From CRISPR applications to fighting antibiotic resistance to improving personalized medicine, Biocompare news stories are far reaching in the life sciences. The following is a list of the fifteen most-read news stories of the year, starting from fifteenth place and moving up from there.
15. Why Does Yeast Produce Ethanol?
For decades, scientists have wondered why yeast cells “waste” resources to produce ethanol. This study suggests that yeast cells produce ethanol as a “safety valve” to prevent overload when their metabolic operation reaches a critical level. The scientists believe that the same theory could be applied to lactate production in cancer cells.
14. Unusual DNA Modification Key to Fear Extinction
The balance between fear and fear extinction is critical. Fear helps you learn to stay away from danger, while fear extinction prevents fear from compromising your ability to function normally. In this February post, researchers reported how epigenetics helps to regulate fear extinction.
13. “Mommy Brain” Found in Stickleback Fathers
Parenting-induced brain changes are not just for mothers, and not just for mammals, either. New research in sticklebacks shows that transition to fatherhood is also accompanied by a host of changes in gene activity in the brain. Male sticklebacks undergo changes in the same genes that are affiliated with maternal care in mice, such as oxytocin, prolactin, and galanin.
12. Human Blood-Brain Barrier Chip Created
Using induced pluripotent stem cells to give rise to neurons, endothelial-like cells, astrocytes, and support cells, scientists developed an entirely human blood–brain barrier chip. The newly formed blood–brain barrier displayed a characteristic of the patient’s disease. The chip could potentially be used to predict which drugs would be best for specific patients.
11. Sleep Deprivation Causes Epigenetic Changes
It has been known that prolonged lack of sleep is associated with heightened risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, and psychiatric disorders like depression. This study reveals that insufficient sleep results in changes in DNA methylation in the gene regulatory elements of nervous system development.
10. Blind Mice Regain Sight with a Single Gene Insertion
Virally developed gene therapy was used to treat blindness in mice. After treatment, the mice could easily navigate around obstacles, see motion and brightness changes over a thousand-fold range, and distinguish letters on an iPad. The therapy could eventually be used to treat retinal degeneration in humans.
9. Alcohol Has Measurable Impact on DNA Methylation in Binge and Heavy Drinkers
Binge and heavy drinking can trigger long-lasting epigenetic changes in a person’s DNA. The resulting changes result in even stronger cravings for alcohol. PER2, which influences the body’s biological clock, and POMC, which regulates the stress-response system, are two genes that were implicated in control of drinking behavior.
8. Removal of Old Senescent Cells Increases Lifespan
By promoting inflammation, senescent cells have been implicated in diseases of aging. Regulating the age-related accumulation of senescent cells could keep our bodies young, healthy, and energetic as we age. Inhibiting proteins that help aging cells survive in mice resulted in a reduction of senescent cells, less inflammation, heightened activity, and an expanded lifespan.
7. How Sauerkraut Communicates with Your Immune Cells
Humans and other great apes possess a third type of GPCR receptor on their cells that triggers immune cell migration. A metabolite released by lactic acid bacteria—which is found in foods like milk, yogurt, and sauerkraut—binds strongly to this third receptor.
6. Female Promiscuity Alters the Selection Pressure on Males
The number of mates a female fruit fly takes influences the evolutionary forces acting on male fruit flies. When females become more promiscuous, sexual selection switches from favoring males who get more mates (good at enticing) to males who are better at post-mating competition (good at fertilizing).
5. Owning a Dog Is in Your Genes
Using information from the Swedish Twin Registry, scientists found that genetic variation explains more than half the variation in dog ownership. These shared genetic traits among dog owners need to be taken into account when looking into the purported health benefits of dog ownership.
4. Keto Diet Can Inhibit Tumor Growth
The ketogenic diet, which is very low in sugar, was one method used by scientists to restrict blood glucose levels in mice. A second method was a diabetes drug that prevents blood glucose from being reabsorbed by the kidneys. Both methods alone were enough to inhibit further growth of squamous cell carcinoma tumors.
3. Daily Ear Tickling Improves Autonomic Function
A new approach called “tickle therapy” may slow down some of the effects of aging in people over 55. The therapy involves stimulating the auricular branch of the vagus nerve in outer parts of the ear with a small electrical current, rebalancing the autonomic nervous system. The therapy reportedly provides better quality of life, mood, and sleep, as well as possible protection from chronic disease like high blood pressure, heart disease, and atrial fibrillation.
2. Existence of X Lymphocyte Confirmed
The long-doubted “X cell” is a rogue hybrid immune cell that has been suspected of playing a key role in the development of type 1 diabetes. The X cell is a T and B cell hybrid that is a dual expresser of both BCR and TCR. The new study not only confirms the existence of the X cell but also suggests that this cell and a unique protein that it produces are key agents in triggering the immune reaction leading to type 1 diabetes.
1. Low-Calorie May be Better than No-Calorie Fasting for Inflammation Reduction
The number one most-popular story of 2019 was about the effects of two different diets on inflammatory bowel disease–related pathology. The researchers found that low-calorie, fast-mimicking diets were more successful at reducing gut inflammation than were no-calorie, water-fasting diets. For the low-calorie diets, mice were given a reduced number of calories per day, and the calories they consume mimicked a balanced human diet of vegetables, fruits, olive oil, vitamins, and minerals.