Gentle cleansers kill viruses as effectively as harsh soaps

Photo Credit: Maria Lin Kim

Gentle cleansers are just as effective in killing viruses – including coronavirus – as harsh soaps, according to a new study from scientists at the University of Sheffield 

Healthcare professionals often substitute alcohol-based hand sanitizers and harsh soaps for skin-friendly cleansers in order to treat or prevent irritant contact dermatitis, which develops when chemical or physical agents damage the skin surface faster than the skin can repair

Incidence and severity of irritant contact dermatitis increased from 20 per cent to 80 per cent amongst healthcare professionals during the Covid-19 pandemic

Researchers also found non-enveloped viruses such as norovirus were resistant to all hand wash products tested, and were only killed with bleach disinfectants, which aren’t a feasible option for washing hands 

Gentle cleansers are just as effective in killing viruses – including coronavirus – as harsh soaps, a new study by University of Sheffield experts has found.

Twenty species of sea lettuce found along the coasts

Sea lettuce, which is a type of green alga, grows along the coasts and is interesting as potential food source. A new survey shows that there are 20 different species of sea lettuce along the Swedish coast.
Photo Credit: Sophie Steinhagen

The number of species of the green alga sea lettuce in the Baltic Sea region and Skagerak and is much larger than what was previously known. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have surveyed 10,000 kilometers of coast and found twenty species of sea lettuce.

Green macroalgae of the genus Ulva, also known as sea lettuce, are almost ubiquitous in the wider Baltic Sea region and can be found from the Atlantic waters all the way up to the Bay of Bothnia in the Baltic Sea. Sea lettuce reproduces easily and grows quickly, which makes it interesting for an expanding aquaculture industry. Research is ongoing both in Sweden and abroad for utilizing sea lettuce in the food industry and for different biochemical applications.

There are multiple species, but until now it has not been known how many there are and previously only a handful had been identified.

Our visual perception is more rational than we think

Our visual perception adapts flexibly and unconsciously to the decision context when it’s to our advantage.
Photo Credit: Colin Lloyd

Our visual perception depends more strongly on the utility of information than previously thought. This has been demonstrated in a series of experiments conducted by researchers at the Neuroscience Center Zurich. Cognitive biases can begin at the retina.

Are our senses there to provide us with the most complete representation of the world, or do they serve our survival? For a long time, the former was the dominant view in neuroscience. “Was” is the operative word here. In the last 50 years, psychologists such as Nobel Prize winners Daniel Kahnemann and Amos Tversky have shown that human perception is often anything but complete and instead is highly selective.

Experiments have now verified that there is a whole list of examples of cognitive biases. One of the most important is confirmation bias: we often process new information in a way that confirms our beliefs and expectations.

But up until now, researchers haven’t been able to fully explain under what conditions these distortions come into play and when exactly in the perceptual process they begin. A study by researchers led by University of Zurich Professor Todd Hare and ETH Professor Rafael Polania, recently published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, now shows that the brain already adjusts the visual perception of things on the retina when it is in our interest to do so. Or, to put it another way, we unconsciously see things distorted when it comes to our survival, well-being, or other interests.

Study examines role of metabolites in disease treatment

Phillip Owens, PhD
Photo Credit: Andrew Higley/UC Marketing + Brand

Each year, about 200,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with a bulge in the lower part of the aorta, the main artery in the body, called an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA).

New research from the University of Cincinnati examines the role a particular metabolite plays in the development of AAA and could lead to the first treatment of the condition.

The research was published in the journal Circulation.

“We started the study by examining whether AAA patients themselves had an increase in trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO).  We examined an American and Swedish cohort with 354 human samples, and we compared those AAA patients to 1,775 control subjects,” says Phillip Owens, PhD, co-first author of the study along with Tyler Benson, PhD, both of the Division of Cardiovascular Health and Disease in the UC College of Medicine. “We started going into animal models after that, looking at what happens when we feed a high choline diet which leads to higher production of TMAO.”

Choline, found in a variety of foods with the richest sources being meat, fish, poultry, dairy and eggs, is processed into the organic compound TMAO when meat is digested by the bacteria in the gut.

Study reveals how treatment-resistant prostate cancer provides its own hormonal fuel

A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows how prostate cancer creates its own hormonal fuel supply in response to anti-testosterone therapy. The study further suggests a strategy to block this process and potentially improve therapy options for treatment-resistant prostate cancer. Shown is a thin slice of a human prostate tumor. The dark staining throughout reveals the presence of histone acetylation promoting cholesterol production. Cholesterol is required to make testosterone, which fuels tumor growth.
Image Credit: Nupam Mahajan/School of Medicine

A new study in mice, led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, explains how prostate cancer senses a drop in testosterone levels due to common anti-hormone therapy and then begins making cholesterol — a necessary precursor to testosterone — to generate its own testosterone to fuel tumor growth. The study also points to a possible drug combination that may stop the cancer from feeding its own growth.

Healthy prostate cells do not produce testosterone, so the research provides long-sought answers to questions about how prostate cancer cells adapt to testosterone-deprivation therapy, a common therapeutic option, by developing an ability to supply their own hormonal fuel. Further, the research reveals that treating these aggressive prostate tumors with inhibitors that block aspects of the hormonal fuel supply chain slows tumor growth in mice. These findings suggest a novel treatment strategy for prostate cancer that has become resistant to the common anti-testosterone therapy abiraterone.

The study also may help explain why Black men are at higher risk of developing prostate cancer and tend to develop more aggressive forms of the cancer than white men of European ancestry.

Women feel the pain of losses more than men when faced with risky choices

Evaluating risk - are women more risk averse than men?
Photo Credit: Oleksandr Pidvalnyi

Women are less willing to take risks than men because they are more sensitive to the pain of any losses, they might incur than any gains they might make, new research from the University of Bath School of Management shows.

Published in the British Psychological Society’s British Journal of Psychology, the study – “Gender differences in optimism, loss aversion and attitudes toward risk" - also finds that men are ‘significantly’ more optimistic than women, making them more willing to take risks.

Researcher Dr Chris Dawson, associate professor in business economics at the University of Bath School of Management, said the findings were significant and could help explain sex-specific outcomes in different employment sectors, and in financial markets.

‘It is widely acknowledged that men, across many domains, take more risks than women. These differences in how the sexes view risk can have significant effects,” Dr Dawson says.

‘For instance, differences between the sexes in risk taking can explain why women are less likely to be entrepreneurs, are underrepresented in high-paying jobs and upper management, and less likely to invest their wealth in equities markets than men. Despite these important implications, we still know very little about why women take fewer risks than men.

Modified lactic acid bacteria provide faster wound healing

The lactic acid bacteria, or Limosilactobacillus reuteri, is genetically modified to produce the chemokine CXCL12 (ILP100-Topical). 
Photo Credit: Martina Sjaunja

Complicated, hard-to-heal wounds are a growing medical problem and there are currently only two drugs approved with proven efficacy. In a new study on humans, researchers at Uppsala University show that treatment with a specific type of modified lactic acid bacteria works well and has a positive effect on the healing of wounds.

In several controlled preclinical models, the research team behind the new study has previously demonstrated accelerated wound healing after topical treatment (treatment on the skin) using lactic acid bacteria, or Limosilactobacillus reuteri, genetically modified to produce the chemokine CXCL12 (ILP100-Topical).

The researchers can now show data from the first clinical study on humans, in which the main objective was to establish safety and tolerability. Other objectives were to see clinical and biological effects on wound healing using traditionally accepted methods, as well as more exploratory and traceable measurements.

36 healthy volunteers were included in the study with a total of 240 induced wounds studied. The study’s design and methodology are described in more detail below.

Bacteria with a taste for inflammation could help protect against heart disease

Nacho Vivas, lab manager at the Rey Lab in the Bacteriology Department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, checks on a group of germ-free mice inside a sterile lab environment on June 22, 2015. Research led by Federico Rey has found some microbes in the guts of humans and mice may help control the buildup of plaque in arteries, the leading cause of cardiovascular disease, by gobbling up a group of inflammatory chemicals before they can circulate in the body.
Photo Credit: Bryce Richter

Some microbes in the guts of humans and mice may help control the buildup of plaque in arteries, the leading cause of cardiovascular disease, by gobbling up a group of inflammatory chemicals before they can circulate in the body.

New research from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and collaborators around the world identified bacteria able to break down uric acid in the low-oxygen environment of the intestines and the specific genes that enable the process. They describe a new way in which gut microbes may influence our health and a potential avenue to treat gout or prevent heart disease.

Uric acid is a product of the breakdown in the human body of purines, a class of molecules that include those necessary for life, like adenine and guanine (two of the basic building blocks of DNA), and some that are life indulgences, like caffeine and theobromine (found in chocolate and tea leaves). Most uric acid is cleaned out by healthy kidneys, but about 30 percent of it spills into the gut. Too much uric acid leads to a painful condition called gout.

Bat-Borne Sarbecoviruses Spilled Over in Southeast Asia Pre-Pandemic

Elephant loggers bring in a timber harvest in Myanmar.
Photo Credit: Tierra Smiley Evans/UC Davis

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary: Bat-Borne Sarbecoviruses Spilled Over in Southeast Asia Pre-Pandemic

• Main Discovery: A virus previously found exclusively in bats was detected in the antibodies of human populations in rural Myanmar, demonstrating that exposure to diverse sarbecoviruses, including strains closely related to SARS-CoV-2, occurred prior to the pandemic.
• Methodology: Researchers collaborated with local clinics to screen nearly 700 rural and urban residents for sarbecoviruses between July 2017 and February 2020. The surveillance relied entirely on human patient sampling, targeting individuals seeking medical treatment and healthy populations near elephant logging camps, without collecting direct wildlife samples.
• Key Data: Blood screenings revealed that 12 percent of the study participants possessed antibodies indicating past exposure to a sarbecovirus, though no active infections were found. Exposure was exclusively identified in rural residents, particularly those working in logging, hunting, or bat guano harvesting, which put them in direct proximity to bats.
• Significance: The results yield concrete epidemiologic and immunologic evidence that zoonotic spillover of bat-borne coronaviruses is actively occurring. The data strongly suggests that human intrusion into newly disturbed, biodiverse environments substantially elevates the risk of wildlife-to-human viral transmission.
• Future Application: The findings establish a baseline for developing targeted mitigation strategies and underscore the necessity of continuous viral surveillance at the human-wildlife interface in Southeast Asia. This reconnaissance approach will be utilized to predict and potentially intercept the future emergence of novel zoonotic diseases.
• Branch of Science: Virology, Epidemiology

Zinc Transporter Has Built-in Self-regulating Sensor

Overall structure of a transmembrane ZIP zinc transporter protein determined by cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) (left) and a schematic showing some of the functional features (right). A flexible loop (magenta) facing into the cell binds to zinc and folds to block the entry of more zinc when levels of this micronutrient get too high.
Illustration Credit: Courtesy of Brookhaven National Laboratory

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have determined the atomic-level structure of a zinc-transporter protein, a molecular machine that regulates levels of this crucial trace metal micronutrient inside cells. As described in a paper just published in Nature Communications, the structure reveals how the cellular membrane protein shifts its shape to move zinc from the environment into a cell, and temporarily blocks this action automatically when zinc levels inside the cell get too high.

“Zinc is important for many biological activities, but too much can be a problem,” said Qun Liu, the Brookhaven Lab biophysicist who led the project. “During evolution, different organisms have evolved in many ways to regulate zinc. But no one has shown that a transporter that controls the uptake of zinc from the environment can regulate its own activity. Our study is the first to show a zinc transporter with such a built-in sensor.”

The research was conducted as part of Brookhaven Lab’s Quantitative Plant Sciences Initiative (QPSI). Using a bacterial version of a zinc transporter that shares essential features with zinc transporters in plants, the scientists gained key insights into how these proteins work. 

“This research is part of our effort to understand how micronutrients like zinc are taken up by plants so we can understand how to design plants that are better able to grow on marginal land for the production of bioenergy,” said Brookhaven Lab Biology Department Chair John Shanklin, a co-author on the paper.  

Alcohol consumption increases the risks of over 60 diseases

Photo Credit: Taylor Friehl

Alcohol consumption increases the risks of over 60 diseases in Chinese men, including many diseases not previously linked to alcohol, according to a new study by researchers from Oxford Population Health and Peking University, published in Nature Medicine.

Alcohol consumption is estimated to be responsible for about 3 million deaths worldwide each year, and it is increasing in many low- and middle-income countries such as China. The harmful effects of heavy drinking for certain diseases (such as liver cirrhosis, stroke and several types of cancer) are well known, but very few studies have systematically assessed the impact of alcohol use on an extensive range of diseases within the same population.

The study shows that alcohol use increases the risks of 61 diseases in men in China, including many non-fatal diseases not known to be alcohol-related due to limited previous evidence. The findings of this study demonstrate the influence that alcohol intake may have on the risk of disease in populations around the world.

The researchers used data from the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB), a collaborative study of over 512,000 adults recruited during 2004-08 from ten diverse urban and rural areas across China. Study participants were interviewed about their lifestyle and behaviors, including detailed alcohol drinking patterns. About a third of men, but only 2% of women, drank alcohol regularly (ie at least once a week). The researchers comprehensively assessed the health effects of alcohol use on over 200 different diseases in men identified through linkage to hospital records over a period of about 12 years. Importantly, they also undertook a genetic analysis to clarify whether or not alcohol intake was responsible for causing disease.

Study: Ingestion of taurine delays aging

Treating mice with taurine led to increased lifespans and healthspans, a study in Science shows. Henning Wackerhage, Professor of Exercise Biology provided data on human test subjects hinting at similar mechanisms in humans.
Photo Credit: Andreas Heddergott / TUM

Taurine deficiency is one of the driving forces in the aging process of humans and animals. This is one of the results of a study which has now been published in the prestigious journal Science. Treatment with taurine extends the lifespan of mice by 10 percent. Monkeys that receive the treatment remain healthy for longer. It is not known whether these two results apply to humans. However, the study demonstrates a link between some age-related diseases and low taurine levels.

Treating mice with taurine led to increased lifespans and healthspans, a study in Science shows. Henning Wackerhage, Professor of Exercise Biology provided data on human test subjects hinting at similar mechanisms in humans.

Ancient herbivore’s diet weakened teeth leading to eventual starvation

Reconstruction of the rhynchosaur Bentonyx from the Middle Triassic of Devon, about 245 million years ago.
Illustration Credit: Reconstruction artwork by Mark Witton

A team of researchers from the University of Bristol have shed light on the life of the ancient reptile Rhynchosaur, which walked the earth between 250-225 million years ago, before being replaced by the dinosaurs.

Rhynchosaurs are a little-understood group of roughly sheep-sized ancient reptiles that thrived during the Triassic Period, a time of generally warm climates and tough vegetation.  

In the new study, the researchers studied specimens found in Devon and used CT scanning to see how the teeth wore down as they fed, and how new teeth were added at the backs of the tooth rows as the animals grew in size.

The findings, published today in Palaeontology, show that these early herbivores likely eventually starved to death in old age, the vegetation taking its toll on their teeth.

“I first studied the rhynchosaurs years ago,” said team-leader Professor Mike Benton from Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences, “and I was amazed to find that in many cases they dominated their ecosystems. If you found one fossil, you found hundreds.

Key clue to what causes cancer

Photo Credit: PDPics

Australian cancer researchers have made an important new connection between a person’s cancer risk and the functions of circular RNAs, a recently discovered family of genetic fragments present within our cells. 

A new Flinders University-led study published in Cancer Cell, one of the world’s top cancer journals, finds that specific circular RNAs within many of us can stick to the DNA in our cells and cause DNA mutations which result in cancer. 

“While environmental and genetic factors have long been believed the major contributors to cancer, this revolutionary finding – which we call ‘ER3D’ (from ‘endogenous RNA directed DNA damage’) – ushers in an entirely new area of medical and molecular biology research,” says Flinders University Professor Simon Conn, who leads the Circular RNAs in Cancer Laboratory at the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute. 

“This is the first example of a genetic molecule present within many of us which has the capacity to mutate our very own DNA and drive cancer from inside.  

“This opens the door to use these molecules as new therapeutic targets and markers of disease at a very early stage, when the likelihood of curing cancers is much higher.”  

Study finds the best plants and bee hotels for boosting urban bee numbers

Photo Credit: Dr Kit Prendergast

The presence of more native Australian flowering plants in urban areas can help boost declining bee numbers, with new Curtin University research finding them to be the preferred source of food for both native bees and the introduced European honeybee.

The study focused on 14 sites across the Perth metropolitan area, including bushland remnants and home gardens,

Researcher Dr Kit Prendergast from the Curtin School of Molecular and Life Sciences, said the study found Australian and introduced bees preferred to visit and feed from native flowers and plants rather than exotic species, with the former particularly reliant on native flora.

“With wild bees facing a global decline, largely due to habitat loss through urbanization, it is vital to understand their preferences. Although urban areas often have a diversity of flowers compared to natural habitats, many of these flowers are exotic species,” Dr Prendergast said.

The research also helps homeowners, landscapers, landcare communities and councils with a “top ten” species to plant.