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Physiology

Voice of the People: Kent State was and is a quality university – Akron Beacon Journal

SundayMay24,2020at12:01AM

I read with interest the May 4 Memories column of Terry Walrath on April 26th. I wondered how he came up with the conclusions that Kent State was academically poor, and that students only went there because it was cheap and they couldnt get into other schools. I attended Kent in the 60s, earning a bachelors and masters degree. I was an all-MAC quarterback. I graduated and played for the Cleveland Browns and Minnesota Vikings. My degrees allowed me to further my education at The Ohio State University, where I earned a Ph.D. in physiology. I then taught physiology at the University of Akron, where I had a wonderful 50-year career. This is what my education at Kent gave to me

I am not only thankful for my Kent education, Im proud of my degrees and Kent. It provided all the tools I needed to succeed. I made many lifelong friends there and they are all happy and successful. You can see why I was appalled by Walraths characterization.

Richard Mostardi, Ph.D., Ravenna

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Voice of the People: Kent State was and is a quality university - Akron Beacon Journal

Physiology

Researchers Identify a Potential ‘Thinness’ Gene That Stops Mice Putting on Weight – ScienceAlert

Although scientists don't fully understand it yet, and it varies from person to person, there is a link between genetics and obesity as you've probably figured out if you've got friends who can eat whatever they like while remaining thin.

Now new research has identified one gene that could play a role. It's called ALK (Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase), and mutations in this gene have previously been linked to certain cancers, and identified as drivers of tumour growth.

The latest study found two particular ALK variations showing up in thin, low BMI individuals - but not in individuals of normal weight. The analysis looked at the DNA of 47,102 people aged 20 to 44 years old, taken from Estonia's 'biobank', a biological database collected from a large percentage of the Estonian population.

"We wanted to understand why," says medical geneticist Josef Penninger, from the University of British Columbia in Canada. "Most researchers study obesity and the genetics of obesity. We just turned it around and studied thinness, thereby starting a new field of research."

In follow-uptests on mice and Drosophila fruitflies, animalsthat had the ALKgene turned off stayed thinner than normal even when the mice were fed what the researchers described to CNN as "a McDonald's diet".

Further tests showed that the mice without the ALK gene had lower than normal body weight and levels of body fat.

Of course correlation isn't causation. But the researchers suggest that the gene, which is highly expressed in the brain, plays a role in telling bodies how much fat to burn and how to use its energy stores.

Still, for now all we've shown is that this direct link exists in fruit flies and mice, not humans. Despite extensive research into the gene's involvement in cancer, our understanding of the ALK gene's role in human physiology remains largely unclear.

But one promising aspect of the discovery is that scientists already know how to inhibit ALK in humans because of its role in cancer development, so testing the link further is doable.

"If you think about it, it's realistic that we could shut down ALK and reduce ALK function to see if we did stay skinny," says Penninger.

"ALK inhibitors are used in cancer treatments already. It's targetable. We could possibly inhibit ALK, and we actually will try to do this in the future."

Further studies are also going to need to take a closer look at how the ALK gene operates in the brain: how it potentially balances metabolism and leads to a skinnier body shape at a molecular level.

Even if a clear link between ALK mutations and a resistance to weight gain is established, it's probably going to only be part of a much larger mix of genetic factors as previous research has hinted at.

While the biobank data and tests on mice and flies are a good starting point at solving the mystery link between genetics and thinness, scientists are going to need a lot more data in the future before we can figure out what's really happening here.

"You learn a lot from biobanks," says Penninger. "But, like everything, it's not the ultimate answer to life, but they're the starting points and very good points for confirmation, very important links and associations to human health."

The research has been published in Cell.

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Researchers Identify a Potential 'Thinness' Gene That Stops Mice Putting on Weight - ScienceAlert

Physiology

Blood test could predict diabetes years before it strikes – Science Codex

Scientists have identified metabolites in the blood that accurately predict whether a woman will develop type 2 diabetes after experiencing a transient form of illness during pregnancy. This discovery could lead to a test that would help doctors identify patients at greatest risk and help them potentially avert the disease through interventions including diet and exercise.

The research was led by Michael Wheeler, a professor of physiology at U of T's Faculty of Medicine, in collaboration with Hannes Rst, an assistant professor of molecular genetics and computer science at the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, Feihan Dai, a research scientist of physiology and Erica Gunderson, a research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Northern California. Mi Lai, a post-doctoral fellow in Wheeler's group performed much of the analyses.

"There is a metabolic dysregulation that occurs in the group of women that will go on to develop type 2 diabetes that is present in the early postpartum period, suggesting that there is an underlying problem that exists already and we can detect it," says Wheeler, who is also a senior scientist at Toronto General Hospital Institute at University Health Network.

The identified metabolic signature can predict with over 85 per cent accuracy if a woman will develop type 2 diabetes (T2D), as described in a study published in the journal Plos Medicine.

About one in 10 women will develop gestational diabetes (GD) during pregnancy which puts them at higher risk of T2D, with 30 to 50 per cent of these women developing the disease within 10 years after delivery. The disease hampers the body's ability to regulate blood sugar levels and can lead to serious complications including vision loss, neurological problems, as well as heart and kidney disease.

Women with GD are recommended to have an annual oral glucose tolerance test after delivery, which measures the body's ability to remove sugar from the bloodstream. But the procedure is time and labor consuming and fewer than half of the women follow through with it.

"If you've got a newborn at home one of the last things you are thinking about or have time for is your own health," says Wheeler. "This is one of the main reasons why we performed this study, to potentially develop a simple blood test reducing the number of hospital visits."

Wheeler and Gunderson first uncovered metabolic signatures predictive of T2D in their 2016 pilot study of 1033 women with GD Gunderson recruited for the Study of Women, Infant Feeding and Type 2 Diabetes After GDM Pregnancy (SWIFT), one of the largest and most diverse studies of its kind. All of the women delivered their babies at Kaiser Permanente Northern California hospitals between 2008 and 2011.

The new study builds on prior research, following the same cohort of women over a longer time period during which more women developed T2D.

Baseline blood samples were collected between six and nine weeks after birth and then twice over two years. The women's health was followed through their electronic medical records for up to 8 years. During this time, 173 women developed T2D and their blood samples were compared to 485 women enrolled in the study, matched for weight, age, race and ethnicity, who had not developed the disease.

"This study is unique as we are not simply comparing healthy people to people with advanced disease," says Rst, who holds Canada Research Chair in Mass Spectrometry-based Personalized Medicine and led the statistical data analysis. "Instead, we are comparing women who are clinically the same--they all had GD but are back to being non-diabetic post-partum.

"This is the holy grail of personalized medicine to find molecular differences in seemingly healthy people and predict which ones will develop a disease," says Rst.

Rst said that, unsurprisingly, sugar molecules feature prominently among the identified compounds. But amino-acids and lipid molecules are also present, indicating underlying issues in protein and fat metabolism, respectively. In fact, the predictive power of the test dropped if amino-acids and lipids were excluded, suggesting that processes beyond sugar metabolism may occur very early in the development of the disease. The finding may help explain why complications occur in T2D patients even when blood sugar is tightly controlled with medications.

The researchers hope to turn their discovery into a simple blood test that women could take soon after delivery, perhaps during an early visit to the doctor with their baby.

The women from the SWIFT study are being invited back for a 10-year follow-up visit, where they will be tested for T2D. "The information we glean from this study will bring us even closer to our goal of developing this blood test," says Gunderson.

"It will also help us to identify metabolic differences among race and ethnic groups that this test will need to take into account. The test is intended to help obstetricians and primary care providers identify the women with recent gestational diabetes who are most at risk for developing type 2 diabetes and to support them with breastfeeding and other healthful lifestyle habits during the first year postpartum that may reduce their risk."

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Blood test could predict diabetes years before it strikes - Science Codex

Physiology

Phil Neville says menstrual cycle is not taboo for England and FA any longer – The Telegraph

Phil Neville has identified the progress that the England set-up has made around the menstrual cycle as the key development during his reign as head coach, with the subject no longer taboo among the national team.

Neville also said his time as in charge has taught him the importance of employing bespoke programmes for womens football, covering both the physical and psychological aspects of players preparations.

The former Manchester United and Everton defender, who last month revealed he would leave his role with the national team in July next year, said the Football Association is already developing just such a model.

Weve made subjects like that a not taboo subject any more, he said. Its part and parcel of a female and within our Lioness group now, its not a taboo subject fo rmale or female staff. It affects performance and can enhance performance and once we accept that, Thats where weve made great strides.

Neville hailed the big impact that Dawn Scott has had on the England set-up since joining as senior physical performance manager last November. He praised Scott for introducing a system, ahead of the SheBelieves Cup in March, in which Englands players menstrual cycles were monitored.

Speaking to the Oxford Union podcast, Neville revealed his increased knowledge of female physiology and the workings of the female body had helped shape his vision for the womens game going forward. There needs to be a bespoke model for the physical side, the mental side, in terms of the preparation, you cant just put them both together, males and females, and say one shop fits all, he said.

Ive learnt that over the last two years and I learnt very quickly that from a physiological side, we need bespoke models for female athletes and female footballers. I think what were doing at the FA now, were developing that bespoke model.

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Phil Neville says menstrual cycle is not taboo for England and FA any longer - The Telegraph

Physiology

OHSU monkey study gives hope for post-infection immunity to COVID-19 – Bend Bulletin

New research out of Oregon Health & Science University provides indirect evidence that humans may develop some immunity to COVID-19.

The question can people whove had the disease be reinfected? is still one of the big unknowns about the disease.

The study, published in the journal Science, used rhesus macaques as a stand-in for humans and found the COVID-infected monkeys developed antibodies to the virus. Then a month later, all of the macaques were re-exposed.

The results were encouraging: The monkeys didnt get sick.

This study I think really provides hope that individual becomes infected with the COVID-19 virus and recovers, it is likely that they will not get COVID-19 again, said OHSUs Jake Estes, an author on the study.

Some of the monkeys did show evidence of the virus briefly on reinfection, but their bodies cleared it quickly. And levels of virus were so low, Estes says they would likely not have been infectious to others.

Rhesus macaques are used for this kind of testing because their physiology and immune systems are very similar to those of humans.

But Estes says more research is necessary to determine if humans will have the same immune response.

While these monkeys are a very good approximation of humans, theyre not humans, he said. There could be significant genetic contributing factors in the human population. There are certainly many more variables in the human population comorbidities that are known to be associated with more severe disease.

In addition, the OHSU work only tested the macaques for immunity about a month out from the initial recovery from the virus. Its still unknown how long that immunity would last.

The question of immunity is important because indicates if people whove had COVID can return to normal life without risk of re-infection. It also gives us a clue whether the immune system can be effectively harnessed to develop vaccines and treatments for the disease.

Another paper out this month comes to a similar conclusion. It shows that people who have recovered from COVID-19 do develop antibodies and other disease fighting mechanisms that could signal immunity.

Still, knowing generally if people develop immunity once theyve been infected with novel coronavirus and knowing whether an individual has immunity are two vastly different things. Because so many coronavirus infections are without symptoms, it can be difficult to know if a person has been exposed without reliable antibody testing.

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OHSU monkey study gives hope for post-infection immunity to COVID-19 - Bend Bulletin

Physiology

St. Johns Prep hand-delivering nearly 300 Class of 2020 diplomas – Wicked Local

In recognition of the unprecedented challenges this years graduating class has experienced, as well as those students unique capacity to meet the moment, St. Johns Prep is hand-delivering diplomas to its graduating seniors this month.

The journey, spanning 15 days from May 14-29, will cover 1,044.5 miles, endure approximately 200 hours and traverse 64 cities and towns across two states.

Co-piloting a school shuttle bus, Headmaster Edward Hardiman and Principal/Associate Head of School Keith Crowley are driving themselves to student residences using route-optimization software. All safe practices for Massachusetts residents issued by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health are being followed throughout the effort.

Like parents and educators everywhere, our school community has been determined to celebrate and honor our 2020 graduates by every available means, said Hardiman, a Danvers resident. From the moment this idea came up, we believed committing the time and resources to make it happen should be a top priority.

To make the initiative even more meaningful, 112 faculty and staff members have volunteered to personally attend individual diploma drop-offs for every single graduate. The vast majority of faculty and staff are making multiple home visits.

In all, Prep faculty and staff will combine to make more than 500 visits to individual diploma deliveries. At least a half-dozen faculty or staff across different departments signed up to attend more than a dozen such individual ceremonies, and several will attend more than 20.

Families have welcomed the Preps traveling commencement ceremony to front yards, side yards, back yards, curbsides, doorsteps, sidewalks and driveways all across the North Shore and beyond. The trip will carry diplomas to 14 graduates from New Hampshire, reaching as far north as New Castle and as far west as Windham. Across the Commonwealth, the route will hit municipalities along every compass point, including as far as Amesbury to the north, Gloucester to the east, Lynn and Revere to the south and Westford to the west.

Something magical happens when someone actually hands you that document, said Matt Green, a Beverly resident who received his diploma on May 19 and will attend Fordham University to study the fine arts with a concentration in theater. They made it such a beautiful moment. It was so special to have my family and teachers there to applaud. I was overwhelmed. It was an incredible seven minutes and something Ill never forget.

At a time when so many of us feel disconnected and out of sync, we believe that going door-to-door delivers a clear message to our graduates: We salute you, we celebrate with you, and were here for you, now and always, said Crowley, who also owns a degree in physical therapy and teaches human anatomy and physiology at the school. A primary focus at St. Johns Prep is guiding our students toward becoming their best selves. We hope our commitment to celebrate these graduates is a suitable model for that mission.

The Prep recently informed the families of 2020 graduates that the school is planning to host a downsized, ticketed and socially distanced commencement ceremony on campus in August, provided that the states phased reopening proceeds according to plan.

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St. Johns Prep hand-delivering nearly 300 Class of 2020 diplomas - Wicked Local

Physiology

Ocean ‘breathability’ key to past, future habitat of West Coast marine species – National Science Foundation

Southern part of northern anchovy's range could be uninhabitable by 2100

Anchovies are small fish that form a major part of the diet of many marine animals.

May 22, 2020

Marine species off the west coast of North America from Mexico through Canada inhabit the California Current. The cool, nutrient-rich water supports marine life ranging from invisible phytoplankton to economically important salmon and rockfish.

A new study led by University of Washington researchers finds that these species' ability to breathe may be key to where and when they thrive.

The study, published in Science Advances, uses a recent understanding of water breathability and historical data to explain northern anchovy population cycles over periods of time. The results for this important fish could apply to other species in the California Current.

"If you're worried about marine life off the west coast of North America, you're worried about anchovies and other forage fish," said lead author Evan Howard. "Ultimately it's what underpins the food web."

The National Science Foundation-funded study shows that species respond to how breathable the water is -- a combination of the oxygen levels in the water and the species' oxygen needs. Anchovy historical data match this pattern and suggest that the southern part of the anchovy's range could be uninhabitable by 2100.

"Climate change isn't just warming the oceans, its causing oxygen to decrease, which could force fish and other ocean animals to move away from their normal range to find higher-oxygen waters," Howard said.

Anchovy populations are known to cycle through time, but the reasons have been mysterious. Explanations that focused on food supplies, predator-prey interactions, competition with other species, and temperature preferences failed to fully explain the anchovy population cycles from the 1950s to today, which have been carefully recorded.

"This study demonstrates on a timescale of decades that a species is responding in close alignment with this metabolic index -- how breathable the ocean in its habitat has become," said senior author Curtis Deutsch. "It adds a new, independent line of verification that species in the ocean are arranged in accordance with how breathable their habitats are."

Added Mete Uz, a program director in NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences, "These results highlight the value of transcending disciplinary boundaries and approaching facets of a problem such as ocean circulation, physiology and ecology as interacting elements of a unified Earth system."

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Ocean 'breathability' key to past, future habitat of West Coast marine species - National Science Foundation

Physiology

A True Miracle: This Woman Just Gave Birth To A Nintendo Switch – The Onion

Prepare yourselves for some astonishing news, gamers! A biological phenomenon previously dismissed as impossible has finally occurred, transforming our fundamental understanding of science and human physiology for generations to come. Early this Friday morning, 28-year-old Sarah Holder was blessed by miraculously giving birth to an operational Nintendo Switch!

Readers, look upon this glorious birth and be filled with wonder! This is game-changing stuff.

Heres why: For all of recorded history, our understanding of human reproductive systems has been hampered by the foolhardy belief that our physiology and video game hardware are incapable of mingling. Now, however, this single unprecedented birth has upended such unfounded beliefs, bringing us a 0.66-pound bundle of joy that includes a set of Joy-Con controllers and an adorable built-in LCD display.

Of course, every pregnancy comes with its set of challenges, and the story of this newborn Nintendo Switch is no exception. Early ultrasounds revealed that the developing console started out sharing the womb with a human twin before absorbing the childs nutrients in order to develop a functional touchscreen. Doctors also had to untangle the Switchs power cords, which had become dangerously wrapped around its screen during birth, threatening some of the consoles crucial operating capabilities.

Despite these difficulties, however, Holder described the console in an interview with OGN as the best thing that had ever happened to her. Watching the new mother swaddle her newly delivered console while staring into its glowing screen really hit home for us how this isnt just a win for gamers everywhere, its also a feel-good story with a genuinely happy ending.

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A True Miracle: This Woman Just Gave Birth To A Nintendo Switch - The Onion

Cell Biology

Alternative Treatment for Mesothelioma in Herb-like Compound – Surviving Mesothelioma

A man-made version of a traditional Chinese herb could be an alternative treatment for mesothelioma.

Turkish researchers have published a new study on a drug called halofuginone. The study shows the drug has significant anticancer effects on mesothelioma cells.

In an article in Cell Biology International, they explore how halofuginone affects mesothelioma and lung cancer cells.

Mesothelioma is an asbestos-linked cancer that is hard to treat. Pleural mesothelioma is the most common type. Pleural mesothelioma grows quickly. It usually causes few symptoms until it is very advanced.

Chemotherapy is the main treatment. When that stops working, many patients look for an alternative treatment for mesothelioma.

Scientists are studying immunotherapy, new kinds of radiotherapy, and even light-based treatments for mesothelioma. So far, there is no reliable second-line alternative treatment for mesothelioma.

Halofuginone is a synthetic molecule. It is an analog of febrifugine. Febrifugine is an alkaloid found in the Chinese herb Dichroa febrifuga (Chang Shan).

In 2015 , Israeli researchers published an article about halofuginone. They wrote, During recent years, halofuginone has attracted much attention because of its wide range of beneficial biological activities, which encompass malaria, cancer, and fibrosis-related and autoimmune diseases.

The Turkish study aimed to understand halofuginones effect on mesothelioma cells. If it limits their growth or causes cell death, it could be an alternative treatment for mesothelioma.

This was the first time for halofuginone tests on malignant mesothelioma cells. Researchers tested the alternative treatment for mesothelioma on lung cancer cells, too.

They found that the drug interrupts the cell cycle. It interferes with signaling proteins. This causes mesothelioma cells to die earlier and at a faster rate. The more halofuginone the researchers used, the more mesothelioma cells died. This was also true for the lung cancer cells.

HF exerts its anti-cancer effects in lung-derived cancers by targeting signal transduction pathwaysto reduce cancer cell viability, induce cell cycle arrest, and apoptotic cell death, writes lead author Asuman Demiroglu-Zergeroglu.

Malignant cells were more susceptible to halofuginone than normal cells.

The research team concludes that halofuginone might be an alternative treatment for mesothelioma. But there have been no US clinical trials on Chinese herbs for mesothelioma.

A British Medical Journal published a review of Chinese clinical trials on herbs in 2013. Most of those studies combined conventional and alternative treatment for mesothelioma.

Source:

Asuman, DZ, et al, Anti-carcinogenic Effects of Halofuginone on Lung Derived Cancer Cells, May 21, 2020, Cell Biology International, Epub ahead of print, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/cbin.11399

Qihe, X, et al, The quest for modernisation of traditional Chinese medicine, June 13, 2013, BMC Complementatry and Alternative Medicine, pp. 132, https://bmccomplementmedtherapies.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6882-13-132

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Alternative Treatment for Mesothelioma in Herb-like Compound - Surviving Mesothelioma

Cell Biology

New research could be a breakthough in collagen and stem cell research – Truth In Aging

New research has identified two actives that can prevent stem cell decline as we age and increase collagen 17 levels in cells. It was published in Nature last year and has just been covered in Scientific American. The study was described as elegant by a prominent dermatologist, not involved in the project. As I am always on the look out for next big thing in antiaging skincare, I pounced.

Ill cut straight to the car chase. The two actives are Y27632 and apocynin and I was curious to see if they could be tracked down outside of a lab and, perhaps, in our potions and lotions. The first is a chemical that I havent been able to track down. Happily, I had better luck with apocynin.

Apocynin has been identified in a specific strain of cannabis, but also in cloudberry. And rubus chamaemorus (AKA cloudberry) seed oil is in a facial oil by Keracell. Ill post a link at the end of this article.

So, how do Y27632 and apocynin work? Emi Nishimura, a professor of stem cell biology at Tokyo Medical and Dental University in Japan, revealed that aging and UV exposure deplete stem cells of a crucial collagen protein. Heres what happens.

As part of normal skin health, the top layer of the epidermis is constantly being sloughed off and replaced from a self-replenishing pool of stem cells in the basal layer. These stem cells have roots that anchor them to a thin piece of tissue called the basement membrane that connects the epidermis and the dermis. Only when tethered can they replicate and mature into another type of cell.

This is where collagen 17 comes in. This collagen protein does the tethering (see the "adhesive molecule" in the illustration above), rooting the stem cell to the basement membrane. As stem cells become damaged, they lose precious amounts of collagen 17. The more protein they lose, the weaker their bond to the basement membrane, until eventually they are forced out by neighboring healthy cells.

Thats why this study is potentially a breakthrough. It has identified the process, the key protein that needs to be replenished and the chemicals that might just be able to do that.

You can find rubus chamaemorus (AKA cloudberry) seed oil and a potential source of apocynin in KERACELL Liquid Gold Enriching Elixir ($160 in the shop).

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New research could be a breakthough in collagen and stem cell research - Truth In Aging