow Ravi Maruthachalam serendipitously discovered a way to eliminate the genetic contribution from one parent while breeding the lab plant Arabidopsis. They had modified a protein called CENH3, found in the centromere, a structure in the center of a chromosome. When they tried to cross wild-type Arabidopsis with plants with modified CENH3, they got plants with half the normal number of chromosomes. The part of the genome from one parent plant had been eliminated to create a haploid plant.

Smokers more likely to die from heart disease than lung cancer

The most likely cause of death for people who smoke is a fatal heart attack, stroke or heart failure that occurs without any warning signs, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.

“Most people are aware about the risks of lung cancer with smoking, but many people who smoke do not realize that dying from cardiovascular disease is more likely than dying from lung cancer,” said lead study author Dr. Sadiya Khan, an assistant professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a Northwestern Medicine cardiologist.

This is the first study showing smokers are more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than lung cancer and to show they are more likely to die from a fatal cardiovascular event without warning.

“This is so important because in the U.S., one in five people still report using tobacco, which may have increased with the added stress of the pandemic,” Khan said.

The analysis was an observational study and used individual-level data from multiple cohorts that followed people for several decades to examine risk of cardiovascular disease based on whether someone smoked or not.

“One of the most important findings of this analysis is that the first sign of cardiovascular disease is more likely to be a fatal event in those who smoke,” Khan said. “Smoking is more likely to kill people from heart disease even before someone may know they have heart disease.”

Nations are overusing natural resources faster than they are meeting basic human needs

For at least the last 30 years, not a single country has met the basic needs of its residents without overconsuming natural resources, according to new research led by the University of Leeds.

If current trends continue, no country will do so over the next three decades either, perpetuating human deprivation and worsening ecological breakdown.

The study, published in Nature Sustainability, is the first to track nations’ progress in terms of both meeting basic needs and respecting environmental limits in 148 countries since 1992, with projections to 2050 based on recent trends.

The country-level findings for social and environmental performance are available through an interactive website built by the researchers involved in the study.

The research team found that without urgent changes, national economies will continue to drive ecological breakdown, while delivering slow and insufficient improvements in living standards.

Wealthy countries like the US, UK, and Canada are transgressing planetary boundaries linked to climate and ecological breakdown, yet achieving minimal social gains. Poorer countries like Bangladesh, Malawi, and Sri Lanka are living within planetary boundaries, but still falling short on meeting many basic human needs.

New link between diet, intestinal stem cells and disease discovered

How unhealthy diet makes you sick

Obesity, diabetes and gastrointestinal cancer are frequently linked to an unhealthy diet. However, the molecular mechanisms responsible for this are hitherto not fully understood. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich and Helmholtz Munich have gained some new insights that help to better understand this connection. These findings provide an important basis for the development of new, non-invasive therapies.

The intestine is essential for maintaining our energy balance and is a master at reacting quickly to changes in nutrition and nutrient balance. It manages to do this with the help of intestinal cells that among other things are specialized in the absorption of food components or the secretion of hormones.

In adult humans, the intestinal cells regenerate every five to seven days. The ability to constantly renew and develop all types of intestinal cells from intestinal stem cells is crucial for the natural adaptability of the digestive system. However, a long-term diet high in sugar and fat disrupts this adaptation and can contribute to the development of obesity, type 2 diabetes and gastrointestinal cancer.

The molecular mechanisms behind this maladaptation are part of the research field of the group of Heiko Lickert, professor for diabetes research and ß-cell biology at the Technical University of Munich and head of the Institute for Diabetes and Regeneration Research at Helmholtz Munich.

The scientists assume that intestinal stem cells play a special role in the maladaptation. Using a mouse model, the researchers investigated the effects of a high-sugar and high-fat diet and compared it with a control group.

“The first thing we noticed was that the small intestine increases greatly in size on the high-calorie diet,” says study leader Anika Böttcher. “Together with Fabian Theis’ team of computational biologists, we then profiled 27,000 intestinal cells from control diet and high fat/high sugar diet fed mice. Using new machine learning techniques, we thus found that intestinal stem cells divide and differentiate significantly faster in the mice on an unhealthy diet.”

New mothers could help protect other babies’ brains

The placenta from mothers of healthy newborns could one day be used to reduce brain injury in growth-restricted babies, according to University of Queensland research.

Dr Julie Wixey from UQ’s Centre for Clinical Research said the study found stem cells sourced from a healthy placenta may reduce damaging inflammation in these babies after only three days.

“There is currently no treatment to protect the brains of a growth-restricted baby,” Dr Wixey said.

“Up to 50 per cent of them have long term issues ranging from mild learning and behavioral disorders all the way through to cerebral palsy.

“We know there’s inflammation in the brain and it doesn’t cease once these babies are born.

“Our study has shown we could reduce inflammation and ongoing brain injury by treating these newborns on the day they’re born using a combination of two types of stem cells – endothelial colony forming cells and mesenchymal stromal cells – isolated from a healthy human placenta.”

About 32 million growth-restricted babies are born around the world each year, with around 10 per cent of newborns in Australia affected.

These babies fail to grow normally in the womb, often because they haven’t received enough nutrients and oxygen from the placenta.

Antarctic ice-sheet destabilized within a decade

Iceberg in Antarctica © Uni Bonn/ Michael Weber

After the natural warming that followed the last Ice Age, there were repeated periods when masses of icebergs broke off from Antarctica into the Southern Ocean. A new data-model study led by the University of Bonn (Germany) now shows that it took only a decade to initiate this tipping point in the climate system, and that ice mass loss then continued for many centuries. Accompanying modeling studies suggest that today's accelerating Antarctic ice mass loss also represents such a tipping point, which could lead to irreversible and long-lasting ice retreat and global sea level rise. The study has now been published in the journal Nature Communications.

Dr. Michael Weber from the Institute of Geosciences
 at the University of Bonn
© Uni Bonn/ Michael Weber

To understand what the consequences of current and future human-induced climate warming may be, it helps to take a look at the past: how did sea-level changes look like during times of natural climate warming? In a recent study, an international research team led by Dr. Michael Weber from the Institute of Geosciences at the University of Bonn investigated this question. In doing so, they focused on the Antarctic Ice Sheet as the largest remaining ice sheet on Earth.

There, they searched for evidence of icebergs that broke off the Antarctic continent, floated in the surrounding ocean and melted down in the major gateway to lower latitudes called “Iceberg Alley”. In the process, the icebergs released encapsulated debris that accumulated on the ocean floor. The team took sediment cores from the deep ocean in 3.5 km water depth from the area, dated the natural climate archive and counted the ice-rafted debris.

Breakthrough in Fight on Tick-Borne CCHF Virus is Latest Use of New Strategy Against Diseases

A 3D atomic map, or structure, of the Gc protein (red and yellow)
bound to two antibodies (green, blue and white) produced by a recovered patient.
The Gc protein is a key molecule on the surface of the
CCHF virus enabling it to infect cells.
Credit: Akaash Mishra/University of Texas at Austin

Using the same approach they recently used to create effective vaccine candidates against COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), scientists are tackling another virus: the tick-borne Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF). It causes death in up to 40% of cases, and the World Health Organization identified the disease as one of its top priorities for research and development. The results appear today in the journal Science.

Using what scientists refer to as structural virology, a research consortium called Prometheus reconstructed the first 3D atomic-scale maps, or structures, of an infection-causing part of the virus that allows it to infect host cells. The team also determined how two neutralizing antibodies, fished from recovered patients, disrupt the virus’s ability to infect a cell, which together with the structural information, offers insights for developing therapeutics against the virus.

The research echoes a key approach that scientists, including The University of Texas at Austin’s Jason McLellan, have used in recent years to fight COVID-19 and RSV, signaling the emerging prominence of structural virology—the use of exquisitely detailed imaging of viral components to find their weaknesses—in preventing pandemics and curbing infectious disease.

Researchers study the link between vitamin D and inflammation

Majid Kazemian and a team of scientists have discovered
that a form of vitamin D (not the over-the-counter pills) could help combat
the inflammation in cells of people with severe cases of COVID-19.
Image Credit: Purdue University /Rebecca McElhoe.

Scientists recently gained insights into how vitamin D functions to reduce inflammation caused by immune cells that might be relevant to the responses during severe COVID-19. In a study jointly published by Purdue University and the National Institutes of Health, scientists do just that.

Majid Kazemian, assistant professor in the departments of Computer Science and Biochemistry at Purdue University, was co-lead author of the highly collaborative study, along with Dr. Behdad Afzali, chief of the Immunoregulation Section of the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

“Our work demonstrates a mechanism by which vitamin D reduces inflammation caused by T cells. These are important cells of the immune system and implicated as part of the immune response to the infection causing COVID-19. Further research, especially clinical trials, and testing in patients, are necessary before this can be adopted as a treatment option.” Kazemian said. “We do not recommend the use of normal vitamin D off the shelf at the pharmacy. No one should be taking more than the recommended doses of vitamin D in an attempt to prevent or combat COVID infections.”