BioQuakes

AP Biology class blog for discussing current research in Biology

Tag: research (Page 4 of 4)

Dying Brain cells signal new brain cells to grow in songbird

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On September 25, 2014

In Student Post

BIRD

 

Original article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140923182051.htm

In a recent paper written by leading author Tracy Larson and co-authors Nivretta Thatra and Brian Lee, they discovered a brain pathway that replaces brain cells lost naturally. This study could further the progress of using replacement cells for the neurons lost during aging, Alzheimer’s Disease, and other natural causes.

These scientists used songbirds, specifically Gambel’s white-crowned sparrows, as a model and observed that the area of their brain that controls song increases during breeding season, and decreases during other times in the year. After breeding season the cells in the area of the bird’s brain that controls songs undergoes programmed cell death. What is noteworthy about these dying cells is that they are also releasing a signal that reaches certain stem cells in the brain that will eventually redevelop the singing part of the brain by the time the next breeding season arrives. This process of developing new neurons from stem cells called neurogenesis normally occurs in the form of “regenerative” neurogenesis post brain trauma in mammals; however, it also occurs in the hippocampus in small amounts.

These songbirds could provide insight on how the human brain can perform natural neurogenesis and help replace neurons lost because of aging and neurodegenerative diseases. These finding may pave the way to alternative treatment for repairing human brains using neurogenesis and replacement cells.

The Ebola Epidemic: When Will it End?

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On September 25, 2014

In Student Post

Ebola Virus

The Ebola epidemic in West Africa has captivated international audiences the last few weeks.  Ebola Virus Disease is an often fatal disease which is systemic meaning it attacks all organs and tissue in the body. It can be spread through any human to human contact, making this disease highly contagious. The countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea have been heavily affected by this disease. On tuesday September 23th the Center for Disease Control (CDC) based in Atlanta Georgia released new projections on the Ebola epidemic in Africa based on computer modeling.  The CDC released a best-case scenario being that if proper measures are taken the disease could be eradicated by January 2nd and a worse-case scenario that if disease is left unmonitored and continues as is, there will be approximately 1.4 million cases by January 2nd.   Doctor Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the Ebola epidemic, has stated that since the data was received in August conditions have improved slightly due to increased aid to the affected regions. Another report was released by the World Health Organization (WHO) which stated more conservative figures but also acknowledged that there could possibly be more due to unreported cases. The WHO report brings about the idea that the epidemic may not end and the Ebola virus will perpetuate in West Africa. It is obvious to health officials, such as Dr. Jack Chow, that even in a medium case scenario the amount of hospital beds and aid are rapidly being surpassed by the number of cases. The CDC does acknowledge this impending lack of bed and isolation unit crisis. One solution to this problem is to educate citizens on home care and send home care packages to support this movement.  Although some are dubious, Frieden states that home care had been effective in the smallpox crisis in the 1960s in Africa.  In addition to homecare, Doctor D. A. Henderson explains that funds and food play a huge roll in the containment and elimination of disease because when you give victims money and food there is no need for them to beg or go out to the market for food where they might encounter other human contact. How should this epidemic be handled? Is homecare an effective solution? Where should money be allocated, homecare or hospital expansion?

 

Link to Article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/24/health/ebola-cases-could-reach-14-million-in-4-months-cdc-estimates.html?ref=health&_r=1

 

Sensing neuronal activity with light

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On September 24, 2014

In Student Post

neurons

Researches have recently developed a tool that may help in mapping the neural networks of living organisms using light. Observing these electrical signals of neurons can lead to numerous advancements in our understanding of neural circuitry.

In a collaborative study between Viviana Gradinaru, Frances Arnold and Barbara Dickinson, they developed a method to sense neuronal activity with light. These researchers used a protein named Archaerhodopsin (Arch) and exploited its light responsive qualities. They were able to optimize Arch through a process known as directed evolution. Using this method they created a variant of the Arch protein, called archer1 that acted as a voltage sensor under a red light and an inhibitor under a green light, while generating a light intensive enough to detect. When this protein acts as a voltage sensor it can show which neurons are active and synaptically connected and which aren’t under certain stimuli.

These researchers were able to test Archer1 in the worm C. elegans, which was chosen for its near transparent tissue that made it ideal for observing the luminescent protein. This was the first place they were able to observe the circuits of the neurons light up if they were expressed and dim down if they were repressed. For future studies they hope to make Archer1 bright enough to be detected through opaque tissue and accurate enough to detect voltage changed in more complex, behaving mammals. This study can prove to help us in our understanding of neural networks.

Original papers:

http://www.pnas.org/content/111/36/13034

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140915/ncomms5894/full/ncomms5894.html  (You can only read abstracts; you have to pay to read the full text)

What We Can’t See Is Just As Important As What We Can!

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On September 26, 2013

In Student Post

Taken by Ron Lute http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en

Taken by Ron Lute
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en

Many students of biology know that life comes in all shapes and sizes, and even though we can’t see some organisms, they are most certainly present.  If you don’t know this, and you are a biology student, you might want to go back and read the first chapter of your textbooks to learn a big chunk of information that will come around in either next week’s test or your midterm.  For now, you’ve already come this far, so you can just learn the basics later.

As it turns out, some of those little organisms, located just under the soil’s surface,  are vital to the health and safety of the the plant-life they surround.  In an effort to raise awareness of the many effects a microbiome can have on plant performance, Marnie Rout (University of North Texas Health Science Center) and Darlene Southworth (Southern Oregon University) brought together a series of works by different authors on the subject, all placed in a special section of the American Journal of Botany called “Rhizosphere Interactions: The Root Microbiome.”  As a basic understanding of the concept, the rhizosphere is the layer of soil around a plant root.  It contains microbes that affect the plant on basically every scale, from the genes to the ecosystem.  It’s important to note that the microbiome works through the rhizosphere, effectively turning this “metabolically diverse” collection of microbes into a supply source should the plant need anything.  Interestingly enough, the rhizosphere also can act as a type of self-defense grid, similar to how human microbiomes function, where in some cases plants have been known to shed their root’s outer cell layers into the rhizosphere in order to form a “layer of immunity” to the plant.

Perhaps, one day in the future, these microbiomes can offer different types of bacteria that can be used for “crop production… in areas likely to be affected by global climate changes.”  What do you think we still have to learn about microbiomes before uses like this are possible?  Do any of you know someone currently researching in this field?  Are you students who didn’t know that there were organisms that you couldn’t see ever going to look at your textbooks?

 

 

Blue Morpho Butterfly Wings: More Than Just Pretty Faces

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On September 25, 2013

In Student Post

Morpho ButterflyThe beauty of butterflies, especially their wings, has captivated many a person. One butterfly, the Blue Morpho, has particularly stunning iridescent wings. Besides their beauty, these wings feature a unique characteristic, which could led to a variety of innovative technologies. Funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a team of researchers from the University of Exeter along with General Electric (GE) Global Research Center, University at Albany and Air Force Research Laboratory, has found the Morpho butterfly’s wings to include a physical structure and surface chemistry that provide amazing properties, which could present a diverse set of applications such as photonic security tags, self cleaning surfaces, protective clothing or industrial sensors. As noted in the journal PNAS, the study discovered that vapor molecules adhere differently to the top of the nanostructures on the scales of Morpho wings than to the bottom. A by-product of its wing scale development, this selectiveness to vapor molecules is what allows for the various bio-inspired technological applications described above. Dr. Radislav Potyrailo of GE and the Principal Investigator for this research program reported that this interdisciplinary team “unveil[ed] the existence of surface polarity gradient on the…butterfly scales,” which then allowed for the “multivariable perspective for vapor sensing, where selectivity is achieved with a single chemically graded nanostructured sensing unit, rather than from an array of separate sensors.”

In speaking about the iridescent properties of butterflies and moths and their relation to natural photonics, Professor Pete Vukusic of the University of Exeter said, “design ideas from nature [allow us] to work towards the development of applications in a range of different technologies.” I agree with this statement and believe it is important to not only come up with new technologies based on man-made ideas, but also from the natural phenomenons that already occur.

Do you know of any similar adaptions of natural properties? What are some of those naturally inspired technological (or other) innovations?

Photography credit: Ken Slade -http://www.flickr.com/photos/texaseagle/7023938029/in/photostream/

Article reference: http://goo.gl/EyvMUa

Why We Love Music

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On April 28, 2013

In Student Post

We have all experienced it; hearing a new song that you really like, and rushing to your preferred digital music distributor to buy it. Researchers at Science Magazine have recently determined why we have this feeling. Hearing a new song activates a part of the brain called the Nucleus Accumbens. This part of the brain is used to make predictions, which it tries to do with a new song as well. When it correctly predicts where the song will go, it stimulate the feeling of pleasure, given that it is located within the reward center of the brain. However, the nucleus accumbens doesn’t work alone. It has been found that it works in conjunction with three other parts of the brain: one looks for patterns, another compares the music to sounds previously heard and the last checks for emotional ties. According to Robert Zatorre of the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University, these four regions of the brain “work overtime” when listening to a new song. This development has been taken further, and now researchers believe that they can correctly predict what a person is willing to spend on a new song judging by the amount of activity that their nucleus accumbens displays. Aniruddh Patel of Tufts University commented that a music store such as Google Music and iTunes was “a very clever idea” that plays to “an old theory in music cognition”. Some researchers believe that these discoveries will lead to breakthroughs in speech and sound recognition in the future.

Primary Source Article

 

HeLa Cells Sequenced!

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On April 28, 2013

In Student Post

Photo By: University of Arkansas
Wellcome Trust

The immortal cell, also known as HeLa cells, have been used by scientists for years for various medical research. But, until today the genome of HeLa cells was never known. Jonathan Landry and Paul Pyl, from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, performed the study to sequence Henrietta Lacks‘ genome, and what they found was quite remarkable. They found striking differences between her cells and the cells of a normal human being. The genome had abnormalities in both chromosome number and structure. They also found that countless regions of the chromosomes in each cell were arranged in the wrong order and had extra or fewer copies of genes, all telltale signs of chromosome shattering. Chromosome shattering has recently been found to be linked to 2-3% of cancers. Seeing as how Henrietta Lacks’ cells were taken from a cervical tumor, this is not a surprising find. However, because her genome had never been sequenced this was all new to Landry and Pyl. They said, “The results provide the first detailed sequence of a HeLa genome. It demonstrates how genetically complex HeLa is compared to normal human tissue. Yet, possibly because of this complexity, no one had systematically sequenced the genome, until now.” Another scientist, Lars Steinmetz, who led the project, added, “Our study underscores the importance of accounting for the abnormal characteristics of HeLa cells in experimental design and analysis, and has the potential to refine the use of HeLa cells as a model of human biology.” Although this study is nowhere near groundbreaking, it still helps to highlight the importance of the extensive differences that cell lines can have from their human references.

For more information on this study and HeLa cells in general, you can go to:http://www.science20.com/news_articles/genome_hela_cell_line_sequenced-106181

 

Fluent in another language? Studies show your brain will likely be stronger than average when you’re old!

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On February 11, 2013

In Student Post

Photo by: “Barefoot Liam Stock” on Deviantart.com
Find through “Free to use and share” on Google.com http://barefootliam-stock.deviantart.com/art/Huge-map-book-open-book-82979234

A recent study released by the University of Kentucky in Lexington aimed to better understand why “being fluent in more than one language protects against age-related cognitive diseases.”

Researchers used fMRI’s to compare the brains of monolinguals to life-long bilinguals, “LLBL”, (people fluent in two languages since the age of at least 10)  during various activities. Of the 110 participants, they found that mostly all monolinguals and LLBL preformed the same on tests that required simple memory, however on tests which required them to switch between activities, the older LLBL were much faster and quicker to respond than the older monolinguals.

The researchers explained that the results they saw from the older generation of monolinguals and LLBL during the two main testing categories (simple memory and switching tasks), were about the same to the results of the younger generation that they tested in a different study. They concluded that the older LLBL’s experienced less activation in several frontal brain regions linked with effortful processing, meaning that the “older bilinguals used their brain more efficiently than the older monolinguals“.

The scientists also explained that they are not sure if learning a language later in life will give a person the same cognitive benefits when they are older compared to a person who is a LLBL. They are also unsure if it’s the “knowledge of two languages that leads to benefits in aging or if there is some underlying characteristics that bilinguals have” which allows them to be more neurally efficient.

Although researchers still have a lot to learn about the increased neural efficiency found in bilinguals, this study made a vast contribution to the understanding of “the cognitive advantage of bilinguals at an old age.”

 

Read more at: http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/08/lifelong-bilinguals-may-have-more-efficient-brains/?hpt=he_bn2

http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/122/12/2207.full

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121008082953.htm

 

 

Enzyme Protects Against Dangers of Oxygen

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On February 11, 2013

In Student Post

Yes, you read the title correctly: Oxygen can be dangerous.

As you may (or may not) remember, Oxygen is needed for two parts of cellular respiration. 1) For the Pyruvate made in Glycolysis to enter the mitochondria for the Krebs Cycle 2) As the final electron acceptor in the electron transport chain during Chemiosmosis. If there isn’t enough oxygen around (say, you’re running and there’s not enough oxygen to go to your muscle cells), the pyruvate made in glycolysis will not enter the mitochondria, but will instead undergo fermentation, which basically turns the NADH back into NAD+ so cycle of cellular respiration can continue.

Oxygen becomes dangerous when unhealthy cells fail to undergo cellular respiration, despite plentiful oxygen and instead undergo fermentation. This leads to uncontrollable cell growth: cancer. Luckily, scientists just discovered the enzyme superoxide dimutase, or SOD1 for short, regulates cell energy and metabolism by  transmitting signals from oxygen to glucose to repress respiration. This happens through cell signaling, when SOD1 protects the enzyme Kinase-1 gamma, of CK1Y, an important key from switching from respiration to fermentation. The results of this study were published in the Journal “Cell” on January 17th.

 

 

This diagram shows how enzymes, like SOD1, work. The substrate binds to the active site of the enzyme and the enzyme either breaks the substrate in two or puts two substrates together.

 

The interesting thing about this study is that SOD1 is not a new discovery. Scientists have known about SOD1 since 1969, but they thought it only protected against free radicals. Researcher Valeria C. Culotta calls SOD cells “superheroes” because of their many powers: protecting against free radicles and regulating cellular respiration.

According to Vernon Anderson, PhD, the result of this study might find out why cells turn to fermentation, casing cancer and some other diseases.

 

How the “guardian of the genome” falls:

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On February 10, 2013

In Student Post

 

 

 

p53 is a protein that plays a vital role in the G2 checkpoint phase before mitosis begins. This checkpoint “ serves to prevent the cell from entering mitosis (M-phase) with genomic DNA damage.” (http://www.cellsignal.com/reference/pathway/Cell_Cycle_G2M_DNA.html) The role of p53 is to trigger repair for damaged DNA if possible and to hold the cell in the G1/S checkpoint until it is repaired and if the repair of the DNA is not possible p53 triggers apoptosis. Therefore, p53 plays a large role is preventing cancer because a cancerous cell starts with a mutation in DNA.  However mutant p53 allows cells who have DNA damage and have “tranformed” to be cancerous to enter into M-phase and proliferate thus forming a tumor.

Biologists, chemists and computer scientists at UC bolder however have discovered a “an elusive binging pocket” in the quaternary structure of p53 which is open “5 percent of the time.” (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130131121312.htm) The reason the pocket is only open 5 percent of the time is because the p53 protein undulates, meaning it sways so this pocket was hard to find and target. Their team then screened almost 2,500 molecules and tested out 45 molecules to see if any of them could fit into this pocket and trigger the normal tumor-suppressing abilities found in p53 in a mutated p53 molecule. They found that stictic acid fit and triggered the tumor-suppressing abilities. Although stictic acid is not able to be used as a drug, they can now scan other molecules that have similar properties as stictic acid making this a large step in cancer research because mutated p53 is found in over 40 percent of diagnosed cancer cases. (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130131121312.htm)

 

Sources:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130131121312.htm

http://www.cellsignal.com/reference/pathway/Cell_Cycle_G2M_DNA.html

That Song’s Stuck In My Head!

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On February 10, 2013

In Student Post

 

 

Has there ever been a song that you just can’t seem to stop humming?

Well thats due to stuck song syndrome. This syndrome is caused by earworms in your brain. Not to worry though, these are not actual worms! New research by Simon Brown of Simon Fraser University is shedding some light on this phenomena. In the last five years, earworms have become the subject of peer-reviewed scientific studies. In 2008, Finnish researchers published a study that used the Internet to survey age, gender, personality and musical competence of 12,420 countrymen who experienced the endless loops in their heads. The study also included an analysis of 271 responses to online questionnaires from BBC sites as well as radio networks in the U.S. and Australia. The results demonstrated that almost any thought or sensory perception can hit the “on” switch. Hearing The Village People’s “YMCA” can get the mental loop rolling. Other head music may be induced by a memory from summer camp, the stresses of work or simply the boredom of school. So, next time you can’t get a song out of your head you can thank your earworms!

For more information on the subject please go to: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Researcher-confirms-existence-of-earworms-98-2561479.php

Is it Time for a New Hot Chocolate Mug?

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On January 10, 2013

In Student Post

Hot Chocolate in front of a fireplace on a cold winter’s day is one of life’s finest delights. And, according to research done at the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the University of Oxford, the flavor of your mom’s famous hot cocoa can be enhanced by the color of the mug you drink it out of. It has been found that drinking hot chocolate out of a cream or orange colored cup can improve the flavor. Researchers had fifty-seven people drink the same hot chocolate (unbeknownst to them) out of four differently colored cups: white, cream, red and orange with white on the inside. Most participants found that the beverage tasted best when had out of the orange and cream colored cups. This shows that the brain also takes into account visual stimuli, on top of flavor and aroma, when processing taste. Similar effects have been seen with other beverages as well. For instance, a yellow color improves the lemon flavor in certain soft drinks, a pink cup makes some drinks taste more sugary, and brown cups seem to give coffee move flavor. So, the next time you go to drink hot chocolate, make sure that you pick the cream or orange colored cup!

Trial for New ALS Treatment Failed

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On January 5, 2013

In Student Post

Photo by: Nemo

Biogen Idec, a drug developing company, has recently discontinued their work on a new drug that was, hopefully, going to help patients with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. A recent article explained that a new drug, known as dexpramipexole, was not effective in the phase 3 trial of the study.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a disease where nerve cells “waste away and die.” These cells are unable to send messages to muscles, therefore symptoms include paralysis and muscle weakness. The progression of the disease is slow and “once the patient loses the function of muscles in the chest area, it becomes hard to breathe.” There is no known cure for this disease but scientists are looking for ways to prolong the disease.

Biogen Idec believed that the drug, dexpramipexole, was hopefully going to “slow the progression of loss of muscle function and prolong the lives of people with the disease.” While the phase 3 trial was not successful, the phase 2 trial of patients receiving dexpramipexole showed some success. 50% of the patients, in the second trial, showed a slower decline of muscular function. This was a big accomplishment for Biogen Idec but the phase 3 was not as effective. Therefore, Biogen Idec’s study involving a new treatment for ALS ended.

Even though Biogen Idec’s study was not effective, other companies have successfully found a way to slow the progression of ALS. Thus far, only one drug has been approved to help patients with ALS. This drug is known as Rilutek/Riluzole and it is only modestly effective.

Doctors are in need of a new drug that will help patients with ALS. I think its great that companies like Biogen Idec are involved in finding a way to treat this rare disease. I hope that researchers will use the information from the failed trial to find another way to treat ALS.

The True Origins of HIV

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On January 5, 2013

In Student Post

There’s no doubt you’ve heard of HIV, or Human Immunodeficiency Virus. The HIV virus, if left untreated can lead to AIDS, or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, which leads to progressive immune system failure (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV#Discovery). HIV didn’t become a problem in the United States until the 1980s, but was around long before then. Alfred Roca, an assistant Professor at the University of Illinois believes HIV was around for much longer than we believe.

 

The Origins 

HIV was thought to be originated from SIV, or Simian Immunodeficiency Virus, that infected Chimpanzees in Central Africa. About ninety percent of humans infected with HIV are infected with a strain called HIV-1 Type M, which was believed to have crossed the species barrier anywhere between 1884 and 1924. However, believes that HIV crossed the species barrier many times before 1884, but was most prevalent in rural areas, so it remained undetected.

 

Why it was a mystery

If HIV was around long before we initially thought, why did it remain undetected. According to Roca, “the persistence of HIV in humans requires population densities typically of larger cities that appeared in West Central Africa during the colonial period.” HIV didn’t spread amongst humans pre-1884 because the population was not dense enough. In addition, diseases spread much faster. Many people would have died early from diseases such as smallpox, and those with compromised immune systems would have been hit first, thus the disease couldn’t spread.

Map of the prevalence of HIV in the world, according to the 2008 UNAIDS Preport

Roca also believes that different strains of HIV could affect people with different genes. Using data from The Human Genome Project, Roca was able to analyze the DNA of the Biaka people, who live in the forests where the chimpanzees responsible for our current HIV pandemic reside and 4 other African populations which live outside the chimpanzees’ range. Research done in the 1980s concluded there are 26 genomic locations that help resist HIV.

The results of the research were astounding. Roca and his team identified four genes that code for proteins that affect the ability of the HIV to affect the host or the progression of the disease. Several of these genes were common among the Biaka people. Though the results aren’t definitive, they show that natural selection does play a part in the transfer of HIV to human populations, which is why the disease didn’t thrive earlier.

 

 

Vitamin D is linked to depression, so start sunbathing!

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On January 11, 2012

In Student Post

Haven’t been in the sun too much this winter season and feeling depressed? Well, it may be due to the fact that low levels of vitamin D are now linked to depression. According to a recent article, low vitamin D levels are already linked to cardiovascular diseases and various neurological problems. However, a new study links the connection between low vitamin D levels and depression. At the UT Southwestern Medical Center, researchers examined 12,600 subjects from 2006 to 2012. Results showed that subjects with higher vitamin D levels, who had a previous history of depression, had a larger decreased risk of depression at the time. Participants with low levels of vitamin D were shown to have signs of depression. Although the study the relationship of vitamin D and depression, the study did not show if increasing vitamin D in your diet actually reduced those depressive-like symptoms. Also, scientists have not confirmed whether or not low vitamin D causes depression like symptoms or if depression is causing low vitamin D levels. One could say low vitamin D levels are linked to depression however, adding vitamin D to your diet would not necessarily cure depression-like symptoms.

Many concepts around the idea of vitamin D being linked to depression are still unknown, but I think it is still a very important topic to discuss and important further research the subject.  The psychiatrists the UT Southwestern Medical Center have reported that major depressive disorder affects one in ten adults in the United States. One-tenth of our adult population has depression. When you put it into perspective, that is one person in a room of ten people. If that is the case,  then for me this is a field where the link between vitamin D and depression needs to be further researched. For now, it won’t hurt some sunshine to get your daily dosage of vitamin D.

 

A New Drug Can Potentially Cure Radiation Sickness

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On December 4, 2011

In Student Post

Radiation from a major nuclear accident can kill thousands of people. It is very dangerous and depending on how much radiation people are exposed, high exposures of radtion make people get radiation  sickness and eventually they die. Radiation exposure levels up to 10 gray would require a bone marrow transplant. After exposure to radiation bone marrow is the first thing that is effected and that is where white blood cells are located and a healthy immune system is needed after exposure to radiation. Radiation can cause bacteria to leak into the blood, causing blood pressure to spike, feder, abnormal blood clotting and organ failure. A bone marrow transplant is almost necessary. However, after a major nuclear accident thousands of people will need bone marrow transplants and that might be very tricky to execute.

But there is a solution! New research has proven that a drug composed of fluoroquinolone antibiotic combined with a microbe fighting compound- a protein called BPI– can protect thousands of people from the effects of radiation. How? This antibiotic and protein can attack the bacteria that is leaked in the blood and causes all these harmful effects. The antibiotic kills the bacteria and the protein latches onto the bacterial endoxtin, a molecule on the coats of bacteria.

Researchers exposed mice to radiation for 24 hours and gave some of the mice the injections of the antibiotic and the protein. The mice who did not get the antibiotic and the protein died 30 days later.  80 percent of the mice who got the antiobiotic and the protein lived almost healthily.

This drug could change the harmful effects of radiation and could be very useful to the world as nuclear sources of energy are used more often. However, it is still in production and is not perfected. Doctor Eva Guinan  of the dana-Farber cancer institute and Harvard medical school believes that “We still have a lot more to explore in detail, but the results are really encouraging.” Do you think this future drug will completely solve the problem of radiation sickness?

 

other links:

 

original radiation sickness article

Information on Quinlone

 

More information on BPI

 

Information on Radiation poising

Information on Bone Marrow transplants

alternate article  on radiation sickness treatment

 

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