Scientists Modeled How to Improve Thrombosis Treatment

Physicists led by Andrey Zubarev have calculated how to increase the speed of drug delivery.
Photo Credit: Anna Marinovich

Scientists from the Ural Federal University and the Côte d'Azur University (France) have developed a mathematical model to improve the delivery of drugs that restore blood flow in thrombosed blood vessels. The scientific paper was published in the Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials. 

Thrombosis of the blood vessels is a serious and difficult-to-treat condition that can often be fatal. The main method of treating thrombosis is the injection of thrombolytics - drugs that dissolve blood clots and restore blood flow. However, thrombolytics spread too slowly in a vessel with blocked blood flow, significantly reducing the effectiveness of the treatment.

"Attempts are being made to accelerate the distribution of thrombolytics through various physical effects. For example, researchers at the University of Texas have proposed introducing a drop of magnetic nanoparticles into a thrombosed vessel and then subjecting it to an alternating - oscillating or, for example, rotating - magnetic field. As a result, the nanoparticles should be set into rotational and translational motion, involving the surrounding fluid, i.e. the blood in the vessel, in this motion. This should lead to the intensification of the mixing of a drop of thrombolytic agent with blood and accelerate the "spreading" of the drop through the vessel. As a result, the drug reaches the thrombus more quickly," describes Andrey Zubarev, professor at the Department of Theoretical and Mathematical Physics at UFU, head of the development of the mathematical model and co-author of the article.

On the trail of a great mystery; how did the baboons get to ancient Egypt?

The first sequenced mitogenome of a mummified non-human primate connects an Egyptian ba-boon dated to ca. 800-540 BCE to modern baboon populations in Eritrea, Ethiopia and eastern Su-dan, providing evidence for Egyptian-Adulite trade centuries earlier than current archaeological evidence.
 Illustration Credit: © 2023 by Mike Costelloe
(CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.)

An interdisciplinary project led by primatologist Gisela Kopp is using genetic analysis to determine the geographic origin of mummified baboons found in ancient Egypt. The team finds evidence that the two legendary trading regions of Punt and Adulis may have been the same place separated by a thousand years of history.

In ancient Egypt, various deities were portrayed as animals. Thoth, the god of learning and wisdom was represented by a hamadryas baboon. Baboons, probably held in captivity in Egypt, were mummified as votive offerings after their deaths. Today, no wild baboons live in Egypt, and there is no evidence to suggest that these primates did so in the past. In an interdisciplinary project involving biologists, Egyptologists and anthropologists, Gisela Kopp, a biologist from Konstanz who conducts research on non-human primates, pursued the question of how and from where baboons came to Egypt. The results have been published in the current issue of the journal eLife.

Brain implant at OHSU successfully controls both seizures and OCD

OHSU neurosurgeon Ahmed Raslan, M.D., and patient Amber Pearson.
Photo Credit: OHSU/Christine Torres Hicks

A patient at Oregon Health & Science University is the first in the world to benefit from a single stimulator implanted in the brain to effectively control two life-altering conditions: seizures caused by epilepsy and compulsive behavior caused by obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD.

Amber Pearson, 34, of Albany, said her seizures are under better control, but the relief from her psychiatric condition is profound.

“OCD is worse than having the seizures,” she said. “Epilepsy brings limitations to my life, but OCD controlled it.”

In the case study, published in the journal Neuron, co-authors from institutions across the country describe the interactive programming of the responsive neurostimulation system, or RNS, that now functions seamlessly to control the compulsions that once ruled her life.

“Before I started treatment with my RNS, I would wash my hands until they would bleed,” Pearson said. “My hands would be so dry that bending my fingers would crack the skin of my knuckles.”

Deep learning speeds up galactic calculations

A more efficient simulation.
During a supernova simulation, (left) shows the prediction by a current simulation method. (right) shows the prediction by 3D-MIM, which looks close enough to the that of the current leading method, but it takes far less time to execute, saving time, energy and costs for computing time.
Image Credit: ©2023 Hirashima et al.
(CC-BY-ND)

Supernovae, exploding stars, play a critical role in the formation and evolution of galaxies. However, key aspects of them are notoriously difficult to simulate accurately in reasonably short amounts of time. For the first time, a team of researchers, including those from The University of Tokyo, apply deep learning to the problem of supernova simulation. Their approach can speed up the simulation of supernovae, and therefore of galaxy formation and evolution as well. These simulations include the evolution of the chemistry which led to life.

When you hear about deep learning, you might think of the latest app that sprung up this week to do something clever with images or generate humanlike text. Deep learning might be responsible for some behind-the-scenes aspects of such things, but it’s also used extensively in different fields of research. Recently, a team at a tech event called a hackathon applied deep learning to weather forecasting. It proved quite effective, and this got doctoral student Keiya Hirashima from the University of Tokyo’s Department of Astronomy thinking.

A molten layer at the base of the Martian mantle ?

Artist view of Mars interior structure showing a molten layer at the base of the mantle and above the core. The purple line shows the path followed in Mars by the waves generated by the meteorite impact that occurred on September 2021 and diffracted along the CMB. The blue line represents the path followed by a seismic wave reflected at the top of the molten basal layer.
Illustration Credits: CNES/IPGP.

The analysis, by a team of scientists involved in the InSight mission, of seismic data recorded on Mars after a meteorite impact that occurred in September 2021 drastically changes our view of the internal structure and evolution of the Red Planet. Based on these results and previous geophysical data, a study published on October 26 in the journal Nature, in which researcher Attilio Rivoldini from the Royal Observatory of Belgium participated, proposes a new model for the interior of Mars, with a heterogeneous mantle containing a molten silicate layer above the liquid metal core.

The first results based on data from the InSight mission significantly improved our knowledge of the interior structure of Mars. Assuming that the mantle is compositionally homogeneous and entirely solid, the results showed that the liquid metal core has a radius of about 1830±40 km and a relatively low density (6-6.2 g/cm3) with a large concentration of light elements. The size of the metal core was determined by the detection of seismic waves reflected at a solid-liquid interface ascribed to be the Core-Mantle Boundary (CMB).

Zika Infection in Pregnant Macaques Slows Fetal Growth

Female rhesus macaque monkeys and infants at the California National Primate Research Center at UC Davis.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of University of California, Davis

Zika virus infection in pregnant rhesus macaques slows fetal growth and affects how infants and mothers interact in the first month of life, according to a new study from researchers at the California National Primate Research Center at the University of California, Davis. The work, published Oct. 25 in Science Translational Medicine, has implications for both humans exposed to Zika virus and for other viruses that can cross the placenta, including SARS-CoV2, responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Initially I thought this was a story about Zika, but as I looked at the results, I think this is also a story about how fetal infections in general affect developmental trajectories,” said Eliza Bliss-Moreau, professor of psychology at UC Davis and senior author on the paper.

In most people, Zika virus infection causes mild or no symptoms and leaves long-lasting immunity. But during pregnancy, the virus can cross the placenta and cause damage to the nervous system of the fetus. In extreme cases, it can cause microcephaly in humans.

Oregon State researchers uncover mechanism for treating dangerous liver condition

Illustration Credit: Julien Tromeur

A study spearheaded by Oregon State University has shown why certain polyunsaturated fatty acids work to combat a dangerous liver condition, opening a new avenue of drug research for a disease that currently has no FDA-approved medications.

Scientists led by Oregon State’s Natalia Shulzhenko, Andrey Morgun and Donald Jump used a technique known as multi-omic network analysis to identify the mechanism through which dietary omega 3 supplements alleviated nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, usually abbreviated to NASH.

The mechanism involves betacellulin, a protein growth factor that plays multiple positive roles in the body but also contributes to liver fibrosis, or scarring, and the progression to cirrhosis and liver cancer.

“We only succeeded in finding these surprising results because we implemented an entirely unbiased approach that incorporated a diverse type of big data analysis ranging from lipids and metabolites to whole tissue and single-cell RNA sequences,” said Morgun, a researcher in the OSU College of Pharmacy.

Simple blood test can help diagnose bipolar disorder

Providing a drop of blood for a test 
Photo Credit: Cambridge Centre for Neuropsychiatric Research

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, used a combination of an online psychiatric assessment and a blood test to diagnose patients with bipolar disorder, many of whom had been misdiagnosed with major depressive disorder.

The researchers say the blood test on its own could diagnose up to 30% of patients with bipolar disorder, but that it is even more effective when combined with a digital mental health assessment.

Incorporating biomarker testing could help physicians differentiate between major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder, which have overlapping symptoms but require different pharmacological treatments.

Although the blood test is still a proof of concept, the researchers say it could be an effective complement to existing psychiatric diagnosis and could help researchers understand the biological origins of mental health conditions. The results are reported in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

Bipolar disorder affects approximately one percent of the population – as many as 80 million people worldwide – but for nearly 40% of patients, it is misdiagnosed as a major depressive disorder.

A Comprehensive Picture of Health Benefits of Eggs

Farm fresh eggs
Photo Credit: Couleur

Are eggs good for you?

Scientists have been studying this divisive question for years. Some have found that egg intake increases LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, and inflammatory markers associated with heart disease and diabetes, while others have highlighted the benefits of egg consumption thanks to their nutritional density.

Catherine J. Andersen, associate professor of nutritional sciences in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources, recently published a study in Nutrients that provides a broader perspective on the nutritional outcomes of egg consumption in healthy young adults.

Most existing research articles that evaluate the health effects of eggs tend to focus on a more limited range of standard clinical measurements, looking at biomarkers for heart disease, diabetes, body composition, inflammation, immune health, and anemia in isolation, rather than all together. Participants in these studies also tend to have pre-existing risk factors for chronic disease. They typically also follow additional dietary regimen changes like weight loss plans. These factors can complicate interpretations of how eggs affect health markers in the general or young, healthy population.

Defect in fruit fly respiratory system may provide insights into human aortic aneurysms

Photo Credit: Erik Karits

A team of researchers led by Leipzig University has gained new insights into the respiratory system of fruit flies – the so-called tracheal system – which could be important for future research into aneurysms. Dr Matthias Behr from the Institute of Biology (Department of Cell Biology) at Leipzig University and his team, together with colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences in Göttingen, carried out genetic, cell biological and biochemical studies on Drosophila embryos. They found that the cells in the fruit fly’s tracheal system are connected to the extracellular matrix by the proteins Dumpy and Piopio. They have just published their research findings in the journal eLife.

Similar to the human circulatory system or lungs, the fruit fly’s tracheal system consists of a network of tubes. During the embryonic development of these insects, this network of tubes is filled with a special substance that gives them shape (an extracellular matrix), which is secreted by the surrounding cells. As the organs grow, the cells are closely connected to this extracellular matrix and “shimmy” along it to form the right shape and size of tubes.