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Hannah Herrera

Space travel alters gene expression in white blood cells, weakening our immune system -... - 1 views

  • Space travel alters gene expression in white blood cells, weakening our immune system
    • Hannah Herrera
       
      very interesting article, there is a conclusion with insights to this underlining issue in the "read original paper" link in red. I overall think its a ear pricking issue that has yet to be solve or given the clear conclusion as to why it happens in the first place.
  • pre-flight strength: the length of this period is likely to depend on age, sex, genetic differences, and childhood exposure to pathogens.
  • These observations suggest that our immune system might be weakened by space travel.
    • Hannah Herrera
       
      could it have a possible connection with the strong gravitational pull while actually going up to space? (like the continuing feeling of a steep rollercoaster drop).
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  • change in gene expression of leukocytes under microgravity is triggered by ‘fluid shift’, where blood plasma is redistributed from the lower to the upper part of the body, including the lymphatic system. This causes a reduction in plasma volume by between 10% and 15% within the first few days in space. Fluid shift is known to be accompanied by large-scale physiological adaptations, apparently including altered gene expression.
katherine-medina

Dandelion root extract affects colorectal cancer proliferation and survival through the... - 0 views

  • of an aqueous dandelion root extract
  • caspase-8 activation was not essential for the induction of cell death in colon cancer cells as an inhibition of caspase-8 activation did not alter the cytotoxicity of DRE
  • We have been able to identify four pharmacologically active components, α-amyrin, β-amyrin, lupeol and taraxasterol, in two out of the six bioactive fractions, but the anti-cancer activities of the individual compounds were not as strong as that of the unfractionated DRE indicating, clearly, the benefits of using the whole extract.
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  • which might represent a novel non-toxic alternative to conventional cancer therapy available today.
  • These results clearly indicate that dandelion root extract can inhibit the ability of colorectal cancer cells to migrate and invade, and therefore metastasize to secondary locations.
    • katherine-medina
       
      Wow. I like to see that in 3 different studies DRE was proven to selectively pick the cancer cells, and ignore the normal cells.
  • morphological differences in tissue slices between the control untreated and the DRE treated group
  • aken together, these results established that systemic oral intake of the DRE was safe and its anti-cancer efficacy should be further investigated.
    • katherine-medina
       
      I love the fact that they yet again state that I should look more into this topic.
  • , but the DRE treatment efficiently suppressed the growth of both p53 WT and p53 mutant tumors in-vivo (Figure 4B – 4C)
    • katherine-medina
       
      great, they suppressed the growth of the tumors.
  • with no difference between the control and DRE treated samples of NCM460
    • katherine-medina
       
      I would not have thought that the mitochondria would be left alone by the drug.
  • Others suggest that following activation, caspases re-localize to the mitochondria, where they interact with other pro-apoptotic proteins during the progression of apoptosis [15]. A third option, put forward by Qin and colleagues, suggests that inactive caspases are kept in the mitochondria, but following apoptotic stimuli and activation, they are released from the mitochondria into the cytoplasmic peri-nuclear space [
  • The results showed a progressive destabilization of the mitochondrial membrane following the DRE treatment, which was observed as early as 30 minutes post treatment (Figure ​6C). Pro-caspase-8 (green) was localized in the mitochondria (red) in control untreated cells; however, following the DRE treatment, activated caspase-8 was released from the mitochondria into cytoplasmic space, as indicated by the dispersed green fluorescence (Figure ​6C
    • katherine-medina
       
      Pro-capase-8 helps to fight against the cancer
  • suggesting that in HT-29 colorectal cancer cells the DRE-induced cell death was caspase-8 independent.
    • katherine-medina
       
      So essentially caspase 8 had nothing to do with it
  • We observed a decrease in the viability of cells treated with α-amyrin, with 10 μM as the most effective concentration.
    • katherine-medina
       
      Hmm. the beginnings of narrowing down what it is about the plant that is able to fight cancer.
  • However, these results indicate that DRE and its anti-cancer components must be absorbed and circulated, in order to reach the site of the tumor (in order to inhibit tumor growth).
    • katherine-medina
       
      So it needs to be drank, or swallowed in a pill form to work.
  • , we confirmed the vulnerability of cancer cell mitochondria by showing that the DRE treatment led to a decrease in the mitochondrial membrane potential and increase in ROS levels in the isolated mitochondria.
  • caspase-8 specific inhibitor, IETD-fmk, did not change the DRE response in these cells. This was in contrast to our previous study in leukemia and pancreatic cancer cells
    • katherine-medina
       
      For each different cancer a new slightly different result is produced
  • he pro-apoptotic genes including Caspase-1, Interferon gamma and the TNF ligands and receptors, were up-regulated in HT-29 cells, prior to the apoptosis induction, while the same genes were down-regulated in NCM460 cells.
  • Previous findings show that taraxasterol has anti-inflammatory and chemopreventive activit
  • suggesting its importance in the anti-cancer activity of dandelion root extract, especially on the expression levels of COX-2. Additionally, we show that 10 μM lupeol is not very effective on its own
  •  
    Yet another article about how DRE can fight against cancer.
katherine-medina

Peptidomimetic antibiotics disrupt the lipopolysaccharide transport bridge of drug-resi... - 0 views

  • Recently, naturally occurring peptides were proposed to interfere with the function of proteins constituting the lipopolysaccharide
  • periplasmic
    • katherine-medina
       
      The space in between the inner and outer membranes of gram-negative bacteria
  • Thanatin, a 21–amino acid defense peptide isolated from the gut of the hemipteran insect Podisus maculiventris (18), exhibits broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity
    • katherine-medina
       
      I wonder what other peptides do so as well?
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  • We hypothesized that thanatin mainly acts as a competitive inhibitor of the protein-protein interactions mediating the Lpt bridge assembly
  • Thanatin, however, is not a suitable drug candidate for further development due to poor drug-like properties and rapid emergence of resistance
    • katherine-medina
       
      Why/How does thanatin have poor drug-like properties?
  • β-jellyroll
    • katherine-medina
       
      structure found in proteins
  • Here, we introduce thanatin-derived synthetic macrocyclic peptides found after a substantial medicinal chemistry effort.
    • katherine-medina
       
      Essentially they synthetically created it
  • Development of resistance against thanatin was observed after 1 day of passaging in both E. coli and K. pneumoniae and is characterized by a spontaneous FOR of 1.2 × 10−6 for E. coli at 4× MIC
    • katherine-medina
       
      That is kinda scary to think about
  • genome sequencing of a diverse panel of thanatin-resistant strains confirmed on-target modifications on LptA as the main resistance determinant in E. coli and K. pneumoniae.
  • The attractive in vitro and in vivo profile of these new antibiotics, coupled with their novel mechanism of action, showing no cross-resistance to standard of care antibiotics, may provide clinicians with additional treatment options to fight AMR, either in combination with SoC or as stand-alone antibiotics.
    • katherine-medina
       
      It is interesting to look around that these other methods that can fight off bacteria.
  •  
    An article showing a new class of antibiotics known as a peptidomimetic antibiotic.
Sean Nash

Satellite Monitoring of Biodiversity Moves Within Reach | Current Science Daily - 2 views

  • Data for the study came from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). The network uses standardized methods to collect biodiversity and Earth observation data across the United States which are then made publicly available. NEON imaging spectrometer data collected from research flights have a pixel size of 1x1 meter.
    • Sean Nash
       
      I wonder if any of the imagery they have is: 1. Accessible by us, and 2. Available for our area. If so, it might be as simple as doing plant diversity surveys to look for ground truth in our area (young forests & grasslands) between what is REALLY on the ground here, vs. what the satellite imagery shows.
  • Biodiversity monitoring from space possible via satellite
  • The reflectance of plants is determined by their chemical, anatomical and morphological characteristics, which are important for interactions among plants and with their environment. “Plants with similar traits, as well as closely related species, therefore tend to have similar reflectance spectra,” explains Schweiger.
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  • Spectral diversity calculated in forests with closed canopies and large individual trees matched plant diversity determined on the ground better than spectral diversity calculated in open landscapes dominated by small herbaceous plants and grasses.
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