Researchers Uncover Mechanisms of Brexanolone and the Role of Inflammation in Post-partum Depression

Post-partum depression (PPD) develops after childbirth
Photo Credit: Iuliia Bondarenko

A research collaboration between clinical and preclinical investigators in the Department of Psychiatry at the UNC School of Medicine, has found that a drug for post-partum depression works by inhibiting systemic inflammatory pathways.

Post-partum depression (PPD) develops after childbirth and affects both the mother’s and the infant’s health by preventing healthy bonding. Women with PPD experience intense anxiety, feelings of depression, sleeplessness, inability to care for their child, and risk for suicide.

Brexanolone, an IV infusion comprised of a derivative of progesterone, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of PPD in 2019. The fast-acting medication significantly reduces depression symptoms and provides effects for up to 90 days. However, exactly how the drug provides these therapeutic effects has remained a mystery – until now.

A research team led by A. Leslie Morrow, PhD, the John Andrews Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology in the UNC School of Medicine, has found that brexanolone works within the body by inhibiting the key systemic inflammatory pathways that are associated with depression. The new finding is monumental in that it suggests that PPD is likely caused, at least in part, by inflammation.

Studying ship tracks to inform climate intervention decision-makers

Sandia National Laboratories statistician Lyndsay Shand stands in front of a satellite image of ship tracks. Ship tracks are an unintentional example of one method to reflect some sunlight back to space before its heat is absorbed.
Photo Credit: Craig Fritz

Sandia scientists develop computer tools to study inadvertent marine cloud brightening

To understand how these ship tracks move and dissipate, the scientists created a mathematical model of ship tracks and how long they last, which they shared in a paper recently published in the scientific journal Environmental Data Science.

“Ship exhaust is an example of aerosol injections into the lower atmosphere, impacting the local environment, and is a daily occurrence,” said Lyndsay Shand, a Sandia statistician and the project lead. “We’ve been developing analytical tools to understand exhaust impacts on clouds from observational data collected by satellites. For example, we can locate a newly formed ship track and follow its evolution to better understand how it affects the local marine environment over time. We have found ship tracks to persist for more than 24 hours, longer than previously documented.”

Researchers aim to bring humans back into the loop, as AI use and misuse rises

U-M researchers aim to bring humans back into the loop, as AI use and misuse rises
Image Credit: Gerd Altmann

Artificial intelligence is dominating headlines—enabling new innovations that drive business performance—yet the negative implications for society are an afterthought.

How can humans get back into the loop in the quest toward a better society for all?

A trans-Atlantic team of researchers, including two from the University of Michigan, has reviewed information systems research on what’s known as the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” and found an overwhelming focus on technology-enabled business benefits.

The focus means far less attention is being paid to societal implications—what the researchers refer to as “the increasing risk and damage to humans.”

“We’re talking about AI the wrong way—focusing on technology not people—moving us away from the things we want, such as better medications, elder care and safety regulations, and toward the things we don’t, like harmful deepfakes, job losses and biased decision making,” said Nigel Melville, associate professor of technology and operations at U-M’s Ross School of Business and design science program director.

Experts have discovered how zebra stripes work

Horse with black and white patterned blanket
Photo Credit: Martin How

Researchers at the University of Bristol have found why zebra fur is thinly striped and sharply outlined.

Their findings, published today in the Journal of Experimental Biology, reveal that stark black-white distinctions and small dark patches are particularly effective in thwarting horsefly attack. These characteristics specifically eliminate the outline of large monochrome dark patches that are attractive to horseflies at close distances.

The team theorizes that the thin back stripes serve to minimize the size of local features on a zebra that are appealing to the biting flies.

The research was led by Professor Tim Caro and Dr Martin How both from the University of Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences.

 Prof Caro explained: “We knew that horseflies are averse to landing on striped objects - a number of studies have now shown this, but it is not clear which aspects of stripes they find aversive.

Stealth surveillance system uses radio astronomy technology to detect artificial objects in space

Photo Credit: ICRAR Curtin

Researchers from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) have developed a low cost, portable sensor system which can be used to detect space junk, satellites, and aircraft.

The portable Space Domain Awareness (SDA) project is part of a Collaborative Research Grant funded by the Government of Western Australia’s Defense Science Centre.   Developed by researchers from ICRAR’s Curtin University node, the SDA project translates the technologies used in radio astronomy to create an inexpensive, flexible, and portable passive radar system.

Unlike conventional radar systems, which deliberately transmit a known signal, a passive radar system makes use of third-party transmissions such as broadcast radio and TV signals to detect objects without revealing its own existence.

Associate Professor Randall Wayth from ICRAR-Curtin is the project’s lead researcher and says the 32-antenna system could be configured for several different applications.

“Our system is highly portable, sensitive, and invisible to many typical or commercial detection systems, making it ideal for deployment in remote environments and Defense scenarios,” said Associate Professor Wayth.

Geckos know their own odor

Objects of the study of the researchers of the University of Bern were Tokay geckos (Gekko gecko).
Photo Credit: © Francesca Angiolani

Geckos can use their tongue to differentiate their own odor from that of other members of their species, as researchers from the University of Bern have shown in a new experimental study. The findings show that geckos are able to communicate socially, meaning that they are more intelligent than was previously assumed.

Self-recognition is the ability to detect stimuli which come from oneself. We as people, and also some animals, can identify ourselves visually when we look in the mirror. However, not all animals rely on their sense of sight, first and foremost. Geckos, and also other lizards and snakes, use their tongues to perceive chemicals, so-called pheromones, from other individuals. For instance, when climbing a wall, geckos pause every so often to dart their tongues around. This enables them to detect potential partners or rivals. But can geckos also detect their own odor and recognize themselves by smell?

In a study recently published in the journal Animal Cognition, researchers at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the University of Bern focused on whether Tokay geckos can detect skin chemicals that they themselves produce, and whether they can discriminate between these chemicals and those of other geckos of the same sex. The experiments confirmed that geckos are capable of this. During the tests, the animals were more interested in the skin chemicals of other geckos than in their own. This shows that geckos use pheromones for social communication.

New antioxidants found in beef, chicken, and pork!

Establishment of a highly sensitive detection method for imidazole dipeptide oxidation derivatives
Illustration Credit: Hideshi Ihara, Osaka Metropolitan University

Antioxidants discovered in meat! Osaka Metropolitan University researchers developed a new protocol for selective and highly sensitive detection, discovering five types of 2-oxo-imidazole-containing dipeptides(2-oxo-IDPs) using mass spectrometry. The 2-oxo-IDPs, present in living organisms, exhibit very high antioxidant activity, and were found to be abundant in meat including beef, pork, and chicken.

Osaka, Japan – Imidazole dipeptides (IDPs), which are abundant in meat and fish, are substances produced in the bodies of various animals, including humans, and have been reported to be effective in relieving fatigue and preventing dementia. However, the physiological mechanism by which IDPs exhibit these activities had not been determined previously.

A research team, led by Professor Hideshi Ihara from the Osaka Metropolitan University Graduate School of Science, was the first to discover 2-oxo-imidazole-containing dipeptides (2-oxo-IDPs)—which have one more oxygen atom than normal IDPs—and found that they are the most common variety of IDPs derivatives in the body. The researchers also found that they have remarkably high antioxidant activity.

Evolution: Miniproteins appeared “from nowhere”

An evolutionarily young protein that arose de novo in Old World monkeys: The microprotein in the mitochondria (green) and in the nucleus (blue) was overexpressed in human cells. The yellow and pink areas show that the signal of the microprotein overlaps with the mitochondrial and nuclear signals.
Image Credit: © Clara-Louisa Sandmann, Max Delbrück Center

Evolutionarily young miniproteins are unique in humans, and researchers have recently discovered thousands of them. Writing in Molecular Cell, Norbert Hübner and colleagues from the BIH and other institutions describe the origins of these tiny proteins and explain that they probably influence important cellular processes.

Every biologist knows that small structures can sometimes have a big impact: Millions of signaling molecules, hormones, and other biomolecules are bustling around in our cells and tissues, playing a leading role in many of the key processes occurring in our bodies. Yet despite this knowledge, biologists and physicians long ignored a particular class of proteins – their assumption being that because the proteins were so small and only found in primates, they were insignificant and functionless. The discoveries made by Professor Norbert Hübner at the Max Delbrück Center and Dr. Sebastiaan van Heesch at the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology in the Netherlands changed this view a few years ago: “We were the first to prove the existence of thousands of new microproteins in human organs,” says Hübner. 

NIH RECOVER research identifies potential long COVID disparities

Colorized scanning electron micrograph of a cell (purple) infected with the Omicron strain of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (teal), isolated from a patient sample.
Image Credit: NIAID

NIH-supported studies show variations in symptoms and diagnostic experiences among different racial and ethnic groups.

Black and Hispanic Americans appear to experience more symptoms and health problems related to long COVID, a lay term that captures an array of symptoms and health problems, than white people, but are not as likely to be diagnosed with the condition, according to new research funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings – from two different studies by NIH’s Researching COVID to Enhance Recover (RECOVER) Initiative – add to a growing body of research aimed to better understand the complex symptoms and other issues associated with long COVID that millions have experienced.

“This new evidence suggests that there may be important differences in how long COVID manifests in different racial and ethnic groups,” said Mitchell S.V. Elkind, M.D., a professor of neurology and epidemiology at Columbia University, New York City, and chief clinical science officer for the American Heart Association. “However, further research is needed to better understand the mechanisms for these differences in symptoms and access to care, and also if diagnostic codes assigned by clinicians may play a role.” 

Using spiders as environmentally-friendly pest control

 Large web from group-living spider Cyrtophora citricola
Photo Credit: Dr Lena Grinsted

Groups of spiders could be used as an environmentally-friendly way to protect crops against agricultural pests.

That's according to new research, led by the University of Portsmouth, which suggests that web-building groups of spiders can eat a devastating pest moth of commercially important crops like tomato and potato worldwide.

The tomato leaf miner moth, Tuta absoluta, has developed resistance to chemical insecticides, which cause human and environmental damage, so different approaches, like using natural predators such as spiders, are needed to combat infestations. 

The researchers explored the use of tropical tent web spiders, Cyrtophora citricola, as pest control, as these spiders form groups and are not cannibalistic, and they create large webs to capture prey.

In lab settings, different types of prey - the small tomato leaf miner, flightless fruit flies (Drosophila hydei) and larger black soldier flies (Hermetia illucens) - were introduced to colonies of spiders of varying body sizes. Researchers found that larger spiders built larger webs and generally caught more prey, and they easily caught and ate the tomato leaf miner and fruit flies, while the larger black soldier flies were rarely caught.