Mitochondria are primarily known as the powerhouse of the cell. However, these cellular organelles are required not only for providing energy: Professor Konstanze Winklhofer and her group at the Faculty of Medicine at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, recently discovered that mitochondria play an important role in signal transduction in innate immune pathways.
They regulate a signaling pathway that helps to eliminate pathogens, but can cause damage through inflammation upon overactivation. The research team published their findings in the EMBO Journal.
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just learned that humans might have evolved smaller pupils and irises/more whites of our eyes so that it's easier for other humans to tell where we're looking as a way of communicating sudden threats. and now i'm thinking of every time i have been frantically giving my friend a Look to get out of an uncomfortable situation (or been on the receiving end). still using it to communicate sudden threats only this time his name is kyle
VACCINATE YA KIDS FFS
In a new study, scientists with the University of Florida have found that a combination of silver nanoparticles and antibiotics is effective against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
The researchers hope to turn this discovery into viable treatment for some types of antibiotic-resistant infections. Antibiotic-resistant infections kill more than a million people globally each year.
For centuries, silver has been known to have antimicrobial properties. However, silver nanoparticles—microscopic spheres of silver small enough to operate at the cellular level—represent a new frontier in using the precious metal to fight bacteria.
In this study, the research team tested whether commercially available silver nanoparticles boost the power of antibiotics and enable these drugs to counter the very bacteria that have evolved to withstand them.
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The bacteria wars are coming. Researchers at Tel Aviv University have pitted “good” bacteria against “bad” bacteria and the good guys, it appears, are winning.
If the system can be scaled, this new approach could potentially replace antibiotics, which are increasingly struggling against antibiotic-resistant “superbugs.” For the TAU study, the researchers used a toxin injection system known as a “Type 6 Secretion System.” It’s usually deployed by pathogenic (“bad”) bacteria. They introduced the system into a “friendly” bacterium, Vibrio natriegens, which is not harmful to humans. The researchers described their technology as similar to a microscopic poison arrow shot from a good bacterium to eliminate a bad bacterium under specific conditions. “The system that we built allows us to engineer ‘good’ bacteria that can recognize pathogenic bacteria, attack them with toxins, and neutralize them,” explains Dr. Dor Salomon, who co-led the study. “We know how to change and control every component in the system and create a bacterium that neutralizes different strains of bacteria. This is proof of feasibility, showing that we have the knowledge and ability to create bacteria that take advantage of this killing system and may serve as antibiotic treatments. ”The current bacteria prototype is best suited for bugs that occur naturally in saltwater. This is a growing concern, as fish and seafood constitute a major food source in many regions of the world. “Their productivity is severely impaired as a result of bacteria-borne diseases,” Solomon notes, “and since we want to avoid pouring antibiotics into aquaculture farms, a biological solution such as the one we have developed is an effective alternative.” The system will eventually be adapted to treat pathogenic bacteria in humans, farm animals and plants. Tel Aviv University has filed a patent application through Ramot, the university’s technology-transfer company. In addition to Solomon, Dr. Biswanath Jana and Kinga Kappel of the department of clinical microbiology and immunology at TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine participated in the research. The results were published this month in the scientific journal EMBO Reports.
Your body deserves to feel safe. Your soul deserves to feel safe. I hope you find environments and invest in healing steps to accomplish this, because you and your body are good and deserving.
Fun fact: my dad, after being a surgeon for 25 years, no longer has fingerprints. The sponge he uses to wash his hands several times a day is so harsh that it’s rubbed off his fingerprints throughout the years. Sometimes he can’t get into our building because the biometric uses a fingerprint scanner 😭
A tiger bursting to freedom after being rescued from a poacher’s snare in the Russian Far East.
your bulldog isn’t being quirky it’s actively trying not to die every 10 seconds