INFORMATION:
Treating an autoimmune disease in mice with an mRNA vaccine
2021-01-07
(Press-News.org) Christina Krienke and colleagues have designed an mRNA vaccine that delayed the onset of and reduced the severity of multiple sclerosis-like disease in mice. The vaccine restores the body's tolerance to its own proteins, suppressing the characteristic immune overreactivity of the disease. The vaccine developed by Krienke et al. works in a targeted fashion to promote tolerance to specific disease-related proteins, an improvement over other approaches to treating the disease that induce systemic immune suppression that can leave an individual vulnerable to other infections. The vaccine consists of a lipid nanoparticle packed with modified and purified mRNA that encodes disease-related self-antigens that are normally the triggers for an autoimmune response. In their experiments in mice with autoimmune encephalomyelitis, a mouse model for human multiple sclerosis, the researchers found that the vaccine caused the antigens to be presented on lymphoid dendritic cells without provoking an inflammatory immune response. This new antigen tolerance led to the expansion of regulatory T cells that suppressed the autoimmune response against these types of antigens, and promoted the suppression of other T cells that attack proteins in myelin, the insulating sheath around nerve fibers that is destroyed in multiple sclerosis. The ability to quickly produce mRNA vaccines containing the code for an individual's own antigens may point the way to creating personalized autoimmune disease treatments, the researchers suggest.
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Policymakers draw heavily from highly cited COVID-19 science
2021-01-07
Policymakers around the world tend to reference new and highly cited COVID-19 research papers in their policy documents regarding the pandemic, Yian Yin and colleagues conclude after analyzing publications of both types from the first half of 2020. "Overall, this result shows that the coronavirus research used by policymakers aligns with what scientists heavily engage themselves," they write in a Policy Forum. Although government agencies produced more COVID-19 documents compared to think tanks and intergovernmental organizations such as the World Health Organization, Yin et al. found that governmental agencies are the least likely to cite science. Organizations like WHO are the most likely institutions to cite science, they write, suggesting that these organizations can act ...
Social transmission of pain, fear has different targets in mouse brain
2021-01-07
Social contact can transfer the feeling of pain or fear in several animal species, including humans, but the exact neural mechanisms for this transmission are still being studied. Now, Monique Smith and colleagues demonstrate that the social transmission of pain and pain relief in mice is mediated by neural projections from the brain's anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) to the nucleus accumbens. The transfer of fear, however, is mediated by the ACC's projections into a different area of the brain called the basolateral amygdala. The findings help untangle the distinct neural circuits involved ...
Tracking the formation of the early heart, cell by cell
2021-01-07
Richard Tyser and colleagues have mapped the origins of the embryonic mouse heart at single-cell resolution, helping to define the cell types that make up the heart in the earliest days of development. Their techniques allowed them to identify for a first time a pool of progenitor cells that contributes to the formation of heart muscle cells as well as the early epicardium, the outermost layer of the heart. This layer provides cells and other proteins that guide the development and repair of heart tissue, so a better understanding of its origins could better inform regenerative heart therapies as well as improve ...
New defense against dengue and emerging mosquito-borne viruses
2021-01-07
New treatments to cut the global death rate from dengue, Zika and West Nile viruses could result from research led by The University of Queensland.
Associate Professor Daniel Watterson from UQ's School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences said the team identified an antibody that improved survival rates in laboratory trials and reduced the presence of virus in the blood.
"We made a discovery in 2015 in the wake of the Zika outbreak that identified a new target for flavivirus treatments, a viral protein called NS1," Dr Watterson said.
"Now we've shown for the first time that a single NS1 antibody can be protective against multiple flaviviruses including dengue, Zika and West Nile.
"No other antibody reported has shown such a broad range of protection.
"The improved ...
Keeping sperm cells on track
2021-01-07
One essential component of each eukaryotic cell is the cytoskeleton. Microtubules, tiny tubes consisting of a protein called tubulin, are part of this skeleton of cells. Cilia and flagella, which are antenna-like structures that protrude from most of the cells in our body, contain many microtubules. An example of flagell is the sperm tail, which is essential for male fertility and thus for sexual reproduction. The flagellum has to beat in a very precise and coordinated manner to allow progressive swimming of the sperm. Failure to do so can lead to male infertility. Researchers at the Institut Curie in Paris, the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology ...
Insights into the Yellowstone hotspot
2021-01-07
Boulder, Colo., USA: The Yellowstone hotspot is well known for generating supereruptions in the geologic past that are far more explosive than historic examples. The origin and sustained longevity of the hotspot is less understood but is focused on two competing models, where the ascent of hot mantle is derived from either a deep-seated mantle plume or a shallow mantle source.
In their study published this month in GSA Today, Vic Camp and Ray Wells use an integrated database that supports the idea of a deep mantle-plume origin for the Yellowstone hotspot with a robust history of magmatism that extends to at least 56 million years ago, far older than previously thought. In this scenario, hotspot ...
Energy sorghum may combine best of annual, perennial bioenergy crops
2021-01-07
Large perennial grasses like miscanthus are a primary target for use as bioenergy crops because of their sustainability advantages, but they take several years to establish and aren't ideal for crop rotation. Maize and other annual crops are easier to manage with traditional farming but are tougher on the environment.
Energy sorghum, a hefty annual plant with the ecological benefits of a perennial, may combine the best of both crops.
A study by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) found that energy sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) behaves more like miscanthus in the way it efficiently captures light and uses water to produce abundant biomass. ...
Cancer cells hibernate like bears to evade harsh chemotherapy
2021-01-07
Tapping into an ancient evolutionary survival mechanism, cancer cells enter into a sluggish, slow-dividing state to survive the harsh environment created by chemotherapy or other targeted agents.
In research published January 7, 2020 in Cell, Princess Margaret Scientist Dr. Catherine O'Brien and team discovered that when under threat, all cancer cells - rather than just a subset - have the ability to transition into this protective state, where the cells "rest" until the threat, or chemotherapy, is removed.
It is the first study to identify that cancer cells hijack an evolutionary conserved program to survive chemotherapy. Furthermore, the researchers show that novel therapeutic strategies aimed at specifically targeting ...
What is surgical smoke and what can be done about it?
2021-01-07
If you've ever been in an operating room where tools are used to simultaneously cut and cauterize human flesh, you know what surgical smoke is. The heat generated by these surgical tools produces vapors made up of aerosolized chemicals and substances that can be hazardous to health.
Two new papers led by researchers in the University of Illinois Chicago College of Nursing suggest that policies and laws mandating the evacuation of surgical smoke from operating rooms are the best way to reduce the negative health impacts on perioperative staff as well as surgical patients.
Surgical smoke poses a health risk to everyone in the operating room. The smoke can sometimes be thick enough to obscure vision, especially during longer operations where cauterizing tools are heavily used. Perioperative ...
Research confirms increase in river flooding and droughts in US, Canada
2021-01-07
HANOVER, N.H. - January 7, 2021 - The number of "extreme streamflow" events observed in river systems have increased significantly across the United States and Canada over the last century, according to a study from Dartmouth College.
In regions where water runoff from snowmelt is a main contributor to river streamflow, the study found a rise in extreme events, such as flooding.
In drought-prone regions in the western and southeastern U.S., the study found that the frequency of extreme low-flow events has also become more common, particularly during summer and fall.
The research, published in Science Advances, analyzed records dating ...