UConn Health Researchers Find that Youthful Proteins Help Nerves Regrow

Three sections of optic nerve were injured by crushing (the white diamond on the far left of each nerve marks the crush point.) The lower two nerves each express genes (Rpl7 or Rpl7a) newly identified by the Trakhtenberg lab as promoting nerve axon regeneration. The axons carry the bright green dye. The insets to the right show how much more axon regrowth is occurring in the nerves that express the regeneration genes, and how no regrowth happens in the normal control (top).
Image Credit: Courtesy of Trakhtenberg Lab/UConn Health

Damaged nerves of the brain, eye, and spinal cord cannot grow back. But specific gene therapies might be able to change this, leading to treatments for paralysis and other forms of nerve damage, UConn Health researchers report in the October issue of Experimental Neurology.

Axons are the long arms of nerve cells that reach from our extremities to our spinal cord, and from our eye to our brain. Injuries that smash or sever axons—and often the large bundles of axons that we commonly call nerves—can cause paralysis, blindness, lack of sexual function, or other devastating outcomes. Most of the time, these central nervous system axons don’t repair themselves, and we have no good treatments for this.

Axons fail to regenerate for several reasons. Some of them have to do with the environment the axon grows in, but another reason is that the ability to grow is lost as the nervous system matures during and after birth. The loss of key proteins prevents regrowth once an organism matures, reports a team of researchers at UConn School of Medicine.

BNP Peptide a Culprit in Eczema

Image Credit: Freepik

Researchers from North Carolina State University have pinpointed a particular peptide’s role in activating atopic dermatitis, or eczema. The work could lead to more effective treatments for the condition.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a skin condition characterized by itching, irritated and thickened skin at the site of the irritation. The brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) is a peptide, or short chain of amino acids, that is elevated in patients with AD.

“BNP is expressed in sensory neurons, the neurons responsible for conveying sensation to the brain via the spinal cord,” says Santosh Mishra, associate professor of molecular biomedical sciences at NC State and corresponding author of the work. “We know from previous work that BNP helps translate the sensation of itch from the skin to the brain. In this work we wanted to see if BNP was involved in activating AD.”

In a chemically induced mouse model of AD, the researchers saw that mice without BNP did not exhibit the thickened or irritated skin commonly associated with AD, and their itching was reduced compared with control mice who did have BNP.

Scientists propose super-bright light sources powered by quasiparticles

A team of scientists ran advanced computer simulations on supercomputers to propose a way to use quasiparticles for super-bright light sources.
Image Credit: Bernardo Malaca

An international team of scientists is rethinking the basic principles of radiation physics with the aim of creating super-bright light sources. In a new study published in Nature Photonics, researchers from the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) in Portugal, the University of Rochester, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Applied Optics Laboratory in France proposed ways to use quasiparticles to create light sources as powerful as the most advanced ones in existence today, but much smaller.

“The most fascinating aspect of quasiparticles is their ability to move in ways that would be disallowed by the laws of physics governing individual particles.”

Quasiparticles are formed by many electrons moving in sync. They can travel at any speed—even faster than light—and withstand intense forces, like those near a black hole.

“The most fascinating aspect of quasiparticles is their ability to move in ways that would be disallowed by the laws of physics governing individual particles,” says John Palastro, a senior scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and an associate professor at the Institute of Optics.

New non-invasive form of deep brain stimulation could provide alternative treatment for brain diseases

Photo Credit: Helix Centre

Researchers at the UK Dementia Research Institute have developed a new form of deep brain stimulation that does not require surgery and could provide an alternative treatment option for brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

The exciting new technology has been successfully trialed with 20 healthy volunteers for the first time by Dr Nir Grossman and Dr Ines Violante and the team at the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) at Imperial College London and the University of Surrey.

Known as temporal interference (TI), it works by safely delivering differing frequencies of electrical field through electrodes placed on the scalp and different parts of the head. The overlapping electrical fields enable a deep region of the brain known as the hippocampus to be targeted by electrical stimulation, without affecting the surrounding areas – a procedure that until now required brain surgery. 

Cut emissions and improve farming to protect wilderness

Photo Credit: Dave Willhite

Humanity must cut carbon emissions and use farmland more efficiently to protect our planet’s remaining wilderness, new research shows.

Climate change is making some wilderness areas more suitable for crop growing, heightening the risk of agricultural expansion, especially in northern areas including Canada, Scandinavia and Russia.

By assessing “future climate suitability” for more than 1,700 crop varieties, the study projects 2.7 million square kilometers of wilderness will become newly suitable for agriculture over the next 40 years.

This is 7% of the world’s total remaining wilderness outside Antarctica.

The study, by the University of Exeter, also projects that the variety of crops that can be grown will decrease on 72% of currently cultivable land worldwide – further driving pressure to expand farming into wilderness.

Antibiotic resistance can impair subsequent adaptations in bacteria, new Concordia research suggests

Farhan Chowdhury (left) and Brandon Findlay; “Instead of relying on antibiotic cocktails, we can have an alternative where sequential antibiotic therapies are applied. This can lead to better therapies and give patients more time to recover before resistance evolves.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Concordia University

Researchers at Concordia’s Department of Biology and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry have discovered a possible new avenue of treatment that can help slow antibiotic resistance in bacteria.

PhD candidate Farhan Chowdhury and associate professor Brandon Findlay recently shared the results of their research in a recent paper published in the journal ACS Infectious Diseases. The researchers describe how a strain of the bacteria E. coli is left severely weakened after it has developed resistance to the antibiotic chloramphenicol (CHL). This weakness leaves the bacteria unable to adapt to other types of antibiotics.

Understanding the ways in which resistance impairments evolve can help clinicians better target pathogens in patients.

“Instead of relying on antibiotic cocktails, we can have an alternative where sequential antibiotic therapies are applied,” Chowdhury explains.

“Clinicians can select the sequence of medication by seeing if a first antibiotic imposes deficits on the bacteria, which would slow down the evolution of resistance in the subsequent ones. This can lead to better therapies and give patients more time to recover before resistance evolves.”

Understanding mutualism can help control the spread of invasive species

The subalpine fir has a mutualistic relationship with belowground fungi.
Photo Credit: Khilav Majmudar, University of Minnesota

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary

The Core Concept: Mutualism is a cooperative interaction where species exchange benefits to aid each other's survival, such as nutrient exchange between plants and fungi. Recent research analyzes how this dependence influences the ability of non-native species to invade new environments.

Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike general competition or predation models, this research utilizes integro-difference equations (IDEs) to simulate how "mutualism dependence"—the degree to which a species relies on a partner—impacts range expansion. The findings indicate that while moderate dependence can accelerate invasiveness, supporting too many partners creates a high metabolic cost that can actually halt an invasion.

Major Frameworks/Components:

• Mutualism Dependence: A metric defining the extent to which a species relies on a partner for growth.
• Obligate vs. Facultative Mutualists: A classification distinguishing between species that are highly dependent (obligate) versus those with lower dependence (facultative) on their partners.
• Integro-difference Equations (IDEs): Mathematical models used to project spatial growth and dispersal patterns over long periods.
• Invasional Meltdown: A theoretical feedback loop where mutualists accelerate one another's invasion, hastening native extinctions.

Electrons are quick-change artists in molten salts, chemists show

When exposed to radiation, electrons produced within molten zinc chloride, or ZnCl2, can be observed in three distinct singly occupied molecular orbital states, plus a more diffuse, delocalized state.
Illustration Credit: Hung H. Nguyen/University of Iowa

In a finding that helps elucidate how molten salts in advanced nuclear reactors might behave, scientists have shown how electrons interacting with the ions of the molten salt can form three states with different properties. Understanding these states can help predict the impact of radiation on the performance of salt-fueled reactors.

The researchers, from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Iowa, computationally simulated the introduction of an excess electron into molten zinc chloride salt to see what would happen.

They found three possible scenarios. In one, the electron becomes part of a molecular radical that includes two zinc ions. In another, the electron localizes on a single zinc ion. In the third, the electron is delocalized, or spread out diffusely over multiple salt ions.

Because molten salt reactors are one of the reactor designs under consideration for future nuclear power plants, “the big question is what happens to molten salts when they’re exposed to high radiation,” said Vyacheslav Bryantsev, leader of the Chemical Separations group at ORNL and one of the scientists on the study and an author of the paper. “What happens to the salt that is used to carry the fuel in one of those advanced reactor concepts?”

Lactate-producing bacteria inside tumors promote resistance to radiation therapy

Lactobacillus iners taken from cervical cancer tumor samples spread on agar plate.
Image Credit: Courtesy of David Lo.

Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have discovered that lactate-producing intratumoral bacteria drives resistance to radiation therapy, suggesting that lactic acid-producing bacteria present in various cancers may serve as novel therapeutic targets.

The study, published today in Cancer Cell, reported that a particular bacterial species, Lactobacillus iners (L. iners), caused cancer cells to respond to radiation by rewiring metabolic signaling pathways to resist treatment. The researchers also found that L. iners was associated with poorer clinical outcomes in patients with cervical cancer.

“These lactic acid-producing bacteria are seemingly responsible for changing signaling pathways by priming cancer cells to use lactate instead of glucose to fuel growth and proliferation from oxidative stress following radiation therapy,” said corresponding author Lauren Colbert, M.D., assistant professor of Radiation Oncology. “This is potentially paradigm shifting, and we currently are working on novel approaches to target these specific intratumoral bacteria. We are hopeful that these efforts will lead us to approaches that can benefit patients across several types of cancer.”

Astronomers detect most distant fast radio burst to date

This artist’s impression (not to scale) illustrates the path of the fast radio burst FRB 20220610A, from the distant galaxy where it originated all the way to Earth, in one of the Milky Way’s spiral arms. The source galaxy of FRB 20220610A, pinned down thanks to ESO’s Very Large Telescope, appears to be located within a small group of interacting galaxies. It’s so far away its light took eight billion years to reach us, making FRB 20220610A the most distant fast radio burst found to date. 
Full Size Image
Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

An international team has spotted a remote blast of cosmic radio waves lasting less than a millisecond. This 'fast radio burst' (FRB) is the most distant ever detected. Its source was pinned down by the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in a galaxy so far away that its light took eight billion years to reach us. The FRB is also one of the most energetic ever observed; in a tiny fraction of a second it released the equivalent of our Sun’s total emission over 30 years.

The discovery of the burst, named FRB 20220610A, was made in June last year by the ASKAP radio telescope in Australia and it smashed the team’s previous distance record by 50 percent.

“Using ASKAP’s array of dishes, we were able to determine precisely where the burst came from,” says Stuart Ryder, an astronomer from Macquarie University in Australia and the co-lead author of the study published today in Science. “Then we used [ESO’s VLT] in Chile to search for the source galaxy, finding it to be older and further away than any other FRB source found to date and likely within a small group of merging galaxies.”

Rice researcher scans tropical forest with mixed-reality device

Rice doctoral alumnus Daniel Gorczynski wearing a Microsoft HoloLens headset.
Photo Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University

Rice University scientists used a commercially available mixed-reality headset with custom-designed software to measure and analyze forest floor vegetation, demonstrating a correlation between animal diversity and the mapped habitat of a Tanzanian national park. According to the paper published in the journal Ecology, the greater the microhabitat surface area, the richer the biodiversity of its mammals.

Traditional habitat field research requires a significant amount of time and effort, but Rice postdoctoral researcher Daniel Gorczynski reduced those costs by incorporating a Microsoft HoloLens with his innovative VegSense software. Gorczynski and his advisor, assistant professor of biosciences Lydia Beaudrot, created VegSense to help researchers measure animal habitats, while the HoloLens was initially designed to improve work quality and outcomes in manufacturing, engineering, healthcare and education.

“Because the HoloLens is a mixed-reality device, you can see both the projected mesh over the forest structure as well as your local surroundings,” Gorczynski said.

New mollusk and crustacean species in symbiosis with worms in dead coral rocks

Bonellia sp. aff. minor (green) and its burrow associates -- Basterotia bonelliphila (right) and Leucothoe bonelliae (left) -- in dead coral rock. The inside of the burrows is partly occupied by sandy sediments collected by Bo. sp. aff. minor.
Image Credit: KyotoU/Ryutaro Goto

Good real estate is not easy to find, even for sea creatures. Sometimes, push comes to shove, and species resort to competition or conquering before weighing the benefits of sharing an ecosystem like housemates.

There is abundant research on live-in symbionts, which share the burrows of other organisms in sand and mud on the seabed. However, studies on burrow niches in rigid substrates, such as rocks on the seabed, have been scarce.

Now, a research team led by Kyoto University has discovered the symbiotic communities of invertebrates in dead coral gravel on the shallow, warm-temperate coast of the Kii Peninsula in western Japan. New bivalve species and sideswimmers have been found to live communally with the greenish Bonellia spoonworm.

A miniature magnetic resonance imager made of diamond

Prof. Dominik Bucher uses defects in diamond (NV-centers) as quantum sensors for NMR spectroscopy on the nano- to microscale. His research group works at the unique interface between quantum sensing and (bio) chemistry with interdisciplinary approaches from applied quantum physics, chemical synthesis and biophysics. The over goal is to perform NMR spectroscopy on smallest length-scales - from nano- and surface science to microfluidics and single-cell biology.
Photo Credit: Andreas Heddergott / TUM

The development of tumors begins with minuscule changes within the body's cells; ion diffusion at the smallest scales is decisive in the performance of batteries. Until now the resolution of conventional imaging methods has not been high enough to represent these processes in detail. A research team led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has developed diamond quantum sensors which can be used to improve resolution in magnetic imaging.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is an important imaging method in research which can be used to visualize tissue and structures without damaging them. The technique is better known from the medical field as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), where the patient is moved into the bore of a large magnet on a table. The MRI device creates a very strong magnetic field which interacts with the tiny magnetic fields of the hydrogen nuclei in the body. Since the hydrogen atoms are distributed in a particular way amongst different types of tissues, it becomes possible to differentiate organs, joints, muscles and blood vessels.

Physical theory improves protein folding prediction

Protein folding models. Four iterations of WSME, from the original to the new, and two specialized versions for more specific circumstances.
Illustration Credit: ©2023 Ooka & Arai CC-BY

Proteins are important molecules that perform a variety of functions essential to life. To function properly, many proteins must fold into specific structures. However, the way proteins fold into specific structures is still largely unknown. Researchers from the University of Tokyo developed a novel physical theory that can accurately predict how proteins fold. Their model can predict things previous models cannot. Improved knowledge of protein folding could offer huge benefits to medical research, as well as to various industrial processes.

You are literally made of proteins. These chainlike molecules, made from tens to thousands of smaller molecules called amino acids, form things like hair, bones, muscles, enzymes for digestion, antibodies to fight diseases, and more. Proteins make these things by folding into various structures that in turn build up these larger tissues and biological components. And by knowing more about this folding process, researchers can better understand more about the processes that constitute life itself. Such knowledge is also essential to medicine, not only for the development of new treatments and industrial processes to produce medicines, but also for knowledge of how certain diseases work, as some are examples of protein folding gone wrong. So, to say proteins are important is putting it mildly. Proteins are the stuff of life.

Biodegradable plastics still damaging to fish

Professor Indrawati Oey, of the Department of Food Science, and Dr Bridie Allan, of the Department of Marine Science, hold the biodegradable plastic used in the study and a photo of the mottled triplefin, the species analyzed.
Photo Credit: University of Otago

Biodegradable plastics may not be the solution to plastic pollution many hoped for, with a University of Otago study showing they are still harmful to fish.

Petroleum-derived microplastics are known to impact marine life, but little is known about the impact of biodegradable alternatives.

The study, published in Science of the Total Environment and funded by a University of Otago Research Grant, is the first to assess the impact petroleum-derived plastic and biodegradable plastic have on wild fish.

Lead author Ashleigh Hawke, who completed a Master of Science in Otago’s Department of Marine Science, says petroleum-derived plastic exposure negatively affected the fish’s escape performance, routine swimming, and aerobic metabolism.