Sweet foods and memories!

Since Thanksgiving is just around the corner, I thought this article would be perfect to cover. According to the article, it is possible that the dorsal hippocampus neurons are linked to episodic memories. Episodic memories are also known as memories that can be linked to an event that has happened recently. A good example of how this works, is when someone eats a sweet snack in the middle of the day and later that day when they are presented with the option of consuming a dessert they may say no because of the memory of already eating something sweet earlier in the day. What these researchers think is that this link is particularly more evident when eating sweet foods over those that are not. Also this link shows that it helps in understanding how we are able to control our eating habits as well. They also found that when testing this out on mice, the inactivation of the dorsal hippocampal neurons after eating a sweet meal, the onset of wanting to eat again soon after was more prevalent than when the dorsal hippocampal neurons were active. It really seems that researchers might be closing in on an idea of why we are starting to eat more and more sweets or even the reason for the rise of obesity. Although the latter of the two, in my opinion, also has to do with the foods that we are surrounded with in society today.
It will be interesting to see more results from experimenting with the dorsal hippocampus neurons and their relationship with sweet foods.

Here is the article: Georgia State University. "Eating sweets forms memories that may control eating habits." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 13 November 2015. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151113051128.htm.

Using archae as a means for medicine??

It is an interesting idea isn't it, using archae for help in transporting important medicine? The article that is included with this states that the scientists found a microbe called S. islandicus. This microbe is able to grow and survive in 70-80 degree Celsius temperatures, and also very low pH levels as well. The idea came about when comparing the environment that these microbes are found, to the stomach and intestinal tract of our own human bodies. The idea is that possibly extracting the lipids from the cell membrane of the microbes and using them to create liposomes. These liposomes are like a synthetic capsule that can help transport needed material within them to a specific site. The scientists conducting this experiment found out that just using the crude lipids from the microbes, they were able to construct liposomes that could survive a solution that mirrored that of our stomachs. Although only 10 percent only survived at the end, this still is an awesome step forward because that was just the lipids extracted from the microbes and no added or purified form of them. If these scientists can come up with a make-up that can use the lipids found in S. islandicus with some other molecules, it is possible to change the way certain medications can be introduced to our bodies in a more natural way like insulin. Hopefully one day we will improve this process and make medication introduction to our bodies more natural than having to use injections; just like people with diabetes have to do.

Here is the article: University of Southern Denmark. "Researchers want to turn acid-loving microbes into safe drug-carriers." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 4 November 2015. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151104124657.htm.

The price for allergies

Allergies are a very common thing in today's society. Especially around the spring season when flowers, trees, and other plants start to bloom. An allergic reaction can also be produced when someone ingests a certain food that the body rejects and causes the immune system to be hyper responsive to. Scientists have found that there might be a link between allergies and parasites. The study in question that was done, was done on a single type of parasitic worm. In this worm's genome, the scientists found that there is a protein that is responsible to causing the same kind of immune response in humans that is generated from the protein found in pollen released from plants. It is crazy to find out that a parasite might be related to the evolution of our immune systems and why we have developed allergies of centuries of evolution. It seems that having an immune system that is more ready to fight off parasites might be worth the trade off of acquiring allergies.

This idea raises a big question for me though, and that is if it is possible to remove this specific protein from certain foods so that people with food allergies might be able to consume these types of foods. Then again, this study was done more on pollen rather than actual foods. There is definitely more research to be done here but it would be interesting to find out if there is more to allergies than just this protein relationship with parasites.

Here is the article: PLOS. "Allergy is the price we pay for our immunity to parasites." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 October 2015. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151029150304.htm.

New resolution to antibiotic use??

A problem presented in the medical and microbiology field recently has been bacteria and their resistance to antibiotics. Scientists are closing in on a new "antibiotic". This new method of possibly destroying unwanted infectious bacteria in humans is simply using a polypeptide produced and created specifically for this reason and no other reason. The idea behind this new polypeptide is that it will be used in actually attacking bacteria's cell walls. The way the polypeptide works is that it is able to somehow perforate the cell walls of targeted bacteria, whether they are gram positive or gram negative. With this happening, it seems that the number one thing any bacterium needs is a cell wall to be able to live. When the cell walls are attacked and perforated, it makes it easier for the bacteria to be attacked by other introduced antibiotics being used and the immune system itself can easily attack and rid the human body of the unwanted bacteria. The major problem associated with this idea though has been the way of introducing it into the human body. Since these polypeptides do not interact well with liquid environments, they have created positive charged ions to attach to the polypeptides to keep them protected. Doing this as well helps in being attracted to bacterium because of the bacteria having negatively charged cell walls. Studies are still being done on this method to help narrow it down to only being attracted to bacteria. The only question that I can think of presenting is that of what if there is a bacteria infection that involves bacteria with positively charged cell walls, this poses a possible problem.

Here is the link to the article:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "Bacterial hole puncher could be new broad-spectrum antibiotic." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 October 2015. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151029102236.htm.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151029102236.htm

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, what about it?

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, or CJD, is a very rare disease that causes spongiform of the patient's brain. Yes, this disease is extremely rare and is only found in every one in one million people world wide. This disease's symptoms mirror almost of that which is seen in a person who is suffering from dementia, so sometimes this is hard to tell the difference between a spongiform disease caused by prions and that of something like dementia or Alzheimer's. The craziest thing about CJD, is not that it mirrors that of mental deterioration disorders but that it is very elusive and the cause for it still is not confirmed. Scientists have found that this disease is very much related to an infectious form of the prion protein found in our cells. The problem though is that there is no confirmation of whether it is the actual prion that causes this disease or something else. And what brings a question to mind from this article the most to me is that 85% of mot CJD cases are labeled as sporadic CJD, meaning that this disease appears with no genetic mutation or other known risk factors that could cause this disease. The idea of this is scary! Even with a low chance in general of someone developing CJD, it is crazy to think that a large number of the cases presented that are diagnosed with CJD are of unknown origin and how contraction of the disease even occurred. In other words, for sporadic CJD scientists actually have no answer to how this happens. There are only theories, and most of the theories focus on somehow the normal prion protein in our neuronal cells change their conformation into an abnormal or "infectious" conformation that makes these prions dangerous and lead to spongiform of the brain tissues. My main question presented as the result to this article, is if it is possible that the abnormal conformation of the normal prion protein is the result of maybe a damaging chemical ingested by an individual or just a chemical that somehow reaches this prion in any way that may cause it to change its conformation. Sporadic CJD is a large mystery in the world of prions, and more research needs to be done to find the cause.

Here is the article on CJD and sporadic CJD:
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/cjd/detail_cjd.htm

THC and Alzheimer's disease

Yes, this topic is random compared to my other postings but I think it is important to note something about THC since it is a controversial topic in society over the last year or so. THC, also known as Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol, is the psychoactive chemical found in cannabis. The article that I read included a study about how THC might be linked in inhibiting the progression of Alzheimer's disease. The enzyme that Alzheimer's uses is called acetylcholinesterase (AChE), which is an enzyme that produces amyloid β-peptide aggregation. Aggregation of amyloid β-peptide is what results in the progression of Alzheimer's disease. This study was able to confirm that THC was able to inhibit the AChE, which would lead to a decrease in the symptoms and progression of Alzheimer's. There are two other medications being used in treating Alzheimer's, donepezil and tacrine. THC inhibition was shown to work better at inhibiting AChE better than both of these two medications. I'm sure there still needs to be more study done on this psychoactive chemical, but it is very satisfying to hear that there might be a better solution to slowing down Alzheimer's than the drugs that are currently on the market. I hope to see more studies done on THC and what benefits can come from it. But the biggest problem with studies done on this chemical is still how it is under fire from the federal government; more studies won't be available till this blockade on research is lifted.

I'm curious to see what everyone thinks about this study...

Here's the link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2562334/

New blindness disorder and maybe its cure...

Gene therapy is a fast growing area of research in modern science, and this article definitely shows how useful this technique is. The main study that these scientists were doing was upon the rare disorder that causes blindness during the day called achromatopsia. It seems that the scientists were able to narrow the culprit down to genes that play a key role in phototransduction. First off, this study is being done to help lead to a cure for both dogs and humans. During their study so far, they have only performed experiments on dog genes in gene therapy. What they were able to find was that there is a missense mutation on the CNGA3 gene. What's crazy is how this one mutation causes a different amino acid to be produced which leads to this disorder. The best part about this gene therapy is that they were able to recreate this in vitro and see what this mutation and the other newly discovered mutation can do to the pathway of the phototransducers within the eyes. They will begin study upon humans soon but so far they have discovered many more mutations that are present within the same gene rather than the few that are present within dogs that lead to achromatopsia. I can't wait to hear if their research takes off soon, leading them to be able to find a way to fix this gene in vivo and repair people and dogs' vision that are crippled by this rare disorder.

Here is the article:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151001165029.htm

University of Pennsylvania. "Genetic mutations linked to a form of blindness." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 October 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151001165029.htm>.