Discovering New Cancer Treatments in the “Dark Matter” of the Human Genome

Microscopy pictures of three-dimensional lung cancer spheroids transfected with green fluorescent-labelled ASOs.
Credit: UniBE / NCCR RNA & Disease

Researchers of the University of Bern and the Insel Hospital, University Hospital Bern, have developed a screening method to discover new drug targets for cancer treatment in the so-called “Dark Matter” of the genome. They applied their method to non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the greatest cancer killer for which effective therapies are urgently sought. They could show that inhibiting identified targets could greatly slow down cancer growth, and their method is adaptable to other cancers.

Cancer is in Switzerland the second leading cause of death. Among the different types of cancers, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) kills most patients and remains largely incurable. Unfortunately, even newly approved therapies can extend the life of patients by only a few months and only a few survive the metastatic stadium long-term. Thus, new treatments which attack cancer in novel ways are sought. In a recently published study in the Journal Cell Genomics, researchers of the University of Bern and the Insel Hospital determined new targets for drug development for this cancer type.

Mouthwashes may suppress SARS-CoV-2

Cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), the chemical tested in the study
Photo credit: Ryo Takeda

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is an airborne disease transmitted via aerosols, which are spread from the oral and nasal cavities—the mouth and the nose. In addition to the well-known division and spread of the virus in the cells of the respiratory tract, SARS-CoV-2 is also known to infect the cells of the lining of the mouth and the salivary glands.

A team of researchers led by Professor Kyoko Hida at Hokkaido University have shown that low concentrations of the chemical cetylpyridinium chloride, a component of some mouthwashes, has an antiviral effect on SARS-CoV-2. Their findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Commercially available mouthwashes contain a number of antibiotic and antiviral components that act against microorganisms in the mouth. One of these, cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), has been shown to reduce the viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in the mouth, primarily by disrupting the lipid membrane surrounding the virus. While there are other chemicals with similar effects, CPC has the advantage of being tasteless and odorless.

The researchers were interested in studying the effects of CPC in Japanese mouthwashes. Mouthwashes in Japan typically contain a fraction of the CPC compared to previously tested mouthwashes. They tested the effects of CPC on cell cultures that express trans-membrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2), which is required for SARS-CoV-2 entry into the cell.

Seaweed-based battery powers confidence in sustainable energy storage

Bristol-led team uses nanomaterials made from seaweed to create a strong battery separator, paving the way for greener and more efficient energy storage.

Sodium-metal batteries (SMBs) are one of the most promising high-energy and low-cost energy storage systems for the next-generation of large-scale applications. However, one of the major impediments to the development of SMBs is uncontrolled dendrite growth, which penetrates the battery’s separator and results in short-circuiting.

Building on previous work at the University of Bristol and in collaboration with Imperial College and University College London, the team has succeeded in making a separator from cellulose nanomaterials derived from brown seaweed.

The research, published in Advanced Materials, describes how fibers containing these seaweed-derived nanomaterials not only stop crystals from the sodium electrodes penetrating the separator, they also improve the performance of the batteries.

Resistance to Stress and Anxiety Can Be Trained Like a Muscle

According to Rustam Muslumov, anxiety and stress are emotions aimed at assessing the future.
Photo credit: Anna Marinovich

Humans, unlike the animal world, are oriented toward finding problems. The human being is constantly looking at his environment and discovering imperfections that make him think about what could be changed and improved. This is how the emotions of anxiety and stress emerge. Without moderate stress it is impossible for a person to develop, yet the constant presence in these situations has a negative impact on his mental and physical health. That is why it is necessary to cultivate resilience - the ability not to increase anxiety, but to cope with it correctly and in time.

Stress, like any other emotion, is important for humans. It helps to solve non-standard problems aimed at protecting oneself in the face of change and instability. The nature of anxiety, on the other hand, is such that one looks to the future with two ideas in mind: something bad might happen, and I cannot cope with it and keep myself safe if it does. Being constantly anxious can lead a person to a state of distress. Rustam Muslumov, Associate Professor of the Department of Pedagogy and Psychology of Education at Ural Federal University, spoke about this on the Komsomolskaya Pravda broadcast.

Group size enhancement explains cooperation in fishes

Attack of a breeding male on a threatening predator. The small fish in the picture are brood care helpers, which benefit from this defense - this illustrates the (genetic) fitness benefit helpers get by the protection through other group members.
Credit: Courtesy of M. Taborsky

The survival chances of group members are often greater in large than in small groups. In some species, non-reproducing group members therefore help raise offspring, even if they are unrelated. In an experimental study, researchers at the University of Bern investigated this seemingly altruistic behavior in cooperatively breeding fish. Their results indicate that helping can evolve by natural selection through increased survival chances of brood care helpers by selectively increasing group size.

Cooperation is widespread in nature, most prominently exemplified by social insects like ants and honey bees, apart from humans. In social insects, cooperative brood care can be easily explained from an evolutionary perspective because helpers are related to the young and, therefore, brood care helpers are successfully passing on the genes coding for their altruistic behavior via siblings sharing a common genetic makeup. “This is different in cooperatively breeding fishes, where many of the helpers are unrelated to the dominant pair they aid in raising their offspring”, says Michael Taborsky, senior author and supervisor of the new study. So why do unrelated group members help to raise “foreign” young? A paper published in Biology Letters by Irene García Ruiz and Michael Taborsky from the Institute for Ecology and Evolution at the University of Bern, reveals how such altruistic care of young can evolve by natural selection.

How the secrets of the ‘water bear’ could improve lifesaving drugs like insulin

A tardigrade, or water bear, floating in water. The tiny organism can endure some of the most extreme conditions on Earth — and even space.
Credit: Schokraie E, Warnken U, Hotz-Wagenblatt A, Grohme MA, Hengherr S, et al. licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license.

UCLA chemist Heather Maynard had to wonder: How do organisms like the tardigrade do it?

This stocky microscopic animal, also known as a water bear, can survive in environments where survival seems impossible. Tardigrades have been shown to endure extremes of heat, cold and pressure — and even the vacuum of space — by entering a state of suspended animation and revitalizing, sometimes decades later, under more hospitable conditions. 

If she could understand the mechanism behind this extraordinary preservation, Maynard reckoned, she might be able to use the knowledge to improve medicines so that they remain potent longer and are less vulnerable to typical environmental challenges, ultimately broadening access and benefiting human health.

It turns out that one of the processes protecting tardigrades is spurred by a sugar molecule called trehalose, commonly found in living things from plants to microbes to insects, some of which use it as blood sugar. For a few select organisms, such as the water bear and the spiky resurrection plant, that can revive after years of near-zero metabolism and complete dehydration, trehalose’s stabilizing power is the secret to their unearthly fortitude.

Researchers advance efforts to develop a protein-based treatment therapy for individuals with ALS

Photo Credit: Michal Jarmoluk

Researchers at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, located at the University of South Florida, successfully tested a protein that has the potential to aid in the development of a protein-based therapy for patients with ALS, a progressive nervous system disease, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

Published in eNeuro, the study examines the effects of apolipoprotein A1, a “good cholesterol” on endothelial cells, the lining in blood vessels that provides a barrier between the brain, spinal cord tissues and blood circulation.

In a petri dish under an environmental condition reminiscent of ALS, the team found that the protein activates a unique pathway inside cells that increases survival and protects endothelial cells from toxic substances in the blood. This pathway can enhance the survival of cells and prevent further vascular damage by ALS.

“With a functional barrier, the hope is that the environment in the central nervous system will become less toxic and disease progression can be slowed,” said Svitlana Garbuzova-Davis, professor at the Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair and lead investigator.

While the protein has been proven to protect endothelial cells in diseases such as diabetes and atherosclerosis, the effects on ALS-damaged endothelial cells were previously unknown.

Exoplanet hunters should check for N2O

TRAPPIST-1 system
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Scientists at UC Riverside are suggesting something is missing from the typical roster of chemicals that astrobiologists use to search for life on planets around other stars — laughing gas.

Chemical compounds in a planet’s atmosphere that could indicate life, called biosignatures, typically include gases found in abundance in Earth’s atmosphere today.

“There’s been a lot of thought put into oxygen and methane as biosignatures. Fewer researchers have seriously considered nitrous oxide, but we think that may be a mistake,” said Eddie Schwieterman, an astrobiologist in UCR’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

This conclusion, and the modeling work that led to it, are detailed in an article published today in the Astrophysical Journal.

To reach it, Schwieterman led a team of researchers that determined how much nitrous oxide living things on a planet similar to Earth could possibly produce. They then made models simulating that planet around different kinds of stars and determined amounts of N2O that could be detected by an observatory like the James Webb Space Telescope.

Driving high? Chemists make strides toward a marijuana breath analyzer

The researchers’ THC-powered fuel cell sensor, with its H-shaped glass chamber.
Credit: Evan Darzi 

A UCLA chemist and colleagues are now a step closer to their goal of developing a handheld tool similar to an alcohol Breathalyzer that can detect THC on a person’s breath after they’ve smoked marijuana.

In a paper published in the journal Organic Letters, UCLA organic chemistry professor Neil Garg and researchers from the UCLA startup ElectraTect Inc. describe the process by which THC introduced, in a solution, into their laboratory-built device can be oxidized, creating an electric current whose strength indicates how much of the psychoactive compound is present.

With the recent legalization or decriminalization of marijuana in many states, including California, the availability of a Breathalyzer-like tool could help make roadways safer, the researchers said. Studies have shown that consumption of marijuana impairs certain driving skills and is associated with a significantly elevated risk of accidents.

In 2020, Garg and UCLA postdoctoral researcher Evan Darzi discovered that removing a hydrogen molecule from the larger THC molecule caused it to change colors in a detectable way. The process, known as oxidation, is similar to that used in alcohol breath analyzers, which convert ethanol into an organic chemical compound through the loss of hydrogen. In most modern alcohol breath analyzer devices, this oxidation leads to an electric current that shows the presence and concentration of ethanol in the breath.

Since their 2020 finding, the researchers have been working with their patent-pending oxidation technology to develop a THC breath analyzer that works similarly. ElectraTect has exclusively licensed the patent rights from UCLA.

Bristol physicists play key role in new measurement relating the Higgs boson to dark matter

Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Geneva, Switzerland
Credit: Brice, Maximilien: CERN

Researchers from the University of Bristol have been working with scientists globally to further unravel the way a unique fundamental particle, known as the Higgs boson, might interact with dark matter.

The team of physicists helped conduct the experimental analysis from the most powerful particle accelerator ever built – the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, in Geneva, Switzerland.

Analyzing data collected with a general-purpose detector called the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), at the LHC, they searched for invisible decays of the Higgs boson and achieved the most precise results to date, allowing for new insights into dark matter properties.

The results, presented at the 12th Higgs Hunting Conference in Paris last month, provide the strongest constraints on how dark matter interacts with the normal matter in our universe, assuming the dark matter mass is similar to or a few times heavier than that of a proton.

Since the discovery of the Higgs boson 10 years ago, scientists at CERN have made rapid progress in measuring and determining the properties of this unique fundamental particle by studying the different ways in which it decays. One of the most intriguing channels to search for is the “invisible” channel – a decay to particles that the experimental apparatus cannot detect. In the Standard Model of particle physics such an invisible decay is predicted to happen once in every 1000 Higgs boson decays by decaying into four neutrinos, the only “invisible” particles known in the Standard Model.