Publisher Health

A recent study finds that unhealthy eating behaviors at night can make people less helpful and more withdrawn the next day at work.
“For the first time, we have shown that healthy eating immediately affects our workplace behaviors and performance,” says Seonghee “Sophia” Cho, corresponding author of the study and an assistant professor of psychology at North Carolina State University. “It is relatively well established that other health-related behaviors, such as sleep and exercise, affect our work. But nobody had looked at the short-term effects of unhealthy eating.”
Fundamentally, the researchers had two questions: Does unhealthy eating behavior affect you at work the next day? And, if so, why?
For the study, researchers had 97 full-time employees in the United States answer a series of questions three times a day for 10 consecutive workdays. Before work on each day, study participants answered questions related to their physical and emotional well-being. At the end of each workday, participants answered questions about what they did at work. In the evening, before bed, participants answered questions about their eating and drinking behaviors after work.
In the context of the study, researchers defined “unhealthy eating” as instances when study participants felt they’d eaten too much junk food; when participants felt they’d had too much to eat or drink; or when participants reporting having too many late-night snacks.
The researchers found that, when people engaged in unhealthy eating behaviors, they were more likely to report having physical problems the next morning. Problems included headaches, stomachaches and diarrhea. In addition, when people reported unhealthy eating behaviors, they were also more likely to report emotional strains the next morning — such as feeling guilty or ashamed about their diet choices. Those physical and emotional strains associated with unhealthy eating were, in turn, related to changes in how people behaved at work throughout the day.

Cancer therapy in recent times relies on the use of several drugs derived from biological sources including different bacteria and viruses, among others. However, these bio-based drugs get easily degraded and therefore inactivated on administration into the body. Thus, effective delivery to and release of these drugs at target tumor sites are of paramount importance from the perspective of cancer therapy.
Recently, scientists have discovered unique three-dimensional, water-containing polymers, called hydrogels, as effective drug delivery systems (DDSs). Drugs loaded into these hydrogels remain relatively stable owing to the network-like structure and organic tissue-like consistency of these DDSs. Besides, drug release from hydrogels can be controlled by designing them to swell and shrink in response to certain stimuli, or minute changes in conditions, like temperature or pH (which determines the acidity of an environment). For instance, when conditions are just the right level of acidic in the tumor microenvironment, these DDSs either shrink or swell and release the drug.
However, there has been no method for the one-pot synthesis of hydrogels that respond to more than one such stimulus and degrade to release drugs at target tumor sites. Until now.
Now, a team of scientists, led by Professor Akihiko Kikuchi from Tokyo University of Science, reports the production of unique degradable hydrogels that respond to changes under multiple conditions in “reducing” environments mimicking the microenvironment of tumors. As Prof. Kikuchi observes, “In order to prepare degradable hydrogels that can release drugs in response to changes in the tumor microenvironment, we prepared hydrogels that respond to temperature, pH, and reducing environment, and analyzed their properties.”
In their study published in the Journal of Controlled Release, Prof. Kikuchi — along with his colleagues from Tokyo University of Science, Dr. Syuuhei Komatsu, Ms. Moeno Tago, and Ms. Yu Ando, and his collaborator on the study, Prof. Taka-Aki Asoh from Osaka University — details the steps of designing these novel hydrogels from the synthetic polymer poly(ethylene glycol) diglycidyl ether and the sulfur-containing organic compound cystamine. In response to low temperatures, these hydrogels swell up while they shrink at the physiological temperature. Additionally, the hydrogels respond to pH changes by virtue of possessing tertiary amino groups. It must be noted here that the pH of the tumor microenvironment fluctuates between 5.5 and 6.5 owing to glycolysis in the tumor cells. Under the reducing conditions of this environment, the hydrogels degrade because of the breakage of disulfide bonds and change into low molecular-weight water-soluble oligomers that are easily excreted from the body.
To further test their drug release properties, the scientists loaded these hydrogels with specific proteins by exploiting their temperature-dependent swelling-deswelling behavior and tested the controlled release of drugs under acidic or reducing conditions. It was found that the amount of drug loaded onto these hydrogels could be controlled by changing the mesh size of the hydrogel polymer network by changing temperature, suggesting the possibility of customizing these DDSs for specific drug delivery. Besides, the hydrogel network structure and electrostatic interactions in the network ensured that the proteins were preserved intact until delivery, unaffected by the swelling and shrinking of the hydrogels with pH changes in the surrounding environment. The scientists found that the loaded protein drugs were completely released only under reducing conditions.
Using these hydrogels and the tractability that they provide, doctors may soon be able to design “customized” hydrogels that are specific to patients, giving personalized medicine a big boost. In addition to that, this new DDS provides a way to kill cancer cells that are left behind after surgery. As Prof. Kikuchi states, “The implantation of this material in the affected area after cancer resection may eliminate residual cancer cells, making it a more powerful therapeutic tool.”
As cancer tightens its vise grip around the world, treatment options need to be varied and upgraded for customized and effective therapy. This unique and simple design technique to produce multi-stimuli-responsive hydrogels for effective drug delivery to target tumor sites may just be one among several such promising techniques to mount an answer to the challenge cancer poses to humanity.
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Ants react to social isolation in a similar way as do humans and other social mammals. A study by an Israeli-German research team has revealed alterations to the social and hygienic behavior of ants that had been isolated from their group. The research team was particularly surprised by the fact that immune and stress genes were downregulated in the brains of the isolated ants. “This makes the immune system less efficient, a phenomenon that is also apparent in socially isolating humans — notably at present during the COVID-19 crisis,” said Professor Susanne Foitzik, who headed up the study at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). The study on a species of ant native to Germany has recently been published in Molecular Ecology.
Effects of isolation in social insects little studied so far
Humans and other social mammals experience isolation from their group as stressful, having a negative impact on their general well-being and physical health. “Isolated people become lonely, depressed, and anxious, develop addictions more easily, and suffer from a weakened immune system and impaired overall health,” added Professor Inon Scharf, lead author of the article and cooperation partner of the Mainz research group at Tel Aviv University in Israel. While the effects of isolation have been extensively studied in social mammals such as humans and mice, less is known about how social insects respond in comparable situations — even though they live in highly evolved social systems. Ants, for instance, live their entire lives as members of the same colony and are dependent on their colony mates. The worker ants relinquish their own reproductive potential and devote themselves to feeding the larvae, cleaning and defending the nest, and searching for food, while the queen does little more than just lay eggs.
The research team looked at the consequences of social isolation in the case of ants of the species Temnothorax nylanderi. These ants inhabit cavities in acorns and sticks on the ground in European forests, forming colonies of a few dozen workers. Young workers engaged in brood care were taken singly from 14 colonies and kept in isolation for varying lengths of time, from one hour to a maximum of 28 days. The study was conducted between January and March 2019 and highlighted three particular aspects in which changes were observed. After the end of their isolation, the workers were less interested in their adult colony mates, but the length of time they spent in brood contact increased; they also spent less time grooming themselves. “This reduction in hygienic behavior may make the ants more susceptible to parasites, but it is also a feature typical of social deprivation in other social organisms,” explained Professor Susanne Foitzik.
Stress due to isolation adversely affects the immune system
While the study revealed significant changes in the behaviors of the isolated insects, its findings with regard to gene activity were even more striking: Many genes related to immune system function and stress response were downregulated. In other words, these genes were less active. “This finding is consistent with studies on other social animals that demonstrated a weakening of the immune system after isolation,” said Professor Inon Scharf.
The discovery by the team of biologists led by Professor Susanne Foitzik is the first of its kind, combining behavioral and genetic analyses on the effects of isolation in social insects. “Our study shows that ants are as affected by isolation as social mammals are and suggests a general link between social well-being, stress tolerance, and immunocompetence in social animals,” concluded Foitzik, summarizing the results of the Israeli-German study. Foitzik is also collaborating with her Israeli partner Professor Inon Scharf and with co-author and group leader Dr. Romain Libbrecht of JGU on a new joint project on the fitness benefits and the molecular basis of spatial learning in ants, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
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An epigenetic study at the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences shows that in mouse egg cells, modifications to histone H2A at lysine 119 lay the groundwork for inherited DNA functional modifications from the mother.
In books and the movies, a group of people on a special mission always sends out a scout to do reconnaissance before they proceed. Sometimes, the scouts leave signs or markers that allow the group to know where there should go. Researchers led by Azusa Inoue at the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences in Japan have discovered a mark left behind in unfertilized egg cells that determine which DNA modifications will be inherited if the egg is fertilized. Specifically, they found that without initial modifications to histone H2A at lysine 119 — technically called H2AK119ub1 — later inheritable modifications would not occur. When allowed to develop, one consequence of this deficit was an enlarged placenta after embryo implantation. This study was published in Nature Genetics on April 5.
For many years we were taught in school that acquired traits were not inherited. In some sense this was correct; stretching your neck a lot to get food will not result in children with longer necks. However, your DNA function can be modified throughout your life. For example, DNA structure in chromosomes is supported by proteins called histones. When histones are modified, they can change how genes are expressed in the body. This is epigenetics, and a previous study by Inoue and colleagues showed that acquired tri-methylation of histone H3 at lysine 27 (thankfully abbreviate to H3K27me3) in mammalian egg cells can be inherited. In the new study, the team used technology called low-input CUT&RUN to begin answering the question of how this happens.
First, the researchers examined the timing of the two different histone modifications. They found that every gene exhibiting H3K27me3 also showed H2AK119ub1 in mouse egg cells. Suspecting its importance, the researchers knocked out two proteins that make up H2AK119ub1 in egg cells. Low-input CUT&RUN showed that the knock-out egg cells had much less H3K27me3 than controls at a subset of genes that normally bring H3K27me3 into the next generation. Thus, H2AK119ub1 acts like a kind of marker left by a scout, identifying where subsequent H3K27me3 should follow. “We discovered that H2AK119ub1 is necessary for maternal inheritance of H3K27me3, making the H2AK119ub1-H3K27me3 pathway a major player in transgenerational epigenetic inheritance in mammals,” says Inoue.
The researchers then found something they didn’t expect. Testing showed that the loss of H3K27me3 was itself inherited by fertilized embryos, and could not be reversed. Furthermore, this deficiency led increased lethality — miscarriages — and enlarged placentas. “It was surprising to find that defects in an egg’s histone modification are irreversibly inherited by embryos and cause long term consequences in development,” says Inoue.
The results thus showed that despite normal DNA in the mouse egg cell, if the proper instructions — first H2AK119ub1 and then H3K27me3 modifications — were missing, miscarriages and enlarged placentas could occur. These findings have clinical implications, especially for reproductive medicine and placental defects. “The next step,” says Inoue, “is to see whether any diseases or surrounding environments can affect the heritable histone modification.”
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As states open vaccines and restaurants to all, wait staff and food service workers are often left behind. Some chefs have even opened pop-up spots to get their employees shots more quickly.Over the course of the pandemic, some of the most dangerous activities were those many Americans dearly missed: scarfing up nachos, canoodling with a date or yelling sports scores at a group of friends at a crowded, sticky bar inside a restaurant.Now, as more states loosen restrictions on indoor dining and expand access to vaccines, restaurant — who have morphed from cheerful facilitators of everyone’s fun to embattled frontline workers — are scrambling to protect themselves against the new slosh of business.“It’s been really stressful,” said Julia Piscioniere, a server at Butcher & Bee in Charleston. “People are OK with masks, but it is not like it was before. I think people take restaurants and their workers for granted. It’s taken a toll.”The return to economic vitality in the United States is led by places to eat and drink, which also suffered among the highest losses in the last year. Balancing the financial benefits of a return to regular hours with worker safety, particularly in states where theoretical vaccine access outstrips actual supply, is the industry’s latest hurdle.In many states, workers are still unable to get shots, especially in regions where they were not included in priority groups this spring. Immigrants, who make up a large segment of the restaurant work force, are often fearful of signing up, worrying that the process will legally entangle them.Some states have dropped mask mandates and capacity limits inside establishments — which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still deem a potentially risky setting — further endangering employees.“It is critical for food and beverage workers to have access to the vaccine, especially as patrons who come have no guarantee that they will be vaccinated and obviously will not be masked when eating or drinking,” said Dr. Alex Jahangir, the chairman of a coronavirus task force in Nashville. “This has been a major concern for me as we balance the competing interests of vaccinating everyone as soon as possible before more and more restrictions are lifted.”Servers in Texas are dealing with all of the above. The state strictly limited early eligibility for shots, but last week opened access to all residents 16 and over, creating an overwhelming demand for slots. The governor recently dropped the state’s loosely enforced mask mandate, and allowed restaurants to go forth and serve all comers, with zero limitations.“Texas is in a unique position because we have all these things going on,” said Anna Tauzin, the chief revenue and innovation officer of the Texas Restaurant Association.Michael Shemtov, owner of Butcher and Bee in Charleston, S.C., spoke to a television reporter during a vaccination drive at his restaurant. “If people can’t get appointments, let’s bring them to them,” he said.Ben ChrismanThe trade group is pairing with a health care provider to set aside days at mass vaccines sites in the state’s four biggest cities to target industry workers.The industry has taken matters in its own hands in other places, too.In Charleston, Michael Shemtov, who owns several spots, turned a food hall into a restaurant worker vaccine site on a recent Tuesday with the help of a local clinic. (The post-shot observation seating was at the sushi place; celebratory beers were tipped at an adjoining pizzeria.) Ms. Piscioniere and her partner eagerly availed themselves. “I am super relieved,” she said. “It’s been so hard to get appointments.”In Houston, Legacy Restaurants — which owns the Original Ninfa’s and Antone’s Famous Po’ Boys — is running two vaccine drives for all staff members and their spouses, moves the owners believe will protect workers and assure customers.Some cities and counties are also tackling the problem. Last month, Los Angeles County set aside the majority of appointments for five mass sites two days a week for the estimated 500,000 workers in the food and agriculture industries — half of whom are restaurant staff. In Nashville, the health department has opted to set aside 500 spots daily for the next week specifically for people in the food and hospitality industries. It is possible that restaurants will be able to require their workers be vaccinated in the future.Many business sectors were battered by the coronavirus pandemic, but there is broad agreement that hospitality was hardest hit and that low wage workers sustained some of the biggest blows. In February 2020, for instance, restaurant worker hours were up 2 percent over a previously strong period the year before; two months later those hours were cut by more than half.While hours and wages have recovered somewhat, the industry remains hobbled by rules that most other businesses — including airlines and retail stores — have not had to face. The reasons point to a sadly unfortunate reality that never changed: indoor dining, by nature of its actual existence, helped spread the virus.Tyler Cahill, 29, received his first Pfizer vaccine shot at Workshop, a food court in Charleston.Ben ChrismanA recent report by the C.D.C. found that after mask and other restrictions were lifted, on-premise restaurants led to daily increase in cases and death rates between 40 and 100 days later. Although other settings have turned into super-spreading events — funerals, wedding and large indoor events — many community outbreaks have found their roots in restaurants and bars.“Masks would normally help to protect people in indoor settings but because people remove masks when dining,” said Christine K. Johnson, professor of epidemiology and ecosystem health at the University of California, Davis, “there are no barriers to prevent transmission.”Not all governments have viewed restaurant workers as “essential,” even as restaurants have been a very active part of the American food chains — from half-open sites to takeout operations to cooking for those in need — during the entire pandemic. The National Restaurant Association helped push the C.D.C. to recommend that food service workers be included in priority groups of workers to get vaccines although not all states followed the guidelines.Almost every state in the nation has accelerated its vaccination program, targeting nearly all adult populations.“Most people in our government have considered restaurants nonessential luxuries,” said Rick Bayless, the well-known Chicago restaurateur, whose staff scoured all vaccines sites for weeks to get workers shots. “I think that’s shortsighted. The human race is at its core social and when we deny that aspect of our nature, we do harm to ourselves. Restaurants provide that very essential service. It can be done safely, but to minimize the risk for our staff, we should be prioritized for vaccination.”Texas did not designate as early vaccine recipients any workers beyond those in the health care and education sectors, but is now open to all.“The state leadership decided to ignore our industry as a whole as well as grocery workers,” said Michael Fojtasek, the owner of Olamaie in Austin. “Now because our state leadership has decided to lift a mask mandate while not giving us an opportunity to be vaccinated, it has created this really challenging access issue.” He has switched to a takeout sandwich business for now, and won’t reopen until every worker gets a shot, he said.Jade Fletcher, a server at the County Line in Austin. “I think it is important for them to be vaccinated,” Don Miller, the owner, said of his staff.Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York TimesMany restaurant owners, however, said that they are going their own way with the rules, and customers often lead them there. “There is a lot of shaming that goes on if you open up and you don’t have your tables six feet apart,” said Don Miller, the owner of the County Line, a small chain in Texas and New Mexico.Moreover, his places continue to require masks and keep them at the hostess station for anyone who “forgets.” Most of his young work force, however, will likely wait a long time for a jab. “I think it is important for them to be vaccinated,” he said. “It hasn’t resonated with them as it hasn’t been available to that age group.”The restaurant industry has many more Latino immigrant workers than most other businesses, and some fear registration for the vaccine is complicating reopenings. Many workers at Danielle Leoni’s Phoenix restaurant, the Breadfruit and Rum Bar, declined unemployment insurance, and have shied from signing up for a shot. “Before you can even make an appointment you have to put in your name and date of birth and email,” Ms. Leoni said. “Those are questions that are deterrents for people trying to keep a low profile.”In Charleston, Mr. Shemtov was inspired by accounts of the immunization program in Israel, which was considered successful in part because the government took vaccines to job sites. “If people can’t get appointments, let’s bring them to them.”Other restaurants are devoting hours to making sure workers know how to sign up, locating leftover shots and networking with their peers. Some offer time off for a shot and the recovery period for side effects.“We don’t want them to have to choose between an hour or pay of a vaccine,” said Katie Button, the owner of Curate and La Bodega in Asheville, N.C.Still, some owners are not taking chances. “If we go out of business because we are one of the few restaurants in Arizona that won’t reopen, so be it,” Ms. Leoni said. “Nothing is more important than someone else’s health or safety.”

An international research team has sequenced the genomes of the oldest securely dated modern humans in Europe who lived around 45,000 years ago in Bacho Kiro Cave, Bulgaria. By comparing their genomes to the genomes of people who lived later in Europe and in Asia the researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, show that this early human group in Europe contributed genes to later people, particularly present-day East Asians. The researchers also identified large stretches of Neanderthal DNA in the genomes of the Bacho Kiro Cave people, showing that they had Neanderthal ancestors about five to seven generations back in their family histories. This suggests that mixture with Neanderthals was the rule rather than the exception when the first modern humans arrived in Europe.
Last year, a research team led by researchers from the National Institute of Archaeology with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany, reported the discovery of modern human remains found in direct association with the Initial Upper Palaeolithic stone tools at the site of Bacho Kiro Cave in Bulgaria. The oldest individuals found in the cave were directly radiocarbon dated to between 43,000 and 46,000 years ago. They are thus the earliest known dispersal of modern humans across the mid-latitudes of Eurasia.
Mateja Hajdinjak and colleagues have now sequenced the genomes of five individuals found at the Bacho Kiro Cave. Four individuals are between 43,000 to 46,000-years-old and were found together with stone tools belonging to the Initial Upper Palaeolithic, the earliest culture associated with modern humans in Eurasia. An additional individual found in the cave is around 35,000-years-old and found with stone tools of a later type. It was previously thought that bearers of the Initial Upper Palaeolithic died out without contributing genetically to modern humans arriving later. However, the researchers now show that the oldest Bacho Kiro Cave individuals, or groups closely related to them, contributed genes to present-day people. Surprisingly, this contribution is found particularly in East Asia and the Americas rather than in Europe where the Bacho Kiro Cave people lived. These genetic links to Asia mirror the links seen between the Initial Upper Palaeolithic stone tools and personal ornaments found in Bacho Kiro Cave and tools and ancient jewelry found across Eurasia to Mongolia.
Genetic differences between individuals
Importantly, the later 35,000-year-old individual found in Bacho Kiro Cave belonged to a group that was genetically distinct from the earlier inhabitants of the cave. This shows that the earliest history of modern humans in Europe may have been tumultuous and involved population replacements.
The earliest people at Bacho Kiro Cave lived at a time when Neanderthals were still around. The researchers therefore scanned their genomes for fragments of Neanderthal DNA. “We found that the Bacho Kiro Cave individuals had higher levels of Neanderthal ancestry than nearly all other early humans, with the exception of a 40,000-year-old individual from Romania. Crucially, most of this Neanderthal DNA comes in extremely long stretches. This shows that these individuals had Neanderthal ancestors some five to seven generations back in their family trees” says Mateja Hajdinjak.
Although only a handful of genomes from modern humans who lived at the same time in Eurasia as some of the last Neanderthals have been recovered, nearly all of them have recent Neanderthal ancestors. “The results suggest that the first modern humans that arrived in Eurasia mixed frequently with Neanderthals. They may even have become absorbed into resident Neanderthal populations. Only later on did larger modern human groups arrive and replace the Neanderthals” says Svante Pääbo, who coordinated the genetic research.
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Worldwide 39 percent of the adults were overweight in 2016, according to statistics of the World Health Organization. In the US the prevalence of obesity was 42.4 percent in 2017/2018, according to a survey of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
Concurrently millions of people want to lose weight. Physical exercise is an important option to achieve this. After all, more calories are consumed through sport than when sitting, standing or lying down.
But what influence does sport have on (direct) eating habits? Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the University of Nebraska (USA) have now investigated this question for the first time.
Randomized study
“In the sports context, we have the phenomenon of people overeating after physical activity,” said Prof. Köhler, Professor of Exercise, Nutrition and Health at the Technical University of Munich. “People want to reward themselves and their bodies for being active. So we use a hypothetical experiment to find out why people eat more after exercise compared to when they don’t exercise.”
The aim of a randomized crossover study was to investigate the influence of exercise on hypothetical decisions regarding the amount and timing of food intake. For this purpose, 41 healthy participants (23 women, 18 men) aged between 19 and 29 years with an average BMI of 23.7 were randomly assigned to either a 45-minute exercise session or a rest period of equal duration at the first visit and completed the other study condition at the second visit.

New research has for the first time compared images of the protein spikes that develop on the surface of cells exposed to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to the protein spike of the SARS-CoV-19 coronavirus. The images show that the spikes are highly similar to those of the virus and support the modified adenovirus used in the vaccine as a leading platform to combat COVID-19.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, has a large number of spikes sticking out of its surface that it uses to attach to, and enter, cells in the human body. These spikes are coated in sugars, known as glycans, which disguise parts of the viral proteins to the human immune system.
The vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca is an adenovirus-vectored vaccine, which involves taking a safe version of a virus and adding in the information from part of a pathogen, in this case the SAR-CoV-2 spike, in order to generate neutralising antibodies against that target.
In this new study, published in the journal ACS Central Science, scientists from the University of Oxford and the University of Southampton, worked together to characterise the SARS-CoV-2 spikes manufactured by the cells presented with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. The Oxford work was led by Professors Teresa Lambe, Peijun Zhang and Sarah Gilbert and Professor Max Crispin led the work in Southampton.
The Scientists exposed a range of cells in vitro to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Using an imaging technique known as cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) they took thousands of images which they then combined to build up a clear picture of the resulting protein spikes on the cells. Professor Peijun Zhang, of the University of Oxford and the Electron Bio-Imaging Centre (eBIC) at Diamond Light Source, who led the imaging work said, “CryoEM is an immensely powerful technique which enabled us to visualise the dense array of spikes that had been manufactured and presented on the surface of the cells.”
Further chemical analysis of the glycans that coat the newly developed protein spikes revealed that they bear a high resemblance to those surrounding the SARS-CoV-2 spikes. This is an essential feature of the vaccine as it means that it can deliver close mimics of the coronavirus that are important in triggering the immune response needed to protect against COVID-19.
Professor Crispin said, “In this study we set out to see how closely the vaccine induced spikes resembled those of the infectious virus. We were really pleased to see a large amount of native-like spikes.”
“This study will hopefully provide further understanding for the public, helping them see how the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine works. Many people may not realise how their cells become little factories manufacturing viral spikes that then trigger the immune response needed to fight off the disease. This may also provide reassurance that the vaccine is doing its job and generating the material that we need to present to our immune systems.”
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A 104-year-old Colombian woman has received a standing ovation from hospital staff after recovering from Covid-19 for a second time. Carmen Hernandez was first diagnosed with coronavirus in June 2020, and she was treated in her San Jose nursing home. The second time, she was admitted to intensive care and spent 21 days in hospital – until she was discharged on Monday.

Ever since the early humans learned to walk upright, they have suffered, as an unfortunate consequence of their erect posture, from low back pain. Modern understanding on this matter dictates that low back pain, in particular, is caused due to a postural instability resulting from poor “proprioception,” which is a term for the perception of part of our body’s own position in space. In fact, our trunk and lower legs are key to maintaining postural stability due to the presence of “proprioceptors” — sensory receptors responding to position and movement — in those areas.
Elderly people suffering from low back pain tend to have poorly performing proprioceptors, which is thought to affect their “proprioceptive control strategy” — a postural control strategy in response to vibratory stimulations as proprioceptive input. Interestingly, studies have suggested that a local vibratory stimulation can, in fact, improve proprioceptive function. In previous studies by other researchers, however, its effect on postural control is still unclear. Moreover, the studies make no distinction between poor and healthy proprioceptors and do not take into account the fact that each proprioceptor has a natural vibration response frequency.
To address these issues, a team of researchers from Japan recently conducted a study in which they explored the effect of local vibratory stimulations on the proprioceptive control strategy when applied to a poor proprioceptor. Prof. Yoshifumi Morita from Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan, who was part of the study, published in Electronics, lays down the research question: “For elderly people with low back pain, can proprioceptive function be improved? Will it cure the low back pain?”
Researchers carried out their study over a period of 3 months in which they recruited six elderly individuals, all of whom were patients with low back pain. Researchers made each participant stand on a balance board to assess their standing balance and attached fasteners with vibrators to their legs as well as both sides of their trunk. They then generated vibration signals using a PC and amplified and output them from the vibrators as mechanical vibratory stimulations. Furthermore, they allowed the frequency of stimulation to vary with time, from an initial 20 Hz (cycles/second) up to 300 Hz, to gauge the postural response as a function of the applied frequency. Finally, they compared the proprioceptive control strategy in each patient before and after applying the stimulations to an impaired proprioceptor.
Three patients showed an improvement in their proprioceptive control strategy after their impaired muscle spindles (proprioceptor detecting stretch in muscles) responded to higher frequency, an observation that suggested that low back pain could be alleviated in patients by activating impaired proprioceptors with vibratory stimulations. Furthermore, the treatment device and protocol could be used for multiple frequency ranges, allowing for the diagnosis as well as activation of a poor proprioceptor.
Given the results, the researchers look forward to conducting a clinical trial for a larger group of patients. “The clinical trial is scheduled to start in April this year and will be conducted for the next three years. We plan to verify whether the improved proprioceptive sensation can be maintained for a long time, thus relieving elderly people of low back pain,” comments an excited Prof. Morita.
The team hopes that the trial’s findings will soon lead to the commercialization of their device, which will allow elderly patients with low back pain to finally breathe a huge sigh of relief!
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