Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers at NYU College of Dentistry have developed a single score to describe the level of cytokines in saliva, and this score is linked with the severity of clinical gum inflammation, according to a study published in the journal PLOS ONE.

While more research is needed to test the “cytokine score,” it could hold promise for measuring how well a patient responds to treatment for gum disease, predicting gum disease recurrence, or detecting ongoing inflammation related to systemic diseases.

“Periodontal inflammation is not just apparent upon examination, but is reflected in the patient’s saliva,” said Angela Kamer, DMD, MS, Ph.D., associate professor of the Ashman Department of Periodontology & Implant Dentistry at NYU Dentistry and the study’s senior author.

Potentially huge. Effecting blood plasma via a pill. This is of course a mice experiment and they are working to see if the process happens in humans too.

Some wealthy elites prefer young blood plasma transfusions for anti-aging purposes. There are suggestions that the body’s organs are rejuvenated by young blood. However, a recent study from Columbia University in New York suggests that anti-inflammatory drugs can rejuvenate the body and possibly extend the human lifespan by decades, negating the need for blood transfusions to turn back the body’s clock.

According to Emmanuelle Passegué, Ph.D., director of the Columbia Stem Cell Initiative, who has been researching how blood changes with age, “an aging blood system, because it’s a vector for a lot of proteins, cytokines, and cells, has a lot of bad consequences for the organism,”

Antibiotic resistance is a global threat to public health and associated with the overuse of antibiotics. Although non-antibiotic drugs occupy 95% of the drug market, their impact on the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance remains unclear. Here we demonstrate that antidepressants, one of the most frequently prescribed drugs, can induce antibiotic resistance and persistence. Such effects are associated with increased reactive oxygen species, enhanced stress signature responses, and stimulation of efflux pump expression. Mathematical modeling also supported a role for antidepressants in the occurrence of antibiotic-resistant mutants and persister cells. Considering the high consumption of antidepressants (16,850 kg annually in the United States alone), our findings highlight the need to re-evaluate the antibiotic-like side effects of antidepressants.

University of Calgary researchers designed a novel imaging and experimental preparation system, allowing them to record the activity of the enteric nervous system in mice. The new technique allows researchers to record what is sometimes referred to as the gut’s brain during the complex processes of digestion and waste elimination.

“This completely different way of conducting experiments allows us to better understand the complexity of the nerve interactions that are regulating and coordinating the responses by the gut’s nervous system,” says Dr. Wallace MacNaughton, Ph.D., co-principal investigator. “It opens up new avenues for us to understand what’s really going on, and that’s going to help us understand gastrointestinal diseases and disorders a lot better.”

Neurons, or nerve cells, embedded in the wall of the gut precisely control its movements. The team used mice genetically encoded with fluorescent labels, so the neurons in the gut’s nervous system would “light up,” glowing green under microscopes, whenever the neurons were activated. The images are already providing new insights.

QUOTE: employees are also “trapped” in a long line of approvals, legal reviews, performance reviews and meetings that leave little room for creativity or true innovation.

A former Google employee said the technology giant is inefficient, plagued by mismanagement and paralyzed by risk.

Musk’s company is far from the only group working on brain-computer interfaces, or systems to facilitate direct communication between human brains and external computers. Other researchers have been looking into using BCIs to restore lost senses and control prosthetic limbs, among other applications. While these technologies are still in their infancy, they’ve been around long enough for researchers to increasingly get a sense of how neural implants interact with our minds. As Anna Wexler, an assistant professor of philosophy in the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, put it: “Of course it causes changes. The question is what kinds of changes does it cause, and how much do those changes matter?”

Time to replace X-ray machines with bionic fingers.

A team of researchers at Wiyu University (WYU) in China has created a bionic finger that can create 3D maps of the interiors of any object just by poking it gently and repeatedly, according to a press release.

Imagine your son or daughter has an electronic toy train that they love to play with, but then due to some problem, the train stops working, and your kid starts crying… More.

Continue reading “This bionic finger renders 3D images of objects” »

Pilots with considerable flight experience ‘showed specific brain connectivity patterns in areas related to processing sensorimotor information’.

Research has analyzed the brain activity of F16 fighter pilots to learn how they adapt to altered gravity levels and rapidly process conflicting sensory information, which can be similar to those experienced by astronauts.

The team used MRI scans to conclude that pilots with considerable flight experience “showed specific brain connectivity patterns in areas related to processing sensorimotor information. They also showed differences in brain connectivity compared with non-pilots,” according to a press release.

The compound inside the mushroom could be used to treat Alzheimer’s.

An active compound found in an edible mushroom may just be able to improve nerve growth and enhance memory leading to treatments for debilitating diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

The mushroom can be found in North America, Europe, and Asia. In traditional Chinese medicine, it is used to boost the immune system and improve digestive health.

Continue reading “Active compound in an edible mushroom is found to boost memory” »