Publisher Health

In a new University of California, Irvine-led study, researchers define how the circadian clock influences cell growth, metabolism and tumor progression. Their research also reveals how disruption of the circadian clock impacts genome stability and mutations that can further drive critical tumor promoting pathways in the intestine.
The study, titled, “Disruption of the Circadian Clock drives Apc Loss of Heterozygosity to Accelerate Colorectal Cancer,”was published today in Science Advances.
In this study, researchers found that both genetic disruption and environmental disruption of the circadian clock contribute to the mutation of the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) tumor suppressor, which is found in the vast majority of human colorectal cancers (CRC). APC point mutations, deletions, and loss of heterozygosity (LOH) events have been reported in ~80 percent of human CRC cases, and it is these mutations that drive the initiation of intestinal adenoma development.
“As a society, we are exposed to several environmental factors that influence our biological clock, including night shift work, extended light exposure, changes in sleep/wake cycles and altered feeding behavior,” said Selma Masri, PhD, assistant professor of biological chemistry at UCI School of Medicine. “Strikingly, we have seen an alarming increase in several young-onset cancers, including colorectal cancer. The underlying cause of this increased incidence of cancer in adults in their 20s and 30s remains undefined. However, based on our findings, we now believe that disruption of the circadian clock plays an important role.”
According to the National Institutes of Health, there has been an alarming rise in early-onset colorectal cancer among young individuals. Today, nearly 10 percent of CRC cases are now diagnosed in people younger than 50 years, and this trend is on a steady rise. Suspected risk factors include environmental aspects, such as lifestyle and dietary factors, which are known to affect the circadian clock.
APC mutations are also associated with second hits in key oncogenic pathways, including Kras, Braf, p53, and Smad4, and these mutations drive progression to adenocarcinoma, collectively contributing to disease progression. Our findings now implicate circadian clock disruption in driving additional genomic mutations that are critical for accelerating colorectal cancer.
The circadian clock is an internal biological pacemaker that governs numerous physiological processes. Research in the Masri Lab is primarily focused on how disruption of the circadian clock is involved in the development and progression of certain cancer types. Researchers in the Masri Lab are actively pursuing further research aimed at defining how the circadian clock impacts other cancer types.
Financial support for this study was provided by the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute, the Concern Foundation, the V Foundation for Cancer Research, the Care Research Coordinating Committee, Johnson and Johnson, and the UCI Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Anti-Cancer Challenge.
Story Source:
Materials provided by University of California – Irvine. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

In firefighting, the worst flames are the ones you don’t see coming. Amid the chaos of a burning building, it is difficult to notice the signs of impending flashover — a deadly fire phenomenon wherein nearly all combustible items in a room ignite suddenly. Flashover is one of the leading causes of firefighter deaths, but new research suggests that artificial intelligence (AI) could provide first responders with a much-needed heads-up.
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and other institutions have developed a Flashover Prediction Neural Network (FlashNet) model to forecast the lethal events precious seconds before they erupt. In a new study published in Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, FlashNet boasted an accuracy of up to 92.1% across more than a dozen common residential floorplans in the U.S. and came out on top when going head-to-head with other AI-based flashover predicting programs.
Flashovers tend to suddenly flare up at approximately 600 degrees Celsius (1,100 degrees Fahrenheit) and can then cause temperatures to shoot up further. To anticipate these events, existing research tools either rely on constant streams of temperature data from burning buildings or use machine learning to fill in the missing data in the likely event that heat detectors succumb to high temperatures.
Until now, most machine learning-based prediction tools, including one the authors previously developed, have been trained to operate in a single, familiar environment. In reality, firefighters are not afforded such luxury. As they charge into hostile territory, they may know little to nothing about the floorplan, the location of fire or whether doors are open or closed.
“Our previous model only had to consider four or five rooms in one layout, but when the layout switches and you have 13 or 14 rooms, it can be a nightmare for the model,” said NIST mechanical engineer Wai Cheong Tam, co-first author of the new study. “For real-world application, we believe the key is to move to a generalized model that works for many different buildings.”
To cope with the variability of real fires, the researchers beefed up their approach with graph neural networks (GNN), a kind of machine learning algorithm good at making judgments based on graphs of nodes and lines, representing different data points and their relationships with one another.
“GNNs are frequently used for estimated time of arrival, or ETA, in traffic where you can be analyzing 10 to 50 different roads. It’s very complicated to properly make use of that kind of information simultaneously, so that’s where we got the idea to use GNNs,” said Eugene Yujun Fu, a research assistant professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and study co-first author. “Except for our application, we’re looking at rooms instead of roads and are predicting flashover events instead of ETA in traffic.”
The researchers digitally simulated more than 41,000 fires in 17 kinds of buildings, representing a majority of the U.S. residential building stock. In addition to layout, factors such as the origin of the fire, types of furniture and whether doors and windows were open or closed varied throughout. They provided the GNN model with a set of nearly 25,000 fire cases to use as study material and then 16,000 for fine tuning and final testing.
Across the 17 kinds of homes, the new model’s accuracy depended on the amount of data it had to chew on and the lead time it sought to provide firefighters. However, the model’s accuracy — at best, 92.1% with 30 seconds of lead time — outperformed five other machine-learning-based tools, including the authors’ previous model. Critically, the tool produced the least false negatives, dangerous cases where the models fail to predict an imminent flashover.
The authors threw FlashNet into scenarios where it had no prior information about the specifics of a building and the fire burning inside it, similar to the situation firefighters often find themselves in. Given those constraints, the tool’s performance was quite promising, Tam said. However, the authors still have a ways to go before they can take FlashNet across the finish line. As a next step, they plan to battle-test the model with real-world, rather than simulated, data.
“In order to fully test our model’s performance, we actually need to build and burn our own structures and include some real sensors in them,” Tam said. “At the end of the day, that’s a must if we want to deploy this model in real fire scenarios.”

Supported byContinue reading the main storyBiden Signs Bill to Help Veterans Who Were Exposed to Toxic Burn PitsPresident Biden, who has long advocated the expanded benefits, has speculated that his son Beau developed brain cancer because of exposure to burn pits when he served in Iraq.Send any friend a storyAs a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.President Biden signed a bill that addresses the ailments that some veterans have suffered after being in proximity to trash fires on military bases.Leigh Vogel for The New York TimesAug. 10, 2022, 12:49 p.m. ETWASHINGTON — President Biden on Wednesday signed into law a bill that expands medical benefits for veterans who were exposed to toxins from burning pits of trash on military bases, ending a yearslong quest for support by veterans and their families.The issue is deeply personal for the president, who has long speculated that his son Beau developed brain cancer because of exposure to burn pits when he served in Iraq as a member of the Delaware National Guard. Before signing the legislation, Mr. Biden described the lingering effects of the exposures.“Toxic smoke, thick with poisons, spreading through the air and into the lungs of our troops,” he said. “When they came home, many of the fittest and best warriors that we sent to war were not the same. Headaches, numbness, dizziness, cancer. My son, Beau, was one of them.”In a ceremony packed with veterans and their families in the East Room of the White House, Mr. Biden called the new law progress toward fulfilling “a sacred obligation” to those who defended the nation and their families. The law passed despite a last-minute delay by Republican senators, who blocked its passage but backed down after an intense backlash.“This is the most significant law our nation has ever passed to help millions of veterans who are exposed to toxic substances during their military services,” Mr. Biden said, adding a few minutes later: “This law is long overdue. We finally got it done, together.”The Biden PresidencyWith midterm elections looming, here’s where President Biden stands.A Sudden Shift: With progress on major legislation and falling gas prices, President Biden faces the challenge of making those successes resonate.Struggling to Inspire: At a time of political tumult and economic distress, Mr. Biden has appeared less engaged than Democrats had hoped.Low Approval Rating: For Mr. Biden, a pervasive sense of pessimism among voters has pushed his approval rating to a perilously low point.Questions About 2024: Mr. Biden has said he plans to run for a second term, but at 79, his age has become an uncomfortable issue.A Familiar Foreign Policy: So far, Mr. Biden’s approach to foreign policy is surprisingly consistent with the Trump administration, analysts say.The legislation addresses the effects that some veterans suffer after sleeping and working in proximity to large fires on military bases where trash — including tires, jet fuel, chemicals and other equipment — were burned, creating large clouds of smoke. Research suggests that toxins in the smoke may be responsible for a series of ailments suffered by veterans, including cancer, bronchial asthma, allergic rhinitis, sleep apnea, bronchitis and sinusitis.The new law, known as the PACT Act, makes it easier for veterans who believe they were exposed to toxins during their service to apply for medical benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The law creates a $280 billion stream of federal funding, making it one of the largest expansions of veterans benefits in American history.In his remarks, Mr. Biden praised the many years of work by family members and activists, singling out Jon Stewart, the comedian, for his impassioned and sometimes angry demands that politicians pass the bill.“What you’ve done, Jon, matters, and you know it does,” Mr. Biden said to Mr. Stewart, who was in the room for the signing ceremony. “You should know. It really, really matters. You refused to let anybody forget. Refused to let them forget, and we owe you big, man.”Mr. Stewart, who has been lobbying for the bill for years, was particularly vocal last month, when Republican senators abruptly refused to support the measure, citing concerns that it was structured in a way that could create a costly new entitlement. The legislation had passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in the House, and the Republican senators who objected had voiced their firm support only weeks earlier.Appearing on CNN after the Republicans blocked the bill, Mr. Stewart was livid, helping to spur an intense reaction that led to the bill’s final passage days later.“I’m used to lies. I’m used to hypocrisy. I’m used to their cowardice,” Mr. Stewart told Jake Tapper on CNN’s “The Lead” program. “I’m not used to the cruelty, the casual cruelty.”In his remarks on Wednesday, Mr. Biden did not mention the Republican obstruction. Instead, he focused on the bipartisan nature of the agreement, citing its passage as evidence that he has made good on his promise to bridge ideological divides in the nation’s capital to get things done.“I don’t want to hear the press tell me Democrats, Republicans can’t work together,” he said. “We got it done, and we got it done together.”Danielle Robinson, the wife of Sgt. Heath Robinson, who died of lung cancer after serving in Iraq, spent years helping to lead the fight for the new veterans benefits. The legislation was named after her husband.In her own remarks at the White House, Ms. Robinson described how her husband developed cancer a decade after returning from combat. She thanked Mr. Biden and the other activists for pushing lawmakers to pass legislation that will make it easier to receive medical treatment and benefits after similar exposures.“So many veterans are still battling burn pit illnesses today,” she said. “Too many have succumbed to those illnesses as well. And I’m honored to be with the father of another military family that understands the ultimate sacrifice like we do — our commander in chief, President Joe Biden.”Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015.

In a study recently published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, a team of researchers led by C. Patrick Reynolds, M.D., Ph.D., director for the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) School of Medicine Cancer Center, sought to expand upon his lab’s previous research that showed ALT tumors identified by a biomarker known as C-circles share a common biology that confers vulnerabilities to be exploited for cancer therapy. The paper is titled, “Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres in Cancer Confers a Vulnerability to Reactivation of p53 Function.”
Reynolds and his team of collaborators, all affiliated with the TTUHSC School of Medicine Cancer Center, included Shawn Macha, Balakrishna Koneru, Trevor A. Burrow, Charles Zhu, Dzmitry Savitski, Rakhshanda L. Rahman, M.D., Catherine A. Ronaghan, M.D., Jonas Nance, Kristyn McCoy and Cody Eslinger. The Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas, the National Cancer Institute and Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation funded the project.
A subset of cancers exist that produce predominantly poor outcomes because their cells employ a mechanism known as alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) to maintain telomere length so they can continue to grow and multiply. Telomeres are caps on the end of chromosomes that serve as protectors for the genetic information contained within the cell.
To continue growing and multiplying, cancer cells must maintain their telomeres using telomere maintenance mechanisms (TMM). Without TMM, telomeres begin to erode and the cancer cell dies. The most common TMM uses a cell enzyme known as telomerase that has the ability to add DNA to the ends of chromosomes.
However, some cancer cells are able to grow continuously without turning on telomerase. Instead, they grow by using an alternate lengthening of telomeres (ALT) mechanism that can repair telomeres without telomerase. The presence of ALT has been found to be extensive in high-risk neuroblastoma and certain sarcomas, and ALT cancers are a major clinical challenge that lack targeted therapeutic approaches.
To conduct their study, the Reynolds team employed the C-circle assay to evaluate a variety of childhood and adult cancers. They found ALT positivity in pediatric cancers (neuroblastoma and sarcoma) and in adult cancers (breast, colon and lung cancers). The frequency of ALT ranged from 10% to 78%, depending on the type of cancer.

A scientific breakthrough from the Tel Aviv and Haifa Universities may facilitate speedy, objective and accurate diagnosis of people suffering from PTSD using saliva samples. As part of the study, the researchers characterized the psychological, social and medical conditions of about 200 participants, while at the same time collecting saliva samples from them.
The findings of this study show a typical microbial picture in the saliva of veteran soldiers who had experienced combat stress-related reactions (from the first Lebanon War) and are currently suffering from post-trauma.
According to the researchers, these results may help in the future to reach an accurate and objective diagnosis of people suffering from post-trauma, and to develop microbiotic-related medications (associated with the body’s microbial ecology).
This study was published in Nature’s Molecular Psychiatry journal.
The study was a joint effort by eminent scholars from various fields. It was led by Professor Illana Gozes and included Professor Noam Shomron, Dr. Shlomo Sragovich and Ph.D. student Guy Shapira, (all from TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Sagol School of Neuroscience) as well as Prof. Zahava Solomon from TAU’s Gershon Gordon Faculty of Social Sciences, and Prof. Abraham Sagi-Schwartz and PhD student Ella Levert-Levitt from the Center for the Study of Child Development and the School of Psychological Sciences at Haifa University. The participants in the study came from a larger cohort of subjects from a comprehensive four-decade-long study of veterans by Prof. Solomon.
This study was also supported by IDF’s Medical Corps Department of Health and Well-Being and Dr. Ariel Ben Yehuda, former chief of the above Department and currently, a Department Manager in the Mental Health Medical Center in Shalvata, Clallit Health Services. The study also involved collaboration with the Charité University Medicine in Berlin and its microbiology experts Dr. Markus M. Heimesaat and Professor Stefan Bereswill, as well as with the University of Hong Kong, which is studying the effects of air pollution, Professors Victor Li and Jacqueline Lam.
The researchers tested a unique group of about 200 Israeli veteran soldiers who had fought in the first Lebanon War in 1982. The test covered various psychological aspects, including sleep, appetite disorders, guilt, suicidal thoughts, social and spousal support, hostility, satisfaction with life, as well as issues of demographics, psychopathology, welfare, health and education.
Comparing the results of the subjects’ microbial distribution to the psychological results and their responses to the welfare questionnaires, the researchers from the universities of Tel Aviv and Haifa found that people with PTSD and high psychopathological indications exhibit the same picture of bacteria in the saliva (a unique oral microbiotic signature). According to the researchers, this study is significant in that for the first time, we might be able to diagnose post-trauma by objective criteria and not just behavioral ones. It is interesting to note here that the saliva bacteria of those exposed to air pollution showed a correlation to the picture with PTSD, while the number of years of education showed a protective influence and a reverse picture of the microbial ecology in the saliva.
Prof. Illana Gozes: “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first depiction of a microbial signature in the saliva among veteran soldiers with PTSD. We were surprised to discover that about a third of the PTSD subjects had never been diagnosed with post-trauma, so they never received any recognition from the Ministry of Defense and the official authorities.
It must be stressed that until now, post-trauma diagnosis has been based solely on psychological and psychiatric measures. Thanks to this study, it may be possible, in the future, to use objective molecular and biological characteristics to distinguish PSTD sufferers, taking into account environmental influences. We hope that this new discovery and the microbial signatures described in this study might promote easier diagnosis of post-traumatic veteran soldiers so they can receive appropriate treatment.”
Story Source:
Materials provided by Tel-Aviv University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

A new study led by University of Ottawa professors has found Canadian provinces that annually screen women aged 40-49 had lower proportions of advanced breast cancer compared to women aged 50-59 from provinces that did not hold annual mammograms.
The study, published in the latest edition of Current Oncology, found lower proportions of stage 2, 3 and 4 breast cancer in women 40-49 and lower proportions of stage 2 and 3 breast cancer in women 50-59 from provinces which screened the 40-49 age subset annually.
“This is the first Canadian study to show that screening policies for women 40-49 impact women 50-59,” said co-lead author Dr. Anna Wilkinson, an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at uOttawa. “Women who are not screened in their Forties are presenting with later stage breast cancer in their Fifties. This means more intensive treatment and a worse prognosis for these women than if their cancers were diagnosed at an earlier stage.”
Dr. Wilkinson and fellow lead author Dr. Jean Seely reviewed the data of 55,490 women between the ages of 40-49 and 50-59 from the Canadian Cancer Registry who were diagnosed with breast cancer between 2010 and 2017. They evaluated the impact of the 2011 Canadian breast cancer screening guidelines by looking at changes in the incidence of breast cancer by stage from 2011 to 2017.
The authors found that since Canadian guidelines changed in 2011 to recommend against screening women 40-49, there has been a 13.6% decrease in incidence of stage 1 and a 12.6% increase in stage 2 for women in their Forties. For women in their Fifties, the incidence of stage 2 increased by 3.1% over the same period. In provinces which did not continue to have organised screening programs for women 40-49, there was a 10.3% increase in stage 4 breast cancer in women 50-59 over the six years.
Survival rates decrease in relation to the more advanced stage of breast cancer at diagnosis. The five-year survival rate for stage 1 breast cancer is 99.8% compared to 23.2% for cancers diagnosed by stage 4. Such outcomes potentially lead to more advanced cancer and intensive treatments and surgeries and increased mortality.
“This is a great example of the benefit of using Canadian Cancer Registry data housed at Statistics Canada to take advantage of studying the effect of different policies regarding ages to start screening. Our findings align with recently updated USA National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines that recommend annual screening mammography for average risk women beginning at age 40,” said Dr. Jean Seely, Head of Breast Imaging at The Ottawa Hospital and Professor at uOttawa’s Faculty of Medicine.
“Further work will be needed to determine whether finding these cancers at an earlier stage translates into fewer fatal breast cancers and improved long-term outcomes.”
Canadian jurisdictions have different polices for screening women starting at age 40 or 50 despite evidence that early detection of breast cancer leads to improved survival rates. The provinces and territories utilizing annual screening reminders for women in their Forties during the study period were British Columbia, Alberta, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. Currently, only Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Yukon employ annual reminders.
Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Ottawa. Original written by Paul Logothetis. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Understanding which cells give rise to which areas of cancer can improve our understanding of how a tumour has grown and developed, including how it has changed genetically, over time. This has been made possible using a new technique called spatial transcriptomics, which allows scientists to see what genetic changes take place without breaking up the tissue they’re looking at. This adds a new dimension which researchers have now used to reveal which cells have mutated and where within the ecosystem of an organ.
Current techniques for studying the genetics of cells within tumours involve taking a sample from the cancerous area and analysing the DNA of those cells. The problem is that many cancers, such as prostate cancer, are three dimensional, which means that any one sample would only give a small snapshot of the tumour.
In a new study published in Nature and funded by Cancer Research UK, the researchers used spatial transcriptomics to create a cross-sectional map of a whole prostate, including areas of healthy and cancerous cells. By grouping cells according to similar genetic identity, they were surprised to see areas of supposedly healthy tissue that already had many of the genetic characteristics of cancer. This finding was surprising because of both the genetic variability within the tissue as well as the large number of cells that would be considered healthy, but whichcontained mutations usually identified with cancerous cells.
Alastair Lamb of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, who jointly led the study, said: “Prostate tissue is three-dimensional, and like most organs that can develop cancer we still have much to learn about what cellular changes cause cancer and where it starts. One thing we are fairly confident of is that it starts with genetic mutations.
“We have never had this level of resolution available before, and this new approach revealed some surprising results. For example, we have found that many of the copy number events we previously thought to be linked specifically to cancer are actually already present in benign tissue. This has big implications for diagnosis and also potentially for deciding which bits of a cancer need treating.”
Professor Joakim Lundeberg of KTH Royal Institute of Technology, said: “Mapping thousands of tissue regions in a single experiment is an unprecedented approach to deconvolute the heterogeneity of tumours and their microenvironment. This high-resolution view impacts our way of addressing complex ecosystems such as cancer. The possibility to identify early events is particularly exciting going forward.”
Furthermore, the researchers analysed more than 150,000 regions in three prostates, two breast cancers, some skin, a lymph node and some brain tissue, and developed an algorithm to track groups of cells with similar genetic changes -clones- in their precise location. This approach enabled them to zoom right in from visible tissue through microscopic multi-cellular structures and right into the genes themselves, while keeping hold of the overall landscape of tissue.
Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Oxford. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Drugs called interferon betas are common treatments for multiple sclerosis (MS), reducing relapses and slowing motor function decline. Interferon beta, a protein known to contain a zinc binding pocket, is thought to reduce proinflammatory molecules and even increase production of anti-inflammatory species in MS patients. But researchers now report in ACS Chemical Neuroscience that the molecule reduces the binding of three components — zinc, C-peptide and albumin — to red blood cells.
According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, almost a million people in the U.S. and about 2.8 million people worldwide live with MS. This autoimmune disease damages the myelin sheath, an insulating layer of proteins and fats wrapped around nerves, which leads to impaired neuronal signaling. People with MS typically have pain, numbness and mobility issues that worsen over time.
Cells that make myelin are sensitive to adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and nitric oxide (NO), molecules that are present in high amounts in the blood and brain lesions of MS patients. Red blood cells can release NO directly, but they can also stimulate NO production in the lining of blood vessels by releasing ATP. NO can then go on to damage nerves in MS patients. Zinc, C-peptide — which is secreted by the pancreas along with insulin — and albumin are key players in the latter process, and they can latch onto red blood cells. Because interferon beta can bind zinc, it seemed possible that the drug helped patients by sopping up this mineral, so Dana Spence and colleagues wanted to investigate further.
In lab tests, the researchers found that red blood cells from MS patients bound more zinc, C-peptide and albumin than cells from control subjects. Treatment with interferon beta reduced this interaction in MS samples down to control levels. Albumin boosted zinc and C-peptide binding to MS red blood cells, and this effect went away with interferon beta treatment. From these data, the researchers conclude that it’s likely the drug is inhibiting albumin binding, keeping it from delivering its cargo of C-peptide and zinc to red blood cells so that NO can be made.
The authors acknowledge funding from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
Story Source:
Materials provided by American Chemical Society. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Urinary tract infections are common, yet are increasingly tough to treat because the bacteria that cause them are becoming resistant to many antibiotics. Now, in ACS Central Science, researchers report a new molecule that inhibits drug-resistant bacteria in lab experiments, as well as in mice with pneumonia and urinary tract infections. The researchers say that this compound, fabimycin, could one day be used to treat challenging infections in humans.
Gram-negative bacteria are a class of microbes that infect millions of people worldwide, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, causing conditions such as pneumonia, urinary tract infections and bloodstream infections. These bacteria are especially difficult to treat because they have strong defense systems – tough cell walls that keep most antibiotics out and pumps that efficiently remove those antibiotics that get inside. The microbes can also mutate to evade multiple drugs. Furthermore, treatments that do work aren’t very specific, eradicating many kinds of bacteria, including those that are beneficial. So, Paul Hergenrother and colleagues wanted to design a drug that could infiltrate the defenses of gram-negative bacteria and treat infections, while leaving other helpful microbes intact.
The team started with an antibiotic that was active against gram-positive bacteria and made a series of structural modifications that they believed would allow it to act against gram-negative strains. One of the modified compounds, dubbed fabimycin, proved potent against more than 300 drug-resistant clinical isolates, while remaining relatively inactive toward certain gram-positive pathogens and some typically harmless bacteria that live in or on the human body. In addition, the new molecule reduced the amount of drug-resistant bacteria in mice with pneumonia or urinary tract infections to pre-infection levels or below, performing as well as or better than existing antibiotics at similar doses. The researchers say the results show that fabimycin could one day be an effective treatment for stubborn infections.
The authors acknowledge funding from the University of Illinois, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator, Anita and Josh Bekenstein, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, Military Infectious Diseases Research Program and the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust.
Story Source:
Materials provided by American Chemical Society. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Researchers at NYU Tandon have reached a key milestone in their quest to develop wearable technology that manages to measure key brain mechanisms through the skin.
Rose Faghih, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, has been working for the last seven years on a technology that can measure mental activity using electrodermal activity (EDA) — an electrical phenomenon of the skin that is influenced by brain activity related to emotional status. Internal stresses, whether caused by pain, exhaustion, or a particularly packed schedule, can cause changes in the EDA — changes that are directly correlated to mental states.
The overarching goal — a Multimodal Intelligent Noninvasive brain state Decoder for Wearable AdapTive Closed-loop arcHitectures, or MINDWATCH, as Faghih calls it — would act as a way to monitor a wearer’s mental state, and offer nudges that would help them revert back to a more neutral state of mind. For example, if a person was experiencing a particularly severe bout of work-related stress, the MINDWATCH could pick up on this and automatically play some relaxing music.
Now Faghih — along with Rafiul Amin, her former PhD student — has accomplished a crucial task required for monitoring this information. For the first time, they have developed a novel inference engine that can monitor brain activity through the skin in real time with high scalability and accuracy. The results are featured in a new paper, “Physiological Characterization of Electrodermal Activity Enables Scalable Near Real-Time Autonomic Nervous System Activation Inference,” published in PLOS Computational Biology.
“Inferring autonomic nervous system activation from wearable devices in real-time opens new opportunities for monitoring and improving mental health and cognitive engagement,” according to Faghih.
Previous methods measuring sympathetic nervous system activation through the skin took minutes, which is not practical for wearable devices. While her earlier work focused on inferring brain activity through sweat activation and other factors, the new study additionally models the sweat glands themselves. The model includes a 3D state-space representation of the direct secretion of sweat via pore opening, as well as diffusion followed by corresponding evaporation and reabsorption. This detailed model of the glands provides exceptional insight into inferring the brain activity.