Asthma in Amish?!

In a new study published by the New England Journal of Medicine, Amish and Hutterite children were tested for Asthma. Researchers specifically chose these lifestyles because of their similar nature. However there is one difference, both homes of the Amish and Hutterite are kept immaculate but, Amish children do work and play in the barns with the animals which are close to their homes. On the other hand the Hutterite children's barns are far away from their homes and barely go into the barns. The study tested 30 of each children and the results were crazy! None of the Amish children had asthma but 6 out of the 30 Hutterite children did! Researchers than took the dust from each of the barns and after they analyzed the dust and found that the amish dust had a ton of bacteria where as the Hutterite dust was not. The dust gave the amish children neutrophils  (white blood cells that are the immune system’s paramedics). Finally they put mice in the two different kinds of dust and well the results were replicated from the original findings!

Personally having asthma, it makes me wonder if my environment as a child was too clean (who thought that was possible). It will be really awesome to see what researchers in the medical field will be able to learn from this possibly creating an anti-asthma treatment for children in generations to come!

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/04/health/dust-asthma-children.html?_r=0

Restricted use of chimps in government research

Cnn news post a recent article about the Institute of Medicine committee, stating that chimps should be limited to be used in research studies. Chimps genetics are closer to humans then any other species, and thats why chimps are so valuable to our research. The research is done by scientists, doctors, veterinarians and other experts to come up with the best results and to make sure the chimps are not beeing harmed. IOM recommends that chimps should only be used if a human can not fullfill the needs for the research. Since technology has changed so much, chimps should no longer be needed to conduct the research. IOM is not saying chimps shouldnt be used at all because the hepatitis C vaccines are tested with chimps. About 3.2 americans are infected with hepatitis, and every year 17,000 new infections occur. These statistics can be lower with the help of chimps. Its just a question weather chimps should still be used for futer medical discoveries, or is their a better way.

Drop in Carbon Dioxide Levels Led to Polar Ice Sheet

According to a recent study by scientists at Yale and Purdue, a drop in carbon dioxide appears to be the reason why an ice sheet is forming in the Antarctic. The role of the greenhouse gas supports carbon dioxide's importance in past, present, and future climate change. Researchers have found a threshold for low level of carbon dioxide below which an ice sheet forms in the South Pole. However, it remains a mystery of how much the greenhouse gas has to increase to melt the ice sheet. A professor at Purdue said there was about a 40 percent decrease in carbon dioxide before and during the formation of a thick ice sheet over the Antarctic about 34 million years ago. The evidence shows that carbon dioxide controls global climate. If the amount of carbon dioxide is increased or decreased, there could be dramatic changes. Another professor from Yale says that polar ice sheets and sea ice control a large amount of modern climate. It influences the global circulation of air masses, patterns of precipitation, and wind strengths. The recognition of the important role of carbon dixide change is an important finding.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111201174225.htm

Lab Creates Cells Used by Brain to Control Muscle Cells

For the first time, the University of Central Florida researchers used stem cells to grow neuromuscular junctions between human muscle cells and human spinal cord cells. These are the key connectors used by the brain for communication and muscle control.
This discovery is a huge step in developing "human-on-a-chip" systems. These systems are models that can recreate how organs and series of organ functions in the body. This could possibly accelerate drug testing, medical research, and life-saving breakthroughs.
A UCF bioengineer, James Hickman, said that these types of systems need to be developed if you ever want to recreate human function. He is the one who led this breakthrough. Hickman is eager about this breakthrough because some federal agencies have granted at least $140 million to grant funding to jump start "human-on-a-chip" research. Right now, scientists rely on animal systems for medical research, but this allows for a pure human system.
http://www.biologynews.net/

Studying Brain Activity From Decapitations

An article on MSNBC suggests that the brain may live on after being decapitated for a period of time. A study done at Raboud University Nijmegan in the Netherlands explored the ethics of killing lab rats through decapitation. The EEG ( a measure of electrical brain activity), ended 17 seconds after decapitation. About a minute after, a large wave went through the brain. Dubbed the "wave of death", the researchers thought this was the final blow. Neurologist Michel van Putten and his colleagues at the University of Twente have suggested that the brain cells could be revived if fed oxygen and glucose. Granted, this is not a "living" brain, but is a very interesting fact about brain cells.
This article was interesting because of the strange nature of the study. Decapitation is a gruesome way to obtain information about brain activity, but nonetheless has given some interesting data on brain cells. This type of research could be very useful if it further gives information on the revival of brain cells. The medical field especially could benefit.

Photo: http://www.binauralbeatsonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Brain-Waves.jpg

Gulf Oil Effect Bird Eggs

In Daily Science, it described Texas Tech University's experiment and research taken place regarding the effect that the weathered oil would have on unhatched eggs.

In their experiment, only 39 percent of the eggs hatched while the other 61 percent died. The weathered oil had a better outcome than the non-weathered oil. The birds whose mating seasons were interrupted due to the Gulf Spill were definitely negatively affected, but there's a chance some eggs, hopefully at least 39 percent will hatch in the wild.

There is still a chance that the covered eggs that survive may obtain developmental problems. Hopefully, the bird population will survive throughout the years.

Chewing Evolution

An article in Science Daily described the research ongoing at Brown University concerning the evolution of the tongue in different organisms. Every organism has their own way of getting the nutrition they need in order to survive. Specifically, fish, mammals, and amphibians were used in their research. They all used their tongue for the process of digestion, but in different ways.

Research at Brown University found that fish use their tongue in order to thrust food backwards further into their system. On the other hand, mammals use their tongue for better placement of food in the mouth to chew.

The researchers were curious as to where the split in evolution took place between the two types of tongue movements. Amphibians seemed to be the answer because of their tongue characteristics which Brown University plans to further research.

Chemo-Resistant Cancer

Research at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans has led to the discovery of a protein in cancer cells that causes the cells to be chemotherapy resistant. The protein "enables the activation of a DNA-repair enzyme that protects cancer cells from catastrophic damage caused by chemo and radiation therapy." The protein is called c-MYC oncoprotein, and it can initiate and promote almost all human cancers. The research team led by Daitoku Sakamuro, PhD, designed a set of experiments using the chemotherapy drug cisplatin, which is commonly used in first-line therapy for various cancers. They found that the c-MYC oncoprotein "increases cisplatin resistance by decreasing production of a c-MYC inhibitor called BIN1." BIN1 suppresses an enzyme essential for DNA repair in cancer cells; therefore, the sensitivity of cancer cells to chemo greatly depends on BIN1 abundance. Overproduction of c-MYC repressed BIN1, taking away its life-saving action. So basically, more c-MYC oncoprotein --> less BIN1 --> more enzymes leading to more DNA repair of cancer cells --> ineffectiveness of cisplatin chemotherapy.

I found this article interesting because of my interest in cancer research. The American Cancer Society estimates that 1,529,560 new cancer cases were expected to be diagnosed in the United States alone, and cancer accounts for about 25% of all deaths annually in the US. If researchers can find a way to inhibit the c-MYC oncoprotein, a good portion of those lives can be saved with basic chemotherapy like cisplatin!

This article was found on BiologyNews, but the main work was published in Science Signaling on March 29, 2011.