health 36

Getting old, it's something that happens to everyone and nearly every species on this planet, but the question is, should it? In a recent publication in the journal  Genes & Development  titled "Neuronal inhibition of the autophagy nucleation complex extends lifespan in post-reproductive C. elegans," the laboratory of Dr Holger Richly at IMB, has found some of the first genetic evidence that may put this question to rest. As Charles Darwin explained, natural selection results in the fittest individuals for a given environment surviving to breed and pass on their genes to the next generation. The more fruitful a trait is at promoting reproductive success, the stronger the selection for that trait will be. In theory, this should give rise to individuals with traits which prevent ageing as their genes could be passed on nearly continuously. Thus, despite the obvious facts to the contrary, from the point of evolution ageing should never have happened. This evolutionar...

In a study published in  Science Immunology , researchers have shown that natural killer cells (NK cells), which are a fundamental part of the body's immune system, can recognise many different viruses including global pathogens such as Zika, dengue and Hepatitis C viruses, through a single receptor called KIR2DS2. Lead researcher Salim Khakoo, Professor of Hepatology , said the findings are very exciting and could change the way viruses are targeted by vaccines but warned that the research is still at an early stage, and animal studies/clinical trials will be needed to test the findings. Vaccines work by stimulating the immune response to the coat of proteins on the virus enabling the body to fight off the virus and recognise it in the future. However, the viruses are able to change their coat proteins, helping the virus to evade the antibodies, meaning some viruses can be very hard to vaccinate against. The Southampton team have shown that this NK cell receptor is able t...

Now, Tilly and his colleagues have published a new study that "puts the final nail in the dogma coffin," showing unequivocally that stem cells in the ovaries are a critical piece of the mammal fertility puzzle , and may be harnessed to revolutionize fertility treatments and perhaps even delay menopause. Males from every animal species can produce new sperm at any time. Female flies, fish, and birds can make new eggs. But for decades, the accepted paradigm in reproductive biology was that nature had not granted female mammals the same luxury as their male counterparts. However, from an evolutionary standpoint, that conclusion makes little sense. "You'd have a population of eggs that you need to propagate the species sitting around getting stale. And in humans, they would get stale for decades," said Tilly, University Distinguished Professor of Biology and chair of the Department of Biology . "Why on earth would evolutionary pressure or nature make such...

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Aarhus University has now found more than just an important piece of the puzzle -- a piece that suggests that the puzzle that is our metabolism looks somewhat different than science has so far believed. This is also the reason why the research group's article has made the front cover of the journal  Cell Chemical Biology . On a general level, the researchers have discovered that the fat-metabolism in the cells takes place simultaneously with a detoxification of the harmful substances from the blood sugar , which can avert the damage that can in turn lead to age-related diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer's and cancer. This indicates that we have a detoxification system which we were not previously aware of. Unexpected chemistry The detoxification takes place in an unexpected chemical process -- unexpected because it happens without the involvement of the enzymes that science has so far focused on in understanding the metabo...

In the September issue of  Stem Cell Reports , Viji Santhakumar, associate professor in the department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience, and her colleagues, challenge the prevailing assumption by scientists in the field that excessive neurogenesis (the birth of new brain cells) after injury is advantageous. "There is an initial increase in birth of new neurons after a brain injury but within weeks, there is a dramatic decrease in the normal rate at which neurons are born, depleting brain cells that under normal circumstances should be there to replace damaged cells and repair the brain's network," said Santhakumar. "The excess new neurons lead to epileptic seizures and could contribute to cognitive decline" In the United States an estimated 1.7milllion people sustain a TBI each year, making the condition a major cause of death and disability. Symptoms can include impaired thinking or memory, personality changes and depression and vision and hea...

Protein glycosylation is either called N-linked or O-linked, depending on whether the sugar is attached to nitrogen- or oxygen-containing sites, respectively. O-linked modifications typically involve the sugar N-acetylgalactosamine being attached to the amino acids serine or threonine, called "mucin-type" glycosylaton because they are commonly found in proteins in mucus membranes; together with N-linked sugars, these " canonical " modifications modify thousands of different types of proteins. For over 20 years, Robert Haltiwanger's research group, now at the University of Georgia, has studied much rarer type of O-linked modifications: attachment of the sugars glucose or fucose to serine or threonine, a modification that affects just a few hundred different types of proteins. One of these proteins is Notch, a signaling receptor that is essential for cell development and differentiation and is dysregulated in cancers such as leukemia, breast cancer, and prosta...