A key regulator of cell growth deciphered

The SEA complex is composed of a cage-like core (SEACAT, blue) that regulates the activity of the wings (SEACIT, white and bright).
Credit: Ciencia Graficada

The mTOR protein plays a central role in cell growth, proliferation and survival. Its activity varies according to the availability of nutrients and some growth factors, including hormones. This protein is implicated in several diseases, including cancer, where its activity frequently increases. To better understand its regulation, a team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in collaboration with researchers from the Martin Luther University (MLU) of HalleWittenberg in Germany, and the recently inaugurated Dubochet Center for Imaging (UNIGE-UNIL-EPFL), has identified the structure of the SEA complex - an interdependent set of proteins - responsible for controlling mTOR. The discovery of this structure allows a better understanding of how cells perceive nutrient levels to regulate their growth. This work can be read in the journal Nature.

From yeast to humans, the mTOR protein (mammalian target of rapamycin) is the central controller of cell growth. This protein responds to various signals in the cell’s environment, such as nutrients and hormones, and regulates many fundamental cellular functions, such as protein and lipid synthesis, energy production by mitochondria and the organization of the cell’s structure. Disruptions in mTOR activity are the cause of several diseases, including diabetes, obesity, epilepsy and various types of cancer

Awareness of one’s own body is based on uncertainty and guesses

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have found that the perception of one's own body is very based on the brain making guesses based on probability theory. It shows a study recently published in the journal eLife.

How we perceive our own body is largely based on probability assessments based on past experiences, in combination with sensory information such as vision and feeling, for example.

You could say that the experience of your own body is a statistical estimate of reality based on sensory information, sensorory uncertainty, and past experiences that can be summed up in the mathematical model explain Henrik Ehrsson, professor at the Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet.

Nestling birds recognize their local song ‘dialect’

The researchers discovered that the juvenile flycatchers clear response to their own song dialect helped them avoid learning songs from other species in the environment.
Photo credit: Tom Wallis

A recent study, published in Current Biology, led by researchers at Stockholm University and Uppsala University, has shown that juvenile songbirds react to hearing the songs they will eventually produce as adults, even when they are as young as 12 days old. Experiments conducted on nestling pied flycatchers across Europe demonstrate that they preferentially respond to songs from their own species and, remarkably, their own population.

Like human children learning language, juvenile songbirds learn their songs by listening to those produced by their parents and other adults. In both human language and songbird song, the learning process gives rise to small changes from one generation to the next, which leads to characteristic differences among populations, called dialects.

Metabolite product from pomegranate: Researchers identify way to boost tumor-fighting immune cells

A metabolite from pomegranates boosts tumor-fighting T cells, according to a study by Georg-Speyer-Haus, Goethe University Frankfurt and the LOEWE Centre Frankfurt Cancer Institute (FCI).
Photo credit: Markus Bernards

As part of an interdisciplinary project of the LOEWE Centre Frankfurt Cancer Institute (FCI), researchers from the Georg-Speyer-Haus in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and Goethe University Frankfurt have succeeded in identifying a new approach for the therapy of colorectal cancer. In preclinical models and studies on human immune cells, they found that urolithin A, a metabolite product from pomegranate, sustainably improves the function of immune cells in their fight against cancer. After treatment with urolithin A, tumor-fighting immune cells become T memory stem cells which, due to their ability to divide, constantly supply the immune system with rejuvenated, non-exhausted T cells.

Colorectal cancer remains a disease with high mortality rates in advanced stages. In recent years, numerous research findings have improved early diagnosis and therapy, although unfortunately not all patients respond adequately to novel therapeutic approaches. Current research suggests that one characteristic of tumor diseases is immune dysfunction: immune cells that are supposed to fight the tumor are systematically suppressed by the tissue surrounding the tumor, the tumor microenvironment. As a result, T cells, which are our body's natural immune response against cancer, are restricted in their function, allowing the tumor to grow and spread uncontrollably.

Tree rings offer insight into devastating radiation storms

A University of Queensland study has shed new light on a mysterious, unpredictable and potentially devastating kind of astrophysical event.

A team led by Dr Benjamin Pope from UQ’s School of Mathematics and Physics applied cutting edge statistics to data from millennia-old trees, to find out more about radiation ‘storms.

“These huge bursts of cosmic radiation, known as Miyake Events, have occurred approximately once every thousand years but what causes them is unclear,” Dr Pope said. “The leading theory is that they are huge solar flares.

“We need to know more, because if one of these happened today, it would destroy technology including satellites, internet cables, long-distance power lines and transformers.

“The effect on global infrastructure would be unimaginable.”

Enter the humble tree ring.

First author UQ undergraduate math student Qingyuan Zhang developed software to analyze every available piece of data on tree rings.

Study Identifies Key T Cells for Immunity Against Fungal Pneumonia

 GM-CSF+ and IL-17A+ lineages of T cells are instrumental in controlling many fungal and bacterial infections and implicated in autoimmune pathology. This study shows that GM-CSF expressing Tc17 cells are necessary for mediating fungal vaccine immunity without augmenting pathology.
Credit: Som Nanjappa

Researchers at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine have demonstrated in a mouse model that a specific type of T cell, one of the body’s potent immune defenses, produces cytokines that are necessary for the body to acquire immunity against fungal pathogens. This finding could be instrumental in developing novel, effective fungal vaccines.

Despite vaccines being hailed as one of the greatest achievements of medicine, responsible for controlling or eradicating numerous life-threatening infectious diseases, no vaccines have been licensed to prevent or control human fungal infections.

This lack proved especially deadly during the COVID-19 pandemic. In countries where steroids were widely used to suppress inflammation of the lungs, COVID-19 patients with preexisting conditions such as uncontrolled diabetes showed a greater likelihood of developing lethal fungal infections.

Researchers create the first quasiparticle Bose-Einstein condensate

Observation of Bose-Einstein condensates of excitons in a bulk semiconductor using mid-infrared induced absorption imaging realized in a dilution refrigerator A close-up picture of the apparatus in a cryogen-free dilution refrigerator. A dark red-colored cubic crystal in the center of the picture is cuprous oxide. A zinc selenide meniscus lens placed behind the crystal is an objective lens. A rod and a stage below the crystal is used for generation of an inhomogeneous strain field in the crystal that acts as a trap potential for excitons.
Credit: ©2022 Yusuke Morita, Kosuke Yoshioka and Makoto Kuwata-Gonokami, The University of Tokyo

Physicists have created the first Bose-Einstein condensate — the mysterious “fifth state” of matter — made from quasiparticles, entities that do not count as elementary particles but that can still have elementary-particle properties like charge and spin. For decades, it was unknown whether they could undergo Bose-Einstein condensation in the same way as real particles, and it now appears that they can. The finding is set to have a significant impact on the development of quantum technologies including quantum computing.

A paper describing the process of creation of the substance, achieved at temperatures a hair’s breadth from absolute zero, was published in the journal Nature Communications.

Bose-Einstein condensates are sometimes described as the fifth state of matter, alongside solids, liquids, gases and plasmas. Theoretically predicted in the early 20th century, Bose-Einstein condensates, or BECs, were only created in a lab as recently as 1995. They are also perhaps the oddest state of matter, with a great deal about them remaining unknown to science.

Autistic people are more likely to experience depression and anxiety during pregnancy

Credit: PetraSolajova

Autistic people are more vulnerable to depression and anxiety during pregnancy, according to new research from the University of Cambridge. The results are published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders and have important implications for supporting autistic people during pregnancy.

In the study, led by researchers at the Autism Research Centre, 524 non-autistic people and 417 autistic people completed an online survey about their experience of pregnancy. Anyone who was pregnant at the time of responding or had previously given birth was eligible to take part.

The study revealed that autistic parents were around three times more likely than non-autistic parents to report having experienced prenatal depression (9% of non-autistic parents and 24% of autistic parents) and anxiety (14% of non-autistic parents and 48% of autistic parents).

Autistic respondents also experienced lower satisfaction with pregnancy healthcare. Autistic respondents were less likely to trust professionals, feel that professionals took their questions and concerns seriously, feel that professionals treated them respectfully, and be satisfied with how information was presented to them in appointments. Furthermore, autistic respondents were more likely to experience sensory issues during pregnancy and more likely to feel overwhelmed by the sensory environment of prenatal appointments.

Municipal building regulations inhibit the expansion of renewable energies

Solar systems change the townscape. That can be problematic.
Credit: Solarimo

Municipalities with high legal requirements for the construction of photovoltaic systems have been shown to produce less solar power.

Securing energy supplies, coping with climate change and expanding renewable energies are high priorities in Germany. However, municipalities often pursue their own goals: municipal building regulations in particular, for example to protect the historical townscape, conflict with the expansion of renewable energies. A research team led by Prof. Dr. Stefano Carattini, professor of economics at Georgia State University, Atlanta, USA, and Prof. Dr. Andreas Löschel, professor for environmental / resource economics and sustainability at the Ruhr University Bochum, examines. The study shows that many municipalities have issued building regulations that regulate the installation of photovoltaic systems. These communities have 10.4 percent less solar power than communities in the comparison group. The study is on 24. October 2022 published as a CESifo working paper in Munich.

In Germany, the Renewable Energy Sources Act and the resulting increase in solar systems in the past two decades have made a decisive contribution to greatly reducing the price of solar power. As a result, the share of renewable energies in the energy mix has increased significantly. "However, the expansion goals are immense and clearly exceed the historical trend," says Andreas Löschel. “In our current study, we are researching for the first time whether building law requirements, in particular building design law, represent a decisive obstacle to the expansion of solar energy."

Study looks inside the brain during sleep to show how memory is stored

 

MRI scans showing locations of medial-temporal electrodes in a representative patient.
Source/Credit: Department of Neurological Surgery, The University of Chicago.

A new study looks deep inside the brain, where previous learning was reactivated during sleep, resulting in improved memory.

Neuroscientists from Northwestern University teamed up with clinicians from the University of Chicago Epilepsy Center to study the brain electrical activity in five of the center’s patients in response to sounds administered by the research team as part of a learning exercise.

The five patients who volunteered to participate in the study had electrode probes implanted into the brain for the purpose of investigating potential treatments for their seizure disorders.

While prior studies have used EEG recordings captured by electrodes on the head to measure memory processing during sleep, this is the first study to record such electrical activity from inside the brain.

The study found participants significantly improved their performance in a recall test the next morning. The mapped brain activity allowed the researchers to take a big step forward in understanding how memory storage works by providing visual data identifying the areas of the brain engaged in the process of overnight memory storage.