Culture

Sophia Antipolis - 18 June 2021: A small feasibility study has suggested that tai chi has the potential to reduce depression, anxiety and stress plus improve sleep in people who have had a stroke. The research is presented today at EuroHeartCare - ACNAP Congress 2021, an online scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).1

Depression occurs in approximately one-third of stroke survivors and is linked with greater disability and mortality rates.2,3 Individuals with post-stroke depression frequently also report anxiety, stress, and poor sleep.4-6

Tai chi focuses on releasing tension in the body, incorporating mindfulness and imagery into movement, increasing awareness and efficiency of breathing, and promoting overall relaxation of body and mind.

"Mind-body interventions are commonly used among adults to lessen depressive symptoms," said study author Dr. Ruth Taylor-Piliae of the University of Arizona, Tucson, US. "Tai chi practice allows the individual to quiet the mind by dwelling in the present and setting aside unnecessary negative emotions, such as depression."

This study examined the feasibility of using tai chi in people with previous stroke. A total of 11 stroke survivors reporting depression symptoms were enrolled in the study. They were on average 70 years old, and 55% were men.

All stroke survivors attended the tai chi intervention classes, three times each week, for a total of eight weeks. The intervention had been planned for 12 weeks but was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Each class consisted of a 10-minute warm-up period, 40-minutes of tai chi exercise, and a 10-minute cool-down period. Participants were gradually taught 24 basic movements from the Wu style of tai chi (an average of two new movements per week).

Measurements were taken at the start of the study and repeated after the eight-week intervention. Symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress were assessed using standardised questionnaires. Sleep was assessed during night-time using a triaxial accelerometer, which detects movement. Specifically, the researchers examined sleep efficiency (percentage of time spent sleeping), the amount of time awake after initially being asleep, and the total time awake after going to bed.

After eight weeks of tai chi, the researchers observed significant reductions in symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress compared to baseline, along with better sleep efficiency, less wakefulness after sleep onset, and less time awake.

Dr. Taylor-Piliae said: "At baseline the participants reported mild to moderate symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress. I was surprised and pleased with the improvements we observed in these self-reported symptoms and in sleep with just an eight-week intervention."

The researchers also took blood samples at baseline and eight weeks to measure markers of oxidative stress and inflammation which have previously been associated with post-stroke depression. They found lower activity of the oxidative stress marker after the intervention but no significant changes in any of the inflammatory markers.

Dr. Taylor-Piliae explained: "Our ultimate goal is to see whether tai chi lowers depressive symptoms in stroke survivors and also improves biochemical markers associated with depression."

She concluded: "The results of this feasibility study should be interpreted with caution because of the small sample size and lack of a control group. More research is needed before recommendations can be made about tai chi for people who have had a stroke. We hope to do a randomised trial with a 12-week tai chi intervention in a larger group of patients."

A hydrogel that forms a barrier to keep heart tissue from adhering to surrounding tissue after surgery was developed and successfully tested in rodents by a team of University of California San Diego researchers. The team of engineers, scientists and physicians also conducted a pilot study on porcine hearts, with promising results.

They describe their work in the June 18, 2021 issue of Nature Communications.

In rats, the hydrogel prevented the formation of adhesions altogether. In a small pilot study, porcine hearts treated with the hydrogel experienced less severe adhesions that were easier to remove. In addition, the hydrogel did not appear to cause chronic inflammation.

Adhesions--organ tissue sticking to surrounding tissue--are a relatively common problem when surgeons need to operate again at the same site, which happens in 20 percent of cases every year in cardiac surgery. Re-operations are particularly common when the patients are children suffering from cardiac malformations--as the child's heart grows, additional interventions are needed.

Adhesions form within the first 30 days post-op and can complicate operations and increase the risk of mortality during interventions. In some cases, they can also interfere with proper heart function or completely prevent a repeat surgery. One of the paper's senior authors, UC San Diego bioengineering professor Karen Christman, experienced this when one of her uncles couldn't have a heart valve repaired because of severe adhesions.

"Our work is an engineering solution driven by a medical problem," said Christman, who co-founded a company, Karios Technologies, to bring the hydrogel into the clinic. "And now it's poised to significantly improve cardiac surgery, both for adults and children."

The work brought together not only bioengineers and physicians, but also chemists and materials scientists.

In academic medical centers such as UC San Diego, most surgeons conduct repeat operations and encounter adhesions fairly regularly. In this study, in rats, 70 percent of animals in the control group developed severe adhesions.

Currently there are no FDA approved products marketed for preventing adhesions after heart surgery. "This product will have a significant impact on the lives of many patients who potentially require repeat operations, either on the heart or anywhere else in the body," said Dr. Michael M. Madani, chair of the Division of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at UC San Diego Health and one of the paper's co-authors.

How it's made

By contrast, the hydrogel developed by bioengineers in Christman's lab is designed specifically to meet both the patients' and surgeons' needs. It's sprayable, so easy to apply. Once sprayed onto tissue, it binds to the heart muscle and turns into a soft, elastic coating that creates a protective barrier, while still allowing for movement. The gel can be easily removed from tissue and dissolves after more than four to six weeks.

The biggest challenge was making sure that the hydrogel attaches strongly enough to the heart but doesn't swell, as swelling can put dangerous pressure on the heart. Christman and team used what's known as crosslinking chemistry, which consists of linking two molecules together with a covalent bond, to accomplish this. Masaki Fujita, the paper's first author and a visiting scientist in the Department of Bioengineering at UC San Diego, had the idea of using a compound known as catechol, similar to what mussels use to adhere to rocks, to ensure the hydrogel stayed in place on the heart.

Catechol contains an amino acid, L-dopa, that is a muscle binding protein. In this case, it was added to the gel base, a water soluble polymer, known as PEG. The result is a hydrogel that sticks onto the organ it is applied to, but then creates a protective barrier that lasts at least up to four weeks before dissolving. By that point, adhesions are less likely to form. To the researchers' knowledge, it's the first time this type of formulation has been used for preventing adhesions after surgery.

Spraying device

Researchers also designed a device to safely and accurately spray the hydrogel inside the area where open heart surgery is being performed. The device houses the hydrogel's two main components in two different chambers. Each component is made of PEG with different reactive groups that crosslink together to form the hydrogel. One of the solutions also includes the catechol-modified PEG to ensure it stays on the heart. The two mix as they exit the device, forming a gel. The process is akin to using two cans of spray paint, for example blue and yellow, to create a third color, green.

Next steps and bigger picture

The next step is to do a large-scale trial in pigs to refine dosage and examine how the hydrogel binds to sutures and drains. The ultimate goal is to conduct a human pediatric study in 18 months to two years and bring the product to the FDA for approval in five years.

Karios Technologies is licensing the technology from UC San Diego. "We want feedback from surgeons," Gregory, CEO of Karios Technologies said. "We designed this material specifically for use on the heart and ease of use by the surgeon."

The technology could easily translate to other organs also requiring multiple operations and susceptible to adhesions, researchers said.

Most of us have heard of Alzheimer's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder marked by brain cell death and the shrinking of the brain. It is the most common cause of dementia and cognitive impairment, which typically have a devastating effect on a person's quality of life. There is still no cure for Alzheimer's.

One way of tackling the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is to prevent the underlying adverse changes in the brain. A team of researchers from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) has recently published a study in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, dedicated to neuroprotection against these toxic changes. They used tiny free-living soil worms --called Caenorhabditis elegans--and the often-ornamental butterfly pea plant for their exploration.

Clitoria ternatea, or the butterfly pea plant, is a common sight in many Indian gardens with its charming blue and white flowers. But its appeal does not end there. There are plenty of anecdotes about the memory-enhancing properties of the plant, and it has long been used in traditional medicine in India. As the lead author of the study, Neha V. Kalmankar says, "Plants have hundreds of compounds that could be repurposed for the benefit of society but the first step is to find which ones have the potential for medicinal purposes." Based on existing academic knowledge of its therapeutic properties, the research team extracted and isolated a set of ultra-stable cyclic peptides (or "cyclotides") from the plant. They tested these peptides of ~30 residue length on the worms and recorded the impact on the neurons.

Neurons in the human brain synthesise a protein called amyloid-beta (Aβ). In patients with Alzheimer's, these proteins undergo a process called aggregation, where they form large deposits (plaques). The aggregates are toxic to the cells and impair the important tasks neurons need to carry out. This neurotoxicity can be duplicated in the transgenic worms too--manifesting as paralysis in the muscles, chemotaxis defects such as movement deficits towards chemical cues, and oxidative stress.

The experiments showed that the cyclotides from the plant protected the neurons against the amyloid aggregate formation. The worms which fed on the cyclotides showed significantly less paralysis than the ones that did not. They also showed that these peptide mixtures displayed antioxidant properties, an already well-established role of the plant. The different experiments provide strong evidence for the beneficial value of cyclotides, given that oxidative stress is a commonly related process in AD progression. Other age-related neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease are also associated with the accumulation of toxic proteins, and this research avenue could lead to treatment options for several such diseases.

Neurodegenerative diseases are difficult to study in humans for a number of reasons due to the complexity of the biochemical changes, the underlying causes, and the limited studies that can be performed on living patients' brains. Even using other model systems such as mice can prove challenging and laborious, because of their life spans, the ease of transgenic work on them and handling large numbers for each experiment. C. elegans offers an ideal solution. Dr. Radhika Venkatesan, the corresponding author, explains, "Using a soil-dwelling nematode like C. elegans as a model is extremely valuable as these worms have conserved gene function, short life cycle and are experimentally tractable. They are excellent models to screen for therapeutic leads".

This research makes terrific use of the living systems you might find in your garden to address a global health issue. "Nature provides us with a wide combinatorial library of compounds that can be exploited for drug development, and peptides are an excellent source to start with," says Neha Kalmankar. The cyclotides found throughout the butterfly pea plant could become one therapeutic solution for neurodegenerative diseases, yet it awaits exploration of more unique qualities. It has exciting potential in the paradigm of medicine and drug discovery.

While postpartum depression in new mothers is well recognized and known to increase if the newborn requires intensive care, depression in new fathers has not received much attention. A large study, published in the journal Pediatrics, found that both parents with a baby in the NICU are at risk, with depression symptoms identified in 33 percent of mothers and 17 percent of fathers. Strikingly, the probability of reporting depression symptoms declined significantly for mothers but not for fathers after the baby came home.

"Our findings point to the need for increased attention to the mental health of new fathers, during their baby's NICU stay and after discharge," said lead author Craig F. Garfield, MD, MAPP, Founder and Director of Family & Child Health Innovations Program at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. He also is a Professor of Pediatrics and Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "This is crucial, not only for the well-being of new parents but also for the optimal development of their child."

A 2019 American Academy of Pediatrics technical report conveyed the extensive evidence that adverse childhood experiences, such as parental depression, are more likely to increase a child's risk for delayed or impaired cognitive, emotional, and linguistic development as well as subsequent behavioral problems. More recent research reveals that depressed fathers are less likely to engage in positive parenting activities such as reading to the child. One study reported that depressed fathers are more likely to spank their 1-year-old children.

In their study, Dr. Garfield and colleagues screened for depression 431 parents of premature infants using the validated Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS) at four time points: NICU admission, discharge, 14-days and 30-days post-discharge. They found that screening parents for depression in the NICU can predict the probability of parental depression symptoms in the first month of the baby's life at home. Over that time, depression screening scores for mothers decreased over 10 times, but fathers tended to maintain their baseline score.

"The unanticipated difference we found in the trajectory of depression symptoms between mothers and fathers after bringing their preemie home underscores the importance of reaching out to fathers, who might not even be aware that they need help or know where to turn when in persistent distress," said Dr. Garfield. "We need programs in the NICU that universally screen both parents for depression, proactively educate the family about potential symptoms and offer mental health support during this stressful time in the NICU, leading up to discharge and after going home."

An incredibly light new material that can reduce aircraft engine noise and improve passenger comfort has been developed at the University of Bath.

The graphene oxide-polyvinyl alcohol aerogel weighs just 2.1kg per cubic metre, making it the lightest sound insulation ever manufactured. It could be used as insulation within aircraft engines to reduce noise by up to 16 decibels - reducing the 105-decibel roar of a jet engine taking off to a sound closer to that of a hair-dryer.

The aerogel's meringue-like structure makes it extremely light, meaning it could act as an insulator within aircraft engine nacelles, with almost no increase in overall weight. The material is currently being further optimised by the research team to offer improved heat dissipation, offering benefits to fuel efficiency and safety.

Researchers from Bath's Materials and Structures Centre (MAST) have published a method for manufacturing the materials in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.

Professor Michele Meo, who led the research, says: "This is clearly a very exciting material that could be applied in a number of ways - initially in aerospace but potentially in many other fields such as automotive and marine transport, as well as in building and construction.

"We managed to produce such an extremely low density by using a liquid combination of graphene oxide and a polymer, which are formed with whipped air bubbles and freeze-casted. On a very basic level, the technique can be compared with whipping egg whites to create meringues - it's solid but contains a lot of air, so there is no weight or efficiency penalty to achieve big improvements in comfort and noise."

Although the team's initial focus is in working with partners in aerospace to test the material as a sound insulator in aeroplane engines, they say it could also be used to create panels in helicopters, or car engines. They estimate that the aerogel could be in use within 18 months.

June 17, 2021, Nutley, NJ - During two months at the height of the first wave of COVID-19, Hackensack Meridian Health experts helped find the best way to triage and prioritize necessary surgeries across the health network. Their work allowed the system to keep up with crucial care - and it may help point the way forward in case of future emergencies.

The health network experts implemented the medically necessary time sensitive (MeNTS) surgical scoring system developed by the University of Chicago to triage the case load across the health system, the largest in New Jersey. The results are published now in The American Journal of Surgery, and the lead author is a medical student at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine.

"This is critical work and it shows how important teamwork is in pulling together at the time of greatest need," said Ihor Sawczuk, M.D., FACS, the network's chief research officer and president of its northern region. "We are proud to do our part in showing how we can best save lives, even during a historic pandemic."

"Our team kept our priorities straight, and our mission clear," said Michael Stifelman, M.D., professor and chair of Urology, at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, as well as the department chair of Urology at Hackensack University Medical Center. "It was a great job by all - and we leveraged the skills of our SOM students to work with us in designing and evaluating our 'best practices.'"

All elective surgeries for adults were canceled by an executive order from the New Jersey governor in March 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was lifted in May 2020.

Over the course of those two months, the health network the department chairs and a peri-operative committee reviewed which cases needed immediate attention, at first relying on a system called the Elective Surgery Acuity Scale (ESAS). But the drawbacks of ESAS - including what the definition of "non-elective" was, and the management of what fast became an overwhelming number of requests - pushed them to find another way. Instead they implemented MeNTS.

Over the two-month time frame, there were 1,316 requests for surgical intervention. The MeNTS system classified 645 as requiring procedures within two weeks: 50 percent were same-day surgeries, 43 percent inpatient procedures, and the remainder outpatient visits.

They compared the results from the same time period in 2019, based on key metrics like mortality, 30-day readmissions, and length of stay.

The determination was that the MeNTS system kept the surgical procedures outcomes and management virtually the same as the non-pandemic times, with just slightly longer length of stay in outpatient cases, and more blood transfusions in inpatient cases.

Some 216 of the 645 prioritized cases were ultimately not performed in the two-month window. Follow-up determined the leading reason was patients' fear of the spread of COVID-19.

"The real game changer with implementing our system is that it also evaluated resource utilization and time sensitivity in making decisions. This is not possible with ESAS," added Stifelman. "Also it leveraged our research team and RedCap database software allowing us to process and manage large amounts of info and requests quickly."

The lead author of the paper is Jay Zaifman, a student of the 2019 cohort. Other authors include: Gregory S. Sugalski, M.D.; Lisa K. Tank, M.D.; Massimo M. Napolitano, M.D., FACS; Donald A. McCain, M.D., FACS, Ph.D.; Mark D. Schlesinger, M.D.; Joseph P. Underwood, M.D.; Terri D. Freguletti, MAS; Lucy Pereira-Argenziano; Robyn J. Kretzschmar, MAS; and Stifelman.

"This is incredible work, and we are glad our students can get such a great head start on their careers even as they work toward their degree," said Bonita Stanton, M.D., founding dean of the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine.

Over the past three decades, fundamental groundwork for building quantum computers has been pioneered at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. As part of the EU Flagship Quantum Technologies, researchers at the Department of Experimental Physics in Innsbruck have now built a demonstrator for a compact ion trap quantum computer. "Our quantum computing experiments usually fill 30- to 50-square-meter laboratories," says Thomas Monz of the University of Innsbruck. "We were now looking to fit the technologies developed here in Innsbruck into the smallest possible space while meeting standards commonly used in industry." The new device aims to show that quantum computers will soon be ready for use in data centers. "We were able to show that compactness does not have to come at the expense of functionality," adds Christian Marciniak from the Innsbruck team.

The individual building blocks of the world's first compact quantum computer had to be significantly reduced in size. For example, the centerpiece of the quantum computer, the ion trap installed in a vacuum chamber, takes up only a fraction of the space previously required. It was provided to the researchers by Alpine Quantum Technologies (AQT), a spin-off of the University of Innsbruck and the Austrian Academy of Sciences which aims to build a commercial quantum computer. Other components were contributed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering in Jena and laser specialist TOPTICA Photonics in Munich, Germany.

Up to 50 quantum bits

The compact quantum computer can be operated autonomously and will soon be programmable online. A particular challenge was to ensure the stability of the quantum computer. Quantum devices are very sensitive and in the laboratory they are protected from external disturbances with the help of elaborate measures. Amazingly, the Innsbruck team succeeded in applying this quality standard to the compact device as well, thus ensuring safe and uninterrupted operation.

In addition to stability, a decisive factor for the industrial use of a quantum computer is the number of available quantum bits. Thus, in its recent funding campaign, the German government has set the goal of initially building demonstration quantum computers that have 24 fully functional qubits. The Innsbruck quantum physicists have already achieved this goal. They were able to individually control and successfully entangle up to 24 ions with the new device. "By next year, we want to be able to provide a device with up to 50 individually controllable quantum bits," says Thomas Monz, already looking to the future.

The project is financially supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, the Research Funding Agency FFG, the European Union, and the Federation of Austrian Industries Tyrol, among others.

(Vienna, Saturday, 19 June 2021) Music by Mozart has been shown to have an anti-epileptic effect on the brain and may be a possible treatment to prevent epileptic seizures, according to new research presented today at the 7th Congress of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN).

Researchers believe that the acoustic (physical) properties within the music are responsible for this effect.

Listening to the famous 18th century composer's Sonata for Two Pianos K448 led to a 32% reduction in epileptiform discharges (EDs). These are electrical brain waves associated with epilepsy and can cause seizures or bursts of electrical activity that temporarily affect how the brain works.

A team led by Professor Ivan Rektor, from the Epilepsy Centre at the Hospital St Anne and CEITEC Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, compared the effects of listening to Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos K448 with Haydn's Symphony No 94. The effects on brain activity were measured by intracerebral electrodes that had been implanted in the brains of epilepsy patients prior to surgery.

"To our surprise, there were significant differences between the effects of listening to Mozart's K448 and Haydn's No 94", commented Professor Rektor. "Listening to Mozart led to a 32% decrease in EDs, but listening to Haydn's No 94 caused a 45% increase."

"In the second part of our study, we set out to explain the 'Mozart effect' in epilepsy", furthered Professor Rektor. The study found that men and women responded differently to the two pieces of music. Listening to Haydn's music led to suppressed epileptiform discharges only in women; in the men, there was an increase of epileptiform discharges. The acoustic properties, such as the rhythm, dynamics and tone, showed that the acoustic features of music composition have a different effect on men and women.

"We believe the physical 'acoustic' features of the Mozart music affect brain oscillations - or brain waves - which is responsible for reducing EDs".

Researchers have previously hypothesised that the Mozart effect in epilepsy was connected to the emotional effects of music, as dopamine (the main neurotransmitters of the brain's reward system) is released when listening to music. Still, there is no direct proof of the mechanism.

"We found that the reduction in EDs was larger in the lateral temporal lobe, which the part of the brain which participates in translating acoustic signals, rather than in the mesiotemporal limbic region, which plays an important role in the emotional response to music."

"The effects of listening to music on epilepsy cannot be explained by the effect of dopamine released by the reward system", explained Professor Rektor. "Our patients were not music connoisseurs and said they were emotionally indifferent to the two pieces of music. There was, therefore, no reason to believe that K448 evoked more pleasure than No. 94."

Experts believe the study's findings could pave the way for individualised music therapies to be developed to prevent and control epileptic seizures in the future and have called for more research into the effects of music on the brain. Epilepsy affects 6 million people in Europe, and 15 million Europeans have one seizure at some time in their lives.

"Based on our research, we suggest studying the use of musical pieces with well-defined acoustic properties as a non-invasive method to reduce epileptic activity in patients with epilepsy", concluded Professor Rektor.

Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys have gained a deeper insight into the intricacies of autophagy, the process in which cells degrade and recycle cellular components. The findings, published in Current Biology, describe how the "trash bags" in a cell--called autophagosomes--are tagged to direct their movement to the cellular "recycling plants" where waste is processed. The research opens new paths to understanding the relationship between autophagy and age-related diseases such as cancer and neurological disorders.

"Our latest study identifies how a chemical modification (phosphate-related tag) of a key autophagosome component, the protein called LCB3, helps direct the transport of autophagosomes within the cell in the right direction," says Malene Hansen, Ph.D., professor at Sanford Burnham Prebys and senior author of the study. "We previously reported that LCB3, which is found on the surface of autophagosomes, needs to be tagged for autophagy to function effectively. Now we have a better understanding of how tagging happens and how important it is for autophagosome movement."

In addition to their own laboratory studies, the Hansen lab worked with colleagues in the lab of Sandra Encalada, Ph.D., at the Scripps Research Institute, San Diego, leaders in the field of transport of cellular components in neurons. Those investigations showed that blocking the chemical modification of the LC3B protein disrupted the efficient transport of autophagosomes toward the cellular recycling plants.

"Waste transport in a cell is like moving garbage trucks down a highway," says Jose Luis Nieto-Torres, Ph.D., a postdoc in the Hansen laboratory and first author of the study. "Together with our collaborators, we studied the process in nerve cells because they are long and flat, which helps us observe the directional aspects of transport, a critical aspect for waste recycling via autophagy.

"We clearly saw that if phosphate tagging of LC3B was hampered, autophagosomes, or the trash bags filled with waste, failed to move in the direction of lysosomes--cell's recycling plant. This is potentially very harmful to the health of a cell. It's somewhat analogous to what would happen if a garbage truck didn't pick up your trash--your waste could accumulate, become scattered in the neighborhood and create a health hazard."

As a next step, the researchers want to figure out which waste products are selected for recycling and how a cell determines when to start moving the waste.

"My lab's research efforts are focused on the relationship between aging and autophagy," concludes Hansen. "Based on this discovery, we have a new, potential entry point to modulate the activity of recycling in a cell, which may prove relevant to understanding the diminished functions of autophagy that are known to occur in aging cells. Such insights could ultimately lead to new drug targets to combat age-related diseases as well as potential diagnostic markers to assess autophagy 'health,' an important goal for the future."

What The Study Did: Researchers describe the local transmission pattern of SARS-CoV-2 in Valencia, the third most populated city in Spain.

Authors: Carolina Romero García, M.D., Ph.D., of the University General Hospital, European University, in Valencia, Spain, is the corresponding author.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.13818)

Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

CHICAGO --- Scientists have long known the brain's hippocampus is crucial for long-term memory. Now a new Northwestern Medicine study has found the hippocampus also plays a role in short-term memory and helps guide decision-making.

The findings shed light on how the hippocampus contributes to memory and exploration, potentially leading to therapies that restore hippocampal function, which is impacted in memory-related aging and neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia, the study authors said.

In the study, scientists monitored participants' brain activity and tracked their eye movements while looking at different complex pictures. The scientists discovered that as we visually scan our environment and absorb new information, our hippocampus becomes activated, using short-term memory to better process new visual information to help us rapidly reevaluate situations.

How our memory helps us scan new environments

Imagine walking down the street and noticing an awkwardly parked car on your neighbor's lawn. Maybe you quickly dismiss it and move on. But when you see an ambulance and fire truck approaching your location, you connect the dots and look back to see the scene of an accident. By using short-term memory to guide where you look, the hippocampus allows you to reexamine the car and form a lasting memory of the accident.

"At any given moment, your brain rapidly initiates eye movements that you are typically unaware of," said corresponding author James Kragel, a postdoctoral research fellow at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "Our findings suggest the hippocampus uses memory to inform where your eyes look, thereby priming the visual system to learn and reevaluate our environment on the fly.

"If you didn't look back and see the crash, you might not encode that important information, but in using short-term memory retrieval, you can tie those clues together and remember details that cue bigger memories. It all comes down to building connections among these disparate elements that allow you to remember them later in a much easier way."

The study will be published June 18 in the journal Science Advances.

"These findings emphasize that although hippocampal-dependent memory is typically considered a thing of the past, in fact, it operates in the moment to optimize our behavior and decision-making," said senior study author Joel Voss, associate professor of medical social sciences, neurology, and psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Feinberg. "This is key to understanding hippocampal function and developing effective treatments for memory disorders."

"It is as if you are using your memory to plan for what to expect, and then when it mismatches with what is actually unfolding, your hippocampus gets activated to reevaluate and update your current perception of what is going on," Kragel said.

Tracking eye movements to learn more about memory

The study was conducted on patients with epilepsy who were undergoing neurosurgical monitoring at Northwestern Memorial Hospital to localize the source of their seizures. They had electrodes implanted in their brains to map seizure-related brain activity. During their stay in the epilepsy-monitoring unit, participants performed a memory task in which they studied lists of complex scenes with multiple people and objects (e.g. someone sitting at a park bench with food on the table, things happening in the background) followed by a memory test.

During the test, the participants indicated whether a presented scene was old or new. Throughout the task, the authors simultaneously recorded eye movements and neural activity to link hippocampal activity to memory-guided behaviors.

When studying a scene for the first time, participants often returned their gaze to a location they had just viewed hundreds of milliseconds prior. These "revisitation" eye movements enhanced spatiotemporal memory for scenes (remembering where an object was located or the sequence in which something happened). Brain recordings revealed the brain networks involved in generating these "revisitations," as hippocampal activity shifted just before their execution. Increases in brain activity followed revisitations, which Kragel believes may form a lasting memory of the scene and its elements.

"This shows that the hippocampal contribution to memory unfolds over just hundreds of milliseconds during ongoing behavior, which is surprising given that the timecourse of its involvement, typically seen in long-term memory retrieval, is usually thought to be days to years," Voss said.

Identifying the causes of human neurodegenerative diseases is a global research priority, warranting frequent reviews of the accumulating knowledge. In doing just that, biologists from the Plant Physiology Laboratory at the University of Guam and neuroscientists from the Experimental Medicine Program at The University of British Columbia have published an update on the reputed environmental toxins that have been suspected of being involved in mammal neurodegeneration. Their summary was published in April in the book Spectrums of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, which is available online from the publisher Wiley Blackwell.

A decades-long search for a dementia-causing toxin

Interest in the correlations between environmental toxins and neurodegeneration focused the world's magnifying glass on the island of Guam in the 1950s due to an unexpected increase in cases of neurodegenerative cases among the indigenous CHamoru population. The specific condition that temporarily affected Guam is known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-parkinsonism dementia (ALS-PDC) and known locally by the CHamoru term lytico-bodig.

A focus on this isolated cluster of cases led to decades of pursuit of causal toxins found in seeds of Guam's native cycad tree. These seeds were components of the local cuisine at the time, and increased reliance on this form of food starch during World War II was a plausible hypothesis to explain the increase in neurodegeneration cases shortly after the war.

Several factors likely coalesce

An ebb and flow of sequential disappointments has evolved since the 1950s because the identification of a single causal cycad toxin remains elusive.

But these disappointments have been countered by successes. It is now understood that several factors likely coalesce into a synchronized perfect storm to generate an unusual increase in localized neurodegenerative cases, such as what temporarily happened on Guam. These co-factors may include exposure to high doses of the environmental toxin by the most susceptible gender with the most susceptible genes at the most susceptible age, followed by a latency period before the neuronal damage begins to express itself.

The UOG-UBC collaboration has lasted more than two decades, and various members of the team have authored more than 100 journal articles on various aspects of cycad biology during that time. The toxicology of Guam cycad seeds was the subject of 14 of these publications.

"When I began collaborating with UOG, we had the benefit of building on the foundation of decades of research from Guam," said co-author Christopher Shaw, UBC neuroscientist. "We used the fact that no plant scientist had been directly involved in any of the previously published research to secure funds to revisit various issues concerning cycad seed toxins."

Difference between acute and slow-acting toxins

One of the many confusing aspects of this research is that acute toxins, which cause immediate poison reactions following cycad seed ingestion, are distinct from slow-acting toxins, which lead to neurodegeneration.

"The distinctions between these two forms of toxins are often confused, and scientists are constantly reminding the public that many years need to elapse after the exposure to a slow plant toxin before negative health outcomes develop," said Benjamin Deloso, a cycad biologist with UOG.

Claims of cyanide poisoning inaccurate

Another benefit from the marathon pursuit of the causal cycad toxin is that an enormous body of literature has developed that uncovered which biomolecules are not at play.
"This is how science works," Shaw said. "The aggressive empirical look at each candidate toxin was justified and refined the development of superseding hypotheses that were vigorously tested."

For example, cassava roots contain sugar-based molecules that liberate cyanide after ingestion by mammals, and cycad seeds contain similar molecules, but cycad seeds contain no free cyanide and the identified sugar-based cycad molecules in cycads are incapable of liberating toxic levels of cyanide following ingestion by mammals. The meticulous research revealed the claims of cyanide as a potential cycad toxin and that cycad seed consumption could cause cyanide poisoning were inaccurate.

"Throwing around fear-mongering buzzwords, like cyanide, is a classic example of a repetition of false information in order to drive a personal agenda," Deloso said. "There are even petitions being circulated that falsely claim that cycad plants contain cyanide in attempts to force retail nurseries to stop selling cycad plants to pet owners."

The research team contends that scientists are not immune from the mistake of repeating these sorts of false claims about cycads. This tends to happen when scientists get their information from the gray literature or online encyclopedia style websites that are not vetted by cycad experts.

The authors hope that one outcome of their new publication is a decline in the spread of false information about cycad poisoning, as these untruthful statements damage the international community's attempts to improve cycad conservation.

The population on Earth is increasingly growing and people are expected to live longer in the future. Thus, better and more reliable therapies to treat human diseases such as Alzheimer's and cardiovascular diseases are crucial. To cope with the challenge of ensuring healthy ageing, a group of international scientists investigated the potential of biosynthesising several polyamines and polyamines analogues with already known functionalities in treating and preventing age-related diseases.

One of the most interesting molecules to study was spermidine, which is a natural product already present in people's blood and an inducer of autophagy that is an essential cellular process for clearing damaged proteins, e.g., misfolded proteins in brain cells that can cause Alzheimer's. When people get older the level of spermidine in the blood decrease and dietary supplements, or certain food products are needed to maintain a stable and high level of spermidine in the blood. However, those products are difficult to produce with traditional chemistry due to their structural complexity and extraction of natural resources is neither a commercially viable nor a sustainable approach.

Therefore, the researchers instead decided to open their biochemical toolbox and use classical metabolic engineering strategies to engineer the yeast metabolism to produce polyamines and polyamines analogues.

"This group of molecules has huge potential in addressing important societal challenges and it seemed logical to try and produce them with the help of biology," emphasises Jiufu Qin, Senior Researcher at The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, DTU.

Solid vantage point

The team of scientists explored seven biosynthetic routes that synthesises spermidine from arginine or ornithine and by employing flux balance analysis they could estimate the maximum theoretical yield of each pathway.

After establishing the most efficient pathway for spermidine and systematically engineering the cellular metabolism of yeast they managed to ultimately reach a production of spermidine at titers 2.3 gram per liter on lab scale. An initial result that proves the potential of utilising nature's large and diverse reservoir of biochemical tools to push forward products that can meet the challenges of population ageing and a lack of sufficient food supplies.

"We expect that our studies lay the groundwork for fermentation-based manufacture of diverse polyamines and polyamine analogues to further unlock this field's potential for pharmacological and agricultural applications, "says Jens Nielsen, Professor at Chalmers University of Technology and CEO at BioInnovation Institute.

But all that glitter is not gold and an obstacle such as low enzyme activity causing feedback regulation and thereby compromising the product yield still needs to be overcome.

Hit the nail on the head

Even though the strain might need to be improved further, scale-up towards commercial production is already ongoing since the current titers are deemed sufficient for initialising production.

The company Chrysea Labs has been established based on this scientific study and the company has a mission of developing healthy lifespan nutritional interventions by ameliorating the natural occurring anti-ageing mechanism autophagy that recycle the cellular process, which is critical for maintaining cell health, renewal and survival.

Since the market is expected to grow in the coming years and only a few competitors are currently present in the field there might be a window of opportunity for Chrysea Labs to be a frontrunner in ensuring healthy ageing.

That is the conclusion of new research published in the journal Geriatrics, which examined studies on several "telehealth" applications - smartphone apps used by patients and healthcare professionals to manage their condition.

Researchers found that smartphone apps and telehealth initiatives have the potential to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare systems and patients' quality of life in relation to pain management

The authors also emphasise that user involvement in development and construction of smartphone apps and telehealth initiatives is vital to enhance acceptability and usability.

However, the study also advised that enhanced systems, policies and procedures are needed in order to prevent unethical use of health data across the health system.

According to the United Nations, the global population of over 65s is growing at a faster rate than any other age group. The population of older adults is expected to be at 1.5 billion by 2050.

Co-author Dr Antonio Bonocaro, Senior Lecturer in Adult and Acute Care Nursing at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), said: "Chronic pain is a significant cause of disability. The current COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted normal healthcare delivery, making it harder for people to physically access services, and even in normal times, healthcare services are under increasing strain.

"Our research found there is considerable potential for apps to actively support older people with their pain management and also improve communication with health professionals when physical services are unobtainable. They are cheap, informal, and popular.

"However, telehealth apps are mostly produced without getting users involved in the developmental process. The need for information sharing, education, and self-administration of pain relief is almost completely neglected.

"Data protection is a big concern for patients. The importance of data privacy and confidentiality should be acknowledged, and encryption and password-protected access to any data is important."

Footprints from at least six different species of dinosaur - the very last dinosaurs to walk on UK soil 110 million years ago - have been found in Kent, a new report has announced.

The discovery of dinosaur footprints by a curator from Hastings Museum and Art Gallery and a scientist from the University of Portsmouth is the last record of dinosaurs in Britain.

The footprints were discovered in the cliffs and on the foreshore in Folkestone, Kent, where stormy conditions affect the cliff and coastal waters, and are constantly revealing new fossils.

Professor of Palaeobiology, David Martill, said: "This is the first time dinosaur footprints have been found in strata known as the 'Folkestone Formation' and it's quite an extraordinary discovery because these dinosaurs would have been the last to roam in this country before becoming extinct.

"They were walking around close to where the White Cliffs of Dover are now - next time you're on a ferry and you see those magnificent cliffs just imagine that!"

The footprint fossils formed by sediment filling the impression left behind when a dinosaur's foot pushes into the ground, which then preserves it.

The footprints are from a variety of dinosaurs, which shows there was a relatively high diversity of dinosaurs in southern England at the end of the Early Cretaceous period, 110 million years ago.

They are thought to be from ankylosaurs, rugged-looking armoured dinosaurs which were like living tanks; theropods, three-toed flesh-eating dinosaurs like the Tyrannosaurus rex; and ornithopods, plant-eating 'bird-hipped' dinosaurs so-called because of their pelvic structure being a little bit similar to birds.

Philip Hadland, Collections and Engagement Curator at the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery is lead author on the paper. He said: "Back in 2011, I came across unusual impressions in the rock formation at Folkestone. They seemed to be repeating and all I could think was they might be footprints.

"This was at odds with what most geologists say about the rocks here, but I went looking for more footprints and as the tides revealed more by erosion, I found even better ones. More work was needed to convince the scientific community of their validity, so I teamed up with experts at the University of Portsmouth to verify what I'd found."

Most of the findings are isolated footprints, but one discovery comprises six footprints - making a 'trackway', which is more than one consecutive print from the same animal.

This trackway of prints are similar in size to an elephant footprint and have been identified as likely to be an Ornithopodichnus, of which similar, but smaller-sized footprints have also been found in China from the same time period.

The largest footprint found - measuring 80 cm in width and 65 cm in length - has been identified as belonging to an Iguanodon-like dinosaur. Iguanodons were also plant-eaters, grew up to 10 metres long and walked on both two legs or on all fours.

Professor Martill said: "To find such an array of species in one place is fascinating. These dinosaurs probably took advantage of the tidal exposures on coastal foreshores, perhaps foraging for food or taking advantage of clear migration routes."

In the Late Cretaceous period, this part of Kent, and indeed much of the United Kingdom was beneath a shallow sea, but this study also shows unequivocally that the Folkestone Formation was inter-tidal.

Mr Hadland said: "Aside from finding that dinosaurs went to the seaside just like their modern relatives the birds, we have also found new evidence that changes the interpretation of the geology of the Folkestone Formation strata.

"It just goes to show that what has been previously published about the geology of an area isn't always correct and new insights can be made. There is also the potential for almost anyone to make a discovery that adds to scientific knowledge from publicly accessible geological sites."

The paper is published in Proceedings of the Geologists' Association and some of the footprints are currently on display at Folkestone Museum.