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A study led by researchers at the University of Oxford (UK) shows how to record the number of malaria parasites that live in the bloodstream of the host during infection. The study, published today in the journal Science , is a new tool to investigate malaria parasites, even in testing vaccines and drugs.
(In the picture, the parasite Plasmodium chabaudi. Picture: Wellcome Images.)
An international team of scientists has discovered how to keep track of the number of malaria parasites in an infection. They studied mice infected with the parasite Plasmodium chabaudi to estimate the “effective number of spreading” or the potential for survival rates of parasitic populations in the bloodstreams of rodents.
The new model, published today in the journal Science , takes into account the host’s immune defenses, the interactions between parasites and the availability of red blood cells. “Together, these factors effectively portray the parasitemia, the volume of parasites in the host’s blood,” says Jessica Metcalf, first author of the study and researcher at the University of Oxford (United Kingdom).
Metcalf and his team found that the host’s immune responses not only exterminate the infected red blood cells but also kill infected cells and thereby depleting the resources available to the parasites.
The authors explain that when a large number of malaria parasites infecting a host immune defenses it exhausts itself quickly after a couple of days. However, when the initial load of parasites is small, the host’s immune defenses decline to a slower pace.
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The replacement of damaged neurons in neurodegenerative diseases is not easy. Scientists try to develop functional neurons from cells treated in vitro and this requires a support to simulate the characteristics of the nervous system. In this line a Biodonostia Institute researcher has validated a polymeric support can induce neuronal differentiation in the laboratory.
Nervous system diseases (such as Parkinson’s or post-traumatic spinal cord injury) are particularly difficult to treat because it is not easy to replace the pieces that have been damaged nerve. The key is to develop functional neurons from cells treated in vitro, But it is essential that the medium on which these cells are treated to simulate the characteristics of the nervous system.
This is what has made Patricia Garcia, biochemistry degree at the UPV / EHU and researcher at the Institute Biodonostia. Garcia has developed and validated a polymeric support can induce neuronal differentiation in vitroIn research carried out in the Health Unit Tecnalia.
Garcia has developed a polymer material containing topographical features and biochemical suitable for converting certain cells into functional neurons. For this purpose, has combined photolithography techniques and neural extracellular matrix technology. Photolithography involves a series of treatments based on light exposure, chemicals, and has served to give the desired topographical shape support.
As for the neural extracellular matrix, is the natural substrate to which cells adhere to be guided and acquire neuronal function, and allows the formation of new tissue transplanted into the nervous system. Garcia has simulated the properties of the matrix support developed.
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This antibiotic, which applies especially in hospitals, is the second leading cause of adverse drug reaction behind the penicillins. The finding has resulted from over eight years of study and collaboration between the University of Malaga and the Carlos Haya Hospital.
(Representation of the structure of the immunoreactivity with synthetic epitopes. Image: CRT)
When it comes to antibiotic drugs come to mind as common as penicillin or amoxicillin. Both are present in most prescriptions given in our country when it comes to end with an infection. But what if you are allergic to any of them?
Antibiotics account for 30 percent of the cause of allergies to medicines in the world and often the patient is not allergic to all but a specific model. That is why, in the event that a patient needs this type of drug, it is necessary to improve your aim when prescribing a type of penicillin or another, or even opt for antibiotics based on cephalosporin, also the group of β-lactam antibiotics.
The use of the latter is not as common as penicillin in our country, unlike Italy, where the prescription exceeds that of finding Fleming. In Spain, most studies have been designed to detect adverse reactions of patients in the presence of penicillin in your body, often opting to discard also the similarity cephalosporin rather than clinical trials.
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How to choose glasses
The glasses have several attributes including size, shape, color, framed or unframed and so on. Let’s talk about the most important:
Size of eyeglasses
This must be complementary to your size and your face. For this reason it is necessary to buy glasses to try them seeing a full length mirror or at least away from a mirror guy. If your face is small glasses will be the bigger kids and the person’s face can be larger glasses.
Have often been in fashion sunglasses fashion but this is great and you should always try to select the appropriate ones for each size.
The nose and your glasses
If the nose is small bridge of the glasses (which attaches to each telescope) preferably should be at the top of the nose to not make you look smaller. The bridge should ideally be fine.
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A Swedish study with Spanish participation shows that pericytes, cells of the circulatory system, involved in the formation of scar tissue after spinal cord injury. So far this role are awarded only to astrocytes, cells that act as support to neurons. The research, published in the journal Science, is essential to manipulate the process and facilitate regeneration.
(Blood vessel in the damaged spinal cord. Green, pericytes, cells that help healing. Photo: Christian Göritz)
The tissue loss after injury to the central nervous system (CNS) is regenerated in a limited way. The wound is ‘covered’ with a scar, of different texture to the skin, which are abundant astrocytes, glial cells that support CNS neurons. Hence, the scar is known as ‘glial scar’.
Now researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm (Sweden), in collaboration with the National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), have found that pericytes, cells of the blood system, also play an important role in the formation of scars.
The findings, published this week in the journal ScienceReveal that these cells divide after injury and create a mass of connective tissue, like a sewing thread it were, the lesion migrates to form the scar. The study also indicates that these cells are necessary to recover all the tissue, its absence creates ‘holes’ in it and prevents proper healing.
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A study by the University of Lausanne (Switzerland), published in the journal ScienceReveals that oxytocin, a hormone produced in the hypothalamus, acts on the amygdala and inhibit some responses to fear and the paralysis of the individual in a situation fearful.
(Previous and current models of the circuits in the center of the amygdala that generate fear responses. Photo: Science / AAAS)
The amygdala is the brain structure which creates the feeling of fear. Until now it was known that oxytocin, a hormone that comes from the hypothalamus has an inhibitory effect of fear in the amygdala. But researchers at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) have found that this hormone only blocks some of the responses generated by the feeling of fear.
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A consortium of sixteen European companies and institutions, coordinated from Spain by the IMDEA Nanoscience and managed by Atos Origin, has launched a European project under the Seventh Framework Programme, with a dual goal: to develop new forms of cancer diagnostics that allow earlier detection and thus reduce the risk, and investigate more personalized, more effective and with fewer side effects.
(Figure 1: a) Images obtained by light microscopy of cells epithelialfrom a human cervical carcinomal where magnetic nanoparticles are observed inside (brown spots). b) Image-like cells after cell division. More information: A.Villanueva et al. Nanotechnology20 , 115 103 (2009).)
The European Union has decided to boost the application of magnetic nanoparticles (materials at the molecular scale) for early detection and treatment of cancer, a line of research that could revolutionize medical science medium term.
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The plane tree ( Platanus x hispanica ) is a very common tree species in parks and gardens of Castilla y Leon for its resilience. It assumes, for certain allergies, a headache at times of pollination. Or maybe, from now on, moments before pollination. An investigation by a group of scientists from the University of Leon has shown that the presence of an allergen (the protein that causes the allergic reaction) produced by this tree that can be independent of the reproductive process.
The research may help answer a question that may have certain allergies. Why did not always match the height of the itching, sneezing and other allergic reactions to the period of maximum presence of pollen in the air? Published in the journal Clinical & Experimental Allergy , the study area of Botany in the Department of Biodiversity and Environmental Management, says an answer: “The number of patients who display polysensitized banana allergy suggests that allergy symptoms are caused by or cosensibilización cross-reaction involving a number of particles. ” In other words, the peak phase of the tree pollination alone does not explain the allergic reaction.
Scientists studied the plane trees that decorate streets and gardens of Leon. In this city, it is customary to “prune them until they were almost like stumps,” says the Coordinator, Delia Fernandez.
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In the last three decades the overall number of people with diabetes has doubled, according to a comprehensive study on the prevalence of this disease, which now publishes The Lancet . The figures have soared both in the developed world and developing because of the growing and aging population, obesity and diet.
(347 million people suffer from diabetes on the planet.Picture: Jill A. Brown)
Diabetes has become a global disease, including obesity, high blood pressure or cholesterol, affecting both developed and developing countries: 347 million people suffer from diabetes in the world, more than double the 153 million were recorded in 1980.
These are the conclusions of epidemiological study that an international team of researchers recently presented in the medical journal The Lancet . Using data from more than 2.7 million people and models to estimate the prevalence of the disease, found that from 1980 to 2008 the prevalence of diabetes in adults has increased from 8.3% to 9.8% men (18% growth) and 7.5% to 9.2% for women (23%).
“We established a network of more than one hundred employees in countries around the world, and also help the World Health Organization collected a large number of studies already available.
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UPM researchers involved in the development of new technologies in wireless sensor networks that enable the deployment of eHealth services to enhance the welfare and independence of elderly and sick.
The European project MicroSensorial Solving Major Problems in Wireless Networks (μSWN) , which have involved researchers from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, has been a pioneer in the design and development of generic platforms for software and hardware that enable the deployment of current applications future on wireless sensor networks to address the emerging needs of society in the XXI century.
Under this premise, the contributions of researchers from the consortium μSWN focused on the design of a middleware platform and a smart card sensors (Smart Sensor Board, SSB). The middleware platform is designed based on a communication paradigm publisher / subscriber that enables the exchange of information in the form of events.
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(In the picture, the parasite Plasmodium chabaudi. Picture: Wellcome Images.)
Nervous system diseases (such as Parkinson’s or post-traumatic spinal cord injury) are particularly difficult to treat because it is not easy to replace the pieces that have been damaged nerve. The key is to develop functional neurons from cells treated in vitro, But it is essential that the medium on which these cells are treated to simulate the characteristics of the nervous system.
(Representation of the structure of the immunoreactivity with synthetic epitopes. Image: CRT)