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  • Breast cancer by age: Study reveals early mutations that predict patient outcomes

    Breast cancer by age: Study reveals early mutations that predict patient outcomes

    Newswise — LA JOLLA, CALIF. – June 30, 2023 – A study led by researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys has found that in young women, certain genetic mutations are associated with treatment-resistant breast cancer. These mutations are not linked to treatment-resistant breast cancer in older women. The findings, published in the journal Science Advances, could help improve precision medicine and suggest a brand-new way of classifying breast cancer.

    “It’s well established that as you get older, you’re more likely to develop cancer. But we’re finding that this may not be true for all cancers depending on a person’s genetic makeup,” says senior author Svasti Haricharan, Ph.D., an assistant professor at Sanford Burnham Prebys. “There may be completely different mechanisms driving cancer in younger and older people, which requires adjusting our view of aging and cancer.”

    The research primarily focused on ER+/HER2- breast cancer, which is one of the most common forms of the disease. It is usually treated with hormonal therapies, but for some patients, these treatments don’t work. About 20% of tumors resist treatment from the very beginning, and up to 40% develop resistance over time.

    “Understanding how certain forms of breast cancer develop in a way that makes them eventually resist therapy can help us better classify the disease. It may also help clinicians adjust the treatment plans for patients who will likely experience resistance to standard treatments,” says Haricharan. “For scientists like myself, it can help guide research to develop new therapies to overcome these obstacles.”

    The study included an extensive analysis of a large database of breast cancer patients. It revealed that in ER+/HER2- breast cancer patients, certain gene mutations had a strong correlation with response to treatment—and the effects were dependent on age. Some gene mutations were only linked with treatment-resistant breast cancer in younger women.

    “This was a strange finding, so much so that we almost didn’t believe it at first,” says Haricharan. “But the same patterns emerged over and over again in database after database.”

    The mutations the researchers identified were in genes involved in cell replication, the process by which cells grow and divide. These genes are responsible for repairing mistakes when they happen—a process that goes awry in virtually all cancers.

    “Cell cycle dysregulation occurs so early in the development of cancer that we generally don’t consider whether the individual mutations that cause cell cycle dysregulation can affect cancer’s eventual response to treatment or its ability to spread,” says Haricharan.

    By connecting the specific type of cell cycle dysregulation that triggers cancer with the outcome of the disease many years after diagnosis, the research team proposes an entirely new paradigm for thinking about and studying all types of cancer.

    “This is a radical shift in how we look at cancer, which could have implications well beyond breast cancer,” adds Haricharan.

    To begin to test this idea, the researchers analyzed the effect of cell cycle mutations on patient outcomes in other types of cancer. In a final twist, they observed that across many cancer types, the mode of cell cycle dysregulation is significant for cancer in women, but less so for cancer in men. This suggests that the influence of cell-cycle dysregulation could depend on sex as well as age.

    “These findings emphasize why it is important to study cancer in the context of the life history of the patient,” adds Haricharan. “Too often, cancer research is focused narrowly on cells in a petri dish, forgetting the whole, complex host system in which these cells transform and grow.”

    ###

    Additional authors on the study include Elena Oropeza, Sinem Seker, Sabrina Carrel, Aloran Mazumder, Daniel Lozano, Athena Jimenez and Nindo B. Punturi, Sanford Burnham Prebys; Sabrina N. VandenHeuvel, Dillon A. Noltensmeyer and Susan E. Waltz, University of Cincinatti; Jonathan T. Lei and Bora Lim, Baylor College of Medicine; Shreya A. Raghavan, Texas A&M University; and Matthew N. Bainbridge, Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine.

    The study was supported by grants from Susan G. Komen (CCR18548157), the American Cancer Society (978170) and the National Cancer Institute (K22 CA229613, R21 CA263768, R37 CA269224, T32 CA203690). Additional support was provided by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Takeda Oncology, Merck, Genentech, Puma Biotechnology, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the Chan Zuckerberg Institute, the Adopt a Scientist Program, and the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station.

    The study’s DOI is 10.1126/sciadv.adf2860.

    About Sanford Burnham Prebys

    Sanford Burnham Prebys is an independent biomedical research institute dedicated to understanding human biology and disease and advancing scientific discoveries to profoundly impact human health. For more than 45 years, our research has produced breakthroughs in cancer, neuroscience, immunology and children’s diseases, and is anchored by our NCI-designated Cancer Center and advanced drug discovery capabilities. For more information, visit us at SBPdiscovery.org or on Facebook facebook.com/SBPdiscovery and on Twitter @SBPdiscovery.

    Sanford Burnham Prebys

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  • How the use of chemicals and biodiversity loss are connected

    How the use of chemicals and biodiversity loss are connected

    Newswise — Science does not take a deep enough look at chemicals in the environment as one of the causes of the decline in biodiversity. Forty scientists in the RobustNature research network of Goethe University Frankfurt and collaborating institutes have corroborated this in a study that has now been published in the journal “Nature Ecology and Evolution”. The researchers regard an interdisciplinary approach as a new opportunity to better understand biodiversity loss in order to be able to take more efficient countermeasures. To this end, they are studying the interactions between chemical pollution and biodiversity loss.

    Declining biodiversity threatens the very basis of human life. Science contends that there are many reasons for this decline. However, while much research is being conducted into the connection between species decline on the one hand and loss of habitats, invasion by non-native species or climate change on the other, science is giving less attention to the impact of chemicals on biodiversity. A recent study by a team of researchers led by Professor Henner Hollert, Dr. Francisco Sylvester and Fabian Weichert from Goethe University Frankfurt corroborates this.

    The team has analyzed in depth the scientific literature on this topic from 1990 to 2021. According to their analysis, the very many research papers on environmental pollution through chemicals were published in only a small number of highly specialized ecotoxicological journals, in which papers on biodiversity loss are only occasionally found. “This suggests that the field is highly encapsulated, which is in stark contrast to publication behavior in relation to other causes of global biodiversity loss,” says Henner Hollert. “Research on the environmental impact of chemicals is still mostly dissociated from the assessment of biodiversity loss.”

    The authors call for a stronger interdisciplinary focus in research so that the impacts of chemical substances on biodiversity can be better understood and mitigated. What makes the researchers optimistic here is the fact that there have been many methodological advances in ecotoxicology and ecology in recent years. For example, with the help of state-of-the-art chemical and effect-based analytics as well as big data science it is possible to detect thousands of known and unknown substances in environmental samples at the same time. In addition, there are technologies for remote environmental monitoring, for example with satellites, as well as computer models for predicting the ecological risks of chemicals and methods for determining biodiversity with the help of environmental DNA.

    However, the scientists also see quite considerable challenges despite the interdisciplinary approach. For example, basic data are often lacking; each area under study has specific characteristics; the processes at ecosystem scale are complex. To meet these challenges, the researchers have made 16 recommendations. They suggest, for example, obligating industry to make relevant data public. Or they propose developing ecological test models that cover not only individual organisms but also populations, communities or even entire ecosystems.

    The RobustNature research network is examining the robustness and resilience of nature-society systems in the developing Anthropocene and specifically the interaction of chemical pollution and biodiversity loss. To address important questions related to human-ecosystem dynamics, RobustNature has established interdisciplinary collaboration with partners from Germany and abroad. https://www.robustnature.de/en/

    Partners:

    • Goethe University Frankfurt (Coordination; Faculty of Biological Sciences (15) with the faculties of Law (1), Economics & Business (2), Social Sciences (3), Educational Sciences (4), Geosciences & Geography (11), Computer Science & Mathematics (12), Medicine (16) and the profile area Sustainability & Biodiversity)
    • Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE)
    • Senckenberg – Leibniz Institution for Biodiversity and Earth System Research (SGN)
    • LOEWE Center for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE TBG)
    • Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ), Leipzig
    • Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, Frankfurt
    • Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME), Schmallenberg
    • RWTH Aachen University
    • University of Saskatchewan, Canada
    • ETH Zurich, Switzerland
    • Stockholm University, Sweden

    Goethe-Universitat Frankfurt am Main

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  • Surging Monkey & Pig Populations Threaten Disease Risk

    Surging Monkey & Pig Populations Threaten Disease Risk

    Newswise — Exploding populations of wild pigs and macaque monkeys in Southeast Asia are threatening native forests and disease outbreaks in livestock and people, according to research led by The University of Queensland.

    Dr Matthew Luskin, from UQ’s School of the Environment, and his team collated and analysed species population data from across the region, some of it collected with a network of cameras.

    “Macaques and wild pigs are taking over Southeast Asia’s disturbed forests,” Dr Luskin said.

    “Humans are largely to blame for this by altering forests with logging and establishing palm oil farms which provide food and ideal breeding conditions for these animals.

    “We saw that wild boar and macaque numbers were 400 per cent higher in forests near the plantations than in untouched environments.

    “These animals take full advantage of the farmland, raiding crops and thriving on calorie‐rich foods.”

    Setting and monitoring the camera traps provided Dr Luskin with an up-close experience of the exploding numbers.

    “I encountered huge troops of macaques in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia – they were everywhere in the forest edges, following us and interfering with our equipment,” Dr Luskin said.

    “At first it was frustrating but then was eerie as we became completely surrounded.”

    Dr Luskin said there were significant human health risks in the rising pig and macaque populations.

    “The wildlife origins of the COVID-19 pandemic show that mammals in human-modified ecosystems often host high pathogen loads and pose serious zoonotic disease risks,” he said.

    “Both pigs and macaques are recognised as carriers of diseases that can be transmitted to people and they’re the most common species in a region considered to be the global zoonotic disease hotspot.”

    Collaborator, Professor Carlos Peres from the University of East Anglia (UK), said abnormally high populations of wildlife species that are disease reservoirs often occur in human-modified tropical forests.

    “This study again shows that densely settled rural areas in Southeast Asia may be a source of future human epidemics,” he said.

    University of East Anglia and Southern University of Science and Technology (China) PhD candidate, Jonathan Moore, said the immediate effects of the population explosions could be seen on native flora in the affected regions.

    “Both pigs and macaques trigger negative cascading impacts in these pristine ecosystems,” Mr Moore said.

    “They kill the seeds and seedlings of native plants and eat bird and reptile eggs.

    “The Malaysian pigs alone were found to reduce rainforest tree regeneration by 62 per cent.”

    The researchers say action is needed to minimise population expansions of wild pigs and macaques.

    “Efforts to manage the populations of these species have failed in the past because of their rapid reproductive capacity and public outcry,” Dr Luskin said.

    “Nobody favours needless killing of wildlife but the negative social and ecological impacts from hyperabundant pest species does demand ethical and urgent management solutions.”

    The research is published in Biological Reviews.

    University of Queensland

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  • Half of global prison tuberculosis cases remain undetected

    Half of global prison tuberculosis cases remain undetected

    Newswise — In 2019, incarcerated people across the globe developed tuberculosis (TB) at nearly 10 times the rate of people in the general population, according to a new study led by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH).

    Published in The Lancet Public Health, the study found that 125,105 of the 11 million people incarcerated worldwide developed tuberculosis in 2019, a rate of 1,148 cases per 100,000 persons per year.

    Despite this high case rate, nearly half of TB cases among incarcerated people were not detected.

    The findings reveal the first global and regional estimates of new TB cases among incarcerated people, a population at high risk of developing this life-threatening disease. Collectively, the high case rate and low detection underscore the need for greater awareness and resources to reduce the burden of TB in prisons and other high-risk settings.

    “Our study showed that only 53 percent of people that develop tuberculosis in prisons are diagnosed, which suggests that incarcerated people are neglected and have minimal healthcare services to diagnose tuberculosis,” says study lead and corresponding author Dr. Leonardo Martinez, assistant professor of epidemiology at BUSPH.

    To better understand TB rates among this population, Dr. Martinez and colleagues acquired data from published research and from countries’ federal officials to analyze TB prevalence and incidence in 193 countries at the country, regional, and global level between 2000-2019. The team also calculated TB case detection rates per year in each country for 193 countries.

    The African region had the highest rate of new TB cases in 2019, at 2,242 cases per 100,000 persons per year, but the Americas region—largely driven by Central and South America—had the greatest number of total cases, which increased nearly 90 percent since 2000. The countries with the highest number of new cases in prisons in 2019 were Brazil, Russia, China, the Philippines, and Thailand.

    Importantly, the team found that new TB case rates remained consistently between 1,100 and 1,200 cases per 100,000 persons per year from 2012-2019.

    “This stagnation suggests that current tuberculosis control policy in prisons is insufficient to decrease the tuberculosis burden and that supplementary interventions and policy implementation are needed,” says Dr. C. Robert Horsburgh, professor of global health at BUSPH.

    Mass incarceration is one major driver of TB transmission—both inside and outside of prisons.  Overcrowding, where some prison cells contain up to 30 people, causes TB to “spread like wildfire,” Dr. Martinez says, and this transmission can spill over easily into the community.

    “Contrary to popular belief, persons that are incarcerated are a mobile population, and in many countries, the duration of incarceration is very short,” he says. “People go into prison, then come out, then may go back in again. So, very often, people that develop tuberculosis in prison end up transmitting the disease to many people outside of prison once they are released. Since almost half of people with tuberculosis in prisons are not diagnosed, many still remain infectious when they enter back into the general community.”

    The team hopes that these findings will encourage global and regional health organizations to develop routine monitoring of TB among incarcerated people, as they do for other high-risk populations such as people with HIV and household contacts. The researchers say that their comprehensive compilation of TB case notifications—which they retrieved directly from federal officials, national and regional organizations, and non-governmental organizations—is a clear indication that information about TB in prisons is both accessible and retrievable by global organizations such as the World Health Organization.

    The team is currently working with several health organizations to attempt to update global guidelines on how to manage and reduce TB in prisons, as the most recent guidelines were written in the year 2000.

    “One of the reasons this population is so neglected is because of the lack of data,” Dr. Martinez says. “Our hope is that these results can help stakeholders understand the urgency of the issue and the amount of people in prisons that develop tuberculosis and remain undiagnosed for long periods of time and can spur them to take action.”

    **

    Boston University School of Public Health

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  • Radar Boosts Energy Technology for Industries

    Radar Boosts Energy Technology for Industries

    Newswise — Fluidized beds is a technology used in a variety of industries and plays an important role in the transition to green energy and the production of food and drugs. However, the process that occurs inside a fluidized bed is extremely complex and – due to a lack of effective measurement techniques – has remained largely unknown. Now, researchers from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have developed a high-frequency radar technique that can measure exactly what is happening inside a fluidized bed with unrivalled precision. This breakthrough could lead to completely new and more efficient processes in several industries, including energy conversion.

    Fluidized bed combustion is one of the leading technologies used in the world’s thermal power plants. This technology converts solid fuels, such as biomass and waste, into district heating and electricity. Fluidization technology is also fundamental to many other processes that are expected to play an important role globally in the transition of energy systems, and in circular resource flows – such as in carbon capture, energy storage and the production of hydrogen and other fossil-free fuels*.  

    Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have now developed a radar technique able to provide a detailed characterisation of the flow of solids in fluidized beds, the lack of which has been holding back the development of these processes.

    Fluidized beds is already the most effective technology for converting solid biofuels into energy. This technology results in an efficient and consistent rate of combustion because the solid particles assume a liquid-like state which helps to distribute the heat homogeneously in the combustion chamber. In brief, fluidization technology is based on a gas being blown through a bed of small sand-like particles in a reactor, so that these solid particles, the fuel and the gas become thoroughly mixed.

    Like a sandstorm and a wildfire in one

    In order to achieve even greater efficiencies in this process, you need to be able to understand and control how the solid particles behave in the mixture. But the reactor environment is often hot, dirty and corrosive – like a sandstorm and a wildfire in one – effectively preventing any type of measurement and thus limiting our understanding of what is actually happening inside the reactor.

    The Chalmers researchers’ new solution to this problem is an extremely high-frequency radar technique that can measure the flows of solid particles in fluidized beds with unrivalled precision. Inspired by the pulse-Doppler radar used to track weather phenomena such as rain or snow, this is the first time the technique has been demonstrated in the context of a fluidized bed. This breakthrough is now expected to pave the way for new and more efficient processes in a number of industries.

    “The use of the high-frequency terahertz radar instrument demonstrated in our study has the potential to revolutionise how fluidized bed technology can be designed and used in many different industrial sectors – from energy conversion to the food industry and drug production. This is one of very few demonstrations of the use of pulse-Doppler radar technique at submillimetre wave frequencies, and it is the first time ever that it has been used for making measurements in a fluidized bed,” says Diana Carolina Guío Pérez, researcher in energy technology at Chalmers.

    Unrivalled measurement accuracy

    While the measurement techniques used in fluidized beds are normally low-resolution, produce results that are difficult to interpret, or cause disturbances in the flow, the Chalmers researchers’ high-frequency terahertz radar technique can penetrate the reactor from the outside and measure the behaviour of the particles inside it without disturbing the flow. The radar technique can also measure the velocity and concentration of the solid particles simultaneously with great precision and high resolution in time and space. This means that even minimal changes in the flow can be detected in real-time, which is important when monitoring and controlling industrial processes.

    In the researchers’ study, the technique was demonstrated in practice, for the first time ever, in a three-metre high circulating fluidized bed boiler. Their findings showed a measurement quality that exceeded the quality achieved by the methods previously used in the field by a big margin.

    “We have been able to show that pulse-Doppler radar technique at frequencies up to 340 GHz can measure both the distribution of particles and their velocity inside a process reactor at a much higher resolution than other technologies can. This is information that has long been lacking in the field and will make it possible to improve and scale up process reactors and – in the case of energy conversion – reduce emissions of unwanted residual products,” says Marlene Bonmann, post-doc at the Terahertz and Millimetre Wave Laboratory at Chalmers University of Technology.

    “The knowledge that can be acquired with our high-frequency terahertz radar technique has the potential to break new ground in our understanding of solids flows in fluidized bed reactors and other solids handling units. For example, it can lead to improved operation and design of the reactors needed in existing and completely new fluidized bed-based conversion processes, such as carbon capture and storage, energy storage and thermal cycling,” says Diana Carolina Guío Pérez.

     

    More about the study:
    The scientific journal article Radar-based measurements of the solids flow in a circulating fluidized bed in ScienceDirect was written by Diana Carolina Guío-Pérez, Marlene Bonmann, Tomas Bryllert, Martin Seemann, Jan Stake, Filip Johnsson and David Pallarès. These researchers are active at the Department of Space, Earth and Environment and the Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.

    Chalmers University of Technology

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  • Getting adults on board with messy nature play

    Getting adults on board with messy nature play

    Newswise — Climbing trees, making mud pies, or simply playing outside, parents and educators know that being in nature is an important part of every childhood. But when it comes to messy or risky play, it’s a whole different story according to new research from the University of South Australia.

    Talking to parents and early childhood educators, researchers found that parents and educators will happily open the door to ‘safe’ or ‘clean’ nature play but are more reluctant to let children engage in ‘messy’ activities or play that may be perceived as ‘risky’.

    UniSA researcher and PhD candidate Kylie Dankiw says that parents and educators act as important gatekeepers when it comes to nature play.

    “Nature play is well known for its positive effects on children’s health, development, and wellbeing,” Dankiw says, “and this was a common theme when interviewing parents and carers alike.

    “Nature play helps improve emotional regulation, physical skills, and learning outcomes, and can encourage children to develop their creativity and imagination.

    “Parents and educators also identified that nature play can help children form a connection with the natural world and learn about sustainable practices.

    “Importantly, parents and carers felt that nature play experiences could be used to offset technology use such as TV and screens.

    “But despite the known benefits, parents and carers can find it difficult when it comes to engaging children in nature play, especially if activities are messy or dirty (such as water or mud play) or are thought of as being risky (such as climbing).

    “Educators tell us that safety regulations and time restrictions can limit what they choose as outdoor activities, especially when they need to change children’s clothes after muddy play, or when parents expect for their child to come home clean from childcare.

    “There can be a conflict between encouraging children to experience nature, and what adults need to deal with in the so-called aftermath.”

    Nearly 50% of Australia’s children aged 0-12 years (two million) spend time in formal or informal early childhood education care, with long day care being the most common type of care for children aged 0-4 years.

    Paediatric expert UniSA’s Dr Margarita Tsiros says given the large number of children in care, further education and training for both  early childhood educators and parents could help overcome some of the challenges that might be linked with nature play.

    “Our research highlights that opportunities for young children to engage in nature play is influenced by other people in their lives,” Dr Tsiros says.

    “While parents and educators recognise the benefits of nature play, they can struggle with certain aspects of being in nature, particularly risk.

    “Understanding these barriers can help inform strategies to promote nature play for different age groups. It can also help inform policies and practices to promote enabling factors.

    “A key move will be to boost educators’ knowledge about nature-based learning, what constitutes nature play, and how they can use natural resources to facilitate nature play experiences.

    “In a time where screens threaten to consume children’s interest, it’s vital that we present opportunities for them to engage in nature play, and to achieve this, we need to have parents and educators on board.” 

    …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

    University of South Australia

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  • Onion rot bacteria threat to Vidalia production studied

    Onion rot bacteria threat to Vidalia production studied

    Newswise — The Vidalia onion is a trademarked variety of sweet onion that can only be grown in several counties in Georgia by law. These prized vegetables are currently threatened by the bacterial pathogen Pantoea ananatis, which severely damages the plant by rotting the onion bulbs and leaves. This results in substantial losses for onion growers in Georgia, as there are no disease resistant cultivars available. The plant toxin pantaphos, produced by the P. ananatis pathogen, causes the rotting symptoms in onion. More specifically, the eleven genes responsible for producing this toxin are grouped together in a cluster called HiVir (high virulence). However, most of the genes from the cluster have an unknown role in bacterial pathogenesis, so there is much more to discover about how this bacterium infects onion.

    To combat this critical plant disease, Dr. Brian Kvikto and Dr. Bhabesh Dutta from the University of Georgia have developed an aggressive research program. A recent study led by Dr. Gi Yoon (Gina) Shin from Dr. Kvikto’s lab has confirmed which genes in the HiVir cluster are essential and which genes contribute partially to this disease.

    Published in Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions (MPMI), the study found that this HiVir gene cluster is common in many onion-pathogenic P. ananatis strains, and natural mutations in these essential genes render them powerless to cause infection in onions. The lab developed a clever assay to isolate the toxin from the pathogen. Dr. Shin explains that application of this toxin onto other plants besides onions also causes lesions to form. “This suggests that the toxin produced by P. ananatis could have broad-spectrum activity, potentially targeting conserved function or pathways within the plant.” 

    The exact mechanism by which this toxin can cause lesions on various plants is yet to be determined. Dr. Shin states, “The elucidation of the specific target of the toxin holds great promise in facilitating the discovery of pantaphos-resistant onion cultivars. This breakthrough would effectively mitigate the economic losses experienced by the onion industry.” This study provides exciting insights to get us one step closer to developing disease-resistant Vidalia onions.

    American Phytopathological Society (APS)

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  • Mothers showcase ideals through children’s fashion on social media

    Mothers showcase ideals through children’s fashion on social media

    Newswise — Mothers often share fashion photos of their children on social media, a practice which combine the traditions of family photos and the commercial symbolism of fashion images. A joint study of the University of Jyväskylä and Aalto University investigated how this phenomenon, which has become increasingly common in recent years, is connected to consumption, parenting and childhood as well as to children’s privacy.
    For the survey, 16 Finnish mothers were interviewed. These mothers have Instagram accounts concentrating on children’s clothes, and they actively post content through these accounts.

    According to the results, the fashion photos of children reflect the mothers’ taste, aesthetic skills and values, but also help the mothers identify themselves with their own reference group and save memories of themselves and their children. A key concept in this study is “sharenting”, a combination of “sharing” and “parenting”. The concept refers to parents’ practices of photographing their children and share the photos on social media. The photography practices include selecting the venue and clothes as well as taking, editing and posting the pictures.

    “Photography practices highlight the character of the images as constructed representations,” says doctoral researcher Minna Kallioharju. “For the mothers, the photos serve as a tool for expressing their own lifestyle and values as well as the prevailing commercial and social media trends. Through these, they can strengthen their own identity and parenthood and also build connection with other mothers.”

    Drawing on the visual symbolism of family photos and fashion advertisements, the photos communicate traditional childhood ideals such as an authentic and natural appearance. Although the mothers were aware that the pictures typically present the best sides of everyday life, the Instagram account was regarded as a diary and a photo album, also as a means to save memories.

    “The mothers were aware of the potential negative consequences of sharing,” Kallioharju says, “but fashion images were found to be mostly harmless due to their aesthetic and positive character. Some mothers took a more critical stance to the sharing of pictures of their children and avoided including portray their child’s face, for example.”

    The study has raised wide attention, and the article was downloaded more than 2000 times during the first week.

    The study was funded by Kone Foundation, the Academy of Finland and its Strategic Research Council.

     

    https://doi.org/10.1108/YC-06-2022-1541

    Jyvaskylan Yliopisto (University of Jyvaeskylae)

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  • Blood test aids in predicting lung cancer mortality risk

    Blood test aids in predicting lung cancer mortality risk

    Newswise — HOUSTON ― A blood-based test developed by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center can predict an individual’s risk of dying from lung cancer when combined with a personalized risk model.

    According to new data published today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, a blood-based four-protein panel (4MP), when combined with a lung cancer risk model (PLCOm2012), can better identify those at high risk of dying from lung cancer than the current U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) criteria.

    These findings build upon previous MD Anderson research demonstrating the combination test more accurately determined who is likely to benefit from lung cancer screening than the USPSTF criteria.

    “This simple blood test has the potential to save lives by determining the need for lung cancer screening on a personalized basis,” said co-corresponding author Samir Hanash, M.D., Ph.D., professor of Clinical Cancer Prevention. “Given the challenges associated with CT as a frontline screening method for lung cancer and the fact that most individuals diagnosed with the disease do not meet current guidelines, there is an urgent demand for an alternative approach.”

    For this study, MD Anderson researchers analyzed pre-diagnostic blood samples from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial, including 552 individuals who later developed lung cancer and 2,193 who did not. Of the 552 individuals diagnosed during the six-year study period, 70% (387) died from lung cancer.

    Using hazard ratios, the researchers assessed the relationship between the risk scores generated by the combination model (4MP + PLCOm2012) and the incidence of lung cancer death. The combination showed improved sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value compared to the 2013 and 2021 USPSTF criteria for predicting lung cancer-specific mortality among individuals who smoked at least 10 pack-years (PYs).

    The USPSTF recommends that adults at elevated risk for lung cancer receive a low-dose CT scan each year, which was shown to reduce lung cancer deaths in the 2011 National Lung Screening Trial (NLST). The 2021 USPSTF criteria applies to adults aged 50 to 80 who have at least a 20 PY smoking history and currently smoke or have quit within the past 15 years.

    “For individuals who currently are not eligible for lung cancer screening, a positive test may help to identify those possibly at risk for lung cancer death,” said co-corresponding author Edwin Ostrin, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of General Internal Medicine. “We envision this as a tool that could be deployed worldwide, as the future of early detection of this disease.”

    Lung cancer causes an estimated 25% of cancer deaths. Early detection improves prospects of survival, but most countries do not screen for it. Fewer than half of all U.S. cases are among people who are eligible under USPSTF guidelines.

    While the blood test could be implemented as a lab-developed test in the near future, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval likely would require evaluation through a prospective clinical trial.

    Hanash is an inventor on a patent application related to the blood test. A complete list of co-authors and their disclosures is included in the paper.

    This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute (U01CA194733, U01CA213285, U01CA200468, U24CA086368), the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas, Lyda Hill Philanthropies, and the Lung Cancer Moon Shot®, part of MD Anderson’s Moon Shots Program®.

    Read the full release on the MD Anderson Newsroom. 

     

    University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

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  • A new model allows us to see and understand human embryonic development like never before.

    A new model allows us to see and understand human embryonic development like never before.

    Newswise — Two to three weeks after conception, an embryo faces a critical point in its development. In the stage known as gastrulation, the transformation of embryonic cells into specialized cells begins. This initiates an explosion of cellular diversity in which the embryonic cells later become the precursors of future blood, tissue, muscle, and more types of cells, and the primitive body axes start to form. Studying this process in the human-specific context has posed significant challenges to biologists, but new research offers an unprecedented window into this point in time in human development.

    A recent strategy to combat these challenges is to model embryo development using stem cell technologies, with many valuable approaches emerging from research groups across the globe. But embryos don’t grow in isolation and most previous developmental models have lacked crucial supporting tissues for embryonic growth. A groundbreaking model that includes both embryonic and extraembryonic components will allow researchers to study how these two parts interact around gastrulation stages—providing a unique look at the molecular and cellular processes that occur, and offering potential new insights into why pregnancies can fail as well as the origins of congenital disorders. The team, including Berna Sozen, PhD, and Zachary Smith, PhD, both assistant professors of genetics at Yale School of Medicine (YSM), published its findings in Nature on [tk].

    “This work is extremely important as it provides an ethical approach to understand the earliest stages of human growth,” says Valentina Greco, PhD, the Carolyn Walch Slayman Professor of Genetics at YSM and incoming president-elect of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), who was not involved in the study. “This stem cell model provides an excellent alternative to start to understand aspects of our own early development that is normally hidden within the mother’s body.”

    “The Sozen and Smith groups have achieved a milestone in developing in vitro models to study the earliest stages of human development that are unfeasible yet so important for understanding health and disease,” says Haifan Lin, PhD, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Cell Biology, director of the Yale Stem Cell Center, and president of ISSCR. “I commend their exceptional accomplishment as well as their sensitivity to ethical issues by limiting the model’s ability to develop further”

    The ethical questions are profound, including whether these models have the potential to develop into human beings. Sozen, the principal investigator of the study, emphasizes that they do not. The published paper demonstrates that this model lacks trophectodermal cells, which are required for an embryo to implant in the uterus. Sozen says this model also represents a developmental stage beyond the time frame in which embryos can implant. “It is very important to focus on the fact that our model cannot grow further or implant and therefore is not considered a human embryo,” she says. But as a reductionist strategy to mimic and study aspects of natural development, its potential is immense, especially where universal guidelines severely limit scientists’ ability to study actual embryos.

    New Model Contains Embryonic and Extraembryonic Tissues

    All embryos have two components—embryonic and extraembryonic. The tissues we have now in our adult bodies grew from the embryonic component. The extraembryonic component includes the tissues that offer nutritional and other support, such as the placenta and yolk sac. The majority of previous embryo models of developmental stages around gastrulation were single-tissue models that only contained the embryonic component.

    In the new study, the Yale-led team grew embryonic stem cells in vitro in the lab to generate their new model. They transferred these cells into a 3D culture system and exposed them to a conditions which stimulated the cells to spontaneously self-organize and differentiate. The cells diverged into two lineages—embryonic and extraembryonic precursors. The extraembryonic cells in this model were precursors for the yolk sac. The researchers grew these cellular lineages in the culture for approximately one week and analyzed how they guided each other as they developed. “We started looking into very mechanistic details, such as what signals they are giving each other and how specific genes are impacting one another,” says Sozen. “This has been limited in the literature previously.”

    The Need for Models of Human Development

    While researchers have learned a great deal from embryos of other species such as mouse, the lack of accessibility to human embryos has left significant knowledge gaps about our development. “If you want to understand human development, you need to look at the human system,” says Sozen. “This work is really important because it’s giving us direct information about our own species.” Not only does this model give access into the human gastrulation window, but will also allow for a greater quantity of research. The ability to generate as many as thousands of these models will allow for mass analysis that is not possible with human embryos. “I’m one scientist with one vision,” says Sozen. “But thinking about what other scientists are envisioning globally and what we can all accomplish is just really, really exciting to me.”

    The new model has over 70% efficiency—in other words, the stem cells aggregate correctly over roughly 70% of the time. As noted by the authors, there are some limitations to the strategy, and it is challenging to benchmark some findings against the natural embryo itself. Sozen hopes to continue to work on the models so that they become more standardized in the future.

    The team believes the models will transform scientists’ knowledge around human developmental biology. In their latest publication, the team explored some of the molecular paths underlying human gastrulation onset. In future studies, they hope to delve even deeper into the developmental pathways, including whether pregnancy loss and congenital disorders may stem from failures during gastrulation stages. Sozen believes her model can be used to look at some of these disorders and learn more about what is going awry. “Previous model systems have been able to look at this, but our model is unique because it has this extra tissue that allows us to analyze a bit deeper,” she says.  

    Yale University

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  • Revealing the power of citizen science for SDG advancement

    Revealing the power of citizen science for SDG advancement

    Newswise — The 17 SDGs are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including climate change, environmental degradation, and inequality. The achievement of the SDGs depends on the ability to accurately measure progress towards meeting the associated targets based on timely, relevant, and reliable data. Citizen science offers an innovative approach to complement and enhance official statistics. Additionally, citizen science can help raise awareness, mobilize action, and therefore achieve transformative change. 

    The collection brings together academic papers that offer insights into the contributions of citizen science to the SDGs and other international frameworks. The call for abstracts for this collection attracted 40 submissions, from which 21 papers were reviewed and accepted for publication. 

    “The interest in contributing to this collection reflects the importance and popularity of Citizen Science,” notes Dilek Fraisl, a researcher in the Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability Research Group of the Advancing Systems Analysis Program, who is leading the collection. “We received high-quality submissions from a diverse community, including citizen science researchers and practitioners, National Statistical Offices (NSOs), and international organizations, from both the Global North and South.” 

    Core themes that run across the set of diverse papers include monitoring and data collection, and the transformative potential of citizen science. The collection also reflects on the progress achieved in the scientific literature and through practical implementation over the past few years. 

    An example of a paper showcasing the potential of citizen science for monitoring the SDGs is the paper by Proden et al (2023), to which Fraisl contributed together with Linda See, who is also associated with the Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability Research Group at IIASA. 

    “This paper focuses on the views and experiences of the official statistics community, including representatives from NSOs, on citizen science data, along with the opportunities and challenges that these data present,” explains See. “Despite the widely recognized value of citizen science for monitoring the SDGs, we have discovered a conspicuous lack of awareness with this approach among members of the official statistics community.” 

    The collection serves as a comprehensive compilation, gathering the latest research, findings, and practical recommendations from a diverse set of actors. Additionally, it explores the development of this emerging field of study, providing a roadmap for future research and proposing tangible actions. It is worth noting that, even after eight years of pursuing the SDGs, nearly half of the 92 environmental SDG indicators still lack data. The collection demonstrates that citizen science has vast untapped potential for driving progress towards achieving the SDGs and other international frameworks, highlighting its capacity for collaborative problem solving. 

    “With this collection, we call for stronger cooperation between all citizen science actors, and for the Citizen Science Global Partnership (CSGP), to help bridge the gap between the citizen science and official statistics communities and stakeholders. We urge the official statistics community to consider the inclusiveness and relevance of their practices and encourage funders to reassess their strategies, to go beyond short-term pilot studies, and to provide genuine financial support to citizen science initiatives focused on monitoring and achieving sustainable development,” concludes Fraisl. 

    Note: Citizen Science: Theory and Practice is an international peer-reviewed journal focused on impacts and effective practices associated with public participation in scientific endeavors in all disciplines and across the globe. This open-access journal is a publication of the Citizen Science Association.

     

    References

    Fraisl, D., See, L., Campbell, J., Andrianandrasana, H., Danielsen, F. (2023). Special Collection: Contributions of Citizen Science to the SDGs and International Development Frameworks. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice https://theoryandpractice.citizenscienceassociation.org/collections/contributions-of-citizen-science

    Fraisl, D., See, L., Campbell, J., Danielsen, F., Andrianandrasana H. (2023). Editorial: The Contributions of Citizen Science to the United Nationals Sustainable Development Goals and Other International Agreements and Frameworks. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/cstp.643

     

     

    About IIASA: 

    The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is an international scientific institute that conducts research into the critical issues of global environmental, economic, technological, and social change that we face in the twenty-first century. Our findings provide valuable options to policymakers to shape the future of our changing world. IIASA is independent and funded by prestigious research funding agencies in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe.

    International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

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  • This Self-Driving Boat Maps Underwater Terrain

    This Self-Driving Boat Maps Underwater Terrain

    Newswise — EL PASO, Texas (June 27, 2023) ­– Step aside self-driving cars, self-driving boats are here — and they can do more than take you on a cruise.

    Researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso have constructed a fully autonomous boat that can carry out bathymetric surveys — surveys of the depth and terrain of bodies of water like oceans, rivers and lakes. The team hopes the robotic boat can help simplify the survey process, which usually takes a crew of individuals to complete, as well as assist with reconnaissance missions.

    The boat and its capabilities are described in the May issue of the journal Sensors.

    “There are lots of reasons scientists carry out bathymetric surveys,” said Laura Alvarez, Ph.D., lead author of the study. “If you want to work in water-related studies, you need to know the shape and landscape of bodies of water. For example, you might want to map a reservoir to learn about water supply for electrical demand, or a river to learn about river evolution or flow patterns.”

    Alvarez, an assistant professor in UTEP’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Resource Sciences, specializes in unmanned systems for earth science. She started developing the boat several years ago but needed help tweaking and perfecting the system.

    That’s when she recruited science and electrical engineering master’s student Fernando Sotelo ‘22.

    “The first time we tested the boat was at the swimming pool at UTEP — just to make sure it could float,” laughed Fernando Sotelo, study co-author and now UTEP alumnus.

    Over the course of a year, Sotelo refined the aluminum watercraft, a 3-foot-by-3-foot circular craft that rests on a thick black inner tube, testing it in various environments like New Mexico’s Grindstone and Elephant Butte lakes. 

    His goals included extending the boat’s hours of operation and reliability; and making it fully autonomous and responsive to potential environmental issues like wind speed and temperature flux. Now, a failsafe can detect when batteries are low or wind gusts are too high and triggers a return-to-base function.

    The rudderless watercraft operates with four thrusters, allowing it to travel up to 5 feet per second and easily rotate 360-degrees. A solar panel and lithium battery allow the boat to last up to four hours at sea — covering an area up to 472,400 square feet.

    All the while a multibeam echosounder — a sonar system — emits sound waves from the bottom of the boat. Water depth can be calculated by the time it takes for the sound wave to water to hit the seafloor and return to the sonar system. The sound itself that returns to the device can help detect the type of material on the seafloor.

    To show proof of concept, the team successfully created 2D and 3D maps of portions of Ascarate Lake in El Paso, Texas and Grindstone Lake in Ruidoso, New Mexico.

    “My goal was to make the boat state-of-the-art and I think I did that. Of course, there’s always room to improve,” said Sotelo, who worked on the boat for his master’s thesis. “But the system works and for now, I hope it can make it easier for scientists like Dr. Alvarez to conduct their research.”

    Alvarez will put the boat to use for the first time this summer to study the Rio Grande River’s flow and depth.

    She adds that the instructions to replicate the boat are online in their latest Sensors publication.

    “The reason we wrote the paper was so that anyone can reproduce it by themselves,” Alvarez said. “It serves as an effective guideline to get them started.”

     

    About The University of Texas at El Paso 

    The University of Texas at El Paso is America’s leading Hispanic-serving University. Located at the westernmost tip of Texas, where three states and two countries converge along the Rio Grande, 84% of our 24,000 students are Hispanic, and half are the first in their families to go to college. UTEP offers 169 bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs at the only open-access, top-tier research university in America.

    University of Texas at El Paso

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  • New Research by Sylvester Cancer Shows Unmet Support Needs Can Lead to Worse Clinical Outcomes

    New Research by Sylvester Cancer Shows Unmet Support Needs Can Lead to Worse Clinical Outcomes

    Newswise — MIAMI, FLORIDA (June 27, 2023) – Cancer patients with unmet supportive care needs are more likely to experience worse clinical outcomes, including more emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations, according to new research from Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

    The study, published June 21 in JAMA Network Open, also found that Black race, Hispanic ethnicity and factors such as anxiety, depression, pain, poor physical function and low health-related quality-of-life scores were associated with greater number of unmet needs, leading to increased risk for ED visits and hospitalizations.

    This retrospective analysis involved 5,236 patients treated at Sylvester’s various ambulatory cancer sites who used its My Wellness Check, an electronic health record-based system, that monitors patients’ emotional, physical and psychosocial needs.

    “This study, to our knowledge, is the most comprehensive assessment to date that links unmet supportive care needs to ED visits and hospitalizations among ambulatory oncology patients,” said Frank J. Penedo, PhD, Sylvester’s associate director for Cancer Survivorship and Translational Behavioral Sciences and corresponding author of the research. “It included a very diverse group of patients treated at our various cancer clinic locations and across multiple phases of the cancer care continuum.”

    Other key takeaways from this study included:

    • 940 or 18% of patients reported one or more unmet supportive care needs, with about a third of them noting two or more unmet needs.
    • Almost one quarter of patients with unmet support needs had ED visits, compared with 14% for those without unmet needs.
    • For hospitalizations, the differences were 23% and 14%, respectively.
    • Support for coping with cancer and financial concerns were the most reported unmet needs, followed by general cancer education and information.
    • Diverse representation with Hispanics comprising almost 48% of study patients while other racial groups included Blacks, Caucasians, Asians, American Indians, Native Alaskans, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders.

    “Our findings offer strong evidence that unmet supportive care needs are associated with unfavorable clinical outcomes, particularly higher risk for ED visits and hospitalizations,” Penedo said. “Addressing these unmet needs is crucial to improve clinical outcomes and particularly in racial and ethnic minority populations where the needs are greatest.”

    Authors

    The complete list of authors is noted in the research article.

    Funding

    This study was funded in part by grant P30 CA240139 from the National Cancer Institute. Sara Fleszar-Pavlovic, PhD, is funded by The Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Institution Research Training Grant (T32; 5T32CA251064-03) in Cancer Training in Disparities and Equity (C-TIDE).

    Conflicts of Interest Disclosure

    Penedo reported receiving personal fees from BlueNote Therapeutics outside the submitted work. No other disclosures were reported.

    DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.19352

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    Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center

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  • Study estimates that gray whales near Oregon Coast ingest millions of tiny particles daily through their diet and feces.

    Study estimates that gray whales near Oregon Coast ingest millions of tiny particles daily through their diet and feces.

    Newswise — CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University researchers estimate that gray whales feeding off the Oregon Coast consume up to 21 million microparticles per day, a finding informed in part by poop from the whales.

    Microparticle pollution includes microplastics and other human-sourced materials, including fibers from clothing. The finding, just published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, is important because these particles are increasing exponentially and predicted to continue doing so in the coming decades, according to researchers Leigh Torres and Susanne Brander.

    Microparticle pollution is a threat to the health of gray whales, in addition to obstacles related to increased boat traffic and loss of prey.

    “These are quite scary numbers,” said Leigh Torres, an associate professor at Oregon State and an author of the paper. “I think they should raise concern for people who care about the marine environment or about their own environment and exposure to microplastics.

    “Little by little we are all getting exposed to more and more microplastics. That’s inescapable at this point across all ecosystems, including right off our coast here in Oregon.”

    Susanne Brander, an associate professor and ecotoxicologist at Oregon State and co-author of the study, said the findings reinforce the need to curb the release of microparticles because of the adverse impacts they have on organisms and ecosystems.

    “This issue is gaining momentum globally and some states, such as California, have taken important steps,” Brander said. “But more action needs to be taken, including here in Oregon, because this problem is not going away anytime soon.”

    The study focused on a subgroup of about 230 gray whales known as the Pacific Coast Feeding Group. They spend winters in Baja California, Mexico and migrate north to forage in coastal habitats from northern California to southern British Columbia from June through November.

    Since 2015, Torres, who leads the Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna Laboratory in the OSU Marine Mammal Institute, and her team, including doctoral student Lisa Hildebrand, have used drones and other tools to study the health and behavior of this subgroup of gray whales off the Oregon Coast. As part of this work, they collect poop samples from the gray whales.

    For the new study, the researchers collected zooplankton, which are an important food supply for gray whales, and commercial and recreational fish.

     

    “We had determined the caloric content of several zooplankton species, so next we wanted to know what their microparticle loads might be to get a more complete picture of the quality of these prey items,” Hildebrand said.

    Brander, Hildebrand and members of Brander’s Ecotoxicology and Environmental Stress Lab analyzed the microparticle loads in 26 zooplankton samples collected from whale feeding areas and found microparticles in all of them. A total of 418 suspected microparticles were identified, with fibers accounting for more than 50% of them.

    Torres and Hildebrand then combined that data with known estimates of energetic requirements for lactating and pregnant female gray whales to quantify how many zooplankton and microparticles they consume in a day. That yielded estimates that lactating and pregnant whales consume between 6.5 million and 21 million microparticles per day.

    “It’s a wake-up call that whales are getting that much microplastic from what they eat,” Torres said. “It’s likely that humans are also getting a lot of microplastics from our own fish diet.”

    Torres notes that the microparticle consumption estimates are likely conservative because they only account for what the whales consume from zooplankton.

    Gray whales likely ingest more microparticles directly from the water and seafloor sediment because they are filter feeders that engulf large amounts of water while consuming prey and also use suction feeding to obtain prey from the seafloor.

    Analysis of the poop samples provided a window to what kind of microparticles these gray whales were digesting. The researchers analyzed five poop samples and found microparticles in all of them. Similar to zooplankton, the majority of the microparticles were fiber.

    The researchers also found that the microparticles in the poop were significantly larger than those found in the zooplankton, leading them to believe the larger particles came from the water or sediment, not the prey (too small to consume these larger particles).

    The findings raise concerns for Torres, whose past research has shown that this subgroup of gray whales is skinnier than other groups of gray whales.

    “These whales are already stressed out with boats driving around all the time and the risk of getting hit by one of those boats,” she said. “They might also have less prey around because of changes in the environment, like less kelp. And now the quality of the prey might be poor because of these high microplastic loads.”

    Brander and Torres are continuing their investigations by studying the effects of microfibers on zooplankton that are an important food source for whales and fish in Oregon waters.

    “That all can lead to being poorly nourished and having poor health,” Torres said, “That can lead to stunted growth, smaller body size, lower ability to have calves and animals not using this habitat anymore. All of those are areas of significant concern.”

    Other authors of the paper are Julia Parker, Elissa Bloom, Robyn Norman, Jennifer Van Brocklin and Katherine Lasdin. They are all from Oregon State and in the colleges of Agricultural Sciences, Engineering and Science. Brander is also affiliated with Oregon State’s Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport.

    Oregon State University

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  • Study raises doubts about the effectiveness of controlling sagebrush to protect sage grouse.

    Study raises doubts about the effectiveness of controlling sagebrush to protect sage grouse.

    Newswise — Efforts to improve sage grouse habitat through conventional management practices may be ineffective — and even counterproductive — according to research by University of Wyoming and other scientists.

    Sagebrush reduction strategies, including mowing and herbicide application, are often employed to enhance habitat for the greater sage grouse and other sagebrush-dependent species. The theory is that clearing large sagebrush shrubs improves food sources in sage grouse nesting and brood-rearing habitats by allowing other, more nutritious vegetation to grow with less competition. This, in turn, should increase invertebrate populations, another food source for sage grouse.

    But a new paper published in the journal Wildlife Monographs suggests these methods may be misguided.

    In a nine-year experimental study, researchers examined how sage grouse populations in central Wyoming responded to mowing and applying the herbicide tebuthiuron to Wyoming big sagebrush. According to their data, these treatments did not benefit the birds.

    “Some managers think, ‘Treating sagebrush for wildlife is how it’s supposed to work, and we’ll keep doing it,’” says Jeff Beck, a UW professor of ecosystem science and management and principal investigator for the study. “Hopefully, this will get people to start thinking, ‘If we’re going to spend money to improve habitat, we’ve got to find some other ideas.’”

    Beck’s co-authors include Kurt Smith, a former UW Ph.D. student who is now an ecologist with Western EcoSystems Technology; Jason LeVan, a former UW M.S. student who is now a range and wildlife conservationist for Pheasants Forever; Anna Chalfoun, a UW associate professor and assistant unit leader of the U.S. Geological Survey Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit; Stanley Harter, a wildlife biologist with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department; Thomas Christiansen, a retired Wyoming Game and Fish Department sage grouse program coordinator; and Sue Oberlie, a retired Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wildlife biologist.

    The researchers tracked behaviors and survival rates of more than 600 female greater sage grouse in response to mowing and tebuthiuron application. They also monitored effects on invertebrate populations, sagebrush and herbaceous vegetation. Throughout the study, responses were compared to untreated plots near the treated areas as well as off-site control plots.

    Pretreatment data were collected from 2011-13; mowing and tebuthiuron applications were implemented in winter and spring 2014.

    After six years (2014-19) of post-treatment monitoring, Beck and his colleagues determined that sage grouse responses to treatment were neutral at best.

    “Neither mowing nor tebuthiuron treatments influenced nest success, brood success or female survival,” they reported.

    Furthermore, treatments used to reduce Wyoming big sagebrush coverage resulted in slight avoidance by sage grouse.

    Invertebrates and herbaceous vegetation also did not respond positively to reduction of Wyoming big sagebrush, indicating treatments did not improve the quantity and quality of sage grouse food sources. 

    Instead, reduction of Wyoming big sagebrush cover may negatively impact sage grouse and other species that use sagebrush shrubs to nest and seek refuge from predators, the researchers suggest.

    They predict that expanding experimental treatments to larger areas may reveal greater negative effects of Wyoming big sagebrush reduction on sage grouse populations.

    “Management practices that focus on the maintenance of large, undisturbed tracts of sagebrush will best facilitate the persistence of sage grouse populations and other species reliant on the sagebrush steppe,” they wrote.

    Their results are consistent with many other studies suggesting that controlling Wyoming big sagebrush negatively impacts wildlife. However, they caution, their findings should not be generalized to other sagebrush species and subspecies, such as mountain big sagebrush.

    Rather than removing Wyoming big sagebrush, Beck says, conservation strategies should focus on removing encroaching pinyon and juniper and invasive species such as cheatgrass. These types of vegetation alter the sagebrush ecosystem and influence fire cycles, potentially damaging sage grouse habitat.

    Enhancing wet areas in sagebrush habitats is another promising strategy for improving the quality of sage grouse brood-rearing habitat, he notes.

     

    This research was supported by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Wyoming Sage-grouse Conservation Fund; the Bates Hole, Big Horn Basin, South-Central, Southwest and Wind River/Sweetwater River local sage grouse working groups; the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust; the BLM’s Lander field office; the Margaret and Sam Kelly Ornithological Research Fund; and the Wyoming Reclamation and Restoration Center’s graduate assistantship program.

     

    University of Wyoming

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  • Laughter: The Ultimate Medicine

    Laughter: The Ultimate Medicine

    Laughter and humour are potent tools that can significantly impact our wellbeing, according to research conducted by the University of Warwick.

    University of Warwick

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  • Endometrial Cancer Risk and Trends Among Distinct African-Descent Populations

    Endometrial Cancer Risk and Trends Among Distinct African-Descent Populations

    Newswise — MIAMI, FLORIDA (EMBARGOED UNTIL 3:01 AM ET Monday, June 26, 2023) – Current evidence indicates Black women in the U.S. are at greater risk of developing advanced uterine cancer, also known as endometrial cancer, and of developing its more aggressive form – non-endometroid cancer – than white women.

    But research to date has mostly studied Black women as a homogenous group, and there is limited data about specific African-descent subpopulations worldwide. That is until now.

    A new study by researchers with Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine compared both the overall incidence and trends for endometrial cancer between African-descent women in the U.S. (Florida) and the French Caribbean, specifically the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, where most residents are Black or mixed-Black and quality health data is available.

    Their study, which appears today in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, found that endometrial cancer rates are related to factors beyond ancestry, including social determinants of health such as diet, psychosocial and physiological chronic stress and neighborhood/built environmental factors, among others.

    “We need to disentangle the endometrial cancer disparities among Black women by focusing more on subpopulations, specifically on differences between countries and their associated socioeconomic factors while concentrating on patterns for the deadlier non-endometrioid subtype,” said Heidy N. Medina, PhD, MPH, researcher with UM’s Miller School of Medicine and the study’s corresponding author.

    As of 2022, endometrial cancer was the fourth most common cancer for U.S. Black women with one of every 10 newly diagnosed cases being a woman of African descent, the authors noted. Black women experience a higher incidence than white women in the U.S. and their rates are rising more rapidly.

    Medina and collaborators, including Frank Penedo, PhD, Sylvester’s associate director for Cancer Survivorship and Translational Behavioral Sciences, Tulay Koru-Sengul, PhD, Matthew P. Schlumbrecht, MD, MPH, and senior author Paulo S. Pinheiro, MD, PhD, analyzed data on almost 35,000 endometrial cancer cases from Florida and the French Caribbean from 2005 to 2018 for this study. Key findings included:

    • Black women in the U.S. had a higher incidence of endometrial cancer and its more aggressive non-endometrioid subtype than did U.S. white women, consistent with current evidence.
    • Surprisingly, French Caribbean women had the lowest incidence for both endometrioid and non-endometrioid subtypes.
    • Endometrioid uterine cancer increased 1.8% yearly for U.S. Black women and 1.2% for U.S. white women during the timeframe, with no change observed for French Caribbean women.
    • Rates of the more lethal non-endometrioid cancer subtype increased among all groups, with the greatest increase occurring among U.S. Black women.

    “Our study supports current evidence that Black women in the U.S. are disproportionately affected by endometrial cancer, but also highlights key differences among African-descent subpopulations that should not be overlooked,” Penedo explained. “These differences among Black women in different regions of the world are partly due to social factors and not solely related to genetic factors.”

    Dr. Pinheiro, a Sylvester cancer epidemiologist, agreed. “This research shows cancer trends for U.S. Black women cannot be generalized to other African-descent populations worldwide where limited data exists,” he said. “The study underscores the importance of improving data collection in specific regions to better assess cancer risks for different population groups.”

    Next steps, the researchers noted, are to examine differences between the majority African-descent populations of the French Caribbean to that of the predominantly white French mainland in collaboration with our colleagues in the Université des Antilles, Clarisse Joachim, MD, PhD and Jacqueline Deloumeaux, MD, PhD, to better pinpoint existing disparities.

    “Additionally, we must pay particular attention to investigate risk factors for the more aggressive non-endometrioid subtype that is rising among all three groups in our current research,” Medina concluded.

    Authors

    The complete list of authors is noted with the research article.

     

    Funding

    Supplemental funding was provided by Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. This research was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health, grant P30CA240139 to Paulo S. Pinheiro. The project was also supported by grant R25CA11283 from the National Cancer Institute. Funding was also received from the Florida Education Fund McKnight Doctoral Fellowship to Heidy N. Medina.

     

    Potential Conflicts of Interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

    DOI: 10.1002/cncr.34789

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    PHOTO CAPTION/CREDIT:

    “We need to disentangle the endometrial cancer disparities among Black women by focusing more on subpopulations, specifically on differences between countries and their associated socioeconomic factors while concentrating on patterns for the deadlier non-endometrioid subtype,” said Heidy N. Medina, PhD, MPH, the study’s corresponding author. Photo by  Sylvester.

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    Twitter: @drheidymedina @DrFrankJPenedo @MatthewSchlumb1 @SylvesterCancer

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    (EMBARGOED UNTIL 3:01 AM ET Monday, June 26, 2023)

    Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center

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  • توصلت أبحاث Mayo Clinic أن من يعانون من السُمنة المفرطة وأحد المتغيرات الجينية، عرضة أكثر للإصابة بارتفاع ضغط الدم

    توصلت أبحاث Mayo Clinic أن من يعانون من السُمنة المفرطة وأحد المتغيرات الجينية، عرضة أكثر للإصابة بارتفاع ضغط الدم

    Newswise — روتشستر ، مينيسوتا – تعتبر السمنة وما يرتبط بها من مشاكل في القلب والأوعية الدموية مصدر قلق كبير في جميع أنحاء العالم. وجدت دراسة أجرتها Mayo Clinic أن الأشخاص الذين يعانون من السمنة ولديهم متغير جيني معين معرضون بشكل متزايد لخطر الإصابة بارتفاع ضغط الدم. 

    مع السمنة ، يزداد خطر الإصابة بأمراض القلب والأوعية الدموية ، والتي تشمل السكتة الدماغية وفشل القلب الاحتقاني واحتشاء عضلة القلب. السمنة مرض متعدد العوامل ينتج عن اختلال توازن الطاقة. السمنة عامل خطر قابل للتعديل لأمراض القلب والأوعية الدموية. 

    وضحت ليزيث سيفينتس، دكتور في الطب “الباحثة في علم الجهاز الهضمي في Mayo Clinic “يتم التحكم في وزن الجسم من خلال مجموعة معقدة ومتعددة من التفاعلات بين العوامل الوراثية والعوامل البيئية. “تتراوح احتمالية الإصابة بالسُمنة الوراثية بين 40% إلى 70%، ولكن فقط 10% من حالات السُمنة المفرطة المبكرة تحدث بسبب جيني.” 

    تلك المتغيرات هي نتيجة لحدوث طفرات متنحية في الجينات المسؤولة عن مسار الليبتين والميلانوكورتين، وهو المسار المسؤول عن تنظيم تناول الطعام ووزن الجسم. وتعد هذه التغيرات الجينية الأكثر انتشارًا، حيث لوحظ وجودها في 6% من الأطفال و2.5% من البالغين الذي يعانون من السُمنة المفرطة المبكرة. 

    وفي برنامج الطب الدقيق للسُمنة التابع لـ Mayo Clinic، أرادت د. سيفينتس وزملاؤها دراسة الاختلافات بين عوامل الخطر للمرض القلبي الوعائي وبين الأمراض التي تصيب من يعانون من السُمنة المفرطة، سواءً كان لديهم المتغير الجيني أو لم يكن. ووضحت “بفهم تأثير هذه المتغيرات على صحة القلب والأوعية الدموية يمكننا مساعدة الأطباء لعلاج عوامل الخطر القابلة للتعديل في مرضى السُمنة المفرطة.” 

    لتحقيق ذلك، قام الباحثون بعمل دراسة مستعرضة على المشاركين في البنك الحيوي التابع لـ Mayo Clinic ممن يعانون من سمنة مفرطة. تم تعريف السمنة المفرطة على أنها زيادة مؤشر كتلة الجسم عن 40، أو الحاجة إلى إجراء جراحة علاج السُمنة بعد ثبوت وجود متغير جيني في مسار الليبتين والميلانوكورتين للمريض. يتكون الينك الحيوي التابع لـ Mayo Clinic من مجموعة من العينات الطبية والتي تشمل عينات الدم ومشتقاته، والمعلومات الطبية التي تبرع بها مرضى Mayo Clinic لاستخدامها في الأبحاث الطبية المستمرة. 

    تم تحديد 168 حامل للمتغير الجيني MC4R. ووجد الباحثون في مايو كلينك أن الحاملين لهذا المتغير كانوا أكثر عرضة للإصابة بارتفاع ضغط الدم، كما كان لديهم عدد أكبر من عوامل الخطر لأمراض القلب والأوعية الدموية مقارنة بغير الحاملين للمتغير الجيني وعددهم 2039. ووضح د. أندريس أكوستا، دكتور في الطب، الباحث الرئيسي في معمل الطب الدقيق للسُمنة “لم يؤثر العمر أو الجنس أو مؤشر كتلة الجسم -وكلها عوامل خطر لأمراض القلب والأوعية الدموية- على النتائج، وتوصلنا في النهاية إلى أن الحاملين للمتغير الجيني أكثر عرضة للإصابة بارتفاع ضغط الدم”. 

    مع ذلك، وتبعًا للنتائج، فالحاملين للمتغير الجيني MC4R ليسو أكثر عرضة للإصابة بالمرض القلبي الوعائي أو للوفاة، تبعًا للنتائج التي عُرضت في إحدى أبحاث مجلة “مايو كلينيك بروسيدنجز – Mayo Clinic Proceedings”. استكمل د. أكوستا، كبير الباحثين، قائلًا: “توقعنا وجود زيادة أكبر في ارتفاع ضغط الدم، لأن زيادة الوزن تنبئ بالإصابة بارتفاع ضغط الدم”. 

    وأعربت د. سيفينتس عن تفاجؤ الباحثين من عدم وجود علاقة ثابتة مع المرض القلبي الوعائي. ووضحت ” نظرًا لمدى تعقيد مسببات المرض القلبي الوعائي، فببساطة قد يكون هناك قدر ضخم من البيانات التي لم يتم قياسها في تحليلاتنا”. 

    تكمن أهمية هذا البحث بالنسبة للأطباء في إدراك أن مرضى السُمنة الذين أظهر تنميطهم الوراثي وجود متغيرات متباينة الزيجوت في مسار اللبتين والميلانوكورتين قد لا يكونون محميين من ارتفاع ضغط الدم كما كان يعتقد سابقًا. ووضحت د. سيفينتس “يحتاج هؤلاء المرضى إلى مزيد من الاهتمام بعوامل الخطر القابلة للتعديل لارتفاع ضغط الدم، بما فيها أنواع العلاج الفردية للسُمنة”. 

    قد يصاب الأفراد الحاملين للمتغير الجيني بالسُمنة منذ الطفولة، لكن لم يتم توثيق الفترة الزمنية في الورقة التي قدمها الباحثون في Mayo Clinic. نحتاج إلى أبحاث أخرى لتحديد مخاطر الإصابة طويلة المدى للسمنة وللمرض القلبي الوعائي في الحاملين للمتغير الجيني. 

    من بين قيود هذا البحث أن 90% من المشاركين في بنك الحيوي لـ Mayo Clinic من البيض، لذا لا يمكننا تعميم نتائج هذا البحث على الأعراق الأخرى. 

    تلقى بحث د. أكوستا الدعم من المعاهد الوطنية للصحة، ومن البنك الحيوي التابع لـ Mayo Clinic، وشركة Rhythm لدراسة الأنماط الجينية. لم يتم الإعلان عن أي تضارب في المصالح. يقدم مركز Mayo Clinic للطب الفردي الدعم للبنك الحيوي لـ Mayo Clinic. 

    يمكنكم الرجوع إلى الورقة البحثية للتعرف على القائمة الكاملة للمؤلفين، والتمويل وتضارب المصالح، والإفصاحات. 

    لمزيد من المعلومات، يمكنك الرجوع إلى مدونة مركز Mayo Clinic للطب الفردي.  

    ###   

     نبذة عن مايو كلينك للرعاية الصحية   مايو كلينك للرعاية الصحية، الموجودة في لندن، هي شركة فرعية مملوكة بالكامل لمؤسسة مايو كلينك، وهو مركز طبي أكاديمي غير هادف للربح. تُصنَّف مايو كلينك في المرتبة الأولى بين المستشفيات وفقًا لتقرير يو إس نيوز آند وورد ريبورت بسبب: جودة الرعاية. مايو كلينك للرعاية الصحية هي المدخل الرئيسي في المملكة المتحدة لتلك التجربة التي لا مثيل لها. تفضل بزيارة مايو كلينك للرعاية الصحية لمزيد من المعلومات.   

    Mayo Clinic

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  • The expanded Child Tax Credit led to improved health and nutrition among adults

    The expanded Child Tax Credit led to improved health and nutrition among adults

    EMBARGOED FOR USE UNTIL:

    1:30 p.m. (EDT) on June 24, 2023

    Newswise — Monthly cash payments to eligible families under the temporary pandemic-era expansion of the federal Child Tax Credit led to better adult health and food security, new UCLA-led research suggests.

    The policy, which expired at the end of 2021, has not been renewed due to concerns among legislators over the credit being overly generous, particularly to lower-income families with limited tax liability, and the lack of an associated work requirement. The findings, to be published June 24 in JAMA Health Forum, could inform the debate over the policy’s future, said Dr. Jordan Rook, a fellow in the National Clinician Scholars Program at UCLA and the study’s lead author.

    “Cash transfer programs like the 2021 Child Tax Credit expansion may be powerful tools in improving the health, wellbeing, and nutrition of families,” said Rook, who is also a general surgery resident at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.  “Evidence like this can help guide the public, the media, and politicians as they advocate for and debate the policy’s future.

    Currently about one in six U.S. families with children lives in poverty, leading to poorer health and shorter life expectancy, according to the research team.

    Prior to the pandemic, the Child Tax Credit provided up to $2,000 per child ages 16 or younger for families with eligible incomes. Under the pandemic-era American Rescue Plan signed into law on March 11, 2021, the credit increased to $3,600 per child ages five or younger, and $3,000 per child ages 6 to 17. Families were eligible to receive half of this amount in the form of monthly checks, which each month were worth between $250 to $300 per child. The credit was fully refundable, meaning that all low-income families with children were eligible to receive the entire credit, regardless of their work status or income.

    These monthly payments reduced poverty by 40% in households with children, according to the researchers. But the policy, a temporary measure to assist families during the pandemic, expired on December 31, 2021.

    The researchers used data taken from about 39,500 respondents to the National Health Interview Survey from January 2019 to December 2021. They found that prior to initiation of the monthly payments, 60% of credit-eligible adults reported excellent or very good health and 88% reported having food security– that is, access to sufficient food to meet normal dietary needs. Among ineligible adults, 55% said they had excellent or very good health and 89% reported food security.

    They then used a study design known as a “difference-in-differences” technique to compare changes in health and food security between credit-eligible families and credit-ineligible families to estimate the impact of the Child Tax Credit monthly payments. Based on this technique, they estimate that following the start of the payments, eligible adults were 3 percentage points more likely to report excellent or very good health and 1.9 percentage points more likely to report food security than ineligible adults.

    “Assuming the conservative estimate of one adult per household, this represents improved health for 1.08 million adults, and newfound food security for 684,000 households,” Rook said. “These changes potentially represent important gains in health and nutrition for hundreds of thousands of US families because of this pandemic-era policy.”

    The study has some limitations, among them the possibility that job losses and expansions to other social programs such as unemployment and SNAP during the pandemic might have affected the findings.

    Additional study authors are Dr. Cecile Yama, Dr. Adam Schickedanz, Dr. Steven Lee, and Lauren Wisk of UCLA; and Dr. Alec Feuerbach of SUNY Downstate /Kings County.

    The study was funded by the VA Office of Academic Affiliations and the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, both through the National Clinician Scholars Program Fellowship; the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (K01 DK116932 and R03 DK132439); the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (K23HD099308); and the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (UA6MC32492, the Life Course Intervention Research Network). The contents do not represent the views of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States Government.

    University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences

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  • Researchers uncover head and neck cancer signaling pathway

    Researchers uncover head and neck cancer signaling pathway

    Newswise — (Boston)—Despite advances in defining the genomic characteristics of head and neck cancers, these malignancies continue to rank among the deadliest cancers with few targeted therapies available. An important challenge in designing effective treatments is intratumor heterogeneity, the presence of multiple subpopulations of cells with distinct genomic and molecular alterations, with some cells inherently more resistant to certain treatments.

    A new study from researchers at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine applied advanced bioinformatics and machine learning approaches to the analysis of large multi-omics head and neck cancer datasets and found activation of mTORC1 by b-catenin/CBP as an upstream driver of the malignancy-associated partial epithelial-mesenchymal transition (p-EMT) phenotype.

    EMT is a biological process that plays a crucial role in embryonic development, tissue repairand various disease processes, including cancer. In cancer, EMT refers to the conversion of epithelial cells, which are typically found in the outer layers of organs and have strong cell-cell adhesion, into mesenchymal cells, which are more migratory and invasive.

    “This is of particular interest because both mTORC1 and b-cateninare important cancer hallmarks and p-EMT is a cellular process that is an early predictor of nodal metastasis, in which epithelial cells manifest characteristics of mesenchymal cells but do not fully undergo the complete transition,” explained co-corresponding author Stefano Monti, PhD, associate professor of medicine at the School of Medicine.

    According to the researchers, the study aimed to better characterize oral tumor heterogeneity including the aggressive cell subpopulations more likely to drive the early steps in cancer progression and invasiveness, with the ultimate goal of identifying candidate vulnerabilities that could be targeted therapeutically. “Understanding and addressing the diverse characteristics within tumors can help optimize therapeutic strategies, improve treatment outcomes and ultimately enhance patient survival rates,” said Monti.

    This collaborative multi-disciplinary study applied novel computational methods to the analysis of single cell data from primary oral cancer lesions. Findings were first validated in independent multi-omics datasets, including The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE), then further validated through functional molecular and pharmacologic perturbations using cell line-based experiments, as well as through pharmacologic perturbation experiments in experimental models.

    The study’s findings are of particularly timely significance, given the increasing evidence pointing to a crucial role of cells with a p-EMT phenotype in tumor progression to advanced disease and provide new information about additional therapeutic targets for this malignancy. In particular, the study’s findings point to the potential of β-catenin/CBP inhibition as a promising head and neck cancer treatment that distinctly targets more aggressive cells with elevated β catenin/CBP activity.

    While this study’s findings focus on head and neck cancer of the oral cavity, the researchers believe they are likely to be relevant to other cancer types, especially those that arise from mucosal tissues that line respiratory, gastrointestinal and genital tracts.

    The co-corresponding authors on this study are BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine researchers Maria A. Kukuruzinska, PhD, professor of molecular & cell biology; Xaralabos G. Varelas, PhD, professor of biochemistry & cell biology and Eric Reed, PhD, from Tufts University.

    These findings appear online in the journal Translational Research.

    Funding for this study was supported by NIH grants 5 R01 DE030350 (MAK, SM, XV), R01 DE030350 S1 (SM), R01 DE031831 (SM), R01 DE031413 (MVB), ACS Research Scholar Award RSG-17-138-01-CSM (XV), and Eisai Co., Ltd Research Award (MAK).

    Boston University School of Medicine

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